Category Archives: Abiding IN Christ

Will it Be the Churches or the Called-Out Ones of the Father?

by Michael

churchesJesus knocking

 

 

 

 

 

 

Very early on in the history of the body of Christ, the father of lies discovered that he could not eliminate the kingdom of heaven on earth by persecuting it. The more he did so, the more it flourished! So, he decided to kill it with kindness. He cleverly made an earthly counterfeit of the ekklesia of God and called it “the church” and its popularity has continued down through the last 1700 years. In its infancy the ekklesia of Christ were known as the people of The Way, not “the Church,” because they adhered to the One who said, “I AM the Way to the Father.”

According to the New Covenant, we who are Christ’s are God’s assembly of called-out ones. We are called out of the world and all its systems; governmental social and religious. As we follow our Good Shepherd we are pilgrims and exiles upon this earth for just as they hated Him, they hate and reject those who truly belong to Him and are born from above by the Father. Here we have no continuing city, but we seek the one which will come down from the throne of God, the NEW Jerusalem, which is above and is the mother of all who belong to Jesus, not that wicked city that kills the prophets and the Christ. We NOW sit in heavenly places IN Christ Jesus. We have a kingdom that does not come with an outward manifestation like the church systems of today which break up the sky line with their great monolithic buildings and institutions, but rather is hidden from the world’s view as His kingdom developes within us.

With all this in mind is it any wonder that there were no “church buildings” erected by those of The Way until after Emperor Constantine of Rome got his hands on what was left of that faith in about 311 AD and seduced them to fall in line under His rule, promising peace in the place of persecution and made it the new official religion of the Roman Empire? He rapidly converted The Way into another bureau of his government with which to conquer and control the world, the bureau of religion, to facilitate his military conquests and capture the minds as well as the bodies of the subjugated masses! Those conquered nations that would not convert were often put to the sword by this great “benefactor of the church” with the advent of a new theology, “holy wars.” Funny how he took to himself the titles of “the Thirteenth Apostle” and “Pontifix Maximus” (the greatest pontiff or bishop of Rome) totally lacking in humility. What a contrast to the lowly Jesus who came as a Servant in a back-water town in a subjugated nation where He conquered hearts with the weapon of His great love.
Soon the visible church ceased to be an organism with Christ as its Head and only Foundation and became an organization with paid priests (often “converted” pagan priests) and bishops over it with the Emperor as their head as the first pope. The “birds of the air,” demons, began to nest in its upper most branches and tares were sown among the wheat (see Matthew ch. 13) as new adherents to the king’s new religion were either bribed or coerced to joining the his new church. Cut off from its true Head, the body soon died and it was not long until the City on a Hill filled with light became the cause of the Dark Ages as its light went out bringing to mind Jesus’ warning, “If the light within you is [becomes] darkness how great is that darkness.” When salt looses is saltiness it is good for nothing but to be trodden under the feet of men. That living organism born from above that “turned the world upside down” soon became part of the world system.

Since then Church Reformers have come and gone and were often persecuted and killed by the “mother church” and they made some coarse corrections redeeming part of what was lost due to doctrinal changes, but the changes were not enough. Sad to say, these reformers were often just as bloody and hateful as was the mother church they protested against, using force when argument did not prevail. The nut (Protestantism) didn’t fall far from the tree (the Catholic church). The daughters of Babylon never fully returned to having Christ as their Head, but rather chose men to lead them and be the heads and lieutenants of their denominations. They never fully comprehended Jesus’ warning to the disciples when He said, “The kings of the Gentiles rule over them and they are counted as benefactors, but with you it cannot be. He who is great among you shall be your servant and the greatest one among you shall be your slave.” They also never fully embraced the Holy Spirit as the guide and Teacher of each individual believer, but rather chose pastors and bishops to be their teachers and guides. They never left off constructing and supporting Christian temples and “churches” or appreciated what it means to be the Living Stones in God’s holy temple “not made with hands,” but kept on building “church buildings” just like their mother. They still embraced sacerdotalism, seminaries to generate its leaders and Old Testament laws with which they furthered their power structure, lording over the people to keep them in bondage and fear. They still kept the rigid division between clergy and laity — those with the right to rule-over and the subjugated masses — adhering to the doctrine of the Nicholaitans (Greek – to conquer and rule over the people) which God hates. The more that things “changed” in the Reformation, the more they remained the same.

The hour is now come where Jesus has had enough. He is no longer content to stand outside the Laodicean church system, knocking on its doors, asking them to join Him while those inside this closed door system are oblivious to the fact that He has left “the building” and that they are “poor, miserable, blind and naked” — the only state a body can be when each member no longer looks to the Head for its supply! Jesus is now seen standing in the heavens, as the next passage in Revelations reveals, calling to us through an open door! Didn’t He say, “I am the door to the sheepfold. By me they come in and go out and find pasture”? He is calling and saying, “Come up here and I will show you things…” It is as we seek Him as our ALL in all that He administers eye salve that we MIGHT see and clothes us in His white raiment, the garment of His bride who is being made ready. It is here that we are made rich with gold (His righteousness worked within) made in our fiery trials as we sit with Him in heavenly places with the Father, where we have only ONE Mediator who ever stands before the Father to make intersession for us, not an earthly priesthood of paid professionals.

Saints, what will we say to Him if “we neglect so a great salvation” and continue to settle for the kingdoms of men which call their organizations “the church” and ignore His upward call? God help us!

Therefore, having left the discourse of the beginning of Christ, let us go on to full growth… And this we will do, if God permits. For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good Word of God and the powers of the world to come, and who have fallen away; it is impossible, I say, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify the Son of God afresh to themselves and put Him to an open shame. (Heb 6:1-6 MKJV)

And he called out with a mighty voice, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! It has become a dwelling place of demons, a haunt of every foul spirit, a haunt of every foul and hateful bird; for all nations have drunk the wine of her impure passion, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth have grown rich with the wealth of her wantonness.” Then I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues; for her sins are heaped high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities. (Rev 18:2-5 RSVA)

 

 

 

“That where I am, there they may be also”

by Michael

“That they all may be one; as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that you have sent me. And the glory which you gave me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and you in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that you have sent me, and have loved them, as you have loved me.” (Joh 17:21-23 KJ2000)

Jesus told Philip, “If you have seen me you have seen the Father.” Oh, what pure obedience to the Father that He could safely say this and affirm to them that He only did the works He saw His Father doing and only spoke the words He heard His Father saying.

I once prayed this, “Father that I would be as your Son, that I would only speak the words you have for me to speak and would only do the works you have for me to do.” Don’t pray like this if you are not ready to suffer greatly and be totally broken by Him.

As we are broken of trusting in ourselves and seek only that Life that is found IN Christ to abide in us, we will be able to say to this lost and dying world as Christ’s body, “If you have seen us, you have seen Jesus” and it will stick. Until then we are just part of the problem.

“Beloved, now are we the children of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that has this hope in him purifies himself, even as he is pure.” (1Jo 3:2-3 KJ2000)

Constant Prayer

by Michael

Road RashATV Wreck

From “Practising the Presence of God” by Brother Lawrence…

“That he expected after the pleasant days GOD had given him, he should have his turn of pain and suffering; but that he was not uneasy about it, knowing very well, that as he could do nothing of himself, GOD would not fail to give him the strength to bear them.
That when an occasion of practising some virtue offered, he addressed himself to GOD, saying, ‘LORD, I cannot do this unless Thou enablest me;’ and that then he received strength more than sufficient.
That when he had failed in his duty, he only confessed his fault, saying to GOD, ‘I shall never do otherwise, if You leave me to myself; tis You must hinder my falling, and mend what is amiss.’ That after this, he gave himself no further uneasiness about it.
That we ought to act with GOD in the greatest simplicity, speaking to Him frankly and plainly, and imploring His assistance in our affairs, just as they happen. That GOD never failed to grant it, as he had often experienced.”

As I was flying through the air in that wreck I just had on an ATV machine two days ago, I prayed, “Jesus, I need your help in THIS one.” After looking at the wreck afterwards and where I landed thirty feet down the mountain side, I had to conclude the He had given His angels charge over me least I had dashed my face upon the stones. As it was I lit face first in a bed of pine needles and small sticks. I praise Him that the injuries were bad enough to teach me not to go riding when there was snow and slush on those mountain roads, yet minor enough to keep me from any real permanent harm.

The other thing that has occurred to me in all this was that I need His help, direction and LIFE in ALL the things I encounter each day, not just the ones in which I feel out of control. “For it is in HIM that we live and move and have our being.” The Lord is so good! (the picture of me above was taken right after I got home and I had not seen the humor in all of it as of yet 🙂

Love to you all,

Michael

The Refiner’s Fire

by Michael

Melting-gold

An important difference for us to understand, just how God separates soul from Spirit in us…

I have refined you, but not like silver. I have tested you in the furnace of suffering. (Isaiah 48:10 GW)

The furnace of affliction is for those who by faith are in Christ. What happens in the furnace of affliction? What is it that is dealt with in the fire? Is it you, and is it I, that are refined in the fire? Are you refined in the fire? Am I refined in the furnace of affliction? I say, No! emphatically NO!! If we say, “Yes!” well, let us look at the furnace of affliction, the fire with the metal in the crucible. What are you doing with that metal? Well, you say, you heat the fire intensely and all the uncleanness, the corruption, comes to the surface; this is skimmed off, and when that process has been carried through to its end, there is left pure gold! Then if you say that is you or that is me you will have to abandon your doctrine of total depravity, and you will have to come back to the place where you say there is good in us, after all! You will have to say there is good and bad in us, and the furnace of afflict ion is to get the badness out of us and leave the goodness! Is that true doctrine? No!

The furnace of affliction is not for the removal of the bad out of us so as to leave the good that is in us, and secure it! Then what is its purpose? Is it to refine Christ in us? We need not discuss that! Christ needs no refining! What is it for? It is to divide between what is us in fallen nature, and what is Christ, and to get rid of the one in order to give full place to the other! The furnace of affliction is the application of the Cross to the getting rid of you and me, in order to leave the whole place for Christ. It is the measure of Christ that God is after, not to cut in between the good and bad in us, but to cut in between what is Christ, and what is ourselves. That is what the Lord is doing. He is after increasing Christ, and in order to do that He has to displace self, the old creation. It is all the measure of Christ in this realm. The realm of God is not going to be refined self, reformed self, or any kind of patching up of self. It is going to be none of self, and all of Christ.

T. Austin-Sparks

http://www.austin-sparks.net/english/books/002210.html

A Famine of Hearing

by Michael

deaf manBehold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of HEARING the words of the LORD: And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, and shall not find [it]. (Amo 8:11-12 KJV – emphasis added)

But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that PROCEEDS out of the mouth of God.
(Mat 4:4 KJ2000 – emphasis added)

He that has an ear, let him HEAR what the Spirit SAYS unto the churches. (Rev 3:22 KJ2000 – emphasis added)

Paul wrote, “The head of every man is Christ…” Earlier in the same letter he wrote, “But I, brethren, could not address you as spiritual men, but as men of the flesh, as babes in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food; for you were not ready for it; and even yet you are not ready, for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh, and behaving like ordinary men? For when one says, “I belong to Paul,” and another, “I belong to Apol’los,” are you not merely men? What then is Apol’los? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each.” (1Co 3:1-5 RSVA).

The trouble with “discipleship” as it is taught today in systematized religion is that it always puts one man over another. “Who is your covering” is the often asked question among them. Paul makes it clear that only Christ is our covering and that anyone who prays or prophesies with another covering on his head dishonors Christ. He is not talking about wearing hats here!

Paul continues by saying, “For no other foundation can a man lay than what is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” (1Co 3:11 KJ2000). In many of today’s churches men are seeking to leverage thier power by taking on titles like “apostle” and “prophet” and boldly tell everyone that they are the foundation the church has been missing. This is anti-christ. When men seek to take the place that belongs to Jesus alone they are operating under the anit-christ spirit. Take the title “Vicor.” It means “instead of” as in “vicarious”… “vicor of Christ”… “instead of Christ,” the very definition of anti-christ. Then there is the title “Reverend.” This word is found only once in the entire Bible, “He sent redemption unto his people: he hath commanded his covenant for ever: holy and REVEREND [is] his name.” (Psa 111:9 KJV). Men so freely take this title that belongs only to God to themselves and the people love it so. Men seeking pre-eminence over the saints of God have been doing so in the church since Diotrephes (3 John) while they cast out from their churches the true saints of God who put Christ first in their lives.

Paul finished this chapter saying, “Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours; Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; And ye are Christ’s; and Christ [is] God’s.” (1Co 3:21-23 KJV). Oh how carnal Christians “babes on the breast” love to heap up to themselves teachers to tickle their ears. This is an open door to the anti-christ and John addresses the problem by telling the believers, “These [things] have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you. But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.” (1Jo 2:26-27 KJV).

The famine in the land of Christendom today is one of HEARING the Spirit of God. Dear saints, true teachers can only do so by the Holy Spirit and what they teach will not contradict the Spirit’s voice in you. All they can do is confirm you in your ability to hear the voice of the Good Shepherd. If we seek men to do what only the Spirit can do we are under the influence of deceivers. In this hour when “evil seducers are waxing worse and worse” we need to learn to follow only one Voice and not the voices of the hirelings and strangers or we will be constantly falling into the ditches dug deep by our blind guides. Our sufficiency is always in Christ and never in men.

What is True Mentoring in Christ?

by Michael

 

grapevine

 

Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord has made ruler over his household, to give them food at the proper time? Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he comes shall find so doing. (Mat 24:45-46 KJ2000)

 

Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven, and gives life unto the world. Then said they unto him, Lord, evermore give us this bread. And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that comes to me shall never hunger; and he that believes on me shall never thirst. (Joh 6:32-35 KJ2000)

 Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whosoever eats my flesh, and drinks my blood, has eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eats my flesh, and drinks my blood, dwells in me, and I in him. As the living Father has sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eats me, even he shall live by me. (Joh 6:53-57 KJ2000)

I have never thought of this passage in Matthew ch. 24 as applying to me until a brother wrote recently and did just that. I still see myself as an “unprofitable servant” and am more at home with this thought than being a “mentor.” I once prayed, “Lord, make me like your Son, that I would only do the works that I see you doing and only speak the words I hear you saying.” I had enough time to think to myself, “Boy, that sure was a righteous prayer.” To this He answered, “No, my son, that is only the starting point!” We all have so much of our selves to lose and so much of Jesus to still be apprehended and walked in.

So this whole experience has got me pondering, “What is true mentoring as we walk in Christ?” We often hear a heart’s cry from someone begging that we would “mentor them.” Is this a true New Testament activity of those whom God calls to lead? If so, how is it done? Paul said, “Follow me even as I follow Christ.” Yet, John said that we have no need that any man teach us, but that the unction we have received as believers in Christ will teach us all things that we need (see 1 John 2:26-27). Was Paul seeking “followers” or was he really saying, “Just as I follow Christ, so should you follow Him”? I believe that the only one who can mentor us is Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit whom He has sent in His place.

 This brings to mind the other passages that I quoted above from John. Here Jesus speaks of Himself as the true bread from heaven and goes on to say, “I am the bread of life: he that comes to me shall never hunger; and he that believes on me shall never thirst.” Couple this with, “Whosoever eats my flesh, and drinks my blood, has eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.” Later in the Gospel of John Jesus referred to Himself as the True Vine to whom all who believe are attached as His living branches. It is from the Vine that we drink and eat of our Life Source. It is from Him that we first receive and then grow in our eternal life (a life without end) as long as we are attached to Him as our Vine (Read what He said in John chapter 15)!

 There was a time I was a conference junkie. I couldn’t get enough of them. I would run to this Christian conference and that one to hear a special teacher, seeking to be filled, and within days after it was over, I was just as empty as ever. It was all so much empty calories and wasted expensive. It wasn’t until I found Jesus as my True Vine who provided all the spiritual food I needed that my spiritual hunger began to be satisfied. I did the same thing with “pastors,” too. I was like a spiritual infant, running around with my umbilical cord in my hand looking for a man to plug-in to. Many of them took advantage of this and sucked me right into their own subterfuge and false teachings as they took the place in my life that belonged to Jesus alone.

 So, what is the responsibility of the older saints that have had years of experience in Christ and have learned from their mistakes (this is what it truly means to be an elder in Christ’s body)? Are we to be such great pastors and teachers that all hang on our every word and follow us around like a bunch of little orphaned puppies? Doesn’t it make sense that if we are to be “a faithful and wise servant… over his household, to give them food at the proper time,” that the only proper food in that proper time that we should be providing the household of God is Jesus Himself? Shouldn’t we be pointing all who hunger and thirst to the Bread and Fountain of Life that they might find Christ as their sufficiency?

 Jesus warned, “But you be not called Rabbi: for one is your Teacher, even Christ; and all you are brothers” (Mat 23:8 KJ2000). Call no man Rabbi or teacher! Only Jesus through His Spirit is to be our Teacher. We are ALL brethren (siblings) under the same Teacher. The goal of the Father is for us to become just as our Teacher! Looking to men for what we need is not going to get us there. The best thing I can do for you or any other person who is serious about their calling in Christ to is keep pointing you to the truth that is only found IN the Christ who is our Truth! How can we become perfected in the eyes of the Father if we are not becoming as our Teacher? How can we become AS our Teacher when we are constantly looking to mere men for what we want. Like Paul said to the Corinthians,

 

And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, and not with solid food… For you are yet carnal: for while there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are you not carnal, and walk as men? For while one says, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are you not carnal? Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers (Greek: servants) by whom you believed… I have laid the foundation, and another builds thereon. But let every man take heed how he builds thereupon. For no other foundation can a man lay than what is laid, which is Jesus Christ… Know you not that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?… Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours; Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; And you are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s. (1Co 3:1-23 KJ2000)

 The carnal church of today spends way too much time focusing on human teachers and the “gifted” among men. Is it any wonder that most Christians are suffering from milk anaemia? Our true food and true drink is the flesh and blood of the True Vine which came down from the right hand of the Father in heaven who said, “He that eats my flesh and drinks my blood dwells in me and I in Him. As… I live by the Father: so he that eats me, even he shall live by me.” Or as Paul put it, “In Him we live and move and have our being.” First we believe INTO Him by HIS faith operating in us and from that point on we live IN Him and get all our life sustenance from Jesus our Vine. After that the spiritual fruit comes forth naturally as we rest IN Him. Even fruit bearing is all HIS doing.

 By the power of Christ in me I will keep pointing you to Jesus and away from myself and others as long as we communicate. I hope that you have sensed this in all that we write as well. If you see me trying to draw away disciples after myself, let me know for this is anti-christ and so many so-called “ministers” today are doing just that (See Paul’s warning to the church in Acts 20: 29-31).

 

And this is the promise that he has promised us, even eternal life. These things have I written unto you concerning them that deceive you. But the anointing which you have received of him abides in you, and you need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teaches you of all things… you shall ABIDE IN HIM. And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming. (1Jo 2:25-28 KJ2000 – emphasis added) 

 

Dear saints, I entreat you to pray that the Spirit shows you the depth of what it means to abide IN Christ as your only Life source just as the branch abides in the vine. You will never experience the riches of Christ while nursing from the breasts of men and women in your lives who seek to take His place.

 

 

Our End from the Beginning

by Michael

earth

Which Came First, the End or the Beginning?  This might seem like a trivial question to some. But if God is not bound by time for He created it, isn’t the beginning and the end both the same to Him as far as His purposes go? He declares the end from the beginning. Isaiah prophesied,

Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure: (Isa 46:9-10 Webster)

God also declares things that are not as though they are…

It is written, “I have made you a father of many nations.”(Genesis 17:5) God considers Abraham to be our father. The God that Abraham believed in gives life to the dead. Abraham’s God also speaks of things that do not exist as if they do exist. (Rom 4:17 NIRV)

 

Oh, how wondrous are the ways of God! I have been pondering these above passages for a long time. God not only knows all, knowing the things that will happen in the end of days as well as the past and present, but He has known it all from the beginning! This same God who through His Son, Jesus, spoke creation into being also had declared what the end of it all shall be from the beginning.

Here we have to deal with two concepts that are beyond our own human limitations. One that God creates all things simply by speaking them into existence. And two, He is not bound by time or any other human limitation as we are. Man can make nothing without first starting with something that God made and man does nothing without being subject to the limitations of time so these two concepts of making something from nothing and not being bound by time are a real stretch for us to comprehend. Both matter and time were the result of creation and God rests in a timeless state outside of His creation ever since it was completed. Yet, He sent Jesus to this earth to become subject to both time and matter. Christ was subjected to all the human frailties and weaknesses just as we are, yet in it all He was in perfect obedience to His Father and many of His acts defied both time and matter such as raising the rotting body of Lazarus from the dead.

Now, consider this passage:

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. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified. What shall we then say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? (Rom 8:28-31 KJ2000)

God foreknew each of us who are His in a special way. Not only that, He predestined us not just to be born, to live on this earth and to be saved from our sins, but to be totally conformed to the image of His Son! What image? The image of the babe in the manger? How about the image of the Teacher walking around doing good and miracles? How about the image of Jesus sitting at the right hand of the Father in heavenly places? Just what does it mean to be IN Christ? Paul went so far to say, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2Co 5:17 KJ2000).

God KNEW our end — being conformed into the image of Christ — from the very beginning of creation. In the New Testament we read that Jesus learned obedience by the things that He suffered. We also read that He was crucified from the very foundation of the world. Jesus subjected Himself to the hand of the Father from the beginning as the perfect obedient Son of God. I believe that all these wonderful thoughts are wrapped up in the council at the beginning of Genesis where we read these words, “Let us make man in our image and after our likeness… male and female made He them.” God knew what it would take from the very beginning to create many sons (and daughters) unto His glory and put creation in motion from day one with that end in mind.

In the above passage from Romans we see this wonderful progression designed by God to produce His desired outcome in the words; foreknew, predestinate, called, justified and glorified… the divine progression to a desired end starting with foreknew and ending with glorified. He knew our end (glorified in the image of God) from the beginning (foreknown and predestined). He not only foreknew who would be His, but He foreknew what it would take to get us there and incorporated us into that divine plan.

God from the beginning knew that He would be sending His Son to live and die and rise again for us and to lead the way as the Captain of our salvation. Thus we see our faith-trek as His family starting out with Abraham, continuing down through the patriarchs to Moses, and through the Children of Israel to Christ Himself. All that history of Israel (and the linage of Christ) was set in motion to bring forth His Son upon this earth in such a way that man would recognize Him when He came. The whole Old Testament is filled with prophesies and shadows of Christ and only those who received Him by faith were able to read those writings and see Him in it all (see Luke 24:13-36). God designed all that history of the people of Israel so that Christ could come and not only die for their sins, but the sins of the whole world and become manifest to all His creation as the Son of God. He was the First Born of many brethren. In Christ, the Father would have a vast family of many sons and daughters and this was His plan from the beginning.

Now consider this, God not only knew what it would take to save mankind from our sins and conform us into the image of Christ who are called (in a collective sense), but He also knew what it would take to get EACH of us to our appointed end IN Christ. We each have a history designed by God that was set in motion from the day we were born. Think about the chain of events that had to take place to get you where you are today in Christ. We each have had divine appointments and events along the way that were integral to our becoming saved, filled with His Spirit, tested, tried, and becoming “more than overcomers” as we have learned to trust in our Lord for all things. He has got us this far and He will get us to the His desired end for us as the sons of God. “For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end” (Heb 3:14 KJ2000).

God has declared the end from the beginning! He has spoken our divine sonship into existence from the foundation of the world and He is arranging our lives so that we will reach that goal. Paul saw that end and wrote,

 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For your sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. (Rom 8:35-37 KJ2000)

Yes, many things that happen in our lives do not seem to be ideal or perfect and often seem adverse to God’s end, but He knows our end from the beginning. Do you not think that He knew from the beginning when we would make a wrong choice or were attacked and also had that worked into His plan? He did not destine us to blow it or others to sin against us, but He did have a plan that would take even that into consideration and redeem us from our mistakes and sins. His mind is always on the end, HIS desired end for us and it is that end, many sons who would share His glory, He has known from the beginning.

Paul wrote,

 But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love with which he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, has made us alive together with Christ, (by grace you are saved;) And has raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: That in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God has before ordained that we should walk in them. (Eph 2:4-10 KJ2000)

Did you catch that? We are not going to die in order to go to heaven. We are ALREADY in heavenly places as we abide IN Christ as branches of the True Vine. We have been created IN Christ and this is the source of all spiritual fruit and good works… He is our very Life. It is ALL a gift of God. We are HIS workmanship and were created IN Christ from the foundation of the world. It is from THIS enfolded joint life IN Christ that all everlasting works which the Father set in motion from the foundation of the world happen. All we can do is rest in the Son and watch the faith of Christ in us work through the love of God.

So, dear saints, our faith, rest, works, love, life, and even our hope are all bound up in our existence IN Christ and have been from the foundation of the world. This gives the “eternal salvation” of God great scope. Can we grieve the Spirit of God? Yes. Can we fall short of all that He has for us? Yes. But if we continue to walk by faith and not by sight, relying on the Son of God as our hope and salvation, He will make sure that we reach our eternal goal as sons of God. “For it is IN Him that we live and move and have our being.”

 

 

Is It of Works of Is It Grace?

by Michael

jesus-calms-the-storm

In the gospel of Mark we read about a great contrast of Jesus resting in His Father’s will and the disciples fighting to save their lives all in the same place and at the same time…

And when they had sent away the multitude, they took him just as he was in the ship. And there were also with him other little ships. And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that it was now full. And he was in the rear of the ship, asleep on a pillow: and they awoke him, and said unto him, Teacher, care you not that we perish? And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. (Mar 4:36-39 KJ2000)

What and insult the fearful mind of man is to God. “Don’t you care that we perish?” The Son of God was in perfect peace and rest even as a great storm bashed away at the little boat they were in. He knew the end from the beginning. Didn’t He hear the Father say, “Go to the other side of the lake”? After all we know that He only spoke the words He heard His Father saying.

I think that the  second to the last paragraph in my last blog article “The Process of Faith…” has pulled a lot of us off coarse and I apologize for that. The heart of the questions that have come up regarding it seems to be this, “Is it of works or is it grace?

Paul wrote,

But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love with which he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, has made us alive together with Christ, (by grace you are saved;) And has raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: That in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. (Eph 2:4-7 KJ2000)

Wait a minute! I thought we were saved by faith? But here Paul writes that we are saved by grace! You see, God is the Prime Mover in our salvation and desires to be such in our lives as well. It is because of His mercy and grace that any of us are saved, not because we have worked hard enough to earn it. He even gives us the faith we need to believe in His Son!

So where do works come into the Heavenly picture? He has made us ALIVE with and IN Christ! The works are not our own, but of Christ in whom we dwell. As Paul said in Acts, “In HIM we live and move and have our being… for we are also His offspring.” We who are born from above live in Christ, move only in Christ for IN Him we have our very beings. If we are still living in and of ourselves all that we do, no matter how “good” the works we do might be, they will never satisfy the Father for only those works which are inspired by and come out from the Father and the Son have any eternal weight of glory in them. Yes, we have been saved by grace and the faith of Jesus which the Father has put in our hearts, but as we see in this passage, we are then MADE TO SIT in heavenly places IN Christ… that same Christ who was dying on the cross and cried out “It is FINISHED!” If we are not resting in the Father’s grace and Jesus’ completed work on the cross, we can NOT walk by faith.

Jesus said, “My Father works still and I work.” This is the only work that counts in the Father’s kingdom and for His kingdom purposes. To the natural man, the Adam nature within, grace is an insult. The old nature of Adam has been snake bit for that serpent of old said to Eve, “For God knows that the day you eat of this tree, you will be like God knowing both good and evil.” Oh, how the fallen adamic nature within wants to be “like God.” How we love our “good works.” It is all about the source of the works we do that makes the difference. Jesus said, “Every plant, which my heavenly Father has not planted, shall be rooted up.” He did not say that it would never take root, but that it would be rooted up. So, our efforts to be “like God” in our state of rebellion (not abiding in Christ and His rest) leads us into doing all kinds of “good works.” But guess what, just as we have to be born from above by the Father, so all works that are done and are to remain, these also must be born from above as well.

God worked six days and then He rested on the seventh. Man was created at the end of the sixth day. Man’s first day began with creation’s seventh day, God’s rest. So in Hebrews we read, “For we who have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, they [the Children of Israel in the wilderness] shall not enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world” (Heb 4:3 KJ2000). God is timeless and He is not like us who are bound by our clocks and calendars. To Him a thousand years are like one day and a day is as a thousand years. His works were foreordained from the foundation of the world. He put the whole thing in motion and invited us who are His sons and daughters to enter into not only His rest, but also those works that He has foreordained to happen down through the ages. Hebrews goes on to say,

There remains therefore a rest to the people of God. For he that is entered into his rest, he also has ceased from his own works, as God did from his. Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief. (Heb 4:9-11 KJ2000)

In HIS rest we cease from our own labors and truly begin to walk by faith. Now that we are saved, do we become totally inactive? No, we become obedient to HIS workings as we are activated by the Holy Spirit, following His leading and being empowered by His grace to do those works that He has foreordained from the foundation of the world that we should walk in them. All of our imaginings are to no avail when it comes to  doing the works of God. Peter wrote, “But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you” (1Pe 1:19-20 KJ2000). Do you see what I mean by timelessness in God? Christ was crucified in the mind and plan of God from the foundation of the world, but it was not made evident to man until 2000 years ago, thousands of year after the initial six day of creation. So it is with all His works that He seeks to manifest in and through us! To be in His rest is to be in-tune with His will.

We who are Christ’s have rested from our own works, the works of fallen Adam who tries so hard to be “like God” and a god unto ourselves. Oh, how the religious mind of man is deceived! How he fails to enter into God’s rest and move only by God’s grace. We watch church program after church program that leaders thrust upon their congregations  and what comes of them? Another failed attempt to prefect in the flesh what God has started out in the Spirit (see Galatians 3:3). Paul says it so plainly,

For by grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God has before ordained that we should walk in them. (Eph 2:8-10 KJ2000 – emphasis added)

Here in these two verses we see “not of works,” “His workmanship” and “created in Christ Jesus unto good works.” Which way is it, Paul? Is it not of works or is it unto good works? A Pharisee came to Jesus and said ,”Good master…” Jesus answered back, “Who do you call good?” Only one is good and He is our Father in heaven.” Our Christian lives are not about us or our goodness! Any doing that happens in us is not of our  works! In us dwells no good thing, unless that indwelling is the life of the Father which was put in us at salvation. “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights…” (Jam 1:17 KJ2000). So we must understand that the Father has created us IN His Son, Christ Jesus, and it is from abiding in Him, the True Vine as HIS workmanship that we bring forth good fruit (See John ch. 15). Do we imagine a “good thing” to do or set out to do something because we read about it in the Bible? NO! We abide in the Son IN whom we have been created and then the Father’s works which were ordained form the foundation of the world are ours to walk in. Without entering into HIS rest, we will never know those works, much less walk in obedience to the Father as Jesus did. Our frenzied minds which seek to cover our spiritual nakedness with religious garments of fig leaves must be crucified. We MUST have the mind of Christ or we will never know the Father’s works much less do them.

So, is it of grace or of works? Both… His grace and HIS works. We can not generate His grace and we can not generate HIS works. Father is our All in all.

For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge, that you might be filled with all the fullness of God. (Eph 3:14-19 KJ2000)

The Process of Faith – from Thorns to Sons

by Michael

fower among thorns

These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from which they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. But now they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly: therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he has prepared for them a city. (Heb 11:13-16 KJ2000)

As some of you might have observed, there has been a great struggle of gaining true faith in Christ and His kingdom within me. How many of us are truly “strangers and exiles” on this earth? We Christians, especially here in America, still have our hopes in a land where we can find our city. We still hope to get a secure place here on earth and this delusion is probably greatest in “the land of the free.” Our founding fathers thought that they had finally found that secure place on this earth. Many of them had fled Europe because of persecution for their faith. They worked hard to make America secure, not only for them, but for us. But in this present hour we are watching all their hard work and all our “securities” evaporate before out eyes; our 401k retirement plans, our property values, our family ties, world peace and safety, even our so-called Constitutional rights they fought so hard to secure! All that we relate to as “security” in this world is evaporating before our eyes and there is panic in the air.

The above passage is from the great “faith chapter” in Hebrews. There we find a list of people who put their trust in God. All these saints of old had one thing in common… not one of them ever found a secure place in this world, but their hopes were in something far off, “a heavenly.” Is that where we have our only hope? Is God “not ashamed to be called our God”?

Americans are about the richest people on earth, but our riches have deceived us. They have made us put our hopes in things that are temporary and transient. In His parable of the sower, Jesus warned, “He also that received seed among the thorns is he that hears the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful” (Mat 13:22 KJ2000). We American Christians hear the words of Christ and His gospel and we think that we are thus “saved,” because we once made a “decision” for Christ. But what happens after that? How many of us go out and get all wrapped up with the cares and concerns of this world after Jesus sets us free? Jesus said that where a man’s treasure is, there will his heart be also. The hearts of many are waxing cold for fear of what is coming upon this country and the world. Many Christians are even taking up arms and are willing to kill to save themselves and what is theirs. Have we not learned from the example of Peter with his sword? Jesus said, “He who finds his life will lose it, but he who loses his life for my sake will find it.” Thorns – the cares of this world, choke out faith and can kill our relationship with God.

In Romans we read,

For the earnest expectation of the creation waits for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creation was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who has subjected the same in hope, Because the creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, that is, the redemption of our body. (Rom 8:19-23 KJ2000)

Glorious liberty! Are we truly the Sons of Liberty? Our founding fathers thought they were. I think we are in the process of being freed in the truest spiritual since. We have been born into vanity and futility as sons of Adam. We are in bondage because we think that our continuing city, our “peace of the rock” is to be found on this earth. I can see why Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor.” They have a lot less “thorns” in their lives to be released of.

We give lip service that Jesus is our Rock, the Rock of our salvation, but are all our hopes and dreams founded on that Rock alone? So, as we watch all our earthly securities being vaporized, God is hoping we get the picture! HE has subjected us to lives of vanity here on earth in hope that we will finally see that being totally IN Christ is our only hope. HE alone is that which can not be shaken while everything else is shaking and falling apart (see Hebrews 12:26-29). Our hope and our lives must be IN Him or we will suffer great loss as the waves of tribulation come crashing in upon us.

Paul wrote, “For we know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now.” He is talking about the labor pains of a woman. You see, the earth is the womb we are in. It is rumbling and pushing and being stressed to its limits. Why? So we who are Christ’s would dig in and hold on for all that we are worth? So we would fight to hold this existence together to our dying breaths?

Jesus defined some of these “birth pains” as wars, earthquakes, natural disasters, famines, pestilence, and such. Men cry “Peace! Peace! And there is no peace.” This age is coming to an end and the whole creation is giving birth, actually pushing us out of this world and all that pertains to it. Is it any wonder that everything we cling to as “security” in this life is failing?

I think a baby must feel a great deal of rejection in the birthing process. All of a sudden the walls of his world are closing in on that once warm and comfortable place that was its whole life and reality. Its whole known world is pushing it out as if it is unwanted! Then that blast of cold air and the bright lights. Oh, the trauma! No wonder they come out crying. But what is next? The mother takes the child, wraps it in a blanket and puts him on her breast. The crying is over. There is no more of a peaceful sight than a baby nursing at its mother’s breast. This is all a parable from God. We should take hope in what is ahead, dear saints. “Travail lasts for a night, but joy comes in the morning.”

Paul continues, “We ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, that is, the redemption of our body.” The redemption of our body… what does that mean? He is speaking of our being caught up into that eternal city whose builder and maker is God whose Foundation is Jesus Christ, God’s own Son. For here we have no continuing city. There is a groaning within us, those who are His, to get out of here and get on with REAL Life… that eternal life we have had a foretaste of in Christ!

Paul wrote,

“For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life. Now he that has made us for the same thing is God, who also has given unto us the earnest of the Spirit. Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord” (2Co 5:4-6 KJ2000).

Our redemption has been sealed by the Holy Spirit within. He is the “earnest money” of the agreement we have made with God when we first surrendered to Jesus. Next came the “down payment.” We gave all we had to get that house. We surrender ALL to Him in this life process. Then comes the closing and we finally get the keys to our house and we get to move in. And guess what? Once we are moved in we find a note on the kitchen counter that the rest of the loan is paid off! The house is totally ours because Jesus paid the full price after all.

Lord, open our eyes to what a great salvation you have given us. Free us of the thorns that seek to choke out our faith in your Son. Raise us up as joint heirs with Christ and let us see that we NOW live in heavenly places as we put our trust in Him alone. Amen.

Metamorphosis

by Michael

Monarch butterfly

Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. (1Jo 3:2 KJV)

A few years ago I prayed, “Father, make me like your Son, only doing those things I see you doing and speaking those things I hear you saying.” I had just enough time to think to myself, “Man! That was sure a righteous prayer!” To this He replied, “No, my son, that is only the starting point!”

So many of us want to walk as Jesus walked on this earth, doing good, healing the sick and speaking great words of wisdom from God. But this is where success is found… only doing and saying what He desires to do and say through us. BUT here is the test… are we willing to learn obedience the way Jesus had to learn it? Jesus learned obedience by the things which He suffered (Hebrews 5:8). Many want to be spiritual, but few want to pay the price that is attached to true spirituality in Christ. After praying this prayer I went into a time of suffering and isolation. I learned that I had to suffer many of the same things Jesus did and often at the hand of religious Christians! Isaiah 53 became my life story; a root out of dry ground with nothing about me that men would desired, despised, rejected, cut off from fellowship and friends and judged by others as being under the judgment of God. Yes, “to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?” Who, indeed? Just how bad do any of us want to have Christ revealed in us?

You see, to get to this point of being totally tuned into and obedient to our Father takes a total transformation. The flesh profits nothing. We first have to come to realize that there is no good thing in us and seek HIS resolution to the problem. This word, transformation is packed with meaning. Have you seen the movie, “Metamorphosis”? I recently watched it with a brother in Christ from Canada who came to our home and he brought it with him. It is a documentary about what takes place in a the life-cycle of a butterfly and part of what I am writing here, he shared with me. It was a special time together in Christ.

For years it has been a mystery how that lowly worm, the caterpillar, was transformed (Greek – metamorpho) into a butterfly in that hard, ugly chrysalis. Then some scientists did an MRI of one of them while it went through this process. It seems that the worm, while in the chrysalis, completely dissolves and none of the original legs, organs, digestive track, etc. remains. Then there are some small cell packages in what’s left that take that “worm soup” and reform it into the organs that are common only to the butterfly. The worm does not change himself but rather he gives up his life so that a new and more glorious life might spring forth from what was once the old. He has to lose his old identity completely for this to happen. The whole thing is a miracle and it is a living parable of what God desires to do with each of us. Paul wrote about this process saying,

“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be transformed [metamorpho] by the renewing of your mind [literally, a whole new mind], that you may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” (Rom 12:1-2 KJ2000).

There is no comparison of the caterpillar to the butterfly. Once, the worm had a gut that digested leaves, but the butterfly now eats and digests nectar from flowers with a new digestive track. Once the worm had stubby little legs that were made to grasp leaves, now the butterfly has long articulated legs made to grasp flowers. Once the worm had no eyes, but now the butterfly has compound eyes that see everything around it. Once the worm had no proboscis, but now the butterfly has a long one that can reach the bottom of the deepest flower. Once the worm was confined to the branch it was hatched on, now the butterfly, like the Monarch, can fly for thousands of miles and with his new mind and know exactly how to get to where he is supposed to be. And who can deny the beauty of the butterfly? There is no comparison of its form to the former worm.

As we progress in Christ we, like the butterfly larva, become a “living sacrifice” that goes into a total dormant state for a season (some call it a time of deep trials, darkness or wilderness) while we trade one life form for another. We are being transformed from lowly worms into beautiful spiritual butterflies that we might “mount up with wings as eagles” and rest on and move with the winds of the Spirit. This is what obedience is — resting in the Spirit in our new lives not striving as a worm to do what only a butterfly can do. Paul described this process this way,

 For we who live are always delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. (2Co 4:11 KJ2000)

Did you know that even Jesus went through a metamorphosis right before the eyes of his disciples?

And after six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, and brought them up into a high mountain apart, And was transfigured [metamorpho] before them: and his face did shine as the sun, and his clothing was white as the light. (Mat 17:1-2 KJ2000)

You see, Jesus is the pattern Son. God sent Him into the world to show us the path of true righteousness and then to empower us by the gift of His Spirit abiding in us to carry it out. ALL things necessary for salvation, justification, righteousness and our glorification are ours as we abide IN Christ and submit ourselves to this process. This revelation should give scope to what Paul wrote in Romans chapter eight…

 For the earnest expectation of the creation waits for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creation was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who has subjected the same in hope, Because the creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God… but ourselves also, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, that is, the redemption of our body… Likewise the Spirit also helps our weakness… 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. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified. What shall we then say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? (Rom 8:19-32 KJ2000)

Remember how I wrote above that the worm was dissolved inside the chrysalis? Now look at what Paul wrote to the Corinthians…

 For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven… Now he that has made us for the same thing is God, who also has given unto us the earnest of the Spirit. (2Co 5:1-5 KJ2000)

This transformation process that the saints of God must go through was a mystery down through the ages. It was hidden though the prophets desired to understand what God would do to change us. How would God ever get sinful men and women to become His sons and daughters? It was not done through the keeping of the law because the law was weak because of our sinful flesh (See Romans 8:3). No, it was done by the cross of Christ and the imparting into us of His resurrection life.

 Even the mystery which has been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: 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: (Col 1:26-27 KJ2000)

Just as our suffering starts in this lifetime, so does our transformation, our metamorphosis, and herein is the glory of God seen among His sons and daughters for he submits us to this process in hope. Jesus Christ, the First-born Son of God,  is our hope and our glory in all things pertaining to life as we abide IN Him.

Amen. Even so, Come Lord Jesus… in us all.