“INTELLECTUAL ALLEGIANCE OR INTERNAL TRANSFORMATION?”
Intellectual Allegiance apart from Internal Transformation is the result of a fallen man’s conviction that ‘what I know about myself mentally easily rebuts anyone’s belief that I need a Savior – I’m OK’, so he/she mirrors ‘intellectual allegiance’ to himself/herself!
Certainly across human history one will find ‘intellectual geniuses’ with, yes, strong, natural capacities of intellect or mental superiorities that establishes them in their world to strongly influence others for good or evil without any consideration of what their influence does for others in the spiritual domain of life as to producing, opening the door, or unashamedly proclaiming every man’s need of “Reconciliation to Holy God”, the Author and Finisher of true faith, OR EVEN UNASHAMEDLY ACKNOWLEDGING NO NEED OF GOD, just one’s best ‘intellectual allegiance to himself’!
One can’t explain ‘intellectual allegiance’ to one’s self, his own dreams and visions, or his influence in his/her world without God as Author and Finisher, unless he/she has accepted the results of godless living now and through all eternity! He/she “sees” through the wrong end of ‘the scope of life’ from fallen humanity’s perspective without any awareness of what “God’s scope of life” has clearly unveiled through the birth of Emmanuel, “God in flesh”, seeing in Christ God’s multiplied mercies, His unending blessings, His abiding PRESENCE in the ‘new heart’ and His extended family of reborn sons and daughters of true faith!
In the Old Testament, 1 Samuel 15:22-23, Samuel said to King Saul, “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? BEHOLD, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He also has rejected you from being king.”
Of course, I have to ask! “Are there ‘professors of faith’, yes, even intellectual ‘giants’ about the faith, but men/woman who’ve never truly been born again?(I’m glad that determination will be made by God alone when every man, woman, boy, girl, nations, governments, churches will stand before Holy God to give ‘their’ accounts of their ‘intellectual allegiance’ but, for many, no internal transformation!).
In 2 Corinthians 3:2-6 Paul enlightens many by his “Epistle of Christ”! He wrote: “You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men; clearly you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, the heart.” What an awesome, enlightening, encouraging, revealing word! And I would ask, “Have YOU been “born again” by the Spirit of God”?
What did Jesus say in John 3:3-8? “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”
Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water [the Water of the Word!] and the Spirit [the Holy Spirit], he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
Born of the Spirit is not a matter of ‘intellectual allegiance’! Oswald Chambers, in his book “My Utmost For His Highest”, (p.166), concerning Jesus’ statement, “You must be born again,” (John 3:7), “The answer to the question “How can a man be born when he is old?” is – When he is old enough to die – to die right out to his “rag rights,” to his virtues, to his religion, to everything, and to receive into himself the life which was never there before. The ‘new life’ manifests itself in conscious repentance and unconscious holiness.” A number of things which we all must deal with!
FIRST, INTELLECTUAL ALLEGIANCE WILL BLIND ONE TO HIS PRESENT GODLESS CONDITION! BUT INTERNAL TRANSFORMATION BEGINS WHEN CONVICTION OF ONE’S SIN NATURE BY THE HOLY SPIRIT BRINGS HIM TO AN AWARENESS: “WITHOUT GOD’S SOVEREIGN HELP, I’M FORVER LOST, BUT BY HIS GRACE, MERCY, AND LOVE, I CAN, WILL BE, AND AM BIRTHED TO NEW LIFE!”
In John 1:1-5 the beloved John unveils for us ‘the Eternal Word’, Christ Jesus! “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.” The Life of Christ Jesus IS the “Light of Life” but men, in the darkness of their hearts don’t even know they’re “in the dark”!
Before I continue in John 1, I want you to highlight in your own Bible 2 Peter 1:19-21! It says: “And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, WHICH YOU DO WELL TO HEED as a light that shines in a dark place, UNTIL THE DAY DAWNS AND THE MORNING STAR RISES IN YOUR HEARTS; knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.”
In Acts 2:22-28 is another awesome declaration of Peter! It says: “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a Man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves also know – Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death; whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be held by it. For David says concerning Him:
“I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for He is at my right hand, That I may not be shaken. Therefore my heart rejoiced, and my tongue was glad; moreover my flesh also will rest in hope. For You will not leave my soul in Hades (or among the dead), nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption. You have made known to me the ways of life; You will make me full of joy in Your presence.”
Now, back to John 1:6-16 where John’s continued witness reveals the True Light! It says: There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all through Him might believe (or trust in, rely upon, adhere to). He (John) was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world.
He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in 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 became 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 bore witness of Him and cried out, saying, “This was He of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me is preferred before me, for He was before me.” And of His fullness we have all received.”
A question concerning your ‘intellectual allegiance or your internal transformation’: “Are YOU salty salt or savorless salt? Are YOU ‘the light of the world’ or a ‘darkened city’? In Matthew 5:13-16 the Lord Jesus spoke to His disciples: “You are the salt of the earth; BUT if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.
You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.”
SECOND, INTELLECTUAL ALLEGIANCE WILL BLIND ONE TO THE DEMANDS OF DISCIPLESHIP, IGNORING THE HOLY WORD AS TO SUBMISSION TO OUR LORD’S HOLY CALLING IN THE “NEW-BORN LIFE”! There’s an interesting few verses in Luke 9: 57-62 that my NKJV of the Bible reads as follows: Now it happened as they journeyed on the road (I would ask, ‘What road are YOU traveling on?’), that someone said to Him, “Lord, I will follow You wherever You go.” And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”
Then He said to another, “Follow Me.” But he said, ‘Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go sand preach the kingdom of God.” And another said, ‘Lord, I will follow You, but let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house.”
But Jesus said to him, “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” Tell me about ‘the plow’ to which your hands are fully placed! What is it that holds you back from full surrender to the King of kings and Lord of lords?
Our Lord AND Savior has no interest in one’s fleshly allegiances – He wants to know: “Will YOU forsake all and follow Me?” He’s not interested in your fleshly distractions – He wants to know: “Will you, are you, have you, forsaken all to follow Me?” Do you understand that ‘selfish concerns’ can blind one to all-out and full surrender to the King of kings and Lord of lords? Jesus had nowhere to lay His head, but how many “professors of faith” do you know who are more concerned about where they lay their heads, what they have to eat, what gives them pleasure, rather than what blesses and honors Jesus in and through my life?
When the calling of Holy God comes upon a man’s life, if a man’s allegiance is one of ‘fleshly determination’, THAT IS NATURAL INTUITION, NOT SOVEREIGN DETERMINATION! But in 1 Corinthians 9:16 we learn of, yes, the awesome, true pattern of one’s self-denial, surrendering to the Lordship of Christ determining for me, for each of us, our eternal purpose, design, and ministry! Paul wrote: “For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for necessity is laid upon me; yes, woe is me if I do not preach the gospel!”
Would you dare say, “Whatever Jesus has for my calling in life, I am ready to do that ministry of service?” Yet, for many, the demands of discipleship are the furthermost things from their mental and willful contemplation! And without a doubt, whether one has “a pure heart” or not is, for many, whether intellectually aligned or for some, even if they’ve experienced ‘internal transformation’, not a matter of serious consideration! Yet, Jesus said, in Matthew 5:8, “Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.”
It was C.A.Tindley who wrote the words and music to an old hymn entitled “Nothing Between.” It says: “Nothing between my soul and the Savior, Naught of this world’s delusive dream; I have renounced all sinful pleasure, Jesus is mine; let nothing between.
Nothing between like worldly pleasure; Habits of life, though harmless they seem, Must not my heart from Him ever sever – He is my all, let nothing between.
Nothing between, even many hard trials, Though the whole world against me convene; Watching with prayer and much self-denial, I’ll triumph at last, with nothing between.
Nothing between my soul and the Savior, So that His blessed face may be seen; Nothing preventing the least of His favor, Keep the way clear! Let nothing between.”
THIRD AND LAST, THERE MUST BE THE AWARENESS OF, YES, THE REALITY OF INTERNAL TRANSFORMATION! Again, what did Jesus tell Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, in John 3: 3? Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God,” saying in Verses 5- 6, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water (the water of the Word!) and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’”
And, if one is “born again”, what is the evidence? In fact, in Matthew 7:21, the Lord Jesus said: “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who DOES THE WILL OF MY FATHER IN HEAVEN.”
Obedience is not an option – it is THE EVIDENCE of the “new-birth” manifestation! And the evidence of the “new birth” manifestation?
- One is delivered from sin’s penalty, sin’s power, and sin’s perversions!
- One becomes, yes, a “new-born babe in Christ” who has begun an eternal journey into the fullness of the blessing of the Gospel of Jesus Christ!
- One is empowered to live the “blessed life in Christ” with the abiding and empowering and anointing of the Holy Spirit!
- One intuitively in Spirit-Anointing knows the difference between “darkness dwelling” and “living in the Light”!
- One understands what Jesus meant when He asked, “Why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord’, but you do not do what I say?”
It was John Greenleaf Whittier who once wrote: “In simple trust like theirs who heard beside the Syrian sea, The gracious calling of the Lord, Let us, like them, Without a word, Rise up and follow Him”! The same author, Whittier, also wrote in “Lucy Hooper” these words: “I have friends in Spirit Land – not shadows in a shadowy band, not ‘others’ but ‘themselves’ are they, And still I think of them the same As when the Master’s summons came.”
Are you a ‘follower’ or a ‘pretender’? I close with words from Charles Churchill in the writing “Independence”, about the Bishop of Gloucester, William Warburton, saying: “He was so proud that should he meet the Twelve Apostles in the street, He’d turn his nose up at them all and shove His Savior from the wall.”
I don’t know Churchill’s source, but I do know that Jesus said: “By their fruits you shall know them.” Tell me about YOUR FRUITS!