Blood of Jesus | The Shoe Ministries

What are pricipalities and powers?

The subject of this month’s letter is principalities and powers.

The Holy Spirit taught us that the seven deadly sins listed by the Catholics before the time of Luther are principalities.

The principalities and powers of darkness in Ephesians 6 have been used to explain the spiritual darkness you could see over a city as you approach it from a distance. From this, some teachers have assumed that in Daniel 10 the prince of Persia will fight against the spiritual force of Grecia. As I studied this I found that Cyrus was the King of Persia who Jesus told that the time had come to set free the children of Israel. This must happen because history is moving on and the king of Greece, Alexander the Great will fight against Persia. These physical events are part of history in the time of Daniel and are worth reading in this context. Heaven most definitely did fight with Persia against Babylon.

Even the people who preach it say that it has nothing to do with our salvation. Then why do you even say these things that have no purpose and cannot sanctify the heart of man, but cause confusion to the body of Christ? All scripture is for the edifying of man.

2 Timothy 3:16-17: “All Scripture is God-breathed and is profitable for instruction, for conviction, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

Heaven most definitely did fight with Persia against Babylon. It was the time when a hand appeared writing on the wall of the Babylonian palace. It is a beautiful story that brings glory to God and not the devil. The Lutheran church and also Billy Graham understood that principal spirits were the seven deadly sins.

The following is also one of those scriptures that I had to ask the Holy Spirit to explain.

Col 2:15: Then Jesus made a public spectacle of all the powers and principalities of darkness, stripping away from them every weapon and all their spiritual authority and power to accuse us. And by the power of the cross, Jesus led them around as prisoners in a procession of triumph. (He was not their prisoner; they were his!)

This scripture is difficult to understand because it most certainly sounds like spiritual forces in the air and some of the commentaries such as Barnes understand it as such. However, Adam Clark is certain that these principalities were the darkness in the hearts of the Sanhedrin. These people were the enemies of Christ, after all, they crucified him.

Tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. These are the people who held Israel in bondage to make up rules. These priests were full of their self-importance and Jesus called them white-washed tombs.

Col 2:8 “Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. You hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean” (Matthew 23:27).

These words are woes to the Pharisees.

If you read Colossians 2:15 you see Paul is talking about the spiritual forces that Christ overcame and then suddenly he is talking about being judged for what you eat or drink and even about the Sabbath in verse 16.

Col 2:16: “So why would you allow anyone to judge you because of what you eat or drink, or insist that you keep the feasts, observe new moon celebrations, or the Sabbath?”

This proves to me that the spiritual forces Jesus overcame were traditions and religions that held the Jews captive in the law. Jesus came to make everyone free from these laws but they were the power the priests and the Pharisees had over the people.

This is a lesson to me because I was also brought up with traditions that I know the Lord pointed out to me that were holding me captive. I am asking God to show me in which way these teachings have distorted my understanding of spiritual things so that my heart may be the dwelling of God only.

Jesus in his own words told the Pharisees in Mark 7:13 that their traditions make the Word of God to no effect. Traditions, religious laws, and ways are the principalities and powers in our minds that blind us so that we do not see the Truth. They are like veils that keep us from understanding and experiencing the full love of God.

Let us surrender to Jesus and allow him to set us free!

Ruling over our emotions

In the last letter we spoke of understanding the Spirit of Wisdom and knowledge of the power we possess in Christ Jesus in Eph 1:17.

For years, I prayed this prayer of Paul and had no idea what power Paul thinks all believers should have. The conclusion was that Colossians 1:11 teaches that this power is the power to have patience, longsuffering, and joyfulness—basically, to bear the fruit of the Spirit of Galatians 5:22. The word ‘power’ is dominion. This takes us back to the garden, where God gave them dominion over everything in the earth.

All people are a heaven and an earth. The mind should be heavenly which would positively affect the body. As our readers know by now the heart of man is the conscience and is in the mind. As a man thinks in his heart so is he. (Proverbs 3)

“Let thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven”

Our eventual aim is that we could do the things Jesus did in earth, however, this kind of power comes through discipline. This is why Jesus had “12 disciplines”. We must discipline ourselves to rule over emotions such as those things written in Gal. 5:19. Patience and longsuffering are the fruit of the Spirit we should naturally live by and not be ruled by fleshly lusts. We must have dominion over ourselves. The first words God spoke to Adam was to guard the garden. The garden is the heart. The heart is the mainspring, which can only be guarded by following Jesus. We guard the heart by meditating on the cross as we have communion.

Of course, all people want peace in the mind and this is why some use drugs to achieve this because no one taught them that Jesus saves. No one taught them that God’s plan for man is peace in the heart. They use various drugs and chemical concoctions such as antidepressants to achieve peace but become enslaved.

We know that the Pharaohs used opium, and we now know that Hitler was a drug addict as were many world leaders trying to appease inner daemons. This explains the things he did to the Jews. The use of drugs has destroyed many lives as people walk past the cross and live in darkness and deep despair. They look down at their problems instead of looking up to where the cross is always displayed above. Jesus was crucified but has risen. He is our Lord and knows exactly what we are going through. In the morning He is standing next to the cross saying: “Come to me all who are heavily laden and I will give you rest”. We lay down our lives and enter the rest!

Jesus saves but very few people use the cross or follow Jesus to be saved from their inner chaos.

Very few people are aware that God’s plan is peace. It is still the same way as it was with Joshua and Caleb, only two people ended up in the promised land out of millions of Israelites, so it is with us. Very few actually enter in.

The only way we can help others is by helping ourselves to rule over the inner deep in Christ.

We go through many tests and trials in our lives to overcome our sinful nature. All of the Bible is written about this struggle and then when we finally understand how it works, we are seated with Christ in Heavenly places! (Rev. 3) Now that we learned to overcome, we can rule with Christ over our inner chaos, in a heavenly-transformed mind! From here we can speak to the problem mountains and tell them to throw themselves into the sea. Nothing shall be impossible to them who believe! First, learn to die in Christ and then have all authority IN CHRIST. The point is that we must first have dominion over ourselves and then we can have dominion over earthly things.

How to make your enemies the footstool of Jesus

The Lord told us that he uses physical things to explain the spiritual. We live in the earth with physical bodies but our minds should be heavenly. God’s will must be done in earth as it is done in heaven. When we have the Christ-mind, we have a heavenly mind. To be saved into Christ is to be hidden in Christ. As Paul says in Galatians 2:20: It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me. (Gal 2:20) The things of this world can’t touch us if we remain in Christ.

Before Jesus was crucified he was called Jesus of Nazareth. After the cross,He became Jesus Christ. He is the Christ! He now has a Spiritual body and sits on the right hand of God waiting for His enemies to become His footstool. Note, that he will not make the enemy his footstool, we are the ones who should do it. We do this by following Jesus daily and laying down our lives. We have given our lives to Christ and His Spirit lives in us, however, we live in a physical body and the FLESH lusts after the things of the Flesh.

Gal 5:17: “For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.”

In Galatians 19 Paul lists the fruits of the Flesh. I am saying that the flesh is the enemy that must become the footstool of Christ.

The enemy is my sinful nature that must be dealt with daily, at the cross. Worry is fearfulness and it is the enemy. So is pride, anger, gossip, judgment greed—the list goes on and on. All people have this inherent problem called ‘The Flesh’. The problem is not demons that float around in the air and jump into me at will. There is no point in blaming the Devil when we step over the line. We are the ones who must guard our hearts against sin. We do this by doing introspection daily and dealing with sin at the cross while using communion.

Jesus said we should pick up our cross and follow him. We follow Jesus and deal with the flesh in the same way he did. He crucified the flesh. This is why we eat the flesh of Christ. Remember how offended the disciples were when he said they must eat His flesh? This is because they did not understand what the flesh was, and most people I meet have the same problem.

The life we live in Christ is the life of dying to the flesh. As we allow the Holy Spirit to show us which sins we must die too, our minds slowly begin to transform, as we become a living sacrifice. (Rom 12:1-2) Use your imagination and see what you look like when you are angry, then take it to Jesus at the cross and he will crucify it in the same way he was crucified. In this way we become a new creation, no longer living after the flesh we will begin to live in the Spirit.

Gal 5:22-26: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.”

This is the way the enemy becomes the footstool of Christ.

We rule with Christ when we rule over the enemy of our own lower self.

Eph 2:5-6: “Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”

When we use the cross to die to the sinful nature we follow Jesus into his death and also into his resurrection, to live and rule in the Spirit with Him!

Over what do we rule in Christ? We rule over the flesh! Now Romans 14:11 says: For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.

Now your flesh becomes the footstool of Christ!

Let’s look at your fruit

As stated in last month’s post the Kingdom of God is within us and it was God’s plan to put His authority into man, in the earth. The original plan was that Adam and Eve would have this dominion, but they lost it, because of pride. The second Adam, Jesus rectified this situation by sacrificing his life so that many sons would come into glory.

Heb 2:10: “…in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.”

Through this sacrifice we were given Power.

Joh 1:12: “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.”

This power included the leading of the Spirit of God!

Rom 8:14: “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.”

As you can see the word ‘suffering’ is also there in Heb.2;10. Our sufferings are caused by the natural fleshly sinful state that is within us. This fleshly state in us, is at war with the Spirit of God that lives inside us. For Romans 8:13 says if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die, but if we live by the Spirit, we will mortify the deeds of the body and therefore we shall live.

We should not give in to the flesh who always wants to be pampered.

The flesh always wants another bite to eat, it wants to eat more sugar, more refined foods it wants to do as it feels. It does not want to be controlled it wants to be free to rebel. It wants to test all boundaries and want to be as wild as an animal. The flesh wants everything and it wants it now!

But the fruit of the Spirit is completely the opposite; it is self-control, patience and longsuffering.

Rom 8:5: “For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.”

The only way to overcome this sinful state of self within us is by dying to it daily.

We can never expect to have this God authority functioning through us if we live after the flesh. Dying to flesh is what causes the suffering. This same problem is in all people and the conflict we see in the world is simply pride and greed trying to get its way. Because we know about this fleshly state in all people we have compassion and love towards others by showing them that they should guard the heart against the fleshly lusts. This is our mission on earth to become better people so that the authority of Jesus Christ can come into effect in our lives, changing the earth as we lay hands on the sick and speak to the mountains of problems. When we walk in the complete sonship ordained for us, we will lay hands on the sick and they will be healed. We will speak to the mountains (problems) and it will throw itself in the sea.

By this same authority Jesus cursed the fig tree. Jesus expected to find fruit on the tree and when he did not, he cursed it. They only saw the death of the tree the following day as it was dried up from the root. In Psalm 1 we are also compared to a tree. If we meditate the Word day and night, we will be like a tree planted by the river. Bringing forth our fruit in season and whatever we do we will prosper. This is the blessed state of they who meditate and do the Word of God. The same Psalm also says; The wicked is cursed. He will disappear like chaff in the wind. As we can see Jesus healed all that were sick and came to him, but He has a harsh other side to Him which said: If you do not bear fruit you are cursed.

This is exactly the same with us. If you love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and everything within you and love your neighbor as yourself you are blessed. If you do not obey the commandments, you are cursed according to Deuteronomy 28. This is the Word of God and we should speak it with Christ authority.

Because the Kingdom of God is within us, we speak in the courts of God, in the privacy of our bedrooms and are able to change the world in this way. Do not be afraid to pray against the evil that we see in our country.

Enter in Boldly into the presence of God and speak the Word of God. We are blessed because we love the Lord our God and those who do not are cursed. We speak the blessings over our own lives, and over those who bear good fruit. We also speak the curses over those who do not bear the good fruit. As Jesus said in Mathew 7:18-20: A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.”

How to have great relationships

I heard a woman say that she cannot wait to grow old so that she no longer has to consider other people. Then she could be as rude as she likes, do and say what she likes. If this is also your point of view, please understand that we are supposed to become better and not worse.

We are all bad, we all have the same sinful carnal fleshly nature. God’s plan for us is that we would die to the old nature and live in the Christ nature. We should become a new creation. We do this by renewing our minds and becoming a living sacrifice. Rom.12:1-2. In the same way Jesus laid down his fleshly nature, we lay down our sinful nature by doing what Jesus did. This is the only way we can become better people, by partaking in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The sinful nature is the reason why we have so many problems in the world. Partnerships hardly ever have a successful outcome because we never deal with our sinful nature but rather force it onto our partners. We expect people to accept us the way we are, we say: “All of my family members are impatient and ill-mannered!” That’s just ridiculous, that is not how we should treat others. They should become more and I less. That is what love is, love is a verb!

Years ago, a man wanted to be my partner in building our property. He was an elderly sincere gentleman. I asked him what a partner should be and he replied that a partner is someone you care more about than yourself. This was the attitude of Jesus who showed how we should love one another by washing his disciples’ feet. He said that we should be servants of all.

This subject of the sinful nature was on my mind as I listened to my children telling me how many marriages they have conducted and only one present of these couples remained married. I have listened to how they told of how the other person’s character changed completely and they had to divorce because of it. We are all subject to character changes if we are going to allow the sinful nature to take over our character. Our role model is Jesus. He showed how to die to the flesh and rise in the spirit. I remember that my wife and I were building a house by the coast and because we were by ourselves and working hard, I stopped using communion regularly. I eventually slipped into an uncharacteristic depression without realizing it. I remember laying in the bath tired, worn out, and depressed and Yvonne (My wife) served me communion right there in the bath as she prayed for me I was immediately out of depression. I learned a lesson I will never forget, just because you are not under attack from the outside world doesn’t mean that you are not under attack from your inside darkness.

As I listened to the stories of failed relationships and partnerships, I started inquiring if they used communion, but it’s always something they forgot to do, the same as I did.

The only way to die to the flesh is by applying the blood of Jesus to the conscience. The conscience is the division between soul and spirit, or flesh and spirit.

We do introspection and ask the Holy Spirit to show us what sin is and deal with it at the cross. Pride, fear, depression, anxiety, despondency, and slothfulness to name only a few is sin in the heart. We deal with sin by following Jesus dying daily to the flesh and rising in the Spirit to rule over sin when we are in Christ. We help each other deal with sin when we help each other guard the heart.

There is no point in blaming the devil for failed relationships. The problem is always in us.

We were a family of six children and the house was always full of people when I was small.

My mother was the spiritual one and she relied heavily on the power of the blood of Jesus. Whenever something went wrong in the family, I would hear my mother applying the blood of Jesus as she prayed. She did not even understand the blood, she simply used it and it never failed. Nothing bad ever happened to our family because of the blood of Jesus. It is the only way to deal with the sinful nature. Don’t let the spoilt sinful nature ruin your life. Deal with it at the cross.

Click here to download a free booklet, explaining how to use the cross daily and becoming Christ Minded.

What do you think of this subject? Tell us in the comments below.

How to Guard the heart (Part 1)

Part one of How to Keep the Heart.

In Revelation 3:21 we are told that the ultimate goal that we achieve as believers are to be overcomers and to be seated with Christ in heavenly places. Most people believe this to be a future event.

In this first email of 2023, I would like to bring this overcoming in Christ into the here and now.

I believe that all people can have a heavenly mind or a hell of a mind, right here on earth. We don’t need an overcoming mind in heaven, there is nothing to overcome there. We need to learn to overcome here, on earth, daily -IN CHRIST!

This means that the troubles of the world are not our problem. Our problem is to keep our own minds and stay in the rest. This compares to having a Sunday every day.

We have authority in Christ, we can do what he did and even greater. This means that we can speak to our minds in the same way Jesus spoke to the earthly things. He walked on a physical storm and then calmed it by speaking to it. If we are in Christ we speak to the storms inside ourselves in His name. Because He did it we can do it.

Jesus is called the prince of Peace. He gave His life so that we can live in peace right here on the earth today.

Peace in the heart is God’s gift to all mankind. However, how will we keep this peace? Can anyone keep their mind free from the chaos outside there?

Firstly you must understand that God lives inside people. He lives in the heart of man along with all of heaven. The heart is the Kingdom of God. If you gave your heart to God He lives in you.

The ‘heart’ the Bible refers to, is not the physical heart in your chest, it is in the imaginations and thoughts of the heart. (Gen.6:5) The heart of man is the conscience. God comes to live in us when we give our hearts to God. That is the best day of our lives. However, we must now learn to guard the heart against sinful thoughts. God is in us, but so is our sinful nature. The sinful nature is called the ‘Flesh’ in the Bible, also carnality, the devil or Satan. Our problem is within us! (Mark 7:21)

As we learn to get to know God with our hearts we come under greater attack from our old nature. Our feelings begin to complain and want to go back into our thoughts to occupy our minds. Negative emotions become hard to deal with along with our intellect and our will. We must learn to die to these things that are in us. The Bible points to these things as being in the body. Paul calls it the Fruit of the Flesh in Galatians 5.

This is the reason why Jesus was crucified, hands and feet. When we use communion we eat the flesh of Christ and drink His blood. He overcome all mental anguish in the garden of Gethsemane and perspired blood. He overcame all the terrible things the priests and the Roman soldiers did to Him. Everything they did to Him was so unfair yet he never complained or cursed them, in fact, he prayed for them. He said they don’t know what they are doing.

He gave His back willingly to be torn apart at the whipping post so that we never have to be sick again and then He was crucified to die a criminal’s death. He did all this so we can follow him daily. We can take those bad thoughts that came into us yesterday and we can crucify them. I use my imagination, I know what I look like when I am angry, and Jesus helps me to crucify that bad part of myself. While doing this I eat the Body of Jesus (Communion). I can crucify anything that steals my peace and the Spirit of Jesus is there to help me. When I have dealt with my flesh and know what I am saved from, I drink the blood of Jesus and then He sprinkles my thoughts from an evil conscience. (Heb.10:22)

I never miss my daily appointment to have a clear conscience, in the way described above.

In this way, we overcome the enemy and go ahead and have a great day. If your conscience is clear you can pray to God with confidence that He answers prayers. Because sin has been dealt with.

Next month we will continue with Part 2, on How to guard the heart.

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Guard the heart against Pride

Dear friends last month I wrote about Who is my neighbour?

I would just like to add a short note to this subject before continuing on with this month’s subject which is How to Guard the heart.

We are told to love our neighbour as ourselves and the conclusion of the previous letter is that our enemy is the sinful nature that is in all of us. If we can teach our fellow human being what sin is and how to deal with it we are fulfilling the second commandment.

The word “love” is a verb. That means we are working for our neighbour, if we can, by example self-control. We can teach others that this is the way to guard the heart so that God can bless us.

To self-control completely is impossible, to live above our sinful nature is our greatest challenge, but we can help each other guard the heart against the wickedness of the personal lower nature.

I have personally experienced how I lost God’s blessing when I lost my temper. After a long time of praying and fasting God taught me to die to anger. He taught me that this bad thing is inside me and that it is for me to rule over it. He taught me to crucify what I look like when I am angry, I learnt to use my imagination and to follow Jesus daily, by laying down this lower life of self at the cross. It changed my life! I teach it to everyone I meet. This is the way I love my neighbour.

November 2019

Ron wrote:

As you know we are road-side artists who also have an opportunity to testify of the things God has done for us, to people who did not know that The Shoe is a Ministry. Most of the these people that come here have been hurt or rejected by Christians because of all the confusion concerning churches, rules and doctrines. If you give them a chance to blow off steam you will hear that they did give their hearts to God but were not taught to guard the heart against sin. They did not realise that the heart should belong to God and only God, so that we can keep the first commandment. All this you know, but I would like to stress the power of the blood of Jesus for without it, the above cannot be achieved.

I am saying that Christians have very hard lives if these two points listed above is not practised daily. I am noticing that TV churches are leading people to Christ without making mention of the blood of Jesus that washes sins away.