Breath Of Life Online Ministry
 
Dealing with our Sufficiency Crisis.

Among these three crises, this is the one that seems to impact us the most. All of the imperatives of our survival fit in this category.

Where do we get food, clothing and shelter? How do we maintain our fragile health? The list goes on, and with it so does the need of humanity. We are not sufficient of ourselves.

The devil's world system includes an economic system that operates on the precepts of the curse found in Genesis 3:16-19

To the woman He (God) said: "I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; In pain you shall bring forth children; Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you."

Then to Adam He (God) said, "Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, 'You shall not eat of it': "Cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, For out of it you were taken; for dust you are, and to dust you shall return."

As long as this curse is in place, there is no fix for our sufficiency crisis. But if we could find a way to eliminate the curse, we could escape and find sufficiency.

The important thing for us is not to reverse the curse, we can't do that. As long as we allow the enemy to make us perceive our insufficiency, we will continue to have a sufficiency crisis. We need to return to our pre-fall sufficiency in God and like the other crises, this will take our repentance. There are only two positions to hold, blessed or cursed. 

The good news is that Jesus bore this curse for us, and by His sacrifice of love has set us free from it. The simplicity of solving this crisis is to submit to Jesus as our Lord,  Master and Provider and enter into His Kingdom. We need to understand that we have a choice, life and blessing or death and the curse.

"Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?

Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?

Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?

So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

Therefore do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?'


For after all these things the Unbelievers seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.

But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble."  Matthew 6:25-34

Much like the authority crisis, there are more preceptual connections to make about our sufficiency and we'll bring them all together as we progress.
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How to deal with our Identity Crisis.

This is probably the most difficult crisis most of us will experience. Once it has begun, it winds it way deep into our being and may take some radical intervention to resolve.

A lot of teachers point to Jesus at His baptism when they teach about knowing our identity.

When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."  Matthew 3:16-17

It was good for Jesus to have His identity established, because the next thing He did was face temptation in the wilderness.

But if we're waiting around for the clouds to part and the Father to make His announcement from heaven, we may be in for a really long wait.

Jesus didn't really have an identity crisis like most of us do. And while we can learn much from His example, perhaps we'll understand ourselves better if we look at someone who was a little more messed up ... you know ... like us.

We can talk about the great examples of the heroes of the faith. And that's good, we should have those examples. But where is the example for those of us who aren't there yet?

Tell me about the "If He Can Do This ANYBODY Can Do This" guy. I want to know about the guy voted "Most Likely to Fall Flat On His Face". Because when I'm in a serious crisis, that's who I think I am.

My personal favorite is Thomas, the poster child for Doubt and Unbelief, Inc. Thomas doubted everything around him. He doubted himself, he doubted his brothers and his sisters. Thomas doubted Jesus and he doubted God. And still, he's near the top of my list of exempliary believers.

I love Thomas. He only did two things right, he followed Jesus and he was honest. Oh, he was brutally honest about what he believed...which was that he doubted everything.

Thomas doubted Jesus in life, and he seriously doubted Jesus after He died. And even after the others had told him that Jesus was alive, Thomas still doubted. This man had a serious identity crisis.

Still Thomas kept doing the one thing right. He followed Jesus...sometimes from a distance, but he  never left. 

Now Thomas, called the Twin, one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said to him, "We have seen the Lord." So he said to them, "Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe."

And after eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said,"Peace to you!" 

Then He said to Thomas, "Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing."

And Thomas answered and said to Him, "My Lord and my God!"  John 20:24-28

The first step to solving Thomas' identity crisis had nothing to do with his own identity. He needed to settle his identity crisis with God. Thomas got the revelation of Jesus' true identity. 

And when he said, "My Lord and my God!" Thomas got a new name. 

We may still call him Doubting Thomas. That's not his name anymore.

So it doesn't matter where we start. It doesn't matter how messed up and confused we are, its fixable. And if we can only do the one thing right, keep doing it. Follow Jesus. He will do whatever it takes to reach you.

Now if you want to speed things up, then hear what Jesus said to Thomas, "Do not be unbelieving, but believing."

Believe means to 'Be Persuaded'. Unbelieving is to resist being persuaded. Don't resist the things God says and does in your life that would persuade you of His identity. "Incline your ear, and come to Me. Hear, and your soul shall live"*


*Isaiah 55:3
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How to deal with our Authority Crisis.

This won't take long to answer. Simply yield the authority you think you have to God. When you feel challenged to take that authority up again, remember that you don't have the right to make that judgment and then walk in what you know God has said about the situation.

We must yield this authority in the beginning when we are first saved. This isn't a work we do to earn anything it is a discipline we follow as we express His image within us. We'll talk about this more on a later topic. For now, here's some related scripture.

The righteous cry out, and the LORD hears, and delivers them out of all their troubles. The LORD is near to those who have a broken heart, and saves such as have a contrite spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him out of them all. Psalm 34:17-19

For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it; You do not delight in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, A broken and a contrite heart— These, O God, You will not despise. Psalm 51:16-17

For thus says the High and Lofty One Who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: "I dwell in the high and holy place, With him who has a contrite and humble spirit, To revive the spirit of the humble, And to revive the heart of the contrite ones. Isaiah 57:15

Thus says the LORD: "Heaven is My throne, And earth is My footstool. Where is the house that you will build Me? And where is the place of My rest? For all those things My hand has made, And all those things exist," Says the LORD. "But on this one will I look: On him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, And who trembles at My word. Isaiah 66:1-2

Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 18:4

And whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. Matthew 23:12

So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. James 4:7

...God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble. Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time. 1 Peter 5:5-6

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Satan is called the god of this word system. It has nothing to do with him being a true god, rather its because everyone in his system obeys his will. And as we've just seen, his method of causing us to obey his will is to create or cause us to perceive some kind of crisis.

Once we acknowledge his crisis, he recommendeds a solution to the crisis that is always contrary to God's will. So the devil perpetuates his rebellion by keeping us bound in sin.

By the time we're finished, you'll be amazed at how many different 'threes' we will look at. Let's add another three to our list of concerns.

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. 1 John 2:15-16

Compare the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life with Genesis 3:6. Feed the flesh, please the eyes and satisfy the pride. That's no coincidence, these are the cold facts about the ways Satan manipulates mankind.

His system is designed to keep us in a consistent state of crisis. Then we're provoked to solve each crisis according to the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. The real problem is that these aren't solutions to our crisis.

Remember when Eve judged the fruit? I think, I feel, I believe, right? This is our standard response to the types of crisis Satan loves to present us with. We judge good and evil for ourselves.

In Luke 6:37, Jesus said, "Judge not, and you shall not be judged."

Satan deceives us with a false crisis to cause us to judge. What is the original Greek word for the judgment we pass? KRISIS! He deceives us with a false crisis and causes us to create real ones.

Our actions of lust and pride not only damage us, but they steal, kill and destroy the lives of others, too. Our judgments come back against us in this life and many more are being stored up for us till the last day when we will have to face them all*.

If it isn't bad enough that Satan has separated us from God. Now he has us shoveling fuel on the fire of our own destruction just as fast as we can. This is why it is so very important to see the detail of his ways.

Before we complete this chapter, let's clarify this term 'crisis'. Its connotation may bring to mind thoughts of a major catastrophe and we do use it that way at times. But it doesn't have to be some grand or elaborate thing.

A crisis could be as simple as a 2 year old wanting more cookies. It could be the mildest provokation of our pride or contradiction to our knowledge. The big crisis will come, but its the little foxes that spoil the vine.**

*Romans 2:5 **Song of Songs 2:15
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The final precept of sin we'll discuss is a Sufficiency Crisis. Again, here's the text.

The serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the LORD God had made. One day he asked the woman, "Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?"

"Of course we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden," the woman replied. "It's only the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden that we are not allowed to eat. God said, 'You must not eat it or even touch it; if you do, you will die.'"

"You won't die!" the serpent replied to the woman. "God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil."

The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it, too.

At that moment their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. So they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves.

Genesis 3:1-7

Do you remember in Part 2 where we established our model of man? Take a moment to review if you need to. We're about to build on that understanding.

From the definition of a living soul, we learned that we are living, breathing beings that must rest and be refreshed. We have already established that mankind was created in a perpetual state of insufficiency.

The important thing to remember is that we were created to walk with God in a perpetual state of provision. We are entirely dependent on Him for our sufficiency and He is not only happy to provide for us, He expects us to receive our provision from Him. That's why He made us the way He did.

Where our Sufficiency Crisis begins is close to our Identity Crisis. The devil associates our insufficiency with our identity. Its just a ploy intended to psyche us into action. You (identity) aren't like God (insufficiency) because you don't know good and evil(challenge to defy authority).

But when we understand our identity, we recognize that our insufficiency is natural. When we are confident in our identity, we can trust God to provide for us and comfortably remain under the loving dominion of His authority.

But Adam and Eve didn't do that. They recognized their insufficiency and faced it alone. Instead of trusting God, they took it upon themselves to provide what God expected them to depend on Him for.

This is important for us to understand, GOD IS NOT HAVING A PROVISION CRISIS! We are having a Sufficiency Crisis!

The effects of our Sufficiency Crisis are extremely pervasive. Statistically speaking, in the time it has taken to read this at least 50 precious children have died from starvation and related illnesses.

Not because God hates children! Because we think we need to meet our own needs by our own works. And our works will never be good enough to provide what only God can give.

We must know our true identity, submit to God's authority and freely receive His perfect sufficiency.
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The second precept of sin is an Authority Crisis. Let's post the text again for good measure.

The serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the LORD God had made. One day he asked the woman, "Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?"

"Of course we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden," the woman replied. "It's only the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden that we are not allowed to eat. God said, 'You must not eat it or even touch it; if you do, you will die.'"

"You won't die!" the serpent replied to the woman. "God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil."

The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it, too.

At that moment their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. So they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves.

Genesis 3:1-7

Most of us think of man's rebellion against God's authority in terms of disobeying His command not to eat the forbidden fruit. And that's true, except that it bears even more weight when we understand what it meant to eat that fruit.

This particular fruit came from a tree called the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Was this a unique tree in all of creation or was it a specific kind of tree that God had set apart to Himself? Some might debate that, but the end is irrelevant.

In order for man to eat the fruit of this tree, he would have to judge good and evil for himself. And that is what God did NOT want us to do. 

So why call this an Authority Crisis? God is the lone judge presiding on the Supreme Court of the unvierse. His ruling stands. What is good is good and what is evil is evil based on NOTHING but His judgment.

Our Authority Crisis begins the moment we consider something He has already judged. A lower court does not have the authority to make judgment on a case the supreme court has already decided, that's called contempt of court. Not only can the lower court not pass judgment on the case, they can't even hear it.

God has never authorized man to judge good and evil. He does expect us to discern the difference, but we'll cover that more later.

This is a critical precept, so we're going to look at it a little closer. How did Eve judge good and evil for herself?

"She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her."

What Eve is saying is "I think it looks good. I feel hungry. I believe it will make me wise."

I think! I feel! I believe!

The truth is, it doesn't matter what we think, feel and believe. God has already done the thinking, feeling and made the declaration on the subject. We do not have the authority to reconsider the case.

And we may think we do well with our judgment. But even if we pass judgment in agreement with God's judgment, we have still violated His authority by making our own judgment in the first place.

But we are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags... Isaiah 64:6

Faith works by love and whatever is not of faith is sin.* Until we submit to God's authority and simply live by faith in Him, we will continue to struggle with this authority crisis. The works that follow our lives will not be godly works and we will either walk in a false sense of righteousness or a destructive sense of condemnation.


*Galatians 5:6, Romans 14:23
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When we believe there is something we can do to become a better person and to be more like God, we're not acting godly at all. All our rituals, moral behavior modifications and methods that require some type of works were all spawned here. That's what we're calling religion, the world is filled with many varieties of it and it was fathered by Satan, himself.

To understand this better, we're going to explore three areas of consequence about the fall of man. But first, let's post the text so we have it handy for reference...

The serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the LORD God had made. One day he asked the woman, "Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?"

"Of course we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden," the woman replied. "It's only the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden that we are not allowed to eat. God said, 'You must not eat it or even touch it; if you do, you will die.'"

"You won't die!" the serpent replied to the woman. "God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil."

The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it, too.

At that moment their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. So they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves.

Genesis 3:1-7

The first precept we'll look at is the Identity Crisis. It may be subtle in the text. But the implication is obvious.

'Who you are is not good enough! There is something you can do to become like God!'

All the devil is really doing is sharing his own identity crisis with man and he tries to convince them to agree with his own delusion that he can transcend to the very status of God.

The problem is that once we lose the security in our identity and fall for his con game, we will fall into his delusion that we are exalted and have transcended into the capacity of God.

The really crazy thing about this is, we're not stupid, we know we're not God. But subconsciously we still have that delusion and we are seriously conflicted over our true identity. 

As long as he can play this gambit in our lives, the devil will keep us in a "You're not good enough, but you are good enough to fix your self." vice-grip.
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Before we mark our first precept of sin, let me note a couple important aspects of the devil's methods of operation.

In Genesis 2:16-17, God commanded Adam not to eat the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. In the next verses, we see the account of Eve's creation.
 
The account moves directly from her creation to the temptation. In the temptation, Eve knew the Lord's commandment not to eat the fruit, but it is not clear is who told her. 

In the record, God told Adam and while we can't be sure, it is quite possible that Eve heard the Word of God second handed, from Adam. 

Whether or not this is the case, hearing God's Word second handed leaves us weak when our beliefs are brought to question. The devil preys on the weakness of our personal knowledge of God's Word.

Because if we're not solid in our knowledge of God's Word, we'll fall prey to the devil when he lies about it like he did in Genesis 3:1 & 4. The only time the devil will tell you the truth is when he's accusing you of something you've done wrong.

So we need to know what God has said first hand. Words from the pulpit or words from a page are good and we need them. But until we've had that personal confirmation of the Word from the Author, it remains second hand knowledge.

Coupled to that is having a personal knowledge of God, Himself. The devil plays a confidence game, designed to shake our confidence in God and His Word. Then he encourages you to have confidence in his lies. He does that in Genesis 3:4-5. So as soon as anything tries to change your confidence in God, now you know its source. 

There is another dangerous thing the devil does that isn't as clearly evident in the Genesis temptation. It is an undercurrent here, but elsewhere it is much more obvious. That is to challenge our identity. Here it is more subtly woven into the concerns about truly being like God. If we're not certain of our identity, we will find ourselves victims of the first and greatest identity thief ever.
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Now that we've talked about repentance, let's ask another question. If it isn't our fault that sin entered into the world and if it isn't our fault that sin marred our image, why do we have to repent?

The simple asnwer is to dance with the One that brought us.

We didn't cause sin, it fell to all the descendants of Adam. That means we inherited it. While that may not seem fair, and even though we did inherit sin, it has been by our own free will that we have violated God's Laws and that still makes us accountable for it.

It is important to understand the good news ... the judgement for that sin was passed on Jesus at Calvary. He has already paid for all our sin and promises to restore us to His image.

In the big picture, the importance of our repentance is to reject the dominion of the 'Father' of sin over us and accept the dominion of the Father of Life over us.

We will serve a master. Because of our natural Adamic inheritance, by default we are under the dominion of sin and death. Repentance chooses Life as our Master.

Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, so that you and your descendants might live!  Deuteronomy 30:19

So in the big picture, repentance is to turn from Satan to God, from sin to righteousness, from darkness to light. We need to see the big picture, and since repentance involves a turning away, then we need to have a clear picture of what we're turning away from. 

To say turn away from our sin is terribly ambiguous and leaves us with a focus on our works. The works of sin are the fruit of a deeper problem and unless we cut off the source, the fruit will never die.
 
If we visit the doctor and his diagnosis is, “You're sick.” That's a bit silly. You knew that in the first place. What you need the doctor to tell you is exactly what's wrong so you can treat the problem. Masking the symptoms does not cure the cause of the symptoms.
 
The source of our sin is found in the fundamental precepts of the cursed kingdom we were born into. So let's expose these old kingdom ways and understandings and do away with them.
 
In Isaiah 14, we see the fall of Lucifer:
"How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations! For you have said in your heart: 'I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.' Yet you shall be brought down to Hell, to the lowest depths of the pit.” Isaiah 14:12-15
 
There are plenty of studies and thoughts on these scriptures but I don't want to get too deep with this. The main theme of Lucifer's five 'I wills' is his delusion that there was something he could do to become like God and rule in His place. And believe it or not, we've just exposed the birthplace of this thing most of us call religion.

From here, we'll explore the specifics that caused our sin and created the false thing we generally call religion.
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Now let's take a more technical look at Repentance. The Greek word for Repentance is 'metanoia' or 'change of mind'. "It involves a turning with contrition from sin to God; the repentant sinner is in the proper condition to accept the divine forgiveness."*

We referenced 2 Corinthians 7:10 earlier, so let's have a closer look at it.

"For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death."

Sorrow is the result of an emotional impact. Godly sorrow, the result of a godly emotional impact, is a good thing. Worldly sorrow, the result of a worldly emotional impact is dangerous.

Do not be deceived by religious tapestry. A true godly sorrow can only be orchestrated and administerd by the Holy Spirit, the third 'person' of the godhead. 

That's extremely important to understand because repentance has to impact the complete man for it to be fully effective. Let me explain.

Do you remember our model of man? Now let's make a similar model of the soul. The soul is generally divided into three areas that we recognize as the mind, emotions and the will. We will come back to this model often. But for now, let's model true repentance.

The mind is our intellect. It includes raw data and knowledge and it is capable of making calculations. It is the home of what we call 'mindsets' which is an established understanding or protocol. It is also the seat of our general purpose in life.

The emotions are the seat of our feelings. They cannot think or act of themselves. Our emotions serve to motivate and they also serve as our desires in life.

Reasoning is a combination of intellect and emotion. Generally speaking, our reasoning not only affects what we call understanding, it also creates a judgment or determination that is expressed through our will.

And the will is the total of our purpose and desire reasoned to form beliefs and opinions that will determine the actions we take.

In reality, we will defend against a frontal assault on the mind. To cause an intellectual change of mind will require an intense period of intellectual warfare. And when the mind is finally changed, it does so in defeat.

Who wants to be defeated? Raise your hand!

OK, so I can't actually see if you're hand is up or not. If you're sane and able to read this, I'm pretty confident that your hand isn't up.

The emotions are our motivation. When we experience a true, godly sorrow administered by the Holy Spirit, it motivates us in purity and perfection to make the change of heart we need to make. We don't suffer in defeat but rather surrender to His love.

The end result is a new way of thinking and feeling. Our mindsets change and so does our purpose and desires. In turn our reasoning changes and that impacts our opinions and beliefs. When repentance has run its course, our will is turned in submission to God's love. And the full man has been changed, not just the mind or emotions. 

Take some time to review this and let it sink in. This is a pivotal point in our lives. We will either move forward with haste or fall flat on our face depending on whether or not our repentance is effective.



* F. F. Bruce, The Acts of the Apostles [Greek Text Commentary], London: Tyndale, 1952, p. 97.
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