A Critical Spiritual Difference

by Michael

Пасхальное богослужение в храме Христа Спасителя в МосквеFor in him [the Son of God] we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring. Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s device. And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent,” (Acts 17:28-30 KJV).

 

It has been almost two millennium since Christ rose from the grave and here we are on another Easter morning with many of us celebrating that event which took place so long ago. I think it is a time to reflect on this deciding event that we as Christians have made into a tradition called “Easter.”

The life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ was a pivotal point in the annals of man’s history, but I am not sure that any of us fully understand just how big a turning point those thirty-three years lived on this earth by the Son of God really was. How much of what we call “Christianity” today is still patterned after the Old Covenant that Christ came to bring to an end and usher in a NEW Spiritual order among His Father’s creation which the writer in Hebrews called “a new and living way”(see Hebrews 10:19-23)?

We all know the gospel message, “You must be born again. That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” But just how far has this message gone into the depths of our thoughts and lives? Paul wrote, “First the natural and then the spiritual.” That which is born of the flesh is natural, earthly, but that which is born of the Spirit is super-natural and heavenly.

In the Old Covenant God made provision for a fleshly people, the Hebrews, and gave them a system of government and worship that spoke to them on their fleshly level. They had just come up out of Egypt and had been captivated in a pagan culture for over 400 years and as a result they thought as pagans do (remember the golden calf). They thought of the gods as being present in temples, in their temple niches, where temple priests offered up sacrifices and incense to the gods for the people. These Egyptian gods were represented by earthly things, the sun, a frog, a bull, a hound, etc. So what did God do, He gave these newly escaped slaves earthly and tangible things for their worship of Him. He winked at their superstitious ways, so He gave them a tabernacle, a portable temple. He gave them a niche, the most holy place where His presence abode. He gave them animal sacrifices and incense to offer up before Him. He gave them a priest cast to do the “spiritual work” for the people of tending to Him in His temple. He gave the priests special vestments to wear and special services to perform before the people. BUT instead of giving them a carving of something earthly of God’s creation to worship, He gave them the Ark of the Covenant over which two golden angels, heavenly beings, presided with their wings stretch out over the lid of the ark. It was between these to representative beings that the Shekinah glory of God presence was manifest (BTW, the word shikinah is Hebrew, but not found in the O.T. text, but was used by the rabbis to describe the presence of the Lord upon the Ark and among the people when it happened).

Now let’s take this forward 1500 years. By the coming of Christ the temple system had been “refined” by man quite a bit from what God gave the Hebrews during their exodus from Egypt. They now had a massive temple built in the Promised Land by a despot king named Harod the Great in the city of David, Jerusalem, and no longer a moveable tent. As a result this temple had many more officers and functions that were needed to preserve its order that went beyond the original priest cast and heavenly design given to Moses by God. In fact Harod was not a Jew and he had killed the rightful high priest and installed his brother-in-law, Aristobulus III in his place in the temple. Herod was a murderer who was appointed by Rome as the “King of the Jews” and he killed many people that he felt were a threat to his little kingdom. He had his own secret police and anyone that even thought of going against him often ended up dead.

His temple also had an extensive bazaar incorporated into it which at the time of Christ was presided over by Annas the high priest, where people bought and sold animals and exchanged currencies for the temple currency. The temple had so change from God’s heavenly pattern given to Moses on Mount Sinai, that Jesus made a whip of cords and made havak of the place saying, “It is written, my house shall be a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves!”

Jesus was not a natural man as we think of men of the world today. He was a heavenly man with a heavenly relationship with God His Father. He did not march to this world’s order of things. In fact He told Pilate at his trial, “My kingdom is NOT of THIS world…” He was a heavenly Man! And being a heavenly Man, he was constantly on a collision course with all those who were intent on preserving their earthly kingdoms including the Pharisees, scribes, Sadducees and temple priests as well as the Chief Priests of that Jewish system.

This should explain many of the things that Jesus taught and why Jewish scholars like Nicode’mus were so bewildered by His teachings. Nicode’mus came to Jesus by night representing the Pharisees and temple leadership saying, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.” It is here that Jesus interrupts him and sets things straight saying, “I say unto you, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” In other words, “Buddy, I am telling you that with all your learning about the Old Covenant, you don’t have a clue about God’s REAL kingdom is or who I am.” That is a pretty harsh thing to say to a ruler of the Jews.

Then Jesus continued to speak to this man born of the flesh about what it means to be born of the Spirit of God and HIS kingdom, “I say unto you, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit… The wind blows where it wills, and you hear the sound thereof, but can not tell from where it came, and where it goes: so is everyone that is born of the Spirit.” All old Nick could say was, “How can these things be?!”

So in the economy of God’s plan for this world, first we have the natural manifested and then the spiritual. The old things were passing away right before the eyes of the religious Jews and by the time forty years went by from the above encounter with Christ, all the outward and natural vestiges of Judaism would be gone. The temple which they worshiped would be destroyed just as Jesus prophesied (see Matt. 24:1-2). The priesthood would be murdered by the Romans and done away with. The veil of the temple was torn top to bottom as Jesus died on the cross, thus making way for all who believe to enter into the presence of His Father. Even Israel as a nation would be no more until it was re-established in 1947 by the Jewish revolt. But how many of us get the full significance of all this and what God did 2000 years ago through Jesus Christ? Paul wrote,

 

For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. (Romans 8:2-6 KJ2000)

Paul, speaking of the New Covenant that is ours IN Christ wrote, “The old has passed away and behold ALL things have become NEW.” ALL THINGS! The church was established with the outpouring of the Spirit on all flesh on the day of Pentecost, fifty days after Jesus rose again. They were a NEW people who personally knew that God is Spirit and they worshipped Him IN Spirit and in Truth as the Spirit abode in them. They knew that they were all a kingdom of priests and that all who had been given the Spirit were living stones in a spiritual temple and that the old temple system and all its observances had no relevance any longer. In fact the very first martyr, Stephen, was killed by the Jewish leaders because He dared to preach this very message to them (see Acts Ch. 7).

They also knew that they were now born of the Spirit and that they also had spiritual senses with which to communicate with one another and with their heavenly Father. They no longer needed to worship Him by natural smells (burnt offerings and incense), by natural sight (magnificent temples, vestments, temple decorations, earthly priests worshipping before them, etc.), by natural hearing (trumpets, bells, incantations being spoken by priests, etc.), by things felt (anointing oils, temple tapestries, vestments, stone work, etc) or by things tasted (special feasts, covenants of salt and so on). Being newly born of the Spirit of God and having been made spiritual beings, they now had spiritual sight. They knew one another after the Spirit in them, not by the flesh (see 2 Cor. 5:16-17).

They even had visions of heaven, Jesus and the Father! They now had spiritual hearing and could hear the voice of Jesus and the Spirit as Jesus admonished them saying, “Let he who has [spiritual] ears hear what the Spirit IS saying to the churches.” It was Jesus who said, “My sheep hear my voice and another they will not follow.” They also had spiritual smelling and knew when another spirit that was not of God was present and could discern hypocrisy in their midst. They had spiritual taste as well. They were able to “taste and see that the Lord is good.” And they had spiritual touch and were touched by the presence of the Spirit among and in them as He changed their lives.

With all these thing being true we cans see why Paul was so emphatic in his letters to the Corinthians who had gone back to being carnal and living in the flesh and to the Galatians who had had done so well starting out in the Spirit and had gone back to serving God in their flesh by Old Covenant law keeping and traditions. It is this emphasis on walking after the Spirit and not after the flesh that made Paul’s letters a shining light pointing us to a New and Lasting Covenant with the Father and the Son.

The whole Letter to the Hebrews was written to us so that we could see how all those types that were so tangible in the Old Covenant were only a shadow of that which is perfect in the New. To these Hebrews who were clinging to their fleshly connection to the Old Covenant the writer admonishes, “If therefore perfection were by the Levitical priesthood, (for under it the people received the law,) what further need was there that another priest should rise after the order of Melchizedek [Jesus Christ], and not be called after the order of Aaron? For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law.”(Hebrews 7:11-12 KJ2000). Or as Paul wrote, “When that which is perfect is come, that which is imperfect shall be done away with.” He finally gets even more emphatic about the insult it is to God that they were casting-off the covenant of grace under Christ and going back to the covenant of law under Moses saying,

 

“He that despised Moses’ law died without mercy under two or three witnesses: Of how much worse punishment, suppose you, shall he be thought worthy, who has trodden under foot the Son of God, and has counted the blood of the covenant, with which he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and has done insult unto the Spirit of grace?” (Hebrews 10:28-29 KJ2000).

So here it is another “Easter” and what do we have today among Christians who call themselves, “the Church” with all their man-made services, temples, churches, chapels, universities, bible schools, seminaries, a special priest cast called “pastors” or “priests” and “bishops,” special rites, ceremonies, feast days, holy days, vestments, tapestries, paintings, stained glass windows, sacramentalism, holy cards, religious jewelry and key rings, statues and figurines, and all the “Jesus junk” that can be imagined in our local “Christian” book and gift store where one can find everything that appeals to the flesh, even books on how to be successful and prosper in THIS world!

Even the word “Easter” was morphed by the translators from the Greek word that was translated “Passover” throughout the rest of the Bible. In Easter we have a word with its roots in Ishtar, the goddess of fertility, thus all the symbology of rabbits, eggs, virgins dancing around the May pole… a carryover from the pagan rites of calling upon their gods to bless their herds and crops with fertility.

My dear church going Christian friends, isn’t it fair to ask the question, “Are you yet carnal and not walking after the Spirit of God, but rather the fleshly traditions of men?” Is it any wonder that the church without all these material “blessings” and things was able to turn the world upside down and spread throughout the whole known world by the end of the second century? They were walking after the Spirit of Christ and NOT after all things which appeal to the flesh as Christianity does today. THAT is the difference! No wonder the dark ages soon ensued once the Roman government in the fourth century made the church into an arm of its own ruler-ship and control. Once man got his carnal hands on it, the move of the Spirit that was started on the day of Pentecost almost 2000 years ago was soon dead and forgotten.

My friends, many of us are still in the dark ages spiritually speaking! Many of us are still titillated by all things carnal and of this world as we gather together in our church buildings and name the name of Christ. We still heap after ourselves teachers that point us to the natural things of this world with their traditions and doctrines instead of pointing us to Christ and the Kingdom of His Father which is totally Spirit.

Dear saints of God, first of all search yourselves to see if you are still IN Christ… walking after the Spirit and not after the flesh. Where is your heart? Is it on the things of the world and a worldly church or is it on the Kingdom of God and all things of the Spirit? What do you spend your time talking about after the “service” is over? Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. Do you as a Christian spend your time talking about sports, kids, houses, cars, politics, world news, clothes, food, TV programs and movies? Or do you find yourself speaking with others all day long about Jesus Christ and HIS kingdom? Those of the former group are YET CARNAL. The later group of Christians are obviously member is God’s kingdom and like Christ, not of this world order. They also are finding out that they don’t fit so well in a church system that is of this world.

 

So, I would ask all of us to do as Paul admonished the Corinthians on this Easter, “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are holding to your faith. Test yourselves. Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you?–unless indeed you fail to meet the test!” (2 Corinthians 13:5 RSVA)

 

If He is alive in us, our lives and conversations should glorify the Father for that is what Jesus does and our Christian walks should not just be something that is done on one day a week to be seen of men or on special “holy days” or in a special religious building, but rather 24/7 and should exemplify our Father’s kingdom.

 

Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. (2 Corinthians 5:17 KJ2000)

Fellowship vs. Doubtful Disputations

by Michael

Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, [but] not to doubtful disputations.
(Romans 14:1 KJV)
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I can remember when I would jump on any differences that others had from the way I saw Christ and the church and would confront people over them without much love. It got worse once I got burned a few time in authoritarian churches. Then one day God showed me that I was getting back from pastors, church leadership and others the same thing I had been handing out! You reap what you sow. He showed it to me with this passage…

“Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap. For he that sows to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that sows to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.” (Galatians 6:7-10 KJ2000)

What I got out of it with the help of a brother who confronted me in love was that if I sowed division and received others “unto doubtful disputations” I could expect the same treatment. I had to get tired of being rejected by others and getting back from them what I had been doing. God teaches us that way. He lets us get a boat load of flack back of the same kind thing that we have been handing out to others that we might learn… He rubs our nose in the very thing that He wants us to never do! If we sow love and acceptance among the saints, we will get that back. If we sow disrespect and judgment among them we will get that back as well.

The next thing I share here is important… Notice in this passage above the words, “let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap…” There is a delay. We go out and sow to others the way we want to be received by them and it takes a while for that new crop we are sowing to come to fruit, so we need to hang in there and keep sowing to the Spirit of Christ’s love and eventually we will get the same back from others.

In short, I had to get tired of having ME shoved back in my face! I had to come to the place where I hungered for Christ so much that I didn’t want MY point of view to be heard at the expense of finding HIM in others. Yes, I do draw a line, but it is only when people attack Jesus for what the church has done to them and even then I am patient and ask God to show me how HE sees their hearts. I don’t jump on differences in doctrine, but rather try to stir the conversation back to focusing on our Lord. Christ has to be our center if we are ever to have any meaningful fellowship IN HIM. If we keep beholding Him as His body, we will eventually become what we behold.

Uncommon Peace in Troubled Times

by Michael

jesus-calms-the-stormA dear brother in Christ who lives in Louisiana named Ken Burgess, posted the following on his Facebook:

“Mariners and oceanographers have known for a long time that no matter how rough the seas or how high the waves get the water just 10 feet below the surface of the trough is completely calm. We spend the majority of our time at the top of the waves during the rough seas of life. That is where the struggle is. It is also where the, ‘seaworthiness,’ and/or weaknesses of a vessel are discovered. The weaknesses can sometimes have disastrous results. We are to remain in HIM at all times. Just 10 feet below the surface of the raging storms of life where it is perfectly calm. A submarine spends the majority of its time below the surface of the oceans of the world and the sailors are unaware of surface conditions even during the worst storms with the highest waves unless the captain surfaces. A wise captain will not risk his boat or his crew in those type of conditions. Jesus is our wise captain. HE did one of three things during stormy weather that was kicking up the waves. HE slept. HE rebuked the storm and spoke peace to the wind and waves. And HE walked on the water. It is our choice to make.”

“Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you; not as the world gives, give I unto you. Let now your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” JESUS: John 14:27

 

I, Michael, after spending years at sea, myself, know first hand about wave action. One time I was on an aircraft carrier in the edge of a typhoon and waves were coming over the flight deck  which was normally 90 feet above sea level! It was a wild time, but the submarines that were escorting our group were safe under the surface.

True peace and faith go hand in hand. And God allows situations to come into our lives so our faith can be tried as it was with the disciples on the sea of Galilee on that stormy night. Peter wrote,

 

[The elect] are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In which you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you are in heaviness through manifold trials: That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perishes, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ: (1 Peter 1:5-7 KJ2000)

I felt led to  look up each Greek word in this verse from John fourteen which Ken shared and it is interesting that the word translated “troubled” in the Greek means “roiled up” as in troubled waters on the sea. Jesus gives His peace and specifies that it is superior to the peace that the world gives. If the world (kosmos– or world system) gives “peace” it is totally conditional and is often armed neutrality at best and is a war that is just waiting for the right conditions to break out again. We are seeing this kind of “peace” all over the world where ethnic violence is only suppressed by militaristic dictators and more recent they are getting involved in “ethnic cleansing” themselves! Jeremiah saw this day when He said,

 

For from the least of them even unto the greatest of them everyone is given to covetousness; and from the prophet even unto the priest everyone deals falsely. They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people lightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace. (Jeremiah 6:13-14 KJ2000)


But the peace that Christ sends us forth with (the meaning of His words “my peace I give unto you”) is deep and not subject to the superficial roiling of the world around us. His peace settled deep into our spirits out of reach of all things temporal. I often think of Paul and Barnabas in that dark Philippian dungeon with their backs split open from a flogging, and their feet bound in stocks awaiting further sentencing and what were they doing? Singing praises unto the Lord! (How many Christians in America do you know that would be doing THAT under such circumstances?) Paul and Barnabas  went forth with Christ’s peace in their hearts, peace that surpasses all reasonable understanding, and they were more than overcomers as they abode IN Him. And, as we know from the story, Jesus came down and inhabited their praises and the will of the kosmos gave way to the will of its Creator (see Acts Acts ch. 16).

In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah; We have a strong city; salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks. Open the gates, that the righteous nation which keeps the truth may enter in. You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on you: because he trusts in you. Trust in the LORD forever: for in the LORD GOD is everlasting strength: For he brings down them that dwell on high; the lofty city, he lays it low; he lays it low, even to the ground; he brings it even to the dust.  (Isaiah 26:1-5 KJ2000 – emphasis added)

Transfigured into His Likeness

by Michael

 

stoning of Stephen

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

What a wonderful sight that must have been for these disciples to behold Jesus in such perfection and glory. Have you ever met a dear saint who had been so changed by the living Christ abiding in them that their face shone with His glory? Is it even possible for a mere human to be so transformed by the indwelling Christ that they shine forth with His love and grace? I think that this is what Stephen’s religious persecutors saw that day as is recorded in Acts chapter seven and they broke out into a frenzied rage and gnashed on him with their teeth!

Paul wrote,

 

“Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being changed [Grk. metamorphoo – tranfigured] into his likeness from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart. We have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways; we refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God’s word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.” (2 Corinthians 3:17-4:2 RSVA)

Stephen, that day 2000 years ago, had an unveiled face… his face shown like that of an angel.  It was the face of Jesus who abode within him. And for those who were followers of Moses with their veiled faces it was too much. His face was a witness before them that what he told them was the truth… that they had slain the Lord of Glory, their Messiah, and that their temple worship was used by them to “always resist God’s Holy Spirit.”

Have you ever noticed in a church service that any time the Spirit starts to rise and the presence of the Lord is starting to become manifest, someone in control feels compelled to rise up and put an end to it? I have seen this happen over and over. The program must go on! And the Spirit wind does not abide in the walls and the programs of men. Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom and the purveyors of religious bondage will not allow freedom to take hold and get out of their control so the Spirit wind moves on.

So we who have the Spirit of Christ must move on with Him. We seek HIS glory and abide in HIS life changing truth. We cannot settle for mere words that come forth from those who quench the Spirit and handle the word of God with cunning and much tampering. We would rather read the Bible for ourselves and listen for our Shepherd’s voice speaking to us in a personal way. We would rather behold HIS face than the faces of those who would presume to take His place as they stand before us on their elevated platforms.

In the above passage Paul says we who behold Jesus’ face have a ministry. We have the ministry of Life IN Christ Jesus. We are being changed, transfigured, into the likeness of the One whom we behold. We go from one degree of glory to another because this comes from the Spirit of the Lord who abides in us! As much as we are being transformed into the image of Christ is what proves that our service “ministry” is true, not some man-made title, degree or stance behind a pulpit and in this we do not lose heart for Christ is our sufficiency in all things as we abide IN Him. Behold Him, dear saints, and shine forth with what you behold.

“The Word Was Made Flesh and Dwelt Among Us”

by Michael

Jesus-washing-feetBehold, you fast for strife and debate, and to strike with the fist of wickedness: you shall not fast as you do this day, to make your voice to be heard on high. Is it such a fast that I have chosen? a day for a man to afflict his soul? is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? will you call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the LORD? Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and that you bring the poor that are cast out to your house? when you see the naked, that you cover him; and that you hide not yourself from your own flesh? (Isaiah 58:4-7 KJ2000 – emphasis added)

 

In 1979 I was all about ministry “out there.” I was a “prophet” on the make and the kingdom of heaven was all about me and “my ministry.” During this time many elderly saints came to me with the same message, “Go home! Tend to your wife and children. They need you,” Then one day God got my attention with the above passage. These words of Isaiah are a rebuke to religious people who think that they can get God’s favor by fasting, all the while hiding their sins under a cloak of religiousness and “ministry.” God showed me that by my thinking that “ministry” was out there– always something to be done outside my home to be seen of men– that I was “hiding myself from my own flesh,” my own flesh and blood. My household was out of order and I had no business trying to “minister to” the saints of God until I took care of the first things first.

There seems to be two extremes that Christians fall into. One is that of thinking all service to the Kingdom of God is done outside our homes and that our kids and spouses will just have to be satisfied with the crumbs that fall from our table, thus neglecting our first God-given responsibility (see 1 Tim. 3:4-5). And the second extreme is becoming so taken up with Bible study and introspection (spiritual navel staring) that we never get out and mingle with people that really need help and a touch from the Lord through us. In a way, this also is “hiding from our own flesh”… those who are members of the body of Christ and people in general who need a personal touch from Jesus in us. Selfishness takes on many forms.

In the first chapter of John we read…

 

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men… That was the true Light, that lights every man that comes into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the children of God, even to them that believe on his name: Who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. (John 1:1-14 KJ2000- emphasis added)

Here we read about Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who dwelt with God and was used of God to make all creation. Christ could have continued to live at the right hand of the Father, but God had a plan to send His Son into a world that had gone bad from trying to live their lives without Him. Though Jesus thought it not robbery to be equal with God, He came down to earth and took on the form of an infant, born in a stable to a poverty stricken couple. Not only that, but He took on the form of a servant to all mankind, not a high and mighty king or even a temple high priest. Jesus did not cloister Himself away from humanity, but dwelt among them as a lowly servant. He was not a holy hermit out of touch with the sufferings and rejections of fallen man, but rather, “the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.” Not only that, but the Word of God was among us full of grace and truth! In Hebrews we read,

For we have not a high priest who cannot be touched with the feeling of our weaknesses; but was in all points tempted like we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need. (Hebrews 4:15-16 KJ2000)

Jesus was full of grace and truth while He abode among mankind here on earth. How did that grace manifest itself? He fed the hungry, clothed the naked, healed the sick, cleansed the lepers, cast out demons, and forgave sinners. Today He continues to be our fountain of grace at the right hand of the Father where He ever lives to make intersession for us. Jesus was not only Living Truth before all who saw Him here on earth, but He is still God’s word of truth. He speaks through His Spirit and continues to lead us into all truth just has He promised. The Word became flesh in human form and dwelt among us 2000 years ago and He still lives among us in Spirit form today if we will receive Him. He continues to serve those who are in need and He, the Word of God, continues to speak and lead us into all truth if we have ears to hear.

In Hebrews chapter two we read,

For verily he [Christ] took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the nature of Abraham. Therefore in all things he had to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in that he himself has suffered being tempted, he is able to help them that are tempted.” (Hebrews 2:16-18 KJ2000)

As we find ourselves becoming over-comers as we abide in His grace and help, we should also be available as instruments so that His grace can flow through us to others who are in need. We who are Christ’s are members of His body here on earth.  He wants to reach out through us to those who need His touch. This takes sensitivity to the prompting of His Spirit in us. On the one hand, He may be telling us to “go home” and not hide ourselves from the needs of our own flesh and blood, our spouses and our children. And on the other hand He might be telling us to mingle with the saints of God and be there for our neighbors and fellow workers on the job. We need to be aware of His divine opportunities that He gives us in our daily lives.

There is no such thing as a “holy hermit.” The love of God has always compelled Him to be in touch with His creation. The love of the Father in Christ has always compelled Him to be there for everyone in need. Yes, Jesus would go aside into the wilderness for a few days, but it was only so that He could be with His Father, pray, and hear His will as to what He wanted Him do. Jesus was above all a Servant and we as members of His body are called to be servants as well. He told the disciples, “The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and lay down His life for many.” Our lives IN Christ are not all about us, but rather about Him and His will for His creation.

Jesus was such a Servant that finally He offered up His own body and blood that we might be saved saying, “This is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me… This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood” (Luke 22:19-20 RSVA). Like the woman with the alabaster box of precious ointment, He was broken and poured out for us and the fragrance of His sacrifice is meant to fill His whole household with sacrificial love… YOU “do this in remembrance of Me!” His love compels us to be broken and poured out for the needs of others, whether they are members of our own families or those who He puts us in touch with as we go out into all the world with His Good News.

“Love it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way [does not seek its own]; it is not irritable or resentful [does not resent being pushed in on by the needs of others]; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends… but when the perfect comes, the imperfect will pass away… the greatest of these is love.” (1 Corinthians 13:5-13 RSVA – emphasis added)

Father, put your heart of love within us and let us be poured out just as your Son was poured out for others as He lived and finally died on that cross. Let your resurrection Life dwell in us and let that Life be the light of men. Amen.

Grave Errors and Sucking Delusions

by Michael

Grave suckingYea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. But evil men and seducers shall grow worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived. (2 Timothy 3:12-13 KJ2000)

And concerning the dead, that they rise: have you not read in the book of Moses, how in the bush God spoke unto him, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living: you therefore do greatly err. (Mark 12:26-27 KJ2000)

Ever since men have read about Elisha getting the mantle that was on Elijah, they have been trying to lay claim the anointing that was on some great man of God before he dies. Leonard Ravenhill once said, “I get calls from all over the world, everyone wants my anointing and mantle… but nobody wants my sackcloth and ashes.” When two of the disciples of Jesus asked that they might sit at His right hand and at His left in the Kingdom of God, Jesus said, “You know not what you ask. Are you able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” Jesus drank the cup of suffering and He was baptized in the death of the cross. If He had not, He would never have been able to overcome death and the grave for all of us and give us His Life. Jesus was tempted to just set up an earthly kingdom with Him as its head and to avoid the cross, yet He knew there was no comfortable short cut and was (and is) obedient to His Father to the very end. Satan also tempted Eve to get on a fast track to be “like God” by eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and her act brought all manner of sin, suffering and death into the world… everything that God is NOT. Watch out for those evil seducers in the church that offer you an easier way to spiritual success other than the cross of Christ.

The latest twist to getting on the “fast track” to get a powerful anointing in Pentecostal circles is to go lie on the grave of a famous evangelist or miracle worker and “suck up” the anointing that was on them when they died. (The picture above is a young lady lying on the grave of Alexander Dowie.)  They call it “Grave Sucking.” Never mind that there is nothing in the scriptures that point to this practice. The only “fast track” to walking in the anointing of the Spirit is death– death to self, that old Adamic nature in us– and being born anew of the Spirit of God.  We will know success in God’s kingdom only as we are cut off from that old Adam, grafted into Christ, abide in Him as the True Vine, and allow HIM to produce HIS fruit through us by His Life and not our own. Paul made it clear that the gifts of the Spirit are given as HE wills and not according to our wishes. All we can do is abide IN the Son and rest while He brings forth the fruit the Father wants.

P.T. Barnum, the famous circus entrepreneur said, “There is a SUCKER born every day.” How apropos.  It seems that at the rate deception is taking hold in the churches (prosperity teaching, church growth techniques, seeking worldly success, etc.), a sucker must be born every minute! At least one local church leader  laid face down on John G. Lake’s grave in nearby Spokane, Washington so he could pull up Lake’s healing anointing to himself. Well, we saw no healing miracles happen by the ministry of this man. All he did was pull up death. Shortly thereafter, his daughter was killed in a car wreck on the front lawn of the house next door and his wife died of cancer about three years later. He since has moved out of the area and who know what death has followed him as he continues to follow and teach these deceptions to Christians!

Paul warned the elders of the Ephesian church that men would rise up in the church and teach all manner of lies contrary to the gospel of Jesus Christ. He said, “I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves will arise men speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish every one with tears.” (Acts 20:29-31 RSVA) That is right, within the church men rise up and start teaching perverse things to gain a following. This was unheard of in the infant church. Church elders and leaders only worked to unite the saints with Christ as their Head and never to themselves, always pointing them to Jesus Christ as their sufficiency in all things. The apostles had no disciples and Paul rebuked the Corinthians for thinking in those terms.

“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 by whom you believed, even as the Lord gave to every man? I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that plants anything, neither he that waters; but God that gives the increase… All things are yours and you are Christ’s and Christ is God’s” (1 Corinthians 3:3-2)

The perversity of false teachers, false prophets and false apostles and their teachings is accelerating in these last days and they are gleaning followers after themselves to make merchandise of them. Peter warned it would happen as well saying, “But there were false prophets among the people, as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly put forward wrong teachings for your destruction, even turning away from the Lord who gave himself for them; whose destruction will come quickly, and they themselves will be the cause of it. And a great number will go with them in their evil ways, through whom the true way will have a bad name. And in their desire for profit they will come to you with words of deceit, like traders doing business in souls: whose punishment has been ready for a long time and their destruction is watching for them” (2 Peter 2:1-3 BBE – emphasis added). Going to the seminars these men put on can be very expensive to your pocket book as well as your soul.

The tares are being gathered together in God’s field and bound in bundles for the end time judgment even as we watch these “believers” gather around false teachers that appeal to the perversity in their own hearts. We are watching the great apostasy (the great falling away) spoken of by Paul in action. This is NOT a time to go chasing after men, but rather a time to draw close to God. Remember Jesus’ warning, “For false Christs [false anointings] and false prophets will arise and show great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. Lo, I have told you beforehand. So, if they say to you, ‘Lo, he is in the wilderness,’ do not go out; if they say, ‘Lo, he is in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it” (Matthew 24:24-26 RSVA).

Paul warned us of this great deception of our times.

“And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: [Even him], whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” (2 Thessalonians 2:8-12 KJV – emphasis added)

This is no time to be playing games with God! The Wicked One is being let loose with his lying spirits to cover the earth. Men are being bundled into false religions, false churches, false political causes, and false philosophies all over the world. Why are people so easily deceived? Because they take pleasure in unrighteousness. It is a heart matter.  What is it that tickles your pleasure zone? God is letting men chose who they will follow as they are offered whatever gives them pleasure. They follow what is in their own hearts and as a result they are being bound to these false teachers like bundles of tares. If the love of the Truth, Jesus Christ, is in our hearts we have a love for HIS voice and not the voice of thieves, robbers, strangers and hirelings. His sheep hear His voice and they follow Him. If we do not take up our crosses and follow Jesus, we will keep making room for that fallen adamic nature in us to manifest and follow deceivers who speak to the lusts of our hearts. Jesus’ sheep are being separated from the deceiver’s goats right before our eyes as are the wise virgins from foolish virgins.

Jeremiah wrote, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? I the LORD search the heart, I test the mind, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings” (Jeremiah 17:9-10 KJ2000). It is high time that the saints of God woke up and started praying as David did, “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (Psalms 139:23-24 KJ2000).

“I am the one who corrects and disciplines everyone I love. Be diligent and turn from your indifference… Anyone who is willing to hear should listen to the Spirit and understand what the Spirit is saying to the churches.” (Revelation 3:19-22 NLT)

 

The Fellowship of HIS Sufferings

by Michael

Rejection of ChristI know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot: I would that you were cold or hot. So then because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew you out of my mouth. Because you say, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and know not that you are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: I counsel you to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that you may be rich; and white clothing, that you may be clothed, and that the shame of your nakedness does not appear; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent. Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hears my voice, and opens the door, I will come in to him, and will eat with him, and he with me. To him that overcomes will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and sat down with my Father in his throne. He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says unto the churches. After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up here, and I will show you things which must be hereafter. (Revelation 3:15 to 4:1 KJ2000)

I have been through many sufferings and rejections through the years at the hands of well meaning but ignorant Christians in the church system. But remember, Jesus came to His own people with salvation and healing and they still rejected Him, yet He prayed, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” As we read the scriptures we find that rejection is part of the package if we are to follow Him as our Savior and Lord. Yes, we can be rejected for being obnoxious and obstinate, but this is not what I am talking about.

Many of us have found ourselves marked for rejection by that apostate system and it often came without us knowing why! Dear saints, it is in our DNA… It is Christ IN us that they reject. We join a “church” and soon the initial welcome wears thin and we find that people start to distance themselves from us. We can never seem to get into that “inner circle” where everybody seems to be best of friends. Why? They know that we are NOT one of THEM! Even without making any waves, we may even eventually be asked to leave. Of course this is accelerated when we dare to point out that “the king (pastor, prophet, apostle, whatever the title) has no clothes” or that he is teaching things contrary to the scriptures. The kind of coldness and shunning that takes place afterwards proves that we were associated with a cult in the first place, not the ecclesia of God.

Jesus and Paul were emphatic about keeping the unity of the faith and maintaining fellowship through thick and thin. The early church leaders were never above being corrected when needed. Yet, in a system that is marked by schism (43,000 different denominations and sects) which is constantly dividing against itself, it easy for people to divide from one another at the first sign of disagreement, especially when the head wolf (“pastor”) is involved.

In all these seemingly negative experiences we go through in Christendom, we are given a chance to go beyond the hurt and bitterness and go through an open door in the heavens and obey His call to “come up here.” Jesus does not stand outside that closed door church system of Laodicea forever, begging to be let into the lives of individuals, but calls us out of it unto Himself. In this NEW relationship with HIM in heavenly places, as the One who truly loves us, we are healed. It is here that He shows us HIS heavenly perspective of what HIS kingdom is about. It is from this tearing and healing process that we are then given an opportunity to be used to comfort others who go through the same things. As Paul so rightly shared from his own experience:

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. Our hope for you is unshaken; for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort.” (2 Corinthians 1:3-7 RSVA)

Remember it is in the sharing of Christ’s suffering, which we are allowed to experience, that we grow in love (Just read Isaiah ch. 53 and compare it to your life as well and you will see what I mean). This is the deepest form of fellowship, “the fellowship of HIS sufferings”(see Phil. 3:10). In the controlled atmosphere of organized religion, “fellowship” is a time when we get together, put on our plastic smiles, and share empty platitudes as we eat snacks in a special room called “the fellowship hall.” How empty compared to sharing in the fellowship of Christ’s sufferings and the comfort we receive from Him as we do. Comforting another with the same comfort we have received from Him is REAL fellowship and it just keeps getting richer. No wonder that the church in the first two and a half centuries grew in leaps and bounds as it was so heavily persecuted by the Jews and the Romans. It was all in the plan of God. It was when the Emperor Constantine banished church persecution and made it the official religious body of the Roman government that the church went stagnant and almost died.

So, dear saints, today we don’t have the Romans and the Jews to persecute and reject us, but we have a church system that has gone bad to do the job. I thank the Lord for what it has become so that the REAL members of the body of Christ might shine forth in His love. God bless you all.

Just Who Is Really “Forsaking the Assembling of Ourselves”?

by Michael

FamilyGatheringI wish someone would show me in the New Testament where it says we are supposed to “go to church on Sunday.” My Bible says we who are Christ’s ARE the church. How can I go to something I am already part of because I am attached to Christ who is my Head, not to Paul, or to Apollos, or Peter or Pastor Wonderful? The best thing that ever happened to me was finding my sufficiency in Christ instead of in educated men.

I am sure that someone will try to answer the above “going to church” question with the trite answer, “Brother, we are not to forsake the gathering…” I agree, but since when is sitting in rows, staring at the backs of hundreds of heads while being lectured by one man being gathered together into the fellowship of the Father and the Son?  THAT IS the context of this verse:

Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by the way which he dedicated for us, a new and living way, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; and having a great priest over the house of God; let us draw near with a true heart in fulness of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience: and having our body washed with pure water, let us hold fast the confession of our hope that it waver not; for he is faithful that promised: and let us consider one another to provoke unto love and good works; not forsaking our own assembling together, as the custom of some is, but exhorting one another; and so much the more, as ye see the day drawing nigh. (Hebrews 10:19-25 ASV)

As you can see, we are to gather together by passing through the Veil–the torn flesh of Jesus Christ–and boldly enter into the presence of our Father, where Jesus stands forever making intercession for us as our ONLY High Priest. It is in this kind of intimate fellowship with the Father and the Son that we are called to assemble ourselves to as members of HIS body. It is in this realization of our high callings IN Christ that we can truly exhort one another as a kingdom of priests and not just fill a common building one day a week, listening to a paid Christian lecture.

The next question that might be asked is, “If you don’t go to church on Sunday, then where DO YOU fellowship?” Do we come together with other saints on a regular basis? Absolutely! We spend more hours per week by far, fellowshipping around Christ with the local fellow saints, than those who go to meetings under the control of a single man and sit there as passive listeners! Is it always on Sunday in a steeple house that we gather? No. But Jesus said that “wherever two or three of you come together IN my name, I am there in your midst”… and it doesn’t get better than that! He directs our hearts as to when and where to come together and the only overhead that we have to deal with is restaurant meals and tips or contributing to a great home-made meal we share together as we speak often together IN His name.

Am I bitter against the organized religious systems of men? Not at all. God delivered me out of that systematized religious order. In fact He about had to drag me out of it. My wife, Dorothy, and I had gone to at least twelve different churches in the years following my birth into God’s kingdom. I was constantly “Looking for Mr. Goodbar,” who walked in humility as Jesus did, but all these “church leaders” absolutely loved to have preeminence over the relationships that these saints had with one another and their Lord. They cast their own shadow over everything that happened in their churches. These religious leaders could be counted on to quench the Spirit if He tried to get a word in edgewise or in any way disrupt their pre-planned agendas.

God finally said to me one Sunday as I sat in a “service,” “Why do you keep seeking the Living among the dead?” Well, THAT got my attention! He showed me that unless Jesus is the functional Head over a body of believers and its members individually, and they are led by His Spirit in their daily lives, that “fellowship” is dead because those body members are disconnected from their Head. I had to come out of that system so I could learn to hear His voice as my Shepherd instead of constantly listening to the voices of men taking His place. For me it was like being “dried out” from an addiction. Now that I know His voice it is easy for me to discern when something preached or taught is askew. John put it this way:

“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, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it has taught you, you shall abide in him.” (1 John 2:26-27 KJ2000)

Is going to a Sunday church bad? No, unless you settle for a relationship with a church leader instead of submitting to Jesus as your Spiritual Head. Paul wrote:

“For as the body is one, and has many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. For by one Spirit were we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.” (1 Corinthians 12:12-13 KJ2000)

“But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:19 KJ2000)

Being divided along party lines (called a “party spirit” in the New Testament) is not natural to the kingdom of God, but it is expected and accepted among the kingdoms of men. The Spirit of Christ is the supply we drink from if we are truly His. We who drink from that ONE Spirit are ALL members one of another and rest in the unity of the Spirit of Christ and the Father before the throne of grace and fellowship around their love. We are truly ONE in the Spirit from which we drink.

A Sword Which Divides

by Michael

JohnBaptThen went out to him [John the Baptist] Jerusalem, and all Judaea, and all the region round about Jordan, And were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins. But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance: And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to [our] father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. (Matthew 3:5-9)

As I again read these word from John the Baptist it really trigger something in me about how Jesus did not come to bring peace, but the sword of division (See Matt. 10:34-36). John’s words were not just a textual teaching to people sitting in their padded pews, speaking things that tickled their ears, but rather an “in your face” challenge and warning to repent to a people that came out to see this strange man as if he was there to entertain them and make them feel good about themselves! That is the difference between inspired speaking led of the Spirit and mere mealy-mouth teaching from a pulpit. In Proverbs we read, “Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful” (Proverbs 27:6 KJ2000). We would do well to consider these words the next time a brother or sister says something that we find disturbing.

I would rather learn from a man who has convictions and who challenges me with a word filled with the power of God, than listen to a mind puffing textual word study from a mealy-mouthed preacher. The Word of God becomes a sword that passes through the hearers separating soul from spirit and discerns the thoughts and the intents of the hearts of men (see Hebrews 4:12-13) when it is empowered by the Spirit of God. Give me men who speak that are full of the Holy Spirit like Stephen. Give me a message that is life-changing and refuses to let me play around with it in my head while it pierces my heart!

After Stephen preached what was the result?

“When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him [Stephen] with [their] teeth. But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God…” (Acts 7:54-55 KJV)

Too many teachings and sermons today lack the power of God, because men resist the Holy Spirit for they fear offending someone as they speak. Someone once said that the sign of a good preacher was one who comforts the distressed and distresses the comfortable. I guess those Jews in Jerusalem that day were pretty distressed in their comfort zones after God was through talking to them through Stephen. His preaching forced them to either repent and move on in Christ or manifest what was in their hearts.

This preaching of Stephen which resulted in his death led up to a definitive moment in church history where persecution broke out upon their warm and fuzzy little gathering in Jerusalem and compelled the saints to get out of their nest and be scattered all over the known world with the gospel. It was also the beginning of the undoing of a Pharisee named Saul of Tarsus so he could be remade into the image of the very Christ whom he persecuted.

One time I heard a nest-building preacher say from the pulpit, “Stephen had no business preaching in the temple that day. He got what he had coming because he left off being a deacon and took up preaching. If he would have kept quiet and done his job, peace would have continued for the church instead of persecution.” It is interesting how the temple proprietors in Jerusalem were also offended with Stephen, so much so that the killed him and what set them off after he had preached to them for many minutes without offense being taken? I believe it was this…

“Howbeit the most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands; as saith the prophet, Heaven [is] my throne, and earth [is] my footstool: what house will ye build me? saith the Lord: or what [is] the place of my rest? Hath not my hand made all these things? Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers [did], so [do] ye.” (Acts 7:48-51 KJV).

The Holy Spirit in Stephen touched their “holy cow,” their idol, and the thing that stood between them and obeying the Son of God… temples made with the hands of men and their support. He equated their temple devotion to resisting the Holy Spirit. Interesting how the loyalty of men to their church buildings is not all that different today, yet they expect the Spirit wind to blow inside their skillfully and beautifully made “comfort zones” according to their own dictates.

Just as the words of Stephen got him killed that day, this kind of preaching will still get you killed in a lot of church circles today and if not, it is surely has a deadening effect on the volume of donations that are put into the offering plate. Sad to say, the latter is the foremost consideration of many a pulpit-eer these days. If men who preach were more interested in the souls of their followers and dared to speak accordingly, than they are in their own incomes and church building projects, the church (the called out ones of God) would once again be that city that shines forth from the crest of a hill and the world could see that it is offered a choice to sin and death instead reheated lukewarm “life.”

The day after John had warned the people to flee the wrath to come, Jesus showed up as “the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.” With conviction of sin also came a direction and an answer as to which way to they needed to go. It takes both. First there must be exposure to the depravity of our hearts, then repentance. But this is followed up from God with the solution and an exchanged life IN Christ is offered to those who truly repent.

Lord, convict us of where we are falling short (the definition of sin) of the Life of your Son, Jesus Christ. Cut and divide deep into our hearts and separate our soulish ways from the Life of the Spirit in us that He might prevail unto the rising up of His glory within us. Don’t let us settle for anything less. Amen

 

 

Called to be Servants, Not Masters

by Michael

pardonwoman

But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brethren. And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven. Neither be called masters, for you have one master, the Christ. He who is greatest among you shall be your servant; (Matthew 23:8-11 RSVA)

I have never seen myself as a shepherd or one who mentors others, at least since I went through so much stripping at the hand of God in the ’80’s and ’90’s. I am just “a beggar who shows other beggars where I found some bread.” Jesus IS that Bread. Christ is our sufficiency in all things pertaining to life and godliness. What our Father is looking for and working toward in us is many sons unto HIS glory, not their own.  Jesus is the first born of many sons (and daughters) of God and as such HE is our Pattern Son. He came to the earth and did not take on the form of God or even an archangel, but rather took on the form of a man, a lowly man, a servant to all men, not a chief priest or a king. This is as our Pattern who said of Himself, “The son of man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

As the above picture indicates, what a contrast Jesus was to the religious leaders of the Jews! They were men who loved titles and to be seen as set apart from mere men with their “holier than thou” mindsets. But Jesus was down in the trenches with sinful mankind and they loved Him for it! When Jesus said, “Those who come before me are thieves and robbers,”  the translators wrongly translated it to say, “Those who ever came before me are thieves and robbers.” There is a BIG difference! All those spoken of in the Old Covenant from Enoch to John the Baptist who walked by faith in the Father were NOT thieves and robbers as some dare to teach! No, those who get between Jesus and HIS sheep (before – positionally) are the thieves and robbers; false shepherds, false prophets, false apostles, false teachers, etc. What makes them false? They are “ravenous wolves not sparing His flock and teachers teaching perverse things to draw away DISCIPLES AFTER THEMSELVES” (see Acts 20: 29-31), and like Diotrephes in the third epistle of John, these are those who love the preeminence, instead of allowing Christ to have all preeminence in the lives of His saints.

Being Used

As for being “used” by the Lord, I think that there is way too much emphasis among Christians on “being used.” Satan possess and uses people. Jesus loves and leads them as THE Good Shepherd. Many years ago in the beginning of my walk God when I was “busy for God,” He started talking to me about entering into His rest and in Hebrews chapter four we read, “they who have entered into His rest have ceased from their own labors.” Being too anxious about being used has led to many a dead work in the eyes of the Lord. It is noteworthy to notice that God’s works were finished from the foundation of the world. So as we rest IN HIM we also rest in His FINISHED works. Jesus hung on the cross and said, “It is finished!” just before He died. He also said that HE would build His called out ones (ecclesia – translated “church”). Yet, churches are all about “doing great things for God” and oh, how they love to build. Only as we rest in HIS finished works as we rest IN HIM, can He work the works of His righteousness in and through us. This is why Paul was so emphatic that we walk by faith and NOT by works.

“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.” (Ephesians 2:8-10 KJ2000 – emphasis added)

It is only as we rest IN Christ and His righteousness by faith that we will find ourselves doing the finished works of the Father. Like Jesus said to the disciples, “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5 RSVA – emphasis added). I have found that those who rest in this fact drive the practitioners of religion crazy. These builders of churches and church organizations are the same builders who reject Christ as the Chief Cornerstone, Cap Stone and Master Builder of the temple which is the Father’s design for His temple is made of living stones (see Matt. 21:42-43 and 1 Peter 2:5-9) not wood, bricks and mortar.

So we find ourselves going through all these painful experiences as we struggle to be free of this world and its worldly churches with their mindsets and be bound to Christ as our ALL in all. This is so true to form in the way HE teaches. Paul wrote, “… but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation works patience; And patience, experience…” God puts a high value on experiential learning and trials (tribulations) are a step in the process of our training, like it or not. Paul goes on to say, “And patience, experience; and experience, hope: And hope makes not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who is given unto us” (Romans 5:4-5 KJ2000). Again, we are back to being conformed into the image of His Son who learned obedience through the things which He suffered and His suffering was a result of His obedience to the Father. Should we not expect the same?

My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith works patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that you may be perfect and entire [in Christ], lacking in nothing. (James 1:2-4 KJ2000)