God loves us unconditionally, justified us in His own blood, and doesn’t remember our sins anymore. That’s the unshakable foundation upon which all believers stand, and the heart of this podcast series. In this episode, Dr. Siohvaughn Funches reminds of us of this unfailing truth – we, as children of God, can always come to our Father just as we are!
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Come As You Are (Part 3)
We’re going to be continuing on with our series titled, Come as You Are. Prior to getting into our recap, we’re going to take a moment and acknowledge God and pray. I thank you, Heavenly Father for this opportunity to get at the feet of Jesus and to hear His word. I pray deity that you will give to each and every one of us your spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Jesus. Let the eyes of our understanding be enlightened all the more that we may know what is the hope of his calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe according to the working of His mighty power.
I thank you, Jesus, that you will expound on these scriptures to us about the things concerning yourself. Holy Spirit, you will show us wondrous things in the word of God. I thank you deity that your word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. I thank you that as we behold, Jesus, your Holy Spirit is going to work in us and in our lives transforming us and our lives into your perfect image. I thank, God, that you are causing us to comprehend the scriptures, blessing us to know you more. To know you more is to love you more. I thank you that your faith is at work in us. We’re not focused on faith. We’re focused on the faithful one. I thank you, God, for the impartation of faith that has taken place in everybody under the sound of my voice.
As we get at the feet of Jesus and do that one thing that’s needful, I asked you to bless every man and woman of God and even their household, God. Everyone believing even those who have not given their life to Christ yet. I pray you to bless them and their families that they will truly know and believe God that only one thing is needful. The truth Himself spoke those words to us and they are timeless. I thank you, God, that as we do this one thing that’s needful, that as we choose this good part that won’t be taken away from us and we abide in your word. Let your words abide in us, then when we ask you what we need and what we desire, it’ll be done and you will be glorified God in Jesus’ name, we pray, Amen.
Let’s take a moment and recap briefly. There are people joining us for the first time. I’m not mad a t them. Come as soon as you can come. Get on board with us, enjoy this journey with us as soon as you can. If you get the opportunity to go back and read the full messages that are pertaining to this series, I strongly encourage you to do that. If you’ve read them, there is nothing wrong with reading again. That’s the thing about the word of God. It’s not just something spoken or something written, God has His word. He’s alive, which is why you can read a passage of scripture or hear a particular anointed teaching and at one point in time in your life, get this a particular thing from it at a different point in time in your life, even a different day of that same week, it gives you something else because it’s alive.
It’s living and powerful. It’s sharper than any two-edged sword. We thank God for His word. It truly is directing our steps. In His light, we see light. You might be having an issue or a problem and you say maybe this particular message speaks directly to your problem. It doesn’t have to speak directly to your problem as far as the subject matter or the contents therein, but because God is His word and it’s not me. It’s the Holy Spirit at work in and through me on this show, you can expect for God to give you a rhema word.
You can expect wisdom to be imparted to you. While hearing the sound of the word and the word is going forth, you can expect healing to be your portion. The Bible is full of examples of when Jesus preached the word and people were healed, “They heard and we’re healed.” There’s a hearing and a manifestation. They were not going after the manifestation. They were going after God. God calls the manifestation to go after them. God changes not. He’s the same yesterday, today and forever. It has nothing to do with those particular people. God was not revealing to us the details of those people’s lives like in some gossip column that we’re reading. God has been and steely is revealing to us Himself. He’s good.
Jesus Took Our Place
He is love and grace as we’ll see and as we continue on with this series and have been seeing. We talked about how God loves us unconditionally. We went over how God has justified us. God Himself, the only righteous and true judge. The King of all Kings, the Lord of all Lords. The only one who will be judging for real in this life and in the next. He has justified us. He has acquitted us. He has said not guilty. You can say God is unjust in saying not guilty because we were guilty, but Jesus said, “I’ll take their place. The guilty sentence, the guilty punishment do them, let it fall on me.” That’s the whole purpose of the cross of Jesus Christ and his sufferings here on the earth, his death, burial and resurrection.
Jesus said, “God give them my place where I’ve dotted every I and crossed every T. I have fulfilled your law and kept it. Every word, nothing fell to the ground. I’ve kept your law perfectly.” That means all the blessings of God that God promises when that happens would have come upon Jesus. Now we are seated in heavenly places in the risen Christ, and God has placed us in Jesus. All those blessings abound on us. God is very good. What we couldn’t do for ourselves, God did for us through His son. God is good. The judge has ruled. He justified us. He found us not guilty. Not only that, but He’s declared us righteous and God cannot lie. Jesus said, “What I have cleansed don’t dare call unclean.” Jesus cannot lie.
He called you clean. You are clean, born again believer. That has nothing to do with your behavior. It has everything to do with His behavior here on this earth. He was your behavior. He is your upright walk before God. Jesus is your righteousness. That’s Jehovah Tsidkenu. The Lord is my righteousness. The Lord is your righteousness and strength. Glory be to God as good as He is, as perfect as He is, as upright as He is, as blameless as He is, as Holy as He is, is who you and I are in Christ. God put us in Christ. Whatever God does can’t be undone. Our bad behavior can’t undo something that all mighty God did. That’s an impossibility. We ought to think not that much of our sin. If God doesn’t remember our sins anymore, we need to make a part of our prayer life forgetting those things. That’s what Paul said, “There’s one thing He does forget those things which are behind Him.”
He presses forward. It’s concluding, complete his calling as we know that he did. Thank God for the Apostle Paul. This foundation, unconditional love of God, justification that the blood of Jesus has provided us, this redemption that Jesus has secured for us, giving us peace with God. God not remembering our sins anymore. God giving us the place of Jesus. We’re God’s beloved. We’re the righteousness of God and Christ Jesus. It is the secure and unshakeable foundation upon which every Christian believer must stand. It is the foundation of our entire walk with God. That is the gospel of Jesus Christ. There’s no gospel without those truths. I thank God for that. That is where the premise of this show comes from. It stems from that foundation.
He Remembers Our Sins No More
God loves us unconditionally. We can, as a result of who God is. God is perfect love. We can come to God as we are. Every shortcoming, failure, addiction, broken promising in God, “This time, I won’t do it anymore.” It’s like fifteen more times after that it’s been done. Welcome to the church. I’ve been there. I’ve done that. I have t-shirts and hats to match. That’s me being transparent. That’s me keeping it real with people. They’ll know that the pulpit won’t save you. Jesus saves. Thank God for Jesus. We come to God, remembering that God forgot all of our sins. God can’t lie. If God says he forgot our sins, He doesn’t remember them anymore, then God can’t lie.
He said for His own sake, He doesn’t remember our sins anymore. If for God’s sake, He doesn’t remember our sins anymore, I would certainly think that for our sake, we need to forgive our sins and that of others. Spouses, God is talking, especially to you. It’s time to forget in Jesus’ name. The proof of the promise that we have been talking about is throughout the entire Bible. We’re going to look at a few examples for the sake of time and other revelations that God has given and wants to produce through this show.
The Heart Of God
We began this series by looking into the life of Hannah to see the heart of God. We saw how Hannah came to God. She was a woman who was barren, but wanted a child and was married to a man who had another wife, who was able to bear children. That was appropriate back then, don’t get any ideas now. One spouse can be more than enough. Let’s not do that. We looked at how this man’s other wife would provoke her. The Bible says, “She would provoke her severely because she couldn’t have children.” Hannah was in anguish. The Bible says she was in bitterness of soul. We know that bitterness is a sin. In some version of say that Hannah poured out her complaint before God.
We know that grumbling and complaining is a sin. Don’t you love God? This is even under the old covenant that Hannah lived in. Hannah knew something. Hannah came to God with every one of her negative emotions and refuse to avoid the God who saves, who could transform her and her situation. She refused to do that. Hannah was a very wise woman who must have had the wisdom to get to know God for herself. She knew something about God for herself enough. She knew God intimately enough that despite what the law says, she knew that those were utterances from God. Those were the Oracles of God. Those things written on stone. She knew that was true.
Hannah knew something about God, greater than that. She knew mercy triumphs over judgment. Instead of avoiding God, because she was right in the middle of sin and operating negativity to the tenth power at that point, bitterness and weeping, religious spirits try to tell people, “You’re going through something. What about God? Praise God.” Hannah could have been praising God and somewhere dancing because God is good to Hannah. God loves her, but Hannah felt some voice. She felt something was missing. She felt there’s got to be, “I know God is there. I know God is sufficient. I know God is more than enough, but I need more from God. I want more from God. God has an inexhaustible supply and I’m going to draw and drink from it all the days of my life.” I’m not mad at Hannah. I’m trying to be like her when I grow up. This lady went to God with every bit of the negative emotions and sins she was engulfed in. I wouldn’t say, ironically, because God does everything intentionally.
I’ll say intentionally, Hannah’s name means grace in Hebrew. It’s evident that she knew God intimately. Not in all His facets as El Shaddai and Elohim. She must’ve gotten to know God as the God who is grace. Grace is God. Love is God. She knew this and grace gifts freely. It gives freely without finding fault. That’s grace. She knew that about God for herself, praise be to Jesus. She came to God. She knew about the law. She knew what negative emotion she was in. She knew she was complaining and bitter, but she came to God as she was. Let’s see how that worked out for her. If you don’t know and you about to find out, you’re going to want to go to God more no matter how you feeling, no matter what seeing you even currently in. You can be in the midst of it while you’re talking to God. You’re going to want to go to God, trust me when I tell you.
I believe that we went through all the way up to about verse eleven. We’re going to get into that a bit more. I’m going to be reading from my literal Bible. Before we do that, I want to share with you something God showed me about Hannah and her experience and how it relates to us, the children of God. God was telling me that it is very significant when Hannah came to God. That’s very important that we slow down and we let that sink in, that we meditate on that. She came to God in bitterness of soul. She didn’t get rid of the bitterness, then try to come to God.
She came right in the middle of the bitterness, anguish, negativity and complaining. She came to God right then and there. God told me, “Remember when I sent my son Jesus to die for all of you all’s sins, for the sins of your entire life, don’t just remember that I did it. Remember when I did it.” We find this in Romans 5:6-10. I’m reading from the New King James Version and it says, “For when we were still without strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly.” While we were out without strength, full of faults, sin, wrong, Jesus Christ, the lamb of God, God sent Jesus. We didn’t pray that to happen. We didn’t even know we needed that to happen.
God sent Him of His own volition. God is good. He sent Him to die for who? The ungodly. The choice of words that the Holy Spirit uses is very important. In the Bible, details left out are all intentional. God is a God of purpose. God says that Christ died for the ungodly. This is such good news. The Bible says in verse seven, “For scarcely for a righteous man will one die. Yet, perhaps, for a good man, someone would even dare to die. God demonstrates His own love toward us and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more than having now been justified by His blood, we are saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the depth of His son, much more having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.”
There should be no question about that. That Bible verse alone, the undo any wrongs, doctrinal way of thinking that’s ever been imparted to us. This is getting to know God for yourself, which is why this show is chock-full of the word of God. You don’t need me, you need God. I don’t need me, I need God. I thank God for using me, but it’s good for nothing unless the Lord builds the house, the labor’s labor in vain. It’d be good for nothing unless it was Christ in me and it definitely is. I can tell even with what it’s doing in my own life and family. God is good. When we were enemies, which means verse ten to me, the way the Holy Spirit minister to me or translated it to me or put it in layman’s terms for me was when you were at your worst, God gave you His best.
Heaven’s Best
If God loves you so much that while you are at your very worst, deserving of nothing less than eternal damnation, not even a life sentence and He gave you heaven’s best, then it is a total lie. Somebody feels like they have to get it together first and then go to God. That’s so far from the truth. That’s a lie from the pit of hell. First of all, you can’t get it together without God. You can’t do that. What’s the purpose of healing yourself then going to the doctor? Nobody needs a medical license if that’s the case. If we’ve got the power to heal our self, what do you need to be going to the doctor for? If you write your own prescription, save yourself some money in time. Write your own prescription and feel it like you are the doctor and the pharmacist. Do all of it. You can’t, you don’t and you won’t, unless you go to medical school.
The point is we know that in any other aspect. Nobody fixes their car and then takes it to the mechanic and writes a check for $500 to the mechanic. We’re not making donations. God bless the mechanics under the sound of my voice. The mechanics are not 501(c)(3). That’s what we’re not going to do. I love that God did this. He did His best demonstration of love. The most He could do. Jesus said, “No greater love than the one who could lay down his life for you.” Jesus laid down His life for us. That wasn’t for His sake. That was very painful. That was very terrible for Him. It was the worst experience for Him.
He did it to save us and to give us so much more. Out of that salvation, work of love, demonstration of love at the cross, calms everything you could ever need, desire or think of. All of it is in there. Jesus is your answer. That’s not a religious saying. I’ve had some serious things. I’ve battled in my life. I’m praying in tongues, even about some serious things coming against me and my own children. I wouldn’t be the one to brush it off or give you some cliché to get you out of my hair. I don’t play with prayer. I’m telling you the truth. Jesus is the answer to all things. Somebody lacks understanding, they don’t know what to do. Christ has been made on to us wisdom to tell you what to do. He is the answer.
There’s lack, financial problems, deficit somewhere, a debt, what are we going to do? “I supply all of your needs according to my riches and glory in Christ Jesus.” He’s the answer. “Lord, I feel empty. I don’t know.” He’s the bread of life. He truly is everything. God gave us Him and everything that freely comes with Him while we were at our absolute worst. If God did that while we were at our worst, what will He not do? What would He withhold from us now having been justified in His own blood? Earth is supposed to be nothing less than heaven for the believer. We are supposed to be experiencing heaven in the Earth.
Nothing less than that. I would make this prayer to God and you come on an agreement with me, “God, nothing less than your very best you’ve given us and nothing less than your very best manifest in every area of our life. Here in the Earth just as He is in heaven.” It says in verse eleven, “Then she made a vow and said, ‘Lord of hosts, if you will indeed look on the affliction of your maidservant and remember me and not forget your maidservant, but we’ll give you maidservant a male child. I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life and no razor shall come upon his head.’ She continued praying and the priest came up and saw her. he watched her mouth.”
When Hannah made this prayer was speaking in a heart, only her lips moved, but a voice was not heard. This particular priest at the time, Eli thought that she was drunk. He tells her, “Put away your wine from you.” In verse fifteen it says, “Hannah answered and said, ‘No, my Lord. I’m a woman of sorrowful spirit. I have drunk neither wine nor intoxicating drink. I have poured out my soul before the Lord.’” I’m talking about that kind of prayer where you don’t hold nothing back. Everything flying out. It’s not probably profanity. Tears flying, fist raising. You may want to find you a quiet closet for that one because you may not be good if anybody else even hears that or see that, “Look at this guy.” He saw that or looked upon that and immediately went into judgment, “Something’s wrong with her.” No, there’s nothing wrong with her. She’s on her way to her promised land.
She tells him that and she told him, “Don’t consider your maidservant a wicked woman, for out of the abundance of my complaint and grief, I have spoken into now.” Hannah came as she was. Eli answered and said to her, “Go in peace and the God of Israel grant your petition, which you have asked of Him.” This was not any word for Hannah. This was a prophetic word. Priests in that day wasn’t like now. Sometimes we feel like a dime a dozen, you got to try to figure out who annotates and who wasn’t. There was some wicked preach. I believe some new dropped dead, but this man word is like a prophetic word.
I love her response. She said, “Let your maidservant find favor in your sight.” This is something that God showed me and it says, “The woman wins her way in ate and her face was no longer sad.” Sometimes we read the Bible and maybe go a little fast, skip over it and especially if we know how the story ends. Let’s slow it down because these people were like us. We can see how Hannah’s story would turn out. Having read it before, but Hannah did not know. It’s important to stop right here for a moment and recognize that all Hannah had was a word from God. Everything Hannah’s life looked quite contrary to that prophetic word she got. Her own body was against her. It’s one thing for that other wife to be against her.
God Is All You Have
You can probably stomach enemies being against you. The autoimmune disorder thing where your own body work against you starting to feel like more than somebody can bear at that point. It’s getting heavy. What we say in Chicago, “This thing got real.” She’s feeling that. When she got that prophetic word, it’s a revelation God has given me, “If a word from God is all you have.” I’m telling you nothing else, then the word from God is all you need. It is that simple. That word is more than enough. Hannah had nothing else. There was no doctor in her day performing surgeries and manufacturing children and doing all kinds of stuff. There were none of those options for her. She had a bare womb. The Bible said, “The Lord had closed her womb.” That’s another preach. We won’t go there for now. I’m simply saying that God is so good. This woman had nothing else, but his word from God.
She had a prayer that she made to God and a prophetic word that follow. All Hannah have was a word from God. I wonder how many people, including myself, all you have concerning what you need or desire is a word from God. You don’t have no other God. There is no false God among you. You know what needs to be done in your life. If God don’t get it done, we know God will get it done. We won’t go there. The point is you need God. There is no plan B. I tell my friends, “I don’t have plan B faith and I cannot operate and plan B faith. Plan A is God got to do it.” Since that’s the only way for me out of this or my children will be delivered and things like that, I don’t have no plan B. I don’t have no false God.
I got no other crutch. I got nothing else to lean or depend on. There is no other way. Jesus is the way. That thing is manifested truth in my life many times I’ve lost count and not away amongst the bunch. He is the only way. I want to show you the power of a word from God. You remember when the disciples were going over and the storm arose and they were in the boat? Prior to that, Jesus told them, “We’re going to the other side.” The storm arose and persecution arise for the word’s sake. Jesus gave the word then came to persecution. That’s not a coincidence. That word would have sustained them. There is no question it would take them to the other side. We know Jesus awoke and rebuked the storm because they were freaking out. Thank God for that.
Sometimes the temp is in the wind and we feeling full of faith and all of it. That thing started howling loud enough and you like, “Jesus, at least stopped the lightning part. If it’s going to be thundering, what about cutting the wind, Lord?” It gets real. I thank God that He loved just how we are whatever measure of faith we are. God don’t require no whole bunch of faith. He said, “You’ve got the faith the size of a mustard seed.” That’s the smallest seed there is. You can move a mountain. That’s one of the biggest things there is on the Earth. God is good. You don’t make it hard for us. He just doesn’t and I love that.
It’s relying on and knowing like Hannah about the faithfulness, the grace and the love of God is all you need. You don’t even get to focus on your faith. When you focus on that, it’s more than enough. Real faith is focusing on the faithfulness of God. We see that later on. We’re still in chapter one, but going down to about verse nineteen, it says, “Elkanah knew Hannah his wife.” We see Hannah went away. Her face was no longer sad. You saw that when Hannah got that word, even though all she had was a word, something had Hannah must have believed God for who He is. God is sufficient.
God will supply all of your needs. If something you feel like is missing, you don’t need it then because God promised to supply all of your needs. No matter what it looks like, look to the truth of God’s word. He’ll supply all of your needs. If you don’t have it, you don’t need it. God spoke that to me personally. I’ve seen it be true again and again, why I freaked out saying, “God, I need this.” You ended up not needing any of that because God would have given you that if you needed it. He promised to supply of your needs. I love how Hannah didn’t stay in that place of anguish, complaint, grief and bitterness. Hannah got that word from God. Hannah must have had an intimate relationship with God. She got that green light from God. She got that promise like what we have now as Christians.
All the promises of God, I yes and amen. God said it, “Whatever you asked for in my name, I’ll give it to you.” This is what I mean. Hannah didn’t even have that. We have that ironclad guarantee from God. He said, “All the problems. If you can find it, you can claim it as yours. Every one of them.” I yes and amen for my children. It’s God’s deep desire to bless us. God is glorified through our blessings. I found that in John 15. I love how she went away with that word. No outer manifestation of it happening. No sign in front of her saying that it will happen. It’s not like all of a sudden, she felt something in her womb and knew that she could have children. In the Bible, don’t say that the lady stopped provoking her. It doesn’t say a husband stopped giving her insensitive answers.
He meant and sincere, but he was sincerely wrong telling her, “Am I not better maintainers? You will be crying, not eating. Have you looked at my physique?” That seems to be the attitude he had. He is like, “He’s a good husband, but he dropped the ball on that one.” I love that she did that and we can learn that too. Looking at the life of Hannah, if a word from God is all you have, a word from God is all you need. You can rejoice now. You can celebrate now because God is faithful as we’ll see with Hannah. Later on, Hannah’s husband, the Bible says he knew his wife. That’s a whole another preaching too. I love it for God sexist. His intimacy is knowing one another, which is why it’s reserved for the marital relationship is such a beautiful thing.
The Bible says, “The Lord, Yahweh, the covenant-keeping God remembered her. It came to pass in the process of time that Hannah conceived and bore a son. God gave her what she asked for and called his name Samuel Sam because I have asked for him from the Lord.” Later on, Hannah talks to gets in contact with Eli again. She tells Eli like, “For this child, I prayed. The Lord granted me my petition, which I asked of him. Therefore, I have also linked him to the Lord so long as he lives, he shall be lent to the Lord.” They worship the Lord there. I love that Hannah got her prayer answered coming to God, not perfect in her behavior, not perfect in her heart. She probably had forgiveness in there right along with that bitterness.
She knew something about the love and the grace of God. Her name is grace. Every time they call her name, she’s reminded of grace. Jesus is grace. She was constantly reminded of that her whole life. This woman was rooted and grounded in the grace of God. That new covenant, Christians is a covenant of grace. Gospel of grace and peace. We’re supposed to be rooted in ground, it’s the very foundation upon which we build this thing. Other than that, what are we doing? This is a covenant relationship with God forever and ever. It has extraordinary unprecedented, explosive and mind-blowing blessings that the world has never seen before.
Let’s keep going to God as we are like Hannah. Hannah didn’t forget God. She’d said she would lend this child to the Lord and she did. Samuel grew up to be a priest. We know there’s the first book of Samuel and a second book of Samuel. God called Samuel even early on in his life. Some might count early. He ministered before the Lord. All the days of his life, he lived a consecrated life to God, a true man of God, which we draw so much wisdom and truth from because of what God did through him. The Bible says not a word that Samuel spoke prophesied saying, thus says, “The Lord fell to the ground.” Not one. I’m talking about an absolute, accurate prophet.
It would be something if somebody did their career and never made a mistake. Venus and Serena never lost a match. Every ball that ever came their way, they were able to hit it and swing it back. They never missed it. That may be something the world would celebrate, but I’m simply saying this man prophesied. He was the voice of God on the Earth. For many years, God called him early on as some may consider early and not one word, never did it fall to the ground, the most accurate prophet. Hannah gave birth to that. Not only that, I love how she didn’t forget God.
Let us never forget God. Let us not get the blessing and then forget about the blessed soar. Let our blessings because you’re going to get what you’re asking God for. Let our blessings be a reminder of the one who blessed us. I’ll leave you on this note because remember God said, He’s the God that does more exceedingly, more abundantly above all we could ever ask, think or imagine. If you read further in Chapter 2 or 3, Hannah had more children. God opened up a womb. He opened up the flood gates. God always over answers our prayers. God’s love language is giving.
Look what He gave to us when we were at our worst, His best. What is it to give to Him to a woman who’s asking for one child and have that child live that life like that, a life that truly glorifies God and gives many more? God is so good. We’re going to end on that note. You ought to be encouraged. I’m certainly encouraged to go to God as I am, regardless of what I think or anybody else. Let’s get to God. Let’s get to Him like yesteryear, not even yesterday. I love you so much and we’re going to continue on with this series. God bless you, keep you and cover you with the blood of His son, Jesus, and continue to give you revelation from these words. May none of these words from God return back void and empty. I thank you, God, that they’ll accomplish everything you sent them to do and prosper in the thing for which you sent them, in Jesus’ name.
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