THE PASS IS…. Past!
Introduction
This is a powerful book that was written to help all to be completely free from any thing of the past. It sounds so simple to make a statement like that, right? This book backs up that statement with God’s hart and word. It will enable all who are willing to just hold on to Him more than the past to walk in the freedom He as paid for them to enjoy. Freedom like everything is a choice, so my hope is that you will choose to simply believe what God says about your past. When you choose to take God at His word you will be free from the past as you walk with God in his love and freedom every step of the way.
The Past is.... Past!
One lie people fall into, is believing that they have to work at resolving their past or it will have power over their present and future. This is a false way of thinking because, God has resolved their past for them by and through the simple Gospel. God in His word, has much to say about this subject to set us free from trying to do a work that He has already accomplished. The only part of our past that is to last, is the good work which He began in us by uniting us to Him in His death burial and resurrection.
Let's start at the beginning in Genesis which means beginning.
Gen 19:17
So it came to pass, when they (the angel) had brought them outside, that he said, "Escape for your life! Do not look behind you nor stay anywhere in the plain. Escape to the mountains, lest you be destroyed."
Gen 19:26 But his wife looked back behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.
Looking back at the life you lived is not of Gods plan. Yes, Jesus did teach that we can learn from past examples.
Luke 17:30-32 Even so will it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed. "In that day, he who is on the housetop, and his goods are in the house, let him not come down to take them away. And likewise the one who is in the field, let him not turn back. "Remember Lot's wife.
And Paul wrights
1 Corinthians 10:11 Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.
It is not hard to see that the past can teach us but in both cases in the word of God does not tell us to look at our past but the examples of others past. The best thing about the past is it past. The past is gone and to send time dwelling in it is not part of God’s plan. Many well intended people seek to be used to see people delivered from there past by going on journeys with them to find the bad that happened in their past and trying to fix it. The past is gone Christ has come! Don’t end up likes Lots wife, don’t look back. Listen to the word God gave to Isaiah
Isaiah 43:18 "Do not remember the former things, nor consider the things of old.
Here is the Strong’s definition for “zakar” = remember
to remember, recall, call to mind, to be brought to remembrance, be remembered, be thought of, be brought to mind, to cause to remember, remind, to cause to be remembered, keep in remembrance, to mention, to record, to make a memorial, make remembrance
And here is the definition for “bin” = consider
to discern, understand, consider, to perceive, discern to understand, know (with the mind) to observe, mark, give heed to, distinguish, consider to have discernment, insight, understanding, to be discerning, intelligent, discreet, have understanding, to understand, to cause to understand, give understanding, teach, to show oneself discerning or attentive, consider diligently, to teach, instruct, prudent, regard
It sounds like God does not want us to spend time in the past to me. He lives in the now and He desires us to spend our time with Him in the now. Looking into your past can cause some real problems in your present. For example in the practical, if you drove down the road always looking at where you have been then it won’t be long before you crash. If you wake up in the morning and spend the rest of your day thinking about what you did in the past, then nothing will get done that day. Most people will also find that in a short matter of days they will be homeless and full of bed sores. This may seem extreme but that is the point of hyperbole. The point being is God only has one point of reference to our past and that is the cross and the empty tomb. That is where we all are free from every wrong which we have done or that has been done to us. That is where our debt for all the bad from the past is paid. If you are going to remember anything remember you are called a believer, so if you do not believe that you are free from your past, then you will not be free. But thanks be to God that if you believe what God has said and stand on the authority of His word then you are free from the past.
Jesus said this
Luke 9:62 But Jesus said to him, “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”
In this book, there is an entire chapter dedicated to understanding the kingdom of God/Heaven, so I will not go into detail on the topic. At the same time, it is important to understand what Jesus means by “fit for the kingdom of God”
is something that every believer should greatly desire and is designed to live in now. Jesus says if you are looking back you will not be ready for the use of the Kingdom of God. If you are looking back your life is not adapted or suitable for the purpose and new use of the activity of the Kingdom of God. Basically you are still in the mindset of the old kingdom of this world/darkness. That’s because you are looking back like lots wife. The world she looked back on was destroyed by God, just as he will do the current world, at the end of the age, so why would you ever want to waste time looking upon it. God paid the highest price His Sons Blood and life to do away with our past at the cross. The past is an attempt to steal your present relationship with God and others. The past is gone but God is with you now. The past does not exist in the present. Here is an example of what I mean. If you throw a ball into a basket at a point of time. That point of time is gone and it never can be truly experienced again. You can think about it for the rest of your life but you can never relive that moment of time. It is gone, it existed and was experienced then, but now it is gone it does not exist in the present.
Jesus was not the only one in the New Testament that spoke about not looking back. I believe there many hidden treasures in God’s word that we miss do to the lack of time that we actually spend meditating on what He has said. The following is such a case. I have read and been taught and taught through the following passage more times than I can recall. In each case I never gleaned the following power packed revelation until recently. It is found in Romans 8:35-39 which is one of those life scriptures that has brought reassurance to believers world-wide for over 2000 years.
Romans 8:35-39 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written:
"For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter."
Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
God through Paul is making a powerful argument which would seem to say that nothing can separate us from the love of God. Nothing can separate us from the love of God sound so reassuring, it sounds so much like God, unfortunately that is never stated in the passage. The hidden treasure in this passage is not found in what is stated, it is found in what was left out in the phrase “not things present nor things to come”. It is clear to see that what was left out is “our past”. For our past does have the ability to separate us from the love of God. Why? Because when we focus on the past we enter the playground (which is really a battle ground) of the enemy who comes to get our attention on him. His tactic is to have us focused on what he has done in us, through us, to us and through others in the past. All those things do not keep us in the place of the love of God. They are used to separate us from Gods love. Listen to what Jude says.
Jude 1:21 keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.
The verb tense for “Looking” is present not past, for we are not to be looking into our past. Paul does not use the omission clause leaving out the past just once.
1 Corinthians 3:21-22 Therefore, let no one boast in men. For all things are yours: whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas, or the world or life or death, or things present or things to come—all are yours.
Note “or things present or things to come” the past is not listed in what is yours. So your past is not yours, it belongs to God for He paid the price of His Son so you can be free from your past. Remember we are called believers and if you believe you are free from your past then you will be free indeed. If you do not believe you are free then you can spend the rest of your life trying to work through your past and you will find that does not work. So receive the grace of God and stop trying to work through what Jesus did the work on the cross for you to set you free from...your works of trying to overcome your past.
If you find that the enemy keeps reminding you of your past or that you are living out your life now the same way as you did in the past, God has made a way to become free from it. When God tells us to do something it is not just an idea to be considered. The reason He tells us to do something is for our good. Thinking about the past life of sin is out of bounds for a new creation. If the Devil and his minions keeps firing darts of your past into your mind, then God has a strategy to stop the harassment. 1 Confess Jesus is lord. 2 Repent which means to change your mind about who God is and what He has accomplished on our behalf through the Gospel. In other words, we no longer desire to do what was natural for us to do once we have come into the understanding of what Jesus did to set us free from sin and its power and penalty. Now we have chosen to submit to God and resist the devil so that he will flee from us. Once you have confessed and repented of your past way of thinking, God takes what you have done seriously. The Devil does not. He is the accuser of Gods children. So the Devil will continue to try and use our past to get us to repeat the past. We must remember when he tries to do so that we have confessed Jesus is Lord and that our past, present, and future sins are forgiven and forgotten by God, so now he has no power in his accusation against us based on our confession and repentance. The words we speak have the power of life and death in them according to God (proverbs 18:21). This is a powerful truth to remember especially in context to getting rid of the past. Remember once you have done your part of confession and repentance it will not stop the Devil from trying to use your past but it does empower you to denounce your past thoughts and actions of wrong and come into agreement with God that you are free from your past. The next step is to thank God that based on your confession and repentance you are free from your past and are a new creation now living for God’s purpose and plan.
I have said “confess and repent” several times. I feel it is necessary to clarify what is meant by this.
Romans 10:10
if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved
Confess means to agree with God, so in this case when you confess that Jesus is Lord you are agreeing with God that Jesus is the one to whom you belong, and He has power of making the decisions for your life.
Mark 1:15-16
Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.
Repent means to change your thinking. In Mark 1:16 Jesus is saying think differently about God and His Kingdom and believe (to think to be true, to be persuaded of, to place confidence in) in the Gospel. The apostle Paul makes really clear as to what the Gospel is in 1 Corinthians 15:3-4
That Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures. Also in Romans 1:16 he said it is the Power of God unto salvation. Based on this, from the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation (Romans 10:10). It is interesting that God uses the word “saved” (sozo) in Romans 10:9 and “salvation” (sōtēria) in Romans 10:9. This covers
1) Saved which means to save, keep safe and sound, to rescue from danger or destruction (from injury or peril)
1. to save a suffering one (from perishing), that is one suffering from disease, to make well, heal, restore to health
2. to preserve one who is in danger of destruction, to save or rescue
2) Salvation which means deliverance, preservation, and safety.
Above is the results of confession and repentance
Please remember that just because you have confessed and repented it does not mean that the accuser will stop trying to lead you back into your past way of thinking. Jesus said in John 10 My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And Yet they will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him. This means the strangers voice (the enemy) does not stop speaking to us, but we are not to follow it, instead we are to follow Jesus voice. The moment we have a thought about the past which would lead us into condemnation or sin we know that is not the voice to listen to for God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved (John 3:17). You may say why does God allow the voice of the enemy to keep speaking? Each time you hear the voice of the enemy speak and you exercise your faith to listen to the voice of God who is saying do not listen to him but listen for My voice you are actually growing stronger in faith and drawing near to God. It is as though every time the enemy speaks to us it is really an invitation to start a conversation with God! How cool is that, What the enemy means for evil God uses for good if we just have understanding of what is going on. So the next time the past comes to condemn you or lead you into sin just thank God and direct your heart and mind to Him with praise for Who He is and how wise He is and that truly all things work together for the good for those who love God and are called according to His purpose.
Paul did not hide his view of the past through omission in all that he wrote. In the third chapter of the letter Paul wrote to the Philippians he lists his past life pedigree from birth to becoming a Pharisee. Then he states the following concerning his past.
Philippians 3:7-8 But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ.
He counted his past as rubbish. The word in the Greek for rubbish is “skybalon” which means "excrement," that which is cast out from the body. Paul is obviously not waxing poetic here. He is making a point about his view of the past it is the same to him as excrement. Who in their right mind would ever spend time focused on their excrement/past. Who would ever go try and dig up their excrement/past to try and fix it. No it is to flushed and never to be thought of again. He used his view of his past as an example for us to not spend time in our past. In fact, is Paul the person that God used to write more books of the Bible then any other person that has ever lived on the plant through-out all of history, only once narrows done his writings to “one thing” that he did. The one thing that he did is make it perfectly clear as to what part his past was to have in his life.
Philippians 3:13-14 Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
The one thing Paul was committed to, is forgetting his past and that only left him reaching forward to those things which are ahead! No looking back, no listening to the enemy who through the fiery darts of the past seeks to separate you from the love God. No more conversation in your head with those that have hurt you. No more thinking about what you would have said if you could go back and change the past. No more talking to people about what other people did to you in the past. Let me help you with that way of thinking, do as Paul did, flush it and never go back, it is gone, let it go, move on, forget the past, be free in the present, stay connected to the Love of God. The present is a present from God that cannot be enjoyed in the past it can only be enjoyed in the present.
Paul goes on to say
Philippians 3:15 Therefore, let us, as many as are mature, have this mind; and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you.
Paul is saying, those that are mature, realize that thinking about your past is not an option for the child of God. Then he goes on to say If you do not agree with him about not thinking about your past then, God Himself will (as an absolute fact) unveil this to His children as His will and the way in which they will conduct their lives. (see vines dictionary 1d for the specific Greek usage). Remember the Past is Past and that is really Good News.