Portals & Pearls: Divine Doorways to Deliver Your Soul into New Dimensions of Freedom & Gems of Wisdom to Guide You in Turning Your Grit into Glory

By Sherri Stevens

What if what you know about God just ain't so?

Portals can be rather inconspicuous and elusive, but when we find one of these obscure openings, we discover that it can be a divine door that ushers us out of darkness and despair into a whole new dimension of freedom. Unfortunately, because of negative encounters we may have had with churchy people or the guilt and condemnation we may have suffered under religious teaching, we end up being driven away, and rightly so, from any further involvement with religion. A portal (for the purpose of this book) symbolizes a gateway of knowledge and understanding into God’s grace and truth intended to bring to light the gospel of Jesus Christ to lead us out from behind the iron bars of false beliefs that may be enslaving us. This book was written to display God’s prismatic promises and the biblical wisdom God has provided for us as answers and antidotes to the various problems we may encounter in life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Jul 25, 2017
• ISBN: 9781512795004

Sherri Stevens

Moxie. Merriam-Webster uses synonyms like courageous, guts, and prowess to describe moxie. This single word personifies the spirit of the author. She is a fighter for the weak and disadvantaged. She is a passionate believer in her faith. Her friends and fellow observers have responded affectionately to her fearless and spunky nature with such nicknames as Sheriff Sherri and Baby Pit Bull. So how does Sherri enjoy putting her moxie into motion? She is an adventurous world traveler, a strategic entrepreneur, a fierce fitness enthusiast, and a passionate poet. She has also authored Deep Calling Deep and Where Is God on My Bad Days? But don’t be fooled—Ms. Moxie balances her apparent bravado with a very playful and gentle soft side. She has no problem breaking into spontaneous dance upon hearing one of her favorite tunes or compassionately embracing the tender hearts of those she loves.

Book preview

Portals

Divine doorways to deliver your soul

into new dimensions of freedom

1

THE PUPA PORTAL

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here (2 Cor. 5:17).

Being religious is like trying to be a good caterpillar. But being spiritually reborn means becoming a new bold-winged butterfly! When we put our trust in Christ, we are placed into Christ—our chrysalis—and are born of God!

The beauty and grace of butterflies have been the longtime inspiration of many poets such as Emily Dickinson, William Wordsworth, and William Yeats, to name a few. The charmingly airy nature of these gorgeously colored creatures seems to captivate the innermost parts of our deepest being.

The miraculous metamorphosis of a caterpillar becoming a butterfly can be compared to our spiritual transformation. After a caterpillar reaches full maturity, it is ready to become a pupa. A pupa is the intermediate resting stage of a metamorphic insect, which occurs between the larva and the imago (adult). The pupae of different groups of insects have different names. The pupa of a butterfly is called a chrysalis.

During the time of pupation, the larval structures break down and are replaced by those of the imago. Then behold! The damp and crumpled wings emerge from the chrysalis, and the butterfly is reborn! Wow! What a glorious real-life revelation God has given us to exhibit the new life we can experience when we put our trust in Christ.

The word chrysalis is derived from the Greek word chrysos, which means gold. A chrysalis is the gold-colored protective covering in which a caterpillar is secretly and miraculously transformed into a butterfly. In the Bible, the color gold represents deity. When we put our trust in Christ, we are placed into Christ—our chrysalis—and are born of God.

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God (1 John 5:1).

We are clothed with Christ and the golden robe of His righteousness: For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness (Isa. 61:10).

All glorious is the princess within her chamber; her gown is interwoven with gold (Ps. 45:13).

When we are placed into Christ (our chrysalis), we are translated into the kingdom of the Son God loves: Giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves (Col. 1:12–13).

The Bible makes some very exclusive claims that Jesus Christ is the only way to be saved. Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me (John 14:6). Read also Acts 4:12.

But why is Jesus the only way? What about being a follower of Buddha or Muhammad or just trying to be a good person?

God and man have two very different definitions of what is required for salvation. Man’s religious equation is based on a false gospel of moralism—a system of meritocracy—measuring his own self-righteousness according to whatever standard he has determined. The Bible is very clear, however, that God does not accept us on the basis of any good deeds or righteous works we have done.

Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin (Rom. 3:20). Read also Isaiah 64:6.

The Bible teaches that there are two very different kinds of righteousness: self-righteousness, which God does not accept, and God’s free gift of His righteousness, which is received by unmerited favor (grace) through faith. For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God (Rom. 10:3).

Man’s religious equation is based on a false gospel of good works, a curve of whatever he has determined is good or bad conduct. God’s equation for salvation, on the other hand, is based on believing in His Son, and it addresses a bigger problem than man’s behavior: the fact that man is spiritually dead and in need of life.

You study the scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life (John 5:39–40).

Religion is based on rules, rituals, and regulations that focus on our outward conduct. Christianity is the reality of a spiritual rebirth that addresses our inward spiritual condition. That is why, when Jesus spoke to the religious leaders, He said, Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again (John 3:3).

The reality of being born again is supported throughout the New Testament. But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:4–5). Read also 1 Peter 3–4, 23.

So, why does the Bible teach such a narrow and exclusive way of receiving salvation? Why is Jesus Christ the only way?

1. Jesus Christ was the only person who lived a perfectly sinless life so that He could be our sinless substitute. God accepted Him, on our behalf, as a blameless and acceptable sacrifice so that the punishment for our sin could be laid upon Him. Without going into too much detail to explain the biblical importance of sacrifice, there is a fundamental principle throughout scripture that requires the shedding of blood for the remission of sin (Lev. 17:11; Heb. 9:22).

2. Jesus Christ was the only person who lived a perfectly righteous life so that He could impute His righteousness to us.

3. Jesus Christ was the only person qualified to offer spiritual life, because He is the only one who ever conquered death through His resurrection.

The good news is that God has made a provision for solving man’s problem. Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die (John 11:25). Read also Ephesians 2:8–9.

Man’s religious ways, philosophies, or equations might make him good according to his own standards, but they do not make him alive! God’s equation for salvation, however, is not based on our being good or bad, but on our believing in His Son and being made spiritually alive in Jesus Christ! For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16). Read also 1 John 5:12.

Just as a butterfly experiences metamorphosis, a Christian’s metanoia (changing of mind) initiates God’s miraculous work of spiritual transformation in his or her life. You have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator (Col. 3:10). Read also Ezekiel 36:26.

The concept of religion is completely different from the spiritual dynamic and reality of becoming a new creation in Christ. Being religious is like trying to be a good caterpillar, whereas spiritual rebirth means receiving new life, Christ’s life, and becoming a bold-winged butterfly in and through Him! It’s a takeover, not a makeover!

He gave His life for you, to give His life to you, so He could live His life through you!

Jesus Christ is our Chrysalis!

2

THE PAID-IN-FULL PORTAL

Jesus’s blood sets us free from our sin. His life sets us free from our self.

What if a group of Christians was assembled and asked, How many of you believe Jesus meant what He said when He proclaimed from the cross, ‘It is finished!’? Most likely we would see every hand go up. But if those same Christians were asked, How many of you are still asking God to forgive you when you sin?, we would probably see those same hands raised again.

So, what’s the disconnect here?

The problem is that we have a culture of guilt-ridden, weary Christians today who have been taught a faulty formula of forgiveness. They think that forgiveness is doled out to them on an as needed basis in accordance with their pleading for a fresh batch of forgiveness. They function out of a faith that offers them only partial, conditional forgiveness. They consider themselves as having only the potential to be forgiven—and only if they fulfill the right conditions.

But God’s divine forgiveness was executed in a moment of time, once for all. It is absolute, not ongoing. It is final, not temporal! It is complete, not partial. It is all-sufficient, not a shortcoming. It is a reality, not a potential!

Paul told us, In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace (Eph. 1:7). According to this verse, and many others throughout the New Testament, you are a forgiven person. You are not forgiven over and over again! When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins (Col. 2:13). Read also Colossians 1:14; Ephesians 3:32; and 1 John 1:12.

It is not a function of faith but rather a dysfunction of faith to be asking God over and over to do something He said He has already accomplished.

The Bible clearly communicates that Jesus was sacrificed once for all for our sins. And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all (Heb. 10:10). Read also 1 Peter 3:18.

"Once for all! And yet most Christians do not rest in that once for all provision that was made for them two thousand years ago. The book of Hebrews explains the forgiveness that New Covenant believers live under today: Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more. And where these have been forgiven, sacrifice for sin is no longer necessary" (Heb. 10:17).

Most garden variety Christians, however, live a life in complete contradiction to this explanation of the New Covenant. They live as if God does remember their sins. They live as if they need to execute more forgiveness, and they continue to sacrifice for their sins in a vicious cycle of confession—or maybe some sort of self-imposed penance.

Let me briefly address the potential question that commonly arises in dealing with this subject of total forgiveness: if we’ve already been forgiven, can’t we do whatever we want and not worry about sin? And interestingly enough, we read in scripture that the apostle Paul had to deal with this same question among church members during his time who took issue with such a bold and broad reach of grace. He said, What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? (Rom. 6:1).

And what was Paul’s response? By no means! Then he continued in the next three chapters of Romans to explain that it is because we have died to the law and are now under grace that we have been set free from sin. Titus 2:11–12 says, For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It [grace] teaches us to say no to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age. It is grace, not the law, that teaches us to say no to worldly passions.

Let me try to illustrate this concept of the finished work of forgiveness in accounting terms. Let’s say that your bank account was excessively overdrawn, and Jesus went into the bank and paid your debt in full. Then, on top of that, He deposited an extra one billion dollars into your account. But instead of being thankful for those generous dollars He deposited (reckoned to your account), you continued going back to the bank every other day, begging and badgering the teller, saying, I am so sorry! I only have these two cents to deposit into my overdrawn account today. Please forgive me. The bank teller tells you the same thing on every visit: Go home. Your debt has been fully paid. The bank ledger has been balanced!

But sadly, most Christians today do not live much differently from the way Old Testament Jews used to live. They live with a self-imposed pseudo-sacrificial system. The only difference today is that instead of shedding the blood of bulls and goats, which was instituted by God as an acceptable and temporary system to cover sins, Christians today have devised their own pseudo-sacrificial system based on confession and begging God for more forgiveness.

This faulty formula of faith overlooks the most fundamental premise taught in scripture: Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness (Heb. 9:22). God only gave man two systems acceptable to Himself to deal with sins, and both include the shedding of blood. The blood of bulls and goats atoned for sins in the Old Testament, and the Lamb of God took away the sins of the world in the New Testament!

Jesus, the Lamb of God, was the propitiation for the sins of the world. The Greek word hilasmos, meaning propitiation, taught in the New Testament is different from the Hebrew word kippur, meaning atonement, taught in the Old Testament. Propitiation means to take away sins, whereas atonement means to cover sins. He is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world (1 John 2:2 KJV).

When Christians operate out of a faulty formula of faith, they are neglecting to rest in the finality of forgiveness that was accomplished by Jesus’s death on their behalf. But most Christians will never get off this merry-go-round model of forgiveness, because they have been misled regarding the proper context and application of one verse in particular: If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9). Most Christians utilize this single passage as a Christian bar of soap, thinking that somehow they are cleansing themselves of whatever sin they have committed according to their confession.

Let’s break down some of problems with this very popular mode for receiving forgiveness.

First, God did not give us the option to cleanse ourselves according to our confession. Remember: without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. Jesus shed His blood once for all on the cross, and He is not going to do it again … and again and again, according to our chronic and contrite confessions. Second, 1 John 1:9, when read in its proper context, is a salvation passage. Once we have acknowledged our sin of unbelief, we are cleansed of all unrighteousness by the blood of Jesus. This leads us to the third point: if you have been cleansed from all unrighteousness, how much more cleansing do you need?

So, what is the appropriate response when we sin? We confess our sin to God (which means to acknowledge and to agree with Him concerning our sin), and then we thank Him that we have already been forgiven. We do not confess in order to be forgiven; we confess and thank Him that we are forgiven. That is the difference! Then we ask God for His guidance and strength to walk in the newness of life through the power of His Spirit.

If reconsidering these points has helped you diagnose why it might be that you have been feeling so spiritually dizzy, then this portal is an invitation for you to exit the misery of a life lived on the merry-go-round of asking God to forgive you over and over again.

His forgiveness is your fortress!

(Refer also to The Proxy Portal.)

3

THE PARADIGM SHIFT PORTAL

But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law (Gal. 5:18).

Religion is like the rails of a raceway. But race car drivers don’t watch the rails when they race. God has ushered in a new paradigm for us to drive along (without rails), and we have a divine driver to teach us how to negotiate every curve!

Have you ever had difficulty reconciling some of the seemingly contradictory statements made by Jesus with some of the statements made by other biblical figures, like the apostle Paul or King David? If that is the case, I think this portal will clear up some of your confusion by classifying their teachings into their correct contexts.

The Bible encourages us to rightly divide the word of truth (2 Tim. 2:15), and yet much of the teaching coming from pulpits today is wrongly dividing where the Old Covenant ends and the New Covenant