The Life You Leave Behind

August Teaching Letter from Denise Renner

Dear Friends,

Merry Christmas and greetings in Jesus’ precious name! Christ came into this world “in the fullness of time” to redeem mankind from sin and to reconcile us to the Heavenly Father (Galatians 4:4,5). And what a great salvation it was and is that God wrought for us in Christ (see Hebrews 2:3-18)! Denise and I and our family wish you a warm and wonderful Christmas season and the best new year of your life in 2022.

Today I want to talk to you about opportunities and adversaries, but first I want to say thank you for being such a faithful partner with our ministry. As I told you in my letter last month, our ministry is bursting at the seams, and I am so humbled that God would use Denise and me, our family, and our team to minister to the many people who are reaching out to us every day.

Every soul is precious, and it is our heartfelt desire to convey that truth to every person God brings to us — that they are precious to Him and to us. And your gifts are so vital to our ability to touch every one of these treasured souls! So today I want to say a special thank you for all you do with us to take the trusted teaching of the Word of God to people in Russia and all over the world. From the depths of our hearts, Denise and I THANK YOU!

This month is the last month of the year — and I know you are probably preparing for Christmas and many different kinds of gatherings. But in addition to Christmas, it’s also almost 2022. As we come to the end of this year and to the beginning of a brand-new year, the Holy Spirit keeps telling me to “stay on track” with the assignments He has given us. I hear Him saying that even if we hit bumps along the way, everything will be all right if we’ll just stay on track and maintain our God-assigned territory — the many opportunities and assignments He has given us to inspire, strengthen, and equip believers with the sound teaching of the Bible.

But I’ve learned over the years that opportunities and adversaries usually go together — and today I want to encourage you to undergird yourself so that you can stay on track with what God has asked you to do this month and in the coming year.

Over the course of our ministry, we’ve had many great, effectual doors open to us to do the work of the Gospel. I’ll never forget when I received an opportunity to minister on television in the former Soviet Union. It was as if a great door had suddenly swung open to an entire vast territory — a door that had never before been opened for anyone else — and I knew I was experiencing something miraculous. By faith, Denise and I stepped through that door and began to preach the Word of God on television in this spiritually starved corner of the world.

Given the former socialist-communist campaigns against the Gospel in this particular region, this opportunity was as miraculous as the Jordan River dividing for Joshua and the children of Israel. But with this great open door also came a slew of adversaries, specifically dispatched by Satan to instill fear and doubt into my heart. The devil desperately wanted to prevent me from touching the lives of spiritually oppressed people, so he positioned evil people with insidious plans to try to block my view of what God had in store for our ministry.

I’m telling you that it was like the children of Israel looking at the Promised Land from the far side of the Jordan River. From that perspective, they saw only the fruitful land of blessing that lay before them. But once they entered the Promised Land, they had to fight giants of every kind before they could possess that land and enjoy the blessing. In much the same way, if Denise and I had taken our eyes off the Lord during that tumultuous period — or if we had focused only on the problems and forgotten about the fruit we were pursuing for God’s Kingdom — I’m sure we would have backpedaled to get out of the situation!

But we knew this was a God-given opportunity and worth the fight, so we fixed our gaze squarely on the Lord. Girded with the armor of God and the power of the Spirit, we pushed through every obstacle and possessed the ground that God called us to take. As a result, millions of souls began to hear the Gospel for the first time. We knew that only God could have opened this door!

In First Corinthians 16:9, the apostle Paul wrote about the strategic doors of opportunity that open for the Gospel and the adversaries that usually accompany them. He said, “For a great door and effectual is opened unto me, and there are many adversaries.” Notice that Paul used the words “great,” “door,” “effectual,” and “is opened” to describe the opportunity that had been set before him.

The word “great” in this verse is translated from the Greek word megale, which means gigantic. The word “door” is the Greek word thura, which typically refers to a door, but in this context, denotes a rare opportunity. The word “effectual” is the Greek word energes, and it depicts something that is powerful and ready to be set into motion. Finally, the phrase “is opened” is the Greek word anoigo, which describes something standing wide open. In other words, the door in question couldn’t be any more open! Thus, an alternate translation of Paul’s words in First Corinthians 16:9 could be rendered, “A gigantic, powerful opportunity is already set in motion and standing wide open….”

Paul continued by saying, “For a great door and effectual is opened unto me….” You see, Paul knew that the particular door he was referring to had never been opened to anyone else, and he stood in awe of the unprecedented opportunity. Walking through these kinds of doors is impossible without divine assistance, and Paul was fully aware of God’s role in the matter. That is why he specified that this door had been opened “unto me.”

Paul’s prayer request in First Corinthians 16:9 was not for a door to open because it had already opened. His prayer request was to receive God’s wisdom to deal with the numerous adversaries who were trying to come against him. Paul used the Greek word antikeimenoi to describe the vast number of “adversaries” that were sent to attack him. This Greek word describes something that was piled high and lying all around him. In other words, he was dealing with more than a few minor opponents. On the contrary, it felt like opposition was stacked high on every side!

I’ve learned that the enemy will try his best to keep you from stepping through the gigantic doors of opportunity God desires to open for you. Satan is afraid of what will happen when “his” territory is invaded by someone fully equipped with a full arsenal of spiritual weapons. So know this: God will open doors for you — but He needs you to make a determined decision that you will walk through them, no matter the opposition, with the help of His Spirit.

By opening the door, God has already done His part, which would have been impossible without His assistance. Now He beckons you to come, dressed in the whole armor of God and in the power of His Word — and proceed through that effectual door into new territory. It may look like enemies are everywhere, but it is simply a fact that the devil and his forces flee and collapse when they are subjected to a show of strong faith!

As I mentioned earlier, many great and effectual doors have been opened to us over the years to do the work of the Gospel. In each case, we knew these doors were unique to us and had never before been opened for anyone else. And just as Paul experienced opposition, there were plenty of enemies that came against us with each opportunity. But because we obeyed God, the devil was forced to move out of the way, and we walked right into the virgin territory that God had opened for our ministry.

Even if you think your situation looks threatening right now, I want to tell you that God is with you. He wants to supernaturally open new doors for you — doors that have never before been opened for you. He is not beckoning you to walk through these doors so you can fail. He is with you every step of the way, and He will empower you to defeat every foe and bring Him glory in that new territory that is yours to possess in Jesus’ name!

Your open door may be an opportunity to shine the light of God’s Word and God’s love to your family or friends during this holiday season. It may be a door that will open to you in the new year. Regardless of when it is or what it is, the same God who opens doors will empower you to walk through them — and then He’ll be right with you to give you the wisdom and strength needed to overcome any giant that tries to meet you on the other side.

I know this is not a typical December, “Christmas-style” letter, but this is what was on my heart to share with you today. I want you to always know that if we can join you in prayer, we would be delighted to do so. To be honest, we are praying for you anyway, but when we are alerted to know exactly “how” to pray, it increases our effectiveness as we pray for you. So if you have a special need, please either call or write to let us know how we can get in agreement with you for God to show Himself mighty to you according to Jeremiah 33:3, which says, “Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.”

And please pray for us as we continue marching forward by faith to push back darkness, to shine the light of God’s Word, and to take territory for the Kingdom of God. Together — as partners — we can make a difference in the lives of throngs of people who are crying out to God for help. They are waiting for God to respond to their prayers, and God wants to use us — you and us together — to bring them the answers they desperately need.

But before I close, I want to say we are specifically asking God to do something special for you this month and before the end of the year. I don’t know what it is, but that is what we are praying. We are asking God to do something special that will bless your life! And please, please pray for us as we continue pushing ahead to build our studio in Moscow, to finalize the purchase of our new headquarters in Tulsa, and to continue to minister effectually to every precious soul Jesus brings to us!

Merry Christmas!

We love you and thank God for you!

We are your brother and sister, friends, and partners in Jesus Christ,

Rick and Denise Renner
along with Paul, Philip, and Joel and their families|Dear Friend,

I want to ask you a very important question today: Is there anything more important, more precious, and more powerful than an encounter with Jesus? Is there anything that could happen in your life that is more important or more powerful than a one-on-one encounter with Him? I can answer that question for you right now: No, there is nothing.

Now, a lot of people try to replace this experience. You may know people like that; they’re searching for an experience, but maybe they try to get it with drugs, sex, or alcohol. Maybe they try to get it with all the riches or all the education they can attain. These people know that they are missing an experience of some kind, but all the things they try are shadows compared to the real thing, an encounter with Jesus, because that encounter will completely change your life.

*[If you started reading this from your email, begin reading here.]

Before I tell you about the life-changing, one-on-one encounter that you can have with Jesus, I want to remind you that this is not some strange or frightening thing. The Word of God tells us:

“But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him.”

—1 Corinthians 6:17

It is so important for us to understand this, because God is saying that we are one spirit with Him. This means that you’re not over here in the corner while God’s off across the room or up in Heaven, and you have to wait for Him to come back to you for your encounter. Instead, God is on the inside of you in the person of the Holy Spirit!

We’re not trying to get to God because He already lives inside of us! He didn’t save us so that we would obey all the rules and keep all the regulations, but He invited us into a divine relationship, a divine communion with Him. When the Holy Spirit came inside of us, He didn’t say, “I’m going to stand over here, and you’re going to stand over there.”  No, He said, “We’re going to be one spirit. Together.”

He is always with you, and it’s normal for us to have an encounter with Him, but when we come to Him, we can’t walk away with our lives looking the same, and that’s what I want to talk to you about today. 

Someone You Wouldn’t Suspect

Sometimes we can forget who Jesus came for. If you’re in a good place where you’re not doing any huge sins and everything’s going right in your life, it can be easy to start judging people who are struggling with sin, and when you are the one living in sin, your shame can make you think that God doesn’t want to be near you. Neither of those thoughts are right, but we still think them, and that’s why the person that I’m going to talk to you about, who had a one-on-one encounter with Jesus, is someone who was not living a good and godly life: the woman at the well.

In John 4, starting in verse 4, we learn that Jesus and His disciples were traveling, and He was tired, so He sat down at a well near this city, and His disciples went into the city to buy food. While Jesus was leaning on that well, a woman came to get water, and verses 7-9 tell us about this exchange between them:

A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.” For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food

Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.”

This interaction tells us that what Jesus was doing was against culture. It was very inappropriate for a man and a woman to be talking alone, and what was even worse is that she was a Samaritan and He was a Jew. If He wanted to act properly, Jesus had no reason to be talking to this woman, but He wasn’t trying to obey cultural rules. He was on assignment, and it involved something that was going to happen with this woman.

Now, this interaction was not just culturally inappropriate; this woman was living a lifestyle that even her own people would have looked down on. We can see this in verses 16-18:

Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.”

The woman answered and said, “I have no husband.”

Jesus said to her, “You have well said, ‘I have no husband,’ for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that you spoke truly.”

Think for a moment about the picture that we get of this woman. If you knew a woman that had been married five times, what would you think? I know I would probably think that she’s not a very nice woman. We might think this woman has probably hurt a lot of people and has a lot of enemies. Even more than that, she is currently living with another man that she’s not married to. Well, now you might be thinking that she’s very wild and unfaithful. She probably has emotional problems because she can’t stay married to anybody. People probably talked about her so that if you had walked down the streets of Sychar, you would have heard somebody talking about this woman and how terrible and unstable she was.

We might think or say all those things, because we’re human, and our minds and our emotions can get caught up in judgement, but Jesus was focused on something else. Maybe she did have all these problems with her behavior and her personality and her reputation, but He knew that that was not her real problem. Yes, her life was a mess, but the real problem, the problem that Jesus wanted to fix, was that she didn’t know the gift of God yet.

Friend, maybe you’ve seen the blessings of the Lord, and you’ve lived a life faithful to Him, but you need to recognize this problem. What’s the difference between you and this woman? What’s the difference between you and that stranger who’s caught up in a horrible lifestyle? What’s the difference between you and that family member whose actions you are just aghast at and can’t believe that someone could do something like that? What’s the difference?  Is it that you’re better than them? Do you have the right to look your nose down on them and say, “If I had their problems, I would never act like that”?

No! The real difference is that you know the gift of God and they don’t. Have you ever broken a rule that you just didn’t know was there? Have you ever forgotten a rule you did know and made a mistake? Then you have experienced the same problem as this Samaritan woman. On the cross, Jesus said, “Father, forgive them” — why? — ”Because they don’t know.”

This precious woman didn’t know the gift of God, but Jesus was coming into her space. She was having an encounter with Him, and this woman was beginning to know some things.  

A Life Changed

This is her encounter with Jesus:

The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When He comes, He will tell us all things.”

Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.”

And at this point His disciples came, and they marveled that He talked with a woman; yet no one said, “What do You seek?” or, “Why are You talking with her?”

The woman then left her water pot, went her way into the city, and said to the men, “Come, see a Man who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ?”

—John 4:25-29

The thing I want to point out to you today is that that woman came to the well to get water, but when she had the encounter with Jesus, what did she leave at the well? 

Her water pot.

This woman was so amazed by who she was talking to and what He was saying to her. She was so amazed by His very presence that she forgot that she even came there for water, and that is what it means to have an encounter with Jesus! When you have a one-on-one experience with Him, you can’t walk away with what you brought, because you have your hands full with something else. That woman came to the well for water that would perish, but she left with living water!

What did you leave behind when you came to Jesus? What did you take a hold of in that exchange? Friend, it is so good to remember these things; think of that precious woman, look at all that she left behind. Water was the most important thing for her that day, but she left it behind and took a hold of living water. She left behind her messy life and took hold of a testimony about a man who had changed her life and knew everything about her, and it was so powerful she just had to tell the whole city to come and talk to Him.

Remember today what you left behind when you came to Jesus. Maybe you’ve picked up some of those things again. Maybe you’ve picked up offense or worry or ingratitude. The wonderful thing is that Jesus doesn’t just give us one opportunity. He doesn’t say, “You had your chance. You shouldn’t have picked that up again.” He knew we would pick those things back up, and He wants to encounter us and make the exchange all over again. Whatever you’re holding onto or whatever you’ve picked back up, it’s time to leave it behind. Instead, pick up thankfulness; pick up trust in God; pick up forgiveness, because that’s what an encounter with Jesus gives you. 

I know it can be hard to drop what you’re holding onto. Maybe you don’t even know what it is yet, or maybe you know exactly what it is but you’re just too ashamed that you went back to it to tell anybody. Maybe you’ve even fallen into judging others for picking back up what they left behind in Christ. Wherever you are in your journey, our prayer team is here for you! We are ready to pray with you for anything you are facing, so please give us a call at 1.844.473.6637 or email us your prayer requests at prayer@deniserenner.org.

Before I close, I also want to invite you to my weekly program, TIME with Denise Renner, where I get the opportunity to open up the Word of God and share with you what is on my heart. You can watch live every Monday at 7:00 AM CT on Facebook or YouTube, or Wednesdays at 12:00 PM CT on Facebook. My program is also on Victory Channel Mondays at 2 PM CT and on Daystar Wednesdays at 8 AM CT. I am always so grateful to be able to share this time with you, so I hope you will join me!

We are moving forward together,

Denise Renner

|