Louise plunges into the Book of Romans in this study, focusing on the power of God in our lives. See Romans 1:16 below:
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. 17 For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last,[e] just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”[f]
Jesus Teaching
The world has a believing problem. The issue is grace. Who do you believe in?
The hardest people to witness to are “religious” people, doing everything except for living the life of salvation and grace.
Inmates in the jail–where Louise ministered for eight or nine years–are, on the other hand, the easiest people to reach. They are looking for–and accept– the salvation message and its meaning for them.
They are not “religious” but, instead, in dire need.
The biggest battle today is good versus good. Divine good is the work of God; human good is self-righteous. In divine glory, the glory goes to God, not to one’s self.
Most all religions around the world are based on human works, unlike what Jesus gives us.
When all depends upon works, it is never enough.
“Religion” adds laws to obey in addition of works to do. And it is never enough. Grace, on the other hand, gives.
God is love. You don’t earn his love. You receive his love.
In Genesis there is the story of Joseph which Louise draws upon for meaning and teaching for all of us.
What was Joseph’s attitude through all his travails and disappointment? He always trusted God.
So, Louise draws from Joseph’s story to have some tenacity. Stick-to-it-tiveness. Wait for the promises of God. Recall that Joseph never blamed God. He had, for all of us to learn, the right attitude.
Below is the first part of Joseph’s story.
Joseph’s Dreams
37 Jacob lived in the land where his father had stayed, the land of Canaan.
2 This is the account of Jacob’s family line.
Joseph, a young man of seventeen, was tending the flocks with his brothers, the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives, and he brought their father a bad report about them.
3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he had been born to him in his old age; and he made an ornate[a] robe for him. 4 When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him.
5 Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more. 6 He said to them, “Listen to this dream I had: 7 We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it.”
8 His brothers said to him, “Do you intend to reign over us? Will you actually rule us?” And they hated him all the more because of his dream and what he had said.
9 Then he had another dream, and he told it to his brothers. “Listen,” he said, “I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.”
10 When he told his father as well as his brothers, his father rebuked him and said, “What is this dream you had? Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow down to the ground before you?” 11 His brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the matter in mind.
Joseph Sold by His Brothers
12 Now his brothers had gone to graze their father’s flocks near Shechem, 13 and Israel said to Joseph, “As you know, your brothers are grazing the flocks near Shechem. Come, I am going to send you to them.”
“Very well,” he replied.
14 So he said to him, “Go and see if all is well with your brothers and with the flocks, and bring word back to me.” Then he sent him off from the Valley of Hebron.
When Joseph arrived at Shechem, 15 a man found him wandering around in the fields and asked him, “What are you looking for?”
16 He replied, “I’m looking for my brothers. Can you tell me where they are grazing their flocks?”
17 “They have moved on from here,” the man answered. “I heard them say, ‘Let’s go to Dothan.’”
So Joseph went after his brothers and found them near Dothan. 18 But they saw him in the distance, and before he reached them, they plotted to kill him.
19 “Here comes that dreamer!” they said to each other. 20 “Come now, let’s kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns and say that a ferocious animal devoured him. Then we’ll see what comes of his dreams.”
Joseph Being Lowered into a Cistern by his Brothers
21 When Reuben heard this, he tried to rescue him from their hands. “Let’s not take his life,” he said. 22 “Don’t shed any blood. Throw him into this cistern here in the wilderness, but don’t lay a hand on him.” Reuben said this to rescue him from them and take him back to his father.
23 So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe—the ornate robe he was wearing— 24 and they took him and threw him into the cistern. The cistern was empty; there was no water in it.
25 As they sat down to eat their meal, they looked up and saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead. Their camels were loaded with spices, balm and myrrh, and they were on their way to take them down to Egypt.
26 Judah said to his brothers, “What will we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood? 27 Come, let’s sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay our hands on him; after all, he is our brother, our own flesh and blood.” His brothers agreed.
28 So when the Midianite merchants came by, his brothers pulled Joseph up out of the cistern and sold him for twenty shekels[b] of silver to the Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt.
29 When Reuben returned to the cistern and saw that Joseph was not there, he tore his clothes. 30 He went back to his brothers and said, “The boy isn’t there! Where can I turn now?”
31 Then they got Joseph’s robe, slaughtered a goat and dipped the robe in the blood. 32 They took the ornate robe back to their father and said, “We found this. Examine it to see whether it is your son’s robe.”
33 He recognized it and said, “It is my son’s robe! Some ferocious animal has devoured him. Joseph has surely been torn to pieces.”
34 Then Jacob tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and mourned for his son many days. 35 All his sons and daughters came to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. “No,” he said, “I will continue to mourn until I join my son in the grave.” So his father wept for him.
36 Meanwhile, the Midianites[c] sold Joseph in Egypt to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh’s officials, the captain of the guard.
Louise traces the story of Nicodemus and addresses the question, with answers, of what it is to be born again.
Nicodemus and Jesus
Louise explains what some of these fundamental terms mean, like the “born again” experience, etc.
It’s not inherently complicated, but intellectuals sometimes have the hardest time in accepting God’s word. Prisoners in jail, where Louise has ministered a number of years, are usually the easiest to understand Jesus’s message.
You must receive Jesus’s promise by faith, not necessarily your intellect, or by applying traditional ways and rules of “religion,” such as the Pharisee displayed.
After the act of Salvation, you need to ask: Now, how do I grow up in the Lord?
Louise tells the story of getting into the Junior League and then was called into Kenneth Hagin’s Rhema Bible school in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Bit difference!
Sometimes you need to leave the rational and natural order of the universe to listen and be able to obey the spiritual callings of Jesus.
Louise tells about her experience with horse shows, then tennis leagues, all pulling her back int the natural world.
Nicodemus faced some many of the same decisive moments in his life, just as so many of you have in your lives. And, below is where he appears in the New Testament:
John 3:1-21New International Version
Jesus Teaches Nicodemus
3 Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. 2 He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.”
3 Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.[a]”
4 “How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”
5 Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit[b] gives birth to spirit. 7 You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You[c] must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”[d]
9 “How can this be?” Nicodemus asked.
10 “You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? 11 Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. 12 I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? 13 No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man.[e]14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up,[f]15 that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”[g]
16 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. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. 19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.
Louise addresses the hand that God has in your life, starting with an auto-biography, or her own life, very honest!
How her flaws and weaknesses and her surrounding family, father, mother, brother affected her growing up.
She grew up in a small town in Florida, Arcadia, and had many negative feelings about how she felt and who she was.
Cattle Ranching in DeSoto County, Florida
She draws lessons for all of us, based on her own experiences that went all the way from growing up in a cattle ranching family in Florida to attending Kenneth Hagin’s Bible Study seminary in Tulsa, Oklahoma, going eventually from a traditional Southern Baptist life to becoming a born again, evangelical Christian inspired and led by the Holy Spirit.
Louise has been reading Pastor Bob Yandian’s study/book of the Book of John, devoted to the deity of Christ.
Using Pastor Bob’s study, Louise starts with Jesus in the Temple cleansing it.
Then she moves to the story of Nicodemus told largely in chapter 3 of John. See below. He was a Pharisee trying to understand Jesus, especially how he performed miracles.
Jesus Teaches Nicodemus
3 Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. 2 He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.”
3 Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.[a]”
4 “How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”
5 Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit[b] gives birth to spirit. 7 You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You[c] must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”[d]
9 “How can this be?” Nicodemus asked.
10 “You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? 11 Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. 12 I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? 13 No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man.[e]14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up,[f]15 that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”[g]
16 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. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. 19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.
John Testifies Again About Jesus
22 After this, Jesus and his disciples went out into the Judean countryside, where he spent some time with them, and baptized. 23 Now John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because there was plenty of water, and people were coming and being baptized. 24 (This was before John was put in prison.) 25 An argument developed between some of John’s disciples and a certain Jew over the matter of ceremonial washing. 26 They came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, that man who was with you on the other side of the Jordan—the one you testified about—look, he is baptizing, and everyone is going to him.”
27 To this John replied, “A person can receive only what is given them from heaven. 28 You yourselves can testify that I said, ‘I am not the Messiah but am sent ahead of him.’ 29 The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete. 30 He must become greater; I must become less.”[h]
31 The one who comes from above is above all; the one who is from the earth belongs to the earth, and speaks as one from the earth. The one who comes from heaven is above all. 32 He testifies to what he has seen and heard, but no one accepts his testimony. 33 Whoever has accepted it has certified that God is truthful. 34 For the one whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God[i] gives the Spirit without limit. 35 The Father loves the Son and has placed everything in his hands. 36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them.
Conversation Between Nicodemus and Jesus
Jesus could see that Nicodemus, like most of the Pharisees, was very religious, following all the rituals and traditions, but he was not moved by the Holy Spirit in areas like healing, miracles and others that Jesus taught and acted upon.
Jesus not Nicodemos you must be “born again” and accept the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, in his life. Jesus told Nicodemus that unless you are born again and so born of the Word of God–the born again experience–you cannot receive the new birth and receive the Holy Spirit.
Louise explains that Nicodemus finally did receive Jesus and his message.
Today Sister Louise addresses “Growing Up Spiritually.”
“Judging ourselves” is an act we need to embrace and act upon.
Where do we come from? How does this change when we are saved and embraced by God?
We have to look to our past, our present, and our future.
Louise address a lot of “baggage” that came in her past, especially a dysfunctional family life. Lots of stories here we can all relate to.
You need to recognize you have a problem or problems, and admit. Then God will help you through it. You can depend upon His love and certainty in all problems and challenges you facve.
Louise speaks to the subjects of work and commitment, more specifically how to be faithful to your work.
How to study for many oaccupations, like the ministry, a profession, etc.
First thing you need to do is to establish a relationship with God. Knowledge, understanding and wisdom are the keys to growing up spiritually.
Lots of problems exist in today’s world. Do you know that is God’s will? What does he expect of you in all work and study. Constancy, consistency, thinking of the long term, rathern than the immediate.
Feed your mind, not your flesh. Feed your Spirit man.
Louise likes the Book of Romans because it is about being in a right relationship with God, or righteousness.
God is challenging you with new things all the time. You will be learning and growing for all eternity.
So, you’ve been saved. Now begins a new relationship with God.
Where are we going with this? We have a personal responsibility to learn and grow, more and more. Read some good works, like by authors like E. W. Kenyon, Kenneth Hagin, Bob Yandian. Look them up or go to their links below.
Bible Study With Louise Clayton 