Lordship Salvation


By Phil Scovell




     Although I have heard at least 40,000 sermons in my
lifetime, I am unable to calculate the percentage of just exactly
how many of those sermons have been on the subject of Lordship.
It has been a bunch, though, that much I know.  Furthermore, I
have no idea how many sermons and Bible lessons I have preached
and taught over the years but you can add that to my grand total,
if you are of a mind, but it won't make me any more spiritual.  I
must admit, however, I never understood what Lordship was all
about so I never preached or taught on it.

     If I boiled down everything I have heard and read on the
subject, I would have to ashamedly confess that my view of
Lordship salvation came down to how much I did, or didn't do, for
God.  By that I mean, I always had a positive and negative list of
things I did, and didn't do, for the Lord.  It was my spiritual
ruler.  I went to church every time the doors were opened, I read
my Bible daily, I memorized Scripture, I prayed 45 minutes every
day, I witnessed and won people to Christ, and from that point, my
list grew longer and longer as I thought of new and positive
things I could add.  If I experienced any discouragement for any
particular reason, and upon mentally reviewing that list of
spiritual things, I wasn't feeling better, I immediately referred
to my negative list.  This was my trusty standby list of things
such as, I didn't own a TV, for awhile anyhow, I didn't go to
movies, my wife didn't wear slacks, no fooling, I didn't smoke, I
didn't cuss, I didn't chew, I didn't go with girls who do, I
didn't live immorally, I didn't lie, I didn't cheat, I didn't take
the Lord's name in vain and again, from there, the list got longer
and longer as I continually made additions.  Regrettably, this was
what I thought was putting the Lord first and, hence, I was living
Lordship salvation.  In recent years, I have learned I couldn't
have been more wrong.

     Four times, in the book of Revelation and in no other book of
the Bible, Jesus proclaimed He was the Alpha and Omega; the First
and the Last.  Sure, I understood what that meant theologically.
After all, I had studied it in Bible college.  Right?  He, Jesus,
was before all things and after all things, too.  Right?  Well, it
was something like that at any rate.  I never personalized that
statement of truth to my own life because I didn't know it was
possible.

     Recently while praying with a woman in a prayer session, this
truth struck me with resounding astonishment and clarity and it
suddenly became more personal than I ever knew was possible.

     In this particular situation, this 39 year old woman had been
diagnosed with a number of things including bipolar disorder,
manic depression, OCD, or Obsessive compulsive Disorder, and about
every other disorder and letter of the alphabet one could
imagine.

     This woman also had something else quite unusual that had
plagued her nearly her entire life.  Now, get a hold of yourself
because you are going to find what this woman did mighty
uncomfortable.  Here it is and remember, I warned you.  She prayed
to the devil for relief from her depression and other emotional
problems.

     "Prayed to the devil?" you ask with total credulity.  "Did it
work," you ask next out of curiosity?

     It sure did.

     "Oh," you say, "this woman must not have been a Christian
then if it worked."

     If you think that, you would be wrong because she is a born
again Christian.  At this point, I would like to remind you that
Job's own wife encouraged him to curse God and die.

     I can hear someone saying, "Well, if she was praying to the
devil, why couldn't she just stop it?"

     That's a very good question.  The only people who would think
that, however, are those who know nothing about depression,
little, if anything, about emotional illness in general, and
absolutely nothing about the deceitfulness of the Enemy
specifically.

     It has been my experience, in praying with people by
employing intercessory prayer techniques, that the Lord almost
always starts at the beginning of a person's life when He
initiates the healing process.  If the Lord doesn't begin at the
beginning of their life, He always, some where along the line,
ends up there and for a very good reason. It is now obvious to me
as to why, but at first, I didn't recognize it for what it was.  I
have even prayed with people that went clear back to when they
were in the womb.  Is that possible?  Of course it is.  Ask any
doctor.  If you don't know a wise doctor, ask John the Baptizer
when he leaped in his mothers womb, when Mary, the mother of
Jesus, told Elisabeth that she was expecting.

     Most people find this theologically confusing because, they
say, "But I didn't become a Christian until I was 17 years of
age."  As if the Lord, of course, didn't know when they were going
to become a Christian.  This fact alone, reveals a tremendously
powerful doctrinal truth but I'll skip the theology lesson for
now.

     As I prayed with this particular lady one evening, she
discovered a place in her life when something changed spiritually
out of fear.  Something seemed as if it snapped inside of her and
she felt, if she would pray to the devil, maybe she could get
relief from the depression, repressive, obsessive, and compulsive
thoughts of which she suffered.  The Enemy, of course, was happy
to oblige because that's the source of her pain and fear and
woundedness in the first place.

     As we prayed, we arrived at this moment of decision in her
emotionally turbulent life.  In probing this area through prayer,
the Lord revealed a powerful spiritual and eternal truth to her
and that was, He is the Alpha and Omega of her entire life.

     Considering this truth at face value, we all know it is, in
fact, true.  Why?  Because we understand Jesus has always been.
Well, we may not understand it, at least I never have been able to
comprehend His eternality, but we theologically understand.  Yet,
to experience it, to literally feel this truth, is an entirely
different matter.  Until that night, praying with this lady, I had
never personally experienced, or felt this Biblical truth of the
nature and character of God.

     I have also written on the experience of the omnipresence of
God.  Of course, the doctrine of the omnipresence of God is
literally impossible to explain.  Yet, during a intercessory
prayer session, the Lord literally allowed me to experience, or to
feel, His omnipresence.  I was, by the way, totally healed of the
woundedness in that particular memory at that very moment and I
have never forgotten the spiritual amazement I felt at the moment
He revealed the theological truth to me.

     As a Baptist, I was always raised to understand that
feelings, spiritual feelings that is, was unspiritual, sort of
speak.  We always taught it was perfectly ok to be emotional at
the moment of salvation, of course, but after that?  Forget it.
This was one of our major criticisms of the Charismatics and
Pentecostals because to us, it just seemed they had way too much
emotional enthusiasm when it came to the Christian life.  Of
course I am exaggerating, to some degree, but this was literally
how I believe based upon how I was taught growing up as a child.

     As a result of the dozens of healing experiences I have had
during prayer, I know that it is not only possible to experience
God but to feel what we might call The Theological Truth.  Perhaps
it would be best to refer it as Theology At Work.  Say, there's a
title for a book if I ever heard one.

     Have you experienced God in your walk with Him?  I am not
asking you if you have ever felt God, that is, His persona and His
Holy nature.  I have felt His presence throughout my life many
times.  I have felt His closeness and nearness.  I have felt his
involvement in my life.  I have seen Him working in my life.  I
have certainly felt His peace but that isn't what I am asking.  It
is something entirely different from the experience of His
theology or literally his personage.  Yes, I can hear someone
saying, "I experienced God when I was born again."  That's
wonderful.  You should have.  Yet, I am speaking of something
other than your initial salvation.  I am not talking about
experiencing your salvation all over again but can you honestly
say you have felt the nature of God?  You would know this, of
course, if the result of the encounter brought revelation,
illumination, and most importantly, healing to your life, which
was eternally permanent.  That is another way of saying, it
brought everlasting victory to your life and you never ever had to
work at keeping it from getting away from you.

     Concerning Jesus as Alpha and Omega, I experienced this
truth, or felt it in my born again spirit, and recognized it as
Lordship, as this same truth was revealed to the lady with whom I
prayed.  If Jesus is the Alpha and Omega of your life, the
beginning and the ending of your life, then He is truly Lord of
everything in between.

     "Oh, I know this already," I hear someone saying.

     That's good, of course, to know it I mean, but have you
experienced it as truth?  Knowing it as truth and experiencing it
as truth are not the same thing.  If you know it as theology,
that's good, but it doesn't mean you have experienced it as The
Truth.  If you experience it as truth, on the other hand, then you
will also know it theologically.  The reverse, on the other hand,
is not necessarily true.

     "So how do I experience, or feel, His truth?"

     Through prayer and the healing power of the Holy Spirit and
the Word of God.

     "But how do I know if I am healed?"

     That's easy.  Let me ask you a few questions.  Are you
afraid or fearful about anything?  Are you scared?  Do you still
feel guilty about something you can't get over?  Did someone hurt
your feelings somewhere along the line in your life that you just
can't forget?  Are you ashamed about something?  What about anger?
Do you have a temper that gets away from you once and awhile?
What about fear?  Is there something that always brings fear or
anxiety to the surface when thinking about it?  Have you ever said
to yourself, "I will never forget when," and you speak someone's
name that has wounded you in some way?  What about the pain of
rejection?  Do you still feel it at times?  Do you ever feel
inferiority?  What about that sexual indiscretion?  Why won't it
stop leaving you alone since God has forgiven you for that sin?
Why won't the pornography, real or mentally generated, leave you
alone?  Have you ever realized that you just cannot forgive
someone for what they did to you?  Does the abortion you had
without anyone's knowledge still pain you deeply?  If the answer
to any one of these questions is in the affirmative, then you have
not experienced the character and nature of God in that area.  In
short, you need to be healed in some specific area that is causing
that feeling because it is truly a wounded area of your life for
which Jesus wants to be Lord.

     If you want to know more, call me.

Phil Scovell
Denver, Colorado USA
Mountain Time Zone
303-507-5175

I Flew Kites With Jesus
www.SafePlaceFellowship.com