Introduction: Exposing Ourselves to the Power of the Holy Spirit
May the peace of the Lord be with you. We have approached the throne of grace and mercy, and tonight is cause for gratitude for what the Lord allows us: to expose ourselves before His Word, before His presence and, above all things, before the power of His Holy Spirit.
Jesus established a fundamental teaching with His disciples in the presence of Pharisees and doctors of the law: “If I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of heaven has come upon you.” The purpose of faith in Christ Jesus is not simply to be part of a congregation, a mission, or a ministry. The purpose is to be part of the body of Christ and to form the kingdom of heaven for which each one of us has been called.
We are not exposing ourselves to theory, but to the surpassing greatness of the power of God, as it is written in the epistle of the apostle Paul to the Ephesians, that power that worked in Christ Jesus and that works in each one of us because we are the temple and dwelling place of the Holy Spirit.
Salvation: Present and Future
We continue with the series of topics about salvation, and we have been seeing that healing is part of salvation. Let us refresh this knowledge to position ourselves correctly.
Two Aspects of Salvation
Salvation has two aspects:
- A future aspect (eschatological): The moment when one day we will be in the mansions that the Lord has prepared for each one of us.
- A present aspect: Salvation begins here on earth when we submit ourselves under the Lordship of Christ Jesus and live under the norms of the kingdom of heaven on earth.
Generally, we emphasize the eschatological aspect excessively, but that is not all that salvation is. Jesus established in the gospel message: “Your will be done, Lord, on earth as it is done in heaven.” It is not only about subsisting until we depart from this earth to walk on streets of gold. The life of faith in Christ Jesus consists of living under the laws of the kingdom of heaven here on earth.
Healing as Salvation
Salvation begins here on earth and has a present aspect. One of the aspects of salvation in the present is precisely healing. Healing is also salvation.
In last week’s teaching, we established what the main causes are for why a person is sick. It is fundamental to emphasize this:
- Illness does not come from God
- Illness is not God’s will
- Illness is the result of sin and satanic intervention
It is not that God wants to keep us sick. Many people are sick because, in the vast majority of cases, we have not considered that healing is part of salvation. Furthermore, the world has taken it upon itself to make us believe that illness is part of age, part of the situations we have to face. In some extreme cases, there are those who say that the Lord left the resources of the earth so that we can face delicate health situations. But that is not what the Word of the Lord presents.
The Will of God: Healing
If we go to the gospel of Matthew chapter 10, verse 1, it says: “Then calling His twelve disciples, He gave them power over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every affliction.”
It is God’s will that a man of God, that a woman of God, be healthy. It is not God’s will for them to be sick. However, there are many people who are sick and have accommodated themselves to the conditions, believing it is necessary to work with them under chemical medications, which in many cases has brought complications due to secondary consequences.
Working on the Causes of Illness
God has established through His Word ways to be able to work on the causes that have provoked illness. In Matthew chapter 9, Jesus established this principle when they bring Him the paralyzed man on a stretcher. Jesus said to him: “Your sins are forgiven,” and subsequently He said to him: “Rise, take up your bed and walk.”
The Fundamental Principle
If the causes that have produced the illness are not addressed, no matter how much the person does, they will not really be able to resolve their situation. There is a cause that is active, a cause that is current, that gives legal right to the darkness to remain in the person, in the family, or in the generation.
As the years pass, illnesses become more chronic and stable in the person’s life. That is why we find today depressed, frustrated, disappointed people wanting to escape from their present existence, when in reality God has wanted us to be witnesses of His grace and mercy.
First Way: Repentance and Its Fruits
The Gospel Message
Matthew 4:17 establishes: “From that time Jesus began to preach and to say: Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
Repentance is the fundamental way to work on the causes that have produced illness. It applies to all causes that have produced illness. It is not a separate section, but the foundation of how causes should be treated. Repentance is the message of the gospel and is present both in the Old and New Testaments.
The Purpose of the Gospel
In Acts 26:18, the Lord gave the apostle Paul the word of revelation about what his ministry would consist of: “To open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me.”
The purpose of the gospel message is for people to turn from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light in Christ Jesus. And this is not necessarily achieved when the person says: “I accepted Jesus as my savior.”
Repentance vs. Acceptance
To enter salvation and the kingdom of heaven, repentance is necessary. When a person accepts Christ Jesus, in the vast majority of cases, they are not repenting of their old way of living. This is very important to understand.
There are men and women who are within a congregation, who are part of a church, who have never repented of their old way of living. Someone might say: “But if I accept Jesus, I am automatically repenting of the old way of living.” But one does not necessarily lead to the other.
The Condition for Forgiveness
In Acts 2:38, when those who were listening to the apostle Peter’s message, pricked in their hearts, ask him what they should do, the apostle by the Spirit of God answers: “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
Note that the forgiveness of sins and receiving the Holy Spirit has a condition: repentance.
There are men and women who are part of a congregation who have never repented, because unfortunately, from the pulpits we have not taught it adequately. We have believed that the formula is “accept Christ Jesus,” and in many cases we have put words in people’s mouths: “Repeat this prayer with me,” and we believe that with that everything is already resolved.
The Consequences of Not Repenting
Unfortunately, there are many people who have not repented and, therefore, have not abandoned their old way of living. Someone might say: “But I no longer practice it, I am no longer doing it.” However, the fact that it is not practiced does not mean it is inactive or already undone. The purpose is for the past life to be undone.
What undoes everything? Repentance.
Repentance is what:
- Undoes everything
- Dismantles the work of Satan
- Dismantles the causes that have provoked illness in a person
Now we can understand why there are many people who constantly or continuously relapse into attitudes or actions from the past: because they have not buried them, because they have not dismantled them, because they have not repented of them. They are still current, they are still active.
The Power of Repentance
The important thing about the teaching of the gospel message is that to dismantle, disassemble, undo, destroy and completely trample the works of darkness, it is through repentance. If a person has not repented, all those things are current and at a certain moment they will come to life, unfortunately in the moments when the person is in much greater weakness.
The Validity of Repentance
In Revelation 2:5, we see the validity of repentance: “Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent.”
Repentance is the first step, the fundamental step to be able to dismantle the kingdom of darkness. According to Matthew 4:17, repentance is the gateway to the kingdom of heaven.
How to Work on the Causes of Illnesses
How should we work on the causes of illnesses? By repenting:
- Repenting of acts
- Repenting of deeds
- Repenting of attitudes
- Repenting of feelings
- Repenting of thoughts
- Repenting of everything that gave or opened the door to the enemy to establish illness
Not in a Package, But Individually
This cannot be done by enclosing everything as if it were a package: “I repent of my past way of living, I repent of all my acts, thoughts, feelings.” It should not be worked that way.
Why? Because each action, each feeling, each emotion, each thought, each attitude, each posture, has to be known how to work individually. As the Spirit of God (because it is the Spirit of God who brings them before us) reveals them, we come to Christ Jesus and we repent of a specific action, a specific posture, a specific feeling.
As they surface in our lives, at that moment we present them before the Lord: “Lord, I repent of this action. I should never have done it. I should never, Lord, have been present.”
What is Repentance?
Repentance is:
- Sorrow for having done things that displeased God
- Regret for having been present in things we should never have done because they were an abomination to the Lord
- A pricking of the heart, as Acts 2 says, because the Spirit of God gives us the revelation that that action, that thought, that feeling, was not pleasing to the Lord
“I should never have been there. I should never have done this. Lord, I repent of this act. Lord, I repent of this feeling. Something surfaced in me that was hidden, that should never have happened. I repent of what surfaced in me.”
Repentance is Fundamental
Repentance is the gateway to the kingdom of heaven and to resolve all the causes that have provoked illnesses in our lives. It is important that each one of us understand this.
In a vast majority of cases, we can find people who have 10, 15 and sometimes many more years of having confessed their faith in Christ Jesus, but who even at this point today have not repented of their old life. That is why, many times, when we find ourselves before situations in others that are similar to ours, we cannot condemn that situation, but unfortunately we tolerate them. And it is precisely because there has been no repentance in our life.
The Need for Processes of Repentance
Repentance is the fundamental part of the life of faith. Each one of us, men and women who have confessed Christ Jesus as Lord and Savior, have to enter into processes of repentance.
Why? Because otherwise there is no progress in the life of faith. In many cases, it has seemed better to men and women of God to accommodate ourselves to situations when we cannot do things, than to strive to achieve what God wants each one of us to do. And it is precisely because there has been no repentance.
I am emphasizing precisely this, because we can realize—and it is the Spirit of God who reveals it—the need for us to develop repentance in each of our lives. Otherwise, we will not really be able to grow, prosper, or develop in the life of faith. In the case of illnesses, we will not be able to resolve our illness conditions, but on the contrary, as the years pass, illnesses become much more chronic and stable.
Repentance is Not Guilt
Something important: Repentance is not guilt. Many times we could develop guilt, but guilt is not repentance nor does it lead to repentance.
Guilt is precisely from the darkness, because guilt is placed in the person’s conscience so that they enter into processes of depression, frustration and disappointment, so that they still decline further in their states of spiritual deterioration.
Guilt is not repentance nor does it lead to repentance. Repentance comes from God. One of the things we should do is ask the Lord for a spirit of repentance.
The Fruits of Repentance
When there has been repentance, there are also fruits of repentance. Repentance has fruits.
When John the Baptist received the Pharisees who came to him to be baptized, he told them clearly: “Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance.”
Evidence of Repentance
Repentance has fruits, which shows us that when a person has truly repented of their previous actions and conditions, there are fruits of repentance. The person does not boast precisely about the things that happened in the past.
First Fruit: Abomination of the Past
One of the fruits we could mention is precisely that there is an abomination for things of the past. There is an abomination. We do not see them as something light, without merit, without value. The fruit of repentance is precisely that:
- We know how to identify that that was abominable to the Lord
- We know how to identify that that is displeasing to the Lord
- We do not tolerate nor allow there to be tolerance for that thing
In Ephesians 5:12 it says: “For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret.”
That is a fruit worthy of repentance: it is shameful even to speak of what they do in secret. Perverse things are not highlighted, evil things are not highlighted, and that is not testimony.
Testimony vs. Boasting
Many times we speak of things we did in the past believing that is testimony. I have to tell you: that is not testimony under any circumstance.
Ephesians 5:12 says: “For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret.”
This is a fruit of repentance: that we abhor what was established in the past, even in our own lives. We do not speak as testimony of what we did in the past, highlighting that aberration or situation that developed in our lives. There is a fruit. Repentance has fruits, fruits worthy of repentance. We see it as abominable, as horrendous before the presence of the Lord.
Second Fruit: Not Hiding
Another fruit of repentance is not hiding. The tendency of man, and we see this from the book of Genesis chapter 3, when the Lord comes before Adam and Eve, Adam says to Him: “I hid myself.”
A fruit of repentance is precisely not hiding things.
Second Way: Confession
The Example of Ezra
This brings us to the second way to be able to work on illnesses. In the book of Ezra, chapter 10, verse 1, it says: “Now while Ezra was praying, and while he was confessing, weeping, and bowing down before the house of God, a very large assembly of Israel gathered to him, men and women and children; for the people wept very bitterly.”
When a person has developed repentance, they do not hide things. Because the fruit of repentance is precisely: “I am responsible, I take charge of the things I did, the things I said, the things I felt, what I built. I take charge of it.”
Confession, Not Divulgence
The second way to be able to work with the causes of illness is to confess. But if you are seeing it, first there must have been repentance.
If there is no repentance, when the person divulges it is not taken as confession, but precisely that: a divulgence. It is not taken as confession, it is taken as divulgence. They brought to light what they did, but without repentance.
In many cases, when there is no repentance, what happens is that the person develops boasting, which will actually provoke more evils or greater evils than those they have developed up to that moment.
The Regret of Repentance
There is regret. When there is repentance, there is regret, there is sorrow: “I offended God, it weighs on me, my acts weigh on me, my actions weigh on me.”
In Acts 2, the writer uses a word: “pricked.” They were pricked in their hearts. There is a reaction in the person when they have entered into repentance precisely for their past way of living: for their acts, feelings, emotions, postures, thoughts, everything we develop in life.
Let us not believe that it only deals with actions. There are many feelings, there are many emotions that sometimes are not even manifested, but are hidden and are part of the sinful tendency of the person.
Confession Brings to Light
Ezra 10:1: “Now while Ezra was praying, and while he was confessing, weeping, and bowing down before the house of God, a very large assembly of Israel gathered to him, men and women and children; for the people wept very bitterly.”
The second way to be able to work on the causes of illnesses is confession. Not divulgence, but confession.
This is very important. Why? Because confession brings to light what is hidden and truly shows the commitment that the person has before God.
I will repeat it because this part is very important: Confession brings to light the commitment that the person really has with God. It is not about satisfying the human eye, but putting myself right with the Lord, as the prophet Isaiah says. “I have to confess this situation.”
The Weight of Secrets
I have dealt with many cases in which people have approached me and have said: “I had sworn to take that secret to the grave.” And precisely because of that secret they had acquired illnesses that there was no way to resolve, but on the contrary, day after day things became more complicated.
There are many people today who are in the same condition. They have not said it verbally possibly, but the attitude has been that: not to divulge, that no one finds out about the things I decided, the things I felt, the things I set out to do regarding a situation or event. They prefer to keep them hidden, and that is eating away at them.
The psalmist David says: “My bones grew old when I kept silent.”
This is the main reason for the physical deterioration of many people: keeping silent. They have made pacts of silence with the darkness: “Not to divulge, not to bring it to light.” But what is happening? As the Word says, their bones are aging. There is physical deterioration, deterioration in the organs, deterioration in the bones, deterioration at all material and physical levels. Therefore, the person ages really without reason, without cause.
The Will of God
In Ezekiel 33:11-12, it says: “Say to them: ‘As I live,’ says the Lord GOD, ‘I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why should you die, O house of Israel?’ Therefore you, O son of man, say to the children of your people: ‘The righteousness of the righteous man shall not deliver him in the day of his transgression; as for the wickedness of the wicked, he shall not fall because of it in the day that he turns from his wickedness; nor shall the righteous be able to live because of his righteousness in the day that he sins.’”
It is clearly showing what the desire is, what the intention is that the Lord has for each one of us: that we come in repentance and, following that, that we confess our sins.
Someone might say: “But doesn’t He already know? What is the point of confession?” I will explain it to you in a few moments.
Confessing Our Sin and That of Our Ancestors
In Daniel 9:20 it says: “Now while I was speaking, praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the LORD my God for the holy mountain of my God.”
Did you see it? He was confessing personal sin, but also confessing the sin of his people, of his ancestors.
In last week’s teaching we saw that causes of illnesses are the sin of our ancestors and personal sin. In Exodus 20 we read clearly that God visits the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation.
The Reach of Generational Sin
The sins of ancestors have real effects on the person, even if they are a believing man or woman. And this, although it may be hard for us to understand, is so.
Why? Because there is a reach that possibly may no longer pass to our next generation, but as long as all those things that our ancestors did are current, they will be affecting us. Possibly not our children, although we are part of the second generation, because that will stop with us since we did not do the same thing our parents did. But as for us, they can be affecting us.
Confessing as Our Own
What is this Word telling us? It is telling us that we have to confess the sins of our ancestors as if they had been ours.
It is not until we confess (that is, bring it to light) that then those things are dismantled. Because the power that Satan has over a person is in the capacity to keep a matter hidden.
That is why I said a few moments ago: it is not the same to divulge as to confess. It is not about divulging, it is about confessing. Confessing is the continuation of repentance. “I repent and, therefore, now I am going to confess. I bring it to light so that then all this can be dismantled, can fall to the ground.”
The Testimony of Acts 19
Acts 19:18 says: “And many who had believed came confessing and telling their deeds.”
Take note of this: many who had believed came confessing. So that we see that this is a spiritual law. It is present in the Old Testament, it is present in the New Testament. Why? Because this is part of the way God has established in His Word that the causes of illnesses should be treated.
Many people are sick because:
- They have not repented
- They have not confessed the things that happened
The Three Levels of Confession
More than one might ask: And to whom do I confess them? How do I confess them?
There are three ways or, rather, three levels, all depending on what we want to release, what we want to dismantle.
First Level: Confess to God
I confess it to God. When I confess it to God, as Matthew 5 says, shut up in my room, in my bedroom, when there is no one listening:
“Lord, I come before Your presence to confess this act, this thought, this feeling, this attitude, whatever we have to confess to Him. I confess it before You, Lord, and I come in repentance because Your Holy Spirit has shown me that these things were horrendous, were abominable to You. I was reproducing thoughts, attitudes, feelings, actions that were displeasing to You, Lord. I repent of them.”
You have already listed them, you have already named them. “I repent of that. It hurts me, it weighs on me, Lord, because I walked so many years outside Your will.”
You are going to discover, because the Spirit of God is going to show you, that even while being within a congregation we develop feelings that were not correct before God. That is why I have said on more than one occasion: being within a congregation is not a guarantee that everything is fine.
Because even within we have manifested feelings, attitudes, thoughts and, sometimes, even actions. They have not necessarily had to do with sin, but they have shown the sinful nature, the disobedient nature, the rebellious nature that we have brought. In many cases, inherited from the great-grandfather, from the grandfather, from the mother, from the father.
We drag it genetically and we have conducted ourselves, we have behaved in many cases as the great-grandfather or great-great-grandfather behaved, although perhaps we never knew them. All this is spiritual genetics. It is transmitted by spiritual genetics.
Breaking Bonds in the Spirit
When we confess to God, we break the bonds in the spirit.
In 2 Corinthians 7:1 it says: “Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.”
There is contamination or there is filthiness of spirit. When we confess to God, we break the bonds in the spirit. That is why it is very important that we come before the presence of the Lord.
Remember what we read in the book of Ezra: he was confessing before God, although he was in a public place. He was confessing before God, and others approached in the same way with the same spirit to confess to God.
When we confess to God, we break what is in the spirit.
Second Level: Confess Publicly (Without Audience)
Confess it publicly, although there may not be people listening. You find that in Matthew 10, when the Lord is giving them instructions on how they should behave or conduct themselves in the process of the life of faith. The Lord tells them: “What I tell you in secret, proclaim it from the rooftops.”
That is the second level: confess publicly, but people do not necessarily have to be present.
Breaking Territorial Bonds
When we confess it in public, we break the bonds that are at the territorial level.
In Ephesians 3:10 it says: “To the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places.”
Notice that it is not talking about people, it is not talking about persons, it is not talking about an audience. That is the second level of confession: I confess it publicly.
As Matthew 10 says, this from the rooftops, from a public place, I confess it: “I confess, I come before the creation of the eternal God, of the Almighty, to confess that one day I walked under these actions, I walked under these feelings, I walked under these attitudes, I walked under this conduct. I come to confess it, but I come today to declare that the grace of the Lord reached me, and today I am notifying”—as verse 10 says—”notifying the principalities and powers in the heavens that the Lord has made me free.”
When we confess at a public level without an audience, we cut everything that is at a regional level, at a local level. We are no longer bound to the earth, we are no longer bound to what surrounds us, to the environment. We are no longer bound to it.
Third Level: Confess to a Spiritual Authority
We confess it to a spiritual authority. It is not to just anyone. It is to a spiritual authority.
Unfortunately, due to the antagonism that has existed between the evangelical church and the Catholic church, we have lost sight of the fact that God gave us the capacity to forgive and to remit sins.
Breaking What is in the Flesh
When we confess to a spiritual authority, we cut what is in the flesh, what is at the body level, what is at the skin level.
Are you realizing?
- When we confess it to God, we cut what is at the spirit level
- When we confess it to the air, we cut what is at the earth level, at the local level, with the environment to which we belong or where we are moving
- When we confess at the level of a spiritual authority, we cut what has to do with the flesh, and there then it is dismantled
The Authority to Forgive Sins
In John 20:22-23, when Jesus entered for the first time to present Himself to His disciples who were locked up the night of the day He rose, it says: “And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.’”
This is the capacity of a man of spiritual authority. This is the capacity of a man who has spiritual authority or of a woman who has spiritual authority.
Do you understand why it has to be to a spiritual authority? Because God has given, although it is hard for many to understand this, although there are those who do not want to accept it, it does not invalidate what God has established.
The fact that we do not believe in something does not mean that immediately it is distorted or that it vanishes. The person misses out on the benefit that God has given to a man and to a woman to whom God has given spiritual authority.
The Mandate of James
James 5:16 says: “Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed.”
It is clear. But many of us do not act according to the Word, many of us do not live by the Word. Although you are within a congregation, if you are not living according to the Word, you are not living according to the Spirit of God.
Confession is the way God has established that we should work on the causes of illnesses.
Summary of the First Two Ways
There are several ways to work on the causes of illness. I have to present five ways to you, and we are barely seeing two: the first two. I am going to stay here to be able to work on them adequately. The next three we are going to study in the next teaching.
Time has allowed us to see:
1. The Value of Repentance and the Fruits Worthy of Repentance
It is important that we understand that to be able to face the causes of illnesses, the first thing is repentance. If there is no repentance and fruit worthy of repentance, we will not really be able to resolve the causes of illness. They are going to become complicated.
Another fruit of repentance is not hiding. Not hiding the tendency. The tendency of man, and we see this from the book of Genesis chapter 3, when the Lord comes before Adam and before Eve, Adam says to Him: “I hid myself.” A fruit of repentance is precisely not hiding things.
2. What Confession Consists Of
Confession is the continuation of repentance. It is not divulgence, but bringing to light with regret and sorrow.
For there to be confession, there must first have been repentance. There must have been repentance. If there is no repentance, when the person divulges it is not taken as confession but precisely that: a divulgence. They brought to light what they did, but without repentance.
In many cases, when there is no repentance, what happens is that the person develops boasting, which will actually provoke more evils or greater evils than those they have developed up to that moment.
There is regret. When there is repentance, there is regret, there is sorrow: “I offended God, it weighs on me, my acts weigh on me, my actions weigh on me.” In Acts 2, the writer uses a word: “pricked.” They were pricked in their hearts. There is a reaction in the person when they have entered into repentance precisely for their past way of living, for their acts, feelings, emotions, postures, thoughts, everything we develop in life.
Because let us not believe that it only deals with actions. There are many feelings, there are many emotions that sometimes are not even manifested but are hidden, but they are part of the sinful tendency of the person.
Confession brings to light the commitment that the person really has with God. It is not about satisfying the human eye, but putting myself right with the Lord.
The Three Levels of Confession:
- To God: Breaks bonds in the spirit
- Publicly (without audience): Breaks territorial bonds
- To a spiritual authority: Breaks what is in the flesh
Important Warning
Do not present yourself, neither before God, nor before a spiritual authority to confess if you have not had repentance.
Because what will be taken is as divulgence. You are simply divulging what you did, and by presenting yourself that way, you are presenting yourself in arrogance, in boasting, in pride, because you believe that God can be lied to, that God can be deceived.
Brother, sister, God cannot be deceived. You have the case there of Ananias and Sapphira. God cannot be deceived, and wanting to present ourselves that way before a spiritual authority will bring great harm.
Summary of the Three Levels
- When we confess to God, we break at the spiritual level
- When we confess it publicly without an audience before the forces of darkness, before the environment, we are breaking at the earth level. We are no longer subject at the earth level
- When we confess to a spiritual authority, we break what has to do with the flesh
One of the greatest evils that attacks precisely in matters of illness has to do with the flesh.
Fornication and the Flesh
In 1 Corinthians 6:18 it says: “Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body.”
In last week’s teaching I explained and emphasized that fornication is not as it is believed today: that it is a premarital relationship of the engaged couple who consented to sexual relations before getting married. That is generally how it is defined, but the Word of the Lord does not present it that way.
What is Fornication
The Word of the Lord presents fornication as sexual practices that involve many other elements. Understand among them:
- Homosexuality
- Lesbianism
- Bestiality
- Pornography
All that has to do with fornication.
Fornication Within Marriage
The apostle Paul presents a case that occurs even within marriage. Yes, within marriage there can be fornication.
In Romans 1:26 it says: “For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature.”
Do you know what it is talking about? It is talking about marriage. Is there fornication in marriage? Yes, there can be fornication in marriage.
In another of his epistles, the apostle says that the bed be without stain. What is the apostle referring to with all this? He is referring to marriage. There can be fornication when women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature.
Conclusion
We have seen in this teaching two of the five ways we are going to study. The next three we are going to study in next week’s teaching.
How Should We Treat the Causes of Illnesses?
Illnesses do not go away just because we declare it. They do not go away even with chemical medications. They do not go away, they become complicated.
How should we work on it? Spiritually, because illness is a spiritual condition, and we studied it in last week’s teaching.
The Need for Repentance and Confession
We have seen in the Word the need for:
- Repentance (and fruits worthy of repentance)
- Confess (not divulge)
So that then the Lord may have mercy on each of our lives.
If there is no repentance and fruit worthy of repentance, we will not really be able to resolve the causes of illness. They are going to become complicated.
The Purpose of This Teaching
The Word of the Lord brings life, and the purpose of sharing it and of having opened this space of time is precisely so that it may bring life to your life, so that you may find:
- Life
- Freedom
- Health
This is salvation. But it depends on each one of us. From here on, it depends on the willingness you have to be able to walk in what the Word of the Lord establishes for you.
I bless you. May the peace of the Lord be with you. Amen.
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