“MISDEMEANOR MINDS IN A FELONY WORLD!”
BY: J.FARRELL FISHER, AUGUST 27-28, 2017
The title is not original at all with me but heard on national television about certain ‘criminals’ who couldn’t conceive the seriousness of the charge because they were so sure they were doing what was right! How stupid can one be? Yet much of fallen humanity today, alienated and separated from God, are clueless as to their guilt, alienation, and separation from God. And, of course, the felon minds, mostly, refuse to admit there is a God that they are, supposedly, supposed to be accountable to!
Depraved minds rain “innocent pleas” when Holy God desires “new-born” divine minds choosing lives yielded for the purpose of glorifying God on earth through Christ as He is in Heaven! Just maybe, there are those specific, godless people Holy God doesn’t choose, even though He died for them, shed His own blood on the Cross, and arose desiring those to be His whose hearts beat with passion and desire to be His ‘tabernacle’ on earth, but some sadly refuse!
It’s either submission to the will of God for one’s life or his/her own insistence they’ll go their own ‘way’ – and He allows that decision, evidenced by godless living! Submission to the will of God goes against the grain of fleshly desire to remain “misdemeanor minds in a felony world”, understanding for the humbled, broken, and ‘faith-seekers’, “There must be a better life than man at his best demonstrates!” And they learn, “Jesus IS the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes TO God but through Me!”
“Misdemeanor minds in a felony world” are personally deafened by choice to sense, hear, or desire to even know or do the will of God, deepened and drowning in the dangerous ‘sea waters’ of godless brainlessness and darkened, hardened hearts! You may have read some of Frank C. Laubach’s “Letters by a Modern Mystic”, (1884-1970), but one of his classic statements that alerted me to this message was a statement saying, that he became “disgusted with the pettiness and futility of my unled self” – and I thought, “How true of all men without God!”
I’m convinced that the “misdemeanor minded” are individuals who pay no attention to “the Wind that blows wherever it wishes, and even hear its sound, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes” – their attitude? “Get me out of this windy place!” But one who faces the reality of “wind conviction” can experience the reality of being “born from above, born of God, born of the Spirit” becoming “new men and new women in Christ”!
“Misdemeanor minds in a felony world” are relentless and tireless in avoiding any confrontations about God! Even in the educational fields, or ‘high business commerce’, in both professional and private lives, and, sadly, even in the ‘creative’ arts, plus the masses of unbelievers, there is a drought of any desire to know God, be apprehended by Him, or to have to acknowledge a need of any ‘saving grace’ outside themselves!
Do you remember the prophetic words of Isaiah when in Isaiah 1:2-9 he spoke unveiling the sad dilemmas of sinful nations like Israel became, except for its remnant. Isaiah wrote: “Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth! For the Lord has spoken: ‘I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against Me; the ox knows its owner and the donkey its master’s crib; But Israel does not know, My people do not consider.’ (Are you aware of that fleshly spirit around you?).
Alas, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity; a brood of evildoers, children who are corrupters! They have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked to anger the Holy One of Israel, they have turned away backward. Why should you be stricken again? (By God?). You will revolt more and more. The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faints.
From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness in it, but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores; they have not been closed or bound up, or soothed with ointment. Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire; strangers devour your land in your presence; and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.
So the daughter of Zion is left as a booth in a vineyard, as a hut in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city. Unless the Lord of hosts had left to us a very small remnant, we would have become like Sodom, we would have been made like Gomorrah.”
And, do you know what Verse 10 follows with? “Hear the word of the Lord!” Has that changed much, if any? God still calls today for men to hear Him, but, for many, ‘deaf ears’ rule, or ‘professors of a faith’ will substitute ‘religious rituals’ trying to ‘atone’ for their guilt themselves apart from the ‘Lamb’s blood through His crucifixion, followed by His Resurrection’, with the promise to birth “new lives” making them His Holy Temple of abiding Presence! THAT would change their lives too much, so they settle for religious pretense!
Included in ‘fallen men’s religious pretense’ is: BE INVOLVED AND COMMITTED TO WHATEVER MAKES YOU “HAPPY”. The problem with that is that Holy God isn’t interested in your fleshly happiness but your holiness because of the true working of Christ’s shed blood! Fleshly happiness, even in men’s best efforts, is academy award winning effort in intense cravings for life’s meaning that can only be discerned through the Blood Atonement – and that only occurs when one craves for oneness with God, and settles that desire God’s Way! Jesus said: “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life; no one comes to the Father except through Me!”
In John 7:38 Jesus said: “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said: ‘out of his heart will flow rivers of living water,” explaining in the very next verse that He spoke of the flow of the Holy Spirit in one’s life as they leaned on and trusted in the ministry of the Holy Spirit and not their “best effort determination”! Do you understand that there are a ton of things representing ‘flesh’ or your old sin nature that must go, and a ton of things of God’s blessing and provision the Spirit wants to release in you if you’re willing to give Him His rightful place! Are YOU abandoned to Spirit-anointing and His guidance in, through, and over your walk of faith?
In 2 Peter 1:21, just after he had spoken about ‘a light shining in dark places,” he said: “For prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they WERE MOVED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT.”
Sad to say, too many ‘disciples of Christ’ are not informed about the necessity of Holy Spirit anointing, abiding, equipping, gifting, and training by the Holy Spirit – it’s ‘strange’ to far too many believers! But Paul equipped His followers in Romans 15:13 when he wrote: “Now may the God of hope fill you WITH ALL JOY AND PEACE IN BELIEVING, that YOU may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
Jude really laid a super-strong foundation when he wrote in Jude 20-25 the following: “But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, (Is that “Standing on the Promises?”), praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.
And on some have compassion, making a distinction, but others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh (or old sin-nature). NOW to HIM who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, To God our Savior, Who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen.” AND, do YOU say “Amen to that”?
Some “build themselves up” on their self-evaluation and their self-confidence which is ‘zero’ in comparison to “Holy Faith, Holy Promises, and Holy Ability”! They are blind to God and His promises!
For one powerful promise, God tells us: “I’m Able to “keep you from stumbling”, when ‘flesh’ ALWAYS leans to stumbling and ‘falling away’! Second promise? “I’m Able “to present you faultless before the presence of My glory”, when ‘flesh-presence’ is riddled with weakness’! Third promise? “I’m able to bless you with exceeding joy”, when ‘godless vessels’ attempt only to ‘be happy’ but fails over and over! Fourth promise? “I’m able to bless you now AND forever throughout all eternity!”
Yet, how many do you know who are aware of the last four promises yet never execute in faith and obedience? What did Jesus say in John 14:6? “I am the way, the truth, and the life; not a single person comes to My Father except through Me.” Do you know anything about “the deer that pants for the water”? I love Wood Kroll’s comment in his book “7 Secrets to Spiritual Success”. He said: (p.49), “Don’t thirst for God for what you can get out of Him. Love God not what He can do for you, but because there is no equal to Him….This kind of intimacy is not found through the experience of salvation alone, but through the ongoing desire of a longing heart, thirsting after God.” Glory!
Isaiah, the prophet, elaborated in Isaiah 64:6-8, saying: “But WE ARE ALL LIKE AN UNCLEAN THING, and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; we all fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. And there is no one who calls on Your name, who stirs himself up to take hold of You; for You have hidden Your face from us, and have consumed us because of our iniquities. BUT NOW, O Lord, You are our Father; we are the clay, and You are our potter; and we all are the work of Your hand.”
Dare I tell you that you are either being ‘shaped by the world, your sin-nature, or Satan’ OR you “YIELD” to the Sovereign hands of Holy God, yes, to mold you in the exact likeness of Christ Jesus Himself”! It’s either a “maimed life” or it’s a “MASTER-ED LIFE” carefully and wonderfully being shaped into the image of Christ!
A.W.Tozer, in his writing, “The Pursuit of God”, (Camp Hill, Penn.: Christian Publications,Inc., 1982, p.12), wrote: “We pursue God because, and only because, He has first put an urge within us that spurs us to the pursuit. The impulse to pursue God originates with God, but the outworking of that impulse is our following hard after Him. All the time we are pursuing Him we are already in His hand: ‘Thy right hand upholdeth me.’” SO TRUE!
If Holy God plants within us, yes, the desire to even turn to Him and know Him, is it then because of our ‘fleshly ingenuity’ that we become capable to discern God’s will for us? And, I say to you, absolutely not! Flesh will misinterpret, limit, change, inspire, to fit into us what flesh wants, but the Holy Spirit of God, yes, “guides us into all truth”! In Romans 8:9-11 Paul instructs and inspires us about “Spirit-Anointed Living”! He said:
“But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he/she is not His. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.” Oh, and then in Romans 8:14, Paul clearly spells out the EVIDENCE OF A TRUE SON OF GOD: “For as many as are led by the Spirit, these are sons of God.”
Do you remember when Jesus came and found the disciples sleeping? Mark 14:37 tells us Jesus said, “Simon, are you sleeping? Could you not watch one hour? Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Peter was sure he’d never be made to stumble, but he did! But some believers are not aware of the mental construction of defensive walls against the powers of darkness wanting to invade you and infect you with “Satan’s brand of temptation”, alluring you away from a truly Christ-honoring walk!
Hear the wise man of Proverbs as he spoke in Proverbs 23:26-28! “My son, give me your heart, and let your eyes observe my ways. For a harlot is a deep pit, and a seductress is a narrow well. She also lies in wait as for a victim, and increases the unfaithful among men.” Earlier, in Proverbs 6:27-29, the Holy Spirit says, “Can a man take fire to his bosom, and his clothes not be burned? Can one walk on hot coals, and his feet not be seared? So is he who goes in to his neighbor’s wife; whoever touches her shall not be innocent.”
How do you receive and benefit from God’s “gift” of the Holy Spirit to guide you into all truth or do you ignore the ministry of the Spirit? And knowing “Christ in you” is your hope of glory, abiding within you, how blind spiritually must you be to recklessly choose to indulge His “temple of grace” into your house of illicit activity? No “born again believer” lives without the Holy Spirit living within, but that doesn’t mean we’re automatically free from embarrassing Him! And since He does abide in every true born- again believer, is it that the Spirit is insensitive to the enemies’ spiritual warfare against those who want us in their darkness or us being ignorant ourselves to win the war against the demons or us just ‘stupid’ about what the Spirit longs to be and do for us?
“Misdemeanor minds in a felony world” or new hearts and lives birthed into the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ, and us “resting in Him” as our hope of glory, yes, against the fallen world, the failing flesh, and futile Satan and his demons? “Choose you this day whom you will serve!” And every day you need to make that choice! “Yes, Lord, I am Yours, and I have no desire to live indulging a misdemeanor mind in a felony world, but longing day by day to live in the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Jesus Christ!”
A few fresh words just birthed: “Living in the Light of our Lord’s victorious Way, gone from the dark paths of sin that cause me to stray; Lord, no longer darkness for me, but the Light of Your eternal Day!
I now know the love of God perfected, Because I know it was for me He was resurrected; Grace once denied I now take to my side; and thanks to the Spirit who helps me abide!
Days in the flesh are only fleshly understood, Dark shadows bring demons to my mind covering my mind with a hood; But when the Spirit comes He comes to enlighten, to fade the night and spark the Day of Jesus’ Presence in His eternal Way.
Though stranded at times in stupid deception, the Spirit comes to show me the Loving Father’s reception; the Spirit is clear about God’s power to forgive, and the bright Day awaiting as to Jesus I bow.
Though disconsolate in spirit when to Jesus I bow, His faithful Word of mercy shows me how, that from the Light I’ve been straying, His love for me is never failing, and His Ship of Faith is ready for my sailing!
So, Holy Spirit, lead us all to pray, that from the darkness we may depart, and rest in peace before our Lord’s merciful heart. Spirit of God, empower us this day, and by Your power endue us with love never failing, with love excelling to honor our King.” AMEN?