Lessons form the Book of Romans

Ministering to Homosexuals

Before we get into this teaching, I would just like to talk about the approach that Christians should have when ministering to gay individuals. We should not speak to them condemnation because we are not under the law but under grace. Jesus did not come to condemn homosexuals but to save them.

John 3:17 NIV
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

We are all sinners, not because we chose to, but because we have a sinful nature. That sinful nature manifests differently in different people. In some, they lie, others steal, others lust, others have fits of anger, others harbour hatred, un-forgiveness, envy, pride etc.

The law condemns all such people. However, I advise against quoting the law when dealing with sin today. The approach of the law towards sin is different from the approach after the cross. Quoting a scripture that says you need to be put to death, is not appropriate under grace.

1 Corinthians 6:9-11 (NET)
9 Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived! The sexually immoral, idolaters, adulterers, passive homosexual partners, practicing homosexuals,10 thieves, the greedy, drunkards, the verbally abusive, and swindlers will not inherit the kingdom of God.11 Some of you once lived this way. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

The person who is greedy, or verbally abusive will not inherit the kingdom. So they are no better than the homosexual. Take note that Paul says… Some of you lived this way. Some of the people in Corinth used to be gay. 

Paul then says, but you were washed, sanctified and justified in Christ by the Holy Spirit. It is the Spirit of God that can sanctify a gay person.

This teaching addresses how.

Introduction

In this teaching we will look at how to deal with homosexuality, based on the teachings given by apostle Paul in the book of Romans. However, before we get to that I need to speak about understanding the word.
The word of God can only bear fruit in us, when we understand it. It is not enough to hear the word, but we have to understand it, for us to believe it.

Matthew 13:19 (NIV) 19 When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in their heart. This is the seed sown along the path.

Some of the solutions that shall be given, will seem obvious, but they don’t manifest results in people because both the teachers or those being taught, do not understand the principles of the kingdom that they are hearing.

How The Spirit Works

In order to help people who struggle with homosexuality, it’s important to understand how the spirit works. And what the person is going through.
Sometimes the spirit of homosexuality comes upon a person when they are still a child. Before they even know about sexuality, men and women. That’s when it comes on the person. Some people have received impartation of the spirit through sexual abuse by a same sex person, and yet others through experimenting with same sex as children.

However, we will in this teaching focus on people who grow up with this sensation from when they are children. So that person, as far as they know, they have always been attracted to a person of the same sex, just as you and I at some point just started to be attracted to people of the opposite sex.

You didnt ask for it, and as a child you prabably didnt want it. But at some point you just found you were attracted to people of the opposite sex. 
That’s exactly how it happens with gay people. Because the spirit catches them whilst they are still children.
So.
when some of these people have been raised in churches. The first thing is that they begin to condemn themselves. This is before anyone else knows about this. They start to pray and rebuke these feelings, but the feelings don’t go away. 

If anything they become more intense. Some may confide in a pastor. And the pastor may say, let’s pray for you to change, but after prayer, the feelings just remain.

Imagine some one praying for you so that you can start being attracted to people of the same sex. Imagine as a heterosexual woman, praying for yourself to stop being attracted to men. It’s a very difficult prayer, and that’s how it feels for the homosexual.

Some of these people, go on for years praying and begging God, but they just don’t have feelings for people of different sex.

The apostle Paul describes this experience in Romans 7

Romans 7:15-23 (NIV) 
15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 

19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.21 So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me.

As a result, some guys, will seek to sleep with women, in hope that it may make them stop having feelings for other men. Feeling that fornication with a woman is a lesser sin. But it doesn’t work. In fact the more they sleep with women, the more they dislike them.

Remember this person has been fighting and resisting these thoughts, every day of his life for many years. At some point they just have no more strength in them, and they fall.

When they do, it becomes even stronger. After this, some leave the church and leave God altogether. Others can’t part with God, but they become convinced that this is how God made them, and they continue to serve God as gay people. They simply say, I will see it at judgement day. Christ will tell me why he made me this way.

Some would have gone through tons and tons of deliverance sessions with many pastors with no lasting results.

Why The Spirit Has Power

The bible tells us why the spirit of homosexuality comes into a society. It comes as a judgement against societies who have received the truth about God, and then rejected the truth in order to serve false gods.

Romans 1:21-27 (ESV) 
21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 

27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.

Note that, it is God who gave these people up to these passions. And the bible said they are consumed by it. This is why the spirit is so powerful. Because it is basing on legal grounds of God’s word.
It is important for me to stress this. It does not mean the person who becomes homosexual is the one who knew God and rejected him. But this is on a national and societal level.

For example, America and Britain received the truth of the gospel 400 years ago. Even the leaders and kings of the time took up the gospel of Christ and used it as the standard by which to  build their constitutions and run their countries.

God says of the church, you are the light of the world. A light is placed on a hill so that it can light up the whole room.

Every nation that has taken up the gospel has become great. God sets it as a light, to spread the truth of Christ to other nations.

As a result, these nations were blessed by God and became super world powers. God raised them up above the other nations, so that the light of Christ could reach the whole earth.

However, after they had become world powers. After God had used them to judge the other gods of the world. The leaders then rejected God and decided to serve another god. A god of science. Atheism, the god of self.
God did the same with the kingdom of Assyria.

Isaiah 10:13-16 (NIV)  
13 For he says: “‘By the strength of my hand I have done this, and by my wisdom, because I have understanding. I removed the boundaries of nations, I plundered their treasures; like a mighty one I subdued their kings.14 As one reaches into a nest, so my hand reached for the wealth of the nations; as people gather abandoned eggs, so I gathered all the countries; not one flapped a wing, or opened its mouth to chirp. ’”

15 Does the ax raise itself above the person who swings it, or the saw boast against the one who uses it?As if a rod were to wield the person who lifts it up, or a club brandish the one who is not wood!16 Therefore, the Lord, the Lord Almighty,will send a wasting disease upon his sturdy warriors; under his pomp a fire will be kindledlike a blazing flame

So.
Just as Romans 1 states. These places received great revelation of Christ, and then rejected that revelation to serve creation. As a result God himself gave these nations over to the spirit of homosexuality.

The Solution

The people who find themselves in bondage to this spirit, are victims of judgements that are upon their nations. Judgements that have given this spirit rights over the peoples.

In Africa the issue is witchcraft. The spirit of witch craft will follow bloodlines of people whose fathers accepted the gospel, and then later intentionally went to seek out witchcraft and partner with the works of darkness.

These spirits start to follow down their family and blood lines. Seeking loopholes to enter their children whilst they’re still innocent.
All these spirits work via the sin nature that already exists in all human beings.
There is one main solution to all these, and that is Jesus Christ.

Do Not Judge

After Paul has spoken in Romans chapter 1 about these gentiles who were given over to unclean desires, he then explains in Chapter 2, that we should not judge those who do such things, when we are also sinners.

Romans 2:1-4 (NIV) 
 1 You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things. 2 Now we know that God’s judgment against those who do such things is based on truth.

3 So when you, a mere human being, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment? 

The apostle Paul then shows that all men are unrighteous, and even the Jews who were serving under the law have no advantage over these gentiles who have unclean passions.

Romans 3:9(NIV)
9 What shall we conclude then? Do we have any advantage? Not at all! For we have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under the power of sin.

Paul outlines the solutions in his letter.

1.Justification by in Jesus Christ

This is very important for both Pastors and the person who needs help to realise.
If you don’t preach or understand justification by faith, you will not be able to have victory over sin. This is the basis and foundation of all battle against sin and generational curses.
We were all condemned as sinners because of Adam’s fall. And we are all made right before God because of Jesus’s righteousness. Not because of our own works.

Romans 5:18-19 (NIV) 
18 Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people. 19 For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.

We don’t make ourselves righteous. It is Jesus who makes us righteous based on his own work, not ours. It is not up to you, it is unto God. Your only responsibility is to believe that Jesus, will do it.
Condemnation is a hindrance to faith. And it is important for us to know that God will receive people into his presence based on their faith in Christ, and not their own works.

Romans 5:1-2 (NIV) 
1 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God.

Once we acknowledge that our own works can not save us, but that God counts us as righteous based on the work of Christ, these spirits no longer have a legal basis to follow us. Because we are no longer standing by our own works, but by the work of Christ.

Romans 4:4-5 (NIV)
4 Now to the one who works, wages are not credited as a gift but as an obligation. 5 However, to the one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness.

But as long as we as Christians, still believe that our works, are what brings justification for us, we are placing ourselves under judgement, because before God, all our works are unrighteous. 

Romans 3:10-12 (NIV) 
10 As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one; 11 there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. 12 All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.”

So we are inadvertently giving these spirits power to work in our life. Rather, the righteousness that is freely given to us by Christ, will bring forth the fruit of the spirit, which leads to us fulfilling the works of God.
This leads to the next question. Shall we go on sinning then?

2.) Baptism into Christ

Romans 6:1-4 (NIV) 
1 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2 By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

When you are born again, it is not you body but your spirit that is born again. Water baptism is a dedication of your body to Christ, and when done right, a lot of evil spirits that follow bloodlines will leave, during water baptism.
It is also a good thing to ask someone who is struggling with sin in the flesh, if they were baptised by immersion in water.

3.) Receive the Spirit of God

When we have believed in Christ, he gives us his spirit to live in us, as a sign that we now belong to him.

Romans 8:9 (NIV) 9 You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ.

So, its important to find if the person has received the Holy Spirit. Because without the Holy Spirit, they will always be operating in the realm of the flesh.
At the time when you receive the Holy Spirit, your body will still be experiencing the desires of the flesh, though your spirit will be experiencing the righteousness of God.

The desires of the flesh don’t just disappear automatically.

Romans 8:10 (NIV) 10 But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness.

When a person receives the spirit of Christ, the feelings of homosexuality don’t always immediately disappear, just as the feelings of lust, jealousy and such things don’t automatically disappear when you receive the spirit of God.

4.) Set your mind on the things of the spirit

Even though your body is dead because of sin. The spirit of God in you has power to also overcome those desires of the flesh.

Romans 8:11 (NIV) 11 And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.

So, you now need to set your mind and focus on what the spirit desires.

Romans 8:5-8 (NIV) 
5 Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. 6 The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. 7 The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. 8 Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.

This can not be done by someone who does not have the spirit of God. And they can not have the spirit if they don’t have faith in Jesus.
So when a person believes in Christ, and receives his spirit. This process becomes much possible.

There is one distinction to be clarified here. You are not setting your mind on the spirit, so that you can belong to Christ. You belong to Christ because you believe in him, you believe that it his he that will transform you. And he has placed his spirit in you as a sign of that.
So you set your mind on his spirit, as the spirit does his work in you.

5.) Submit your body to Christ.

Romans 6:13 (NIV) 13 Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness.

When we come to Christ, we must all be willing to surrender our bodies to Christ, so that he can use them for righteousness.
This applies to everyone. Christ does not want us to use his temple for fornication, adultery or homosexuality. This is a principle for all christians.
Inspire of what we desires in the flesh, we must be willing to surrender our sexuality to Christ. And when we do. He will use our bodies for righteousness.

Conclusion

The apostles Paul gives a good picture of justification by faith. It means, that you should believe that God himself will transform you, as he has promised, and not waver, no matter how ;long it takes.
Romans 4:19-22 (NIV) 9 Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead —since he was about a hundred years old —and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. 20 Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, 21 being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. 22 This is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.”