“PATHETIC DECISIONS OR DIVINE PROMISES?”
BY: J.FARRELL FISHER, NOV.2-4, 2018
“Pathetic Decisions?” “There IS NO GOD! And even if there is, I don’t choose to walk with Him – ‘I’m OK without your God saying, “Follow Me!”’
“Pathetic Decisions?” “You may profess, confess, and follow your Savior – but for me, I follow what my fleshly instincts tell me to follow; I don’t need your God, and I don’t need your “Savior”; I’m ‘lord’ and ‘god’ and ‘ruler’ and ‘savior’ under my own self-chosen, self-governing, self-indulging administration! I don’t need to be ‘ruled’ by another, even your God!!”
“Pathetic Decisions?” “Stubborn-hearted is the way I was raised – I don’t need your God telling me to ‘follow Me’ – I’m able to discern for myself the ‘paths’ upon which I choose to walk, and your ‘Bible-path’ is not my choice.”
“Pathetic decisions?” Have you noticed the paths most unbelievers follow, like, “trusting in their mind and heart wickedness”, “warring against Biblical Truth and the compassionate, merciful, caring Savior and Lord”, “given over to fleshly pleasures with no desire to even hear of God’s Amazing Grace”, “living ‘enchanted’ by godless education, ‘bound and bruised’ intentionally by worldly minds and hearts-of diseased professors and teachers, both diseased and blinded, yes, by the powers of darkness under Satan’s management, yes, living ‘stubborn-hearted’ against the grace, mercy, and love of Holy God”?!?
“Pathetic Decisions?” “I choose my ‘idols’, my ‘flesh, sin-natured choices’, my ‘devil-inspired disillusionments’ of anything ‘religious or heavenly’, my ‘willful choice to rule my life under my self-imposed authority’– no need of ‘God-interference’ or ‘your God on the throne of my heart – I’m more than able to satisfy any spiritual urges I may have, certainly knowing your God could never match the fleshly rewards I choose for myself!’” Really?
“Pathetic Decisions?” How aware are you that far too many people of the ‘natural bent’, as Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2:14, “do not receive the things of the Spirit of God”, seeing ‘the things of God as foolishness to them’, not understanding, desiring, or receiving the gift of God of receiving “spiritual discernment through His gracious gift of the Holy Spirit to guide you into all Truth”? As a result far too many choose to live as “mere men” void of “the mind of Christ”, yet thinking they could instruct God if He’d listen to them!
“Pathetic Decisions?” How many do you know who choose to ‘build’ their lives without, yes, the firm foundation of Christ alone, His gold, His silver, His precious Stone, but choose wood, hay, and stubble, worked up by ‘self-effort’, and when the ‘storms of life come’, they are so easily tossed around, yes, ‘blown away’ by demonic deception?
“Pathetic Decisions?” Is THAT “guided by worldly wisdom”? Examine 1 Corinthians 3:18-20! “Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you seems to be wise in this age, let him become a ‘fool’ that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, “He catches the wise in their own craftiness”, and again, “The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile.”
“Pathetic Decisions?” How moved are you in your mind, heart, and walk as a disciple of Christ Jesus when in Matthew 18:11 Jesus said, “For the Son of Man has come to save that which is lost”? “Lost”? “Alienated, separated from the God who made you, lost you, but bought you with a price (His own shed blood at Calvary), but you CHOOSE to walk independently without Him as your Lord, your Savior, and the Master of your life-walk in the here and now, and then into the eternal realm after your death – you’ll just ‘walk alone’, independent of any need of His love, grace, and mercy?”
“Pathetic Decisions?” You had rather be ‘leveraged by Satan’ than be truly liberated by Christ eternally? You’d rather be “cast down to hell, delivered into chains of darkness, reserved for judgment” (2 Peter 2:4) than to be, yes, freed from ‘demonic bondage’ and ‘fleshly indulgence’ that separates you from Holy God ‘in Christ’?
“Pathetic Decisions?” Have you ever seen, been confronted by, or fully awakened to the “sickly and deathly fruit” from, yes, “the law of sin and its state of spiritual death”, its alienation and separation from Holy God and His eternal purpose for your life in the here and now, and then, because of that stupid choice, thrust into the wide, open doors of entrance to Satan’s eternal prison?
“Pathetic Decisions?” Consider one, rejecting the wisdom of the Word of God, then CHOOSING “fleshly, sin-indulging, ‘investment-wisdom’(?) in how best to satisfy the Satanic, worldly, ‘old-man-fallen-away from God passions’, continually resulting in more and more waves of spiritual bankruptcies, majoring on ‘cheap-life-investment’ apart from yielding to Holy God’s knocking on their heart’s door, accepting life-bankruptcy as their chosen door of opportunity in satisfying ‘fleshly lust and leanings’ instead of the Indwelling, Victorious, Reigning Christ!
“Pathetic Decisions?” That’s a life-long journey of willful, flesh-honoring ‘Spirit-repression’, ‘Spirit-neglect’, ‘Spirit-absence by fleshly choice’, a life birthed in the ‘Adam-nature’ continuing to breed spiritual death and separation from the God who, yes, lovingly knocked on their hearts’ doors, choosing the pollutions of Godless lives, satisfied as ‘slaves of corruption, indecency, and self-rule’, bound stronger by the whims of self and Satanic governing, entangled in the chains of a world denying your need of God, darkened by, yes, the ‘spirit of darkness’ that desires you to remain in your present ‘state of life’ blinded to the eternal, only hope you have: surrendered to the Lordship of Christ alone!
“Pathetic Decisions?” That’s “choosing the way of a ‘dog’ that faithfully turns to his/her own vomit, or like a fat, sassy sow, wallowing in his/her mire”! I think Peter talked once about folks who are “led away, astray, with the error of the wicked”, rather than receiving, resting in, the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! (2 Peter 3:17-18).
But rather than “pathetic decisions”, why not CHOOSE NOW TO RECEIVE HOLY GOD’S DIVINE, ETERNAL, LIFE-CHANGING, EVER-FAITHFUL DIVINE, SCRIPTURAL PROMISES? In Ephesians 6:10-20 Paul instructed true disciples then and true disciples now, saying: “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to STAND AGAINST the wiles of the devil.
For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, TO STAND.
Stand therefore, having GIRDED YOUR WAIST WITH TRUTH, having put on THE BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, and having SHOD YOUR FEET WITH THE PREPARATION OF THE GOSPEL OF PEACE; above all, TAKING THE SHIELD OF FAITH with which you WILL BE ABLE TO QUENCH ALL THE FIERY DARTS OF THE WICKED ONE. AND TAKE THE HELMET OF SALVATION, AND THE SWORD OF THE SPIRIT, which IS the Word of God; PRAYING ALWAYS with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, BEING WATCHFUL to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints – and for me, that utterance may be given to me, that I MAY OPEN MY MOUTH BOLDLY TO MAKE KNOWN THE MYSTERY OF THE GOSPEL, for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.”
BUT…are you witnessing, observing, sadly seeing, many believers who rather than “resting” in Christ’s Victorious Conquest, yes, over the world, your failing, fallen flesh, and Hell’s deceitful, darkening, destructive demons, are choosing rather to be blinded to sometimes, or are blinded willfully most times in true allegiance to the demons, not heaven’s angels, seeking to travel on both the ‘low road’ and the ‘high road’, compromising the fallen flesh rather than walking in Spirit-power, with greater allegiance to that old man of flesh rather than choosing consistently the “new man’s victorious armor”, yes, the inner presence of the Resurrected Christ, the witness of a Paul who said often, “I choose death to my old man daily that Christ’s Resurrection Presence might reign supremely through me as I willfully choose His promise, ‘I’ll never leave you nor forsake you!’” THAT PROMISE STILL STANDS!!!
SO….CHOOSE THE GRIP OF GRACE, NOT THE ‘BEST EFFORT’ OF A DECEIVED BELIEVER! Do YOU understand that Psalm 68:18 is a prophetic word from David about Christ Jesus’s amazing work on the Cross and through His empty tomb, raised up as your Conqueror over sin and death? “He (Christ Jesus) led captivity captive”? In his book, “Can Man Live Without God?”, (Chapter 16, p.174), Ravi Zacharias used a quote of James Stewart in Stewart’s book, “The Strong Name,” (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1972,p.55), that says:
“It is a glorious phrase – “He led captivity captive.” The very triumphs of His foes, it means, He used for their defeat. He compelled their dark achievements to subserve His ends, not theirs. They nailed Him to the tree, not knowing that by that very act they were bringing the world to His feet. They gave Him a cross, not guessing that He would make it a throne. They flung Him outside the gates to die, not knowing that in that very moment they were lifting up all the gates of the universe, to let the King come in. They thought to root out His doctrines, not understanding that they were implanting imperishably in the hearts of men the very name they intended to destroy. They thought they had God with His back to the wall, pinned and helpless and defeated; they did not know that it was God Himself who had tracked them down. He did not conquer “in spite of” the dark mystery of evil. He conquered through it.” Glory Be To the Father, and to the Son, and To the Holy Spirit – the marvelous, eternal Victors – the Three in One!!
Apart from God’s Eternal Gospel, YOU choose for yourself, the “best effort” of human flesh? Apart from the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ Jesus, YOU choose the “myth” that God accepts all who “try” without an ounce of the blessing of “trusting” the finished work of Christ at the Cross and through His empty tomb and His promise, “I’ll never leave you nor forsake you.” Also, Oswald Chambers, in his book “My Utmost For His Highest,”, (p.105), wrote: “As soon as you begin to live the life of faith in God, fascinating and luxurious prospects will open before you, and these things are yours by right; but if you are living the life of faith you will experience your right to waive your rights, and let God choose for you. God sometimes allows you to get into a place of testing where your own welfare would be the right and proper thing to consider if you were not living a life of faith, but if you are, you will joyfully waive your right and let God choose for you. This is the discipline by means of which the natural is transformed into the spiritual by obedience to the voice of God.”
“He LED captivity captive”, and as a redeemed believer daily takes the sentence of death to self, he/she allows the “Christ in you [to BE] your hope of glory”, and he/she therefore yields to His abiding presence within them to be Himself expressing gloriously His divine nature, His eternal character, and His never-fading power over sin, over death, and, yes, over Satan’s devilish ways, unveiling the Abiding Presence in YOU of the “Conquering King” over sin, over Satan, over the ‘foreign world spirit’ of no need of God, but willfully allowing Jesus in you to supremely reign over self, over sin, over Satan, and over opposing ‘world forces’ in opposition to the Resurrected,Reigning,Savior and Lord! Amen? ARE YOU CHOOSING DAILY YOUR “VICTORY IN JESUS?”