Jesse Duplantis
Sep 30, 2024
Sin deflates your faith and will cause you to sink.
I used to be the chief of sinners. I mean, chief, not some pony soldier. I made sin an art form. People often ask me why I don’t have a problem with sin anymore. It’s because I don’t want to.
“You make it sound easy, Brother Jesse,” someone said.
It is easy to make a choice and trust God for the grace to follow through. His grace has given me the victory over all kinds of sin. But several years ago, the Lord told me that I lacked one thing: My temper.
Before I got saved, my temper just ran its course. I didn’t care who you were or how big you were. I figured a stick, baseball bat, or a gun would make you my size.
I can hear what you’re thinking: “Brother Jesse, you wouldn’t do that.”
You only think that because you didn’t see how I was raised. I was a street boy. Sometimes, even after all these years of knowing God’s grace, I can act like a street kid again.
Many years ago, I walked out of my office and noticed my maintenance man and a couple of my other employees gathered around one of our ministry vans.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
“Oh, we have a dent in the van,” one of the men said.
“A dent?”
“Yeah, the boys hit something in Chicago.”
I walked around them and looked. Both doors were caved in. Tabasco sauce started percolating up my legs. I could feel the hair rising up on the back of my neck. The devil ran up and said, “They wrecked your van.”
“I see that,” I agreed.
“And they called it a dent,” he added.
“Those guys are idiots,” I said. “Do you think that’s a dent?”
“No, I think it was a full-blown crash, Jesse.”
“I agree with you, devil.” I said. “Those boys crashed my van and I’m hot.”
Cathy walked up about then and noticed my temper had reached the boiling point.
“Jesse…!” she warned, but it was too late. I cut loose on that guy.
You might say that my faith did not keep pace with God’s grace.
Cathy couldn’t stop me, but God smote my heart.
“Repent, Jesse.”
“Lord, they wrecked my van! They drove it up a wall!”
I turned back to the men. “How did you drive it up a wall?”
“We don’t know.”
“You drove my van up a wall and you don’t know how?”
“Well” they said, “we had to jack it off the wall.”
Jack the van off a wall? An accident is an accident, but that was no dent!
I was going off like a fourth of July fireworks display. “Move!” I yelled at one of the men. “Find out what’s going on! I think I’ve been lied to and I don’t like it!”
“How would you like for Me to talk to you that way?” the Lord asked.
Cathy said, “Would you like something to drink while you destroy eighteen years of ministry with that stinking temper of yours?”
“I’m gonna tell you something woman…” I began.
“Call all your staff together and repent,” the Lord said. I did it. I called them all together and repented to them. Cathy patted my back and said, “It’s okay, Honey.” My employees said, “Oh, that’s okay, Brother Jesse.”
But it’s not okay.
I don’t want to sink. I want to walk on water and achieve the impossible.
Sin will make you sink like a junkyard dog.
Whatever your besetting sin is that raises its head and mocks the grace of God, repent! It’s too heavy to carry around if you’re going to walk on water.
Then, get out of the boat.
Keep your eyes on Jesus.
You can walk on water today!
Proverbs 3:5-6
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.
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