Studying God's Word

The Unshaken Consolation of a True Christian

2009-12-18T10:25:00.001-05:00

From the writings of Gerhard Tersteegen – (1697-1769)

The following material was extracted from two books published by Harvey Publications and printed by Old Paths Tract Society. Should someone wish to read them in their entirety, here are the links to them: Gerhard Tersteegen's Life and Letters, Gerhard Tersteegen's Sermons and Hymns

How miserable it is to live with a disturbed and ever accusing conscience in this world! Let the individual do what he pleases in order to deliver himself from the pungent accusations of conscience; let him hasten for this purpose from one amusement to another, from one society to another—all will nevertheless be in vain…

As long as we do not give ourselves sincerely, fully and thoroughly to Christ, the devil, the world, and the corrupt flesh seek to draw the soul first one way and then another and to disturb it in a variety of ways. Happy, yea, thrice happy, therefore, is he who has thoroughly and sincerely given himself to Christ and by an undissembled [open and unfeigned] consent has betrothed himself to Him in eternal fidelity…

Further, as a virgin when betrothed has no longer need to care for her support, but leaves her bridegroom to provide for her, so likewise those souls who by true conversion and presentation have become Christ’s own, need no longer care for themselves, either as it respects body or soul… They now stand under the peculiar oversight and protection of their heavenly Father, so that, according to the letter of Scripture, without the will of their Father in heaven not a hair of their head shall fall to the ground.

Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) {people who do not have faith in God} for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. (Matt. 6:31-33)

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. (Rom. 8:28)

They have only a single thing to observe and carefully to attend to, and with this one, everything is accomplished. “Give me, my son, thy heart.” Inasmuch as they sincerely resign this, and eternally yield it up to Christ, they may divest themselves entirely of all other cares… The Holy Spirit intends to say by this, “Thou needest take no more thought concerning what thou shall eat and drink and wherewithal thou shalt be clothed, in what manner, and howsoever it may fair with thee in future respect to body and soul. No, I will provide for everything. I will do all things well. Only let My ways please thee, however I may act or ordain concerning thee… Be ever pleased with My ways, and thou shalt know that all things shall serve for thy good…

My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. (Jam. 1:2-4)

He that belongs to Christ need not be afraid of his enemies, nor of their power and subtlety. Ah! I can scarcely bear that men make Satan so omnipotent, as if he could do what he pleased… This is by no means the case. Christ has taken from him all power and all right over us. On which account those who have sincerely yielded themselves up to Christ and are really His property, have nothing more to fear from the devil. [If you have held back your will in any matter, you still belong to the devil and he will play havoc with your life.]… Let us only thoroughly and without any reserve resign our hearts to Christ [for His safekeeping] Who has so dearly bought us, and then the devil and the world will be afraid of us… Those souls that have devoted themselves to God can say with David, “The LORD is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear…” (Ps. 27:1) “God is our refuge and strength…therefore will we not fear…” (Ps. 46: 1-2)

[Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom. 8:37-39 NKJV)]

But if I am no longer my own but God’s, and belong to Christ, I therefore need not worry, nor be afraid, nor apprehensive of an evil result. [If we ever choose to take back some portion of our will and begin to direct our own steps, we come out from under His protection. In that state of self-will there is no protection at all.] If I belong to Christ, He will not permit that which is His to be lost, nor let it be taken from Him, but He will know how to preserve me after giving and presenting myself to Him…

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me {those who no longer have an independent will of their own but whose will has been joined to the Lord’s will}: And I give unto them eternal life {the divine life from above}; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. (John 10:27-28)

He has continually preserved them as the apple of His eye. And though the body may moulder in the ground and become a putrefying carcass and millions of atoms, this does not trouble me. It is not my body, but is become God’s. Therefore I am unconcerned about it. Christ is Lord both of life and death. He will eventually again bring forth the body, which is equally His, and make it like unto His glorious body. In short, it is impossible to find a more complete consolation than this, that we are God’s and not our own…

I ought now, in conclusion, to make an application of the great and much implying expression, “Know ye not?”… Know ye not, that if the Holy Spirit does not dwell in your heart, another spirit inhabits there, namely a corrupt spirit, and that you consequently belong to it?” O what an unhappy and dreadful state!…

Know ye not that a day will come in which each will take his own to himself? Christ shall appear in His glory and place those that belong to Him [those who have truly died to self-will and served Him alone] on His right hand as sheep, but those that belong to the prince of hell [those who have continued to live by self-will and serve themselves] as goats on His left hand! What a dreadful thought!

Know ye not that this is now the time of grace, a time in which the precious Gospel is still preached and offered to you? Know ye not that you are really not your own, that you are brought with a price? (1 Cor. 6:19-20) Ye may even now become happy men and children of God. Are you well aware of this?… O reflect with true seriousness whether it is possible for you to have a single quiet hour as long as you do not seriously give yourselves to God…

Know ye not to what a high and superlative dignity ye are created?… Are you aware what grace has been bestowed upon us, what God, even our God purposed respecting us and to what we may attain even here in this present time of grace?…

Know ye not that this is your most imperative duty and obligation? Yes, we know it when we read of it occasionally, when we are sometimes reminded of it, but scarcely is this done, scarcely is the book closed, the word of admonition over, than we afterwards think little of that which we have heard. Ah, my dear friends, do not let it be a passing sound. Let it not continue mere head knowledge. Let the word at this time penetrate deeply into your heart…

Three Kingdom Stages

2009-12-15T18:57:00.001-05:00

by G. D. Watson

… Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God (Mark 1:14)

A perfect kingdom will need to have subjects who serve the king out of personal love. If the kingdom is to be perfect, each member will need to have the mind of the king and the principles of his life so inwrought within their own nature that there is no need for either the outward machinery of government or the coercion that is typically needed to produce obedience. These loyal members will be in such harmony with the king that his reign becomes the brightest jewel of their existence. Their every affection and choice is in union with him because they have his mind. There is no need for intermediate officers since the people are governed directly through their heart by the king’s own spirit.

This ideal king would also carry all the members of his kingdom within his own heart. Again, if the kingdom is to be perfect, he would need to love each of the members in a way that leads him to spontaneously live for their good.

We are speaking of a kingdom where the government is personal and the king remains in close and intimate contact with each individual subject. The lines of communication and the messages of the king are never corrupted by others.

No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, “Know the Lord,” for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord. (Jer. 31:34)

A search of the Scriptures will reveal how this ideal King and kingdom is now in place. We can now become “one spirit with Him.” (1 Cor. 6:17) This heavenly harmony takes place when we permit the King to establish His undivided kingdom within our heart. When we can truly say with Paul, “I no longer live,” we will have “the mind of Christ.” (1 Cor. 2:16) The Messiah has come to reveal His heavenly Kingdom-life within our heart so He may make Himself known through our lives.

Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.” (Mark 1:14-15)

The kingdom of God does not come with {outward} observation; nor will they say, “See here!” or “See there!” For indeed, the kingdom of God is {to be fully established} within you. (Luke 17:20-21)

The kingdom of God is a heavenly way of life that needs to be established within the control center of our eternal soul. When the old life dies and God has complete freedom to express Himself, His Kingdom-life begins to spread itself outward from the heart into the mental faculties and the outward life of the senses, the emotions and the expressions of the body. It is a heavenly life that enables each of the members of His kingdom to joyously walk in His ways. “For the kingdom of God is…righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” (Rom. 14:17)

We must not fail to recognize this inward kingdom “in the Holy Spirit.” It is in connection with this hidden stage of the kingdom that Jesus provides a marvelous statement in the fourteenth chapter of John. He speaks about the indwelling of the three Divine persons of the Godhead.

He first says, “If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper.” (v. 15 and16) The Helper is also referred to as the Comforter. He both helps and comforts the soul through the difficulties we face in this fallen world. This is the level of spiritual life that most Christians now possess. They receive the gift of the Spirit when they are born again.

A few verses later, however, Jesus promises a higher state of grace to those who continue to obey Him. He says, “I will love him, and manifest Myself to him.” (v. 21) This is a reference to the day when He reveals His Kingdom-life within our inner being. “At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.” (v. 20) He comes to enable us to live for Him with joy in our heart.

He then goes on to promise something even greater to those who continue to press forward in their obedient faith. He says, “My Father will love him, and we {Father and Son} will come to him and make our home with him.” (v. 23) This greater manifestation is received by those who have gone on to conquer the fullness of the land of promise. These are the overcoming saints who have fully exchanged their source of life and have entered into the heavenly Presence of God in a way that many sanctified Christians have never even envisioned.

To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God. (Rev. 2:7)

These advancing promises are given to those who continue to respond to Christ’s teachings to the fullest extent. He says that if we love God {which He connects to ongoing obedience} we are to receive the abiding presence of the Comforter—the Holy Spirit. Next, if we will continue to yield to the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, the Son will reveal Himself within our inner being. And finally, if we will keep pressing forward in our faith, we will enter into an enjoyment of the eternal life that was in the beginning.

I have written to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for His name’s sake. (1 John 2:12)

I have written to you, young men, because you are strong {you know the Son’s overcoming life}, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the wicked one. (1 John 2:14)

I have written to you, fathers, because you have known Him {the eternal life} who is from the beginning. (1 John 2:14)

Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called… (1 Tim. 6:12)

These matchless promises are to be fulfilled in this current age of fulfillment. Christian biography throughout the centuries has provided some clear examples of men and women who have pressed forward in their faith until they have entered into the highest of these promises. They have testified to the fact that they had come to a personal knowledge of God’s life of heavenly love.

And the glory which You {the Father} gave Me {the Son} I have given them…that the love with which You loved Me {perfect love} may be in them, and I in them. (John 17:22, 26)

The elders who are among you I exhort, I who am a fellow elder…and also a {current} partaker of the glory that will be revealed. (1 Pet. 5:1)

Christ wants us to become partakers with Him in His glory today. Yes, He will come again in His full glory to the whole world. But it is during this current age of fulfillment that we must become a part of His heavenly kingdom by permitting Him to establish the glory of His eternal Kingdom-life within our heart.

Assuredly, I say to you, there are some standing here who shall not taste {physical} death till they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom. {He came back on the day of Pentecost to reveal His Kingdom-life within His first disciples.} (Matt. 16:28)

I will come to you. A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live {in the eternal Kingdom-life}, you will live also {in the same life}. (John 14:18-19)

Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. (2 Pet. 1:10-11)

DISCERNING THE HOUR

2009-12-10T11:28:00.002-05:00

John 12:20:27

All scriptures NKJV unless otherwise stated.

The setting is Jerusalem. Jesus has come with His disciples to
celebrate Passover with them for the last time. Certain Greeks,
possibly Greek gentiles (proselytes), have also travelled to Jerusalem
to worship the God of the Jews, and they wish to have an audience with Jesus. They approach Philip who approaches Andrew and together the two disciples have come to Jesus on behalf of the Greeks. The potential for Jesus ministry to spread beyond Israel is, at that moment, enormous. His gospel and teachings could be about to be taken by these Greeks far beyond the boundaries of the small geographical area Jesus and His disciples have so far been able to cover. As they approached Jesus, Philip and Andrew must have at least had in mind the possibilities such a meeting between Jesus and the Greeks could bring about.

But Jesus’ response is unexpected to say the least. There will be no
meeting with the Greeks. Jesus has something else on His mind that
eliminates all previous assumptions about Him. Totally in touch with
His Father, fully led by the Holy Spirit, Jesus has discerned a
dramatic change in the spiritual hour.

“The hour has come”, He tells them, “that the Son of Man should be
glorified.” On two previous occasions, according to John’s gospel,
authorities could not lay hands on Jesus because “his hour had not yet
come” (John 7:30, John 8:20), but in John 13:1 we suddenly read “Now
before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had
come.....”. He goes on to state “If anyone serves me let Him follow
Me, and where I am, there My servant will be also” (John:12:26).
Yesterday He had received people. Yesterday He had spoken privately
with people. Yesterday He had patiently shared Who He was and why He had come. Today, however, He will not be doing such things. Today the hour has changed and the option to stand on the sidelines considering Jesus and His words has suddenly been removed. Today, in this new hour, the only option is to follow.

We see the same spiritual principle at work when we look into the
lives of some of Jesus best known disciples. Mark 1:16-20 details the
calling of Simon Peter, Andrew, James and John. We are told that when Jesus called them, Simon and Andrew ‘immediately left their nets and followed Him”. James and John also “immediately.... left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and went after Him.” Similarly, Levi, (also known as Matthew) “left all, rose up and followed Him” immediately Jesus passed by and called him (Mark 2:14). Simon Peter, Andrew, James and John had no doubt been trained as fishermen from when they were very young boys. The fishing business was not only their family’s lifestyle but also their livelihood. Levi was a wealthy tax collector with his own office and thesupport of both Herod and the Romans. Yet the Bible tells us each of them immediately “left all” to follow Jesus.

Yesterday they were a fisherman or a tax collector with a steady
income, good reputation, a well established future and family
support. But today they have ‘left all’ to follow an itinerant Jewish
rabbi of disputable birth, questionable reputation and unknown
future. It’s one thing to ‘leave all’ and follow when ordinary life
is difficult and every day brings new uncertainties and serious
challenges. It’s quite another thing to ‘leave all’ and follow when
life is going smoothly and the future looks bright and certain. We
don’t know how many people Jesus called to follow Him as He walked
along the shores and through the towns of Galilee. We have assumed He only called those who are recorded, yet elsewhere He clearly stated “many are called, few are chosen.” One thing we can know for sure, these ones who left all to follow Him sensed a new hour was upon them.

There is , prophetically speaking, a deep sense within many in the
Bride of Christ that the hour has changed. “What now Lord?” is a
phrase I am hearing spoken more and more frequently in various forms. A growing spiritual restlessness is birthing within us a sense of anticipation for something we are not yet sure of. We are sensing change. A radical new hour is rising on us that will bring excitement and fulfilment, but also unexpected and unknown challenges. Like riding the rapids of a wild river never sure what’s going to be around the next bend, we have committed to the ride and there’s no turning
back.

Is this changing in the spiritual hour merely a sign we are drawing
close to the end of another year and entering a new decade? Can it be
due to the immense historical and environmental upheavals we can see happening all around us in politics, weather and religion? Possibly in part, but I believe these tremendous external changes are simply the manifestations on earth of a new hour already decreed in Heaven.

Interestingly, timepieces have taken on a new significance for me
lately. I have a watch I purchased only two months ago but it keeps
telling me the wrong time. A brand new battery has been inserted to
no avail. Habitually I continue to put this watch on my wrist every
morning, but half way through the day I will invariably look down at
it and discover it’s giving me the wrong hour. If I want to know the
real time I need to go look at our electric clock that will give me
the precise hour and minute. I have another little clock that was a
gift from my sister several years ago and I have always treasured it.
Some time ago it stopped altogether and, again assuming the battery
had run out, I inserted a new one. The clock still didn’t go. Two
days ago my husband asked me what was wrong with my clock and I told him it no longer works even though it has a new battery. Deciding to investigate, he found I had simply inserted the battery the wrong way round. He fixed it and it now gives the right time. These stories may seem irrelevant and even humorous, but to me they prophetically illustrate how very easy it is for us to rely on things that have always worked for us in the past, when in reality God is moving in a totally new and different direction.

Are we aware of the hour we are entering? Are we discerning that
great changes are at hand and are we prepared to make the life-
changing decisions this new hour will demand of us? When the King
says “no more business as usual”, who of us will see and hear? When
the Spirit suddenly changes direction midstream, who will be wise
enough to discern? And how many will be courageous enough to
follow?

We read in Matthew 19:27 of a day when Simon Peter cried out to Jesus “See, we have left all and followed You! Therefore what shall we have?” History tells us Simon Peter was crucified in Rome. History also tells us the Apostle John was the only one of the twelve who did not suffer martyrdom but died a natural death. Each of them equally followed Jesus to the end. The outcome of our individual journeys cannot always be known to us. What is paramount is not the individual
pathway we follow, but the following. But if we are not already following close enough to discern the shifting of the hour, how then will we follow further?

The hour is indeed changing.....rapidly. This is not a comfortable
time. Nor is it a time to stand on the sidelines considering our
options. If we have not yet decided to ‘leave all and follow’,
whatever the cost, then perhaps we have made our decision. We are
either of those who stand and watch or those who follow. There is no
more middle ground.

Discerning the hour is no longer something to leave to the prophets;
it is a vital responsibility of every disciple who has determined to
follow Jesus sincerely and wholeheartedly. It is quite possible,
likely even, that where we are going will not look like what we want
or imagine it to look like. Any assumptions we are still carrying
about our King, His Kingdom, or each other will most certainly be
stripped from us along the way. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday,
today and forever, but methods, ministries and priorities change
according to Heaven’s agenda and timetable. And surely that, for us,
is the only agenda and timetable we dare trust as we continue this
ever narrowing journey?

“Where I am there My servant will be also.”

Cheryl McGrath

Great South Land Ministries

www.greatsouthland.org

This article may be freely copied or forwarded in full without
omission or alteration.
Copyright Great South Land Ministries, Australia

Let Me See Thy Face and Die

2009-12-09T16:42:00.003-05:00

by Christ Our Life

Play Song (right click and select "save target as...")

1) To Thee, great God of love! I bow,
And prostrate in Thy sight adore;
By faith I see Thee passing now;
I have, but still I ask for more,
A glimpse of love cannot suffice,
My soul for all Thy presence cries.
I cannot see Thy face, and live,
Then let me see Thy face, and die!

2) Moses Thy backward parts might view,
But not a perfect sight obtain;
The gospel doth Thy fulness show
To us, by the commandment slain;
The dead to sin shall find the grace
The pure in heart shall see Thy face.
I cannot see Thy face, and live,
Then let me see Thy face, and die!

3) Surrounded by the saints of old,
We now by faith approach to Thee
Shall all with open face behold
In Christ the glorious Deity;
Shall see, and put the Godhead on,
The nature of Thy sinless Son.
I cannot see Thy face, and live,
Then let me see Thy face, and die!

"A Great People and a Strong"

2009-12-09T12:18:00.002-05:00

Â© B. Keith Chadwell, December, 2009

To the people of Israel who came out of Egyptian bondage, through the sea and into the wilderness, was God's promise of a land flowing with milk and honey, a "promised land". It was a promise which could not be appropriated without trusting in God's word and following God's directions.

With our modern "Google Earth" or a good map, it is easy for us to see that it's not thafar from the North East borders of Egypt, across country and then on into modern day Israel. We can see, now, this would be a journey of just a few hundred miles and by a direct route, could be traversed fairly easily by such a company as the Children of Israel in a matter of days or at most, weeks. The Bible tells us, however, that, instead of weeks, it was a journey that lasted some forty years, with an entire generation of the Children of Israel dying in the wilderness along the way. Why?

Num 32:13 And the LORD'S anger was kindled against Israel, and He made them wander in the wilderness forty years, until all the generation that had done evil in the sight of the LORD was consumed.

By the Holy Spirit, we may have been given to see something of the mysteries of the Kingdom that are hidden in the "Old Testament" in parables, types, metaphors, similitudes and dark sayings.

Look diligently for further revelation in these types and shadows in the Bible and especially in "the Prophets". Look for further revelation of what God has purposed to conceal from all but those with "eyes to see and ears to hear". We should also keep in mind what Peter has written for us:

"...not every prophetic writing is made clear in its own book". (2Peter 1:19-20)

To be open to the teaching of the Holy Spirit is humility before God. For "we know in part" and like an incomplete jig saw puzzle, we therefore can not yet see the totality of the completed picture. Beware, because our eschatology has been leavened. Force fit nothing. Traditions have bound us, in many ways, for a long time. Peter suffered from such binding traditions;

Act 10:13-15

...And there came a voice to him, "Rise, Peter; kill and eat."

But Peter said, "Not so, Lord, for I have never eaten anything that is

common or unclean. "And the voice spoke unto him again the second time,

"What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common."

Forget tradition and leavened doctrine. Learn from the mistakes

of the Jewish religious leadership of 30AD. With all of their

amassed knowledge of scripture, they still missed...."the day of

their visitation".

For God, through Jesus Christ, has purposed that a people will be

manifest in the earth, through "Christ" and the work of the Holy Spirit in them. This people, who hear and obey His words will manifest to a wicked and perverse generation; His divine nature. They will be Sons of God without need of further correction. This company of His servants and handmaids, through "Christ in them", will judge and convict the nations and will judge principalities and powers. His conviction and judgments through this company will shake both the heavens and the earth, for these are "a great people and a strong".

Once, there were a small number of such a people who were in one accord, clothed with the Spirit and the power of God. They lived in the first century. Those like Stephen, Peter, John, Paul and others. Perhaps they were the "first fruits" of a "former rain"; forerunners of a company that was to come. God knows.

Peter, quoting the Prophet Joel on the day of Pentecost said;

Acts 2: 15-21 But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel;

And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams:

And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy: And I will show wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke: The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord comes:

And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord

shall be saved.

(Much could be said here of God's offers to all and the few responders who fully obey)

However, this was only the beginning of what Joel prophesied. It was not its total fulfillment. And...what of the "great people and a strong" that Joel described in detail in the same chapter (2) Verses (1) through (11). We have only to look; the prophets ore full of confirmation of this people whom God will raise up and fill with His power and in who He will be glorified in the earth "In That Day".

There have been others like those in the first century on down through the centuries since. However, there has not been the likes of those in notable numbers, in one accord.... "even to the years of many generations".

Without laboring this issue, the church since its beginnings, and ever since, has had everything "at hand", for every generation, to choose, by way of the cross, to come to full maturity in Christ. Through Christ, by God's design and purpose, they would then have whatever would be needed to fully possess their promised land by kicking out all of the aliens forever and fully manifesting the knowledge and glory of God, first within them and then in the earth.

Nope, like the Children of Israel who came out of Egypt, we grumbled and complained, refused to hear directly from God or pay close attention to His will. We generally have sought to satisfy our fleshly lusts instead. We said; "no, we know how to pray in our own tongue and we can pretty well figure out God's will without much tongue talking". Oh, we said; we can prophesy out our flesh and no one will say anything and yes we make mistakes, but we are growing and learning, we won't ever be perfected, this side of heaven. Without a vision, we remained; babes on milk, in division and generally a derision. Having not been weaned from the breast, the meat we desired choked us and we puked all over the tables and there was no place clean for anyone else to eat (see Is 28:).

We, generally, have fouled up the grace faith stuff and did it our own way, rule after rule after rule, grit our teeth, gut it out and fail, then try again righteousness. We clung to liturgy, and leavened doctrines with a death grip. Generally, we have dressed, talked, walked, raised families, entertained ourselves, done business and recreated, just like all the other Babylonians for over 2,000 years now. We, followed false teachers, let ourselves get divided and we became for the most part as; "the lost sheep of the house of Israel" were when Jesus was revealed to Israel.

Generally, we followed a course, as our Natural Jewish fellows in the wilderness did. Our course, like theirs included all the ups and downs while trying to take their and our promised lands.

When Jesus finally was revealed to them, after being hid out amongst them, as it were, the majority of them couldn't or wouldn't recognize Him as "the Messiah" and therefore rejected Him. How sad, they didn't know or recognize their time of visitation. Will we also continue to follow in their foot steps in this regard?

Jesus has already told us, not to look for His kingdom here or there. It is within us, ready to move with all of the power and presence of His divine nature from hearts cleansed and filled to overflowing with HIM. Then, from our hearts His life and nature and works are to be manifest to neighborhoods and nations, filling the earth with His glory and the knowledge of the glory of the Lord. His Kingdom come, His will be done, on earth, as it is in Heaven. Only doing; His will in His strength. It is His work, we are NOTHING without Him.

This has been so available to us since Peter said; "This is that". His hand is stretched out still........"This is that.....This is that......This is that.".....It is still at hand.....the Kingdom.....His dominion in us...where the King has dominion..... "Christ in you", the hope of glorifying the Father in the Earth again, as Jesus did.

God, through Joel, described this people as; "a great people and a strong".

Joe 2:1 Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in My holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble; for the day of the LORD cometh, for it is nigh at hand--

Joe 2:2 a day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains. A great people and a strong, there hath not been ever the like; neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations.

These people, described by Joel as; "a great people and a strong" will be "Servants and Handmaidens of God" who have chosen to submit their fleshly lusts to the work of the cross, and by the work of the Holy Spirit in them, will be dead to self interests of the flesh and alive only unto Him.

These will be fully mature and manifest Sons of God. These, who when He appears in them, will be like Him; Jesus the Christ. When these "Sons of God" are manifest, or Christ is fully manifest in them, they will glorify God again in the earth. These will be wholly in one accord, united and committed to Jesus as were David's mighty men of valor. Through this company, God will do as Enoch and others have prophesied;

Jude 1:15-16 ...Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his saints, To execute judgment upon all, and to convict all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.

These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts; and their mouth speaks great swelling words, holding men in admiration for the sake of advantage.

Then shall the powers of heaven and of earth be shaken before His mighty Army; a great people and a strong.

Joe 2: 30 "And I will show wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath -- blood and fire and vapor of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before that great and notable Day of the Lord come".

Joe 3:15 The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining.

Joe 3:16 The LORD also shall roar out of Zion, and utter His voice from Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earth shall shake; but the LORD will be the hope of His people, and the strength of the children of Israel.

Joe 3:17 "So shall ye know that I am the LORD your God dwelling in Zion, My holy mountain. Then shall Jerusalem be holy, and there shall no strangers pass through her any more.

When? How will this happen?

Hold steady, do not force fit what we think we know. For we still only know in part. Rest in Him, He must do this work, we must totally surrender, NO MORE STRIVING. Enter His REST, for without Him, we can accomplish nothing.

(see the teaching; "I thank my God I speak in tongues more than you all " and "Whatever We Ask " 2009 teachings, this web site.)

Rev 10:7 but that in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as He hath declared to His servants the prophets.

Joe 2:1 Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in My holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble; for the day of the LORD cometh, for it is nigh at hand--

Rom 8:13 For if you live after the flesh, you shall die: but if you

through the Spirit do put to death the deeds of the body, you shall

live.

Rom 8:14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons

of God.

Rom 8:15 For you have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but you have received the Spirit of adoption, by which we cry, Abba, Father.

Rom 8:16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:

Rom 8:17 And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, so that we may be also glorified together.

Rom 8:18 For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

Rom 8:19 For the earnest expectation of the creation waits for

the manifestation of the sons of God.

The Promise of Zoe Life

2009-12-08T10:50:00.003-05:00

The Scriptures use the Greek word “zoe” when referring to the unique form of life that Jesus gives to His followers. Spiros Zodhiates, in his Greek Word Study defines “zoe” as follows: “life; referring to the principle of life in the spirit and soul. Distinguished from bios, [the Greek word for] physical life…of which zoe is the nobler word, expressing all of the highest and best which Christ is and which He gives to the saints. The highest blessedness of the creature.”

In contrast to the “zoe” life that comes from above, the Greek word “psuche” is used to express the form of life that is developed by living for our personal desires. While these desires may be legitimate and God-given, permitting them to direct our steps produces a self-originated form of life—a life of sin. This choice to live by the flesh is what separated Adam from the eternal life.

We are told that the Son was sent into the world “in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin.” (Rom. 8:3) As a man, He had natural human desires. These desires, when permitted to control the choices of man become sin. But Jesus “condemned sin in the flesh” by choosing to always be led by the Spirit. He never permitted the desires of the flesh to direct His steps.

When Jesus spoke of laying down His “life” it is generally assumed that He was referring to laying down His “bios” {the Greek word representing physical life} at the cross. But He spoke of laying down His “psuche.” It implies that He chose not to live for Himself. He lived for the good of others as He was directed by His Father through the Spirit. He then promised to share His eternal “zoe” life with those who would lay down their “psuche” life for the same purpose.

John 5:26 As the Father has life {zoe} in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life {zoe} in Himself.

John 1:4 In Him was life {zoe}, and the life {zoe} was the light of men.

1 John 1:2 The life {zoe} was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life {aiόnios zoe} which was with the Father and was manifested to us.

Jesus revealed the eternal life in bodily form. Also referred to as the “light of life,” this divine life reveals the nature of holy love that God intended for His children to possess.
A. B. Simpson said, “The word ‘eternal’ here [1 John 1:2] does not merely convey the idea of existence that has neither beginning nor ending, but speaks of a higher sphere of life. It is life that belongs to a loftier plane than the things that are seen and temporal.”
The Greek word for eternal is “aiόnios.” It has the meaning of “constant, abiding and everlasting.” God intended for this everlasting life to consistently flow through our soul both in this world and throughout eternity. “Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a {consistent} spring of water welling up to eternal life {aiόnios zoe}.” (John 4:14)
It is by sharing with Christ in His “aiόnios zoe” that it becomes possible to display His “light of life” in this world.

John 8:12 Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me {in the way of the cross} shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life {zoe}.”

Eph 4:17-18

17 This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, 18 having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life {zoe} of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart.

The people of this world are separated from the zoe life because they walk “according to the course of this world” conducting themselves “in the lust of the flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind.” (Eph. 2:2-3) They choose to live by the desires that come from their own body and mind. This is the form of life that Jesus condemned. (Rom. 8:3-4)
We must take Christ’s way of the cross and live by the Spirit if we hope to share with Him in His “aiόnios zoe.” “Whoever loses his life {psuche} for My sake will find it {aiόnios zoe}.” (Matt. 16:25)

John 10:11, 17-18

11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life {psuche} for the sheep… 17 Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life {psuche}… 18 No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again…

1 John 3:16

16 By this we know love, because He laid down His life {psuche} for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives {psuche} for the brethren.

John 15:12-13
12 This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life {psuche} for his friends.

Man has an opportunity to live for himself. He can live by his own desires. The devil also tempted Jesus to acquire the great kingdoms of this world and to live for His own pleasure. But He chose to lay down this “psuche” form of life in order to live for the good of others.
The Son received “aiόnios zoe” from His Father because of the way He chose to live.

John 14:6
I am the way, the truth, and the life {zoe}. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

1 John 5:11
And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life {aiόnios zoe}, and this life {zoe} is in His Son.

1 John 2:25
And this is the promise that He has promised us—eternal life {aiόnios zoe}.

Those who truly follow Jesus in His way of laying down the “psuche” form of life will begin to share with Him in His “aiόnios zoe.”
The “aiόnios zoe” originates in the Father. We enter into this life through the Son. “God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.” (1 John 4:9) “I will come to you… At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.” (John 14:18, 20)
Christians must press beyond the wilderness testing period with its periodic wells of refreshment into the life of promise where there are rivers of “aiόnios zoe.” (John 7:38)

John 10:10 NIV
I have come that they may have life {zoe}, and have it to the full.

John 4:14
But whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life {aiόnios zoe}.

John 6:35, 57-58

35 …I am the bread of life {zoe}. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst… 57 As the living Father sent Me, and I live {in “aiόnios zoe”} because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live {in the same “zoe” life} because of Me. 58 This is the bread which came down from haven… He who eats this bread will live forever.

John 6:66-69
66 From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more. 67 Then Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you also want to go away?” 68 But Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life {aiόnios zoe}. 69 Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

These earnest disciples had heard Jesus speak about this promised “aiόnios zoe.” They wanted this life that would keep their soul from ever hungering and thirsting again.
The gospel of the kingdom of God is an offer of life from heaven. The rich young ruler, after hearing this message, asked Jesus how He might enter into this “aiόnios zoe.” Although he turned back, as did many of Christ’s disciples, the twelve continued to cling to Jesus because they knew He had the words that would lead them into the eternal life.
The true disciples of Jesus hear His voice and live by His Spirit. He therefore provides them with a constant supply of His eternal life.

John 10:27-28
27 My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me {by laying down their “psuche” life}. 28 And I give them eternal life {aiόnios zoe}…

John 10:15
As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life {psuche} for the sheep.

John 17:3
And this is eternal life {aiόnios zoe}, that they may know You {the life and nature of the Father}, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.

Jesus has given everyone access to the “glory” that has its source in the Father so we too may share with Him in His life of holy love, “that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.”(John 17:22-23, 26)
Many Christians do not know this heavenly life that comes from above because they have not yet died to their “psuche” life so they may live through Jesus and feed on Him alone.

John 5:39-40
39 You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life {aiόnios zoe}; and these are they which testify of Me. 40 But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life {zoe}.

The Pharisees attempted to live by God’s laws without meeting the conditions for receiving life from above. Living by law does not provide “aiόnios zoe.” “Is the law then against the promises of God? Certainly not! For if there had been a law given which could have given life, truly righteousness would have been by the law.” (Gal. 3:21)
The Scriptures point to Christ. He is the One who has come to enable us to fulfill all the righteous requirements of the law by perfecting our heart in His life of holy love. (Rom. 8:3-4)

Heb 7:15-16, 19
15 …there arises another priest 16 who has come, not according to the law of a fleshly commandment, but according to the power of an endless life {zoe}… 19 For the law made nothing perfect…

John 6:27
Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life {aiόnios zoe}, which the Son of Man will give you…

People labor for the food that perishes when they attempt to find their life from this world. We must choose to lay down this form of life before we can receive “zoe” life.
We are to sustain ourselves spiritually by feeding on Jesus. He is the Tree of Life. “To him who overcomes {the psuche} I will give to eat from the tree of life {zoe}….” (Rev. 2:7) “For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection.” (Rom. 6:5)

John 12:24-26
24 Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone {separated from the “zoe” life of God}. 25 He who loves his life {psuche} will lose it, and he who hates his life {psuche} in this world will keep it {the soul} for eternal life {aiόnios zoe}. 26 If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me {through the cross}; and where I am {in the heavenly realms in the aiόnios zoe}, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor.

Those who follow Jesus by serving God in the Spirit will share with Him in the fullness of His divine life. “By this we know love, because He laid down His life {psuche} for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives {psuche} for the brethren.” (1 John 3:16-17)
There is a need to press into this heavenly Kingdom-life of promise in this world.

Gal 6:8-9
8 For he who sows to his flesh {lives for his own pleasures} will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life {aiόnios zoe}. 9 And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap {the life of promise} if we do not lose heart.

Rom 5:10
For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life {zoe}.

Rom 5:17
For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life {zoe} through the One, Jesus Christ.

Matt 16:24-26
24 If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. 25 For whoever desires to save his life {psuche} will lose it, but whoever loses his life {psuche} for My sake will find it {the “zoe” life of promise}. 26 For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?

Luke 14:26
If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life {psuche} also, he cannot be My disciple.

The extent to which we must stop trying to find our spiritual support from this world includes even laying the members of our family on the altar. God intends to be our only source of life—our all in all. The psuche form of life must die if we hope to be raised into the eternal life that comes directly from God.
Those who are living through the Lord’s life of divine love will find that it never fails. Human love, because it is sustained by temporal circumstances, fails whenever it is not treated well.

Luke 17:32-33
32 Remember Lot’s wife. 33 Whoever seeks to save his life {psuche} will lose it, and whoever loses his life {psuche} will preserve it {save his soul for the “aiόnios zoe”}.

Matt 18:8
If your hand or foot causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter into life {zoe} lame or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet, to be cast into the everlasting fire.

Matt 7:14
Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life {zoe}, and there are few who find it.

1 Tim 6:12
Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life {aiόnios zoe}, to which you were also called…

1 John 5:11
And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life {aiόnios zoe}, and this life {zoe} is in His Son.

Authentic Christianity

The Inadequacy of Law

2009-12-05T13:05:00.001-05:00

The Inadequacy of Law

* The following article is from “The Way to Eternal Life”- Steve Bray

The Pharisees are an example of how it is possible to practice conservative holiness standards without actually being “right” in the heart. They were zealous for God’s laws, gave a tithe on all their income, regularly fasted and prayed, consistently practiced their special standards of dress and became dedicated leaders, without ever knowing the righteousness that comes from God by faith. As Paul would say, “They have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness {His life of holy love}, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God.” (Rom. 10: 2-3)

We were created as vessels that God could use to display His glory. There is a righteousness in His nature that needs to become a part of our nature. The righteousness that is in Him and was revealed through Jesus can now be received by faith. Jesus also assures us that that those who hunger and thirst after this heavenly righteousness will be “filled.” (Matt. 5: 6) And yet, there are many who fall short of this life of promise.

Christians receive the gift of the Spirit at their new birth. But they are still like a seed. There is divine life planted within them, but there is still a covering that prevents it from being revealed. The life of God cannot rise up into a display of the Son’s heavenly righteousness until after the seed has been planted in the ground and the old covering has been lost.

This covering is made up of many things. But it is fundamentally the image that each individual develops through his own works. It includes self-produced righteousness. This old life continues to surround the new divine life and keep it hidden deep within the seed. It is only after the seed has been planted in the ground, and there has been a breaking down and loss of the old image, that God’s life of true righteousness is able to come forth in its full glory. In other words, the Lord cannot display His glory through those who are still living for their own glory.

Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone {it cannot share with Christ in the fullness of His divine life}; but if it dies, it produces much grain. He who loves his {self-originated psuche} life will lose it, and he who hates his life {psuche} in this world will keep it {will keep his soul} for eternal life {zoe}. If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me {through this death, burial, and resurrection}; and where I am {in the heavenly zoe life}, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me {through the Spirit}, him My Father will honor. (John 12: 24-26)

When Adam separated himself from God, he was separated from the eternal life. It left him with an empty soul. Being separated from the life and identity that He had in God, he experienced an inner sense of nakedness. This feeling of nothingness is what has led to the natural inclination to put on a false covering. Because of the Fall, man now has a self-exalting form of life that naturally seeks to build up its self-image. It is this false image that needs to be removed before God can turn the vessel into a display of His life and glory.

Before God was able to give Adam a new covering, He had to remove the old covering that Adam had been put on. Similarly, it is required for Him to come to each one of us for the purpose of removing our old self-originated image. Only after this false covering has been removed can He cover us with His life of true righteousness. We are now speaking of the heavenly Kingdom-life of “righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” (Rom. 14:17) This heavenly life comes directly from God through a supernatural work of His Spirit, once there has been a loss of the psuche life.

The instructions that tell us to “put off the old man” are referring to this matter of putting off this old self-developed form of life—the psuche life. Only when everything that is self-originated has been removed, can we put on the heavenly life of Jesus Christ. “Whoever loses his life {psuche} will find it.” (Matt. 16: 25) That is, we will find His Kingdom-life of perfect love, which enables us to fulfill all the righteous requirements found in His Sermon on the Mount. We can then do by nature what the law requires.

If indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: that you put off…the old man {with his self-image}…and that you put on the new man {the divine life of Christ in bodily form} which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness. (Eph. 4: 21-24)

For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity {the divine life that is shared within the Triune God} lives in bodily form, and you have been given {access to} fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority. (Col. 2: 9-10 NIV)

God gives His Spirit to His children so they may “put to death” the old self-originated form of life that has its source in the works of the flesh. (Rom. 8: 13) And until we have come to the place were we can honestly say, “I no longer live,” we cannot expect to have Christ living through us with His heavenly zoe life. (Gal. 2: 20) Once there is no longer an “I” to glory in the flesh, Christ will begin manifesting His Kingdom-life of righteousness and peace and joy through the vessel.

King Saul is still living in the hearts of many Christians. They do not believe that everything from their self-life is as bad as God makes it out to be. They recognize the need for doing away with their outwards sins, but they insist that King Agag himself has some useful resources. And this is why the bleating of the old carnal nature continues to be heard in the background. Yes, these individuals can work hard through their own efforts to conform to high moral standards, as did the Pharisees, but there is still something within their inner nature that prevents Christ’s life of perfect love from being displayed.

Jesus requires His disciples to follow Him. It entails being emptied of everything that originates in self. And we need to say again, with emphasis, it includes being emptied of self-originated righteousness. The righteousness that man produces is like filthy rags in God’s sight. It will inevitably fall short of the glory He intended to reveal through His children. God created man to be a mere vessel that He could fill with His own glory. But He will not reveal His glory through the vessel until we have been emptied of the self-originated righteousness that man naturally glories in.

Jesus emptied Himself of His own glory when He came to live as Man. He did not do anything “out from” Himself. (John 5: 30; 8: 28) There was nothing self-originated in Him. He was living as the Last Adam, as God had originally intended for man to live. He lived as a mere vessel that His Father could use to display the righteousness that comes from heaven through a supernatural work of the Holy Spirit. And it is in this sense that He asks us to follow Him. Once we have been emptied of our own glory, we will be in a place where He can fill the vessel with His life of true righteousness and holiness.

Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing {becoming nothing in Himself}…he humbled himself and became obedient to death… Therefore God exalted him to the highest place… (Phil. 2: 5-7, 9 NIV)

Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time… But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus {to be a vessel of His glory}, after you have suffered a while {in dying out to your old self-originated form of life}, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you. To Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen. (1 Pet. 5: 6, 10-11)

We are lifted into the life of heaven in direct proportion to how far we have sunk down into our nothingness and permitted God to become “all in all.” God cannot be everything in our life while we are still trying to be something. If He is to receive all the glory, He must be permitted to be the source of everything we do.

Jesus chose to live as a simple instrument in His Father’s hands. It permitted the Father to manifest His life and will through the Son. And we must choose to follow Him along this same course if we also want to be “honored” by the Father and lifted spiritually into the heavenly realms.

The apostle Paul, after learning about Jesus’ way of life, decided to follow Him. He wanted to participate with God in the life that comes from heaven. He therefore chose to count “as loss” everything that had once made him great in the eyes of man—those human accomplishments that man naturally glories in. Because he wanted to be lifted by the power of the Spirit into the Presence of God, he fully submitted to the economy of God’s kingdom. He knew that “God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty…to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence.” (1 Cor. 1: 27-29) Once Paul became “nothing” in himself, he was in a position to be lifted into Christ’s Kingdom-life and be filled with the righteousness that comes from God by faith.

For we are the circumcision {the ones who have had the self-originated flesh-life removed}, who worship God in the Spirit {live by the Spirit}, rejoice in Christ Jesus {for what He is doing}, and have no confidence in the flesh, although I also might have confidence in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh {in the works that it can do}, I more so: circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.

But what things were gain to me {the things that could be worked out in the flesh and look good in the eyes of man}, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord {for an inward and experiential knowledge of His divine life}, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ {His heavenly life}…not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection… (Phil. 3: 3-10)

Paul has shown us how to find the righteousness that comes from God by faith. Following the perfect example set by Jesus, he gave up everything that had once made him great. Once this covering was lost and he had become nothing in himself, he was in a position to be honored by God and raised by the resurrection power of the Holy Spirit into the heavenly life of the Son.

I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live {the self-originated form of life had died}, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh {in a mortal body} I live by faith in the Son of God…for if righteousness comes through the law {by merely trying to keep laws}, then Christ died in vain. (Gal. 2: 20-21)

In contrast to following the examples of both Jesus and Paul, Christians in general develop their own reputation through a self-produced form of righteousness. While each denomination ends up with a slightly different set of standards, they still tend to hold up their own standard as the real “righteousness.” And while this self-produced righteousness enables them to receive honor from the people of their denomination, God does not honor them by lifting them spiritually into the conscious presence of His heavenly life. Consequently, they fall short of the true glory of God.

God’s Spirit of Love

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The kingdom of God does not come with observation; nor will they say, “See here!” or “See there!” For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you. (Luke 17:20-21)

For the kingdom of God is…righteousness {divine love} and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. (Rom. 14:17)

Oh, sir {or madam}, would you like to know the blessing of all blessings? It is God coming to share His Spirit with you. God wants to bless you with His life so that you may be a vessel of His divine love and be a blessing to others. “I will bless you… And you shall be a blessing.” (Gen. 12:2)

The Son is now prepared to fill you with His Spirit and satisfy your soul. He wants to set you free from the old self-centered nature that has caused you so much trouble. It will deliver you from all the inward strife that comes from not getting your way. Life is no longer a burden when His satisfying Presence is dwelling within you and He is directing all your steps. While difficulties will continue to come, His is able to keep your heart filled to overflowing with an everlasting supply of His love and peace and joy.

But whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him {life from the Spirit} will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life. (John 4:14)

The Son of God has come as the Messiah to establish His kingdom-life of “righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” within your heart. He wants to give you a new divine nature so you may display His life of holy love in everything you do. Because divine love does by nature what is right in relationship to both God and others, this sharing with the Son in His life of love will enable you to fulfill the righteous requirements of the law. “Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.” (Rom. 13:10) His Spirit of Love, as He fills your heart and purges away your old selfish and self-seeking nature, moves you to live for the good of others without the need of being rewarded, or honored, or esteemed.

The Son, through His Spirit, comes to give you an abundantly full measure of His life. (John 10:10) This divine life, being sufficient in itself, lives for the one purpose of propagating itself. It meets wrath, evil, hatred and opposition as light meets darkness, only to overcome it with its own blessings. For the wrath of an enemy, the treachery of a friend, or any other form of evil, only helps the Spirit of Love to more clearly reveal God’s true glory. This love, as it was expressed by Jesus on the Cross, is always prepared to lay down its rights and to seek the good of others in order to lead them into the same heavenly life.

God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him. Love has been perfected among us in this…because as He is {as the Son revealed this divine love}, so are we {to be} in this world. (1 John 4:16-17)

Many of those who are born of the Spirit of God have discovered in their own Bibles the wonderful teachings about becoming like Jesus in love. They try their best to respond to His teachings because they want to become like Him. But in time, after continuing to find a contrary spirit in their heart, they begin to doubt and question the possibility of such a state. In a world that has so much strife and division and misery, it will appear to be a doctrine that is too refined and imaginary to be reached. But this objection will begin to fall away once it is seen from the right perspective.

As you have perceived, we are speaking of a form of love that is beyond the capacity of natural man to produce. It is not something that can be worked up or developed through human efforts. It is a supernatural life that God has promised to supply to His children when they present themselves to Him to be used as vessels of His life and works. We must come to Him with a dependent and yielded faith that expects Him to reveal His divine life of love through our mortal bodies.

For this reason I bow my knees {in prayer} to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ…that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith… {that you may} know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. (Eph. 3:14-19)

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels {weak mortal bodies}, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us…that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. (2 Cor. 4:7, 10)

You may indeed do many works of love and find enjoyment in doing them when they are convenient for you, or when they are not contrary to your current feelings. But this does not mean you are revealing God’s Spirit of Love. There is a form of love that even carnal people are willing to express as long as it receives its reward and contributes to their self-esteem. But we are now speaking of being filled with God’s Spirit so that His divine love can be naturally, universally and freely poured out even in unfavorable circumstances. Yes, this is a love that truly surpasses human understanding. And yet, it can be revealed within your inner being as a new divine nature by the Spirit of God.

God wants His Spirit of Love to become your life. His life of love knows no difference, regardless of time or place or persons involved. It naturally gives and forgives, bears and forbears. For the Spirit of Love, wherever it is, is its own blessing and happiness. In truth, it is the reality of God in the soul. Since this divine love is not something you are required to work up, but flows directly from God, it can be revealed everywhere and on every occasion. It becomes the natural fruit of a Spirit-filled life. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love…”

Since every Christian does not consistently reveal this overflowing life of the Spirit, we can know there is something that each individual must do. God requires His children to surrender their whole being to the life that was in Jesus. You put on the life of Christ by offering your body to Him to be used by Him for the display of His life and works. Those who will learn of Him and surrender their whole being to the light of truth that was displayed through Him, will be taken into the life of promise where they are enabled to partake of every spiritual blessing found in His heavenly life.

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies {each and every moment of the day}, a living sacrifice,

holy {set apart for God’s exclusive use}, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. (Rom. 12:1)

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as he chose us in Him {to live through Him} before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. (Eph. 1:3-4)

We can now begin to see what it truly means to believe in Christ and to receive Him into our life. Jesus did not come to merely forgive our sins. He came to share His life of holy love with us. And while we enter into a reconciled state by trusting in His shed blood, we also need to look to Him in faith to manifest His divine life within our inner being. This is the much more of salvation that makes us like Him in His nature of love and enables us to reveal God’s glory in everything we do.

In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. (1 John 4:9)

For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His {indwelling} life. (Rom 5:10)

If indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus…put on the new man {the Second Adam} which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness. (Eph. 4:21, 24)

Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; bearing with one another, and forgiving one another… But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection {yield to the life and nature of Jesus}. (Col. 3:12-14)

But as many as received Him {by choosing to receive His life and nature into their heart}, to them He gave the right to become children of God {bearing His image}, to those who believe in His name. (John 1:12)

Authentic Christianity

Examining Our Plane of Life

2009-10-16T10:27:00.000-04:00

{Chapter 10, From the Book – The Way to Eternal Life – Steve Bray}

Can you begin to see how we are expected to live on a heavenly plane of life far above what anyone can achieve through their own efforts? Jesus was serious when He said that we cannot do anything apart from Him. The branch can only bear the fruit that originates in the genetic makeup of the plant. (John 15:5) It is His Presence within us that lifts our spirit into this heavenly life on the highest plane.

The branch never strains to make the fruit develop into maturity. There is something placed inside a plant by the Creator that naturally produces the fruit. The fruit is to naturally flow out of the inner nature. While man can train himself to produce a crude facsimile of the Spirit’s fruit, a close examination will reveal how it does not have its source in the ever-flowing life of Jesus Christ.

We know that certain traits can be developed by people who do not profess to be Christians. The people of the world, as they seek to display their own glory, will go to great lengths to make themselves look good in the eyes of others. An Olympic athlete will “flee youthful lusts” and even “keep himself unspotted” from sinful conduct so he may win the prize. A businessman will “control” his temper to improve his business. You can expect a society lady to remain outwardly “sweet” in order to maintain her image, even when you spill tea on her lovely dress. It is in this sense that many Christians have learned to “school” themselves in religion. But these efforts to be “right” will never result in a nature that naturally and consistently produces God’s life of holy love in every situation.

But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. (Jam. 3:17)

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. (Gal. 5:22-23)

We all start out trying to imitate Christ by conforming ourselves to God’s Word. We might refer to it as “The Promising Way.” It looks so attractive and right; and it appears so likely to succeed. Surely it is a splendid thing to imitate Christ. But can it be done? You say, “I can try.” But let us reply with Paul’s response to the Galatians: “Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect {in love} by the flesh {your own human strength and efforts}?” (Gal. 3:3)

Jesus promised to come and dwell in our hearts by faith. Surely this is much better than having Christ as my helper while I strive to make myself like Him. We are to abide in Him, and He in us.

You may be saying to yourself, “There is nothing new in this.” No, indeed; but have you acted upon it? Many have known these truths for years without fully responding to the conditions. There must be a day when we die to the independent and self-sufficient ways of the world. God’s way for insuring that each of His children would be enabled to live on the highest plane of spiritual life regardless of their own abilities, was by making the life available through faith.

Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all… (Rom. 4:16)

When God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness,”(Gen. 1:26) He knew that it would be necessary to have the Living Word residing within the heart of man. He did not give Adam an instruction book to follow. God supplied Adam with life from heaven. The Living Word—the Son—was in him, manifesting God’s image through Adam’s human body. The Son has always been the “light of life” and the “light of men.” (John 8:12; John 1:4) It was only after man lost the eternal zoe life of God out of his soul that he needed an instruction book to teach him how to live. But today we have access to the eternal life that Adam lost. And so we can get by without a teacher or an instruction book if we will truly abide in Christ by responding to every leading of His Spirit.

But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth… He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine {the eternal zoe life} and making it known to you. All that belongs to the Father {the life that originates in Him} is mine… (John 16:13-15 NIV)

But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true…you will abide in Him {share with Christ in His eternal life}. (1 John 2:27)

And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life {zoe}, and this life is in His Son. (1 John 5:11)

There are people in the church who think they have made themselves right by conforming to certain outward standards as the Pharisees did. But it requires a great deal of rationalization to come to this conclusion. There will inevitably be discrepancies between what the Word requires and what is taking place in their life.

The real trouble is that so many people who deplore “higher criticism,” tend to indulge in what might be called the “highest criticism.” They do not deny the truth found in God’s Word, but they are always toning it down to levels that will permit them to remain comfortable with their current Christian experience. They do not honestly search the Scriptures to see if they are meeting every mark that God requires of them.

Even when they see something amiss, instead of acknowledging the discrepancies in their life, which would eventually turn everyone to Christ for His heavenly life, there is a tendency to rationalize why certain commands do not apply. Oh, if we could only take Christ at His word and recognize the need for complete conformity!

At this point, we want to remind every earnest soul of the need for confessing everything coming out of them that is not in complete agreement with the light of life as revealed through Jesus. People who have built their spiritual life on a foundation of self-effort do not like to confess what is wrong in their life. The pride of life keeps them from acknowledging their faults because it would continually tear down the psuche life they are attempting to build. But once we understand how we cannot produce our own righteousness and that nothing from the self-originated form of life is any good, it becomes easy to confess the corruption that God exposes. This is what prepares us to count everything from ourselves as loss, so that we may come to a knowledge of the life of Christ and receive His gift of righteousness by faith. (Phil. 3:8-10; Rom. 5:17)

The key to entering into this heavenly life is the confession of everything that is contrary to the life that Jesus revealed. If we will confess the discrepancies, yield to the light of truth, and look to Christ to make His life a part of our very nature, He will save us from all unrighteousness.

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)

Our responsibility is to confess everything that is wrong. It is Christ’s responsibility to cleanse us from “all unrighteousness.”

Holiness people tend to rationalize why the “wrong” is not sin. Since they believe they are sanctified wholly and cannot sin, they must call their inappropriate behavior something other than sin. This is what has prevented many of them from being turned into a true display of Christ’s life of perfect love. In spite of their high religious standards, many of them continue to have attitudes and carnal traits that have turned many away from Christ. The children are being lost at a very high rate because they do not necessarily want what they have seen in the nature of their parents. They see the hypocrisy between their profession and what frequently comes out of them.

We should also acknowledge that the rich young ruler was able to see the eternal life in Jesus. There was something very special in Christ’s nature that he wanted to possess. Everyone would like to be consistently filled with God’s eternal life of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, etc. But this young ruler was unwilling to give up the psuche life he had developed from the things of the world in order to receive it. Jesus can only give His eternal life to those who die to self-will so they may follow the leading of His Spirit. “My sheep hear My voice…and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life…”

The point being, that if people turned away from the eternal life that could be seen through Jesus, we can expect some children to turn away from the eternal life no matter what. They will choose to live by their own will and develop their own psuche life from the things of this world. But the problem today is that they are seeing religion without the eternal life. And mere religion has little drawing power in comparison to living for self in the world.

We definitely need more people revealing the eternal life. And if we are to have them, it will be necessary to confess everything in the nature that is contrary to the fruit of Christ’s Spirit. Those who truly die to everything that is self-originated and begin looking to Christ alone to be the source of their life, have nothing to fear when they confess these discrepancies to Him. If they can see that their hope is in Christ rather than in themselves, they will be willing to confess everything He reveals so that He may cleanse them from all unrighteousness.

There are many examples that could be used in considering this matter of fully conforming to God’s requirements. His command to love “as He loved” would be high on the list. But we have attended enough Bible classes to know that most Christians believe they do love God and others. Even though we have previously discussed how Paul defined love to the Corinthians, the English word remains so nebulous and adaptable to so many different opinions that it is difficult to use it as a marker of life on the highest spiritual plane.

We will therefore consider God’s command not to be anxious. This is a hard one to get around. “Be anxious for nothing…” (Phil. 4:6) Those who have been empowered by the Spirit to consistently obey this command can know they are now living on the highest spiritual plane.

It does not take us long to discover how the flesh-life becomes anxious about many things. At the same time, we need to realize that the Spirit does not become anxious because there is in God’s very nature a deep sense of heavenly peace.

Even earnest Christians will find themselves coming up against situations they believe gives them a right to disobey God by being anxious. They will insist that obeying this command is beyond their power. And while in once sense this is true, it is within the grasp of faith to be filled with Christ’s Spirit. And since the flesh-life can be crucified {the source of anxiety can be “done away with” – (Rom. 6:6)} and the Spirit is available to fill our soul, we can potentially be set free from this sin. For the Kingdom-life of our Lord is a consistent display of “righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.”

The only way we will ever obey this law is by sharing with God in His heavenly life. It is the “peace of God” filling our soul that keeps us from ever being anxious about the things of this world. His conscious Presence within us makes us fully aware of His absolute sovereignty. And so regardless of the apparent difficulties taking place around us, we know that everything is working together for our eternal good and God’s glory.

And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose…to be conformed to the image of His Son… (Rom. 8:28-29)

People who live by their own strength and try to control the providences of their life will naturally have many things to worry about. The more a person attempts to dominate and control his environment, the more he can expect to have anxious moments. These self-sufficient Christians will also have a very difficult time trying to display Christ’s nature of love when their will has been crossed and things are interfering with their plans. It will be obvious to those who are close to them how they are not sharing fully with Christ in His divine love.

While anxious thoughts can rise up without the consent of our will and not be sin, they become sin if we permit them to go on. The real sin comes from not seeking out the remedy that God has provided to do away with this carnal trait.

For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son…that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled {fully met – NIV} in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. (Rom. 8:3-4)

Many Christians will admit they are anxious about many things. A physician once said, “May I make a remark about you clergy? Many people consult me, but I find that you leaders of religion are just as anxious about your bodies as men who profess no religion at all.” What a rebuke! If our spiritual leaders do not obey this command, how are we to ever lead the multitudes into a faith that will look to Christ to enable them to fulfill all the righteous requirements of the law?

Paul had learned the secret to being content in every situation. Contentment excludes anxiety and worry. He did not care if the Lord kept him in this world to spend more time suffering for the work of God’s kingdom or if the Lord chose to take him from the world. He left all those decisions to the Lord. He had died to his own will and had entered into a deep rest in God’s will. His one purpose in life was to respond to the leading of the Spirit. Because He had complete faith in His Sovereign God, he could keep His mind on things above and remain hidden with Christ in the heavenly realms. (Col. 3:1-3)

Do you remember when Paul and Silas were in the inner prison locked in stocks after receiving a severe beating? We do not find them either anxious about their future or complaining about their unfair treatment. They did not lose their spiritual life when they had a “bad day.” Because they were receiving their “life” from another realm, they were in a spiritual state that permitted them to sing praises to the Lord in spite of their painful situation. We are not surprised that the jailer and all his family sought out the salvation that both Paul and Silas revealed before their eyes.

Paul never tired of speaking about the peace and joy he received from the Lord. And if anyone might have a reason for being anxious about each new day, it was Paul. But regardless of his hardships, he spoke of rejoicing always. He had found the secret for being content. The secret was the Presence of Christ’s heavenly life dwelling within his soul. “It pleased God…to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles.” (Gal 1:15-16)

From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked…in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen…in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness—besides the other things… (2 Cor 11:24-28)

Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content {there is no anxiety in contentment}… I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. (Phil. 4:11, 13)

Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice! (Phil. 4:4)

The fact that earnest Christians become anxious about certain things does not mean they do not have a saving relationship with Christ. But it is something that needs to be confessed and acknowledged as wrong. It is a sinful trait that prevents others from seeing the true salvation of the Lord. And the fact that it still rises out of the heart also reveals how there is a higher plane of salvation available through faith. “A good tree cannot bear bad fruit…” (Matt. 7:18)

Read again the earlier statement about what divine love does and what it eliminates {in Chapter 3 – New Testament Salvation}. Included in the list of things it expels are impatience, unkindness, jealousy, envy, boasting, self-assertion, pride, foolishness, selfishness, self-seeking, selfish anger, irritability, bad temper, fretfulness, uncharitable remarks, complaining, despair and despondency. We cannot consistently reveal Christ’s life of holy love when some of these traits are a part of our nature. It results in a carnal darkness that prevents others from seeing the Saving Life of Jesus. But praise the Lord, we have a Savior who can deliver us from everything that is contrary to His divine nature!

Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him… (Heb. 7:25)

“We may be quite sure of three things,” says Francis Ridley Havergal. “First, that whatever our Lord commands us, He really means us to do. Secondly, that whatever He commands us is ‘for our good always.’ And thirdly, that whatever He commands He is able and willing to enable us to do, for ‘all God’s biddings are enablings.’ ” Let us therefore submit to His full salvation so that as His church body, we may begin displaying to the world the true glory of our God.

Christ Our Life-Steve Bray

2009-10-14T15:42:00.000-04:00

Christ Our Life

{Chapter 9, From the Book – The Way to Eternal Life – Steve Bray}

In our service of making God’s truth known, we have purposely drawn on the spiritual insight of a number of different writers. This chapter uses some of the lessons provided by Ruth Paxson in Rivers of Living Water.

Our great desire is to open up the real meaning of Christianity. The church in general is not making people aware of what Christ has come to do. The implications of this can be seen in the following example. It refers to young people raised in “Christian families,” some of which had ordained ministers as fathers, and who have attended Bible college without ever learning what it means to be saved by Jesus Christ.

A small Bible college has former students who owe money to the school. Attempts to collect the fees are rejected. And yet the majority of these individuals profess to be Christians while spending money that is owed to the school for their own pleasures. Some of them honestly think they have a good relationship with the Lord, even while choosing in self-will not to pay their debt. And yet the Scripture says, “Owe no one anything…” (Rom. 13:8) This speaks of people who are expected to repay a debt and can repay it. Paul would say to them, “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived…” (1 Cor. 6:9) And he includes thieves among those who will not inherit the kingdom of God. We are amazed at how people can be raised in the church, and even attend Bible college, and never learn how sin separates people from Christ unless they repent.

For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries. Anyone who has rejected Moses’ law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord… (Heb. 10:26-30)

Now if we were to stop at merely revealing how God’s Word will one day judge sinners for not keeping the laws of God, we would be describing Old Testament standards. But the New Testament teachings raise the standard much higher. When Jesus came preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God and gave His Sermon on the Mount, He went beyond the requirement of obeying outward laws. He insisted that the heart also be right. That being the case, if someone else were to pay the debt owed by these students, or even if they were to pay it under compulsion, they would not gain anything when it comes to being right with God. If the heart is still willing to do something wrong without confession and repentance, it has not been saved from sin by the grace that Jesus supplies. While the law was designed to constrain this kind of sin, the grace and truth that comes through Jesus Christ changes the very nature.

There are many so-called “good people” who do not rob banks. Of course, many of them would take the money if it was somehow put in their hands without anyone knowing it. But they avoid being an outright thief because of a concern for their reputation. They resist this sin without even professing to be a Christian. But when Jesus puts His Spirit within our heart, He changes our nature so we cannot go on sinning.

If people are ever to be saved from sin, they must be taught what Jesus has come to do. And they must not be permitted to think they have become Christians until they have fully submitted to the salvation He offers.

…You shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins. (Matt. 1:21)

He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned {lived by his own will and out from his own resources} from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. Whoever has been born of God does not sin {go on resisting the teachings in God’s Word}, for His seed {the Son’s submissive nature} remains in him; and he cannot sin {he cannot rebel against the light of truth}, because he has been born of God. (1 John 3:8-9)

Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you {with His submissive nature}—unless, of course, you fail the test? (2 Cor. 13:5 NIV)

We have already described the various stages in God’s work of saving a soul from sin. The new Christian, who has truly surrendered their will to walk by the Spirit, will still lack light on many matters. And we should not be loading them down with unnecessary burdens that come from our personal convictions. The Holy Spirit can be counted upon to lead them into all truth if we will continue to encourage them to remain in this Spirit-directed way of life. But there are fundamental issues of obedience they must be taught if we are ever to keep them from being deceived by the devil when he masquerades as an “angel of light” and by his so-called “ministers of righteousness” he now has working in the church. (2 Cor. 11:14-15)

There is only one Christian life. Receiving into our heart, through faith, the “light of life” that is in the Son is what makes us a Christian. (John 8:12) We receive New Testament justifying grace and the gift of the Spirit when we lay down our will so that Christ may begin to live through us and reveal the same divine nature that He revealed through His mortal body. While there will be some preparation work that needs to be worked out through the power of the Spirit before we are “filled” with His “light of life,” we can only remain justified by walking in all revealed light.

If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another {with God – what an awesome privilege!}, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. (1 John 1:6-7)

…If by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. (Rom. 8:13)

God in heaven is invisible. But He wants to reveal Himself in this world. Our choice to live through Christ in the heavenly realms provides Him with an opportunity to walk again on this earth. The spiritual blessings that are now residing in the Son—His love, joy, peace, victory, spiritual power, holiness and others—can now be revealed through us when we give Him an opportunity to fill the temple of our body with His Spirit. (Eph. 1:3; 1 John 4:9)

So what does it mean to be a Christian? It means we must submit ourselves in a way that permits the Son to reveal Himself through our mortal body. To be a Christian is to have Christ become for us our wisdom, our righteousness and our holiness. It is a life of faith where we continually look to Him to manifest His rivers of Living Water through us so we can do by nature what the law requires.

It is not unusual to hear a modern Nicodemus say, “How can these things be? How can I live such a life in my home where I receive ridicule rather than help and where I have experienced so much spiritual defeat? How can I live this kind of spiritual life in a place of business where everyone around me is living for self? How can I find the highest plane of Christian living when I remain unfed in a church filled with worldly-minded people?” But Jesus still has an answer for every Nicodemus. He has an overcoming life that makes human beings in this world “more than conquerors,” regardless of their circumstances.

Let us remember that the life is in Christ. We should not be thinking in terms of what we can and cannot do. “For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son {through His shed blood}, much more, having been reconciled {a past event}, we shall be saved {from our self-willed nature} by His {indwelling} life.” (Rom. 5:10) We also know that Christ has previous experience in manifesting this very life in a world where evil surrounded Him. He continued to reveal the divine nature, even when He was misunderstood and maligned. The people ridiculed, scoffed, opposed and finally crucified Him. But His spiritual life held up. The heavenly “light of life” continued to shine.

Christ has a spiritual life that is able to reign over the most difficult conditions. If you find yourself failing to manifest His righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit in any situation, it simply means that you are not currently filled with His Spirit. “Those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.” (Rom. 5:17)

Christ’s first disciples were also perplexed about how they would get along after Jesus was no longer with them in the physical realm. But He insisted that their spiritual life would be improved when He came back in the power of His Spirit to dwell within them. His indwelling Presence within the soul is better than having Him physically present in the room.

It is now possible to come into a far more vital and real relationship with God than the greatest saints of the Old Testament. The Life of the Vine can now become the very essence of the life of the branches if we will choose to live through the Son. We can now become “perfect in one” as we share with Him in His life. (John 17:22-23, 26)

And all these {the greatest saints of the Old Testament}, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise, God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us. (Heb. 11:39-40)

These truths about living through Christ were the center of Paul’s teachings. He wanted everyone to understand the riches of the glory that was now available to the saints. He had but one aim in everything he did—that Christ might be formed in every believer. “My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you.” (Gal. 4:19) His whole being was given over to the work of furthering this eternal Kingdom-life in the hearts of those who would listen to him. “Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present ever man perfect in Christ Jesus.” (Col. 1:28)

Christ is in the heavenlies. While He is the Head and the Source of what His Spirit-led disciples are doing, He is the invisible part of the church. His followers here on earth are to be the visible part of His body. This is a staggering thought. It plainly implies that you and I are to bring Christ down from heaven to earth so that others may see His eternal life.

The life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us—that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us {by sharing in the same life}; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. (1 John 1:2-3)

True Christianity involves entering into this fellowship that takes place within the Trinity by sharing in the eternal life. It was this sharing with the Father and the Son in their life of love that led to such a rapid spread of Christianity in the first century. And if we are to continue drawing others into this true Christian life, we too will need to become vessels of the same “light of life.”

Perhaps you are saying, “The truth regarding this life on the highest plane is Biblical, but it does not match my experience or the experience of most other Christians. It therefore seems to be impractical and beyond the realm of possibility.” But our response is to exhort you to take your eyes off people and begin looking to the Word of God and His teachings. The fact that only two of all the Jews that came out of Egypt were prepared to enter the life of promise does not mean that it was impractical and beyond the realm of possibility for the multitude. It is unbelief that prevents God from fulfilling His promises. “So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.” (Heb. 3:19) “The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.” (Luke 18:27)

In the same way that refusing to come to Christ to be justified is the great sin of every unbeliever, refusing to look to Christ for His abundantly full spiritual life is the great sin of those who are in the church. God does not hold us accountable for our inability. He will however hold us accountable for not using the provision He has provided. Christ shed His blood so that we could live through His sanctified life. He has provided a salvation that makes it possible to consistently live in true righteousness and holiness all the days of our life.

{The Messiah came} To grant us that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies {everything that causes sin}, might serve Him without fear {of the carnal nature}, in holiness and righteousness before Him all the days of our life. (Luke 1:74-75)

Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. (Eph. 1:4)

The Father and the Son are now prepared to come and make their home within our eternal soul. They have prepared a banquet feast that is to take place within us forever. “All things are now ready.” Since the provisions are now ready, we can expect to be held accountable for refusing their invitation.

…If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me. (Rev. 3:20)

Then He said to him, “A certain man gave a great supper and invited many, and sent his servant at supper time to say to those who were invited, ‘Come, for all things are now ready.’ But they all with one accord began to make excuses. The first said to him, 'I have bought a piece of ground, and I must go and see it. I ask you to have me excused.'{His property was more important.} "And another said, 'I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to test them. I ask you to have me excused.'{His business was more important} "Still another said, 'I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come {His wife was more important to him than the will of the Lord.}…For I say to you that none of those men who were invited shall taste my supper.” (Luke 14:16-20, 24)

God has set a feast before you, but He cannot compel you to eat. He has opened the door into His life in the heavenly realms, but He cannot compel you to enter. Do not permit the things you have invested your money in, or your plans for a career, or the house you have planned, or even your family to keep you from entering into this heavenly life today. “But seek first the kingdom of God {His heavenly Kingdom-life} and His righteousness…” (Matt. 6:33) If you make excuses and put it off today, you can expect to be turned away from His Presence in the day of the Great Feast.

The basic principle that governs whether or not we will share with Christ in His spiritual life is control. The Holy Spirit must bring each one of us to the place where Christ is given sovereign control over everything we do. Those who will yield unconditionally to Him, which entails permitting Him to be the Head who directs their every step, will become filled with His Spirit.

It is not enough to simply believe in some Bible truths. Andrew Murray said, “We are too easily content with the thoughts suggested by the words of the Bible.” For example, Christ’s Sermon on the Mount sounds good in theory. But these words often remain in the abstract and never become an innate part of the Christian’s life. We do not mind having Christ as our hero and thinking highly of His teachings as long as we can remain in control of our own life. But we will one day learn that singing praises to the Lord on Sunday and living for self the rest of the week will result in being turned away from heaven.

We are now coming to the fundamental reason for so much confusion within the Christian church. We have developed hundreds of individual religions that consist of varying beliefs in mere words. Each one has a little different emphasis on which “words” it stresses. And because there is so much confusion about who has the correct words, everyone seems to think they have a right to believe whatever they want. No one seems to realize that the kingdom of God—the Kingdom-life that needs to be established within the heart—“is not in word but in power.” (1 Cor. 4:20) It does not matter what words we believe if Christ does not come to us in “the power of an endless life.” (Heb. 7:16) He is the One who determines if we have truly submitted ourselves to be a vessel of His life.

Jesus has provided an exact pattern of how His true disciples are to walk. “A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone who is perfectly trained will be like his teacher.” (Luke 6:40) True Christianity comes from studying the spiritual image that Jesus revealed through His mortal body, and fully yielding ourselves to the same divine life. This is the only way to enter into the full salvation of the Lord. He will manifest within us whatever we truly yield to with our whole heart.

Once we begin to understand these truths, it becomes easier to see why people are not being saved from sin. What keeps Christ from revealing His heavenly life through the multitude of people now filling our churches is their unwillingness to fully yield to the light that Jesus revealed. Since He is the source, it has nothing to do with inability. Of course, we also need to realize that most of them have never received these teachings. They do not know that Christ is waiting to reveal His eternal zoe life within their mortal bodies.

Our greatest need today is not more preachers. What we need to see is Jesus Christ walking up and down our streets and living in our homes. How will He do it? – By individual believers choosing to walk by His Spirit! There must be a real death to the old self-originated form of life {the independent and self-sufficient nature that Satan fostered on the world}. “And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.” (Gal. 5:24-25)

This is where many of Christ’s disciples turn back and follow Him no more. The devil convinces them that their life is their own and the requirement to die to their psuche life is too much to ask of them. They say to themselves, “Do we not have an inalienable ‘right’ to have freedom to do as we please? Is that not what freedom is all about – to provide personal liberty to pursue life and happiness from the world as we desire?”

What?! “Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price…” (1 Cor 6:19-20) The kind of freedom that is in your mind – the kind that gives you a “right” to find life from the world – comes from the spirit of this world. “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” (1 John 2:15 KJV) And if you do not renew your mind and choose to be a vessel that Christ can use as He pleases to display His life and works, you will end up separating yourself from Him forever. Jesus only gives His eternal zoe life to those who listen to His voice and continue to follow Him wherever He leads. (John 10:27-28)

We pray that “the many” will begin to see the hypocrisy of trying to be a Christian while living by self-will. “I know, O Lord, that a man’s life is not his own; it is not for man to direct his steps. Correct me, Lord, but only with justice – not in your anger, lest you reduce me to nothing.” (Jer. 10:23-24 NIV) We must be converted from the lawlessness of a self-directed life to a Spirit-directed life before leaving this world.

Many will say to Me in that day, “Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?” And then I will declare to them, “I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.” (Matt. 7:22-23)

If we are to separate from lawlessness, there needs to be a crisis point where there is a definite, voluntary transference of the control of our life to Christ. Even though Christ has already purchased the vessel to be used for the display of His glory, each individual believer is required to deliver the property to Him. Purchase gives title to property, but it requires delivery to provide possession. Let us therefore fear coming before the Lord on the Day of Judgment as a thief who refused to give Him full possession of the property that He had purchased with His own blood.

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. (Rom. 12:1)

This absolute yielding to God includes everything within—intellect, heart, will; and everything without—home, children, business, possessions, friendships, time, money and every future plan. Let it be clearly understood that God is able to see into the heart. And He will not accept a blemished offering. He will not fill the temple with His glory while anything is being held back. Whether the refusal is little or great, it is still an act of rebellion against God. If Christ is to be Lord, He must be Lord of all.

Again, the banquet feast has already been prepared. We can now live in the Presence of God and dine with Him. But He will not make Himself known within our inner being until the door has been opened through absolute surrender. It is impossible to be a true follower of Jesus if we are refusing to follow Him in His way of the cross.

The devil has deceived many into thinking they can direct their own steps through life. It has cut them off from the life of promise. As Jesus has said, “Many are called, but few are chosen.” Only the few are now enjoying the banquet feast that Jesus has prepared.

Some may say at this point, “As far as I know I have yielded my whole life to Christ, yet I still seem to be living on the natural plane.” We will find that yielding alone is not enough. Many have failed to begin looking to Christ with the kind of expectant faith that believes He will do what He has promised.

Full surrender says, “Lord, I am no longer my own. I present my body a living sacrifice for your exclusive use.” Faith says, “Christ is my life.”

Faith is what enables us to rely on Christ to reveal Himself through us. Whatever we see in Him, whatever light He opens up to our understanding, we must then look to Him in expectant faith to reveal the reality of that life within our inner being. In other words, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God…” (Gal. 2:20)

Many seem to think they must make themselves right after presenting their body to Christ. Like Abraham of old, they attempt to help God produce the life of promise. But these efforts will never produce anything more than another Ishmael life. It always falls short of the life of promise. We cannot develop the eternal zoe life through our human efforts. The life of true righteousness comes from Christ. He is our righteousness. As Paul went on to say, “I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law {trying to obey written commandments through our own efforts and strength}, then Christ died in vain.” (Gal. 2:21)

We all have access to a life of consistent spirituality. But this heavenly life must be appropriated by faith. Grace supplies the life, but faith must receive the life. Faith makes real what grace has made available to every believer. “According to your faith will it be done to you.” (Matt. 9:29)

Andrew Murray says, “Abiding in Him is to consent with our whole soul to His being our life, to depend on Him to inspire us in all that we do, and to absolutely surrender everything for Him to rule and work in us. We rest in the full assurance that He works in us what we are to be and He enables us to maintain that perfect surrender in which He is free to do all His will.”

Mr. Murray helps us to see how our part is in the surrendering and in the looking in faith for Christ to do what He has purposed to do. Everyone who remains in this kind of yielded walk of faith will find that Jesus is able to begin manifesting Himself through their mortal body. The power truly comes from God.

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us…that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. (2 Cor. 4:7, 10)

CHRIST- OUR LIFE

2009-10-14T11:50:00.004-04:00

Ruth Paxson (Written in 1928)

CHRIST Jesus was made like us that we might be made like Him. In the incarnation there was the union of Deity with humanity that in regeneration there might be the union of humanity with Deity. When the Holy Spirit begat in the believer a new nature He opened the door to a living, organic union between Christ and the Christian which will exist through the ages upon ages to come. Christ and the Christian are eternally one. The exalted Christ lives now to bestow upon us in all of its fullness His own triumphant, joyous, holy life.

To be a Christian is nothing less than to have the glorified Christ living in us in actual presence, possession and power. It is to have Him as the Life of our life in such a way and to such a degree that we can say even as Paul said, "For me to live is Christ." (Philippians 1:21) To be a Christian is to grow up into Christ in all things: it is to have that divine seed which was planted in our innermost spirit blossom out into a growing conformity to His perfect life. To be a Christian is to have Christ the life of our minds, our hearts, our wills, so that it is Christ thinking through us, loving through us, willing through us. It is increasingly to have no life but the life of Christ within us filling us with ever increasing measure.

But I can hear some modern Nicodemus say, "How can these things be?" How can I live such a life in my home where I receive no sympathy nor help but rather ridicule and scoffing, and where I have for so long lived a sinful and a defeated life? How can I live a truly consistent Christ-life in my social circle where there is scarcely a person who ever gives Him a thought and where His name is never mentioned? How can I live "in the Spirit" in a place of business where I am surrounded by those living altogether "in the flesh" and where the very atmosphere seems surcharged with evil? How can I even learn to live the life more abundant when my membership is in a thoroughly worldly church where little is given to feed and strengthen my spiritual life?

As we are in Christ in the heavenlies so is He in us on earth. Christ in us can live this life anywhere, and that is what He longs to do. This truth our Lord gave in His last conversation with His disciples on earth. He had told them that He was going away from them and they were wondering how they could ever be true disciples apart from Him. The burden of this last conversation was to assure them He would be with them in a spiritual presence
far more real and vital than the relationship they had with Him up to that time. The same life that was in Him as the Vine would flow through them as branches.

John 15:5, "I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing."

It was likewise the burden of our Lord's high priestly prayer on that last night.

John 17:23, 26, "I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. And I have declared unto them thy name and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou has loved me may be in them, and I in them."

"I in them" - these three simple but significant words close the prayer with that little inner circle in which He breathed forth the passionate desire of His heart for His own on down through the centuries. Now as well as then, it is the consuming desire of Jesus Christ to reincarnate Himself in the Christian.

The apostle Paul in the revelation given him laid hold upon this precious, glorious truth and it is woven into the warp and woof of his experience, his preaching, and his missionary service. "Christ liveth in me" was the very acme of his personal spiritual life.

Galatians 2:20, "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith which is in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself up for me."

Philippians 1:21, "For to me to live is Christ."

"Christ liveth in me" so that "To me to live is Christ" - there was nothing beyond this for Paul. Having the glorified Christ as his very life was all-inclusive in Paul's spiritual experience. This to him was life on the highest plane.

"Christ in you" was the heart of his message to the churches. It rang out with clarion clearness in all Paul's teaching and preaching. A cross section from any of Paul's epistles would reveal this truth written in capital letters.

Colossians 1:27, "To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory."

"Christ in you" was the very passion of his missionary service. Paul might employ different methods in his service for God, he might be all things to all men, but the end, the aim, the goal of it all was just one thing with him - that Christ Jesus Himself might be formed in each one who heard the Gospel message.

Galatians 4:19, "My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you."

To be a Christian is to accept Christ as Saviour and to crown Him as Lord. But there is one step more: it is to appropriate Him as Life. As the works within the watch are the real life of the watch so the Lord Jesus within the believer is the real life of the believer. "The Christian life is not merely a converted life nor even a consecrated life but it is a Christ-life." Christ is the Christian's center; Christ is the Christian's circumference; Christ is all in between. As Paul has put it "Christ is all and in all."

Colossians 3:4, "When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory."

A PERFECT ONENESS EFFECTED

The spiritual history of a believer could be written in two phrases, "Ye in me" and "I in you." In God's reckoning Christ and the believer have become one in such a way that Christ is both in the heavenlies and upon earth and the believer is both on earth and in the heavenlies. The Church without Christ is a Body without a Head; Christ without the Church is a Head without a Body. The fullness of the Head is for the Body and the Body is "the fulness of Him that filleth all in all." (Ephesians 1:23)

Colossians 2:9-10, "For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the God head bodily, and in him ye are made full, who is the head of all principality and power."

Ephesians 1:22-23, "And he put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all."

Could God tell us more clearly that in His divine purpose He means for the fullness of Christ to be the fullness of the Christian? It is a staggering thought! Its plain import is that you and I and all other Christians are to bring Christ down from heaven to earth and to let men see even in us who He is and what He has done and what He can do in a human life. It is to have Christ's life in such a perfection of likeness that men see Him in us and are drawn to Him in faith and love. It is to be such a oneness of life that one's human personality is but a vessel in which the beauty, holiness and glory of the Lord Jesus shine forth in undimmed transparency.

Luke Warm & Loving It

2009-10-12T15:38:00.001-04:00

To Know the Will of the Lord

2009-10-11T11:10:00.004-04:00

While in prayer this morning, I was seeking God’s will for today, asking him to guide all my steps in everything I did. But how do we know EXACTLY what God wants us to do today? How do we discern what is from our own will and what is motivated by the Holy Spirit? Sometimes I feel so inadequate in knowing FOR SURE what the Lord wants from me day by day.

I think of Mary and Martha in the scriptures. Martha seemed to be doing what anyone might do today…she had a house full of people and she was taking care of them, it seems very logical, so much so that she was sure the Lord would see it her way too when she went to complain to him that Mary wasn’t helping her. Sometimes we are surprised to see that the things that seem so important to us, are not at all a concern for the Lord.

Learning to not “assume” what we are to do day by day is truly a learning process, it is part of the strong meat that the Lord wants to lead us to.

Hbr 5:14 But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, [even] those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

Rom 12:2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what [is] that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God

This morning while pondering these things, (sometimes I ask the Lord to speak loudly to me, because I feel like I am so hard of hearing and can’t always “see” what he wants me to do…I feel so dumb sometimes) then Lord brought to my mind, “the just shall live by faith” … and then to the scripture in Luke 7:22 “…tell John what things ye have seen and heard; how that the blind see...the deaf hear”…and he took me to , Isaiah 29:18 “And in that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity, and out of darkness.” Praise the Lord that will make you want to shout! He answered so quickly, I can rest in him; He makes the blind see, and the deaf to hear!!

Day by day, he is able to make us “see” and “hear” what his perfect will for us is that day. If we are willing to seek him daily, surrender our wants and desires to him, we can rest and know that he will direct our steps. Through exercising this each day, we will see more and more of his will being formed in us. We would like it all to happen over night, but it is a process, we are “working out our own salvation with fear and trembling”, but what a wonderful journey we are on. It might be too big to think about living the rest of our lives in the perfect will of God, always obey him in everything…but surely the Lord is able to keep me in his will today.

Jude 1:24 Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present [you] faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy,

To All Who Received Him

2009-10-10T12:16:00.003-04:00

(The following composition by Steve Bray is an amplified compilation of truth gleaned from Faith Beyond Reason by A.W. Tozer)

We begin with an explosive text, teaching as it does about a mysterious, invisible birth – a mystic birth. Here is how it reads:

He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God – children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God. (John 1:11-13)

Such a text cannot be properly handled without getting into areas that some may consider radical. It cannot be handled without considering the fact that there are many people in the world who are God's creation but not God's children. It cannot be handled without considering the refusal of many “believing Christians” to accept the terms of true discipleship – the willingness to turn our backs on everything worldly for Jesus' sake.

This invisible birth of which John speaks is a powerful act of God. John is talking about something far beyond the life we have been able to know through our physical birth. This invisible, mysterious birth has nothing to do with the fleshly works of human effort. It is produced by divine power from heaven. This birth is of the Spirit – a birth of another kind, a mystic birth that produces the life of Jesus Christ within our soul.

Some people are very perturbed when a preacher uses the word mystic. They want to chase him out immediately. But regardless of what these people believe, the whole Bible is a mystical book, a book of mystery, a book describing the wondrous works of God.

The Bible actually says that God has given us the privilege of being born of His Spirit. This is not poetry or simply nice sounding words – this is theology! We can become sons of God and be conformed to the image of the Son through the power of the Holy Spirit. So it is plain that a person who is a creation of God becomes a child of God only when he or she is born by a special work of God Almighty. And we have a right to be sick inside when we see people in the church acting like sons of the earth, acting like children of the flesh, and conforming to the ways fostered on this world by the “god of this age,” all the while saying they believe in a new birth that produces a whole new creation.

And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died from them and was raised again... Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God... (2 Cor. 4:15, 17)

Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 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. If {and the word is “if”} we have been united with him like this in his death {to the flesh-life} we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection {life}. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin –because anyone who has died has been freed from sin...But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom. 6:3-7, 22-23)

Now how did these people get this privilege of being born into a whole new divine life? They believed, and they received Christ's life. In most cases we have believed ourselves into a blind ally that does not have any correspondence to reality. Our belief has become one where we accept something as true even though all the actions of our life refute the reality of the things we say we believe. But true “believers” enter into a humble, trusting and dependent faith by wholly yielding their life to the convicting work of the Holy Spirit.

Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation – but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it. For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds {self-willed ways} of the body, you will live, because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. (Rom. 8:12-14)

These true believers have received the divine life of Jesus Christ and “to all who received him...he gave the right.” Note that this word receive is not passive. This is not a mere statement of fact. Action is required and terms are to be met before the reality of the new birth will occur. The Bible knows absolutely nothing about passive reception, for the word receive is not passive, but active. We make the word receive into “accept.” Everyone goes around asking, “Will you accept Jesus?” This makes some sort of salesman out of Jesus Christ, as though He stands waiting to know whether we will patronize Him or not.

Let me repeat, a passive reception is unknown in the Bible. We have often been taught that passive acceptance is the equivalent of faith when it is not. The Greek is active. We must seek the reality Christ's divine life with all of our heart, our soul, our mind, and our strength, through a living faith. Receiving Christ savingly will require an act of the total personality. It is an act of the mind, the will and the affections. It must be an aggressive act of the total personality. Every part of the being must be a hand reaching forth for the divine life of Jesus Christ.

The true believer is one who will meet any condition the Lord lays down, even to the forsaking of relatives and friends. No one ever successfully came to the Lord by making terms with Him. They came to the Lord and actively began walking according to His stated terms.

“You are getting radical,” you protest. Maybe so, but we say nothing more radical than the Lord has said: “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters – yes, even his own life – he cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14:26) Jesus is asking us to place our love and responsive obedience to Him before that of wife, husband, and children. And if we do not, He will not have us. That is the sum of the teaching of Jesus on this subject.

Let us get it straight. Jesus Christ does not just offer us salvation as though it is a decoration of honor added to our garb. He says plainly: “Throw of your old rags of self-directed righteousness; strip down to nothingness! Then come to me and receive my life of true righteousness and holiness to wear as a white robe so all the world can see the sons of God.”

You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. (Eph. 4:22-24)

To receive Jesus Christ as Lord is strong meat. We are being called to yield our whole life to him and walk in His preordained will for our life. “For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (Eph. 2:10)

Some want to cling to their sinful pleasures. In our churches in this deadly hour of deception we are guilty of encouraging people to remain in their worldly way of life. Consequently, the church becomes filled with double-minded people who profess Jesus with their lips, yet they follow the ways fostered on this world by the “god of this age.” “Just believe on Jesus and accept Him, and then you can be as you were before. You can do what you did before, as long as you don't commit those awful sins like getting drunk and chasing after women.” This is the kind of deceitful Christianity that is being passed along in too many circles and is leading many into the pit.

The Bible says that as many as received Christ, meaning His eternal life as He once manifested it *(See 1 John 1:1-2), to them He gave the right to become children of God. We need to offer up our old flesh-life for it to be consumed by the fire of our Lord so the temple of our body may be filled with the light of His glory. This may cost us our friends, our jobs, and even our families, but we must make sure we enter into the good, pleasing and perfect will of God, which He has preordained for our life.

Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will. (Rom. 12:1-2 Emphasis added)

Knowing the Words Is Not Enough

In one of his confrontations with the Jewish leaders, Jesus gives us reason to look at those in His day who held truth to be merely intellectual understanding. Here is the setting, the question and Jesus' reply:

Not until halfway through the Feast did Jesus go up to the temple courts and begin to teach. The Jews were amazed and asked, “How did this man get such learning without having studied?” Jesus answered, “My teaching is not my own. It comes from him who sent me. If anyone chooses to do God's will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own.” (John 7:14-17)

This attitude toward truth held by people in Jesus' day leads us to consider those who cling to an intellectual concept of God's truth in our own times. I call them evangelical rationalists and in effect, evangelical rationalism will kill the truth just as quickly as liberalism does.

First, let’s look at these Jewish leaders in Jesus’ day. They marveled at Him, and they said to one another, “How did this man get such learning without having studied?” It was their concern that Jesus had never studied in the accepted schools of higher learning. If He were living today, Jesus would have been questioned about His lack of seminary training.

Here is where the spirit of the world leads everyone astray. Religious leaders often believe that the written words of truth are the truth we must receive. This has always been one of the basic misunderstandings of Christian theology. That is, if you have the words, you have the truth. If you memorize the Scripture, you have truth stored in the “heart.” Our Savior tried to correct this inadequate view. He showed them the heavenly quality of His message. He showed them that, as the Second Adam, He was simply a transparent medium through whom God spoke. As John so plainly described, Jesus was the Eternal Word of truth being manifested in human form.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He {the Son} was with God in the beginning... In him was life, and that life was the light of men...The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:1-2, 4, 14)

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched – this we proclaim concerning the Word of Life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. (1 John 1:1-2)

In order to receive the Word of Life into our mortal bodies, we must enter into Christ's death to self so we may be raised up by the power of the Spirit into a participation with Him in His divine nature. “His divine power has given us everything we need for {a Christlike} life and godliness...so that...you may participate in the divine nature...” (2 Pet. 1:3-4) In effect, ever since the first Christian “Feast of Firstfruits” at Pentecost, we have had access to the firstfruits of Christ's eternal life.

Indeed, the {living} water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to {a present manifestation of the firstfruits of the} eternal life. (John 4:14)

If {and again the word is – “if”}we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection {life}... But now that you have been set free from sin {your self-willed nature} and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is {a present manifestation of Christ's} eternal life. (Rom. 6:5, 22)

Here is the weakness in modern Christianity and I am wondering why there is so much silence about it. We find a dividing line between evangelical rationalists and evangelical mystics. Like the scribes and Pharisees of old, they {evangelical rationalists} think we have the truth in our life when we simply know the words that have been given to us by God in the Bible. But the written word always points away from itself to the Living Word {Jesus Christ} who was with the Father from the beginning and who must impart His divine life within our inner being.

Once again, evangelical rationalism will kill the truth just as quickly as liberalism will, though in a more subtle way. As in our Lord's days on earth as a man, these rationalists do not know anything about the mystical depth or the supernatural and divine life they are to receive from Christ. They have the text and they have the creed, and to them that is the truth. So they pass it on to others. And the sad result is a church without divine spiritual life.

I believe that the Bible is a living book, that God has given it to us and that we dare not add to it or take away from it. It is revelation. But revelation is not enough! There must be divine illumination through a manifestation of the Living Word from within our inner being. We must participate with Christ in His divine nature. It is not enough to hold an inspired book in my hands. I must have an inspired heart. There is a radical difference. There must be a divine inward illumination by the omnipotent power of the Holy Spirit or we will never be able to live out our Lord's teachings as He provided in His Sermon on the Mount, which are a manifesto of the way of life in His kingdom of self-sacrificing love. No one who remains under the control and power of the flesh can live according to our Lord's kingdom life. We must be born of the Spirit and become a whole new creation if we hope to enter the undivided kingdom of God.

You ask, “Is it possible to hear the truth and not understand the truth?” Let’s listen to Isaiah first, and then the apostle Paul.

Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving. (Isa. 6:9)

Always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. (2 Tim. 3:7)

Yes, it is possible to see and yet not perceive. Paul also says, “My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that you faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power.” (1 Cor. 2:4-5) Now, the theological rationalist understands those verses in this way: He says that your faith should stand not in the wisdom of man but in the word of God. But that is not what Paul said. He said that your faith should stand in the power of God. That is quite a different thing.

We must get to know the written word. There are promises from God that we must understand and spiritual principles we must accept into our life if we hope to receive the reality of the promises. But in the end, we must turn to the omnipotent God and rely on His power in dependent faith if we ever hope to participate with Christ in His divine nature.

Jesus said those who are willing to do God's will shall know the reality of divine truth; they shall know His teachings – whether His teachings come from God or whether He speaks on His own as a mere man teaching more doctrines. We cannot know the Father and His divine life until after the Son has revealed Him from within our inner being. I can know about God; that is the body of truth found in His written word. But I cannot know God until the Spirit of our Lord reveals Him in the soul.

If a sinner goes to the alter and a worker with a New Testament argues him into the kingdom, the devil will meet him two blocks down the street and argue him out of it again. But if he has an inward illumination of divine life – the witness within – you cannot argue with such a man. The Spirit will cause that one to hunger and thirst after true righteous and holiness (Matt. 5:6, Eph. 4:24), with the intent to fill him. Jesus promised –

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. (Matt. 5:6)

Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him. By this he meant the Spirit... (John 7:38- 39)

Whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." (John 4:14)

If anyone chooses to do God's will, he will find out. He will know. Yet most people continue to hold out on God, refusing to follow the path of Jesus {who lived only to please His Father} and rebelling against His teachings. You can take a Bible study course and learn all about synthesis and analysis and all the rest. But if you are holding out on God you might just as well read the newspaper. All the courses in the world will not illuminate you with divine life in your soul. You will find your head full of knowledge, and you may become quite disciplined in your moral way of life, but the divine nature will not enter the soul until it is imparted by the power of God.

You cannot argue around this. You can read your Bible – read any version you want – and if you are honest you will admit that knowing the words alone will never impart divine life. You can repeat Romans word for word and you will still find your inward nature far from our Lord's kingdom life. The truth you know intellectually must be known spiritually through the divine power of God. The Bible teaches us how we can perfect God's power within our inner being, and we must respond according to His ways. God will give every earnest seeker of His divine life a new nature. “He rewards those who earnestly seek him.” (Heb. 11:6)

Again, there is a radical difference in seeking to understand God’s word and seeking the life of God. In that great day of Christ's coming all that will matter is whether or not I have been inwardly illuminated and purified. “God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them...for he purified their hearts by faith.” (Acts 15:8-9) They gave up their old self-willed way of life of living by human effort in their own sufficiency and sought to live under the control and power of Christ's Spirit. For those who have placed all of their faith in the mere word of God {the Bible} to produce this change in character, I suggest that you carefully consider the warning taught to the first century scholars of God's word. Listen to what Jesus said to them.

You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by {a belief in} them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to {die to self and} come to me {through the cross} to have {divine} life. (John 5:39-40)

True Disciples of Christ

Jesus plainly stated, “If you hold to my teachings, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:31-32) Not many people are being set free from the bondage of their old carnal nature because they have not responded to the spiritual principles that have been so clearly described in the New Testament.

Jesus is saying that not everyone who becomes a disciple of mine is “really [one of] my disciples.” We can learn quite a bit from what is not said or written. For example, if I say “up,” I imply that there must be a “down.” If I say “long,” I imply also a “short” or I would not have had to say “long.” So when Jesus spoke of real disciples, there must have been others who were false disciples.

First, we must consider the person who becomes a disciple of Christ on impulse because of the way someone has built up an emotion that requires a release. These people come into Christianity in a wave of enthusiasm and I am a little bit cautious of anyone who is too easily converted. Most of these people are easily flipped back the other way when their emotions change in another direction. “Those...are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away” or “those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life's worries, riches and pleasures.” (Luke 8:13-14)

I have never considered it a very great compliment to the Christian church that we can generate enthusiasm on such short notice. All the religions of the world can do the same. Many get converted on enthusiasm, but quickly fall away on principle. The less there is in the kettle, the quicker it boils and cools off.

I have also met the kind of disciples who seemed to be Christians because of the cult of personality. They had been overwhelmed and charmed by a big dose of winsome personality. Men of the world have always been able to get large followings because of their charisma. But it has nothing to do with following the ways of our Lord and Master.

There are also many people who we might call half disciples. They remain double-minded. These are men and women who bring their lives partially under the control of Christ but they refuse to give up other areas to His control. But if we have not given up all of our life to the control of Jesus Christ, we do not have any reason to believe that He is taking responsibility for our life. Jesus has clearly linked true love for Him to our obedience. “If you love me, you will obey what I command.” (John 14:15) “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose...to be conformed to the likeness of the Son...” (Rom. 8:28-29) If we are not obeying our Lord by earnestly seeking to be conformed to His spiritual image, and that by living under the control and power of the Spirit, we do not have any guarantees from our Lord.

Many of these half disciples will obey the Lord in select areas of their lives but disobey Him in others. We must submit all of our life to the will of God. There cannot be any of our self-will in God's undivided kingdom. God calls His people out from the ways of the world to live in His good, pleasing and perfect will. It was an old English preacher who used to say, “If Christ cannot be Lord of all, He will not be Lord at all!” We must submit ourselves to be wholly led by the Spirit of God if we want to be true sons of God.

Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation – but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it. For if you live according to the {self-willed} sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the {willful} misdeeds of the body, you will live, because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. (Rom. 8:12-14)

No matter what we profess with our lips, we cannot be led by the Spirit of God while we are living according to the self-willed way of life that has been fostered on this world by the “god of this age.” And our Lord's warning is clear, “Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” (Matt. 7:21) There is only one way out of the old self-willed way of life –

Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded... Humble yourselves before the Lord {in dependent and responsive faith} and he will lift you up. (Jam. 4:7-8, 10)

Suppose a young man starts out with a shining face as he kneels at the prayer meeting and says, “Lord, take me and use me as you will!” He starts out as an exemplary, consecrated Christian man. Then a beautiful girl comes along. She is not committed to the Christian life but she is nice to look at and she has a winsome personality and a soft voice. The young man becomes interested in her and eventually there is a wedding. They set up their home and begin living according to the world's self-willed way of life. You ask him why he is no longer willing to be an instrument of God’s good, pleasing and perfect will. He replies, “Well, my wife had another plan for me.” And even though he may remain in the double-minded way of life and still attend church services, he refuses to submit his life fully to the will of God. I do not want to be cruel but I must be honest. We can only enter into the undivided kingdom of God by submitting our will to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. He must be head of, and Lord in every department of our life. We cannot have a girlfriend or a husband or a home or a job or anything else, including all “rights” to our very self, closed off in a compartment that we do not permit Christ to control. If Jesus is not Lord of our whole life, as it will be throughout eternity, then we are not real disciples.

We read in the Book of Acts this passage: “On their release, Peter and John went back to their own people.” (Acts 4:23) All human beings, when given the freedom to do so, will gravitate to others who are like themselves. For instance, let some people go and they will soon be looking for others who have their same desire for certain recreational activities. Christians will flock together too. If we have Christian hearts we will be more than Sunday morning Christians however. Our whole existence will revolve around the Kingdom of God. Those who love to be in the will of the Lord will have a need to be walking in His path all of their life and in all areas of their life.

They devoted themselves to the apostles' teachings and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. (Acts 2:42)

All the believers were one in heart and mind. (Acts 4:32)

Once again, truth must be understood by inward illumination. Truth is not the text. Truth is in the text, but it takes the text plus the Holy Spirit to bring truth to a human soul. Until that time we do not know it in reality. That is why Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching you are really by disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:31-32)

We have all gone to Bible classes and listened to people teach who were learned in the word of God. Still we come away as cold as a pickled fish. Most people end up saying something like, “So what? Let's go have a soda!” Are we aware that we can have objective truth in the mind without having divine life in the soul? Until Christ imparts His own life within our inner being we will continue to find conflict between the desires of the flesh and the ways of God. We must seek the present reality of His life with all of our heart, our soul, our mind and our strength.

I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me {as an inner manifestation of divine life}. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that...I am in you. (John 14:18-20)

This is how we know that we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did. (1 John 2:5-6)

We Belong to the One We Follow

We live in a day when it is very hard to find a genuinely sincere person. Most people are so caught up in the kind of society we live in that they are always pretending, always “putting on a front.” They are never their real selves until they get mad, and when they get very mad they begin to spew forth the things they have been holding in their heart.

For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. The good man brings things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. But I tell you that men will have to give an account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned. (Matt. 12:34-37)

Evil will inevitably erupt from the heart as long as it remains self-centered. It will have the need to be constantly defending its rights and there will be a natural desire to attack others whenever it has been crossed.

In contrast, when we have the life of Christ in our soul we will never need to defend ourselves. This is not to say that Christians will not sometimes speak forth some statements that will sound very harsh to the people of the world as they speak boldly in defense of God's righteousness. The Pharisees were the most religious of God's people in their day. And yet this is what Jesus said to them.

You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him... He who belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God. (John 8:44, 47)

Our Lord had to say to them what the Father told Him to say. Jesus never spoke on His own, but said only what the Father wanted to speak through Him. (John 8:28) This statement came from the heart that was soon to die for the very people to whom He was speaking. Yet, because of the serious nature of their unbelief, our Lord had to speak the truth to them and to all the generations to come.

There are always some who will argue that Jesus should have compromised. But He could not compromise truth to make them feel better about themselves in this temporal world, when He realized how He would have to send them into eternal wrath if they did not learn how to enter into God's truth before it was too late. He drew the line sharply and said, “He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters.” (Matt. 12:30) He left no area open in the middle. In the kingdom of God there will be no darkness, and in hell there will be no light. Jesus could not blend light with darkness by compromising God's eternal truth.

In our day churches are trying to offer such a compromise between the ways of the world and the ways in God's eternal kingdom. Some pastors feel this is the way to get along with people and to improve the church's public relations. Our Lord would have been thrown out of most seminaries today as being too strict in His teachings. He was dealing completely in the area of truth, and eternal truth is uncompromising. It never worries about what people think of it. Truth never worries about who is going to hate it or who is going to receive it. It never worries about what there is to lose and what there is to gain.

Our Lord was eternal truth in human form. (John 1:14; 1 John 1:1-2) And that explains all of the conflict, all of the animosity against Him. He might have been more compromising with the people while He was in this world. And if He had done that He would have pleased those who preferred to see heaven and hell join arms and go down the street in fellowship saying, “If we cannot agree, at least let's not disagree.” But if He had permitted people to go on in their deception He would have been the one to blame when they were sent into eternal wrath for rebelling against God's eternal truth. Remember, “All men are like grass, and all their glory {in the flesh} is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord stands forever.” (1 Pet. 1:24-25)

Jesus never dealt with people according to the world's way of compromise and etiquette. He was dealing with spiritual issues with eternal ramifications. So Jesus had to tell those who rejected His word, “You belong to your father, the devil.” And He was speaking to people who held a religion that was wholly built upon the word of God. In fact, Abraham was their father and they had the temple with its holy place and the scroll of the Law. They were God's priests and they were fully committed to serving Him. Their profession was impeccable.

But now the Light of God was shining on them. This light that shines forth on every person in their darkness was shining through their profession and their claims. Jesus said to them – “He who belongs to God hears what God says.” (John 8:47) In spite of their profession He assured them, “You do not hear.” That left only one conclusion: “You do not belong to God.” While they believed in God and in many of His teachings, there were truths they could not accept into their heart. This meant they did not have God's enabling power opening up the reality of His truth in their life. And sadly, this same deception is all through the church today.

Jesus has clearly explained why “the many” disciples have always ended up turning back from the way of eternal truth. They say about His truth, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?” (John 6:60) They were unable to hear what God had to say, and so our Lord then said to His genuine disciples – “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him.” (John 6:65)

This is an accurate test of any man or woman in terms of whether or not he or she is of God. Are they willing to hear the Word of God? And this hearing does not refer to the kind of hearing we hear every Sunday at church services as one might listen to music. Many people hear the word of God but it does not have any effect on their life. But scriptural hearing refers to being in sympathy with God's truth so that it is heeded and obeyed. People who belong to God have been given a desire to do what the word commands. If a person does not have a compelling desire to obey the eternal truth, then it is plain they do not yet belong to God.

Your baptism, your church attendance and your name on the church roll, and the big Bible you carry – these are not the things that are important to God. You can train a chimpanzee to carry a Bible. Every one of us is the sum of what we secretly admire or desire to do or become. What we spend our time thinking about, whether it be God's will or our own will, is what determines the true condition of our heart. This does not mean that men cannot be tamed like domestic animals. Many a husband has learned to say, “Yes, dear. Yes, dear.” But when his wife is not there, you can hear him say something different to the goldfish! At times he lives in anger and bitterness but he hides it because he has been trained by his wife. The meekness that God’s children are to express in this fallen world cannot be a learned response. It must be imparted by a supernatural work of the Spirit.

Judgment Begins in the House of God

2009-10-05T20:55:00.002-04:00

Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. (Hebrews 6:2)

If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. (Philippians 3:11)

Every saint, every diligent disciple, knows how the Lord Jesus deals with each detail of his conduct. As we confess our sins and achieve victory over the flesh and soulish pride, the Lord removes our sin and self-will from us by several Divine means. This is the operation of eternal judgment, and it will be administered to us now if we will cooperate with the Holy Spirit.

We believe it is possible to pass completely through death, spiritual resurrection, and eternal judgment now—in the world. We can enter life and rulership now. In this manner we arrive at the spiritual dimension of the first resurrection from the dead.

We believe further that only those who pass through judgment and spiritual resurrection now will participate in the first resurrection from among the dead, will rise from the dead and ascend to meet the Lord when He comes.

How could it be otherwise? It is not possible that we can be raised from the dead, rise to meet the Lord in the air, be ever with the Lord, and then be judged. The only way in which this could be possible would be if our judgment is a sort of gala awards ceremony in which every believer receives a blessing and is not punished to any significant extent.

If we believe Christ bore all of our punishment on the cross, and by believing in His name we escape punishment, then it is plausible that every believer will be raised from the dead, ascend to meet the Lord, be ever with the Lord, and rejoice throughout the administration of the Judgment Seat of Christ, realizing that no punishment of a serious nature ever will be administered to him. Also, we can sit in the balconies of Heaven in air-conditioned comfort and eat candy while we watch the Jews without the Holy Spirit preach the Gospel in the face of Antichrist. How the Jewish evangelists learned the Gospel without the Holy Spirit is not always made clear.

This error is believed by numerous Gentile Christians and perhaps by some Jewish Christians. It is true that the victorious saints will have boldness in the Day of Judgment. It is not true that the lukewarm, indifferent (to spiritual matters) "believer" of today has a scriptural basis for any such assurance. The prevailing carefree attitude is not supported by II Corinthians 5:10,11 or the twenty-fifth chapter of Matthew. Neither is it in harmony with the fourth chapter of I Peter, Jude, or the second and third chapters of the Book of Revelation.

In fact, the concept that a correct doctrinal position concerning Christ delivers us from reaping what we sow is contrary to the entire Scriptures, especially and emphatically the New Testament—particularly Matthew, Mark, and Luke.

It simply is not true.

If it is not true we can see immediately the danger facing the Christians and their teachers.
It is not possible that a believer can be raised from the dead, ascend to meet the Lord at His coming, be ever with the Lord, be glorified together with Him, and then be judged. It will not happen. We must be judged in advance of the first resurrection. Revelation 20:4-6, the passage that describes the first resurrection, does not mention the books of judgment.

Peter informs us that judgment already has begun in the house of God (I Peter 4:17).

R. Thomas

The Great Obligation of a True Christian

2009-10-04T22:21:00.004-04:00

From the writings of Gerhard Tersteegen – (1697-1769)

The following material was extracted from two books published by Harvey Publications and printed by Old Paths Tract Society.

Gerhard Tersteegen was a German contemporary of John Wesley. He wished for a secluded life, but crowds besieged his dwelling place, eager to feast on the words of wisdom that fell from the lips of one who had been closeted with his Maker. Everywhere he went, crowds gathered by wayside, in barns, and in homes where their famished souls feasted upon the Bread of Life. Tersteegen was also a prolific hymn writer.

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If true Christians possess so great and sublime a dignity, they have also a great and sublime duty to observe, and that for the very same reason—they are not their own, but God’s, both as it respects body and soul. Hence it is said in the words of our text, “Ye are not your own; therefore glorify God in your bodies and in your spirits which are God’s.”… The life of my spirit, the life of my body, my powers and faculties, belong not to me, but to God…

I must desire neither grace, nor long life, neither health, nor bodily powers, except for the sole end and purpose of applying them to the service of God to Whom they alone belong. I must devote all my powers and faculties to Him; all must be for him. If I only employ them in eating and drinking, in amassing money and possessions, or in attaining honor in order to live in ease and pleasure, I commit a culpable [accountable] wrong. I have no right nor authority over my bodily powers, no right nor power over my property. I must offer them up to God and devote them to His service…

This is that real and complete service which God requires of His people even as we read in Romans 12 that we are to “Present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God.” [This is our “reasonable service.”]… Therefore, since Christ has purchased my body and my senses, I must not lend my ears and eyes to hear or see anything sinful. Like Job, I must make a covenant with my eyes and ears that I do not desire to hear, see, taste, and feel anything that does not lead me to God…

I dare not love the world, nor that which is in the world—the lust [desires] of the flesh, the lust [desires] of the eye, and the [self-elevating] pride of life. My heart belongs entirely to God. I must, therefore, present and devote my love, my inclinations, and desires to him, or else I commit real sacrilege… Ought I to take pleasure in vanity? Have I not enough in Christ? Why ought I to desire anything else beside Him? This would be just as much as if I said to Him, “Thou alone art not enough. I must therefore have something else for my gratification besides Thee!”

This be far from us! Let us delight ourselves in the Lord alone and entirely, for He alone is able to give us all that our hearts can wish and desire both in time and eternity. Christ, Who has bought our hearts, not with gold and silver, but with His precious blood, and has, therefore, the greatest right to them, will not have them half and divided, but is desirous of possessing them entirely…

My will is not longer my own, since Christ has purchased me and has weaned my spirit from the world… I dare not use my will anymore according to my own will or my own good pleasure, for self-will must no more be mentioned amongst Christians.

The words, I will, and, I will not, are disgraceful in the mouth of a true Christian. Our will must be resigned to Christ. We must be prepared to live according to His will and not according to the will of the Gentiles [unbelievers]. We must ever be ready and willing to follow the smallest intimations of His good pleasure… We ought to renounce all right over our own will in order that Christ, by His Spirit, may alone will and not will in us…

O LORD, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps. (Jer. 10:23)

For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. (Rom. 8:14)

Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh {as he dies out to the self-originated way of life} hath ceased from sin {self-will}; That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God. (1 Peter 4:1-2)

Therefore as much as we do not seek to walk according to our [God-ordained] vocation, holy and blamelessly in the sight of God…God is not only not glorified by us, but rather dishonored and disgraced. For when those individuals who have the appearance of being particularly devoted and attached to godliness, [live]…as the world does, the latter [the world] is then ready to say, “Look… These are the people who wear the name of pious saints and regenerate, and yet they are no less fond of vanity than the world and seek after wealth and riches and after great honors. It is all mere hypocrisy with them. It is true, they have the name that they live, but they are not less spiritually dead than other men.”…

Church Leadership

2009-09-26T17:47:00.009-04:00

Church Leadership by Steve Bray

The Way of Christ

2009-09-25T15:02:00.005-04:00

Since a Christ-like walk is a description of “life” in the authentic Christian faith, we must then define how Jesus walked. To begin, Scripture describes how the Son of God emptied Himself of His own power and glory as God to become a man. As a man, the Son was called the Second Adam because He came to live as the first Adam had been created to live. He lived in total dependence upon the power of the Holy Spirit.

The Son did not use the power He possessed as God when He became a man. In the likeness of the first Adam, as Adam was able to live before he lost the indwelling presence of the Spirit, Jesus was expected to rely on the Holy Spirit to show forth the life and work of the Father through Him.

The reason why so many Christians do not know anything about the indwelling nature of God is because they have not been willing to enter through the one small gate into the presence of His heavenly life. They have not followed the path of the firstborn Son. An essential prerequisite to being filled with the life of God is to first permit the Spirit to empty us of our own power and glory. Jesus emptied Himself of a power and glory that He had a right to possess. In our fallen state, we have tried to be like God by using all of our efforts to fill our life with our own glory. If we hope to become like the Son and walk as Jesus did, we must give up our own glory in order to become an instrument of God’s power and glory.

No one will ever be in a condition to manifest God’s glory while they remain filled with self-exaltation. In effect, the self-seeking nature that seeks its own glory is the essence of the evil in fallen man. This is what keeps their soul from being exalted by the power of the Holy Spirit into the presence of God. “Your attitude should be the same as that of Jesus Christ: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death – even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him...” (Phil. 2:5-9)

If you want to be highly exalted into the heavenly realms by God’s power and begin participating with Christ in His divine nature, you too must permit your self-life to be taken to the cross. This is the basic premise of the true Christian faith. (Luke 14:27,33) “For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection.” (Rom. 6:5 KJV)

The spiritual law of pride and humility works as consistently as God's natural law of gravity. God does not show favoritism. (Acts 10:34; Rom. 2:10) If we try to exalt ourselves, God will be working to bring us down spiritually. If we will humble ourselves under God’s mighty hand by living under the control of His Spirit, He will use His divine power to lift us up in due time. (1 Pet. 5:5-6)

When Jesus emptied Himself of His own glory to become “nothing” in Himself in order to walk as the Second Adam – to live as a man in the way that God had planned for man to live – He no longer had a will of His own {His will was united with the Father’s will}. He only had one purpose during His life as a man: He was here to freely submit Himself to do the will of the Father.

This was the glory of man and his source of blessedness before the Fall. We were to receive the blessings of divine life by living in the will of God. Jesus said to them, “My food {or source of spiritual sustenance} is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work.” (John 4:34 NKJV)

Based on Christ's example, the only way anyone will ever walk as Jesus did is by giving up their own will. Every true disciple of Jesus Christ will permit the Spirit to lead them through the cross and a death to self-will so they may be lifted up into God's heavenly life and will. And so we pray –

“Your kingdom come {into our heart-Luke 17:21}, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” (Matt. 6:10)

“This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.” (1 John 2:5-6)

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this {proud and willful} world... Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will. (Rom. 12:1-2)

Jesus “made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.” (Phil. 2:7) The likeness of a “human,” as God had planned, is to be nothing in self. God did not intend for us to live for our own will and glory. The blessedness of the eternal life can only be known when God becomes our “all in all.” (1 Cor. 15:28) Beginning today, and lasting throughout all eternity, God wants to be our one source of spiritual life. In effect, it is only when we are in a condition of nothingness that we can expect to be spiritually exalted by the resurrection power of the Holy Spirit into the fullness of Christ's life. (John 10:10)

“I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints.” (Jude 3)

“I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him...in the heavenly realms...” (Eph. 1:18-20)

“Praise be to the God...who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with {the reality of} every spiritual blessing in Christ.” (Eph. 1:3)

by Steve Bray

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THE TRUE POWER OF CHRISTIANITY

2009-09-10T10:05:00.006-04:00

Some of the following lessons were developed from William Arthur’s book entitled The Tongue of Fire; The True Power of Christianity. It was written in 1856.

Chapter One:

GOD’S KINGDOM WITHIN THE HEART

When John the Baptist was being used mightily by the Spirit to call people to repentance, the Jews began to say, “Surely this must be the Messiah for whom we have waited so long.” Of course, he was not the one they were seeking. John was sent to prepare God’s people to receive the Lord. He therefore said to them, “I am not the Christ.” (John 1:20) “I indeed baptize you with water {as a sign of repentance}; but One mightier than I is coming, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” (Luke 3:16)

The Jewish people had long been expecting a Messiah. He was coming to establish a kingdom here on earth where people would live by the will of God. Their last inspired prophet had said, “Behold…the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple.” (Mal. 3:1)

The Messiah, according to the general belief of the Jews, would set up His throne in the temple at Jerusalem and begin ruling His kingdom from a physical location. He would establish His government – the kingdom of God – like other kingdoms of this world. He would then make everyone obey the laws of God. His great power and authority would enable Him to rule over all other governments and people. And many Christians still believe this way.

But this is not how God had planned to establish His kingdom. The Lord did not intend to rule over the people of the world by making them conform to written laws. God’s thoughts are not like our thoughts. And His ways are far above the ways of man.

It is God’s plan to rule His people from a throne within their hearts. The Messiah, once He was resurrected and glorified, would use His Spirit to establish His kingdom-life within the hearts of men. He would manifest Himself within the temple of their bodies so they could share with Him in His life of true righteousness and holiness. (Eph. 4:24)

Then the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Sovereign Lord, when I show myself holy through you before their eyes… I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws… I will save you from all your uncleanness. (Ezk. 36:23, 27, 29 NIV)

In other words, the Messiah did not intend to set up a physical kingdom in this world. However, He would enable people to participate with Him in His divine nature if they would surrender the temple of their body to Him so He could set up His throne of power within their heart. (2 Pet. 1:3-4) This has always been God’s ultimate plan for redeeming fallen man. Jesus confirmed this interpretation of the Old Testament prophecies when He said, “For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.” (Luke 17:20)

The Lord would come to immerse God’s called-out people into His own spiritual life through a baptism with the Holy Spirit and fire. Through this purification and infilling, He would establish His Kingdom-life of love within their hearts and enable them to fulfill all the righteous requirements of the law. (Rom. 8:3-4)

John the Baptist was a prophet sent by God to prepare the people for the coming of the Lord to His temple. The Messiah, when He came to each of His consecrated disciples in power, would enable them to overcome the flesh, the world and the devil. These people who had been called out by God through repentance, would then be able to “serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him all the days of {their} life. (Luke 1:74-75)

God had been sending this message to His people through the prophets for centuries. But when John the Baptist came on the scene, the age of fulfillment was finally at hand.

Behold, I send My messenger, and he will prepare the way before Me {by calling the people to repentance}. And {a little later} the Lord, whom you seek {wholeheartedly}, Will suddenly come to His temple… He is like a refiner’s fire… He will purify the sons of Levi and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer to the Lord an offering in righteousness. (Mal. 3:1-3)

The sons of Levi represent consecrated believers in this age of fulfillment. This long awaited “Promise of the Father” that purifies the heart and fills the temple of the body with God’s life of love – His glory – is only offered to those who have previously repented and have fully consecrated their lives to the Lord. They would become the true priests of God as they “put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” (Eph. 4:24)

But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. (1 Pet. 2:9)

John the Baptist, as a minister of the gospel message, served the purpose of preparing people to receive the baptism with the Holy Spirit. His function was to lead people to repentance and to prepare their hearts to receive the Lord and His Kingdom-life from heaven. He said to the people, “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matt. 3:2) This kingdom of heaven {a term that Matthew uses when referring to the kingdom of God} would soon be available to them. Once this kingdom was established within their hearts, they would be enabled to serve God with the same undivided devotion that the angels serve God in heaven. While the light of their understanding would not be as great as the angels, their devotedness would be “made complete.” (Jam. 1:4)

The Spirit-baptism is only offered to people who are already living in a reconciled state. We are told that “John came baptizing in the wilderness and preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.” (Mark 1:4) To people who were being reconciled to God through repentance, he said, “Prepare the way of the Lord; Make His paths straight… Therefore bear fruit worthy of repentance…” (Luke 3:4, 8) He knew that only a forgiven, yielded, and consecrated heart would be prepared to receive this long awaited Promise of the Father.

God had forgiven people for their sins prior to the New Testament dispensation. He was able to see the Son’s shed blood from the foundation of the world. We can therefore find Him calling people back to Himself since the fall of Adam. Crediting people with righteousness was nothing new to God. (Rom. 4:20-22)

This New Testament age of fulfillment has something more to offer than the forgiveness of sins. The Messiah came to establish His Kingdom-life of love within the hearts of God’s called-out children so they would be enabled to display His spiritual image and glory in this world. He came to enable them to serve God with the same kind of selfless love that Jesus displayed when He lived in a mortal body. (1 John 4:17)

God has provided an Old Testament “type” to help Christians understand this spiritual principle. After God’s people in the Old Testament had properly prepared a dwelling place for the Lord {a temple}, had placed the sacrifice on the altar, and had prayed to God for the blessing, the fire then came down to consume the remains of the sacrifice. God demonstrated His approval of their preparations by sending the fire from heaven. Only then was He able to fill the temple, a dwelling place they were required to prepare for Him, with His presence and glory. Scripture says, “When Solomon had finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices; and the glory of the Lord filled the temple.” (2 Chron. 7:1)

On the day of Pentecost, this Old Testament “type” became a living reality in the lives of the first disciples. After they had prepared the temple of their bodies, had placed the remains of their flesh-life on the altar of sacrifice, and had offered up prayers to God, He then sent His fire from heaven to purify their hearts. (Acts 2:3)

God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them {their consecration}…for
he purified their hearts by faith. (Acts 15:8-9 Emphasis added NIV)

Blessed is the man who endures temptation, for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life {the Kingdom-life} which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. (Jam. 1:12 Emphasis added)

And the Lord, whom you seek {as the One who will establish His Kingdom within the heart}, will suddenly come to His temple… He will purify the sons of Levi {the fully consecrated believers}…that they may offer to the Lord an offering in righteousness.(Mal. 3:1, 3)

There is still a remains of impurity within the hearts of new believers. It can be recognized by the various forms of self-centeredness that still exist within their lives. The Bible refers to it as “the flesh” or the “sinful nature.” The called-out children of God will therefore be tested to see if they are willing to place this old self-centered nature on the altar of sacrifice. Christ will not consume the flesh-life with His fire from heaven and establish His Kingdom-life within their heart until they have made an unreserved {unblemished} offering of themselves to God.

God will not permit the flesh-life to enter into His presence. The Lord therefore needs to do His work of removing the old carnal nature before it is possible for the believer to dwell in His presence within the Holiest of All. In other words, “Without holiness no one will see the Lord.” (Heb. 12:14) Once the flesh-life is removed, the believer is able to enter into the holy nature of God and enjoy His presence. Their spiritual life is no longer a place of dryness and barrenness.

Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary promises of Christ, let us go on to perfection {become complete in the Lord’s life of love}… Do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience {steadfastness and perseverance inherit the promises… This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure andsteadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil. (Heb. 6:1, 12, 19)

Once the heart has been purified and Christ has shown Himself to the inner soul, the believer enters into a real participation with God in His divine nature. The flesh-life is consumed by His indwelling presence and the Spirit provides sufficient power to fulfill all the righteous requirements of the law. Whoever has My commands and obeys them {does his work of preparing the temple with his regenerate heart}, he is the one who loves Me…and I too will love him and show Myself to him {within the temple of the body}. (John 14:21 NIV)
For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, {the law is powerless to change anyone’s nature, only God’s power can do that} God did by sending His own Son…that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled {fully met – NIV} in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. (Rom. 8:3-4)

Continue to Chapter 2

The World’s Value System

2009-09-07T10:51:00.007-04:00

Modern Christianity has transformed scripture that is meant to bring us into the Kingdom of God where there is “righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.” into a self-serving, perverted gospel…anything to keep them from suffering.

Most Christians do not know what they were “saved” from. I would venture to say, “well learned ministers” of the “gospel” have no idea what Christ came to do and what he accomplished for us. The wonderful Good News of Jesus Christ has been cheapened into a “worldly” view of what “man” thinks is good. It has become all about happiness and comfort in this temporal world. God has called us to so much more than what this world can offer. If dying to your self and allowing yourself to go through the refining fires of the Holy Spirit seems like a depressing gospel to you, you have yet to know the Lord and his sufferings. And cannot understand the verse…”for the joy set before him, he endured the cross”.

We have all been born into a time of gross darkness; none of us have been immune to it. We were forewarned of this time in scripture. But, by the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, if we have a love for the truth no matter where it takes us, the Holy Spirit will lead us into all truth. Traditions of men will kill us; time is short so let us lay them down.

*The following article is by Steve Bray . Some simple truth from the scriptures, I pray blesses you.

The World’s Value System

The devil has fostered a value system on the world that must be recognized. He will have the advantage until the light from God’s Word has exposed the evil in his ways. Scripture has used such terms as “the spirit of the world” and “the spirit of error” to refer to this corrupt way of life. Yes, even if we have been a part of the Christian church and have sought to be followers of Jesus from earliest childhood, we have still “walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience.” (Eph. 2:2) Most Christians do not even understand what it implies to follow the course of this world. They have remained deceived and are still under the sway of “the spirit of the world.”

Life in the eternal kingdom of God requires a complete change in how we think. The Son provided a little insight into just how offensive man’s ways are to God when He said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.” (Matt. 16:23) The difference between the ways of this world and the way of life in God’s kingdom is so great that Jesus could say without qualification, “What is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God.” (Luke 16:15) And since it is detestable in God’s sight, we can begin to see how important it is to clearly identify “the things of men” and “the course of this world.”

A careful reading of the Bible will reveal the following facts: The “spirit of the world” teaches everyone to become independent and self-sufficient. It is an evil influence that turns people from a childlike dependence upon God to a self-seeking and self-exalting form of life. The people of this world reject the light of life as revealed through Christ’s self-denying and self-emptying way of life. They prefer to build up their own image and live for their own pleasures.

While fallen man may become religious and serve others as a part of this image building process, his main focus is to develop a personal kingdom where he becomes great. These are the ways that are highly valued by men and are detestable in God’s sight. It helps us to see how far we must go in renewing our mind before we can be lifted by the power of God into His eternal kingdom.

Those who live in the kingdom of God empty themselves of their own glory so they may live as mere vessels of God’s life and works. In His kingdom, He receives all the glory because He becomes the source of everything that takes place. Jesus provided an example of what this means. The Son of God left the place of prominence to become the lowest servant. Instead of living for His own pleasures, He willingly “suffered” for the good of others. And He assures us that He did not do anything “out from” Himself. (John 5:30; 8:28)

Can we begin to see what it will require if we intend to follow Him? And we must be mindful of the fact that we can only find His eternal Kingdom-life by following Him. (Matt. 16:24-25; John 8:12) Instead of living for our own pleasures and desires as worldly-minded people naturally do, it actually entails choosing to suffer for His kingdom while living in this world. We can become “joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.” (Rom. 8:17)

Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone {separated forever from the eternal life}; but if it dies, it produces much grain… If anyone serves Me {in the kingdom of God} let him follow Me {through the cross}; and where I am {in the Kingdom-life}, there My servant will be also. (John 12:24-26)

The world teaches us to save ourselves and to live for ourselves as a means for finding “life.” When Peter was on this “save thyself” course, which reflects the fallen way of life that Satan fostered on the world, Jesus knew that he was under Satan’s influence. In contrast, the Spirit of Christ teaches us to deny ourselves and to lose our old self-originated form of life so we may find life from above. It is here that we must choose which of these two conflicting courses we are going to follow.

The world leads people to direct their own steps. The objective is to be free from servanthood so we may “pursue life” as we please. Individuals want the right to develop their “psuche” *{See God’s Saving Grace for an explanation of the Greek word “psuche”} life according to their own will. And while no man should bind another man, this so-called “right” to personal freedom has been promoted to such an extent that even Christians have been unwilling to become servants of the living God.

Paul spoke of being “bound” to the Spirit. It is a reference to losing all rights to his life. He gave up all rights to his own life, and stopped living for his own pleasures, so that God would be able to direct all his steps. This is what enabled him to find the Kingdom-life from heaven and consistently enjoy “righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” (Rom. 14:17) Have you taken this same God-ordained course, or are you still following the spirit of the world?

Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.
(1 Cor. 6:19-20)

And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin {to self-will and self-seeking}, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God… And having been set free from sin {self-will} you became slaves of righteousness. I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh {your unspiritual mind}. For just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness {everything is unclean that is not wholly devoted to God and His purposes}…now present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness {to be used by God as He has planned}. (Rom. 6:13, 18-19)

While worldly-minded people will sometimes restrain their pursuit of pleasure in this world for a season, it is generally with the intent of accumulating their resources to prepare to have more happiness in the days ahead. Being afraid of what is ahead, they anxiously make plans to protect their future “psuche” life. They try to protect themselves from future hardships because they have learned how easy their spiritual life is lost in unpleasant circumstances.

The people of the world naturally live by their own strength and will. To them, only a fool would avoid planning his own future. Because they have never entered into a Spirit-directed way of life, where they trust God to work out all things for their good, they remain caught up in the self-sufficient and self-seeking ways of this world.

Jesus’ teachings are completely foreign to the worldly mind. He said to those who desired to follow Him, “Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat; neither for the body, what ye shall put on.” (Luke 12:22 KJV) He knew that those who continued to live for themselves would not be able to serve Him in His kingdom. “No one can serve two masters.” (Matt. 6:24) He went so far as to emphatically say, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth.” (Matt. 6:19) He said that only those who are of “the nations of the world” do such things. (Luke 12:30) Lacking faith in the one and only God who is able to fully care for His true children, the people of this world think they must live for themselves and store up treasures on earth to protect their future.

The true followers of Jesus live as dependent little children. They trust in God to take care of their needs as they live for His Kingdom and glory. To the children of faith, this is wise because it puts the omnipotent power of God to work in their life.

These two different ways of life present us with a very important question: Who is the wise man and who is the fool? Is the man of the world wise when he rejects Christ’s teachings in order to lay up treasures for himself on earth? Or, is the child of faith wise when He trusts in the God of infinite wisdom and power to care for His future needs while he pours out his life in the service of the Lord’s eternal kingdom? Jesus Himself provides the answer to our question with very clear words.

Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man… But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man… (Matt. 7:24, 26)

God says that unless we are completely changed and become like dependent little children who trust in Him to direct our steps, which includes depending on Him to supply our needs according to His will, we will never see the kingdom of God. (Matt. 6:31-32; 18:3) In fact, He instructs us to give up our rights to both our lives and our resources in living for the good of others, so we may receive “the kingdom of God” as a gift. (Luke 12:32-34) He even goes so far as to instruct us to be willing to go through physical suffering for the sake of His eternal kingdom. (Phil. 1:29) Can we begin to see how our mind will need to be completely renewed before we will be prepared to enter into the way of life found in God’s eternal kingdom?

For those who are willing to be honest with God’s Word, it should become quite apparent how there will need to be a radical change in how we think if we are to pass through the desert testing period and enter into Christ’s heavenly life of promise—the constant, abiding and eternal “zoe” life *{See God’s Saving Grace for an explanation of the Greek word “zoe”} . Those who continue to live for themselves will find that it is impossible to truly respond to God’s Word. No one can serve two masters.

Every commandment which I command you today you must be careful to observe, that you may live…and go in and possess the land {the life of promise}... And you shall remember that the Lord your God led you…to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not…For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs… (Deut. 8:1-7)

In God’s kingdom the “least” and the “last” shall be the “greatest” and the “first.” Because everything is reversed, you will need to completely reverse your course in order to “come out” from “the spirit of the world.” “Therefore, ‘come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you {into the life of promise}.’ ” (2 Cor. 6:17)

Since our Lord’s ways are diametrically opposed to the ways of this world, you should begin to see why you will need to die to your own reputation and seek to be the lowest of servants if you are to follow Him. Have you taken this course, or are you still seeking to have your own reputation so you may have honor from men? Remember, God is the one who is testing your heart. And it was Jesus who said, “How can you believe {in the Christ who made Himself of no reputation and did not receive honor from men}, who receive honor from one another, and do not seek the honor that comes from the only God?” (John 5:44)

Those who are willing to be the least and last will be lifted into the highest levels of spiritual life in the heavenly realms. What has been the result of your system of beliefs? Has God honored you with His life from heaven?

Of course, the devil will tell you that God did not really mean what He said. You will therefore need to be very careful to avoid being deceived. You must listen to the Spirit of truth. You cannot afford to be like God’s people of old who did not receive the promise because they did not respond in faith to His teachings. “And to whom did he swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who did not obey?” (Heb. 3:18)

As you seek out this life of promise, and search out God’s ways, you will be helped considerably by remembering what Jesus said: “What is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God.” If the people of this world love to do something, and they commonly seek after it as a means to improve their spiritual life, then it is probably something that needs to be avoided at all cost. Their whole thought process is in conflict with the “zoe” life in God’s eternal kingdom.

“But My people have changed their Glory for what does not profit. Be astonished, O heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid; Be very desolate,” says the Lord. “For My people have committed two evils: they have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, and hewn themselves cisterns—broken cisterns that can hold no water {as they seek spiritual life from the temporal realm}.” (Jer. 2:11-13)

Anyone who honestly opens their heart to the truth will begin to see how all independence, self-sufficiency and self-seeking, which naturally lead to a self-exalting form of life, come from an evil spirit. This “spirit of error” has led fallen man to keep his eyes on earthly things. In contrast, the true children of God lose their “psuche” life and live for the Lord and His kingdom alone. This is how we know who are the children of God and the children of the devil. And we need to say again that no one can serve two masters.

For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him… (2 Cor. 5:14-15)

We know that we are of God {because we no longer live for ourselves}, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one {because they live for themselves and their own glory}. (1 John 5:19)

There is only one way to be saved from the spirit of the world and this fallen way of life. We must deny ourselves and follow Christ in His way of the cross. It implies dying to the “psuche” life. Whatever you do, do not try to justify living for your own purposes. Even if you have the whole world agreeing with you, the self-seeking way of life is still detestable in God’s sight. As James has said, “This wisdom {that leads to self-seeking} does not descend from above, but is earthy, sensual, demonic.” (Jam. 3:15) It always leads to the wrath of God. (Rom. 2:8)

They are of the world. Therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them. We are of God. He who knows God {and understands His way of life} hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. (1 John 4:5-6 Emphasis added)

Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God {so we may walk in His ways and find life from Him rather than vainly seeking life from the things of this world}, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. (1 Cor. 2:12)

If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above… Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hiddenwith Christ in God. (Col. 3:1-3)

This may be difficult to comprehend, but Jesus lived in the heavenly realms with His Father while He walked in this world. It was in this sense that He was “in the world” but not “of the world.” Yes, He is now in a place of much greater glory. But there is a way for man to walk in the heavenly realms with God while living in a mortal body. Jesus said, “No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven.” (John 3:14) The Son was living with the Father in the heavenly realms by sharing with Him in the eternal “zoe” life while He walked in this world. And He expects us to live through Him in the same way. (1 John 4:9)

Every individual must choose today where he or she intends to live. Our place of life needs to be in the heavenly realms today if we plan to live throughout eternity in God’s kingdom.

But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love…raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly place in Christ Jesus. (Eph 2:4, 6)

In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness {to reveal God’s heavenly kingdom-life}, and the darkness did not comprehend it. (John 1:4)

The Second Man – The Lord From Heaven

2009-09-07T09:01:00.006-04:00

…The last Adam became a life-giving spirit… The second Man is the Lord from heaven. (1 Cor. 15:45, 47)

…Who has come, not according to the law of a fleshly commandment, but according to the power of an endless life. (Heb. 7:16)

To grant us that we, Being delivered from the hand of our enemies {the world, the flesh and the devil}, Might serve Him without fear {of remaining bound by the carnal nature}, in holiness and righteousness before Him all the days of our life. (Luke 1:74-75)

The first man was Adam, and he entered into spiritual death. The Last Adam was Christ, and He came to raise the spiritually dead and give His endless life to each of His disciples. “In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.” (1 John 4:9)

Had God not intervened by providing a new life from heaven, the family of Adam would have been without hope. There was no way for fallen man to escape from his sinful nature and raise himself out of spiritual death.

Right here we can see why the virgin birth was necessary. Had Jesus Christ been born as you and I were born, by natural conception through the line of Adam, He too would have been “in Adam.” It would have naturally left Him in spiritual death, uninhabited by the divine life of God, and dominated by the flesh-life. This is why the doctrine of the virgin birth is not a matter of secondary importance. It is imperative!

Because the Last Adam {Jesus Christ}, the Second Man, came from the line of His own Father in heaven, and He lived without ever departing from a walk of faith {He lived without sin. “…for whatever is not from faith is sin.” (Rom. 14:23)}, He now has the right to impart His spiritual life from heaven to everyone who will follow Him through the cross. (Matt. 16:24-25) As the Son of God, He was sent into the world to manifest His Kingdom-life through everyone who is willing to die to their Adam-life. He now has both the power and the authority to make Himself known within the soul of every believer in “the power of an endless life.” (Heb. 7:16)

The Son of God came to re-inhabit your spirit and to re-conquer your soul. He has come to enable you to have His life, and have it to the full. (John 10:10) As He has said, “Whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.”

The Son of God came to restore to you all that makes the mystery of godliness an open secret: He came to manifest His own life through the temple of your body! This is “the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the saints. To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you…” (Col. 1:26-27 Emphasis added)

In addition to giving birth to Jesus, Mary also became a spiritual type for everyone who desires to bear the life of God’s Son. What were the events that led up to the miraculous birth of Christ? How was Mary able to bear the heavenly life of the Son?

It began with God’s Word being faithfully delivered by a messenger “sent by God.” (Luke 1:26) The Word she received was both strange and startling. It was contrary to all human experience and beyond anything the mind could fully comprehend. Since the message defied human wisdom, would she believe God’s word?

Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest… And He will reign…and of His kingdom there will be no end.” (Luke 1:30-33 Emphasis added)

The natural reaction of Mary was one of amazement. The obvious question to be asked and to be answered was “How?” And so Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I do not know a man?” (Luke 1:34) The angel might have responded something like this, “Mary, there is no way to explain this mystery in human terms!” ‘But the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.’ (Luke 1:35) He will do a work that causes you to bear the life of the Son of God.”

Mary would be a mere instrument. The almighty power of God would perform the miracle. But was that enough? No! One condition still needed to be met! Mary had to make herself available for this gracious, life-giving ministry of the Spirit.

Maybe you have taken it for granted that Mary would make herself available to God and thereby permit Him to do this wonderful work through her. Is there any reason why you should think this way? Have you made yourself available in a way that would permit the Spirit to overshadow you? Have you given permission to God to use your body for His purposes? Have you been willing to become “nothing” in yourself so the Son would be able to “reign” over your life and show Himself “great” through you? Is there any reason why you should expect her to do something that you have not permitted God to do through you?

Mary could have said, “I do not want God to interfere in my life! I am engaged to be married and I have my own plans! This would spoil what I have planned for my own life.” Isn’t this what has kept you from surrendering your life and plans to become a vessel of the Son’s life? Remember, as the Son of the Highest, “He will reign” when He has established His Kingdom-life within your heart. And when He comes to manifest Himself through your body, He is the only one who can “be great.”

Of course, Mary was a true child of faith! She said, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.” (Luke 1:38) Once she yielded to God’s word, and trusted in Him to do the work, the responsibility was on God to fulfill His purposes through her. She trusted and yielded; God used His power to do the work.

We should emphasize, however, that it is never easy to bear the life of the Son. “Difficult is the way which leads to life.” (Matt. 7:14) Mary would be expected to go through some suffering before she gave birth to the life of the Son. After spiritual regeneration had taken place, when the seed of divine life was first planted within her by the Spirit, there were still many difficulties to pass through. But she continued to trust in God and wait for the life of promise to come forth.

Christians today, if they are to become vessels of the Son’s Kingdom-life, will also go through periods of suffering before the Son can display His life of divine love through their mortal bodies. It is like giving birth to a child. After being impregnated with a “seed” from the Son’s life, there will inevitably be a number of difficult trials leading up to the painful birth of His Kingdom-life from above.

But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus , after you have suffered a while {in dying to the self-seeking and self-sufficient ways of the world}, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you. (1 Pet. 5:10 Emphasis added))

Every Christian is expected to press forward in their faith until they have given birth to the Lord’s Kingdom-life from heaven. “He will reign…and of His kingdom there will be no end.” (Luke 1:33) His Kingdom-life, once established within the heart, becomes an everlasting life.

The law and the prophets were until John {the Baptist}. Since that time the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is pressing into it. (Luke 16:16 Emphasis added)

Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ…And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you {as Christians} do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star {Jesus Christ in His Kingdom-life} rises in your hearts. (2 Pet. 1:10-11, 19 Emphasis added)

Judgment and Rewards

2009-09-04T09:08:00.004-04:00

A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench: he shall bring forth judgment unto truth. (Isaiah 42:3)

God does not break the "bruised reed" or quench the "smoking flax." Rather, He sends judgment and grace until the weak are led forth in victory.

No kingdom is made up solely of kings. How can there be kings if there are no subjects? The Kingdom of God is an actual kingdom.

Perhaps you will agree with us that the Divine redemption is not limited to producing only the kings and the tormented. There are regions of life between the high thrones and the depths of the Lake of Fire. The Scriptures do not teach that there is but one level of attainment in the Kingdom of God.

One day you and I will stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ. We will be rewarded according to what we have done in our bodies, according to the good and evil we have practiced. Jesus is coming soon. His reward is with Him to give to every person the wages he has earned.

What is your choice? Thirtyfold? Sixtyfold? A hundredfold?
Will Jesus address you as a friend and faithful servant, or will you be met with a frown and expressions of disappointment or even anger in that Day?

Is your conduct leading you toward praise and blessings or is it bringing you to rebuke and punishment?

Are you in danger of being led away into outer darkness?

The Holy Spirit seems to be speaking to us that the issues we are presenting are far more serious than we have realized. A spirit of lightness and unwarranted optimism has pervaded the Christian churches.

The spirit of lightness and assurance concerning the things of the Kingdom of God is not in line with such apostolic expressions as "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling"; "the righteous scarcely be saved"; "how shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?"; "knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men."

If we are correct in our understanding, the churches of Christ around the world are facing a severe chastening. Much blood will be spilled. Christian people will become aware that Gospel preaching over the past several years has not been acceptable to God as to the witness that has been borne. The call to repentance is too weak. The goodness of God is being emphasized but the severity of God is being concealed.

The believers will not be "raptured" out of this chastening, because the chastening is for their salvation. Were Christ to return now, it seems likely that a mere handful of believers would be prepared to dwell in the fire of His Presence.

The churches are not ready for Christ's return. The world is not ready for Christ's return.

First must come unprecedented glory and unprecedented tribulation. Much will be accomplished by the glory and also by the suffering. Best of all, the Bride of the Lamb will be separated from the worldly churches and will be purified, thus being made ready for Her Lord.

The Scriptures are true.

R. Thompson

Liturgy, BC and AD

2009-08-27T14:43:00.007-04:00

Some years ago the Lord showed me some things about our "New Testament" rituals such as communion and baptisms, I wrote a little bit about it in the article The First Principles of Christ. I was blessed to read Keith Chadwell's article today where he has shared some of the history of these rituals and delved more deeply into the subject. It has confirmed in my spirit much of what the Lord has shown me.

Liturgy, BC and AD © B.K. Chadwell, August, 2009

Jer 8:7 Yea, the stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times; and the turtle and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming; but my people know not the judgment of the LORD.

The Essenes were apparently an ancient Jewish sect of Dead Sea covenant community dwellers from About 200 BC to AD 68. According to historical evidence, they moved out of their Dead Sea community, perhaps coinciding with an earth quake about 31 BC and did not return until somewhere around the time of the birth of Christ, about 30 years later. Archaeologists have found that they identified themselves, as “the Congregation of the Poor” and with the "meek who shall inherit the earth.

This Dead Sea scroll community called themselves "the people of the New Covenant or New Testament". Although some of them may have become Christians after the Romans finally scattered them prior to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD., scholars believe that they were generally in no sense Christian.

Historical evidence indicates that twice a day they celebrated a solemn communion meal, with the blessing of bread and wine. This, say Scholars, was "a liturgical anticipation of the Messianic banquet in the coming kingdom". This apparently was a concept that was a common theme in the Judaism of the time.

Another regular practice of the Essenes was baptism. On entering the community, individuals received a baptism upon their repentance of sins. However, unlike the later Christian practice, the Essenes baptism was renewed each year and supplemented by other continued daily rituals, all purposed to make them spiritually pure by means of these liturgies.

liturgy (plural liturgies):

A predetermined or prescribed set of rituals that are performed, usually by a religion.

The Essenes were zealous for the law and arguably, to a fault. However, they were a dedicated people, a religious people, who no doubt played some part in God's overall plan. Perhaps, among other things, they were a part of helping to preserve and or validate some parts of the ancient texts of the Bible and perhaps other information. Never the less, they were a people who came to a time of change, and failed, without notable exceptions, to make the transition.

"Liturgies" or literal religious ritual adherence to established religious practices, whether passed on in writing or by oral tradition, were central to the Jewish religion before Christ. Examples include; animal sacrifices, circumcision, observance of certain days and feasts such as the Passover feast, ritual cleansings of clothing, the body, and the list goes on.

These "old testament" literal practices are known by most Christians, and well documented in the pages of the books of the law, and referenced in other parts of the "old testament" of the bible. The genuine liturgies or practices of the Jewish law were ordained of God, with purpose. The purposes can be summed up simply but not completely as; "types and shadows" described and practiced in natural terms. These were liturgies which flesh and blood could relate to during the times before Christ (BC), yet which pointed, mysteriously, to things to come in the Spirit (AD.)

No wonder, the Pharisees and Sadducees were at odds with Jesus, His message and His works. Everything Jesus said and did was contrary to the doctrine of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. They knew it all. Who was this vagabond, this carpenter's son from Nazareth? He had no seminary credentials, no formal instruction or degree, and the way He talked was even more maddening to them. Nothing He said made any sense from their legalistic, liturgical, or natural mind paradigms. And yet he confounded them with His wisdom at every turn.

Joh 7:46…, Never man spake like this man.

Let's look at a few examples of Jesus' use of their then common literal liturgical language with which He confounded and incensed them:

Joh 6:32 Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven.

Mar 4:11 And he said unto them, Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God: but unto them that are without, all these things are done in parables:

Joh 2:19 Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.

Joh 2:20 Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days?

Joh 2:21 But he spake of the temple of his body.

Joh 7:37 In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst", let him come unto me, and drink.

Joh 7:38 He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.

Joh 7:39 (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)

Mar 4:33 And with many such parables spake he the word unto them, (his followers) as they were able to hear it.

Psa 78:2 I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old:

Pro 1:5 A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels:

Pro 1:6 To understand a proverb, and the interpretation; the words of the wise, and their dark sayings.

Pro 1:7 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

What then had a liturgical washing of the outer flesh (baptism) to do with the new covenant except to point to things to come?

What then had a liturgical cutting away of the flesh (circumcision) to do with the new covenant except to point to things to come?

What then had a liturgical observation of a day of the week (the Sabbath) to do with the new covenant except to point to things to come?

What then had the liturgical eating and drinking of a communion meal of bread and wine to do with the new covenant except to point to things to come?

Heb 9:9-10 Which was a figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices, that could not make him that did the service perfect, as pertaining to the conscience; Which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation.

Col 2:16-17 Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.

With the coming of Jesus, the Christ, came a new creation, all things are become new, in Christ we are a new creation, old things have passed, a new covenant arrived over two thousand years ago. Why then do we still continue to cling to the old? We came to a time of change over two thousand years ago, will we ever let go of the old religious traditions and finally, fully and completely embrace the new?

Jer 8:19-22 Behold the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people because of them that dwell in a far country: Is not the LORD in Zion? is not her king in her?

Why have they provoked me to anger with their graven images, and with strange vanities?

The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.

For the hurt of the daughter of my people am I hurt; I am black;
Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there? why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?

Life in the Spirit

2009-08-23T09:58:00.002-04:00

*The following article is from the book – The Mystery of Godliness

“…As the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.” By this He meant the Spirit… (John 7:38-39)

…Whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life. (John 4:14)

The Holy Spirit produced a never-ending river of life from within the spirit of the first Adam before the Fall. The Son’s Living Water welled up and overflowed from the fountain of his soul into a manifestation of God’s eternal life. The nature of this life from heaven kept his mind and emotions under the control of God. Everything he did and every attitude he expressed was inspired by the Spirit of God.

God literally expressed Himself through Adam. In the same way that Christ {the Second Adam} displayed the Father’s life and works, the first Adam was also the “radiance {or “outshining” – BBE} of God’s glory.” (Heb. 1:3)

Adam’s responsibility as a free moral agent was to offer himself to God in faith to be an instrument of His righteousness. The mystery of his godliness was simply a matter of a conscious choice to walk under the control and power of the Holy Spirit. As he yielded to the Spirit, God would use His power to display His life and works through Adam.

It is quite obvious that if this process had been purely mechanical, and Adam had possessed no capacity to exercise his own choice, he would have been no more than a robot. But God created man with a free will. Through an active choice of his own will, Adam would be required to live by faith in God, continually walking by the Spirit.

We need to see how man was created to be a mere instrument of God’s life of righteousness. This principle for living still applies to God’s children today. Because of what Jesus Christ has done at the cross, God’s called-out children can now enter into the life of promise and begin walking by the Spirit as Adam did before the Fall, and as Jesus did after the Fall. They can enter into the Holiest of All and receive divine spiritual life from God.

…Now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed…even the righteousness of God, through faith… (Rom. 3:21-22)

And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin {self-will}, but present yourselves to God…as instruments of righteousness to God. (Rom. 6:13)

Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection {or completion in the life of love}… This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil. (Heb. 6:1, 19)

Man was made by God to be an instrument through which God expressed the power and authority of His Kingdom. As man received his life from God, he would also share with God in a dominion over this world. But this authority could only be expressed through man by virtue of his “faith-love” relationship with God. As man lovingly submitted to all the leadings of God’s Spirit, God would supply him with the needed power to accomplish everything he was assigned to do.

God has a plan for each of His creation. “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (Eph. 2:10 Emphasis added) Man is therefore expected to enter into God’s plan. And he is expected to carry out his assigned work through the power of God’s Spirit.

The dominion that man received over his appointed sphere of work was derived from God. He could only exercise God’s power in the world while he responded to the divine will and lived by the Spirit through dependent faith.

God intends to remain sovereign over His universe. And yet, He would accomplish the work He wanted to do in the world through the dominion given to His spiritual children. In response to His revealed will, they would depend on Him to use the power of His Spirit in all their assigned activities.

In effect, God chose to display a unique form of sovereignty. He would first reveal His will to His sons and daughters, and then depend on them to carry out the work through their prayers of faith. This is how God has planned for all His sanctified children to live.

If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire {My will as revealed to you}, and it shall be done for you. (John 15:7)

I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in Me will do what I have been doing… And I will do whatever you ask in My name, so the Son may bring glory to the Father. (John 14:12-13)

Again, man was designed to be God’s highest expression of His power and glory. God’s dominion over the world would be visibly expressed through the work of His children. Without this visible expression of Himself {the “light of life” from heaven}, the world would remain lost in darkness.

When man turned from this walk of faith and ate from the forbidden fruit of self-will and self-sufficiency, God departed from his soul. This left him empty, in darkness, and on his own.
He also forfeited his right to express God’s dominion and power through prayer.

We can see that Adam was converted from the life of God. Every “conversion” occurs when there has been a change of mind. Adam changed his mind about how he wanted to live. He allowed the devil to poison his understanding. Believing the lie that he could improve his spiritual life by walking in the strength of his own flesh, he separated himself from the life of God. The Holy Spirit then withdrew from the human spirit, and man’s soul was plunged into the darkness of fallen humanity.

Something else also occurred at the Fall. When the Spirit of God was no longer filling man’s {mankind’s} soul with the Living Water that naturally wells up to eternal life, he was left empty and unfulfilled. He then became self-centered, or egocentric in all that he did. His life-purpose then became centered around his own efforts to find a means of spiritual fulfillment.

This self-centered nature, which naturally lives for its own desires, is called “the flesh.” Referred to in the Bible as “sin” in its singular form, it involves the evil principle of living by self-will and self-sufficiency. This life of “sin” is what produces a multitude of “sins.” (Rom. 7:14, 20; John 16:9)

The Bible therefore distinguishes between “sin” and “sins.” Everyone who lives according to their own personal desires is living by the “sin” nature. This flesh-life or “old man” has a self-centered nature that will naturally produce a multitude of sins. (Rom. 6:6; Eph. 4:22; Col. 3:9)

The depravity that every person inherits from Adam is an empty soul. As long as there is an emptiness within, the individual will naturally turn to the self-seeking ways of this world to find his spiritual fulfillment. This is the essence of sin.

“Be appalled at this, O heavens, and shudder with great horror,” declares the Lord. “My people have committed two sins {two all-encompassing evils}: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.” (Jer. 2:12-13)

Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters… Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy. Listen, listen to Me, and eat what is good {eat from the Tree of Life}, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare. Give ear and come to Me; hear Me, that your soul may live {in the Kingdom-life}. (Isa. 55:1-3)

God uses His Word of Truth to help people understand why they experience a returning sense of spiritual emptiness within their soul. He wants them to recognize the hopelessness of ever experiencing a lasting fulfillment by following the self-seeking ways of this world. “God ‘will give to each person according to what he has done.’ To those…who are self-seeking…there will be wrath and anger.” (Rom. 2:6-8) They can never expect God to manifest His divine life through them while living as “self-seekers.”

When man’s soul was left empty by the departure of the Spirit, Satan was permitted to enter in and introduce the self-elevating principle of pride. This pride naturally leads to self-will and self-sufficiency. Man will remain hopelessly lost {in this fallen state} until he turns to the Lord and permits the Son to lead him into the life of faith. The Messiah, who has come to establish the lost Kingdom-life within the hearts of His followers, is the only hope that mankind has of being saved from his fallen nature.

The First Adam

2009-08-16T09:04:00.002-04:00

*The following article is from the book – The Mystery of Godliness

In his innocency and before the Fall, the first man acted consistently under the gracious and exclusive influence of God’s Spirit. The Spirit of God dwelled within Adam. God was working in him “both to will and to do for His good pleasure.” (Phil. 2:13) This inward action of God lifted Adam spiritually out of mere animal status and into the life of godliness. While animals would live by the flesh {and be without the spiritual life of God}, Adam would live by the Spirit of God in union with God’s eternal life.

The thing that separated Adam from the animal kingdom was his human spirit. His spirit was the “lamp of the Lord.” (Prov. 20:27) The lamp, when fueled by the oil of the Holy Spirit, enabled him to display God’s “light of life” in this world. Because everything he did was motivated by the life and will of God, he was enabled to display the image and glory of God.

God gave a warning when He provided Adam with an eternal access to the Tree of Life. It was a warning that carries over to all mankind: “Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” (Gen. 2:17) If man turned from a life of living by faith in God’s power to an independent life of walking in his own will and sufficiency, he would separate himself from the spiritual life of God. And that is exactly what happened in the Fall.

Our Creator never gave man the right to decide good and evil on his own. And if he acted like a mere animal by choosing to live by his own fleshly desires {living as he saw fit or – “right in his own eyes” (Deut 12:8)}, he would become separated from the eternal life of God and exist in spiritual death. “For if you live according to the flesh you will die.” (Rom. 8:13)

Man’s choice to live by an independent and self-sufficient spirit is the essence of evil and darkness. It is the source of every sinful action. This path of choosing for ourselves how we will direct our steps {sin} is what keeps fallen man separated from the life of God. We can therefore see why true repentance must include a real turning back to a dependence on God.

…Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted {turned} and become as {dependent} little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven {the Kingdom-life of God}. (Matt. 18:3)

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight. (Prov. 3:5-6)

Adam would not need laws to control his activities as long as he lived by the Spirit. The fruit of God’s Spirit – His divine nature – would enable Adam to always have right actions. “Against such things {the fruit of God’s Spirit} there is no law.” (Gal. 5:23)

There was only one spiritual principle that Adam was required to remember: He would need to continue to live by the Spirit of God. In other words, eating from the Tree of Life meant that he would need to live continually by faith, under the control and power of the Holy Spirit.

When Adam turned from this walk of faith, choosing to walk in his own strength and by his own will, he fell from the “light of life.” He was then cast out of the Garden into carnal darkness. Not only did he lose the fulfilling spiritual life he had received from God, but he also became deeply corrupted by a self-centered nature. This fallen nature became another source of iniquity in the world.

Adam did not die physically when he turned to “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” and began directing his own affairs. He did, however, lose the power that had enabled him to be a lamp of the Lord’s “light of life.” (John 8:12). When he turned from the Tree of Life {when he stopped living by the Spirit of God}, the Spirit stopped manifesting the eternal life through his spirit. He lost the spiritual life of God, and the light went out!

Redemption involves restoring the lamp to its original purpose. The Christian is a lamp of the Lord. But God cannot display the light of His glory through the lamp until it has been set apart and fully sanctified for His exclusive use.

There must be a real presenting of the body to God and a complete turning from the independent and self-sufficient ways of the world before it is possible to display the “light of life” from heaven. The followers of Jesus who are willing to take this narrow path, will have an opportunity to return to the spiritual paradise of God and eat from the Tree of Life.

…For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will dwell in them and walk among them {a life that Adam shared with God in the Garden of Eden}…” Therefore “Come out from among them {the independent and self-sufficient ways of the world} and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you” {into the Kingdom-life}… Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. (2 Cor. 6:16-17, 7:1 Emphasis added)

…To him who overcomes {the independent and self-sufficient ways of the world} I will give to eat from the tree of life {the Kingdom-life of God}, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God. (Rev. 2:7)

While this spiritual Paradise of God, which can now be established within the eternal soul, is only a dim reflection of the life we will enjoy when we receive our glorified bodies, we can still enjoy an abundant fullness of the Son’s spiritual life in this world. (John 10:10) We can walk in holiness with God and enjoy His life from heaven, as the Son did when He walked in a mortal body. (1 John 2:5-6)

Our Lord has made it possible to follow Him through the cross and into the firstfruits of His resurrection life. (Matt. 16:24-25) If we will enter this path and permit Him to establish His Kingdom-life within our hearts, we will be enabled to “put on the new man, which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.” (Eph. 4:24) In other words, we can now be recreated into the spiritual image of God by returning to the “tree of life” through Jesus Christ. “To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life.” (Rev. 2:7)

Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you… Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn… Then you will look and be radiant, your heart will throb and swell with joy… The sun will no more be your light by day, nor will the brightness of the moon shine on you, for the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory. (Isa. 60:1, 3, 5, 19 Emphasis added)