Isaiah 43:¹ “But now, thus says the Lord, who created you, O Jacob, And He who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; You are Mine.”

Do you feel like if people really knew you, they would not want to be your friend? Listen, Jesus knows you. Nobody knows you like Jesus does, and Jesus wants to be your friend. Again, it is not a question of can God forgive me? The real question is, can you repent my brother, can you repent my sister? The word repentance is very interesting. It starts with confession, and it leads to a change of direction. Someone analyzed it this way: repent – the prefix re is to go back, to do again. So, in words like renew and reborn, the prefix means to do again, to manifest again, or to re-enact again. And pent means pinnacle, the top. For example, the penthouse.

So, to repent means that you are coming to your place of elevation in God. To repent means you are coming back to your place of sonship in God. You are coming back to your place of acceptance in God. You are coming back to your place of dominion in God. This is so beautiful. Meaning, when you repent, you come back to that state of fellowship with the Most High God. And He is the Most High, He is at the pinnacle. Therefore, you are accepted in the beloved. So, don’t bite the bait that your past is unredeemable. It is a lie from the pit of hell.

The ninth bait you should not bite is the Is God Really Good Bait. And this is so huge. The enemy has robbed billions of people, thousands, and thousands of generations of their inheritance by sowing this question in people’s minds. Is God really good? Are you sure God is good? Are you sure God has got your back? Are you sure? In fact, most people never recover from this question. Why? The truth is that if most people will never say it out loud, but if they were to be honest, some people will admit that the predominant thought on their mind is that God has not really been good to them. Just like a lady who said to God, “God, this thing I have been asking, this thing I have been praying for, for months, and You are not answering me.”

Do you know the next thing she said to God? “God, if I were You and You were me, and the roles were reversed, You know I would have given it to You.” What she was saying, in other words, is that she was more merciful than the Most Merciful. And that she is more compassionate than the Most Compassionate One, that she is better than the Best. God is Good, but she was implying that she can do better. Sometimes, if we are honest, we compare ourselves to other people. And we say, “But God, You are the one who did this for that person.” Then we say, “God, when?”

Prayer: Father, I am sorry for every time I have questioned Your goodness. Please forgive me and restore me to Yourself, in the Name of Jesus. Amen!

Romans 3:²⁵ “For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when he held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past”

The eighth bait that we should not bite is the My Past Is Unredeemable Bait. We often look at our situations and erroneously conclude that God cannot do anything about this. People have tried to convince me in the past that, “Pastor, you don’t know what I have done. If you know what I have done, you will not say Jesus will forgive me.” Listen, whatever you have done is not a shock to God. The question is not can God forgive you; the question is can you repent? I remember some time ago; it was a God Will Do It Again service. And there was a Word of Knowledge that someone in the service had partaken in eating the foetus of a baby. They pounded the foetus, and they shared it among themselves.

I remember the Word of Knowledge clearly, even now, which is not typically the case. Anyway, the person came forward in the midst of a crowd, weeping and repenting before God. I identified the person even among the crowd. And God chose to have mercy. After the service, I got calls from different people, and their concern was, “Pastor, shouldn’t such a person go to jail? Why are we praying that God will forgive such a person?” And I said to them, “Listen, if this person was caught or investigations were done, and the law decides that the person should go to jail, then that is the law of the land. However, if the person comes to God, the Maker of the Heavens and the Earth and repents, God will forgive him or her.”

So, never ever say that your past is unredeemable. Anything that suggests that your past is unredeemable is a lie from the pits of hell. The Blood of Jesus will prevail and avail for you in the Mighty Name of Jesus. Another way that this lie creeps in on a lot of believers is that when something challenging confronts us, we sometimes think it is because of the “bad things” we did in the past. If the bad things have been cleansed, forgiven, and you have been redeemed, your past is redeemable, and your future is bright. And every challenge you face going forward, by the power of the Holy Spirit, you will prevail in the Name of Jesus. You will prevail!

Your past is not unredeemable. In fact, if you come to Christ, your past has been redeemed. Guess what? The enemy will do anything to keep us from the present grace that Jesus has for us. This lie typically keeps people in shame and in chains. And most times, people attempt to bury their past. Don’t bury your past; give it to Jesus. Let Jesus wash it away into the sea of forgetfulness. Let Jesus separate you from it as far as the East is from the West.

Prayer: Father, by the Blood of Jesus, separate me completely from my past, in Jesus Name. Amen!