To All Who Received Him

(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.