“For sin shall not have dominion over you: for you are not under the Law, but under Grace.”  Romans 6:14

We cannot expect sinners to behave like Saints for they do not have dominion over their sin nature.  Many Believers get all “squirreled up” when the unbelievers act like…well, I’ll just say it, act like satan’s spawn.  The fact of the matter is, the unbeliever does not have dominion over their sin nature because they are under Law and not under Grace.  Until we, any and all of us, accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour, our sin nature is the reigning monarch in our lives.  We are unable to yield ourselves unto righteousness without the Holy Spirit isolating our sin nature.  

“For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.” Romans 8:2

The Holy Spirit is not commissioned to isolate our sin nature unless our faith is exclusively in Jesus Christ for our Salvation AND Sanctification.  The Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus requires our faith to be in Jesus, not our self efforts or self will, in order to set us free from the law of sin and death.  If our self efforts or self will could set us free from the law of sin and death, the Cross of Christ was in vain.  

“Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these you might be partakers of the Divine Nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”  2 Peter 1:4.

With our free will, we choose to partake in God’s Divine Nature.  Because our faith is in Jesus Christ, Who He is and what He has done on Calvary’s Cross for whosoever will believe, we, as Believers, are freely given the ability (because our sin nature is now isolated by the power of the Holy Spirit – NOT our power) to yield ourselves unto God.  The good fight of faith we fight is our faith in the redeeming work of Jesus Christ as the ONLY source and means by which the promises of God are yes and amen.  

“But seek you first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”  Matthew 6:33

-Donna Clark Warren

“Forasmuch as you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious Blood of Christ, as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot: Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, Who by Him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave Him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God.”  1 Peter 1:18-21

A Child of God is not redeemed with corruptible things.  The traditions of various religious ordinances are vanity from the minds of man.  Jesus Christ came to die on Calvary’s Cross so that we may be redeemed.  We who believe are bought with a price. God has raised Jesus up and gave HIM glory that our faith and hope might be in God.

God bows His ear to the righteous whose faith is in the redeeming power of Jesus Christ and their fervent prayers availeth much (James 5:16).  It is for the sake of Jesus that God leads and guides Believers into HIS perfect Will at HIS perfect timing, not our own.  The Lord orders the footsteps of His Children and they delight in His ways (Psalms 37:23).

“In You, O Lord, do I put my trust; let me never be ashamed: deliver me in Your righteousness.  2 Bow down Your ear to me; deliver me speedily: be You my strong rock, for an house of defence to save me.  3 For You are my rock and my fortress; therefore for Your Name’s sake lead me, and guide me.  4 Pull me out of the net that they have laid privily for me: for You are my strength.  5 Into Your Hand I commit my spirit: You have redeemed me, O Lord God of Truth.”  Psalm 31:1-5

In You, O Lord, do we put our trust.  For Your Name’s sake lead us out of this pilgrim land.

Well Glory!

-Donna Clark Warren

“15 So when they had dined, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, do you love Me more than these (Jesus used Greek term “Agapao” for love which means supreme and perfect love)? He said unto Him, Yes, Lord; You know that I love You (Peter responded with the Greek term “Phileo” which means to be fond of another). He said unto him, Feed My lambs.

16 He said to him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, do you love (Agapao) Me? He said unto Him, Yes, Lord; You know that I love (Phileo/fond of) You. He said unto him, Feed My sheep.
17 He said unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, do you love Me (Now Jesus uses the term “Phileo”)?  Peter was grieved because He said unto him the third time, do you love Me? And he said unto Him, Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You. Jesus said unto him, Feed My sheep.”  John 21:15-17.
Peter was grieved when Jesus asked him a third time “do you love Me” but used the lesser term for love.  Peter understood at that moment the Lord knew all things…even the deep things of his heart.  Jesus had to wound Peter’s heart to teach him.

“Now as touching things offered unto idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but charity (Greek “Agape” for supreme and perfect love) edifies.  And if any man think that he knows any thing, he knows nothing yet as he ought to know.”  1 Corinthians 8:1-2.

Many have knowledge of Jesus Christ, an intellectual knowledge which puffs up, but they have stopped there.  They have not built up (edified) themselves in the most holy faith…faith in Jesus Christ, Who He is and what he has done on Calvary’s Cross for whosoever will believe, but puffed up themselves in a yoke of intellectualism.  

Religion exorts us to love one another, in which we absolutely should.  However, mankind does not know love until they know Jesus Christ.  We cannot love one another until we love Jesus.  The Jesus of the Bible.  The One Who came to die on Calvary’s Cross to give us eternal life and dominion over our sin nature.  The Sacrificial Lamb of God Who was Resurrected on the third day and now sits at the Right Hand of God.  The very presence of Jesus Christ at the Right Hand of God IS our intercession.  When we are born again we are in Him and His is in us.  HE, Jesus Christ, IS the Way, the Truth and the Life…there is not other.  The latest series distributed throughout denominations is not unity in Christ; it is intellectual knowledge.  Until the church starts lifting up the name of Jesus Christ, to both the sinners and Saints, lives will not be changed.  Captives will not be set at liberty by feasts, festivals, traditions and ceremonies.

Are you being puffed up by intellectual knowledge or edified, built up, strengthened in the inner man but the love of God?  Who or what is being lifted up on Sunday mornings as the source of your victory?  Is it a method?  Do you have to do your part?  The Believer’s part is faith in Jesus Christ and His finished work on Calvary’s Cross which produces fruit, good fruit…love beyond measure.  Fight the good fight of faith; faith in Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

-Donna Clark Warren

“17 And it came to pass, when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God led them not through the way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near; for God said, Lest peradventure the people repent when they see war, and they return to Egypt:

18 But God led the people about, through the way of the wilderness of the Red sea: and the children of Israel went up harnessed out of the land of Egypt.” Exodus 13:17-18

God delivered millions of Israelites from Egyptians bondage.  However, only TWO actually made it to the promise land from the age of 20 years old and up (Numbers 14:26-30).  When Moses warned the generation of murmuring Israelites of their transgressions, they turned away from the Lord and presumed to move forward in their own self will to go up into the promised land where they were smitten before their enemies.

“42 Go not up, for the Lord is not among you; that you be not smitten before your enemies.

43 For the Amalekites and the Canaanites are there before you, and you shall fall by the sword: because you are turned away from the Lord, therefore the Lord will not be with you.

44 But they presumed to go up unto the hill top: nevertheless the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and Moses, departed not out of the camp.” Numbers 14:42-44.

Religion points us to the promised land and exhorts us to “presume to go up”.  Self will cannot get us to the promised land.  40 days of purpose or humanistic psychology will not get us to the promised land.   There is but One Way to the promised land and that is through faith in Jesus Christ and His finished work on Calvary’s Cross.  Our faith is not in the “promised land” but in Jesus, Who He is and what He did on Calvary’s Cross for whosoever will believe.  

“13 Enter you in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leads to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:

14 Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leads unto life, and few there be that find it.” Matthew 7:13-14.

Only TWO made it to the promised land from the generation of murmuring Israelites.  Narrow is the way which leads unto life.  

-Donna Clark Warren

“For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward Him. Herein you have done foolishly: therefore from henceforth you shall have wars.” 2 Chronicles 16:9

Many Believers start off well.  They fortify themselves in the statutes of God but begin to form unholy alliances with the world.  Instead of coming out from among the world, they compromise with the world to overcome the world…all in the name of the Lord.  Their faith, with all deceivableness of unrighteousness, slowly moves from Jesus’ and HIS finished work as the source and the means by which the blessings of God are yes and amen, to their works.

These works consist of intellectual and philosophical forms of human psychology to overcome the world with the gospel.  However, this gospel is another gospel.  A gospel that is about them; about who they are and what they must do to overcome the world, the flesh and the devil.  This gospel is accursed.  Philosophies from the vanities of man’s mind is in fact at enmity with God (Romans 8:6) and cannot free one from the law of sin and death (Romans 8:2).  For this reason, this other gospel is accursed (Galatians 1:6-9).  No matter how much someone fortifies themselves in the statues of God, which every Believer should absolutely do, until they come out from among the world and stop making unholy alliances with the world’s methods for victory over that which only the Lord Jesus Christ can provide, they will remain bound…bound by the law of sin and death.

“For sin shall not have dominion over you: for you are not under the Law, but under Grace.” Romans 6:14.

The Holy Spirit is not commissioned to free the Believer from the law of sin and death and give them dominion over their sin nature unless their faith is in THE ONE who gave us this dominion…Jesus Christ as the source and His finished work on Calvary’s Cross as the means by which our victory was and is freely given.

40 days of purpose, 21 days of fasting, feasts, festivals, ceremonies, 12 steps, celebrate recovery, harbingers, blood moons, shemitahs, reciting Scripture (Even though it’s Scripture, if the Lord has not given it to you personally, it is presumption and NOT faith. [James 4:3] Furthermore, Satan took Scripture out of context as well.), all of these methods are infidelity to God’s Plan for His Children to be delivered and set at liberty from the bondage of sin by faith through Grace (Ephesians 2:8-9).

“You adulterers and adulteresses, know you not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.” James 4:4.

The eyes of the Lord are running to and fro throughout the earth.  He is searching to show Himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him; those who have not made unholy alliances with the statutes of the world…those who have not done foolishly.  Have you done foolishly?  Repent and you will be forgiven.  Allow the Lord to show Himself strong in you.  Be a vessel.

-Donna Clark Warren.

“¹⁴ For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,

¹⁵ Of Whom the whole family in Heaven and earth is named,

¹⁶ That He would grant you, according to the riches of His Glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man;

¹⁷ That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love,

¹⁸ May be able to comprehend with all Saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;

¹⁹ And to know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge, that you might be filled with all the fulness of God.

²⁰ Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us,

²¹ Unto Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.”  Galatians 3:14-21

If money is the source by which the world, the flesh and the devil is rendered helpless, the Cross of Christ was in vain.

If satan has told you without money you would die and you believed him, you in fact are dying.  Not because satan told the truth, the truth is not in him, but because you believed satan and not the Lord.  Jesus Christ said I am the Way, the Truth and the Life (John 14:6).

The Word of God says “…my God shall supply ALL your needs according to HIS riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:19.  The Lord did not say according YOUR riches but according to HIS riches.  I am not speaking to those with money.  There is absolutely nothing wrong with having money.  I’m speaking to those without money who have put their faith in filthy lucre for survival.

Somebody said, “you must have money to get by in this world”.  No, you have to have the Lord Jesus Christ to get by in this world and all these things shall be added to you (Matthew 6:33).  We either believe the Word of God to be true or we believe it to be a lie.

I remember a day when my husband and I needed $50 to pay a bill.  It was the last day we had to pay this bill and we didn’t know what we were going to do.  With prayer and supplication we made our request known unto the Lord and within 5 minutes, God is my witness, our door bell rang.  There stood a lady who had been at our garage sale two weeks earlier and wanted to know if we still had a particular item.  She paid $65 for the item and my husband and I stood in awe.  Jesus Christ authored and finished our faith in Him that day.  He showed us He IS able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask.  As we continue walking with the Lord daily, He continues to author and finish our faith…precept upon precept, line upon line.

Beware of the seduction of filthy lucre.  Jesus Christ is the Source and Calvary’s Cross is the means by which the Child of God maintains victory over the world, the flesh and the devil.  Give no room for the flesh.  We live by faith in the Son of God as the Way, the Truth and the Life or we live by works of the flesh to gain what the Lord has already has already supplied…ALL of our needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.  Choose wisely.

-Donna Clark Warren

“Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise.” Proverbs 20:1.

There was a time in my life that satan would tell me if I didn’t have that drink I would die. Happy hour could not get here soon enough at one point in my life.  To be frank and honest, many of those “good times” I can barely remember.  25+ years of my life are not very clear.

There are many who belong to certain churches or denominations that believe drinking alcohol is acceptable according to the Word of God.  I disagree.  The word wine is used for any fruit of the vine in the Bible.  It wasn’t until prohibition in 1929 that the word wine was separated for use as fermented fruit of the vine. Why would Jesus go to such great lengths to eat unleavened bread at the Lord’s Supper (Exodus 13:7) and then partake in decaying “fermented” fruit of the vine (wine)?  Furthermore, when the Lord turned water into wine and the men were already “well drunk” (John 2:10), would He not have been breaking His Own Law against temperance if the wine had been fermented?

My point is this, if a person who claims to be a Christian chooses to partake in “strong drink”, that is between you and God…not you and me.  As long as we (whoever we may be) look for and search out ways to continue in our worldly ways, God will see to it that we get that in which we seek.

“¹⁰ And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the Truth, that they might be saved.

¹¹ And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:

¹² That they all might be damned who believed not the Truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” 2 Thessalonians 2:10-12.

However, I want you to know when that babe in Christ who is struggling with alcohol sees you with the glass of wine in your hand and thinks drinking strong drink is acceptable and falls back in to bondage the Bible says your better off with a millstone around your neck and drowned in the depth of the sea.

“But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in Me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.” Matthew 18:6.

Work out your own Salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God which works in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure (Philippians 2:12-13).  Deny yourself efforts, pick up your cross and follow Jesus Christ (Luke 9:23).  Until we deny our vain attempts at righteousness which fall out to self righteousness and pride, we are unable to pick up our cross (the victory which Christ afforded us on Calvary’s Cross) and follow Jesus.

“But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a Brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolator, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat.”  1 Corinthians 5:11.

Until those who no longer have to yield their members to unrighteousness come out from among them who continue to yield their members to unrighteousness, the lost will not know the difference in the world and the church.  We are not told to join the world to overcome the world.  We are told to go ye out into all the world and preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ, Who He is and what He has done on Calvary’s Cross to set the captives free.  Whether they believe or not is between them and God.

-Donna Clark Warren

“⁴ Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice.

⁵ Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand.

⁶ Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.

⁷ And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”  Philippians 4:4-7.

God is God and He never changes.  We do not have to resort to the statutes of the world to overcome the world…that is foolishness.  Partaking in the ways of the world in order to win the approval of the world is forsaking God.  We please God, not man.

God’s plan for victory was given to all, both Old Testament and New Testament Believers, and His Name is Jesus Christ Who came to die on Calvary’s Cross and pay the sin debt for all.

Somebody said what about the Saints that died before Jesus was born?  Just as Abraham’s faith was in God and it was accounted to him for righteousness (Genesis 15:6,Romans 4:1-22,Galatians 3:6-9,Hebrews 11:8-10,Hebrews 11:17-19), so to were all of the Old Testament Saints who believed God.  When they died they did not go to the burning side of hell but to a place called paradise.  Paradise, “Abraham’s bosom”, is where Lazarus remained separated by a large gulf from the rich man who was tormented daily and begging for a drop of water (Luke 16:20-31).  Not only is eternity…well, eternity.  It is also a conscious eternity.  Sadly there are many today in hell crying out for someone to tell their loved ones hell is real.  “And he (Abraham) said unto him (rich man), If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.”  Luke 16:31. Even though Jesus Christ rose from the dead, many still will not believe.

The blood of bulls and goats atoned for the sin of the Old Testament Saints and restored fellowship with God but it could not take away sin from our account…only the Blood of Jesus Christ, the perfect Lamb of God, could pay our sin debt.  When Jesus Christ said “It is finished”, He meant “It is Finished”.  The sin debt of man kind, whosoever will believe, was paid for past sinners who believed (i.e. Old Testament Saints),  present sinners who have believed and future sinners who will believe.  For this reason, the Jewish feasts and festivals are no longer necessary.  Jesus fulfilled that which they symbolized, complete atonement and reconciliation with God.  Jesus kept the feasts and festivals because He was Jewish.  If he would have failed in any way to keep the Mosaic Law, He would not have been the perfect Lamb of God.  The 4th Commandment is the only Commandment not mentioned in the New Testament because it is not a moral law but a ceremonial law.  Once we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour, His Law are written upon our heart (Hebrews 10:16).

As religion does its dead level best to sway the Believer to and fro by every wind of doctrine that comes down the pike, God is raising up a people…His people.  A peculiar people who have come to declare ye the ways of the Lord.  A people who no longer walk in the statutes of the world but through much prayer and supplication make their requests known unto God…their God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  They do not follow philosophy, even though is seems religious.  Nor are they seduced by ancient Hebraic mysticism.  These people are determined to know nothing else except Jesus Christ and Him crucified as the Source and the Means by which their Salvation AND their day to day victory is found.

God is God and He does not change.  Jesus Christ and Him crucified is God’s plan for mankind to be reconciled to Him.  He is standing at the door knocking church.  When will you let Him in?

-Donna Clark Warren

“25 Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. 

26 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. 

27 And I will put My Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My Statutes, and you shall keep My Judgments, and do them.”  Ezekiel 36:25-26.

Ezekiel 36 speaks of the restoration of Israel at the Second Coming of Christ.  However, it is this same born again experience the Child of God receives when we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour.  This new creature the Holy Spirit creates in us is free from the law of sin and death because our faith is placed in Jesus Christ, Who He is and what He did on Calvary’s Cross for whosoever will believe.

In the new Believer’s zeal to learn all they can about the Lord, religion, with all deceivableness, begins a work that takes them down broad paths.  Paths that lead to 40 days of purpose, 21 days of fasting, feasts, festivals, ceremonies and traditions.  These paths cause the new Believer to walk in the statutes of the world, not the Statutes of God.

Soon the zeal of the new Believer can turn into desperation.  A desperation to “maintain” the statutes of the world in order to “gain” the promises given by God for whosoever will believe upon Jesus Christ.  Sadly, the Believer cannot see the yoke of religion that has been placed upon them.  Seeing, they do not see.  Hearing, they do not hear. (Matthew 13:13). Because their faith, with all deceivableness, has been directed into these worldly statutes to “gain” the victory that was freely given them upon their Salvation, they are no longer living but dying.  The Believer is no longer free from the law of sin and death but indeed once again bound.

“There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.”   Romans 8:1-2.

Some of  the most zealous of Believers continue to follow the statutes of the world, walk after the flesh and remain bound by sin and death because their faith is in religious works to gain victory over the world, the flesh and the devil.  The Holy Spirit is not commissioned to free the Believer, even the most sincere and zealous Believer, from the law of sin and death if their faith is not solely in exclusively in Jesus Christ and His finished work.  This faith in Jesus and His atoning work will cause us to walk in the Statutes of God because the Spirit of Life in us produces a good work in us…a fruitful work.  The Word of God effectually works in those who believe in the atoning work of Jesus Christ for victory in day to day living (1 Thessalonians 2:13).

Whose statutes are you keeping?  The answer to that question is not between you and me, it’s between you and God.  Prayerfully consider.

Study to show thyself approved unto GOD…not man (2 Timothy 2:15).

-Donna Clark Warren