J.FARRELL FISHER, September 6-8, 2018

Frank Wright, PhD., and resident and CEO of ‘D.James Kennedy Ministries’, sent me an E-Mail about “gender confusion abounds”, from his book, “The Great Confusion”, saying: “We are living in an increasingly “me-centered” culture and perhaps there’s no greater evidence of this than the growing rush or push by some to choose their gender – not based on biology but rather based on personal preference. In other words, “I demand the freedom to be a man today, a woman next week, and something else the week after. Why? Because, it’s my right and you have to make accomodations for me”, adding, …“Gender confusion is running rampant in our culture…!”

I couldn’t help but to go to my dictionary, “The Random House College Dictionary”, Revised Edition, published by The Random House’s “Unabridged Edition” of 1975, looking up their definition of the word ‘confusion’, then they defined it as “the act of confusing, the state of being confused. Disorder, upheaval, chaos; lack of clearness or distinctness. Embarrassment or abashment; perplexity, bewilderment…”, and by the time I finished reading that, I thought: “No wonder there’s so much disarray, yes, IN THE CHURCH, with ‘professing believers’, even baptized, but possessing NO AWARENESS of the distinction between ‘me-centered life-styles’ and THE ‘Master-ed’ “New Creation”!”

Have you ever crossed paths with “bewildered disciples” who, having ‘professed Christ’, have lived ‘in the faith’ with a “best-effort mentality”, but unaware that THAT WAS “CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST”?!?

Examine 2 Timothy 2:10-26 carefully and studiously! It says: Paul speaking to young Timothy, “Therefore I endure all things for the elect’s sakes, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus WITH eternal glory. It is a faithful saying: For if we died WITH Him, we shall also live WITH Him: If we suffer, we shall also reign with Him; if we deny Him, He also WILL deny us: If we believe not (trust not), He abides faithful (TO HIMSELF, HIS CALLING, HIS MISSION!); He cannot deny Himself.

Of these things PUT THEM IN REMEMBRANCE, charging them before the Lord that they strive not about words to no profit, but to the subverting of the hearers. Study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

But shun profane and vain babblings: for they will increase unto more ungodliness. And their word will eat as does a canker: of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus; Who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already; and overthrow the faith of some.

Nevertheless, the foundation of God stands sure, having THIS SEAL, The Lord knows them that are His. And, Let every one that names the name of Christ DEPART FROM INIQUITY. BUT in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and earth; and some to honor, and some to dishonor.

If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified and meet for the master’s use, and prepared unto every good work. Flee also youthful lusts (immature desires); but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart.

But foolish and unlearned questions avoid, knowing that they gender strifes. And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; AND that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.”

‘Me-centered-life-style’? ‘Even ‘hearing’ Truth, but choosing ‘the error of his/her ways’?’ In James 5:19-20 the brother of Jesus, James, said, “Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him; Let him know, that he which converts the sinner from ‘the error of his way’ shall save a soul from death (eternal death that never dies!!), and shall hide a multitude of sins.”

“Me-centered-life-styles”? That’s those who “have drifted away from THE TRUTH”, and are taken ‘captive’ by Satan to do his will, not God’s will! Tony Evans, in his book, entitled “America’s Only Hope”, with the sub-title, Impacting Society in the ‘90’s, but we’re now in 2018, but his statement still has eternal merit. He said in his “preface”, “yet our nation suffers from a serious malady. The heart of our nation is diseased by a moral and ethical virus that is spreading rapidly throughout our entire population. This ‘disease of the soul’ threatens to deliver a national deathblow.

Even worse, the disease is not being diagnosed for what it is. We are allocating a great deal of time and money in an attempt to cure the symptoms of the disease, but we have little understanding of the nature of the disease itself. As I observe the multifaceted crisis we face, it is apparent that unless we bring about a major reversal of our moral and ethical frame of reference, we will self-destruct. We are in grave danger of doing to ourselves what no other enemy could do.”

“Me-centered-life-styles” that, yes, turn deaf ears to the divine revelation of Scriptures, inspired and directed by the Holy Spirit, and are intentionally ‘dumping’ on fallen humanity the unimportance of the Holy Word of God, ‘sugar-coating’ the ‘disease’ of Spirit-avoidance, and embracing ‘life-failure’, ‘life-unbelief’ in ‘the saving grace and mercy and the love of God’, to then embrace full surrender to ‘satisfy’ the ‘sin nature’ and its powerful but destructive intent, even upholding the sick values of a godless society, re-enforcing the warped thoughts in one’s mind, and unashamedly declaring by practice, “I have no desire for your ‘god’ managing my choices for worldly pleasures – I’m able, and don’t want your “God’s’ love, His grace, or His mercy!”

There IS the reality of misguided men in our mortal sphere of influences! There ARE, according to Proverbs 30:12 (ESV), “those who are clean in their own eyes but are not washed of their filth.” There are those, yes, captured and captivated by Satan’s strong, deceptive influences that sadly are easily led astray, easily overwhelmed by Satanic, fleshly temptations that entice to the point that ‘interest’ in God’s eternal purpose for “Life in Him” to bless you beyond human understanding to be ‘blotted out’ by his ‘strong cords and enticements that, he says, satisfies your ‘natural tendencies’ to the point of ultimate pleasure, though blinding one to the love, grace, and mercy of God!

But, are you also aware of His “chosen people”, Israel, a people, blessed of God but turned inward in ‘satisfying’ the ‘me-centered-life-styles’? In Daniel 9:11-14, 16-17,and 19-23 we read, not only about the restoration of all Israel, but of those repentant ones who, yes, TURNED TO GOD, CRIED OUT, AND WERE TOUCHED BY HIS “AMAZING GRACE”!

Daniel 9:11-14 tells us, “Yes, all Israel have transgressed Your law, God, even by departing, that they might not obey Your voice; therefore ‘the curse’ is poured upon us, and the oath that is written in the law of Moses the servant of God, BECAUSE we have sinned against Him. And He has confirmed His words, which He spoke against us, and against our judges (who twist His laws) that judged us, by bringing upon us a great evil: for under the whole heaven has not been done as has been done upon Jerusalem. As it is written in the law of Moses, all this evil is come upon us; yet made we not our prayer before the Lord our God, that we might turn from our iniquities, and understand Your truth. Therefore has the Lord watched upon the evil, and brought (the consequences) upon us: for the Lord our God is righteous in all His works which He does; for we have not obeyed His voice.”

“Me-centered life-styles”, confronted by prophets, messengers from God, passionate devotees to truth, like Daniel, can certainly turn a ‘tidal wave of disobedience’ into, yes, spiritual revival and renewal for many who ‘betrayed’ the calling, repented, and returned to pick up “the pieces or lives” that could, and were turned back by, yes, prophetic ministries, like Daniel’s!! Daniel 9: 16-17 IS the convicting spirit that God used, yes, to return some to submission to His word, His will, and His way! Daniel prayed:

“O Lord, according to ALL YOUR righteousness, I beseech You, let Your anger and Your fury be turned away from Your city Jerusalem, Your holy mountain: because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and Your people have become a reproach to all that are about us.

Now therefore, O our God, hear the prayer of Your servant and his supplications, and CAUSE Your face to shine upon Your sanctuary that is (presently) desolate, for Your sake, for Your honor, for Your glory, once again.”

Oh, then look at Daniel 9:19-23! “O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; O Lord, hearken and do (act mercifully!!); defer not, for Your own sake, O my God (defer not? Maybe, “don’t delay in acting mercifully toward ‘wrong-doers’, but, maybe, give them a second chance or opportunity to honor You, O Lord”?): for Your city and Your people are called by Your name. And while I was speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, AND presenting my supplication before the Lord my God for the holy mountain of my God;

Yes, while I was speaking in prayer (to Him), even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation. And he informed me, and talked with me, and said, O Daniel (O Farrell!), I am now come forth to give you skill and understanding. (Though fallen, there’s hope! Though disobedient, there’s forgiveness! Though spiritually ‘stupid’, God wants to make you “wise”!!).

Verse 23, At the beginning of your supplications the commandment came forth, and I AM COME to show you; for you are greatly beloved: therefore understand the matter, and consider the vision.” Amen and Amen and Amen! God IS no respecter of persons, but will forgive and will re-introduce you to your calling, and will, if you let Him, pour you out as a drink offering to all you come in contact with! (I dated this Verse on April 14, 1983! And I’ve never forgotten God’s grace and God’s mercy and God’s choice in, yes, choosing ME to be the ‘container’ of His Son’s Resurrection Life so, what Jesus did in New Testament days, He still is the Same, longing to enter YOU as He does to every repentant child of faith, finished with himself/herself, and letting the Resurrected Christ be Himself through the vessel of your surrendered life!!

“In Christ”, after repentance and faith, it’s so important that you grasp Ecclesiastes 11:5 that says: “As YOU do not know the path of the wind, or how the body is formed in a mother’s womb, so you cannot understand the work of God, the Maker of all things.”

In fact, it’s not up to us to interpret ‘God’s infinite mind’ as Isaiah 55:8-9 educates us and, at least, for us, instructs us, ‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways’ declares the Lord. ‘As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than yours, and My thoughts than your thoughts.” WE LEARN THROUGH OUR ‘SPIRITUAL’ BUT FLESHLY FAILURES, that He’s thankful when we’re finished with our “best efforts”, and we allow “Jesus, Be Jesus In Me!” Amen?

“In Christ”, true disciples are not called to ‘try’, ‘keep trying’, but TRUST HIM TO BE HIMSELF IN YOU AND THROUGH SO THAT YOU, DAY BY DAY ,TAKE “THE SENTENCE OF DEATH TO YOURSELF WILLFULLY”, THAT HIS RESURRECTION LIFE MAY BE MANIFESTED IN AND THROUGH YOUR MORTAL FLESH!!

“Me-Centered-Life-Style OR “The MASTER-CENTERED NEW CREATION”? Come to Hebrews!!

First, Hebrews 10:19-25, 35-36, and 39!

Second, Hebrews 11:1-13, 17-40!

Third, Hebrews 12:1-14, 22-29!

Fourth, Hebrews 13:6-8!!!

FIRST, Hebrews 10:19-25, 35-36, and 39! “Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, By a NEW AND LIVING WAY, which He has consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, His flesh; And having a high priest over the house of God (Are YOU ‘in Christ’ a house of God?);

Let us draw near with a true heart (new heart because of Christ’s blood redemption!) in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.(The ‘water of His Holy Word’!). Let us HOLD FAST the profession of our faith WITHOUT WAVERING; (for He is faithful that promised;)

And let us consider one another to provoke (or challenge) unto love and good works; Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another; and so much the more as you see the day approaching.

Verses 35-36 then says: “Cast not away therefore your CONFIDENCE, which has great recompence of reward. For you have need of patience (or steadfastness!), that, after you have done the will of God, you might receive the promise.

Verse 39! “But WE are not of them who drew back unto perdition; but of them that believe (and keep on believing!) to the saving of the soul.”

SECOND, Hebrews 11:1-13 says: “Now faith (saving faith) is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good report. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.

By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead STILL speaks. By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.

But without faith it is impossible to please Him: for he that comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of “the righteousness which is by faith”.

By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing where he was to go. By faith he sojourned IN THE LAND OF PROMISE, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: For he looked for a city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.

Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age (of child-bearing), because she judged Him faithful who had promised. Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable. These all died in faith, not having received the promise, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.

(Now, Verses 17-40!), By faith Abraham, when he was tried (tested), offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, Of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall your seed be called: Accounting that God was able to raise him up, EVEN FROM THE DEAD; (Are you aware of the “Christless” who live ‘under the law of sin and death’?); from whence also he received Him in a figure.

By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come. By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph; and worshipped, leaning upon the top of his staff. By faith Joseph, when he died, made mention of the departing of the children of Israel; and gave commandment concerning his bones.

By faith, Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents, because they “saw” he was a proper child (destined for eternal greatness in and through God’s choice, His anointing, and His calling and mission?); and they were not afraid of the king’s commandment.

By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharoah’s daughter; Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than to enjoy the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward.

By faith (which IS obedience) he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he ENDURED, as seeing Him who is invisible. Through faith he kept the Passover, and the sprinkling of blood, lest he that destroys the firstborn should touch them. By faith they passed through the Red sea as by dry land; which the Egyptians assaying to do were drowned.

By faith the walls of Jericho fell down, after they were compassed about seven days. By faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not, when she had received the spies with peace. And what shall I more say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jepthae; of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets:

Who through faith, subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, Quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance: that they might obtain a better resurrection:

And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yes, moreover of bonds and imprisonments; They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; Of whom the world was not worthy they wandered in deserts, in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.

And these ALL, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.

Third, Hebrews 12:1-3, and Verses 22-29, that enlightens us even more! “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let US lay aside every weight and the sin which does so easily beset us, and let US run with patience (steadfastness) the race that is set before us. Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before Him endured the Cross, despising the shame, and IS SET DOWN at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself, lest you be wearied and faint in your minds.” WHY?

Hebrews 12:22-29 educates us in our ‘immaturity’ as ‘children of faith’ not yet mature in patient endurance of life’s spiritual wars with the world, the old sin-nature, and with Satan and his demon forces, saying to us, “But you (in Christ) are come unto mount Sion, AND unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels,

To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, AND to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, and to the sprinkling, that speaks better things than that of Abel. SEE THAT YOU REFUSE NOT HIM THAT SPEAKS. For if they escaped not who refused Him that spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape, if we turn away from Him that speaks from heaven;

Whose voice then shook the earth: but now He has promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. And this word, Yet once more, signifies the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. For OUR GOD IS A CONSUMING FIRE.”

H.L. Gilmour and George D. Moore, in the old “Broadman Hymnal”, wrote a song called “The Haven of Rest”. It says: “My soul in sad exile was out on life’s sea, So burdened with sin and distrest, Till I heard a sweet voice saying, “Make Me your choice,” And I entered the haven of rest.

I yielded myself to His tender embrace, And, faith taking hold of the Word, My fetters fell off, and I anchored my soul: The haven of rest IS MY LORD.

The song of my soul, since the Lord made me whole, Has been the old story so blest, Of Jesus, who’ll save whosoever will & will have a home in this haven of rest.

Oh, come to the Savior, He patiently waits, To save by His power divine; Come, anchor your soul in the haven of rest, And say, “My Beloved, Jesus, is mine.”

I’ve anchored my soul in the haven of rest, I’ll sail the wild seas no more; The tempest may sweep o’er the wild stormy deep, In Jesus I’m safe evermore.”

Are YOU “safe evermore” because you’ve been “sealed in Christ”?

Fourth, and Last: Hebrews 13:6-8!! “So that WE may boldly say, ‘The Lord IS my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me’. Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken to you the word of God: whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation. Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and today, and forever.”

Oh, in Hebrews 13:9b, we read, “For it is a good thing that the heart be established with the grace of God!” AMEN? Is YOUR heart ESTABLISHED IN THE GRACE OF GOD?

[ BOOK ONE]

By J. Farrell Fisher

Ephesians 4:29, “Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.”

INTRODUCTION

Writing this book has been, I believe, an inspiration of Holy God to me as I have entered the year of 2016, and on June 12, 2016, I will be celebrating my 80^th birthday! The one thing I have sought to be sensitive to in my journey is the leadership of our Lord through His Word, His Spirit, and, yes, the wise words of His people to me through the years. Closed, deaf, unconcerned ears to the voice of God is not a wise pilgrimage!

How do YOU respond to the words of Jesus in Matthew 25:31-34? “When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared FOR YOU from the foundation of the world.”

And I believe “kingdom consideration” is vital for every human being! Of course, a falling, failing, ‘full of self’ kingdom faces a destiny that sadly is death and not life, darkness and not Light, the curse and not our Lord’s blessing, and in one’s self lives devotedly for the prison of self-will, self-desires, self-pleasures, unaware of what Holy God so lovingly longs for them in and through His divine will and His holy pleasures!

In Matthew 11:28-30 the Lord Jesus Christ said to a needy world, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

It’s been a few months ago that I was in my study-room, and Holy God began to speak to me about “Death or Life?” I penned some words as He stirred my heart. It says: Death, an event every life does face; death, the call that men cannot erase. Yet death, as strong as it seems, has no power to erase God’s dreams.

Strong, yes mighty, no one can deny, but death has no power when upon Christ we rely; eternal life is our Lord’s faithful supply.

Repentance and faith are heavenly gifts He readily supplies, and grants us the grace of His heavenly eyes; eyes to see what He mercifully gives, promises of His Word that allows us to live.

Death as it comes cannot be denied, but death when it happens, is God’s open door to the curse of Hell or to the blessing of Heaven’s “much more”.

The “best of men” may seem slow to die, but effort in ‘flesh’, though mighty and strong, does not unveil to whom they belong.

Death is the door to God’s heavenly rest, or death is the door to the devil’s hellish pests; no rest for the godless as eternity dawns, receiving the poison they clearly had sown.

Death is the dawn of Heaven’s best, or death is the birthing of greater slavery and chains, hopeless though crying for a moment’s rest.

The “tomb” of death is no resting place but a constant wailing of pain and disgrace, as the devil and demons, with foolishness and shame, awaken their prisoners to remind them of blame.

Blame for accepting their sinful state, blame for denying the Lord too late. Pleasure they sought without any awareness of what Jesus had bought.

By the blood of the Lamb sinful bondage is broken, but ‘sinners’ refuse to accept what was spoken. Freedom from sin because of His blood, but bondage with Satan because of his flood.

Life everlasting our Lord’s gracious call, made One in Him though bruised by the Fall; Light has come to enlighten our Way, the darkness of day has no more to say; but Heaven’s Light forever shines at the Table of the Lord, in Heaven we dine.

Blessed is the man who lives in “Resurrection Life”, freed from sin and its inevitable strife, brought out of ‘death’, blessed in His Life.

Blessed is the man set apart to live with Him sustained by His resurrected life and heart. Gifts of God continually abound as the saint in Christ is valiant in choosing Heaven’s sound.

No strife, no pain, no fleshly blame – just resting in Jesus, no longer sinfully lame. New life, new hope, new dreams abound, dreams that emit only Heaven’s holy sounds.

Blessed is the man most blessed by God’s Word, no longer unmindful or ashamed of his devotion to the Lord, but so devoted and settled in the Truth that binds a heart and mind to the glory of our God, not coldly, carelessly, merciless just buried in the sod.

A new name given, a new purpose defined – set apart to Him to honor His Name, so thankful for His blessing and so aware of the same, to lay down our lives in His holy name; dead to ourselves and our fleshly games, no slamming the door in the face of God, but ‘planting’ our lives in this earthly sod by His witness of Life, wholly given to God!

His glory so freely bestowed is His gift to the man who freely sows God’s mercy and grace and love where God chooses to place us, with a God-given call, that whatever we do, we do it in awe of the God who placed us in the midst of man’s Fall, to sound His words: “redeemed from the Fall,” and recipients of God’s All.

God’s All of forgiveness and freedom and force, to equip as servants, as we rest in His course – no plans of our own but happily choosing to serve where we’re sown.

A crown of glory so freely awaits the man or woman who ‘drinks His blood,’ so fully aware they’re ‘saved from the ‘flood’; and those deceived by the devil’s untruths, those unaware of his spiritual abuse, the sons of God so boldly face the Fall of men in fleshly disgrace, and pour out their lives to see the change that our Lord’s sacrifice so richly inflames – A flame of God that purifies the soul, sets a man free, and enriches his life, free from guilt, free from godlessness, free to breathe in His gracious gifts, equipping His people to pronounce salvation from fleshly rifts!

Heaven forever in relationship with God, married to Him with the old man in earth’s sod. Heaven forever as the gift of His grace, ever soaring on eagles’ wings until I’m safe in His place. His love gave me wings, even a voice to sing, and eyes to see my eternal resting place, graciously a recipient of His matchless grace!

“Amen” to God forever the same, the God of love that has washed our blame, and seated us with Christ in heavenly places that we might view His love of all races, anointing us in His Spirit and blessing us with heavenly graces, to see our world as His Creation, with Holy Desire as His habitation, unveiling Christ Jesus as His Holy Revelation! [Written by James Farrell Fisher at the beginning of this new book!]

FOREWARD:

BY “Dr.” David Clark, spiritual son of the author, J. Farrell Fisher, designated by me as “Dr.”, because of his unflinching love of Christ and His Word. I’d be afraid of trying to say how long we’ve had such a strong spiritual relationship, but David was one of many young men who traveled with me to India off and on those 25 years. He was a blessing back then – he’s a blessing now, yes, as most Tuesday evenings he ministers in some of the state prisons in Florida! Here’s David’s words: [That’s “Dr.” David!]

OUTLINE

Chapter 1 – “I NEVER KNEW YOU”! SIGNED: GOD

Chapter 2 – “VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED”

Chapter 3 – “THE VITAL AWARENESS OF THE NEED OF SPIRITUAL LABORING”

Chapter 4 – “VITAL AWARENESS OF THE AMAZING GOD AND AMAZING GIFTS”

Chapter 5 – “THE AMAZING UNVEILING OF AWESOME TRUTH BY PREACHING PEACE THROUGH CHRIST JESUS’ CROSS”

Chapter 6 – “VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED? FALLEN FOLLOWER – FAITHFUL FOLLOW-UP”

Chapter 7 – “VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED? THE CALL TO ONE’S NEED OF SELF-EXAMINATION”

Chapter 8 – “VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED? PRAYERLESS LIFE – PRAYERFUL LIBERATION”

Chapter 9 – “VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED? BESTOWED GRACE – BLESSED VICTORY”

Chapter 10 – “VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED? ONE LEGISLATOR – ONE LORD”

Chapter 11 – “VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED? VOID OF GOD’S WORD OR VICTORY THROUGH GOD’S WORD?”

Chapter 12 – “VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED? EXPERIENCING THE POWER OF THE PROMISED, PRECIOUS HOLY SPIRIT!”

Chapter 13 – “VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED? WORLD PHILOSOPHERS OR WILLFUL PROMOTION BY GOD?”

Chapter 14 – “VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED? CONFLICTING LOYALTY OR ALL-CONSUMING LOVE?”

Chapter 15 – “Vital Awareness Unveiled? Victims Or Victors?”

Chapter 16 – “VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED? CARING FOR OTHERS – THE SIGN OF CHRIST’S PRESENCE!”

Chapter 17 – “VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED? SIN’S COMPLICATIONS – SIN’S REMEDY!”

Chapter 18 – “VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED? HUMANLY DEVELOPED STRENGTH OR GOD-GIVEN POWER?”

Chapter 19 – “VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED? UNFOUNDED EXPECTATION OR ETERNAL TRUTH UNVEILED?”

Chapter 20 – “VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED? THE REALITY OF HELL AND HEAVEN?” Conclusion

[Written January 15- March 10, 2016]

CHAPTER ONE

“I NEVER KNEW YOU!”

SIGNED: “GOD”

In reading the Psalms recently, I read a Scripture that heightened the ‘holy fear of God’ in my heart. It was Psalm 31:1 when David wrote: “In You, O Lord, do I put my trust and seek refuge; let me NEVER be put to shame or (have my hope in You) disappointed; deliver me in Your righteousness!”

In Verse 4 David prayed: “Draw me out of the net that they have laid secretly for me; for You are my strength and my stronghold.”

If David found himself in “the net”, a “net that they have laid secretly for me,” with certainty it was his fleshly enemies, though religious, who wanted to bring the king down!

Are you aware that there are ‘enemies’ who want to bring King Jesus down even today? And there are ‘enemies’ who want to bring you down even this very moment!

Sadly, there are false accusers who desire to bring down anything or anyone whose attitude and aim of life is to give glory to God as they ‘walk out the Faith’ in the midst of a troubled, disturbed, and disbelieving world, yes, even a religious world that consents to anything opposite of the Lord Jesus Christ!

Remember, it was “the scribes and Pharisees” and even religious priests of Jesus’ day who nailed Him to the Cross – and even today there are religious people in church somewhere every Sunday, used by Satan, to falsely accuse you, seeking to defame you, discourage you, discolor the whiteness of your reputation as a true follower of Christ and servant of God, never understanding that their false accusations, mouthed by their own bitterness and anger, exposes to whom they belong – and the defamers aren’t someone owned by Christ Jesus!

Are you aware of the reality of abuse that “the humble and oppressed” face in their journeys? And are you aware that the “wicked condemn, spurn, renounce and divorce themselves” from God Himself? If they accuse God, you then are not a target of His enemies? Please hear me! YOU are a target of Hell itself and Hell’s manifestations through lives NOT FILLED with the Spirit, nature, and character of Christ!

Pumped up, arrogant flesh, is an academy award winner right out of Hell itself, manifested in bitterness, resentment, unforgiveness, manifested by false accusations, making ‘darkness’ out of light, feeding others (uneatable pies) out of the rotten fruit of a pumped-up self- importance, and in their hearts and minds their seeds of wickedness sprout in anger, bitterness, and resentment, with festering sores which wilts any true spiritual wisdom and reflection of the character of Christ who even on the Cross said, “Father, forgive them.”

When Christ Jesus went to the Cross, He took us all with Him, putting to death the “old man”, the “man of sin,” the “man of a vile nature and character,” the “man of bitterness and resentments and unforgiveness”, yes, crucified with Christ. But if that’s true, and it definitely is, how does a ‘professing believer’ still act like the devil himself?

If a man chooses unforgiveness, what does he receive? If a man chooses bitterness, what is his fruit? If a man is dominated by anger and resentment, what will he receive from God as he stands before the Throne in his moment, day, and time there?

I want you to read carefully James 3:6-16 before we continue on! This is vital, yes, relating to your eternal existence! And I’m using here, and elsewhere in this message, the Amplified Bible!

“And the tongue is a fire. The tongue is a world of wickedness set among our members, contaminating and depraving the whole body and setting on fire the wheel of birth – the cycle of man’s nature – being ignited itself by hell [Gehenna].

For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea animal, can be tamed and has been tamed by human genius (nature).

But the human tongue can be tamed by no man. It is (an undisciplined, irreconcilable) restless evil, full of death-bringing poison.

With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse men who were made in God’s likeness!

Out of the same mouth come forth blessing and cursing. These things, my brethren, ought not to be so.

Does a fountain send forth [simultaneously] from the same opening fresh water and bitter?

Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives, or a grapevine figs? Neither can a salt spring furnish fresh water.

Who is there among you who is wise and intelligent? Then let him by his noble living show forth his [good] works with the (unobtrusive) humility [which is the proper attire] of true wisdom.

But if you have bitter jealousy (envy) and contention (rivalry, selfish ambition) in your hearts, do not pride yourselves on it and thus be in defiance of and false to the Truth.

This [superficial] wisdom is not such as comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual (animal), even devilish (demonical),

For wherever there is jealousy (envy) and contention (rivalry and selfish ambition) there will also be confusion (unrest, disharmony, rebellion) and all sorts of evil and vile practices.”

And unless one receives the Truth, acknowledges his selfish guilt and envy, responds repentantly before Holy God of his rivalry spirit and selfish ambition, defies the Truth and is false TO the Truth and won’t repent, then he is bound by an earthly, fleshly, demonic spirit, and while calling out to Jesus will bust Hell’s doors wide open, enslaved to those devilish demons and the spirits of men overcome by anger, hatred, and fleshly bitterness, not even knowing the fruit of the Spirit they profess to possess!

The Amplified Bible, in Proverbs 16:5 says, “Every one proud and arrogant in heart is disgusting, hateful and exceedingly offensive to the Lord; be assured – I pledge it – he will not go unpunished.”

GOD SAYS: “I never knew you!” Let’s examine choices men make that shuts God out and away from them:

FIRST, ARE YOU AWARE OF THE FALSE GODS MEN CREATE TO BOW BEFORE PROFESSING ALLEGIANCE TO THEM BECAUSE THEY WANT TO BE RELIGIOUS ON THEIR OWN TERMS!

In Amos 8:13-14 we read: [“The Message” Bible by Eugene H. Patterson, Nav Press, Colorado Springs, co. 80935], “On Judgment Day, lovely young girls will faint of WORD-THIRST, robust young men will faint of GOD-THIRST,

Along with those who take oaths at the Samaria Sin-and-Sex Center, saying, ‘As the lord god of Dan is my witness!’ and ‘The lady goddess of Beer-Sheba bless you!’ Their lives will fall to pieces, they’ll never put it together again.”

Idol worshippers! Allegiance to man-made idols, whether religious, fleshly, sinful, or demonic. Literal idols that men bow before all over the world and never hear a word, never sense a touch, never receive an anointing, never entertain angels but have the full support of demonic powers.

In Acts 19: 23-28 we hear from the “loud mouths and lost minds” of those getting rich off making idols! Listen to their explanation:

But as time went on there arose no little disturbance concerning the Way [of the Lord Jesus].

For a man named Demetrius, a silversmith who made silver shrines of (the goddess) Artemis (not Diana), brought no small income to his craftsmen.

These he called together, along with the workmen of similar trades, and said, Men, you are acquainted with the facts and understand that [Are YOU ready?] from this business we derive our wealth and livelihood.

Now you notice and hear that not only at Ephesus but almost all over [the province of] Asia this Paul has persuaded and induced people to believe his teaching and has alienated a considerable company of them, saying that gods that are made with human hands are not really gods at all.

Now there is danger not merely that this trade of ours may be discredited, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemas may come into disrepute and count for nothing, and that her glorious magnificence may be degraded and fall into contempt, she whom all Asia and the wide world worship.

As they listened to this they were filled with rage, and they continued to shout, Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!”

Oh, but hear me: Idolatry is more than the worship of man-made, devil-inspired stones to worship before and bow down to! In 1 Corinthians 10:14 Paul pled with the Corinthian church and our church-world today, saying, [Amplified]

“Therefore, my dearly beloved, shun – keep away from, avoid by flight if need be – any sort of idolatry (of loving or venerating anything more than God).”

Did you hear that with your spiritual eyes and ears? “Keep away from – avoid – any sort of idolatry”! In “The Art of Worldly Wisdom, XXVI”, Baltasar Gracian Y Morales wrote: “All men are idolaters, some of fame, others of self-interest, most of pleasure.”

Oh, but then you read 1 Samuel 15:23 and the Word tells us: [Amplified Bible]“For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as idolatry and teraphim (good luck images). Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He also has rejected you from being king.”

It was Martin Luther in “Table Talk” who said: “We easily fall into idolatry, for we are inclined thereunto by nature, and coming to us by inheritance, it seems pleasant.”

The Amplified Bible in Colossians 3:5-6 translates Paul’s words as follows: “So kill (deaden, deprive of power) the evil desire lurking in your members – those animal impulses and all that is earthly in you that is employed in sin; sexual vice, impurity, sensual appetites, unholy desires, and all greed and covetousness, FOR THAT IS IDOLATRY [the deifying of self and other things instead of God…]

It is on account of these [very sins] that the [holy] anger of God is ever coming upon (those who are obstinately opposed to the divine will) the sons of disobedience.”

Did you receive that ? A son, a daughter of disobedience is the same as an idol! An idolater is one obstinately opposed to the divine will (the sons of disobedience)!

And Paul gives us all a warning in 2 Corinthians 6:16 when he said: “What agreement [can there be between] a temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God; even as God said, I will dwell in and with and among them [that’s the church!] and will walk in and with and among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.”

Paul was concerned about God’s people choosing to worship idols? Is it any different today than it was in Paul’s day?

SECOND, HOW GUILTY DO YOU BELIEVE GOVERNMENTS ARE WHEN MEN SUBVERT THE RULE OF GOD IN GOVERNMENT AND ENTHRONE THEMSELVES, YES, TO RUTHLESSLY AND SELFISHLY AND DECEPTIVELY RULE OVER THE PEOPLE?

Psalm 67 is one of the most informative passages about God’s rule in government you’ll not find in most national governments’ constitutions. It says: [Amplified Bible]

“God be merciful and gracious to us and bless us, and cause His face to shine upon us and among us, SELAH [pause, and calmly think of that]! That Your way may be known upon earth, Your saving power [Your deliverances and Your salvation], among all nations.

Let the peoples praise You, [turn away from their idols] and give thanks to You, O God; let all the peoples praise and give thanks to You. O let the nations be glad and sing for joy; for You will judge the peoples fairly, and guide, lead or drive the nations upon earth. SELAH [pause, and calmly think of that]!

Let the peoples praise You, [turn away from their idols] and give thanks to You, O God; let all the peoples praise and give thanks to You. The earth has yielded its harvest [in evidence of God’s approval]; God, even our own God will bless us. God will bless us, and all the ends of the earth shall reverently fear Him.”

And, if you happened not to hear it in your heart or overlooked or just didn’t understand it, let me highlight it for you! Judgment comes upon the nations! People who are truly praising the Lord are turning away from their idols! Holy God WILL guide, lead, or drive the nations upon the earth!

Question: Are there godless governments in churches or are some churches infiltrated by godless people intent on shaping ‘our church’ to ‘our way of thinking’?

1 Peter 4:17-18 tells us, “For the time [has arrived] for judgment to begin with the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will [be] the end of those who do not respect or believe or obey the good news (the Gospel) of God? And if the righteous are barely saved, what will become of the godless and the wicked?”

Proverbs 11:30-31 is both encouraging and frightening! It says: “The fruit of the [uncompromisingly] righteous is a tree of life, and he who is wise captures human lives for God [as a fisher of men] – he gathers and receives them for eternity. Behold, the [uncompromisingly] righteous shall be recompensed on earth; how much more the wicked and the sinner! [And if the righteous are barely saved, what will become of the ungodly and wicked?”]

Have you followed through with studying 2 Peter? If you did, you had ‘Hell’ scared right out of you if you lingered because Peter was inspired by Holy God to write 2 Peter 2:1-10! It says,

“But []in those days] there arose false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among yourselves, who will subtly and stealthily introduce heretical doctrines – destructive heresies – even denying and disowning the Master Who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction.

And many will follow their immoral ways and lascivious doings; because of them the true Way will be maligned and defamed. And in their covetousness (lust, greed) they will exploit you with (cunning) false arguments. From of old the sentence [of condemnation] for them has not been idle; their destruction (eternal misery) has not been asleep.

For God [even] spared not angels that sinned, but cast them into hell, delivering them to be kept there in pits of gloom till the judgment and their doom. And He spared not the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven other persons, when He brought a flood upon the world on ungodly [people].

And He condemned to ruin and extinction the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, reducing them to ashes [and thus] set them forth as an example to those who would be ungodly. [Genesis 19:24].

And He rescued righteous Lot, greatly worn out and distressed by the wanton ways of the ungodly and lawless. [Genesis 19:16,29]. For that just man, living [there] among them, tortured his righteous soul every day with what he saw and heard on [their] unlawful and wicked deeds.

NOW if [all these things be true, then be sure] the Lord knows how to rescue the godly out of temptations and trials, and how to keep the ungodly under chastisement until the day of judgment and doom; And particularly those who walk after the flesh and indulge in the lust of polluting passion, and scorn and despise authority. Presumptuous and daring – self-willed and self-loving [creatures]! They scoff at and revile dignitaries (glorious ones) without trembling.”

But can I tell you? There’s coming a day when the ungodly will want to shake themselves out of this world that belongs to Holy God, unaware they’ve shaken themselves into Hell itself!

THIRD, AND LAST, ARE YOU AWARE OF WHERE ‘FLESHLY’ PRETENSE LEADS THE ACTUAL ‘SELF-PROMOTERS’? ARE YOU READY TO BE CONFRONTED BY HOLY TRUTH? In Matthew 7:15-29 we read, [bear with me!], 14 Verses!

“Beware of false prophets, who come to you dressed as sheep, but inside they are devouring wolves. [Have you ever encountered them?].

You will fully recognize them by their fruits. Do people pick grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles? Even so every healthy (sound) tree bears good fruit – worthy of admiration; but the sickly (decaying, worthless) tree bears bad and worthless fruit.

A good (healthy) tree cannot bear bad (worthless) fruit; nor can a bad diseased tree bear excellent fruit – worthy of admiration. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and cast into the fire. Therefore you will fully know them by their fruits.

Not everyone who says to Me [that’s Jesus!], Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven. Many will say to Me on that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, and driven out demons in Your name, and done many mighty works in Your name?

And then I will say to them openly (publicly) I never knew you; depart from Me, you who act wickedly – disregarding My commands [Psalm 6:8]. So everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts upon them – obeying them – will be like a sensible (prudent, practical, wise) man who built his house upon the rock;

And the rain fell and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And every one who hears these words of Mine and does not do them will be like a stupid (foolish) man who built his house upon the sand; And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell; and great and complete was the fall of it.

When Jesus had finished these sayings [the Sermon on the Mount], the crowds were astonished and overwhelmed with bewildered wonder at His teaching. For He was teaching as [One] who had [and was] authority, and not as did the scribes.”

I’ve pastored in Florida, Alabama, Arizona, and Texas. And that was over a period of about 50 years. So the true story I’m about to share, you’ll not know where this story occurred, true, sad, and so convicting.

A man I know had a personal friend who was running for public office – and for certain this man was sure, confident, and at peace in giving his close friend full support.

But the man had a neighbor a few blocks away who had decided to run for the same office, and so he went to the neighbor, asking for his support.

The central man of the story told the neighbor, “I wish I could, but one of my long-time best friends is running, and I’ve committed my support to him.” The neighbor was incensed and marked the central man voting for his friend as the neighbor’s number one enemy. He became so embittered, and from that day forward lived with a grudge, a resentment, a tactic of nothing good to say about the man who voted for his friend rather than this neighbor.

Dare I tell you the embittered neighbor is an active church-goer? He professes Christ Jesus but lives in a state of unforgiveness and bitterness!

What did Jesus say in Matthew 7:23? “Ant then I will say to them openly (publicly) I NEVER KNEW YOU; depart from Me, you who act wickedly – disregarding My commands.”

Receive our Lord’s words in Mark 11:25-26! “And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, FORGIVE HIM AND LET IT DROP – leave it, let it go – in order that your Father Who is in heaven may also forgive you your [own] failings and shortcomings and let them drop.” But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your failings and shortcomings.”

I was 37-38 years of age, I believe, when I knew I had serious business to take care of if I wanted God’s blessing on my life, my wife, my children. I was the product of a broken home. At three years of age my parents divorced, and I was taken by my mother to the home of her parents who cared for me for about 9-10 years. Then my mother remarried, and I was taken to live with her and her new husband.

In all my years of life my father was never in my home with me, Sue, and his grandkids. One time, my senior year in high school, playing against Knoxville Central High School in Knoxville, I tackled their single-wing tailback, 230 pounds he weighed, hitting him at his knee level, knocked unconscious in the early second quarter, transferred to the Catholic Hospital in Knoxville, parents and family unsure that I might live through the night.

When I awoke at 4:30 in the morning, all of my family was standing at the door of my hospital room, including my Dad and his second wife. I lived – and I played the next Friday night against Notre Dame High of Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Beyond that, if I desired to see my Dad, which I did, I would ride a bus from Cleveland, Tennessee, to his office in Athens, Tennessee, where I was born. He never ever came to my home. At the 37-38 years stage of life, wanting God’s full and fresh blessing, God said, “Go, and forgive your mother and father now!” Which I did! And as a result, received “the peace of God that passes all understanding.”

It’s time – forgive, free yourself, and walk in His fullness and eternal blessing! Examine Ephesians 1:7-12, [NKJV Edition, Holman Bible Edition], “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth – in Him. In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory.”

Question! Are YOU living to the praise of His glory and honor? Do YOU walk in forgiveness to those who wounded YOU? Is your song “Mercy and Grace” or is it the song of unforgiveness, bitterness, resentment, even with flashes of hatred? In 2 Corinthians 7:10 we read, “For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death.”

In your journey through life, what is truly your spiritual desire? A disease or the fruit of the blessing of the Indwelling Christ who forgives by His shed blood? A man who walks in the spirit of unforgiveness WILL NOT KNOW our Lord’s blessing apart from exchanging their bitterness for His forgiveness, even seeking sincere relationships not closed doors, because we were reconciled to Christ through His Cross, and true reconciliation is not only with Christ but a true relationship with those who ‘hurt, offended, or slighted us’!

If you’ve “entered the Kingdom of God”, why not act like it? 1 John 4:9 says, “In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.” Have YOU entered the Kingdom of God? Are you living and demonstrating and validating the Truth of His Indwelling Life?

It was Gladden and Smith who wrote the old Hymn, “O Master, Let Me Walk With Thee.” It says: “O Master, let me walk with Thee, In lowly paths of service free; Tell me Your secret, help me bear The strain of toil, the fret of care.

Help me the slow of heart to move By some clear, winning word of love; Teach me the wayward feet to stay, And guide them in the homeward way.

Teach me Your patience! Still with You In closer, dearer company, In work that keeps faith sweet and strong, In trust that triumphs over wrong. In hope that sends a shining ray Far down the future’s broadening way, In peace that only You can give, With You, O Master, let me live.” Does He “know YOU” or not?

CHAPTER TWO

VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED

Are you aware of a ‘religious faith’ birthed in one’s mind on the basis of one’s distinct, self-actualizing moral efforts, or the ‘True Faith’ birthed, built, based and blessed on God’s initiative, inspiration, and divine insight?

Is there a religious spirit apart from the Holy Spirit that invents requirements apart from God’s revelation, unveiling, promise, and verification of divine life only through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ?

Have you ever witnessed a mass religiosity so opposite to ‘repentance toward God and true faith in the finished work of Christ on the Cross’? “Vital Awareness Unveiled”?

Religious convictions or Divine Truth? Devotion to a church’s constitution or devotion to Christ’s Resurrected, Reigning Indwelling Life? Devotion to what an ‘intellectual’ professor says or devotion to who Christ Jesus is? Devotion to a world’s united, unbiblical teachings that there is more than one way to God, including every religion manufactured by men’s deceived hearts, or holy revelation of the vital awareness unveiled of God’s only “one way”? Is it man’s ‘religious foundation’ offered by ‘the best’ in intellectual superiority or God’s best and blessed in the awesome Truth of who Christ Jesus is and what He did on Calvary’s Cross over 2000 years ago, and, in fact, birthed in the heart of Holy God before our world was ever created?!?

Is vital awareness unveiled by the ‘Apostates’ Creed’ or the “Apostles’ Revelation” unveiled by the sold-out disciples who all died for the Eternal Truth? [And maybe even a bigger question today: “Are you a true disciple ready to die for the only Way of true salvation – the death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and soon-coming of Christ Jesus?”] Is it vital unawareness unveiled by social experiments rather than the true declaration of the Holy Word concerning Christ, or the vital awareness unveiled by the sacrificial death of Christ on the Cross?

An ‘Apostates’ Creed’ is all in for self-awareness, self-individuality, self-honoring, while the “Apostles’ Creed” is the affirming, relying upon, declaration, and submission to Christ’s Lordship and His “victory” in and through His sacrificial death on the Cross, releasing men from the penalty of their sin and their surrender to His “Resurrection Life, Resurrection Power, and Resurrection Hope”!

In fact, in Matthew 16:24-26, Jesus declared, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” That’s the true words of the Lord Jesus!

Do you realize that one substituting his individuality in seeking to be reconciled to Holy God is “banking” on God believing our self-efforts are eternally rewarding, and God should be thankful to have us on His side? But, God says, Matthew 16:24, “If ANYONE desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.”

I was awe-struck when I read Dietrich Bonhoffer’s statement: [Bonhoeffer, by Eric Metaxes, p.138], “The church has only one altar, the altar of the Almighty…before which all creatures must kneel. Whoever seeks something other than this must keep away; he cannot join us in the house of God…The church has only one pulpit, and from that pulpit, faith in God will be preached, and no other faith, and no other will than the will of God, however well-intentioned.”

What was true in the very day of Christ Jesus is true even today! In John 6:66-68 we read, From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more. Then Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you also want to go away?” But Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” And there are those who “do go away”, captured in mind and spirit, because, for them, “the way of the Cross” does not lead home to safety, convenience, or acceptance by a sadly, Godless world, enslaving themselves to their religious bondage so opposite to the true freedom in Christ Jesus!

The sad truth of a ‘fallen world’, so expressive of ‘fallen man’, alienated and separated from Holy God, is that “the blood of Jesus Christ” shed on the Cross was totally unnecessary because their ‘sin’ and ‘sin nature’ was not that serious that a wise, understanding, sympathetic God, should, would, could, and did shed the literal blood of His own ‘assumed’ Son. The lost, alienated, unbelieving world says, “The ‘fleshly god’ of one’s own natural life is enough to deliver himself, even if one hears of a “greater salvation”, because there is nothing better in man than his own self-deification, self-strength, and self-ability to overcome any minor or major spiritual short-coming – who needs Jesus?” You’ve heard it!

But a greater, sadder truth? Just like the scribes and Pharisees in Jesus’ day who rejected Him and crucified Him, those in this modern day who do the same thing, Jesus says, John 7:33-34, “I shall be with you a little while longer, and then I go to Him who sent Me. You will seek Me and not find Me, and where I am you cannot come.” Are you a believer or an unbeliever, a receiver or a rejecter, an independent, foolish man or truly a wise man of redemptive, life-changing faith?

“Vital Awareness Unveiled?” Hear the words of Jesus Christ in John 14:6! “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”

FIRST, VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED IS CHRIST JESUS, THE ONLY WAY FALLEN MEN ARE RECONCILED TO HOLY GOD! What did Jesus Himself say? “No one comes to the Father except through Me.” And, if Christ Jesus declares, “I AM THE WAY,” then what is taking place in the minds and hearts of unbelievers? It’s total, complete, destructive deception, breeding ‘death’ for one’s eternal reward!

In Psalm 36:1-4, David wrote about the wickedness of a sinful man! “An oracle within my heart concerning the transgression of the wicked: THERE IS NO FEAR OF GOD BEFORE HIS EYES. For he flatters himself in his own eyes, when he finds out his iniquity and when he hates. The words of his mouth are wickedness and deceit; he has ceased to be wise and to do good. He devises wickedness on his bed; he sets himself IN A WAY THAT IS NOT GOOD; he does not abhor evil.”

And that takes place, without shame, before the Lord’s mercy, in spite of God’s faithfulness in working out his redemption, and his bed, at nighttime, is where he thinks out his wickedness, and ends up doing what? “He sets himself in a way that is not good!” No doubt this is why the author of Proverbs was inspired to write in Proverbs 12:15, “The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, BUT he who heeds counsel is wise.” And those who are spiritually unwise, in Proverbs 13:15, God declares, “the way of the unfaithful is hard.” Just a chapter later, in Proverbs 14:12, Yes, Holy God declares through His servant, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.”

Oh, but then in Psalms 18:28-30 King David was so inspired to write, “For You will light my lamp; the Lord will enlighten [illumine] my darkness. For by You I can run against a troop, by my God I can leap over a wall. As for God, His way is perfect; the word of the Lord is proven; He is a shield to all who trust in Him.”

Isn’t there an old hymn that says, “Trust and obey for there’s no other way?” In fact, in John 14:6, Jesus declared, “I AM the way, the truth, and the life. NO ONE comes TO the Father except through Me.” Wasn’t it Josh MacDowell who once said “Jesus? Liar, lunatic, or the Lord God?”

Aren’t you awed by God’s holy choices to serve Him in proclaiming Christ? Are you aware that Saul of Tarsus was an enemy of Christ Jesus, persecuting Him, imprisoning Him, and ready to slaughter Him, but Holy God had a different plan that even included God washing Saul of Tarsus in the blood of the Lamb and raised Paul the Apostle up to be one of His greatest witnesses!

In 1 Corinthians 15:9-20, [patience, please! Eleven verses! But eternal truth!], Paul wrote, “For I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. Therefore, whether it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.

Now if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty. Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up – if in fact the dead do not rise. For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins!

Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable. BUT NOW CHRIST IS RISEN FROM THE DEAD, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.”

Let me highlight an extremely valuable word for you in the tenth verse! “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain…!” That’s “bestowed grace – blessed victory!” Jesus raised you and me up out of spiritual death, instilled His Resurrection Life, planted our feet on the “Solid Rock,” and showed us “His Way”!

Do you remember the man meeting Rebekah as she drew water in Genesis 24:27, saying to her, “Blessed be the Lord God of my master Abraham, who has not forsaken His mercy and His truth toward my master. As for me, being in the way, the Lord led me…!” And “Christ Jesus, the only way fallen mankind is reconciled to Holy God? Yes! Ten thousand times, Yes! Jesus said, “I AM THE WAY!”

Are you aware of what King David said in Psalm 18:32? “It is God who arms me with strength, and makes my way perfect.” Follow in the Word! Proverbs 10:17 says, “He who keeps instruction is in the way of life!”

You are aware of a man’s choice of the ‘highway’ on which he chooses to walk. In Isaiah 35:8 we read, “A highway shall be there, and a road, and it shall be called the Highway of Holiness,” with Verse 9 saying, “…the redeemed shall walk there,” as they ‘return to God,’ ‘coming with singing,’ and overflowing with “everlasting joy and gladness on their heads”!

Isaiah 59:8 speaks of “the way of peace” that most Israelites did not know, sadly! Are you aware of “the way to Zion”? Jeremiah 50:5, the Word of the Lord! It relates to the nation of Israel that lost its ‘way’ to God! But the holy prophet challenged them [and, yes, even the ‘church’ in America today!], “They shall ask the way to Zion, with their faces toward it, saying, ‘Come and let us join ourselves to the Lord in a perpetual covenant that will not be forgotten.’” Sadly, only a remnant then and a remnant now seeks the way of Zion, which is, by the way, the Way of His abiding presence!

I know it may not sit well with ‘broad-minded’ preachers, but according to Jesus Himself, He said in Matthew 7:13-14, “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.”

Are you aware of ‘the way of God in truth’? [Matthew 22:16]. Do you know “the way of escape”? [1 Corinthians 10:13]. How many do you know and relate to who walk “the more excellent way”? [1 Corinthians 10:31]. What about “the new and living way”? [Hebrews 10:20]. Oh, I tell you, “All the WAY our Lord desires to lead us!”

SECOND, VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED IS ETERNAL TRUTH THAT IS ONLY, YES, THE VERY EMBODIMENT OF “CHRIST IN YOU” – ALL ELSE? HUMAN DECEPTION! What was it Paul said in Galatians 4:19? “My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you.”

Do you receive what Paul wrote in Colossians 1:26 about “the mystery” that “has been revealed to His saints”? Then, Verses 27-28, reveals to us the absolute essential of “Vital Awareness Unveiled”! “To them God willed to make known are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.”

“Christ in you, the hope of glory”? Vital awareness unveiled – in YOU? Aren’t you absolutely raised with joy and thanksgiving when you read 2 Corinthians 5:21? “For He [God Almighty, Lord over all!] made Him [Christ Jesus] who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become [through Jesus only!] the righteousness of God in Him.”

I’m also awed when I read Hebrews 10:14 where Holy God inspired the author to share these words: “For by one offering He [God] has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.” And the word ‘sanctified’ means “set apart”, yes, for His glory and honor and praise alone! By the death of the Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary’s Cross, and that alone, one is reconciled to Holy God, indwelt with King Jesus, infilled with the Holy Spirit, and declared God’s finished work in us through His Son and our Savior and Lord!

We have nothing in and of ourselves to boast, but we can boast on the Christ in us who has set us apart unto Himself, and we glory in the Lord Jesus Christ! No ‘flesh’ glories in Christ’s resurrected presence, but the true born-again disciple of Christ glories in His Indwelling Presence! 1 Corinthians 1:30-31 tells us, “But of Him you are in Christ Jesus who became FOR US wisdom from God – and righteousness and sanctification and redemption – that, as it is written, ‘He who glories, let him glory in the Lord.’” Are YOU glorying in the Lord Jesus Christ in your day by day journey?

THIRD, VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED IS, NOT DEATH AND ITS WORTHLESS FRUIT, BUT ABUNDANT, EVERLASTING, ETERNAL LIFE, AND ITS ETERNAL, FRESH, NEVER-WILTING FRUIT OF CHRIST AND HIS SPIRIT! Did Jesus tell us in Matthew 12:33 that “a tree is known by its fruit”- understanding that there is no fruit of the flesh that honors Holy God, but only the fruit of the Spirit of God!

How familiar are you with Galatians 5:22-25? It says: “But the fruit [the fruit of God’s Spirit] is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.”

The best of human flesh, regardless of its realms of performance, cannot, will not honor Holy God! The best efforts of human flesh never attain to even a small glimpse of the nature and character of Christ! God didn’t call us out for grand performances to look like Jesus, but He called us out to “rest” in Him! In Philippians 2:12-13 we read, “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.”

And your ‘working out’ your own salvation, and that with fear and trembling’? It is turning to Holy God – it is not you ‘perfecting your ways’ – they were crucified with Christ when He died on the Cross two thousand years ago – God’s interest in you is your availability to Him and all He can do through you!

In 1 Corinthians 2:1-4 Paul testified for our understanding: “And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God.

For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.”

It was Oswald Chambers who wrote the following in his book, “My Utmost For His Highest.” He said: [p.252], “When once you are rooted in Reality [that’s Divine Reality, Divine Presence in you!], nothing can shake you. If your faith is in experiences, anything that happens is likely to upset that faith; but nothing can ever upset God or the almighty Reality of Redemption; base your faith on that, and you are as eternally secure as God. When once you get into contact, personal contact, with Jesus Christ, you will never be moved again. That is the meaning of sanctification. God puts His disapproval on human experience when we begin to adhere to the conception that sanctification is merely an experience, and forget that sanctification itself has to be sanctified. I have deliberately to give my sanctified life to God for His service, so that He can use me as His hands and His feet.”

J.W. Van DeVenter and W.S. Weeden wrote the old hymn, “I Surrender All.” It says: “All to Jesus, I surrender, All to Him I freely give; I will ever love and trust Him, In His presence daily live.

All to Jesus I surrender, Humbly at His feet I bow; Worldly pleasures all forsaken, Take me, Jesus, take me now.

All to Jesus I surrender, Make me, Savior, wholly Yours; Let me feels the Holy Spirit, – Truly know that You are mine.

All to Jesus I surrender, Lord, I give myself to You; Fill me with Your love and power, Let Your blessing fall on me.”

Can YOU surrender ALL to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, owned by His purchase of YOU through His shed blood? He’s calling YOU right now!

CHAPTER THREE

THE VITAL AWARENESS OF THE NEED

OF SPIRITUAL LABORING

In Isaiah 66:7-11 and then Verses 22-24, we read both sad words and glad words from God because of a nation and people who, some, rejected God’s Holy Word, and a remnant received His Word and held on to it for generations ,for centuries, with its Truth upheld that God’s Son would be birthed and a new, eternal spiritual nation formed called “the children of God, the children of the Messiah, the children of the Holy Spirit!

Isaiah 66:7-11 says first, “Before she was in labor, she gave birth; before her pain came, she delivered a male child. Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things? Shall the earth be made to give birth in one day? Or shall a nation be born at once? For AS SOON AS ZION WAS IN LABOR, she gave birth to her children. Shall I bring to the time of birth, and not cause delivery? Says the Lord. Shall I who cause delivery shut up the womb? Says your God. Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad with her, all you who love her; rejoice for joy with her, all you who mourn for her; that you may feed and be satisfied with the consolation of her bosom, that you may drink deeply and be delighted with the abundance of her glory.”

Isiah 66:22-24 then says, “For as the new heavens and the new earth which I will make shall remain before Me,” says the Lord, “So shall your descendants and your name remain. And it shall come to pass that from one New Moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, all flesh shall come to worship before Me,” says the Lord. And they shall go forth and look upon the corpses of the men who have transgressed against Me. For their worm does not die, and their fire is not quenched. They shall be an abhorrence to all flesh.”

Did you see that? “That you may drink deeply and be delighted with the abundance of her glory”? Do you understand? Israel was chosen of God to receive and share Divine Blessing! Yes, it was through the ‘holy remnant of Israel’, through the ‘chosen virgin mother, Mary,’ there would come the unveiling of divine blessing, through the birth of the Christ-child, who would, when Holy God heard the voice of sorrow over sin, and the remnant of Israel’s cry over the sorrow for sin and their need of the Savior, Holy God in His Amazing Grace would use the few to touch the many!

It was in God’s timing, in His awareness of desperation for needy people, in their extremity of woefulness over their spiritual emptiness, which God saw and still sees as His eternal moment of divine opportunity; in their deep anxiety, in their moment of the ultimate agony of spirit, in their moments of darkness and seeing no light, God turned on the Heavenly Light, and darkness became the door of the Eternal Light, and the Lord Jesus was birthed by Mary to the glory of God!

I know you didn’t miss it! “As soon as Zion travailed, as soon as Zion was ‘in labor,’ as soon as the remnant saw the desperation for divine life outside their fleshly determination, outside their religious traditions, outside their “We can handle our own problems,” Holy God sent His Son – divine opportunity for new life, a new relationship, a new available presence and sustenance of Divine Life, a new resurrection power over sin and death and meaninglessness and emptiness, through His Son, God’s Promised Messiah whose name Isaiah told them and us about in Isaiah 9:6-8! It says:

“For unto us a Child is born,[does that ring a bell in your mind and heart?], unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end, upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, to order it and establish it with judgment and justice from that time forward, even forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this!”

But for many in Israel they were content with what the high priest and chief priests had to offer which was fleshly devotion to their religious pretense! Even the Pharisees and Sadducees in Jesus day were the pretenders who became the executioners of the King of kings and Lord of lords! And you must understand: There’s not much difference at all between hate and indifference – one can be very vocal and violent, while others, just in an attitude of “I couldn’t care less”!! Or, “corruption and compromise” related to the Spirit and the Word of God, Or, the true possession of one’s own pretense as he/she ‘fakes the faith’! Or, the best of ‘fleshly imitation’ or the “rest” of counterfeit imitation; Or, how about the devilish delusion of deception about ‘sin’ that says, ‘you shall not die’ as they keep on sinning and keep on dying in the death cycle that will not die! Holy God certainly has promised one the end result of his foolish life choices!

I’m sure this is why Charles Caleb Colton, in “ The Encyclopedia of Religious Quotations”, [Fleming H. Revell Company, Westwood, New Jersey, Edited and Compiled by Frank S. Mead], said: “After hypocrites, the greatest dupes the devil has are those who exhaust an anxious existence in the disappointments and vexations of business, and live miserably and meanly only to die magnificently and rich. – They serve the devil without receiving his wages, and for the empty foolery of dying rich, pay down their health, happiness, and integrity.” But it’s true of every ‘independent, self-serving man, rich or poor’!

Several lessons we must share related to “ The Vital Awareness of The Need of Spiritual Laboring”: FIRST, NO TRAVAILING – NO SPIRITUAL BIRTH! I was ashamed, heart-broken, to hear a TV pastor say recently that he never talked about sin and the wages of sin because the lost of this world need the “good news”! But do you understand that the Holy Word declares that the wages of sin is death, the wages of sin is separation from God, the wages of sin cost the Life of the Son of God on the Cross – and without “repentance toward God and faith in the finished work of Christ at Calvary”, there is no reason for one to come smiling before Holy God, but broken, sorrowful, ashamed, rejoicing that there is a way out of one’s eternal spiritual dilemma!

No travailing – no spiritual birthing! No repentance – no rejoicing! No seed of bitterness over the shameful life of sin, indifference, and fleshly indulgence and bondage – no true sons of God! No going away from an ungodly lifestyle, void of Holy Presence within – no coming into the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Jesus Christ! No brokenness – no blessing! No identifying evidence of a Godly presence within – no rejoicing in the joy of the Lord!

There was a time off and on when Israel hid from God, or sought Him – in the Old and New Testament it was like a spiritual roller coaster, up and down, around and around, one day with awesome devotion, allegiance, and affirmation of Holy God and His Truth, but another time a rapid departure and unfaithfulness to His calling and mission through them.

Are you aware of what Holy God said through the prophet Amos? In Amos 3:2-3, through the prophet, God spoke: “You only [Israel] have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities. Can two walk together, unless they are agreed?”

And then in Amos 3:7-8 the prophet shared, “Surely the Lord God does nothing, unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets. A lion has roared! Who will not fear! The Lord God has spoken! Who can but prophesy?”

Is Holy God the same yesterday, today, and forever? When God spoke of “her” in Hosea, He was speaking to those birthed for His glory, honor, and praise, but most of Israel chose to serve the gods of the world, the flesh, and the devil! So God said, Hosea 2:13, “I will punish her for the days of the Baals [foreign gods, idols!] to which she [Israel] burned incense. She decked herself with earrings and jewelry, and went after her lovers; But Me she forgot,” says the Lord.”

And if one lives his/her life in a spiritual state of ‘forgetfulness’ of God, what doors have been opened? In Job 8:11-15 Bildad said to Job, “Can the papyrus grow without a marsh? Can the reeds flourish without water? While it is yet green and not cut down, it withers before any other plant. SO ARE THE PATHS OF ALL WHO FORGET GOD; and the hope of the hypocrite shall perish, Whose confidence shall be cut off, and whose trust is a spider’s web. He leans on his house, but it does not stand. He holds it fast, but it does not endure.” How shocking do you find Psalm 9:17? “The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.”

I was recently reading Oswald Chambers in his book, “My Utmost For His Highest,” and he surely, truthfully, convictingly, affirmed what the Holy God of Scripture through His prophets, teachers, and evangelists, truly understand about “No Travailing – No Spiritual Birth”! He said: “The plaintive, self-centered, morbid kind of prayer, a dead-set that I want to be right, is never found in the New Testament [and I,JFF, might add, OR THE OLD TESTAMENT!]. The fact that ‘I am trying to be right with God is a sign that I am rebelling against the Atonement. ‘Lord, I will purify my heart if You will answer my prayer; I will walk rightly if You will help me.’ I CANNOT make myself right with God, I CANNOT make my life perfect; I can only be right with God if I accept the Atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ as an absolute gift. Am I humble enough to accept it? I have to resign every kind of claim and cease from every effort, and leave myself entirely alone in His hands, and then begin to pour out in the priestly work of intercession.”

Dare I tell you that much of worldwide ‘Christianity’ today is: “travailing is strange to our understanding salvation of how we’re ‘saved’ – repenting, forsaking our grasp of salvation independent of us ‘trying’? We don’t think so!” SO.. they must come in repentance toward God and faith in the finished work of Christ AT CALVARY as He suffered, bled, and died in their place!

“No travailing – no spiritual birth”? Oh, receive the words of King David! Psalm 51:1-13 is David’s repentant prayer of faith from a life broken because of his sin! “Have mercy upon Me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness; according to the multitudes of Your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my in iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.

For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against You, You only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Your sight – that You may be found just when You speak, and blameless when You judge. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me.

Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me hear joy and gladness, that the bones You have broken may rejoice.

Hide Your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me by Your generous Spirit. Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, and sinners shall be converted to You.”

The True Faith of the reality of eternal spiritual birth is never evidenced by an ungodly life style, the breaking of Holy Laws, the absence of sorrow over sin or the absence of brokenness over separation from God, because sin separates not interprets God’s love, grace, and mercy, but intensifies one’s need of Holy God’s divine conviction! Out of conviction comes confession; out of confession comes conversion; out of conversion comes consecration; out of consecration comes submission and obedience to the holy calling of Holy God, yes, miraculously turning the natural into the supernatural, the old man into the new man, the life of willful obstinacy into a life of “walking in the light, as Jesus is in the light”, fully aware that “the blood of Jesus has, is, and will cleanse us from all sin”, because, “I have no desire to walk in that which separates me from God, but a walk evidenced by His miracle of a “new-born life”!

Oswald Chambers wrote, in “My Utmost For His Highest”, [p.268], “The love of God at work in me makes me hate with the hatred of the Holy Ghost all that is not in keeping with God’s holiness.” Be assured, a ‘casual lifestyle of supposed commitment to Christ Jesus, as one has no concern, conviction, or abhorrence of the evil of their sin and a willingness to be separated from it, is evidence of the ‘professors of faith’ without possession and transformation of the True Faith!

SECOND, “THE VITAL AWARENESS OF THE NEED OF SPIRITUAL LABORING”? THE ETERNAL REALITY OF BEING ‘NEW-BORN’, BECOMING GOD’S EARTHLY MAN OR WOMAN UNVEILING CHRIST JESUS TO ALL AROUND HIM/HER!

In 1 Corinthians 2:14-16 Paul wrote: “But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. For ‘who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?’ But we have [the “new-born”] the mind of Christ.”

Our call to follow Christ is a journey, a pilgrimage, yes, even a ‘warfare’ between ‘flesh’ and Spirit, the devil and our Living Lord within us, a world of opposition from the world’s true enemies against Holy God and Divine Truth, and a pull from the ‘old man’ against the ‘new man’! And, if one understands the ‘infancy of faith’, the ‘maturing of faith,’ and God’s ultimate goal in us of “the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Jesus Christ”, he/she sees the pilgrimage to the unveiling of His fullness, yes, in every true child of faith!

As the Lord Jesus is “lifted up within us”, there is the drawing of His power through us to touch our world with His grace, mercy, and love. Even a little child of faith can touch their world by their faithful testimony though not yet in the fullness of spiritual maturity!

And the ‘eternal reality of the new-born’? I believe we hear Jesus saying, even in the infancy of our faith, Matthew 16:24-25, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.”

But, one asks, “What is spiritual awareness of the need of laboring”? Though positionally we are ‘in Christ’, the fullness of His practical and true presence within is being worked out, which is why Paul said, “I die daily”! In fact, in 2 Corinthians 4:7-12a, Paul challenged the Corinthian church and us, “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed [at times!], but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed – ALWAYS CARRYING ABOUT IN THE BODY THE DYING OF THE LORD JESUS, THAT THE LIFE OF JESUS ALSO MAY BE MANIFESTED IN OUR BODY. For we who live are ‘always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake,’ that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So then death is working in us..”

Dare I tell you that true spiritual reality in Christ is learning ‘daily’ that 2 Corinthians 1:9-10 enlightens, informs, trains, and spiritually educated and equips all disciples when Paul said, “Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead, who delivered us from so great a death, and does deliver us; in whom we trust that He will still deliver us…” AND HE DOES; HE IS WILLING AND ABLE TO DO EXCEEDINGLY ABUNDANTLY ABOVE ALL WE ASK OR THINK!

There are those even preaching, indoctrinating, misleading, informing deceptively, because they’re deceived themselves, “It’s over! You prayed a prayer, and it’s over!” No, the journey has just begun! Receive Philippians 3:12-14! Paul wrote, “Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold on me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I PRESS TOWARD THE GOAL FOR THE PRIZE OF THE UPWARD CALL OF GOD IN CHRIST JESUS!” Are YOU pressing in to Christ Jesus?

THIRD, THE VITAL AWARENESS OF THE NEED OF SPIRITUAL LABORING BECAUSE OF FALLEN MAN’S SEPARATION FROM HOLY GOD AND MAN’S NEED OF REDEMPTION, RECONCILIATION, AND SPIRITUAL RE-BIRTH! Oh, very simply: “Heart-birthed ‘travailing’ WILL AND DOES birth true, holy children of God, through the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ!”

It’s His Atonement, not our attempts at being like Him, that reconciles us to Holy God and to our foreordained eternal purpose! Tell me of YOUR church’s ministry, your personal vision, your personal call of God on your life to touch your world with His saving grace!

Is there truly a heart burden in you, a heart-cry, and, as a result heart-blessings, because you see your ministry of touching your world by Who He is in you, because you see and are broken over a lost world around you, and because you sense the Christ in you so longing to extend His Life, express His love, and prove His power through YOU?

Dare I tell you that, sadly, most of the modern church-world is silent, indifferent, distracted, unconcerned about “lost sinners”, empty lives, teetering marriages and relationships, Godless governments and leaders, a rebellious teen-world, and even Hollywood, mostly, not all, who would rather entertain their customers with garbage and indecency than extenders of a blessed life in Christ and His Word and goodness and holy honor of Him, even willing and content to contaminate their customers with ‘Hell on earth’! Oh, and it was Spurgeon who even once said, “God ploughs deep while sluggish churches sleep.”

FOURTH, THE VITAL AWARENESS OF THE NEED OF SPIRITUAL LABORING BECAUSE WEARY INDIFFERENCE, SOULISH UNCONCERN, WORLDLY – WAYS -COMPANIONSHIP NEVER PRODUCES GODLY, HOLY, WONDROUS RESULTS TO HIS HONOR! In Psalm 25:14 David wrote wisely: “The secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him.”

And because one is consumed by, not only knowing the secret of the Lord being with those who fear Him, but also consumed with a passion to honor His Will, His Word, and His ways, that disciple or those disciples began to say, “Lord, what would You have us to do?”! If our Lord and Savior says, “Watch with Me, wait for Me, walk with Me, work with Me, and, yes, witness with Me, how is it that a ‘thriving’ church has no “training of disciples to be witnesses”, frowns on visitation saturation of its community, sleeps as a world around them never hears their testimonies, which like, while Jesus prayed in Gethsemane, the disciples slept!

“Lord, what would You have us to do?” And in John 20:21 The Lord Jesus said to those disciples and us, “Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.”I’m telling you with all my heart: There is a counterfeit of true faith if there is no strong commitment to be one with our Lord and Savior in His mission of touching an unsaved world around Him; the ones who say, ‘we choose to be faithful to our church, but reaching out beyond the four walls of the church is somebody else’s calling, not ours,’ sadly, they walk in tragic deception. Before His Ascension, after His Resurrection, the Lord Jesus said to His disciples and us who are a part of His redeemed body and churches, Acts 1:8, “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” Oh, and then in Acts 2:32, the early disciples, in-filled with God’s Holy Spirit witnessed verbally: “This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses.” Is that so with this particular church-age?

Oswald Chambers had introduced a chapter in his book, “My Utmost for His Highest,” [pps. 218-219], based on Romans 8:16, “The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs – heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.”

Chambers said: “We are in danger of getting the barter spirit when we come to God, we want the witness before we have done what God tells us to do. ‘Why does God not reveal Himself to Me?’ He cannot, it is not that He will not, but He cannot, because you are in the road as long as you won’t abandon absolutely to Him. Immediately you do, God witnesses to Himself, He cannot witness to you, but He witnesses to His own nature in you. If you had the witness before reality, it would end in sentimental emotion. Immediately you transact on the Redemption, and stop the impertinence of debate, God gives on the witness;” and it gratefully becomes His witness through you. Will you daily die to yourself that the Resurrection Life and Witness may be manifested in and through your mortal presence, fully surrendered to what He desires to do through you?

CHAPTER FOUR

VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED OF THE AMAZING GOD AND AMAZING GIFTS

In Hebrews 13:8 our Lord is described as “Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever.” And then in Verse 15 the author wrote, “Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.” That is thanks to His name for Who He Is and for What He does!

In Acts 10:38, Dr. Luke wrote, “how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.” And the exciting news is, it was not only Christ upon whom the power of the Holy ministered to and through, but also upon His newly converted disciples. Follow Acts 19:11, “Now God worked unusual (or “extraordinary”) miracles by the hands of Paul.”

I want you to come to Psalm 33:6-9 and hear David: “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth. He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap; He lays up the deep in storehouses. Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him. For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast.”

And His Word and His works are still standing fast unveiling “Amazing God and Amazing Gifts”! Churches used to believe and stand on the eternal Truth that “There is power, power, wonder-working power in the precious blood of the Lamb.”

Reinhard Bonnke, in his book “Mighty Manifestations,” (p.12), wrote: “God is a God who specializes in the impossible. He thinks only in terms of the impossible.” We need to be reminded of the Kingdom of God being the present realm and the rule of God in which God’s awesome power is sovereign and supreme and supernatural and never dies!

Don’t overlook or forget, but remind yourself daily, Acts 2:39, Peter emphasizing that (Listen and receive and stand in and appropriate: “The promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off [even in 2016!], as many as the Lord our God will call.”

Later, (p33), Bonnke said, “The emblem of God is fire, not stone!” Yet how many believers have you been around who are more like an immovable Egyptian sphinx than a God-anointed “burning bush”? Is the Spirit of the Lord God upon you? Luke 4:18-19 says, Jesus speaking, (remember – “As He is so am I in this world!”), “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor, He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.”

When did this Word fall to the ground like Truth perishing in the streets? Receive John 14:12-14! “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.”

The question of this moment as you are confronted by His words, ‘Will you be a volunteer? Psalm 110:33 says, “Your people shall be volunteers in the day of Your power.” What an awesome, vital awareness unveiled! Volunteers surrendering to the God of grace and amazing gifts, surrendering to the God of Holy Ghost power, surrendering to the God of the awesome rivers of heavenly anointing!

Psalm 62:11 says, “God has spoken once, twice I have heard this: That power belongs to God!” Our God, yes, in Christ Jesus, is the God of unusual and extraordinary miracles! Our God in Christ is the God of the impossible! Our God is the God of amazing miracles of grace, the God of amazing gifts, and the God of amazing wonders!

In Jeremiah 32:17-20, the prophet responds to God’s amazing unveiling of His power and authority: “Ah, Lord God! Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and outstretched arm. There is nothing too hard for You. You show lovingkindness to thousands, and repay the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their children after them – the Great, the Mighty God, whose name is the Lord of hosts. You are great in counsel and mighty in work, for Your eyes are open to all the ways of the sons of men, to give everyone according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings. You have set signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, to this day, to this day, and in Israel and among other men; and You have made a name, as it is this day.” His name? The amazing God of amazing grace, amazing gifts, amazing greatness, ready to be the Same in you following your “repentance toward God and faith in the finished work of Christ”, followed by your obedient submission and death to yourself, but Resurrection Power, Presence, and Promises, as you yield to the leadership of His Living Presence in you!

Even Nebuchadnezzar declared in Daniel 4:2-4, “I thought it good to declare the signs and wonders that the Most High God has worked for me. How great are His signs, and how mighty His wonders! His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and His dominion is from generation to generation.”

What was Paul’s attitude after God’s mighty anointing on his life? Romans 15:17-19 is a word of Paul’s testimony: “Therefore I have reason to glory in Christ Jesus in the things which pertain to God. For I will not dare to speak of any of those things which Christ has not accomplished through me, in word and deed, to make the Gentiles obedient – in mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God, so that from Jerusalem and round about to Illyricum I have fully preached the gospel of Christ.”

Here’s how Shakespeare put it in “Henry V1” 9Part 1, Act 11) – “God is our fortress, in whose conquering name Let us resolve to scale their flinty bulwarks!” The Amazing God and the God of Amazing Gifts!

FIRST, LET”S EXAMINE SCRIPTURALLY THE GOD OF THE SIGN AND WONDER OF DELIVERANCE! Come to Exodus 7:1-5 where “So the Lord said to Moses, See, I have made you as God to Pharoah, and Aaron your brother shall be your prophet. You shall speak all that I command you. And Aaron your brother shall tell Pharoah to send the children of Israel out of his land. And I will harden Pharoah’s heart, AND MULTIPLY MY SIGNS AND WONDERS IN THE LAND OF EGYPT. But Pharoah will not heed you, so that I may lay My hand on Egypt and bring My armies and My people, the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great judgments. And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch out My hand on Egypt and bring out the children of Israel from among them.”

And you understand that the Exodus stands forever as the sign and wonder of the Amazing God revealing His Amazing gifts, the liberation of His people! But there’s more. Come to Daniel 6:20-27 and follow carefully: “and when he came to the den, he cried out with a lamenting voice to Daniel. The king spoke, saying to Daniel, Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you serve continually, been able to deliver you from the lions? Then Daniel said to the king, O king, live forever. My God sent His angel and shut the lions’ mouths, so that they have not hurt me, because I was found innocent before Him; and also, O king, I have done no wrong before you. Now the king was exceedingly glad for him, and commanded that they should take Daniel up out of the den, and no injury whatever was found on him, because he believed in God. And the king gave the command, and they brought those men who had accused Daniel, and they cast them into the den of lions – them, their children and their wives; and the lions overpowered them, and broke all their bones in pieces before they ever came to the bottom of the den. Then King Darius wrote: To all peoples, nations, and languages that dwell in all the earth: Peace be multiplied to you. I make a decree that in every dominion of my kingdom men must tremble and fear before the God of Daniel. For He is the living God, and steadfast forever; His kingdom is the one which shall not be destroyed, and His dominion shall endure to the end. He delivers and rescues, and HE WORKS SIGNS AND WONDERS in heaven and on earth, Who has delivered Daniel from the power of the lions.”

[And, of course, you understand that there are more than physical lions like in Africa, but there are spiritually demonic lions out of Hell itself!]

But do you remember what is said in Luke 4 about “The Spirit of the Lord upon Me?” And what was one of the ministries? “Deliverance to the captives!”

God is the God who is the bondage – breaker – Not the bondage-maker! God is the God who is the chain-buster – Not the chain-entangler! God is the God who is the prison-door opener – Not the prison-confiner!

Henry George Bohn, in his “Handbook of Proverbs,” wrote: “The Devil entangles youth with beauty, the miser with gold, the ambitious with power, the learned with false doctrines.” There are still ‘Pharoahs’ who want people enslaved! There are still ‘Pharoahs’ who want your family under hard taskmasters! There are still ‘Pharoahs’ who want you chewed up in a lion’s den of fleshly deceptions and sins! There are still ‘Pharoahs’ who want any decency or bent toward God swallowed up by the inhaling powers of darkness!

[On the ‘Inner-net’ today on my wife’s computer, she told me of a statement by the man named Stephen Hawking who said, “Heaven is a fairy tale for people afraid of the dark.” Immediately John Lennox responded, “Atheism is a fairy tale for those afraid of the Light.”] Amen?

Hear me! The God of the sign and wonder of deliverance arises with healing in His wings! I recently picked up Smith Wigglesworth’s book, “Greater Works – Experiencing God’s Power,” (p36). He shared a story that occurred just after his baptism in the Holy Spirit. He knew that infusion of divine power but was asking, ‘Why,’ ‘Why me?’ What’s the purpose? RECEIVE IN JESUS’ HOLY NAME!:

“One day I came home from work and went into the house, and my wife asked me, ‘Which way did you come in?’ I told her that I had come in the back door. She said, “There is a woman upstairs, and she has brought in an eighty-year old man to be prayed for. He is raving up there, and a great crowd has gathered outside the front door, ringing the doorbell, and wanting to know what is going on in the house.”

Wigglesworth said, “This is what I baptized you for.” I carefully opened the door of the room where the man was, desiring to be obedient to what my Lord would say to me. The man was crying and shouting in distress, “I am lost! I am lost! I have committed the unpardonable sin. I am lost! I am lost!” My wife asked, “Smith, what should we do?” The Spirit of the Lord moved me to cry out, “Come out, you lying spirit.” In a moment the evil spirit went, and the man was free. God gives deliverance to the captives! And the Lord said again to me, “This is what I baptized you for.” And then Wigglesworth said: “There is a place where God, through the power of the Holy Spirit, reigns supreme in our lives. The Spirit reveals, unfolds, takes of the things of Christ and shows them to us (John 16:15) and prepares us to be more than a match for satanic forces.”

The God of the signs and wonders of deliverance! You find yourself enslaved – through the Passover Lamb, there is liberty and freedom! You find yourself in a state of spiritual death – through Jesus there is Life, Life in the Spirit, Life abundant, Life eternal! You find yourself in guilt and condemnation – but Jesus says: “I the sacrificial Servant, the Lord Jesus Christ, through My shed blood, have brought pardons, innocence, justification, ‘just-as-if-you’d-never sinned’! You find yourself hopeless – He blesses you with a living, eternal Hope! You find yourself troubled – He is triumphant, “more than conqueror,” and always in the midst of stormy waters still says, “Peace, be still!” You find yourself separated from Holy God – in Christ He came to reconcile you! You find yourself aimless – “For me to live is Christ!” You find yourself sensing worthlessness about yourself – He counts you worthy because of the Lamb of deliverance!

SECOND, LET’S CONSIDER THE GOD THE MIGHTY GOD OF THE VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED OF THE SIGN AND WONDER OF DECLARATION! Look with me carefully at Deuteronomy 4:32-39! “For ask now concerning the days that are past, which were before you, since the day that God created man on the earth, and ask from one end of heaven to the other, whether any great thing like this has happened, or anything like it has been heard. Did any people ever hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of fire, as you have heard, and live? Or did God ever try to go and take for Himself a nation from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs, by wonders, by war, by a mighty hand an outstretched arm, and by great terrors, according to all that the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? To you it was shown, that you might know that the Lord Himself is God; there is none other besides Him [regardless of what Muslims or any other idolaters say!]. Out of heaven He let you hear His voice, that He might instruct you; on earth He showed you His great fire, and you heard His words out of the midst of the fire. And because He loved your fathers, therefore He chose their descendants after them; and He brought you out of Egypt with His Presence, with His mighty power, driving out from before you nations greater and mightier than you, to bring you in, to give you their land as an inheritance, as it is this day. Therefore know this day, and consider it in your heart, that the Lord Himself is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other.”

I pray that the Spirit of Holy God reveals to you “the Lord Himself in heaven above and on the earth beneath” – always has been and forever will be! The God of the vital awareness unveiled of the sign and wonder unveils Himself, reveals Himself – He is not, will not, hide Himself from you! In Exodus 6:7 God’s Holy Word says, “I will take you as My people, and I will be your God. Then you shall know that I am the Lord your God who brings you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians”, or from under the burdens of the ungodly poured out on you, or from under the burdens of godless people who seek to intimidate you, indict you in the halls of fleshly unbelief, or from under the burdens of demonic activity intending to weigh you down straight into Hell itself!

But you shall know, see, sense, understand, as the shackles fall off you or as the chains are broken, as cruel, evil sinful taskmasters drown under the weight of God’s judgment, that His declaration is your deliverance!

You’ll remember that Moses had a word from God for Pharoah that the plagues would come that they might know that there is none like our God in all the world. He wants even His enemies to hear His declaration! In Exodus 10:1-2, God sends Moses, “that I may show these signs of Mine before [Pharoah] and that you may tell in the hearing of your son and you son’s son the mighty things I have done in Egypt, and My signs which I have done among them, THAT YOU MAY KNOW THAT I AM THE LORD.”

On the journey God gives “bread” to His children that they may “know that I am the Lord your God.” He instructed that twelve stones were to be stacked in the midst of the Jordan River as His people crossed over so “that all the peoples of the earth may know the hand of the Lord, that it is MIGHTY, that YOU may fear the Lord your God forever.” (Joshua 4:24).

In 1 Samuel 17:46 David had struck down Goliath, “that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel.” What did Paul say to his spiritual son, Timothy, in 2 Timothy 1:12? “I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is ABLE…!!!”

You are to be a “stone” in the river of life declaring God’s power, His identity, His ability, His amazing love, His unlimited grace and mercy! There has never been an act or action of God that was not for the purpose of unveiling His heart so all might know Him! “For God so loved the world…!!!”

THIRD, EXAMINE FURTHER THE UNVEILING OF THE VITAL AWARENESS OF THE MIGHTY GOD OF THE SIGN AND WONDER OF DEPENDENCE! Joshua 24:13-15 is clear, “I have given you a land for which you did not labor, and cities which you did not build, and you dwell in them; you eat of the vineyards and olive groves which you did not plant. Now therefore, fear the Lord, serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the River and in Egypt. Serve the Lord! And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

God mentions land He gave them and groves and vineyards they did not plant! Do you know what Paul asked the church at Corinth? (1 Corinthians 4:7), “And what do you have that you did not receive? Now if indeed you did receive it, why do you glory as if you had not received it?” And all I have to consider to rattle my cage is the very breath of life itself! It’s a God-thing!

In 2 Corinthians 5:18, he said, “All things are of God!” Unless of course you’re a constant navel examiner and truly believe all you are and all you have is of yourself! Earlier, in 1 Corinthians 8:6, Paul said, “yet for us there is only one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and through whom we live.” For some it’s as if “we spoke and our worlds were framed!”

Let me deflate your progressive, self-importance just a little bit: According to Exodus 31:1-5, even your job skills are of God! According to Haggai 2:8, even your money belongs to God – you’re a trustee who will give an account of your stewardship! According to Psalm 50:10 the forest is His, the beasts of the forest are His, and even the cattle on a thousand hills! No Texas rancher has reason to boast except in God alone! The Lord even taught us to pray, “God, give us our daily bread!”

Do you realize how dependent we are upon God? It’s like I’ve heard my wife Sue say to our kids as they were growing up, “I brought you into this world and I can take you out!” (A little comedy please in the midst of heavy heat!).

I so love Paul’s confrontation with the Athenians in Acts 17:24-30. It’s too vital to omit even a syllable! “God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. Nor is He worshipped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things. And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their pre-appointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are His offspring.’ Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising. Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent.”

Here’s a vital question: Is it my reign over my life or God’s reign as I totally surrender in dependence upon Him, not only for the very breath of physical life but also that breath of The Spirit? R.A.Torrey, in his book, “The God of the Bible,” (p116), tells us about Napoleon: “Napoleon was the ablest general of his day, and probably of all time. At the same time, he was the most adroit politician the world has ever seen, and he was also a man of the most unconquerable will. He willed to have the whole world at his feet, and it seemed as if it would be, as if nothing could prevent it. But God willed otherwise. When Napoleon tried to enter Russia, God spoke, and the soft and gentle snowflakes fell and fell and fell and kept on falling, and Napoleon Bonaparte fell also. His army was decimated and his reign shortly came to an end.”

Revelation 19:6 says, “And the Lord God omnipotent reigns!” Are you committed and submitted as a dependent child of faith upon the Father’s reign over you?

FOURTH, GO DEEPER, DISCOVERING THE UNVEILING OF THE AWESOME AWARENESS OF THE SIGN AND WONDER OF DESTINY! I know you remember and are familiar with Elisha’s journey with Elijah and how Elijah had urged him to stay behind because God was sending Elijah on to Bethel. And Elisha responded, (2 Kings 2:2), “as the Lord lives and as your soul lives, I will not leave you.” They traveled together. Then the time came close for Elijah’s departure in that whirlwind of glory and he asks Elisha, “What may I do for you, before I am taken away?” And in verse 9 Elisha said, “Please let a double portion of your spirit be upon me.”

Elijah promised Elisha his request would be granted! Now, notice verses 13-15, “He also took up the mantle of Elijah that had fallen from him, and went back and stood by the bank of the Jordan. Then he took the mantle of Elijah that had fallen from him, and struck the water, and said, Where is the Lord God of Elijah? And when he also had struck the water, it was divided this way and that; and Elijah crossed over. Now when the sons of the prophets who were from Jericho saw him, they said, The spirit of Elijah rests on Elisha…”

Come now to 2 Kings 3:11! “But Jehoshapat said, Is there no prophet of the Lord here, that we may inquire of the Lord by him? So one of the servants of the king of Israel answered and said, Elisha the son of Shaphat is here, who poured water on the hands of Elijah.” Question!

What is the reputation you want about yourself in the eyes of the world around you? Is it that you fit in, that you are one of the gang, or one like Elijah or Elisha? Or would it be that “sense of divine destiny” – the servant of Elijah, a holy man of God that passes by, a man who reflects the image of his Lord, a man who walks in the double portion of Spirit-blessing and anointing and empowering?

In Acts 4:13 it is said of Peter and John, “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they were men who had been with Jesus.” What a testimony! I found an epitaph in a book that is such a blessing. It read, “Here lies the body of John Smith, who for 40 years cobbled shoes in this village to the glory of God,” which leads us to:

FIFTH, THE UNVEILING OF THE AWESOME AWARENESS OF THE GOD OF THE SIGN AND WONDER OF DEMONSTRATION! Isaiah 8:18 says, “Here am I and the children whom the Lord has given me! We are for signs and wonders in Israel from the Lord of hosts who dwells in Mount Zion.”

Did you receive that for yourself, your family, your employees or employer, for your city, state, or nation, and receiving that Truth and demonstrating that Truth, YOU SEE YOURSELF AS A SIGN AND WONDER to an unbelieving world to the glory of God?

It’s not just to the church at Corinth that Paul wrote the following but to our homes! Receive 2 Corinthians 3:2-4, “You (your ho0mes, your families) are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men. YOU are manifestly 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, of the heart. And we have such trust through Christ toward God.”

An anonymous writer has penned these illuminating words: “Jesus began His ministry of miracles at a wedding feast. He was invited there. His presence made the difference. He turned a desperate dilemma into a memorable miracle.” That was in a home, at a wedding!

Spurgeon said, “When home is ruled by the Word of God, angels might be asked to stay with us, and they would not find themselves out of their element.” Are our homes ruled by the Word of God? Do we see our homes and families as signs and wonders of the glory of God to an unbelieving world and even as examples in our local churches? Are our homes and families “memorable miracles” or desperate dilemmas? Are they vital demonstrations of Holy Presence and eternal purpose?

SIXTH, EXAMINE THE GOD OF AMAZING SIGNS AND WONDERS OF DISTINCTION! Let’s let the Word speak powerfully and in a convicting reality within us: Mark 16:19-20, “So then, after the Lord had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God. And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through accompanying signs. Amen.”

Following Pentecost, having left the upper room where the disciples had hidden for fear of the Jews, and confronted their world in the anointing of the Holy Spirit, Acts 2:43 says, “Then fear came upon every soul, and many signs and wonders were done through the apostles.”

But here’s the strange turn – whenever God steps in to be Himself, even through His own people, opposition arises! When you come to Acts 4 the disciples are BEING DISCIPLES and the threats come! Peter and John pray for boldness that they may speak God’s Word, and look at verse 30, “by stretching out Your hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of Your holy Servant Jesus.” And the result?

Acts 4:33 says, “And with great power the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And great grace was upon them all.” Our prayerful, unceasing heart-cry as disciples should be passionately uttered that WE long for days of distinction, days of great grace, days producing holy fear in hearts of unbelievers and disciples alike because God steps down to be Himself through us! Hebrews 2:4 says, “God also bearing witness both with signs and wonders, with various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to His own will.”

Reinhard Bonnke has a tremendous statement of challenge to be repeated by true disciples of Christ until it permeates their total being, “God means me to be more than I thought I was.” That’s an amplification of 1 John 4:17 when John said, “As Jesus is, so are we in this world!”

What’s a “system of divinity” without the stream of divine power? What’s a “scheme of theology” without the Spirit of Truth? What’s a learned person with his PhD void of the lifting power of the Holy Ghost? What’s the best of human-flesh ‘churches’ without the baptism of the Holy Ghost and fire of the Spirit?

Ephesians 2:1 doesn’t say, “and you He stiffened” – it says, “you He made alive!” In Acts 1:8 Jesus said, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you.” That’s explosive, volcanic-erupting, dynamite power! Donald Gee preached, that the Spirit was not “the subject of theological dogma (or debate), but a burning experience,” and Holy Presence released within you! Are those around you observing your “burning” in awe of Holy God?

LAST, (In this chapter!), LET ME STRONGLY EMPHASIZE THE AMAZING UNVEILING OF AWESOME TRUTH OF THE GOD OF THE SIGN AND WONDER OF DIVINE TESTIMONY! In Acts 2:22-24 Peter preached and preaches right now, “Men of Israel, hear these words of 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.”

Testimony! The call upon every true believer’s life! Testimony! Not cold-water committees but fellow comforters in God’s proven love for them! Testimony! That which blesses the church, encourages, uplifts, and challenges unbelievers with the Truth! Testimony! That which tips the scales of a life hanging in the balance! Testimony! That which gives honor to Jesus!

In Acts 20 you’ll remember Paul telling the Ephesian elders that he held back nothing that was helpful and profitable to them, Verse 21, “testifying to Jews and also to Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.” He knew he was “bound in the spirit”{ to go to Jerusalem, knowing trouble awaited him. Then in verse 24, (Oh, my!), “But none of these things move me; nor do I count my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, TO TESTIFY TO THE GOSPEL OF THE GRACE OF GOD.”

Do you see that calling and ministry upon your life to be a sign and wonder of divine testimony to the gospel of the grace of God?

Oh, it was Isaac Watts who wrote the old, old hymn, “Am I a Soldier of the Cross?” It says: “Am I a soldier of the cross, A follower of the Lamb? And shall I fear to own His cause, Or blush to speak His name?

Must I be carried to the skies On flowery beds of ease, While others fought to win the prize, And sailed through bloody seas?

Are there no foes for me to face? Must I not stem the flood? Is this vile world a friend of grace, To help me on to God?

Sure I must fight, if I would reign; Increase my courage, Lord; I’ll bear the toil, endure the pain, supported by Your word.” Amen?

And your ‘last days’ testimony as short as all of our lives are? “I’ll confront my dying world, I’ll confront in the Name of Christ and for His honor, glory, and praise; I’ll be consistent with Biblical Truth, conquering even the devil’s opposition, challenging repentance to God and a yielded given faith from God as a gift, yes, for every unbeliever, and teach them graciously of a yielded faith in Christ’s finished work at the Cross and through God’s Resurrection Power!

CHAPTER FIVE

THE AMAZING UNVEILING OF AWESOME TRUTH BY PREACHING

PEACE THROUGH CHRIST JESUS’ CROSS

I want you to be Holy Spirit inspired and informed and instructed as you read the following passage, Acts 10:34-38 & 43! Then Peter opened his mouth and said: “In truth I perceive that God shows no partiality. But in every nation whoever fears Him and works righteousness is accepted by Him. The word which God sent to the children of Israel, preaching peace through Jesus Christ – HE IS LORD OF ALL – that word you know, which was proclaimed throughout all Judea, and began from Galilee after the baptism which John preached: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.”

Verse 43, “To Him (the Lord Jesus) all the prophets witness that through His name, whoever believes in Him will receive remission of sins.”

“Believes in Him?” The word ‘belief’ truly means “trust in, rely upon, adhere to”! It’s not ‘ I believe’, and there is no heart-change, or I believe, and there is no relying upon, or I believe, and there is no adhering to! That’s modern-day ‘churchianity’, not eternal “Christ-ianity”! And, no doubt, this is why Paul had to write in Ephesians 2:1-2, “And you He [Christ Jesus] made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you ONCE WALKED according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience…”

Isaiah 32:13-15 unveils fleshly religiosity and then unveils Spirit conviction and wildernesses becoming fertile, fruitful fields! Isaiah wrote, God speaking, “On the land of my people will come up thorns and briers, Yes, on all the happy homes in the joyous city; Because the palaces will be forsaken, the bustling city will be deserted. The forts and towers will become lairs forever, a joy of wild donkeys, a pasture of flocks – Until the Spirit is poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, and the fruitful field is counted as a forest.”

And whether or not it is unveiled religiosity that is a seedless, barren, infertile life, absent of Holy Presence – so barren of true life, so sterile of Living Truth, so unproductive of even any acknowledgement of the need of Divine intervention – it’s a sad picture for true believers of a life unredeemed as a heart-breaking pain so desirous of witnessing the true fruit of Life in Christ in every life!

Are you aware that there is a ‘carnal world’ surrounding you every day, carnal lives captured by the powers of darkness, deceit, and disobedience before Holy God, convinced their way is better than the holy way, settled into defenses, life-styles, ‘my’ ideas, that exalts itself against the eternal knowledge of God, with their every thought captured by self-will, self-pleasure, and self-aggrandisement, determined or unaware they actually walk in “spiritual death” under the devil’s control, and miss out on the grandeur of God-ordained “re-birth” and “new-life” and “eternal blessing” – just living under the ‘curse’!

Christ Jesus dealt with all men’s sins at Calvary – and through His shed blood we “stand still and see the salvation of God in and through Christ’s shed blood”, but sadly a lost world, unbelievers, the “dire-straights of fallen humanity owned by the devil” never “stand still” in awe to observe the wonderful and marvelous grace of God seen in Christ Jesus as He paid the price for their sins through His shed blood at the Cross – and they miss out!

Sadly, spiritually indulgent people, living to satisfy the ‘flesh’, the ‘old sin nature,’ the ‘empty life syndrome,’ the ‘self-realization indulgence through sinful living’ trying to satisfy the evil heart, most are unaware of “saving grace,” “redemption,” the “new life gift by the grace of God through Christ Jesus” – but His life in You, His forgiveness through you, His power for you, is fully and readily available to any and every repentant soul – and opens the windows of heaven to reveal the awesome Truth that “the gift of eternal peace’ comes through Christ’s Cross”!

Luke 10:18-20 is such a powerful, comforting word from Christ to every repentant disciple. Jesus said to them and us, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I give you authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you. Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven.” ETERNAL PEACE!

In John 14:25-27 Jesus informs every true disciple of the “true evidence” of His life within them, even as they face a world of opposition and rebellion to divine Truth! He said, “These things I have spoken to you while present with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you. Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” “THE AMAZING UNVEILING OF AWESOME TRUTH BY PREACHING PEACE THROUGH CHRIST’S CROSS”! Let’s consider THIS eternal Truth!

FIRST, PREACHING PEACE THROUGH CHRIST’S CROSS REVEALS, UNVEILS, EXPOSES WHAT IS IN MEN OF ADAM’S FALLEN-AWAY NATURE?

Do you understand the reality of the ‘carnal man’ alienated, separated, even in an unconscious rebellion against the Holy God who made him, lost him, yet loves him, fully explained in Christ’s shed blood “At The Cross”?

Are you aware in your mind, and heart, “Cursed are the impure in heart; and they do not see God, except at His Eternal Judgment Seat?” But the Lord Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5:8, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”

And seeing God, knowing Him intimately and personally, is the absolute necessity of accepting your crucifixion and death of your old carnal nature with Him at Calvary, and your constant awareness of its former reality, and becoming more and more fully aware that it is “Christ in you, the hope of glory,” not fleshly devotion to one’s flesh-inspired religiosity!

Yes, when one is spiritually “born-again”, he-she receives new eyes to see God and a new heart fully indwelt by His peace-filled Presence in YOU! Though one is still living in the physical world with fallen humanity, because of one’s faith in Christ, repentance toward God, and indwelt by His Holy Spirit, one lives now in the new realm of the spiritual Kingdom of God, living in and on the eternal plain of His abiding presence in us – and that births His peaceful Presence in YOU and establishes another elevated plain of life in Christ, because Jesus said in Revelation 5:9-10 tells us of our representative ‘twenty-four elders falling down before the Lamb of God’ singing:

“You are worthy to take the scroll, and to open its seals; For You were slain, and have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and have made us kings and priests to our God; and we shall reign on the earth.”

Peace apart from repentance? Peace apart from reconciliation with Holy God? Peace as a slave of sin, and not as a true servant of our Master? Peace apart from our presence at the Cross with Christ, and totally unaware of “the godly sorrow that works repentance TO salvation”?

You are aware that there are “dreamers” living lives consumed by ‘flesh,’ ‘the old sin nature,’ captives of demonic activity and even ‘fleshly best’ but not “blessed” – and with Jude we gain insight: Jude 10, “But these speak evil of whatever they do not know; and whatever they know ‘naturally’, like brute beasts, in these things they corrupt themselves.” And that’s corrupting themselves more and more, and falling away more and more from the love of God and the Lordship of Christ Jesus!

Of, but then Jude went on to say, Jude 20-21, “But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.”

In the old Broadman Hymnal of 1940 produced by the Broadman Press, Nashville, Tennessee, a hymn by Julia H. Johnston and J.W. Henderson, is entitled “He Ransomed Me.” It says:

“There’s a sweet and blessed story Of the Christ who came from glory, Just to rescue me from sin and misery; He in loving-kindness sought me, And from sin and shame has brought me, Hallelujah! Jesus ransomed me!

From the depth of sin and sadness To the heights of joy and gladness Jesus lifted me, in mercy full and free; With His precious blood He bought me, When I knew Him not, He sought me, And in love divine He ransomed me.

From the throne of heavenly glory – Oh, the sweet and blessed story! Jesus came to lift the lost in sin and woe Into liberty all-glorious, Trophies of His grace victorious, Evermore rejoicing here below.

By and by with joy increasing, And with gratitude unceasing, Lifted up with Christ forevermore to be; I will join the hosts there singing, In the anthem ever ringing, To the King of Love who ransomed me.

Hallelujah, what a Savior! Who can take a poor lost sinner, Lift him from the miry clay and set him free; (Hallelujah!) I will ever tell the story, Shouting glory, glory, glory, Hallelujah! Jesus ransomed me!”

SECOND, THERE IS THE VITAL UNVEILING OF AWARENESS OF PREACHING CHRIST OPENING THE DOOR TO THE BATTLE-FIELD OF FLESH AND SPIRIT, THE DEVIL AND JESUS, AND THE WORLD AGAINST THE KINGDOM OF GOD IN YOU AND AROUND YOU! Even as one comes to “new birth” and Christ’s indwelling, it doesn’t mean true believers are exempt from reality, opposition, even pain and suffering, in honoring, upholding, and desirous of living a life that exalts Him!

In John 16:33 Jesus clearly spoke to all disciples, then and now, saying: “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world [as you live out your earthly existence facing opposition!] you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”

Did the Lord Jesus say, “Disciples of Mine, you will have trouble!” But you thought it was a walk without trouble or tribulation? You thought it was a walk without the world, the flesh, or the devil in seeking your demise as a follower of Christ? You thought true Christianity was a ‘trouble-free’ zone?

Even in Galatians 1:6-7, Paul wrote: “I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ.”

The Lord Jesus never said, “Follow Me, and you’ll never face trouble again, or any opposition that opposes you, or any demonic influences to trip you up, or even any godless governments, enemies of God, cruel taskmasters or job bosses,” – No, a thousand times ‘No!’ To commit to Christ is to commit to His honor and praise, which means automatically you’ve committed yourself to walk in the vital awareness unveiled, preaching Christ, living Christ, magnifying Christ in your life, thus opening your life to ‘trouble’, or should I say ‘troubles’?

I’m convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that Jesus never said, “Following Me means no trouble,” when in reality we’ve seen in John 16:33, Jesus saying, “In the world you will have trouble”, which means our salvation in Christ is not the door to freedom from trouble, but His door, His presence, His promises, tell us of His presence with us as we live out our faith in the midst of our troubles!

I truthfully was freshly inspired when I read Thomas Carlyle’s clear statement: “The eternal stars shine out as soon as it is dark enough.” That’s from “The Encyclopedia of Religious Quotations” edited and compiled by Frank S. Mead [Fleming H. Revell Company, Westwood, New Jersey]. In the same encyclopedia, E. Stanley Jones wrote concerning “The Way” [p.235, Abingdon Press], “The Christian under trouble doesn’t break up – he breaks out,” and the ‘breaking out’ is leaning on Jesus, trusting His Word, like Paul said: Romans 8:35-39:

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: ‘For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.’ Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus.”

THIRD, THERE IS THE VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED OF PREACHING CHRIST BECAUSE CHRIST IS GOD’S ETERNALLY DETERMINED SACRIFICE AND OUR AMBASSADOR, AND THROUGH HIM, FOREORDAINED BY GOD THE FATHER, AS “MEDIATOR” BETWEEN GOD AND FALLEN MAN!

As Paul wrote Timothy to mature him in his young faith, His word to Timothy is so important for you and me. Paul said in 1 Timothy 2:1-7, [NKJV EDITION OF THE HOLMAN STUDY BIBLE], “Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and ONE MEDIATOR BETWEEN GOD AND MEN, THE MAN CHRIST JESUS, who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time, for which I was appointed a preacher and an apostle – I am speaking the truth in Christ and not lying – a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.”

Even ‘religions’ apart from Christ as Lord and Savior are fleshly determined and resemble nothing concerning His call upon their lives – no awareness of their fallen natures, no grasp of understanding about The Eternal Christ put to death on the Cross as a mortal man AND eternal Lord and Savior, and willingly laying down His life that they might be resurrected from the dead to be “new creations” of Holy Presence, extending His life, expressing His love, and proving His power, no longer in them unawareness of the unbelieving results of a Christ-less life, no longer pretense, imitation, or the best of their own fleshly efforts – Christ saves, redeems, reconciles, and, yes, restores to God’s eternal intent, releasing them under the Holy Spirit’s control and they begin to sing the repentant one’s song:

“Lord Jesus, to You I yield, wash Me in Your blood, and baptize me in the rivers of Your flood; redeeming grace for the human race, redeeming us from the disgrace of dishonoring Your Holy Face!

Lord Jesus, in You, I rest, so tired of deception in me as ‘my best’; I long to know the Holy Will, and until then I’ll not be still! My heart and soul is Yours, no longer a life of sin, but holiness within!

“Lord Jesus, I hear You call, and before Your throne I willingly fall, yielded to Your Spirit, made new by Your blood, willing to stand where You once stood; ‘New man’ celebration, a new voice for all Your creation.

Lord Jesus, I thank You for Your marvelous grace, and upon Your Word I safely rely, certain to sing what no one can erase – Your sacrifice is true and Your resurrection undeniable, Your empty tomb is still reliable.

Lord Jesus, from death to Life, Your blood applied removes the strife; No longer war with God or the devil and his demons; born-again men by the Spirit, reverence His meaning: Death to life as His blood is applied, firmly aware of His mercy that cannot be denied!

Lord Jesus, saved by Your grace because of Your love, my new desire is to rest with You forever in Heaven above; I know life is fleeting and only by receiving do we understand overcoming and beating; the lawless may libel, the sinners may slander, the religious may banter, but in Christ we surrender to His love, grace, and place in Your eternal heavens!”

Jesus bought us, He sought us, He found us, He convicted us, He received our repentance, He sings of our faith, and forever and ever we’ll gather around His Throne to praise His name over and over as His very own children of faith, resting from the wars and resting in His victory in our behalf! We know that a man’s life does not consist of what He possesses, but the wealth of awareness that we’ve found peace through His Life, peace through His death, peace through His Resurrection, and peace through His never-failing promises!

It was R. Kelso Carter who wrote: “Standing on the promises of Christ my King, through eternal ages let His praises ring; Glory in the highest, I will shout and sing, Standing on the promises of God.

Standing on the promises that cannot fail, When the howling storms od doubt and fear assail, By the living word of God I shall prevail, Standing on the promises of God.

Standing on the promises of Christ the Lord, Bound to Him eternally by love’s strong cord, Overcoming daily with the Savior’s sword, Standing on the promises of God.

Standing on the promises I cannot fall, Listening every moment to the Spirit’s call, Resting in my Savior, as my all in all, Standing on the promises of God.”

Yes! There must be in the church of this modern day the call to reverently, in a rejoicing manner, with a heart and mind and body fully yielded to the Glory of our Lord!

I close with Jesus’ words in John 8:34-35! “Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin! And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever, with Verse 36 added, Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.” Amen? Speak out about YOUR true freedom by “blood”, that’s Jesus’ Calvary blood to take away your sin and give “new life”!

CHAPTER SIX

“VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED? FALLEN FOLLOWER – FAITHFUL FOLLOW-UP!”

In Luke 22:54 it tells us Jesus had been arrested and taken to the high priest’s house with Peter following at what he thought a safe distance. Peter actually sat among the enemies of Christ around a bonfire in the courtyard. A servant girl in the crowd told the ruling authorities, “This man (Simon Peter) was also with Him (with Jesus).”

Verse 57 tells us, But he (Peter) denied Jesus, saying, “Woman, I do not know him.” Another in the crowd said the same thing, “You also are on them.” But Peter said, Verse 58b, “Man, I am not!” He denied Jesus a third time, and Verse 61 says, And the Lord turned and looked at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how He had said to him, “Before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.” So Peter went out and wept bitterly.

The rooster crows three times! And a Peter is aware of being ‘a fallen follower’, so broken on the reality that what Jesus told him was a historic reality of an immature, though filled with still fleshly presumption, even a haughty attitude that it was certain he’d never fall, and though walking with the Lord of true confidence and assurance and awareness of who He eternally was, Peter didn’t understand what the writer, the wise writer, in Proverbs 16:18-20 had to say about pride and self-importance in a God-filled, God-blessed, eternal relationship of His doings, not immature disciples!

It says, “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. Better to be of a humble spirit with the lowly, than to divide the spoil with the proud. He who heeds the word wisely will find good, and whoever trusts in the Lord, blessed is he.”

Earlier, in Luke 22, before Peter’s actual “falling away”, Verses 31-32 tells us of what Jesus said, And the Lord said, “Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail;” [Jesus said that knowing Peter was going to be in this immaturity of childish faith!], but after His praying said, “and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren.” What an amazing revelation! Christ Jesus knew Peter was about to fall, and He knew Holy God would pick him up!

Peter’s falling away? Present-day followers today falling away? It was Spurgeon who once said, “Only to think that Peter, under temporary discouragement, should play the coward!”

But even today, in a world of destructive unbelief, unbelievers already fallen away from God and under the control of a birthed sin-nature, experience the natural curses of a ‘fallen away life-style’! In fact, many across our known world, as unbelievers, perceive it’s totally unimportant, for them, to consider ‘God-things’, and especially when one even mentions Christ Jesus to them – “how ridiculous to consider ‘a need of the Savior and Lord’ when we are all-sufficient in ourselves!”

In the Luke 22 passage, Verse 55 is highly significant because it alerts us to what can happen in the lives of some disciples: “Now when they [Christ’s enemies!] had kindled a fire in the midst of the courtyard and sat down together, Peter sat among them.” And he wasn’t there by the fire to warn Christ’s enemies, he was there warming his hands with them!

“Fallen followers?” Do you remember the Lord Jesus in Matthew 26 coming with His disciples “to a place called Gethsemane,” saying to His disciples, “sit here while I go and pray over there.” In Verse 38 Jesus said to His followers, “Sit here while I go and pray over there.” Between Verses 39 and 44 three times He sees His disciples “sleeping”! Later in the chapter Judas betrayed Him for thirty pieces of silver! And the end of Verse 56 tells us: Then all the disciples forsook Him and fled.”

“Watch with Me,” not watch for Me! “Watch with Me,” not watch in view of what sometime Might happen! “Watch with Me,” not watch as you ‘sleep’ dreaming of your own safety and rewards! “Watch with Me” in the most critical time of His earthly journey, not watch as you consider the rewards of a ‘most needed’ fleshly nap! It was Oswald Chambers, in his book, “My Utmost For His Highest” [p.183] who wrote: “How are we going to understand sufficiently to watch with Him in Gethsemane, when we do not know even what His suffering is for?”

Too many ‘professing disciples’, though ‘watching FOR Christ’ while they ‘sleep’, are nothing more than examples of ‘fleshly unbelief’, or an ‘immature, self-protective faith’, that has no mature understanding of “Forsake all and follow Me,” “deny yourself and take up YOUR cross,” or, understanding that true discipleship is the willing choice of self-sacrifice even if it costs me a cross to bear!

In John10:11-18 the Lord Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep. But a hireling, he who is not the shepherd, one who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them. The hireling flees because he is a hireling and does not care about the sheep. I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own. As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep.

And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd. Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This COMMAND I have received from My Father.”

The majority of ‘professors’ for Christ without being “possessors of His Resurrection Life and Spirit” are those outwardly who adopt certain ‘traits’, but apart from the indwelling of the Author of Eternal Truth, they walk the walk of academy award winners who do well at pretense and outward appearances without inward transformation!

“Jesus may say, ‘Forsake all’, but to me that is an over-emphasis, an unnecessary request, a de-emphasis of what is necessary in one’s worldly existence,” which clearly indicates a ‘this world mentality’, a ‘me, my, mine style of life,’ that which unveils ‘my self-realization’ but shuts the door to one’s mind, heart, and will, to the intent of Christ-unveiling, Christ-realization, or Christ-actualization in the repentant heart and life! “Religious activity is my major desire – not the actual preeminence of Christ Jesus in and through me, that’s other worldly, even Heaven, if I get there!” And, sadly, that explains a lot of boring ‘religious activity’ that they assume essential to give a ‘boring testimony’ (?).

This powerful word and story that we’re examining has a ton of important eternal truths I want us to examine!

FIRST, ARE YOU AWED AND BLESSED THAT OUR LORD SEES US, KNOWS US, AND IS MOVED IN ETERNAL COMPASSION FOR US? In Mark 6:34 we read: “And Jesus, when He came out, saw a great multitude and was moved with compassion for them, because they were like sheep not having a shepherd. So He began to teach them many things.”

One of the most rewarding, abiding consciousness of life and hope, an unveiled present awareness and promise is: “His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He cares for me!” How awesome is that! In Hebrews 13:5b, we read: For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” So boldly we may say: “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?”

Remembering Peter’s awareness of the eyes of Christ upon him, even as he denied Him, there came that moment in him of Christ’s watchcare even as Christ Jesus looked upon Peter compassionately and longingly praying for Peter’s return to true faith, yes, that did cost Peter his own life eventually!

Our Lord sees us, oversees us, keeps on seeing us, never takes His eyes off of us – that ought to increase the intensity of Holy fear because there’s never a moment His eyes are not on us! Perfect, clear, unaltered eternal eyesight, unhindered by the dark activity in a soulish, fleshly, entertaining-sin-mind, never running from a life storm-tossed by the raging waves of the demons and personal sin-activity – Holy God, the Resurrected, Reigning Christ sees our ‘stormy’ choices and comes to say, “Peace, be still!”

I don’t believe it would be a stretch that most men, even some unbelievers, still, if they sin, are aware that it’s not unknown to Holy God, but are aware that, sometimes if God sees the tragic scene of sin in one’s life, He sighs and sorrows and sends by the Spirit a heavenly heartbeat of true desire: “Repent, return – and turn from that destructive choice!” Hear this! If one strays and roams or runs from “the true field of life”, the Shepherd is on that person’s heels, heart, mind or will, “Repent, return – I still love you! Don’t let the devil have his will in your life, but turn back to Me as your Way, your Truth, and your Life!”

SECOND, “VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED”? YOUR SAVIOR AND LORD IS A “MAN OF SORROWS” ACQUAINTED WITH THE GRIEF SIN BRINGS! It was C.S.Lewis, in his writing, “The Great Divorce”, who wrote: “There are two kinds of people: those who say to God, “Your will be done,” and those to whom God says [sadly, has to say at times!], “All right, then, have it your way.” How tragic is that?

And the blind Helen Keller of many, many years ago, used to say, “If the blind put their hand in God’s, they find their way more surely than those who see but have not faith in God.” [Doubleday & Company}.

In Isaiah 53:1-7 there is an awesome prophetic unveiling of our true Lord and Savior! It says: “Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness; and when we see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him.

He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.

But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth.”

So…how do you relate to too much ‘circus antics’, without a doubt far too much self-governing, silly-willy two-year old child’s play, even open gates of godless behavior, encouraging playing the flesh games out of church, even in church, as long as you say: “I’ve been baptized, I ‘joined the church’, and it’s over as far as I’m concerned.” Really? Where’s the Cross in your life? Where’s the “Follow Me”! Where’s the “laying down your life”? Where’s the “suffering Servant” Spirit?

Are you aware of going through the ‘winepress’ where “the grapes of life” are squeezed out as you willfully choose to honor Jesus at all costs? “Struggle in the Faith”? Study to be approved of God in the faith-walk? “Adapt to a culture of spiritual discipline, even laying my life down daily?” Hear me! True faith, after repentance toward God and faith in Christ, the true consistency of the saint is, laying down one’s life, even willing to suffer, and as I have known in India for many years, servants of Christ are punished, imprisoned, beaten, killed – and they do it with a smile on their faces!

Is this why Peter wrote, in 1 Peter 4:12-14, “Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you; but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy. If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.” Blessed because you partake of Christ’s sufferings? Blessed because you’re reproached for the name of Christ? Blessed because you’re called even to the fiery trials? Blessed because you willingly partake of Christ’s suffering when necessary? If Jesus suffered according to the will of God, is your walk in the will of God?

Consider, because of your young faith in Christ, rejection by unbelieving family members. Consider, constant abuse from fellow employees and even business owner and managers at times! Consider, stupid abuse of school or university leadership people anti-Christ, anti-Word, anti-Constitution, anti-You for your life-changing, eternal Biblical faith! But ‘suffering for the Name of Christ’ is celebration for the true disciple of Christ, and anticipatory celebration before Holy God’s Throne one day, but personal celebration now in you as you examine your identity in Christ!

THIRD, “VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED” AS WE LOOK AT FOLLOW-UP FORGIVENESS THROUGH THE ALL-SEEING EYES OF OUR LORD AND SAVIOR! In Luke 22:60b-62 we read, Immediately, while he [Peter] was still speaking, the rooster crowed! AND THE LORD TURNED AND LOOKED AT PETER. Then Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how He had said to him, “Before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.” So Peter went out and wept bitterly.

With all my heart, I don’t believe the look of Christ on Peter’s fall was resentment, bitterness, or “Watch out! Your judgment is coming,” but Peter, “You’ve sinned so dramatically, just as I said, but I love you and want you restored!” Is that like, “His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me”?

Are you aware that the Word tells us that there is the reality of divine conviction? If one even desires to come to Christ, it is because of Holy Spirit conviction of a man’s sin and His eternal need of the Savior. Men are born with an ‘Adamic’ sin-nature, dominated by it, controlled by it, blinded by it without any awareness of his/her need of restoration to Holy God apart from, yes, biblical conviction! And the Holy Spirit comes in biblical conviction to unveil for him/her specific sins that will unveil the sin nature that has released a corrupt spirit in his/her veins, yes, even an unclean spirit, and like Isaiah after King Uzziah had died, in Isaiah 6:4-5, the Word tells us, “And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke. So I said: Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.”

Holy God is so aware of the alienated heart and mind of fallen humanity! The Lord Jesus came, suffered, and died on the cruel Cross because of His great love for sinful humanity! The Holy Spirit unveiled the merciful heart of God as He viewed man’s sinfulness, assuring each of us that the devil’s accusations about Holy God and his view of deceit of our Lord was unfounded! In Galatians 3:1 Paul asked, “O foolish Galatians! Who has ‘bewitched’ you that you should not obey “the truth,” before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified?” And John said what in John 3:16-17? “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes [trusts in relies upon, adheres to] in Him should not perish [in his sin & sin nature] but have everlasting life. FOR GOD DID NOT SEND HIS SON INTO THE WORLD TO CONDEMN THE WORLD, but that the world through Him might be saved.” GLORY!!

There’s another amazing Word of God in Hebrews 2:9 when the author wrote, “But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone.”

“Forgiveness” by men’s great efforts? “Forgiveness” because a man sees himself as smarter than the feeble minds of ‘other men’ – and “I can handle my own life, knowing I can overcome my own sin – and God Himself ought to accept me”? I don’t think so! Do you see and sense “the hardened heart through the deceitfulness of sin” with no desire to be reconciled to Him through the “shed blood” of Christ on Calvary’s tree? Wasn’t it Augustine who once prayed, “O Lord, deliver me from this lust of always vindicating myself”?

Oh, and then hear Oswald Chambers who said in his book, “My Utmost For His Highest,” [p.244], “Spiritual leakage begins when we cease to lift up our eyes unto Him. The leakage comes not so much through trouble on the outside as in the imagination; when we begin to say – “’I expect I have been stretching myself a bit too much, standing on tiptoe and trying to look like God instead of being an ordinary humble person [or humble disciple!].”

In Ephesians 4:32 Paul talked about walking in the Spirit and true nature of Christ alone! He said: “And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.” Forgiveness how in your life? “AS GOD IN CHRIST FORGAVE YOU!”

“VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED”? AS WE LOOK AT FOLLOW-UP FORGIVENESS THAT UNDERSTANDS, YES, SEPARATION FROM FALLEN-MEN’S WAYS! It was a strong, powerful, convicting statement from Paul to the Corinthian church when he said in 2 Corinthians 6:14-18, “Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of living God. As God has said:

‘I will DWELL IN THEM and walk among them, I will be their God, and they shall be My people.’ Therefore, ‘COME OUT FROM AMONG THEM [their ways, actions, attitudes, sins] AND BE SEPARATE, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you. I will be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.’”

What happened to Peter when he realized the eyes of Jesus were fixed on him in his ‘self-indulgence’; but more importantly for this very moment in your own walk with Christ, if you’ve been wandering, overcome with a dry, unclean spirit, are YOUR eyes open to the Lord’s loving gaze on YOU in your sin?

What did the author of Hebrews tell us in Hebrews 12:1-2? “Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the Cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” ARE YOU CLOTHED WITH THE CLOUD OF HIS HOLY PRESENCE IN YOU?

CHAPTER SEVEN

“VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED? THE CALL TO ONE’S NEED OF SELF-EXAMINATION”

It was in the book, “Encyclopedia of Religious Quotations”, [Edited & Compiled by Frank S. Mead, Fleming H. Revell Com., Westwood, New Jersey, p.297], a statement by Donald T. Kauffman, in his writing “Gist of the Lesson”, “A good marriage is not a contract between two persons but a sacred covenant between three. Too often Christ is never invited to the wedding and finds no room in the home. Why? Is it because we have misrepresented Him and forgotten His joyful outlook on life?”

But what about the Biblical faith of “holy matrimony” between Christ as the ‘bridegroom’ and you as His bride? Did you simply ‘join’ His church or ‘take vows’ of surrender, dedication, and submission to be Savior, Lord, and Spiritual Head of your heart and life? I hate to be the one to tell you, but ‘church membership’ does not mean necessarily married and yielded to His Lordship!

In Matthew 21 Jesus had gone into the temple and was confronted by the chief priests of the temple and the elders of the people of Jerusalem. They said to Jesus in Verse 23b, “By what authority are You doing these things? And who gave You this authority?” Back and forth the conversation went on, and Jesus alerted them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”

Oh, and then in Verses 28-32, “the call to one’s need of self-examination” began with Jesus exposing their need of such an examination! Jesus said, “But what do you think? A man had two sons, and he came to the first and said, ‘Son, go, work today in my vineyard. He answered and said, ‘I will not,’ but afterward he regretted it and went. Then he came to the second and said likewise. And he answered and said, ‘I go, sir,’ but he did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father?”

They said to Jesus, “The first.” Jesus said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you that tax collectors and harlots enter the kingdom of God before you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him; but tax collectors and harlots believed him; and when you saw it, you did not afterward relent and believe him.”

Are you familiar with Jeremiah the prophet and how the Lord spoke to him about the difference between ‘the Jewish pretenders’ and ‘His true remnant’ among them? In Jeremiah 15:11, the Lord said to Jeremiah, “Surely it will be well with your remnant…,” and then said, BUT!, in Jeremiah 15:15-16 Jeremiah called out to Holy God!! “O Lord You know; Remember me and visit me, and take vengeance for me and my persecutors. In Your enduring patience, do not take me away. Know that for Your sake I have suffered rebuke. Your words were found, and I ate them, and Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart; for I am called by Your name, O Lord God of hosts.”

And the compassionate Lord God reassured His holy prophet in Verses 19-21, Therefore thus says the Lord: “If you return, then I will bring you back; you shall stand before Me; If you take out the precious from the vile, you shall be as My mouth. Let them return to you, but you must not return to them. And I will make you to this people a fortified bronze wall; and they will fight against you, but they shall not prevail against you; FOR I AM WITH YOU TO SAVE YOU AND DELIVER YOU,” says the Lord. I will deliver you from the hand of the wicked, and I will redeem you from the grip of the terrible.”

What an awesome word of conviction and confidence and comfort! Holy God KNOWS those who are His – and HE IS their defender! Does He know you? AND, How Vital is it for every professing believer to examine whether or not HE is a true worker in the Father’s vineyard fulfilling the Lord’s calling and assignments to every disciple?

FIRST, TWO SONS CALLED BY THE FATHER TO WORK IN HIS VINEYARD – ONLY ONE DID! Now, isn’t the son who didn’t go the picture of a ‘pretender’ of faith but the fruitlessness of his work exposes himself as one who walks in disobedience not obedience, in self-direction not Christ-directed, in outward performances but no inward heart-change, still as selfish and self-centered as he always was since birth!

Do you remember Pharoah of Egypt in Exodus 5:2 saying to Moses and Aaron, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, nor will I let Israel go.” At least the Pharoah spoke the truth! He didn’t know the Lord, and he wouldn’t let Israel go! But ‘a son’ who pretends before his father that he will go and do what the father said, but had no intention of doing it because of a self-centered, self-motivated style of life, and it didn’t include doing the father’s will?

Does the ‘unwilling, disobedient, yes, rebellious son’ describe even the scribes and Pharisees of Matthew 23:13-15 whom Jesus called ‘hypocrites’? What a strong indictment by the Lord of love! He said of them, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows’ houses, and for a pretense make long prayers. Therefore you will receive greater condemnation. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.”

Have you ever witnessed those who are ‘strong professors’ of the faith verbally but ‘sad examples’ of even those who are visible ‘actors’ still dominated by the corruption that is in the world through lust, even barren and unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, buying destructive heresies, even exploiting others with deceptive words, [“believers can’t do anything but sin until they get to heaven,” when Jesus said, “Go and sin no more!”], perishing more and more in their own corruption, presumptuous, self-willed, having eyes full of adultery and that cannot cease from sin, enticing unstable souls, constantly forsaking the right way, going astray, loving the wages of unrighteousness, even “dogs returning to their own vomit or a ‘sow’ wallowing in her mire”!

Hear me! Supernatural overcoming of the old sin nature is not devotion to it but Christ’s deliverance, in you, from it! As a ‘true son’, fruitful in the work of the father’s vineyard, one is not to walk in their own lusts – a ‘true son’ walks in the fullness of the Indwelling Christ and the fullness of His Holy Spirit, overcoming the world, the flesh, and the devil, not dominated by them! In Acts 24:14-16 Paul testified: “But this I confess to you, that ‘according to the Way’ which they call a sect, so I worship the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the Law and in the prophets. I have hope in God, which they themselves also accept, that there will be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and the unjust. This being so, I myself always strive to have a conscience without offense toward God and men.” Are your ears, your heart and mind, sensitive to the Word and the Spirit, or dominated by what separates one and keeps him/her from hearing “Holy Truth,” what is the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God?

SECOND, IS IT FALSE FAITH – VERBAL FAILURE, OR TRUE FAITH- VICTORIOUS FULFILLMENT? What did Matthew 21:32 reveal to us? “For John came to you ‘in the way of righteousness,’ and you did not believe him; but tax collectors and harlots believed him; and when you saw it, you did not afterward relent and believe him.”

Do you understand the vastness of people who ‘hear’, but they do not respond, do not receive, do not repent, do not rest in God’s finished work At The Cross through the Lord Jesus’ “blood sacrifice”, but go their own way, even saying “yes” at times to Christ Jesus as they continue in the ‘broad way’ of personal administration and rejecting God’s calling by a willful response, “We’ll do it our way”!

Are you aware that “many are called, but few are chosen”? Even as you come to Matthew 22 Jesus’ concern grows stronger and stronger as He unveiled a “False faith – Verbal failure”! Beginning in Verse 2 of Chapter 22 of Matthew , Jesus illuminates divine invitations to “The Holy Wedding”, and then exposed a man dressed so inappropriately. Let the Holy Spirit do a work of grace in you if this story touches you! Jesus said: (Verses 2-14),

“The kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who arranged a marriage for his son, and sent out his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding; and they were not willing to come. Again, he sent out other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who are invited, “See, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and fatted calf are killed, and all things are ready. Come to the wedding.”

But they made light of it and went their ways, one to his own farm, another to his business. And the rest seized his servants, treated them spitefully, and killed them. But when the king heard about it, he was furious. And he sent out his armies, destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city.

Then he said to his servants, “The wedding is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy. Therefore go into the highways, and as many as you find, invite to the wedding. So those servants went out into the highways and gathered together all whom they found, both bad and good. And the wedding hall was filled with guests.

But when the king came in to see the guests, HE SAW A MAN THERE WHO DID NOT HAVE ON A WEDDING GARMENT. So he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless. Then the king said to the servants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ “For many are called, but few are chosen.”!!

Are you aware that there are those who, in a fleshly way, ‘like’ to be a part, at times, of a spiritual celebration, but have no desire to ‘dress’ as the King requires! “Requires? You, preacher, must be a part of a strange cult – why should I be concerned about how I dress at the wedding if I show up?” And the Lord Jesus SAID: “Depart! I never knew you!” Clothed properly matters?

It was Paul who said to the Corinthians, 2 Corinthians 5:1-5, “For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven, if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked. For we who are in this [earthly] tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life. Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.”

Do you know what Job said in Job 29:14? “I put on righteousness and it clothed me..” That’s God’s righteousness, imputed, imparted, implanted by His grace, mercy, and love! Are you aware of being “clothed with humility”, (1 Peter 5:5b), the where does ‘fleshly pride’ fit in to a believer’s humble journey? What’s the color of the robe you wear? Pure and white linen? What about a “robe dipped in blood”?

In 2 Corinthians 13:5 Paul wrote TO THE CHURCH specifically but also to the world at large: “Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? – unless indeed you are disqualified.” How convicting is that?

False Faith – Verbal Failure or True Faith – Victorious Fulfillment? In Malachi 3:1-3 the prophet, used By God, brings HIS life-changing Word of faith-transformation and true offerings as the evidence! God spoke: “Behold, I send My messenger, and he will prepare the way before Me. And the Lord [Christ Jesus, the Promised Messiah!], will suddenly come to His temple [1 Corinthians 3:16-17 which asks, “Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.”], even the Messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight. Behold, He is coming, says the Lord of hosts.

But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner’s fire and like launderers’ soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; He will purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer to the Lord an offering in righteousness.”

True Faith – And Victorius Fulfillment? I don’t know who wrote the old song that is worth treasures, at least the words!

“The King Himself comes near, and feasts His saints today; Here we may sit and see Him here, And love, and praise, and pray.

One day amidst the place Where my dear God has been Is sweeter than ten thousand days of pleasurable sin.”

In Psalm 84 I want you to be inspired by Verses 1-2 and Verses 10-12! “How lovely is Your tabernacle, O Lord of hosts! My soul longs, yes, even faints for the courts of the Lord; My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.

Verses 10-12, “For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness. For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord will give grace and glory; no good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly. O Lord of hosts, blessed is the man who trusts in You!”

It just may be that in this moment’s time in your own spiritual story or time-period of faith or lack of it, you discover Psalm 85:6 as the ‘sons of Korah’ cried out, “Will You not revive us again, that Your people may rejoice in You?”

Why would anyone who has personally known, received, and rejoiced in the presence of the Lord in his/her life not want to know the amazing grace of renewal, fresh resurrection power, a new baptism of Calvary’s river of blessing that still flows, and a restoration of renewal with the God who calls Himself “My Friend”, if for some reason, one fell away.

You don’t reject – you receive! You don’t deny – you accept! You don’t substitute – you surrender! You don’t try to evolve – you accept His “You must be born again!” You don’t depend upon your superior education – you turn and accept His imputed righteousness! You don’t stamp yourself with ‘the insolence of self-righteousness’ – you surrender to the righteousness of God, sealed together in His shed blood! You don’t settle for the poisonous juices of an immoral, old sin nature – you trust in the power of the “new life, new hope, new awareness and understanding, of the Resurrected Christ in you, the hope of glory”! You don’t settle for a life outside His church, but commit yourself to honor Him in and through the church He loved and gave Himself for, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together!

I’m truly, truly sorry, but I have no understanding of anyone who looks at the Cross of Jesus, knowing it was for him/her He suffered, bled, and died, but chooses to shut his ears, close his eyes, turn away from His Word and will, and settles for a “best-effort style of life” I cringe for fear of their ultimate, sure, pain-filled life in Hell with the devil, his demons, and the darkened souls of a faithless, disobedient life – they will burn forever and ever in Hell without a second’s relief!

Do you think this just might be why Jesus said in Luke 12:40, “Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”

I’m a super-fan of Oswald Chambers and his historic, loved, deeply appreciated book, “My Utmost For His Highest.” On pages 63-64, I found a true word that should alert, awaken, and uplift every seeker of the true faith. He wrote:

“Jesus rarely comes where we expect Him; He appears where we least expect Him, and always in the most illogical connections. The only way a worker can keep true to God is being ready for the Lord’s surprise visits. It is not service that matters, but intense spiritual reality, expecting Jesus Christ at every turn. This will give our life the attitude of child-wonder which He wants it to have. If we are going to be ready for Jesus Christ, we have to stop being religious (that is, using religion as a higher kind of culture) and be spiritually real.”

“Vital Awareness Unveiled”? THE CALL TO ONE’S NEED OF SELF-EXAMINATION! Is Jesus the Author and Finisher of Your Faith – and are you ready for Him to examine you? Felice De Giardini wrote an old Italian hymn entitled “Come, Thou Almighty King.” It says: “Come, Thou Almighty King, Help us Your name to sing, Help us to praise: Father, all glorious, Over all victorious, Come, and reign over us, Ancient of Days.

Come, Thou Incarnate Word, Gird on Your mighty sword, Our prayer attend; Come, and Your people bless, And give Your Word success; Spirit of holiness, On us descend.

Come, Holy Comforter, Your sacred witness bear In this glad hour: You who Almighty art, Now rule in every heart, And never from us depart, Spirit of power.

To the great One in Three Eternal praises be Hence evermore. His sovereign majesty May we in glory see, And to eternity Love and adore.” Amen?

CHAPTER EIGHT

“VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED? PRAYERLESS LIFE –

PRAYERFUL LIBERATION”

How does a person examining a true disciple’s life and walk do so without the awareness of his prayer life and prayer ministry? Oh, I know: “By their fruits you shall know them,” but without that unveiling of his ‘work’ in the prayer closet one can come up with an exemplary report that doesn’t interpret the true disciple’s greater ministry – the ministry of intercessory prayer! I believe it was Oswald Chambers who once said, “Prayer does not fit us for the greater works; prayer “is” the greater work.”

A ‘stalwart’ disciple’s life is not sustained in power and authority apart from the ministry of prayer. Stalwart means “strongly and stoutly built, sturdy, robust; strong and brave; valiant. Firm, steadfast, or uncompromising.” [That’s “The Random House Collegiate Dictionary”, Revised Edition, 1975!]

You know, if you’re a student of God’s Holy Word and you “feed” on His daily bread, that He teaches us the vital importance of “prayerful liberation”, not a prayerless life! As Paul was equipping the saints in Ephesus he wrote, Ephesians 6:13, about “taking up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.” And then in Ephesians 6:18 he included in ‘the whole armor’, “praying always with all prayer and supplication for all the saints, and for me”, which is absolutely vital but only a part of one’s faithful prayer-life!

I was reminded again recently as I was reading in the Gospel of Luke, coming to Luke 18, and in the first five Verses the Lord Jesus spoke a parable of great, great significance. It says, Luke 18:1-5, “Then He spoke a parable to them, THAT MEN ALWAYS OUGHT TO PRAY AND NOT LOSE HEART, saying, “There was in a certain city a judge who did not fear God nor regard man. Now there was a widow in that city; and she came to him, saying, ‘Get justice for me from my adversary. And he would not for a while but afterward he said within himself, ‘Though I do not fear God nor regard man, yet because this widow troubles me I will avenge her, lest by continual coming she wears me out.”

Dare I tell you that Holy God is not troubled by your continual coming before Him in prayer but welcomes it? Didn’t Christ Jesus tell us in Luke 18:1, “Men always ought to pray and not lose heart”? Yet, many ‘lose heart’ to pray because the very heart of fleshly individuality is so strong, believing “I’m able”, that they seldom pray, except, maybe, in their desperate stage of failure, futility, and fear!

One of the sad stages of a spiritual journey is when a ‘mature’ (?) believer thinks that by his/her many, many prayers, Holy God should recognize how blessed He is to have such a strong ‘prayer’ on His team. Too many, still ‘fleshly’ disciples, consider God blessed by their exemplary prayer-life rather than them blessed by God’s inspiration for them to pray!

In fact, in John 16:23b-24, Jesus said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you. Until now you have asked nothing IN MY NAME. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.”

But many times a believer ask, ask, ask, ask – doesn’t receive because God operates from His throne of wisdom and understanding; if my asking violates Sovereign Will, God sovereignly does not answer! Often though it is a process of maturing, understanding, and acceptance of His holy time table. For example, my mother, after being divorced from my father for about ten years, re-married, and I had an unsaved step-father. Did I pray for Him? You better believe I did! I prayed for him for about 50 years (?), and six weeks before his 89^th birthday, as I visited him in the nursing facility, Frank said to me, my wife present also, “Farrell, I know all these many years that you’ve shared the Gospel story. Would you tell me one more time how I can be saved?”

I shared the gospel story with Frank Callaway, and he responded, “Farrell, would you help me to pray a sinner’s prayer?” I did – he did, and just before he died about six weeks later, the ladies in the facility said: “Farrell, Sue, what has happened to Frank? He is a totally changed man, even joining in Bible Study and prayer-time!” We told them, “Frank prayed to receive Christ as Lord and Savior of his life!” Glory! Yes, Glory Hallelujah!

And, day by day, as the spiritual journey continues, the Lord Jesus continues to say, “Lean not to your own understanding, but in all of your ways, (including prayer), acknowledge Me, give Me My rightful place on the throne of your heart – I’ll see and will answer your unselfish prayer!”

Do you remember the sisters, Martha and Mary, in John 11, whose brother, Lazarus, was sick? They sent to Jesus, Verse 3, saying, “Lord, behold, he whom you love is sick.” Verse 4 says, When Jesus heard that, He said, [Hasn’t even seen Lazarus at this point!], “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”

John 11:5-6 tells us, Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So, when He heard that he was sick, He stayed two more days in the place where He was. Oh, but then in Verse 11 Jesus said to His disciples, “Our friend Lazarus sleeps, but I go that I may wake him up.” Dare I tell you that that ‘sleep of Lazarus’ was “The Sleep of Death”? Jesus said in Verse 14-15 to His disciples, Lazarus is dead. And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, that you may believe. Nevertheless let us go to him.”

It gets better, and especially as the sisters encounter Christ Jesus! John 11:21-27 we read, Now Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You.” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”

Martha said to Jesus, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?”

Martha said to Him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who is come into this world.”

After several more Verses, in Verse 34, Jesus said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to Jesus then, “Lord, come and see.” Verse 35 then says, “Jesus WEPT!” He wept over their sorrow, He wept over Lazarus’ suffering and pain and death, and He wept over those who experience death because of sin, and He wept over those who weep for whatever circumstance they find breaking their heart!

Beginning at Verse 38-44, we find the raising of Lazarus from the dead! Jesus prayed to the Father! [Isn’t that amazing to some folks – JESUS PRAYED!]. Then Jesus said, Verse 43, “Lazarus, come forth!” He was raised from the dead, graveclothes on, and Jesus said, “Loose him, and let him go.” But YOU, in your graveclothes of spiritual death and separation from Holy God, are unaware that He has stood before your tomb of spiritual death, called your name, “Come forth”, which you haven’t, and as a result, it tells me You’ve refused to hear, you’ve refused to see, and you continue on the self-made journey of doubt and unbelief!

Oh, but then in John 11:40, Jesus said to Martha, and to you and me, “Did I not say that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?” Doesn’t it awaken, excite, and point you to pressing in to see the glory of God? At the end of John 12, Verse 41, John wrote: “These things Isaiah said when he saw His glory and spoke of Him.”

This Chapter heading? “Vital Awareness Unveiled”? PRAYERLESS LIFE – PRAYERFUL LIBERATION! Do YOU think Martha and Mary prayed? Did they pray for divine invasion of human need? Did they pray for one they loved deeply? Of course! They wanted divine help, the divine remedy, the divine Lord and Savior to come in where they were in the midst of their tragic sorrow and pain!

Is your life a “prayerless life”? In 1 Samuel 12:21-25 we read of, yes, spiritual tragedy for those who abandon prayer to Holy God. It says, “And do not turn aside; for then you would go after empty things which cannot profit or deliver, for they are nothing. For the Lord will not forsake His people, for His great name’s sake, because it has pleased the Lord to make you His people. Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you; but I will teach you the good and right way. Only fear the Lord, and serve Him in truth with all your heart; for consider what great things He has done for you. But if you still do wickedly (forsaking the prayer-life?), you shall be swept away, both you and your king.” Satan is so, yes, abusive, even in introducing to ‘believers’ the “incoming of craftiness”, even emphasizing the unimportance of prayer, except when you need something, but the devil doesn’t desire you praying to God because you love Him or needing a definite supply of Heaven’s glorious blessings!

Rather than, with Jesus, saying, “I have finished the work You’ve given Me to do,” far too many ‘followers’ do not know Whom they follow or why they follow, but they would be like a little child who’s glad his parent gave him some sweets to chew on!

Too often the prayerless life is evidence of carry-over forces from the natural life that really sees no need in asking God in prayer for ‘things,’ praying to Him because someone told you He likes to hear you pray, or void of the need to pray because the ‘self-sufficient’ life still has a hold! Didn’t Chambers once say, “It is not so true that ‘prayer changes things’ as that prayer changes “me” and I then, by the grace of God, become instruments of His change.” “God is abundantly able to do above all we ask or think!” When did that change?

In the Sermon on the Mount, in Matthew 6:5-13, we find our Lord’s ‘life-training’ of His true disciples! Jesus said: “And when you pray you shall not be like the hypocrites. [“Play-actors!]. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men.

Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut the door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.

And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words. Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him. In this manner, therefore, pray:

Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.

And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen [Or “so be it!”].”

The Lord Jesus was, yes, passionately training and equipping His “new followers” in true “kingdom of God discipleship” on earth! Several vital considerations for YOUR mature, Christ-like prayer-journey!

In Matthew 5:48 I’m convinced our Lord is challenging disciples to “look to the Father as He truly has been, is, and always will be”: Therefore, you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect – which means true disciples consider Who and What has gone before! In Luke 6:35-36 we read Jesus saying, “But love your enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High. For He is kind to the unthankful and evil. Therefore be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.” True disciples who faithfully pray only to be seen and heard by God? Are YOU a ‘son of the Most High?’

“When YOU pray?” Matthew 6:6, “but you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.” Do you understand that prayer is one of the most important things you do between you and your Heavenly Father – and it’s done not to be seen of men! [That doesn’t mean public prayer is ungodly – I don’t buy that for a minute!]. But spiritual intimacy between a disciple and His Master is a privileged and blessed relationship! That means: Shut out the distractions, shut out noise interference, shut out being judged by fleshly men as you pour out your heart and mind before Holy God, get still, quiet, resting in Him!

Biblical praying? It’s the power to understand His Resurrection Power, His judgmental power, His creative power, and His power, though reserved in the secret place, He can reward you openly as He reads your heart, mind, soul, and desires!

It’s the power released to proclaim a victorious witness of the Resurrected Christ! It’s the power released to live a holy life! In Romans 8:11-14 tells us, “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.

Therefore, brethren, we are debtors – not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh [That’s the “old man, old sin nature, old ways without Christ!]. For if you live according to the flesh you will die [and your ‘prayers?’ also!]; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.” But the Spirit doesn’t lead you to pray? You can do it on your own?

It’s also power unveiled to see things happen, even mighty manifestations as the Spirit so desires! In 1 Corinthians 12:7-11 we read, “But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all: for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings by the same Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills.”

I find it so amazing, as I approach my 80^th birthday as of June 12, 2016, that very little is made in this particular age of ‘the church’ of “Holy Spirit” helps! In Romans 8:26-27 we read of what should happen but not necessarily does happen: “Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.”

It’s the power released as our Lord told us in John 16:12 of His appointment of the Holy Spirit for ‘Spirit-assistance’: In John 16:12-15 our Lord and Savior said, “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. HOWEVER, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He WILL TELL YOU THINGS TO COME. HE WILL GLORIFY ME [through YOU!], for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you.”

The following hymn is from the old “Broadman Hymnal” of 1940, [The Broadman Press, Nashville, Tennessee], entitled “Holy Spirit, Faithful Guide,” by Marcus M. Wells. It says:

“Holy Spirit, faithful Guide, Ever near the Christian’s side; Gently lead us by the hand, Pilgrims in a desert land; Weary souls forever rejoice, While they hear that sweetest voice, Whispering softly, ‘Wanderer, come! Follow Me, I’ll guide you home.

Ever present, truest friend, Ever near God’s aid to lend, Leave us not to doubt and fear, Groping in the darkness drear; When the storms are raging sore, Hearts grow faint, and hopes give o’er, Whisper softly, ‘Wanderer, come! Follow Me, I’ll guide you home.”

When our days of toil shall cease, Waiting still for sweet release, Looking up to heaven in prayer, Joyful that our names are there: Fearing not the dismal flood, Pleading naught but Jesus’ blood, Whisper softly, “Wanderer, come! Follow Me, I’ll guide you home.”

Why not, right now, pray: “Holy Spirit, to you I yield, in my life for you build, The fullness of Christ’s Indwelling Life, through me forever overcoming life’s strife!” Amen?

CHAPTER NINE

“VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED?

BESTOWED GRACE – BLESSED VICTORY?”

Aren’t you overwhelmed, overjoyed at times when you come across a particular Verse of Scripture, and you’re awed by what you read with a ‘fresh touch’ of Spirit-anointing?

1 Corinthians 15:10 tells us, “But by the grace of God I am what I am. And His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.”

Rather than ‘spiritual, perplexing, back-slapping’ before God because one thinks He ought to be overjoyed by who it is for Him to have on His team, meaning a proud, bloated, self-promoting, spiritual-world personal back-slapper, as if one’s own superior effort birthed his/her salvation and blessed His kingdom, all true believers should see themselves humbled before Holy God for His marvelous grace, mercy, and love given to a child of faith who has humbled himself/herself before the Cross!

I hope and pray your spiritual eyes are truly open as you witness what took place in Matthew 14:14-21, yes, beyond our Lord’s ability to feed five thousand men, plus women and children! Read carefully examining whether or not you see the difference He desires and can make in your own life and circumstances and opportunities! It says:

“And when Jesus went out He saw a great multitude; and He was moved with compassion for them, and healed their sick. When it was evening, His disciples came to Him, saying, ‘This is a deserted place, and the hour is already late. Send the multitudes away, that they may go into the villages and buy themselves food.”

But Jesus said to them, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.” And they said to Him, “We have here only five loaves and two fish.” Jesus said, “Bring them here to Me.” [That’s, bring your five loaves and two fish.].

Then He commanded the multitudes to sit down on the grass. And He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed and broke and gave the loaves to the disciples; and the disciples gave to the multitudes. [Multitudes? Would you think, maybe, 20,000-30,000 people?].

So they ALL ATE AND WERE FILLED, and they took up twelve baskets full of the fragments that remained. Now those men who had eaten were about five thousand men, besides women and children.”

Don’t you find it so amazing, so encouraging, so uplifting, that our Lord took a natural need and turned it into a supernatural provision for those He cared about? And as He saw YOU, convicted YOU, called YOU to Himself, what was His intent, His plan, His worthy provision in you to help Him change the world around you? Was His call, “You’re filled up with what men need, join Me, and let’s change men’s hearts and minds,” or, “I see your emptiness – I want to fill you with My presence,” or, “I see no potential in you, therefore an empty vessel becomes My earthly tabernacle,” or, “I see your earthly wisdom certificates – let me wash them away by My blood so I can then invade a blood-bought container and express Myself through you!”

There’s a very strong prayer the Lord Jesus made, early in His three-year public ministry before the Cross. It’s Matthew 11:25-27! At that time Jesus answered and said, “I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent, and have revealed them to babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight. All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.”

It’s very clear that Holy God knew, understood, and, yes, was broken-hearted over the unbelief of men toward Him AND over the ‘belief’ in some, yet, it did nothing for them except promote ‘religious pride’ without ‘life-change’ by the grace, mercy, and love of God!

I’ve written over Psalm 14, a psalm written by King David, the words: “A Fool’s Paradise”! Psalm 14 says, “The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God.’ They are corrupt, they have abominable works, there is none who does good. The Lord looks down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there are any who understand, who seek God.

THEY HAVE ALL TURNED ASIDE, they have together become corrupt; there is none who does good, No, not one. Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge, who eat up my people as they eat bread, and do not call on the Lord?

There they are in great fear, for God is with the generation of the righteous. You shame the counsel of the poor, but the Lord is his refuge. Oh, that the salvation of Israel would come out of Zion! When the Lord brings back the captivity of His people, let Jacob rejoice and Israel be glad.”

Early mankind, except for a few men touched and taken over by God, highlighted the fallen-away generation after generation, with Holy God then finding a Moses and an Aaron, and God speaking through them. In Exodus 20 Holy God unveiled the Ten Commandments , but I only highlight one here – Exodus 20:3 is Holy God declaring, “You shall have no other gods before Me.” Other gods were fallen men’s creations to try and appease the guilt of their godless lives because they surely had no desire to believe in, trust, or obey the Eternal God of Creation and the God of the coming Cross they would learn about! Shed blood, to them, was an animal slain and the blood strewn over their ‘religious tables’ but certainly didn’t, couldn’t, wouldn’t be covering for their sin, sins, or sinful nature – they didn’t have one, they thought, because they were so religious!

Has our ‘modern world’ embraced or rebelled against Holy God? Are ‘major religions’ the imprint of Christ’s Resurrection Presence or ‘cheap imitations’ of devotion to the exalting of the ‘best’ humanity has to offer – and, “If your God, your Jesus can’t accept us in our interpretation of the best of fleshly man’s religion, let Him be crucified again, and we’ll put the nails in his hands and feet, and gleefully watch Him die again. So what?”

Modern-day humanity, as a whole, since Jesus said, “Few there be who find the Holy Way,” is a world still gripped in shame, but overcoming it by criticism of the True Faith, slurs on the Holy Bible, devalued as counterfeit declaring Himself Savior and Lord, “no divinity there – maybe a good man trying to make a difference in a Hell-bent world,” and “even His faith, of a conservative variety, was ‘narrow,’ obstinate to other religions, unyielding concerning compromise; and though there are millions across the world who acknowledge Him, our vast world denies His saving blood and even His purported resurrection. We’re religious – Jesus deceived the masses in His day.” Really?

Hear me! Paul the Apostle dealt Spirit-Anointed in heavenly brilliance when in 2 Corinthians 5:16-21 he told us, “Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. NOW all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, THAT IS, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.

Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us; we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. For He [God] made Him [Christ Jesus] who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” Glory!!

The man who says he has been reconciled to God and believes He[Jesus] became sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him, yet goes on sinning, is the man who hears Christ say to him, “Go and sin no more,” but takes pleasure in his lack of understanding that God the Father ‘made Jesus Christ the Son who knew no sin, to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him,’ which is religious unbelief parading as true spiritual understanding that professing Christians can’t do anything but sin until they get to heaven someday, totally ignoring “death to self and life in and through the Indwelling Christ”!

Are you aware that 2 Corinthians 6:21 tells us, “For He (God) made Him (Christ Jesus) who knew no sin to be sin FOR US [on the Cross], that we might become the righteousness of God in Him,” so some ‘sinning believers’ simply say, “So what? I believe even as I choose to sin,” which means their old sin nature is very much alive as they ‘celebrate’ their old sin nature and deny their “new creation life in Christ”!

Some preachers, teachers, even some ‘professing disciples’ teach that by Christ’s death on the Cross ‘for me’, I can go on sinning until I get to Heaven ‘out there,’ is not Biblical teaching anointed of the Spirit! But His Holy Word declares ‘death to the old sin nature’ and resurrection life in Him because I accept my death with Him and praise Him that my bondage to sin was broken, yes, put to death at the Cross, and by His grace I receive His gift to me of His very righteousness!

Are you even aware that in Psalm 4:1 that David sang to the Lord God Almighty, “Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness,”? Even in Isaiah 51:1 God spoke, “Listen to Me, you who follow after righteousness, you who seek the Lord; [because there are those who want to walk in His fullness!]: Look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the hole of the pit from which you were dug. [No doubt the pit of spiritual death, religious death, yes, sinful death!].

Oh, and then in Isaiah 51:7-8, we read, “Listen to Me, YOU WHO KNOW RIGHTEOUSNESS, you people in whose heart is My law; do not fear the reproach of men, nor be afraid of their insults. For the moth will eat them up like a garment, and the worm will eat them like wool; but MY RIGHTEOUSNESS will be forever, and My salvation from generation to generation.”

God said what? “MY RIGHTEOUSNESS WILL BE FOREVER”, except in modern-day churches where men perform as best as they can, never grasping that His righteousness is imparted through Christ, implanted by the very Seed of His Life, Death, and Resurrection, imploding the old sin nature as He releases Himself, the Divine Nature, in repentant hearts and faith in Truth, yes, imputing grace, mercy, and love fully by the ruling presence of His Indwelling Resurrection Life, because as Paul wrote in Colossians 2:9, “For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; AND YOU ARE COMPLETE IN HIM, who is the head of all principality and power.” You’re not made ‘complete’ by what you do, but by WHAT JESUS DID IN YOUR PLACE ON THE CROSS!

Aren’t you awed, inspired, encouraged, uplifted, when you read Paul, in 2 Corinthians 1:9, saying, “Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead…”! That’s spiritual death in all men but raised to “new life” by Christ, and even with Paul saying in 1 Corinthians 15:31, “I DIE DAILY!”

“VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED? BESTOWED GRACE – BLESSED VICTORY?” When one comes to Romans 5:17, what is he/she being discipled in? Performance or Position? Gritted or Graced? Trying or Trusting? Keeping, as best as one can, or Kept by the power of God? 1 Peter 1:3-5 tells us: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to HIS ABUNDANT MERCY has begotten us again to a living hope THROUGH THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS CHRIST FROM THE DEAD, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does fade away, reserved in heaven for you, WHO ARE KEPT BY THE POWER OF GOD through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”

“VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED? BESTOWED GRACE – BLESSED VICTORY?” Are you overwhelmed, awed, uplifted, motivated, Kept by the power of God? Romans 8:35-39 inspires us, Paul saying, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: ‘For Your sake we are killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.’ Yet in all these things WE ARE MORE THAN CONQUERORS THROUGH HIM WHO LOVED US. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

“VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED? BESTOWED GRACE – BLESSED VICTORY?” Poor confession or rich profession? Bankrupt confession or enriched by God confession? Penniless confession or Prince of Peace confession? In 1 Timothy 6:11-16, the Apostle Paul trains, equips, inspires, and illuminates the heart and mind of young Timothy, telling him: “But you, O man of God, flee these things and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness. Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. I urge you in the sight of God who gives life to all things, and before Christ Jesus who witnessed the good confession before Pontius Pilate, that you keep this commandment without spot, blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ’s appearing, which He will manifest in His own time, He who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to whom be honor and everlasting power. Amen, or “so be it!” Is He the “Amen” of YOUR life??

“VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED? BESTOWED GRACE – BLESSED VICTORY?” The Eternal Truth of God unveiled or the eternal nakedness of man’s deception appealed by the faithless? Our fallen, faithless world must be constantly reminded that man’s view of truth falls away from God, while the Crucified, Resurrected Christ of Eternal Truth leads us to God! “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life! No one comes to Father-God but through Me!”

Dare I tell you? Christ Jesus IS the “Highway of Holiness”! In Isaiah 35:8-10 the prophet unveils the glory of our Lord and the excellency of our God. “A highway shall be there, and a road, and it shall be called the Highway of Holiness. The unclean shall not Passover it, but it shall be for others. Whoever walks the road, although a fool, shall not go astray. No lion shall be there, nor shall any ravenous beast go up on it; It shall not be found there. But the redeemed shall walk there, and the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with singing, with everlasting joy on their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.”

There’s an old, old hymn by Fanny J. Crosby and Mrs. J.F. Knapp in the 1940 Baptist Hymnal, published by Broadman Press, Nashville, Tennessee, entitled, “Blessed Assurance” that never grows old really. It says:

“Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine! Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine! Heir of salvation, purchase of God, Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood.

Perfect submission, perfect delight, Visions of rapture now burst on my sight; Angels descending, bring from above Echoes of mercy, Whispers of love.

Perfect submission, all is at rest, I in my Savior am happy and blest; Watching and waiting, looking above, Filled with His goodness, lost in His love.

This is my story, this is my song, Praising my Savior all the day long; This is my story, this is my song, Praising my Savior all the day long.”

“VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED? BESTOWED GRACE – BLESSED VICTORY?” Fleshly faith that always falls short or Eternal Faith in Christ’s “finished work” that always leads one in blessed confidence and eternal assurance because of ‘perfect submission’, not my will but His will be done in and through one’s daily walk! Have you grasped as yet that “kingdom living” under His Lordship is present and future, while some process ‘in Christ’ as future without consideration of Christ-honoring life in the here and now!

Sorry, but I don’t see Revelation 21 as ‘future’ but Kingdom Living Now! John wrote, Verses 21:1-8, “Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away [Crucified WITH Christ!”]. Also there was no more sea [or “separation”!]. Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, THE TABERNACLE OF GOD IS WITH MEN, [“You are the holy tabernacle or Temple of the Resurrected, Indwelling Christ!”], and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things are passed away.”

Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” And He said to me, “Write, for these words are faithful and true. He said to me, “It is done!” “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts. He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son. But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.” [And that’s the eternal death that never dies for the Christless lives, even the ‘religions’ (?) of the world!].

You don’t gain ‘merit’ for eternity as you “try your best” – one’s “FAITH” is in mercy through the grace of God, birthing Christ’s eternal, indwelling, Resurrection Life! One’s hope is in Him – not his/her self-will or self-determination! The question from Holy God will be, “What then did YOU do with Jesus who is called the Christ?” Are YOU the “illumined temple” of His indwelling in you through your faith alone in His finished work at the Cross and your old man of sin crucified with Him – and NOW you celebrate daily your death with Him and YOUR resurrection to “new life” through Him? The eternal is Now, not when or if you get to Heaven someday!

I was shocked when I read recently at statement by Augustine. In his “Letter 130” he actually wrote: “The sole purpose of life in time is to gain merit for life in eternity.” The sole purpose of life in the here and now is to gain the mercy of God through repentance toward God and faith in the finished work of Christ at the Cross, which without, one misses mercy and continues his messes in Hell! There is no merit for life in eternity ignoring the Cross! Or ignoring Resurrection Life, Resurrection Power, and Resurrection Hope!

A best-effort, self-constructed life, even with its ‘stained glass windows of self-improvement’, doesn’t house the Resurrected King of kings and Lord of lords! Jesus said, “You must be born again!”

CHAPTER TEN

“VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED? ONE LEGISLATOR – ONE LORD”

Have you ever sought to write for yourself your own ‘life agenda’? Some would say, “I live by the bread I produce day by day, though as far as the inner, spiritual part of me is concerned, who cares?” Or, “I live by the good fleshly deeds I do – what’s this ‘living by the life of another’? – I choose me, my, mine!” Others would say, “I live in my ‘dream world’ – fairy tale living is as good as it comes!” Or, “The beginning, means, and end of all things, is that I tried to do my best.” Or, “The ruling reason of my life is, “just do what makes YOU happy – who cares what others or some God has to say!”

Think with me about fallen humanity as we will eventually consider “One Legislator – One Lord”! But as we look to fallen humanity, fallen away from God, fallen from God’s intent in man’s creation, fallen away from the need of “blood redemption”, what is it men settle for? Well, “Certainly for my view, no consideration of what some call immortality – let me spend or expend my life’s resources for myself in the here and now; why consider what’s after death?” “Me? Whatever pumps my flesh and satisfies my glands, what else matters?” Or, “What’s the problem with a useless life? I’m my own man and ought to satisfy my own lusts!” Or, “I’ll spin the web of my own life on my own terms. Who cares what God’s intent was?” And fallen men have no clear understanding that the mind of fallen men, alienated and separated from Holy God, is an evil life of unbelief, with God’s Holy Word declaring in Genesis 6:5, “Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”

MAN WITHOUT GOD! And, yes, in early Genesis we see “the beginning of the unveiling” of God’s grace, mercy, and love! But even with that view of God, there are those who dim the mind to the Light of God, sear and steel the conscience with indifference toward God’s Word written and viewed in and through Emmanuel, God in the flesh, dim their hearts toward the Cross, the suffering, the death of Christ on the Cross in their behalf, as totally unimpressive: “What a foolish man!” they say.

MAN WITHOUT GOD? The majority of fallen men have no true or abiding consciousness of God, though some men will acknowledge but sense no need of Him because they are ‘god unto themselves’! Many are so stale, stoic, selfish, sin-sick, superior to any idea of God or need of repentance before their Creator. Plus, godless men, and women, birth family victims, family dis-function, disgrace, and despair, family separation, family sorrow and abuse, resentment, anger, disgust, accusations after accusations, dislike with an “I hate you” stance of relationships, followed by a disloyal pledge of bitterness! And without loving God as their hope and help, they live unfulfilling lives with no fulfilling relationships and rewards because they have no place in their hearts for a sacrificial, serving, selfless love!

MAN WITHOUT GOD? Are you aware most men exalt selfish imaginations, and really, anything or anyone that exalts himself/herself against the knowledge of God? They know zero about deliverance from sin and death, but celebrate in it, totally unaware of seeing a natural life birthed by God into a spiritual life that exalts and honors Him – with rich and eternal rewards! They possess no sense of innocence before Holy God and man because they are guilty, live in guilt, and try to cover it any way they can – which never happens apart from the shed blood of Christ as Emmanuel, “God with them.”

MAN WITHOUT GOD? Captives in their own souls, minds, wills, unaware of “the wages of unrighteousness”, walking in the counsel of the ungodly, drawing iniquity with cords of vanity like a cart with no wheels, famished souls with no true ‘bread of life’ or ‘water’ of the Word and the Spirit, living in rejection to the Law of the Lord of hosts, despising the Living Word, the Holy One of Israel, without knowing their life choices ‘stricken them’, and ‘the walking dead’ are like the carcasses of refuse in the very middle of a “Hollywood-like Boulevard” with their banners flying over every unbelieving life: “Unbeliever, and proud of it,” not knowing, Proverbs 16:18, “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall,” fall after fall after fall, deeper and deeper and deeper in the grips of a hellish devil, and eternal destruction that never fades or dies away!

MAN WITHOUT GOD? Alienated, separated, enslaved, deceived, enticed violaters of the Word and Will and Ways of God, being swallowed by the bad breath of Sheol, greedy for gain anyway, anytime, anywhere, with anyone, disdaining of counsel and eternal help, loving the darkness without any Light, delighting in the perversity of the wicked, devious to gain the upper hand and unearned wealth and unrewarding consequences, “just so I can have my way in all things”!

MAN WITHOUT GOD? Proverbs 6:16-19 says: “These six things the Lord hates, Yes, seven are an abomination to Him: A proud look, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that are swift in running to evil, a false witness who speaks lies, and one who sows discord among brethren.”

MAN WITHOUT GOD? That’s the one or many or masses that ignore Christ Jesus, inspire lustful living, betray the Holy Word, bow before “scientific discoveries” more than to the Lord God who created them, resistant to governorship of the Lord Jesus who loves them far more than they know how to ‘love’ themselves, so in love with the perversions out of the selfish hearts of men they had just rather crucify the King of kings and Lord of lords and bow unto their sin natures, God-less ideals, and their lives governed by “flesh” alienations than Holy Spirit birthing!

MAN WITHOUT GOD? Proverbs 27:6 expose so much about the nature and character of our fallen world. It says, “Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy [toward God and YOU] are deceitful.” Can you grasp that? But, not only the deception of one’s enemies, including the devil and his appointed demons, how easy is it for unreconciled, unrighteous, unbelieving, ungodly men and women, even youth and children, to be encouraged toward rebellion against God rather than submission to His eternal Way and ways? For far too many “blood redemption” by the Lamb of God is unreality, unnatural, and unnecessary!

MAN WITHOUT GOD? It was John Greenleaf Whittier, in his writing, “A Sabbath Scene,” who said: “Foul shame and scorn be on you all Who turn the good to evil, and steal the Bible from the Lord and give it to the devil.” Of course, though, we don’t have to worry about that in this ‘modern-day’, do we?

Are you familiar with Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s writings? One is entitled “The Cry of the Human,” and in it she wrote: “There is no God,” the foolish saith, But none, “There is no sorrow”: And nature oft the cry of faith In bitter need will borrow.

Eyes, which the preacher could not school, By wayside graves are raised; And lips say, “God be pitiful,” Who never said, “God be praised.” Does that still ‘fit’ in an unbelieving state of life and mind today?

Many unbelieving men will question true believers at times, “How can you believe in God?” And only true wise men of faith stand to say, “I examine the billions of planets He designed, then the awesome people He created, lost, and re-birthed – and I rejoice, thank, and praise His Holy Name,” which now leads us to examine, “Vital Awareness Unveiled? One Legislator – One Lord!”

Taking a look at the nation enslaved in Egypt yet liberated by Holy God and given “a land of promise”, Israel is or was the recipient of God’s faithfulness yet there came a time that most of Israel, except the remnant, abandoned God and promoted ‘religion’ without a personal relationship!

In Joshua 24:14-15 we see the challenge that is just as true today as it was in Joshua’s day imprinting the call to turn to the “True Legislator and the Only Redeeming Lord”! Joshua said, “Now therefore, fear the Lord, serve Him in sincerity and truth, [any different Word for today in our service to the King of kings and Lord of lords?], and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the River and in Egypt. SERVE THE LORD! [Unless you’re content with enslavement to your old sin nature and your ‘fleshly faith’!].

And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

Self-legislation – self-rule or One Legislator – One Lord whose name is Christ Jesus, the Promised Messiah? Flesh domination – flesh damnation or Christ Rule – Christ’s Reign? Wicked thoughts – wicked separation or Divine Truths – Divine Oneness? Seared consciences – sickened life or New Ruler – New life, new hope, new peace, new rejoicing, new awakened consciences accountable to Holy God!

Formerly self-righteous thinking is transformed by the grace and mercy of God through Christ’s shed blood, and having repented, a man of faith begins to say daily, “Lord, what would YOU have me to do?” And what excuse do “born-again believers”, who have died to the old man and old sin nature and been indwelt by “Christ who is our life”, have? Were YOU crucified with Christ? Does Christ live in you? Do you scripturally possess now “the mind of Christ”? Are you a recipient, now owner, of the Glorious Word of God called the Holy Bible, yes His instruction manual on living the overcoming, never-ending, victorious life of Christ who is more than conqueror? As YOUR liberator, He’s your educator, legislator, yes, the Lover of your soul, your mind, and should be, your will, your wisdom, your warrior of overcoming faith!

Dare I tell you that the “mind of God in Christ” is omnipotent, omnipresent, all-wisdom, all-Truth, all understanding, all-love, all-seeing, all-knowing – Emmanuel, “God in the flesh”, King of kings, Lord of lords, Who desired to make YOUR life the residence of His abiding presence, YOUR life His earthly extension, His heavenly expression, and His Kingdom throne which is righteousness, peace, joy, and the fullness of Holy Spirit anointing, guidance, illumination of what He is all about in touching the world around you with eternal desires, directions, disciplines, discernments, and destiny!

Are you so diseased in mind and heart that God’s eternal plan may be for others, but not you? Have you been so alienated from Holy God so long, and witnessed the death sentences being lived out around you by family, friends, and fellow-unbelievers, that for YOU it is beyond even considering that if you were the only man/woman, teenager, child, to ever live, “how could I, (we), them, my closest family and friends, ever consider the audacious Truth, if it is true, that the Crucified, Resurrected, Reigning Christ, chose me, us, to establish His earthly residence and reign?” And it’s TRUE!

Hear me! Romans 3:23-26 declares for us all, all human residents on earth, yes, worldwide: “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, BEING JUSTIFIED FREELY BY HIS GRACE through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.” Justified? By grit or by grace? By self-effort or Sovereign provision? “Justified”? Working for it or resting in our Lord’s finished work at the Cross?

Romans 5:17 declares the repentant heart, forgiven, washed in the blood, surrendered to His earthly throne IN the “blood-washed life”, filled with His Holy Spirit and His abiding Presence, teaches us about the Royal, Residing, Reigning Christ in and through every true born-again believer! It says: “For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, MUCH MORE those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.” Glory! Glory be to God!

Have YOU ever considered, searched out, rested in God’s eternal revelation of one’s true identity “in Him,” “in Christ”, “in the blood-bought family of God”?

Genesis 15:1, “Do not be afraid, Farrell Fisher; I AM your shield, your exceedingly great reward.”

Genesis 17:2-4, Loving God expanded Abram’s vision and His desire for YOU! “And I will make My covenant between Me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly. Then Abram fell on his face, and God talked with him, saying, “As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations.” But the powers of darkness tell you, “But that couldn’t be YOU!?”

How many do you know that, like Jacob, had a dream as Holy God revealed Himself more and more THROUGH A DREAM?!? In Genesis 28:15-17 we read: “Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you.” Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.” And he was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven!” Have YOU EVER SEEN YOUR LIFE AS THE HOUSE OF GOD AND THE GATE OF HEAVEN?

Oh, it gets deeper, richer, more awe-inspiring! In Genesis 35:10-12 we read: And God said to him, “Your name is Jacob; your name shall not be called Jacob anymore, but Israel shall be your name.” So He called his name Israel. Also God said to him, “I am God Almighty. Be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall come from your body. The land which I gave Abraham and Isaac I give to you; and to your descendants after you I give this land.”

Do YOU read the Word discovering Holy God’s true identity and how He identifies you under His watch-care? In Exodus 3:14-15 it gets richer and, yes, even more rewarding! And God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And He said, “Thus YOU shall say to the children of Israel, (to the children of the U.S.A. and worldwide!), “I AM has sent me to you.” Moreover God said to Moses (and to Farrell Fisher!), “The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is My name forever, and this is My memorial to all generations.” Even your generations in America and beyond?

Are you awed when you learn it is God’s eternal desire to set YOU apart as He did ‘the chosen of Israel’? In Exodus 31:13 He identifies “My Sabbaths you shall keep, for it is a sign between Me and you throughout all generations, that YOU may know that I AM the Lord who sanctifies YOU [or sets YOU apart for His honor, glory, and praise!!].”

All through the Word Holy God is reminding people: “I AM the Lord your God,” yet many of the Israelites fell away! And He confronts, convicts, convinces that “I AM the Lord your God who brought YOU out of a deceived world, like Egypt, OUT OF THE HOUSE OF BONDAGE,” with the command, “You shall have no other gods before Me.”

If you’ve never known, it’s so vital that you ‘rest’ in His eternal truths and Truth this very moment! In Psalm 46 David sang: “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in time of trouble. Therefore we will not fear, even though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the mist of the sea; though its waters roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with its swelling,” with Verses 10-11 challenging us, “Be still, and know that I AM GOD; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!” The question? Is He exalted in YOU and YOURS?

And, the New Testament doesn’t speak to YOU about “the Great I Am”? How familiar are you with Matthew 11:28-30? Jesus said, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light,” yet He bore the sins of all fallen humanity on the Cross!

Really now, just how spiritually hungry are you? If so, in John 6:35, Jesus says to us, “I AM the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.” But the ‘fleshly thirsty’ keep looking and looking but never find “True Bread” or “Living Water”, and wander in spiritual darkness and deception, but the Lord Jesus Christ said then and now in John 8:12, “I AM the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.”

The Lord Jesus said in John 14:6, “I AM the way, the truth, and the life. NO ONE comes to the Father except through Me;” and was it John Wimber who used to ask? “Christ Jesus: Lord, liar, or lunatic?” I’m telling you: Jesus is the Author and Finisher of our faith. “Jesus is Emmanuel, ‘God with us,’”; Jesus is the “True Vine”; our Lord said, “I AM the resurrection and the life. He who believes in [trusts in, relies upon, adheres to] Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?”

Christ Jesus IS Alpha and Omega, Christ Jesus IS the Bright and Morning Star, Christ Jesus IS the root of all “New-Born, Spirit-filled lives”, Christ Jesus is the Eternal Bridegroom who says to His Bride, “Forsake all, and follow Me!”

It was Oswald Chambers, in “My Utmost For His Highest,” [pps.200-201], who wrote about the Lord’s statement in Mark 10:21, “One thing you lack…come, take up your cross, and follow Me.” Chambers wrote: “The rich young ruler had the master passion to be perfect. When he saw Jesus Christ, he wanted to be like Him. Out Lord never puts personal holiness to the fore when He calls a disciple. He puts absolute annihilation of my right to myself and identification with Himself – a relationship with Himself in which there is no other relationship.” Jesus doesn’t ‘fit in’ – He takes over the “crucified life” and resurrects it in His fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Jesus Christ!

What did Paul tell us in Galatians 2:20-21a? “I have been crucified WITH CHRIST; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh [or fleshly body!] I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God…”!

This is why in 2 Corinthians 5:17 Paul wrote: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new!”

“New Birth”, “New Life,” “New Hope,” “New Day Dawning,” “New Glory,” “New Help,” “New Heaven on Earth, “New Dwelling Place – Eternal in the Heavens,” “New Helps,” “New Confidence and Assurance,” “New Work,” “New Spirit” coming upon every new born-again believer!

New words recently given – I pray they inform, inspire, and introduce the Lord and Savior, Christ Jesus, more and more:

“A new-born person, blessed even in the midst of strife, conquers by the Peace Christ brings through His Resurrection Life.

Though trouble may come to new creations, Christ blesses that life by His invasion; storm-clouds may cover, but He rules over whatever may come whether dust-like or clover!

Holy Presence of Resurrection blessing, storms and troubles become sure of His place and resting. No wind so strong, no storm so severe – His Presence assures they go to the rear!

“Peace I leave with you, peace I give unto you,” and every trouble becomes His personal conquering; battles extreme, wars so brutal, but love so sweet and peace so enduring!

Christ-less lives can mindfully enjoy a man-made journey like a child with a toy; temporary distraction, but no eternal satisfaction – made for God but buried in the sod, no understanding, not even a nod.

Restricted in true love, no peace of the dove; striving in flesh to the best of one’s effort; void of the blessing of God’s restoration, never considering their final destination.

Void of life, they live in death; void of His love, they live with hesitations; so unsure if the journey of life can live with the strife – knowing for certain, without Him there is nothing pertinent!

But workers of faith and conquerors over self have a reverence of life no one can deny; heroic in spirit, they walk in a world so void of faith, they watch as a world enthrones its self, slumbering daily, no faith in God, just waiting soon to be buried in earth’s sod.

Denying self, there’s no desire to be called up for hire; their one ambition becomes, for them, God’s desire! No reverence for self or put on a shelf, they cry to God, “Lord, what should I do to honor You and fulfill Your plan, as You scope around us, and design our walk, hearing Your voice and learning how we should talk!”

Touching our world with Your peace and grace, we offer our lives to redeem the race, of godless men and devil inspired, “God, help us to be able to say, ‘by our witness, Your desire has graciously transpired’; Men have repented, fully consented, to follow our Lord, blessedly contented, at peace with our Lord, no longer bored, but divinely inspired to live our lives to His glory and honor, fully at peace through His Indwelling Spirit, newly born, gloriously saved, laying down our lives, others are born no longer torn, but now daughters and sons heavenly born!” Does His Word speak of “One Legislator – One Lord”? Of course! It does!

CHAPTER ELEVEN

“VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED? VOID OF GOD’S WORD OR VICTORY THROUGH GOD’S WORD?”

In Hebrews 4:12 we read: “For the Word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword…”. Have you ever considered that you as a believer are to be guided by God’s Holy Word? Being united WITH Christ in your heart, soul, and mind, is it in the fabric of your redemption to “be being saved” by your devotion to His Holy Word? Is it possible that in your “wedding vows” with Christ you omitted “devoted to His Word and His will”?

Is it in you as it was with King David as he wrote in Psalm 25:4-5, “Show me Your ways, O Lord; teach me Your paths. Lead me in Your truth and teach me, for You are the God of my salvation; on You I wait all the day,” but you know nothing or little of the daily devotion of His Word to be personally taught day by day by the King of kings and Lord of lords?

“Your will be done” but you never daily yield yourself to discover His will, His ways, His directive word, but you settle in, “I’m saved; that’s all that I need to know?” I believe that I read in Psalm 25:12, “Who is the man who fears the Lord? Him shall He teach in the way that He chooses.” And God’s choice? Matthew 4:4, But He [Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, Promised Messiah, Lord of lords, King of kings!], answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” “God said…”, but that is not essential to your professed faith?

I would challenge you as you’re reading this to evaluate your “saving experience” in Christ if you are void of His Word! So-called “religious experiences” that never leads one to His “revelation” and a hunger to know His will and His Word absolutely frightens me! If one has been “born again”, I believe one of the evidences is “that we might KNOW the things that are freely given to us of God,” [1 Corinthians 2:12].

To his spiritual son, Timothy, Paul wrote in 2 Timothy 2:15, “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” I look upon God’s revelation of divine truth in both the Old and New Testaments as magnificent promises for maturing men and women, boys and girls, who have come to Him in true repentance and redemptive faith.

It was Peter who told us in 2 Peter 1:2-4, “Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that THROUGH THESE you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”

Tell me about your reception daily (in comparison to three square meals a day of physical bread!) through God’s Holy Word of His “exceedingly great and precious promises,” of your daily discovery and acquired knowledge of “the things freely given to us by God,” yes, and your appropriation of His truths that show YOU the “escaping [of] the corruption that is in the world through lust.”

Do you remember Abraham’s servant, sent by Abraham to find a bride for his son Isaac? In Genesis 24:48 the servant speaks: “And I bowed my head and worshipped the Lord, and blessed the Lord, and blessed the Lord God of my master Abraham, who had led me IN THE WAY OF TRUTH to take the daughter of my master’s brother for his son.” Thank God for His servants who are “led in the way of truth!”

In Mark 4 Jesus had been explaining His parables to the new disciples. Verses 33-34 tell us, “And with many such parables He spoke the word to them as they were able to hear it. But without a parable He did not speak to them. And when they were alone, He explained all things to His disciples.” [Have YOU asked Him to explain to YOU His Word?]. The very desire of Jesus for you right now is that you listen TO Jesus and LET HIM “explain all things in the Word to you” by the Holy Spirit who “guides us into all truth.” In John 16:13-14 our Lord told His disciples, “However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.” The Holy Spirit is Heaven’s personal “Tutor” in the Holy Word of God!!

But haven’t you heard it? “I don’t need a personal “Tutor” to teach me the Bible! I don’t accept the Bible as the authoritative Word of God – I’m smart enough in myself, in this world’s wisdom, – to sense there is no divine truth as there is no ‘heaven’ or ‘hell’ – find a brain-dead ‘christian’ and you’ll probably fool THEM – not me!” And if you haven’t learned it yet in your classrooms or from any university professors who see themselves as smarter than God Himself, they believe, by human interaction you will learn that the most harmful ‘curse’ in life’s spiritual realm is belief in God’s Holy Word when they believe ‘smart men’ are wiser in intellectual superiority, even personal pride, and superior to Jesus Himself who IS Emmanuel, “God in Flesh”!

Have you ever examined thoroughly Jesus’ passionate prayer in John 17 for you and for all mankind as He described “grace” as that which reveals Him, and then He UNVEILS “eternal life” by His “grace”? John 17:3 says, “And this is eternal life, that they may know You [God Himself], the only true God, AND Jesus Christ whom You sent.” Oh, and then in Verse 17 Jesus prayed, “Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.” Sancitfy? “Set them apart,” “save them, redeem them, declare them ‘holy’ by Your Word”!! As Josh MacDowell used to say of Jesus, as I’ve quoted before of Jesus: “Liar, lunatic, or the Lord God?”

But “void of the Word of God” men will, at least some, profess a mental knowledge of Him but never experience “victory in Him through His eternal Word”! Oswald Chambers wrote in his famous book, “My Utmost For His Highest,” []p.4], “Natural devotion may be all very well to attract us to Jesus, to make us feel His fascination, but it will never make us disciples. Natural devotion will always deny Jesus somewhere or other.” What did the Lord Jesus tell us in John 3:3-7?

Jesus answered and said to Nicodemus, “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 [that’s 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.’” All believers, true believers, born again believers, will face worldly and satanic opposition to their true faith, but Paul tells all unbelievers in Ephesians 6:10-19,

“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.”

Natural mankind poses fierce opposition to Jesus because , in their natural minds, are “void of the Word of God” and have no heavenly understanding. Even the early disciples like Philip had a hard time understanding who Jesus was and what He was about. Look at John 14:7-11! “If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him and have seen Him.”

Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works. Believe Me that I AM in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves.”

Natural mankind is void, opposed, and ‘willfully’ resists Biblical Truth that “the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin.” Natural mankind is highly opposed to Biblical Truth that says “obedience to Jesus is required: as evidence of a born-again life”, even when Jesus said in Matthew 7:21, “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.” In fact, in Luke 6:46, Jesus said: “But why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do the things which I say?” Obedience is not an option in the age of grace but is the evidence grace is at work in you finishing its work in you and through you!

We do know beyond a shadow of a doubt that not all of Israel was “lost” because of rejection of the coming of the Promised Messiah – there was a ‘remnant’! But Romans 10:21 says, But to Israel he says, “All day long I have stretched out My hands to a disobedient and contrary people.” And even as “Jews” there are those who lived in the “natural”, yes, fully opposed to “saved by grace”! Natural mankind are those who are “a disobedient and contrary people” who have no desire to live by the Life of Another, even by Emmanuel, “God in flesh”!!

Natural mankind does not “know” Father-God or the Son of God or the Holy Spirit, yes, the THREE IN ONE!! We ALL came into this world through “fallen Adam”, yes, “hiding from God, without hope in ourselves, or hope in each other” – we needed a miracle of God!

In John 17:25-26 Jesus prayed, “O righteous Father, THE WORLD HAS NOT KNOWN YOU, but I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me. And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the Love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.” Yes, Jesus prayed for YOU and ME that God’s love would capture our minds and hearts and wills, drawing us out of the land of darkness of unbelief to the “Promised Land” of heavenly living on earth through His Resurrection Life, Resurrection Power, and Resurrection Hope!

“Void of the Word of God”? I pray that you have not set aside the Epistle to the Hebrews! In Hebrews 1:1-3 we read, “God, who at various times and in various ways, spoke in times past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.”

But those who are “void of the Word of God,” “void of Christ Himself”, willfully shut the door to His saving grace and mercy and have no seat in the heavenly places! Read carefully Ephesians 2:4-7! “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), AND RAISED US UP TOGETHER, AND MADE US SIT TOGETHER IN THE HEAVENLY PLACES IN CHRIST JESUS, that in the ages to come “HE MIGHT SHOW” the exceeding riches in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”

“Void of the Word of God”? That’s those blinded by the world, the flesh, and the devil! It’s why in Galatians 6:7-8 Paul tells us: “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh [that’s his old sin nature, old man, First Adam] will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit [of God] will of the Spirit reap everlasting life.”

“Void of the Word of God”? Are you aware of the “stumblers”? Peter told us in 1 Peter 2:8, “…they stumble, being disobedient to the word, to which they also were appointed.” God Himself read their hearts and appointed them to their just reward, yes, because of a mental, willful, head and heart rejection of the Lord Jesus Christ!

I think it vitally important to have you read 1 Corinthians 1:18-31!! Receive it for yourself: “For the message [or word] of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

For it is written: ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.’ Where is the wise? Where is the scribe, Where is the disputer [debater] of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?

For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; But we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.

Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty;

And the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh [First Adam, old sin nature], should glory in His presence.

But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God – and righteousness and sanctification and redemption – that, as it is written, ‘He who glories, let him glory in the Lord.’” Foolishness of men ‘void of the Word’ OR victory through the Word because we “glory” only in the finished work of Christ “At The Cross” living a celebratory life because of His Resurrection from the dead?

How about for you an eternal shift by the grace of God to “Victory Through His Word”? In 1 John 5:4-5 John tells us: “For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And THIS IS THE VICTORY that overcomes the world – our faith. [Our trust in Christ, our relying upon Christ, our total dependence upon Christ through His shed blood, His death, His Resurrection, His Ascension, and His soon coming to celebrate with Him eternally!!]. Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?”

I’m forever sorry and broken that ‘religious’ people never see Jesus in heaven but only at the Judgment Seat as He tells them, “Depart from Me, you who work iniquity!!”

But “born of God”? Are you familiar with Galatians 1:15-16? “But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, to reveal His Son in me..” What an awesome revelation!

Do you remember what Jesus said in John 5:38-40? “But you do not have His word abiding in you, because whom He sent, Him you do not believe. You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.”

There are those who will “read” the Word without “resting” in its Author. There are professors of allegiance to the ‘paper’ of the Book but fail to possess its Author and His Resurrection Life, Power, and Hope! There are ‘historical verifiers’ without “blood-bought, redeemed hearts”! And certainly there are devoted legalists without the Person and heavenly love of the Lord.

The Holy Word tells us: 2 Timothy 3:14-17, “But you MUST continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.

All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

Have YOU been “made wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus alone”? What did Paul tell us in Romans 5:10? “For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be [“being”] saved by His life.” Have you forgotten or never learned, “justified by His blood”?

The author of Hebrews put it like this in Hebrews 9:11-14, “But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation.

Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh,

How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”

If your life is not a testimony of continuous rejoicing in God for His forgiveness and, yes, forgetfulness of your old sin nature and your pattern and participation in fleshly sins, I believe I would seriously examine what I “thought” was my salvation and what God Himself “says” it is!

Hebrews 10:12-14 tells us, “But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool.

For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.” Your sin became His “pain,” your pain became His suffering, His suffering became your freedom, and your freedom became the theme of your praise to your true Savior and Lord! So you take the sentence of death daily that the Resurrection Life of your Lord and Savior may be manifested in and through you for an unbelieving world to see and seek!

Have you forgotten, overlooked, or never seen Paul’s word to us in Galatians 5:24? “And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires,” so,…Verse 25, “If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.”

CHAPTER TWELVE

“VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED? EXPERIENCING THE POWER OF

THE PROMISED, PRECIOUS HOLY SPIRIT!”

It’s amazing to me that many write or speak or preach or teach about “evangelical spirituality” and totally ignore or try to refute the words of Jesus Himself about “wait for the promise of the Father,” which relates to the “anointing, endued with, filling, or baptism in the Holy Spirit.”

In no way do I ignore, make light of, or substitute “the Gospel of Christ which is the Power of God Unto Salvation,” for a “power” that pumps my “flesh.” But I do recognize in my ‘flesh’ an inability to fulfill the “good, acceptable, and perfect will of God” through my walk as a disciple in the best energy of my flesh without His Promise of Holy Spirit anointing and empowering!

If my Savior “fills All in All,” I hunger for the “ALL” filling me so that HIS ALL is fulfilled through me! If “wait” was among Jesus’ last words for His disciples then, I’m asking, is that “wait” relevant for NOW?

I know there is redemptive power in the Gospel of Christ, but I also know about a released power in the Holy Spirit given His rightful, reigning presence in your life and mine.

The question of Paul to the Ephesian followers in Acts 19 is urgent for today: “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” (Acts 19:2), And they responded in verse 3, “We have not so much as heard whether there is a Holy Spirit.”

I have no hesitation in saying to you that “the counterfeit of consecration” is a believer’s life lived independently of the awesome anointing of the Holy Spirit, evidenced by no true Godly freedom or fullness or “fire in my bones”!

Disciples with uninformed lives about the necessity of the Holy Spirit anointing never experience the unrivaled, unlimited power of God released through their lives.

In Galatians 3:3 Paul asked a vitally important question: “…Having begun in the Spirit (that’s “born of the Spirit” in the second birth), are you now being made perfect by the flesh?” Much of the ‘churchianity’ of today is a ‘cosmetic covering’ without the reality of Spirit-anointing and empowerment! Maybe, “a cheap imitation”?

Paul was so on target when in 2 Timothy 3:5 he spoke of “having a form of godliness but denying its power,” which is why Samuel Chadwick once wrote: “A religion of mere emotion and sensationalism is the most terrible of all curses that can come upon any people. The absence of reality is sad enough, but the aggravation of pretense is a deadly sin.”

Are we willing to settle for our impotence when there is the reality of His omnipotence? Are disciples of today content to stand at our Lord’s tomb or to walk through the doors of the power of Pentecost? Are we asleep on pillows of indifference or standing at the pillars of divine enabling? Are we “mesmerized spectators” or mounted on the wings of Holy Ghost anointing?

It was Isaiah who sadly said, (Isaiah 64:7), “And there is no one who calls on Your name, who stirs himself up to take hold of You…” God help us that we not be men and women who do not stir themselves up to take hold of His promised anointing, but that we be truly men and women God-graced, God-gripped, God-galvanized in the fullness of His Holy Spirit! How do we experience that power of His promised, precious Holy Spirit?

FIRST OF ALL, God’s Word is so very clear – HE IS NO RESPECTOR OF PERSONS! AND IF HE FILLS ONE, IT’S HIS DESIRE TO FILL ALL! Come to Acts 10:38! “…how God ANOINTED Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.”

Don’t you find it amazing that the Son of God who became the Son of Man, Emmanuel – “God in flesh” – received and experienced God’s anointing “with the Holy Spirit and with power”? And there’s a reason or explanation: In Philippians 2:7 Paul said Jesus “made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bond-servant, and coming in the likeness of men…” the NASB says “emptied Himself.”

John 17 explains the “emptying” so there could be in His life God’s FILLING! Verse 2, “no authority” – but God gave it to Him. Verse 5, “no glory” – but God glorified the Son. Verse 6, “no disciples” – but the Father gave Him His disciples. Verse 8, “no words” – but God gave Him the very words to speak.

In John 17:18 Jesus said, “As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.” Jesus chose to be totally dependent upon all the Father is so He could appropriate all the Father has! And by His example, we are to be dependent disciples anointed by the Father with the Holy Spirit and power just as Jesus was!

John 5:19 says, “Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do…” Verse 30 says the same thing, “I can of Myself do nothing!” But we believe we can? No, as the Father anointed Jesus, so He is to anoint us. RECEIVE THE ANOINTING!

SECOND, YOU BEGIN TO EXPERIENCE THAT POWER WHEN YOU CLEARLY UNDERSTAND, “IT IS THE WILL OF GOD!” Come to Ephesians 5:17-18. Receive! “Therefore do not be unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is, and do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation, BUT BE FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT.”

The Holy Spirit is the generating Spirit of Divine Life! In Romans 8:11 Paul wrote, “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.”

Flesh effort is a futile possibility of honoring our Lord through our walk, but Spirit-anointing, which is God’s will for each of us, fills us full of faith, fire, and power. It’s the will of God!

In his book, “Rent Heaven,” R.B. Jones wrote, “A few years ago a warm current called El Nina, which usually comes before Christmas, swept southward along the west coast of South America in greater volume than ever before. It brought with it torrential showers, which visited parts of South America which had not known rain since the year 1551. El Nina turned thousands of miles of desert into paradise in an incredibly short time, as it caused millions of hardy seeds which had lain dormant in the ground through decades of drought to sprout and grow with incredible vigor.”

And God’s will? It’s for a spiritual El Nina in your barren life, if it is, germinating divine seeds of Life through you “with incredible vigor.” IT’S THE WILL OF GOD!!

THIRD, EXPERIENCING GOD’S POWER COMES ALSO AS AN ANSWER TO INTERCESSORY OR PERSONAL PRAYERS! In Ephesians 3:16 Paul prayed, “that He would grant you, according to the riches of His grace, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man.”

Do you remember Jesus saying, “You have not because you ask not?” And sadly many walk in spiritual futility about dynamic service to our Lord because they are prayerless or have no one praying in their behalf. If it is the will of God that we be filled with the Holy Spirit, do we really believe if we pray to that end He’ll not answer? I don’t think so. PRAY TRUSTING, PRAY BELIEVING, PRAY REJOICING!

It was not only God’s will for Paul but for all disciples to know and experience the anointing. And Romans 15:29 says, Paul speaking, “But I know that when I come to you, I shall come in the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ.”

The Ephesian Christians hadn’t heard of the Holy Spirit, but Acts 19:6 tells us, “And when Paul laid hands on them (without praying? I don’t think so!), the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke with tongues and prophesied.”

FOURTH, THERE IS, YES, THE NECESSITY OF SHOWING UP FOR “THE FIGHT”! Look carefully with me at Galatians 5:16-17, and Verses 24-25!

Verses 16-17, “I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.”

And then Verses 24-25 tells us: “And those WHO ARE CHRIST’S HAVE CRUCIFIED THE FLESH WITH ITS PASSIONS AND DESIRES. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.”

Drew Bennett is a Presbyterian Pastor, Reformed, in Winter Haven, Florida. Drew used to travel with me to India, and on one occasion I remember him using ‘the Spirit and flesh’ as “two dogs in a fight.” Which one is stronger? And Drew said, “Feed one and starve the other.”

It is imperative that, if we walk in the fullness of God’s Spirit, it is because we’ve starved that doggish ‘flesh’ spirit that wants to dominate. And to be gut-level honest, I don’t believe there is a true “Spirit-filled life,” even if one speaks in tongues, while at the same time that one walks with an unbridled flesh life, professing without possessing “the fruit of the Spirit”!

In Romans 8:12-14 we read, “Therefore, brethren, we are debtors – not to the flesh (old sin nature!), to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are sons of God.”

Let’s reverse those last three Verses. “Who Are The Sons Of God? 1) They are those led by the Spirit of God! 2) They are putting to death, by the Spirit, the deeds of the body or ‘flesh’! 3) And, they understand no debt to their old sin natures and long for the Holy Life of the Spirit and its fullness in them!

FIFTH, WE EXPERIENCE THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT AS, IN TUNE WITH CHRIST, WE RESIST TEMPTATION AND REFUSE TO ENTERTAIN SATAN! Luke 4:1-14 is so vital to our understanding of this Victorious, Spirit-Anointed Walk! [Patience, please!]:

Then Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, being tempted for forty days by the devil. And in those days He ate nothing, and afterward, when they were ended, He was hungry.

And the devil said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” But Jesus answered him, saying, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.’”

Then the devil, taking Him up on a high mountain, showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said to Him, “All this authority I will give You, and their glory; for this has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. Therefore, if You will worship before me, all will be Yours.”

And Jesus answered and said to him, “Get behind Me, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.’”

Then he brought Him to Jerusalem, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down from here. For it is written: “He shall give His angels charge over You, to keep You,” and, “In their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone.’”

And Jesus answered and said to him, “It has been said, ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God.’” Now when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from Him until an opportune time.

THEN Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and news of Him went out through the surrounding region.”

If you look at Verse 22 of Luke 3, after Jesus’ baptism, “the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon Jesus…!!” Chapter 4, Verse 1 says, “Then Jesus filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, Verse 2, being tempted by the devil for forty days.”

Was that a test God allowed in the life of His Son? We are all tested – and we are all tempted! But Jesus resisted! Hebrews 4:15 says of Jesus, “…in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.” Then Hebrews 4:16 follows, “LET US therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.”

Grace to help? That’s the Holy Spirit! Now, come back to Luke 4:13-14, “Now when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from Him until a more opportune time…THEN (when?) Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit t6o Galilee…”

I have no reservation in saying to you His resistance brought a mighty release of power in Jesus’ walk and ministry! Though filled with the eternal reservoir of Holy Ghost power, the release came because He refused to entertain Satan’s temptation, choosing to honor His Father!

Do you know my concern for believers and their relationship to the Holy Spirit? They want, some of them, to be “zapped” in an instant when God wants them to zero in on one’s resistance to temptation! Some want a “quick-fix” without an eternal qualified fight! They want an easy path when it’s experience and expression of precious privilege through the “bloody battles” against our Enemy who wants to lead us back into black darkness and bondage. “Resist the devil and he will flee from you,” and as you resist a river, a wind, a fire breaks out from within your inner man!! Which leads us to the sixth truth about experiencing the explosive power of the promised, precious Holy Spirit!

SIXTH, IT COMES BECAUSE OF OUR UNWAVERING UNDERSTANDING THAT WE CANNOT WIN THE WAR AGAINST THE POWER OF DARKNESS APART FROM SPIRIT-ANOINTING! Matthew 12:28 are words from Jesus! Listen! “But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you.” Do you have a problem with that Verse? If so, it is because you have omitted in your training as a disciple understanding about the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of darkness. “Vital Awareness Unveiled?”

If it’s a problem it’s because someone blinded you to the gracious, merciful activity of God’s Kingdom. In Luke 9:1-2 Jesus “called His twelve disciples together and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases He sent them to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.” [Many preach that the ‘kingdom of God’ is future, unaware or decidedly indifferent to what He said!]. And if you’ve been taught that ended with the early apostles, then you bought into as great a deception as [ ], which has hindered the effective, eternal ministry of Christ Jesus!

We know that Satan was cast down from heaven and that he deceives the whole world, but our Lord said that He has no desire for His people to be caught up in that deception but to deliver people from it. Fighting the good fight of faith surely includes setting people free from demonic control and even setting them free from the blindness of spiritual warfare, as if there were none!

Holy Spirit anointing? Jesus tells us it is an unceasing, undying, passionate hunger for the third person of the Holy Trinity having His way in us! In John 7:37-39 we read, “On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out saying, ‘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…But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive: for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.”

And check out the verbs! “Present tense verbs” which meant in the original Greek, present tense, continuous Action. I thirst and keep on thirsting; I come and keep on coming; I drink and keep on drinking; I believe and keep on believing! And the result? “Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water – but He was speaking of the overflow of the Holy Spirit!!”

Are you hearing “process” in that? Are you hearing “passion” in that for more than you’ve experienced? Are you hearing “hunger” for the “much more” of a vibrant, victorious faith? Romans 15:13 says, “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.”

But a sad word when Paul had to say to the church at Corinth, (2 Corinthians 6:12), “you are restrained by your own affections.” Restrained or released to the fullness? Hindered or helped by divine power? Restricted or fully active in the rivers of living water?

SEVENTH, ARE YOU COMMITTED TO EXPERIENCING THE POWER BY THE FAITHFULNESS OF “TARRYING” AND “WAITING” UNTIL THE FIRE OF ANOINTING FALLS? Luke 24:49 says, “Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem UNTIL you are endued with power from on high.”

What was Jesus saying? There is nothing more important in a disciple’s life after conversion than welcoming, experiencing, and celebrating God’s power! Nothing should distract! Nothing should become a substitute for the Savior’s Spirit- Anointing! Nothing should divert our attention away from “the rushing, mighty” wind of Holy Spirit endowment! That’s every true believer’s inheritance!

I so love how John the Baptist put it in Matthew 3:11, “I indeed…but He!” Look at it in your Bible! Sit until it sinks in!

“I indeed” can give you a taste! “But He..will give you the tool!” “I indeed” can accomplish a few things for you – “BUT HE…fulfills everything in you!”

Would you pray, “Holy Spirit, Come, in me, through me, to bear strong witness for my Lord and Savior! Anoint ME with those ‘rivers of living water’ so that flowing in and through me is truly a Godly witness of ‘saving grace’. You are our Lord’s promised empowerment and powerful anointing. I settle for nothing less than Your marvelous testimony of Christ through me! Give us Your song of praise of Christ the Redeemer! Amen!!

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

“VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED? WORLD PHILOSOPHERS OR WILLFUL PROMOTION BY GOD?”

It’s shocking that, even for some, a person like me, former pastor for many years and missionary to India mainly but also other countries in the Asian area, would have any reservation about ‘world philosophers’, revealing to them my brain limitation!

But there’s an interesting couple of verses for YOU to examine as you look at Psalm 75:6-7 where the psalmist, Spirit-inspired, said: “For promotion comes neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south. But God is the judge; He puts down one, and sets up another.”

In Psalm 147:6 it speaks of God’s Word AND His providence: “The Lord lifts up the humble; He casts down the wicked to the ground.” All world philosophers are not “wicked”, but the majority are “too smart in themselves” to ever see God as necessary in their lives!

Didn’t Paul tell us over 2000 years ago, in Colossians 2:8, “Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ,”?

Acts 17:16-21 is about philosophical “new things” in opposition to the Eternal Truths of God. Follow it: Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit provoked him when he saw that the city was given over to idols.

Therefore he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and with the Gentile worshippers, and in the marketplace daily with those who happened to be there.

Then certain Epicurean and Stoic philosophers encountered him. And some said, “What does this babbler say?” Others said, “He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign gods,” because he preached to them Jesus and the resurrection.

And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new doctrine is of which you speak? For you are bringing some strange things to our ears. Therefore we want to know what these things mean.”

For all the Athenians and the foreigners who were there spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or hear some new thing.

And if you follow it carefully, you’ll discern that ‘world philosophies’ are devotion to “wise things” that really have nothing to do with the heart – it’s all mental, and divorced from the spiritual nature of fallen men!

Participants in world culture of which we all are a part does not mean we deny Him but affirm, surrender, and yield to our Lord and Savior who IS the King of kings and Lord of lords! It doesn’t mean we’re “not at home” unless we sell our souls as the majority of the world, but we recognize our “worldly home” is in need of God’s grace, mercy, and love.

World philosophers or willful promotion by God Himself?!? Read carefully Oswald Chambers in his writing, “My Utmost For His Highest,” [pps.175-176]. “Beware of not acting upon what you see in your moments on the mount of God. If you don’t obey the light, it will turn into darkness. ‘If therefore the light that is in you be darkness, how great is the darkness!’ The second you waive the question of sanctification [it means: “set apart to the glory of God only”!] or any other thing upon which God gives you light, you begin to get dry rot in your spiritual life. Continually bring the truth out into actuality; work it out in every domain, or the very light you have will prove a curse…The most difficult person to deal with is the one who has the smug satisfaction of an experience to which he can refer back, but who is not working it out in practical life. If you “say” you are sanctified, “show it.”…Beware of any belief that makes you self-indulgent”! What’s that? ‘What pleases me and doesn’t line up with the Spirit of God who sacrificed His all!

World ‘philosophers’ are so adept at convincing people that belief, trust, repentance and faith in Holy God is so unnecessary for the ‘smart folk’ – yet the educated crowd can center their lives in the darkest darkness and call it ‘light’!

It doesn’t take long to discover the worldly, self-righteous individual, or the ‘professor’ of self-satisfaction – and if you stay around them very long you sense a spirit of discontent with all they know and an uncertainty of mind as unbelief always brings on fractures in what they really think.

So often when the Holy Word and the convicting Holy Spirit is shared with a world philosopher, you’ll see and sense degrees of dismay in many because they’re on the threshold of discovering their lost condition and separation from God!

In life as a believer, transformed by the mercy and grace and love of God, aren’t you shocked at times when you see the worldly crowd comfortably seated at a worldly table, easily laughing at any worldly, trashy, dirty joke, when in the innermost heart is a person at war with Holy God, embittered by their own set of circumstances, AND WILL NOT LOOK UP TO THE CARING THRONE OF GOD AS THE GOD OF CALVARY’S CROSS?!?

Psalm 4:2 says, “How long, O you sons of men, will you turn My glory to shame? How long will you love worthlessness and seek falsehood?” You realize there are “sons of men” and there are “sons of God”! You understand that there are those whose hearts are cemented in ‘earthly, fleshly, trashy values’ that are worthless in comparison to the heavenly treasures that increase in worth and blessing and value and true enrichment more and more!

In 2 Corinthians 4:1-4 Paul lifts the worldly veil that blinds or hinders true spiritual understanding of the gospel of Christ. He wrote: “Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we do not lose heart.

But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.

But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.”

And that will break your heart, if it hasn’t already, because there are those whom you know whose hearts are ‘veiled’ to truth and whose minds are ‘blinded’ by the god of this age – they at least feel comfortable in their spiritual state of lost-ness because they are not alone; tragically, they’re blinded to the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, not knowing they reflect the darkness of the devil himself!

“World philosophers”? It was Paul in Colossians 3:2 who said, “Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.” And because you received the death of Christ and your crucifixion with Him, and you died with the result that your life is now hidden with Christ IN GOD, Verse 5, “therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.”

An ‘idol worshipper’? That’s the worldly ‘dude’ who has saved his life for himself because he loves the sinful world and all that it offers, not God! I know that you are not totally ‘brain-dead’ because you look at our world today and you witness ‘civilization catastrophes’ that grow more corrupt and, yes, ‘sinful’ world-wide!

“World philosophers” certainly major on ‘riches’ any way they can get it! But they are void of understanding about what ‘great gain’ is all about. In 1 Timothy 6:6-10 Paul advised his spiritual son, saying: “Now godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.

And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition.

For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.” When did that change?

I believe when the author of Proverbs 14:24 spoke of “the crown of the wise”, he certainly was not speaking of “the crown of life” or “the crown of glory” because wisdom apart from God’s wisdom and revelations is a false righteousness that does not lead to repentance and true redemptive faith. It says: “The crown of the wise is their riches, but the foolishness of fools is folly.”

In Proverbs 1:28-33 the ‘wise-man’, inspired by God Himself, gives us ALL a word of warning: “Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me: For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord. They would [have] none of my counsel; they despised all my reproof. Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices. For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them. But whoso hearkens unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil.”

“World Philosophers or Willful Promotion by God?” Oh, I tell you, God’s Word is so rich and man’s worldly philosophies are so bankrupt! Proverbs 3:5-6 tells us, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart; and lean not unto your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.” Led by the world or led by God Himself?

What did Paul say in 2 Corinthians 4:3-5? “But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age [the devil] has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them. For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus’ sake.”

Willful promotion by God? Bound in the flesh to the world philosophies, ideals, earthly gains, human pride in self-effort, but freed in Christ to divine life, eternal principles, heavenly blessings, holy privilege in sharing God’s faithful provisions, joy in the Lord forever not fleshly happiness, and a crown of glory and rejoicing that does not fade away, with an eternal family under the Fatherhood of God and His Sovereignty!

Willful promotion by God? We’re no longer “slaves of Satan” bound in satanic chains – in Christ we’re “sons and daughters of God” in the Heavenly Family! We’re no longer ‘flavorless’ but we’re the salt of the earth! We’re no longer ‘darkness’ – we’re light in the Lord! We’re no longer empty in the inner man, but filled with the Holy Presence of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit!

We’re no longer of the unrighteous descendants but men and women who through repentance toward God and faith in the finished work of Christ at the Cross have been declared righteous in the very righteousness of God imparted and implanted in our washed vessel of trust in Him! We’re not the “happy hour” crowd – we’re the eternally blessed members of the Royal Family of God! Our identity is no longer slaves of Satan, but now the very children of Holy God! We’re not ‘impersonaters’ of our Lord and Savior, but possessors of His Resurrection Life, “vessels of the Victor”!

We’re not distant stars blinking in the darkened nights of men’s souls but “lights” on a hill that cannot be hidden.

Robert Browning, in “Paracelsus”, wrote: “If I stoop, into a dark tremendous sea of cloud, it is but for a time; I press God’s lamp close to my breast; its splendor soon or late Will pierce the gloom; I shall emerge one day.” And even when destiny brings us temporarily to a “dark tremendous sea of cloud,” WE WILL EMERGE BRIGHTER THAN EVER BEFORE!

We’re sons and daughters of God’s eternal faith family, and though doubt, at times, will try to rob us of light’s glow and meaning, and even when I find myself in my darkest moment as a follower, I choose to rest in Him!

I found it so interesting that the agnostic or atheist, Robert Ingersoll, at his brother’s funeral, spoke and said: “From the voiceless lips of the unreplying dead there comes no word. But in the night of Death, Hope sees a star, [but for him it was not the Bright and Morning Star whose names is Jesus Christ!] and listening Love can hear the rustle of a wing.” Oh, that somehow Browning learned of the Love of God, but I doubt that he ever did!

If God gave you “existence”, did He do so apart from eternal purpose? Of course not! His one beckoning call is, “Be reconciled to God,” and in that ministry of reconciliation, the blood of Christ Jesus takes center-stage, first place, the only door through which we can walk into the Holy Presence of God! It’s why in Matthew 5:8 Jesus said: “Blessed are the pure in heart; for they shall see God.”

It was Thomas a’ Kempis who said: “Simplicity reaches out after God; purity discovers and enjoys Him.”

I so appreciate Noah Webster’s description of ‘providence’ in his 1828 Dictionary. He said: “Providence – in theology the care and superintendence which God exercises over His creatures. He that acknowledges a creation and denies a ‘providence’, involves himself in a palpable contradiction; for the same power which caused a thing to exist is necessary to continue its existence…By divine providence is often understood God Himself.”

The God who made you, is He unable to save, sustain, and complete you to His good pleasure as it relates to YOUR eternal design and destiny? In Romans 3:24-26 God’s Holy Word tells us: “being JUSTIFIED FREELY by His grace through the resurrection that is in Christ Jesus; Whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God has passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”

Thank God for Chambers’ insight! Listen to what he wrote in “My Utmost For His Highest”: [p.247], “The Gospel of the grace of God awakens an intense longing in human souls and an equally intense resentment, because the revelation which it brings is not palatable. There is a certain pride in man that will give and give, but to come and accept is another thing. I will give my life to martyrdom, I will give myself in consecration, I will do anything, but do not humiliate me to the level of the most hell-deserving sinner and tell me that all I have to do is to accept the gift of salvation through Jesus Christ.” BUT THAT’S IT! IT’S ALL OF HIM and not us in the matter of our redemption, our re-birth, and our reconciliation!

He said a few sentences later, “He can do nothing for us if we think we are sufficient of ourselves, we have to enter His Kingdom through the door of destitution.” WOW!

Oh, I’m telling you: Jesus is to every repentant believer the complete and whole treasury of God!

Remember – we’re looking at “World Philosophy OR Willful Promotion By God”!! And when “world philosophy” begins to surface strongly and willful promotion by God takes a backseat, you begin to sense a sad decaying of true faith, an allegiance to the flesh [your old sin nature – so anything goes!], even church attendance by many who have no intention of denying self and taking up His Cross [and our own], and suddenly the Word of God is set aside, truth is left outdoors, and doubt about the veracity of God’s Holy Word takes over the pulpit and the classroom!

Philosophy may give you a few insights, but Christ Jesus births “new men”! It was the German theologian, Soren Kierkegaard, who said: “Not until man has become so utterly unhappy, or has grasped the woefulness of life so deeply that he is moved to say, and mean it: LIFE HAS NO VALUE FOR ME – NOT TILL THEN IS HE ABLE TO MAKE A BID FOR CHRISTIANITY.”

AND ALMIGHTY, HOLY, WISE, LOVING, CARING GOD STEPS UP TO REVEAL HIS UNCHANGING LOVE AND MATCHLESS MERCY TO WOUNDED HUMANITY BY OUR SELF-INFLICTED SIN NATURES!

John 3:14-18 illumines Heaven on earth! “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,

That whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.

He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”

Paul built out of the Cross of Christ and His Resurrection eternal truth! Look at Romans 5:6-11!! “For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die.

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For is when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be [being] saved by His life.

And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.”

There’s an old hymn entitled “Grace Greater than Our Sin.” It says: “Marvelous grace of our loving Lord, Grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt. Yonder on Calvary’s mount outpoured, There where the blood of the Lamb was spilled.

Sin and despair, like the sea waves cold, Threaten the soul with infinite loss; Grace that is greater, yes, grace untold, Points to the refuge, the mighty cross.

Dark is the stain that we cannot hide. What can we do to wash it away? Look! There is flowing a crimson tide, Brighter than snow you may be today.

Marvelous, infinite, matchless grace, Freely bestowed on all who believe! You that are longing to see His face, Will you this moment His grace receive?

Grace, grace, God’s grace, Grace that will pardon and cleanse within, Grace, grace, God’s grace, Grace that is greater than all our sin.”

World philosophers OR WILLFUL PROMOTION BY GOD? It’s your choice!

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

“VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED? CONFLICTING LOYALTY OR ALL- CONSUMING LOVE?”

Conflicting Loyalty? Is that saying one thing but doing another? Is that the demonstration of divided allegiance? Is that the picture vividly being painted on one’s life-canvas of one foot in heaven and the other foot touching the outer limits of hell itself?

Conflicting Loyalty? Is that “Yes, Sir,” to the General or “Do as I please” to the corp, [or better said: to the ‘core’!]? Is that public dedication to be honorable and godly to the vows you make to your wife to be, and then feel you’re at liberty to play the field of available women?

Conflicting Loyalty? Is that a vow of dedication to be honest in your school or university exams but you determine the best way to cheat on your exams?

Conflicting Loyalty? Is that a president’s public oath to defend, protect, uphold his nation’s constitution but daily, verbally, and in deeds, shreds every page he can, and inflame disobedience, irreverence, and destruction of a nation’s founding fathers’ intent?

Conflicting Loyalty? You’ve heard it! “Yes, I believe the Bible is divinely inspired, God-breathed, Holy Word, but I also believe my devotion to it is our option we hold for ourselves!”

Conflicting Loyalty? “Oh, yes! One man – one woman for life,” but then voices support of men with men and women for women in gross violation of God’s Holy Word – and the sad thing is public support of immorality increases!

Conflicting Loyalty? “I’m a devoted kind of guy – He [God] can count on me,” but stumbles, falls, rebels, on the first lap with no intention of getting up! Conflicting Loyalty? You’ve seen him/her so consumed by worldly ambition that the Kingdom of God is squeezed out by an undaunted intent of “making a name for myself”, and glorifying the Lord takes a back seat!

Conflicting Loyalty? “The high cost of following Jesus? I thought this was a free ride, but I’ll do what I feel at ease to do, as it pleases me.”

Conflicting Loyalty? Many professing disciples become totally disillusioned, disappointed, even despairing because they believed they were called to ‘give your best’ – they do, then get a failing grade because discipleship has nothing to do with ‘our best’ but His best – the sacrifice of His life once for all for us all! Denying ‘self’ for some is asking way too much!

Conflicting Loyalty? “I will uphold my devotion to Christ and be a staunch warrior defending the faith,” but after several skirmishes, peer pressure, or procrastination, it takes a damaging toll!

Do you remember the son born blind and healed by Jesus? The Pharisees came to his parents: “We don’t know how – ask him – he’s of age to answer for himself!” And John 9:22 says: “His parents said these things because they feared the Jews.” They didn’t want to be put out of the synagogue!

Conflicting Loyalty? You’ll remember that Jesus said: “Whosoever does not bear his cross and come after Me, cannot be My disciple.” There are those “who want to” but the price appears extremely steep! Spurgeon once said, “A life in which we have shunned the Cross of Christ will lead to a state in which we shall miss the crown of glory.”

Conflicting Loyalty? In relationships between man to man, sometimes compromise has benefits, but to seek to “compromise” God’s revealed Truth breeds disaster! To compromise our Lord’s commands is to acknowledge disobedience and to stand under God’s judgment. To compromise is to decay obedience and to bring on a deterioration of morals. To compromise is to vacate privilege. To compromise is to willingly slice off those parts on “unpleasant truths” that you sense “don’t fit my personality and make-up of who I know I am”!

Conflicting Loyalty? Spurgeon, in his “Spurgeon’s Sermons,” [Memorial Library, Vol.19, p.359], has a message entitled “No Compromise.” He said: “The new plan is to assimilate the church to the world, and so include a larger area within its bounds. By semi-dramatic performances they make houses of prayer to approximate the theatre; they turn their services into musical displays, and their sermons into political harangues or philosophical essays – in fact, they exchange the temple for the theatre, and turn the ministers of God into actors, whose business it is to amuse men. Is it not so, that the Lord’s day is becoming more and more a day of recreation or of idleness, and the Lord’s house either a joss-house full of idols, or a political club, where there is more enthusiasm for a party than zeal for God.” And, I say, “Lord, help us!!”

Conflicting Loyalty? How many people have crossed your paths “in church” who are more at ease with church as a combat zone than a celebration of Jesus? Divisiveness is their strong “suit”, opposition their true bonnet they wear regularly, commitment to their way fighting the pastor and God’s true people to the death in one bitter struggle after another! Proverbs 21:2 says, “All a man’s ways seem right to him, but the Lord weighs the heart.”

Conflicting Loyalty? Oh, they play the religious game as “one cool dude,” calloused to the core, with willingly closed eyes to anything but their way or the highway! [Proverbs 23:7].

Conflicting Loyalty? You’ve witnessed it: Intellectual attainments in one’s mind of their understanding of the Bible, God’s Holy Word, often becoming nothing more than crippling beliefs! “Thus says the Lord” is translated: “As I see it…!”

Conflicting Loyalty? Effort apart from transformation by repentance toward God and faith in the finished work of Christ at the Cross creates despair, not deliverance and healing and salvation!

Conflicting Loyalty? A change in outward behavior is not the spiritual circumcision of the heart! Romans 2:28-29 tells us: “For he is not a [true] Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; but he is a [true] Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter, whose praise is not from men but from God.”

Conflicting Loyalty? Reaching up, reaching high, is not the same as being raised from the dead by God’s power! Look at 1 Corinthians 15:14, 17! Verse 14, “And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is empty.” Oh, and then Verse 17 tells us, “And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.” WOW!

Conflicting Loyalty? Sinful natures are not cloaked with religious garments, religious conversations, or religious activities, but “crucified with Christ”! Galatians 2:20 is “confirmed eternal love”! “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”

Conflicting Loyalty? “I’m a man so devoted to the costly bricks and mortar, the lights and stained glass, of our beautiful church,” failing to understand HIS body is God’s holy temple because of His grace, mercy, and love! Examine 1 Corinthians 6:19 says, “Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?” Then 1 Corinthians 3:16 declares, “DO YOU NOT KNOW THAT YOU ARE THE TEMPLE OF GOD AND THAT THE SPIRIT OF GOD DWELLS IN YOU?” Unless you’re dominated by ‘conflicting loyalties’ desiring to direct your own spiritual journey on your own terms!

Conflicting Loyalty? “Discipline and self-determination are the marks of an award-winning follower of Christ.” NO! The mark of a true disciple is one “set apart by God Himself,” sanctified, meet for the Master’s use!

Conflicting Loyalty? “Fig leaves,” fashionable sophistication, proper outward attire, educated common sense, band-aids rather than heart transplants, a manly ticker-tape parade with myself on my terms, Ali’s style: “Superman don’t need no seat-belt”! Look at Matthew 13:15!

“For the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, SO THAT I SHOULD HEAL THEM.” But aren’t you aware of the “self-healers” who have no need of the Great Physician?

Conflicting Loyalty? I love what John Eldridge said in his book, “Waking The Dead” – so on target! [p.161], “Religion and its defenders have always been the most insidious enemy of the true faith precisely because they are not glaring opponents; they are IMPOSTORS.” Insidious? Noah Webster’s 1828 Dictionary defines “insidious” as: “lying in wait; watching for an opportunity to ensnare or entrap; deceitful, treacherous…”

Conflicting Loyalty? It’s not ‘fate’ but faith, fellowship, freedom, and a fight! Personal fate is out to steal God’s glory! Anarchy becomes a substitution for the Atonement! T.S. Eliot sorrowfully lamented: “Endless invention, endless experiment, brings knowledge of motion, but not of stillness; knowledge of speech, but not of silence; knowledge of words, and ignorance of the Word. Where is the Life we have lost in living? Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?” [Out of “Choruses from the Rock.”].

Conflicting Loyalty? Have you chosen the sanctified life or the starving life because to be without Christ as Savior and Lord, to be without the Bread of Life is to shrink, starve, and be shriveled up! Jesus said, “I have come that you might have LIFE and have it more abundantly!”

Conflicting Loyalty? “Temptation is not a trap – it’s an opportunity of discerning what I really want or not.” Oh, really? James 1:13-15 tells us: “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am tempted by God’; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted WHEN he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.”

Conflicting Loyalty? “Pressure, pressure, pressure! This job is so demanding – I’m going to have to ‘cut corners’ somewhere, somehow, someway, even if it’s wrong!” Hudson Taylor had difficult trials he had to face up to – he wrote out of that hard moment: “It doesn’t matter how great the pressure is. What really matters is WHERE THE PRESSURE LIES – whether it comes between you and God or whether it presses you nearer His heart.” Never let pressure to cause you to look away from or pass by the PRESENCE OF CHRIST JESUS HIMSELF!

Conflicting Loyalty? That’s when courage is called for but one allows cowardice to call the shots! No doubt this is why the famous Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn wrote in “East and West,” [New York, Harper & Row, 1980, p.45], “Must one point out that from ancient times a decline in courage has been considered the beginning of the end.”

Conflicting Loyalty? It was Martin Luther who once said: “The ultimate proof of the sinner is that he does not know his own sin.” Please read carefully from Jerry Falwell’s “25 of the Greatest Sermons Ever Preached,” [Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, p.18], a quote of George Whitefield from his famous message, “The Method of Grace,” based on Jeremiah 6:14! Whitefield said: “As God can send a nation or people no greater blessing than to give them faithful, sincere and upright ministers, so the greatest curse that God can possibly send upon a people in this world is to give them over to blind, unregenerate, carnal, lukewarm, and unskilled guides. And yet, in all ages, we find that there have been many wolves in sheep’s clothing…that prophesied smoother things than God did allow.”

In Niccolo Machiavelli’s, “The Prince,” [New York; BANTAM, 1966, p.63], he wrote: “Men are so simple and so much inclined to obey immediate needs that a deceiver will never lack victims for his deceptions.” WOW!!

Conflicting Loyalty? I was reading recently Dr. James Kennedy’s and Jerry Newcombe’s book, “Cross Purposes,” [Multonomal Publi., 2007, pps. 25-26]. “When I was in seminary, I went to a jail to preach the gospel to those who were locked up inside. I had never been to a place like that to preach, and I must say I was a little unnerved by it. I was sent into a big room where I was separated by bars from probably a dozen prisoners. As they were milling around, I started to talk to them. I probably hadn’t gotten two minutes into my talk when one of the largest inmates suddenly came at the bars (which I was happy were there at that point) and said to me, “Mister, you just go tell that God of yours all I want from Him is what I deserve!” “Sir,” I replied, “if you got what you deserved from God, the floor would open up right where you stand and drop you straight into hell, for that is precisely what you deserve. I don’t say that because you’re behind these bars while I’m outside them, because that is what we all deserve. If we got our just deserts, we would each and every one be condemned – because, you see, we’re actually already condemned. Christ said of the whole human race, “You are condemned already.” [John 3:18-19!].

Let me “shift gears”! I pray “conflicting loyalty never becomes the life-long pattern of your life, but that “by Faith” you appropriate our Lord’s “All-Consuming Love”! The Scripture I feel so led by our Lord to share with you here is Romans 8:35-39 where Paul wrote: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: ‘For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.’ YET IN ALL THESE THINGS WE ARE MORE THAN CONQUERORS THROUGH HIM WHO LOVED US. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

I don’t know how you read the above passage, but the one thing I’m sure of is the fact there are those who would like to “separate” you from Christ Jesus! “The love of Christ” is an offense to Satan and the powers of darkness; “the love of Christ” is a stumbling block to those who would be reconciled on their own terms; “the love of Christ” becomes contemptible to some because they don’t receive God in Christ Who FIRST “loved us;” “the love of Christ” separates some because, they believe, relationship to Holy God is merited, earned, rewarded by what THEY DO – not what CHRIST HAS DONE ONCE FOR ALL AT THE CROSS!; “the love Of Christ infuriates some because “my behavior should be recognized by God rewarding me because of my undaunted radiance – I shine brighter than even Jesus who was called ‘the light of the world’.”

Love for God is not manufactured in a fallen man’s heart or mind! It’s why John wrote in 1 John 4:19, “We love Him because He first loved us.”

There has never been a man, woman, boy, or girl, inclined to love God and be His follower and devoted servant. The darkness of one’s being has never produced ‘new life’ but only His amazing love transforms our darkness into His Life and Light and Liberty and Love! It is so very, very clear throughout all the Word of God that any man who does not passionately love God has never truly known Him or been ‘birthed’ into a family of faith relationships!

And if we have been ‘birthed’ into a family of faith relationship, does that mean our ‘LIFE-STYLE’ is unconditional love of others? In 1 John 4:10-11 we read: “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought [“must”] to love one another.”

Spurgeon was a very bold, brave, brilliant preacher and student of God’s Holy Word. In his ninth volume of “Spurgeon’s Sermons, [Memorial Library, pps.307-308] he wrote: “Now no man is a Christian who does not love Christians. He, who, being in the church, is yet not of it heart and soul, is but an intruder in the family. But since love to our brethren springs out of love to our one common Father, it is plain that we must have love to the Father, or else we shall fail in one of the indispensable marks of the children of God: “We know that we have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren;” but we cannot truly love the brethren unless we [do] love the Father; therefore, lacking love to God, we lack love to the church, which is an essential mark of grace.”

There are two verses in John 1 that we need to put together!! John 1:14 says, “And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen His glory, the glory of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.” Then John 1:18 says, “No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made Him known.”

Do you see it? THE WORD [Emmanuel, ‘God in Flesh’] became flesh! And the God mankind had never known became clearly visible! All of a sudden, flashing before us like ten million rays of the sun is Christ Jesus: GOD IS LIGHT! GOD IS LOVE! GOD IS LIBERTY! GOD LIFTS US OUT OF DESPAIR TO A THRONE OF GRACE, MERCY, AND LOVE!

Didn’t Paul tell us through his Colossians letter: “He [Jesus] is the image of the invisible God.” [Colossians 1:15], and then Colossians 1:22 says: “For in Him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.”

“Wondrous Love, so full of Life, Wondrous Love stripping strife, Wondrous Love to us is given, Wondrous Love transports to Heaven. Wondrous Love, there rings the Bell, Wondrous Love delivered from hell. Wondrous Love, Jesus came To show God, Jesus, and the Spirit the Same. Wondrous Love, Jesus came To set us free, No longer a captive of Satan to be. Wondrous Love, God’s Son was groaning, Because of His Love from sin atoning.” [JFF].

Paul said in Romans 5:8, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners CHRIST DIED FOR US.” What an awesome revelation! The word ‘demonstrates’ is from a Greek word meaning “to commend, establish, stood near, consists “ – or “holds together”! In Ephesians 4 Paul had been talking about “the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ,” Verse 12, and then said in Verse 15, “but speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head – Christ – Verse 16, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.”

HOW DO WE RATIONALLY, FAITHFULLY, PRACTICALLY, put all this together to honor God’s faithfulness to us?

• GOD HIMSELF PROVES, COMMENDED, DEMONSTRATED HIS LOVE TOWARD ALL MEN! What does John 3:16 tell us? “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
• GOD KNEW, UNDERSTOOD, GRASPED THE SORROWFUL TRUTH THAT MAN’S SIN BROUGHT SEPARATION FROM HIM! I don’t know who wrote it, but they surely understood sin’s consequences – “Sin is man’s declaration of independence from God.” It was John Bunyan in “The Pilgrim’s Progress” who wrote: “One leak will sink a ship; and one sin will destroy a sinner,” and God’s intent is to resurrect the dead, destroyed sinners who have been separated from His eternal love.”
• GOD SOVEREIGNLY DETERMINED ONLY A SINLESS SACRIFICE WAS SUFFICIENT, SUPREMELY EFFECTIVE, TO SAVE SINFUL MAN FROM HIS SIN AND RECONCILE HIM TO HOLY GOD!

Romans 6:23 is clear! “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life IN Christ Jesus our Lord.” Paul had told the church at Rome, and us, in Romans 5:21, “so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Oh, then Paul really dispelled the phoniness of some modern-day teachings that ‘Christians can’t do anything but sin until they get to heaven! Roman 6:1-3, 10 says:

“What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?

Verse 10, “For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.”

Oh, please read, contemplate, receive, stand on Oswald Chambers’ words concerning Romans 5:10 which says: “For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be [being] saved by His life.” He then wrote: [“My Utmost For His Highest,” pps.223-224], “The salvation of God does not stand on human logic, it stands on the sacrificial Death of Jesus. We can be born again because of the Atonement of our Lord. Sinful men and sinful women can be changed into new creatures, not by their repentance or their belief, but by the marvelous work of God in Christ Jesus which is prior to all experience. The impregnable safety of justification and sanctification is God Himself. We have not to work out these things ourselves; they have been worked out by the Atonement. The supernatural becomes natural by the miracle of God; there is the realization of what Jesus Christ has already done – “It is FINISHED!”

God’s Heavenly Love made practical for us? 2 Corinthians 5:21, “For He [God] made Him [Jesus] who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

• AMAZING LOVE? GOD IN CHRIST “DIED ON THE CROSS” FOR YOU AND ME! Amazing love? If YOU were the only person who had ever lived – past, present, future – on the Cross, Christ Jesus would have died there JUST FOR YOU!

“God commended His love for us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Can you say, “Christ died for me”? I don’t know how you respond to that, but in Job 42:5-6 we read: Job speaking, “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eyes see You. Therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”

To see Jesus on the Cross dying just for you, is to see yourself as God sees you, yet He loves you with an everlasting love for you – and He proved His love for you at Calvary’s Cross!

Dr. James Kennedy, in his book “The Presence of a Hidden God,” [p.191], wrote: “Just imagine for a moment that God were NOT love. Suppose, instead, that God were a cosmic ogre, playing with people like grasshoppers in a bottle’ – suppose God were a demon, filled with malevolent hatred, or suppose God were an impersonal force, like fate or some machine that had no feeling, no sympathy whatsoever toward mankind.”

But that’s not our God of Calvary’s Cross! Oh, there are those who truly wish God were dead, but even then to them the Cross and empty tomb still stand as expressions of eternal love for eternal fools! “The fool has said in his heart, ‘there is no God’! But, history stands, His-Story stands: Our God is the God who will not die – we serve a Risen Savior!

You need to know it if you haven’t heard it: “We love Him because He first loved us!” An old hymn says it like this: “See, from His head, His hands, His feet, Sorrow and love flow mingling down; Did e’er such love and sorrow meet or thorns compose so rich a crown?”

Do you understand? It’s only in seeing Christ Jesus suffer, bleed, and die for our sins that one truly discovers, discerns, and depends on the love of God! Here’s how Spurgeon put it long ago: [Spurgeon’s Sermons, Memorial Library, Vol.9, p.311],

“Again, our love to God does not spring from the self-determining power of the will. I greatly question whether anything does in the world, good or bad. There are some who set up the will as a kind of deity, – it does as it wills with earth and heaven; but in truth the will is not a master but a servant. To the sinner his will is a slave; and in the saint, although the will is set free, it is still blessedly under bonds to God. Men do not will a thing because they will it, but because their affections, their passions, or their judgments influence their wills in that direction. No man can stand up and say, ‘I, unbiased and unaided, will to love God and I will not love Satan.” Such proud self-assuming language would prove him a liar; the man would be clearly a worshipper of himself. A man can only love God when he has perceived some reasons for so doing; and the first argument for loving God, which influences the intellect so as to turn the affections, is the reason mentioned in the text: “We love Him because He first loved us.”

God Himself established forever His love for you as Jesus suffered, bled, and died on the Cross! God demonstrated! God proved His love for YOU at Calvary! Now, how is that awesome understanding maintained productively and efficiently and faithfully day by day? Examine Romans 5:5! “Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”

History! Historic Presence and Power! Romans 5:6 says, “For when we were still without strength (“helpless”), in due time Christ died for the ungodly.” We WERE “enemies” but reconciled to God through the death of His Son, Romans 5:10, and having been reconciled, “we shall be [being] saved by His life.”

History? John Piper, in his book “The Pleasures of God,” [p.165], wrote: “Jesus wants us to see that His willingness to lose His life is because of His love for the glory of the Father.” He then quoted John 17:4, “I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do.”

Then Piper said: “All of Jesus’ work was designed to honor the worth of His Father’s glory. Therefore, all His pain and shame and humiliation and dishonor served to magnify the Father’s glory, because they showed how infinitely valuable God’s glory is, that such a loss should be suffered to demonstrate its worth.”

And what about your life, your walk, your calling, your purpose? Is it to honor the worth of the Father’s glory? How did Paul put it? 1 Corinthians 10:31, “Therefore, whether you eat or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”

Let me close this chapter with words again from Oswald Chambers out of “My Utmost For His Highest.” [p.238]. “The tendency is to look for the marvelous in our experience; we mistake the sense of the heroic for being heroes. It is one thing to go through a crisis gradually, but another thing to go through every day glorifying God when there is no witness, no limelight, no one paying the remotest attention to us. If we do not want medieval haloes, we want something that will make people say – ‘What a wonderful man of prayer he is! What a pious devoted woman she is!’ If you are rightly devoted to the Lord Jesus, you have reached the sublime height where no one ever thinks of noticing you, all that is noticed is that the power of God comes through you all the time.”

O For A Thousand Tongues!! Charles Wesley wrote the famous hymn. It says: “O for a thousand tongues to sing My great Redeemer’s praise, The glories of my God and King, The triumphs of His grace.

My gracious Master and my God, Assist me to proclaim, To spread through all the earth abroad, The honors of Your name.

Jesus! The name that charms our fears, That bids our sorrows cease; It’s music in the sinner’s ears, It’s life, and health, and peace.

He breaks the power of canceled sin, He sets the prisoners free; His blood can make the foulest clean, His blood availed for me.”

In Revelation 1:4-5 John wrote: “Grace to you and peace from Him who is and who was and is to come and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness”; He loved us, washed us in His blood!”

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

“VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED? VICTIMS OR VICTORS?”

Noah Webster’s 1828 Dictionary defines “victim” as follows: “Something destroyed; something sacrificed in the pursuit of an object. How many persons have fallen “victims” to jealousy, to lust, to ambition!?!”

Then, Webster defined “victor” as “one who conquers in a war; a vanquisher; one who defeats an enemy in battle…one who wins, or gains the advantage…”; “…as, grace will carry us ‘victoriously’ through all difficulties.”

Victims! I want us to look at this truth before we unveil the reality of one, by repentance and faith, becoming “VICTORS”! It was the great Englishman, G.K. Chesterton, who once said: “Any one who doesn’t believe in God will believe in anything.” And there’s no doubt that some have slid into the muck and mire of “no God” and opened themselves up for an onslaught of victimization!

Stephen Olford, in his commentary on Philippians, made a comment about Dr. Arthur F. Glasser, dean of the school of world missions at Fuller Theological Seminary, evaluating Chesterton’s statement: “If you…fall into the relativistic vacuum of thinking any religion is as good as another, you can end up falling patsy to any kind of ideology, such as a Manson family, a Hitler, or a Jim Jones…The religious relativism and secularized nihilism of the times [leave] many unable to distinguish between religious realities and fraud, between the divine and the demonic.” And, oh, how true that statement IS!!

There came a moment in time in early human history, after the Fall, that God said: [Genesis 6:5-7], “Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. The Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. The Lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to the birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I have made them.”

John Piper, in his book “A Godward Life,” commented on the previous verses. [p.221], “To answer this, consider another instance of God’s action that (like creation) resulted in great sin and pain. Acts 2:23 says that Jesus was delivered up to crucifixion “by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God.” In other words, God knew ahead of time that he was sending Jesus to be killed. Yet the killing of the Son of God was more evil than all the evil in Noah’s day that made God feel regret that he had made man. Thus if God regretted the creation of mankind when he saw the great misery and evil that it unleashed, may we not assume that he also felt a similar regret over the incarnation of the Son when he saw the undeserved, wicked, infinitely evil murder and suffering of his “only begotten” and “beloved” Son?…Yet we are told explicitly that God not only knew this would happen, but planned it (Acts 2:23, Isaiah 53:10). So if he was capable of feeling genuine sorrow and revulsion of the wickedness of his Son’s murderers and at the suffering of the Son himself, then it must be that he was capable of approving the sending of the Son and at the same time experiencing in advance the sorrow and regret over the sin and suffering involved in the Son’s death. If this is conceivable in the incarnation of the Son, it is conceivable in the creation of man.”

What was Piper telling us? No doubt, God knew of the Fall of man – not happiness over it, no joy so He could then show His redemptive love, but showing us two sides of a ‘coin’ – sorrow over the Fall, sureness of His eternal purpose to make ‘victors’ out of ‘victims’!

Victims! If “the thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy,” are there those people who are captured by the ‘thief’ and his advancing armies? 1 Peter 5:8 says, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.” I sincerely regret, feel sorrow for, if YOU don’t believe ‘demons’ and ‘powers of darkness’ are real – it just reveals how ‘victimized’ you’ve become!

In Ephesians 6:11-12 Paul wrote, “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.”

When the Word speaks of “pulling down strongholds” it certainly refers not only to manmade strongholds but those demonic strongholds where the powers of darkness have settled in to captured territory in one’s life. Deliverance is needed!

Victims? Do a word study sometime on ‘false gods’ and their origin – they all come out of rebellion to the One, True, Living God, and an unwillingness to bow before Him – so, they invent, fabricate, indulge in fleshly religious feelings and pleasures that deceptively make them feel good about themselves, which is ‘what I do’ rather than what Christ Jesus did!

You are aware that our world easily produces and accepts ‘religious frauds’ and their inventors – the ‘religious charlatans or religious elite’! In 2 Peter 2:1-3 we read: “but there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed. By covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words; for a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber.”

Paul warned the Philippians of the same deception! In Philippians 3:2 we read: “Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the mutilation!” F.B. Meyer called these “pests of every Christian community.” He said: These are “the fanatical and unbalanced [people in the church!], the ‘cranks’;…They exaggerate the importance of trifles; they catch up every new theory and vagary, and follow it to the detriment of truth and love…It is impossible to overestimate the harm that these people do, or the desirability of keeping clear of them…”

Victims? Because of Fallen sin natures, there are those captured by the intensity of “pumping flesh,” proud of their fallen sin nature, perverted in its demonstrations, powerless in themselves to break the ‘hold’ on their lives! Look at Romans 8:12-13a! “Therefore, brethren, we are debtors – not to the flesh [old sin nature], to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die;…” “Pumping flesh”? Someone wrote: “The man who sings his own praises always gets the wrong pitch.”

Victims? There’s an interesting verse in 1 John 4:18 where John wrote: “But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.” Fear is a crippler! In the “Bible Friend,” from the Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations,” there’s comments by Ann Landers, former famous newspaper counselor: “She was asked if there was any one problem, which predominates throughout the letters she receives, and her reply was, the one problem above all others, seems to be fear. People are afraid of losing their health, their wealth, their beloved ones. People are afraid of life itself.” I wondered if Ann Landers knew about “the spirit of fear”!

Victims? Have you ever wrestled with the difference between ‘speculation’ and ‘certainty’? Speculations are not bad when it involves ‘contemplation’. But when ‘speculation’ becomes simply one’s opinions it becomes that which has nothing to do with ‘fact’ but one’s theories. Truth isn’t speculative – it’s reality! Certainty is fact, certainty is verified, certainty produces eternal results – “I know that MY Redeemer Lives!” “Behold, as the eyes of servants look upon the hand of their masters, so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God.” [Psalm 123:2]. No speculation, just divine certainty!

Victims? Are you aware on any around you who became a ‘victim’ of those dark, subtle, seductive ‘fishing lures of sin’ that hooked them so strongly, and then led them to a cage for future skinning and death? Even some around you in the ‘Christian community’? You do know we have an ‘adversary’ who is out to ‘devour’ you?!?

Victims? What deception when one chooses the prism of self-analysis for an evaluation of himself! In 2 Corinthians 10:12 Paul wrote: “For we dare not class ourselves or compare ourselves with those WHO COMMEND THEMSELVES. But they, measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise.” You ‘choose’ your ‘self-consciousness’ over “Christ Consciousness”?

Are you aware that you’re either cemented in your self or you’re ‘anchored’ in Christ? Hebrews 6:17-20 tells us: “Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath, that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hope of the hope set before us.”

Victims? Yes, even ‘Christians’ who are faithful every Sunday to a local church but faithless, unresponsive, uncaring to a lost, alienated, separated world around them! I know, like in India, there were pastors who attended my conferences, and were later martyred for the faith. It was Dr. A.T. Pierson who once said: “A light that does not shine, a germ that does not grow, a spring that does not flow, is no more of an anamoly of a Christian who does not witness.”

Victims? In 2 Timothy 2:22 Paul wrote: “Flee…youthful lusts,” but across the American scene immorality is fast capturing a large segment of the youth population with shame becoming a lost term! Wild orgies, reckless alcoholic drinking, drugs, promiscuous sex – a youthful population being “pumped” to plunge into and wade and wallow in “dirt”!

Victims? It’s not true of ALL children who live under the influence of godless parents but it is true of a great number. Bossuet said: “Great men are formed on the knees of their mothers.” But also it is just as true that evil men are adversely impacted by godless dads and moms! There was a man I read about sentenced to 15 years hard labor for a violent crime. At his sentencing he was given permission by the judge to speak: “I pardon the judges; their sentence is just; I pardon the police; they did well to arrest me. But there are two people in this court I will never forgive. They are my parents, who brought me up without God and without hope.” How sad is That?!?

Victims? Is it heartless husbands or manipulative wives who neither know about “giving honor” to one another? Is it marriages that are marred because neither/or only one knows the Master? Is it marriages that have decided they are better ‘home-builders’ than God Himself? Psalm 127:1 says, “Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it; unless the Lord guards the city, the watchman stays awake in vain.”

Victims? 1 John 2:17 says, “He that does the will of God abides forever…”. Yet, there is no abiding or remaining because “the house” has NO ETERNAL FOUNDATION! In James 4:17 we read, “Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does it not, to him it is sin.” Have you ever paused, reflected, wrestled with, “what would Holy God have me to do?” Sadly, far too many have sought to forge their own way through life’s wildernesses, and they remain LOST! To then live in rebellion to His Way, defiance to His Truth, even facing His will and Word as abhorrent is to live miserably in bondage to one’s own sin and self!

Victims? Slaves to one’s past, preoccupied with one’s past, blinded by one’s past, always establishes high and impenetrable walls, unless one accepts the blood of Christ for the gift of new life, new hope, new victories because of Him!

Victims? In Hebrews 12:1 is an interesting verse! “Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.” But, there are those holding onto rather than throwing off, holding onto a path of sin rather than repenting and forsaking, and failing to get in on the race set before them – “no running for me, not even toward God!”

Victims? Yes, even a disciple of Christ can be a victim! When you read Paul in Romans 5:17, 19, you hear him say: “I do not understand what I do…For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do – this I keep on doing.” This is a time period in his spiritual journey when Paul was void of learning about the Spirit-controlled life of Romans 8! But he did learn, and he did overcome!

And if this is still your journey, their journey, our journey, what a sad state of affairs is: “He/she is a VICTIM!” But I believe there’s an opposite truth to ‘VICTIM’, and that’s the truth of “VICTOR!”

In 2 Corinthians 5:14-15 we learn afresh and anew, or reminded of, or settled into its truth, becoming a VICTOR! It says: “For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.”

The “victor” is one captured, by grace and mercy and love, birthed, renewed, overruled by the very love of Christ fully expressed “At The Cross” – and the new believer takes the Cross unto himself and experiences the reality of resurrection life, resurrection power, and resurrection hope!

In Matthew 12:20 there is a beautiful verse for our comfort as disciples of Christ. It says: “A bruised reed He will not break, and smoking flax He will not quench, till He sends forth justice to victory.”

Who has ever lived on the face of God’s earth and not known “bruised reeds” or “smoking flax”? And our Lord and Savior comes TO US with “blessed assurance”: Matthew 11:28-30, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and LEARN FROM ME, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

And, if you do not know “rest for your souls,” then you’ve never entered the Victory Land of Faith and Fulfillment! If you do not know “rest for your souls,” then you’ve never entered His Kingdom! In Romans 14:17 we read, “for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.”

“Rest for your souls”? “Victory”? “Righteousness”? “Kingdom of God Allegiance”? It’s the grace of God “in Christ” with the gift of a new man! In Ephesians 4:24 Paul said, “and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.”

THAT’S VICTORY! “New man,” “new life,” “new hope,” “new dreams,” “new purpose,” “new destiny,” “new songs,” “new covenant,” “new city,” “new creation,” “new name,”…Look at Romans 6:4! “Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.”

What a joy and delight to be a “new-born in Christ,” but just as with your own children neither you nor God wanted them remaining with spiritual diapers. In fact, Peter said in 1 Peter 2:2, “as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby.”

In our “victory” in Christ, we do have a goal! Romans 8:29 says: “For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.”

“Super-Saints” is not our calling – our calling is death to the old man, releasing ALL that Jesus is in Himself! “Christ in you the hope of glory!” Why ‘death to the old man’ as a true believer if every day we examine ourselves as we were without Christ? I believe Jesus said in Luke 9:23, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me,” which is why some aren’t “following” because they are too busy examining if THEY measure up! No, you don’t! You were crucified with Christ once for all!

We begin, continue, and end at the place of Victory in Jesus Himself. And from that point we begin our pilgrimage of “resting in” Him and fighting the fight of faith in being finished with the old man and starting, continuing, completing our journey in the “New Man”! Romans 12:2 says, “And do not be conformed to this world, but be [being] transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”

Isn’t it amazing to you? Our “victory” in Christ even has a faithful promise: Philippians 4:13 says: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

I’ll never forget a conversation I had with Dr. Bill Anderson a number of years ago. In college, over sixty years ago, we were teammates on Baylor University’s Sugar Bowl champions against number two in the nation, Tennessee Volunteers and All-American, Johnny Majors! We were either tenth or eleventh in the nation pre-game! No one favored our win at all – Bill mentioned a friend telling him after the game, listening on a radio broadcast, that a commentator said at half-time: “Don’t worry, Vols’ fans; Tennessee is too strong and Baylor is too weak. The Vols will pull it out.” But they didn’t! We held on and won 13-7!!

“Victory” is SWEET! “Victory” in Jesus is so satisfying! “Victory” in our Lord is so peaceful! “Victory” in the Master is to be in His triumphant Life and its fullness! What does 2 Corinthians 2:14 tell us?

“Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place.”

This victory in Jesus is far more than ‘believing’ – it’s a matter of TRUST! It’s a matter of “leaning not to our own understanding but in all our ways acknowledging Him.” Come Hell’s attack or the high waters of fleshly assaults – we “rest” in Him! In 1 Peter 4:19 we read: “Therefore let those who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls to Him in doing good, as to a faithful Creator.”

If Jesus had to be “about My Father’s business,” is there any circumstance of life in us Holy God cannot use for His business? Too many times too many saints fail to discern “the graces of His ministering life” at work in them!

When Jesus said in John 16:33, “In the world you shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world,” He knew what we would face but He also knew where our overcoming spirit and nature resided – “IN HIM!!”

“Victory” IN JESUS? Isaiah 40:29-31 says, “He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might He increases strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall, But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.”

“Victory” is never depending upon ‘self-awareness’ or ‘self-confidence’ or ‘self-realization’ – in Philippians 3:7-10 Paul wrote, “But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I MAY KNOW HIM and THE POWER OF HIS RESURRECTION, and THE FELLOWSHIP OF HIS SUFFERINGS, BEING CONFORMED TO HIS DEATH, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.”

“Victory”? Ephesians 4:13-15 illumines the true path true disciples walk on: “till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should be no longer children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head – Christ -!!”

“Victory”? It’s a deep, deep awareness of being on the journey with our Lord “pressing on” until all that is true of Him has found its freedom and liberty in you and me! Philippians 3:12-14 declares, “Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

Have you grasped it yet, understand, comprehend, “rest in,” unflinching loyalty to the Resurrected Christ in you? Here’s how Oswald Chambers put it: “The idea is not that WE do the work FOR God, but that we are so loyal to Him that He can do His work through us – God wants to use us as He used His own Son.” Galatians 5:24 says, “And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”

Isn’t that amazing? AND YET SO LIBERATING! If there is no denial of self, there is no appropriation of the fullness and victory of Christ! This is why Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2:4, “And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.”

“Victory”? I love what Oswald Chambers wrote after quoting John 8:36, “Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.” In his “My Utmost For His Highest,” [pps.239-240], he wrote: “If there is any remnant of individual conceit left, it always says “I can’t.” Personality never says, “I can’t,” but simply absorbs and absorbs; personality always wants more and more. It is the way we are built. We are designed with a great capacity for God; and sin and our individuality are the things that keep us from getting at God. God delivers us from sin;; we have to deliver ourselves from individuality, i.e., to present our natural life to God and sacrifice it until it is transformed into a spiritual life by obedience…Stop listening to the tyranny of individuality and get emancipated out into personality.” And I would add: Our victory is EMANCIPATION INTO HIS PERSON-ALITY!!

“Victory”? Please, please; I challenge you to open the door of your own life, right now, to Romans 8:35-39!! “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: ‘For Your sake we are killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.’

Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

F.J. Huegel, in his book “Forever Triumphant,” opens with this statement: “It comes as a shock when one realizes that the Christian life, as for the most part it is being lived, falls far short of the divine standard. The status of unnumbered Christians is sub-normal. They are below par. They are not out-and-out sinners along with the worldling, for they have named the name of Jesus in true faith and are indeed members of His church; but talk to them about a life of perennial victory, about being more than conquerors, about a life “hid with Christ in God” in unbroken and joyous communion, and you will fail to get an understanding response. You may provoke an incredulous smile.”

But, thank God, THERE ARE THOSE who have discovered, walked in, live by the truth of 1 John 4:17b, that “because as He is, so are we in this world.” In a previous fourth chapter verse, Verse 9, John also said: “In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that WE MIGHT LIVE THROUGH HIM.”

Do you know what pleases God? In Galatians 1:15-16 Paul said: “But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, to reveal His Son in me, I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood…”. With whom did he confer? How about Holy God Himself, the Resurrected Christ, and the Holy Spirit!

To the church at Colossae, Paul later wrote, Colossians 2:9-10, “For in Him [Christ] dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.” So, what took place at Calvary’s Cross as Jesus suffered, bled, and died? In Galatians 2:20 Paul said, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself FOR ME!” Isn’t that what we learned in Galatians 3:26? “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.”

If you haven’t heard it or learned it as yet, Christ Jesus won “the victory” at the Cross in our behalf, which is why Paul said in 2 Corinthians 2:14, “Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place.”

Are YOU living “victoriously” as the disciple of Christ? Are you “the overcomer”? Are you triumphant as a traveler on the Highway of Holiness? Having been “born of God” are you victorious over your world in and through Christ Jesus?

“In Christ” we’re not part of a hoax – we’re part of Heaven’s Royal Family! “In Christ” we’re not overcome but are overcomers through Christ’s Victory in our behalf! “In Christ” we’re not strugglers after a goal that can never be reached or crossed – we’re finished products of His amazing saving Grace, complete in Christ, lacking nothing!

Romans 8:2 says, “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ has made me free from the law of sin and death.” You’re not a victim! YOU ARE VICTOR IN CHRIST!!

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

“VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED? CARING FOR OTHERS – THE SIGN OF CHRIST’S PRESENCE!”

I don’t know how you respond as you are reading the Word, but there are times when I am absolutely overwhelmed, burdened, and broken when I read like I did today Psalm 142:3-4 when David, King David, was overwhelmed, yes, distraught over the treatment of his persecutors! It says:

“When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, then You [God] knew my path. In the way which I walk they have secretly set a snare for me. Look on my right hand and see, for there is no one who acknowledges me; refuge has failed me; NO ONE CARES MY SOUL.”

Reading Isaiah again recently, I was awakened anew of the desperation many become aware of in their own lives because they lost the calling to care for others. In Isaiah 17:10-11 the prophet wrote about the ‘burden’ to come to Syria AND Israel because they had forgotten even caring about God Himself much less other nations and people!

“Because you have forgotten the God of your salvation, and have not been mindful of the Rock of your stronghold, therefore you will plant pleasant plants and set out foreign seedlings; In the day you will make your plant to grow, and in the morning you will make your seed to flourish; but the harvest will be a heap of ruins in the day of grief and desperate sorrow.”

Is Holy God telling us that, not only godless cities become desolations, but uncaring people, churches, and nations, can, and possibly will become destined for desolation because there is no compassion for the needy?!?

We must, before continuing the Title: “Caring For Others – The Sign of Christ’s Presence”, witness Him for ourselves in His compassionate ministry whether “we” are a part of Him or not! In John 13:1-10 we read, “Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come that He should depart from this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.

And supper being ended, the devil having already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray Him, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come from God and was going to God, rose from supper and laid aside His garments, took a towel and girded Himself.

After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded. Then He came to Simon Peter. And Peter said to Him, ‘Lord, are You washing my feet?’ Jesus answered and said to him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but you will know after this.”

Peter said to Him, “You shall never wash my feet!” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me.” Simon Peter said to Him, “Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head!” Jesus said to him, “He who is bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all of you.” Jesus knew then, and He knows now, those who would, will, and do betray Him!

In Hebrews 10:19-25 the author faithfully challenges us to remembrance of our true calling! “Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, and having a High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.”

And, dare I tell you, “that Day approaching” is the Day of our Lord’s examination of whether or not we followed His Example and cared for, yes, a lost, needy, unreconciled people, as well as our care for one another in family, the Faith, and the wounded of our spiritual warfare with the powers of darkness! “Jesus, You shall never wash my feet,” or are you one who now realizes, “Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head!” Clean hands to serve –clean heads in understanding our mission, our calling, yes, our major responsibility of touching our world around us with His love, His mercy, His grace, His Truth, His Son and their Savior! How does it come to fruition in us as His disciples?

ONE, IS AVAILABILITY! If I am His, and I belong to Him, is the path I walk as a true disciple “my way” or His way? We’ve all seen in the Word the encounter of Isaiah with the Living Lord in Isaiah 6:5-9, Isaiah said: “Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.” Isaiah had unveiled before Him the vision of the Kingdom of God, Isaiah experienced the removal of his sin, as we read in Isaiah 6:7, “Behold, this has touched your lips; your iniquity is taken away, and your sin is purged!”

Oh, but then Isaiah heard the heart-cry of Holy God! Isaiah 6:8, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?” And Isaiah responded, “Here am I! Send me.” And God said, “Go, and tell this people.”

When did that change? Or have we become so “spiritually mature” (?) that we’re not “weird disciples” who make themselves available to the lost, dying, perishing, unbelieving, unredeemed, fallen-away world of humanity, yes, deceived by the powers of darkness?

It’s a sad, sad day when church leadership, churches, yes, ‘disciples of Christ’, turn blind eyes to a needy world! Too many churches are intense on ‘self-realization’ to the extent that they sense no calling to truly “reach out” as “witnesses” of His saving grace and mercy! He loves the world – most churches love their own without any consideration of penetrating an unsaved, alienated humanity, with His love! If the church’s aim is to come, according to Ephesians 4:13, “to the unity of the faith AND OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE SON OF GOD, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,” did His fullness include laying down His life in witnessing? “I’ve come to seek and to save that which is lost!” Do you?

TWO, IS COMPASSION! Which I believe is truly a fruit of the Indwelling Holy Spirit! And, of course, Jesus said, “By their fruits you shall know them!” How many ‘disciples’ have crossed your path professing faith in Christ but, sadly, on a pilgrimage of “self-awareness” and “self-realization”, crowning ‘self’ as his/her only priority without any consideration or commitment to “You shall be My witnesses”?

Completeness in Christ without His compassion for the unsaved? In Hebrews 9:14 we read, “How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” But you claim ‘service to Him’ without any consideration of His calling?

In Luke 19:10 the Lord Jesus said: “For the Son of Man has come TO SEEK AND TO SAVE that which was lost.” And, of course, Judaism had lost God’s holy intent, and certainly Holy God passionately desired to see Israel’s salvation but also, through them, the salvation of the entire world!

Why did Jesus once say, Matthew 5:20, “For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.” Just how devoted do you think “the scribes and Pharisees” were to their ‘religious rituals’? But did they touch a dark world with the “Light of Heaven”? Did they touch the ‘lost’ with the true liberty of Heavenly love and grace?

Didn’t you, at first, find it so strange, when in John 7:15 the Jews marveled at Jesus, saying, “How does this Man know letters, having never studied?” [They were supposing without a Rabbi’s PhD that the Creator of it all couldn’t know or understand their religious plateau or prestige!]. In Verses 16-18 the Lord Jesus responded, “My doctrine is not Mine, but His who sent Me. If anyone wills to do His will, he shall know concerning the doctrine, whether it is from God or whether I speak on my own authority. He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but He who seeks the glory of the One who sent Him is true, and no unrighteousness is found in Him.”

Question! “Why did Father-God send Christ Jesus, the Son? In Romans 8:28-29 Paul tells us, “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, TO THOSE WHO ARE CALLED ACCORDING TO HIS PURPOSE. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to BE CONFORMED TO THE IMAGE OF HIS SON, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.”

What did Christ Jesus Himself say? John 10:10, “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” John 11:25, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, [rests in, adheres to, relies upon] though He may die, he shall live. Verse 26, And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?”

If Jesus says, “most assuredly…”, are you assuredly secure in the truth of His Word? In John 5:24-25 our Lord and Savior declared: “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life. Most assuredly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live.” What compassion our Lord has for you and me!

THREE, HIS PURPOSE COMING TO FRUITION IN HIS TRUE DISCIPLE? IT’S BY BRIDGE-BUILDING AWARENESS! Dare I mention ‘life without Him’, as Genesis 1:2 says of the earth, “was without form, and void, and darkness was on the face of the deep (darkness).And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters”? A life “without God” is absent of eternal purpose, void, empty, vain, trying every way possible to subdue the void and emptiness, trying to subdue the darkness in the mind, soul, heart, knowing nothing of “Kingdom-Now Living” in the here and now THROUGH the shed-blood of Christ alone!

Are YOU a true disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ, fully aware of an unbeliever’s destiny apart from Christ? But beyond that, what about Holy God’s eternal intention in Revelation of “Kingdom-Living” now, when in Revelation 21:1-8 He told John:

Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea [or separation?]. Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying.

There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away. Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” And He said to me, “Write, for these words are true and faithful.”

And He said to me, “It is done! I AM the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts. He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son.

But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”

Clean hands to serve and clean heads in understanding our mission, our calling, our presence in a needy world?

FOURTH, IN CARING FOR OTHERS THERE MUST BE THE BIBLICAL SOUNDNESS OF ETERNAL TRUTH IN TOUCHING HEARTS, TRAINING MINDS, AND RELEASING EDUCATED, ENLIGHTENED WILLS THROUGH REPENTANCE TOWARD GOD AND FAITH IN CHRIST’S FINISHED WORK AT THE CROSS!

In John 8:31-32 the Word tells us, Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

Of course, one of the human tragedies in the circles of ‘religious faith’ is what Holy God talked about through Paul in Romans 1:18-25! “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, WHO SUPPRESS THE TRUTH IN UNRIGHTEOUSNESS, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for GOD HAS SHOWN IT TO THEM. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse; because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man – and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, WHO EXCHANGED THE TRUTH OF GOD FOR THE LIE [“You can sin and not die!”], and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. SO BE IT!”

Do you remember the loving spiritual father, Paul, as he taught his spiritual son, Timothy, in 2 Timothy 3:16-17? “All scripture is given by inspiration of God [Holy Scripture, the Holy Bible, not the futile writings of Mohammed or any other false teacher!], and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

Paul went on in 2 Timothy 4:1-4 to say to Timothy and us today, “I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom: Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. BUT YOU BE WATCHFUL IN ALL THINGS, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, FULFILL YOUR MINISTRY!”

Did Paul, in challenging Timothy, challenge us? “Preach the word!” Are you convincing, rebuking, exhorting, with all longsuffering and teaching?

FIFTH, IN CARING FOR OTHERS THERE MUST ALSO BE INTERCESSORY FAITHFULNESS, PRAYING FOR OTHERS, AND CONTINUING TO PRAY!

In 1 Timothy 2:1-3 our intercessory faithfulness in prayer is clearly called for. Paul wrote, “Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings [presidents?] and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”

True spiritual discipleship is not a ‘professing’ life without the faithful practice of intercessory prayer! True spiritual disciples, men or women, are disciples of prayer! It’s conversation with the Father, it’s inter-change with one’s Lord and Savior, it’s petitions, it’s requests, it’s one’s desires refined by the mind, heart, Word and will of Holy God, it’s confession, intercession, the refining of one’s thoughts and dreams according to the Sovereignty of God, it’s thanksgiving, it’s yielded-ness to the “Yes” or “No” of trustful Lord and Savior, it’s requesting His counsel and advice not demanding ‘my way or the highway,’ it’s “asking in Jesus’ Name and leaving the results to God the Father,” and Oswald Chambers really nailed it when he said, “Have you reached such an intimacy with God that the Lord Jesus Christ’s life of prayer is the only explanation of your life of prayer?” [“My Utmost For His Highest,” p.160].

Intercessory Prayer is not a symphony of transfiguration that brings melody to one’s heart and through one’s heart, but knowing, receiving, and celebrating both the composer and conductor – Jesus Only! It’s not a supposed bright light after death experience, but fellowship, submission, and trust in the Light of Life, Jesus Only! It’s not the ‘blessed privilege of witnessing or praying for others, but opening the door through you – Jesus Only! It’s not even those, yes, multitudinous mountain-top experiences in prayer with Him – it’s Jesus Only!

Through your intercessory faithfulness and trust in Whom you offer your prayers, you’re at peace that He, the Lord Jesus Christ, is not fickle but faithful in fully answering you with blessed, eternal intent! As His faithful, praying servant, do you “rest” in Him!

SIXTH, IN CARING FOR OTHERS, IN FAITHFUL INTERCESSION, THERE MUST BE, IN YOU, THE UNDERSTANDING THAT THOSE FOR WHOM YOU PRAY MAY BE A LIFE OR LIVES OF TOTAL DISINTEREST IN THE THINGS OF GOD.

Are you aware that there are hard-shelled, hard-hearted men and women fashioned and shaped by a spirit of unbelief carved by the fallen nature of men dominated by “my respectable goodness”?

Oh, certainly there are many who experience ‘remorse’ for “a few blunders, but to say I need to be saved, born-again, reconciled to God? You, Sir Witness, I see only disgust with your suggestion!”

In Acts 14:2 we read, “But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brethren,” and to be a poisoner against true believers is to be “poisoned against Christ”! It’s a mind game, a heart issue, and a willful decision ‘for’ or ‘against’ the Truth of Christ Jesus as one’s Savior and Lord! Sadly, many, in their minds and hearts are not interested in the things of our Lord and Savior!

Disobedience, as a way of life, to the Holy things of God is personal enslavement to the things of the devil himself – and many are content with that degradation and personal disrespect of the Savior and Lord! Hindrances of true faith are often, like a stormy, destructive wave, sweeping minds, hearts, and wills with obstinacy, disrespect for the very Throne Of God itself, determined to be ruled by their passions, warped wills, and self-independence –“No God-stuff, thank you!” And they go to Hell with the devil and his demons and all unbelievers!

One of those heart-gripping verses in the Bible is John 6:66! “From that time [even] many of Jesus’ disciples went back and walked no more with Him!” Do you recognize that the holy things of Christ, His truths, His ministries, His visions and dreams, are so foreign to a life enslaved to its own opinions, views, desires, or fleshly wants, that rejecting the Life, the Way, The Will, and the Words of Christ, is a “fleshly piece of cake, flavored by the devil himself!”

NO WONDER WE’RE CHALLENGED WITH, AS DISCIPLES OF CHRIST, “PRAY WITHOUT CEASING!” Didn’t Jesus say in Luke 18:1 “that men always ought to pray and not lose heart!” And, praise God, we’ll not be those who lose heart, but press in to Him more and more!

Hattie Bell Allen and B.B. McKinney wrote in the Broadman Press of Nashville, Tenn., 1940!, the hymn, “Christ For the Whole Wide World! It says:

“Christ for the whole wide world! Our task has just begun, For millions wait in every land The message of God’s Son. Shall they be left in sin, To die without His Word, Without the Savior Jesus Christ, Because they never heard?

Christ for the whole wide world! His message must be sent To millions dying in their sin To call them to repent. Christ Jesus died to save, But they can never know Until we bring our gifts of love And bid His heralds go!

Christ for the whole wide world! His heralds will proclaim Salvation for men everywhere In Jesus’ blessed name. And we who cannot go To bear His tidings far Will pray for those who take the Word – And witness where we are.” Amen?

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

“VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED? SIN’S COMPLICATIONS – SIN’S REMEDY!”

It always amazes me, not the sinfulness of all men, but the amazing grace of God, as I read Peter over and over again, saying to us: 1 Peter 2:21-25, For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps: “Who committed no sin, nor was deceit found in His mouth”, who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously; who Himself BORE OUR SIN IN HIS OWN BODY ON THE TREE [The Cross, Calvary!], that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness – “BY WHOSE STRIPES YOU WERE HEALED.” For you were like sheep going astray, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.”

Sadly, I’m not sure at all that most men/women, boys or girls, have any awareness of Sin and Its Complications or of Sin’s Only Remedy, but the one major thing at this moment for your consideration is God’s unveiling of its seriousness, so serious that the very Cross of our Lord and Savior is God’s declaration and revelation and unveiling of His judgment on your sin and mine, the sacrifice of His Son, the Lord Jesus, as the “at-one-ment” or atonement of Christ as the only hope of man’s escape from sin’s penalty, death, and our reconciliation with Holy God through the amazing unveiling of the heart of God in His love for us as He gave Jesus to become sin for us that, through Him, we might receive reconciliation to Holy God!

And, if you didn’t know it, Revelation 13:8 tells us of “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” God understood the necessity of man’s reconciliation with Holy God because of the Fall, necessitating divine intervention through the Lamb’s “blood sacrifice”! Oswald Chambers wrote in “My Utmost For His Highest,” [p.70], “Beware of separating God ‘manifest in the flesh’ from ‘the Son becoming sin.’ The Incarnation was for the purpose of Redemption. God became incarnate for the purpose of putting away sin; not for the purpose of Self-Realization.” And if, and it was, His crucifixion was to put away sin by His blood sacrifice, how does a “professing people”, and even “the church” of Christ HE atoned for, keep on sinning when He said, “Go, and SIN NO MORE,” [John 5:14], with the added few words, yet so frightening it ought to scare Hell right out of you, “lest a worse thing come upon you.”

Does the supposed “American-Christian culture” understand “Sin’s Complications” and its inevitable results? I’m afraid a “changed American culture” is void on understanding the seriousness of sin in and across the nation! It’s so alarming and disturbing to read an article published on Facebook by Franklin Graham, Billy Graham’s son, that says the following: “Time is like a river, You cannot touch the water twice, because the flow that has passed will never pass again.”

Franklin Graham was speaking at the First Baptist Church in Jacksonville, Florida, January, 2015, when he said America will not come back. “The American dream ended on November 6^th, 2012 in Ohio. The second term of Barack Obama has been the nail in the coffin for the legacy of the white Christian males who discovered, explored, pioneered, settled and discovered the greatest republic in human history. A coalition of blacks, Latinos, feminists, gays, government workers, union members, environmental extremists, the media, Hollywood, uninformed young people, the “forever needy”, the chronically unemployed, illegal aliens and other “fellow travelers” have ended Norman Rockwell’s America.

You will never again out-vote these people. It will take individual acts of defiance and massive displays of civil disobedience to get back the rights we have allowed them to take away. It will take zealots, not moderates and shy, not reach-across- the-aisle to RINOs to right this ship and restore our beloved country to its former status. People like me are completely irrelevant, and I will probably never again be able to legally comment or concern myself with the aforementioned coalition which has surrendered our culture, our heritage, and our traditions without a shot being fired.

The cocker spaniel is off the front porch, the pit bull is in the backyard. The American Constitution has been replaced with Saul Olinsky’s “Rules for Radicals” and the likes of David Axelrod along with international socialist George Soros have been pulling the strings on their beige puppet have brought us Acts 2 of the New World Order. The curtain will come down but the damage has been done, the story has been told.

Those who come after us will once again have to risk their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor to bring back the Republic that this generation has timidly frittered away due to white guilt and political correctness…” And I say, “Lord, help us!”

It’s early March, 2016, and I have personally been reminded of the serious, sinful, and sick situation our country is in politically, morally, spiritually, and leaning toward a flood of godlessness, deceit, rebellion, resentment, and, yes, hatred of the Holy Word of God. I wrote this the early morning hours of March 2, 2016, after a very restless night of sorrow over what American people do, yes, in opposition to divine will and purpose! I wrote the following concerning “God and Government.” It says:

“Fast approaching my 80^th birthday as of June 12, 2016, I’m disturbed to see a nation and people founded, yes, by God Himself as “one nation under God” but fast becoming, especially among leadership nation-wide as a nation by the people, of the people, and for the people – and, as in life, so in governments, the absence of God releases men to their own control, their own godless philosophies, their own reckless abandonment of “self, ‘my way or the highway,’ and certainly ‘less God because I want to govern myself, my family, my city as I damn well please’”, which reveals a people and nation on the fast road to fleshly decline!

To them, spiritual government is not ‘the American way’! Really? And, of course, they want the Holy Word of God out of government, out of schools and universities, out of homes and families and their own minds, and less and less and less of local and state over-sight – “Who or what government needs the advice or counsel of what some call Holy God, our Creator, Lord, Savior, and Master, because we can govern ourselves as we please, which to us means: keep the Bible out of our public domain and ways of godless living; He has no place telling us what we individually or as families, schools, businesses, or governments ought to be doing!”

It was King David, ruling over Israel by the grace of God, who, in Psalm 67:1-4, wrote: “God be merciful to us and bless us, and cause His face to shine upon us, That Your way may be known on earth, Your salvation among all nations. Let the peoples praise You, O God; let all the peoples praise You. Oh, let the nations be glad and sing for joy! For You shall judge the people righteously, and govern the nations on earth.”

But do you hear a ‘modern-society’ saying more and more: “God is not necessary in our governments, politically, morally, spiritually, individually or corporately – leave God out of our governments and out of our schools, out of our lives!” Oh, and they mean it – “To us, God has no place in our affairs because ‘good government’ (?) is allowing us to do as we please!”, which means: “less Faith, less guidance, less watch-care, less protection, less blessing of God, less Sovereign-Rule, less divine love, less of His omnipotence and more of our impotence – with many of the warped opinion that, ‘yes, we’re smarter than God Himself’!”

I know that the people of our formerly ‘great nation’ have set aside any “fear of God”. But Psalm 25:12-15 tells us, King David speaking, “Who is the man who fears the Lord? Him shall He teach in the way He chooses. He himself shall dwell in prosperity, and his descendants shall inherit the earth. The secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him, and He will show them His covenant. My eyes are ever toward the Lord, for He shall pluck my feet out of the net.”

A “net of Godless rule” is a strong, powerful net that wraps itself around people so powerfully that they end up with spiritual curses, spiritual bankruptcy, spiritual ignorance, and a spiritual destiny they really should not desire. Numbers 22:31-34 is a wake-up call for some people, but, sadly, many national, state, and local leaders have plotted their course, omitting God, His Word and His will.

In Numbers 22:31-35 we read, Then the Lord opened Balaam’s eyes, and he saw the Angel of the Lord standing in the way with His drawn sword in His hand; and he bowed his head and fell flat on his face. “Why have you struck your donkey these three times? Behold, I have come out to stand against you, because ‘your way’ is perverse before Me. The donkey saw Me and turned aside from Me these three times. If she had not turned aside from Me, surely I would also killed you by now, and let her live.” And Balaam said to the Angel of the Lord, “I have sinned, for I did not know You stood in the way against me. Now therefore, if it displeases You, I will turn back.”

Do you sense today in America, in Texas, in the Bedford, Texas, area a political climate that is, by some, “perverse before Me”, Holy God, the Founder of government to be Sovereignly ruled by Him – not proud, fleshly, independent of and separate from His Holy Word, wiser than God men and women?

How clear are you about Peter’s words in 2 Peter 1:2-4 that so relates to God’s people as His instruments impacting ‘godless governments’ and lives in every community? Peter wrote:

“Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”

Isn’t it a shameful position that some take, “Keep God and His Word and Truth out of OUR governments – we’ll take care of ourselves in our own way!”

But then, there are those with Peter’s wisdom and understanding! 2 Peter 1:10-11, “Therefore, brethren, [true sons and daughters of the Eternal Faith!], be even more diligent to make your calling and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

You hear it in all political elections: “No God in our government – we do it our way, man’s way, the way of godlessness, and the way of fleshly compromises, alienating God and Truth from us!” Destructive heresies will seek to gain control, keep control, and hold onto man’s control and ways without heeding the Holy Word! “Alienate Truth and promote ‘our way’, which is the absence of God in our governments!”

Didn’t Peter go on to say in 2 Peter 2:19, “While they promise them ‘liberty’ [from being governed by God or His Truth!], they themselves are slaves of corruption, for by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into bondage;” Verse 22, But it has happened [does happen, will happen!] to them according to a true proverb: “A dog returns to his own vomit,” and, “a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire.”

Are you aware of how many “professing believers”, having escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior, find themselves easily entangled again in them and overcome, [that their] latter end is worse for them than the beginning?

In 2 Peter 2:21 the servant of God tells us: “For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them.”

Now? Prayerful intercession that Holy God, once again, will teach men, political leaders, “the way in which God chooses” – not their supposed “grass-roots” electorate! Accounting Day does come before Holy God at the Judgment Seat for, yes, their ‘political decisions’ (?)! So, newly elected politicians: Will YOU be led by Holy God and His Eternal Word?”

“Vital Awareness Unveiled? Sin’s Complications – Sin’s Remedy?” You are aware that a man’s sin is nothing more than impure rebellion against Holy God, not only impure but impotent of producing nothing but more and more deeper and deeper and wider and wider separation from God, a declaration of independence from God, and sins of both sins of omission and sins of commission with immediate spiritual death and ultimate judgment before His Holy Throne! I’m sure that as Thomas Carlyle once said, “The deadliest sins were the consciousness of no sin.” That would fit about every sinner today, including ‘church sinners’, who have no sense of God or His Holy revealed Truth but only the recipient of a sinful mind – “pure hearts” are viewed as off-the-wall , weird, strange teaching of dis-brained preacher-teachers!

There’s a passage in Numbers 16:29-30 that should awaken some, if not many, to the seriousness of their sins. Moses said, “If these men die naturally like all men, then the Lord has not sent me. But if the Lord creates a new thing, and the earth opens its mouth and swallows them up with all that belongs to them, and they go down alive into the pit, then you will understand that these men have rejected the Lord.”

THAT was a literal event for many rebellious men, but it is also symbolic, prophetic, and a preview of the “pit” for men of today who take pleasure in dishonoring God with their lives. The “Pit” awaits for God’s Word!

Jonathan Edwards was famous for a sermon he titled: “Sinners In The Hands Of An Angry God.” The foundation was out of Deuteronomy 32:28-39 which says: (Are YOU Ready?): “For they are a nation void of counsel, nor is there any understanding in them. Oh, that they were wise, that they understood this, THAT THEY WOULD CONSIDER THEIR END!

How could one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, and the Lord had surrendered them? For their rock is not like our Rock, even our enemies themselves being judges.

For their vine is of the vine of Sodom and of the fields of Gomorrah; their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter. Their wine is the poison of serpents, and the cruel venom of cobras.

Is this not laid up in store with Me, sealed up among My treasures? Vengeance is Mine, and recompense; their foot shall slip in due time; for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things to come hasten upon them.

FOR THE LORD WILL JUDGE HIS PEOPLE and have compassion on His servants, when He sees that their power is gone, and there is no one remaining bond or free. He will say: ‘Where are their gods, the rock in which they sought refuge?

Who ate the fat of their sacrifices, and drank the wine of their drink offering? Let them rise and help you, and be your refuge.

Now see that I, even I, am He, and THERE IS NO GOD BESIDES ME; I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; nor is there any who can deliver from My hand”

No doubt this is why Martin Luther once said, “Sin is, essentially a departure from God.” There are in the world, even some in churches, who live with “foolish minds, foolish hearts, foolish wills,” which is why Proverbs 14:9 tells us, “Fools mock at sin,” but because of the shed blood of Christ at Calvary’s Cross, Isaiah 1:18 says, “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.”

But, “SIN’S COMPLICATIONS”? Romans 6:23 says, “The wages of sin is death” – that’s spiritual death, that’s separation from God, that’s His guarantee of a room reserved in Hell for every “sinner”, every unredeemed man, woman, boy, or girl, that’s the embittered chains of darkness, desolation, and a death that will not die! Oh, and then are there even ‘believers’ or ‘followers of Christ’ who decide to disavow responsibility in upholding Christ’s Name and honor, what’s their settled fate in their own minds and hearts? Luke 12:45-46 says, “But if that servant says in his heart, ‘My master is delaying his coming, and begins to beat the male and female servants, and to eat and drink and be drunk, the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the unbelievers.”

“Sin’s Complications”? Not only a separation from God, but there is the condemnation of Holy God against those who pride-fully shake their fists in God’s face and go “My way”! “Sin’s Complications”? Do you know or have you ignored John 3:17-20 which reveals “My way” of loving darkness and hating God’s light. It says: “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.”

Sin injures, sin steals God’s intent, sin is the greatness of a man in sin: Great in unbelief, great in disrespect, great in personal loss and limiting God’s design and potential and privilege, great in sorrow and pain and destructive abuse, great in terrible transgressions, toxic trespasses, and total ‘heart-break’ and eternal suffering when God has to say, “Depart from Me, I never knew you!”

Sin is a spiritual scourge in impacting, indoctrinating, limiting, destroying lives, families and nations! Sin is why Holy God raised up prophets like Isaiah to tell people, even His Own ‘So-called’ People of God! In Isaiah 5:11-13 God exposed the ‘coming judgment’ on His own ‘religious people’! “Woe to those who rise early in the morning, that they may follow intoxicating drink; who continue in the night, till wine inflames them!…But they do not regard the work of the Lord, nor consider the operation of His hands. [Which means that there ARE some things Holy God WILL NOT HONOR OR BLESS OR EXCUSE!]. Therefore My people have gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge; their honorable men are famished, and their multitude dried up with thirst.”

THAT SHOULD BE ENOUGH TO “SCARE HELL” OUT OF SOME FOLKS, BUT THEN READ CAREFULLY ISAIAH 5:14-16! “Therefore Sheol [or “place of death”] has enlarged itself and opened its mouth beyond measure; their glory and their multitude and their pomp, and he who is jubilant [over his/her “party spirit”!] shall descend into it. People shall be brought down, each man shall be humbled, and the eyes of the lofty or proud shall be humbled. But the Lord of hosts shall be exalted in judgment, and God who is holy shall be hallowed in righteousness.”

In Isaiah 30:1, again the Prophet of God amplified the “woe” of rebellious children that excuse ‘sin’: “Woe to the rebellious children,” says the Lord, “who take counsel, but not of Me, and who devise plans, but not of My Spirit, that they may add sin to sin…” SIN is a “Reproach”; SIN is deceit with deadly results; SIN multiplies, quadruples, without the concern in the minds and hearts of sinful men – they “add sin to sin”; SIN is even ‘worshipped’ as men have their own altars they erect to bow before and indulge the ‘sinful flesh’ as their supposed ‘worship’ – some call them brothels!

But more than anything else “SIN BRINGS DEATH” AND “SEPARATION FROM GOD”! Romans 5:12 tells us: “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all men sinned…”

It’s astounding to me that many lives, even in the “church”, frown upon “Truth” yet worship at the altar of the “devil’s lies”: “You can sin and not die”! And, certainly, they will tell the world: “Sin doesn’t separate us from God,” when in Isaiah 59:2-4, God’s Word, declared through the Prophet tells us: “But your iniquities have separated you from God; and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue has muttered perversity. No one calls for justice, nor does any plead for truth. They trust in empty words and speak lies; they conceive evil and bring forth iniquity.” Who IS THAT? That’s the “I belive-ers” who profess allegiance but go on continuing in their sin, when, again, Jesus said, “Go, and sin No More!”

Oh, and then there are the “Jonathan Edwards’ prophetic prophets today who teach transfers out of “death in sin” to the eternal victory over sin through the Lamb’s “shed blood”! He said in his closing comments from “Sinners In The Hands Of An Angry God”,

“God has laid Himself under no obligation, by any promise to keep any natural man out of Hell one moment. God certainly has made no promises of eternal life, or of any deliverance from eternal death, but what are contained in the covenant of grace, the promises that are given in Christ, in whom all the promises are yes and amen. But surely [and Farrell Fisher adds, ‘sadly’] they have no interest in the promises of the covenant of grace who are not children of the covenant, who do not believe in the promises, and have no interest in the Mediator of the covenant.”

But, praise God, beyond “Sin’s Complications” IS “Sin’s Remedy”! How could any ‘sane’ person read Romans 5:8-11 and not be at the Throne of God’s Mercy repenting and trusting His “finished work” through Christ? It says: “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ DIED FOR US. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be [being][ saved by His life. And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.” [And the ‘reconciliation’ IS commitment in honoring Him daily through our walks, paths, assignments!].

How on target and inspiring do you find Peter’s words in 1 Peter 1:18-21? “knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you who through Him believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, SO THAT your faith and hope are in God.”

And, as a result of one’s redemptive faith in Christ alone, Peter added in 1 Peter 2:9-10 these words: “You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.”

Thank you Robert H. Coleman who in 1939 allowed his hymn, “Saved, Saved!” to be published in the old Broadman Hymnal by Broadman Press! It says: “I’ve found a friend who is all to me, His love is ever true; I love to tell how He lifted me And what His grace can do for you.

He saves me from every sin and harm, Secures my soul each day; I’m leaning strong on His mighty arm; I know He’ll guide me all the way.

When poor and needy and all alone, In love He said to me, “Come unto Me and I’ll lead you home, To live with Me eternally.” Saved by His power divine, Saved to new life sublime! Life now is sweet, my joy is complete, For I’m saved, yes, saved!

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

“VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED? HUMANLY DEVELOPED STRENGTH OR GOD-GIVEN POWER?”

A fleshly-life in its most perfect demonstration, by man’s opinions and standards, is so void and empty of God-given power by His grace and mercy through the anointing of the Holy Spirit!

The kingdom of a man ruled by his own heart and mind is not the Kingdom of God in a repentant, redeemed life! In fact, man at ‘his’ best without God is a ‘victim’ or ‘slave’ of the ruler of the physical world who is known as Satan or the devil.

Jesus said in John 12:31-33, “Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out,” and ‘the ruler’ Jesus spoke of was the devil who deceives fallen mankind, alienated and separated from Holy God.

If you didn’t know, Matthew 4:1-11 tells us of Jesus’ encounter with the devil which every man, without the born-again divine nature, lives under his control , or his assigned demons who so want to intoxicate you, knowingly or unknowingly, as the enemy of God! Receive the Truth!

“Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry. NOW WHEN THE TEMPTER came to Him, he said, ‘If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.’ [Lust of the flesh!].

But Jesus answered and said, ‘It is written: Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’

Then the devil took Him up into the holy city, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, ‘If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written: He shall give His angels charge over you, [Boastful pride of life!], AND, In their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone.’

Jesus said to him, ‘It is written again, You shall not tempt the Lord your God.’ Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to Him, ‘All these things I will give You if you will fall down and worship me.’ [Lust of the eyes!].

Then Jesus said to him, ‘Away with you, Satan! For it is written, You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.’ Then the devil left Him, and behold, angels came and ministered to Him.”

Are you aware of what Paul revealed to Timothy and us in 2 Timothy 2:24-26? “And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, and that they may come to their senses, AND ESCAPE THE SNARE OF THE DEVIL, having been taken captive by him to do his will.” [Your life? Will of God or the will of the devil?]

In James 4:7 the brother of Jesus wrote, “Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” But rather than resist, unredeemed men, mostly, don’t even know their lives have become the residences of Satan or his demon powers!

The first creation, having been captured by men under Satan’s control, became literally a battleground dominated, surrounded, subverted away from God’s eternal intention, to becoming a devilish kingdom of resistance to Holy God and the people He wanted for His own, which is why Paul told us in Colossians 1:10-14, “that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy; giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has delivered us from the powers of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.” [And if God has delivered YOU, how is it you so easily entertain ‘demons unaware’?]

It doesn’t matter if one finished only the first grade in school or achieved the status of a PhD graduate, without Christ, he/she is a slave of Satan and led by demonic deception! “Old things” refers to a life of man/woman, fallen away, independent from God by his/her sin nature, living in fleshly kingdoms with Satan and demon powers, deceived and being deceived, but with the devil himself ruling over that kingdom of darkness – and without God as Lord and Savior, it’s the ‘kingdom’, even fleshly, that is the denial of God’s Sovereignty and a willing or even unwilling acceptance and captivity of the rule of the devil! A world of man’s “best”, a world of “fleshly goodness”, a world of even moral acceptance, without Christ it is the “kingdom of darkness and the devil”! It doesn’t matter to many, whether they know it or not, without Christ as Redeemer, Savior, and Lord, a man/woman is living under the domination of a devilish rule in the kingdom of darkness – and many feel, “I’m home! And I love it,” but Hell awaits their admission!

Even to believers, in 1 Peter 5:8-11, Peter wrote: “Be sober, be vigilant; because YOUR ADVERSARY the devil walks about like a roaring (“Toothless”) lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world. BUT may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory By Christ Jesus, after you have suffered awhile, perfect, establish (‘make to stand’), strengthen, and settle you. To Him be the glory and dominion forever and ever.”

Do you remember Shakespeare in his writing “Twelfth Night”? [Acts 111, sc.4,1. 108], “What, man! Defy the devil: consider, he’s an enemy of mankind.”

And that is not a “Hollywood” fictional story to scare the living ‘day-lights’ out of people, but the reality of the devil’s kingdom against the Holy Kingdom of God and the Eternal Rule of the King of kings and Lord of lords – and the devil is intent on enlarging and controlling and ‘dis-easing’ fallen humanity, with the desire to expand his darkened, demonic, diseased, and deadly kingdom!

It’s so interesting, at least to me, that John, in Revelation 12, unveiled a war in heaven! Verses 7-12 educates us as follows: “And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer. So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, ‘Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down.

And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their own testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death. THEREFORE rejoice, O heavens, AND YOU WHO DWELL IN THEM! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time.”

I’d say, without hesitation and with full confidence, that if YOU deny the reality of the devil, you are a “dishonor-student star” in his class of “stupidity”! His devilish works saturate nations, even like America – but I’ve traveled every continent in our vast world and seen his ‘dis-artistic’ drawings in men’s and women’s lives! And, true educators, interested in world history, know beyond any shadow of a doubt that the devil dominates the world of faithless, flesh-poisoned men, women, youth, and even children! But let me assure you: HOLY GOD WINS! And because you appropriate redemptive faith and a true confessing heart and mind, so will YOU win out over the devil’s tactics!

How familiar are you with Job’s dramatic story? Job 1:6-12 reveals, Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, AND SATAN ALSO CAME AMONG THEM [even a Sunday morning worship service?]. And the Lord said to Satan, “From where do you come?”

So Satan answered the Lord and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking back and forth on it.” [Have YOU seen him walking lately around your community and surroundings?].

Then the Lord said to Satan, [Get ready! You’re next!], “Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil?”

So Satan answered the Lord and said, “Does Job fear God for nothing? Have you not made a hedge around him, around his household, and around all that he has on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But now, stretch out Your hand and touch all that he has, and he will surely curse You to Your face!”

And the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your power; only do not lay a hand on his person.” So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.”

Job lost his fortune, his family, being severely tested by the devil! [But surely in our highly educated, affluent land, many believe devilish testings are unrealistic stories “out of YOUR unholy bible!”] – Oh, really?

Job 1:20-22 enlightens us: Then Job arose, tore his robe, and shaved his head; and he fell to the ground and worshipped. And he said: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I shall return there. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” In all this Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong.

The testing began to take its toll on Job! And Holy God allowed even more intense testing! Job 2:3 says: Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil? And still he holds fast to his integrity, although you incited Me against him, to destroy him without cause.”

Oh, and “through it all,” Job learned to trust more and more in the Living God! In Job 42:1-6 we read, Then Job answered the Lord and said: “I know that You can do everything, and that no purpose of Yours can be withheld from You.

You asked, “Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge? Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. Listen, please, and let me speak; You said, ‘I will question you, and you shall answer Me.’

Job then said, I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees You. Therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”

Should we dare read Job 42:12-17? I believe so! “Now the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning; for he had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, one thousand yoke of oxen, and one thousand female donkeys. He also had seven sons and three daughters.

And he called the name of the first Jemimah, the name of the second Keziah, and the name of the third Keren-Happuch. In all the land were found no women so beautiful as the daughters of Job; and their father gave them an inheritance among their brothers. [Daughters names but not sons’ names? Not sure, but Jemimah means “dove”, Keziah means “cassic” or cinnamon, and Keren-Happuch means “paint-horn” or cosmetic box (or a beautifier)! Job was a blessed man!

After this Job lived one hundred and forty years, and saw his children and grandchildren for four generations. So Job died, old and full of days.”

How would YOU describe “old and full of days”?

“Vital Awareness Unveiled? Humanly Developed Strength Or God-Given Power?” It is so vital that you and I allow the Word of God to illuminate us in His eternal Truth, and nothing is more vital for the victorious walk in Christ than the awareness of “God-Given Power, Anointings, In-Fillings, and Empowerment”! It is not by “our best” but submission to His Spirit!

Zechariah was given a word of the Lord for Zerubbabel in Zechariah 4:6, “This is the word of the Lord for Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, (fleshly initiative or flesh-pumped-up impotent power), but by My Spirit,’ says the Lord of hosts.” Dare I tell you that victorious living as a disciple of Christ is the promised supply of the Spirit of God in His fullness, His authority, His power, His insight, His leadership, and His guidance?!?

When you come to the early history of the “Acts” of new, young, immature disciples, one of the first “musts” of every new disciple is the “must” of Spirit-anointing! And that’s with the Book of Acts in foundational training and equipping! It says, in Acts 2:14-19a,

But Peter, standing up with the eleven, raised his voice and said to them, “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and heed my words. For these are not drunk as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel (Joel 2:28-32):

“And it shall come to pass in the last days, [that’s the last days of the Old Covenant!], says God, that I WILL POUR OUT MY SPIRIT ON ALL FLESH; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions, your old men shall dream dreams.

And on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days; and they shall prophesy. I will show wonders in heaven above and signs in the earth beneath…”

In Acts 2:38-39 the Holy Word declares: Then Peter said to them [specifically the Jews, the city of Jerusalem, the priests in the temple, the gathered house of Israel, AND every man, woman, boy, or girl whom the Spirit draws, Peter said, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you SHALL RECEIVE THE GIFT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.” Has the Lord called YOU?

In Ephesians 5:15-21, Paul instructs all gatherings of true believers: “See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.

Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but BE FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, [ “making melody in your heart to the Lord? That’s agreement and submission to the Holy Spirit as the ‘conductor’ of your life of praise and thanksgiving to the Lord!], giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another in the fear of God.” GLORY!!

Let’s examine a portion of the Holy Spirit’s ministry in the Word of God! If Genesis 1:1 tells us, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth!”, we do know that the Holy Word reveals one God who expresses Himself in the Trinity of Truth: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit! [For example, one man who is man, husband, and father!].

In the last part of Genesis 1:2 it tells us, “And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.” Could that be “the water of life” or “the water of the Word” or “the water of washing of men’s hearts” or “the water that separates the dark from men, the dirt in their hearts and lives, washing, cleansing, purifying, strengthening, equipping, ordaining, anointing for ministry and service”? In fact, do we not read in Genesis 1:26, Then God said, “LET US make man in our image, according to our likeness…?” Us? Father, Son, and Holy Spirit!

If YOU are a part of the true family of faith, I know you’re aware of David’s plea in Psalm 51:10-11, when in his ‘prayer of repentance’ to Holy God, he cried out: “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.” Was King David aware, because of his sin, that at that time there was no anointing on his life and walk as he transgressed the Holy Word of God? Had Holy Ghost conviction swept over his life?

John was so aware of the ‘brood of vipers’ called the Pharisees and Sadducees, the ‘spiritual elite’ leaders of Judaism, who came out to witness his baptism and baptizing of ‘convicted children of God’, that John said, in Matthew 3:7b-11, “Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? THEREFORE BEAR FRUITS WORTHY OF REPENTANCE, and do not think to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones. And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He [King Jesus] will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”

Oh, and then one really gets an unveiling of the Holy Spirit’s necessity in the walk of the Redeemer’s Life and ministry when in Matthew 12:28 He said, “But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you.” [Cast out demons? Evidence of the coming of the kingdom of God upon His servants? In the 25 years of my ministry in India, “casting out demons” was so normal – but “American ‘christianity’ of the 21^st Century? To speak of demon deliverance reveals one’s spiritual stupidity! That’s ancient ‘voodooism’!”, as they expose their Biblical ignorance!

In Matthew 28:31-32 the Lord Jesus went on to say, “Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy AGAINST THE SPIRIT will not be forgiven men. Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come.”

If you’re faithful as the true disciple of Christ, you’re SO familiar with Luke 11 as the early disciples witnessed Him praying, and they cried out to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray!” And the “Lord’s Prayer” became new disciples firm foundation of a blessed prayer-life! He majored on true persistence in Biblical prayers! This is so vital, in Luke 11:9-13, that YOU must ask, “Has MY prayer-life included praying for the ministry of the Holy Spirit in my life, including His authority over demons?” The Word says: Jesus speaking: “So I say to you, ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish? Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If you, then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father GIVE THE HOLY SPIRIT TO THOSE WHO ASK HIM!” [Have YOU asked, have YOU received, and are you led by the Holy Spirit to “cast out demons”? “No, Preacher, we’re far beyond your spiritual immaturity – there is no modern-day ministry in churches and communities of “casting out demons” – demons don’t exist!” Really? THERE IS BLASPHEMY AGAINST THE HOLY SPIRIT – and the Lord Jesus said in Luke 12:10, “and if anyone speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but to him who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven.” [“Holy God, please, please, help the American church and even the church world-wide, because the ministry of Your Holy Spirit is, sadly, so void and unknown!”]

Notice from the Word: 1 Corinthians 2:9-14, But as it is written: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, THAT WE MIGHT KNOW THE THINGS THAT HAVE BEEN FREELY GIVEN TO US BY GOD.”

The Holy Spirit, in the believer, teaches us! Paul shared that the natural man (without Christ) does not receive the things of the Spirit of God! And the Lord Jesus, as He taught His disciples in Luke 12:11-12, so aware of opposition from an unbelieving world or an unbelieving religious world, said to His disciples, “Now when they [the opposition!] bring you to the synagogue and magistrates and authorities, do not worry about how or what you should answer, or what you should say. For the Holy Spirit WILL TEACH YOU IN THAT VERY HOUR WHAT YOU OUGHT TO SAY!”

Don’t you find it amazing and encouraging to hear John say in 1 John 2:20, “But YOU [as a true disciple and follower of Christ] have an anointing from the Holy Spirit, and you know all things.”

The beloved John, in 1 John 3:16, amplified “By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought lay down our lives for the brethren.” And then in 1 John 3:24, John said, “Now he who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And by this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.” Is the very Holy Spirit of God confirming, affirming, testifying in you: “Yes! He/she lives ‘in Christ,’ labors through Me, and loves the Lord, evidenced by his/her laid-down-life to the Savior’s glory and honor. I affirm their testimony by My Holy presence within as the Very Holy Spirit of God!”

More than the Spirit’s testimony, consider what Paul wrote in Ephesians 1:11-14! “In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory.

In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, WHO IS THE GUARANTEE OF OUR INHERITANCE until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.” Glory! And again, I say, Glory! Thank You, Lord, for not only the gift of our salvation, but the gift of the Holy Spirit to abide in us and glorify Your name through us by His ministry of grace, love, fruit, and power!

And receive Ephesians 4:30! “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption!” But how does one truly know? In Ephesians 5:8-12 Paul, anointed by the Holy Spirit, tells us: “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), finding out what is acceptable to the Lord. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret.” Fruit-inspectors? You better believe it if you are a true disciple of Christ, because ‘modern- christianity’ smells of ‘rotten fruit’ as it tries to live out an unscriptural ‘faith’, filled with compromise, open sin and even proud of it “because Jesus forgives me as I can’t do anything but sin until I get to heaven someday,” and Jesus responds: “Garbage! Depart from Me; I never knew you!”

Edwin Hatch and B.B. McKinney wrote “Breathe On Me”, old hymn of the 1930’s? “Holy Spirit, breathe on me, My stubborn will subdue; Teach me in words of living flame What Christ would have me do…Fill me with power divine, Kindle a flame of love and zeal within this heart of mine.” Is that your prayer this very moment?

CHAPTER NINETEEN

“VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED? UNFOUNDED EXPECTATION OR ETERNAL TRUTH UNVEILED?”

In 2 Corinthians 13:5 Paul made a powerful challenge and a call for true personal evaluation related to one’s ‘professed faith’ or ‘disqualification’ from it! He said, “Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? – unless indeed you are disqualified.”

How did Paul address the ‘Galatian followers’ (?) unless he was aware of the difference between “possessors of true faith” or the “pretenders of faith”? In Galatians 6:3 he stated: “For if anyone thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself.”

You do remember Paul’s word to the church at Colossae, and to the modern-day church now, when he warned them and us in Colossians 2:8, “Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.”

Philosophy, void of God’s Word is empty, man-made beliefs and opinions with no true foundation based on God’s Holy Word! Empty deceit? “We’re ‘God’ in and of ourselves – no ‘Jesus’ has any claim on us”, only that He knew us all by name and still went to the Cross in behalf of us all, redeemed by the blood or a rejecter of His blood sacrifice!

And even with that awareness of divine reality, awareness of the broken heart of God over unbelieving faith, awareness of the crucifixion, burial, resurrection, ascension, or His coming again to judge all the world, past, present, or future, Acts 17:30-31 declares, “Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, (“winked at”), but NOW commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this by raising Him from the dead.” But “His-story” means nothing to you?

I think in the early verses of these particular chapters is evidence of John weeping as he witnessed the broken heart of God over men’s sins, but initially I want to major on four or five statements from eternal angels and blessed elders of the Eternal Faith Story out of Revelation, chapters 4 and 5!

Revelation 4:8b, “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, Who was and is and is to come!” Revelation 4:11, “You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and by Your will they exist and were created.” In Revelation 5:8, the twenty-four elders falling down before the Lamb, sang a new song: Verses 9-10, “You are worthy to take the scroll, and to open its seals; for You were slain, and have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, AND have made us kings and priests to our God; and we shall reign on the earth.” Revelation 5:12 declares, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom, and strength and honor and glory and blessing!” Oh, and then, in Revelation 5:13, we read: “Blessing and honor and glory and power be to Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, forever and ever!”

But there are unbelievers, ‘pretenders’, and out-and-out rebelling, defiling lives that resent God’s proven love, grace, and mercy! And they are firmly convinced Holy God should accept them “because of who we are, because of how intelligent we are, and because of our worthy earthly accomplishments – you couldn’t do any better, God, than accepting us for who we are and what we do!”

The Random House Collegiate Dictionary, [Revised Edition of 1975, by Random House, Inc.], defines “pretense” as “feigning, make-believe, a false showing of something, like ‘friendship’ when one is an enemy, an insincere or false profession, the putting forth of an unwarranted claim, a fabrication!” You are aware that there can be, and, sadly are, “High-priced counterfeits” or even “cheap imitations”!

Alexander Pope, in his “Essay on Man,” [Epis. 1, l,124], wrote: “In pride, in reasoning pride, our error lies; All quit their sphere and rush into the skies. Pride still is aiming at the blessed abodes, Men would be angels, angels would be gods.”

Perfection in Christ is not an achievement man even needs to attempt, but is the gracious gift of Holy God. Do you remember Nebuchadnezzar as Daniel informed Belshazzar of the king’s rise and fall? In Daniel 5:18-21 we read: “O king, the Most High God gave Nebuchadnezzar your father a kingdom and majesty, glory and honor. And because of the majesty that GOD GAVE him, all peoples, nations, and languages trembled and feared before him. Whomever he wished, he executed; whomever he wished, he kept alive; whomever he wished, he put down. BUT when his heart was lifted up, and his spirit HARDENED IN PRIDE, he was deposed from his kingly throne, and they took his glory from him. Then he was driven from the sons of men, his heart was made like the beasts, and his dwelling was with the wild donkeys. They fed him with grass like oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till he knew that the Most High God rules in the kingdom of men, and appoints over it whomever He chooses;” and it’s for sure: God will appoint to bless a people OR God will appoint to curse, blame, instructing all men by whom He appoints!

Examine Ezekial 14:6-14, and be repentant, not shocked! God said through Ezekial, “Therefore say to the house of Israel, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “Repent, turn away from your idols, and turn your faces away from all your abominations. For anyone of the house of Israel, or of the strangers who dwell in Israel, who separates himself from Me and sets up his idols in his heart and puts before him what causes him to stumble into iniquity, then comes to a prophet to inquire of him concerning Me, I the Lord will answer him by Myself. I will set My face against that man and make him a sign and a proverb, and I will cut him off from the midst of My people! Then you shall now that I am the Lord.

And if the prophet is induced to speak anything, I the Lord have induced that prophet, and I will stretch out My hand against him and destroy him from among My people Israel. And they shall bear their iniquity; the punishment of the prophet shall be the same as the punishment of the one who inquired, that the house of Israel may no longer stray from Me, nor be profaned anymore with all their transgressions, but that they may be My people and I may be their God,’ says the Lord God.’”

Question! If the Bible clearly declares in 2 Timothy 3:16, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work,” have there been those who read the Old Testament Word and then declared or declares, “That’s not for New Testament disciples! What you read in Ezekial referred to Israel, not to any modern-day man.” How blind do you sense modern-man who sees himself exempt from All Scripture inspired by God?

How familiar are you with Deuteronomy 30:15-20? God spoke and still speaks today: “See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil, in that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, His statutes, and His judgments, that you may live and multiply; and the Lord your God will bless you in the land, (city, state, nation) which you go to possess.

But if your heart turns away so that you do not hear, and are drawn away, and worship other gods and serve them, I announce to you today that you shall surely perish; you shall not prolong your days in the land which you cross over the Jordan (the Mississippi, the Thames, the Nile!) to go in and possess. I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before YOU life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore, choose life, that both you and your descendants may live; that you may love the Lord your God, that YOU MAY OBEY HIS VOICE, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days; and that you may dwell in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them.” Texas land? Tennessee? California land? Utah land? Lands of England or all of Europe? Lands of the Asian continent or African nations?

“Unfounded Expectations?” Unbelief of God, rejection of saving grace and mercy, the lawlessness of disobedience and the hunger for what the world ‘out there’ away from Him offers? Are you familiar with the “parable of the lost son” in Luke 15? He left the father, went into the world’s ways, wasted his possessions with prodigal living, spent all – don’t miss the next event! – his ‘boss’ sent him into the fields to feed swine, and Luke 15:16 says, “And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, and no one gave him anything.”

Do you understand, comprehend a life away from Father-God, from the Lord Jesus Christ, from the Holy Spirit, from the Holy Word which is your eternal Milk and eternal Meat and eternal Bread? “Away-from- the Father” men and women, boys and girls, yes faithless families have become “dumpster divers” so alienated from God that they simply live by the world’s menu of godlessness, “pigging out,” being served slop rather than what is on the Table of the Lord, deceived even into treasuring trash and counterfeit rewards!

But the Bible says in Luke 15:17, “But when he came to himself…!” That’s a glorious turning! He returned to the Father! What will it be for YOU? “Vital Awareness Unveiled – Unfounded Expectations Or Eternal Truth Unveiled?” What did the Lord Jesus Christ say in John 14:6? “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”

And whether in this moment you understand it or not, there has always been only One Way God ordained for reconciliation to Him, and it was the way of the Cross, the way of the “shed blood,” the way of Resurrected Jesus, King of kings and Lord of lords.

All through the Old Testament, the sacrificial system was the foretelling of the coming of Emmanuel, “God With Us,” the Promised Messiah that, yes, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob looked for! Galatians 3:5-9 tells us: “Therefore He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does He do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? – just as Abraham “believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” Therefore know that only those who are of faith are the sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, ‘In you all the nations shall be blessed.’ So then those who are of [Redemptive] faith are blessed with believing Abraham.”

If you “receive the Truth”, are you aware that Jesus said of Himself in John 8:58, Jesus said to them, [unbelieving Jews!], “Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM”?

Have you studied and studied and studied, yes, the Four Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, as each unveiled from his perspective the reality of Jesus’ identity? Matthew? In Matthew 1;1 we read, “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham.” In Isaiah 9:6-7 is his prophetic unveiling of the Coming Messiah: “For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end, upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, to order it with judgment and justice from that time forward, even forever!! The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.” That’s “the Son of David,” King of kings and Lord of lords!

But Matthew 1:1, in unveiling ‘the genealogy of Jesus Christ,” also called Him “the Son of Abraham”, which tells us, Genesis 12:1-3, Now the Lord had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

Mark, in his gospel, unveils another eternal dimension of Christ, and it is as, yes, “the Servant of Man.” I love the Holman Study Bible, NKJV Edition, by Holman Bible Publishers, [Nashville, Tennessee, Copyright 2013]. Their cover of Mark’s Gospel “emphasizes actions and deeds. Jesus is on the go – healing, casting out demons, performing miracles, hurrying from place to place, and teaching. In Mark everything happens “immediately.” As soon as one episode ends, another begins. The rapid pace slows down when Jesus enters Jerusalem (11:1). Thereafter, events are marked by days, and His final days by hours.” Mark was led to introduce the ministry of Jesus through John as Mark 1:7-8 says, “There comes One after me who is mightier than I, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to stoop down and loose. I indeed baptized you with water (unto repentance!), but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” No doubt this is why Paul, in Galatians 4:4-6 equips us with the foundational truth of all born-again disciples: “But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent forth His Son into your hearts, crying out, ‘Abba, Father,” multiplying, increasing, ordaining the servant-spirit in all true disciples! Luke magnifies Jesus as “the Son of man,” I’m sure myself because Luke, as a physician or doctor, desired to uplift Christ Jesus as the “Great Physician” with a number of “healing events” through Jesus! Also, there should never be a doubt in any student of the Word study concerning John magnifying Jesus as the “Son of God.” Consider simply John’s Introduction, John 1:1-4!

“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 [that’s “all creation”!] 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.” John went on to say in John 1:14, “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.”

And the reason Holy God sent Christ Jesus into our, yes, sinful world? John 3:16-17 tells us, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes [trusts in, relies upon, adheres to] should not perish but have everlasting life. For GOD DID NOT SEND HIS SON INTO THE WORLD TO CONDEMN THE WORLD, but that the world through Him might be saved.”

It was Woodrow A. Geier, in his writing “Religion in Life”, who said: “In the Cross, God descends to bear in His own heart the sins of the world. In Jesus He atoned [the “blood atonement”] at unimaginable cost to Himself.” I don’t believe Holy God even viewed the Crucifixion but looked away, until the moment Holy God was ready to resurrect Him out of a borrowed grave!

What does Paul tell us in Romans 5:8-11? “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having NOW BEEN JUSTIFIED BY HIS BLOOD, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be [being] saved by His life.”

No wonder it was the famous missionary-pastor David Livingstone who once said: “I will place no value on anything I have or may possess except in relation to the Kingdom of Christ.” [Encyclopedia of Religious Quotations, Frank S. Mead, Fleming H. Revell Com., Westwood, New Jersey,p.55]

Do YOU even begin to fathom, understand, comprehend the fullness of the greatness of God’s love for fallen humanity, demonstrated through the guiltless blood of the Lamb of God for all guilty fallen humanity at the Cross, without the awareness in you of renewed guilt and sorrow, because it was YOUR sin and mine for which Christ Jesus shed His own blood and died in our behalf?

Barrington Booth wrote an old Hymn entitled “The Cross Is Not Greater,” [Published in the old Broadman Hymnal, by Broadman Press, Nashville, Tennessee, 1940!]. It says:

“The cross that He gave may be heavy, But it never outweighs His grace; The storm that I feared may surround me, But it never excludes His face.

The thorns in my path are not sharper Than composed His crown for me; The cup that I drink nor more bitter Than He drank in Gethsemane.

The light of His love shines brighter, As it falls on paths of woe; The toil of my work grows lighter, As I stoop to raise the low.

His will I have joy in fulfilling, As I’m walking in His sight; My all to the blood I am bringing, It alone can keep me right.

The cross is not greater than His grace, The storm cannot hide His blessed face; I am satisfied to know That with Jesus here below, I can conquer every foe.”

CHAPTER TWENTY

“VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED? THE REALITY OF HELL

AND HEAVEN?”

I’m sure that as you’re beginning this chapter, having come this far with me, that you are reasonably assured and confident in both the reality of Hell and the reality of Heaven! And if you began with your personal description of Hell, you’d probably say, “The abode and absence of redemptive faith – no help, no hope, no peace, no blessing – just worldly pleasures continuing into wild decay, a state of unbelief untouched by eternal grace, the reality of a death that will not die, pains and chains, a ‘fool’s dwelling’ that has no light, no love, no liberty – just suffering, sorrow, senselessness, and continuing satanic rituals!

I grieved when I considered Harry Leon Wilson’s evaluation of “The Spenders” when he said: [p.241], “Hell is given up ‘so’ reluctantly by those who don’t expect to go there.” And if you’re not fully aware of its dreadful benefits (?), it’s the gathering place of the crowd who wanted no God, no Savior, no Lord – just a place for the gathering of ‘good’ intenders, good intentions, or hurtful, cheap imitations of, yes, even ‘god-like’ desires, but of the idolatrous kind as many gathered at their ‘holy (?) tables’ of adultery and child sacrifices to show their full devotion! Has much changed in this “new” American or world century?

It was William Allingham, in his writing, “Blackberries,” who said: “I believe in This, That, and T’other; Whatever is current, no matter.” Which sounds to me like a mind and heart, dominated by ‘flesh’, fully blown up by the devil in stupidity!

If Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father (God) except through Me,” what is that man’s future ‘reward’? In Mark 9:42-48 the Lord Jesus Christ said: “But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea. If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed, rather than having two hands, to go to hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched – where ‘Their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.’

And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame, rather than having two feet, to be cast into hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched – where ‘Their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.’

And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye, rather than having two eyes, to be cast into hell fire – where ‘Their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.’”

Sin-maimed lives are “Hell-bound”! Sin-infested old sin natures, unredeemed by the “blood of the Lamb”, are “Hell-bound”! A sin-dominated ‘eye’, Jesus said, better for one eye to be plucked out if one enters the kingdom of God, than two eyes cast into hell-fire – where ‘Their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.’ Are you aware of how Job came to recognize that, if he turned to iniquity and lived in it, he would be ‘deserving of judgment’ followed by ‘a fire that consumes to destruction’?

At least King David knew his rock, his fortress, his deliverer, when strong enemies had surrounded him. He said, in 2 Samuel 22:5-7, and verses 17-20, “When the waves of death surrounded me, the floods of ungodliness made me afraid. The sorrows of Sheol surrounded me; the snares of death confronted me. In my distress I called upon the Lord, and cried out to my God; He heard my voice from His temple, and my cry entered His ears.” [If you KNOW Hell awaits you, I’d say, it’s time to cry out to Holy God in YOUR distress, because Hell is real, and has open arms waiting to pull you in!]. But then we read, Verses 17-20! “He sent from above, He took me, He drew me out of many waters. [At this moment, what ‘waters’ are YOU swimming in?]. He delivered me from my strong enemy, from those who hated me; for they were too strong for me. They confronted me in the day of my calamity, but the Lord was my support.”

And, thank God, for those who know “the Lord of my support,” but for those who have no faith, no trust, no surrender to the Sovereignty of God and His amazing love demonstrated in the sacrificial death of His own Son, Christ Jesus, AT THE CROSS, Hell awaits because they played with the fires of Hell itself, and have been burned, continue to burn, and will burn forever in those flames of godless burning that never cease, even after one dies!

In Mark 16:15-16, the Lord Jesus Christ, Resurrected King of kings and Lord of lords, said: “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes in [trusts in, relies upon, adheres to], and is baptized [as a testimony of saving grace], will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.”

Psalm 9:17 also declares: “The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.” How plain and so realistic with compassion and love when Jesus said in Matthew 10:28, “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him [the Holy Father] who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”

Just a few words written in the last few years on blank side-pages of “The Encyclopedia of Religious Quotations,” related to “Hell”! [ByJFF!], “Torture intended and never ending, day and night in the darkness of no light! Violence it’s reality, though paved with good intentions, – torturing poor souls with senseless pretensions! “Self-love” is a fleshly picture of love for the devil, pleasure-less decay that never brings one level, with Holy God or the Spirit or His Son in Heaven, but the lies of the devil in his untruth – leaven. The leaven of lies is the devil’s strong suit, and Heaven awaits to expose its rotten root; Satan is his oft-called name, constantly attacking God for the devil’s blame. Sad but so true, his days of deception are through, because Christ’s shed blood put the arrow of Truth through Satan and his race, released repentant hearts to their home in Heaven’s place!”

It’s so true: One doesn’t find his assignment to Hell with the expectation of celebrating with his friends! A rejecter of Christ may have many “friends” in Hell, but they aren’t smiling! Do you even think about “your friends, your family” who rejected Christ because of the absence of redemptive faith in their lives, but you feel, “Well, maybe they had no desire for Heaven but they’ll brighten up Hell with their parties,” when all they’ll experience is not parties but pity, not celebrations but curses, nor joy but the sour bitterness of the devil’s hate, nor self-confidence any longer but crushed outlooks for something beyond ‘bitter’, which is not better? Can you imagine the devil in Wall Street dress or Hollywood beauties with gorgeous gowns, but when they’re viewed, if one was even given a slight view from Heaven to there, you’d see only the very damnable of hell, stripped naked with bodies torn, carved on, bleeding in a state of death that will not die! Didn’t we earlier in this chapter read from Mark about ‘the worm that does not die,’ or where ‘the fire is not quenched’? It was Isaac Watts in his writing, “Heaven and Hell,” who wrote: “There is a dreadful hell, and everlasting pains; Where sinners must with devils dwell in darkness, fire, and chains.” Hell is real!

Mark used a few less words than Matthew when he recorded Jesus saying in Mark 12:4-5, “And I say to you, My friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear Him, who after He has killed, has power to cast into hell; yes, I say to you, fear Him!” That’s Holy God!

“Vital Awareness Unveiled? YES, THERE IS THE REALITY OF HEAVEN!” That’s the eternal “home-place” of God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, His faithful angels, and the “blood-bought sons and daughters” through their repentance toward God and faith, follow-ship, friendship with Christ Jesus, God’s crucified, resurrected, reigning, ascended Son, Jesus Christ, who will be magnified on earth as He is in His Heaven through “born again” children of His redemptive faith!

Yes, in Nehemiah 9 we find men of faith standing on the stairs of the Levites, crying out, worshipping the Lord their God, and in Verses 5-6 we read: “Stand up and bless the Lord your God forever and ever! ‘Blessed be Your glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise! You alone are the Lord; You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens with all their host, the earth and everything on it, the seas and all that is in them, and You preserve them all. The host of heaven worships You.’”

One of those very sad moments in Old Testament history is found in Isaiah 1 when the prophet sees the chosen people, Israel, as, Verse 4-7 tells us, “Alas, sinful nation! [That’s Israel!], 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. [That’s away from God and His holiness!]. Why should you be stricken again?[Stricken by God Himself!]. 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. [That’s cursed by God!].

Yet, in Verse 9, the prophet said, “Unless the Lord of hosts had left to us a very small remnant, we would have become like Sodom, we would have become like Gomorrah.”

And whether ancient Israel or modern-day America, Biblical Truth is, “God always sees a remnant of true believers who uphold His honor and His Truth!” But still, whether Ancient Israel or the modern-day American church, “the faithful city has become a harlot!” But, Isaiah 1:27-28, alerts us now, as He tried then, “Zion [the Kingdom of God, the spiritual Kingdom of God!], shall be redeemed with justice and her penitents with righteousness. [But] The destruction of transgressors and sinners shall be together, and those who forsake the Lord shall be consumed.”

The prophet gave a word of hope AND a warning from God when in Isaiah 1:18-20 he heard God saying also: “Come now, and let us reason together,” says the Lord. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured by the sword;” for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

But the prophet knew, by the grace of God, there would come the day when God would arise bodily through Emmanuel and He would shake the earth mightily – He has risen up, and He is still shaking the kingdoms of man as the Kingdom of Christ arises! [What do YOU believe Isaiah 7:13-14 is all about?] Then he said, “Hear now, O house of David! Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will you weary my God also? Therefore the Lord will Himself give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.” Immanuel means: “God with us!”

I pray you understand how vital it is in receiving the prophetic Word of God in the Old Testament, and then resting in its fulfillment all over the New Testament from Matthew through Revelation, but be patient as I share in this moment only 1 Peter 1:1-5, 10-12, and Verses 17-21!

1 Peter 1:1-5, “Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the pilgrims of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace be multiplied.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

1 Peter 1:10-12, Of this salvation the prophets have inquired and searched carefully [diligently], who prophesied of the grace that would come to you, searching what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ was indicating when He testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow.

To them it was revealed that, not to themselves, but to us they were ministering the things which now have been reported to you through those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven – things which angels desire to look into.

1 Peter 1:17-21, And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear; knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you who through Him believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.”

For YOU is it Immanuel, “God in flesh”, or simply the “best efforts” of one’s ‘religious faith’? For YOU is it the unveiling of your sinful heart and exposure to your only hope through Christ’s “blood Atonement”, or the futile heresy, a faithless frenzy, as a graduate of man’s private schooling in pride, false teachings, and even Satanic superstitions, or simply self-approval of anything that relates to even opposition to Holy Truth, Holy God, or a Holy Purpose and Eternal Plan?

I found Shakespeare’s words in “King John,” [Act 111, sc.1,L.175], so wise! “Blessed shall be he that doth revolt From his allegiance to a heretic.”

I’m sure the Apostle Paul had a clear understanding of “Faith in the Lamb of God” or faith in the ‘bondage’ of unbelief. He said in Titus 1:15-16, “To the pure all things are pure, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure; but even their mind and conscience are defiled. They profess to know God, but in works they deny Him, being abominable, disobedient, and disqualified for every good work.”

Oh, but then the Apostle properly and in an anointed spirit instructed Titus and us when in Titus 2:11-14 he said, “For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.”

I pray you’ve seen, received, clearly understand, that true disciples, still ‘in the world’ but not ‘of it’, are disciples set apart, re-born, filled with the presence and Spirit of the Resurrected Christ, [“Christ in you…”], governed, regulated, instructed, and living in the “overcoming life and Presence of Christ”, extending His life, expressing His love, and proving His power!

Yes, and though true disciples are still in the world but not of it, our calling is “taking the sentence of death daily, that the resurrection life of Christ may be manifested in mortal flesh” for an unbelieving world to see “Christ in you the hope of glory”!

Edward Mote and William B. Bradbury had their old Hymn, “The Solid Rock”, published in The Broadman Press Hymnal of 1940! [That’s Broadman Press, Nashville, Tennessee.]. It says: “My hope is built on nothing less Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness; I dare not trust the sweetest frame, But wholly lean on Jesus’ name.

When darkness seems to hide His face, I rest on His unchanging grace; In every high and stormy gale, My anchor holds within the vale.

His oath, His covenant, His blood, Support me in the whelming flood; When all around my soul gives way, He then is all my hope and stay.

When He shall come with trumpet sound, Oh, may I then in Him be found; Dressed in His righteousness alone, Faultless to stand before the throne.

On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand; All other ground is sinking sand, All other ground is sinking sand.”

Your “sure foundation”? 2 Timothy 2:19 is clear, sure, assured by Holy God Himself: “Nevertheless the solid foundation of God stands, having this seal: “The Lord knows those who are His,” and, “Let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity.”

CONCLUSION

This has certainly been an interesting journey! When Holy God put this in my heart and mind to write, I truly had no full understanding of where He would lead or to what extent He would allow me to unveil, yes, the small portion of “Vital Awareness Unveiled” that He’s given to me. I truly believe I’ve only touched the hem of the garment of this great Truth!

As I stated earlier, I approach my eightieth birthday, June 12, 2016! It’s been an interesting, exciting, fulfilling 80 years, and especially since God’s grace, mercy, and special blessing granted me my Godly wife, Susan McNabb Fisher, THE most beautiful woman on earth and a true ambassador of the love of Christ, the love of His Word, and, yes, the love of her husband, four grown, saintly, caring kids, nine grandkids, great grandkids with more on the way! Three sons and a daughter: Scott, Susan, Stan, and Steve, with three outstanding daughters-in law, Tammy, Leann, and Diane! Blessed beyond measure by them! Oh, and grandsons blessing us with their own beautiful wives, and a granddaughter with a loving husband, and now, their first child! [I believe Stephanie’s husband, Spencer Coleman, preferred six boys and four daughters! Not sure about that!]

As of June 10, 2016, we will celebrate our 60^th Wedding Anniversary! Sue has been so loving, so faithful, so strong, so wise, so caring, so desirous of Christ being honored through her, not only to her husband and her church, but to the community she touches, yes, by her very presence! And, how blessed to have married a woman who wasn’t sure about how to boil water initially, but came to be an outstanding cook, canner, baker, pie-maker, creator of many, many fine dinners, tastes, and recipes – and especially if it has a little wine to intensify its taste!

I’m so thankful for God’s choice for me a wife who loves the Lord Jesus, wise in His Word, faithful to His Name and reputation and honor, blessed with a heavenly wisdom that enriches His eternal praise and adoration – Proverbs 3:13 says, “Happy is the man who finds wisdom..” Her name is Susan Gail McNabb Fisher! Didn’t Proverbs 11:16 tell us, “A gracious woman retains honor,” and my dear wife’s amazing journey has been only to honor her Lord and Savior through her walk before Him and her walk before her world!

Didn’t Proverbs tell me in Proverbs 31:10-12, “Who can find a virtuous wife? For her worth is far above rubies. The heart of her husband safely trusts her; so she will have no lack of gain,” with Verses 30-31 painting Sue’s indelible print: “Charm is deceitful and beauty is passing, but a woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised. Give her of the fruit of her hands, and let her own works praise her in the gates.”

And, in the gates of glory, there will be the beautiful words from her Lord and Savior: “Well done, good and faithful servant; you’ve been faithful over a few things, now enter the fullness of everlasting joy in the Lord!” That’s my bride!

I pray you’ve been blessed as you’ve journeyed with me through “VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED”! Thanks, James Farrell Fisher

By J. Farrell Fisher

[Volume One]

Ephesians 4:29, “Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.”

Copyright: 2016, James Farrell Fisher and/or Susan M. Fisher

1809 Rollingwood Court, Bedford, Texas, 76021

FOREWARD

[“Dr.” David Clark, spiritual son of Farrell Fisher, longtime faithful disciple who has ministered in Florida prisons for years. His wife, Sharon, is also a strong faithful witness to the honor of Christ! They are a part of Farrell & Sue’s sons and daughters!].

INTRODUCTION

Writing this book has been, I believe, an inspiration of Holy God to me as I have entered the year of 2016, and on June 12, 2016, I will be celebrating my 80^th birthday! The one thing I have sought to be sensitive to in my journey is the leadership of our Lord through His Word, His Spirit, and, yes, the wise words of His people to me through the years. Closed, deaf, unconcerned ears to the voice of God is not a wise pilgrimage!

How do YOU respond to the words of Jesus in Matthew 25:31-34? “When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared FOR YOU from the foundation of the world.”

And I believe “kingdom consideration” is vital for every human being! Of course, a falling, failing, ‘full of self’ kingdom faces a destiny that sadly is death and not life, darkness and not Light, the curse and not our Lord’s blessing, and in one’s self lives devotedly for the prison of self-will, self-desires, self-pleasures, unaware of what Holy God so lovingly longs for them in and through His divine will and His holy pleasures!

In Matthew 11:28-30 the Lord Jesus Christ said to a needy world, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

It’s been a few months ago that I was in my study-room, and Holy God began to speak to me about “Death or Life?” I penned some words as He stirred my heart. It says: Death, an event every life does face; death, the call that men cannot erase. Yet death, as strong as it seems, has no power to erase God’s dreams.

Strong, yes mighty, no one can deny, but death has no power when upon Christ we rely; eternal life is our Lord’s faithful supply.

Repentance and faith are heavenly gifts He readily supplies, and grants us the grace of His heavenly eyes; eyes to see what He mercifully gives, promises of His Word that allows us to live.

Death as it comes cannot be denied, but death when it happens, is God’s open door to the curse of Hell or to the blessing of Heaven’s “much more”.

The “best of men” may seem slow to die, but effort in ‘flesh’, though mighty and strong, does not unveil to whom they belong.

Death is the door to God’s heavenly rest, or death is the door to the devil’s hellish pests; no rest for the godless as eternity dawns, receiving the poison they clearly had sown.

Death is the dawn of Heaven’s best, or death is the birthing of greater slavery and chains, hopeless though crying for a moment’s rest.

The “tomb” of death is no resting place but a constant wailing of pain and disgrace, as the devil and demons, with foolishness and shame, awaken their prisoners to remind them of blame.

Blame for accepting their sinful state, blame for denying the Lord too late. Pleasure they sought without any awareness of what Jesus had bought.

By the blood of the Lamb sinful bondage is broken, but ‘sinners’ refuse to accept what was spoken. Freedom from sin because of His blood, but bondage with Satan because of his flood.

Life everlasting our Lord’s gracious call, made One in Him though bruised by the Fall; Light has come to enlighten our Way, the darkness of day has no more to say; but Heaven’s Light forever shines at the Table of the Lord in Heaven we dine.

Blessed is the man who lives in “Resurrection Life”, freed from sin and its inevitable strife, brought out of ‘death’, blessed in His Life.

Blessed is the man set apart to live with Him sustained by His resurrected life and heart. Gifts of God continually abound as the saint in Christ is valiant in choosing Heaven’s sound.

No strife, no pain, no fleshly blame – just resting in Jesus, no longer sinfully lame. New life, new hope, new dreams abound, dreams that emit only Heaven’s holy sounds.

Blessed is the man most blessed by God’s Word, no longer unmindful or ashamed of his devotion to the Lord, but so devoted and settled in the Truth that binds a heart and mind to the glory of our God, not coldly, carelessly, merciless just buried in the sod.

A new name given, a new purpose defined – set apart to Him to honor His Name, so thankful for His blessing and so aware of the same, to lay down our lives in His holy name; dead to ourselves and our fleshly games, no slamming the door in the face of God, but ‘planting’ our lives in this earthly sod by His witness of Life, wholly given to God!

His glory so freely bestowed is His gift to the man who freely sows God’s mercy and grace and love where God chooses to place us, with a God-given call, that whatever we do, we do it in awe of the God who placed us in the midst of man’s Fall, to sound His words: “redeemed from the Fall,” and recipients of God’s All.

God’s All of forgiveness and freedom and force, to equip as servants, as we rest in His course – no plans of our own but happily choosing to serve where we’re sown.

A crown of glory so freely awaits the man or woman who ‘drinks His blood,’ so fully aware they’re ‘saved from the ‘flood’; and those deceived by the devil’s untruths, those unaware of His spiritual abuse, the sons of God so boldly face the Fall of men in fleshly disgrace, and pour out their lives to see the change that our Lord’s sacrifice so richly inflames – A flame of God that purifies the soul, seta a man free, and enriches his life, free from guilt, free from godlessness, free to breathe in His gracious gifts, equipping His people to pronounce salvation from fleshly rifts!

Heaven forever in relationship with God, married to Him with the old man in earth’s sod. Heaven forever as the gift of His grace, ever soaring on eagles’ wings until I’m safe in His place. His love gave me wings, even a voice to sing, and eyes to see my eternal resting place, graciously a recipient of His matchless grace!

“Amen” to God forever the same, the God of love that has washed our blame, and seated us with Christ in heavenly places that we might view His love of all races, anointing us in His Spirit and blessing us with heavenly graces, to see our world as His Creation, with Holy Desire as His habitation, unveiling Christ Jesus as His Holy Revelation! [Written by James Farrell Fisher at the beginning of this new book!]

OUTLINE

Chapter 1 – “I NEVER KNEW YOU”! SIGNED: GOD

Chapter 2 – “VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED”

Chapter 3 – “THE VITAL AWARENESS OF THE NEED OF SPIRITUAL LABORING”

Chapter 4 – “VITAL AWARENESS OF THE AMAZING GOD AND AMAZING GIFTS”

Chapter 5 – “THE AMAZING UNVEILING OF AWESOME TRUTH BY PREACHING PEACE THROUGH CHRIST JESUS’ CROSS”

Chapter 6 – “VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED? FALLEN FOLLOWER – FAITHFUL FOLLOW-UP”

Chapter 7 – “VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED? THE CALL TO ONE’S NEED OF SELF-EXAMINATION”

Chapter 8 – “VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED? PRAYERLESS LIFE – PRAYERFUL LIBERATION”

Chapter 9 – “VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED? BESTOWED GRACE – BLESSED VICTORY”

Chapter 10 – “VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED? ONE LEGISLATOR – ONE LORD”

Chapter 11 – “VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED? VOID OF GOD’S WORD OR VICTORY THROUGH GOD’S WORD?”

Chapter 12 – “VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED? EXPERIENCING THE POWER OF THE PROMISED, PRECIOUS HOLY SPIRIT!”

Chapter 13 – “VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED? WORLD PHILOSOPHERS OR WILLFUL PROMOTION BY GOD?”

Chapter 14 – “VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED? CONFLICTING LOYALTY OR ALL-CONSUMING LOVE?”

Chapter 15 – “Vital Awareness Unveiled? Victims Or Victors?”

Chapter 16 – “VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED? CARING FOR OTHERS – THE SIGN OF CHRIST’S PRESENCE!”

Chapter 17 – “VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED? SIN’S COMPLICATIONS – SIN’S REMEDY!”

Chapter 18 – “VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED? HUMANLY DEVELOPED STRENGTH OR GOD-GIVEN POWER?”

Chapter 19 – “VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED? UNFOUNDED EXPECTATION OR ETERNAL TRUTH UNVEILED?”

Chapter 20 – “VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED? THE REALITY OF HELL AND HEAVEN?”

CHAPTER ONE

“I NEVER KNEW YOU!”

SIGNED: “GOD”

In reading the Psalms recently, I read a Scripture that heightened the ‘holy fear of God’ in my heart. It was Psalm 31:1 when David wrote: “In You, O Lord, do I put my trust and seek refuge; let me NEVER be put to shame or (have my hope in You) disappointed; deliver me in Your righteousness!”

In Verse 4 David prayed: “Draw me out of the net that they have laid secretly for me; for You are my strength and my stronghold.”

If David found himself in “the net”, a “net that they have laid secretly for me,” with certainty it was his fleshly enemies, though religious, who wanted to bring the king down!

Are you aware that there are ‘enemies’ who want to bring King Jesus down even today? And there are ‘enemies’ who want to bring you down even this very moment!

Sadly, there are false accusers who desire to bring down anything or anyone whose attitude and aim of life is to give glory to God as they ‘walk out the Faith’ in the midst of a troubled, disturbed, and disbelieving world, yes, even a religious world that consents to anything opposite of the Lord Jesus Christ!

Remember, it was “the scribes and Pharisees” and even religious priests of Jesus’ day who nailed Him to the Cross – and even today there are religious people in church somewhere every Sunday, used by Satan, to falsely accuse you, seeking to defame you, discourage you, discolor the whiteness of your reputation as a true follower of Christ and servant of God, never understanding that their false accusations, mouthed by their own bitterness and anger, exposes to whom they belong – and the defamers aren’t someone owned by Christ Jesus!

Are you aware of the reality of abuse that “the humble and oppressed” face in their journeys? And are you aware that the “wicked condemn, spurn, renounce and divorce themselves” from God Himself? If they accuse God, you then are not a target of His enemies? Please hear me! YOU are a target of Hell itself and Hell’s manifestations through lives NOT FILLED with the Spirit, nature, and character of Christ!

Pumped up, arrogant flesh, is an academy award winner right out of Hell itself, manifested in bitterness, resentment, unforgiveness, manifested by false accusations, making ‘darkness’ out of light, feeding others (uneatable pies) out of the rotten fruit of a pumped-up self- importance, and in their hearts and minds their seeds of wickedness sprout in anger, bitterness, and resentment, with festering sores which wilts any true spiritual wisdom and reflection of the character of Christ who even on the Cross said, “Father, forgive them.”

When Christ Jesus went to the Cross, He took us all with Him, putting to death the “old man”, the “man of sin,” the “man of a vile nature and character,” the “man of bitterness and resentments and unforgiveness”, yes, crucified with Christ. But if that’s true, and it definitely is, how does a ‘professing believer’ still act like the devil himself?

If a man chooses unforgiveness, what does he receive? If a man chooses bitterness, what is his fruit? If a man is dominated by anger and resentment, what will he receive from God as he stands before the Throne in his moment, day, and time there?

I want you to read carefully James 3:6-16 before we continue on! This is vital, yes, relating to your eternal existence! And I’m using here, and elsewhere in this message, the Amplified Bible!

“And the tongue is a fire. The tongue is a world of wickedness set among our members, contaminating and depraving the whole body and setting on fire the wheel of birth – the cycle of man’s nature – being ignited itself by hell [Gehenna].

For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea animal, can be tamed and has been tamed by human genius (nature).

But the human tongue can be tamed by no man. It is (an undisciplined, irreconcilable) restless evil, full of death-bringing poison.

With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse men who were made in God’s likeness!

Out of the same mouth come forth blessing and cursing. These things, my brethren, ought not to be so.

Does a fountain send forth [simultaneously] from the same opening fresh water and bitter?

Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives, or a grapevine figs? Neither can a salt spring furnish fresh water.

Who is there among you who is wise and intelligent? Then let him by his noble living show forth his [good] works with the (unobtrusive) humility [which is the proper attire] of true wisdom.

But if you have bitter jealousy (envy) and contention (rivalry, selfish ambition) in your hearts, do not pride yourselves on it and thus be in defiance of and false to the Truth.

This [superficial] wisdom is not such as comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual (animal), even devilish (demonical),

For wherever there is jealousy (envy) and contention (rivalry and selfish ambition) there will also be confusion (unrest, disharmony, rebellion) and all sorts of evil and vile practices.”

And unless one receives the Truth, acknowledges his selfish guilt and envy, responds repentantly before Holy God of his rivalry spirit and selfish ambition, defies the Truth and is false TO the Truth and won’t repent, then he is bound by an earthly, fleshly, demonic spirit, and while calling out to Jesus will bust Hell’s doors wide open, enslaved to those devilish demons and the spirits of men overcome by anger, hatred, and fleshly bitterness, not even knowing the fruit of the Spirit they profess to possess!

The Amplified Bible, in Proverbs 16:5 says, “Every one proud and arrogant in heart is disgusting, hateful and exceedingly offensive to the Lord; be assured – I pledge it – he will not go unpunished.”

GOD SAYS: “I never knew you!” Let’s examine choices men make that shuts God out and away from them:

FIRST, ARE YOU AWARE OF THE FALSE GODS MEN CREATE TO BOW BEFORE PROFESSING ALLEGIANCE TO THEM BECAUSE THEY WANT TO BE RELIGIOUS ON THEIR OWN TERMS!

In Amos 8:13-14 we read: [“The Message” Bible by Eugene H. Patterson, Nav Press, Colorado Springs, co. 80935], “On Judgment Day, lovely young girls will faint of WORD-THIRST, robust young men will faint of GOD-THIRST,

Along with those who take oaths at the Samaria Sin-and-Sex Center, saying, ‘As the lord god of Dan is my witness!’ and ‘The lady goddess of Beer-Sheba bless you!’ Their lives will fall to pieces, they’ll never put it together again.”

Idol worshippers! Allegiance to man-made idols, whether religious, fleshly, sinful, or demonic. Literal idols that men bow before all over the world and never hear a word, never sense a touch, never receive an anointing, never entertain angels but have the full support of demonic powers.

In Acts 19: 23-28 we hear from the “loud mouths and lost minds” of those getting rich off making idols! Listen to their explanation:

But as time went on there arose no little disturbance concerning the Way [of the Lord Jesus].

For a man named Demetrius, a silversmith who made silver shrines of (the goddess) Artemis (not Diana), brought no small income to his craftsmen.

These he called together, along with the workmen of similar trades, and said, Men, you are acquainted with the facts and understand that [Are YOU ready?] from this business we derive our wealth and livelihood.

Now you notice and hear that not only at Ephesus but almost all over [the province of] Asia this Paul has persuaded and induced people to believe his teaching and has alienated a considerable company of them, saying that gods that are made with human hands are not really gods at all.

Now there is danger not merely that this trade of ours may be discredited, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemas may come into disrepute and count for nothing, and that her glorious magnificence may be degraded and fall into contempt, she whom all Asia and the wide world worship.

As they listened to this they were filled with rage, and they continued to shout, Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!”

Oh, but hear me: Idolatry is more than the worship of man-made, devil-inspired stones to worship before and bow down to! In 1 Corinthians 10:14 Paul pled with the Corinthian church and our church-world today, saying, [Amplified]

“Therefore, my dearly beloved, shun – keep away from, avoid by flight if need be – any sort of idolatry (of loving or venerating anything more than God).”

Did you hear that with your spiritual eyes and ears? “Keep away from – avoid – any sort of idolatry”! In “The Art of Worldly Wisdom, XXVI”, Baltasar Gracian Y Morales wrote: “All men are idolaters, some of fame, others of self-interest, most of pleasure.”

Oh, but then you read 1 Samuel 15:23 and the Word tells us: [Amplified Bible]“For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as idolatry and teraphim (good luck images). Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He also has rejected you from being king.”

It was Martin Luther in “Table Talk” who said: “We easily fall into idolatry, for we are inclined thereunto by nature, and coming to us by inheritance, it seems pleasant.”

The Amplified Bible in Colossians 3:5-6 translates Paul’s words as follows: “So kill (deaden, deprive of power) the evil desire lurking in your members – those animal impulses and all that is earthly in you that is employed in sin; sexual vice, impurity, sensual appetites, unholy desires, and all greed and covetousness, FOR THAT IS IDOLATRY [the deifying of self and other things instead of God…]

It is on account of these [very sins] that the [holy] anger of God is ever coming upon (those who are obstinately opposed to the divine will) the sons of disobedience.”

Did you receive that ? A son, a daughter of disobedience is the same as an idol! An idolater is one obstinately opposed to the divine will (the sons of disobedience)!

And Paul gives us all a warning in 2 Corinthians 6:16 when he said: “What agreement [can there be between] a temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God; even as God said, I will dwell in and with and among them [that’s the church!] and will walk in and with and among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.”

Paul was concerned about God’s people choosing to worship idols? Is it any different today than it was in Paul’s day?

SECOND, HOW GUILTY DO YOU BELIEVE GOVERNMENTS ARE WHEN MEN SUBVERT THE RULE OF GOD IN GOVERNMENT AND ENTHRONE THEMSELVES, YES, TO RUTHLESSLY AND SELFISHLY AND DECEPTIVELY RULE OVER THE PEOPLE?

Psalm 67 is one of the most informative passages about God’s rule in government you’ll not find in most national governments’ constitutions. It says: [Amplified Bible]

“God be merciful and gracious to us and bless us, and cause His face to shine upon us and among us, SELAH [pause, and calmly think of that]! That Your way may be known upon earth, Your saving power [Your deliverances and Your salvation], among all nations.

Let the peoples praise You, [turn away from their idols] and give thanks to You, O God; let all the peoples praise and give thanks to You. O let the nations be glad and sing for joy; for You will judge the peoples fairly, and guide, lead or drive the nations upon earth. SELAH [pause, and calmly think of that]!

Let the peoples praise You, [turn away from their idols] and give thanks to You, O God; let all the peoples praise and give thanks to You. The earth has yielded its harvest [in evidence of God’s approval]; God, even our own God will bless us. God will bless us, and all the ends of the earth shall reverently fear Him.”

And, if you happened not to hear it in your heart or overlooked or just didn’t understand it, let me highlight it for you! Judgment comes upon the nations! People who are truly praising the Lord are turning away from their idols! Holy God WILL guide, lead, or drive the nations upon the earth!

Question: Are there godless governments in churches or are some churches infiltrated by godless people intent on shaping ‘our church’ to ‘our way of thinking’?

1 Peter 4:17-18 tells us, “For the time [has arrived] for judgment to begin with the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will [be] the end of those who do not respect or believe or obey the good news (the Gospel) of God? And if the righteous are barely saved, what will become of the godless and the wicked?”

Proverbs 11:30-31 is both encouraging and frightening! It says: “The fruit of the [uncompromisingly] righteous is a tree of life, and he who is wise captures human lives for God [as a fisher of men] – he gathers and receives them for eternity. Behold, the [uncompromisingly] righteous shall be recompensed on earth; how much more the wicked and the sinner! [And if the righteous are barely saved, what will become of the ungodly and wicked?”]

Have you followed through with studying 2 Peter? If you did, you had ‘Hell’ scared right out of you if you lingered because Peter was inspired by Holy God to write 2 Peter 2:1-10! It says,

“But []in those days] there arose false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among yourselves, who will subtly and stealthily introduce heretical doctrines – destructive heresies – even denying and disowning the Master Who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction.

And many will follow their immoral ways and lascivious doings; because of them the true Way will be maligned and defamed. And in their covetousness (lust, greed) they will exploit you with (cunning) false arguments. From of old the sentence [of condemnation] for them has not been idle; their destruction (eternal misery) has not been asleep.

For God [even] spared not angels that sinned, but cast them into hell, delivering them to be kept there in pits of gloom till the judgment and their doom. And He spared not the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven other persons, when He brought a flood upon the world on ungodly [people].

And He condemned to ruin and extinction the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, reducing them to ashes []and thus] set them forth as an example to those who would be ungodly. [Genesis 19:24].

And He rescued righteous Lot, greatly worn out and distressed by the wanton ways of the ungodly and lawless. [Genesis 19:16,29]. For that just man, living [there] among them, tortured his righteous soul every day with what he saw and heard on [their] unlawful and wicked deeds.

NOW if [all these things be true, then be sure] the Lord knows how to rescue the godly out of temptations and trials, and how to keep the ungodly under chastisement until the day of judgment and doom; And particularly those who walk after the flesh and indulge in the lust of polluting passion, and scorn and despise authority. Presumptuous and daring – self-willed and self-loving [creatures]! They scoff at and revile dignitaries (glorious ones) without trembling.”

But can I tell you? There’s coming a day when the ungodly will want to shake themselves out of this world that belongs to Holy God, unaware they’ve shaken themselves into Hell itself!

THIRD, AND LAST, ARE YOU AWARE OF WHERE ‘FLESHLY’ PRETENSE LEADS THE ACTUAL ‘SELF-PROMOTERS’? ARE YOU READY TO BE CONFRONTED BY HOLY TRUTH? In Matthew 7:15-29 we read, [bear with me!], 14 Verses!

“Beware of false prophets, who come to you dressed as sheep, but inside they are devouring wolves. [Have you ever encountered them?].

You will fully recognize them by their fruits. Do people pick grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles? Even so every healthy (sound) tree bears good fruit – worthy of admiration; but the sickly (decaying, worthless) tree bears bad and worthless fruit.

A good (healthy) tree cannot bear bad (worthless) fruit; nor can a bad diseased tree bear excellent fruit – worthy of admiration. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and cast into the fire. Therefore you will fully know them by their fruits.

Not everyone who says to Me [that’s Jesus!], Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven. Many will say to Me on that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, and driven out demons in Your name, and done many mighty works in Your name?

And then I will say to them openly (publicly) I never knew you; depart from Me, you who act wickedly – disregarding My commands [Psalm 6:8]. So everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts upon them – obeying them – will be like a sensible (prudent, practical, wise) man who built his house upon the rock;

And the rain fell and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And every one who hears these words of Mine and does not do them will be like a stupid (foolish) man who built his house upon the sand; And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell; and great and complete was the fall of it.

When Jesus had finished these sayings [the Sermon on the Mount], the crowds were astonished and overwhelmed with bewildered wonder at His teaching. For He was teaching as [One] who had [and was] authority, and not as did the scribes.”

I’ve pastored in Florida, Alabama, Arizona, and Texas. And that was over a period of about 50 years. So the true story I’m about to share, you’ll not know where this story occurred, true, sad, and so convicting.

A man I know had a personal friend who was running for public office – and for certain this man was sure, confident, and at peace in giving his close friend full support.

But the man had a neighbor a few blocks away who had decided to run for the same office, and so he went to the neighbor, asking for his support.

The central man of the story told the neighbor, “I wish I could, but one of my long-time best friends is running, and I’ve committed my support to him.” The neighbor was incensed and marked the central man voting for his friend as the neighbor’s number one enemy. He became so embittered, and from that day forward lived with a grudge, a resentment, a tactic of nothing good to say about the man who voted for his friend rather than this neighbor.

Dare I tell you the embittered neighbor is an active church-goer? He professes Christ Jesus but lives in a state of unforgiveness and bitterness!

What did Jesus say in Matthew 7:23? “Ant then I will say to them openly (publicly) I NEVER KNEW YOU; depart from Me, you who act wickedly – disregarding My commands.”

Receive our Lord’s words in Mark 11:25-26! “And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, FORGIVE HIM AND LET IT DROP – leave it, let it go – in order that your Father Who is in heaven may also forgive you your [own] failings and shortcomings and let them drop.” But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your failings and shortcomings.”

I was 37-38 years of age, I believe, when I knew I had serious business to take care of if I wanted God’s blessing on my life, my wife, my children. I was the product of a broken home. At three years of age my parents divorced, and I was taken by my mother to the home of her parents who cared for me for about 9-10 years. Then my mother remarried, and I was taken to live with her and her new husband.

In all my years of life my father was never in my home with me, Sue, and his grandkids. One time, my senior year in high school, playing against Knoxville Central High School in Knoxville, I tackled their single-wing tailback, 230 pounds he weighed, hitting him at his knee level, knocked unconscious in the early second quarter, transferred to the Catholic Hospital in Knoxville, parents and family unsure that I might live through the night.

When I awoke at 4:30 in the morning, all of my family was standing at the door of my hospital room, including my Dad and his second wife. I lived – and I played the next Friday night against Notre Dame High of Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Beyond that, if I desired to see my Dad, which I did, I would ride a bus from Cleveland, Tennessee, to his office in Athens, Tennessee, where I was born. He never ever came to my home. At the 37-38 years stage of life, wanting God’s full and fresh blessing, God said, “Go, and forgive your mother and father now!” Which I did! And as a result, received “the peace of God that passes all understanding.”

It’s time – forgive, free yourself, and walk in His fullness and eternal blessing! Examine Ephesians 1:7-12, [NKJV Edition, Holman Bible Edition], “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth – in Him. In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory.”

Question! Are YOU living to the praise of His glory and honor? Do YOU walk in forgiveness to those who wounded YOU? Is your song “Mercy and Grace” or is it the song of unforgiveness, bitterness, resentment, even with flashes of hatred? In 2 Corinthians 7:10 we read, “For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death.”

In your journey through life, what is truly your spiritual desire? A disease or the fruit of the blessing of the Indwelling Christ who forgives by His shed blood? A man who walks in the spirit of unforgiveness WILL NOT KNOW our Lord’s blessing apart from exchanging their bitterness for His forgiveness, even seeking sincere relationships not closed doors, because we were reconciled to Christ through His Cross, and true reconciliation is not only with Christ but a true relationship with those who ‘hurt, offended, or slighted us’!

If you’ve “entered the Kingdom of God”, why not act like it? 1 John 4:9 says, “In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.” Have YOU entered the Kingdom of God? Are you living and demonstrating and validating the Truth of His Indwelling Life?

It was Gladden and Smith who wrote the old Hymn, “O Master, Let Me Walk With Thee.” It says: “O Master, let me walk with Thee, In lowly paths of service free; Tell me Your secret, help me bear The strain of toil, the fret of care.

Help me the slow of heart to move By some clear, winning word of love; Teach me the wayward feet to stay, And guide them in the homeward way.

Teach me Your patience! Still with You In closer, dearer company, In work that keeps faith sweet and strong, In trust that triumphs over wrong. In hope that sends a shining ray Far down the future’s broadening way, In peace that only You can give, With You, O Master, let me live.” Does He “know YOU” or not?

CHAPTER TWO

VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED

Are you aware of a ‘religious faith’ birthed in one’s mind on the basis of one’s distinct, self-actualizing moral efforts, or the ‘True Faith’ birthed, built, based and blessed on God’s initiative, inspiration, and divine insight?

Is there a religious spirit apart from the Holy Spirit that invents requirements apart from God’s revelation, unveiling, promise, and verification of divine life only through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ?

Have you ever witnessed a mass religiosity so opposite to ‘repentance toward God and true faith in the finished work of Christ on the Cross’? “Vital Awareness Unveiled”?

Religious convictions or Divine Truth? Devotion to a church’s constitution or devotion to Christ’s Resurrected, Reigning Indwelling Life? Devotion to what an ‘intellectual’ professor says or devotion to who Christ Jesus is? Devotion to a world’s united, unbiblical teachings that there is more than one way to God, including every religion manufactured by men’s deceived hearts, or holy revelation of the vital awareness unveiled of God’s only “one way”? Is it man’s ‘religious foundation’ offered by ‘the best’ in intellectual superiority or God’s best and blessed in the awesome Truth of who Christ Jesus is and what He did on Calvary’s Cross over 2000 years ago, and, in fact, birthed in the heart of Holy God before our world was ever created?!?

Is vital awareness unveiled by the ‘Apostates’ Creed’ or the “Apostles’ Revelation” unveiled by the sold-out disciples who all died for the Eternal Truth? [And maybe even a bigger question today: “Are you a true disciple ready to die for the only Way of true salvation – the death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and soon-coming of Christ Jesus?”] Is it vital unawareness unveiled by social experiments rather than the true declaration of the Holy Word concerning Christ, or the vital awareness unveiled by the sacrificial death of Christ on the Cross?

An ‘Apostates’ Creed’ is all in for self-awareness, self-individuality, self-honoring, while the “Apostles’ Creed” is the affirming, relying upon, declaration, and submission to Christ’s Lordship and His “victory” in and through His sacrificial death on the Cross, releasing men from the penalty of their sin and their surrender to His “Resurrection Life, Resurrection Power, and Resurrection Hope”!

In fact, in Matthew 16:24-26, Jesus declared, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” That’s the true words of the Lord Jesus!

Do you realize that one substituting his individuality in seeking to be reconciled to Holy God is “banking” on God believing our self-efforts are eternally rewarding, and God should be thankful to have us on His side? But, God says, Matthew 16:24, “If ANYONE desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.”

I was awe-struck when I read Dietrich Bonhoffer’s statement: [Bonhoeffer, by Eric Metaxes, p.138], “The church has only one altar, the altar of the Almighty…before which all creatures must kneel. Whoever seeks something other than this must keep away; he cannot join us in the house of God…The church has only one pulpit, and from that pulpit, faith in God will be preached, and no other faith, and no other will than the will of God, however well-intentioned.”

What was true in the very day of Christ Jesus is true even today! In John 6:66-68 we read, From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more. Then Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you also want to go away?” But Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” And there are those who “do go away”, captured in mind and spirit, because, for them, “the way of the Cross” does not lead home to safety, convenience, or acceptance by a sadly, Godless world, enslaving themselves to their religious bondage so opposite to the true freedom in Christ Jesus!

The sad truth of a ‘fallen world’, so expressive of ‘fallen man’, alienated and separated from Holy God, is that “the blood of Jesus Christ” shed on the Cross was totally unnecessary because their ‘sin’ and ‘sin nature’ was not that serious that a wise, understanding, sympathetic God, should, would, could, and did shed the literal blood of His own ‘assumed’ Son. The lost, alienated, unbelieving world says, “The ‘fleshly god’ of one’s own natural life is enough to deliver himself, even if one hears of a “greater salvation”, because there is nothing better in man than his own self-deification, self-strength, and self-ability to overcome any minor or major spiritual short-coming – who needs Jesus?” You’ve heard it!

But a greater, sadder truth? Just like the scribes and Pharisees in Jesus’ day who rejected Him and crucified Him, those in this modern day who do the same thing, Jesus says, John 7:33-34, “I shall be with you a little while longer, and then I go to Him who sent Me. You will seek Me and not find Me, and where I am you cannot come.” Are you a believer or an unbeliever, a receiver or a rejecter, an independent, foolish man or truly a wise man of redemptive, life-changing faith?

“Vital Awareness Unveiled?” Hear the words of Jesus Christ in John 14:6! “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”

FIRST, VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED IS CHRIST JESUS, THE ONLY WAY FALLEN MEN ARE RECONCILED TO HOLY GOD! What did Jesus Himself say? “No one comes to the Father except through Me.” And, if Christ Jesus declares, “I AM THE WAY,” then what is taking place in the minds and hearts of unbelievers? It’s total, complete, destructive deception, breeding ‘death’ for one’s eternal reward!

In Psalm 36:1-4, David wrote about the wickedness of a sinful man! “An oracle within my heart concerning the transgression of the wicked: THERE IS NO FEAR OF GOD BEFORE HIS EYES. For he flatters himself in his own eyes, when he finds out his iniquity and when he hates. The words of his mouth are wickedness and deceit; he has ceased to be wise and to do good. He devises wickedness on his bed; he sets himself IN A WAY THAT IS NOT GOOD; he does not abhor evil.”

And that takes place, without shame, before the Lord’s mercy, in spite of God’s faithfulness in working out his redemption, and his bed, at nighttime, is where he thinks out his wickedness, and ends up doing what? “He sets himself in a way that is not good!” No doubt this is why the author of Proverbs was inspired to write in Proverbs 12:15, “The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, BUT he who heeds counsel is wise.” And those who are spiritually unwise, in Proverbs 13:15, God declares, “the way of the unfaithful is hard.” Just a chapter later, in Proverbs 14:12, Yes, Holy God declares through His servant, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.”

Oh, but then in Psalms 18:28-30 King David was so inspired to write, “For You will light my lamp; the Lord will enlighten [illumine] my darkness. For by You I can run against a troop, by my God I can leap over a wall. As for God, His way is perfect; the word of the Lord is proven; He is a shield to all who trust in Him.”

Isn’t there an old hymn that says, “Trust and obey for there’s no other way?” In fact, in John 14:6, Jesus declared, “I AM the way, the truth, and the life. NO ONE comes TO the Father except through Me.” Wasn’t it Josh MacDowell who once said “Jesus? Liar, lunatic, or the Lord God?”

Aren’t you awed by God’s holy choices to serve Him in proclaiming Christ? Are you aware that Saul of Tarsus was an enemy of Christ Jesus, persecuting Him, imprisoning Him, and ready to slaughter Him, but Holy God had a different plan that even included God washing Saul of Tarsus in the blood of the Lamb and raised Paul the Apostle up to be one of His greatest witnesses!

In 1 Corinthians 15:9-20, [patience, please! Eleven verses! But eternal truth!], Paul wrote, “For I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. Therefore, whether it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.

Now if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty. Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up – if in fact the dead do not rise. For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins!

Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable. BUT NOW CHRIST IS RISEN FROM THE DEAD, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.”

Let me highlight an extremely valuable word for you in the tenth verse! “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain…!” That’s “bestowed grace – blessed victory!” Jesus raised you and me up out of spiritual death, instilled His Resurrection Life, planted our feet on the “Solid Rock,” and showed us “His Way”!

Do you remember the man meeting Rebekah as she drew water in Genesis 24:27, saying to her, “Blessed be the Lord God of my master Abraham, who has not forsaken His mercy and His truth toward my master. As for me, being in the way, the Lord led me…!” And “Christ Jesus, the only way fallen mankind is reconciled to Holy God? Yes! Ten thousand times, Yes! Jesus said, “I AM THE WAY!”

Are you aware of what King David said in Psalm 18:32? “It is God who arms me with strength, and makes my way perfect.” Follow in the Word! Proverbs 10:17 says, “He who keeps instruction is in the way of life!”

You are aware of a man’s choice of the ‘highway’ on which he chooses to walk. In Isaiah 35:8 we read, “A highway shall be there, and a road, and it shall be called the Highway of Holiness,” with Verse 9 saying, “…the redeemed shall walk there,” as they ‘return to God,’ ‘coming with singing,’ and overflowing with “everlasting joy and gladness on their heads”!

Isaiah 59:8 speaks of “the way of peace” that most Israelites did not know, sadly! Are you aware of “the way to Zion”? Jeremiah 50:5, the Word of the Lord! It relates to the nation of Israel that lost its ‘way’ to God! But the holy prophet challenged them [and, yes, even the ‘church’ in America today!], “They shall ask the way to Zion, with their faces toward it, saying, ‘Come and let us join ourselves to the Lord in a perpetual covenant that will not be forgotten.’” Sadly, only a remnant then and a remnant now seeks the way of Zion, which is, by the way, the Way of His abiding presence!

I know it may not sit well with ‘broad-minded’ preachers, but according to Jesus Himself, He said in Matthew 7:13-14, “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.”

Are you aware of ‘the way of God in truth’? [Matthew 22:16]. Do you know “the way of escape”? [1 Corinthians 10:13]. How many do you know and relate to who walk “the more excellent way”? [1 Corinthians 10:31]. What about “the new and living way”? [Hebrews 10:20]. Oh, I tell you, “All the WAY our Lord desires to lead us!”

SECOND, VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED IS ETERNAL TRUTH THAT IS ONLY, YES, THE VERY EMBODIMENT OF “CHRIST IN YOU” – ALL ELSE? HUMAN DECEPTION! What was it Paul said in Galatians 4:19? “My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you.”

Do you receive what Paul wrote in Colossians 1:26 about “the mystery” that “has been revealed to His saints”? Then, Verses 27-28, reveals to us the absolute essential of “Vital Awareness Unveiled”! “To them God willed to make known are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.”

“Christ in you, the hope of glory”? Vital awareness unveiled – in YOU? Aren’t you absolutely raised with joy and thanksgiving when you read 2 Corinthians 5:21? “For He [God Almighty, Lord over all!] made Him [Christ Jesus] who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become [through Jesus only!] the righteousness of God in Him.”

I’m also awed when I read Hebrews 10:14 where Holy God inspired the author to share these words: “For by one offering He [God] has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.” And the word ‘sanctified’ means “set apart”, yes, for His glory and honor and praise alone! By the death of the Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary’s Cross, and that alone, one is reconciled to Holy God, indwelt with King Jesus, infilled with the Holy Spirit, and declared God’s finished work in us through His Son and our Savior and Lord!

We have nothing in and of ourselves to boast, but we can boast on the Christ in us who has set us apart unto Himself, and we glory in the Lord Jesus Christ! No ‘flesh’ glories in Christ’s resurrected presence, but the true born-again disciple of Christ glories in His Indwelling Presence! 1 Corinthians 1:30-31 tells us, “But of Him you are in Christ Jesus who became FOR US wisdom from God – and righteousness and sanctification and redemption – that, as it is written, ‘He who glories, let him glory in the Lord.’” Are YOU glorying in the Lord Jesus Christ in your day by day journey?

THIRD, VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED IS, NOT DEATH AND ITS WORTHLESS FRUIT, BUT ABUNDANT, EVERLASTING, ETERNAL LIFE, AND ITS ETERNAL, FRESH, NEVER-WILTING FRUIT OF CHRIST AND HIS SPIRIT! Did Jesus tell us in Matthew 12:33 that “a tree is known by its fruit”- understanding that there is no fruit of the flesh that honors Holy God, but only the fruit of the Spirit of God!

How familiar are you with Galatians 5:22-25? It says: “But the fruit [the fruit of God’s Spirit] is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.”

The best of human flesh, regardless of its realms of performance, cannot, will not honor Holy God! The best efforts of human flesh never attain to even a small glimpse of the nature and character of Christ! God didn’t call us out for grand performances to look like Jesus, but He called us out to “rest” in Him! In Philippians 2:12-13 we read, “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.”

And your ‘working out’ your own salvation, and that with fear and trembling’? It is turning to Holy God – it is not you ‘perfecting your ways’ – they were crucified with Christ when He died on the Cross two thousand years ago – God’s interest in you is your availability to Him and all He can do through you!

In 1 Corinthians 2:1-4 Paul testified for our understanding: “And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God.

For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.”

It was Oswald Chambers who wrote the following in his book, “My Utmost For His Highest.” He said: [p.252], “When once you are rooted in Reality [that’s Divine Reality, Divine Presence in you!], nothing can shake you. If your faith is in experiences, anything that happens is likely to upset that faith; but nothing can ever upset God or the almighty Reality of Redemption; base your faith on that, and you are as eternally secure as God. When once you get into contact, personal contact, with Jesus Christ, you will never be moved again. That is the meaning of sanctification. God puts His disapproval on human experience when we begin to adhere to the conception that sanctification is merely an experience, and forget that sanctification itself has to be sanctified. I have deliberately to give my sanctified life to God for His service, so that He can use me as His hands and His feet.”

J.W. Van DeVenter and W.S. Weeden wrote the old hymn, “I Surrender All.” It says: “All to Jesus, I surrender, All to Him I freely give; I will ever love and trust Him, In His presence daily live.

All to Jesus I surrender, Humbly at His feet I bow; Worldly pleasures all forsaken, Take me, Jesus, take me now.

All to Jesus I surrender, Make me, Savior, wholly Yours; Let me feels the Holy Spirit, – Truly know that You are mine.

All to Jesus I surrender, Lord, I give myself to You; Fill me with Your love and power, Let Your blessing fall on me.”

Can YOU surrender ALL to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, owned by His purchase of YOU through His shed blood? He’s calling YOU right now!

CHAPTER THREE

THE VITAL AWARENESS OF THE NEED

OF SPIRITUAL LABORING

In Isaiah 66:7-11 and then Verses 22-24, we read both sad words and glad words from God because of a nation and people who, some, rejected God’s Holy Word, and a remnant received His Word and held on to it for generations ,for centuries, with its Truth upheld that God’s Son would be birthed and a new, eternal spiritual nation formed called “the children of God, the children of the Messiah, the children of the Holy Spirit!

Isaiah 66:7-11 says first, “Before she was in labor, she gave birth; before her pain came, she delivered a male child. Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things? Shall the earth be made to give birth in one day? Or shall a nation be born at once? For AS SOON AS ZION WAS IN LABOR, she gave birth to her children. Shall I bring to the time of birth, and not cause delivery? Says the Lord. Shall I who cause delivery shut up the womb? Says your God. Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad with her, all you who love her; rejoice for joy with her, all you who mourn for her; that you may feed and be satisfied with the consolation of her bosom, that you may drink deeply and be delighted with the abundance of her glory.”

Isiah 66:22-24 then says, “For as the new heavens and the new earth which I will make shall remain before Me,” says the Lord, “So shall your descendants and your name remain. And it shall come to pass that from one New Moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, all flesh shall come to worship before Me,” says the Lord. And they shall go forth and look upon the corpses of the men who have transgressed against Me. For their worm does not die, and their fire is not quenched. They shall be an abhorrence to all flesh.”

Did you see that? “That you may drink deeply and be delighted with the abundance of her glory”? Do you understand? Israel was chosen of God to receive and share Divine Blessing! Yes, it was through the ‘holy remnant of Israel’, through the ‘chosen virgin mother, Mary,’ there would come the unveiling of divine blessing, through the birth of the Christ-child, who would, when Holy God heard the voice of sorrow over sin, and the remnant of Israel’s cry over the sorrow for sin and their need of the Savior, Holy God in His Amazing Grace would use the few to touch the many!

It was in God’s timing, in His awareness of desperation for needy people, in their extremity of woefulness over their spiritual emptiness, which God saw and still sees as His eternal moment of divine opportunity; in their deep anxiety, in their moment of the ultimate agony of spirit, in their moments of darkness and seeing no light, God turned on the Heavenly Light, and darkness became the door of the Eternal Light, and the Lord Jesus was birthed by Mary to the glory of God!

I know you didn’t miss it! “As soon as Zion travailed, as soon as Zion was ‘in labor,’ as soon as the remnant saw the desperation for divine life outside their fleshly determination, outside their religious traditions, outside their “We can handle our own problems,” Holy God sent His Son – divine opportunity for new life, a new relationship, a new available presence and sustenance of Divine Life, a new resurrection power over sin and death and meaninglessness and emptiness, through His Son, God’s Promised Messiah whose name Isaiah told them and us about in Isaiah 9:6-8! It says:

“For unto us a Child is born,[does that ring a bell in your mind and heart?], unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end, upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, to order it and establish it with judgment and justice from that time forward, even forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this!”

But for many in Israel they were content with what the high priest and chief priests had to offer which was fleshly devotion to their religious pretense! Even the Pharisees and Sadducees in Jesus day were the pretenders who became the executioners of the King of kings and Lord of lords! And you must understand: There’s not much difference at all between hate and indifference – one can be very vocal and violent, while others, just in an attitude of “I couldn’t care less”!! Or, “corruption and compromise” related to the Spirit and the Word of God, Or, the true possession of one’s own pretense as he/she ‘fakes the faith’! Or, the best of ‘fleshly imitation’ or the “rest” of counterfeit imitation; Or, how about the devilish delusion of deception about ‘sin’ that says, ‘you shall not die’ as they keep on sinning and keep on dying in the death cycle that will not die! Holy God certainly has promised one the end result of his foolish life choices!

I’m sure this is why Charles Caleb Colton, in “ The Encyclopedia of Religious Quotations”, [Fleming H. Revell Company, Westwood, New Jersey, Edited and Compiled by Frank S. Mead], said: “After hypocrites, the greatest dupes the devil has are those who exhaust an anxious existence in the disappointments and vexations of business, and live miserably and meanly only to die magnificently and rich. – They serve the devil without receiving his wages, and for the empty foolery of dying rich, pay down their health, happiness, and integrity.” But it’s true of every ‘independent, self-serving man, rich or poor’!

Several lessons we must share related to “ The Vital Awareness of The Need of Spiritual Laboring”: FIRST, NO TRAVAILING – NO SPIRITUAL BIRTH! I was ashamed, heart-broken, to hear a TV pastor say recently that he never talked about sin and the wages of sin because the lost of this world need the “good news”! But do you understand that the Holy Word declares that the wages of sin is death, the wages of sin is separation from God, the wages of sin cost the Life of the Son of God on the Cross – and without “repentance toward God and faith in the finished work of Christ at Calvary”, there is no reason for one to come smiling before Holy God, but broken, sorrowful, ashamed, rejoicing that there is a way out of one’s eternal spiritual dilemma!

No travailing – no spiritual birthing! No repentance – no rejoicing! No seed of bitterness over the shameful life of sin, indifference, and fleshly indulgence and bondage – no true sons of God! No going away from an ungodly lifestyle, void of Holy Presence within – no coming into the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Jesus Christ! No brokenness – no blessing! No identifying evidence of a Godly presence within – no rejoicing in the joy of the Lord!

There was a time off and on when Israel hid from God, or sought Him – in the Old and New Testament it was like a spiritual roller coaster, up and down, around and around, one day with awesome devotion, allegiance, and affirmation of Holy God and His Truth, but another time a rapid departure and unfaithfulness to His calling and mission through them.

Are you aware of what Holy God said through the prophet Amos? In Amos 3:2-3, through the prophet, God spoke: “You only [Israel] have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities. Can two walk together, unless they are agreed?”

And then in Amos 3:7-8 the prophet shared, “Surely the Lord God does nothing, unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets. A lion has roared! Who will not fear! The Lord God has spoken! Who can but prophesy?”

Is Holy God the same yesterday, today, and forever? When God spoke of “her” in Hosea, He was speaking to those birthed for His glory, honor, and praise, but most of Israel chose to serve the gods of the world, the flesh, and the devil! So God said, Hosea 2:13, “I will punish her for the days of the Baals [foreign gods, idols!] to which she [Israel] burned incense. She decked herself with earrings and jewelry, and went after her lovers; But Me she forgot,” says the Lord.”

And if one lives his/her life in a spiritual state of ‘forgetfulness’ of God, what doors have been opened? In Job 8:11-15 Bildad said to Job, “Can the papyrus grow without a marsh? Can the reeds flourish without water? While it is yet green and not cut down, it withers before any other plant. SO ARE THE PATHS OF ALL WHO FORGET GOD; and the hope of the hypocrite shall perish, Whose confidence shall be cut off, and whose trust is a spider’s web. He leans on his house, but it does not stand. He holds it fast, but it does not endure.” How shocking do you find Psalm 9:17? “The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.”

I was recently reading Oswald Chambers in his book, “My Utmost For His Highest,” and he surely, truthfully, convictingly, affirmed what the Holy God of Scripture through His prophets, teachers, and evangelists, truly understand about “No Travailing – No Spiritual Birth”! He said: “The plaintive, self-centered, morbid kind of prayer, a dead-set that I want to be right, is never found in the New Testament [and I,JFF, might add, OR THE OLD TESTAMENT!]. The fact that ‘I am trying to be right with God is a sign that I am rebelling against the Atonement. ‘Lord, I will purify my heart if You will answer my prayer; I will walk rightly if You will help me.’ I CANNOT make myself right with God, I CANNOT make my life perfect; I can only be right with God if I accept the Atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ as an absolute gift. Am I humble enough to accept it? I have to resign every kind of claim and cease from every effort, and leave myself entirely alone in His hands, and then begin to pour out in the priestly work of intercession.”

Dare I tell you that much of worldwide ‘Christianity’ today is: “travailing is strange to our understanding salvation of how we’re ‘saved’ – repenting, forsaking our grasp of salvation independent of us ‘trying’? We don’t think so!” SO.. they must come in repentance toward God and faith in the finished work of Christ AT CALVARY as He suffered, bled, and died in their place!

“No travailing – no spiritual birth”? Oh, receive the words of King David! Psalm 51:1-13 is David’s repentant prayer of faith from a life broken because of his sin! “Have mercy upon Me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness; according to the multitudes of Your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.

For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against You, You only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Your sight – that You may be found just when You speak, and blameless when You judge. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me.

Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me hear joy and gladness, that the bones You have broken may rejoice.

Hide Your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me by Your generous Spirit. Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, and sinners shall be converted to You.”

The True Faith of the reality of eternal spiritual birth is never evidenced by an ungodly life style, the breaking of Holy Laws, the absence of sorrow over sin or the absence of brokenness over separation from God, because sin separates not interprets God’s love, grace, and mercy, but intensifies one’s need of Holy God’s divine conviction! Out of conviction comes confession; out of confession comes conversion; out of conversion comes consecration; out of consecration comes submission and obedience to the holy calling of Holy God, yes, miraculously turning the natural into the supernatural, the old man into the new man, the life of willful obstinacy into a life of “walking in the light, as Jesus is in the light”, fully aware that “the blood of Jesus has, is, and will cleanse us from all sin”, because, “I have no desire to walk in that which separates me from God, but a walk evidenced by His miracle of a “new-born life”!

Oswald Chambers wrote, in “My Utmost For His Highest”, [p.268], “The love of God at work in me makes me hate with the hatred of the Holy Ghost all that is not in keeping with God’s holiness.” Be assured, a ‘casual lifestyle of supposed commitment to Christ Jesus, as one has no concern, conviction, or abhorrence of the evil of their sin and a willingness to be separated from it, is evidence of the ‘professors of faith’ without possession and transformation of the True Faith!

SECOND, “THE VITAL AWARENESS OF THE NEED OF SPIRITUAL LABORING”? THE ETERNAL REALITY OF BEING ‘NEW-BORN’, BECOMING GOD’S EARTHLY MAN OR WOMAN UNVEILING CHRIST JESUS TO ALL AROUND HIM/HER!

In 1 Corinthians 2:14-16 Paul wrote: “But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. For ‘who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?’ But we have [the “new-born”] the mind of Christ.”

Our call to follow Christ is a journey, a pilgrimage, yes, even a ‘warfare’ between ‘flesh’ and Spirit, the devil and our Living Lord within us, a world of opposition from the world’s true enemies against Holy God and Divine Truth, and a pull from the ‘old man’ against the ‘new man’! And, if one understands the ‘infancy of faith’, the ‘maturing of faith,’ and God’s ultimate goal in us of “the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Jesus Christ”, he/she sees the pilgrimage to the unveiling of His fullness, yes, in every true child of faith!

As the Lord Jesus is “lifted up within us”, there is the drawing of His power through us to touch our world with His grace, mercy, and love. Even a little child of faith can touch their world by their faithful testimony though not yet in the fullness of spiritual maturity!

And the ‘eternal reality of the new-born’? I believe we hear Jesus saying, even in the infancy of our faith, Matthew 16:24-25, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.”

But, one asks, “What is spiritual awareness of the need of laboring”? Though positionally we are ‘in Christ’, the fullness of His practical and true presence within is being worked out, which is why Paul said, “I die daily”! In fact, in 2 Corinthians 4:7-12a, Paul challenged the Corinthian church and us, “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed [at times!], but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed – ALWAYS CARRYING ABOUT IN THE BODY THE DYING OF THE LORD JESUS, THAT THE LIFE OF JESUS ALSO MAY BE MANIFESTED IN OUR BODY. For we who live are ‘always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake,’ that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So then death is working in us..”

Dare I tell you that true spiritual reality in Christ is learning ‘daily’ that 2 Corinthians 1:9-10 enlightens, informs, trains, and spiritually educated and equips all disciples when Paul said, “Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead, who delivered us from so great a death, and does deliver us; in whom we trust that He will still deliver us…” AND HE DOES; HE IS WILLING AND ABLE TO DO EXCEEDINGLY ABUNDANTLY ABOVE ALL WE ASK OR THINK!

There are those even preaching, indoctrinating, misleading, informing deceptively, because they’re deceived themselves, “It’s over! You prayed a prayer, and it’s over!” No, the journey has just begun! Receive Philippians 3:12-14! Paul wrote, “Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold on me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I PRESS TOWARD THE GOAL FOR THE PRIZE OF THE UPWARD CALL OF GOD IN CHRIST JESUS!” Are YOU pressing in to Christ Jesus?

THIRD, THE VITAL AWARENESS OF THE NEED OF SPIRITUAL LABORING BECAUSE OF FALLEN MAN’S SEPARATION FROM HOLY GOD AND MAN’S NEED OF REDEMPTION, RECONCILIATION, AND SPIRITUAL RE-BIRTH! Oh, very simply: “Heart-birthed ‘travailing’ WILL AND DOES birth true, holy children of God, through the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ!”

It’s His Atonement, not our attempts at being like Him, that reconciles us to Holy God and to our foreordained eternal purpose! Tell me of YOUR church’s ministry, your personal vision, your personal call of God on your life to touch your world with His saving grace!

Is there truly a heart burden in you, a heart-cry, and, as a result heart-blessings, because you see your ministry of touching your world by Who He is in you, because you see and are broken over a lost world around you, and because you sense the Christ in you so longing to extend His Life, express His love, and prove His power through YOU?

Dare I tell you that, sadly, most of the modern church-world is silent, indifferent, distracted, unconcerned about “lost sinners”, empty lives, teetering marriages and relationships, Godless governments and leaders, a rebellious teen-world, and even Hollywood, mostly, not all, who would rather entertain their customers with garbage and indecency than extenders of a blessed life in Christ and His Word and goodness and holy honor of Him, even willing and content to contaminate their customers with ‘Hell on earth’! Oh, and it was Spurgeon who even once said, “God ploughs deep while sluggish churches sleep.”

FOURTH, THE VITAL AWARENESS OF THE NEED OF SPIRITUAL LABORING BECAUSE WEARY INDIFFERENCE, SOULISH UNCONCERN, WORLDLY – WAYS -COMPANIONSHIP NEVER PRODUCES GODLY, HOLY, WONDROUS RESULTS TO HIS HONOR! In Psalm 25:14 David wrote wisely: “The secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him.”

And because one is consumed by, not only knowing the secret of the Lord being with those who fear Him, but also consumed with a passion to honor His Will, His Word, and His ways, that disciple or those disciples began to say, “Lord, what would You have us to do?”! If our Lord and Savior says, “Watch with Me, wait for Me, walk with Me, work with Me, and, yes, witness with Me, how is it that a ‘thriving’ church has no “training of disciples to be witnesses”, frowns on visitation saturation of its community, sleeps as a world around them never hears their testimonies, which like, while Jesus prayed in Gethsemane, the disciples slept!

“Lord, what would You have us to do?” And in John 20:21 The Lord Jesus said to those disciples and us, “Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.”I’m telling you with all my heart: There is a counterfeit of true faith if there is no strong commitment to be one with our Lord and Savior in His mission of touching an unsaved world around Him; the ones who say, ‘we choose to be faithful to our church, but reaching out beyond the four walls of the church is somebody else’s calling, not ours,’ sadly, they walk in tragic deception. Before His Ascension, after His Resurrection, the Lord Jesus said to His disciples and us who are a part of His redeemed body and churches, Acts 1:8, “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” Oh, and then in Acts 2:32, the early disciples, in-filled with God’s Holy Spirit witnessed verbally: “This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses.” Is that so with this particular church-age?

Oswald Chambers had introduced a chapter in his book, “My Utmost for His Highest,” [pps. 218-219], based on Romans 8:16, “The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs – heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.”

Chambers said: “We are in danger of getting the barter spirit when we come to God, we want the witness before we have done what God tells us to do. ‘Why does God not reveal Himself to Me?’ He cannot, it is not that He will not, but He cannot, because you are in the road as long as you won’t abandon absolutely to Him. Immediately you do, God witnesses to Himself, He cannot witness to you, but He witnesses to His own nature in you. If you had the witness before reality, it would end in sentimental emotion. Immediately you transact on the Redemption, and stop the impertinence of debate, God gives on the witness;” and it gratefully becomes His witness through you. Will you daily die to yourself that the Resurrection Life and Witness may be manifested in and through your mortal presence, fully surrendered to what He desires to do through you?

CHAPTER FOUR

VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED OF THE AMAZING GOD AND AMAZING GIFTS

In Hebrews 13:8 our Lord is described as “Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever.” And then in Verse 15 the author wrote, “Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.” That is thanks to His name for Who He Is and for What He does!

In Acts 10:38, Dr. Luke wrote, “how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.” And the exciting news is, it was not only Christ upon whom the power of the Holy ministered to and through, but also upon His newly converted disciples. Follow Acts 19:11, “Now God worked unusual (or “extraordinary”) miracles by the hands of Paul.”

I want you to come to Psalm 33:6-9 and hear David: “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth. He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap; He lays up the deep in storehouses. Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him. For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast.”

And His Word and His works are still standing fast unveiling “Amazing God and Amazing Gifts”! Churches used to believe and stand on the eternal Truth that “There is power, power, wonder-working power in the precious blood of the Lamb.”

Reinhard Bonnke, in his book “Mighty Manifestations,” (p.12), wrote: “God is a God who specializes in the impossible. He thinks only in terms of the impossible.” We need to be reminded of the Kingdom of God being the present realm and the rule of God in which God’s awesome power is sovereign and supreme and supernatural and never dies!

Don’t overlook or forget, but remind yourself daily, Acts 2:39, Peter emphasizing that (Listen and receive and stand in and appropriate: “The promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off [even in 2016!], as many as the Lord our God will call.”

Later, (p33), Bonnke said, “The emblem of God is fire, not stone!” Yet how many believers have you been around who are more like an immovable Egyptian sphinx than a God-anointed “burning bush”? Is the Spirit of the Lord God upon you? Luke 4:18-19 says, Jesus speaking, (remember – “As He is so am I in this world!”), “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor, He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.”

When did this Word fall to the ground like Truth perishing in the streets? Receive John 14:12-14! “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.”

The question of this moment as you are confronted by His words, ‘Will you be a volunteer? Psalm 110:33 says, “Your people shall be volunteers in the day of Your power.” What an awesome, vital awareness unveiled! Volunteers surrendering to the God of grace and amazing gifts, surrendering to the God of Holy Ghost power, surrendering to the God of the awesome rivers of heavenly anointing!

Psalm 62:11 says, “God has spoken once, twice I have heard this: That power belongs to God!” Our God, yes, in Christ Jesus, is the God of unusual and extraordinary miracles! Our God in Christ is the God of the impossible! Our God is the God of amazing miracles of grace, the God of amazing gifts, and the God of amazing wonders!

In Jeremiah 32:17-20, the prophet responds to God’s amazing unveiling of His power and authority: “Ah, Lord God! Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and outstretched arm. There is nothing too hard for You. You show lovingkindness to thousands, and repay the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their children after them – the Great, the Mighty God, whose name is the Lord of hosts. You are great in counsel and mighty in work, for Your eyes are open to all the ways of the sons of men, to give everyone according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings. You have set signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, to this day, to this day, and in Israel and among other men; and You have made a name, as it is this day.” His name? The amazing God of amazing grace, amazing gifts, amazing greatness, ready to be the Same in you following your “repentance toward God and faith in the finished work of Christ”, followed by your obedient submission and death to yourself, but Resurrection Power, Presence, and Promises, as you yield to the leadership of His Living Presence in you!

Even Nebuchadnezzar declared in Daniel 4:2-4, “I thought it good to declare the signs and wonders that the Most High God has worked for me. How great are His signs, and how mighty His wonders! His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and His dominion is from generation to generation.”

What was Paul’s attitude after God’s mighty anointing on his life? Romans 15:17-19 is a word of Paul’s testimony: “Therefore I have reason to glory in Christ Jesus in the things which pertain to God. For I will not dare to speak of any of those things which Christ has not accomplished through me, in word and deed, to make the Gentiles obedient – in mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God, so that from Jerusalem and round about to Illyricum I have fully preached the gospel of Christ.”

Here’s how Shakespeare put it in “Henry V1” 9Part 1, Act 11) – “God is our fortress, in whose conquering name Let us resolve to scale their flinty bulwarks!” The Amazing God and the God of Amazing Gifts!

FIRST, LET”S EXAMINE SCRIPTURALLY THE GOD OF THE SIGN AND WONDER OF DELIVERANCE! Come to Exodus 7:1-5 where “So the Lord said to Moses, See, I have made you as God to Pharoah, and Aaron your brother shall be your prophet. You shall speak all that I command you. And Aaron your brother shall tell Pharoah to send the children of Israel out of his land. And I will harden Pharoah’s heart, AND MULTIPLY MY SIGNS AND WONDERS IN THE LAND OF EGYPT. But Pharoah will not heed you, so that I may lay My hand on Egypt and bring My armies and My people, the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great judgments. And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch out My hand on Egypt and bring out the children of Israel from among them.”

And you understand that the Exodus stands forever as the sign and wonder of the Amazing God revealing His Amazing gifts, the liberation of His people! But there’s more. Come to Daniel 6:20-27 and follow carefully: “and when he came to the den, he cried out with a lamenting voice to Daniel. The king spoke, saying to Daniel, Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you serve continually, been able to deliver you from the lions? Then Daniel said to the king, O king, live forever. My God sent His angel and shut the lions’ mouths, so that they have not hurt me, because I was found innocent before Him; and also, O king, I have done no wrong before you. Now the king was exceedingly glad for him, and commanded that they should take Daniel up out of the den, and no injury whatever was found on him, because he believed in God. And the king gave the command, and they brought those men who had accused Daniel, and they cast them into the den of lions – them, their children and their wives; and the lions overpowered them, and broke all their bones in pieces before they ever came to the bottom of the den. Then King Darius wrote: To all peoples, nations, and languages that dwell in all the earth: Peace be multiplied to you. I make a decree that in every dominion of my kingdom men must tremble and fear before the God of Daniel. For He is the living God, and steadfast forever; His kingdom is the one which shall not be destroyed, and His dominion shall endure to the end. He delivers and rescues, and HE WORKS SIGNS AND WONDERS in heaven and on earth, Who has delivered Daniel from the power of the lions.”

[And, of course, you understand that there are more than physical lions like in Africa, but there are spiritually demonic lions out of Hell itself!]

But do you remember what is said in Luke 4 about “The Spirit of the Lord upon Me?” And what was one of the ministries? “Deliverance to the captives!”

God is the God who is the bondage – breaker – Not the bondage-maker! God is the God who is the chain-buster – Not the chain-entangler! God is the God who is the prison-door opener – Not the prison-confiner!

Henry George Bohn, in his “Handbook of Proverbs,” wrote: “The Devil entangles youth with beauty, the miser with gold, the ambitious with power, the learned with false doctrines.” There are still ‘Pharoahs’ who want people enslaved! There are still ‘Pharoahs’ who want your family under hard taskmasters! There are still ‘Pharoahs’ who want you chewed up in a lion’s den of fleshly deceptions and sins! There are still ‘Pharoahs’ who want any decency or bent toward God swallowed up by the inhaling powers of darkness!

[On the ‘Inner-net’ today on my wife’s computer, she told me of a statement by the man named Stephen Hawking who said, “Heaven is a fairy tale for people afraid of the dark.” Immediately John Lennox responded, “Atheism is a fairy tale for those afraid of the Light.”] Amen?

Hear me! The God of the sign and wonder of deliverance arises with healing in His wings! I recently picked up Smith Wigglesworth’s book, “Greater Works – Experiencing God’s Power,” (p36). He shared a story that occurred just after his baptism in the Holy Spirit. He knew that infusion of divine power but was asking, ‘Why,’ ‘Why me?’ What’s the purpose? RECEIVE IN JESUS’ HOLY NAME!:

“One day I came home from work and went into the house, and my wife asked me, ‘Which way did you come in?’ I told her that I had come in the back door. She said, “There is a woman upstairs, and she has brought in an eighty-year old man to be prayed for. He is raving up there, and a great crowd has gathered outside the front door, ringing the doorbell, and wanting to know what is going on in the house.”

Wigglesworth said, “This is what I baptized you for.” I carefully opened the door of the room where the man was, desiring to be obedient to what my Lord would say to me. The man was crying and shouting in distress, “I am lost! I am lost! I have committed the unpardonable sin. I am lost! I am lost!” My wife asked, “Smith, what should we do?” The Spirit of the Lord moved me to cry out, “Come out, you lying spirit.” In a moment the evil spirit went, and the man was free. God gives deliverance to the captives! And the Lord said again to me, “This is what I baptized you for.” And then Wigglesworth said: “There is a place where God, through the power of the Holy Spirit, reigns supreme in our lives. The Spirit reveals, unfolds, takes of the things of Christ and shows them to us (John 16:15) and prepares us to be more than a match for satanic forces.”

The God of the signs and wonders of deliverance! You find yourself enslaved – through the Passover Lamb, there is liberty and freedom! You find yourself in a state of spiritual death – through Jesus there is Life, Life in the Spirit, Life abundant, Life eternal! You find yourself in guilt and condemnation – but Jesus says: “I the sacrificial Servant, the Lord Jesus Christ, through My shed blood, have brought pardons, innocence, justification, ‘just-as-if-you’d-never sinned’! You find yourself hopeless – He blesses you with a living, eternal Hope! You find yourself troubled – He is triumphant, “more than conqueror,” and always in the midst of stormy waters still says, “Peace, be still!” You find yourself separated from Holy God – in Christ He came to reconcile you! You find yourself aimless – “For me to live is Christ!” You find yourself sensing worthlessness about yourself – He counts you worthy because of the Lamb of deliverance!

SECOND, LET’S CONSIDER THE GOD THE MIGHTY GOD OF THE VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED OF THE SIGN AND WONDER OF DECLARATION! Look with me carefully at Deuteronomy 4:32-39! “For ask now concerning the days that are past, which were before you, since the day that God created man on the earth, and ask from one end of heaven to the other, whether any great thing like this has happened, or anything like it has been heard. Did any people ever hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of fire, as you have heard, and live? Or did God ever try to go and take for Himself a nation from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs, by wonders, by war, by a mighty hand an outstretched arm, and by great terrors, according to all that the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? To you it was shown, that you might know that the Lord Himself is God; there is none other besides Him [regardless of what Muslims or any other idolaters say!]. Out of heaven He let you hear His voice, that He might instruct you; on earth He showed you His great fire, and you heard His words out of the midst of the fire. And because He loved your fathers, therefore He chose their descendants after them; and He brought you out of Egypt with His Presence, with His mighty power, driving out from before you nations greater and mightier than you, to bring you in, to give you their land as an inheritance, as it is this day. Therefore know this day, and consider it in your heart, that the Lord Himself is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other.”

I pray that the Spirit of Holy God reveals to you “the Lord Himself in heaven above and on the earth beneath” – always has been and forever will be! The God of the vital awareness unveiled of the sign and wonder unveils Himself, reveals Himself – He is not, will not, hide Himself from you! In Exodus 6:7 God’s Holy Word says, “I will take you as My people, and I will be your God. Then you shall know that I am the Lord your God who brings you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians”, or from under the burdens of the ungodly poured out on you, or from under the burdens of godless people who seek to intimidate you, indict you in the halls of fleshly unbelief, or from under the burdens of demonic activity intending to weigh you down straight into Hell itself!

But you shall know, see, sense, understand, as the shackles fall off you or as the chains are broken, as cruel, evil sinful taskmasters drown under the weight of God’s judgment, that His declaration is your deliverance!

You’ll remember that Moses had a word from God for Pharoah that the plagues would come that they might know that there is none like our God in all the world. He wants even His enemies to hear His declaration! In Exodus 10:1-2, God sends Moses, “that I may show these signs of Mine before [Pharoah] and that you may tell in the hearing of your son and you son’s son the mighty things I have done in Egypt, and My signs which I have done among them, THAT YOU MAY KNOW THAT I AM THE LORD.”

On the journey God gives “bread” to His children that they may “know that I am the Lord your God.” He instructed that twelve stones were to be stacked in the midst of the Jordan River as His people crossed over so “that all the peoples of the earth may know the hand of the Lord, that it is MIGHTY, that YOU may fear the Lord your God forever.” (Joshua 4:24).

In 1 Samuel 17:46 David had struck down Goliath, “that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel.” What did Paul say to his spiritual son, Timothy, in 2 Timothy 1:12? “I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is ABLE…!!!”

You are to be a “stone” in the river of life declaring God’s power, His identity, His ability, His amazing love, His unlimited grace and mercy! There has never been an act or action of God that was not for the purpose of unveiling His heart so all might know Him! “For God so loved the world…!!!”

THIRD, EXAMINE FURTHER THE UNVEILING OF THE VITAL AWARENESS OF THE MIGHTY GOD OF THE SIGN AND WONDER OF DEPENDENCE! Joshua 24:13-15 is clear, “I have given you a land for which you did not labor, and cities which you did not build, and you dwell in them; you eat of the vineyards and olive groves which you did not plant. Now therefore, fear the Lord, serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the River and in Egypt. Serve the Lord! And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

God mentions land He gave them and groves and vineyards they did not plant! Do you know what Paul asked the church at Corinth? (1 Corinthians 4:7), “And what do you have that you did not receive? Now if indeed you did receive it, why do you glory as if you had not received it?” And all I have to consider to rattle my cage is the very breath of life itself! It’s a God-thing!

In 2 Corinthians 5:18, he said, “All things are of God!” Unless of course you’re a constant navel examiner and truly believe all you are and all you have is of yourself! Earlier, in 1 Corinthians 8:6, Paul said, “yet for us there is only one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and through whom we live.” For some it’s as if “we spoke and our worlds were framed!”

Let me deflate your progressive, self-importance just a little bit: According to Exodus 31:1-5, even your job skills are of God! According to Haggai 2:8, even your money belongs to God – you’re a trustee who will give an account of your stewardship! According to Psalm 50:10 the forest is His, the beasts of the forest are His, and even the cattle on a thousand hills! No Texas rancher has reason to boast except in God alone! The Lord even taught us to pray, “God, give us our daily bread!”

Do you realize how dependent we are upon God? It’s like I’ve heard my wife Sue say to our kids as they were growing up, “I brought you into this world and I can take you out!” (A little comedy please in the midst of heavy heat!).

I so love Paul’s confrontation with the Athenians in Acts 17:24-30. It’s too vital to omit even a syllable! “God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. Nor is He worshipped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things. And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their pre-appointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are His offspring.’ Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising. Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent.”

Here’s a vital question: Is it my reign over my life or God’s reign as I totally surrender in dependence upon Him, not only for the very breath of physical life but also that breath of The Spirit? R.A.Torrey, in his book, “The God of the Bible,” (p116), tells us about Napoleon: “Napoleon was the ablest general of his day, and probably of all time. At the same time, he was the most adroit politician the world has ever seen, and he was also a man of the most unconquerable will. He willed to have the whole world at his feet, and it seemed as if it would be, as if nothing could prevent it. But God willed otherwise. When Napoleon tried to enter Russia, God spoke, and the soft and gentle snowflakes fell and fell and fell and kept on falling, and Napoleon Bonaparte fell also. His army was decimated and his reign shortly came to an end.”

Revelation 19:6 says, “And the Lord God omnipotent reigns!” Are you committed and submitted as a dependent child of faith upon the Father’s reign over you?

FOURTH, GO DEEPER, DISCOVERING THE UNVEILING OF THE AWESOME AWARENESS OF THE SIGN AND WONDER OF DESTINY! I know you remember and are familiar with Elisha’s journey with Elijah and how Elijah had urged him to stay behind because God was sending Elijah on to Bethel. And Elisha responded, (2 Kings 2:2), “as the Lord lives and as your soul lives, I will not leave you.” They traveled together. Then the time came close for Elijah’s departure in that whirlwind of glory and he asks Elisha, “What may I do for you, before I am taken away?” And in verse 9 Elisha said, “Please let a double portion of your spirit be upon me.”

Elijah promised Elisha his request would be granted! Now, notice verses 13-15, “He also took up the mantle of Elijah that had fallen from him, and went back and stood by the bank of the Jordan. Then he took the mantle of Elijah that had fallen from him, and struck the water, and said, Where is the Lord God of Elijah? And when he also had struck the water, it was divided this way and that; and Elisha crossed over. Now when the sons of the prophets who were from Jericho saw him, they said, The spirit of Elijah rests on Elisha…”

Come now to 2 Kings 3:11! “But Jehoshapat said, Is there no prophet of the Lord here, that we may inquire of the Lord by him? So one of the servants of the king of Israel answered and said, Elisha the son of Shaphat is here, who poured water on the hands of Elijah.” Question!

What is the reputation you want about yourself in the eyes of the world around you? Is it that you fit in, that you are one of the gang, or one like Elijah or Elisha? Or would it be that “sense of divine destiny” – the servant of Elijah, a holy man of God that passes by, a man who reflects the image of his Lord, a man who walks in the double portion of Spirit-blessing and anointing and empowering?

In Acts 4:13 it is said of Peter and John, “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they were men who had been with Jesus.” What a testimony! I found an epitaph in a book that is such a blessing. It read, “Here lies the body of John Smith, who for 40 years cobbled shoes in this village to the glory of God,” which leads us to:

FIFTH, THE UNVEILING OF THE AWESOME AWARENESS OF THE GOD OF THE SIGN AND WONDER OF DEMONSTRATION! Isaiah 8:18 says, “Here am I and the children whom the Lord has given me! We are for signs and wonders in Israel from the Lord of hosts who dwells in Mount Zion.”

Did you receive that for yourself, your family, your employees or employer, for your city, state, or nation, and receiving that Truth and demonstrating that Truth, YOU SEE YOURSELF AS A SIGN AND WONDER to an unbelieving world to the glory of God?

It’s not just to the church at Corinth that Paul wrote the following but to our homes! Receive 2 Corinthians 3:2-4, “You (your homes, your families) are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men. YOU are manifestly 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, of the heart. And we have such trust through Christ toward God.”

An anonymous writer has penned these illuminating words: “Jesus began His ministry of miracles at a wedding feast. He was invited there. His presence made the difference. He turned a desperate dilemma into a memorable miracle.” That was in a home, at a wedding!

Spurgeon said, “When home is ruled by the Word of God, angels might be asked to stay with us, and they would not find themselves out of their element.” Are our homes ruled by the Word of God? Do we see our homes and families as signs and wonders of the glory of God to an unbelieving world and even as examples in our local churches? Are our homes and families “memorable miracles” or desperate dilemmas? Are they vital demonstrations of Holy Presence and eternal purpose?

SIXTH, EXAMINE THE GOD OF AMAZING SIGNS AND WONDERS OF DISTINCTION! Let’s let the Word speak powerfully and in a convicting reality within us: Mark 16:19-20, “So then, after the Lord had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God. And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through accompanying signs. Amen.”

Following Pentecost, having left the upper room where the disciples had hidden for fear of the Jews, and confronted their world in the anointing of the Holy Spirit, Acts 2:43 says, “Then fear came upon every soul, and many signs and wonders were done through the apostles.”

But here’s the strange turn – whenever God steps in to be Himself, even through His own people, opposition arises! When you come to Acts 4 the disciples are BEING DISCIPLES and the threats come! Peter and John pray for boldness that they may speak God’s Word, and look at verse 30, “by stretching out Your hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of Your holy Servant Jesus.” And the result?

Acts 4:33 says, “And with great power the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And great grace was upon them all.” Our prayerful, unceasing heart-cry as disciples should be passionately uttered that WE long for days of distinction, days of great grace, days producing holy fear in hearts of unbelievers and disciples alike because God steps down to be Himself through us! Hebrews 2:4 says, “God also bearing witness both with signs and wonders, with various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to His own will.”

Reinhard Bonnke has a tremendous statement of challenge to be repeated by true disciples of Christ until it permeates their total being, “God means me to be more than I thought I was.” That’s an amplification of 1 John 4:17 when John said, “As Jesus is, so are we in this world!”

What’s a “system of divinity” without the stream of divine power? What’s a “scheme of theology” without the Spirit of Truth? What’s a learned person with his PhD void of the lifting power of the Holy Ghost? What’s the best of human-flesh ‘churches’ without the baptism of the Holy Ghost and fire of the Spirit?

Ephesians 2:1 doesn’t say, “and you He stiffened” – it says, “you He made alive!” In Acts 1:8 Jesus said, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you.” That’s explosive, volcanic-erupting, dynamite power! Donald Gee preached, that the Spirit was not “the subject of theological dogma (or debate), but a burning experience,” and Holy Presence released within you! Are those around you observing your “burning” in awe of Holy God?

LAST, (In this chapter!), LET ME STRONGLY EMPHASIZE THE AMAZING UNVEILING OF AWESOME TRUTH OF THE GOD OF THE SIGN AND WONDER OF DIVINE TESTIMONY! In Acts 2:22-24 Peter preached and preaches right now, “Men of Israel, hear these words of 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.”

Testimony! The call upon every true believer’s life! Testimony! Not cold-water committees but fellow comforters in God’s proven love for them! Testimony! That which blesses the church, encourages, uplifts, and challenges unbelievers with the Truth! Testimony! That which tips the scales of a life hanging in the balance! Testimony! That which gives honor to Jesus!

In Acts 20 you’ll remember Paul telling the Ephesian elders that he held back nothing that was helpful and profitable to them, Verse 21, “testifying to Jews and also to Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.” He knew he was “bound in the spirit”{ to go to Jerusalem, knowing trouble awaited him. Then in verse 24, (Oh, my!), “But none of these things move me; nor do I count my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, TO TESTIFY TO THE GOSPEL OF THE GRACE OF GOD.”

Do you see that calling and ministry upon your life to be a sign and wonder of divine testimony to the gospel of the grace of God?

Oh, it was Isaac Watts who wrote the old, old hymn, “Am I a Soldier of the Cross?” It says: “Am I a soldier of the cross, A follower of the Lamb? And shall I fear to own His cause, Or blush to speak His name?

Must I be carried to the skies On flowery beds of ease, While others fought to win the prize, And sailed through bloody seas?

Are there no foes for me to face? Must I not stem the flood? Is this vile world a friend of grace, To help me on to God?

Sure I must fight, if I would reign; Increase my courage, Lord; I’ll bear the toil, endure the pain, supported by Your word.” Amen?

And your ‘last days’ testimony as short as all of our lives are? “I’ll confront my dying world, I’ll confront in the Name of Christ and for His honor, glory, and praise; I’ll be consistent with Biblical Truth, conquering even the devil’s opposition, challenging repentance to God and a yielded given faith from God as a gift, yes, for every unbeliever, and teach them graciously of a yielded faith in Christ’s finished work at the Cross and through God’s Resurrection Power!

CHAPTER FIVE

THE AMAZING UNVEILING OF AWESOME TRUTH BY PREACHING

PEACE THROUGH CHRIST JESUS’ CROSS

I want you to be Holy Spirit inspired and informed and instructed as you read the following passage, Acts 10:34-38 & 43! Then Peter opened his mouth and said: “In truth I perceive that God shows no partiality. But in every nation whoever fears Him and works righteousness is accepted by Him. The word which God sent to the children of Israel, preaching peace through Jesus Christ – HE IS LORD OF ALL – that word you know, which was proclaimed throughout all Judea, and began from Galilee after the baptism which John preached: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.”

Verse 43, “To Him (the Lord Jesus) all the prophets witness that through His name, whoever believes in Him will receive remission of sins.”

“Believes in Him?” The word ‘belief’ truly means “trust in, rely upon, adhere to”! It’s not ‘ I believe’, and there is no heart-change, or I believe, and there is no relying upon, or I believe, and there is no adhering to! That’s modern-day ‘churchianity’, not eternal “Christ-ianity”! And, no doubt, this is why Paul had to write in Ephesians 2:1-2, “And you He [Christ Jesus] made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you ONCE WALKED according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience…”

Isaiah 32:13-15 unveils fleshly religiosity and then unveils Spirit conviction and wildernesses becoming fertile, fruitful fields! Isaiah wrote, God speaking, “On the land of my people will come up thorns and briers, Yes, on all the happy homes in the joyous city; Because the palaces will be forsaken, the bustling city will be deserted. The forts and towers will become lairs forever, a joy of wild donkeys, a pasture of flocks – Until the Spirit is poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, and the fruitful field is counted as a forest.”

And whether or not it is unveiled religiosity that is a seedless, barren, infertile life, absent of Holy Presence – so barren of true life, so sterile of Living Truth, so unproductive of even any acknowledgement of the need of Divine intervention – it’s a sad picture for true believers of a life unredeemed as a heart-breaking pain so desirous of witnessing the true fruit of Life in Christ in every life!

Are you aware that there is a ‘carnal world’ surrounding you every day, carnal lives captured by the powers of darkness, deceit, and disobedience before Holy God, convinced their way is better than the holy way, settled into defenses, life-styles, ‘my’ ideas, that exalts itself against the eternal knowledge of God, with their every thought captured by self-will, self-pleasure, and self-aggrandisement, determined or unaware they actually walk in “spiritual death” under the devil’s control, and miss out on the grandeur of God-ordained “re-birth” and “new-life” and “eternal blessing” – just living under the ‘curse’!

Christ Jesus dealt with all men’s sins at Calvary – and through His shed blood we “stand still and see the salvation of God in and through Christ’s shed blood”, but sadly a lost world, unbelievers, the “dire-straights of fallen humanity owned by the devil” never “stand still” in awe to observe the wonderful and marvelous grace of God seen in Christ Jesus as He paid the price for their sins through His shed blood at the Cross – and they miss out!

Sadly, spiritually indulgent people, living to satisfy the ‘flesh’, the ‘old sin nature,’ the ‘empty life syndrome,’ the ‘self-realization indulgence through sinful living’ trying to satisfy the evil heart, most are unaware of “saving grace,” “redemption,” the “new life gift by the grace of God through Christ Jesus” – but His life in You, His forgiveness through you, His power for you, is fully and readily available to any and every repentant soul – and opens the windows of heaven to reveal the awesome Truth that “the gift of eternal peace’ comes through Christ’s Cross”!

Luke 10:18-20 is such a powerful, comforting word from Christ to every repentant disciple. Jesus said to them and us, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I give you authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you. Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven.” ETERNAL PEACE!

In John 14:25-27 Jesus informs every true disciple of the “true evidence” of His life within them, even as they face a world of opposition and rebellion to divine Truth! He said, “These things I have spoken to you while present with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you. Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” “THE AMAZING UNVEILING OF AWESOME TRUTH BY PREACHING PEACE THROUGH CHRIST’S CROSS”! Let’s consider THIS eternal Truth!

FIRST, PREACHING PEACE THROUGH CHRIST’S CROSS REVEALS, UNVEILS, EXPOSES WHAT IS IN MEN OF ADAM’S FALLEN-AWAY NATURE?

Do you understand the reality of the ‘carnal man’ alienated, separated, even in an unconscious rebellion against the Holy God who made him, lost him, yet loves him, fully explained in Christ’s shed blood “At The Cross”?

Are you aware in your mind, and heart, “Cursed are the impure in heart; and they do not see God, except at His Eternal Judgment Seat?” But the Lord Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5:8, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”

And seeing God, knowing Him intimately and personally, is the absolute necessity of accepting your crucifixion and death of your old carnal nature with Him at Calvary, and your constant awareness of its former reality, and becoming more and more fully aware that it is “Christ in you, the hope of glory,” not fleshly devotion to one’s flesh-inspired religiosity!

Yes, when one is spiritually “born-again”, he-she receives new eyes to see God and a new heart fully indwelt by His peace-filled Presence in YOU! Though one is still living in the physical world with fallen humanity, because of one’s faith in Christ, repentance toward God, and indwelt by His Holy Spirit, one lives now in the new realm of the spiritual Kingdom of God, living in and on the eternal plain of His abiding presence in us – and that births His peaceful Presence in YOU and establishes another elevated plain of life in Christ, because Jesus said in Revelation 5:9-10 tells us of our representative ‘twenty-four elders falling down before the Lamb of God’ singing:

“You are worthy to take the scroll, and to open its seals; For You were slain, and have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and have made us kings and priests to our God; and we shall reign on the earth.”

Peace apart from repentance? Peace apart from reconciliation with Holy God? Peace as a slave of sin, and not as a true servant of our Master? Peace apart from our presence at the Cross with Christ, and totally unaware of “the godly sorrow that works repentance TO salvation”?

You are aware that there are “dreamers” living lives consumed by ‘flesh,’ ‘the old sin nature,’ captives of demonic activity and even ‘fleshly best’ but not “blessed” – and with Jude we gain insight: Jude 10, “But these speak evil of whatever they do not know; and whatever they know ‘naturally’, like brute beasts, in these things they corrupt themselves.” And that’s corrupting themselves more and more, and falling away more and more from the love of God and the Lordship of Christ Jesus!

Oh, but then Jude went on to say, Jude 20-21, “But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.”

In the old Broadman Hymnal of 1940 produced by the Broadman Press, Nashville, Tennessee, a hymn by Julia H. Johnston and J.W. Henderson, is entitled “He Ransomed Me.” It says:

“There’s a sweet and blessed story Of the Christ who came from glory, Just to rescue me from sin and misery; He in loving-kindness sought me, And from sin and shame has brought me, Hallelujah! Jesus ransomed me!

From the depth of sin and sadness To the heights of joy and gladness Jesus lifted me, in mercy full and free; With His precious blood He bought me, When I knew Him not, He sought me, And in love divine He ransomed me.

From the throne of heavenly glory – Oh, the sweet and blessed story! Jesus came to lift the lost in sin and woe Into liberty all-glorious, Trophies of His grace victorious, Evermore rejoicing here below.

By and by with joy increasing, And with gratitude unceasing, Lifted up with Christ forevermore to be; I will join the hosts there singing, In the anthem ever ringing, To the King of Love who ransomed me.

Hallelujah, what a Savior! Who can take a poor lost sinner, Lift him from the miry clay and set him free; (Hallelujah!) I will ever tell the story, Shouting glory, glory, glory, Hallelujah! Jesus ransomed me!”

SECOND, THERE IS THE VITAL UNVEILING OF AWARENESS OF PREACHING CHRIST OPENING THE DOOR TO THE BATTLE-FIELD OF FLESH AND SPIRIT, THE DEVIL AND JESUS, AND THE WORLD AGAINST THE KINGDOM OF GOD IN YOU AND AROUND YOU! Even as one comes to “new birth” and Christ’s indwelling, it doesn’t mean true believers are exempt from reality, opposition, even pain and suffering, in honoring, upholding, and desirous of living a life that exalts Him!

In John 16:33 Jesus clearly spoke to all disciples, then and now, saying: “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world [as you live out your earthly existence facing opposition!] you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”

Did the Lord Jesus say, “Disciples of Mine, you will have trouble!” But you thought it was a walk without trouble or tribulation? You thought it was a walk without the world, the flesh, or the devil in seeking your demise as a follower of Christ? You thought true Christianity was a ‘trouble-free’ zone?

Even in Galatians 1:6-7, Paul wrote: “I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ.”

The Lord Jesus never said, “Follow Me, and you’ll never face trouble again, or any opposition that opposes you, or any demonic influences to trip you up, or even any godless governments, enemies of God, cruel taskmasters or job bosses,” – No, a thousand times ‘No!’ To commit to Christ is to commit to His honor and praise, which means automatically you’ve committed yourself to walk in the vital awareness unveiled, preaching Christ, living Christ, magnifying Christ in your life, thus opening your life to ‘trouble’, or should I say ‘troubles’?

I’m convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that Jesus never said, “Following Me means no trouble,” when in reality we’ve seen in John 16:33, Jesus saying, “In the world you will have trouble”, which means our salvation in Christ is not the door to freedom from trouble, but His door, His presence, His promises, tell us of His presence with us as we live out our faith in the midst of our troubles!

I truthfully was freshly inspired when I read Thomas Carlyle’s clear statement: “The eternal stars shine out as soon as it is dark enough.” That’s from “The Encyclopedia of Religious Quotations” edited and compiled by Frank S. Mead [Fleming H. Revell Company, Westwood, New Jersey]. In the same encyclopedia, E. Stanley Jones wrote concerning “The Way” [p.235, Abingdon Press], “The Christian under trouble doesn’t break up – he breaks out,” and the ‘breaking out’ is leaning on Jesus, trusting His Word, like Paul said: Romans 8:35-39:

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: ‘For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.’ Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus.”

THIRD, THERE IS THE VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED OF PREACHING CHRIST BECAUSE CHRIST IS GOD’S ETERNALLY DETERMINED SACRIFICE AND OUR AMBASSADOR, AND THROUGH HIM, FOREORDAINED BY GOD THE FATHER, AS “MEDIATOR” BETWEEN GOD AND FALLEN MAN!

As Paul wrote Timothy to mature him in his young faith, His word to Timothy is so important for you and me. Paul said in 1 Timothy 2:1-7, [NKJV EDITION OF THE HOLMAN STUDY BIBLE], “Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and ONE MEDIATOR BETWEEN GOD AND MEN, THE MAN CHRIST JESUS, who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time, for which I was appointed a preacher and an apostle – I am speaking the truth in Christ and not lying – a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.”

Even ‘religions’ apart from Christ as Lord and Savior are fleshly determined and resemble nothing concerning His call upon their lives – no awareness of their fallen natures, no grasp of understanding about The Eternal Christ put to death on the Cross as a mortal man AND eternal Lord and Savior, and willingly laying down His life that they might be resurrected from the dead to be “new creations” of Holy Presence, extending His life, expressing His love, and proving His power, no longer in them unawareness of the unbelieving results of a Christ-less life, no longer pretense, imitation, or the best of their own fleshly efforts – Christ saves, redeems, reconciles, and, yes, restores to God’s eternal intent, releasing them under the Holy Spirit’s control and they begin to sing the repentant one’s song:

“Lord Jesus, to You I yield, wash Me in Your blood, and baptize me in the rivers of Your flood; redeeming grace for the human race, redeeming us from the disgrace of dishonoring Your Holy Face!

Lord Jesus, in You, I rest, so tired of deception in me as ‘my best’; I long to know the Holy Will, and until then I’ll not be still! My heart and soul is Yours, no longer a life of sin, but holiness within!

“Lord Jesus, I hear You call, and before Your throne I willingly fall, yielded to Your Spirit, made new by Your blood, willing to stand where You once stood; ‘New man’ celebration, a new voice for all Your creation.

Lord Jesus, I thank You for Your marvelous grace, and upon Your Word I safely rely, certain to sing what no one can erase – Your sacrifice is true and Your resurrection undeniable, Your empty tomb is still reliable.

Lord Jesus, from death to Life, Your blood applied removes the strife; No longer war with God or the devil and his demons; born-again men by the Spirit, reverence His meaning: Death to life as His blood is applied, firmly aware of His mercy that cannot be denied!

Lord Jesus, saved by Your grace because of Your love, my new desire is to rest with You forever in Heaven above; I know life is fleeting and only by receiving do we understand overcoming and beating; the lawless may libel, the sinners may slander, the religious may banter, but in Christ we surrender to His love, grace, and place in Your eternal heavens!”

Jesus bought us, He sought us, He found us, He convicted us, He received our repentance, He sings of our faith, and forever and ever we’ll gather around His Throne to praise His name over and over as His very own children of faith, resting from the wars and resting in His victory in our behalf! We know that a man’s life does not consist of what He possesses, but the wealth of awareness that we’ve found peace through His Life, peace through His death, peace through His Resurrection, and peace through His never-failing promises!

It was R. Kelso Carter who wrote: “Standing on the promises of Christ my King, through eternal ages let His praises ring; Glory in the highest, I will shout and sing, Standing on the promises of God.

Standing on the promises that cannot fail, When the howling storms od doubt and fear assail, By the living word of God I shall prevail, Standing on the promises of God.

Standing on the promises of Christ the Lord, Bound to Him eternally by love’s strong cord, Overcoming daily with the Savior’s sword, Standing on the promises of God.

Standing on the promises I cannot fall, Listening every moment to the Spirit’s call, Resting in my Savior, as my all in all, Standing on the promises of God.”

Yes! There must be in the church of this modern day the call to reverently, in a rejoicing manner, with a heart and mind and body fully yielded to the Glory of our Lord!

I close with Jesus’ words in John 8:34-35! “Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin! And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever, with Verse 36 added, Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.” Amen? Speak out about YOUR true freedom by “blood”, that’s Jesus’ Calvary blood to take away your sin and give “new life”!

CHAPTER SIX

“VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED? FALLEN FOLLOWER – FAITHFUL FOLLOW-UP!”

In Luke 22:54 it tells us Jesus had been arrested and taken to the high priest’s house with Peter following at what he thought a safe distance. Peter actually sat among the enemies of Christ around a bonfire in the courtyard. A servant girl in the crowd told the ruling authorities, “This man (Simon Peter) was also with Him (with Jesus).”

Verse 57 tells us, But he (Peter) denied Jesus, saying, “Woman, I do not know him.” Another in the crowd said the same thing, “You also are one of them.” But Peter said, Verse 58b, “Man, I am not!” He denied Jesus a third time, and Verse 61 says, And the Lord turned and looked at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how He had said to him, “Before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.” So Peter went out and wept bitterly.

The rooster crows three times! And a Peter is aware of being ‘a fallen follower’, so broken on the reality that what Jesus told him was a historic reality of an immature, though filled with still fleshly presumption, even a haughty attitude that it was certain he’d never fall, and though walking with the Lord of true confidence and assurance and awareness of who He eternally was, Peter didn’t understand what the writer, the wise writer, in Proverbs 16:18-20 had to say about pride and self-importance in a God-filled, God-blessed, eternal relationship of His doings, not immature disciples!

It says, “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. Better to be of a humble spirit with the lowly, than to divide the spoil with the proud. He who heeds the word wisely will find good, and whoever trusts in the Lord, blessed is he.”

Earlier, in Luke 22, before Peter’s actual “falling away”, Verses 31-32 tells us of what Jesus said, And the Lord said, “Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail;” [Jesus said that knowing Peter was going to be in this immaturity of childish faith!], but after His praying said, “and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren.” What an amazing revelation! Christ Jesus knew Peter was about to fall, and He knew Holy God would pick him up!

Peter’s falling away? Present-day followers today falling away? It was Spurgeon who once said, “Only to think that Peter, under temporary discouragement, should play the coward!”

But even today, in a world of destructive unbelief, unbelievers already fallen away from God and under the control of a birthed sin-nature, experience the natural curses of a ‘fallen away life-style’! In fact, many across our known world, as unbelievers, perceive it’s totally unimportant, for them, to consider ‘God-things’, and especially when one even mentions Christ Jesus to them – “how ridiculous to consider ‘a need of the Savior and Lord’ when we are all-sufficient in ourselves!”

In the Luke 22 passage, Verse 55 is highly significant because it alerts us to what can happen in the lives of some disciples: “Now when they [Christ’s enemies!] had kindled a fire in the midst of the courtyard and sat down together, Peter sat among them.” And he wasn’t there by the fire to warn Christ’s enemies, he was there warming his hands with them!

“Fallen followers?” Do you remember the Lord Jesus in Matthew 26 coming with His disciples “to a place called Gethsemane,” saying to His disciples, “sit here while I go and pray over there.” In Verse 38 Jesus said to His followers, “Sit here while I go and pray over there.” Between Verses 39 and 44 three times He sees His disciples “sleeping”! Later in the chapter Judas betrayed Him for thirty pieces of silver! And the end of Verse 56 tells us: “Then all the disciples forsook Him and fled.”

“Watch with Me,” not watch for Me! “Watch with Me,” not watch in view of what sometime Might happen! “Watch with Me,” not watch as you ‘sleep’ dreaming of your own safety and rewards! “Watch with Me” in the most critical time of His earthly journey, not watch as you consider the rewards of a ‘most needed’ fleshly nap! It was Oswald Chambers, in his book, “My Utmost For His Highest” [p.183] who wrote: “How are we going to understand sufficiently to watch with Him in Gethsemane, when we do not know even what His suffering is for?”

Too many ‘professing disciples’, though ‘watching FOR Christ’ while they ‘sleep’, are nothing more than examples of ‘fleshly unbelief’, or an ‘immature, self-protective faith’, that has no mature understanding of “Forsake all and follow Me,” “deny yourself and take up YOUR cross,” or, understanding that true discipleship is the willing choice of self-sacrifice even if it costs me a cross to bear!

In John10:11-18 the Lord Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep. But a hireling, he who is not the shepherd, one who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them. The hireling flees because he is a hireling and does not care about the sheep. I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own. As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep.

And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd. Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This COMMAND I have received from My Father.”

The majority of ‘professors’ for Christ without being “possessors of His Resurrection Life and Spirit” are those outwardly who adopt certain ‘traits’, but apart from the indwelling of the Author of Eternal Truth, they walk the walk of academy award winners who do well at pretense and outward appearances without inward transformation!

“Jesus may say, ‘Forsake all’, but to me that is an over-emphasis, an unnecessary request, a de-emphasis of what is necessary in one’s worldly existence,” which clearly indicates a ‘this world mentality’, a ‘me, my, mine style of life,’ that which unveils ‘my self-realization’ but shuts the door to one’s mind, heart, and will, to the intent of Christ-unveiling, Christ-realization, or Christ-actualization in the repentant heart and life! “Religious activity is my major desire – not the actual preeminence of Christ Jesus in and through me, that’s other worldly, even Heaven, if I get there!” And, sadly, that explains a lot of boring ‘religious activity’ that they assume essential to give a ‘boring testimony’ (?).

This powerful word and story that we’re examining has a ton of important eternal truths I want us to examine!

FIRST, ARE YOU AWED AND BLESSED THAT OUR LORD SEES US, KNOWS US, AND IS MOVED IN ETERNAL COMPASSION FOR US? In Mark 6:34 we read: “And Jesus, when He came out, saw a great multitude and was moved with compassion for them, because they were like sheep not having a shepherd. So He began to teach them many things.”

One of the most rewarding, abiding consciousness of life and hope, an unveiled present awareness and promise is: “His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He cares for me!” How awesome is that! In Hebrews 13:5b, we read: For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” So boldly we may say: “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?”

Remembering Peter’s awareness of the eyes of Christ upon him, even as he denied Him, there came that moment in him of Christ’s watchcare even as Christ Jesus looked upon Peter compassionately and longingly praying for Peter’s return to true faith, yes, that did cost Peter his own life eventually!

Our Lord sees us, oversees us, keeps on seeing us, never takes His eyes off of us – that ought to increase the intensity of Holy fear because there’s never a moment His eyes are not on us! Perfect, clear, unaltered eternal eyesight, unhindered by the dark activity in a soulish, fleshly, entertaining-sin-mind, never running from a life storm-tossed by the raging waves of the demons and personal sin-activity – Holy God, the Resurrected, Reigning Christ sees our ‘stormy’ choices and comes to say, “Peace, be still!”

I don’t believe it would be a stretch that most men, even some unbelievers, still, if they sin, are aware that it’s not unknown to Holy God, but are aware that, sometimes if God sees the tragic scene of sin in one’s life, He sighs and sorrows and sends by the Spirit a heavenly heartbeat of true desire: “Repent, return – and turn from that destructive choice!” Hear this! If one strays and roams or runs from “the true field of life”, the Shepherd is on that person’s heels, heart, mind or will, “Repent, return – I still love you! Don’t let the devil have his will in your life, but turn back to Me as your Way, your Truth, and your Life!”

SECOND, “VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED”? YOUR SAVIOR AND LORD IS A “MAN OF SORROWS” ACQUAINTED WITH THE GRIEF SIN BRINGS! It was C.S.Lewis, in his writing, “The Great Divorce”, who wrote: “There are two kinds of people: those who say to God, “Your will be done,” and those to whom God says [sadly, has to say at times!], “All right, then, have it your way.” How tragic is that?

And the blind Helen Keller of many, many years ago, used to say, “If the blind put their hand in God’s, they find their way more surely than those who see but have not faith in God.” [Doubleday & Company}.

In Isaiah 53:1-7 there is an awesome prophetic unveiling of our true Lord and Savior! It says: “Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness; and when we see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him.

He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.

But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth.”

So…how do you relate to too much ‘circus antics’, without a doubt far too much self-governing, silly-willy two-year old child’s play, even open gates of godless behavior, encouraging playing the flesh games out of church, even in church, as long as you say: “I’ve been baptized, I ‘joined the church’, and it’s over as far as I’m concerned.” Really? Where’s the Cross in your life? Where’s the “Follow Me”! Where’s the “laying down your life”? Where’s the “suffering Servant” Spirit?

Are you aware of going through the ‘winepress’ where “the grapes of life” are squeezed out as you willfully choose to honor Jesus at all costs? “Struggle in the Faith”? Study to be approved of God in the faith-walk? “Adapt to a culture of spiritual discipline, even laying my life down daily?” Hear me! True faith, after repentance toward God and faith in Christ, the true consistency of the saint is, laying down one’s life, even willing to suffer, and as I have known in India for many years, servants of Christ are punished, imprisoned, beaten, killed – and they do it with a smile on their faces!

Is this why Peter wrote, in 1 Peter 4:12-14, “Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you; but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy. If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.” Blessed because you partake of Christ’s sufferings? Blessed because you’re reproached for the name of Christ? Blessed because you’re called even to the fiery trials? Blessed because you willingly partake of Christ’s suffering when necessary? If Jesus suffered according to the will of God, is your walk in the will of God?

Consider, because of your young faith in Christ, rejection by unbelieving family members. Consider, constant abuse from fellow employees and even business owner and managers at times! Consider, stupid abuse of school or university leadership people anti-Christ, anti-Word, anti-Constitution, anti-You for your life-changing, eternal Biblical faith! But ‘suffering for the Name of Christ’ is celebration for the true disciple of Christ, and anticipatory celebration before Holy God’s Throne one day, but personal celebration now in you as you examine your identity in Christ!

THIRD, “VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED” AS WE LOOK AT FOLLOW-UP FORGIVENESS THROUGH THE ALL-SEEING EYES OF OUR LORD AND SAVIOR! In Luke 22:60b-62 we read, Immediately, while he [Peter] was still speaking, the rooster crowed! AND THE LORD TURNED AND LOOKED AT PETER. Then Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how He had said to him, “Before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.” So Peter went out and wept bitterly.

With all my heart, I don’t believe the look of Christ on Peter’s fall was resentment, bitterness, or “Watch out! Your judgment is coming,” but Peter, “You’ve sinned so dramatically, just as I said, but I love you and want you restored!” Is that like, “His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me”?

Are you aware that the Word tells us that there is the reality of divine conviction? If one even desires to come to Christ, it is because of Holy Spirit conviction of a man’s sin and His eternal need of the Savior. Men are born with an ‘Adamic’ sin-nature, dominated by it, controlled by it, blinded by it without any awareness of his/her need of restoration to Holy God apart from, yes, biblical conviction! And the Holy Spirit comes in biblical conviction to unveil for him/her specific sins that will unveil the sin nature that has released a corrupt spirit in his/her veins, yes, even an unclean spirit, and like Isaiah after King Uzziah had died, in Isaiah 6:4-5, the Word tells us, “And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke. So I said: Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.”

Holy God is so aware of the alienated heart and mind of fallen humanity! The Lord Jesus came, suffered, and died on the cruel Cross because of His great love for sinful humanity! The Holy Spirit unveiled the merciful heart of God as He viewed man’s sinfulness, assuring each of us that the devil’s accusations about Holy God and his view of deceit of our Lord was unfounded! In Galatians 3:1 Paul asked, “O foolish Galatians! Who has ‘bewitched’ you that you should not obey “the truth,” before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified?” And John said what in John 3:16-17? “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes [trusts in relies upon, adheres to] in Him should not perish [in his sin & sin nature] but have everlasting life. FOR GOD DID NOT SEND HIS SON INTO THE WORLD TO CONDEMN THE WORLD, but that the world through Him might be saved.” GLORY!!

There’s another amazing Word of God in Hebrews 2:9 when the author wrote, “But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone.”

“Forgiveness” by men’s great efforts? “Forgiveness” because a man sees himself as smarter than the feeble minds of ‘other men’ – and “I can handle my own life, knowing I can overcome my own sin – and God Himself ought to accept me”? I don’t think so! Do you see and sense “the hardened heart through the deceitfulness of sin” with no desire to be reconciled to Him through the “shed blood” of Christ on Calvary’s tree? Wasn’t it Augustine who once prayed, “O Lord, deliver me from this lust of always vindicating myself”?

Oh, and then hear Oswald Chambers who said in his book, “My Utmost For His Highest,” [p.244], “Spiritual leakage begins when we cease to lift up our eyes unto Him. The leakage comes not so much through trouble on the outside as in the imagination; when we begin to say – “’I expect I have been stretching myself a bit too much, standing on tiptoe and trying to look like God instead of being an ordinary humble person [or humble disciple!].”

In Ephesians 4:32 Paul talked about walking in the Spirit and true nature of Christ alone! He said: “And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.” Forgiveness how in your life? “AS GOD IN CHRIST FORGAVE YOU!”

“VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED”? AS WE LOOK AT FOLLOW-UP FORGIVENESS THAT UNDERSTANDS, YES, SEPARATION FROM FALLEN-MEN’S WAYS! It was a strong, powerful, convicting statement from Paul to the Corinthian church when he said in 2 Corinthians 6:14-18, “Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of living God. As God has said:

‘I will DWELL IN THEM and walk among them, I will be their God, and they shall be My people.’ Therefore, ‘COME OUT FROM AMONG THEM [their ways, actions, attitudes, sins] AND BE SEPARATE, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you. I will be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.’”

What happened to Peter when he realized the eyes of Jesus were fixed on him in his ‘self-indulgence’; but more importantly for this very moment in your own walk with Christ, if you’ve been wandering, overcome with a dry, unclean spirit, are YOUR eyes open to the Lord’s loving gaze on YOU in your sin?

What did the author of Hebrews tell us in Hebrews 12:1-2? “Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the Cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” ARE YOU CLOTHED WITH THE CLOUD OF HIS HOLY PRESENCE IN YOU?

CHAPTER SEVEN

“VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED? THE CALL TO ONE’S NEED OF SELF-EXAMINATION”

It was in the book, “Encyclopedia of Religious Quotations”, [Edited & Compiled by Frank S. Mead, Fleming H. Revell Com., Westwood, New Jersey, p.297], a statement by Donald T. Kauffman, in his writing “Gist of the Lesson”, “A good marriage is not a contract between two persons but a sacred covenant between three. Too often Christ is never invited to the wedding and finds no room in the home. Why? Is it because we have misrepresented Him and forgotten His joyful outlook on life?”

But what about the Biblical faith of “holy matrimony” between Christ as the ‘bridegroom’ and you as His bride? Did you simply ‘join’ His church or ‘take vows’ of surrender, dedication, and submission to be Savior, Lord, and Spiritual Head of your heart and life? I hate to be the one to tell you, but ‘church membership’ does not mean necessarily married and yielded to His Lordship!

In Matthew 21 Jesus had gone into the temple and was confronted by the chief priests of the temple and the elders of the people of Jerusalem. They said to Jesus in Verse 23b, “By what authority are You doing these things? And who gave You this authority?” Back and forth the conversation went on, and Jesus alerted them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”

Oh, and then in Verses 28-32, “the call to one’s need of self-examination” began with Jesus exposing their need of such an examination! Jesus said, “But what do you think? A man had two sons, and he came to the first and said, ‘Son, go, work today in my vineyard. He answered and said, ‘I will not,’ but afterward he regretted it and went. Then he came to the second and said likewise. And he answered and said, ‘I go, sir,’ but he did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father?”

They said to Jesus, “The first.” Jesus said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you that tax collectors and harlots enter the kingdom of God before you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him; but tax collectors and harlots believed him; and when you saw it, you did not afterward relent and believe him.”

Are you familiar with Jeremiah the prophet and how the Lord spoke to him about the difference between ‘the Jewish pretenders’ and ‘His true remnant’ among them? In Jeremiah 15:11, the Lord said to Jeremiah, “Surely it will be well with your remnant…,” and then said, BUT!, in Jeremiah 15:15-16 Jeremiah called out to Holy God!! “O Lord You know; Remember me and visit me, and take vengeance for me and my persecutors. In Your enduring patience, do not take me away. Know that for Your sake I have suffered rebuke. Your words were found, and I ate them, and Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart; for I am called by Your name, O Lord God of hosts.”

And the compassionate Lord God reassured His holy prophet in Verses 19-21, Therefore thus says the Lord: “If you return, then I will bring you back; you shall stand before Me; If you take out the precious from the vile, you shall be as My mouth. Let them return to you, but you must not return to them. And I will make you to this people a fortified bronze wall; and they will fight against you, but they shall not prevail against you; FOR I AM WITH YOU TO SAVE YOU AND DELIVER YOU,” says the Lord. I will deliver you from the hand of the wicked, and I will redeem you from the grip of the terrible.”

What an awesome word of conviction and confidence and comfort! Holy God KNOWS those who are His – and HE IS their defender! Does He know you? AND, How Vital is it for every professing believer to examine whether or not HE is a true worker in the Father’s vineyard fulfilling the Lord’s calling and assignments to every disciple?

FIRST, TWO SONS CALLED BY THE FATHER TO WORK IN HIS VINEYARD – ONLY ONE DID! Now, isn’t the son who didn’t go the picture of a ‘pretender’ of faith but the fruitlessness of his work exposes himself as one who walks in disobedience not obedience, in self-direction not Christ-directed, in outward performances but no inward heart-change, still as selfish and self-centered as he always was since birth!

Do you remember Pharoah of Egypt in Exodus 5:2 saying to Moses and Aaron, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, nor will I let Israel go.” At least the Pharoah spoke the truth! He didn’t know the Lord, and he wouldn’t let Israel go! But ‘a son’ who pretends before his father that he will go and do what the father said, but had no intention of doing it because of a self-centered, self-motivated style of life, and it didn’t include doing the father’s will?

Does the ‘unwilling, disobedient, yes, rebellious son’ describe even the scribes and Pharisees of Matthew 23:13-15 whom Jesus called ‘hypocrites’? What a strong indictment by the Lord of love! He said of them, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows’ houses, and for a pretense make long prayers. Therefore you will receive greater condemnation. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.”

Have you ever witnessed those who are ‘strong professors’ of the faith verbally but ‘sad examples’ of even those who are visible ‘actors’ still dominated by the corruption that is in the world through lust, even barren and unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, buying destructive heresies, even exploiting others with deceptive words, [“believers can’t do anything but sin until they get to heaven,” when Jesus said, “Go and sin no more!”], perishing more and more in their own corruption, presumptuous, self-willed, having eyes full of adultery and that cannot cease from sin, enticing unstable souls, constantly forsaking the right way, going astray, loving the wages of unrighteousness, even “dogs returning to their own vomit or a ‘sow’ wallowing in her mire”!

Hear me! Supernatural overcoming of the old sin nature is not devotion to it but Christ’s deliverance, in you, from it! As a ‘true son’, fruitful in the work of the father’s vineyard, one is not to walk in their own lusts – a ‘true son’ walks in the fullness of the Indwelling Christ and the fullness of His Holy Spirit, overcoming the world, the flesh, and the devil, not dominated by them! In Acts 24:14-16 Paul testified: “But this I confess to you, that ‘according to the Way’ which they call a sect, so I worship the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the Law and in the prophets. I have hope in God, which they themselves also accept, that there will be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and the unjust. This being so, I myself always strive to have a conscience without offense toward God and men.” Are your ears, your heart and mind, sensitive to the Word and the Spirit, or dominated by what separates one and keeps him/her from hearing “Holy Truth,” what is the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God?

SECOND, IS IT FALSE FAITH – VERBAL FAILURE, OR TRUE FAITH- VICTORIOUS FULFILLMENT? What did Matthew 21:32 reveal to us? “For John came to you ‘in the way of righteousness,’ and you did not believe him; but tax collectors and harlots believed him; and when you saw it, you did not afterward relent and believe him.”

Do you understand the vastness of people who ‘hear’, but they do not respond, do not receive, do not repent, do not rest in God’s finished work At The Cross through the Lord Jesus’ “blood sacrifice”, but go their own way, even saying “yes” at times to Christ Jesus as they continue in the ‘broad way’ of personal administration and rejecting God’s calling by a willful response, “We’ll do it our way”!

Are you aware that “many are called, but few are chosen”? Even as you come to Matthew 22 Jesus’ concern grows stronger and stronger as He unveiled a “False faith – Verbal failure”! Beginning in Verse 2 of Chapter 22 of Matthew , Jesus illuminates divine invitations to “The Holy Wedding”, and then exposed a man dressed so inappropriately. Let the Holy Spirit do a work of grace in you if this story touches you! Jesus said: (Verses 2-14),

“The kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who arranged a marriage for his son, and sent out his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding; and they were not willing to come. Again, he sent out other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who are invited, “See, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and fatted calf are killed, and all things are ready. Come to the wedding.”

But they made light of it and went their ways, one to his own farm, another to his business. And the rest seized his servants, treated them spitefully, and killed them. But when the king heard about it, he was furious. And he sent out his armies, destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city.

Then he said to his servants, “The wedding is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy. Therefore go into the highways, and as many as you find, invite to the wedding. So those servants went out into the highways and gathered together all whom they found, both bad and good. And the wedding hall was filled with guests.

But when the king came in to see the guests, HE SAW A MAN THERE WHO DID NOT HAVE ON A WEDDING GARMENT. So he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless. Then the king said to the servants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ “For many are called, but few are chosen.”!!

Are you aware that there are those who, in a fleshly way, ‘like’ to be a part, at times, of a spiritual celebration, but have no desire to ‘dress’ as the King requires! “Requires? You, preacher, must be a part of a strange cult – why should I be concerned about how I dress at the wedding if I show up?” And the Lord Jesus SAID: “Depart! I never knew you!” Clothed properly matters?

It was Paul who said to the Corinthians, 2 Corinthians 5:1-5, “For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven, if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked. For we who are in this [earthly] tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life. Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.”

Do you know what Job said in Job 29:14? “I put on righteousness and it clothed me..” That’s God’s righteousness, imputed, imparted, implanted by His grace, mercy, and love! Are you aware of being “clothed with humility”, (1 Peter 5:5b), the where does ‘fleshly pride’ fit in to a believer’s humble journey? What’s the color of the robe you wear? Pure and white linen? What about a “robe dipped in blood”?

In 2 Corinthians 13:5 Paul wrote TO THE CHURCH specifically but also to the world at large: “Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? – unless indeed you are disqualified.” How convicting is that?

False Faith – Verbal Failure or True Faith – Victorious Fulfillment? In Malachi 3:1-3 the prophet, used By God, brings HIS life-changing Word of faith-transformation and true offerings as the evidence! God spoke: “Behold, I send My messenger, and he will prepare the way before Me. And the Lord [Christ Jesus, the Promised Messiah!], will suddenly come to His temple [1 Corinthians 3:16-17 which asks, “Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.”], even the Messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight. Behold, He is coming, says the Lord of hosts.

But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner’s fire and like launderers’ soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; He will purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer to the Lord an offering in righteousness.”

True Faith – And Victorius Fulfillment? I don’t know who wrote the old song that is worth treasures, at least the words!

“The King Himself comes near, and feasts His saints today; Here we may sit and see Him here, And love, and praise, and pray.

One day amidst the place Where my dear God has been Is sweeter than ten thousand days of pleasurable sin.”

In Psalm 84 I want you to be inspired by Verses 1-2 and Verses 10-12! “How lovely is Your tabernacle, O Lord of hosts! My soul longs, yes, even faints for the courts of the Lord; My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.

Verses 10-12, “For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness. For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord will give grace and glory; no good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly. O Lord of hosts, blessed is the man who trusts in You!”

It just may be that in this moment’s time in your own spiritual story or time-period of faith or lack of it, you discover Psalm 85:6 as the ‘sons of Korah’ cried out, “Will You not revive us again, that Your people may rejoice in You?”

Why would anyone who has personally known, received, and rejoiced in the presence of the Lord in his/her life not want to know the amazing grace of renewal, fresh resurrection power, a new baptism of Calvary’s river of blessing that still flows, and a restoration of renewal with the God who calls Himself “My Friend”, if for some reason, one fell away.

You don’t reject – you receive! You don’t deny – you accept! You don’t substitute – you surrender! You don’t try to evolve – you accept His “You must be born again!” You don’t depend upon your superior education – you turn and accept His imputed righteousness! You don’t stamp yourself with ‘the insolence of self-righteousness’ – you surrender to the righteousness of God, sealed together in His shed blood! You don’t settle for the poisonous juices of an immoral, old sin nature – you trust in the power of the “new life, new hope, new awareness and understanding, of the Resurrected Christ in you, the hope of glory”! You don’t settle for a life outside His church, but commit yourself to honor Him in and through the church He loved and gave Himself for, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together!

I’m truly, truly sorry, but I have no understanding of anyone who looks at the Cross of Jesus, knowing it was for him/her He suffered, bled, and died, but chooses to shut his ears, close his eyes, turn away from His Word and will, and settles for a “best-effort style of life” I cringe for fear of their ultimate, sure, pain-filled life in Hell with the devil, his demons, and the darkened souls of a faithless, disobedient life – they will burn forever and ever in Hell without a second’s relief!

Do you think this just might be why Jesus said in Luke 12:40, “Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect,”?

I’m a super-fan of Oswald Chambers and his historic, loved, deeply appreciated book, “My Utmost For His Highest.” On pages 63-64, I found a true word that should alert, awaken, and uplift every seeker of the true faith. He wrote:

“Jesus rarely comes where we expect Him; He appears where we least expect Him, and always in the most illogical connections. The only way a worker can keep true to God is being ready for the Lord’s surprise visits. It is not service that matters, but intense spiritual reality, expecting Jesus Christ at every turn. This will give our life the attitude of child-wonder which He wants it to have. If we are going to be ready for Jesus Christ, we have to stop being religious (that is, using religion as a higher kind of culture) and be spiritually real.”

“Vital Awareness Unveiled”? THE CALL TO ONE’S NEED OF SELF-EXAMINATION! Is Jesus the Author and Finisher of Your Faith – and are you ready for Him to examine you? Felice De Giardini wrote an old Italian hymn entitled “Come, Thou Almighty King.” It says: “Come, Thou Almighty King, Help us Your name to sing, Help us to praise: Father, all glorious, Over all victorious, Come, and reign over us, Ancient of Days.

Come, Thou Incarnate Word, Gird on Your mighty sword, Our prayer attend; Come, and Your people bless, And give Your Word success; Spirit of holiness, On us descend.

Come, Holy Comforter, Your sacred witness bear In this glad hour: You who Almighty art, Now rule in every heart, And never from us depart, Spirit of power.

To the great One in Three Eternal praises be Hence evermore. His sovereign majesty May we in glory see, And to eternity Love and adore.” Amen?

CHAPTER EIGHT

“VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED? PRAYERLESS LIFE –

PRAYERFUL LIBERATION”

How does a person examining a true disciple’s life and walk do so without the awareness of his prayer life and prayer ministry? Oh, I know: “By their fruits you shall know them,” but without that unveiling of his ‘work’ in the prayer closet one can come up with an exemplary report that doesn’t interpret the true disciple’s greater ministry – the ministry of intercessory prayer! I believe it was Oswald Chambers who once said, “Prayer does not fit us for the greater works; prayer “is” the greater work.”

A ‘stalwart’ disciple’s life is not sustained in power and authority apart from the ministry of prayer. Stalwart means “strongly and stoutly built, sturdy, robust; strong and brave; valiant. Firm, steadfast, or uncompromising.” [That’s “The Random House Collegiate Dictionary”, Revised Edition, 1975!]

You know, if you’re a student of God’s Holy Word and you “feed” on His daily bread, that He teaches us the vital importance of “prayerful liberation”, not a prayerless life! As Paul was equipping the saints in Ephesus he wrote, Ephesians 6:13, about “taking up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.” And then in Ephesians 6:18 he included in ‘the whole armor’, “praying always with all prayer and supplication for all the saints, and for me”, which is absolutely vital but only a part of one’s faithful prayer-life!

I was reminded again recently as I was reading in the Gospel of Luke, coming to Luke 18, and in the first five Verses the Lord Jesus spoke a parable of great, great significance. It says, Luke 18:1-5, “Then He spoke a parable to them, THAT MEN ALWAYS OUGHT TO PRAY AND NOT LOSE HEART, saying, “There was in a certain city a judge who did not fear God nor regard man. Now there was a widow in that city; and she came to him, saying, ‘Get justice for me from my adversary. And he would not for a while but afterward he said within himself, ‘Though I do not fear God nor regard man, yet because this widow troubles me I will avenge her, lest by continual coming she wears me out.”

Dare I tell you that Holy God is not troubled by your continual coming before Him in prayer but welcomes it? Didn’t Christ Jesus tell us in Luke 18:1, “Men always ought to pray and not lose heart”? Yet, many ‘lose heart’ to pray because the very heart of fleshly individuality is so strong, believing “I’m able”, that they seldom pray, except, maybe, in their desperate stage of failure, futility, and fear!

One of the sad stages of a spiritual journey is when a ‘mature’ (?) believer thinks that by his/her many, many prayers, Holy God should recognize how blessed He is to have such a strong ‘prayer’ on His team. Too many, still ‘fleshly’ disciples, consider God blessed by their exemplary prayer-life rather than them blessed by God’s inspiration for them to pray!

In fact, in John 16:23b-24, Jesus said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you. Until now you have asked nothing IN MY NAME. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.”

But many times a believer ask, ask, ask, ask – doesn’t receive because God operates from His throne of wisdom and understanding; if my asking violates Sovereign Will, God sovereignly does not answer! Often though it is a process of maturing, understanding, and acceptance of His holy time table. For example, my mother, after being divorced from my father for about ten years, re-married, and I had an unsaved step-father. Did I pray for Him? You better believe I did! I prayed for him for about 50 years (?), and six weeks before his 89^th birthday, as I visited him in the nursing facility, Frank said to me, my wife present also, “Farrell, I know all these many years that you’ve shared the Gospel story. Would you tell me one more time how I can be saved?”

I shared the gospel story with Frank Callaway, and he responded, “Farrell, would you help me to pray a sinner’s prayer?” I did – he did, and just before he died about six weeks later, the ladies in the facility said: “Farrell, Sue, what has happened to Frank? He is a totally changed man, even joining in Bible Study and prayer-time!” We told them, “Frank prayed to receive Christ as Lord and Savior of his life!” Glory! Yes, Glory Hallelujah!

And, day by day, as the spiritual journey continues, the Lord Jesus continues to say, “Lean not to your own understanding, but in all of your ways, (including prayer), acknowledge Me, give Me My rightful place on the throne of your heart – I’ll see and will answer your unselfish prayer!”

Do you remember the sisters, Martha and Mary, in John 11, whose brother, Lazarus, was sick? They sent to Jesus, Verse 3, saying, “Lord, behold, he whom you love is sick.” Verse 4 says, When Jesus heard that, He said, [Hasn’t even seen Lazarus at this point!], “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”

John 11:5-6 tells us, Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So, when He heard that he was sick, He stayed two more days in the place where He was. Oh, but then in Verse 11 Jesus said to His disciples, “Our friend Lazarus sleeps, but I go that I may wake him up.” Dare I tell you that that ‘sleep of Lazarus’ was “The Sleep of Death”? Jesus said in Verse 14-15 to His disciples, Lazarus is dead. And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, that you may believe. Nevertheless let us go to him.”

It gets better, and especially as the sisters encounter Christ Jesus! John 11:21-27 we read, Now Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You.” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”

Martha said to Jesus, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?”

Martha said to Him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who is come into this world.”

After several more Verses, in Verse 34, Jesus said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to Jesus then, “Lord, come and see.” Verse 35 then says, “Jesus WEPT!” He wept over their sorrow, He wept over Lazarus’ suffering and pain and death, and He wept over those who experience death because of sin, and He wept over those who weep for whatever circumstance they find breaking their heart!

Beginning at Verse 38-44, we find the raising of Lazarus from the dead! Jesus prayed to the Father! [Isn’t that amazing to some folks – JESUS PRAYED!]. Then Jesus said, Verse 43, “Lazarus, come forth!” He was raised from the dead, graveclothes on, and Jesus said, “Loose him, and let him go.” But YOU, in your graveclothes of spiritual death and separation from Holy God, are unaware that He has stood before your tomb of spiritual death, called your name, “Come forth”, which you haven’t, and as a result, it tells me You’ve refused to hear, you’ve refused to see, and you continue on the self-made journey of doubt and unbelief!

Oh, but then in John 11:40, Jesus said to Martha, and to you and me, “Did I not say that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?” Doesn’t it awaken, excite, and point you to pressing in to see the glory of God? At the end of John 12, Verse 41, John wrote: “These things Isaiah said when he saw His glory and spoke of Him.”

This Chapter heading? “Vital Awareness Unveiled”? PRAYERLESS LIFE – PRAYERFUL LIBERATION! Do YOU think Martha and Mary prayed? Did they pray for divine invasion of human need? Did they pray for one they loved deeply? Of course! They wanted divine help, the divine remedy, the divine Lord and Savior to come in where they were in the midst of their tragic sorrow and pain!

Is your life a “prayerless life”? In 1 Samuel 12:21-25 we read of, yes, spiritual tragedy for those who abandon prayer to Holy God. It says, “And do not turn aside; for then you would go after empty things which cannot profit or deliver, for they are nothing. For the Lord will not forsake His people, for His great name’s sake, because it has pleased the Lord to make you His people. Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you; but I will teach you the good and right way. Only fear the Lord, and serve Him in truth with all your heart; for consider what great things He has done for you. But if you still do wickedly (forsaking the prayer-life?), you shall be swept away, both you and your king.” Satan is so, yes, abusive, even in introducing to ‘believers’ the “incoming of craftiness”, even emphasizing the unimportance of prayer, except when you need something, but the devil doesn’t desire you praying to God because you love Him or needing a definite supply of Heaven’s glorious blessings!

Rather than, with Jesus, saying, “I have finished the work You’ve given Me to do,” far too many ‘followers’ do not know Whom they follow or why they follow, but they would be like a little child who’s glad his parent gave him some sweets to chew on!

Too often the prayerless life is evidence of carry-over forces from the natural life that really sees no need in asking God in prayer for ‘things,’ praying to Him because someone told you He likes to hear you pray, or void of the need to pray because the ‘self-sufficient’ life still has a hold! Didn’t Chambers once say, “It is not so true that ‘prayer changes things’ as that prayer changes “me” and I then, by the grace of God, become instruments of His change.” “God is abundantly able to do above all we ask or think!” When did that change?

In the Sermon on the Mount, in Matthew 6:5-13, we find our Lord’s ‘life-training’ of His true disciples! Jesus said: “And when you pray you shall not be like the hypocrites. [“Play-actors!]. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men.

Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut the door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.

And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words. Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him. In this manner, therefore, pray:

Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.

And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen [Or “so be it!”].”

The Lord Jesus was, yes, passionately training and equipping His “new followers” in true “kingdom of God discipleship” on earth! Several vital considerations for YOUR mature, Christ-like prayer-journey!

In Matthew 5:48 I’m convinced our Lord is challenging disciples to “look to the Father as He truly has been, is, and always will be”: Therefore, you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect – which means true disciples consider Who and What has gone before! In Luke 6:35-36 we read Jesus saying, “But love your enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High. For He is kind to the unthankful and evil. Therefore be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.” True disciples who faithfully pray only to be seen and heard by God? Are YOU a ‘son of the Most High?’

“When YOU pray?” Matthew 6:6, “but you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.” Do you understand that prayer is one of the most important things you do between you and your Heavenly Father – and it’s done not to be seen of men! [That doesn’t mean public prayer is ungodly – I don’t buy that for a minute!]. But spiritual intimacy between a disciple and His Master is a privileged and blessed relationship! That means: Shut out the distractions, shut out noise interference, shut out being judged by fleshly men as you pour out your heart and mind before Holy God, get still, quiet, resting in Him!

Biblical praying? It’s the power to understand His Resurrection Power, His judgmental power, His creative power, and His power, though reserved in the secret place, He can reward you openly as He reads your heart, mind, soul, and desires!

It’s the power released to proclaim a victorious witness of the Resurrected Christ! It’s the power released to live a holy life! In Romans 8:11-14 tells us, “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.

Therefore, brethren, we are debtors – not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh [That’s the “old man, old sin nature, old ways without Christ!]. For if you live according to the flesh you will die [and your ‘prayers?’ also!]; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.” But the Spirit doesn’t lead you to pray? You can do it on your own?

It’s also power unveiled to see things happen, even mighty manifestations as the Spirit so desires! In 1 Corinthians 12:7-11 we read, “But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all: for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings by the same Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills.”

I find it so amazing, as I approach my 80^th birthday as of June 12, 2016, that very little is made in this particular age of ‘the church’ of “Holy Spirit” helps! In Romans 8:26-27 we read of what should happen but not necessarily does happen: “Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.”

It’s the power released as our Lord told us in John 16:12 of His appointment of the Holy Spirit for ‘Spirit-assistance’: In John 16:12-15 our Lord and Savior said, “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. HOWEVER, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He WILL TELL YOU THINGS TO COME. HE WILL GLORIFY ME [through YOU!], for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you.”

The following hymn is from the old “Broadman Hymnal” of 1940, [The Broadman Press, Nashville, Tennessee], entitled “Holy Spirit, Faithful Guide,” by Marcus M. Wells. It says:

“Holy Spirit, faithful Guide, Ever near the Christian’s side; Gently lead us by the hand, Pilgrims in a desert land; Weary souls forever rejoice, While they hear that sweetest voice, Whispering softly, ‘Wanderer, come! Follow Me, I’ll guide you home.

Ever present, truest friend, Ever near God’s aid to lend, Leave us not to doubt and fear, Groping in the darkness drear; When the storms are raging sore, Hearts grow faint, and hopes give o’er, Whisper softly, ‘Wanderer, come! Follow Me, I’ll guide you home.”

When our days of toil shall cease, Waiting still for sweet release, Looking up to heaven in prayer, Joyful that our names are there: Fearing not the dismal flood, Pleading naught but Jesus’ blood, Whisper softly, “Wanderer, come! Follow Me, I’ll guide you home.”

Why not, right now, pray: “Holy Spirit, to you I yield, in my life for you build, The fullness of Christ’s Indwelling Life, through me forever overcoming life’s strife!” Amen?

CHAPTER NINE

“VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED?

BESTOWED GRACE – BLESSED VICTORY?”

Aren’t you overwhelmed, overjoyed at times when you come across a particular Verse of Scripture, and you’re awed by what you read with a ‘fresh touch’ of Spirit-anointing?

1 Corinthians 15:10 tells us, “But by the grace of God I am what I am. And His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.”

Rather than ‘spiritual, perplexing, back-slapping’ before God because one thinks He ought to be overjoyed by who it is for Him to have on His team, meaning a proud, bloated, self-promoting, spiritual-world personal back-slapper, as if one’s own superior effort birthed his/her salvation and blessed His kingdom, all true believers should see themselves humbled before Holy God for His marvelous grace, mercy, and love given to a child of faith who has humbled himself/herself before the Cross!

I hope and pray your spiritual eyes are truly open as you witness what took place in Matthew 14:14-21, yes, beyond our Lord’s ability to feed five thousand men, plus women and children! Read carefully examining whether or not you see the difference He desires and can make in your own life and circumstances and opportunities! It says:

“And when Jesus went out He saw a great multitude; and He was moved with compassion for them, and healed their sick. When it was evening, His disciples came to Him, saying, ‘This is a deserted place, and the hour is already late. Send the multitudes away, that they may go into the villages and buy themselves food.”

But Jesus said to them, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.” And they said to Him, “We have here only five loaves and two fish.” Jesus said, “Bring them here to Me.” [That’s, bring your five loaves and two fish.].

Then He commanded the multitudes to sit down on the grass. And He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed and broke and gave the loaves to the disciples; and the disciples gave to the multitudes. [Multitudes? Would you think, maybe, 20,000-30,000 people?].

So they ALL ATE AND WERE FILLED, and they took up twelve baskets full of the fragments that remained. Now those men who had eaten were about five thousand men, besides women and children.”

Don’t you find it so amazing, so encouraging, so uplifting, that our Lord took a natural need and turned it into a supernatural provision for those He cared about? And as He saw YOU, convicted YOU, called YOU to Himself, what was His intent, His plan, His worthy provision in you to help Him change the world around you? Was His call, “You’re filled up with what men need, join Me, and let’s change men’s hearts and minds,” or, “I see your emptiness – I want to fill you with My presence,” or, “I see no potential in you, therefore an empty vessel becomes My earthly tabernacle,” or, “I see your earthly wisdom certificates – let me wash them away by My blood so I can then invade a blood-bought container and express Myself through you!”

There’s a very strong prayer the Lord Jesus made, early in His three-year public ministry before the Cross. It’s Matthew 11:25-27! At that time Jesus answered and said, “I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent, and have revealed them to babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight. All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.”

It’s very clear that Holy God knew, understood, and, yes, was broken-hearted over the unbelief of men toward Him AND over the ‘belief’ in some, yet, it did nothing for them except promote ‘religious pride’ without ‘life-change’ by the grace, mercy, and love of God!

I’ve written over Psalm 14, a psalm written by King David, the words: “A Fool’s Paradise”! Psalm 14 says, “The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God.’ They are corrupt, they have abominable works, there is none who does good. The Lord looks down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there are any who understand, who seek God.

THEY HAVE ALL TURNED ASIDE, they have together become corrupt; there is none who does good, No, not one. Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge, who eat up my people as they eat bread, and do not call on the Lord?

There they are in great fear, for God is with the generation of the righteous. You shame the counsel of the poor, but the Lord is his refuge. Oh, that the salvation of Israel would come out of Zion! When the Lord brings back the captivity of His people, let Jacob rejoice and Israel be glad.”

Early mankind, except for a few men touched and taken over by God, highlighted the fallen-away generation after generation, with Holy God then finding a Moses and an Aaron, and God speaking through them. In Exodus 20 Holy God unveiled the Ten Commandments , but I only highlight one here – Exodus 20:3 is Holy God declaring, “You shall have no other gods before Me.” Other gods were fallen men’s creations to try and appease the guilt of their godless lives because they surely had no desire to believe in, trust, or obey the Eternal God of Creation and the God of the coming Cross they would learn about! Shed blood, to them, was an animal slain and the blood strewn over their ‘religious tables’ but certainly didn’t, couldn’t, wouldn’t be covering for their sin, sins, or sinful nature – they didn’t have one, they thought, because they were so religious!

Has our ‘modern world’ embraced or rebelled against Holy God? Are ‘major religions’ the imprint of Christ’s Resurrection Presence or ‘cheap imitations’ of devotion to the exalting of the ‘best’ humanity has to offer – and, “If your God, your Jesus can’t accept us in our interpretation of the best of fleshly man’s religion, let Him be crucified again, and we’ll put the nails in his hands and feet, and gleefully watch Him die again. So what?”

Modern-day humanity, as a whole, since Jesus said, “Few there be who find the Holy Way,” is a world still gripped in shame, but overcoming it by criticism of the True Faith, slurs on the Holy Bible, devalued as counterfeit declaring Himself Savior and Lord, “no divinity there – maybe a good man trying to make a difference in a Hell-bent world,” and “even His faith, of a conservative variety, was ‘narrow,’ obstinate to other religions, unyielding concerning compromise; and though there are millions across the world who acknowledge Him, our vast world denies His saving blood and even His purported resurrection. We’re religious – Jesus deceived the masses in His day.” Really?

Hear me! Paul the Apostle dealt Spirit-Anointed in heavenly brilliance when in 2 Corinthians 5:16-21 he told us, “Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. NOW all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, THAT IS, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.

Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us; we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. For He [God] made Him [Christ Jesus] who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” Glory!!

The man who says he has been reconciled to God and believes He[Jesus] became sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him, yet goes on sinning, is the man who hears Christ say to him, “Go and sin no more,” but takes pleasure in his lack of understanding that God the Father ‘made Jesus Christ the Son who knew no sin, to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him,’ which is religious unbelief parading as true spiritual understanding that professing Christians can’t do anything but sin until they get to heaven someday, totally ignoring “death to self and life in and through the Indwelling Christ”!

Are you aware that 2 Corinthians 6:21 tells us, “For He (God) made Him (Christ Jesus) who knew no sin to be sin FOR US [on the Cross], that we might become the righteousness of God in Him,” so some ‘sinning believers’ simply say, “So what? I believe even as I choose to sin,” which means their old sin nature is very much alive as they ‘celebrate’ their old sin nature and deny their “new creation life in Christ”!

Some preachers, teachers, even some ‘professing disciples’ teach that by Christ’s death on the Cross ‘for me’, I can go on sinning until I get to Heaven ‘out there,’ is not Biblical teaching anointed of the Spirit! But His Holy Word declares ‘death to the old sin nature’ and resurrection life in Him because I accept my death with Him and praise Him that my bondage to sin was broken, yes, put to death at the Cross, and by His grace I receive His gift to me of His very righteousness!

Are you even aware that in Psalm 4:1 that David sang to the Lord God Almighty, “Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness,”? Even in Isaiah 51:1 God spoke, “Listen to Me, you who follow after righteousness, you who seek the Lord; [because there are those who want to walk in His fullness!]: Look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the hole of the pit from which you were dug. [No doubt the pit of spiritual death, religious death, yes, sinful death!].

Oh, and then in Isaiah 51:7-8, we read, “Listen to Me, YOU WHO KNOW RIGHTEOUSNESS, you people in whose heart is My law; do not fear the reproach of men, nor be afraid of their insults. For the moth will eat them up like a garment, and the worm will eat them like wool; but MY RIGHTEOUSNESS will be forever, and My salvation from generation to generation.”

God said what? “MY RIGHTEOUSNESS WILL BE FOREVER”, except in modern-day churches where men perform as best as they can, never grasping that His righteousness is imparted through Christ, implanted by the very Seed of His Life, Death, and Resurrection, imploding the old sin nature as He releases Himself, the Divine Nature, in repentant hearts and faith in Truth, yes, imputing grace, mercy, and love fully by the ruling presence of His Indwelling Resurrection Life, because as Paul wrote in Colossians 2:9, “For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; AND YOU ARE COMPLETE IN HIM, who is the head of all principality and power.” You’re not made ‘complete’ by what you do, but by WHAT JESUS DID IN YOUR PLACE ON THE CROSS!

Aren’t you awed, inspired, encouraged, uplifted, when you read Paul, in 2 Corinthians 1:9, saying, “Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead…”! That’s spiritual death in all men but raised to “new life” by Christ, and even with Paul saying in 1 Corinthians 15:31, “I DIE DAILY!”

“VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED? BESTOWED GRACE – BLESSED VICTORY?” When one comes to Romans 5:17, what is he/she being discipled in? Performance or Position? Gritted or Graced? Trying or Trusting? Keeping, as best as one can, or Kept by the power of God? 1 Peter 1:3-5 tells us: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to HIS ABUNDANT MERCY has begotten us again to a living hope THROUGH THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS CHRIST FROM THE DEAD, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does fade away, reserved in heaven for you, WHO ARE KEPT BY THE POWER OF GOD through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”

“VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED? BESTOWED GRACE – BLESSED VICTORY?” Are you overwhelmed, awed, uplifted, motivated, Kept by the power of God? Romans 8:35-39 inspires us, Paul saying, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: ‘For Your sake we are killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.’ Yet in all these things WE ARE MORE THAN CONQUERORS THROUGH HIM WHO LOVED US. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

“VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED? BESTOWED GRACE – BLESSED VICTORY?” Poor confession or rich profession? Bankrupt confession or enriched by God confession? Penniless confession or Prince of Peace confession? In 1 Timothy 6:11-16, the Apostle Paul trains, equips, inspires, and illuminates the heart and mind of young Timothy, telling him: “But you, O man of God, flee these things and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness. Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. I urge you in the sight of God who gives life to all things, and before Christ Jesus who witnessed the good confession before Pontius Pilate, that you keep this commandment without spot, blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ’s appearing, which He will manifest in His own time, He who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to whom be honor and everlasting power. Amen, or “so be it!” Is He the “Amen” of YOUR life??

“VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED? BESTOWED GRACE – BLESSED VICTORY?” The Eternal Truth of God unveiled or the eternal nakedness of man’s deception appealed by the faithless? Our fallen, faithless world must be constantly reminded that man’s view of truth falls away from God, while the Crucified, Resurrected Christ of Eternal Truth leads us to God! “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life! No one comes to Father-God but through Me!”

Dare I tell you? Christ Jesus IS the “Highway of Holiness”! In Isaiah 35:8-10 the prophet unveils the glory of our Lord and the excellency of our God. “A highway shall be there, and a road, and it shall be called the Highway of Holiness. The unclean shall not Passover it, but it shall be for others. Whoever walks the road, although a fool, shall not go astray. No lion shall be there, nor shall any ravenous beast go up on it; It shall not be found there. But the redeemed shall walk there, and the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with singing, with everlasting joy on their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.”

There’s an old, old hymn by Fanny J. Crosby and Mrs. J.F. Knapp in the 1940 Baptist Hymnal, published by Broadman Press, Nashville, Tennessee, entitled, “Blessed Assurance” that never grows old really. It says:

“Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine! Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine! Heir of salvation, purchase of God, Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood.

Perfect submission, perfect delight, Visions of rapture now burst on my sight; Angels descending, bring from above Echoes of mercy, Whispers of love.

Perfect submission, all is at rest, I in my Savior am happy and blest; Watching and waiting, looking above, Filled with His goodness, lost in His love.

This is my story, this is my song, Praising my Savior all the day long; This is my story, this is my song, Praising my Savior all the day long.”

“VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED? BESTOWED GRACE – BLESSED VICTORY?” Fleshly faith that always falls short or Eternal Faith in Christ’s “finished work” that always leads one in blessed confidence and eternal assurance because of ‘perfect submission’, not my will but His will be done in and through one’s daily walk! Have you grasped as yet that “kingdom living” under His Lordship is present and future, while some process ‘in Christ’ as future without consideration of Christ-honoring life in the here and now!

Sorry, but I don’t see Revelation 21 as ‘future’ but Kingdom Living Now! John wrote, Verses 21:1-8, “Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away [Crucified WITH Christ!”]. Also there was no more sea [or “separation”!]. Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, THE TABERNACLE OF GOD IS WITH MEN, [“You are the holy tabernacle or Temple of the Resurrected, Indwelling Christ!”], and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things are passed away.”

Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” And He said to me, “Write, for these words are faithful and true. He said to me, “It is done!” “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts. He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son. But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.” [And that’s the eternal death that never dies for the Christless lives, even the ‘religions’ (?) of the world!].

You don’t gain ‘merit’ for eternity as you “try your best” – one’s “FAITH” is in mercy through the grace of God, birthing Christ’s eternal, indwelling, Resurrection Life! One’s hope is in Him – not his/her self-will or self-determination! The question from Holy God will be, “What then did YOU do with Jesus who is called the Christ?” Are YOU the “illumined temple” of His indwelling in you through your faith alone in His finished work at the Cross and your old man of sin crucified with Him – and NOW you celebrate daily your death with Him and YOUR resurrection to “new life” through Him? The eternal is Now, not when or if you get to Heaven someday!

I was shocked when I read recently a statement by Augustine. In his “Letter 130” he actually wrote: “The sole purpose of life in time is to gain merit for life in eternity.” The sole purpose of life in the here and now is to gain the mercy of God through repentance toward God and faith in the finished work of Christ at the Cross, which without, one misses mercy and continues his messes in Hell! There is no merit for life in eternity ignoring the Cross! Or ignoring Resurrection Life, Resurrection Power, and Resurrection Hope!

A best-effort, self-constructed life, even with its ‘stained glass windows of self-improvement’, doesn’t house the Resurrected King of kings and Lord of lords! Jesus said, “You must be born again!”

CHAPTER TEN

“VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED? ONE LEGISLATOR – ONE LORD”

Have you ever sought to write for yourself your own ‘life agenda’? Some would say, “I live by the bread I produce day by day, though as far as the inner, spiritual part of me is concerned, who cares?” Or, “I live by the good fleshly deeds I do – what’s this ‘living by the life of another’? – I choose me, my, mine!” Others would say, “I live in my ‘dream world’ – fairy tale living is as good as it comes!” Or, “The beginning, means, and end of all things, is that I tried to do my best.” Or, “The ruling reason of my life is, “just do what makes YOU happy – who cares what others or some God has to say!”

Think with me about fallen humanity as we will eventually consider “One Legislator – One Lord”! But as we look to fallen humanity, fallen away from God, fallen from God’s intent in man’s creation, fallen away from the need of “blood redemption”, what is it men settle for? Well, “Certainly for my view, no consideration of what some call immortality – let me spend or expend my life’s resources for myself in the here and now; why consider what’s after death?” “Me? Whatever pumps my flesh and satisfies my glands, what else matters?” Or, “What’s the problem with a useless life? I’m my own man and ought to satisfy my own lusts!” Or, “I’ll spin the web of my own life on my own terms. Who cares what God’s intent was?” And fallen men have no clear understanding that the mind of fallen men, alienated and separated from Holy God, is an evil life of unbelief, with God’s Holy Word declaring in Genesis 6:5, “Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”

MAN WITHOUT GOD! And, yes, in early Genesis we see “the beginning of the unveiling” of God’s grace, mercy, and love! But even with that view of God, there are those who dim the mind to the Light of God, sear and steel the conscience with indifference toward God’s Word written and viewed in and through Emmanuel, God in the flesh, dim their hearts toward the Cross, the suffering, the death of Christ on the Cross in their behalf, as totally unimpressive: “What a foolish man!” they say.

MAN WITHOUT GOD? The majority of fallen men have no true or abiding consciousness of God, though some men will acknowledge but sense no need of Him because they are ‘god unto themselves’! Many are so stale, stoic, selfish, sin-sick, superior to any idea of God or need of repentance before their Creator. Plus, godless men, and women, birth family victims, family dis-function, disgrace, and despair, family separation, family sorrow and abuse, resentment, anger, disgust, accusations after accusations, dislike with an “I hate you” stance of relationships, followed by a disloyal pledge of bitterness! And without loving God as their hope and help, they live unfulfilling lives with no fulfilling relationships and rewards because they have no place in their hearts for a sacrificial, serving, selfless love!

MAN WITHOUT GOD? Are you aware most men exalt selfish imaginations, and really, anything or anyone that exalts himself/herself against the knowledge of God? They know zero about deliverance from sin and death, but celebrate in it, totally unaware of seeing a natural life birthed by God into a spiritual life that exalts and honors Him – with rich and eternal rewards! They possess no sense of innocence before Holy God and man because they are guilty, live in guilt, and try to cover it any way they can – which never happens apart from the shed blood of Christ as Emmanuel, “God with them.”

MAN WITHOUT GOD? Captives in their own souls, minds, wills, unaware of “the wages of unrighteousness”, walking in the counsel of the ungodly, drawing iniquity with cords of vanity like a cart with no wheels, famished souls with no true ‘bread of life’ or ‘water’ of the Word and the Spirit, living in rejection to the Law of the Lord of hosts, despising the Living Word, the Holy One of Israel, without knowing their life choices ‘stricken them’, and ‘the walking dead’ are like the carcasses of refuse in the very middle of a “Hollywood-like Boulevard” with their banners flying over every unbelieving life: “Unbeliever, and proud of it,” not knowing, Proverbs 16:18, “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall,” fall after fall after fall, deeper and deeper and deeper in the grips of a hellish devil, and eternal destruction that never fades or dies away!

MAN WITHOUT GOD? Alienated, separated, enslaved, deceived, enticed violaters of the Word and Will and Ways of God, being swallowed by the bad breath of Sheol, greedy for gain anyway, anytime, anywhere, with anyone, disdaining of counsel and eternal help, loving the darkness without any Light, delighting in the perversity of the wicked, devious to gain the upper hand and unearned wealth and unrewarding consequences, “just so I can have my way in all things”!

MAN WITHOUT GOD? Proverbs 6:16-19 says: “These six things the Lord hates, Yes, seven are an abomination to Him: A proud look, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that are swift in running to evil, a false witness who speaks lies, and one who sows discord among brethren.”

MAN WITHOUT GOD? That’s the one or many or masses that ignore Christ Jesus, inspire lustful living, betray the Holy Word, bow before “scientific discoveries” more than to the Lord God who created them, resistant to governorship of the Lord Jesus who loves them far more than they know how to ‘love’ themselves, so in love with the perversions out of the selfish hearts of men they had just rather crucify the King of kings and Lord of lords and bow unto their sin natures, God-less ideals, and their lives governed by “flesh” alienations than Holy Spirit birthing!

MAN WITHOUT GOD? Proverbs 27:6 expose so much about the nature and character of our fallen world. It says, “Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy [toward God and YOU] are deceitful.” Can you grasp that? But, not only the deception of one’s enemies, including the devil and his appointed demons, how easy is it for unreconciled, unrighteous, unbelieving, ungodly men and women, even youth and children, to be encouraged toward rebellion against God rather than submission to His eternal Way and ways? For far too many “blood redemption” by the Lamb of God is unreality, unnatural, and unnecessary!

MAN WITHOUT GOD? It was John Greenleaf Whittier, in his writing, “A Sabbath Scene,” who said: “Foul shame and scorn be on you all Who turn the good to evil, and steal the Bible from the Lord and give it to the devil.” Of course, though, we don’t have to worry about that in this ‘modern-day’, do we?

Are you familiar with Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s writings? One is entitled “The Cry of the Human,” and in it she wrote: “There is no God,” the foolish saith, But none, “There is no sorrow”: And nature oft the cry of faith In bitter need will borrow.

Eyes, which the preacher could not school, By wayside graves are raised; And lips say, “God be pitiful,” Who never said, “God be praised.” Does that still ‘fit’ in an unbelieving state of life and mind today?

Many unbelieving men will question true believers at times, “How can you believe in God?” And only true wise men of faith stand to say, “I examine the billions of planets He designed, then the awesome people He created, lost, and re-birthed – and I rejoice, thank, and praise His Holy Name,” which now leads us to examine, “Vital Awareness Unveiled? One Legislator – One Lord!”

Taking a look at the nation enslaved in Egypt yet liberated by Holy God and given “a land of promise”, Israel is or was the recipient of God’s faithfulness yet there came a time that most of Israel, except the remnant, abandoned God and promoted ‘religion’ without a personal relationship!

In Joshua 24:14-15 we see the challenge that is just as true today as it was in Joshua’s day imprinting the call to turn to the “True Legislator and the Only Redeeming Lord”! Joshua said, “Now therefore, fear the Lord, serve Him in sincerity and truth, [any different Word for today in our service to the King of kings and Lord of lords?], and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the River and in Egypt. SERVE THE LORD! [Unless you’re content with enslavement to your old sin nature and your ‘fleshly faith’!].

And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

Self-legislation – self-rule or One Legislator – One Lord whose name is Christ Jesus, the Promised Messiah? Flesh domination – flesh damnation or Christ Rule – Christ’s Reign? Wicked thoughts – wicked separation or Divine Truths – Divine Oneness? Seared consciences – sickened life or New Ruler – New life, new hope, new peace, new rejoicing, new awakened consciences accountable to Holy God!

Formerly self-righteous thinking is transformed by the grace and mercy of God through Christ’s shed blood, and having repented, a man of faith begins to say daily, “Lord, what would YOU have me to do?” And what excuse do “born-again believers”, who have died to the old man and old sin nature and been indwelt by “Christ who is our life”, have? Were YOU crucified with Christ? Does Christ live in you? Do you scripturally possess now “the mind of Christ”? Are you a recipient, now owner, of the Glorious Word of God called the Holy Bible, yes His instruction manual on living the overcoming, never-ending, victorious life of Christ who is more than conqueror? As YOUR liberator, He’s your educator, legislator, yes, the Lover of your soul, your mind, and should be, your will, your wisdom, your warrior of overcoming faith!

Dare I tell you that the “mind of God in Christ” is omnipotent, omnipresent, all-wisdom, all-Truth, all understanding, all-love, all-seeing, all-knowing – Emmanuel, “God in the flesh”, King of kings, Lord of lords, Who desired to make YOUR life the residence of His abiding presence, YOUR life His earthly extension, His heavenly expression, and His Kingdom throne which is righteousness, peace, joy, and the fullness of Holy Spirit anointing, guidance, illumination of what He is all about in touching the world around you with eternal desires, directions, disciplines, discernments, and destiny!

Are you so diseased in mind and heart that God’s eternal plan may be for others, but not you? Have you been so alienated from Holy God so long, and witnessed the death sentences being lived out around you by family, friends, and fellow-unbelievers, that for YOU it is beyond even considering that if you were the only man/woman, teenager, child, to ever live, “how could I, (we), them, my closest family and friends, ever consider the audacious Truth, if it is true, that the Crucified, Resurrected, Reigning Christ, chose me, us, to establish His earthly residence and reign?” And it’s TRUE!

Hear me! Romans 3:23-26 declares for us all, all human residents on earth, yes, worldwide: “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, BEING JUSTIFIED FREELY BY HIS GRACE through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.” Justified? By grit or by grace? By self-effort or Sovereign provision? “Justified”? Working for it or resting in our Lord’s finished work at the Cross?

Romans 5:17 declares the repentant heart, forgiven, washed in the blood, surrendered to His earthly throne IN the “blood-washed life”, filled with His Holy Spirit and His abiding Presence, teaches us about the Royal, Residing, Reigning Christ in and through every true born-again believer! It says: “For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, MUCH MORE those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.” Glory! Glory be to God!

Have YOU ever considered, searched out, rested in God’s eternal revelation of one’s true identity “in Him,” “in Christ”, “in the blood-bought family of God”?

Genesis 15:1, “Do not be afraid, Farrell Fisher; I AM your shield, your exceedingly great reward.”

Genesis 17:2-4, Loving God expanded Abram’s vision and His desire for YOU! “And I will make My covenant between Me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly. Then Abram fell on his face, and God talked with him, saying, “As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations.” But the powers of darkness tell you, “But that couldn’t be YOU!?”

How many do you know that, like Jacob, had a dream as Holy God revealed Himself more and more THROUGH A DREAM?!? In Genesis 28:15-17 we read: “Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you.” Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.” And he was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven!” Have YOU EVER SEEN YOUR LIFE AS THE HOUSE OF GOD AND THE GATE OF HEAVEN?

Oh, it gets deeper, richer, more awe-inspiring! In Genesis 35:10-12 we read: And God said to him, “Your name is Jacob; your name shall not be called Jacob anymore, but Israel shall be your name.” So He called his name Israel. Also God said to him, “I am God Almighty. Be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall come from your body. The land which I gave Abraham and Isaac I give to you; and to your descendants after you I give this land.”

Do YOU read the Word discovering Holy God’s true identity and how He identifies you under His watch-care? In Exodus 3:14-15 it gets richer and, yes, even more rewarding! And God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And He said, “Thus YOU shall say to the children of Israel, (to the children of the U.S.A. and worldwide!), “I AM has sent me to you.” Moreover God said to Moses (and to Farrell Fisher!), “The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is My name forever, and this is My memorial to all generations.” Even your generations in America and beyond?

Are you awed when you learn it is God’s eternal desire to set YOU apart as He did ‘the chosen of Israel’? In Exodus 31:13 He identifies “My Sabbaths you shall keep, for it is a sign between Me and you throughout all generations, that YOU may know that I AM the Lord who sanctifies YOU [or sets YOU apart for His honor, glory, and praise!!].”

All through the Word Holy God is reminding people: “I AM the Lord your God,” yet many of the Israelites fell away! And He confronts, convicts, convinces that “I AM the Lord your God who brought YOU out of a deceived world, like Egypt, OUT OF THE HOUSE OF BONDAGE,” with the command, “You shall have no other gods before Me.”

If you’ve never known, it’s so vital that you ‘rest’ in His eternal truths and Truth this very moment! In Psalm 46 David sang: “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in time of trouble. Therefore we will not fear, even though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; though its waters roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with its swelling,” with Verses 10-11 challenging us, “Be still, and know that I AM GOD; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!” The question? Is He exalted in YOU and YOURS?

And, the New Testament doesn’t speak to YOU about “the Great I Am”? How familiar are you with Matthew 11:28-30? Jesus said, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light,” yet He bore the sins of all fallen humanity on the Cross!

Really now, just how spiritually hungry are you? If so, in John 6:35, Jesus says to us, “I AM the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.” But the ‘fleshly thirsty’ keep looking and looking but never find “True Bread” or “Living Water”, and wander in spiritual darkness and deception, but the Lord Jesus Christ said then and now in John 8:12, “I AM the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.”

The Lord Jesus said in John 14:6, “I AM the way, the truth, and the life. NO ONE comes to the Father except through Me;” and was it John Wimber who used to ask? “Christ Jesus: Lord, liar, or lunatic?” I’m telling you: Jesus is the Author and Finisher of our faith. “Jesus is Emmanuel, ‘God with us,’”; Jesus is the “True Vine”; our Lord said, “I AM the resurrection and the life. He who believes in [trusts in, relies upon, adheres to] Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?”

Christ Jesus IS Alpha and Omega, Christ Jesus IS the Bright and Morning Star, Christ Jesus IS the root of all “New-Born, Spirit-filled lives”, Christ Jesus is the Eternal Bridegroom who says to His Bride, “Forsake all, and follow Me!”

It was Oswald Chambers, in “My Utmost For His Highest,” [pps.200-201], who wrote about the Lord’s statement in Mark 10:21, “One thing you lack…come, take up your cross, and follow Me.” Chambers wrote: “The rich young ruler had the master passion to be perfect. When he saw Jesus Christ, he wanted to be like Him. Our Lord never puts personal holiness to the fore when He calls a disciple. He puts absolute annihilation of my right to myself and identification with Himself – a relationship with Himself in which there is no other relationship.” Jesus doesn’t ‘fit in’ – He takes over the “crucified life” and resurrects it in His fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Jesus Christ!

What did Paul tell us in Galatians 2:20-21a? “I have been crucified WITH CHRIST; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh [or fleshly body!] I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God…”!

This is why in 2 Corinthians 5:17 Paul wrote: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new!”

“New Birth”, “New Life,” “New Hope,” “New Day Dawning,” “New Glory,” “New Help,” “New Heaven on Earth, “New Dwelling Place – Eternal in the Heavens,” “New Helps,” “New Confidence and Assurance,” “New Work,” “New Spirit” coming upon every new born-again believer!

New words recently given – I pray they inform, inspire, and introduce the Lord and Savior, Christ Jesus, more and more:

“A new-born person, blessed even in the midst of strife, conquers by the Peace Christ brings through His Resurrection Life.

Though trouble may come to new creations, Christ blesses that life by His invasion; storm-clouds may cover, but He rules over whatever may come whether dust-like or clover!

Holy Presence of Resurrection blessing, storms and troubles become sure of His place and resting. No wind so strong, no storm so severe – His Presence assures they go to the rear!

“Peace I leave with you, peace I give unto you,” and every trouble becomes His personal conquering; battles extreme, wars so brutal, but love so sweet and peace so enduring!

Christ-less lives can mindfully enjoy a man-made journey like a child with a toy; temporary distraction, but no eternal satisfaction – made for God but buried in the sod, no understanding, not even a nod.

Restricted in true love, no peace of the dove; striving in flesh to the best of one’s effort; void of the blessing of God’s restoration, never considering their final destination.

Void of life, they live in death; void of His love, they live with hesitations; so unsure if the journey of life can live with the strife – knowing for certain, without Him there is nothing pertinent!

But workers of faith and conquerors over self have a reverence of life no one can deny; heroic in spirit, they walk in a world so void of faith, they watch as a world enthrones its self, slumbering daily, no faith in God, just waiting soon to be buried in earth’s sod.

Denying self, there’s no desire to be called up for hire; there one ambition becomes, for them, God’s desire! No reverence for self or put on a shelf, they cry to God, “Lord, what should I do to honor You and fulfill Your plan, as You scope around us, and design our walk, hearing Your voice and learning how we should talk!”

Touching our world with Your peace and grace, we offer our lives to redeem the race, of godless men and devil inspired, “God, help us to be able to say, ‘by our witness, Your desire has graciously transpired’; Men have repented, fully consented, to follow our Lord, blessedly contented, at peace with our Lord, no longer bored, but divinely inspired to live our lives to His glory and honor, fully at peace through His Indwelling Spirit, newly born, gloriously saved, laying down our lives, others are born no longer torn, but now daughters and sons heavenly born!” Does His Word speak of “One Legislator – One Lord”? Of course! It does!

CHAPTER ELEVEN

“VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED? VOID OF GOD’S WORD OR VICTORY THROUGH GOD’S WORD?”

In Hebrews 4:12 we read: “For the Word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword…”. Have you ever considered that you as a believer are to be guided by God’s Holy Word? Being united WITH Christ in your heart, soul, and mind, is it in the fabric of your redemption of “be being saved” by your devotion to His Holy Word? Is it possible that in your “wedding vows” with Christ you omitted “devoted to His Word and His will”?

Is it in you as it was with King David as he wrote in Psalm 25:4-5, “Show me Your ways, O Lord; teach me Your paths. Lead me in Your truth and teach me, for You are the God of my salvation; on You I wait all the day,” but you know nothing or little of the daily devotion of His Word to be personally taught day by day by the King of kings and Lord of lords?

“Your will be done” but you never daily yield yourself to discover His will, His ways, His directive word, but you settle in, “I’m saved; that’s all that I need to know?” I believe that I read in Psalm 25:12, “Who is the man who fears the Lord? Him shall He teach in the way that He chooses.” And God’s choice? Matthew 4:4, But He [Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, Promised Messiah, Lord of lords, King of kings!], answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” “God said…”, but that is not essential to your professed faith?

I would challenge you as you’re reading this to evaluate your “saving experience” in Christ if you are void of His Word! So-called “religious experiences” that never leads one to His “revelation” and a hunger to know His will and His Word absolutely frightens me! If one has been “born again”, I believe one of the evidences is “that we might KNOW the things that are freely given to us of God,” [1 Corinthians 2:12].

To his spiritual son, Timothy, Paul wrote in 2 Timothy 2:15, “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” I look upon God’s revelation of divine truth in both the Old and New Testaments as magnificent promises for maturing men and women, boys and girls, who have come to Him in true repentance and redemptive faith.

It was Peter who told us in 2 Peter 1:2-4, “Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that THROUGH THESE you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”

Tell me about your reception daily (in comparison to three square meals a day of physical bread!) through God’s Holy Word of His “exceedingly great and precious promises,” of your daily discovery and acquired knowledge of “the things freely given to us by God,” yes, and your appropriation of His truths that show YOU the “escaping [of] the corruption that is in the world through lust.”

Do you remember Abraham’s servant, sent by Abraham to find a bride for his son Isaac? In Genesis 24:48 the servant speaks: “And I bowed my head and worshipped the Lord, and blessed the Lord, and blessed the Lord God of my master Abraham, who had led me IN THE WAY OF TRUTH to take the daughter of my master’s brother for his son.” Thank God for His servants who are “led in the way of truth!”

In Mark 4 Jesus had been explaining His parables to the new disciples. Verses 33-34 tell us, “And with many such parables He spoke the word to them as they were able to hear it. But without a parable He did not speak to them. And when they were alone, He explained all things to His disciples.” [Have YOU asked Him to explain to YOU His Word?]. The very desire of Jesus for you right now is that you listen TO Jesus and LET HIM “explain all things in the Word to you” by the Holy Spirit who “guides us into all truth.” In John 16:13-14 our Lord told His disciples, “However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.” The Holy Spirit is Heaven’s personal “Tutor” in the Holy Word of God!!

But haven’t you heard it? “I don’t need a personal “Tutor” to teach me the Bible! I don’t accept the Bible as the authoritative Word of God – I’m smart enough in myself, in this world’s wisdom, – to sense there is no divine truth as there is no ‘heaven’ or ‘hell’ – find a brain-dead ‘christian’ and you’ll probably fool THEM – not me!” And if you haven’t learned it yet in your classrooms or from any university professors who see themselves as smarter than God Himself, they believe, by human interaction you will learn that the most harmful ‘curse’ in life’s spiritual realm is belief in God’s Holy Word when they believe ‘smart men’ are wiser in intellectual superiority, even personal pride, and superior to Jesus Himself who IS Emmanuel, “God in Flesh”!

Have you ever examined thoroughly Jesus’ passionate prayer in John 17 for you and for all mankind as He described “grace” as that which reveals Him, and then He UNVEILS “eternal life” by His “grace”? John 17:3 says, “And this is eternal life, that they may know You [God Himself], the only true God, AND Jesus Christ whom You sent.” Oh, and then in Verse 17 Jesus prayed, “Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.” Sancitfy? “Set them apart,” “save them, redeem them, declare them ‘holy’ by Your Word”!! As Josh MacDowell used to say of Jesus, as I’ve quoted before of Jesus: “Liar, lunatic, or the Lord God?”

But “void of the Word of God” men will, at least some, profess a mental knowledge of Him but never experience “victory in Him through His eternal Word”! Oswald Chambers wrote in his famous book, “My Utmost For His Highest,” []p.4], “Natural devotion may be all very well to attract us to Jesus, to make us feel His fascination, but it will never make us disciples. Natural devotion will always deny Jesus somewhere or other.” What did the Lord Jesus tell us in John 3:3-7?

Jesus answered and said to Nicodemus, “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 [that’s 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.’” All believers, true believers, born again believers, will face worldly and satanic opposition to their true faith, but Paul tells all unbelievers in Ephesians 6:10-19,

“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.”

Natural mankind poses fierce opposition to Jesus because , in their natural minds, are “void of the Word of God” and have no heavenly understanding. Even the early disciples like Philip had a hard time understanding who Jesus was and what He was about. Look at John 14:7-11! “If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him and have seen Him.”

Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works. Believe Me that I AM in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves.”

Natural mankind is void, opposed, and ‘willfully’ resists Biblical Truth that “the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin.” Natural mankind is highly opposed to Biblical Truth that says “obedience to Jesus is required: as evidence of a born-again life”, even when Jesus said in Matthew 7:21, “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.” In fact, in Luke 6:46, Jesus said: “But why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do the things which I say?” Obedience is not an option in the age of grace but is the evidence grace is at work in you finishing its work in you and through you!

We do know beyond a shadow of a doubt that not all of Israel was “lost” because of rejection of the coming of the Promised Messiah – there was a ‘remnant’! But Romans 10:21 says, But to Israel he says, “All day long I have stretched out My hands to a disobedient and contrary people.” And even as “Jews” there are those who lived in the “natural”, yes, fully opposed to “saved by grace”! Natural mankind are those who are “a disobedient and contrary people” who have no desire to live by the Life of Another, even by Emmanuel, “God in flesh”!!

Natural mankind does not “know” Father-God or the Son of God or the Holy Spirit, yes, the THREE IN ONE!! We ALL came into this world through “fallen Adam”, yes, “hiding from God, without hope in ourselves, or hope in each other” – we needed a miracle of God!

In John 17:25-26 Jesus prayed, “O righteous Father, THE WORLD HAS NOT KNOWN YOU, but I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me. And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the Love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.” Yes, Jesus prayed for YOU and ME that God’s love would capture our minds and hearts and wills, drawing us out of the land of darkness of unbelief to the “Promised Land” of heavenly living on earth through His Resurrection Life, Resurrection Power, and Resurrection Hope!

“Void of the Word of God”? I pray that you have not set aside the Epistle to the Hebrews! In Hebrews 1:1-3 we read, “God, who at various times and in various ways, spoke in times past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.”

But those who are “void of the Word of God,” “void of Christ Himself”, willfully shut the door to His saving grace and mercy and have no seat in the heavenly places! Read carefully Ephesians 2:4-7! “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), AND RAISED US UP TOGETHER, AND MADE US SIT TOGETHER IN THE HEAVENLY PLACES IN CHRIST JESUS, that in the ages to come “HE MIGHT SHOW” the exceeding riches in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”

“Void of the Word of God”? That’s those blinded by the world, the flesh, and the devil! It’s why in Galatians 6:7-8 Paul tells us: “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh [that’s his old sin nature, old man, First Adam] will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit [of God] will of the Spirit reap everlasting life.”

“Void of the Word of God”? Are you aware of the “stumblers”? Peter told us in 1 Peter 2:8, “…they stumble, being disobedient to the word, to which they also were appointed.” God Himself read their hearts and appointed them to their just reward, yes, because of a mental, willful, head and heart rejection of the Lord Jesus Christ!

I think it vitally important to have you read 1 Corinthians 1:18-31!! Receive it for yourself: “For the message [or word] of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

For it is written: ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.’ Where is the wise? Where is the scribe, Where is the disputer [debater] of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?

For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; But we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.

Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty;

And the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh [First Adam, old sin nature], should glory in His presence.

But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God – and righteousness and sanctification and redemption – that, as it is written, ‘He who glories, let him glory in the Lord.’” Foolishness of men ‘void of the Word’ OR victory through the Word because we “glory” only in the finished work of Christ “At The Cross” living a celebratory life because of His Resurrection from the dead?

How about for you an eternal shift by the grace of God to “Victory Through His Word”? In 1 John 5:4-5 John tells us: “For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And THIS IS THE VICTORY that overcomes the world – our faith. [Our trust in Christ, our relying upon Christ, our total dependence upon Christ through His shed blood, His death, His Resurrection, His Ascension, and His soon coming to celebrate with Him eternally!!]. Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?”

I’m forever sorry and broken that ‘religious’ people never see Jesus in heaven but only at the Judgment Seat as He tells them, “Depart from Me, you who work iniquity!!”

But “born of God”? Are you familiar with Galatians 1:15-16? “But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, to reveal His Son in me..” What an awesome revelation!

Do you remember what Jesus said in John 5:38-40? “But you do not have His word abiding in you, because whom He sent, Him you do not believe. You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.”

There are those who will “read” the Word without “resting” in its Author. There are professors of allegiance to the ‘paper’ of the Book but fail to possess its Author and His Resurrection Life, Power, and Hope! There are ‘historical verifiers’ without “blood-bought, redeemed hearts”! And certainly there are devoted legalists without the Person and heavenly love of the Lord.

The Holy Word tells us: 2 Timothy 3:14-17, “But you MUST continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.

All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

Have YOU been “made wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus alone”? What did Paul tell us in Romans 5:10? “For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be [“being”] saved by His life.” Have you forgotten or never learned, “justified by His blood”?

The author of Hebrews put it like this in Hebrews 9:11-14, “But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation.

Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh,

How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”

If your life is not a testimony of continuous rejoicing in God for His forgiveness and, yes, forgetfulness of your old sin nature and your pattern and participation in fleshly sins, I believe I would seriously examine what I “thought” was my salvation and what God Himself “says” it is!

Hebrews 10:12-14 tells us, “But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool.

For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.” Your sin became His “pain,” your pain became His suffering, His suffering became your freedom, and your freedom became the theme of your praise to your true Savior and Lord! So you take the sentence of death daily that the Resurrection Life of your Lord and Savior may be manifested in and through you for an unbelieving world to see and seek!

Have you forgotten, overlooked, or never seen Paul’s word to us in Galatians 5:24? “And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires,” so,…Verse 25, “If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.”

CHAPTER TWELVE

“VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED? EXPERIENCING THE POWER OF

THE PROMISED, PRECIOUS HOLY SPIRIT!”

It’s amazing to me that many write or speak or preach or teach about “evangelical spirituality” and totally ignore or try to refute the words of Jesus Himself about “wait for the promise of the Father,” which relates to the “anointing, enduement, filling, or baptism in the Holy Spirit.”

In no way do I ignore, make light of, or substitute “the Gospel of Christ which is the Power of God Unto Salvation,” for a “power” that pumps my “flesh.” But I do recognize in my ‘flesh’ an inability to fulfill the “good, acceptable, and perfect will of God” through my walk as a disciple in the best energy of my flesh without His Promise of Holy Spirit anointing and empowering!

If my Savior “fills All in All,” I hunger for the “ALL” filling me so that HIS ALL is fulfilled through me! If “wait” was among Jesus’ last words for His disciples then, I’m asking, is that “wait” relevant for NOW?

I know there is redemptive power in the Gospel of Christ, but I also know about a released power in the Holy Spirit given His rightful, reigning presence in your life and mine.

The question of Paul to the Ephesian followers in Acts 19 is urgent for today: “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” (Acts 19:2), And they responded in verse 3, “We have not so much as heard whether there is a Holy Spirit.”

I have no hesitation in saying to you that “the counterfeit of consecration” is a believer’s life lived independently of the awesome anointing of the Holy Spirit, evidenced by no true Godly freedom or fullness or “fire in my bones”!

Disciples with uninformed lives about the necessity of the Holy Spirit anointing never experience the unrivaled, unlimited power of God released through their lives.

In Galatians 3:3 Paul asked a vitally important question: “…Having begun in the Spirit (that’s “born of the Spirit” in the second birth), are you now being made perfect by the flesh?” Much of the ‘churchianity’ of today is a ‘cosmetic covering’ without the reality of Spirit-anointing and empowerment! Maybe, “a cheap imitation”?

Paul was so on target when in 2 Timothy 3:5 he spoke of “having a form of godliness but denying its power,” which is why Samuel Chadwick once wrote: “A religion of mere emotion and sensationalism is the most terrible of all curses that can come upon any people. The absence of reality is sad enough, but the aggravation of pretense is a deadly sin.”

Are we willing to settle for our impotence when there is the reality of His omnipotence? Are disciples of today content to stand at our Lord’s tomb or to walk through the doors of the power of Pentecost? Are we asleep on pillows of indifference or standing at the pillars of divine enabling? Are we “mesmerized spectators” or mounted on the wings of Holy Ghost anointing?

It was Isaiah who sadly said, (Isaiah 64:7), “And there is no one who calls on Your name, who stirs himself up to take hold of You…” God help us that we not be men and women who do not stir themselves up to take hold of His promised anointing, but that we be truly men and women God-graced, God-gripped, God-galvanized in the fullness of His Holy Spirit! How do we experience that power of His promised, precious Holy Spirit?

FIRST OF ALL, God’s Word is so very clear – HE IS NO RESPECTOR OF PERSONS! AND IF HE FILLS ONE, IT’S HIS DESIRE TO FILL ALL! Come to Acts 10:38! “…how God ANOINTED Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.”

Don’t you find it amazing that the Son of God who became the Son of Man, Emmanuel – “God in flesh” – received and experienced God’s anointing “with the Holy Spirit and with power”? And there’s a reason or explanation: In Philippians 2:7 Paul said Jesus “made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bond-servant, and coming in the likeness of men…” the NASB says “emptied Himself.”

John 17 explains the “emptying” so there could be in His life God’s FILLING! Verse 2, “no authority” – but God gave it to Him. Verse 5, “no glory” – but God glorified the Son. Verse 6, “no disciples” – but the Father gave Him His disciples. Verse 8, “no words” – but God gave Him the very words to speak.

In John 17:18 Jesus said, “As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.” Jesus chose to be totally dependent upon all the Father is so He could appropriate all the Father has! And by His example, we are to be dependent disciples anointed by the Father with the Holy Spirit and power just as Jesus was!

John 5:19 says, “Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do…” Verse 30 says the same thing, “I can of Myself do nothing!” But we believe we can? No, as the Father anointed Jesus, so He is to anoint us. RECEIVE THE ANOINTING!

SECOND, YOU BEGIN TO EXPERIENCE THAT POWER WHEN YOU CLEARLY UNDERSTAND, “IT IS THE WILL OF GOD!” Come to Ephesians 5:17-18. Receive! “Therefore do not be unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is, and do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation, BUT BE FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT.”

The Holy Spirit is the generating Spirit of Divine Life! In Romans 8:11 Paul wrote, “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.”

Flesh effort is a futile possibility of honoring our Lord through our walk, but Spirit-anointing, which is God’s will for each of us, fills us full of faith, fire, and power. It’s the will of God!

In his book, “Rent Heaven,” R.B. Jones wrote, “A few years ago a warm current called El NinA, which ususally comes before Christmas, swept southward along the west coast of South America in greater volume than ever before. I brought with it torrential showers, which visited parts of South America which had not known rain since the year 1551. El Nina turned thousands of miles of desert into paradise in an incredibly short time, as it caused millions of hardy seeds which had lain dormant in the ground through decades of drought to sprout and grow with incredible vigor.”

And God’s will? It’s for a spiritual El Nina in your barren life, if it is, germinating divine seeds of Life through you “with incredible vigor.” IT’S THE WILL OF GOD!!

THIRD, EXPERIENCING GOD’S POWER COMES ALSO AS AN ANSWER TO INTERCESSORY OR PERSONAL PRAYERS! In Ephesians 3:16 Paul prayed, “that He would grant you, according to the riches of His grace, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man.”

Do you remember Jesus saying, “You have not because you ask not?” And sadly many walk in spiritual futility about dynamic service to our Lord because they are prayerless or have no one praying in their behalf. If it is the will of God that we be filled with the Holy Spirit, do we really believe if we pray to that end He’ll not answer? I don’t think so. PRAY TRUSTING, PRAY BELIEVING, PRAY REJOICING!

It was not only God’s will for Paul but for all disciples to know and experience the anointing. And Romans 15:29 says, Paul speaking, “But I know that when I come to you, I shall come in the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ.”

The Ephesian Christians hadn’t heard of the Holy Spirit, but Acts 19:6 tells us, “And when Paul laid hands on them (without praying? I don’t think so!), the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke with tongues and prophesied.”

FOURTH, THERE IS, YES, THE NECESSITY OF SHOWING UP FOR “THE FIGHT”! Look carefully with me at Galatians 5:16-17, and Verses 24-25!

Verses 16-17, “I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.”

And then Verses 24-25 tells us: “And those WHO ARE CHRIST’S HAVE CRUCIFIED THE FLESH WITH ITS PASSIONS AND DESIRES. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.”

Drew Bennett is a Presbyterian Pastor, Reformed, in Winter Haven, Florida. Drew used to travel with me to India, and on one occasion I remember him using ‘the Spirit and flesh’ as “two dogs in a fight.” Which one is stronger? And Drew said, “Feed one and starve the other.”

It is imperative that, if we walk in the fullness of God’s Spirit, it is because we’ve starved that doggish ‘flesh’ spirit that wants to dominate. And to be gut-level honest, I don’t believe there is a true “Spirit-filled life,” even if one speaks in tongues, while at the same time that one walks with an unbridled flesh life, professing without possessing “the fruit of the Spirit”!

In Romans 8:12-14 we read, “Therefore, brethren, we are debtors – not to the flesh (old sin nature!), to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are sons of God.”

Let’s reverse those last three Verses. “Who Are The Sons Of God? 1) They are those led by the Spirit of God! 2) They are putting to death, by the Spirit, the deeds of the body or ‘flesh’! 3) And, they understand no debt to their old sin natures and long for the Holy Life of the Spirit and its fullness in them!

FIFTH, WE EXPERIENCE THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT AS, IN TUNE WITH CHRIST, WE RESIST TEMPTATION AND REFUSE TO ENTERTAIN SATAN! Luke 4:1-14 is so vital to our understanding of this Victorious, Spirit-Anointed Walk! [Patience, please!]:

Then Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, being tempted for forty days by the devil. And in those days He ate nothing, and afterward, when they were ended, He was hungry.

And the devil said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” But Jesus answered him, saying, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.’”

Then the devil, taking Him up on a high mountain, showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said to Him, “All this authority I will give You, and their glory; for this has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. Therefore, if You will worship before me, all will be Yours.”

And Jesus answered and said to him, “Get behind Me, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.’”

Then he brought Him to Jerusalem, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down from here. For it is written: “He shall give His angels charge over You, to keep You,” and, “In their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone.’”

And Jesus answered and said to him, “It has been said, ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God.’” Now when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from Him until an opportune time.

THEN Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and news of Him went out through the surrounding region.”

If you look at Verse 22 of Luke 3, after Jesus’ baptism, “the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon Jesus…!!” Chapter 4, Verse 1 says, “Then Jesus filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, Verse 2, being tempted by the devil for forty days.”

Was that a test God allowed in the life of His Son? We are all tested – and we are all tempted! But Jesus resisted! Hebrews 4:15 says of Jesus, “…in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.” Then Hebrews 4:16 follows, “LET US therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.”

Grace to help? That’s the Holy Spirit! Now, come back to Luke 4:13-14, “Now when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from Him until a more opportune time…THEN (when?) Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit t6o Galilee…”

I have no reservation in saying to you His resistance brought a mighty release of power in Jesus’ walk and ministry! Though filled with the eternal reservoir of Holy Ghost power, the release came because He refused to entertain Satan’s temptation, choosing to honor His Father!

Do you know my concern for believers and their relationship to the Holy Spirit? They want, some of them, to be “zapped” in an instant when God wants them to zero in on one’s resistance to temptation! Some want a “quick-fix” without an eternal qualified fight! They want an easy path when it’s experience and expression of precious privilege through the “bloody battles” against our Enemy who wants to lead us back into black darkness and bondage. “Resist the devil and he will flee from you,” and as you resist a river, a wind, a fire breaks out from within your inner man!! Which leads us to the sixth truth about experiencing the explosive power of the promised, precious Holy Spirit!

SIXTH, IT COMES BECAUSE OF OUR UNWAVERING UNDERSTANDING THAT WE CANNOT WIN THE WAR AGAINST THE POWER OF DARKNESS APART FROM SPIRIT-ANOINTING! Matthew 12:28 are words from Jesus! Listen! “But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you.” Do you have a problem with that Verse? If so, it is because you have omitted in your training as a disciple understanding about the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of darkness. “Vital Awareness Unveiled?”

If it’s a problem it’s because someone blinded you to the gracious, merciful activity of God’s Kingdom. In Luke 9:1-2 Jesus “called His twelve disciples together and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases He sent them to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.” [Many preach that the ‘kingdom of God’ is future, unaware or decidedly indifferent to what He said!]. And if you’ve been taught that ended with the early apostles, then you bought into as great a deception as [ ], which has hindered the effective, eternal ministry of Christ Jesus!

We know that Satan was cast down from heaven and that he deceives the whole world, but our Lord said that He has no desire for His people to be caught up in that deception but to deliver people from it. Fighting the good fight of faith surely includes setting people free from demonic control and even setting them free from the blindness of spiritual warfare, as if there were none!

Holy Spirit anointing? Jesus tells us it is an unceasing, undying, passionate hunger for the third person of the Holy Trinity having His way in us! In John 7:37-39 we read, “On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out saying, ‘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…But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive: for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.”

And check out the verbs! “Present tense verbs” which meant in the original Greek, present tense, continuous Action. I thirst and keep on thirsting; I come and keep on coming; I drink and keep on drinking; I believe and keep on believing! And the result? “Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water – but He was speaking of the overflow of the Holy Spirit!!”

Are you hearing “process” in that? Are you hearing “passion” in that for more than you’ve experienced? Are you hearing “hunger” for the “much more” of a vibrant, victorious faith? Romans 15:13 says, “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.”

But a sad word when Paul had to say to the church at Corinth, (2 Corinthians 6:12), “you are restrained by your own affections.” Restrained or released to the fullness? Hindered or helped by divine power? Restricted or fully active in the rivers of living water?

SEVENTH, ARE YOU COMMITTED TO EXPERIENCING THE POWER BY THE FAITHFULNESS OF “TARRYING” AND “WAITING” UNTIL THE FIRE OF ANOINTING FALLS? Luke 24:49 says, “Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem UNTIL you are endued with power from on high.”

What was Jesus saying? There is nothing more important in a disciple’s life after conversion than welcoming, experiencing, and celebrating God’s power! Nothing should distract! Nothing should become a substitute for the Savior’s Spirit- Anointing! Nothing should divert our attention away from “the rushing, mighty” wind of Holy Spirit enduement!

I so love how John the Baptist put it in Matthew 3:11, “I indeed…but He!” Look at it in your Bible! Sit until it sinks in!

“I indeed” can give you a taste! “But He..will give you the tool!” “I indeed” can accomplish a few things for you – “BUT HE…fulfills everything in you!”

Would you pray, “Holy Spirit, Come, in me, through me, to bear strong witness for my Lord and Savior! Anoint ME with those ‘rivers of living water’ so that flowing in and through me is truly a Godly witness of ‘saving grace’. You are our Lord’s promised empowerment and powerful anointing. I settle for nothing less than Your marvelous testimony of Christ through me! Give us Your song of praise of Christ the Redeemer! Amen!!

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

“VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED? WORLD PHILOSOPHERS OR WILLFUL PROMOTION BY GOD?”

It’s shocking that, even for some, a person like me, former pastor for many years and missionary to India mainly but also other countries in the Asian area, would have any reservation about ‘world philosophers’, revealing to them my brain limitation!

But there’s an interesting couple of verses for YOU to examine as you look at Psalm 75:6-7 where the psalmist, Spirit-inspired, said: “For promotion comes neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south. But God is the judge; He puts down one, and sets up another.”

In Psalm 147:6 it speaks of God’s Word AND His providence: “The Lord lifts up the humble; He casts down the wicked to the ground.” All world philosophers are not “wicked”, but the majority are “too smart in themselves” to ever see God as necessary in their lives!

Didn’t Paul tell us over 2000 years ago, in Colossians 2:8, “Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ,”?

Acts 17:16-21 is about philosophical “new things” in opposition to the Eternal Truths of God. Follow it: Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit provoked him when he saw that the city was given over to idols.

Therefore he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and with the Gentile worshippers, and in the marketplace daily with those who happened to be there.

Then certain Epicurean and Stoic philosophers encountered him. And some said, “What does this babbler say?” Others said, “He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign gods,” because he preached to them Jesus and the resurrection.

And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new doctrine is of which you speak? For you are bringing some strange things to our ears. Therefore we want to know what these things mean.”

For all the Athenians and the foreigners who were there spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or hear some new thing.

And if you follow it carefully, you’ll discern that ‘world philosophies’ are devotion to “wise things” that really have nothing to do with the heart – it’s all mental, and divorced from the spiritual nature of fallen men!

Participants in world culture of which we all are a part does not mean we deny Him but affirm, surrender, and yield to our Lord and Savior who IS the King of kings and Lord of lords! It doesn’t mean we’re “not at home” unless we sell our souls as the majority of the world, but we recognize our “worldly home” is in need of God’s grace, mercy, and love.

World philosophers or willful promotion by God Himself?!? Read carefully Oswald Chambers in his writing, “My Utmost For His Highest,” [pps.175-176]. “Beware of not acting upon what you see in your moments on the mount of God. If you don’t obey the light, it will turn into darkness. ‘If therefore the light that is in you be darkness, how great is the darkness!’ The second you waive the question of sanctification [it means: “set apart to the glory of God only”!] or any other thing upon which God gives you light, you begin to get dry rot in your spiritual life. Continually bring the truth out into actuality; work it out in every domain, or the very light you have will prove a curse…The most difficult person to deal with is the one who has the smug satisfaction of an experience to which he can refer back, but who is not working it out in practical life. If you “say” you are sanctified, “show it.”…Beware of any belief that makes you self-indulgent”! What’s that? ‘What pleases me and doesn’t line up with the Spirit of God who sacrificed His all!

World ‘philosophers’ are so adept at convincing people that belief, trust, repentance and faith in Holy God is so unnecessary for the ‘smart folk’ – yet the educated crowd can center their lives in the darkest darkness and call it ‘light’!

It doesn’t take long to discover the worldly, self-righteous individual, or the ‘professor’ of self-satisfaction – and if you stay around them very long you sense a spirit of discontent with all they know and an uncertainty of mind as unbelief always brings on fractures in what they really think.

So often when the Holy Word and the convicting Holy Spirit is shared with a world philosopher, you’ll see and sense degrees of dismay in many because they’re on the threshold of discovering their lost condition and separation from God!

In life as a believer, transformed by the mercy and grace and love of God, aren’t you shocked at times when you see the worldly crowd comfortably seated at a worldly table, easily laughing at any worldly, trashy, dirty joke, when in the innermost heart is a person at war with Holy God, embittered by their own set of circumstances, AND WILL NOT LOOK UP TO THE CARING THRONE OF GOD AS THE GOD OF CALVARY’S CROSS?!?

Psalm 4:2 says, “How long, O you sons of men, will you turn My glory to shame? How long will you love worthlessness and seek falsehood?” You realize there are “sons of men” and there are “sons of God”! You understand that there are those whose hearts are cemented in ‘earthly, fleshly, trashy values’ that are worthless in comparison to the heavenly treasures that increase in worth and blessing and value and true enrichment more and more!

In 2 Corinthians 4:1-4 Paul lifts the worldly veil that blinds or hinders true spiritual understanding of the gospel of Christ. He wrote: “Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we do not lose heart.

But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.

But even if our gospel is veiled, it ios veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.”

And that will break your heart, if it hasn’t already, because there are those whom you know whose hearts are ‘veiled’ to truth and whose minds are ‘blinded’ by the god of this age – they at least feel comfortable in their spiritual state of lost-ness because they are not alone; tragically, they’re blinded to the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, not knowing they reflect the darkness of the devil himself!

“World philosophers”? It was Paul in Colossians 3:2 who said, “Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.” And because you received the death of Christ and your crucifixion with Him, and you died with the result that your life is now hidden with Christ IN GOD, Verse 5, “therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.”

An ‘idol worshipper’? That’s the worldly ‘dude’ who has saved his life for himself because he loves the sinful world and all that it offers, not God! I know that you are not totally ‘brain-dead’ because you look at our world today and you witness ‘civilization catastrophes’ that grow more corrupt and, yes, ‘sinful’ world-wide!

“World philosophers” certainly major on ‘riches’ any way they can get it! But they are void of understanding about what ‘great gain’ is all about. In 1 Timothy 6:6-10 Paul advised his spiritual son, saying: “Now godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.

And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition.

For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.” When did that change?

I believe when the author of Proverbs 14:24 spoke of “the crown of the wise”, he certainly was not speaking of “the crown of life” or “the crown of glory” because wisdom apart from God’s wisdom and revelations is a false righteousness that does not lead to repentance and true redemptive faith. It says: “The crown of the wise is their riches, but the foolishness of fools is folly.”

In Proverbs 1:28-33 the ‘wise-man’, inspired by God Himself, gives us ALL a word of warning: “Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me: For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord. They would [have] none of my counsel; they despised all my reproof. Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices. For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them. But whoso hearkens unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil.”

“World Philosophers or Willful Promotion by God?” Oh, I tell you, God’s Word is so rich and man’s worldly philosophies are so bankrupt! Proverbs 3:5-6 tells us, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart; and lean not unto your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.” Led by the world or led by God Himself?

What did Paul say in 2 Corinthians 4:3-5? “But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age [the devil] has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them. For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus’ sake.”

Willful promotion by God? Bound in the flesh to the world philosophies, ideals, earthly gains, human pride in self-effort, but freed in Christ to divine life, eternal principles, heavenly blessings, holy privilege in sharing God’s faithful provisions, joy in the Lord forever not fleshly happiness, and a crown of glory and rejoicing that does not fade away, with an eternal family under the Fatherhood of God and His Sovereignty!

Willful promotion by God? We’re no longer “slaves of Satan” bound in satanic chains – in Christ we’re “sons and daughters of God” in the Heavenly Family! We’re no longer ‘flavorless’ but we’re the salt of the earth! We’re no longer ‘darkness’ – we’re light in the Lord! We’re no longer empty in the inner man, but filled with the Holy Presence of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit!

We’re no longer of the unrighteous descendants but men and women who through repentance toward God and faith in the finished work of Christ at the Cross have been declared righteous in the very righteousness of God imparted and implanted in our washed vessel of trust in Him! We’re not the “happy hour” crowd – we’re the eternally blessed members of the Royal Family of God! Our identity is no longer slaves of Satan, but now the very children of Holy God! We’re not ‘impersonaters’ of our Lord and Savior, but possessors of His Resurrection Life, “vessels of the Victor”!

We’re not distant stars blinking in the darkened nights of men’s souls but “lights” on a hill that cannot be hidden.

Robert Browning, in “Paracelsus”, wrote: “If I stoop, into a dark tremendous sea of cloud, it is but for a time; I press God’s lamp close to my breast; its splendor soon or late Will pierce the gloom; I shall emerge one day.” And even when destiny brings us temporarily to a “dark tremendous sea of cloud,” WE WILL EMERGE BRIGHTER THAN EVER BEFORE!

We’re sons and daughters of God’s eternal faith family, and though doubt, at times, will try to rob us of light’s glow and meaning, and even when I find myself in my darkest moment as a follower, I choose to rest in Him!

I found it so interesting that the agnostic or atheist, Robert Ingersoll, at his brother’s funeral, spoke and said: “From the voiceless lips of the unreplying dead there comes no word. But in the night of Death, Hope sees a star, [but for him it was not the Bright and Morning Star whose names is Jesus Christ!] and listening Love can hear the rustle of a wing.” Oh, that somehow Browning learned of the Love of God, but I doubt that he ever did!

If God gave you “existence”, did He do so apart from eternal purpose? Of course not! His one beckoning call is, “Be reconciled to God,” and in that ministry of reconciliation, the blood of Christ Jesus takes center-stage, first place, the only door through which we can walk into the Holy Presence of God! It’s why in Matthew 5:8 Jesus said: “Blessed are the pure in heart; for they shall see God.”

It was Thomas a’ Kempis who said: “Simplicity reaches out after God; purity discovers and enjoys Him.”

I so appreciate Noah Webster’s description of ‘providence’ in his 1828 Dictionary. He said: “Providence – in theology the care and superintendence which God exercises over His creatures. He that acknowledges a creation and denies a ‘providence’, involves himself in a palpable contradiction; for the same power which caused a thing to exist is necessary to continue its existence…By divine providence is often understood God Himself.”

The God who made you, is He unable to save, sustain, and complete you to His good pleasure as it relates to YOUR eternal design and destiny? In Romans 3:24-26 God’s Holy Word tells us: “being JUSTIFIED FREELY by His grace through the resurrection that is in Christ Jesus; Whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God has passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”

Thank God for Chambers’ insight! Listen to what he wrote in “My Utmost For His Highest”: [p.247], “The Gospel of the grace of God awakens an intense longing in human souls and an equally intense resentment, because the revelation which it brings is not palatable. There is a certain pride in man that will give and give, but to come and accept is another thing. I will give my life to martyrdom, I will give myself in consecration, I will do anything, but do not humiliate me to the level of the most hell-deserving sinner and tell me that all I have to do is to accept the gift of salvation through Jesus Christ.” BUT THAT’S IT! IT’S ALL OF HIM and not us in the matter of our redemption, our re-birth, and our reconciliation!

He said a few sentences later, “He can do nothing for us if we think we are sufficient of ourselves, we have to enter His Kingdom through the door of destitution.” WOW!

Oh, I’m telling you: Jesus is to every repentant believer the complete and whole treasury of God!

Remember – we’re looking at “World Philosophy OR Willful Promotion By God”!! And when “world philosophy” begins to surface strongly and willful promotion by God takes a backseat, you begin to sense a sad decaying of true faith, an allegiance to the flesh [your old sin nature – so anything goes!], even church attendance by many who have no intention of denying self and taking up His Cross [and our own], and suddenly the Word of God is set aside, truth is left outdoors, and doubt about the veracity of God’s Holy Word takes over the pulpit and the classroom!

Philosophy may give you a few insights, but Christ Jesus births “new men”! It was the German theologian, Soren Kierkegaard, who said: “Not until man has become so utterly unhappy, or has grasped the woefulness of life so deeply that he is moved to say, and mean it: LIFE HAS NO VALUE FOR ME – NOT TILL THEN IS HE ABLE TO MAKE A BID FOR CHRISTIANITY.”

AND ALMIGHTY, HOLY, WISE, LOVING, CARING GOD STEPS UP TO REVEAL HIS UNCHANGING LOVE AND MATCHLESS MERCY TO WOUNDED HUMANITY BY OUR SELF-INFLICTED SIN NATURES!

John 3:14-18 illumines Heaven on earth! “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,

That whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.

He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”

Paul built out of the Cross of Christ and His Resurrection eternal truth! Look at Romans 5:6-11!! “For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die.

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For is when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be [being] saved by His life.

And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.”

There’s an old hymn entitled “Grace Greater than Our Sin.” It says: “Marvelous grace of our loving Lord, Grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt. Yonder on Calvary’s mount outpoured, There where the blood of the Lamb was spilled.

Sin and despair, like the sea waves cold, Threaten the soul with infinite loss; Grace that is greater, yes, grace untold, Points to the refuge, the mighty cross.

Dark is the stain that we cannot hide. What can we do to wash it away? Look! There is flowing a crimson tide, Brighter than snow you may be today.

Marvelous, infinite, matchless grace, Freely bestowed on all who believe! You that are longing to see His face, Will you this moment His grace receive?

Grace, grace, God’s grace, Grace that will pardon and cleanse within, Grace, grace, God’s grace, Grace that is greater than all our sin.”

World philosophers OR WILLFUL PROMOTION BY GOD? It’s your choice!

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

“VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED? CONFLICTING LOYALTY OR ALL- CONSUMING LOVE?”

Conflicting Loyalty? Is that saying one thing but doing another? Is that the demonstration of divided allegiance? Is that the picture vividly being painted on one’s life-canvas of one foot in heaven and the other foot touching the outer limits of hell itself?

Conflicting Loyalty? Is that “Yes, Sir,” to the General or “Do as I please” to the corp? Is that public dedication to be honorable and godly to the vows you make to your wife to be, and then feel you’re at liberty to play the field of available women?

Conflicting Loyalty? Is that a vow of dedication to be honest in your school or university exams but you determine the best way to cheat on your exams?

Conflicting Loyalty? Is that a president’s public oath to defend, protect, uphold his nation’s constitution but daily, verbally, and in deeds, shreds every page he can, and inflame disobedience, irreverence, and destruction of a nation’s founding fathers’ intent?

Conflicting Loyalty? You’ve heard it! “Yes, I believe the Bible is divinely inspired, God-breathed, Holy Word, but I also believe my devotion to it is our option we hold for ourselves!”

Conflicting Loyalty? “Oh, yes! One man – one woman for life,” but then voices support of men with men and women for women in gross violation of God’s Holy Word – and the sad thing is public support of immorality increases!

Conflicting Loyalty? “I’m a devoted kind of guy – He [God] can count on me,” but stumbles, falls, rebels, on the first lap with no intention of getting up! Conflicting Loyalty? You’ve seen him/her so consumed by worldly ambition that the Kingdom of God is squeezed out by an undaunted intent of “making a name for myself”, and glorifying the Lord takes a back seat!

Conflicting Loyalty? “The high cost of following Jesus? I thought this was a free ride, but I’ll do what I feel at ease to do, as it pleases me.”

Conflicting Loyalty? Many professing disciples become totally disillusioned, disappointed, even despairing because they believed they were called to ‘give your best’ – they do, then get a failing grade because discipleship has nothing to do with ‘our best’ but His best – the sacrifice of His life once for all for us all! Denying ‘self’ for some is asking way too much!

Conflicting Loyalty? “I will uphold my devotion to Christ and be a staunch warrior defending the faith,” but after several skirmishes, peer pressure, or procrastination, it takes a damaging toll!

Do you remember the son born blind and healed by Jesus? The Pharisees came to his parents: “We don’t know how – ask him – he’s of age to answer for himself!” And John 9:22 says: “His parents said these things because they feared the Jews.” They didn’t want to be put out of the synagogue!

Conflicting Loyalty? You’ll remember that Jesus said: “Whosoever does not bear his cross and come after Me, cannot be My disciple.” There are those “who want to” but the price appears extremely steep! Spurgeon once said, “A life in which we have shunned the Cross of Christ will lead to a state in which we shall miss the crown of glory.”

Conflicting Loyalty? In relationships between man to man, sometimes compromise has benefits, but to seek to “compromise” God’s revealed Truth breeds disaster! To compromise our Lord’s commands is to acknowledge disobedience and to stand under God’s judgment. To compromise is to decay obedience and to bring on a deterioration of morals. To compromise is to vacate privilege. To compromise is to willingly slice off those parts on “unpleasant truths” that you sense “don’t fit my personality and make-up of who I know I am”!

Conflicting Loyalty? Spurgeon, in his “Spurgeon’s Sermons,” [Memorial Library, Vol.19, p.359], has a message entitled “No Compromise.” He said: “The new plan is to assimilate the church to the world, and so include a larger area within its bounds. By semi-dramatic performances they make houses of prayer to approximate the theatre; they turn their services into musical displays, and their sermons into political harangues or philosophical essays – in fact, they exchange the temple for the theatre, and turn the ministers of God into actors, whose business it is to amuse men. Is it not so, that the Lord’s day is becoming more and more a day of recreation or of idleness, and the Lord’s house either a joss-house full of idols, or a political club, where there is more enthusiasm for a party than zeal for God.” And, I say, “Lord, help us!!”

Conflicting Loyalty? How many people have crossed your paths “in church” who are more at ease with church as a combat zone than a celebration of Jesus? Divisiveness is their strong “suit”, opposition their true bonnet they wear regularly, commitment to their way fighting the pastor and God’s true people to the death in one bitter struggle after another! Proverbs 21:2 says, “All a man’s ways seem right to him, but the Lord weighs the heart.”

Conflicting Loyalty? Oh, they play the religious game as “one cool dude,” calloused to the core, with willingly closed eyes to anything but their way or the highway! [Proverbs 23:7].

Conflicting Loyalty? You’ve witnessed it: Intellectual attainments in one’s mind of their understanding of the Bible, God’s Holy Word, often becoming nothing more than crippling beliefs! “Thus says the Lord” is translated: “As I see it…!”

Conflicting Loyalty? Effort apart from transformation by repentance toward God and faith in the finished work of Christ at the Cross creates despair, not deliverance and healing and salvation!

Conflicting Loyalty? A change in outward behavior is not the spiritual circumcision of the heart! Romans 2:28-29 tells us: “For he is not a [true] Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; but he is a [true] Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter, whose praise is not from men but from God.”

Conflicting Loyalty? Reaching up, reaching high, is not the same as being raised from the dead by God’s power! Look at 1 Corinthians 15:14, 17! Verse 14, “And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is empty.” Oh, and then Verse 17 tells us, “And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.” WOW!

Conflicting Loyalty? Sinful natures are not cloaked with religious garments, religious conversations, or religious activities, but “crucified with Christ”! Galatians 2:20 is “confirmed eternal love”! “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”

Conflicting Loyalty? “I’m a man so devoted to the costly bricks and mortar, the lights and stained glass, of our beautiful church,” failing to understand HIS body is God’s holy temple because of His grace, mercy, and love! Examine 1 Corinthians 6:19 says, “Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?” Then 1 Corinthians 3:16 declares, “DO YOU NOT KNOW THAT YOU ARE THE TEMPLE OF GOD AND THAT THE SPIRIT OF GOD DWELLS IN YOU?” Unless you’re dominated by ‘conflicting loyalties’ desiring to direct your own spiritual journey on your own terms!

Conflicting Loyalty? “Discipline and self-determination are the marks of an award-winning follower of Christ.” NO! The mark of a true disciple is one “set apart by God Himself,” sanctified, meet for the Master’s use!

Conflicting Loyalty? “Fig leaves,” fashionable sophistication, proper outward attire, educated common sense, band-aids rather than heart transplants, a manly tickering with myself on my terms, Ali’s style: “Superman don’t need no seat-belt”! Look at Matthew 13:15!

“For the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, SO THAT I SHOULD HEAL THEM.” But aren’t you aware of the “self-healers” who have no need of the Great Physician?

Conflicting Loyalty? I love what John Eldridge said in his book, “Waking The Dead” – so on target! [p.161], “Religion and its defenders have always been the most insidious enemy of the true faith precisely because they are not glaring opponents; they are IMPOSTORS.” Insidious? Noah Webster’s 1828 Dictionary defines “insidious” as: “lying in wait; watching for an opportunity to ensnare or entrap; deceitful, treacherous…”

Conflicting Loyalty? It’s not ‘fate’ but faith, fellowship, freedom, and a fight! Personal fate is out to steal God’s glory! Anarchy becomes a substitution for the Atonement! T.S. Eliot sorrowfully lamented: “Endless invention, endless experiment, brings knowledge of motion, but not of stillness; knowledge of speech, but not of silence; knowledge of words, and ignorance of the Word. Where is the Life we have lost in living? Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?” [Out of “Choruses from the Rock.”].

Conflicting Loyalty? Have you chosen the sanctified life or the starving life because to be without Christ as Savior and Lord, to be without the Bread of Life is to shrink, starve, and be shriveled up! Jesus said, “I have come that you might have LIFE and have it more abundantly!”

Conflicting Loyalty? “Temptation is not a trap – it’s an opportunity of discerning what I really want or not.” Oh, really? James 1:13-15 tells us: “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am tempted by God’; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted WHEN he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.”

Conflicting Loyalty? “Pressure, pressure, pressure! This job is so demanding – I’m going to have to ‘cut corners’ somewhere, somehow, someway, even if it’s wrong!” Hudson Taylor had difficult trials he had to face up to – he wrote out of that hard moment: “It doesn’t matter how great the pressure is. What really matters is WHERE THE PRESSURE LIES – whether it comes between you and God or whether it presses you nearer His heart.” Never let pressure to cause you to look away from or pass by the PRESENCE OF CHRIST JESUS HIMSELF!

Conflicting Loyalty? That’s when courage is called for but one allows cowardice to call the shots! No doubt this is why the famous Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn wrote in “East and West,” [New York, Harper & Row, 1980, p.45], “Must one point out that from ancient times a decline in courage has been considered the beginning of the end.”

Conflicting Loyalty? It was Martin Luther who once said: “The ultimate proof of the sinner is that he does not know his own sin.” Please read carefully from Jerry Falwell’s “25 of the Greatest Sermons Ever Preached,” [Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, p.18], a quote of George Whitefield from his famous message, “The Method of Grace,” based on Jeremiah 6:14! Whitefield said: “As God can send a nation or people no greater blessing than to give them faithful, sincere and upright ministers, so the greatest curse that God can possibly send upon a people in this world is to give them over to blind, unregenerate, carnal, lukewarm, and unskilled guides. And yet, in all ages, we find that there have been many wolves in sheep’s clothing…that prophesied smoother things than God did allow.”

In Niccolo Machiavelli’s, “The Prince,” [New York; BANTAM, 1966, p.63], he wrote: “Men are so simple and so much inclined to obey immediate needs that a deceiver will never lack victims for his deceptions.” WOW!!

Conflicting Loyalty? I was reading recently Dr. James Kennedy’s and Jerry Newcombe’s book, “Cross Purposes,” [Multonomal Publi., 2007, pps. 25-26]. “When I was in seminary, I went to a jail to preach the gospel to those who were locked up inside. I had never been to a place like that to preach, and I must say I was a little unnerved by it. I was sent into a big room where I was separated by bars from probably a dozen prisoners. As they were milling around, I started to talk to them. I probably hadn’t gotten two minutes into my talk when one of the largest inmates suddenly came at the bars (which I was happy were there at that point) and said to me, “Mister, you just go tell that God of yours all I want from Him is what I deserve!” “Sir,” I replied, “if you got what you deserved from God, the floor would open up right where you stand and drop you straight into hell, for that is precisely what you deserve. I don’t say that because you’re behind these bars while I’m outside them, because that is what we all deserve. If we got our just deserts, we would each and every one be condemned – because, you see, we’re actually already condemned. Christ said of the whole human race, “You are condemned already.” [John 3:18-19!].

Let me “shift gears”! I pray “conflicting loyalty never becomes the life-long pattern of your life, but that “by Faith” you appropriate our Lord’s “All-Consuming Love”! The Scripture I feel so led by our Lord to share with you here is Romans 8:35-39 where Paul wrote: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: ‘For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.’ YET IN ALL THESE THINGS WE ARE MORE THAN CONQUERORS THROUGH HIM WHO LOVED US. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

I don’t know how you read the above passage, but the one thing I’m sure of is the fact there are those who would like to “separate” you from Christ Jesus! “The love of Christ” is an offense to Satan and the powers of darkness; “the love of Christ” is a stumbling block to those who would be reconciled on their own terms; “the love of Christ” becomes contemptible to some because they don’t receive God in Christ Who FIRST “loved us;” “the love of Christ” separates some because, they believe, relationship to Holy God is merited, earned, rewarded by what THEY DO – not what CHRIST HAS DONE ONCE FOR ALL AT THE CROSS!; “the love Of Christ infuriates some because “my behavior should be recognized by God rewarding me because of my undaunted radiance – I shine brighter than even Jesus who was called ‘the light of the world’.”

Love for God is not manufactured in a fallen man’s heart or mind! It’s why John wrote in 1 John 4:19, “We love Him because He first loved us.”

There has never been a man, woman, boy, or girl, inclined to love God and be His follower and devoted servant. The darkness of one’s being has never produced ‘new life’ but only His amazing love transforms our darkness into His Life and Light and Liberty and Love! It is so very, very clear throughout all the Word of God that any man who does not passionately love God has never truly known Him or been ‘birthed’ into a family of faith relationships!

And if we have been ‘birthed’ into a family of faith relationship, does that mean our ‘LIFE-STYLE’ is unconditional love of others? In 1 John 4:10-11 we read: “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought [“must”] to love one another.”

Spurgeon was a very bold, brave, brilliant preacher and student of God’s Holy Word. In his ninth volume of “Spurgeon’s Sermons, [Memorial Library, pps.307-308] he wrote: “Now no man is a Christian who does not love Christians. He, who, being in the church, is yet not of it heart and soul, is but an intruder in the family. But since love to our brethren springs out of love to our one common Father, it is plain that we must have love to the Father, or else we shall fail in one of the indispensable marks of the children of God: “We know that we have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren;” but we cannot truly love the brethren unless we [do] love the Father; therefore, lacking love to God, we lack love to the church, which is an essential mark of grace.”

There are two verses in John 1 that we need to put together!! John 1:14 says, “And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen His glory, the glory of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.” Then John 1:18 says, “No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made Him known.”

Do you see it? THE WORD [Emmanuel, ‘God in Flesh’] became flesh! And the God mankind had never known became clearly visible! All of a sudden, flashing before us like ten million rays of the sun is Christ Jesus: GOD IS LIGHT! GOD IS LOVE! GOD IS LIBERTY! GOD LIFTS US OUT OF DESPAIR TO A THRONE OF GRACE, MERCY, AND LOVE!

Didn’t Paul tell us through his Colossians letter: “He [Jesus] is the image of the invisible God.” [Colossians 1:15], and then Colossians 1:22 says: “For in Him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.”

“Wondrous Love, so full of Life, Wondrous Love stripping strife, Wondrous Love to us is given, Wondrous Love transports to Heaven. Wondrous Love, there rings the Bell, Wondrous Love delivered from hell. Wondrous Love, Jesus came To show God, Jesus, and the Spirit the Same. Wondrous Love, Jesus came To set us free, No longer a captive of Satan to be. Wondrous Love, God’s Son was groaning, Because of His Love from sin atoning.” [JFF].

Paul said in Romans 5:8, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners CHRIST DIED FOR US.” What an awesome revelation! The word ‘demonstrates’ is from a Greek word meaning “to commend, establish, stood near, consists “ – or “holds together”! In Ephesians 4 Paul had been talking about “the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ,” Verse 12, and then said in Verse 15, “but speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head – Christ – Verse 16, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.”

HOW DO WE RATIONALLY, FAITHFULLY, PRACTICALLY, put all this together to honor God’s faithfulness to us?

• GOD HIMSELF PROVES, COMMENDED, DEMONSTRATED HIS LOVE TOWARD ALL MEN! What does John 3:16 tell us? “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
• GOD KNEW, UNDERSTOOD, GRASPED THE SORROWFUL TRUTH THAT MAN’S SIN BROUGHT SEPARATION FROM HIM! I don’t know who wrote it, but they surely understood sin’s consequences – “Sin is man’s declaration of independence from God.” It was John Bunyan in “The Pilgrim’s Progress” who wrote: “One leak will sink a ship; and one sin will destroy a sinner,” and God’s intent is to resurrect the dead, destroyed sinners who have been separated from His eternal love.”
• GOD SOVEREIGNLY DETERMINED ONLY A SINLESS SACRIFICE WAS SUFFICIENT, SUPREMELY EFFECTIVE, TO SAVE SINFUL MAN FROM HIS SIN AND RECONCILE HIM TO HOLY GOD!

Romans 6:23 is clear! “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life IN Christ Jesus our Lord.” Paul had told the church at Rome, and us, in Romans 5:21, “so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Oh, then Paul really dispelled the phoniness of some modern-day teachings that ‘Christians can’t do anything but sin until they get to heaven! Roman 6:1-3, 10 says:

“What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?

Verse 10, “For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.”

Oh, please read, contemplate, receive, stand on Oswald Chambers’ words concerning Romans 5:10 which says: “For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be [being] saved by His life.” He then wrote: [“My Utmost For His Highest,” pps.223-224], “The salvation of God does not stand on human logic, it stands on the sacrificial Death of Jesus. We can be born again because of the Atonement of our Lord. Sinful men and sinful women can be changed into new creatures, not by their repentance or their belief, but by the marvelous work of God in Christ Jesus which is prior to all experience. The impregnable safety of justification and sanctification is God Himself. We have not to work out these things ourselves; they have been worked out by the Atonement. The supernatural becomes natural by the miracle of God; there is the realization of what Jesus Christ has already done – “It is FINISHED!”

God’s Heavenly Love made practical for us? 2 Corinthians 5:21, “For He [God] made Him [Jesus] who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

• AMAZING LOVE? GOD IN CHRIST “DIED ON THE CROSS” FOR YOU AND ME! Amazing love? If YOU were the only person who had ever lived – past, present, future – on the Cross, Christ Jesus would have died there JUST FOR YOU!

“God commended His love for us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Can you say, “Christ died for me”? I don’t know how you respond to that, but in Job 42:5-6 we read: Job speaking, “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eyes see You. Therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”

To see Jesus on the Cross dying just for you, is to see yourself as God sees you, yet He loves you with an everlasting love for you – and He proved His love for you at Calvary’s Cross!

Dr. James Kennedy, in his book “The Presence of a Hidden God,” [p.191], wrote: “Just imagine for a moment that God were NOT love. Suppose, instead, that God were a cosmic ogre, playing with people like grasshoppers in a bottle’ – suppose God were a demon, filled with malevolent hatred, or suppose God were an impersonal force, like fate or some machine that had no feeling, no sympathy whatsoever toward mankind.”

But that’s not our God of Calvary’s Cross! Oh, there are those who truly wish God were dead, but even then to them the Cross and empty tomb still stand as expressions of eternal love for eternal fools! “The fool has said in his heart, ‘there is no God’! But, history stands, His-Story stands: Our God is the God who will not die – we serve a Risen Savior!

You need to know it if you haven’t heard it: “We love Him because He first loved us!” An old hymn says it like this: “See, from His head, His hands, His feet, Sorrow and love flow mingling down; Did e’er such love and sorrow meet or thorns compose so rich a crown?”

Do you understand? It’s only in seeing Christ Jesus suffer, bleed, and die for our sins that one truly discovers, discerns, and depends on the love of God! Here’s how Spurgeon put it long ago: [Spurgeon’s Sermons, Memorial Library, Vol.9, p.311],

“Again, our love to God does not spring from the self-determining power of the will. I greatly question whether any thing does in the world, good or bad. There are some who set up the will as a kind of deity, – it does as it wills with earth and heaven; but in truth the will is not a master but a servant. To the sinner his will is a slave; and in the saint, although the will is set free, it is still blessedly under bonds to God. Men do not will a thing because they will it, but because their affections, their passions, or their judgments influence their wills in that direction. No man can stand up and say, ‘I, unbiased and unaided, will to love God and I will not love Satan.” Such proud self-assuming language would prove him a liar; the man would be clearly a worshipper of himself. A man can only love God when he has perceived some reasons for so doing; and the first argument for loving God, which influences the intellect so as to turn the affections, is the reason mentioned in the text: “We love Him because He first loved us.”

God Himself established forever His love for you as Jesus suffered, bled, and died on the Cross! God demonstrated! God proved His love for YOU at Calvary! Now, how is that awesome understanding maintained productively and efficiently and faithfully day by day? Examine Romans 5:5! “Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”

History! Historic Presence and Power! Romans 5:6 says, “For when we were still without strength (“helpless”), in due time Christ died for the ungodly.” We WERE “enemies” but reconciled to God through the death of His Son, Romans 5:10, and having been reconciled, “we shall be [being] saved by His life.”

History? John Piper, in his book “The Pleasures of God,” [p.165], wrote: “Jesus wants us to see that His willingness to lose His life is because of His love for the glory of the Father.” He then quoted John 17:4, “I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do.”

Then Piper said: “All of Jesus’ work was designed to honor the worth of His Father’s glory. Therefore, all His pain and shame and humiliation and dishonor served to magnify the Father’s glory, because they showed how infinitely valuable God’s glory is, that such a loss should be suffered to demonstrate its worth.”

And what about your life, your walk, your calling, your purpose? Is it to honor the worth of the Father’s glory? How did Paul put it? 1 Corinthians 10:31, “Therefore, whether you eat or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”

Let me close this chapter with words again from Oswald Chambers out of “My Utmost For His Highest.” [p.238]. “The tendency is to look for the marvelous in our experience; we mistake the sense of the heroic for being heroes. It is one thing to go through a crisis gradually, but another thing to go through every day glorifying God when there is no witness, no limelight, no one paying the remotest attention to us. If we do not want medieval haloes, we want something that will make people say – ‘What a wonderful man of prayer he is! What a pious devoted woman she is!’ If you are rightly devoted to the Lord Jesus, you have reached the sublime height where no one ever thinks of noticing you, all that is noticed is that the power of God comes through you all the time.”

O For A Thousand Tongues!! Charles Wesley wrote the famous hymn. It says: “O for a thousand tongues to sing My great Redeemer’s praise, The glories of my God and King, The triumphs of His grace.

My gracious Master and my God, Assist me to proclaim, To spread through all the earth abroad, The honors of Your name.

Jesus! The name that charms our fears, That bids our sorrows cease; It’s music in the sinner’s ears, It’s life, and health, and peace.

He breaks the power of canceled sin, He sets the prisoners free; His blood can make the foulest clean, His blood availed for me.”

In Revelation 1:4-5 John wrote: “Grace to you and peace from Him who is and who was and is to come and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness”; He loved us, washed us in His blood!”

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

“VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED? VICTIMS OR VICTORS?”

Noah Webster’s 1828 Dictionary defines “victim” as follows: “Something destroyed; something sacrificed in the pursuit of an object. How many persons have fallen “victims” to jealousy, to lust, to ambition!?!”

Then, Webster defined “victor” as “one who conquers in a war; a vanquisher; one who defeats an enemy in battle…one who wins, or gains the advantage…”; “…as, grace will carry us ‘victoriously’ through all difficulties.”

Victims! I want us to look at this truth before we unveil the reality of one, by repentance and faith, becoming “VICTORS”! It was the great Englishman, G.K. Chesterton, who once said: “Any one who doesn’t believe in God will believe in anything.” And there’s no doubt that some have slid into the muck and mire of “no God” and opened themselves up for an onslaught of victimization!

Stephen Olford, in his commentary on Philippians, made a comment about Dr. Arthur F. Glasser, dean of the school of world missions at Fuller Theological Seminary, evaluating Chesterton’s statement: “If you…fall into the relativistic vacuum of thinking any religion is as good as another, you can end up falling patsy to any kind of ideology, such as a Manson family, a Hitler, or a Jim Jones…The religious relativism and secularized nihilism of the times [leave] many unable to distinguish between religious realities and fraud, between the divine and the demonic.” And, oh, how true that statement IS!!

There came a moment in time in early human history, after the Fall, that God said: [Genesis 6:5-7], “Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. The Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. The Lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to the birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I have made them.”

John Piper, in his book “A Godward Life,” commented on the previous verses. [p.221], “To answer this, consider another instance of God’s action that (like creation) resulted in great sin and pain. Acts 2:23 says that Jesus was delivered up to crucifixion “by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God.” In other words, God knew ahead of time that he was sending Jesus to be killed. Yet the killing of the Son of God was more evil than all the evil in Noah’s day that made God feel regret that he had made man. Thus if God regretted the creation of mankind when he saw the great misery and evil that it unleashed, may we not assume that he also felt a similar regret over the incarnation of the Son when he saw the undeserved, wicked, infinitely evil murder and suffering of his “only begotten” and “beloved” Son?…Yet we are told explicitly that God not only knew this would happen, but planned it (Acts 2:23, Isaiah 53:10). So if he was capable of feeling genuine sorrow and revulsion of the wickedness of his Son’s murderers and at the suffering of the Son himself, then it must be that he was capable of approving the sending of the Son and at the same time experiencing in advance the sorrow and regret over the sin and suffering involved in the Son’s death. If this is conceivable in the incarnation of the Son, it is conceivable in the creation of man.”

What was Piper telling us? No doubt, God knew of the Fall of man – not happiness over it, no joy so He could then show His redemptive love, but showing us two sides of a ‘coin’ – sorrow over the Fall, sureness of His eternal purpose to make ‘victors’ out of ‘victims’!

Victims! If “the thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy,” are there those people who are captured by the ‘thief’ and his advancing armies? 1 Peter 5:8 says, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.” I sincerely regret, feel sorrow for, if YOU don’t believe ‘demons’ and ‘powers of darkness’ are real – it just reveals how ‘victimized’ you’ve become!

In Ephesians 6:11-12 Paul wrote, “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.”

When the Word speaks of “pulling down strongholds” it certainly refers not only to manmade strongholds but those demonic strongholds where the powers of darkness have settled in to captured territory in one’s life. Deliverance is needed!

Victims? Do a word study sometime on ‘false gods’ and their origin – they all come out of rebellion to the One, True, Living God, and an unwillingness to bow before Him – so, they invent, fabricate, indulge in fleshly religious feelings and pleasures that deceptively make them feel good about themselves, which is ‘what I do’ rather than what Christ Jesus did!

You are aware that our world easily produces and accepts ‘religious frauds’ and their inventors – the ‘religious charlatans or religious elite’! In 2 Peter 2:1-3 we read: “but there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed. By covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words; for a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber.”

Paul warned the Philippians of the same deception! In Philippians 3:2 we read: “Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the mutilation!” F.B. Meyer called these “pests of every Christian community.” He said: These are “the fanatical and unbalanced [people in the church!], the ‘cranks’;…They exaggerate the importance of trifles; they catch up every new theory and vagary, and follow it to the detriment of truth and love…It is impossible to overestimate the harm that these people do, or the desirability of keeping clear of them…”

Victims? Because of Fallen sin natures, there are those captured by the intensity of “pumping flesh,” proud of their fallen sin nature, perverted in its demonstrations, powerless in themselves to break the ‘hold’ on their lives! Look at Romans 8:12-13a! “Therefore, brethren, we are debtors – not to the flesh [old sin nature], to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die;…” “Pumping flesh”? Someone wrote: “The man who sings his own praises always gets the wrong pitch.”

Victims? There’s an interesting verse in 1 John 4:18 where John wrote: “But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.” Fear is a crippler! In the “Bible Friend,” from the Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations,” there’s comments by Ann Landers, former famous newspaper counselor: “She was asked if there was any one problem, which predominates throughout the letters she receives, and her reply was, the one problem above all others, seems to be fear. People are afraid of losing their health, their wealth, their beloved ones. People are afraid of life itself.” I wondered if Ann Landers knew about “the spirit of fear”!

Victims? Have you ever wrestled with the difference between ‘speculation’ and ‘certainty’? Speculations are not bad when it involves ‘contemplation’. But when ‘speculation’ becomes simply one’s opinions it becomes that which has nothing to do with ‘fact’ but one’s theories. Truth isn’t speculative – it’s reality! Certainty is fact, certainty is verified, certainty produces eternal results – “I know that MY Redeemer Lives!” “Behold, as the eyes of servants look upon the hand of their masters, so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God.” [Psalm 123:2]. No speculation, just divine certainty!

Victims? Are you aware on any around you who became a ‘victim’ of those dark, subtle, seductive ‘fishing lures of sin’ that hooked them so strongly, and then led them to a cage for future skinning and death? Even some around you in the ‘Christian community’? You do know we have an ‘adversary’ who is out to ‘devour’ you?!?

Victims? What deception when one chooses the prism of self-analysis for an evaluation of himself! In 2 Corinthians 10:12 Paul wrote: “For we dare not class ourselves or compare ourselves with those WHO COMMEND THEMSELVES. But they, measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise.” You ‘choose’ your ‘self-consciousness’ over “Christ Consciousness”?

Are you aware that you’re either cemented in your self or you’re ‘anchored’ in Christ? Hebrews 6:17-20 tells us: “Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath, that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hope of the hope set before us.”

Victims? Yes, even ‘Christians’ who are faithful every Sunday to a local church but faithless, unresponsive, uncaring to a lost, alienated, separated world around them! I know, like in India, there were pastors who attended my conferences, and were later martyred for the faith. It was Dr. A.T. Pierson who once said: “A light that does not shine, a germ that does not grow, a spring that does not flow, is no more of an anamoly of a Christian who does not witness.”

Victims? In 2 Timothy 2:22 Paul wrote: “Flee…youthful lusts,” but across the American scene immorality is fast capturing a large segment of the youth population with shame becoming a lost term! Wild orgies, reckless alcoholic drinking, drugs, promiscuous sex – a youthful population being “pumped” to plunge into and wade and wallow in “dirt”!

Victims? It’s not true of ALL children who live under the influence of godless parents but it is true of a great number. Bossuet said: “Great men are formed on the knees of their mothers.” But also it is just as true that evil men are adversely impacted by godless dads and moms! There was a man I read about sentenced to 15 years hard labor for a violent crime. At his sentencing he was given permission by the judge to speak: “I pardon the judges; their sentence is just; I pardon the police; they did well to arrest me. But there are two people in this court I will never forgive. They are my parents, who brought me up without God and without hope.” How sad is That?!?

Victims? Is it heartless husbands or manipulative wives who neither know about “giving honor” to one another? Is it marriages that are marred because neither/or only one knows the Master? Is it marriages that have decided they are better ‘home-builders’ than God Himself? Psalm 127:1 says, “Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it; unless the Lord guards the city, the watchman stays awake in vain.”

Victims? 1 John 2:17 says, “He that does the will of God abides forever…”. Yet, there is no abiding or remaining because “the house” has NO ETERNAL FOUNDATION! In James 4:17 we read, “Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does it not, to him it is sin.” Have you ever paused, reflected, wrestled with, “what would Holy God have me to do?” Sadly, far too many have sought to forge their own way through life’s wildernesses, and they remain LOST! To then live in rebellion to His Way, defiance to His Truth, even facing His will and Word as abhorrent is to live miserably in bondage to one’s own sin and self!

Victims? Slaves to one’s past, preoccupied with one’s past, blinded by one’s past, always establishes high and impenetrable walls, unless one accepts the blood of Christ for the gift of new life, new hope, new victories because of Him!

Victims? In Hebrews 12:1 is an interesting verse! “Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.” But, there are those holding onto rather than throwing off, holding onto a path of sin rather than repenting and forsaking, and failing to get in on the race set before them – “no running for me, not even toward God!”

Victims? Yes, even a disciple of Christ can be a victim! When you read Paul in Romans 5:17, 19, you hear him say: “I do not understand what I do…For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do – this I keep on doing.” This is a time period in his spiritual journey when Paul was void of learning about the Spirit-controlled life of Romans 8! But he did learn, and he did overcome!

And if this is still your journey, their journey, our journey, what a sad state of affairs is: “He/she is a VICTIM!” But I believe there’s an opposite truth to ‘VICTIM’, and that’s the truth of “VICTOR!”

In 2 Corinthians 5:14-15 we learn afresh and anew, or reminded of, or settled into its truth, becoming a VICTOR! It says: “For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.”

The “victor” is one captured, by grace and mercy and love, birthed, renewed, overruled by the very love of Christ fully expressed “At The Cross” – and the new believer takes the Cross unto himself and experiences the reality of resurrection life, resurrection power, and resurrection hope!

In Matthew 12:20 there is a beautiful verse for our comfort as disciples of Christ. It says: “A bruised reed He will not break, and smoking flax He will not quench, till He sends forth justice to victory.”

Who has ever lived on the face of God’s earth and not known “bruised reeds” or “smoking flax”? And our Lord and Savior comes TO US with “blessed assurance”: Matthew 11:28-30, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and LEARN FROM ME, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

And, if you do not know “rest for your souls,” then you’ve never entered the Victory Land of Faith and Fulfillment! If you do not know “rest for your souls,” then you’ve never entered His Kingdom! In Romans 14:17 we read, “for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.”

“Rest for your souls”? “Victory”? “Righteousness”? “Kingdom of God Allegiance”? It’s the grace of God “in Christ” with the gift of a new man! In Ephesians 4:24 Paul said, “and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.”

THAT’S VICTORY! “New man,” “new life,” “new hope,” “new dreams,” “new purpose,” “new destiny,” “new songs,” “new covenant,” “new city,” “new creation,” “new name,”…Look at Romans 6:4! “Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.”

What a joy and delight to be a “new-born in Christ,” but just as with your own children neither you nor God wanted them remaining with spiritual diapers. In fact, Peter said in 1 Peter 2:2, “as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby.”

In our “victory” in Christ, we do have a goal! Romans 8:29 says: “For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.”

“Super-Saints” is not our calling – our calling is death to the old man, releasing ALL that Jesus is in Himself! “Christ in you the hope of glory!” Why ‘death to the old man’ as a true believer if every day we examine ourselves as we were without Christ? I believe Jesus said in Luke 9:23, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me,” which is why some aren’t “following” because they are too busy examining if THEY measure up! No, you don’t! You were crucified with Christ once for all!

We begin, continue, and end at the place of Victory in Jesus Himself. And from that point we begin our pilgrimage of “resting in” Him and fighting the fight of faith in being finished with the old man and starting, continuing, completing our journey in the “New Man”! Romans 12:2 says, “And do not be conformed to this world, but be [being] transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”

Isn’t it amazing to you? Our “victory” in Christ even has a faithful promise: Philippians 4:13 says: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

I’ll never forget a conversation I had with Dr. Bill Anderson a number of years ago. In college, over sixty years ago, we were teammates on Baylor University’s Sugar Bowl champions against number two in the nation, Tennessee Volunteers and All-American, Johnny Majors! We were either tenth or eleventh in the nation pre-game! No one favored our win at all – Bill mentioned a friend telling him after the game, listening on a radio broadcast, that a commentator said at half-time: “Don’t worry, Vols’ fans; Tennessee is too strong and Baylor is too weak. The Vols will pull it out.” But they didn’t! We held on and won 13-7!!

“Victory” is SWEET! “Victory” in Jesus is so satisfying! “Victory” in our Lord is so peaceful! “Victory” in the Master is to be in His triumphant Life and its fullness! What does 2 Corinthians 2:14 tell us?

“Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place.”

This victory in Jesus is far more than ‘believing’ – it’s a matter of TRUST! It’s a matter of “leaning not to our own understanding but in all our ways acknowledging Him.” Come Hell’s attack or the high waters of fleshly assaults – we “rest” in Him! In 1 Peter 4:19 we read: “Therefore let those who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls to Him in doing good, as to a faithful Creator.”

If Jesus had to be “about My Father’s business,” is there any circumstance of life in us Holy God cannot use for His business? Too many times too many saints fail to discern “the graces of His ministering life” at work in them!

When Jesus said in John 16:33, “In the world you shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world,” He knew what we would face but He also knew where our overcoming spirit and nature resided – “IN HIM!!”

“Victory” IN JESUS? Isaiah 40:29-31 says, “He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might He increases strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall, But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.”

“Victory” is never depending upon ‘self-awareness’ or ‘self-confidence’ or ‘self-realization’ – in Philippians 3:7-10 Paul wrote, “But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I MAY KNOW HIM and THE POWER OF HIS RESURRECTION, and THE FELLOWSHIP OF HIS SUFFERINGS, BEING CONFORMED TO HIS DEATH, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.”

“Victory”? Ephesians 4:13-15 illumines the true path true disciples walk on: “till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should be no longer children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head – Christ -!!”

“Victory”? It’s a deep, deep awareness of being on the journey with our Lord “pressing on” until all that is true of Him has found its freedom and liberty in you and me! Philippians 3:12-14 declares, “Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

Have you grasped it yet, understand, comprehend, “rest in,” unflinching loyalty to the Resurrected Christ in you? Here’s how Oswald Chambers put it: “The idea is not that WE do the work FOR God, but that we are so loyal to Him that He can do His work through us – God wants to use us as He used His own Son.” Galatians 5:24 says, “And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”

Isn’t that amazing? AND YET SO LIBERATING! If there is no denial of self, there is no appropriation of the fullness and victory of Christ! This is why Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2:4, “And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.”

“Victory”? I love what Oswald Chambers wrote after quoting John 8:36, “Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.” In his “My Utmost For His Highest,” [pps.239-240], he wrote: “If there is any remnant of individual conceit left, it always says “I can’t.” Personality never says, “I can’t,” but simply absorbs and absorbs; personality always wants more and more. It is the way we are built. We are designed with a great capacity for God; and sin and our individuality are the things that keep us from getting at God. God delivers us from sin;; we have to deliver ourselves from individuality, i.e., to present our natural life to God and sacrifice it until it is transformed into a spiritual life by obedience…Stop listening to the tyranny of individuality and get emancipated out into personality.” And I would add: Our victory is EMANCIPATION INTO HIS PERSON-ALITY!!

“Victory”? Please, please; I challenge you to open the door of your own life, right now, to Romans 8:35-39!! “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: ‘For Your sake we are killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.’

Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

F.J. Huegel, in his book “Forever Triumphant,” opens with this statement: “It comes as a shock when one realizes that the Christian life, as for the most part it is being lived, falls far short of the divine standard. The status of unnumbered Christians is sub-normal. They are below par. They are not out-and-out sinners along with the worldling, for they have named the name of Jesus in true faith and are indeed members of His church; but talk to them about a life of perennial victory, about being more than conquerors, about a life “hid with Christ in God” in unbroken and joyous communion, and you will fail to get an understanding response. You may provoke an incredulous smile.”

But, thank God, THERE ARE THOSE who have discovered, walked in, live by the truth of 1 John 4:17b, that “because as He is, so are we in this world.” In a previous fourth chapter verse, Verse 9, John also said: “In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that WE MIGHT LIVE THROUGH HIM.”

Do you know what pleases God? In Galatians 1:15-16 Paul said: “But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, to reveal His Son in me, I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood…”. With whom did he confer? How about Holy God Himself, the Resurrected Christ, and the Holy Spirit!

To the church at Colossae, Paul later wrote, Colossians 2:9-10, “For in Him [Christ] dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.” So, what took place at Calvary’s Cross as Jesus suffered, bled, and died? In Galatians 2:20 Paul said, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself FOR ME!” Isn’t that what we learned in Galatians 3:26? “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.”

If you haven’t heard it or learned it as yet, Christ Jesus won “the victory” at the Cross in our behalf, which is why Paul said in 2 Corinthians 2:14, “Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place.”

Are YOU living “victoriously” as the disciple of Christ? Are you “the overcomer”? Are you triumphant as a traveler on the Highway of Holiness? Having been “born of God” are you victorious over your world in and through Christ Jesus?

“In Christ” we’re not part of a hoax – we’re part of Heaven’s Royal Family! “In Christ” we’re not overcome but are overcomers through Christ’s Victory in our behalf! “In Christ” we’re not strugglers after a goal that can never be reached or crossed – we’re finished products of His amazing saving Grace, complete in Christ, lacking nothing!

Romans 8:2 says, “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ has made me free from the law of sin and death.” You’re not a victim! YOU ARE VICTOR IN CHRIST!!

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

“VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED? CARING FOR OTHERS – THE SIGN OF CHRIST’S PRESENCE!”

I don’t know how you respond as you are reading the Word, but there are times when I am absolutely overwhelmed, burdened, and broken when I read like I did today Psalm 142:3-4 when David, King David, was overwhelmed, yes, distraught over the treatment of his persecutors! It says:

“When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, then You [God] knew my path. In the way which I walk they have secretly set a snare for me. Look on my right hand and see, for there is no one who acknowledges me; refuge has failed me; NO ONE CARES MY SOUL.”

Reading Isaiah again recently, I was awakened anew of the desperation many become aware of in their own lives because they lost the calling to care for others. In Isaiah 17:10-11 the prophet wrote about the ‘burden’ to come to Syria AND Israel because they had forgotten even caring about God Himself much less other nations and people!

“Because you have forgotten the God of your salvation, and have not been mindful of the Rock of your stronghold, therefore you will plant pleasant plants and set out foreign seedlings; In the day you will make your plant to grow, and in the morning you will make your seed to flourish; but the harvest will be a heap of ruins in the day of grief and desperate sorrow.”

Is Holy God telling us that, not only godless cities become desolations, but uncaring people, churches, and nations, can, and possibly will become destined for desolation because there is no compassion for the needy?!?

We must, before continuing the Title: “Caring For Others – The Sign of Christ’s Presence”, witness Him for ourselves in His compassionate ministry whether “we” are a part of Him or not! In John 13:1-10 we read, “Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come that He should depart from this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.

And supper being ended, the devil having already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray Him, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come from God and was going to God, rose from supper and laid aside His garments, took a towel and girded Himself.

After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded. Then He came to Simon Peter. And Peter said to Him, ‘Lord, are You washing my feet?’ Jesus answered and said to him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but you will know after this.”

Peter said to Him, “You shall never wash my feet!” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me.” Simon Peter said to Him, “Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head!” Jesus said to him, “He who is bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all of you.” Jesus knew then, and He knows now, those who would, will, and do betray Him!

In Hebrews 10:19-25 the author faithfully challenges us to remembrance of our true calling! “Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, and having a High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.”

And, dare I tell you, “that Day approaching” is the Day of our Lord’s examination of whether or not we followed His Example and cared for, yes, a lost, needy, unreconciled people, as well as our care for one another in family, the Faith, and the wounded of our spiritual warfare with the powers of darkness! “Jesus, You shall never wash my feet,” or are you one who now realizes, “Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head!” Clean hands to serve –clean heads in understanding our mission, our calling, yes, our major responsibility of touching our world around us with His love, His mercy, His grace, His Truth, His Son and their Savior! How does it come to fruition in us as His disciples?

ONE, IS AVAILABILITY! If I am His, and I belong to Him, is the path I walk as a true disciple “my way” or His way? We’ve all seen in the Word the encounter of Isaiah with the Living Lord in Isaiah 6:5-9, Isaiah said: “Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.” Isaiah had unveiled before Him the vision of the Kingdom of God, Isaiah experienced the removal of his sin, as we read in Isaiah 6:7, “Behold, this has touched your lips; your iniquity is taken away, and your sin is purged!”

Oh, but then Isaiah heard the heart-cry of Holy God! Isaiah 6:8, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?” And Isaiah responded, “Here am I! Send me.” And God said, “Go, and tell this people.”

When did that change? Or have we become so “spiritually mature” (?) that we’re not “weird disciples” who make themselves available to the lost, dying, perishing, unbelieving, unredeemed, fallen-away world of humanity, yes, deceived by the powers of darkness?

It’s a sad, sad day when church leadership, churches, yes, ‘disciples of Christ’, turn blind eyes to a needy world! Too many churches are intense on ‘self-realization’ to the extent that they sense no calling to truly “reach out” as “witnesses” of His saving grace and mercy! He loves the world – most churches love their own without any consideration of penetrating an unsaved, alienated humanity, with His love! If the church’s aim is to come, according to Ephesians 4:13, “to the unity of the faith AND OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE SON OF GOD, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,” did His fullness include laying down His life in witnessing? “I’ve come to seek and to save that which is lost!” Do you?

TWO, IS COMPASSION! Which I believe is truly a fruit of the Indwelling Holy Spirit! And, of course, Jesus said, “By their fruits you shall know them!” How many ‘disciples’ have crossed your path professing faith in Christ but, sadly, on a pilgrimage of “self-awareness” and “self-realization”, crowning ‘self’ as his/her only priority without any consideration or commitment to “You shall be My witnesses”?

Completeness in Christ without His compassion for the unsaved? In Hebrews 9:14 we read, “How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” But you claim ‘service to Him’ without any consideration of His calling?

In Luke 19:10 the Lord Jesus said: “For the Son of Man has come TO SEEK AND TO SAVE that which was lost.” And, of course, Judaism had lost God’s holy intent, and certainly Holy God passionately desired to see Israel’s salvation but also, through them, the salvation of the entire world!

Why did Jesus once say, Matthew 5:20, “For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.” Just how devoted do you think “the scribes and Pharisees” were to their ‘religious rituals’? But did they touch a dark world with the “Light of Heaven”? Did they touch the ‘lost’ with the true liberty of Heavenly love and grace?

Didn’t you, at first, find it so strange, when in John 7:15 the Jews marveled at Jesus, saying, “How does this Man know letters, having never studied?” [They were supposing without a Rabbi’s PhD that the Creator of it all couldn’t know or understand their religious plateau or prestige!]. In Verses 16-18 the Lord Jesus responded, “My doctrine is not Mine, but His who sent Me. If anyone wills to do His will, he shall know concerning the doctrine, whether it is from God or whether I speak on my own authority. He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but He who seeks the glory of the One who sent Him is true, and no unrighteousness is found in Him.”

Question! “Why did Father-God send Christ Jesus, the Son? In Romans 8:28-29 Paul tells us, “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, TO THOSE WHO ARE CALLED ACCORDING TO HIS PURPOSE. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to BE CONFORMED TO THE IMAGE OF HIS SON, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.”

What did Christ Jesus Himself say? John 10:10, “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” John 11:25, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, [rests in, adheres to, relies upon] though He may die, he shall live. Verse 26, And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?”

If Jesus says, “most assuredly…”, are you assuredly secure in the truth of His Word? In John 5:24-25 our Lord and Savior declared: “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life. Most assuredly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live.” What compassion our Lord has for you and me!

THREE, HIS PURPOSE COMING TO FRUITION IN HIS TRUE DISCIPLE? IT’S BY BRIDGE-BUILDING AWARENESS! Dare I mention ‘life without Him’, as Genesis 1:2 says of the earth, “was without form, and void, and darkness was on the face of the deep (darkness).And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters”? A life “without God” is absent of eternal purpose, void, empty, vain, trying every way possible to subdue the void and emptiness, trying to subdue the darkness in the mind, soul, heart, knowing nothing of “Kingdom-Now Living” in the here and now THROUGH the shed-blood of Christ alone!

Are YOU a true disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ, fully aware of an unbeliever’s destiny apart from Christ? But beyond that, what about Holy God’s eternal intention in Revelation of “Kingdom-Living” now, when in Revelation 21:1-8 He told John:

Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea [or separation?]. Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying.

There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away. Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” And He said to me, “Write, for these words are true and faithful.”

And He said to me, “It is done! I AM the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts. He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son.

But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”

Clean hands to serve and clean heads in understanding our mission, our calling, our presence in a needy world?

FOURTH, IN CARING FOR OTHERS THERE MUST BE THE BIBLICAL SOUNDNESS OF ETERNAL TRUTH IN TOUCHING HEARTS, TRAINING MINDS, AND RELEASING EDUCATED, ENLIGHTENED WILLS THROUGH REPENTANCE TOWARD GOD AND FAITH IN CHRIST’S FINISHED WORK AT THE CROSS!

In John 8:31-32 the Word tells us, Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

Of course, one of the human tragedies in the circles of ‘religious faith’ is what Holy God talked about through Paul in Romans 1:18-25! “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, WHO SUPPRESS THE TRUTH IN UNRIGHTEOUSNESS, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for GOD HAS SHOWN IT TO THEM. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse; because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man – and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, WHO EXCHANGED THE TRUTH OF GOD FOR THE LIE [“You can sin and not die!”], and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. SO BE IT!”

Do you remember the loving spiritual father, Paul, as he taught his spiritual son, Timothy, in 2 Timothy 3:16-17? “All scripture is given by inspiration of God [Holy Scripture, the Holy Bible, not the futile writings of Mohammed or any other false teacher!], and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

Paul went on in 2 Timothy 4:1-4 to say to Timothy and us today, “I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom: Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. BUT YOU BE WATCHFUL IN ALL THINGS, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, FULFILL YOUR MINISTRY!”

Did Paul, in challenging Timothy, challenge us? “Preach the word!” Are you convincing, rebuking, exhorting, with all longsuffering and teaching?

FIFTH, IN CARING FOR OTHERS THERE MUST ALSO BE INTERCESSORY FAITHFULNESS, PRAYING FOR OTHERS, AND CONTINUING TO PRAY!

In 1 Timothy 2:1-3 our intercessory faithfulness in prayer is clearly called for. Paul wrote, “Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings [presidents?] and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”

True spiritual discipleship is not a ‘professing’ life without the faithful practice of intercessory prayer! True spiritual disciples, men or women, are disciples of prayer! It’s conversation with the Father, it’s inter-change with one’s Lord and Savior, it’s petitions, it’s requests, it’s one’s desires refined by the mind, heart, Word and will of Holy God, it’s confession, intercession, the refining of one’s thoughts and dreams according to the Sovereignty of God, it’s thanksgiving, it’s yielded-ness to the “Yes” or “No” of trustful Lord and Savior, it’s requesting His counsel and advice not demanding ‘my way or the highway,’ it’s “asking in Jesus’ Name and leaving the results to God the Father,” and Oswald Chambers really nailed it when he said, “Have you reached such an intimacy with God that the Lord Jesus Christ’s life of prayer is the only explanation of your life of prayer?” [“My Utmost For His Highest,” p.160].

Intercessory Prayer is not a symphony of transfiguration that brings melody to one’s heart and through one’s heart, but knowing, receiving, and celebrating both the composer and conductor – Jesus Only! It’s not a supposed bright light after death experience, but fellowship, submission, and trust in the Light of Life, Jesus Only! It’s not the ‘blessed privilege of witnessing or praying for others, but opening the door through you – Jesus Only! It’s not even those, yes, multitudinous mountain-top experiences in prayer with Him – it’s Jesus Only!

Through your intercessory faithfulness and trust in Whom you offer your prayers, you’re at peace that He, the Lord Jesus Christ, is not fickle but faithful in fully answering you with blessed, eternal intent! As His faithful, praying servant, do you “rest” in Him!

SIXTH, IN CARING FOR OTHERS, IN FAITHFUL INTERCESSION, THERE MUST BE, IN YOU, THE UNDERSTANDING THAT THOSE FOR WHOM YOU PRAY MAY BE A LIFE OR LIVES OF TOTAL DISINTEREST IN THE THINGS OF GOD.

Are you aware that there are hard-shelled, hard-hearted men and women fashioned and shaped by a spirit of unbelief carved by the fallen nature of men dominated by “my respectable goodness”?

Oh, certainly there are many who experience ‘remorse’ for “a few blunders, but to say I need to be saved, born-again, reconciled to God? You, Sir Witness, I see only disgust with your suggestion!”

In Acts 14:2 we read, “But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brethren,” and to be are poisoner against true believers is to be “poisoned against Christ”! It’s a mind game, a heart issue, and a willful decision ‘for’ or ‘against’ the Truth of Christ Jesus as one’s Savior and Lord! Sadly, many, in their minds and hearts are not interested in the things of our Lord and Savior!

Disobedience, as a way of life, to the Holy things of God is personal enslavement to the things of the devil himself – and many are content with that degradation and personal disrespect of the Savior and Lord! Hindrances of true faith are often, like a stormy, destructive wave, sweeping minds, hearts, and wills with obstinacy, disrespect for the very Throne Of God itself, determined to be ruled by their passions, warped wills, and self-independence –“No God-stuff, thank you!” And they go to Hell with the devil and his demons and all unbelievers!

One of those heart-gripping verses in the Bible is John 6:66! “From that time [even] many of Jesus’ disciples went back and walked no more with Him!” Do you recognize that the holy things of Christ, His truths, His ministries, His visions and dreams, are so foreign to a life enslaved to its own opinions, views, desires, or fleshly wants, that rejecting the Life, the Way, The Will, and the Words of Christ, is a “fleshly piece of cake, flavored by the devil himself!”

NO WONDER WE’RE CHALLENGED WITH, AS DISCIPLES OF CHRIST, “PRAY WITHOUT CEASING!” Didn’t Jesus say in Luke 18:1 “that men always ought to pray and not lose heart!” And, praise God, we’ll not be those who lose heart, but press in to Him more and more!

Hattie Bell Allen and B.B. McKinney wrote in the Broadman Press of Nashville, Tenn., 1940!, the hymn, “Christ For the Whole Wide World! It says:

“Christ for the whole wide world! Our task has just begun, For millions wait in every land The message of God’s Son. Shall they be left in sin, To die without His Word, Without the Savior Jesus Christ, Because they never heard?

Christ for the whole wide world! His message must be sent To millions dying in their sin To call them to repent. Christ Jesus died to save, But they can never know Until we bring our gifts of love And bid His heralds go!

Christ for the whole wide world! His heralds will proclaim Salvation for men everywhere In Jesus’ blessed name. And we who cannot go To bear His tidings far Will pray for those who take the Word – And witness where we are.” Amen?

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

“VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED? SIN’S COMPLICATIONS – SIN’S REMEDY!”

It always amazes me, not the sinfulness of all men, but the amazing grace of God, as I read Peter over and over again, saying to us: 1 Peter 2:21-25, For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps: “Who committed no sin, nor was deceit found in His mouth”, who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously; who Himself BORE OUR SIN IN HIS OWN BODY ON THE TREE [The Cross, Calvary!], that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness – “BY WHOSE STRIPES YOU WERE HEALED.” For you were like sheep going astray, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.”

Sadly, I’m not sure at all that most men/women, boys or girls, have any awareness of Sin and Its Complications or of Sin’s Only Remedy, but the one major thing at this moment for your consideration is God’s unveiling of its seriousness, so serious that the very Cross of our Lord and Savior is God’s declaration and revelation and unveiling of His judgment on your sin and mine, the sacrifice of His Son, the Lord Jesus, as the “at-one-ment” or atonement of Christ as the only hope of man’s escape from sin’s penalty, death, and our reconciliation with Holy God through the amazing unveiling of the heart of God in His love for us as He gave Jesus to become sin for us that, through Him, we might receive reconciliation to Holy God!

And, if you didn’t know it, Revelation 13:8 tells us of “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” God understood the necessity of man’s reconciliation with Holy God because of the Fall, necessitating divine intervention through the Lamb’s “blood sacrifice”! Oswald Chambers wrote in “My Utmost For His Highest,” [p.70], “Beware of separating God ‘manifest in the flesh’ from ‘the Son becoming sin.’ The Incarnation was for the purpose of Redemption. God became incarnate for the purpose of putting away sin; not for the purpose of Self-Realization.” And if, and it was, His crucifixion was to put away sin by His blood sacrifice, how does a “professing people”, and even “the church” of Christ HE atoned for, keep on sinning when He said, “Go, and SIN NO MORE,” [John 5:14], with the added few words, yet so frightening it ought to scare Hell right out of you, “lest a worse thing come upon you.”

Does the supposed “American-Christian culture” understand “Sin’s Complications” and its inevitable results? I’m afraid a “changed American culture” is void on understanding the seriousness of sin in and across the nation! It’s so alarming and disturbing to read an article published on Facebook by Franklin Graham, Billy Graham’s son, that says the following: “Time is like a river, You cannot touch the water twice, because the flow that has passed will never pass again.”

Franklin Graham was speaking at the First Baptist Church in Jacksonville, Florida, January, 2015, when he said America will not come back. “The American dream ended on November 6^th, 2012 in Ohio. The second term of Barack Obama has been the nail in the coffin for the legacy of the white Christian males who discovered, explored, pioneered, settled and discovered the greatest republic in human history. A coalition of blacks, Latinos, feminists, gays, government workers, union members, environmental extremists, the media, Hollywood, uninformed young people, the “forever needy”, the chronically unemployed, illegal aliens and other “fellow travelers” have ended Norman Rockwell’s America.

You will never again out-vote these people. It will take individual acts of defiance and massive displays of civil disobedience to get back the rights we have allowed them to take away. It will take zealots, not moderates and shy, not reach-across- the-aisle to RINOs to right this ship and restore our beloved country to its former status. People like me are completely irrelevant, and I will probably never again be able to legally comment or concern myself with the aforementioned coalition which has surrendered our culture, our heritage, and our traditions without a shot being fired.

The cocker spaniel is off the front porch, the pit bull is in the backyard. The American Constitution has been replaced with Saul Olinsky’s “Rules for Radicals” and the likes of David Axelrod along with international socialist George Soros have been pulling the strings on their beige puppet have brought us Acts 2 of the New World Order. The curtain will come down but the damage has been done, the story has been told.

Those who come after us will once again have to risk their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor to bring back the Republic that this generation has timidly frittered away due to white guilt and political correctness…” And I say, “Lord, help us!”

It’s early March, 2016, and I have personally been reminded of the serious, sinful, and sick situation our country is in politically, morally, spiritually, and leaning toward a flood of godlessness, deceit, rebellion, resentment, and, yes, hatred of the Holy Word of God. I wrote this the early morning hours of March 2, 2016, after a very restless night of sorrow over what American people do, yes, in opposition to divine will and purpose! I wrote the following concerning “God and Government.” It says:

“Fast approaching my 80^th birthday as of June 12, 2016, I’m disturbed to see a nation and people founded, yes, by God Himself as “one nation under God” but fast becoming, especially among leadership nation-wide as a nation by the people, of the people, and for the people – and, as in life, so in governments, the absence of God releases men to their own control, their own godless philosophies, their own reckless abandonment of “self, ‘my way or the highway,’ and certainly ‘less God because I want to govern myself, my family, my city as I damn well please’”, which reveals a people and nation on the fast road to fleshly decline!

To them, spiritual government is not ‘the American way’! Really? And, of course, they want the Holy Word of God out of government, out of schools and universities, out of homes and families and their own minds, and less and less and less of local and state over-sight – “Who or what government needs the advice or counsel of what some call Holy God, our Creator, Lord, Savior, and Master, because we can govern ourselves as we please, which to us means: keep the Bible out of our public domain and ways of godless living; He has no place telling us what we individually or as families, schools, businesses, or governments ought to be doing!”

It was King David, ruling over Israel by the grace of God, who, in Psalm 67:1-4, wrote: “God be merciful to us and bless us, and cause His face to shine upon us, That Your way may be known on earth, Your salvation among all nations. Let the peoples praise You, O God; let all the peoples praise You. Oh, let the nations be glad and sing for joy! For You shall judge the people righteously, and govern the nations on earth.”

But do you hear a ‘modern-society’ saying more and more: “God is not necessary in our governments, politically, morally, spiritually, individually or corporately – leave God out of our governments and out of our schools, out of our lives!” Oh, and they mean it – “To us, God has no place in our affairs because ‘good government’ (?) is allowing us to do as we please!”, which means: “less Faith, less guidance, less watch-care, less protection, less blessing of God, less Sovereign-Rule, less divine love, less of His omnipotence and more of our impotence – with many of the warped opinion that, ‘yes, we’re smarter than God Himself’!”

I know that the people of our formerly ‘great nation’ have set aside any “fear of God”. But Psalm 25:12-15 tells us, King David speaking, “Who is the man who fears the Lord? Him shall He teach in the way He chooses. He himself shall dwell in prosperity, and his descendants shall inherit the earth. The secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him, and He will show them His covenant. My eyes are ever toward the Lord, for He shall pluck my feet out of the net.”

A “net of Godless rule” is a strong, powerful net that wraps itself around people so powerfully that they end up with spiritual curses, spiritual bankruptcy, spiritual ignorance, and a spiritual destiny they really should not desire. Numbers 22:31-34 is a wake-up call for some people, but, sadly, many national, state, and local leaders have plotted their course, omitting God, His Word and His will.

In Numbers 22:31-35 we read, Then the Lord opened Balaam’s eyes, and he saw the Angel of the Lord standing in the way with His drawn sword in His hand; and he bowed his head and fell flat on his face. “Why have you struck your donkey these three times? Behold, I have come out to stand against you, because ‘your way’ is perverse before Me. The donkey saw Me and turned aside from Me these three times. If she had not turned aside from Me, surely I would also killed you by now, and let her live.” And Balaam said to the Angel of the Lord, “I have sinned, for I did not know You stood in the way against me. Now therefore, if it displeases You, I will turn back.”

Do you sense today in America, in Texas, in the Bedford, Texas, area a political climate that is, by some, “perverse before Me”, Holy God, the Founder of government to be Sovereignly ruled by Him – not proud, fleshly, independent of and separate from His Holy Word, wiser than God men and women?

How clear are you about Peter’s words in 2 Peter 1:2-4 that so relates to God’s people as His instruments impacting ‘godless governments’ and lives in every community? Peter wrote:

“Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”

Isn’t it a shameful position that some take, “Keep God and His Word and Truth out of OUR governments – we’ll take care of ourselves in our own way!”

But then, there are those with Peter’s wisdom and understanding! 2 Peter 1:10-11, “Therefore, brethren, [true sons and daughters of the Eternal Faith!], be even more diligent to make your calling and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

You hear it in all political elections: “No God in our government – we do it our way, man’s way, the way of godlessness, and the way of fleshly compromises, alienating God and Truth from us!” Destructive heresies will seek to gain control, keep control, and hold onto man’s control and ways without heeding the Holy Word! “Alienate Truth and promote ‘our way’, which is the absence of God in our governments!”

Didn’t Peter go on to say in 2 Peter 2:19, “While they promise them ‘liberty’ [from being governed by God or His Truth!], they themselves are slaves of corruption, for by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into bondage;” Verse 22, But it has happened [does happen, will happen!] to them according to a true proverb: “A dog returns to his own vomit,” and, “a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire.”

Are you aware of how many “professing believers”, having escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior, find themselves easily entangled again in them and overcome, [that their] latter end is worse for them than the beginning?

In 2 Peter 2:21 the servant of God tells us: “For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them.”

Now? Prayerful intercession that Holy God, once again, will teach men, political leaders, “the way in which God chooses” – not their supposed “grass-roots” electorate! Accounting Day does come before Holy God at the Judgment Seat for, yes, their ‘political decisions’ (?)! So, newly elected politicians: Will YOU be led by Holy God and His Eternal Word?”

“Vital Awareness Unveiled? Sin’s Complications – Sin’s Remedy?” You are aware that a man’s sin is nothing more than impure rebellion against Holy God, not only impure but impotent of producing nothing but more and more deeper and deeper and wider and wider separation from God, a declaration of independence from God, and sins of both sins of omission and sins of commission with immediate spiritual death and ultimate judgment before His Holy Throne! I’m sure that as Thomas Carlyle once said, “The deadliest sins were the consciousness of no sin.” That would fit about every sinner today, including ‘church sinners’, who have no sense of God or His Holy revealed Truth but only the recipient of a sinful mind – “pure hearts” are viewed as off-the-wall , weird, strange teaching of dis-brained preacher-teachers!

There’s a passage in Numbers 16:29-30 that should awaken some, if not many, to the seriousness of their sins. Moses said, “If these men die naturally like all men, then the Lord has not sent me. But if the Lord creates a new thing, and the earth opens its mouth and swallows them up with all that belongs to them, and they go down alive into the pit, then you will understand that these men have rejected the Lord.”

THAT was a literal event for many rebellious men, but it is also symbolic, prophetic, and a preview of the “pit” for men of today who take pleasure in dishonoring God with their lives. The “Pit” awaits for God’s Word!

Jonathan Edwards was famous for a sermon he titled: “Sinners In The Hands Of An Angry God.” The foundation was out of Deuteronomy 32:28-39 which says: (Are YOU Ready?): “For they are a nation void of counsel, nor is there any understanding in them. Oh, that they were wise, that they understood this, THAT THEY WOULD CONSIDER THEIR END!

How could one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, and the Lord had surrendered them? For their rock is not like our Rock, even our enemies themselves being judges.

For their vine is of the vine of Sodom and of the fields of Gomorrah; their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter. Their wine is the poison of serpents, and the cruel venom of cobras.

Is this not laid up in store with Me, sealed up among My treasures? Vengeance is Mine, and recompense; their foot shall slip in due time; for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things to come hasten upon them.

FOR THE LORD WILL JUDGE HIS PEOPLE and have compassion on His servants, when He sees that their power is gone, and there is no one remaining bond or free. He will say: ‘Where are their gods, the rock in which they sought refuge?

Who ate the fat of their sacrifices, and drank the wine of their drink offering? Let them rise and help you, and be your refuge.

Now see that I, even I, am He, and THERE IS NO GOD BESIDES ME; I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; nor is there any who can deliver from My hand”

No doubt this is why Martin Luther once said, “Sin is, essentially a departure from God.” There are in the world, even some in churches, who live with “foolish minds, foolish hearts, foolish wills,” which is why Proverbs 14:9 tells us, “Fools mock at sin,” but because of the shed blood of Christ at Calvary’s Cross, Isaiah 1:18 says, “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.”

But, “SIN’S COMPLICATIONS”? Romans 6:23 says, “The wages of sin is death” – that’s spiritual death, that’s separation from God, that’s His guarantee of a room reserved in Hell for every “sinner”, every unredeemed man, woman, boy, or girl, that’s the embittered chains of darkness, desolation, and a death that will not die! Oh, and then are there even ‘believers’ or ‘followers of Christ’ who decide to disavow responsibility in upholding Christ’s Name and honor, what’s their settled fate in their own minds and hearts? Luke 12:45-46 says, “But if that servant says in his heart, ‘My master is delaying his coming, and begins to beat the male and female servants, and to eat and drink and be drunk, the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the unbelievers.”

“Sin’s Complications”? Not only a separation from God, but there is the condemnation of Holy God against those who pride-fully shake their fists in God’s face and go “My way”! “Sin’s Complications”? Do you know or have you ignored John 3:17-20 which reveals “My way” of loving darkness and hating God’s light. It says: “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.”

Sin injures, sin steals God’s intent, sin is the greatness of a man in sin: Great in unbelief, great in disrespect, great in personal loss and limiting God’s design and potential and privilege, great in sorrow and pain and destructive abuse, great in terrible transgressions, toxic trespasses, and total ‘heart-break’ and eternal suffering when God has to say, “Depart from Me, I never knew you!”

Sin is a spiritual scourge in impacting, indoctrinating, limiting, destroying lives, families and nations! Sin is why Holy God raised up prophets like Isaiah to tell people, even His Own ‘So-called’ People of God! In Isaiah 5:11-13 God exposed the ‘coming judgment’ on His own ‘religious people’! “Woe to those who rise early in the morning, that they may follow intoxicating drink; who continue in the night, till wine inflames them!…But they do not regard the work of the Lord, nor consider the operation of His hands. [Which means that there ARE some things Holy God WILL NOT HONOR OR BLESS OR EXCUSE!]. Therefore My people have gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge; their honorable men are famished, and their multitude dried up with thirst.”

THAT SHOULD BE ENOUGH TO “SCARE HELL” OUT OF SOME FOLKS, BUT THEN READ CAREFULLY ISAIAH 5:14-16! “Therefore Sheol [or “place of death”] has enlarged itself and opened its mouth beyond measure; their glory and their multitude and their pomp, and he who is jubilant [over his/her “party spirit”!] shall descend into it. People shall be brought down, each man shall be humbled, and the eyes of the lofty or proud shall be humbled. But the Lord of hosts shall be exalted in judgment, and God who is holy shall be hallowed in righteousness.”

In Isaiah 30:1, again the Prophet of God amplified the “woe” of rebellious children that excuse ‘sin’: “Woe to the rebellious children,” says the Lord, “who take counsel, but not of Me, and who devise plans, but not of My Spirit, that they may add sin to sin…” SIN is a “Reproach”; SIN is deceit with deadly results; SIN multiplies, quadruples, without the concern in the minds and hearts of sinful men – they “add sin to sin”; SIN is even ‘worshipped’ as men have their own altars they erect to bow before and indulge the ‘sinful flesh’ as their supposed ‘worship’ – some call them brothels!

But more than anything else “SIN BRINGS DEATH” AND “SEPARATION FROM GOD”! Romans 5:12 tells us: “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all men sinned…”

It’s astounding to me that many lives, even in the “church”, frown upon “Truth” yet worship at the altar of the “devil’s lies”: “You can sin and not die”! And, certainly, they will tell the world: “Sin doesn’t separate us from God,” when in Isaiah 59:2-4, God’s Word, declared through the Prophet tells us: “But your iniquities have separated you from God; and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue has muttered perversity. No one calls for justice, nor does any plead for truth. They trust in empty words and speak lies; they conceive evil and bring forth iniquity.” Who IS THAT? That’s the “I belive-ers” who profess allegiance but go on continuing in their sin, when, again, Jesus said, “Go, and sin No More!”

Oh, and then there are the “Jonathan Edwards’ prophetic prophets today who teach transfers out of “death in sin” to the eternal victory over sin through the Lamb’s “shed blood”! He said in his closing comments from “Sinners In The Hands Of An Angry God”,

“God has laid Himself under no obligation, by any promise to keep any natural man out of Hell one moment. God certainly has made no promises of eternal life, or of any deliverance from eternal death, but what are contained in the covenant of grace, the promises that are given in Christ, in whom all the promises are yes and amen. But surely [and Farrell Fisher adds, ‘sadly’] they have no interest in the promises of the covenant of grace who are not children of the covenant, who do not believe in the promises, and have no interest in the Mediator of the covenant.”

But, praise God, beyond “Sin’s Complications” IS “Sin’s Remedy”! How could any ‘sane’ person read Romans 5:8-11 and not be at the Throne of God’s Mercy repenting and trusting His “finished work” through Christ? It says: “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ DIED FOR US. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be [being][ saved by His life. And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.” [And the ‘reconciliation’ IS commitment in honoring Him daily through our walks, paths, assignments!].

How on target and inspiring do you find Peter’s words in 1 Peter 1:18-21? “knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you who through Him believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, SO THAT your faith and hope are in God.”

And, as a result of one’s redemptive faith in Christ alone, Peter added in 1 Peter 2:9-10 these words: “You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.”

Thank you Robert H. Coleman who in 1939 allowed his hymn, “Saved, Saved!” to be published in the old Broadman Hymnal by Broadman Press! It says: “I’ve found a friend who is all to me, His love is ever true; I love to tell how He lifted me And what His grace can do for you.

He saves me from every sin and harm, Secures my soul each day; I’m leaning strong on His mighty arm; I know He’ll guide me all the way.

When poor and needy and all alone, In love He said to me, “Come unto Me and I’ll lead you home, To live with Me eternally.” Saved by His power divine, Saved to new life sublime! Life now is sweet, my joy is complete, For I’m saved, yes, saved!

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

“VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED? HUMANLY DEVELOPED STRENGTH OR GOD-GIVEN POWER?”

A fleshly-life in its most perfect demonstration, by man’s opinions and standards, is so void and empty of God-given power by His grace and mercy through the anointing of the Holy Spirit!

The kingdom of a man ruled by his own heart and mind is not the Kingdom of God in a repentant, redeemed life! In fact, man at ‘his’ best without God is a ‘victim’ or ‘slave’ of the ruler of the physical world who is known as Satan or the devil.

Jesus said in John 12:31-33, “Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out,” and ‘the ruler’ Jesus spoke of was the devil who deceives fallen mankind, alienated and separated from Holy God.

If you didn’t know, Matthew 4:1-11 tells us of Jesus’ encounter with the devil which every man, without the born-again divine nature, lives under his control , or his assigned demons who so want to intoxicate you, knowingly or unknowingly, as the enemy of God! Receive the Truth!

“Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry. NOW WHEN THE TEMPTER came to Him, he said, ‘If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.’ [Lust of the flesh!].

But Jesus answered and said, ‘It is written: Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’

Then the devil took Him up into the holy city, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, ‘If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written: He shall give His angels charge over you, [Boastful pride of life!], AND, In their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone.’

Jesus said to him, ‘It is written again, You shall not tempt the Lord your God.’ Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to Him, ‘All these things I will give You if you will fall down and worship me.’ [Lust of the eyes!].

Then Jesus said to him, ‘Away with you, Satan! For it is written, You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.’ Then the devil left Him, and behold, angels came and ministered to Him.”

Are you aware of what Paul revealed to Timothy and us in 2 Timothy 2:24-26? “And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, and that they may come to their senses, AND ESCAPE THE SNARE OF THE DEVIL, having been taken captive by him to do his will.” [Your life? Will of God or the will of the devil?]

In James 4:7 the brother of Jesus wrote, “Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” But rather than resist, unredeemed men, mostly, don’t even know their lives have become the residences of Satan or his demon powers!

The first creation, having been captured by men under Satan’s control, became literally a battleground dominated, surrounded, subverted away from God’s eternal intention, to becoming a devilish kingdom of resistance to Holy God and the people He wanted for His own, which is why Paul told us in Colossians 1:10-14, “that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy; giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has delivered us from the powers of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.” [And if God has delivered YOU, how is it you so easily entertain ‘demons unaware’?]

It doesn’t matter if one finished only the first grade in school or achieved the status of a PhD graduate, without Christ, he/she is a slave of Satan and led by demonic deception! “Old things” refers to a life of man/woman, fallen away, independent from God by his/her sin nature, living in fleshly kingdoms with Satan and demon powers, deceived and being deceived, but with the devil himself ruling over that kingdom of darkness – and without God as Lord and Savior, it’s the ‘kingdom’, even fleshly, that is the denial of God’s Sovereignty and a willing or even unwilling acceptance and captivity of the rule of the devil! A world of man’s “best”, a world of “fleshly goodness”, a world of even moral acceptance, without Christ it is the “kingdom of darkness and the devil”! It doesn’t matter to many, whether they know it or not, without Christ as Redeemer, Savior, and Lord, a man/woman is living under the domination of a devilish rule in the kingdom of darkness – and many feel, “I’m home! And I love it,” but Hell awaits their admission!

Even to believers, in 1 Peter 5:8-11, Peter wrote: “Be sober, be vigilant; because YOUR ADVERSARY the devil walks about like a roaring (“Toothless”) lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world. BUT may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory By Christ Jesus, after you have suffered awhile, perfect, establish (‘make to stand’), strengthen, and settle you. To Him be the glory and dominion forever and ever.”

Do you remember Shakespeare in his writing “Twelfth Night”? [Acts 111, sc.4,1. 108], “What, man! Defy the devil: consider, he’s an enemy of mankind.”

And that is not a “Hollywood” fictional story to scare the living ‘day-lights’ out of people, but the reality of the devil’s kingdom against the Holy Kingdom of God and the Eternal Rule of the King of kings and Lord of lords – and the devil is intent on enlarging and controlling and ‘dis-easing’ fallen humanity, with the desire to expand his darkened, demonic, diseased, and deadly kingdom!

It’s so interesting, at least to me, that John, in Revelation 12, unveiled a war in heaven! Verses 7-12 educates us as follows: “And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer. So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, ‘Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down.

And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their own testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death. THEREFORE rejoice, O heavens, AND YOU WHO DWELL IN THEM! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time.”

I’d say, without hesitation and with full confidence, that if YOU deny the reality of the devil, you are a “dishonor-student star” in his class of “stupidity”! His devilish works saturate nations, even like America – but I’ve traveled every continent in our vast world and seen his ‘dis-artistic’ drawings in men’s and women’s lives! And, true educators, interested in world history, know beyond any shadow of a doubt that the devil dominates the world of faithless, flesh-poisoned men, women, youth, and even children! But let me assure you: HOLY GOD WINS! And because you appropriate redemptive faith and a true confessing heart and mind, so will YOU win out over the devil’s tactics!

How familiar are you with Job’s dramatic story? Job 1:6-12 reveals, Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, AND SATAN ALSO CAME AMONG THEM [even a Sunday morning worship service?]. And the Lord said to Satan, “From where do you come?”

So Satan answered the Lord and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking back and forth on it.” [Have YOU seen him walking lately around your community and surroundings?].

Then the Lord said to Satan, [Get ready! You’re next!], “Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil?”

So Satan answered the Lord and said, “Does Job fear God for nothing? Have you not made a hedge around him, around his household, and around all that he has on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But now, stretch out Your hand and touch all that he has, and he will surely curse You to Your face!”

And the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your power; only do not lay a hand on his person.” So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.”

Job lost his fortune, his family, being severely tested by the devil! [But surely in our highly educated, affluent land, many believe devilish testings are unrealistic stories “out of YOUR unholy bible!”] – Oh, really?

Job 1:20-22 enlightens us: Then Job arose, tore his robe, and shaved his head; and he fell to the ground and worshipped. And he said: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I shall return there. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” In all this Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong.

The testing began to take its toll on Job! And Holy God allowed even more intense testing! Job 2:3 says: Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil? And still he holds fast to his integrity, although you incited Me against him, to destroy him without cause.”

Oh, and “through it all,” Job learned to trust more and more in the Living God! In Job 42:1-6 we read, Then Job answered the Lord and said: “I know that You can do everything, and that no purpose of Yours can be withheld from You.

You asked, “Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge? Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. Listen, please, and let me speak; You said, ‘I will question you, and you shall answer Me.’

Job then said, I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees You. Therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”

Should we dare read Job 42:12-17? I believe so! “Now the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning; for he had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, one thousand yoke of oxen, and one thousand female donkeys. He also had seven sons and three daughters.

And he called the name of the first Jemimah, the name of the second Keziah, and the name of the third Keren-Happuch. In all the land were found no women so beautiful as the daughters of Job; and their father gave them an inheritance among their brothers. [Daughters names but not sons’ names? Not sure, but Jemimah means “dove”, Keziah means “cassic” or cinnamon, and Keren-Happuch means “paint-horn” or cosmetic box (or a beautifier)! Job was a blessed man!

After this Job lived one hundred and forty years, and saw his children and grandchildren for four generations. So Job died, old and full of days.”

How would YOU describe “old and full of days”?

“Vital Awareness Unveiled? Humanly Developed Strength Or God-Given Power?” It is so vital that you and I allow the Word of God to illuminate us in His eternal Truth, and nothing is more vital for the victorious walk in Christ than the awareness of “God-Given Power, Anointings, In-Fillings, and Empowerment”! It is not by “our best” but submission to His Spirit!

Zechariah was given a word of the Lord for Zerubbabel in Zechariah 4:6, “This is the word of the Lord for Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, (fleshly initiative or flesh-pumped-up impotent power), but by My Spirit,’ says the Lord of hosts.” Dare I tell you that victorious living as a disciple of Christ is the promised supply of the Spirit of God in His fullness, His authority, His power, His insight, His leadership, and His guidance?!?

When you come to the early history of the “Acts” of new, young, immature disciples, one of the first “musts” of every new disciple is the “must” of Spirit-anointing! And that’s with the Book of Acts in foundational training and equipping! It says, in Acts 2:14-19a,

But Peter, standing up with the eleven, raised his voice and said to them, “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and heed my words. For these are not drunk as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel (Joel 2:28-32):

“And it shall come to pass in the last days, [that’s the last days of the Old Covenant!], says God, that I WILL POUR OUT MY SPIRIT ON ALL FLESH; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions, your old men shall dream dreams.

And on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days; and they shall prophesy. I will show wonders in heaven above and signs in the earth beneath…”

In Acts 2:38-39 the Holy Word declares: Then Peter said to them [specifically the Jews, the city of Jerusalem, the priests in the temple, the gathered house of Israel, AND every man, woman, boy, or girl whom the Spirit draws, Peter said, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you SHALL RECEIVE THE GIFT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.” Has the Lord called YOU?

In Ephesians 5:15-21, Paul instructs all gatherings of true believers: “See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.

Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but BE FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, [ “making melody in your heart to the Lord? That’s agreement and submission to the Holy Spirit as the ‘conductor’ of your life of praise and thanksgiving to the Lord!], giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another in the fear of God.” GLORY!!

Let’s examine a portion of the Holy Spirit’s ministry in the Word of God! If Genesis 1:1 tells us, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth!”, we do know that the Holy Word reveals one God who expresses Himself in the Trinity of Truth: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit! [For example, one man who is man, husband, and father!].

In the last part of Genesis 1:2 it tells us, “And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.” Could that be “the water of life” or “the water of the Word” or “the water of washing of men’s hearts” or “the water that separates the dark from men, the dirt in their hearts and lives, washing, cleansing, purifying, strengthening, equipping, ordaining, anointing for ministry and service”? In fact, do we not read in Genesis 1:26, Then God said, “LET US make man in our image, according to our likeness…?” Us? Father, Son, and Holy Spirit!

If YOU are a part of the true family of faith, I know you’re aware of David’s plea in Psalm 51:10-11, when in his ‘prayer of repentance’ to Holy God, he cried out: “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.” Was King David aware, because of his sin, that at that time there was no anointing on his life and walk as he transgressed the Holy Word of God? Had Holy Ghost conviction swept over his life?

John was so aware of the ‘brood of vipers’ called the Pharisees and Sadducees, the ‘spiritual elite’ leaders of Judaism, who came out to witness his baptism and baptizing of ‘convicted children of God’, that John said, in Matthew 3:7b-11, “Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? THEREFORE BEAR FRUITS WORTHY OF REPENTANCE, and do not think to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones. And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He [King Jesus] will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”

Oh, and then one really gets an unveiling of the Holy Spirit’s necessity in the walk of the Redeemer’s Life and ministry when in Matthew 12:28 He said, “But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you.” [Cast out demons? Evidence of the coming of the kingdom of God upon His servants? In the 25 years of my ministry in India, “casting out demons” was so normal – but “American ‘christianity’ of the 21^st Century? To speak of demon deliverance reveals one’s spiritual stupidity! That’s ancient ‘voodooism’!”, as they expose their Biblical ignorance!

In Matthew 28:31-32 the Lord Jesus went on to say, “Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy AGAINST THE SPIRIT will not be forgiven men. Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come.”

If you’re faithful as the true disciple of Christ, you’re SO familiar with Luke 11 as the early disciples witnessed Him praying, and they cried out to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray!” And the “Lord’s Prayer” became new disciples firm foundation of a blessed prayer-life! He majored on true persistence in Biblical prayers! This is so vital, in Luke 11:9-13, that YOU must ask, “Has MY prayer-life included praying for the ministry of the Holy Spirit in my life, including His authority over demons?” The Word says: Jesus speaking: “So I say to you, ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish? Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If you, then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father GIVE THE HOLY SPIRIT TO THOSE WHO ASK HIM!” [Have YOU asked, have YOU received, and are you led by the Holy Spirit to “cast out demons”? “No, Preacher, we’re far beyond your spiritual immaturity – there is no modern-day ministry in churches and communities of “casting out demons” – demons don’t exist!” Really? THERE IS BLASPHEMY AGAINST THE HOLY SPIRIT – and the Lord Jesus said in Luke 12:10, “and if anyone speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but to him who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven.” [“Holy God, please, please, help the American church and even the church world-wide, because the ministry of Your Holy Spirit is, sadly, so void and unknown!”]

Notice from the Word: 1 Corinthians 2:9-14, But as it is written: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, THAT WE MIGHT KNOW THE THINGS THAT HAVE BEEN FREELY GIVEN TO US BY GOD.”

The Holy Spirit, in the believer, teaches us! Paul shared that the natural man (without Christ) does not receive the things of the Spirit of God! And the Lord Jesus, as He taught His disciples in Luke 12:11-12, so aware of opposition from an unbelieving world or an unbelieving religious world, said to His disciples, “Now when they [the opposition!] bring you to the synagogue and magistrates and authorities, do not worry about how or what you should answer, or what you should say. For the Holy Spirit WILL TEACH YOU IN THAT VERY HOUR WHAT YOU OUGHT TO SAY!”

Don’t you find it amazing and encouraging to hear John say in 1 John 2:20, “But YOU [as a true disciple and follower of Christ] have an anointing from the Holy Spirit, and you know all things.”

The beloved John, in 1 John 3:16, amplified “By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought lay down our lives for the brethren.” And then in 1 John 3:24, John said, “Now he who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And by this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.” Is the very Holy Spirit of God confirming, affirming, testifying in you: “Yes! He/she lives ‘in Christ,’ labors through Me, and loves the Lord, evidenced by his/her laid-down-life to the Savior’s glory and honor. I affirm their testimony by My Holy presence within as the Very Holy Spirit of God!”

More than the Spirit’s testimony, consider what Paul wrote in Ephesians 1:11-14! “In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory.

In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, WHO IS THE GUARANTEE OF OUR INHERITANCE until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.” Glory! And again, I say, Glory! Thank You, Lord, for not only the gift of our salvation, but the gift of the Holy Spirit to abide in us and glorify Your name through us by His ministry of grace, love, fruit, and power!

And receive Ephesians 4:30! “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption!” But how does one truly know? In Ephesians 5:8-12 Paul, anointed by the Holy Spirit, tells us: “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), finding out what is acceptable to the Lord. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret.” Fruit-inspectors? You better believe it if you are a true disciple of Christ, because ‘modern- christianity’ smells of ‘rotten fruit’ as it tries to live out an unscriptural ‘faith’, filled with compromise, open sin and even proud of it “because Jesus forgives me as I can’t do anything but sin until I get to heaven someday,” and Jesus responds: “Garbage! Depart from Me; I never knew you!”

Edwin Hatch and B.B. McKinney wrote “Breathe On Me”, old hymn of the 1930’s? “Holy Spirit, breathe on me, My stubborn will subdue; Teach me in words of living flame What Christ would have me do…Fill me with power divine, Kindle a flame of love and zeal within this heart of mine.” Is that your prayer this very moment?

CHAPTER NINETEEN

“VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED? UNFOUNDED EXPECTATION OR ETERNAL TRUTH UNVEILED?”

In 2 Corinthians 13:5 Paul made a powerful challenge and a call for true personal evaluation related to one’s ‘professed faith’ or ‘disqualification’ from it! He said, “Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? – unless indeed you are disqualified.”

How did Paul address the ‘Galatian followers’ (?) unless he was aware of the difference between “possessors of true faith” or the “pretenders of faith”? In Galatians 6:3 he stated: “For if anyone thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself.”

You do remember Paul’s word to the church at Colossae, and to the modern-day church now, when he warned them and us in Colossians 2:8, “Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.”

Philosophy, void of God’s Word is empty, man-made beliefs and opinions with no true foundation based on God’s Holy Word! Empty deceit? “We’re ‘God’ in and of ourselves – no ‘Jesus’ has any claim on us”, only that He knew us all by name and still went to the Cross in behalf of us all, redeemed by the blood or a rejecter of His blood sacrifice!

And even with that awareness of divine reality, awareness of the broken heart of God over unbelieving faith, awareness of the crucifixion, burial, resurrection, ascension, or His coming again to judge all the world, past, present, or future, Acts 17:30-31 declares, “Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, (“winked at”), but NOW commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this by raising Him from the dead.” But “His-story” means nothing to you?

I think in the early verses of these particular chapters is evidence of John weeping as he witnessed the broken heart of God over men’s sins, but initially I want to major on four or five statements from eternal angels and blessed elders of the Eternal Faith Story out of Revelation, chapters 4 and 5!

Revelation 4:8b, “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, Who was and is and is to come!” Revelation 4:11, “You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and by Your will they exist and were created.” In Revelation 5:8, the twenty-four elders falling down before the Lamb, sang a new song: Verses 9-10, “You are worthy to take the scroll, and to open its seals; for You were slain, and have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, AND have made us kings and priests to our God; and we shall reign on the earth.” Revelation 5:12 declares, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom, and strength and honor and glory and blessing!” Oh, and then, in Revelation 5:13, we read: “Blessing and honor and glory and power be to Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, forever and ever!”

But there are unbelievers, ‘pretenders’, and out-and-out rebelling, defiling lives that resent God’s proven love, grace, and mercy! And they are firmly convinced Holy God should accept them “because of who we are, because of how intelligent we are, and because of our worthy earthly accomplishments – you couldn’t do any better, God, than accepting us for who we are and what we do!”

The Random House Collegiate Dictionary, [Revised Edition of 1975, by Random House, Inc.], defines “pretense” as “feigning, make-believe, a false showing of something, like ‘friendship’ when one is an enemy, an insincere or false profession, the putting forth of an unwarranted claim, a fabrication!” You are aware that there can be, and, sadly are, “High-priced counterfeits” or even “cheap imitations”!

Alexander Pope, in his “Essay on Man,” [Epis. 1, l,124], wrote: “In pride, in reasoning pride, our error lies; All quit their sphere and rush into the skies. Pride still is aiming at the blessed abodes, Men would be angels, angels would be gods.”

Perfection in Christ is not an achievement man even needs to attempt, but is the gracious gift of Holy God. Do you remember Nebuchadnezzar as Daniel informed Belshazzar of the king’s rise and fall? In Daniel 5:18-21 we read: “O king, the Most High God gave Nebuchadnezzar your father a kingdom and majesty, glory and honor. And because of the majesty that GOD GAVE him, all peoples, nations, and languages trembled and feared before him. Whomever he wished, he executed; whomever he wished, he kept alive; whomever he wished, he put down. BUT when his heart was lifted up, and his spirit HARDENED IN PRIDE, he was deposed from his kingly throne, and they took his glory from him. Then he was driven from the sons of men, his heart was made like the beasts, and his dwelling was with the wild donkeys. They fed him with grass like oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till he knew that the Most High God rules in the kingdom of men, and appoints over it whomever He chooses;” and it’s for sure: God will appoint to bless a people OR God will appoint to curse, blame, instructing all men by whom He appoints!

Examine Ezekial 14:6-14, and be repentant, not shocked! God said through Ezekial, “Therefore say to the house of Israel, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “Repent, turn away from your idols, and turn your faces away from all your abominations. For anyone of the house of Israel, or of the strangers who dwell in Israel, who separates himself from Me and sets up his idols in his heart and puts before him what causes him to stumble into iniquity, then comes to a prophet to inquire of him concerning Me, I the Lord will answer him by Myself. I will set My face against that man and make him a sign and a proverb, and I will cut him off from the midst of My people! Then you shall now that I am the Lord.

And if the prophet is induced to speak anything, I the Lord have induced that prophet, and I will stretch out My hand against him and destroy him from among My people Israel. And they shall bear their iniquity; the punishment of the prophet shall be the same as the punishment of the one who inquired, that the house of Israel may no longer stray from Me, nor be profaned anymore with all their transgressions, but that they may be My people and I may be their God,’ says the Lord God.’”

Question! If the Bible clearly declares in 2 Timothy 3:16, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work,” have there been those who read the Old Testament Word and then declared or declares, “That’s not for New Testament disciples! What you read in Ezekial referred to Israel, not to any modern-day man.” How blind do you sense modern-man who sees himself exempt from All Scripture inspired by God?

How familiar are you with Deuteronomy 30:15-20? God spoke and still speaks today: “See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil, in that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, His statutes, and His judgments, that you may live and multiply; and the Lord your God will bless you in the land, (city, state, nation) which you go to possess.

But if your heart turns away so that you do not hear, and are drawn away, and worship other gods and serve them, I announce to you today that you shall surely perish; you shall not prolong your days in the land which you cross over the Jordan (the Mississippi, the Thames, the Nile!) to go in and possess. I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before YOU life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore, choose life, that both you and your descendants may live; that you may love the Lord your God, that YOU MAY OBEY HIS VOICE, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days; and that you may dwell in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them.” Texas land? Tennessee? California land? Utah land? Lands of England or all of Europe? Lands of the Asian continent or African nations?

“Unfounded Expectations?” Unbelief of God, rejection of saving grace and mercy, the lawlessness of disobedience and the hunger for what the world ‘out there’ away from Him offers? Are you familiar with the “parable of the lost son” in Luke 15? He left the father, went into the world’s ways, wasted his possessions with prodigal living, spent all – don’t miss the next event! – his ‘boss’ sent him into the fields to feed swine, and Luke 15:16 says, “And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, and no one gave him anything.”

Do you understand, comprehend a life away from Father-God, from the Lord Jesus Christ, from the Holy Spirit, from the Holy Word which is your eternal Milk and eternal Meat and eternal Bread? “Away-from- the Father” men and women, boys and girls, yes faithless families have become “dumpster divers” so alienated from God that they simply live by the world’s menu of godlessness, “pigging out,” being served slop rather than what is on the Table of the Lord, deceived even into treasuring trash and counterfeit rewards!

But the Bible says in Luke 15:17, “But when he came to himself…!” That’s a glorious turning! He returned to the Father! What will it be for YOU? “Vital Awareness Unveiled – Unfounded Expectations Or Eternal Truth Unveiled?” What did the Lord Jesus Christ say in John 14:6? “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”

And whether in this moment you understand it or not, there has always been only One Way God ordained for reconciliation to Him, and it was the way of the Cross, the way of the “shed blood,” the way of Resurrected Jesus, King of kings and Lord of lords.

All through the Old Testament, the sacrificial system was the foretelling of the coming of Emmanuel, “God With Us,” the Promised Messiah that, yes, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob looked for! Galatians 3:5-9 tells us: “Therefore He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does He do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? – just as Abraham “believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” Therefore know that only those who are of faith are the sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, ‘In you all the nations shall be blessed.’ So then those who are of [Redemptive] faith are blessed with believing Abraham.”

If you “receive the Truth”, are you aware that Jesus said of Himself in John 8:58, Jesus said to them, [unbelieving Jews!], “Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM”?

Have you studied and studied and studied, yes, the Four Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, as each unveiled from his perspective the reality of Jesus’ identity? Matthew? In Matthew 1;1 we read, “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham.” In Isaiah 9:6-7 is his prophetic unveiling of the Coming Messiah: “For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end, upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, to order it with judgment and justice from that time forward, even forever!! The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.” That’s “the Son of David,” King of kings and Lord of lords!

But Matthew 1:1, in unveiling ‘the genealogy of Jesus Christ,” also called Him “the Son of Abraham”, which tells us, Genesis 12:1-3, Now the Lord had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

Mark, in his gospel, unveils another eternal dimension of Christ, and it is as, yes, “the Servant of Man.” I love the Holman Study Bible, NKJV Edition, by Holman Bible Publishers, [Nashville, Tennessee, Copyright 2013]. Their cover of Mark’s Gospel “emphasizes actions and deeds. Jesus is on the go – healing, casting out demons, performing miracles, hurrying from place to place, and teaching. In Mark everything happens “immediately.” As soon as one episode ends, another begins. The rapid pace slows down when Jesus enters Jerusalem (11:1). Thereafter, events are marked by days, and His final days by hours.” Mark was led to introduce the ministry of Jesus through John as Mark 1:7-8 says, “There comes One after me who is mightier than I, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to stoop down and loose. I indeed baptized you with water (unto repentance!), but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” No doubt this is why Paul, in Galatians 4:4-6 equips us with the foundational truth of all born-again disciples: “But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent forth His Son into your hearts, crying out, ‘Abba, Father,” multiplying, increasing, ordaining the servant-spirit in all true disciples! Luke magnifies Jesus as “the Son of man,” I’m sure myself because Luke, as a physician or doctor, desired to uplift Christ Jesus as the “Great Physician” with a number of “healing events” through Jesus! Also, there should never be a doubt in any student of the Word study concerning John magnifying Jesus as the “Son of God.” Consider simply John’s Introduction, John 1:1-4!

“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 [that’s “all creation”!] 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.” John went on to say in John 1:14, “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.”

And the reason Holy God sent Christ Jesus into our, yes, sinful world? John 3:16-17 tells us, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes [trusts in, relies upon, adheres to] should not perish but have everlasting life. For GOD DID NOT SEND HIS SON INTO THE WORLD TO CONDEMN THE WORLD, but that the world through Him might be saved.”

It was Woodrow A. Geier, in his writing “Religion in Life”, who said: “In the Cross, God descends to bear in His own heart the sins of the world. In Jesus He atoned [the “blood atonement”] at unimaginable cost to Himself.” I don’t believe Holy God even viewed the Crucifixion but looked away, until the moment Holy God was ready to resurrect Him out of a borrowed grave!

What does Paul tell us in Romans 5:8-11? “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having NOW BEEN JUSTIFIED BY HIS BLOOD, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be [being] saved by His life.”

No wonder it was the famous missionary-pastor David Livingstone who once said: “I will place no value on anything I have or may possess except in relation to the Kingdom of Christ.” [Encyclopedia of Religious Quotations, Frank S. Mead, Fleming H. Revell Com., Westwood, New Jersey,p.55]

Do YOU even begin to fathom, understand, comprehend the fullness of the greatness of God’s love for fallen humanity, demonstrated through the guiltless blood of the Lamb of God for all guilty fallen humanity at the Cross, without the awareness in you of renewed guilt and sorrow, because it was YOUR sin and mine for which Christ Jesus shed His own blood and died in our behalf?

Barrington Booth wrote an old Hymn entitled “The Cross Is Not Greater,” [Published in the old Broadman Hymnal, by Broadman Press, Nashville, Tennessee, 1940!]. It says:

“The cross that He gave may be heavy, But it never outweighs His grace; The storm that I feared may surround me, But it never excludes His face.

The thorns in my path are not sharper Than composed His crown for me; The cup that I drink nor more bitter Than He drank in Gethsemane.

The light of His love shines brighter, As it falls on paths of woe; The toil of my work grows lighter, As I stoop to raise the low.

His will I have joy in fulfilling, As I’m walking in His sight; My all to the blood I am bringing, It alone can keep me right.

The cross is not greater than His grace, The storm cannot hide His blessed face; I am satisfied to know That with Jesus here below, I can conquer every foe.”

CHAPTER TWENTY

“VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED? THE REALITY OF HELL

AND HEAVEN?”

I’m sure that as you’re beginning this chapter, having come this far with me, that you are reasonably assured and confident in both the reality of Hell and the reality of Heaven! And if you began with your personal description of Hell, you’d probably say, “The abode and absence of redemptive faith – no help, no hope, no peace, no blessing – just worldly pleasures continuing into wild decay, a state of unbelief untouched by eternal grace, the reality of a death that will not die, pains and chains, a ‘fool’s dwelling’ that has no light, no love, no liberty – just suffering, sorrow, senselessness, and continuing satanic rituals!

I grieved when I considered Harry Leon Wilson’s evaluation of “The Spenders” when he said: [p.241], “Hell is given up ‘so’ reluctantly by those who don’t expect to go there.” And if you’re not fully aware of its dreadful benefits (?), it’s the gathering place of the crowd who wanted no God, no Savior, no Lord – just a place for the gathering of ‘good’ intenders, good intentions, or hurtful, cheap imitations of, yes, even ‘god-like’ desires, but of the idolatrous kind as many gathered at their ‘holy (?) tables’ of adultery and child sacrifices to show their full devotion! Has much changed in this “new” American or world century?

It was William Allingham, in his writing, “Blackberries,” who said: “I believe in This, That, and T’other; Whatever is current, no matter.” That sounds to me like a mind and heart, dominated by ‘flesh’, fully blown up by the devil in stupidity!

If Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father (God) except through Me,” what is that man’s future reward who doesn’t come His way? In Mark 9:42-48 the Lord Jesus Christ said: “But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea. If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed, rather than having two hands, to go to hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched – where ‘Their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.’

And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame, rather than having two feet, to be cast into hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched – where ‘Their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.’

And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye, rather than having two eyes, to be cast into hell fire – where ‘Their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.’”

Sin-maimed lives are “Hell-bound”! Sin-infested old sin natures, unredeemed by the “blood of the Lamb”, are “Hell-bound”! A sin-dominated ‘eye’, Jesus said, better for one eye to be plucked out if one enters the kingdom of God, than two eyes cast into hell-fire – where ‘Their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.’ Are you aware of how Job came to recognize that, if he turned to iniquity and lived in it, he would be ‘deserving of judgment’ followed by ‘a fire that consumes to destruction’?

At least King David knew his rock, his fortress, his deliverer, when strong enemies had surrounded him. He said, in 2 Samuel 22:5-7, and verses 17-20, “When the waves of death surrounded me, the floods of ungodliness made me afraid. The sorrows of Sheol surrounded me; the snares of death confronted me. In my distress I called upon the Lord, and cried out to my God; He heard my voice from His temple, and my cry entered His ears.” [If you KNOW Hell awaits you, I’d say, it’s time to cry out to Holy God in YOUR distress, because Hell is real, and has open arms waiting to pull you in!]. But then we read, Verses 17-20, “He sent from above, He took me, He drew me out of many waters. [At this moment, what ‘waters’ are YOU swimming in?] He delivered me from my strong enemy, from those who hated me; for they were too strong for me. They confronted me in the day of my calamity, but the Lord was my support.”

And, thank God, for those who know “the Lord of my support”, but for those who have no faith, no trust, no surrender to the Sovereignty of God and His amazing love demonstrated in the sacrificial death of His own Son, Christ Jesus, AT THE CROSS, Hell awaits because they played with the fires of Hell itself, and have been burned, continue to burn, and will burn forever in those flames of godless burning that never cease, even after one dies!

In Mark 16:15-16, the Lord Jesus Christ, Resurrected King of kings and Lord of lords, said: “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes in [trusts in, relies upon, adheres to], and is baptized [as a testimony of saving grace], will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.”

Psalm 9:17 also declares: “The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.” How plain and so realistic with compassion and love when Jesus said in Matthew 10:28, “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him [the Holy Father] who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”

Just a few words written in the last few years on blank side-pages of “The Encyclopedia of Religious Quotations,” related to “Hell”! [By JFF!], “Torture intended and never ending, day and night in the darkness of no light! Violence it’s reality, though paved with good intentions, – torturing poor souls with senseless pretensions! ‘Self-love’ is a fleshly picture of love for the devil, pleasure-less decay that never brings one level, with Holy God or the Spirit or His Sin in Heaven, but the lies of the devil in his untruth – leaven. The leaven of lies is the devil’s strong suit, and Heaven awaits to expose its rotten root; Satan is his oft-called name, constantly attacking God for the devil’s blame. Sad but so true, his days of deception are through, because Christ’s shed blood put the arrow of Truth through Satan and his race,, released repentant hearts to their home in Heaven’s place!”

It’s so true: One doesn’t find his assignment to Hell with the expectation of celebrating with his friends! A rejecter of Christ may have many “friends” in Hell, but they aren’t smiling! Do you even think about “your friends, your family” who rejected Christ because of the absence of redemptive faith in their lives, but you feel, “Well, maybe they had no desire for Heaven but they’ll brighten up Hell with their parties,” when all they’ll experience is not parties but pity, no celebrations but curses, nor joy but the sour bitterness of the devil’s hate, nor self-confidence any longer but crushed outlooks for something beyond ‘bitter’, which is not better! Can you imagine the devil in Wall Street dress or Hollywood beauties with gorgeous gowns, but when they’re viewed, if one was even given a slight view from Heaven to there, you’d see only the very damnable of hell, stripped naked with bodies torn, carved on, bleeding in a state of death that will not die! Didn’t we read earlier in this chapter from Mark about ‘the worm that does not die,’ or where ‘the fire is not quenched’? It was Isaac Watts in his writing, “Heaven and Hell,” who wrote: “There is a dreadful hell, and everlasting pains; Where sinners must with devils dwell in darkness, fire, and chains.” Hell is real!

Mark used a few less words than Matthew when he recorded Jesus saying in Mark 12:4-5, “And I say to you, My friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear Him, who after He has killed, has power to cast into hell; yes, I say to you, fear Him!” That’s Holy God!

“Vital Awareness Unveiled? YES, THERE IS THE REALITY OF HEAVEN”! That’s the eternal “home-place” of God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, His faithful angels, and the “blood-bought sons and daughters” through their repentance toward God and faith, follow-ship, friendship with Christ Jesus, God’s crucified, resurrected, reigning, ascended Son, Jesus Christ, who will be magnified on earth as He is in Heaven through “born again” children of His redemptive faith!

Yes, In Nehemiah 9 we find men of faith standing on the stairs of the Levites, crying out, worshipping the Lord their God, and in Verses 5-6 we read: “Stand up and bless the Lord your God forever and ever! ‘Blessed be Your glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise! You alone are the Lord; You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens with all their host, the earth and everything on it, the seas and all that is in them, and You preserve them all. The host of heaven worships You.’”

One of those very sad moments if Old Testament history is found in Isaiah 1 when the prophet sees the chosen people, Israel, as, Verse 4-7 tells us, “Alas, sinful nation! [That’s Israel!], 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. [That’s away from God and His holiness!]. Why should you be stricken again? [Stricken by God Himself!]. 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. [That’s cursed by God!].”

Yet, in Verse 9, the prophet said, “Unless the Lord of hosts had left to us a very small remnant, we would have become like Sodom, we would have become like Gomorrah.”

And whether ancient Israel or modern-day America, Biblical Truth is, “God always sees a remnant of true believers who uphold Hid honor and His Truth!” But still, whether Ancient Israel or modern-day American church, “the faithful city has become a harlot!” But, Isaiah 1:27-28, alerts us now, as He tried then, “Zion,[the Kingdom of God, the spiritual Kingdom of God!], shall be redeemed with justice and her penitents with righteousness. [But] The destruction of transgressors and sinners shall be together, and those who forsake the Lord shall be consumed.”

The prophet gave a word of hope AND a warning from God when in Isaiah 1:18-20 he heard God saying also: “Come now, and let us reason together,” says the Lord. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured by the sword;” for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

But the prophet knew, by the grace of God, there would come the day when God would arise bodily through Emmanuel and He would shake the earth mightily – He has risen up, and He is still shaking the kingdoms of man as the Kingdom of Christ arises! [What do YOU believe Isaiah 7:13-14 is all about?]. Then He said, “Hear now, O house of David! Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will you weary my God also? Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.” Immanuel means: “God with us!”

I pray you understand how vital it is in receiving the prophetic Word of God in the Old Testament, and then resting in its fulfillment all over the New Testament from Matthew through Revelation, but be patient as I share in this moment only 1 Peter 1:1-5, 10-12, and Verses 17-21!

1 Peter 1:1-5, “Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the pilgrims of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace be multiplied.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

1 Peter 1:10-12, Of this salvation the prophets have inquired and searched carefully [diligently], who prophesied of the grace that would come to you, searching what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ was indicating when He testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow.

To them it was revealed, not to themselves, but to us they were ministering the things which have been reported to you through those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven – things which angels desire to look into.

1 Peter 1:17-21, And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear; knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you who through Him believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.”

For YOU is it Immanuel, “God in flesh”, or simply the “best efforts” of one’s ‘religious faith’? For YOU is it the unveiling of your sinful heart and exposure to your only hope through Christ’s “blood Atonement”, or the futile heresy, a faithless frenzy, as a graduate of man’s private schooling in pride, false teachings, and even Satanic superstitions, or simply self-approval of anything that relates to even opposition to Holy Truth, Holy God, or a Holy Purpose and Eternal Plan?

I found Shakespeare’s words in “King John,” [Act 111, sc.1, L.175], so wise! “Blessed shall be he that doth revolt From his allegiance to a heretic.”

I’m sure the Apostle Paul had a clear understanding of “Faith in the Lamb of God” or faith in the ‘bondage’ of unbelief. He said in Titus 1:15-16, “To the pure all things are pure, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure; but even their mind and conscience are defiled. They profess to know God, but in works they deny Him, being abominable, disobedient, and disqualified for every good work.”

Oh, but then the Apostle properly and in an anointed spirit instructed Titus and us when in Titus 2:11-14 he said, “For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.”

I pray you’ve seen, received, clearly understand, that true disciples, still ‘in the world’ but not ‘of it’, are disciples set apart, re-born, filled with the presence and Spirit of the Resurrected Christ, [“Christ in you…”], governed, regulated, instructed, and living in the “overcoming life and Presence of Christ”, extending His life, expressing His love, and proving His power!

Yes, and though true disciples are still in the world but not of it, our calling is “taking the sentence of death daily, that the resurrection life of Christ may be manifested in mortal flesh” for an unbelieving world to see “Christ in you the hope of glory”!

Edward mote and William B. Bradbury had their old Hymn, “The Solid Rock”, published in the Broadman Press Hymnal of 1940! [That’s Broadman Press, Nashville, Tennessee.]. It says: “My hope is built on nothing less Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness; I dare not trust the sweetest frame, But wholly lean on Jesus’ name.

When darkness seems to hide His face, I rest on His unchanging grace; In every high and stormy gale, My anchor holds within the vale.

His oath, His covenant, His blood, Support me in the whelming flood; When all around my soul gives way, He then is all my hope and stay.

When He shall come with trumpet sound, Oh, may I then in Him be found; Dressed in His righteousness alone, Faultless to stand before the throne.

On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand; All other ground is sinking sand, All other ground is sinking sand.”

Your “sure foundation”? 2 Timothy 2:19 is clear, sure, assured by Holy God Himself: “Nevertheless the solid foundation of God stands, having this seal: ‘The Lord knows those who are His,’ and, ‘Let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity.’”

CONCLUSION

This has certainly been an interesting journey! When Holy God put this in my heart and mind to write, I truly had no full understanding of where He would lead or to what extent He would allow me to unveil, yes, the small portion of “Vital Awareness Unveiled” that He’s given to me. I truly believe I’ve only touched the hem of the garment of this great Truth!

As I stated earlier, I approach my eightieth birthday, June 12, 2016! It’s been an interesting, exciting, fulfilling 80 years, and especially since God’s grace, mercy, and special blessing and love, granted me my Godly wife, Susan McNabb Fisher, THE most beautiful woman on earth and a true ambassador of the love of Christ, the love of His Word, and, yes, the love of her husband, four grown, saintly, caring kinds, nine grandkids, great grandkids with more on the way! Three sons and a daughter: Scott, Susan, Stan, and Steve, with three outstanding daughter-in-law, Tammy, Leann, and Diane! Blessed beyond measure by them! Oh, and grandsons blessing us with their own beautiful wives, and a granddaughter with a loving husband, with one with child and another on the way! [I believe Stephanie’s husband, Spencer Coleman, preferred sin boys and four daughters! Not sure about that!

As of June 10, 2016, we will celebrated our 60^th Wedding Anniversary! Sue has been so loving, so faithful so strong, so wise, so caring, so desirous of Christ being honored through her, not only to her husband and her church, but to the community she touches, yes, by her very presence! And, how blessed to have married a woman who wasn’t sure about how to boil water initially, but came to be an outstanding cook, canner, baker, pie-maker, creator of many, many fine dinners, tastes, and recipes – and especially if it has a little wine to intensify its taste!

I’m so thankful for God’s choice for me for a wife who loves the Lord Jesus, wise in His Word, faithful to His Name and reputation and honor, blessed with a heavenly wisdom that enriches His eternal praise and adoration – Proverbs 3:13 says, “Happy is the man who finds wisdom…” Her name is Susan Gail McNabb Fisher! Didn’t Proverbs 11:16 tell us, “A gracious woman retains honor,” and my dear wife’s amazing journey has been only to honor her Lord and Savior through her walk before Him and her walk before her world! Didn’t Proverbs tell me in Proverbs 31:10-12, “Who can find a virtuous wife? For her worth is far above rubies. The heart of her husband safely trusts in her; so she will have no lack of gain,” with Verses 30-31 stamping Sue’s life, “Charm is deceitful and beauty is passing, but a woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised.” The “good and faithful servant”? That’s my wife, my bride, my partner in ministry and service!

BY: J.Farrell Fisher, August 31-Sept.2, 2017

Really, seriously, personally, even corporately as a church, denomination, individual disciple, family, or international community of faith, consider the title and then consider if the world at large or locally or near-people around you has any understanding or comprehension of “The awareness of a God-blessed life”!

When it comes to a God-blessed life, there is a major warfare in the minds and hearts of men that face stiff opposition from the world, the old sin-natured man, and, of course, from Satan and the powers of darkness who want to blind you to the Truth of a “God-Blessed Life”!

But, at the same time, in immature disciples, there is the significant problem of failing to understand and deal daily with the ‘old nature’ that wants to remain dominant in you even if you ‘believe’. Some seriously do not grasp the tendencies of the old sin nature to be justified to remain around, even if you desire to be a professing believer and active church member! And, of course, in the maturing process from ‘babes in Christ’ to maturing disciples, and, yes, to senior citizens of the Kingdom, it is the blessed, powerful professor of Christ-like ‘citizenry’ and ‘loyalty’ and “royalty”, the Holy Spirit, who “guides us and matures us in the True Faith”!

Some fail to understand what Paul spoke about in Galatians 4:19 when he said, “My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is (fully) formed in you.” The problem exists of young, immature, untrained disciples, who are unaware of “standing fast in the liberty by which Christ has made us free,” Paul, having said earlier in Galatians 4:5, “For we through the Spirit eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.”

So, there is for some, in the state of spiritual immaturity, an unawareness of the Sovereign God’s blessing of, yes, “the gift of the Holy Spirit”, who instills blessing after blessing, Sovereign gifting of the necessary arms to equip you in fighting the good fight of faith, AND manifesting in you the victorious nature of Christ, not your old man’s best ‘fleshly giftings’, but the “fruit of the Spirit” of God’s tree of life!

In Galatians 6:22-25 Paul enlightens every believer, saying, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. And those WHO ARE CHRIST’s have crucified the flesh (daily!) with ITS passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.”

Have you been discipled in, discipling now in others, the reality, the spiritual reality of the “new-birth”, born into the Kingdom of God by the Spirit, Paul saying in 2 Corinthians 6:16b, “For you (“in Christ”) ARE THE TEMPLE OF THE LIVING GOD!” You’re the structure – the Holy Spirit is the “manifested Spirit of Christ in you the hope of glory!” You’re the ‘tabernacle’ – He’s the cloud of Holy Presence!

What was it Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5:20-21? “Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that WE MIGHT BECOME THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD IN HIM.” And, if the “Him” is not in you, evidenced by the presence, anointing, fruit-producing of the Spirit, releasing God’s power through your crucified life daily, that His Spirit might then manifest Himself in power through our available bodies, or is it ‘try your best?’, demonstrating a ‘failing religiosity’?!?

Or, in the awareness of a God-blessed life, is it your ‘striving, trying, attempting’, or is it faithfully taking the ‘sentence of daily death that His Resurrection Life, Spirit, and Power may be manifested in YOUR mortal flesh’? How shocking did you find it when in 2 Corinthians 6:12 Paul wrote of, yes, Corinthian believers, “You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted by your own affections.”

And that’s so valid across the spectrum of ‘church life’ because “our best” that was crucified with Christ has, by some, Christian people been ‘resurrected’ to inspire them, rather than “to REST” in His Presence through them by His Holy Spirit!

The awareness of a God-blessed life? In 1 Corinthians 1:26-31 we read: “For you see YOUR CALLING, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence. But OF HIM you are in Christ Jesus, who BECAME FOR US wisdom from God – and righteousness and sanctification and redemption – that, as it is written, ‘He who glories, let him glory in the Lord.’”

But, in the reality, worldwide, of “the awareness of self-made lives”, consider those who are “wise in their own eyes”, enormously ‘self-sufficient’, extremely ‘braggadocios’ about their own manifested abilities, their own manipulated mind trained to be above and beyond the ‘lesser achievers’ that surround them, and just as arrogant as Pharoah of Egypt who didn’t know the Lord, didn’t want to know the Lord, and led his armies to their death opposing God and His people! And you’d be surprised if you thought the “pharaohs” were still around trying to expose God? There is a known world AROUND YOU who’d just as soon see attempts on God, on His Son, on His Spirit, on His Word, on His Church, on His sons and daughters of Redemptive Faith – “Let’s wipe them out”, “let’s dumb them down”, “let’s ignore their ministries and bodies and cloud their callings, and seek to expose their dumb, twisted, unlearned ways which are of no benefit in our world of prosperity and fleshly achievements”!

But then, confronted by different ‘world philosophies’ and ‘man-designed religions’, God prophetically unveiled in the Old Testament Holy Word the coming of the Promised Messiah! And Christ Jesus came, born of the Virgin Mary, matured in His true identity as a child, fully equipped by Merciful God to be His reconciler for fallen mankind into, yes, the Holy People of God, who become “salt and light” in their needy worlds around them! At the same time, Holy God knew, understood, and provided for His repentant people the Holy Spirit to “bless” His chosen people, and see that the Resurrected Christ is manifested in them and through them, becoming God’s “fruit producer” in every knew son or daughter of “blood redemption faith”!

In fact, Jesus said in Luke 11:13, “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!” [Tell me, do you know if your church leads in new discipleship training, and does it include the necessary ministry of the Holy Spirit?]. Let my highlight Biblical Truths about “The Blessed Life”!

FIRST, BE AWARE YOU’RE BEING LED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT! In Romans 8:23 Paul mentioned disciples having “the first-fruits of the Spirit”, yet he went on to say that, “we who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves (at times) groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body,” understanding IT IS THE TEMPLE OF THE LORD, and we must daily learn to allow the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, to glorify Christ in us and through us. Are YOU “led by the Holy Spirit”?

SECOND, THERE WILLFULLY MUST BE A “LEANING” ON THE HOLY SPIRIT AS WE NO LONGER TRUST EVEN A HAIR OF OUR BEST IN THE FLESH – WE ACCEPT THAT THAT WAS CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST, AND THE HOLY SPIRIT DOESN”T WANT YOU FORGETTING THAT HISTORICAL, ETERNAL EVENT: YOU WERE CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST!

I don’t find it ‘shocking’, but I do find it heart-breaking to learn what we ALL were like void of the presence of Christ in us! In Proverbs 1:24 the God of wisdom allows wisdom to speak! Proverbs 1:24-33 says, “Because I called and you refused, I have stretched out my hand and no one regarded, because YOU DISDAINED ALL MY COUNSEL, and would have none of my rebuke, I also will laugh at your calamity; (I wonder if He’s saying, “How stupid, thoughtless, mindless can they be before My open arms?”).

I will mock when your terror comes, when your terror comes like a storm, and your destruction comes like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you. THEN they will call on me, but I will not answer; they will seek me diligently, but they will not find me.

Because they have hated knowledge and DID NOT CHOOSE THE FEAR OF THE LORD, they would have none of my counsel and despised my every rebuke. Therefore they shall eat the fruit of their own way, and be filled to the full of their own fancies. For the turning away of the simple will slay them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them; BUT whoever listens to me will dwell safely, and will be secure, without fear of evil.” WOW! THE RICH TREASURE OF EXPOSURE FOR THE FOOLISH WHO REJECT EXPOSURE AND DIE WILLFULLY, SELFISHLY, AND FUTILELY, BUT THE RICH TREASURE OF THE FEAR OF THE LORD THAT BLESSES AND KEEPS ON BLESSING!

THIRD, WE DO “LEARN” FROM THE HOLY SPIRIT AS HE GUIDES US INTO ALL TRUTH! In a “godless life”, a “godless purpose and meaning of one’s existence”, a “civilized leanings void of God’s purposes”, a “manly (?) misleading and misleaning attitude further marring the heart and mind and flesh into deeper darkness away from eternal intent”, and a “self-picking-up of the pieces of a godless live that inevitably shatters into emptiness, frustration, despair, and desperation, as one learns what it means to live without the “Redeemer’s intervention”, facing eternal darkness, eternal death that will not die, and living with eternal disgust with one’s self because they leaned to fleshly stupidity rather than “resting” in the Eternal Savior and Lord!

That veil of life promoting ‘vainness of the flesh’ and ‘self-rule, self- management’ and ‘self-indulgence’ comes about from ‘godless lives, godless professors, spiritual shysters, satanic deceivers, deadly truth-twisters unknown to themselves that they are the very mindless source of their own deception, but, at least and at last, they learn they are rejoiced over by the demons of Hell but rejected by the Eternal God of the Throne who gave His ALL so that they wouldn’t have to face a godless future, but the day does come when they will face that spiritual dilemma!

So Holy God the Father, having sent the Son as the source of eternal redemption, calls Jesus home, and sends the Holy Spirit to reside in your “born-again” life as the Eternal Temple of Holy Presence, plus, God having redeemed, re-birthed, raised up, and Rested the Holy Spirit in new disciples, releases the Spirit to guide our lives of ministry, mission, service, and blessing of the “New Life” in us!

I want you to see God working, not only in early New Testament disciples, but, yes, disciples in our own very day and time-period of God continuing to reclaim His own people to Himself and to His purpose. So He sends messengers and the ministry of the Holy Spirit!

In Acts 9:10-20 we read: Now there was a ‘certain disciple’ (Not a prophet, not an evangelist, not a ‘Bible scholar’, not a ‘well-trained’ senior citizen of the Kingdom!) at Damascus named Ananias; and to him THE LORD SAID in a vision, “Ananias.” And he said, “Here I am, Lord.” So the Lord said to him:

“Arise and go to the street called Straight, and inquire at the house of Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus, for behold, he is praying. And in a vision he has seen a man named Ananias coming in and putting his hand on him, so that he might receive his sight.”

Then Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard many things about this man, how much harm he has done to Your saints in Jerusalem. And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on Your name.” But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen vessel of Mine to bear My name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel. For I will show him how many things he must suffer for My name’s sake.”

And Ananias went his way and entered the house; and laying his hands on him he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you came, has SENT ME THAT YOU MAY RECEIVE YOUR SIGHT AND BE FILLED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT.” Immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales, and he received his sight at once; and he arose and was baptized. {Water baptism AND THE BAPTISM OF THE HOLY SPIRIT? Without a doubt!}.

So when he had received food, he was strengthened. (Including the bread of life, the meat of the Word, AND the fruit of the Spirit?). Then Saul spent some days with the disciples at Damascus. Immediately he preached Christ in the synagogues, that He is the Son of God.” Was he Spirit-guided in sharing the Word? If so is true of early New Testament disciples, have we in the modern-day just outgrown the Lord speaking and instructing us? I don’t think so, but, of course, many “church folks” could care less about evangelism and missions in their daily lives – “That’s divisive!”, some say! SO???

If the maturity in true discipleship involves justification, sanctification, and glorification, how and why do so many ignore “being set apart to Christ’s ministry” WHICH IS SANCTIFICATION!

FOURTH, TRUE BELIEVERS “LEARN TO LOVE” OTHERS, (AND I SAY: ESPECIALLY A LOST, NEEDY, ALIENATED AND SEPARATED MANKIND!!) JUST AS FATHER-GOD LOVED US! “God so loved the world”! And you hear some saying: “Just sentimental garbage, not reality! Why should He love me, love us, if He really does?” John 3:16 Eternally declares, Personally shares, Extends the very heart of God, yes, to every man, every family, every nation, saying: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that WHOEVER believes (trusts in, relies upon, adheres to) in Him SHOULD NOT PERISH but have Everlasting Life!”

What you must realize is that Holy God envisioned creating humanity with a choice, a freedom, yes, an option of whether or not they would choose, desire, and sense the need of being reconciled to God on His terms – not forced, but convicted and convinced by the Spirit and the witness of the truly redeemed the need to be reconciled to God. And faithful witnesses, yes, are “LOVING” people into the Kingdom!

FIFTH, HAVING BEEN BORN AGAIN, BIRTHED INTO THE KINGDOM, LEARNING, LEANING ON THE SPIRIT, TRUE DISCIPLES “LISTEN”!! In John 5:24-29 HEAR JESUS! He said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life. Most assuredly, I say to you, the hour is coming, AND NOW IS, when the dead (Physical death or spiritual death?) will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself, and has given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth – those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation. I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me.”

And the statement of faith and obedience of every true disciple every day should be: “Lord, this Is the day You have made; what would You desire today to do through Me. I AM LISTENING!” And, more likely, you’ll be influenced by those who’ll say in their “self-centered Christian walk”: “Isn’t God blessed to have me on His Son’s team – I can surely enhance His reputation”; AND I WANT TO CHOKE, THROW UP, OR SOMEHOW, SOME WAY, OVERTHROW “RELIGIOSITY OF SELF WORSHIP” in those who deny Christ His rightful, Living Presence within them to, yes, DO HIS WORK! How many do you know who “try to serve”, and that’s not Jesus’ commands! In Matthew 11:15 JESUS SAID: “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”

Again, what did Jesus say in John 5:24? “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who HEARS MY word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation or judgment, but has passed from death into life.”

SIXTH, HAVING LEARNED TO LISTEN TO JESUS, WE LEARN TO LEAD! I can’t remember the preacher in earlier years who said it, but one stout preacher said: “Clean out your ear wax, your gobbledy-gook eyes, your dim, fleshly mind, grasping the truth that Jesus never said He came to be served, but to serve and lay His life down in the care and concern for others!” And He led His disciples by example of the “servant spirit”, caring for others more than Himself – He was willing, and did, lay His life down as our example!

SEVENTH, AND IN LIVING THE LIFE THAT LEADS IN THE SERVANT SPIRIT OF CHRIST HIMSELF, WE LEARN TO “LAST”, ENDURE, PERSEVERE, OVERCOME WHATEVER WOULD COME AGAINST US FROM ENTERING THE FULLNESS OF THE BLESSING OF THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST!

In Ephesians 6:10 we read: “Finally, my brethren, be strong IN THE LORD and IN THE POWER OF HIS MIGHT,” yet how many “try and try and try”, yes, “falling short of the glory of God”! Notice Verses13-18! “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 (Whose righteousness?), and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith (What YOU work up or what Christ instills in His Presence within You?) 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 prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints –!”

EIGHTH, WE LEARN TO “LIGHTEN” OURSELVES AND “ENLIGHTEN” THE GLORY OF CHRIST IN US AND THROUGH US! To “lighten” ourselves is day by day taking the sentence of death to ourselves and seeing the “enlightment” of Christ’s radiant, ruling, reigning, and releasing of victory after victory, Him honoring His Father, the Spirit, and the Word – even you who “rest” in Him alone!

“Christ in you” unveils to the world around you the awesomeness of the Resurrected King of kings and Lord of lords! You see, it’s of God, to “lighten” ourselves and “enlighten” to others the awesomeness of our Savior and Lord! I tell you: “Sing the wondrous love of Jesus, Sing His mercy and His grace; Sing the wonderful words of life in Christ, Sing His song of pardon and peace, Sing Him reconciling us to God!”

NINTH, AND LAST, WE ARE TO “LUMINATE” OUR “BLESSED LIFE IN CHRIST”! In Psalm 67:1-2 the chief musician taught God’s people in song. He sang: “God be merciful to us and bless us, and cause His (Christ’s) face to shine upon us, That Your way may be known on earth, Your salvation among all nations.” I dated the day I read it, and recorded in my Bible about “us”, Farrell & Sue, my wife! And that’s because the two of us in Christ together long to see the ushering in on earth as it is heaven the very Kingdom of God in the here and now!

It’s time to be finished with ourselves, but fulfilled and filled full of the Reigning, Victorious Christ! Amen? At His altar, would you present yourself to Him as His abiding and ministering location on earth? Now is the Time!!

UNVEILED

[BOOK TWO] By: J. Farrell Fisher

[March 20, 2016 –May 12,2016]

Copyright: 2016, James Farrell Fisher &/or Susan M. Fisher,

1809 Rollingwood Court, Bedford, Texas, 76021

Published by:

INTRODUCTION

Writing Book One was an interesting, challenging journey, and I knew when I finished Book One that it was only the beginning, but I had become ‘brain-drained’ when I decided to close it.

Of course, after some healthy rest, I knew the second book was about ready to be birthed. Nine chapters began to flow – and I decided, “I’ll rest before the next nine or ten chapters become that burning within the mind and heart!”

I’m also convinced that those new nine chapters are critical in our maturing in our personal faith from the infancy of conversion to the maturity of selfless service and dedication!

You, no doubt, are familiar with Peter’s word in 1 Peter 2:2 when he wrote: “as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, Verse 3, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious.”

“If?’ Do you get the scriptural drift that some set aside the Word of God as unimportant in their lives, and though “vibrant in their profession,” the possession of Christ, the Living Word, they see as unimportant to their spiritual health or spiritual maturity, ignoring “that you may grow thereby”?!?

I see no evidence in the Word of God anywhere about ignoring His Holy Word in one’s maturing process! And it’s my passionate desire and prayer that Book Two of “Vital Awareness Unveiled” will touch you deeply and set new paths in your spiritual journey!

E.G. Sellers wrote the following hymn which I found in the “Broadman Hymnal”, published by The Broadman Press, Nashville, Tennessee, in 1940. The hymn is entitled: “Thy Word Have I Hid In My Heart.” It says:

“Thy Word is a lamp to my feet, A light to my path always; To guide and to save me from sin, and show me the heavenly way.

Forever, O Lord, is Your Word Established and fixed on high; Your faithfulness unto all men Abideth forever nigh.

At morning, at noon, and at night I ever will give You praise; For You are my portion, O Lord, and shall be through all my days!

Through Him whom Your Word has foretold, The Savior and Morning Star, Salvation and peace have been brought To those who have strayed afar.

Your Word have I hid in my heart, That I might not sin against You, That I might not sin , That I might not sin, Your Word have I hid in my heart.” Amen?

OUTLINE

CHAPTER ONE: “VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED? OLD COVENANT – NEW COVENANT.”

CHAPTER TWO: “THE CALLED – THE CARING”

CHAPTER THREE: “THE GATHERED – THE GATHERING”

CHAPTER FOUR: “EASE-TOUR OR EASTER- TRIUMPHANT?”

CHAPTER FIVE: “THE EARTHLY KINGDOMS – THE HEAVENLY KINGDOM!”

CHAPTER SIX: “DEAF TO THE SAVIOR OR DESPERATE FOR THE SAVIOR?”

CHAPTER SEVEN: “THE SHORT-SIGHTED OR THE SAINTLY SIGHT?”

CHAPTER EIGHT: “THE FLESHLY UNFULFILLED – THE SPIRITUALLY FULFILLED”

CHAPTER NINE: “THE GARMENTS OF UNRIGHTEOUSNESS OR THE CLOTHING OF RIGHTEOUSNESS?”

CHAPTER TEN: “LIBERTY IN CHRIST, A LICENSE TO SIN?”

CHAPTER ELEVEN: “FAITHFULNESS OR DISTRESSING DISGUISES?”

CHAPTER TWELVE: “DARK NIGHTS – BRIGHT LIGHTS?”

CHAPTER THIRTEEN: “SELF-EFFORT RIGHTEOUSNESS OR SOVEREIGN-IMPLANTED RIGHTEOUSNESS?”

CHAPTER FOURTEEN: “ETERNAL PUNISHMENT OR ETERNAL LIFE?”

CHAPTER FIFTEEN: “ABOUNDING MISERY AND CHAOS OR ADVOCACY PEACE AND BLESSING?”

CHAPTER SIXTEEN: “CONTENTED WITH SELF OR CONVERTED TO NEW LIFE?”

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: “MUTUALLY INDIFFERENT OR MERCIFULLY INVOLVED?”

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: “RABID RESISTANCE TO GOD OR REDEMPTIVE RECONCILIATION?”

CHAPTER NINETEEN: “BOUND IN SIN OR BLESSED IN TRUSTING THE SAVIOR AND LORD?”

CONCLUSION

FOREWARD

By Col. Tim Cole, USMC

CHAPTER ONE

“VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED? OLD COVENANT- NEW COVENANT”

When there was an allegiance to the Old Covenant that came out of the overflow of allegiance to Its Author, that allegiance came about because of confidence in His saving grace and mercy, to be unveiled in the Crucified Life of the Messiah who was to come, they didn’t know when, but there WAS “saving faith” beyond their submission to the Old Covenant that exposed their inability to keep it perfectly because they understood that one could keep the whole law, yet to offend in one point was to be guilty of all! [James 2:10].

In fact, Jesus Himself said in John 8:56, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.” In Galatians 3:5-9 Paul gives a clear picture of Old Covenant –New Covenant when he wrote: “Therefore He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does He do it by works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? – just as Abraham ‘believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.’ Therefore know that only those who are of faith [redemptive faith] are sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, ‘in you all the nations of the earth shall be blessed.’ So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham.”

Of course, the “great divide,” the “great separation” comes between religious folks who have no true understanding of the necessity of the “Redeemer” and those who’ve “rested” in Him from Abraham to the end of the ages! And Old Covenant religious Jews never understood “Blood Redemption” though faithful to animal sacrifices and other temple observances without even an inkling of the Son of God’s shed blood; in fact, religious Jews, Sadducees, and Pharisees led the way in nailing Christ to the Cross!

In Jeremiah 4:1-2 the Lord spoke through the prophet, “If you will return, O Israel,” [return, O America, O Europe, O Asia!], “Return to Me; and if you will put away your abominations out of My sight, then you shall not be moved. And you shall swear, ‘The Lord lives,’ [In Resurrection Power, Resurrection Life, Resurrection Eternal Hope?], in truth, in judgment, and in righteousness; the nations shall bless themselves in Him, and in Him they shall glory.”

Judaism in the Old Testament became ‘performance’ apart from true faith, ‘self-promotion’ in gaining the approval of God, religious ‘back-slapping’ for good attempts at being godlike, even awards for ‘perishable crowns’ unaware of the imperishable crown, with Paul even saying in 1 Corinthians 10:5 about “God was not well pleased, for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness,” telling the Corinthians about ‘warning examples’, Verse 6, “to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted;” Oh, and then receive what THEIR end result was! Verses 7-12 tells us:

“And do not become idolaters as were some of them. As it is written, ‘The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.’ Nor let us commit sexual immorality, as some of them did, and in one day twenty-three thousand fell; nor let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed by serpents; nor complain, as some of them also complained, and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now all these things happened to them as examples, AND they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.”

Is ‘religious faith’ today much like Israel’s gross religiosity that dealt with ‘outward appearances’ and ‘sincere showings’ without any heart-change? Did their outward devotion ever reveal ‘spiritual transformation’ by the grace and mercy of God? Or was there within the crowd of ‘pretenders’ the “remnant of faith-followers” that truly lived in the reality of the “Promised-Coming Messiah”, who, yes, “lived by the Life of Another”? THERE IS A HIGHER PLAIN OF TRUE FAITH THAN MERE RELIGIOUS OBSERVANCES!

You are aware that there are many in our ‘modern-day-world-of –supposed- Christianity’ that are truly devoted to their religious opinions of themselves when we know through the Word Holy God crucified the ‘reverence of men about themselves’ two thousand years ago with and in Christ on the Cross! This is why Christ Jesus preached, “You must be born again”!

Don’t you find Hebrews 4:15 spiritually awakening? The author said, “For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.” “Sympathize with our weaknesses? There’s nothing weak about one like me! I have nothing I should be ‘sorry’ for – I’m a self-made, determinedly independent, conscience-clear man, even if the ridiculously absurd “Holy Bible” declares that “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God”!”

Would YOU find Isaiah the prophet a ‘warped, misguided, uninfluential prophet’ when you read him saying in Isaiah 5:18, “Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of vanity, (falsehood, fleshly pride), and sin as if with a cart rope” ? He described many in Verse 20 when he said: “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” Is that “the wise in their own sight”, who are completely unaware Holy God releases His army, whistles for them, with the result, Isaiah 5:30, “In that day they will roar against them like the roaring of the sea. And if one looks to the land, behold, darkness and sorrow; and the light is darkened by the clouds”: – “But we don’t have to be concerned about any judgment from Holy God on our nation – we believe (whether we “behave or not scripturally”!).” Really?

What does Romans 5:12 tell us? “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death [spiritual] through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned (or all sin!).” From generation to generation, from family to family, from nation to nation, “ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”, without an exception but Christ Jesus born of the virgin Mary!

In human nature, in all men and women, boys and girls, there IS “the law of sin and death” – we’re born with it, and it separates us from Holy God. Are YOU ‘short of the glory of God’, and so aware that apart from Christ Jesus’ blood redemption you are bound in the chains of universal damnation because of the sin nature? I love Oswald Chambers’ divine wisdom when in his book, “My Utmost For His Highest,” [p.206], he wrote: “In the Cross of Jesus Christ God redeemed the whole human race from the possibility of damnation through the heredity of sin. God nowhere holds a man responsible for having the heredity of sin. The condemnation is not that I am born with a heredity of sin, but if when I realize Jesus Christ came to deliver me from it, I refuse to let Him do so, from that moment I begin to get the seal of damnation.”

I know you probably know John 3:16 from even childhood memorization, but what about John 3:17-19? Jesus said, “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him [trusts, relies upon, adheres to, obeys] is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. AND THIS IS THE CONDEMNATION, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.”

Are you aware of the world-wide ‘religion’ of ‘self-worship,’ ‘self-disposition,’ ‘self-determination: “I’m my own god and ruler – I do as I please”…so they choose to allow again and again the Lord’s cruel crucifixion, as they gloat, until they encounter the Resurrected King of kings and Lord of lords? Do you not discern the ‘self-altars’ where men bow down to adore who they are, all wrapped up in ‘self-worship,’ ‘self-adoration,’ without an ounce of ‘self-denial’ because they are so ‘in love’ with who they are, and especially without any true biblical overtones ruling them?

These find the Lord Jesus’ words in Matthew 16:24-26 so strange and foreign to their “self-idolized religion of self-worship”! Jesus said, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his crops, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” [Have YOU answered that question of the Lord for yourself?]

Are YOU aware of the fallen-away-ness of human nature without God’s plan, provision, promises, and power to make the difference in one’s life? Gardiner Spring hit a home-run when he once spoke about “the voluntary renunciation of everything inconsistent with the glory of God [in man!] or the good of our fellow-men.” [The Encyclopedia of Religious Quotations, p.398].

Oh, and this brings us to the necessary consideration of the “New Covenant”, planned by God before the world’s Creation! In fact, even the beloved John wrote in Revelation 13:8 about those “whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” I believe I’d make sure that “I am a blood-bought saint of Christ to the glory of God”, or still a son/daughter of the devil himself!

Paul gave his transformation from, yes, an unredeemed rabbi to a true disciple of Christ Jesus when he wrote in Galatians 1:15-16, “But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood…”

Flesh reveals men in both the best and worst of human nature, so short of God’s implanting of His divine nature in a “blood-bought man/woman”! Chambers, in his book “My Utmost For His Highest,” [p.207], wrote: “Just as the disposition of sin entered the human race by one man, so the Holy Spirit entered the human race by another Man; and Redemption means that I can be delivered from the heredity of sin and through Christ Jesus can receive an unsullied heredity, viz., the Holy Spirit.”

Have you grasped, received, and are living by the very passion Paul was “new-born with” when in 2 Corinthians 5:20-21 he wrote to the Corinthians and us in our modern-day needy world, “Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. For He [God] made Him [Christ Jesus] who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

As I began this new writing today, March 23, 2016, our gracious Lord implanted the message of “Newness” in me with these words:

“Newness is the truth of Divine Restoration; newness is the grace of our Amazing Savior.

New is God’s aim in the lame made whole, a Sovereign work of love for a needy world to behold.

New is His message to alienated humanity, God Himself so intent in birthing heavenly sanity.

New man from the old man sovereignly graced, the blackness of so and man’s nature lovingly erased.

New man from death to divine life birthed, a new heart implanted and an old life interred.

New days given by God’s gracious will, a new life granted as His Presence is instilled.

New source of power to withstand every temptation, and no doubts to confuse because of His habitation.

New identity as new daughters and sons, birthed by His Spirit, assured of our victory in the race to be run.

New victories to be won as we rest in God’s Son, Jesus’ Resurrected Life IN US our trophy won.”

Made the righteousness of God in Him? God’s pleasure to reveal His Son in us through repentance toward God and faith in the finished work of Christ at the Cross? Called to be saints or individual repentant souls who lean not to their full understanding but in all their ways yield to the Christ within them? Death to sin and raised to new life?

Doesn’t His Holy Word tell us about “the ark of God, carried upon a new cart”? Are we clothed in “new garments”? Has He granted to us “new wine”? Are you aware of a life ready to burst open because of “new wineskins”? How thrilled are you, because of our Lord’s grace, mercy, and love, that He’s in-tuned you with a “new song” that doesn’t die out or ever fades? How enriched are YOU in His “new fruits”? Are you comfortable, blessed, enriched by your “new name written down in glory”? Do you thank God for His unveiling to you of the “new gate” into His abiding presence?

Yes, there is a “new covenant”, a “blood covenant,” a new and living way every new day that doesn’t fade away? Are you walking, living, learning, leaning, being guided by the “new and living way,” with the “new heart” and “new spirit” evidences of His amazing grace?

Is there evidence of a “new bottle” holding that “new wine” to be poured out through your walk and witness? As a “new creation”, are you drinking the new wine in the “Eternal Kingdom of God” NOW? What’s YOUR “new name”? Didn’t Peter tell us in 1Peter 2:2, “as newborn babes [in Christ!], desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby…”?

What did Paul tell the “new creations” in Romans 6:4? “Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in the newness of life.” [That was not ‘water baptism’ but the baptism of His “blood-death” through the Cross! Don’t be misled by well-intentioned, ill-informed teachers and leaders!].

And be assured, evidence of true biblical faith is found in Romans 6:10-12 when Paul wrote: “For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.” Your life? Or your life in and through His Victorious Resurrected Presence? If it pleases God to reveal His Son through us, is it by our best efforts or by the energizing of the very Spirit of God in us and through us? You saw it earlier! Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15:31, “…I die daily!” [2 Corinthians 2:9-10!].

CHAPTER TWO

“THE CALLED – THE CARING”

Evil does exist – but there are many who refuse to acknowledge it until they personally encounter and experience evil clouds or personalities that inflict horrible, unmerciful attitudes or actions!

In Psalm 142:1-4 is an example of David hidden away in “a cave” because of persecutors intense opposition to him. It says: “I cry out to the Lord with my voice; with my voice to the Lord I make my supplication. I pour out my complaint before Him; I declare before Him my trouble. When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, then You knew my path. In the way in which I walk they have secretly set a snare for me. Look on my right hand and see, for there is no one who acknowledges me; refuge has failed me; NO ONE CARES FOR MY SOUL.”

It was written by John Quincy Adams entitled “Letter to A. Bronson, July 30, 1838, when he wrote the following: “In charity to all mankind, bearing no malice or ill-will to any human being, and even compassionating those who hold in bondage their fellow-men, not knowing what they do,” which may have been then the reality of human slavery, but we aren’t aware of that today in pitiful human attitudes toward others or even an uncaring consideration of those void of the presence and mercy and love of God for their lives?

It’s vitally important that, especially in and through every local church committed to the Lordship of Christ, that that fellowship, those ‘Christians, are not hidden away behind some “iron curtain” away from a world Christ Jesus shed His own blood for! Christians know, teach, reflect upon the eternal, divine love of God, but the question is, “Is it truly and faithfully shared?”

As new-born believers in Christ, we not only reflect upon “amazing Grace” extended to us by God Himself, but, by the Holy Spirit within, we’re instructed, influenced, empowered, and challenged, to share our faith literally because we cannot keep the “Good News” for ourselves only – WE HAVE A CALLING!

I have no doubt this is why Peter was motivated to share the Word and Spirit of Holy God when in 2 Peter 1:10-11 he wrote: “Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

There are spiritual wars waged in every true disciple’s life, and among them is the warfare often waged as to whether or not one is called to be a “witness”. But haven’t we seen through our journey through the Book of Acts, Acts 1:8, the Resurrected Christ instructing His disciples, “But YOU shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem (hometown), and in all Judea and Samaria, (surrounding states!), and to the end of the earth, (world vision!).” And Paul further broadened the early church’s vision when in Acts 2:32 he said: “This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses!” Do YOU bear the witness of the Resurrected Christ in you and through you?

You do understand that the spiritual warfare of the soul extends beyond our spiritual maturing (WE DO WAR BETWEEN FLESH AND SPIRIT!), but the spiritual warfare of the soul can and is our heart-break over “the lost condition of men without Christ”! I’m convinced Paul also was encouraging resolving a true disciple’s calling to touch the world around him in concern, compassion, and consecration, to fight the good fight of faith for the souls of men! 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 tells us, “For though we walk in the flesh [in the midst of alienated, lost, sons of Satan, worlds without redemptive Truth!], we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but might in God for pulling down strongholds [of unbelief!], casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought captive (in others) to the obedience of Christ…”

Fleshly endeavors in the spiritual realm of one’s journey of faith and obedience easily excuses a life of faith indifferent to the world Christ died for, and deep ditches in the old man Christ crucified on the Cross, some allow to be ‘hiding places’ in their walks of faith, and they entrench themselves in ditches away from the eternal needs of fallen mankind!

Has your church, your community of fellowship, your family of faith, instructed you, equipped you, anointed you, and sent you out faithfully to share His redemptive Word of Faith and Hope and Love? There should be no church-wide ‘back-slapping’ if the church exists voiceless IN the dead and dying world! What did the Apostle Paul write in 1 Corinthians 13:2? “And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.” And that includes a deep and abiding love of the Risen Christ as our world’s only hope!

Dare I tell you that a part of the true evidence that one has been delivered from his sin and old sin nature is not only the “peace that passes all understanding”, but that the blood of Christ that washed me as white as snow is the shed blood for those around me without any awareness of His redemptive mercy and love? And we become extensions of His Resurrected Life, expressions of His forgiving grace, and, yes, proof of His faithful, overcoming power in the minds of those made stone-deaf by the spirit of their unbelief, with miracle-power demonstrated through faithful witnesses fulfilling their calling!

Are you aware of how quickly even the initially called or ‘set-aside-people’ to the glory of God fell away or abandoned faithfulness and rapidly even adopted, adapted, or alienated themselves from the true remnant, as they began to worship ‘foreign’ gods?

In Isaiah 1:2-4 Holy God spoke through the prophet: “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.’ Alas, sinful nation, [Alas, sinful Asia, sinful Americas, sinful Europe, sinful African continent!], 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.”

Divine sovereignty was set aside for “selective religious activity”, even idolatry, even child sacrifices, even ‘performance-oriented’ spiritual activities “as we see fit”! Yes, even today, there are “called out” assemblies, religions, man-manufactured “faiths”, that lead many down a “primrose path” to satanic bondage! And I often wonder how many believers today have heard God’s voice as Stephen spoke to the high priests in Acts 7:2-3, “Brethren and fathers, listen: The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Haran, and said to him, ‘Get out of your country and from your relatives, and come to a land that I will show you.’”

And the Living God still calls! He calls by His Spirit, He calls by His Everlasting Word, He calls by His witnesses, He calls through the destructions or triumphs in lives and nations! But understand, when the ‘called’ are confronted by Holy God, sadly, there are many who ignore, dilute, rebel, self-interpret to satisfy the longings of the old sin nature, illegitimatising or translating God’s Word to fit a fleshly mind and a compromising spirit by spiritual immaturity, demonic activity, or strong family, cultural influences!

As the “Holy Calling of God comes,” be aware that there will be strong influences on every life, pastors included, to “compromise one’s calling”! Several vital words:

• To compromise divine revelation, the Lord’s clear Word, even His demands, is to acknowledge one’s awareness of that disobedience, and to stand under God’s judgment! Half-hearted obedience is the essence of self-worship!
• To compromise is to acknowledge our understanding of God’s awareness, increasing our personal responsibility of the consequences!
• To compromise is to decay obedience and to bring a deterioration of moral and scriptural responsibility, and especially as it blinds even more an immoral, faithless society!
• To compromise is to invite the very absence of blessing, anointing, dreams or visions, but a descent into a deep pit of silence from the voice of God! [Hear me! As a disciple of Christ Jesus, we are called to be ‘in the world’ but not of the world!]

And be assured, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, also understood the reality of devilish, demonic activity in enticing, tempting, drawing into his net of deception any and every believer if possible, but our Lord and Savior interceded for every one of His disciples, including those of the year 2016, when in John 17:11b-18 the Lord Jesus prayed to the Father: “…Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are. While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name. Those whom You gave Me I have kept, and none of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. But now I come to You, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.”

Sent into the world? Sent into darkness to bear the Light? Sent into the ‘lion’s den’ to set the captives free? Sent to discern, by the Spirit and the Holy Word, that which is so opposite to the nature and character of Christ, faithfully bearing ‘witness’ even if it costs you your life?

True disciples have taken the sentence of death unto their old sin natures and the sentence of death to the warped ways of a godless world, yes, even witnessing as a cruel, dark, evil world takes your last breath from your earthly body! [Be assured of this one thing: As America continues its downward spiral in decay, unbelief, wretched sinfulness, that whish is holy, true, pure, and Christ-honoring will, will one day cost “tons” of true believers their very lives!

Do you know what the brother of Jesus had to say as he wrote James 4:4-5? “Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” But those who understand true discipleship take the sentence of death daily to the “world’s wicked ways” that the resurrection life of Christ may be manifested through their mortal flesh!

Sentences of death daily? How about separation from, not the assimilation of, the world’s daily death sentences to faith, hope, obedience, submission, and the fruit of His Spirit? How about, like Moses, refusing to be called the son of Pharoah’s daughter, (Hebrews 11:25), “choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, (Hebrews 11:26), Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt; for he looked to the reward”?

“The Called?” How determined, disciplined, divinely inclined was Paul when he wrote 2 Corinthians 10:3-5? “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal (fleshly or the best efforts of human flesh!) but mighty IN GOD for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ…”! Yet, much of modern-day ‘education’ (?) revolves around high level sophisticated, philosophical ‘brain-washing’, convincing youth of America that gospel truth is a fantasy programmed by brainless preachers-teachers who bought “lies” about Christ and His Resurrection, His Reign, His Kingdom-Rule! Really?

I love what Oswald Chambers wrote in his famous book, (“My Utmost…”, p.186), “We are apt to forget that a man is not only committed to Jesus Christ for salvation; he is committed to Jesus Christ’s view of God, of the world, of sin and of the devil, and this will mean that he must recognize the responsibility of being transformed by the renewing of his mind.”

And doesn’t “The Called” also see unveiled before them by the life example of Christ and His faithful teaching that uppermost in Christ’s earthly walk was “The seeking and saving of the lost”? Isn’t that the Life Example of our Lord and Savior of “The Caring”, as Jesus said to His disciples in Matthew 20:25-28, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who are great exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among you: but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave – just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”

Do you remember, in John 13, as Jesus began to wash the disciples’ feet, and Peter said, in Verse 8, “You shall never wash my feet!” Jesus answered proud Peter, “If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me.”

After He had washed the disciples’ feet, He said in Verses 12-17, “Do you know what I have done to you? You call Me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, FOR SO I AM. If I then, your Lord and Savior, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you. Most assuredly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.”

I’ll never forget many years ago being in one of the cities in India, teaching for four days, when on the last day of the conference the Lord had prompted me to have a “foot-washing” service! As I began to wash the pastors’ feet one by one, all of a sudden, there was the eruption of great, unceasing weeping! These India pastors could not believe an American preacher-teacher would bow down and wash their feet, which I did! They’d NEVER been a part of a foot-washing service – and their ministries caught the very Spirit of our Lord and Savior!

Receive Oswald Chambers’ words from “My Utmost For His Highest,” [p.188], “The things that Jesus did were of the most menial and commonplace order, and this is an indication that it takes all God’s power in me to do the most commonplace things in His way. Can I use a towel as He did? Towels and dishes and sandals, all the ordinary sordid things of our lives, reveal more quickly than anything what we are made of. It takes God Almighty Incarnate in us to do the meanest duty as it ought to be done. ‘I have given you an example that you should do as I have done to you.’…If we do not do the running steadily in the little things, we shall do nothing in the crisis.” Tell me about YOUR ‘towel ministry’!

Do you remember in Matthew 20:20-21 when the mother of Zebedee’s sons came to the Lord Jesus with those sons, kneeling down before Jesus, and Jesus asking her, “What do you wish?” She said to Jesus, “Grant that these two sons of mine may sit, one on your right hand and the other on the left, in Your kingdom.” Verse 22, But Jesus answered and said, “You do not know what you ask. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?”

They said to Jesus, “We are able,” defining clearly their clouded minds of true discipleship! But is it any different in “modern-day” Christianity? Then in Verses 25-28 the Lord Jesus equipped new disciples in their eternal ministries, which has never changed! He said: “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who are great [in fallen mankind’s eyes!], exercise authority over them. Yet IT SHALL NOT BE SO AMONG YOU; but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave – JUST AS the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”

Are you aware that true disciples genuinely flourish as they fully realize the true ministry of Christ Jesus to them, in their blackness, their darkness, their selfishness, their sinfulness, as He washes their feet – and they’re broken, convicted, believing and surrendering, willing to “take the towel and be a servant”?

As I close this chapter, reflect upon Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 12:15 when he said, “And I will gladly spend and be spent for your souls; though the more abundantly I love you, the less I am loved,” also with the words of Jesus in Matthew 23:10-12 when He said: “And do not be called teachers; for One is your Teacher, the Christ. But he who is greatest among you shall be your servant. And whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” AMEN?

CHAPTER THREE

“THE GATHERED – THE GATHERING”

Dare I tell you that Christ Jesus made an incredible statement in Matthew 22:14 when He said: “For many are called, but few are chosen”? And the ‘chosen’ are “the gathered”! In Matthew 15:16-17 our Lord and Savior spoke about “The Cost of Christ’s Choosing”! “You did not choose Me, but I chose you and APPOINTED YOU that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you. These things I command you, that you love one another.”

Oh, and then in John 15:13 our Lord declared: “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for His friends.” And then our Lord said so clearly in Matthew 12:30, “He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters abroad.” Are You “The Gathered AND The Gathering”?

Sadly, Psalm 41:6 speaks of those whose “hearts gather iniquity to itself”, so self-introspective and self-indulgent, they couldn’t care at all about Holy God gathering them to Himself! They are “comfortable” as they ‘gather’ “corruption” or ‘gather’ the choking cares, concerns, riches, pleasures and treasures of their self-absorbed lives, that are fantasies without any divine fulfillment!

Do you remember the disciples of Jesus urging Him to “eat”, in John 4:31? Then in Verse 32 Jesus said to them, “I have food to eat of which you do not know.” [Has that changed much today in, yes, the modern church age?]. The disciples were then saying to one another, “Has anyone brought Him anything to eat?”

Follow Jesus’ words in John 4:34-38! “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work.. Do you not say, ‘There are still four months and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest! And he who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life, that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. For in this the saying is true: ‘One sows and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap for that which you have not labored; others have labored, and you have entered into their labors.” Did our Lord speak about “gathering fruit for eternal life”?

In 1 Samuel 3:1 it tells us, “Now the boy Samuel ministered to the Lord before Eli. And the word of the Lord was rare in those days; there was no widespread revelation.” But is there in this day “widespread revelation” but rare “in-take” of the Word as “the bread” and “meat” of spiritual life and spiritual health? In 1 Samuel 3 Samuel was lying down, and the Lord called him! Twice he ran to Eli, “here I am, for you called me.” “I did not call.” But the third time the voice occurred and Samuel ran to Eli, Eli said, “ If He calls you, you must say, ‘Speak, Lord, for Your servant hears’.” God did – Samuel responded!

1 Samuel 3:19 says, So Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground.” What an amazing unveiling of the heart and desire of Holy God to speak to His people, but how many are really listening, or in this day of full revelation spiritually feeding on His Word?

Jesus, in Matthew 4, having been led by the Spirit into the wilderness, “to be tempted by the devil.” Our Lord fasted for forty days and forty nights, and afterward was hungry. The devilish tempter, Satan, came to Him saying in Verse 3, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” Our Lord’s response, Verse 4? Jesus answered, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”

That’s true of our Savior and Lord! That’s true of every “born-again child of faith”! That’s true of every pastor-teacher! That’s true of every ‘member’ of a local church fellowship, small or large! When one is drawn to Christ, he/she is the “called,” the “chosen,” the “elect,” the “soldier of God’s eternal spiritual army,” and there’s nothing inactive about true soldiers of the Cross – there’s no ‘early retirement’ – there’s no “I’ve been saved from my sin, and that is what the Christian Faith is all about, right?” God’s “Plan” of Redemption was and is purchasing slaves of Satan to be servants of the Most High God to extend His Kingdom, experience His love and express it, and prove God’s power as they “witness” to others around them about His passionate love and desire for them to be a part of His eternal Family of Redemptive Faith! All disciples, born-again by the love, grace, and mercy of God, are “called” and “appointed and anointed” to make Christ Jesus known!

“The Gathered”? If God calls, the “gathered” say “Yes”, not maybe, not in my time, not on my terms, with a person’s mind and heart response of a true “Yes” or a defiant “No”, or maybe ‘in time,’ or “on my fleshly terms and for the purpose of my self-satisfying desires”!

The ‘un-gathereds’ response’ may be a willingness to listen to the Lord’s claims but with no learning, hearing but no heeding, carrying in the mind His thoughts but no comprehension of His Truth, hearing an order but offering no obedience, or maybe receiving the offer in the mind but no reception in the heart! Unsaved men may talk of God’s will without any submission to His will or Word or ways or wisdom.

But “The Gathered”? It’s more than one’s admiration of God’s Truth but one’s surrender to His Lordship and saving grace! Didn’t Jesus say in Luke 6:46, “But why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not DO the things which I say?” Under God’s eternal heaven, I cannot understand how “the church” (supposedly) can even think or teach that “obedience is an option in the age of grace”!

Do you know how Paul was so enriched and enlightened by the Spirit as he closed out his letter to the Romans? Romans 16:25-27 tells us: [I challenge you: listen with your heart as well as your mind!], “Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery kept since the world began but now made manifest, and by the prophetic Scriptures made known to all nations, according to the commandments of the everlasting gospel, FOR OBEDIENCE TO THE FAITH – to God, alone wise, be glory through Jesus Christ forever. Amen.” [“So Be It!”].

“Obedience to the faith” I highlighted because some read without seeing with spiritual eyes or even hearing with their spiritual ears! For others, it just “doesn’t line up with my church’s teaching,” or, “The prophet was just wrong!” as they thought they could expose Isaiah’s words as false from God Himself: [Isaiah 1:19-20], “If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; But if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured by the sword,”; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.” And the compromisers respond, “God wouldn’t do that to us!”

Exposing untruths, deceived ‘believers’, rebellious sons and daughters, will respond unmercifully to “Truth-Bearers and Truth Proclaimers”! Do you remember young Stephen described in Acts 6:8 as “full of faith and power, (who) did great wonders and signs among the people”? But Acts 7 highlights Stephen’s addressing the Council, religious priests and elders, and as he spoke the truth of God’s prophetic utterance, it became a very costly walk as a true disciple of Christ! He said of them in Acts 7:51, “You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you.”

Stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, always resisting the Holy Spirit, is not a position any “professing believer” should make, but a heart and mind that has been birthed through repentance toward God and faith in the finished work of Christ at the Cross, indwelt and led by the Holy Spirit, called to be fed in the milk and meat of the Word daily, yielded to the Spirit in faithful witnessing and proclamation of saving grace, and, yes, faithful to the church Jesus loves and gave Himself for, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together! And for that Spirit on and in Stephen’s life, Acts 7:58 says ‘the religious crowd’ “cast him out of the city and stoned him.” He died in and for the redemptive Faith of the Word of God!

“The Gathered”? Matthew 18:20 is an awesome Word King Jesus gives to His true disciples, even if they find themselves in the midst of nations, states, cities, families, jobs, where there are no fellow disciples, no teachers, no leaders; but Jesus said: “For where two or three are gathered in My name, I am there in the midst of them”!

Having traveled over India for twenty-five years, I can tell you I’ve ministered in small communities with, maybe ten to fifteen “TRUE” disciples, in pastors conferences of twenty-five to literally thousands of pastors! I’ve seen ‘open-air crusades’ in India villages with, maybe 200 gathering, or as many as 40,000! And, I thank God for ‘gatherings’, small or large!

“The Gathered”? Peter, in Acts 12, had been freed from prison, fully aware of God’s grace and mercy on his life, and he journeyed , Acts 12:12 tells us, “to the house of Mary, the mother of John Mark, where many were gathered together praying.”

Are you aware that many “professing Christians” will tell you they seldom pray except when they are in real trouble or face desperate, dark circumstances? There will be wars and fights and battles in every true believer’s life, which is why I’m convinced James, the brother of Jesus, told us in James 4:7-10, “Therefore submit (surrender, yield, rely or depend upon) to God. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. [We don’t serve an absentee ‘land-lord’!]. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.”

Slaves to sin may appear as ‘kings’ and ‘queens’ in their concept of worldly living but are hopeless apart from washed in the blood of the Lamb and sealed by His Spirit as sons and daughters of the Most High God! The beauty of slaves to sin may be impressive to ‘flesh’, but the beauty of servants unto Christ glorify God Himself! There are “gods of the lower-world” ruled by the king of darkness, the devil, but the God of the Kingdom of Light, Life, Liberty, and Love, births forgiveness, freedom, victory over the devil, and a filled-full Life of Holy Presence with present and eternal blessing beyond measure!

How aware are YOU of the very best fallen humankind can manufacture, so absent of God’s eternal intent and divine plan, and, at the same time , so aware of the very worst of mankind, slaves to immoral living, prisoners of the devil’s chains of darkness, disappointment after disappointment, a ‘ragtag’ existence, aware of the heights both make and the depths they sink to, both unaware of the saving grace of God, and by the Word of Holy God, both without His saving love and mercy through Christ Jesus are hopeless?

Sadly, some hear of the Cross of Christ without even being aware of the Biblical Truth that, when Jesus shed His blood on the Cross, they were crucified with Him! Doesn’t Galatians 2:20-21a tell us: “I have been CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the [bodily] flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself FOR ME. I do not set aside the grace of God…”.

I pray you see it, sense it, and stand upon it! “I accept God’s judgment on my old, fleshly, sinful life, and to be declared a ‘saint’, I willfully become the bond-servant of Christ Jesus, yes, purchased by His shed blood!” Oh, I know that there are those who have no desire to be identified with Christ if it requires submission, surrender, and suffering, but “the way of the Cross” always leads to opposition, indifference, ignoring one of truth faith, often so embittered by the exposure of the Light of their own darkness that they WILL persecute, even kill, His true disciples!

What did Peter tell us in 1 Peter 4:12-14? “Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you; but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy. If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.” Glory!!

But beyond the blessings of “The Gathered,” what does the Holy Word tell us about “The Gathering”, and are we a part of His eternal mission of touching our world with His love, grace, and mercy?

As I begin this part of “The Gathering”, there should be an awareness of the reality of spiritual fathering as much as physical fathering – it does involve seed planting but includes so much more!

I know that in 1 Corinthians 6:19-29 that Paul was exposing sexual immorality with his emphasis on “to Whom the Corinthian believers belonged”, and sexual immorality was no longer to be part of their lives, their walks, their witness to an unredeemed world around them! But I believe that word of Paul had even more significance because of a godless world in too many lives who needed to know to whom and to what they must belong – or Hell awaits them, demonic bondage would continue, but beyond that would be their emptiness and absence of the Loving Savior who so desires to wash them in His blood, give them a new heart, in-fill them with His Holy Presence and Spirit, and assign them the calling to be His witnesses, like a loving shepherd who faithfully seeks any lost sheep!

In Matthew 9:35-38 the Word unveils the very heart, mission, and plan of the Lord Jesus Christ. It says: Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.”

Are you aware of what our Lord said in Matthew 18:1-5 as Jesus was approached by that initial group of early disciples? They asked Jesus, “Who then is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” Then Jesus called a little child to Him, set him in their midst, and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever receives one little child like this in My name receives me.” A humble child in the eternal kingdom of heaven IS the child of faith who receives Christ, equipped to, yes, bring “other children” into the family of God by their witness!

Jesus went on to say in Matthew 18:10-11, “Take heed that you do not despise one of these little children, for I say to you that in heaven their angels always see the face of My Father who is in heaven. For the Son of Man has come TO SAVE THAT WHICH WAS LOST.” Dare I tell you that the billions of lost souls, unredeemed by the blood of the Lamb, are like “the little ones” we just read about that Jesus so wants all believers to “bring them into My Kingdom!”

The Lord Jesus Christ died on the Cross, shed His sinless, innocent blood, that fallen mankind could be reconciled to Holy God as “new-born citizens of His eternal Kingdom,” and commissioned by Him to His “new-born disciples” to bear witness to His redeeming love and mercy and grace! [And that’s not ‘bench-warmers’ in a local church], but Spirit-anointed, Spirit-empowered, and Spirit-led witnesses! He called us out of our ‘world-bondage to sin,’ redeemed us, anointed us, and sent us back into the world with the world’s ONLY HOPE – Salvation in Christ alone!

And, of course, thank God, most true believers understand salvation is the gracious gift of God to be received through repentance toward Him and faith in His Son’s Calvary-shed blood! In fact, the Lord Jesus stated in His famous prayer to Father-God in John 17:6-8, “I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world. [Out of the world? The world of sin and death? The world of fleshly enslavement and demonic bondage? The world of “me, my, and mine, and nothing or no one else”?]. They were Yours, You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word. [“Oh, really; Jesus believed the true people of Faith would be sons and daughters of obedience?”]. Now they have known that all things which You have given Me are from You. For I have given to them the words which You have given Me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I have come forth from You; and they have believed that You sent Me.”

Are YOU a “true disciple of the Word and redemptive Faith through Christ alone – or ‘just religious’?” What did our Lord say in Matthew 7:17-20? “Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A GOOD TREE CANNOT BEAR BAD FRUIT, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore by their fruits you will know them.” True redemptive faith is evidenced by the very nature and character of Christ, the Indwelling Fruit-Producer!

In 2 Corinthians 13:4-5 Paul wrote: “For though He was crucified in weakness, yet He lives by the power of God. For we also are weak in Him, but we shall live with Him by the power of God toward you. Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? – unless indeed you are disqualified.”

“The Gathering”? The true disciple’s life unashamedly committed and faithful to the “calling” and “commission” to be His witnesses? In Philippians 1:20-21 Paul wrote: “according to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ will be magnified in my body whether by life or death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” Moffatt, in his translation, spoke of “that now as ever I may do honor to Christ in my own person by fearless courage.”

Are YOU so determined in your walk of Redemptive Faith that YOU will not be ashamed to share that Faith, taking courage, by the Spirit, in an evil world that must, at least, hear the Gospel Truth of the love and mercy of God – and, yes, YOU are even willing to die for that Faith?

If Christ “was offered once to bear the sins of many,” is it spiritually sensible for a disciple to be so selfish that he/she never “gathers” those who eternally need to be “gathered to Christ”, knowing their sins have been forgiven, and Jesus offers them eternal, everlasting life in the here and now, yes, citizenship in His eternal Kingdom-reign and rule? Knowing Christ Jesus, “made a little lower than angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone,” but we’re unsure if it is necessary for us to let a lost, perishing, godless world of unbelief, know of God’s amazing love and grace for them?

In John 7:37-38 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.” The Word then said that He spoke of the Holy Spirit that all true believers would receive –“ but it doesn’t mean that’s my call to witness!” Really? Dare I remind you that Acts 1:8 says, Jesus speaking, “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem (hometown), and in all Judea and Samaria (neighboring states and nations), and to the end of the earth (the whole world!).”

I love what Oswald Chambers said about a river when in his book, “My Utmost For His Highest,” [p.184], he wrote: “A river is victoriously persistent, it overcomes all barriers…a river will drop out of sight for miles, and presently emerge again broader and grander than ever.” Tell me about YOUR “river of witnessing”! How’s the flow? Chambers closed his paragraph saying, “If you believe in [trust in, rely upon, adhere to] Jesus, you will find that God has nourished in you mighty torrents of blessing for others.”

Can you say, “I accept my Lord’s mandate, ministry, and mission of touching my world with His True Light, True Life, and True Eternal Blessings?”

It was J.P. Scholfield who in the early 1900’s wrote the hymn, “Saved, Saved!” It says: “I’ve found a friend who is all to me, His love is ever true; I love to tell how He lifted me and what His grace can do for you.

He saves me from every sin and harm, Secures my soul each day; I’m leaning strong on His mighty arm; I know He’ll guide me all the way.

When poor and needy and all alone, In love He said to me, “Come unto Me and I’ll lead you home, To live with Me eternally.”

Saved by His power divine, Saved to new life sublime! Life now is sweet and my joy is complete, For I’m saved, saved, saved!” Amen?

CHAPTER FOUR

“EASE-TOUR OR EASTER-TRIUMPHANT?”

My wife, Sue, recently read me from “Facebook”, (I think), a statement from Ravi Zacharias’ event at a university, when he allowed public questions. A young man asked him about, “why are you so afraid of subjective morality?”, with Dr. Zacharias responding, “Do you lock your doors at night?”, indicating there is nothing redemptive about one’s ‘subjective morality’!

‘Subjective morality’ is biblical unbelief and a divorce from God’s calling to “Be holy, for I am holy,” and there is no true holiness in the fleshly ‘best’ of alienated, fallen, unredeemed-by-the-blood-of- Christ- Atonement! Man-made ‘morality’ is nothing more than acceptance and demonstration of godless commitment, ignoring God’s “Blood-bought Redemption”!

So, fallen mankind pats itself on the back because it manufactures guided missiles, guided morals, guided men by their ‘godless minds’, with a failing awareness of one’s “obligation of conformity to the will of God,” [Charles Hodge!].

The “Ease-Tour”? Do you remember Moses and Aaron going in to the Pharoah, saying to him, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘Let My people go, that they may hold a feast to Me in the wilderness.’: And Pharoah said, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, nor will I let Israel go.” Pharoah was on an “Ease-Tour”!

Are you familiar with Jesus saying to Martha in Luke 10:41-42 about the “Ease-Tour OR Easter-Triumphant” the choices every human being faces? “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needful, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.”

And I would say to you as we begin this journey on the “Ease-Tour or Easter – Triumphant”, “What’s the part you’ve chosen in every life’s spiritual journey? Your easiness of fitting into the world without God or the way of “Easter-Triumphant”?” Dare I tell you that fallen mankind often finds failing pleasures in the world’s ways for a time, but their end is the way of disappointment, of darkness, and of eternal death and separation from Holy God? But, “The Way of the Cross Leads Home”!

The “Ease-Tour”? How sad do you find what some describe for themselves as “Patron-saints of drug distribution or drug addictions of personal ‘highs’?” Some “Ease-Tours” are ‘life-counterfeiters’ like a U.S. government that prints phony U.S. dollars with nothing to back them up with, but assure the general, deceived public, “It’s all OK, with no consequences” except a bankrupt nation with a deep and long-lasting ‘depression’ to follow, which is a vivid picture of counterfeit lives that have “No God” to guarantee their genuineness in divine living!

The “Ease-Tour”? That’s ‘homosexual freedom’ by a depraved government, and even some public support of it in their own blinded, faithless reality of demonic stupidity and devilish deception, and a ‘slant’ of sinners that “Sacred Scriptures” are stupid, determined by their own minds of ‘slant’ in their fleshly ‘wisdom’!

But it’s not only ‘homosexual freedom’ but hollow, mindless, senseless allegiance to one’s ‘fleshly opinions’, even setting aside, for themselves the Eternal Word of God! Have you ever heard an unbeliever say to you, “That may be YOUR Faith that you’re devoted to, but we have faith in our feelings, even our ‘faithlessness’, which is our expression of our self-determined religion!”

The “Ease-Tour”? “My ‘self-awareness’ is the faith I hold onto – I need no God!” “My self-consciousness is my wealth and storehouse or personal bank-vault of true riches, but your Jesus nailed that to His Cross? That’s a foolish thing, if He really did it!”

At the same time, there are some who are not financially wealthy because they’ve become victims who are ‘poverty-stricken’ without any awareness, at times, of where their next meal is coming from – and in that state, being ‘poverty-stricken’, they often can’t fathom that Holy God wants to make them “rich” in the eternal things that matter most to Him for them, “and He was willing to die for me that I might be made truly rich in Him?”

Do you believe this might be why Jeremiah 9:23-24 tells us what God says? “Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, let not the mighty man glory in his might, nor let the rich man glory in his riches; But let him who glories glory in this, That he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these I delight,” says the Lord.

The “Ease-Tour”? “My natural life and its pleasures far out-do anything your Holy God has to offer me. Don’t you ‘Christians’ know your own human potential without God interfering? Aren’t you aware your ‘Holy God’ ought to accept for your ‘salvation’ your own rightness, your noble deeds, your fleshly goodness? You’re the people I really feel sorry for!”

And there are those so bewitched by the powers of darkness that there never could be any consideration of “crucified with Christ” or attending a ‘funeral’ of their ‘old-man sin nature’ or a funeral of personal dependence in their own strengths, fleshly desires, unholy alliances, or strong self-wills! Once again, Matthew 16:24-25, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life [for himself] will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.”

The “Ease-Tour”? The psalmist, in Psalm 123:3-4, shared his prayer to God for His mercy because, “we are exceedingly filled with contempt. Our soul is exceedingly filled with the scorn of those who are at ease, with the contempt of the proud.” The “at-ease-crowd” mostly resent the “sold-out-crowd” who’ve claimed Jesus as Lord, Savior, and Master of their lives, but the “at-ease-crowd” knows nothing about bending or bowing before Holy God because they are consumed with bowing before their “idols” of self-adulation and self-pleasure and self-worship!

The “Ease-Tour” specialists major in planting their own seeds and end up harvesting rotten fruit! They are ‘professionals’ at the performances of ‘life in the flesh’ directed by ‘the will of the flesh,’ ‘the shared will of fallen, rebellious men to God,’ and also directed by Satan himself without even know his deathly intents! In fact, deceived sinners don’t even know they constantly bow before the devil’s throne as they yield to sin after sin after sin, especially the sin of unbelief that fosters their rebellion!

Sometimes there are a few “Ease-Tour” specialists who are extremely wealthy. In Luke 18:18-23 a certain ‘ruler’ asked Jesus, “Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” So Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery,’ ‘Do not murder,’ ‘Do not steal,’ ‘Do not bear false witness,’ ‘Honor your father and your mother.’”

And the “rich ruler” responded to Jesus, “All these things I have kept from my youth.” So when Jesus heard these things, He said to him, “You still lack one thing. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” But when he heard this, he became very sorrowful, for he was very rich,” with the clear indication he chose his riches over Christ Jesus because that was what really had his heart!

The “Ease-Tour”? One of the godless tragedies is the reality of a spiritual blindness overshadowed by a spirit of darkness that so hinders one seeing the Light! In John 12:35-36 Jesus said to those who were eye-witnesses of His presence, mostly unbelievers, but Jesus spoke these words, “A little while longer the light is with you. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you; HE WHO WALKS IN DARKNESS DOES NOT KNOW WHERE HE IS GOING. While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.” Son of Light or son of darkness?

Dark-walkers have no awareness or comprehension of what it means to walk through life without God as the Author and Finisher of lives’ journeys – void of the Creator and Sustainer and Savior and Lord of life, they don’t even know where their “after-lives” will spend eternity! [And in a modern-world, even pastors and churches often ignore unbelievers’ assignments in Hell if they refuse repentance and faith in Christ’s victory over sin and death at the Cross!]. And, of course, dark-walkers have bought into ‘self-sufficiency, self-adulation, even ‘self-worship’ being god unto themselves!

Let me shift gears here! For you, for the world in you and around you, is it “curious observers” or the “converted, God-bought, blood-purchased sons and daughters paid by God Himself for your ransom and freedom from sin and death? Are you ‘a religious pretender’ or a richly possessed servant of God’s “Prince of Peace”? Is it possible that there are even ‘surface believers’ with no solid foundation or truly ‘saved sons’ who stand on the Solid Rock?

Are YOU a ‘church attender’ or a “Body of Christ-Altar” where daily sacrifices have become “the” way of life? Is it a ‘cheap imitation’ or “the” costly investment, even daily, taking the sentence of death to yourself that His Resurrection Life is manifested in your mortal flesh? Have far too many ‘church-goers’ simply become “testy-sinkers” in Satan’s sands or Christ’s true sons standing on the “Sure Foundation,” my body His Temple, my heart His home, my walk His Witness, my true faith evidenced by the triumphant force of His Indwelling Spirit and Presence? Is your life a revealing of one who walks in the “Ease-Tour” or one who, yes, experiences daily “Easter-Triumphant”?

If we’re called to “examine yourselves as to whether or not you are in the faith”, then 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 unveils for us “divine understanding” and “holy apprehension”! It says: “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? DO NOT BE DECEIVED. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, no adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomies, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. BUT YOU WERE WASHED, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of God.”

If you recall, the Lord Jesus came saying, “I did not come to be ministered unto but to minister and to give My life a ransom for many!” (Matthew 20:28!). I find Revelation 7:9-17 one of the most informative, thrilling, uplifting passages in all the Word of God. It says: After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, saying, “salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” All the angels stood around the throne and the elders and the four living creatures, and fell on their faces before the throne and worshipped God, saying: ‘Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom, thanksgiving and honor and power and might, be to our God forever and ever.’

Then one of the elders answered, saying to me, “Who are these arrayed in white robes, and where did they come from?” And I said to him, “Sir, you know.” So he said to me, “These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His temple. And He who sits on the throne will dwell among them. They shall neither hunger anymore nor thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any heat; for the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to living fountains of waters. And Go will wipe every tear from their eyes.

I’m afraid for some who read that they will be greatly distressed as they read what I believe our Lord is telling us. If 2 Timothy 3:16-17 tells me, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

And some will say, “But Revelation is about ‘the future kingdom and doesn’t relate to the here and now,’ yet Christ Jesus taught us to pray, “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” And in the kingdom living of here and now on earth, even through great tribulation, we who live by faith alone in Christ, have had our lives washed in the blood of the Lamb!”

Because we “SERVE A RISEN SAVIOR”, having been indwelt by His Holy Presence, we day by day, [even beyond “Easter-Triumphant”!], take that sentence of death, and give Him our bodies as His present earthly temple! You desire the glorified life? Notice, “Christ Jesus IS Resurrection Life”

In John 11:25-26 Jesus said the Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?” Do YOU believe this?

As Paul began his writing to the Rome believers, he began by saying, [Romans 1:1-7], Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, (former Jewish Rabbi!), called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God, which He promised before through His prophets, in the Holy Scriptures, concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, and DECLARED TO BE THE SON OF GOD WITH POWER according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead. Through Him we have received grace and apostleship FOR OBEDIENCE TO THE FAITH AMONG ALL NATIONS FOR HIS NAME, among whom YOU ALSO ARE THE CALLED OF JESUS CHRIST; To all who are in Rome, (Bedford, Texas, Ocala, Florida, Mumbai, India, London, England , beloved of God, called to be saints (or those “set apart” to glorify Christ through their bodies made available for Kingly Living in an earthly tabernacle!). Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

It was W.P. Lemon who once wrote: “Easter is not a passport to another world; it is a quality of perception for this one;” but I believe that it’s more than a ‘perception’ – it’s the literal presence of “Christ in you the hope of glory”! Yet, I’m afraid, too many lose eternal truths in the dark veils of fleshly misrepresentation and interpretation and leave His presence “out there” for some future time!

What did the Lord Jesus say in John 5:24-25? “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes [relies upon, adheres to, trusts in] in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life. [That’s the spiritually dead before God, but physically alive in a body!].

Most assuredly, I say to you, the hour is coming, AND NOW IS, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live.” Do YOU understand ‘the spiritually dead’ raised out of their death in ‘flesh, ‘sin-nature’ corruption into the divine nature of incorruption, God putting on the mortal man immortal Presence? Isn’t Jesus the “life-giving spirit” and Resurrected Presence of Holy God?

If Christ Jesus is the joy of loving, repentant, faithful, fully surrendered and yielded disciples, if He is the very fountain of eternal life, if He is Heaven’s Blessing granted to repentant hearts, fully surrendered souls, if He is the Light within that never loses its “Shine”, then how do some profess but never possess all that He is in them?

But also I pray you understand that beyond Christ’s Resurrection Life, CONSIDER THAT CHRIST JESUS IS RESURRECTION POWER! What did Jude tell us in Jude 24-25? “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 or “So be it”!”

Paul said simply but dramatically and in an enlightening spirit in 1 Corinthians 1:24b, “Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.” Overcoming the darkness of the human heart and mind to the glory of God is only by the Resurrection Power of Christ who not only overcomes darkness because He is the Light, but also fleshly power, demonic power, worldly power, cannot withstand the eternal power that created our world, cannot withstand the eternal power of divine love honored and glorified through the Cross, and, hear me!, cannot withstand or overcome the Christ IN YOU!

What did Jesus say in Matthew 28:18? “All authority (all power!) has been given to Me in heaven AND ON EARTH!” If, “As He is so are we,” then how under God’s heaven could any true believer think he is powerless? Certainly in his flesh, but not with Christ in him! In Ephesians 3:20-21 We read, “Now to Him who is able (Christ is not able for you? Give me a break!) to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”

Dare I tell you that “spiritual stagnation” will always occur when disciples seek to be a disciple in their own strength devoid of the anointing of His power! It may be time, if stagnation reigns with a lingering smell that is sickly, that we need to remind ourselves, individually, families, churches, governments or nations, what one of the verses was Francis Scott Key wrote in the U.S.’s, “Star Spangled Banner”! It says: “Praise the power that has made and preserved us a nation! Then conquer we must when our cause it is just, and this be our motto, ‘In God is our trust!’”

If YOU have never known, or have let slip away, the awesome power resident in every true believer, then consider Philippians 3:8-14! “Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know Him AND THE POWER OF HIS RESURRECTION, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death…”

Is “power” needed in overcoming the very testings and temptations of Satan Himself and his demon armies? In Revelation 12:10-12 John tells us, Then I heard a voice saying in heaven, “Now salvation and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down. AND THEY OVERCAME HIM by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death. Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time.”

In Christ we serve, not only a Risen Savior, but we serve the “power-anointing Lord” for all disciples to reign in that power in a demonized world, over the oppressive devil, and even demonized enemies of the one True Faith! In Acts 10:35-38 Peter proclaimed: “But in every nation whoever fears Him and works righteousness is accepted by Him. The word which God sent to the children of Israel, preaching peace through Jesus Christ – HE IS LORD OF ALL – that word you know, which was proclaimed throughout all Judea, and began from Galilee after the baptism which John preached: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT AND WITH POWER, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, For God was with Him.” Glory!! But you’re ‘in Christ’ and have no understanding of “power-anointing” to serve Him? [You just might need to be “born-again”!].

In 2 Peter 1:2-4 we read, “Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.” Are YOU an overcomer because of God’s power?

CONSIDER ALSO THAT CHRIST JESUS IS, ALWAYS HAS BEEN, ALWAYS WILL BE, OUR RESURRECTION HOPE! You’ll remember that even Job once said, Job 7:6, “My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, and are spent without hope.”

I found it so interesting to come across a writing by Oscar Wilde, in his “The Ballad of Reading Gaol,” [Pt.111, st.3i], “We did not dare to breathe a prayer Or to give our anguish scope! Something was dead in each of us, And what was dead was Hope.”

Sadly, Paul after presenting “the hope of the gospel which you heard”, warned of “moving away” from its hope! [Colossians 1:21-23], challenging ,yes, all of us to “continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and not moved away from the gospel which you heard…!” But, SOME DO MOVE AWAY, abandon, retreat, even deny the true redemptive faith, so desirous of fleshly, self-important pride, vain in their determination their best in themselves gives them the only ‘hope’ they need!

But what Peter declared in 1 Peter 1:2-4 is eternally life-changing for any hopeless man! He said: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a “living hope” through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith ready to be revealed in the last time.”

And, I tell you with all my heart, there is no sickness, no suffering, no testing, no turmoil, that should ever turn you to hopelessness and despair, because our Lord and Savior experienced the torment of the devil’s winds and waves, saying, always, “Peace, be still.” You understand that ‘fleshly gods’ fade and fall away, but the God of Calvary’s love, even in the world’s greatest death, brought forth Christ in Resurrection Life, Resurrection Power, and Resurrection Hope!

It was John Greenleaf Whittier who once wrote: [Encyclopedia of Religious Quotations by Frank S. Mead, Fleming H. Revell Com. Westwood, New Jersey],

“Behind the cloud the starlight lurks, Through showers the sunbeams fall; For God, who loves all His works, has left His hope for all.”

It was Fanny Crosby and Robert Lowry, long before its publication in 1940 in the Baptist Hymnal of Broadman Press, Nashville, Tennesseee, who wrote the hymn, “All The Way My Savior Leads Me” – and the word you need to stand upon is the eternal Truth that He doesn’t lead you in hopelessness but Eternal Hope! It says:

“All the way my Savior leads me; What have I to ask beside? Can I doubt His tender mercy, Who through life has been my Guide? Heavenly peace, divinest comfort, Here by faith in Him to dwell! For I know, whatever befall me, Jesus does all things well.

All the way my Savior leads me, Cheers each winding path I tread, Gives me grace for every trial, Feeds me with the living bread. Though my weary steps may falter, And my soul a-thirst may be, Gushing from the Rock before me, Lo! A spring of joy I see.

All the way my Savior leads me; Oh, the fullness of His love! Perfect rest to me is promised In my Father’s house above. When my spirit, clothed immortal, Wings its flight to realms of day, This my song through endless ages: Jesus led me all the way.” Has He led YOU into His “Easter-Triumphant”?

CHAPTER FIVE

“THE EARTHLY KINGDOMS OR THE HEAVENLY KINGDOM?”

Isn’t it amazing to you that, as you read the Word, God exposes the intent of our hearts and minds – acceptance of devotion and allegiance to earthly kingdoms, or hesitant to surrender allegiance faithfully to Christ, or to God’s Heavenly Kingdom, or fully yielded and even willing to die for the Heavenly Kingdom?

I’m sure this is why the Spirit led the author of Hebrews to write, in Hebrews 4:12-13, “For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.”

How does the Living Word of God unveil or expose your full surrender or your compromised walk or your full denial and rejection of the Holy Word? Devotion to “earthly kingdoms” apart from God are easily identifiable, and devotion to His “Heavenly Kingdom” is easily discernable – “by their fruits you shall know them!” Even how clearly did the Anointed Word expose the Galatians when in Galatians 3:1-4 Paul asked them (and any of us in this modern-day if it’s convicting!), “O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified? This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh [old sin nature]? Have you suffered so many things in vain – if indeed it was in vain?”

“The Earthly Kingdoms”? The Bible does speak often of “the kingdoms of the earth,” or “the kingdoms of the heathen,” or “the kingdoms of the idols,”; even in Isaiah 23:16-17 Holy God exposed Tyre, as in the song of the harlot: “Take a harp, go about the city, you forgotten harlot; make sweet melody, sing many songs, that you may be remembered.” And it shall be, at the end of seventy years, that the Lord will deal with Tyre. She will return to her hire, and commit fornication with all the kingdoms of the world on the face of the earth.” Dare you to think that ‘nations’ or ‘people-groups’ or ‘community attitudes’ can voluntarily accept, unite, become wedded to, idolatrous, wicked intercourse that violates God’s intent, and promotes indifference, indulgence, immorality – whatever satisfies the appetites of the ‘flesh’ of its earthly kingdom, citizenry desires?

Historical nations through human history have fallen under the very judgments of God Himself because they so ignore Divine Authority in individual lives, cities, states, or nations – and God’s Word clearly exposes His judgments on those careless, calloused, cold-hearted-to-God people!

And all nations that reject God’s authority, His Divine Will, and His Heavenly love and mercy, experience His eternal judgments! Ezekial 31:14b declares the word of the Lord, “For they have all been delivered to death, to the depths of the earth, among the children of men who go down to the Pit.” That’s not good!

I find it so burdensome to know that many, many peoples and nations have set aside God’s authority over their governments, their states and cities, and their homes and families, adapting to the ways, the cultures, the times, yes, the fleshly desires from the nature of sin and death – and, for them, “It’s all OK; everybody does it!” Really?

In Isaiah 26: 7-10 is a description briefly of the unjust, but truly identifies the just or the ‘justified’: “The way of the just is uprightness; O Most Upright, You weigh the path of the just. Yes, in the way of Your judgments, O Lord, we have waited for You; the desire of our soul is for Your name and for the remembrance of You. With my soul I have desired You in the night, Yes, by my spirit within me I will seek You early; For when Your judgments are in the earth (or the “Land”), the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness. Let grace be shown to the wicked [AND Holy God has done that!], yet he will not learn righteousness; in the land of uprightness he will deal unjustly, and will not behold the majesty of the Lord.” Do the same ‘worldly, godless, dishonoring spirits’ still burden the nations?

Do you grasp the heart-break of God as He reveals through prophet after prophet the desolation, the darkness, the devastations of many nations, lives, and families, though “through it All” He still honors Himself through His remnant? Even the chosen nation of Israel God, through the prophet, described in Isaiah 5:13-16, “Therefore my people have gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge; their honorable men are famished (they don’t know the Bread of Life!), and their multitude dried up with thirst (they don’t know the Living Water!). Therefore Sheol (“place of death”) has enlarged itself and opened its mouth beyond measure; their glory and their multitude and their pomp (or “party spirit”), and he who is jubilant, shall descend into it. People shall be brought down, each man shall be humbled, and the eyes of the lofty (or proud in himself/herself) shall be humbled. But the Lord of hosts shall be exalted in judgment, and God who is holy shall be hallowed in righteousness.”

Yes, godless nations become kingdoms of darkness, kingdoms of resistance to the authority of God, even resistant to His holy love; kingdoms of baseness, fleshliness, immorality, un-holiness, nakedness, shamelessness, conscienceless compromise; yes, even ‘professing God nations’ will deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, celebrating “our freedom in Christ to do as we please since we’re forgiven”, exposing their blindness to divine truth and holy living! How deceived is that? Do you understand that ‘men of the fallen world’ will profess a ‘faith’ at times when their one desire is “our portion of evil AND our portion of the good,” and even with that, still express no surrender, yieldedness, or obedience to the King of kings and Lord of lords!

“Earthly Kingdoms”? Oh, there are many “who say that we have fellowship with Jesus, and walk in darkness, [they] lie and do not practice the truth.” That’s 1 John 1:6 followed by 1 John 1:7, “But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.”

“Earthly Kingdoms”? They have no fear of God because “a public world is no place for God or His Word or His will; we’re blessed with independence,” as deterioration, deceit, defaming God and His Word, yes, ungodly men, who turn the grace of God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ, becoming public examples of lost-ness and separation from God, though famed, by their fleshly kingdom allegiance! How often have you witnessed fleshly kingdom allegiance ‘show-cased’ in Hollywood depravity, Washington deception, even some church-defiance of the pure, the holy, the Christ-honoring?

“Religious Earthly Kingdoms”? Do you discern at times as a true believer that there is in some a counterfeit of outward allegiance that has nothing to do with a “new heart,” a “new life,” a “new creation,” a “new name,” a “new covenant,” a “new heart and new spirit,” a living hope of “all things made new”? But they walk religious paths, if they feel they have to – they’d really rather just be expressive of their fleshly pleasures, “knowing God will forgive me”! Ever heard that?

Are you aware that there are many, many ‘laborers for God’, but far less of the professors of faith who truly want to walk in step with Him? Oswald Chambers has a short section in his book, “My Utmost For His Highest,” [p.206], which is so on target, and convicting, when he wrote: “The Bible does not say that God punished the human race for one man’s sin; but that the disposition of sin, viz., my claim to my right to myself, entered into the human race by one man, and that another Man took on Him the sin of the human race and put it away (Heb. 9:26) – an infinitely profounder revelation. The disposition of sin is not (simply) immorality and wrong-doing, but the disposition of self-realization – I am my own god. This disposition may work out in decorous morality or in indecorous immorality, but it has the one basis, my claim to my right to myself. When our Lord faced men with all the forces of evil in them, and men who were clean living and moral and upright, He did not pay any attention to the moral degradation of the one or to the moral attainment of the other; He looked at something we do not see, viz., the disposition…. The condemnation is not that I am born with a heredity of sin, but IF when I realize Jesus Christ came to deliver me from it, I refuse to let Him do so, from that moment I begin to get the seal of damnation.”

WOW! What an awesome word! And the judgment? Christ, the “Light”, has come into our world, but sadly some love their darkness and not His Light!

LET’S TURN TO “THE HEAVENLY KINGDOM”! Dare I even begin with “The Lord’s Prayer” found in Matthew 6:9-13? I believe I will! “In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven hallowed be Your name. YOUR KINGDOM COME, YOUR WILL BE DONE ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN. Give us this day our daily bread (Matthew 4:4?). And forgive us our debts, as WE forgive our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For YOURS is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.”

How did Christ Jesus continue His “kingdom message”? In Matthew 6:33 our Lord said, “SEEK FIRST the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things (“what I’ve said before!”) shall be added to you.”

But ‘modern-men’, even some believers, contend their ‘faith’ is an ‘addendum’ or ‘add-on’ or a ‘supplement’ to their already ‘spiritually-minded, successful, settled lives’ in their own self-determined , spiritual-elitist kingdom, established by themselves out of their ‘sincere hearts’!

It’s so interesting, as we wed together ‘kingdom building from fallen men’s desires, wants, and ambitions’ and ‘The Kingdom of God and His will for the redeemed’! In Matthew 6:25 Jesus asked, “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?” And, He went on later to ask these same folk and us, in verses 31-33, “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles (that’s unbelievers!) seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. BUT, seek FIRST the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”

Even as a true believer in the Lordship of Christ Jesus, have you ever examined the testimony of your own life as to whether or not YOU are living by, demonstrating, fully persuaded, that your Lord and Savior is ever faithful in meeting all your needs: body, soul, and spirit? “Seek first”, what? The Kingdom of God!

Reading Oswald Chambers’ book recently, “My Utmost For His Highest,” [pps.254-255], he had quoted 2 Corinthians 7:10, “For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death.” He then wrote: “The marvels of conviction of sin, forgiveness, and holiness are so interwoven that it is only the forgiven man who is the holy man, he proves he is forgiven by being the opposite to what he was, by God’s grace,” adding a paragraph that says: “The entrance into the Kingdom is through the panging pains of repentance crashing into a man’s respectable goodness; then the Holy Spirit, Who produces these agonies, begins the formation of the Son of God in the life. The new life will manifest itself in conscious repentance and unconscious holiness, never the other way about.”

No doubt that this is why John wrote in 1 John 4:9-10 and verse 14, “In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Verse 14, And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world.”

And since the eternal love of God has been poured out for us, 1 John 5:11-13 declares for our evaluation, examination, and assurance: “And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life, (with John then declaring in Verse 13), These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, THAT YOU MAY KNOW THAT YOU HAVE ETERNAL LIFE, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.”

I absolutely love and praise God for the simple, sanctified, and saving word of Jude in just a few words! He wrote: “Jude, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, To those who are CALLED, SANCTIFIED by God the Father, and PRESERVED IN JESUS CHRIST…” Glory!

“The Heavenly Kingdom”? First, THAT”S CITIZENS CALLED TO GOD’S WILL, HIS ABIDING PRESENCE IN US THROUGH THE RESURRECTED, REIGNING, RULING PRESENCE, WHO YIELD TO HIS CONTROL!

It was Mrs. Cecil F. Alexander and William H. Jude who wrote the old hymn, “Jesus Calls Us’, [Broadman Hymnal, Broadman Press, Nashville, Tenn., 1940], “JESUS CALLS US; o’er the tumult Of our life’s wild, restless sea, Day by day His sweet voice sounds, Saying, “Christian, follow Me.”

JESUS CALLS US from the worship Of the vain world’s golden store, From each idol that would keep us, Saying, “Christian, love Me more.”

In our joys and in our sorrows, Days of toil and hours of ease, Still He calls, in cares and pleasures, “Christian, love Me more than these.”

Jesus calls us; by Your mercies, Savior, may we hear Your call, Give our hearts to Your obedience, Serve and love You best of all.”

“THE HEAVENLY KINGDOM”? Second, THAT”S DISCIPLES CALLED, BUT ALSO SANCTIFIED BY GOD HIMSELF, OR MORE UNDERSTANDABLY, “SET APART” FOR HIS ETERNAL PURPOSES! It’s really, really interesting that in John 10:31-32 we see the Jews took up stones again to stone Jesus, and Jesus asked them, “For which of those works (which He did often before their very eyes!) do you stone Me?” Then in the very next verse the Jews answered Jesus, saying, “For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy, and because You, being a Man, make yourself God.”

John 10:34-38 tells us Jesus’ answer! “Is it not written in your law, ‘I said, “You are gods”? If He called them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the Scripture cannot be broken), do you say of Him WHOM THE FATHER SANCTIFIED AND SENT INTO THE WORLD, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’? If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me; but if I do, though you do not believe Me, believe the works, that you may know and believe that the Father is in Me, and I in Him.”

Is “Christ in you the hope of glory” the calling AND the sanctification of every true disciple? If YOU are His, do you understand YOUR “setting apart” for the glory and honor of Christ? And do you remember Him saying in Matthew 5:16, “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven”?

If “we were buried with Him,” “arisen to life,” and if “God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved,” are we, as His disciples sent to condemn the world around us, or to seek and see them saved as WE share His love? Are YOU “set apart, sanctified, sent to serve” those around you as Jesus did to those around Him?

When Paul said to the Thessalonians in 1 Thessalonians 5:23, “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ,” does it awaken you concerning His purpose for your life of faith, and arouse you anew to honor Him only?

You’ll do so by Reflection; you’ll not deny His will but be committed to a walk of Reception of that will; you’ll be led by the Spirit in Recognition of your life, walk, and ministry as His disciple; and you’ll Rejoice in the Release of His Holy Spirit through YOU as a witness, and you’ll Rest in Eternal Peace!

But, I’ve wondered, at times even in a moment of despondency, if our Lord and Savior looks upon our modern cities He died for, just as He died for Jerusalem, drawing near our cities, and weeping over them, saying again, [Luke 19:42-44], “IF YOU had known, even you, especially in this YOUR day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side, and level you, and your children within you, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, BECAUSE YOU DID NOT KNOW THE TIME OF YOUR VISITATION.”

THIRD: “THE HEAVENLY VISION”? Called! Sanctified! THAT”S PREPARED DISCIPLES PRESERVED IN CHRIST JESUS! A reminder: “Jude, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, To Those who are called, sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ. Mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.”

What did the Lord Jesus say to us in Luke 17:32-33? “Remember Lot’s wife. Whoever seeks to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it.” Loses one’s life for the honor of Christ “preserves” it? That word is the Greek word, dzoogonecho, from a word meaning “engendering alive, rescued, or saved from death”! “The wages of your sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life In Christ Jesus our Lord!” And that has never changed!

The “strange gods” of fallen mankind blind eyes to Christ Jesus and leave them without even a desire to know the Truth! The “strange gods” ARE evil demons deceiving as many as they can to the Truth! The “strange gods” could care less that unredeemed sinners never know the Truth of Christ’s “blood sacrifice, and even if they learn of Him, deceive just as many at Christ’s “Door”, but choose the devil’s exit to Hell and the eternal death that never dies!

It’s refrigerator Verses! 1 Peter 1:3-5, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to HIS ABUNDANT MERCY has BEGOTTEN US AGAIN TO A LIVING HOPE through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that DOES NOT FADE AWAY, reserved in heaven for you, who are KEPT BY THE POWER OF GOD THROUGH FAITH for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” GLORY!

“Preserved in Christ Jesus our Lord”? The “divinely designed process of salvation,” instituted by the Lord God Almighty for truly repentant hearts of faith in the “finished work of Christ at the Cross”, received by the broken over their sin and death, washed pure and clean through the blood of the Lamb, indwelt by the Holy Spirit, received and walk in the “promises”, these precious sons and daughters stand on Truth about the “redeemed life in Christ”, pay no attention to what they once were without Him, limited in the natural, and rely upon the supernatural and Spirit-development of Christ’s “new creation”!

Didn’t Christ Jesus quote what Isaiah the prophet received, Isaiah 61:1-3? “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” [That’s Luke 4:17-19!]. Verse 20 then says, Then Jesus closed the book, and gave it to the attendant and sat down. AND THE EYES OF ALL WHO WERE IN THE SYNAGOGUE WERE FIXED ON HIM. Are YOUR eyes ‘fixed, stayed, remaining on King Jesus’?

CHAPTER SIX

“DEAF TO THE SAVIOR OR DESPERATE FOR THE SAVIOR?”

There is an amazing, encouraging, uplifting, miraculous word in Mark 7:31-37 that should challenge all true disciples in the ministry of prayer intercession for their friends or fellow citizens who ‘appear’ deaf to the words of the Savior! It says: Again, departing from the region of Tyre and Sidon, He came through the midst of the region of Decapolis to the Sea of Galilee. Then they brought to Him one who was deaf and had an impediment in his speech, and they begged Him to put His hand on him. And Jesus took him aside from the multitude, and put His fingers in His ears, and He spat and touched His tongue. Then, looking up to heaven, He sighed, and said to him, “Ephatha,” that is, “Be opened.” Immediately his ears were opened, and the impediment of his tongue was loosed, and he spoke plainly.

Then Jesus commanded them that they should tell no one; but the more He commanded, the more widely they proclaimed it. And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, “He has done all things well. He makes both the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.”

And, I have to wonder, “Did He say, “Don’t tell”, (over and over), because He knew, if they are truly His disciples, they can’t help but to tell!” [Just my thought!].

“Deaf to the Savior or Desperate For the Savior”? I don’t know how you react to deafness to the True Savior and Lord of life, but I am aware of what I hope to do another book on later related to what I’ve seen or witnessed about “the innovativeness of spiritual or fleshly cover-ups”! It’s mind-boggling to me the unbelief, the denial, even strong opposition to our Lord’s death, burial, and resurrection, but then I sense ‘spiritual heart problems’ more than eyesight!

“Deaf to the Savior” IS because of one’s, yes, fleshly-birthed life with the old sin-nature! I know the Prophet Isaiah, anointed of God, was confronting rebellious Israel, yet at the same time, I believe in Isaiah 1:4, as he addressed, “Alas, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, (the prophet went on) ,Verse 4, 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”, Isaiah gave us an on-target description of all peoples, birthed with the sin nature! Doesn’t Romans 3:23 declare that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”? “Missed marks of divine intention” never honors God but blots the life with darkness not light, with imitation not divine life and presence within, a blotched canvas without the Master-Presence of the Lord and Savior, but signed by “Sinner, Entertainer of Darkness”!

[I would encourage you to pause right now and read the Book of Ecclesiastes, and especially what you’ll find in an unveiling of a life without God, which is darkness for sure, but with the added curses of spiritual blindness and deafness!]

The psalmist simply asked in Psalm 25:12, “Who is the man that fears the Lord?” Then he talked about the man who does fear the Lord and how God blesses Him, but if one has no fear of God and turns his ears willfully to ‘deafness’, what’s his just punishment? No fear of God is so very obvious in the man whose ears are willfully turned to ‘deafness’ – that man cements his ears from any Word from Holy God! Warped minds, void of sincere belief, trust, and fear of God, warps the ears, and all he’s able to hear are the sounds of self-indulgence, self-assertiveness, and self-interests only! Sensuality, self-seeking, and slovenliness become the strong-suit of a strong-willed ‘sinner’ who closes his ears to the voice and calling of Holy God who loves him so much more than he’ll allow himself to hear! Unbelief IS spiritual deafness!

“Deaf to the Savior”? Deafness is the true reality of any man in facing the reality to the truth of conviction, conversion, and consecration, because that’s not what he wants! The “deaf-ears-man of unbelief” wants no part of a “new creation, new-born, newly blessed right relationship with Holy God” because he’s not at all interested in being “crucified with Christ” and see his sin, selfishness, self-indulgence put away by Christ’s shed blood! He loves his worldliness, his carnality, his fleshliness, and thrives on the things (yes, mostly unknown to him) that shames God, breeding obstinacy that he calls strength, and deafness to God that he calls satisfaction in his worldly bent, and certainly doesn’t see his bent to sin as his personal funeral announcement!

“Deaf to the Savior”? That’s the bold announcement of self-interest only, the promotion of “Me,” my interests, my indulgences, my desires, my self-preservation, my covetousness, my idea of a religion – the worship and adoration of my sinful nature! – my self-enthroned rule of my own house, governed as I see fit – a self, stolen like a thief, and hidden away in one’s personal darkness – self, the law of desecration, disease, and denial of any eternal intent, (except Hell, self really should want no part of!); Emerson once spoke about “selling the thrones of angels for a short and turbulent pleasure”! Selfishness?

Alexander MacLaren once wrote: “That which of all things unfits man for the reception of Christ as a Saviour, is not gross profligacy and outward, vehement transgression, but it is self-complacency, fatal self-righteousness and self-sufficiency.” [The Encyclopedia of Religious Quotations, Fleming H. Revell Com. Westwood, New Jersey, p.399].

“Deaf to the Savior” is more than a curse, which it is, but also it’s a “cloud”, a “dark shadow,” and an “evil presence” that speaks: “self, self, self,” over and over! Oh, there are many who don’t think so, but “self” (with closed ears to hear the voice and Word of God) is a concentered-bent, eyes and ears only, to see and hear what satisfies the “me, my, mine” philosophy or my religion of selfishness! The ‘profits’ of deafness to God’s Word always is a short-sighted investment in sure bankruptcy!

Are you aware that deafness to the voice of Jesus always has been, always is, always will be, and even more and more establishments of man-made religious activities, whether the pagan-stone idols of the past, or the raising up of new but spiritually dead Pharisees even today? But what about sin and guilt and its consequences, what do some people do? Is it possible one can just “bury your past” and forget it, if you know that there is a throne of eternal judgment before which you will be required by Holy God to stand before and give your explanation before He hands His final judgment?

I read a statement in a magazine recently about personal or business failures and how one can overcome with a right mind-set. Big bold letters: “Being mindful and present allows us to escape our fixation on the past and the future and be open to what is.” That may slide one by in the business world, but God Himself authors divine conviction and an ‘eternal fix’ over one’s shame and guilt that the Bible defines as “the blood of the Lamb of God” – one may resolve his business failures, life failures, marriage failures, personal sin-failures, but a “positive mind over that is not Holy Spirit conviction to bring us to repentance toward God and faith in Jesus’ finished work at the Cross!

I love Thomas Adams’ long-ago statement when he said, “Self-righteousness is the devil’s masterpiece to make us think well of ourselves.” Even “the power of positive thinking” void of the will, the Word, and the ways of God may make a difference in your business-world thinking, but it doesn’t change your heart before Holy God! “Deaf to the Savior” is the strategy of the powers of darkness that deceive human lives alienated and separated from Holy God, and the devil wants to keep them in that state of mind and heart: “Deaf to God!”

If human flesh is birthed into the world with the sin nature, and we know it is, born spiritually barren, alienated and separated from God, born as a citizen of the kingdom of darkness, born, and before long, the nature of sin, disobedience, and rebellion begins to raise its “ugly” head and heart, even displaying a character that is not of God but of fallen human flesh, and one senses, at least if he/she is a true believer, “God, help us bring our sons and daughters to you, as we came, so that they also become “children of the Light”, WE PRAY, WE BOW BEFORE YOU: SAVE OUR CHILDREN OF DARKNESS!” And, God help those who don’t agree! Apart from Godly, faithful fathers and mothers, who intercede for their children, to expose them to the Eternal Word, yield to the Holy Spirit to guide them as parents, they’ll witness a tragic scene of some children separated to the powers of darkness!

I’m telling you, to see, yes, unbelieving parents at times, and unbelieving sons and daughters, is to witness people like play-pieces on a checker-board, played by the ruler of darkness, with decisions, moves, and results, that says: “You ALL missed the Light – good, stay in the darkness with the devil and us demons!” How sad is that?

“Deaf to the Savior”? In “The Encyclopedia of Religious Quotations,” noted elsewhere in this book, Tryon Edwards made a convicting statement: “Unbelief, in distinction from disbelief, is a confession of ignorance where honest inquiry might easily find the truth. “Agnostic” is but the Greek for “ignoramus”!” Deaf ears are “Easter-less” without any hope except The Risen Savior miraculous opening them! But He does say, “Take up your cross, and follow Me!”

In transitioning from “Deaf to the Savior” to “Desperate for the Savior”, let me share with you I Peter 2:21-25! Peter wrote, “For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps: ‘Who committed no sin, nor was deceit found in His mouth’; (Isaiah 53:9!), who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously; WHO HIMSELF BORE OUR SINS IN HIS OWN BODY ON THE TREE, that we, having died to sins, (Really?), might live for righteousness – by whose stripes you were healed. For you were like sheep going astray, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.”

In Luke 24 we see that Jesus had been crucified and buried in the borrowed tomb, resurrected, with several disciples going near the place with the Resurrected Christ appearing to them, but they did not know Him. The Word says, “But their eyes were restrained, so that they did not know Him.”

In Luke 24:17 Jesus said to them, “What kind of conversation is this that you have with one another as you walk and are sad?” Cleopas responded, “Are You the only stranger in Jerusalem,, and have You not known the things which happened there in these days?” “What things?” Jesus asked. They said to Jesus, Verse 19, “The things concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a Prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, Verse 20, and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered Him to be condemned to death, and crucified Him. Verse 21, But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel…”! Oh, and then in Verses 25-27, the Resurrected Lord Jesus Christ said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?” And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.”

Are you aware of “the slowness of heart to believe who we are alienated from God, separated, governed by one’s old sin nature, in need of a Savior” – not to make us better, but aware of the need of a “new nature, new life, new hope, new relationship” by the crucifixion with Christ and raised into His Spirit-world and eternal Kingdom-Rule through repentance toward God and faith in Christ’s finished, victorious work when He shed His own blood, sacrificing His Life for you? Psalm 119:70 speaks of a “heart, fat as grease” or “calloused”, having been birthed in flesh with a heart “uncaring” about the true, eternal things of Holy God, until Confronted by “Messiah’s shed blood and death on the Cross” in YOUR place!

Hebrews 2:9-10, and verses 14-18, and Hebrews 3:1-6, explains the atoning work of Christ, then followed with a vital warning that ought to put the Holy Fear of God fresh in your heart! Let’s examine these passages!

Hebrews 2:9-10 says, “But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone.”

Hebrews 2:14-18 then says, “In as much then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. For indeed He does not give aid to angels, but He does give aid to the seed of Abraham. Therefore, in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted.” Then, also, Hebrews 3:1-6! It says: “Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Christ Jesus, who was faithful to Him (God the Father) who appointed Him (God the Son), as Moses also was faithful in all His house. For this One has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as He who built the house has more honor than the house. For every house is built by someone, but He who built all things is God. And Moses indeed was faithful in all His house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which would be spoken afterward, but Christ as a Son over His own house, whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end.”

I’m afraid to tell you, but I’m sure that there are those beginning in the faith who do not hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end because they are “led astray,” “fall by the wayside,” “give in or over as a victim of temptation and sin” rather than “victors faithful in Christ’s Victory”! Through His suffering of death, it was and is His eternal desire to bring many sons to the crowning of glory and honor also! Chambers said, “God became incarnate for the purpose of putting away sin; not for the purpose of Self-realization”, yet many see their “faith” as an improvement of their flesh, not the “Saving Faith” that sees it “crucified with Christ,” becoming, yes, “new creations”!

In Philippians 3:7-12 Paul instructs, equips, and inspires true followers of the Lordship of Christ when he said: “But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.” And that’s by surrendering to “Christ in you, the hope of glory”!

Isn’t this why the inspired Word of God tells us the following in Romans 6:6-7, “knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin (IN YOU & ME!) might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin.” The ‘self-discipline of obedience To sin’ was put to death AT THE CROSS, so why yield to the old man of sin rather than to the new man of Christ’s imparted, implanted, imputed righteousness, and Life of Freedom from sin’s power and control? Examine to whom your allegiance belongs! A few words I wrote as of April 2, 2016!

“Free from the old life, crowned with the new, the blood of Christ births me true, True to His Word, true to His work, Calvary’s blood is not for ‘jerks’!

‘Jerks’ are the self-justified who have no shame in denying Jesus and pumping self-fame! “Who needs God? I’m more than able to care for my sod; human nature may be ‘imagination’, but, for me, it’s my creation from God’s expectation – it’s MY ‘bod’!”

Arrogance is a life exalting its self against the knowledge of God, proud, fleshly delusions, so sure it doesn’t need “God’s nod”!

“I’m a self-made man, and no ‘gospel’ is needed – I’m determined my life will not be one that’s heeded!” Ramparts and wells are so strongly erected that the minds and hearts of many choose not to be selected!

If you carefully search in your biblical research, you’ll soon see man’s battles with true faith are the battles of ‘Who is in control’?, because, sadly, many want to captain their own souls!

But I’ve been redeemed by Jesus’ shed blood, and the Spirit of God came in as a flood! A flood that carries me in the Way of His completeness, no shortness of blessing but His fullness complete, my life has no door for Satan to compete!

I’m sovereignly owned by God through the blood of His Son, never again to be in a race that Satan has won; I’m free in His Name, never again the same, but only a servant that proclaims His fame!”

Charles Wesley and John Zundel wrote the old Hymn, “Love Divine,” [The Broadman Hymnal by Broadman Press, Nashville, Tenn. 1940]. It says: “Love divine, all loves excelling, Joy of heaven to earth come down! Fix in us Your humble dwelling; All Your faithful mercies crown. Jesus, You are all compassion, Pure, unbounded love You are; Visit us with Your salvation; Enter every trembling heart.

Breathe, O breathe Your loving Spirit Into every troubled breast; Let us all in You inherit, Let us find that second rest. Take away our bent to sinning; Alpha and Omega be; End of faith, as its beginning, Set our hearts at liberty.

Come, Almighty to deliver, Let us all Your life receive; Suddenly return, and never, Nevermore Your temples leave; You we would be always blessing, Serve You as Your hosts above, Pray, and praise You without ceasing, Glory in Your perfect love.

Finish now Your new creation; Pure and spotless let us be; Let us see Your great salvation, Perfectly Restored in Thee: Changed from glory into glory, Till in heaven we take our place, Till we cast our crowns before You, Lost in wonder, love, and praise.” AMEN?

Colossian 2:9-10 declares, “For in Him (Christ Jesus) dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.” Thank You, Lord Jesus!

CHAPTER SEVEN

“THE SHORT-SIGHTED OR THE SAINTLY SIGHT?”

There’s an interesting statement Peter Marshall made in his book entitled, “Mr. Jones, Meet The Master,” when he said, “Give us clear vision that we may know where to stand and what to stand for, because unless we stand for something, we shall fall for anything.”

But the sad truth is that we live in a time-period of human history when there is little personal, clear vision, and so, many men settle into to their “best” or “bitter”, whatever spiritual state of heart and mind they find themselves in and settle for, because they ‘believe’ Holy God has no vision for them, choosing to walk ‘short-sighted’ to the best of their human capabilities!

In Acts 26:12-19, Paul the Apostle was sharing his encounter with the Resurrected Lord! “While thus occupied, as I journeyed to Damascus with authority and commission from the chief priests, at midday, O king, along the road I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining around me and those who journeyed with me. And when we all had fallen to the ground, I heard a voice speaking to me and saying in the Hebrew language, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’ So I said, ‘Who are You, Lord?’ And He said, ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But rise and stand on your feet; for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to make you a minister and a witness both of the things which you have seen and of the things I will yet reveal to you. I will deliver you from the Jewish people, as well as from the Gentiles, TO WHOM I NOW SEND YOU, TO OPEN THEIR EYES, in order TO TURN THEM FROM DARKNESS TO LIGHT, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins AND AN INHERITANCE AMONG THOSE WHO ARE SANCTIFIED (remember, it means “set apart”!), yes, SANCTIFIED BY FAITH IN ME.”

What an awesome revelation!! Oh, but let me, I pray, inspire you even more! 2 Corinthians 3:17-18 is Paul’s inspired unveiling of more and more of the Savior’s intent! He wrote: “Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.” Liberty! Unveiled faces! Transformed! Same image! From glory to glory! The Holy Spirit institutes it in every repentant child of faith’s life!

But the “Short-Sighted”? What did Paul say in 2 Corinthians 4:3-4? “But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.”

“Short-Sighted” fleshly, unbelieving, clouded minds, hearts, and wills, to God’s eternal purpose in Christ Jesus’ “blood Atonement” is because of a personal choice of “my destiny” without God Himself! Most don’t even know they’ve been deceived by the devil himself, bound to the devil’s darkness, enslaved to give their allegiance to ‘harvesting’ the unfruitful works of darkness, fooled into the state of death that is dissipation, wasting by misuse, fleshly diversions from divine reality, indulgence in the shameful to Holy God but pleasurable to sin-bound, demonically oppressed, and “short-sighted” sinners!

“Short-Sighted” is spiritual blindness! Without Christ as Lord and Savior, all men walk “in the futility of their minds”; they’ve, yes, CHOSEN to “have their understanding darkened,” willfully choosing to be alienated from the life of God, unaware of their spiritual ignorance and blindness of their hearts, allowing the ‘searing’ and hardening and blindness of their hearts, eyes, and minds, resulting in “giving themselves over to lewdness to work all uncleanness with greediness.” (Ephesians 4:17-19!).

“Short-Sighted”? If our Lord and Savior spoke about “being born again”, which He did, and it is necessary, if He said, in Matthew 18:3, “Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven,” – how short-sighted is that to ignore, turn from, or try to refute the Holy Word of God? Whether or not you know it, knew it, disliked it, or tried to refute it, without Christ as Lord and Savior, one IS –apart from “new birth” – a slave to self, sin, Satan, and certain eternal death that will not die, and separation from Holy God!

And, of course, there are those who say, “I’m satisfied with my natural life and have no desire to even think about conversion, second birth, becoming as ‘a child’ before your Holy God. I’m a man! Or I’m a beautiful woman! Or I’m ‘wiser’ than most church preachers!” No conversion, certainly no right relationship with Holy God, even if they’re ‘religious,’ ‘church-goers’, maybe a brilliant university professor without an ounce of biblical, eternal wisdom outside of Holy Scriptures! Then, of course, we see, sense, and are sure that rejecters of biblical truth, divine wisdom, and holy love, do so because they see redemptive faith requires surrender to His sovereignty, with a willingness to do what He says! “Why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ but will not do what I say?’ That would require all-out personal yielded-ness which many are not willing to do, seeing themselves ‘wiser’ than the Creator!

“Short-Sighted”? It’s not what one maybe does as a feeling of ‘right choice’ for him/her, but the sad refusal of doing what they do for selfish reasons rather than seeing the hand of God, His equipping of them for His honor, glory, and praise, and His wisdom equipping them for extending His life, expressing His love, and proving His power and anointing – they ignore Him, then continually pat themselves on the back as being smarter than God!

That’s like Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s comment in his writing, “The Devil’s Thoughts,” when he said: “And the Devil did grin, for his darling sin is pride that apes humility.” Just how vain is that? But it’s not only a devilish lie, but a humanistic deception!

In the “Essay on Man,” [Epis.1,l.124], Alexander Pope wrote: “In pride, in reasoning pride, our error lies; All quit their sphere and rush into the skies, Pride still is aiming at the blessed abodes, Men would be angels, angels would be gods,” and of course that’s ‘fallen angels,’ ‘deceived devil,’, and a self-centered, godless man! Unbelievers’ false reverence of themselves is the ‘vice-grip’ of Satan!

I remind you, Jesus said in Matthew 16:24, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me.” Yet, many say, “Deny himself? Take up a cross to the death of MY fleshly desires? Forsake all and follow your Jesus? I think not!” And, by ‘mind’ and ‘heart’ hostility, they fall short of “Kingdom-Living”!

“Short-Sighted”? Have you ever heard anyone say, “Well, Jesus may have His standards of acceptance into His kingdom, but be assured, I have my own standards, and I measure up as high as I desire to go! I’ll take “my way” and leave Jesus to “His Way”!” Do you understand “obstinacy”? That’s “my opinion, as I said, which is what I determine is essential for me.” That’s “unyielding, because no God tells Me what I ought to do!” That’s “No desire to be told anything by anybody, no desire to be led, fed, bred in anything that doesn’t adapt to me, not me to it!” That’s “I make my stand for myself come hell or high water or any ‘life-storm wind’ – I’m able for anything, anywhere, at any time; nothing has, holds, or hopes to make the difference in me; I am my own gauge!”

Here’s how the Lord Jesus responds to that characteristic of a ‘short-changed life’: John 15:5-6 tells us, “Master-Jesus” speaking: “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit, for without Me you can do nothing (of eternal significance honoring the Savior and Lord?). If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.”

Do you see and sense lives, even on a national governmental screen, or national platform of recognition who know nothing of “the hand of God” in blessing, or national athletic performers who believe they achieve by their own gifts and see nothing as from God’s sovereign, able hands to mold them, make them, master their efficiency in whatever game they play, or “the least becoming the best – and it all has to do with my positive mind!” Really? It’s Holy God’s heart and desire to take the “natural man” and transform him into the “new man” to His glory!

“Short-Sighted”? I’m convinced that atheism is a bad, sad, mad disease, but just as damaging is one who knows there is God but chooses not to live in Him, by Him, or for Him, because they ‘love’ their independence! They choose “God-less” lives! With that frame of reference and internal ‘heart-condition’, one might think the Following:

“Living for my name is the name of my game, Living for Another named Jesus is only a bother!

Living free of any biblical restraint doesn’t produce in me fleshly complaints; I’m free as a bird flying to my own ‘tree of rest;’ Who says, “God crucified it, even your best”?

Living in the ‘flesh’ is a ‘path of death’?, when I see it as the best of human breath – “Do as you please is the great release, even if some say, ‘You serve the Beast’!”

But ‘soon’ the sounds of pain will be heard from the depths of Hell that are so absurd! Jesus’ Voice is the “Voice of Peace” as men discover His release!

Living in freedom is the promise of the Savior, no bondage or forgiveness or sacrifice for which YOU labor! He gave His all that YOU might be released from the Fall, and invited daily and forever to His “Celebration Ball”!

From death to dancing, having heard the trumpet sound, joining in with the lute and the harp, we gather to celebrate with our breath praising the Lord, from Whose Presence we’ll never depart!”

But in Romans 1:18-32 we learn of those who choose ‘death’ over “Resurrection Life, Power and Hope”! It says: “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them.

For since the creation of the world His attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, SO THAT THEY ARE WITHOUT EXCUSE, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man – and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things.

Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, [“The Lie”? You can sin and not die!], and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.

For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due.

And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unmerciful;

Who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them.”

And here, why any insight from me about “short-sightedness”, when God’s Word just exploded before us in passionate warning about sin’s penalty! So… let’s turn our attention to “The Saintly Sight”!

If Paul, after His Damascus Road encounter with the Resurrected Christ, was saved and sent by Him, as we saw in Acts 26:15-18, is that encounter not important to every new New Testament convert then and now? “Who are You, Lord?” And Jesus said to Him, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But rise and stand on your feet; for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to make you a minister and a witness both of the things which you have seen and of the things which I will yet reveal to you, TO OPEN THEIR EYES, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins AND an inheritance among those who are sanctified [“set apart”!] by faith in me.”

Do you understand both the preciousness of forgiveness and the privilege and responsibility of telling others, yes, “to open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God,” and, yes, even more – “that they may [having received forgiveness of sins] PLUS, an “inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me (Christ Jesus!).” Oswald Chambers said, [“My Utmost….”, p.8], “In sanctification [again meaning “set apart”] the regenerated soul deliberately gives up his right to himself to Jesus Christ, and identifies entirely with God’s interest in other men,” which is their salvation, their forgiveness, their new birth, their calling and commission, and His faithful provision to meet it! Grace abounds!

What is “aspiration to please God” if we, sadly, fail to understand “assignment to please our Lord’s commissioning and ambassadorial assignment” to the lost, the separated, the alienated, the spiritually needy, the sin-sick soul who knows nothing or little of his diagnosis of eternal death and separation from Holy God? A ‘professing disciple’, without an understanding of sovereign assignment, can ‘spiritually aspire’ yet sadly fail miserably if he/she never shares in the spirit of Christ “who came to seek and to save that which is lost”! I’m telling you, strong, healthy, maturing disciples are those who know and obey, out of an overflow of Christ’s love in them, their sharing the gospel of Christ with the unsaved generations that surround them. It’s time the “church” (?) learns obedience to Christ in “out-the-doors-of-the-church-evangelism and missions!

Sometimes disciples of Christ, sadly, live stymied lives about their faith and obedience, but David said in Psalm 40:7-8, “Behold, I come; in the scroll of the book it is written of me. I delight to do Your will, O my God, and Your law (or Word) is within my heart.” Will YOU say that?

Do you remember in Acts 4 , after the ‘lame man’ had been healed, the religious rulers, elders, as well as scribes, the high priest and others, setting Peter and other disciples before them, asking, “by what power or by what name have you done this (Healing)?” And Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, responded, “…that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by Him this man stands before you whole. This is the ‘stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone.’ Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

What did Paul say in 1 Corinthians 1:18 and Verse 24? “But the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us, who are being saved it is the power of God,” with Verse 24 added, speaking of preaching Christ crucified, which was a stumbling block to a Jew and foolishness to a ‘wise’(?) Greek, “Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.” Then in 2 Corinthians 3:18, Paul tells us, “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, ARE BEING CHANGED (TRANSFORMED!) into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.” “Amazing grace, how rich the sound that saved a wretch like me; I once was lost, but now am found, was blind but now I see!”

The transforming power of the love of Christ “forgives” and “frees” and “fulfills” a man into the beauty, blessing, honor, and calling as a “child of the King”! It was Hattie E. Buell and Rev. John B. Summer who in the 1900’s wrote a hymn entitled “A Child of the King.” It says:

“My Father is rich in houses and lands, He holds the wealth of the world in His hands! Of rubies and diamonds, of silver and gold, His coffers are full, He has riches untold.

My Father’s own Son, the Saviour of men, Once wandered earth as the poorest of them; But now He is pleading our pardon on high, That we may be His when He comes by and by.

I once was an outcast stranger on earth, A sinner by choice, And an alien by birth; But I’ve been adopted, my name’s written down, An heir to a mansion, a robe, and a crown.

A tent or a cottage, why should I care? They’re building a palace for me over there; Though exiled from home, yet, still I may sing: All glory to God, I’m a child of the King.”

But understanding that there are battles and wars concerning the “faith-walk”, sometimes doubts and fears will move in, around, or about, but to the true child of redemptive faith they will not stay! Why? Because ‘faith in Christ’ is faith in, not only a living power, but a living hope in our Risen Savior and Lord, and that faith and hope never dies! Dr. Mandell Creighton, former Bishop of London, in 1904 wrote the book, “The Mind of Peter.” He said: [p.9], “ Here and there the battle may seem to waver. But the hope of the Risen Lord is a living hope, which can never fail. Through the changes and chances of this mortal life, beyond the varying fashions of the world’s thought and endeavor, the eye of faith can find the outlines of a divine purpose growing ever clearer and more distinct. The immediate future may be impossible to forecast, for the kingdom of God comes not with observation. But he who is servant of an eternal hope, founded on the knowledge of the risen life, can feel more than he can explain, and can communicate more than he can express. Sympathy passes without words. Assurance is conveyed by the sense of a steadfast attitude toward life.” And that’s because He’s given us eyes to see, the gift of faith to trust, and the Holy Spirit to fulfill His unchangeable Word in us and through us!

In 1 Peter 1:13-21, we’re given “the Solid Rock” upon which to stand! It says, “Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation [or unveiling] of Jesus Christ; as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to your former lusts, as in your ignorance; but as He who called us is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, ‘Be holy, for I am holy.’

And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear; knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your ‘aimless conduct’ received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of a lamb without blemish and without spot. He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you who through Him believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and your hope are in God.” AMEN?

The High Priest, the religious elders of Judaism, the “Sad-U-sees”, the Pharisees, even much of the Jerusalem ‘public’ who crucified Christ, came against Peter because they’d commanded him to not teach ‘in this name’, filling Jerusalem with their ‘doctrine’, intending, they said, “to bring this Man’s blood on us,” which it was! Peter responded in Acts 5:29, “We ought to obey God rather than men.”

Oh, and then in Acts 5:30-32, Peter and the other apostles responded: “The God of our fathers raised up Jesus whom you murdered by hanging on a tree. Him God has exalted to His right hand to be Prince and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and the forgiveness of sins. And we are His witnesses to these things, and so also is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey Him.” Glory!!

Is it for YOU: “The Short-Sighted OR The Saintly Sight”?

CHAPTER EIGHT

“THE FLESHLY UNFULFILLED – THE SPIRITUALLY FULFILLED”

In 2 Corinthians 1:12 Paul stated, “For our boasting is this: the testimony of our conscience that we conducted ourselves in the world in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom but by the grace of God, and more abundantly toward you.”

‘Conduct in the world’? And Paul laid down his challenge: “Not with fleshly wisdom but by the grace of God”! And, you realize, there are multitudes who live by ‘grit’, honoring one’s fleshly determination or fleshly abilities, but not to God’s honor and glory, leaving ‘fleshly lives’ UNFULFILLED, though crowned by the world and the devil as outstanding folks.

As Jesus was instructing His disciples, He said in Mark 9:35, “If anyone desires to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all.”

Yet how many do you know who function through ‘flesh’ at its best, and miss God’s eternal intention, with a fleshly, unfulfilled, short of God’s blessing, satisfied with their ‘best’ life-style?

Are you aware of the danger of fleshly imagination that has nothing to do with ‘eternal purpose’, but is even that which either doesn’t consider ultimate intention by divine design, or personally chooses to exalt one’s self through personal self-determination above even the knowledge of God Himself?

If the Lord Jesus lived “to do My Father’s will,” don’t you find it so strange that even some Christians have not been disciplined in “bringing every thought captive to the obedience of Christ”? As a result, their view of their salvation is short-changed concerning relating to worldly influences, old sin-nature limitations, or even the devil’s interferences with the fullness of their development!

But “the fleshly unfulfilled” I see as worldly, unfulfilled unbelievers who determine to be ‘god’ or ‘goddesses’ themselves, godless lives governed by self-rule, even satisfied with their own “just-rewards”. Didn’t Paul tell young Timothy about those who were “lovers of pleasure rather than lovers (some) of God, having a form of godliness but deny its power. And from such people turn away”? [2 Timothy 3:5].

It’s interesting that even in old Israel there came time after time when, as Deborah said that she arose as a ‘mother’ in Israel only to see Israel “choosing new gods”! [Judges 5:8]. But, of course, in modern-day America, I’m not sure many Americans (?) now have any grasp of the “new gods they choose to worship”!

Most today bow to a ‘god or goddess’ of appearances with more attention to outside ‘show’ but no inward purified hearts by the blood of the Lamb! Psalm 82:5 speaks of those who “do not know, nor do they understand; they walk about in darkness; all the foundations of [their] earth is unstable,” and most aren’t even aware of their “faulty foundations”!

“The fleshly unfulfilled”? Sadly, most don’t even know of a ‘way of evil’, walking perverted paths, with no concern for the path of uprightness because they truly love or are enamored with the ways of darkness, rejoicing in doing evil things, delighting in the perversity of the wicked, looking for crooked paths, devious pleasures, even satisfied as devilish men or women – they love unrighteousness and bow willingly before their idols of darkness, deceit, and deathly deception.

“The fleshly unfulfilled”? In 2 Thessalonians 2:9-12, Paul spoke of a ‘lawless one (who) will be revealed, saying, “The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.”

“The fleshly unfulfilled”? I have no hesitation in saying that unbelievers that avoid “spiritual fulfillment” are individuals undeniably interested only in themselves, with an attitude of mind and heart that is in “what pleases me, the cares of my world, the concerns of what satisfies me and me alone.” Many are so carnal, crude, self-caring, that to expose their need of the Redeemer heightens their anger, resentment, and bitterness! For many, it’s ‘cold minds’, ‘cold hearts’, and ‘over-all coldness’ to even the awesome love of God for them.

In Luke 19:41 as Jesus “wept over Jerusalem”, I’m convinced the ascended Lord at the right hand throne of Almighty God still weeps over cities all over the world, saying still, “If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.”

How many times have you heard someone say that Jesus spoke in parables to make it easily understandable to them about what He wanted them to grasp? Yet when you read what Jesus said in Matthew 13, having spoken of “the Parable of the Sower” in verses 3-9, the disciples of Christ came asking Him, “Why do you speak to them in parables?”

Jesus responded in Verses 11-17, “Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says:

‘Hearing you will hear and shall not understand, and seeing you will see and not perceive; For the hearts of this people have grown dull, their ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, lest they should understand with their hearts and turn so that I should heal them.’

But blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear; for assuredly, I say to you, that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.”

You do realize that, when most men hear about “water”, they are considering a physical water to drink, or a water to nurse their fresh-sown seeds, or a water that cleans a dirty car or what they can wash their sweaty bodies with, but they never consider “living water” or as Proverbs 21:1-2 says, “The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord, like the rivers of water; He turns it wherever He wishes. Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the heart.” [And does your heart over-flow with rivers of your own will or rivers of the divine will?]. Sadly, most ‘fleshly’ lives are not even aware of any fountains of life that ought to be ‘abounding with the water’ of Life, of Holy Presence, or of Holy Purpose and Power!

In Jeremiah 2:13, though speaking historically of ‘the chosen people of Israel’, what the prophet heard God say speaks prophetically of all men who go their own way: “For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountains of living waters, and hewn themselves cisterns – broken cisterns that can hold no water.”

And Jeremiah is usually associated with “Lamentations” – and he certainly had much to lament about as he saw his own people turning to their own fleshly ways. There is a bold, icing word he gives us, when he wrote in Lamentations 5:4, “We pay for the water we drink!”

Oh, there’s a water that the world drinks that is not the “water of Life”? There’s a water that is not the water that cleanses the heart? There’s a water that is not “purifying water”? Are you aware that Peter, 2 Peter 2:17, wrote about, “These are wells without water, clouds carried by a tempest, for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever”?

In the previous verses of 2 Peter, he was pointing out the “depravity of false teachers” who were warped in their understanding of the holy life birthed through the blood of Christ! He spoke about those who ‘perish in their own corruption,’ ‘spots and blemishes, carousing in their own deceptions,’ ‘eyes full of adultery and that cannot cease from sin,’ ‘enticing unstable souls,’ ‘hearts trained in covetous practices, AND ARE ACCURSED CHILDREN,’ ‘having forsaken the right way and gone astray,’ ‘loving the wages of unrighteousness,’ and, Yes, ‘rebuked for one’s iniquity’; but you realize there are those who say, “Who cares what God thinks? We’re in charge of our own lives!” But a day of reckoning does come!

“The fleshly unfulfilled”? How many do you know who major on things in their lives that will surely guarantee a “successful life” if they set their own goals, and then meet their goals to their satisfaction, but never ask, “Is this God’s will, God’s purpose, God’s plan for my life?” Sadly, for many ‘successful people’, relationship to Holy God is the furthermost thing from their minds!

But, there was “the rich young ruler” who at least acknowledged the reality of eternal life but deemed his riches should be his ‘calling card’ into a blessed life! This rich young ruler even took advantage of an opening door to Jesus’ presence, asking Jesus in Luke 18:18, “Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus reminded him of ‘the commandments’ with the rich young ruler responding, “All these things I have kept from my youth.”

Then in verses 22-23 we read about those who major on “self” and refuse “selflessness” as a way of life! “You still lack one thing. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.”

Being even sorrowful is not full surrender if one wants his wealth more than the will of God! Did he understand it? Yes! For him, he didn’t walk away defiant – he purposefully listened, but reasoned his fleshly goal was more important to him than God’s eternal desire for men, proven in the sacrifice of His own Son on the Cross of Calvary! His desire for fleshly wealth became more vital to him than a “fire in his bones” for the glory of God’s earnest desire for sons of true faith in their hearts and their walks before Him.

“The fleshly unfulfilled”? Most will never admit it, but they are men, and if they were to ever consider the will of God for their lives, would at least admit that their “self-allegiance and self-devotion” takes precedent over a man’s devotion to God or His Son, the Lord Jesus!

For them, there’s no discouragement about a Godless life, no disenchantment with ‘self-idolatry’, no darkness for them about ‘self-love’ or ‘self-devotion’ – they’ll even say, “That’s my religious faith – I am my own main god!”

And being one’s own conviction about “self”, there are so many who are overwhelmed by the influences of family, or friends, or even societal circumstances, like a war, where many are hardened by the splitting of devotion to protecting lives or ending lives in human wars! There’s nothing that should EVER turn you away from Him, but always turn you to Him in absolute, total surrender and submission to His eternal watch-care, but many are divided, weakened, and become unbelieving that a Holy God could ever care about them!

As one begins to consider himself related to a fleshly worldly purpose or eternal divine intent, there’s always “follow your instincts” or “follow His inspiration” – and, of course, in the world, many are overcome by “the world, the flesh, and the devil”!

There’s a powerful few verses in John 2:23-25 that reveals our Lord’s insight as a discerner of human hearts and their exposure of worldly rather than eternal intent. It says: Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name when they saw the signs which He did. But Jesus did not commit Himself to them, because He knew all men, and had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man.”

Illusions, ideas, intents, personal intuitions, for many become more important than divine revelation or Eternal Will, eternal purpose, eternal provision, or eternal plan – “my ideas take precedent over eternal will”, and they’re eternally settled into that frame of mind and heart, though blinded to their ‘demonic marriage’ to the devil himself, though they’d never admit that to you, but look upon you as a ‘spiritual lunatic’ or a child of the devil yourself!

For unbelievers, even on their dying death-beds, they’ll hold out for their ‘way’ of human existence, even if its brought them pain, suffering, and void of eternal purpose – “I’ve had my way, and with that, I’ll live and leave with what I face after my death!” Oh, really? They really don’t know what the devil and hordes of Hell’s demons have in store for them, do they?

After life? Oh, yes! The body may decay to “ashes and bones”, but the true ‘you’ is eternal with the devil’s insignia of ownership if you were never ‘purchased by the blood of the Lamb’! The one thing about Hell you need to be reminded of is the fact the devil doesn’t leave you for a season, but day after day inflicts the consequences of your yielding to him rather than yielding to Jesus! Eternal agony is the identifying reward for all unbelievers, even ‘religious unbelievers’!

Do you have any conception at all of an unbeliever’s ‘multiplied sorrow’ forever and ever as the reward of his/her unbelief and rebellion and disobedience before Holy God? There IS the sorrow of heart and mind that intensifies and is never soothed or removed! There is a sorrow of heart that gets heavier and heavier for any unbeliever under Satan’s domination – and it intensifies more and more, forever! Proverbs 10:10 says, “He who winks with the eye causes trouble, but a prating fool will fall.” Prating? Idle chatter, foolish talking, absurd reactions to the love and purpose of Holy God! That’s about as good as I can describe ‘a prating fool’ – God says, “He/she falls!”

Are you familiar with “astrologers”? “Astrology” is a ‘professed science’ that supposedly can “read the stars” and, for them, basically interpret6 their influence of human affairs! Really? Or is it not more of human attempts of ascending to God’s Throne and seeing for themselves how they’d like to see things turning out? It’s like men who are natural desiring to be supernatural, determining for themselves how earthly things ought to be since “we see it in the stars”! Dream-world?

Oh, certainly, there are “fleshly star-gazers” who believe they’ve seen heavenly visions for themselves with a ‘bright light’ on “me, my mine”, so alien to submission to the King of kings and Lord of lords. Walking in their “own light, as I see it,” with a strong sense of self-will, self-direction, because of a fleshly sense of property and a fleshly sense of personal right, even ahead of or more than God’s divine sovereignty! It’s the fallen attitude of fallen men that “my life consists of what I want to be, what I choose, what I want in possessing myself”, when the Lord Jesus said, and still says, (Luke 12:15), “Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one’s life does not consist of the things he possesses.”

Dare I tell you that you’ve just read up on “The Fleshly Unfulfilled”? But now, let’s examine what the Holy Word of God has to say about “The Spiritually Fulfilled”!

Colossians 1:24-28 is a strong foundation for our beginning together the study on “The Spiritually Fulfilled” – or should I even begin speaking about true, Spirit-birthed sons and daughters of God, through Christ, who are “filled full” of eternal graces and blessings?!?

Paul wrote: “I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church, of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God which was given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God, the mystery which has been hidden from ages and generations, but nor has been revealed to His saints. To them God willed to make known what are the riches of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.”

Rejoice in the sufferings for one another? Yes, filling up in one’s self even the ‘continuing’ sufferings of Christ? Fulfilling the word of God? Unveiling what has been hidden from the masses? Sharing what has been revealed to those “set apart” as His ‘saints’ or ‘ambassadors’? Christ IN YOU, the hope of glory? And, as a result of His Indwelling, Resurrected Life and Holy Presence, we warn every man, teach every man in all wisdom, desiring to see THEM declared PERFECT in Christ Jesus?

“Best-Effort-Religion” is NOT New Testament discipleship, but is the reality of a lacking of true spiritual understanding of the necessity of “taking the sentence of death daily to ourselves” that the Resurrected Life of Christ is manifested in and through our mortal flesh!

Have you ever been around strong personalities professing faith vocally, but practically, no evidence of the “fruit of the Spirit”? Is there, as Chambers once said, the possibility of “refined spiritual culture”, but the absence of the Spirit of God?

Sometimes individuals, professing a faith in Jesus, are out to promote or identify themselves as “truly religious”, when in reality it is the pumping of the ‘flesh’ or old sin-nature, not the honoring or glorifying of Christ only! How did Paul unveil the scriptural reality of the “new-born life”? In 2 Corinthians 5:17-21 we read, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, HE IS A NEW CREATION; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.

Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, BE RECONCILED TO GOD. For He (God) made Him (Christ Jesus) who knew NO SIN to be sin for us, that we might BECOME THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD IN HIM.”

Are you aware of “eternal, divine change”? Or, is your ‘spiritual’ mind-set, “Thank God, my sins are forgiven; so I can go on sinning without a penalty?” How phony is that, and yet so pervasive in a ‘modern-day’ church culture? “If anyone is IN CHRIST, HE IS A NEW CREATION; old things have passed away; behold, all things become new.”

Dare I tell you that the safest, most secure place, in your whole life, is the manifestation of “Christ in YOU the hope of glory”? In fact, Paul declared in Colossians 3:3-4, “For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.” And, how many do you know or hear who preach that the verses are speaking of Christ’s Second Coming in the ‘end times’, when Paul was declaring that through repentance toward God and true faith in our Lord’s finished work at the Cross, His manifested Presence “in you” unveils Him, and you know it by the awareness of His glory being manifested through you, never fading, but becoming stronger and more real and vibrant every day?

In 2 Samuel 22:2-7, David sang a song to the Lord about his deliverance from his enemies: And he said: “The Lord is my rock and my deliverer; The God of my strength, in whom I will trust; my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold and my refuge; my Savior, You save me from violence. I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised; so shall I be saved from my enemies.

When the waves of death surrounded me, the floods of ungodliness made me afraid. The sorrows of Sheol surrounded me; the snares of death confronted me. In my distress I called upon the Lord, and cried out to my God; He heard my voice from His temple, and my cry entered His ears.”

But receive the New Covenant relationship! In 2 Corinthians 6:16 Paul declared: “And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God.” Earlier, in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, Paul said: “Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.” I think that too many ‘professing disciples’ who say they believe in Jesus have never considered God’s eternal plan for their earthly bodies to be holy temples where the Resurrected Christ would have His earthly residence – though fleshly men once, now, because of God’s transforming and regenerating power, He has built, by His grace and through your faith, His temples of Holy Presence, not made by human hands, but “as living stones being built up as spiritual houses to be the holy priesthood” to the glory and honor of Christ alone!

True New Testament disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ are not ‘shadows’ but substantive realities of the Indwelling Presence of the King of kings and Lord of lords, with Jesus saying, “You’ll know them by their fruits”! In fact, in 1 Peter 1:13-16, Peter tells us about “gird up the loins of your mind, be sober (serious-minded!), and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation (the unveiling) of Jesus Christ (in you, as you grow in Him); as obedient children, not concerning yourselves to the former lusts; but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.” And that’s in the here and now – not when you get to heaven someday! True disciples live on that foundation of hope in the finished work of Christ through His Cross and Resurrection, and continue in the spirit of hopefulness for our walks because the same Resurrected Christ lives in His temples and through His temples! In Christ, we are servants of His eternal hope, and, maturing in our faith in that hope, we live with the blessed assurance that the Christ in us never dies again, but lives eternally with the Father and the Spirit in those of us who truly live by the eternal hope!

In fact, Peter boldly challenges us in 1 Peter 2:9-10, “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy,” even adding in 1 Peter 2:15-17, “For this is the will of God, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men – as free, yet not using liberty as a cloak for vice, but as bondservants of God. Honor all people. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king.”

Oh, but hear me! In Peter’s early walk as one of the twelve inner circle disciples, you’ll remember that he failed miserably, which often or sometimes happens to young, immature followers of Christ! Did Jesus ever speak to Simon about his “sleeping”? The one thing I’m assured of is that the large majority of disciples, though ‘sleeping’ for a time, will be aroused to the greater hope because of the greatness of our Lord’s calling and, yes, knowing “conformed to the image of Christ”, true disciples, though down for some “counts”, arise to a greater ‘knock-out’ of the old life and continual resurrection in the fullness of the new life in Christ! Isn’t that why Peter said in 1 Peter 2:25, “For you were like sheep going astray, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls”?

CHAPTER NINE

“THE GARMENTS OF UNRIGHTEOUSNESS OR THE CLOTHING OF RIGHTEOUSNESS?”

It’s really interesting that the brother of Jesus, in James 5:2, exposing the corrupt ways of many “rich” people, said of them, “Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten,” saying then in Verse 5, “You have lived on the earth in pleasure and luxury; you have fattened your hearts as in a day of slaughter.” But, of course, we know, though some may be ‘penniless’, without Christ as Lord and Savior, these folks are just as ‘moth-eaten’ as the richest people on the face of the earth!

‘Moth-eaten’ lives are described in Philippians 3:18-19 as follows, “For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ: whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame – who set their mind on earthly things.”

Incarnate, ‘fleshly’, faithless individuals, are void of the conviction of their sin and separation from Holy God, content in their “best efforts” of human flesh! “Godly sorrow” is to them ‘a disease of brainless church-folk’ who aren’t as smart as they are!

“Vital Awareness Unveiled” is for most unbelievers, “I don’t need your salvation message – I’m fundamentally ‘sound’ and don’t need your Savior!” Sadly, they live with unsound consciences and deafened ears, spiritually blinded eyes and hearts, and warped wills, but at times will see simply, as Oswald Chambers stated, “remorse for having made blunders, the reflex action of disgust at himself”,[My Utmost For His Highest, p.254], but not at all needing “The Clothing of Righteousness”!

“Garments of unrighteousness” are evidenced by many, many reactions toward the Lord Jesus Christ: The prophet Isaiah said in Isaiah 53:2b-3 & Verse 6, “He has no form or comeliness; and when we see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him. He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Verse 6, All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the Lord God has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”

Do you see that “Vital Awareness Unveiled” is the spiritual barrenness of all lives that are birthed in the fallen image of all men, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”? Life in “the flesh”, in the “best efforts of fallen men,” in the “self-determined attitudes of what will guide my life,” is a life that the Word declares is void of divine forgiveness, void of eternal reconciliation on God’s terms, void of “new birth” but satisfied with “my way”, and void of the Resurrection Life, Resurrection Power, or Resurrection Hope! In fact, Jesus described unbelievers in the Promised Messiah for their salvation, healing, deliverance, and Holy Presence, in Matthew 17:17, as a “faithless and perverse generation”!

In John 8:24 Jesus said to the unbelieving Jews, and all unbelievers, past, present, and future, “Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for if you do not believe that I am He (whom God sent!), you will die in your sins.” Jesus, a few verses later, (Verses 42-47), said: “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and came from God; nor have I come of Myself, but He sent Me. Why do you not understand My speech? Because you are not able to listen to My word. You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it. But because I tell the truth, you do not believe Me. Which of you convicts Me of sin? And if I tell the truth, why do you not believe Me? He who is of God hears God’s words: therefore you do not hear, because you are not of God.”

“Garments of unrighteousness”? That’s “undone” before Holy God and blind to it! That’s “undressed” before God and men, unashamed of one’s spiritual nakedness! That’s “unfaithful” before Holy God, but ‘pumped up’ by other fallen men! That’s “friendship and fellowship” with the unfruitful works of darkness and no shame in claiming them!

In fact, in Romans 1:28-32, Paul highlighted for us “those who did not like to retain God in their knowledge, (and as a result!), GOD GAVE THEM OVER TO A DEBASED MIND, to do those things which are not fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning (of consequences!), untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful; who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them.”

That’s the alienated from God ‘crowd’, enemies of God willfully in their minds and hearts, evidenced by the paths they choose to walk on! And how many ‘victims’ are you aware of, cheated through man-made philosophies and empty deceptions, which is called “fitting in with the crowd” but void of devotion to Holy God through Christ alone? Are you aware of the “masked appearances” of man’s wisdom in his self-created, self-imposed religious dabblings, cosmetically adorning himself/herself in a false humility, even unashamedly bowing before his/her idols of fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desires, and calling it ‘my frame of reference as to my religious faith’?

You are aware that there are ‘lawless, faithless, unbelieving’ men, demons, and pretenders who do the work of Satan himself, some even with power, signs, and lying wonders, and especially with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, and it happens because they refused to receive “the love of the truth” that they might be “saved”, and in their resistance to the love, grace, and mercy of God, Holy God sends upon them “strong delusions”, that they should believe the lie, God sovereignly deciding, their penalty? “Condemned, because they did not believe the Truth but had their pleasure in unrighteousness”! And where did that come from? I came across a writing years ago, not even remembering when or where it came from, but it was written by Heinrich Heine entitled “Pictures of Travels, The Return Home.” He wrote:

“I called the devil, and he came and with wonder his form did I closely scan;

He is not ugly, and is not lame, But really a handsome and charming man.

A man in the prime of life is the devil, Obliging, a man of the world, and civil;

A diplomatist too, well skilled in debate, He talks quite glibly of church and state.”

In his writing entitled “Table Talk”, Martin Luther wrote: “The Devil has two manner of shapes or forms, wherein he disguises himself; he either appears in the shape of a serpent, to affright and kill; or else in the form of a silly sheep, to lie and deceive; these are his two court colors.”

Would you even see the devil sometimes masked as “good”, and then in a flash, enslave the ‘fleshly’ in a cloud of evil? And, sadly, some are ‘hood-winked’ in believing that the devil’s good and evil is only in one’s imagination! The ‘devil’s good’? Just consider, think about, reflect upon, and resolve it in your own Biblical researches, as you contemplate Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s words in her “Aurora Leigh”, (Bk.1V,l. 499),

“Good critics who have stamped out poet’s hope, Good statesmen who pulled ruin on the state, Good patriots who for a theory risked a cause, Good kings who disemboweled for a tax, Good popes who brought all good to jeopardy, Good Christians who sat in easy chairs And damned the general world for standing up. – Now may the good God pardon all good men!”

But does the devil use “goodness” to gain inroads before he releases his evil intent? I personally think it’s one’s own “death sentence” when he/she receives good apart from God and entertains the evil the devil wanted to grant you through his “goodness” that subverts God’s grace, mercy, and love!

There are strong witnesses for unbelief who become ‘marked out for condemnation’ by Holy God! They are ungodly men “who turn the grace of God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ”! And there are even national leaders religiously in many ungodly nations that promote their false religions and will “crucify” those who oppose their religious, false faith! And there are still modern-day ‘Sodoms and Gomarrahs’ reveling in their ‘religious’ sexual immorality and all types of ‘strange flesh’!

How aware are you of “unwise” men, even some who’ve been men of faith but fallen away? In 1 Timothy 6:6-10 Paul ‘wisely’ informs ALL men/women of faith, or, yes, even the faithless: “Now godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.”

“Garments of Unrighteousness”? “Who are these Christians who look outside themselves for help when, if they plant their feet firmly on the sod underneath their feet, there is no table-land too high they cannot climb – they just need to be self-energized, not “new-born”!” But the best of ‘self-motivated’ mountain climbers are not reconciled to God by best efforts, re-born by self-determination, or transformed by fleshly genius – it’s only through “the blood of the Lamb”, and nothing or no one else!

I don’t know who E. Herman is, but in the “Encyclopedia of Religious Quotations”, [p.63, by Fleming H.Revell Com., Frank S. Mead,Editor], his words are so strong and right on target: “For one who rejects Christianity because he misunderstands it, ten reject it because they understand it too well – because they know it is a call to the selfless and sacrificial life.” How many have you encountered with the ‘true faith’ who are nothing more than ‘human reasoning thinkers’, strong in their minds, but stone-hearted in their opposition to divine Truth, yes, comfortable even in their opposition to the love of God, and unmoved by the “sacrificed life of Christ in their place at Calvary’s Cross”? They’ll settle for their biblically defined “garments of unrighteousness” when by repentance toward God and faith in the finished work of Christ at Calvary, they could be clothed in His righteousness!

Do you understand that the “fall of man” was the self-establishment of one’s own kingdom-rule of his/her own life? But the “new birth” reality that Jesus proclaimed is, yes, entrance into His eternal Kingdom? Isaiah said, in Isaiah 64:6-7a, “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. There is no one who calls on Your name, who stirs himself up to take hold of You…” ! But God Himself takes hold of us through His Holy Spirit’s dramatic conviction, convincing, and converting from the “old life” in sin to the “new life” in Christ’s Resurrection presence! “Christ in you the hope of glory”!

LET’S NOW EXAMINE OUR, IN CHRIST, CLOTHING IN RIGHTEOUSNESS! And Jesus, early in His ministry, laid out the challenge for those darkened by their own ‘self-righteousness’ but fully aware of His promise of divine righteousness. Our Lord said in Matthew 5:6, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.”

There’s an early passage in Genesis 15 that inspires one’s journey into God’s desire for men to come into His righteousness. In Verses 1 and Verses 4-6 we read of the blessing of men who enter the door of the gift and grace of God’s righteousness! It says: Verse 1, After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.” Verses 4-6 then telling us, And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, “This one shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir. {The Promised Messiah]! Then He brought him outside and said, “Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.” And he believed in the Lord, [trusted in, relied upon, adhered to], and He ACCOUNTED IT TO HIM FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS.” Accounted? That’s ‘credited’ to him His own “clothing in righteousness”!

How clear for you is Ephesians 2:4-10? “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are HIS WORKMANSHIP, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”

Yet how many “religious people” do you know who major on that “best effort” of “self- actualization” or “self-realization” in their determination to prove to God their ‘worthiness’ of His acceptance? No! The true disciple of Christ Jesus has abandoned any hope in himself for acceptance before God – he/she rests in Proverbs 3:5-6! “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths”! Dependence upon God alone, directed by His Word and Spirit, and living delighted in His eternal blessings and faithful provisions! [But, you have a better way?].

How did Paul explain his victorious life in Christ? Galatians 2:20 says of Paul, “I have been CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me”! And no amount of ‘religious devotion’ is a life-changing, eternally solved, graced way of dependence upon Holy God – apart from Christ, men, religions, even some “churches” (?), become the very enemies of Christ Jesus!

There is no fleshly independence and fleshly efforts of men that settles their “sin accounts” or their ‘understanding’ of His eternal purpose through Christ alone – in fact, most unbelievers stress their ‘independence’ is the all-sufficient way God should accept, without considering Christ Jesus as “the Way, the Truth, and the Life” – without Him alone, all, yes, religious activity is nothing more than a stand for individual independence from God, even debunking any absolute loyalty to the Lordship of Christ Jesus!

But in Romans 6:17-18 Paul educates, equips, and encourages us in our call to be “slaves of Christ”! “But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.” That’s the IMPUTED, IMPARTED, IMPLANTED RIGHTEOUSNESS OF CHRIST ALONE!

Never forget or overlook Romans 5: 17-18! “For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the GIFT OF RIGHTEOUSNESS will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.” Yet “slaves of unrighteousness” are out for earning their own ‘salvation’, totally disinterested, some even opposed strongly, in “gifts from God” – “We can provide for ourselves!” And they refuse God’s free gifts!

The brother of Jesus, James, said in James 1:17-18a, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth…”.

Do you celebrate “the gift of righteousness”? In Hebrews 6 the author goes beyond the “elementary principles of Christ” to challenge us in Verses 4-6 with a word of warning! It says: “For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, AND HAVE TASTED THE HEAVENLY GIFT, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame.”[This word of warning should not be taken lightly – “falling away” from the heavenly gift is treasonous before Holy God!].

Paul said in Ephesians 3:6-7 that, not only the redeemed Jewish remnant, but “that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, of the same body, and partakers of His promise “in Christ through the gospel,” of which I became a minister according to “the gift of the grace of God” given to me by the effective working of His power.” Gift of righteousness, the heavenly gift, and “the gift of the grace of God.” Oh, but there’s more!

Romans 6:23 declares: “For the wages of sin is death, BUT THE GIFT OF GOD is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Glory! And, remember, Paul said in Romans 5:15, it is “the free gift”! Earlier, in Romans 1:11, Paul told the new believers in Rome that, “I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift, so that you may be established” – and that word means: “made to stand”, Paul so desirous of seeing the Roman disciples living a celebratory life in Christ as “equipped servants” of the Lord!

And how does all this have its start in the new-born citizens of the kingdom-rule of Christ through their walks? Peter said in Acts 2:38-39, “Repent, and let everyone of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.” No new child of faith, no new servant of Christ, has to begin his/her daily walk of faith apart from the gift of the Holy Spirit!

What about “the gift of living water”? How exciting, enlightening, expressive, or energizing to your “spiritual man” do you find Jesus’ encounter with the woman at the well in John 4? John 4:7 says that a woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” In Verse 9 the woman of Samaria said to Jesus, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman? For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.”

Jesus answered and said to her (Verse10), “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.” The Samaritan woman responded to Jesus, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water?”

In Verse 13 Jesus answered her and said, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.” Glory, again and again and again!

I’m going to tell you that I, personally, am convinced that the “living water” is the “living Word” that is more than ink on the pages of a printed Bible, but “LIFE IN THE WORD”! In fact, Hebrews 4:12 declares, “For the word of God IS LIVING AND POWERFUL, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” The “living Word” will quench your ‘fleshly thirst’, will quiet your troubled moments, will empower you in your calling, will explain divine will and purpose through you, will equip you for your spiritual battles and spiritual conflicts and testings, even draw near faithfully to the weakest saint!

Hebrews 3:5-6 is a word of challenge to every believer about holding faithful and strong in one’s testimony of faith and continual celebration of the Lordship of Christ. It says: “And Moses indeed was faithful in all His (God’s) house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which would be spoken afterward, but Christ as a Son over His own house, whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence AND “the rejoicing of the hope” FIRM TO THE END.” What a challenge!

Edward H. Plumptre and Arthur H. Messiter, in the 1940 Baptist Hymnal by Broadman Press, wrote the hymn, “Rejoice, You Pure In Heart.” It says:

“Rejoice, you pure in heart, Rejoice, give thanks and sing; Your festal banner wave on high, The cross of Christ Your King.

Bright youth and snow-crowned age, Strong men and maidens meek; Raise high your free, exulting song, God’s wondrous praises speak.

With all the angel choirs, With all the saints on earth, Pour out the strains of joy and bliss, True rapture, noblest mirth.

Yes, on through life’s long path, Still chanting as you go; From youth to age, by night and day, In gladness and in woe.

Then on, you pure in heart, Rejoice, give thanks and sing; Your glorious banner wave on high, The Cross of Christ your King.”

And the “pure in heart” are declared so because of the “shed blood of the Lamb of God” – not by “Garments of Unrighteousness” but by “The Clothing of Righteousness”!

CHAPTER TEN

“LIBERTY IN CHRIST OR A LICENSE TO SIN?”

“VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED”? I don’t know of a matter vital question to be examined than what we’ll be dealing with in this chapter, but it will help us all to come to John 8 and read about Jesus talking to those who “believed in Him.” John 8: 31-48 is vital for our understanding! It says:

Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” They answered Him, “We are Abraham’s descendants, and have never been in bondage to anyone. How can You say, ‘You will be made free’?”

Jesus answered them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, WHOEVER COMMITS SIN IS A SLAVE OF SIN. And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever. Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed. I know that you are Abraham’s descendants, but you seek to kill Me, because My word has no place in you. I speak what I have seen with My Father, and you do what you have seen with your father.”

They answered and said to Jesus, “Abraham is our father.” Jesus said to them, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would do the works of Abraham. But now you seek to kill Me, a Man who has told you the truth which I heard from God. Abraham did not do this. You do the deeds of your father.” Then they said to Him, “We were not born of fornication; we have one Father – God.”

Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and came from God; nor have I come of Myself, but He sent Me. Why do you not understand My speech? Because you are not able to listen to My word. You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.

But because I tell the truth, you do not believe Me. Which of you convicts Me of sin? And if I tell the truth, why do you not believe Me? He who is of God hears God’s word; therefore you do not hear, because you are not of God.” Then the Jews answered and said to Him, “Do we not rightly say that You are a Samaritan and have a demon?”

“Liberty In Christ Or A License To Sin”? You do understand that in a lot of churches across America today, and, yes, even the world, there are those who publicly teach and believe that “Christians” can’t do anything but sin until they get to heaven! I pray YOU hear Jesus for yourself saying, “I assure you that everyone who sins is a slave of sin.”

He does sin and he keeps on sinning, he does sin and he keeps on sinning, he does sin and he keeps on doing sin! THAT’S THE NATURE OF A MAN WHO HAS FALLEN AWAY FROM GOD, LIVING UNDER THE DOMINATION OF HIS SIN NATURE!

In 2 Peter 2 Peter illuminates “the danger of false teachers”, and we must see what he wrote in Verses 12-22! “But these, like natural brute beasts made to be caught and destroyed, speak evil of the things they do not understand, and will utterly perish in their own corruption, and will receive the wages of unrighteousness, as those who count it pleasure to carouse in the daytime. They are spots and blemishes, carousing in their own deceptions while they feast with you, having eyes full of adultery and that cannot cease from sin, enticing unstable souls.

They have a heart trained in covetousness practices, and are accursed children. They have forsaken the right way and gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness; but he was rebuked for his iniquity: a dumb donkey speaking with a man’s voice restrained the madness of the prophet.

These are wells without water, clouds carried by a tempest, for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. For when they speak great swelling words of emptiness, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through lewdness, the ones who have actually escaped from those who live in error.

While they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into bondage. For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning.

For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them. But it has happened to them according to the true proverb: ‘A dog returns to his own vomit,’ and, ‘a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire.’”

I want you to reflect on two verses out of John 8, first Verse 34, and then Verse 33! Jesus answered (in Verse 34), “Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin.” In Verse 33 the unbelieving Jews had answered Jesus, “We are Abraham’s descendants, and have never been in bondage to anyone. How can You say, ‘You will be made free’?”

Would you dare consider slavery and bondage to a government that spurns God Almighty? And yet the majority of our world is enslaved to godless governments!

Would you dare even look at or examine ‘religious traditions’ that have no relevance to revealed truth? Just think about those unreservedly committed to an Old Testament tradition that has already been fulfilled in the Resurrected Life of Christ!

Has ‘self-righteousness’ played a role in the bondage and slavery of men to themselves and what their ‘flesh’ dictates? Have you ever considered, thought about, dealt with the demonic bondage you’ve been a part of your whole life up until now? If you didn’t know it, Satan himself comes after you!

In Job 1:6-22 we read, Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them. And the Lord said to Satan, “From where do you come?”

So Satan answered the Lord and said, From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking back and forth on it.” Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil?”

So Satan answered the Lord and said, “Does Job fear God for nothing? Have You not made a hedge around him, around his household, and around all that he has on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But now, stretch out Your hand and touch all that he has, and he will surely curse You to Your face!”

And the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your power; only do not lay a hand on his person!” So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.

Now there was a day when his sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house; and a messenger came to Job and said, “The oxen were plowing and the donkeys feeding beside them, when the Sabeans raided them and took them away – indeed they have killed the servants with the edge of the sword; and I alone have escaped to tell you!”

While he was still speaking, another also came and said, “The fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants, and consumed them; and I alone escaped to tell you!”

While he was still speaking, another also came and said, “Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house, and suddenly a great wind came from across the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell on the young people, and they are dead; and I alone have escaped to tell you!”

THEN JOB AROSE, TORE HIS ROBE, AND SHAVED HIS HEAD; AND HE FELL TO THE GROUND AND WORSHIPPED. And he said: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” Now…

What about the real bondage and slavery to unbelief of the Historic Christ and His able-ness to forgive you, set you free, and fulfill God’s eternal destiny of YOUR life?

Consider, enslaved to godless governments, enslaved, yes, even to some ‘religious traditions’, or to ‘self-righteousness’, to demonic bondage: What did Jesus say in Mark 4:15? “The seed that fell on the hard path represents those who hear the message, but Satan comes at once and takes it away from them.” Bondage then – bondage now!

In 1 Timothy 5:15 Paul spoke of some “professors of faith” who had no true possession of the title deed of their lives in Jesus’ Name and His hands! He said: “For some have already turned aside after Satan.” What a sad commentary of some who “profess” but allow Satan to “possess” them because of their love of ‘fleshly indulgences’!

In Isaiah 61:1-3 the prophet informs us of Sovereign God’s eternal, present plan! “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, because the Lord has anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim “liberty to the captives”, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort those who mourn, To console those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.”

Do you truly understand ‘liberty’ or ‘freedom’? Without a doubt it is the liberty and freedom to totally ignore God and make a mess of your life and surroundings or ‘master’ yourself and your surroundings as you think they ought to be from a ‘fleshly’ point of view or the liberty and freedom of yielded-ness and surrender and willingness to let God “in Christ Jesus” have His way in your life!

I found William Cowper’s statement to be so fundamentally true. He said: “To die for the truth is not to die merely for one’s faith or one’s country; it is to die for the world. Their blood shed is shed in confirmation of the noblest claim – the claim to FEED UPON IMMORTAL TRUTH, TO WALK WITH GOD, AND BE DIVINELY FREE.”

And if you didn’t know, Satanic freedom is greater bondage and enslavement! But, (John 8:36), “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”

Liberty or liberated or liberation or freedom – tremendous words for every man regardless of his residence or rank! That relates to personal liberty, national liberty, or even marital liberty in the sense that mates don’t enslave but free a partner to become highest in God’s determination for a husband or a wife – and, remember, Jesus didn’t come “to be served, but to serve and give His life a ransom for many, yes, a ‘foot-washing” servant!

Liberty or freedom is best understood as a person who has truly been in bondage in his/her past but who now is no longer in the chains of relationship but free and certainly able to respond to God’s will for every choice one makes.

Liberty or freedom is clearly revealed as the defense of the freedom of discovery of who God intends that man to be and intends for that man to do which honors God the most through his life, even at the point of suffering, or sacrifice, or, yes, the choice of death to himself in every circumstance or situation.

But you ask: ‘What IS liberty’? It is the eternal license of Heaven to honor God in submission and obedience. Bondage comes when the sin nature reigns, disobedience is the constant of one’s life, and a phony license of satisfying one’s ‘flesh’ is a constant and even favored by the fallen majority.

I’m telling you, without hesitation, one of the most God-honoring things a man can do is to shed his own blood in behalf of divine truth, in behalf of the all-out commitment to walk with God, and to exemplify freedom, even as one is crucified for the faith!

Liberty in Christ overrules, let’s say, ‘freedom in America to determine one’s destiny’ – there are literally millions in our nation who experience degrees of political freedom but are in total bondage concerning their sin natures and rebellion toward the God who made them, lost them, then bought them with a price!

Divine freedom, spiritual liberty, is so far superior to one’s political freedom. In fact, for a true believer, a loving smile will be even extended to his executioner as his head is chopped off! That’s true freedom and heavenly liberty!

What did Isaiah say, again, in Isaiah 61:1, “He has sent me to comfort the brokenhearted and to announce that captives will be released and prisoners will be freed.”

Alexander Maclaren, in his “Expositions of Holy Scriptures,” [Vol.10, John 1-10, p.349], said: “But when once you get to understand the depths of your own need, and the depths of your brother’s need, then nothing less than the Christ who died to solve the problem, insoluble else, of how to emancipate the soul and the world from the tyranny of sin, will be enough for you.” John 8:36 says, “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”

In Romans 6:15-18 we read: “What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not! Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slave whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness? But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.”

There’s no greater word in the English language than the word “free” – and there’s no greater man on earth than the man who spends his life for the freedom, yes, spiritual freedom of others, and that’s the Lord Jesus Christ!

Governmental bondage is for those who see no significance to the Godly-rule whose leadership is spiritual freedom that cares about, commits to, and continually seeks after setting captives free! And I firmly believe eternal honor is given to those who expend their lives to free others from the chains of civil bondage and are committed to seeing that men are possessing and enjoying God-given rights. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness and blessing is not intended to be a USA only principle!

The chains of religious superstitions and demonic philosophies are violations of the very nature and character of God Himself! There are dark and deadly influences that will overshadow, shut down, oppress, and even enslave sincere but unsuspecting souls who are not rooted and grounded in God’s Holy Word!

The bondage of carnal desires and instinctive, fleshly, sin-anointed inclinations are abundant taking one further downward than he/she already is, blackening the heart more, corrupting the mind unmercifully, rotting one more and more with the bad fruit of a deadly spiritual virus and disease, enslaving one more and more and more with the devil’s yoke of bondage.

But have you also become aware of the “time-bomb” of self-reformation and self-improvement and self-adulation as one promotes himself/herself? Transformation is God’s business – ‘flesh’ improvement is the devil’s corner of our world! “Born-again” is Jesus’ miracle of grace and mercy – acceptance by an unbelieving world is Satan’s push through you of his prominence and perversions.

But also, what about chained to the hurts and pains of the past? And one refuses to deal with it, expose it, forgive, and find reconciliation where needed? Some blame God and never consider that the pain of their past was a ‘masterpiece’ of the devil himself! The devil is a ‘master-strategist’, and he knows how to capture, deceive, corral, and embitter folks, certainly promoting unforgiveness and promoting ‘self-protection’ against what pains you, not realizing or knowing that exposure of past hurts can be Heaven’s help in holy healing!

Far more and deeper darkness and greater bondage is one’s, yes, ignorance of his/her spiritual death before God! It’s clear: Romans 6:23!! “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” [But, how many do you know who would laugh at you because you quote to them God’s Truth?].

Others know their spiritual depravity, their present awareness of “guilty before God,” and sense for themselves a spirit of hopelessness – “God’s love can’t be that extreme and unlimited to forgive me!” Here’s the TRUTH!! 1 John 1:5-10 says: “This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.

If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.”

Again, John 8:36, “So if the Son sets you free, you will indeed be free.” The Son? That’s the Son of God! That’s Emmanuel, ‘God with us’! That’s Jesus, King of kings and Lord of lords, who willingly chose the Cross for Himself for our Redemption and our Release!

There is no true freedom apart from Christ Jesus! The highest intellectual, the most brilliant scholar, is destined for the emptiness of divine recognition without Christ as Lord and Savior of his/her life! Self-effort righteousness is vain and a curse on one’s life while the Sovereign-implanted righteousness in and through Christ’s shed blood is one’s saving grace, Masterful mercy, and eternal likeness, liberty, and the loving stamp of approval and Godly-identification!

Do you even understand your redemption and freedom and liberty was planned by God before the world was created? In Revelation 13:8 we read, “All who dwell on the earth will worship him,(the beast) whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” Several Truths to note personally: FIRST, YOUR SALVATION AND MINE, WAS SOVEREIGNLY PLANNED, PERSONALLY IMPLEMENTED, AND WILLINGLY CHOSEN BY JESUS, THE LAMB OF GOD!

In Isaiah 53:6-10 the Holy Word prophetically spoken was written some 700-800 years prior to Christ’s birth, ministry, and crucifixion! The prophet wrote: “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the Lord God has laid on Him (Jesus) the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth.

He was taken from prison and from judgment, and who will declare His generation? He was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgressions of My people He was stricken. And they made His grave with the wicked – but with the rich at His death, because He had done no violence, nor was any deceit in His mouth. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the Lord God shall prosper in His hand.”

SECOND, YOUR SALVATION AND MINE WAS SACRIFICIALLY PURCHASED! 1 Peter 1:18-25 declares: “knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. He was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you who through Him believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.

Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever, because “All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withers, and its flower falls away, BUT THE WORD OF THE LORD ENDURES FOREVER.”

Receive Spurgeon’s words: [Spurgeon’s Sermons, Memorial Library, Vol.8, p.201]: “You go free (clear of your sin debt) because He (Jesus) bore your burden [your sin-burden and guilt] for you. See Him bear His agony – “crushed beneath the millstone of the law, till all His head, His hair, His garments bloody be.” Yes, see Him dragged to Pilate’s hall, bound, whipped like a common felon, scourged like a murderer, and dragged away by hell-hounds through the streets, fastened by those cruel fetters which went through His flesh to the accursed wood! See Him yielding up His liberty to the dungeon of death! There the Mighty One sleeps in Joseph of Arimathea’s tomb. Dearly did He purchase with His own bondage the liberty which He so freely gives.”

THIRD, YOUR SALVATION AND MINE WAS SWEETLY PRESENTED! In Matthew 11:28-30, Jesus said to you and to me, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is Light.”

Jesus doesn’t come with a big stick but with open arms! He doesn’t come in anger but with mercy and grace! He doesn’t come in an accusatory tone but with holy admiration and heavenly love. He sees us as slaves to the world’s darkness and offers us His eternal Light, He sees us imprisoned in chains of sin and death and offers us forgiveness, freedom, and a forever relationship.

He comes to us and knocks on our hearts’ doors because the truth is, no man has ever sought God own his own merit but only because of the Master’s mercy!

That man in the deepest darkness of a hellish existence, alienated and separated from God is offered an open door to Heaven, an eternal relationship with the Son of Light, and given a mission responsibility of touching the unworthy around them with God’s Calvary love!

FOURTH, YOUR SALVATION AND MINE IS A PRESENT POSSESSION! There’s an interesting verse that David gives us when in Psalm 27:4 he said, “The one thing I asked of the Lord – the thing I seek most – is to live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, delighting in the Lord’s perfections and meditating in His Temple.”

But a new day has dawned, a new event has occurred, a new residence has been established by God – and your redeemed, regenerated, re-made, restored to eternal intent body, has actually become the Temple of the Lord, His earthly dwelling place, His, yes, desired residence on this earth – IN YOU!

Examine 1 Corinthians 3:16-17! “Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.”

Paul later said in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, “Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.” He later wrote in his Ephesians’ letter: Ephesians 2:22, “in whom you also are being built for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit,” having mentioned in Verse 21 growing “into a holy temple in the Lord”!

FIFTH, YOUR SALVATION “IN CHRIST” IS A PERFECT PARDON! I love what Paul wrote to us and the Philippian church when he said in Philippians 1:6, “being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ…”.

Do you understand, live by, grasp the truth every day that Holy God is, does, and will complete His good work in you, and that, really, His perfect pardon inspires YOU more and more to honor and bless the Holy One who has touched you with grace and mercy, and called you, ‘another son, another daughter, just like My Eternal Son, Jesus Christ’?

In Matthew 18:3 Jesus clearly said, “I assure you, unless you turn from your sins and become as little children, you will never get into the Kingdom of Heaven.”

“A perfect pardon”? That’s as a baby, a growing infant, a maturing child is totally dependent upon his parents, so our perfect pardon is our Lord and Savior overseeing our lives of faith as we grow and mature in Him – we’re birthed in the Kingdom as if we’ve already finished the race – He sees us as “complete in Christ” lacking nothing!

A hardened, godless heart, encountering Christ, and surrendering to His Lordship and His Salvation as the Promised Messiah and Savior, “Emmanuel” – God with Us”, finds a new heart of total tenderness and love like a stony heart that now beats with the heart-beat of Christ every moment since the moment of his/her divine conversion!

It was John Keats, in his “Letter to J.H. Reynolds,” who said: “There is an awful warmth about my heart like a load of immortality.” That’s so amazing, so true, and so encouraging and uplifting!

Hear me! “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is LIBERTY.” What does His Holy Word tell us? “If the Son therefore shall make you free, you shall be free indeed.”

“Free from bondage because Christ paid the price, Free from the devil because our Lord broke his chains, Free to live victoriously because it’s King Jesus who reigns…

From God’s Throne grace reigns, and Jesus shed His blood and there is remission; Because He paid the price of sin and death, there’s no condemnation – He’s given us a perfect salvation.

His glorious calling will never be amended because Jesus’ sacrifice was holily attended – blood shed, LIFE DIED, but in God’s power our Lord was resurrected.

Self-effort is vain and always the same, but Jesus in His sacrifice glorified God’s Name; though troubled by the Cross He never saw it as His loss, but lifted up, He drank the cup of suffering and death to cloth us in God’s amazing grace.” (JFF,2015).

In John 11;25-25 Jesus told Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?”

Examine carefully and reflectively on 1 Peter 1:3-6 where the apostle wrote: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”

Paul then gave a word of his personal testimony when in Philippians 3:7-14 he wrote: “But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead…

Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

Alexander Maclaren’s words in his “Exposition of Holy Scriptures”, [John 1-14, pps.349-350], says: “And, brethren, just as the ignoring of the fact of sin makes the understanding of Christ and His word impossible, so it makes the real reception of Him for ourselves impossible. Many men are brought near to Jesus by other roads; thank God for it! There are a thousand ways to the Cross, but it is the Cross that we must clasp, if any in true sense we are to clasp Christ. And there is the difference between the superficial, partial, and easy-going profession of Christianity which is so common among us today, and the life-and-death clutching and clinging to Him which comes when, and only when, a man feels that the tyrant whom he served as a slave is close behind him, and that his only chance of freedom is to hold fast by the horns of the altar of the sanctuary, and to cleave to Christ in whom, and in whom alone, we are free indeed.”

Do you think this just may be why Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15:31, “I die daily”? In fact, in 2 Corinthians 1:9, he also wrote: “Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead”!

In my friend Jim Hylton’s book entitled “The Supernatural Skyline: Where Heaven Touches Earth,” (pps.138-139, [Destiny Image Publishers, Inc. PO Box 310, Shippensburg,PS 17257-0310], Brother Jim wrote: “When seven men were asked the question, “But who are you?” by a demon, they had no answer. Without an answer, they fled, stripped naked, wounded, and were afraid. Many Christians today feel the same nakedness and fear when challenged by a diabolical enemy. These seven brothers were challenged by a demon because the brothers commendably sought to offer freedom to a person in bondage. This account is a significant intelligence report: Jim then quoted Acts 19:13-16 (TLB),

“At team of itinerant Jews who were traveling from town to town casting out demons planned to experiment by using the name of the Lord Jesus. The incantation they decided on was: “I adjure you by Jesus, whom Paul preaches, to come out!” Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish priest, were doing this. But when they tried it on a man possessed by a demon, the demon replied, “I know Jesus, and I know Paul, but who are you?” And he leaped on two of them and beat them up, so that they fled out of his house naked and badly injured.”

Dare I ask? “But who are you?” What a question to be answered as you digest this chapter: “Liberty in Christ OR A LICENSE TO SIN?”

Many years ago Samuel Francis Smith wrote the song, “America”. One of the verses says:

“Long may our land be right With freedom’s holy light;

Protect us by Your Might, Great God, our King.”

Freedom! It’s “the pearl of great price” given to us by Christ alone, King of kings and Lord of lords! Amen?

CHAPTER ELEVEN

“VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED? FAITHFULNESS OR DISTRESSING DISGUISES?”

I don’t know how you’ll respond to the title of this message because only you really know the secret chambers of your heart and your mind. Why? Appearances can be deceiving; outward ‘show’ can be simply fictitious, uneventful heart-change, or a desire not to be exposed for what one really believes or does. It was C.S. Lewis who once wrote: “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen; not only because I see it, but because of it I see everything else.”

But then in a real world of life and death, blessing and disappointment, true examples and pretenders, wise or blinded, divine fruit or diseased or dis-eased citizens, people will either ‘press in to Him” or continuing falling away from Him by their own free will, poisoned by the powers of darkness.

Don’t you find it interesting, convicting, and challenging, that in Revelation 2:10b, Jesus tells us: “Be fruitful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.”

Is it possible that some begin the walk of faith, are faithful for a period of time, and then walk away? “Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life!”

Are bad turns made away from the highway of holiness that lead to ‘dead-end’ places? Does disappointment in one’s self or others mean, “I choose to be disappointed in Jesus also”?

If a ‘Texas dust storm’ can restrict your vision, can a believer’s storm of doubt cast dark shadows on one’s devotion and allegiance and all-out surrender to the King of kings and the Lord of lords? Oh, and hear me – can a preacher-pastor’s ‘falling away’ be the ‘straw that breaks the camel’s back’, and you decide, “I want nothing more to do with ‘phony Christianity’?

In Ezekial 18:23 God spoke: “Do I have any pleasure at all that the wicked should die?” says the Lord God, “and not that he should turn from his ways and live?” And whatever is opposite of the Word and the will of God and His ways is wicked and brings a judgment of death – and God says, “Turn from YOUR ways and live!”

He went on to say in Verses 31-32, “Cast away from you all the transgressions which you have committed, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. For why should you die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of one who dies,” says the Lord. “Therefore turn and live!” I know, and I assume you also know, that there are “distressing disguises”! It’s so evident by spiritual blindness, unholy hearing, willful rejection, painful indifference, yes, even deeply-wounded scars from spiritual events of the past that one holds on to, residence in a jail of unforgiveness because someone, somehow, sometime, somewhere led them down, they believe, to a place, a practice, a persuasion that didn’t line up with the desire for a ‘worldly lifestyle’, even when the Word declares ‘separate from sinners’.

I’m really sorry, but I do not see projected in God’s Holy Word ‘comfort’ or ‘comfortable’ in a world where Holy Truth is seen as needed to be suppressed and certainly worthless in schools, universities, or any governmental institutions locally or nationally!

How dangerous is it for men of all standings, places, positions, ranks, abilities or inabilities, education or the absence of it, to find themselves in a place they don’t feel comfortable identifying themselves as men unreservedly sold out to Christ so they ignore the church Jesus loved and gave Himself for, going the way of “silent allegiance” when Jesus instructs us to identify ourselves as His true followers?!?

“Distressing Disguises”? Are you ever confronted by those who have known Truth and then, all of a sudden, because of multitudinous fleshly ‘crises’, the door is opened to cast doubt on the Word of God? Sadly, I’ve known men over the years who so devotedly shared God’s Holy Word, but crisis came from business, family, spiritual family relationships, resulting in undefinable criticism, and like a ‘wounded snake’ they slither away from upholding Truth!

“Distressing Disguises”? Are you aware of those who have been ingrained with ‘partial’ truth and they profess “Peace, peace! When there is no peace”? [Jeremiah 6:14]. It’s as if the ‘gospel’ they held onto was ‘peaches and cream’ without Jesus’ word: “In the world you will have tribulation!” I would urge every disciple over the next three to four months to devote himself/herself to the four gospels and determine if Jesus ever talked about a ‘trouble-free walk of discipleship’!

“Distressing Disguises”? Do you remember in the Gospel of John Jesus telling the scribes and Pharisees that denying Him was the result that they never knew the One True and Living God? In John 8:13 they told Jesus, “You bear witness of Yourself; Your witness is not true.” In the eighth chapter alone Jesus told the ‘religious crowd,’ four times, Verse 21, “I am going away, and you will seek Me, and you will dies in your sin. Where I go you cannot come.”

“Distressing Disguises”? I hope it doesn’t seriously offend you if I tell you that there are “sticklers” for legalism apart from God’s grace, mercy, and love! On the tablet of stone God carved out and imprinted Ten Commandments that exposed men as true ‘law-breakers’ in need of God’s mercy, grace, and love, but deception blinds men to their need of God because they grade by the ‘curve’, wanting acceptance by self-effort rather than acceptance through the finished work of Christ at the Cross, with God then writing His love, His law, and His liberty on a redeemed heart! How about your devotion? Is it by law or the very love of Calvary’s Cross?

“Distressing Disguises”? Can’t you wrap your mind around the fact that fallen humanity is fully absorbed in the mind-set and heart absorption of materialism, and the more one has, the nearer he/she is to God? Yet, our Lord and Savior and True Master of all of life has said, Matthew 16:24-26, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life [for himself] will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?”

“Distressing Disguises”? You’ll remember as Moses was leading Israel to the Promised Land there came a time when he went up on the mountain for an alone-time with God that became a long time – and his people became anxious.

They went to Aaron and told him, Exodus 32:1, “Up, make us gods which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him.”

Verse 4 tells us he, Aaron, received golden earrings from the people, and fashioned it with a graving tool into “a molten calf”; and the people said, “This be our gods who brought us out of the land of Egypt.” The end of Verse 6 then tells us, “and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play.” God then told Moses, “your people, Moses, which you brought out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them.”

Has anything changed? What is it that has become your own ‘distressing disguise’? But reality also speaks so loud and clear as when Samuel said in 1 Samuel 10:19, about some in Israel, “And you have this day rejected your God, who Himself saved you from all your calamities and your distresses; and you have said to Him, ‘No, set a king over us!’”

At least David had the sane attitude of brokenness, repentance, and turning from that which scarred him and others so deeply. In Psalm 25:17-22 he prayed: “The troubles of my heart have enlarged; bring me out of my distresses! Look on my affliction and my pain, and forgive all my sins. Consider my enemies for they are many; and they hate me with cruel hatred. Keep my soul, and deliver me; let me not be ashamed [any longer!], for I put my trust in You. Let integrity and uprightness preserve me, for I wait for You.” Whose integrity and uprightness preserving him? God’s alone!

I’m sure you’ll remember Paul challenging the church at Corinth when he said in 2 Corinthians 6:12, “You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted by your own affections.” And he paid a heavy price for standing in truth! He said to the Corinthians and us in 2 Corinthians 12:10, “Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, FOR CHRIST’S SAKE. For when I am weak, then I am strong [in Him].”

Paul further testified in 2 Corinthians 13:4-6, “For though He was crucified in weakness, yet He lives by the power of God. For we also are weak in Him, but we shall live with Him by the power of God toward you. Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? – unless indeed you are disqualified. But I trust that you will know that we are not disqualified.”

In Christ you are made to soar, not to sink; you’re a new creation in Him to live victoriously, not defeated; in Him you overcome the devil himself and his temptings, not swallowed up in a sea of denial of truth or ocean depths of drownings in deceptions opposite of Holy Revelation, Eternal Truth, and His ever-abiding presence in you!

“Distressing Disguises”? I picked up again recently Mark Levin’s book entitled “Liberty and Tyranny”, sub-titled “A Conservative Manifesto.” I read it several years ago, but on the back cover of his book he had a statement of Abraham Lincoln, spoken in 1864. Lincoln said, “We all declare for liberty; but in using the same word we do not all mean the same. With some the word liberty may mean for each man to do as he pleases with himself, and the product of his labor; while with others, the same word may mean for some men to do as they please with other men, and the product of other men’s labor. Here are two, not only different, but incompatible things, called by the same name – liberty. And it follows that each of the things is, by the respective parties, called by two different and incompatible names – liberty and tyranny.”

Do you remember the unbelieving Pharoah of Egypt? In Exodus 5:1-2 we read, “Afterward Moses and Aaron went in and told Pharoah, ‘Thus says the Lord God of Israel: Let My people go, that they may hold a feast to Me in the wilderness.’ And Pharoah said, ‘Who is the Lord that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, nor will I let Israel go.’”

It’s certainly not always true, but it seems to me, for some like Pharoah, that ‘wealth’ or ‘riches’ lead an awful lot of people to bow down in idolatry and not worship, praise, or give thanksgiving with adoration and submission and loyalty to the God who laid down His Son at the Cross! “That’s not MY calling” – have you ever heard that? “I serve the Lord who blesses me,” yet the Lord God Almighty, Emmanuel (“God with us”), Savior and Lord, Master of all life, said: Deuteronomy 30:14-20,

“But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, THAT YOU MAY DO IT. [“Why You legalistic God! Who would want to submit to Your Word, Your will, Your way? Not me!”]. See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil, in that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, His statutes, and His judgments, that you may live and multiply; and the Lord your God WILL BLESS YOU in the land which you go to possess. BUT IF YOUR HEART TURNS AWAY SO THAT YOU DO NOT HEAR [and some choose, ‘I don’t want to hear what God says!’] and are drawn away, and worship other gods and serve them, I announce to you today THAT YOU SHALL SURELY PERISH; you shall not prolong your days in the land which you cross over the Jordan to go in and possess. I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; that you may love the Lord your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days; and that you may dwell in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them.”

[And just as a reminder if you have questions about what you just read and its spiritual relevance to New Testament disciples, John 8:56 says, Jesus speaking: “Your father Abraham, rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.”]

“Distressing Disguises”! I pastored a church many years ago in which a very visible leader became involved in an adulterous relationship with another church member. In my office he denied it and assured me it never happened.

A few weeks later I received a late night call to hurry to a particular home where the police had already arrived. The church leader was in the hole of his adulterous mate with an irate, almost uncontrollable husband.

The church leader had lied, and then at least resigned his visible office in the church. I advised our church officers or deacons that this situation required church discipline, but they all said, “He’s our friend, and it won’t happen. He deserved better than having to care for a sick wife!” Within a short time, God moved our leadership role as pastor elsewhere!

When open sin is ignored, it manifests itself in abundant rebellion to God’s Word – I heard years later that adultery, broken marriages, and a suffering church had about died, until several pastors later God placed His man in a strong place of leadership – now, the church prospers spiritually.

“Distressing Disguises”! Consider it, examine it, reflect upon it – what’s the result of half-hearted allegiance to a local body of believers, yes, the local body Jesus suffered, bled, and died for? What’s the result of the negligence of whole-heartedness; what’s the result of divided allegiance’ what’s the outcome of ‘profession’ apart from possession of the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Jesus Christ, if the ‘fruit’ of your ‘profession’ ignores the local assemblies? What’s the ‘fruit’ of a ‘couldn’t-care-less’ attitude concerning a needy fellowship of believers?

Is it really possible that believers feel no sympathy for, devotion to, or commitment of their lives to a needy church fellowship or even comfort and healing grace to despondent saints, a battered pastor, or, yes, immature church members? But they find ‘their’ place where the crowd gathers, where the smiles abound, but the Cross is absent!

It’s even happening today that ‘forsaking of the assembling of yourselves together’ is like an old ‘wives’ tale’ – “we don’t need the church assembling”!

I was reading Spurgeon recently, [Spurgeon’s Sermons, Memorial Library, Vol.15, pps.78-79]. He said: “Is it so that because you are yourself a member of a flourishing church, and because you enjoy all sorts of Christian privileges, you therefore harden your heart concerning dying churches and desponding saints? Do you imagine that the body can be sick, and yet you as a member of it will not suffer? I tell you, if the church of God goes aside it will be to your injury; if the truth of God be not preached you will be a loser; if Christian life be not vigorous you will be weakened.”(Followed by words on Page 80): “If you are not creating a holy warmth, the chill of sin is freezing you.”

‘Ice-berg city’ – the gathering of chilled believers! ‘Ice-berg city’ – the union place of divided allegiance! ‘Iceberg city’ – the creeping sickness of unconscious allegiance to self- birthing paralyzed infants who don’t know where they came from or where they are headed.

The Lord Jesus said in Revelation 3:11, “Behold, I am coming quickly! Hold fast what you have, that no one may take your crown.” [It would be worth your effort and time to research about “your crown”.].

“Distressing Disguises”? It was so interesting and challenging recently when in Luke 16:1-13 I read about the parable of an unjust steward. Read carefully and consider your walk as a professing disciple of Christ! Jesus said to His disciples: “There was a rich man who had a steward, and an accusation was brought to him that this man was wasting his goods. So he called him and said to him, “What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your stewardship, for you can no longer be steward.”

Then the steward said within himself, ‘What shall I do? For my master is taking the stewardship away from me. I cannot dig; I am ashamed to beg. I have resolves what to do, that when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses.’

So he called every one of his master’s debtors to him, and said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ And he said, ‘A hundred measures of oil.’ So he said to him, ‘Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.’ Then he said to another, ‘How much do you owe?’ So he said, ‘A hundred measures of wheat.’ And he said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.’

So the master commended the unjust steward because he had dealt shrewdly. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light.

“And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon, that when you fail, they may receive you into an everlasting home. He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much.

Therefore if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? And if you have not been faithful in what is another man’s, who will give you what is your own? No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”

Is Jesus teaching us about faithfulness in ‘little things’? Is He teaching us about money and its blessing or curse? Is He informing us about faithfulness in what belongs to another man? How about what belongs to Him you profess to be the steward of?

Let’s transition from “Distressing Disguises” to “Faithfulness”! We’ve just witnessed Jesus talking about ‘faithfulness’ in three ways. Is there more in His precious and powerful Word we should discern and apply?

It’s not difficult to grasp or understand or comprehend the subject of “faithfulness” – the battle comes when faith and faithfulness must be exercised which one must discern for himself- a walk of fleshly sight and its desires or a walk of faith and faithfulness to honor the God of the Cross and the empty tomb!

I do not know or understand how a person reads or hears read Ephesians 2:4-8,12-13, and then determines to walk away from saving grace! It says: “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),

And raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God.

Then Verses 12-13, that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. BUT NOW in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.” “Blood of Christ Blessing or BEST EFFORT CURSES?”

WE ARE SAVED, RECONCILED, RE-BORN BY GRACE THROUGH FAITH IN HIS FINISHED WORK AND BY THAT FAITH ONLY! WE ARE JUSTIFIED BY FAITH! Examine Romans 3:21-26 very, very carefully! “But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, BEING JUSTIFIED FREELY, by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”

WE ARE TO CONTINUE IN THE FAITH! In Acts 14:21-22 Paul was endeavoring to build a solid foundation in new disciples and encouraging them to continue in the faith. It says: “And when they had preached the gospel to that city and made many disciples, they returned to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, saying, ‘We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God.”

WE ARE TO UNDERSTAND, RECEIVE, WALK IN THE WALK OF OUR HEART, MIND, SOUL, AND SPIRIT PURIFICATION BY FAITH! Acts 15:6-9 says: “Now the apostles and elders came together to consider this matter. And when there had been much dispute, Peter rose up and said to them: ‘Men and brethren, you know that a good while ago God chose among us, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe. So God, who knows the heart, acknowledged them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He did to us, and made no distinction between us and them, purifying your hearts by faith.’”{

WE ARE TO WALK IN THE PEACEFUL REST OF FAITH LIKE ABRAHAM! In Romans 4:1-8 we read of the faith of faithful Abraham: “What then shall we say that Abraham our father has found according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God.

For what does the Scripture say? ‘Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.’ [Genesis 15:6!]. Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt. But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness, just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works:

‘Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; Blessed is the man to whom the Lord shall not impute sin.’”

WE ARE TO BE EMPOWERED BY FAITH – NOT IN THE EARTHLY FASHION OF MEN! 1 Corinthians 2:4-5 tells us, “And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.”

WE ARE TO BE AT PEACE IN OURSELVES BECAUSE OF OUR FAITH IN THE FINISHED WORK OF CHRIST AT THE CROSS! Galatians 2:20 illumines our minds and hearts as Paul tells us: “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”

WE ARE TO BE DILIGENT TO THE END BECAUSE OF OUR INHERITANCE OF GOD’S PROMISES! In Hebrews 6:11-12 we see our calling as true believers: “And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end, that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.”

WE ARE TO BE WELL-TRAINED, PERSONALLY DISCIPLINED, AS A TRUE SOLDIER IN GOD’S ARMY, NOT GIVEN AN ‘AWOL’ SPIRIT, BUT DEVOTED TO HIM AND TO THE CHURCH JESUS LOVED AND GAVE HIMSELF FOR! Paul wrote young Timothy as a wise spiritual father, 2 Timothy 2:1-4, “You therefore, my son, be string in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier.” Earlier, in 1 Timothy 6:12, he told Timothy, “Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.”

You do understand that we serve God and His Loving Savior who is so ever faithful to us all! In Lamentations 3:22-24 Jeremiah shares both a broken heart because of Israel’s sin, but also a peaceful heart and soul because he knows the faithfulness of God’s compassion for His blessed Remnant! “Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, says my soul, therefore I hope in Him!” Even Isaiah was awed by God’s faithfulness! In Isaiah 25:1 he wrote: “O Lord, You are my God. I will exalt You, I will praise Your name, for You have done wonderful things; Your counsels of old are faithfulness and truth.”

Because of our Lord’s faithfulness, His people sprout and bear His fruitfulness! Because of our Lord’s faithfulness to us, our faithfulness to Him is not to be a ‘probability’ but a sure certainty! Because of our Lord’s faithfulness, we don’t enlist for a seat in a church pew but a place in the front-line of a holy war! Because of our Lord’s faithfulness, we’re not to be inventors of simply religious activities but fully surrendered lives available to His presence, purposes, power, and promises to be expressed through us!

It was the old “The Defender” magazine that has this quote: “Faith is dead to doubt, dumb to discouragement, blind to impossibilities.” How true!

Off-key lives are invaded by the “Master-Tuner” and discords vanish and perfect harmonies erupt!

When repentance toward God and faith in the finished work of Christ at the Cross finds a permanent home, empty barrels become the overflowing presence of His never-ending life!

Faithfulness is not a philosophy but divine Presence, holy certainty, continual blessing, and a sacred marriage of eternal bliss!

Faithfulness is the Shining Sonlight of the resident Christ within, the evidence of God’s Holy Presence, and the certainty of the Holy Spirit’s fulfilling ministry in sons and daughters of faith.

Out of an old “English Hymn Book” a song was written by an S.C. Foster. It was entitled, “I Love Him”:

“Gone from my heart the world and all its charm; Gone are my sins and all that would alarm; Gone evermore, and by His grace I know The precious blood of Jesus cleanses white as snow.

Once I was lost upon the plains of sin; Once was a slave to doubts and fears within; Once was afraid to trust a loving God, But now my guilt is washed away in Jesus’ blood.

Once I was bound, but now I am set free; Once I was blind, but now the Light I see; Once I was dead, but now in Christ I live, To tell the world the peace that He alone can give.

I love Him, I love Him, because He first loved me, And purchased my salvation on Calvary’s tree.” Amen?

CHAPTER TWELVE

“VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED? DARK NIGHT – BRIGHT LIGHTS”

I’ll never forget a “dark night” event in my home when I was about eleven to twelve years of age. I had gone to bed early because my mother and step-father were having a party. It was late, late, maybe 3-4 a.m., when I was awakened by loud noises of things breaking as a drunken brawl occurred in the home. I was so frightened I just hid under the covers of my bed until about 5 a.m. when I looked around to see devastation; all were gone including my mother, but my step-father was passed out on the bed in the guest bedroom.

It was pitch-black night as I made my way to my grandparents’ home so afraid, plus I had to go down an unlighted road to get to their home. I felt so safe when the lights came on and they opened their door to me. Needless to say, I never again experienced that dark-night of the soul! [And you should know that, finally, within a few weeks of his eighty-ninth birthday, my step-father asked me to explain the Gospel of Christ to him once more – and he prayed to receive Christ! Weeks later he died!]

Jeremy Taylor, in his “Holy Living” writing, [p.259], said: “A man may be damned for despairing to be saved.” Thank God, my step-father finally saw, not “dark nights” but “bright lights”.

“Dark Nights”? Leo Tolstoy, in his writing entitled “The Kingdom of God,” [ch.12], said: “The only significance of life consists in helping to establish the kingdom of God; and this can be done only by means of the acknowledgement and profession of the truth by each one of us.”

But you do realize that darkened hearts, minds, and free wills delight in the fallen nature of men alienated and separated from God! Their fleshly pleasures become deadly poison – and they’re so unaware of THEIR dark nights of the soul.

I love what Spurgeon wrote in “Spurgeon’s Sermons,” [Memorial Library, Vol.9,pps.176-177}: “He [God] makes not the child of God to be a serf, a slave, in fear of punishment, but He so changes the nature of men that they turn away with loathing from the things they once delighted in, and can no more indulge in the sins which were once sweet to them, than an angel could wallow in the mire with the swine. Oh! This is a gracious work, and this is a blessed covenant in which it is promised that we shall be taught to know and love and do the right thing with a willing mind.”

Noah Webster’s 1828 Dictionary defines ‘darkness’ like this: “Absence of light; a state of being intellectually clouded; great trouble and distress; calamities; perplexities; empire of Satan; land of darkness – the grave.”

In John 3:19 we read: “And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and MEN LOVED DARKNESS RATHER THAN LIGHT, BECAUSE THEIR DEEDS WERE EVIL.”

Even though Joel wrote prophetically to alert the people of Israel in his day, the prophetic word is as relevant today as it was then! Joel 2:1-2 says, “Blow the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in My holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land of the land tremble; for the day of the Lord is coming, for it is at hand: a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, like the morning clouds spread over the mountains…”

Later, in Joel 2:25, God speaks about a land or a life that experiences “swarming, crawling, chewing locust.” God said, “So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten…My great army which I sent among you.” Why? Because His created people chose ‘self-rule’ over God’s saving grace! They chose the fallen spirits over the Holy Spirit! They chose futile flesh over divine will, purpose, and power! They chose fleshly pleasure over the Holy Spirit! AND GOD SENDS THE ‘LOCUST’!

DARK DAYS? LET’S LOOK, FIRST, AT THE ‘LOCUST’ OF PERSONAL DESOLATION! In Matthew 23:37-38 we read, Jesus speaking, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! See! Your house is left to you DESOLATE…”.

Men actually, personally, choose to live an uninhabited life without God’s presence in them or through them! They choose fleshly ruin over His royal Throne to bow before. They choose a ravaged, ruined, neglectful life of yieldedness to the Sovereignty of God and to His amazing love for them, the One who willingly laid down His life for them, and only desired in His love and mercy to bless and fulfill their existence with divine presence! AND THE RESULT? Micah 6:13-14 says: “Therefore I will also make you sick by striking you, by making you desolate because of your sins. You shall eat, but not be satisfied; [Hunger yes, even physical hunger, bur more strongly a spiritual hunger they personally can never satisfy!]; Hunger shall be in your midst. You may carry some away, but shall not save them; and what you do ‘rescue’ I will give over to the sword.” [How serious do YOU find these words?].

How do you feel when you read a work like Isaiah 1:7 when it says: “Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire; strangers [to God!] devour your land in your presence; and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.”

DARK DAYS? SECOND, LET’S CONSIDER JOB 38:2 WHEN GOD CONFRONTED JOB AND SAID: “Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge?”

Hear me, “If man lives only by physical bread alone, and not every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God,” then how truly ‘wise’ are those who “darkens counsel by words without knowledge”?

Oh, there are those who ‘seek counsel’ because they want to hear what they want to hear, but apart from the eternal counsel and Word from God Himself! Proverbs 12:5 clearly says, “…the counsels of the wicked are deceitful…”

In Jeremiah 7:23-24 we read, God speaking, the Lord of hosts: “But this is what I commanded them, saying, ‘Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be My people. And walk in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well with you.’ Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but followed the counsels and dictates of their evil hearts, and went backward and not forward.”

You’re either pressing in to the Lord or you’re continuing to fall away! You’re either found in the Light or sickened by the devil’s darkness, being made ready with his demons for and eternal Hell of Light absence!

THIRD, DARK DAYS? SPIRITUAL SIGHT AND INSIGHT OBLITERATED BY DISTRESSES! I love Psalm 107 because it is so informative and illustrative of a life with God or a life without Him. Psalm 107 challenges us to see life’s “troubles” as a “door-closer” to God OR a “door-opener” to Him.

Four times in Psalm 107 the Word tells us: [Verses 6, 13, 19, and 28], “Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and HE DELIVERED THEM OUT OF THEIR DISTRESSES.”

And some choose, yes, choose to live in their ‘distresses’ without ever crying out to the merciful, caring, gracious Lord and “Savior”! But for the true believer, the “redeemed by the blood of the Lamb,” he/she understands, “in the world you will have tribulations,” but our Lord and Savior, Christ Jesus, declared in John 16:33, “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” GLORY!!

Consider and reflect upon what Paul the Apostle wrote in 2 Corinthians 6:4-10! “But in all things we commend ourselves as ministers of God: in much patience, in tribulations, in needs, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in sleeplessness, in fastings; by purity, by knowledge, by longsuffering, by kindness, by the Holy Spirit, by sincere love, by the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, by honor and dishonor, by evil report and good report; as deceivers, and yet true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold we live; as chastened, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things.”

FOURTH, DARK DAYS? WHAT ABOUT EXCESSIVE AND BURDENING DISCOURAGEMENT OR DISAPPOINTMENT? As we consider the matter of discouragement, is it possible that, regardless of circumstances, some would be unhappy if God gave them an unlimited inheritance or share of His abundant blessings?

But be assured, in this very historic moment of your life, if you have not yielded in repentance and faith in Christ, you have one choice to make of two opportunities: 1) You may find yourself under the dark shadows of judgment, separation from God forever, and a Hell with your guilty “pass”, or, 2),you’ve chosen to walk in the Light of God’s love, grace, and mercy, with an eternal residence in our Lord’s Holy Presence!

The children of Joseph said to Joshua, in Joshua 17:14, that they were those whom “the Lord has blessed us until now”! Walking in our walk with the Lord is not a walk of discouragement but of blessing! Have you forgotten or overlooked Romans 8:16-17? “The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs – heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.”

Some have come to the faith and then experienced the reality of persecution and isolation and are disenfranchised by family and friends, and were never discipled of, yes, it’s pain and suffering at times. In Philippians 1:27-30 Paul wrote the Philippians AND US: “Only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of your affairs that you stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel, and not in any way terrified by your adversaries, which is to them a proof of perdition, but to you of salvation, and that from God. For to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake, having the same conflict which you saw in me and now hear is in me.” [But in ‘modern-day’ Christianity? “There is no suffering, just celebrating”, and I have to wonder, “What ‘gospel’ are they celebrating? Their ‘gospel’ or the true “Gospel of Christ Jesus”?

FIFTH, WHAT ABOUT THE DARK DAYS OF DISILLUSIONMENT OR DISPLEASURE? My prayer for all of God’s people is for a true spirit of discernment as they engage a world of needy people around them. It’s so true that the God we serve is the One True and Living God who is moved with compassion for the wounded, the grief-stricken, the man or woman overwhelmed by the awareness of their guilt and separation from God and that their sin nailed Jesus to the Cross!

Psalm 147:3 is so very clear: “He [the Lord God] heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds [or sorrows].”

What a magnificent and beautiful world our God has created – and yet beyond our small little world are universes of omnipotence, galaxies of divine glories, habitations of Holy Presence – yet He has time for the bleeding, wounded, sin-infested heart, the broken marriage, the lost and wandering son or daughter of faith – and especially does the Lord God Almighty sense the suffering, serious wounds of open rebellion, scarred hearts, captive wills, darkened, diseased minds – and “the Great Physician” reaches out to touch those wounded hearts and sin-stricken souls, speaking “Peace” and healing grace and abundant mercy!

There’s an old U.S. African-American spiritual song that says: “There is a balm in Gilead to make the wounded whole; There’s power enough in heaven, to cure a sin-sick soul.

Sometimes I feel discouraged, and think my work’s in vain, But then the Holy Spirit REVICES my soul again.

If you cannot sing like angels, If you can’t preach like Paul, You can tell the love of Jesus and say He died for all.”

In Luke 12:8-9 Jesus said: “Also I say to you, whoever confesses Me before men, him the Son of Man also will confess before the angels of God. But he who denies Me before men will be denied before the angels of God.” [I don’t think that would be a “good announcement” about you before the angels if you reject the Lord Jesus!].

Oh, BUT FROM THE “DARK DAYS”, LET’S LOOK JOYFULLY AT THE “BRIGHT LIGHTS”! In John 3:18-21, and Verses 35-36, Jesus said: “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God."

Then Verses 35-36 declares, “The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into His hand. He who believes in the Son [trusts in, relies upon, adheres to] has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”

It’s so interesting, convicting, and illuminating that James 1:17 tells us that, “Every good gift and perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.”

God the Father is the Father of lights without a doubt, and Jesus the Son IS the true light of the world. And in John 8:12 Jesus spoke saying: “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.” He’s not a liar, He’s not a crazy, uncontrollable lunatic, He’s not a deceiver, He’s not an evil spirit masquerading as Truth – He Is the TRUTH! He IS the Way! He is the Author and Finisher of Resurrection Life, Power, and Hope!

If you are an unbeliever, a doubter, a denouncer of Christ, if you’re so sure and certain, then stand openly before the Cross of the Lord Jesus Christ and tell him you’re an atheist, an unbeliever, an agnostic, a doubter – and you then refuse to bow before God’s sacrificial Lamb who DIED FOR YOU, and tell Him that you’re willing to live without Him because you choose to not live for Him so you can revel and rebel in your fallen state – and then just go to Hell forever with the devil and his demons and all your atheistic, agnostic, unbelieving ‘sinners’!!??

Yes, Jesus Is “THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD”! But beyond the reality of His eternal, resurrection life, is the story of true born-again, indwelt sons and daughters of God! In Ephesians 5:8-14 we see unfold the historical truth of “children of light”! It says: “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), finding out what is acceptable to the Lord. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful to speak of those things which are done by them in secret. But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light, for whatever makes manifest is light. Therefore He says: ‘Awake, you who sleep, Arise from the dead, And Christ will give you light.”

How did and does that happen? In 1 Peter 2:9-10, God declared through Peter, “But you [“In Christ”] are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.”

The Lord Jesus always had a passion for the true disciples to understand their role of oneness in Him. In John 12:35-36 He said: “A little while longer the light is with you. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you; he who walks in darkness does not know where he is going. While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of the light.”

Did you see it? Repentant, faith believers BECOME “SONS OF LIGHT”!! It was John who, later, wrote 1 John 1:5-7, “This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.”

Are you familiar with the “New Jerusalem” which I truly believe to be present – not a future possibility? Revelation 21:22-27 tells us, “But I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light. And the nations of those who are saved shall walk in its light, and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honor into it. Its gates shall not be shut at all by day (there shall be no night there”. And they shall bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it. But there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.”

We’ve seen “the Father of lights, the Savior of Light – let’s look now at His Holy Word, the Bible, God’s revelation or unveiling of Himself and those WHO ARE “IN CHRIST”! Let’s examine Psalm 119!

Psalm 119:9 says, “How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed to Your word.”

Psalm 119:11, “Your word have I hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You.”

Psalm 119:14, “I have rejoiced in the way of Your testimonies, as much as in all riches.”

Psalm 119:18, “Open my eyes, that I may see wondrous things from Your law.”

Psalm 119:24, “Your testimonies also are my delight and my counselors.”

Psalm 119:25, “My soul clings to the dust; revive ma according to Your word.”

Psalm 119:28, “Strengthen me according to Your word.”

Psalm 119:37, “Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things, and revive me in Your way.”

Psalm 119:54, “Your statutes have been my song in the house of my pilgrimage.”

Psalm 119:67, “Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep Your word.”

Psalm 119:72, “The law of Your mouth is better to me than thousands of coins of gold and silver.”

Psalm 119:92, “Unless Your law had been my delight, I would then have perished in my affliction.”

Psalm 119:101, “I have restrained my feet from every evil way, that I may keep Your word.”

Psalm 119:105, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.”

Psalm 119:111, “Your testimonies I have taken as a heritage forever, for they are the rejoicing of my heart.”

Psalm 119:120, “My flesh trembles for fear of You, and I am afraid of Your judgments.”

Psalm 119:130, “The entrance of Your words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple.”

Psalm 119:133, “Direct my steps by Your word, and let no iniquity have dominion over me.”

Psalm 119:140, “Your word is very pure; therefore Your servant loves it.”

What was it Jesus said in John 8:31-32? “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

But ALSO, “the church”, the local “assembly of believers,” “the functioning body of Christ” visibly, is to be a “Bright Light”! In Ephesians 5:22-32 Paul compares the husband and wife relationship as a picture of the church, both universal and the local body of believers, where one lives out his/her spiritual marriage to Christ!

There is no doubt that our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, is the Great Shepherd of the sheep, the flock of God. But there are ‘under-shepherds’ assigned by God in caring for the local flocks of a Christ-like, caring under-shepherd who knows how to feed sheep, shear sheep, and guide them by the Word and Spirit to grow and mature and, yes, reproduce themselves to the honor of Christ!

Jesus Himself said in John 6:37-40, giving each repentant follower true hope: “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up on the last day.”

To be a part of a local church fellowship is both an honor and a calling – representatives of the Lord Jesus Christ looking out for others more than we look out for ourselves! The local assembly is “mutual submission”, yes, in the fear of the Lord, because it is to Him we each are held accountable as to our devotion to the church He loved and gave Himself for or our lack of devotion which breaks the Lord’s heart!

After 79 years of life affiliated with a local church, I can say, even with a few “horror” stories, that I’ve been eternally blessed and seen birthed all around a sense of true brotherhood. In John 17:20-23 Jesus prayed to Father-God: “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.” And if the Lord’s words you’ve just read doesn’t intensify in you a greater love for His local body or bodies of believers, I believe I’d seek to examine whether or not I was ever born again!

Receive Charles Haddon Spurgeon’s words in his “Spurgeon’s Sermons”: [Memorial Library, Vol.18, p.64], “Christians are not a miserable company of restless spirits; they are not a pack of dogs howling at one another, and smarting under the keeper’s lash; but they are a flock feeding in happy communion, while Jesus in their midst finds for them a place where they may rest at noon. He so loves His own, and so reveals Himself to His own, that they are a happy [blessed] people highly favored, and greatly honored. God has blessed them, and they should be blessed, let the world say what it will concerning them!”

Timothy Dwight and Aaron Williams wrote an old hymn that NEEDS A RESURRECTION! It says: “I love Your kingdom, Lord, the house of Your abode, The Church our blest Redeemer saved with His own precious blood.

I love Your Church, O God! Her walls before You stand, Dear as the apple of Your eye, And graven on Your hand.

For her my tears shall fall; for her my prayers ascend; To her my cares and toils be given Till toils and cares shall end.

Beyond my highest joy I prize her heavenly ways, Her sweet communion, solemn vows, Her hymns of love and praise.

Sure as Your truth shall last, To Zion shall be given The brightest glories earth can yield, And highest bliss of heaven.” Amen?

I close this chapter with a statement by Henry Ward Beecher about the church. He said: “The Church is not a gallery for the exhibition of eminent Christians, but a school for the education of imperfect ones.” Why not join the training and equipping and disciplining of the local church as a “soldier” of the Cross of Christ?

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

“VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED? SELF-EFFORT RIGHTEOUSNESS

OR SOVEREIGN-IMPLANTED RIGHTEOUSNESS?

I want to lay a clear and solid and life-changing foundation for you out of Genesis 15:6 where the Holy Word tells us: “And he [Abram] believed in the Lord; and He [God] counted [or credited] it to him for [or as] RIGHTEOUSNESS.”

But, fallen men are so self-assertive that they say: “I don’t need God because I can become righteous on my own – I’m able!” Self-effort righteousness is a ‘sham’, with Noah Webster’s 1828 Dictionary saying of ‘sham’: “False, counterfeit, pretended…”, And that is so on target identifying self-effort righteousness!

It was Sir Francis Bacon who once said in the “New Atlantis”, “The reverence of a man’s self is, next to religion, the chiefest bridle of all vices.” Oh, how true is that!?!

I was really shocked when I came across a statement by Benjamin Franklin: “God helps those who help themselves.” And I had to put a huge question mark by that statement! No! God helps those who empty themselves and are filled with Holy Presence through the Resurrection Life of Christ!

Yes, it’s the Cross of Christ before which lost men are to bow, but also one better, or must, place his ‘self-effort’ on the Cross or their ‘self-effort righteousness’ becomes a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the heart and mind, which leaves one eternally separated from Holy God!

Aren’t you aware of “pumped-up flesh” that readily identifies one as a ‘slave in bondage’ to “self-effort righteousness”? In Exodus 6:9 the Word says, “So Moses spoke thus to the children of Israel; but they did not heed Moses, because of anguish of spirit and cruel bondage.” They weren’t even aware of their spiritual condition but had become servants of ‘self-effort righteousness’, even in their chains!

Do you remember Galatians 4:3 when Paul said: “Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world”? That’s ‘self-effort’ righteousness – no freedom but only bondage and slavery to a world culture.

I’m sure you’ve at least read Colossians 2:8 where Paul said: “Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.” He later said in Colossians 2:23, “These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility, and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh.”

Self-effort righteousness is the constancy of self-enslavement. Self-effort righteousness is pulverizing pride; it is one puffed up in himself just like Satan himself. Job 35:12 speaks of those who at least ‘cry out’, “but God does not answer, because of the pride of evil men.”

Follow Proverbs 1:24-33! “Because I have called and you refused, I have stretched out my hand and no one regarded, Because you disdained all my counsel, and would have none of my rebuke, I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your terror comes, when your terror comes like a storm, and your destruction comes like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you. Then they will call, but I will not answer; they will seek me diligently, but they will not find me. Because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord, They would have none of my counsel and despised my every rebuke. Therefore they shall ‘eat the fruit of their own way, and be filled to the full with their own fancies.’ For the turning away of the simple will slay them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them; But whoever listens to me will dwell safely, and will be secure, without fear of evil.”

Oh, and then receive Isaiah 54:17!! It says: “No weapon formed against you shall prosper, and every tongue which rises against you in judgment you shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is from [or out of] Me,” says the Lord!

Aren’t you aware of the great difference, the chasm, between “self-effort righteousness” and “Sovereignly-implanted righteousness”? A purchase price was paid for “Sovereignly-implanted righteousness”, and the price paid was our Savior’s blood shed on Calvary’s tree, the Cross! Is it ‘either-or’? Of course, it is – it always has been! Self in opposition to Holy God, my righteousness opposed to God’s righteousness, righteousness earned or His righteousness implanted? Your ‘righteousness’ is pride in yourself OR you’re humbled by the awesomeness of God’s love, grace, and mercy!

You do understand, from earthly beginnings through Adam and Eve, until this present generation, the powers of darkness until now are out to sell Satan’s lie: “you can sin and not die”!

You and I have an enemy whose goal and ambition is spiritual blindness, eternal deafness, to the will, mind, and heart of Holy God and His Son, the Lord Jesus, and to the voice and intimacy with God’s Holy Spirit! But His Word speaks volumes, loudly, plainly, strongly, to the Truth of our Lord’s love, grace, and mercy – and if one listens and responds, he/she walks away from the bondage of self-righteousness and walks free in God’s Sovereignly-implanted righteousness a new man/woman!

Self-effort righteousness is one’s self-determination of what gives him/her satisfaction, happiness, or pleasure – believing ‘without consequences’! It’s fallen man/woman living by self-rule to give ‘peace’ top his/her passions as he/she settles in to satisfying the flesh! What or who controls my passions, my desires, my longings, my temptations, my fleshly fulfillment? “Whatever silences ‘the demons’ within and gives me a sense of reward for me ‘fallen-away-from-God’ decisions!” Really?

Horatius Bonar put it like this: “No man can quench his thirst with sand, or with water from the Dead Sea; no man can find rest from his own character, however good, or from his own acts, however religious.”

Why? Because ‘self-effort righteousness’ is counterfeit, counter-productive, not honoring God or giving glory to His Name! “Self-effort righteousness,” “self-control programs,” “self-attempts at being religious,” “self-mastery over sin and death and the grave and alienation and separation from God,” are attempts at a “new birth” that proves ‘deathly at its inception’, which is “still-born’!

What’s a “good thought” if Truth is absent? What’s a “passionate prayer” if all you’re doing is indulging and promoting and calling attention to yourself, and even the name of Jesus is completely omitted?

Robert R. Brown once said: ‘It is part of our human nature, but there is that within us which always wants to make self the center of its own universe and, in that selfish way, wants to tear God from His throne and deny his brother and advance his own ambition.” Just how true is that?

I love what Sir Walter Scott wrote in “The Lay of the Last Minstrel,” VI. He said: “The wretch concentered all in self, Living, shall forfeit fair renown, And, doubly dying, shall go down To the vile dust from whence he sprung, Unwept, unhonored and unsung.”

I’m telling you that ‘self-mastery’ in one’s determination of self-righteousness is Satan’s number-one achievement in your life if your only goal and ambition is to think well of yourself!

But I want you to look carefully at the eternal reality of “SOVEREIGN-IMPLANTED RIGHTEOUSNESS”! In 2 Corinthians 5:21 our Lord opened the heart and mind of true understanding and saving faith when He said through Paul: “For He [God] made Him [Jesus] who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” Oh, what a strong, redemptive revelation!

Speaking of the passage in 2 Corinthians 5:21, Oswald Chambers wrote in “My Utmost For His Highest,” [p.224], “The modern view of the death of Jesus is that He died for our sins out of sympathy. The New Testament view is that He bore our sins not by sympathy, but by identification. He was ‘made to be sin.’ Our sins are removed because of the death of Jesus, and the explanation of His death is His obedience to His Father, not His sympathy with us. We are acceptable with God not because we have obeyed, or because we have promised to give up things, but because of the death of Christ, and in no other way. We say that Jesus Christ came to reveal the Fatherhood of God, the loving-kindness of God; the New Testament says He came to bear away the sins of the world. The revelation [or unveiling] of His Father is to those to whom He has been introduced as Savior. Jesus Christ never spoke of Himself to the world as one Who revealed the Father, but as a stumbling block (see John 15:22-24).” …[In closing out his understanding of 2 Corinthians 5:21, Chambers said: “It is not Christ “for” me unless I am determined to have Christ formed “in” me.”].

Don’t ever forget or even overlook Isaiah 54:17! Remember, God said, “…This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is from [out of] Me,” says the Lord!

Spurgeon preached on Isaiah’s word for us: [Spurgeon’s Sermons, Memorial Library, Vol.2, p.164], “Now, if I wished to test you all, and might ask you only one question, I would ask this: What is your righteousness? O, I am as good as my neighbors. God along with you; you are not my comrade. What is “your” righteousness? Well, I am rather better than my neighbors, for I go to chapel regularly. Off with you, sir; you do not know the watchword. And you next; “what is your righteousness? I have been baptized, and am a member of the Church.” Yes, and so you may; and if that is your hope, you are in the gall of bitterness. Now you next; what is your hope? O, I do all I can, and Christ makes up the rest. RUBBISH! You are a Babylonian, you are no Israelite; What is your righteousness? My righteousness is filthy rags, except one righteousness which I have with Christ wrought out for me on Calvary, imputed to me by God Himself, which makes me pure and spotless as an angel. Ah, brother, you and I are fellow-soldiers: I have found you out; that is the watchword. “Your righteousness is of Me, says the Lord.” I do not ask whether you are a Churchman, or whether you are Methodists, or Independents, or Baptists, if you do but know the watchword – ‘Your righteousness is of me, says the Lord.’ Your blood and righteousness, my beauty are, my glorious dress.”

Again, Isaiah so truly educates, informs, instructs, and inspires us as he tells us in Isaiah 64:6, us apart from saving grace and mercy, “But we are ALL like an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags.”

And when one becomes so aware of that true condition of unrighteousness, is graciously exposed to true righteousness, and knows without Christ’s shed blood washing his life he’s hopeless, and, yes, begins to cry out, “God, be merciful TO ME, the SINNER,” then and only then does the repentant heart begin to experience and appropriate the righteousness of God!

Don’t you find it so amazing that Almighty God, Author of His Holy Word, God of the Cross and Empty Tomb, informs us of who true believers are, and gives us a picture of both the righteous and the unrighteous? For example, Jesus tells us about a wedding in Matthew 22 and opens our understanding of who is refused entrance for the wedding and who enters? This is Jesus telling, informing, revealing, yes, the ‘righteous’ who enter the wedding and the feast: Verses 11-13,

“But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man there who did not have on a wedding garment. So he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless. Then the king said to the servants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

Tell me about your preparation of attendance at that awesome, glorious, sacred, celebration wedding of Christ Jesus and His bride! Are you the called, the chosen, the true bride of Christ who daily prepares for the wedding celebration? Or do you “seek to enter” on your own terms?

‘Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment?’ And you’re unsure what it is? Do you even consider, think about, put on, God’s gift of mercy and grace? But, you are aware that the independent soul takes on Frank Sinatra’s famous song, “I did it my way”! “Your way” is that distinguishing mark that shuts the door to your entrance to the eternal wedding!

‘Friend, you are not clothed in a wedding garment! Is there no respect, no acknowledgement in you, no desire to truly honor the King of kings and Lord of lords, or no appreciation of submission to His Way?’

‘Friend, this is the prince’s wedding – not yours.’ And the wedding we’re seeing is a picture portrait of Christ and His bride, but the ‘friend’ came dressed in rebellion, disobedience, self-assertion, a breed of independent walks of life that only pours out contempt on the Crucified Christ and spits on His empty tomb!

Consider, also that many are of the opinion that there is more than one way to find acceptance with God – and multitudes are of the ‘opinion’, “it’s what I believe, it’s how I feel, and God should accept my offering and share my way with His way!”

Wherein God’s Holy Word do you ever find reconciliation with Holy God by man’s activity through that man’s personal wisdom, practical efforts (to them!), with flesh-effort being the sole remedy of his/her ‘salvation’, which is better called ‘evil evolution’!

I remind you again of what Paul preached in Romans 10:2-3! “For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God.”

Are you familiar with the terms IMPARTED, IMPUTED, IMPLANTED righteousness which comes out of the mind and heart and will of God only? Have you failed or neglected to read the words of God through Isaiah the prophet of God? Isaiah 1:18-20 says: “Come now, and let us reason together,” says the Lord, “though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; But if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured by the sword”; For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

But, PLEASE, receive also Isaiah 1:27-28! “Zion (The Kingdom rule and reign of Christ in His ‘spiritual King-dom’!, shall be redeemed with justice, and her penitents with righteousness. (BUT) The destruction of transgressors and sinners shall be together, (crushed!), and those who forsake the Lord shall be consumed.” (And “consumed” is burned alive with “the fire that will not die!”).

Spurgeon spoke of “the insolence of self-righteousness” which so easily, emphatically, denies the righteousness of God through Christ! Oh, and then, of the ‘self-righteous’ religious crowd, he said: “Spiritually he [they] is a very well washed corpse – that is all.”

Haven’t you witnessed it, seen it, been astounded and appalled by the discomfort and denial of the chorus that speaks of “Oh, the blood of Jesus” – and they want no part of it because it doesn’t highlight “what I do, what we are, what we do”!! And that’s outward religious appearances without an inner heart-change! “Born again”, to them is offensive bible-babbling!

Irving Peake Johnson once wrote: “Righteousness as exemplified by Christ is not merely the absence of vice or the presence of virtue. It is a consuming passion for God which sends you forth in His name to establish His kingdom.”

Church attendance without recognizing your calling to establish His kingdom, bow to His rule daily, and practically to embrace Him in submission to His eternal purpose of reconciling a fallen world to Holy God, and seeing yourself brought in unto His divine intent in YOU LIVING THROUGH HIM A RIGHTEOUS LIFE, is a spiritual “sham” of Hell itself!

In 1 Corinthians 15:34 Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit wrote: “Awake to RIGHTEOUSNESS, and do not sin; for some do not have the knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame.” Have you overlooked Romans 5:17? “For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace AND of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.”

Paul also said in Romans 6:13, “And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.” Why not “rest” yourself in Paul’s words in Romans 10:9-10? “…that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart ONE BELIEVES UNTO RIGHTEOUSNESS, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”

We DO have a mandate and ministry in honoring our Lord and Savior! 2 Corinthians 5:20-21 tells us, “Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” Glory!

“Self-Effort Righteousness or Sovereign-Implanted Righteousness”? In Philippians 3:8-10 Paul defines the surpassing value of knowing, receiving, living in and through the Resurrected King of kings and Lord of lords: “Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is FROM GOD by faith; that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death…”

And we learn of Christ and His righteousness through the revelation of God’s Holy Word! 2 Timothy 3:14-17 tells us about a true man of God and the true Word of God: “But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

Oh, hear me! Imputed, imparted, implanted righteousness is the work of God Almighty in and through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! In Hebrews 11:6-7 the Word tells us , “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.”

In closing this chapter, remember that “wedding” garment? In revelation 19:5-9 we read: Then a voice came from the throne, saying, “Praise our God, all you His servants and those who fear Him, both small and great!” And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, as the sound of many waters and as the sound of mighty thunderings, saying, ‘Allelujah! For the Lord God Omnipotent reigns! Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready.’ And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. Then he said to me, “Write: Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb!” And he said to me, “These are the true sayings of God.”

Are YOU arrayed in the “wedding garments”? A few words I wrote recently that seem to fit right in for the closing of this chapter:

“I walk through the forest trees and see God there; I climb the high mountains and see Him everywhere.

Even the bud of a flower is God’s high tower and the sands of the beach His forgiving reach.

Nations and peoples, governments and leaders, give a small look at God and His ‘breeders’

But a blood-bought life of one so broken Is the visible gaze into God’s gracious eternal token.

Born-again by the grace of God puts a “new man” on heavenly sod; Redeemed by the Lamb, forgiven of all sin, reminds all seekers what God intends.

Sons of faith, daughters of truth, are living examples of “the Holy Root”; redeemed by His sacrifice, indwelt by His Life, empowered by His Spirit, they witness of freedom from sin’s strife!

“Doing the Truth” children of faith live in His Light, clearly evidence of His transforming might; ‘flesh’ is of the devil, and loves the dark, but men of righteousness silence the devil’s bark!

Wedded to Christ in eternal union, men of faith are testimonies of God, firmly planted, standing erect, the soldiers of faith become God’s rod – God’s select!”

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

“ETERNAL PUNISHMENT OR ETERNAL LIFE”?

Considering the title of this chapter-teaching, “Eternal Punishment Or Eternal Life?”, it’s not an easy thing to do for some because one can be so involved in so many things or ‘ways’ that consideration of ‘eternal outcomes’ puts one on an uneasy street, especially if ‘present-time living’ has captured you, but eternal punishment or eternal life you’d like to delay, cancel, put off, or face it wisely and courageously.

I don’t mind telling you that I consider my last years, or last months, or last days, at times, because I know: “My time of earthly departure is near.” As I write this, in just about seven-eight weeks, I’ll celebrate my 80^th birthday, but knowing my “Papa Fisher” died at 78 years of age, and my father, James Emerson Fisher, died at 78 years of age , I’ve at least wondered at times, “Is this my year of departure?”

In Genesis 8:21-22 God said in His heart (after the Flood!), “I will never again curse the ground for man’s sake, although the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done. While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, and day and night, shall not cease.” [These verses might be a serious study for many “end-times” folks!].

Ant the seasons are still with us, but there IS coming an hour or a time when God will arise from the throne, and declare: “Gentlemen, IT’S CLOSING TIME FOR THE EARTHLY!” That will be “Hell” for some but “Heaven” for others!

Consider “LIFE”! Are you aware of some ‘achieving’ while others experience ‘failure’? Have you experienced “joy”; and then a cloud of sorrow moves over you? Does ten steps forward and five steps in reverse describe you at times in business, in studies, in work, in marriages, in spiritual journeys? Have you known outstanding success but all of a sudden you experience defeat after defeat after defeat?

Consider your own “spiritual journey” of faith. Oh, I know there are some disciples of faith who move steadily along in their spiritual journey without even experiencing even an ounce of trouble, but for the majority of us as disciples there have been high mountains and low, low valleys, there have been phenomenal advances in the Word and the Spirit, there have been the “easy street” of soul-winning and discipling, but for some their faith-trip has been a lonely journey, often even isolated from a vibrant fellowship and having to “press in” alone, fearful, discouraged, and maybe even temporarily blinded to the presence of God’s Holy Spirit!

Has ‘affliction’ ever hit you physically, morally, emotionally, spiritually, mentally – and you pause, reflect, examine, question, hopefully even asking others for counsel and advice? Are you aware, having experienced it yourself, that there are times when up is down and down is up, out is in and in is out, when ‘normalcy’ becomes so abnormal, when all of a sudden your life, your situation, your walk, experiences a serious disarrangement and your “brightness of Holy Sonshine” begins to experience some dark clouds of ‘my straying’?

I personally can’t even fathom a day without one resolving for himself/herself “eternal punishment or eternal life”! ‘Life’ and its journey can be at times very uncertain! And because of it, I can’t comprehend godless sorrow, godless lives, godless futures! Oh, and then, you try to understand Godless religions that have no hope, no precious promises, no power to implant, birth, or, yes, ‘resurrect’ “new hearts and new hopes and new futures”, and you pause and consider: “How could anyone miss, ignore, or try to refute Divine Revelation?’ But they do!

What happens with unregenerate religionists is that they become devoted to ‘outward regularity’ without inward heart-change by the grace and mercy of God in and through the shed blood of the Lamb of God! But, beyond deathly empty religions, are the aching void and emptiness of, yes, a Godless life and one who is offended by anybody sharing “saving faith and God-given repentance”!

Even most ‘church folk’ have little, if any, understanding of the purpose of the law of God. Oh, they think they do, and, more than likely, brag about not being ‘law-breakers’! But Jesus said, Offend in one point and you’re guilty of ALL!” Law-breaking is the exposure of guilty hearts and lives in desperate need of blood Redemption!

Look around your ‘little world’! You’re not aware at all of the manifestations of ‘sin’ that are so apparent? Your little world is a ‘jewel’ and ‘crown’ of godliness? How is your state’s divorce rate? Tell me about your schools where the majority of students have both parents in parental nurturing both educationally and spiritually! Is abortion a non-issue in your state and community? What’s your prison population like and what does it cost your state? “Sir, you may be a Christian, but I choose ‘my way,’ I choose ‘my pleasures,” “I’ll think as I want to think; who needs the mind of Christ! I’m a promoter of self-aggrandisement and could care less about ‘conformed to the image of Christ”!

In Matthew 10:33 Jesus spoke even so clearly: “But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father in heaven.” “ETERNAL PUNISHMENT OR ETERNAL LIFE?” Don’t take Romans 5:17-19 lightly! “For if by one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Christ Jesus. Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life. For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.”

Each of us must deal personally with “offense” against God and His Word, acknowledging awareness of one’s own spiritual death and status of separation from Holy God, the consideration also of judgment, the matter of, yes, God’s condemnation, and the end result of disobedience! It must not be taken lightly or of no concern to you and those around you – you will stand before Holy God’s throne and give an answer, an account, of rejection or repentance!

Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, came “to seek and to save that which is lost.” In Luke 13 our Lord introduced “the narrow way.” Don’t miss His life-changing or life-condemning word! Luke 13:22-30 says: And He went through the cities and villages, teaching, and journeying toward Jerusalem. Then one said to Him, “Lord, are there few who are saved?”

And He said to them, “Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able.

When once the Master of the house has risen up and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open for us,’ and He will answer and say to you, ‘I do not know you, where you are from,’ then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets.’ But He will say, ‘I tell you I do not know you, where you are from. Depart from Me, all you workers of iniquity.’

There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and yourselves thrust out. They will come from the east and the west, from the north and the south, and sit down in the kingdom of God. And indeed there are last who will be first, and there are first who will be last.”

Did you catch it? Were you stopped in your tracks? Have you examined your heart? Have you contemplated your ways or His will for your life? What did Jesus say?

“Many, I say to you, will seek to enter, and will not be able!” He spoke of “the strait gate” – is He that gate? John 10:9, Jesus speaking, says, “I AM the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.” SAVED? SAVED FROM WHAT?

Let’s look at the sad reality of “ETERNAL PUNISHMENT”! If you didn’t know, it was Cain who murdered his brother Abel! In Genesis 4:8 we read that “Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him.” Deadly actions, deadly deeds, deadly choices always opens the door to one’s ‘eternal punishment’! Murder is violent but so is ‘murder’, not only as a deed, but as one’s self-determination of supremacy over others, even ‘killing’ by gossip, word, or deed!

Have you never considered that a man’s ‘fool-ish-ness’ is a deadly involvement? Have you never evaluated the price and extent of a man’s disobedience to God? I’ve already mentioned that the breaking of one commandment brings judgment as if I’d broken all the Law of God! Most men embrace the world’s godless ways because they have not, cannot, will not, separate themselves from that in which they believe they are so much a part!

‘Attachment’ is a powerful persuader of devotion to godlessness, to the ‘flesh’, to, yes, the sinful, acceptable ways of their godless friends or ‘pretenders of faith’! “They’re my friends – I can’t forsake them,’ even if it costs them an eternal relationship with Christ! “It’s my religion for generations,” even if their ‘religion’ closes the door to oneness with Christ!

‘Similarity’ is a common excuse by a lot of fallen people! “Everybody labors and is heavily laden; why should I look to One who says He’ll give me rest? Rest from what?” And they don’t even know that godlessness is like the full weight of the world crushing them more and more to death!

‘Paralysis’ spiritually is so similar to “spiritual blindness” because one has no desire to move toward God and certainly has no insight to sense Holy Presence before him with open arms – so he ignores a loving Savior and Lord.

‘Deception’ is a devilish tool with sad results. Satan lied to Eve and Adam and they experienced the reality of ‘spiritual death.’ “You can sin and not die,” Satan said – but they did! Have you read recently 2 Peter 2:1-3? Peter wrote: “But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them and bring on themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed. By covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words; for a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their judgment does not slumber.”

Oh, but then in 2 Peter 2:12-15a and verses 18-20 Peter exposes the spiritual hypocrisy (“play-acting”) that is so deadly and deceptive! “But these, like natural beasts made to be caught and destroyed, speak evil of the things they do not understand, and will utterly perish in their own corruption, and will receive the wages of unrighteousness, as those who count it pleasure to carouse in the daytime. They are spots and blemishes, carousing in their own deceptions while they feast with you, having eyes full of adultery and that cannot cease from sin, enticing unstable souls. They have a heart trained in covetous practices, and are forsaken children. They have forsaken the right way and gone astray…”

Verse 18-20 the tell us, “For when they speak great swelling words of emptiness, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through lewdness, the ones who have actually escaped from those who live in error. While they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into bondage. For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning.”

But then we read a word of hope from Paul when he said in Romans 8:31, “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?” It is so vital for you to know in the midst of even Satanic deception, GOD IS FOR YOU! He wants to see you overcoming in Christ Jesus!

But, “born of sinful flesh” is the reality of every human born into this world! Though we are not owned by Satan and his demons, we certainly were and are sadly influenced to devilish sins, vices, lusts, and choices that distress, disturb, demean, and destroy our vey souls!

Satan isn’t out to heal you but to harm you; he’s not interested in simply binding up your wounds but cutting and harming you deeper; he’s not out to encourage you toward a Godly faith but to deceive you into his ‘hellish’ fires!

And Satan’s greatest deception? Paul spoke about those who are “ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness”, certainly in opposition to the call to submit one’s self to the righteousness of God! [Romans 10:1-3].

God’s righteousness or your own righteousness? Pleasing self or pleasing God? Trusting religion or His divine revelation? Obeying a surface, religious faith that has not, will not, cannot change your heart OR heart-obedience in Christ to honor God Himself? Do you realize that there are those who hold “respect” for religious activity but have not an ounce of commitment to obey God? Aren’t you aware of others around you, maybe even yourself, that ‘outward appearance’ has veiled, yes, a rebellious heart and mind ? Religious but unregenerate, separate from most of the world but knowing nothing about justification, sanctification, or glorification? Outward allegiance to ‘religious truths’ but no full surrender to Eternal Truth whose name is Jesus?

Oh, but I pray you clearly understand that there are those who never have and never will come to Christ in repentance and faith. But in this moment, this given moment, between you and God only, I want you to seriously consider, yes, defectors from “the Faith”! If you read John 6:66, His Word tells us: “From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more.” What a sad commentary!!

One of the most heart-rending moments a true church family may endure is not separation from a local body to another local body, but when there are those you’ve shared your life with who choose to walk away from the Redemptive Faith of Christ! John 6:67 then tells us Jesus asked His inner circle, “Do you also want to go away?”

You’ll remember that earlier in John 6, verse 56, Jesus said: “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.” And the response? Verse 60, “This is a hard saying; who can understand it?” And I believe the biblical demands of true discipleship became a hindrance and a stumbling-block because they were not willing to obey the Master! Don’t you know and realize that personal prejudices, one’s own likes or dislikes, one’s devotion to his/her depraved life, can and often does take precedence over the “God’s Way declaration”, and “I do it my way ‘crowd’” turn their backs on Christ and His eternal truth!

In “Spurgeon’s Sermons,” [Memorial Library, Vol.12, pps.293-309], the great preacher of England listed a number of reasons why some walk away and lose their souls!

• They depart from Christ because they cannot bear His doctrine. 2. They depart from Christ for the sake of gain – money speaks loud. 3. They depart from Christ because they’re afraid of persecution. 4. They depart from Christ out of sheer levity. 5. They depart from Christ tempted by evil companions. 6. They depart from Christ for the sake of sensual enjoyments! 7. They depart from Christ because their life circumstances changed. 8. They depart from Christ because unsound doctrine led them to apostatize. 9. They depart from Christ out of sheer laziness.

That should cover “A Mournful Defection” admirably! ETERNAL PUNISHMENT OR ETERNAL LIFE? In John 3:14-15 Jesus tells us: “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him [trusts in, relies upon, adheres to] should not perish but have ETERNAL LIFE.”

Paul laid it out for us in a clear, convincing, and convicting way when in Romans 6:23 he said, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Oh, but also consider what he wrote us in Romans 6:22! “But now having been set from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end everlasting life.” [Dare I tell you that continual sin is a sure sign of a devil-dominated life?].

Performance or Provision? By one’s ‘grit’ or by God’s grace? By our self-effort or Jesus’ ‘self-less sacrifice’? Look at Romans 5:15-18! “But the free gift is not like the offense. For if by the one man’s offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many. And the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned. For the judgment which came from one offense resulted in condemnation, but the free gift which came from many offenses resulted in justification [“just-as-if-I’d-never-sinned!”]. For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ. Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the “free gift” came to all men, resulting in justification of life.” Glory! Again and again and again!!

Have YOU come to a full understanding of this ‘gift’ God has given to us ‘in Christ’? We’re: “justified as a gift BY HIS GRACE,” “free gift,” “the gift of righteousness,” “eternal gift,” “your own gift,” “a generous gift,” “a bountiful gift,” “an indescribable gift,” “the spiritual gift within you,” “the heavenly gift,” “the perfect gift,” “a special gift,” and, Oh, yes, “the gift of Jesus Himself!!”

Do you understand “freely received” so we “freely give”? Have you experienced: “…such as I have, I give to you”? Have you discovered that it’s more blessed to give than to receive? And when one has received God’s greatest gift in true sacrifice, tell me about the pattern of YOUR “laid-down life” in service and ministry to others, yes, because of what God has given you!

I remind you of Jesus’ prayer in John 17:3 when He prayed to Father-God, “And THIS IS ETERNAL LIFE, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You sent.” Yes, you do understand, you do know, but have you ventured your all in full surrender to His Lordship and taken “the sentence of death to yourself” that His Resurrection Life can be fully manifested in and through you?

I love what Oswald Chambers said in his “My Utmost For His Highest,” [p.74]. He said: “It takes omnipotence to live the life of the Son of God in mortal flesh.” And it’s so true, so necessary, and so fully available! We don’t ‘copy’ Jesus – we surrender to His resurrection presence in us: “Christ in you the hope of glory,” freely granted upon the basis of your repentance toward God Himself and redemptive faith in Christ’s Calvary, shed blood in your place! Stop being so determined and become totally dependent in Him because ‘He Is Able’!

In Acts 4:13 the Word tells us, “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized [or took knowledge of] that they had been with Jesus.”

Hear me! WE WERE CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST! If you didn’t know, when Jesus went to the Cross He took us all with Him! I want you to slowly, intently, passionately read over and over Romans 6:5-14!! “For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.”

This is why Paul could testify in Galatians 6:14, “But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” You either are boasting in yourself or you’ve accepted your crucifixion with Christ, and you boast only in Jesus!

His death at the Cross and your identity with Him on the Cross tells me YOU ARE TOTALLY AWARE OF GOD’S JUDGMENT ON YOUR SIN – and you, yes, choose death to sin in you, death to a depraved world spirit, death to your own personal self-interest and ambition, and you passionately long for your own full awareness that the “old self” died with Christ on the Cross, and YOU NOW LIVE BY HIS MANIFESTED PRESENCE IN YOU AND FOR HIS PURPOSES, HONOR, AND GLORY!

Receive 1 Corinthians 2:12! “Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been given freely to us by God.”

Paul told the Roman believers, and us, Romans 8:15-17, “For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs – heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, IF INDEED WE SUFFER WITH HIM, that we may be also glorified together.”

His death on the Cross, your death with Him on the Cross, and your full awareness now that you are ‘joint-heir’ with Him in the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Jesus Christ, brings you to a confident, assured, blessed journey of faith, obedience, and eternal hope! And you KNOW it how?

Examine our Lord’s words for us in John 14:27! “My peace I leave with you, My peace I GIVE TO YOU; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” Paul told the church at Philippi, [Philippians 4:7], “and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”

As you have read this message, I don’t know who you are or where you are in your journey of faith or a journey of faithlessness – I don’t know, but you know, and God knows! In John 12:37 His Word tells us, “But although He had done so many signs before them, they did not believe in Him.” Does that still occur today? John12:28 speaks of Jesus saying to His Father, “Father, glorify Your name,” as He reflected upon the Cross to come, followed by a voice from heaven, saying, “I have both glorified it and will glorify it again.” Some heard the voice and thought it had ‘thundered’ – the same is true today: they hear, but to them it’s ‘thunder’, not the truth from the heart of God! In John 12:30, the Lord Jesus declared: “This voice did not come, because of Me, but for your sake.”

Have YOU heard His voice? It was Him speaking to you “for your sake”! There is the “Voice” – and it will declare “Eternal Punishment or Eternal Life”. What is His voice saying to YOU right now?

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

“ABOUNDING MISERY AND CHAOS

OR ADVOCACY PEACE AND BLESSING?”

I really don’t know for sure the public’s response to the Scripture I’m about to share, but I sense in my inner man an awful rejection of the Scripture. It comes from John 3:36 when John said: “He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”

I’d personally say that what we’ve just read is a frightening and future event that you’d think most people would like to avoid! “The wrath of God abides on him.”

In Jeremiah 45:5 our Lord spoke: “And do you seek great things for yourself? Do not seek them; for behold, I will bring adversity on all flesh,” says the Lord, “But I will give your life to you as a prize in all places, wherever you go.” The last part of that verse reminds me of “I must decrease – He must increase.” But the first part is about those who have not believed, will not believe, and, as a result, the wrath of God abides on him.

“Abounding Misery and Chaos or Advocacy Peace and Blessing?” Jeremiah 32:38-40 speaks of those who enter an everlasting covenant with Holy God. It says:

“They shall be My people and I will be their God; then I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear Me forever, for the good of them and their children after them. And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from doing them good; but I will put My fear in their hearts so that they will not depart from Me.”

But I want you to know that much or most of what Jeremiah wrote, he did from behind prison bars! His devotion to Truth and its Author cost him dearly! At the very same time as he was writing from behind bars God was at work establishing the door to Advocacy Peace and Blessing! In fact, in Jeremiah 33:30, God spoke to Jeremiah and to us, “Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.”

Jeremiah didn’t know and never would know if Almighty God had not opened his door to “Advocacy Peace and Blessing” – he would have, as most men, only known “Abounding Misery and Chains”! Godless, the majority of men know only “abounding misery and chaos”, while “the few”, broken by Holy God, discover “advocacy peace and blessing.” Show me a man of true peace and blessing, and I’ll show you a man who has been to the Cross of Christ!

It’s not a reason to rejoice at all, but in 2 Corinthians 4:3-4 Paul wrote: “But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the [exact, perfect] image of God, should shine on them.”

A ‘veiled gospel’ that has erupted in “abounding misery and chaos”, and having received a veil gospel’, the recipients don’t even know what they’ve been enveloped by; “death” is advancing in them more and more!

Do you understand someone speaking of “a soul so base as mine”? That’s a picture of one “abounding in misery and chaos” who know nothing about amazing grace and eternal peace through Christ alone! They know and understand the paralysis of sin and the pulverizing power of a dead conscience, basically powerless, in themselves, to even believe in Christ’s shed blood of the Atonement shed fully at Calvary’s Cross! Their own sin is allowed selfishly or by demonic blindness to overshadow divine grace and love, filling them only with fleshly despair. It’s as if the powers of darkness instill within unbelievers a deadly disease called ‘sin’ that breeds despondency, discouragement, doubt and fear, and cements their minds with lies that “God Himself can’t help you!”, and all of a sudden they seem to be emotionally and mentally paralyzed with hopelessness – and the devil shouts, “Yes, it’s done – I’ve won another soul for my devilish self!”

But if Jesus says, and He does, “Come unto Me, and I will give you rest,” what He did over 2000 years ago at the Cross, He still does today! But people who are ‘heavy laden’ are actually anguished body, soul, and spirit, and add more ‘weights’ trying to overcome on their own with their burden of sin growing stronger with despair and discouragement intensifying.

Have you heard the defiant to ‘saving faith’? “If I try harder, I’ll find the peace I’m looking for.” “If I earn my place on an athletic team, I’ll quiet my demons.” “If I earn a lot of money, everything will be OK.” “If I make a name for myself, I’ll adjust the mental, moral, and spiritual problems.” “If I stay busy, busy, I won’t have time to worry, worry, doubt, doubt, or be afraid, afraid.” Above all, they want to ignore God’s knock at the door of their heart. They want to totally shut out any references to the Cross and Christ’s shed blood. They want to refute the necessity of repentance and faith because that speaks of accountability before Holy God!

Opposite of self-effort and fleshly intent to be an overcomer of sin and death in and through one’s self is Christ Jesus as He faced the judgment of unbelievers and the Cross praying to the Father in Luke 23:34, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.” So true, because every willful sin represents the nails in our Lord’s body!

In fact, in Matthew 24:12, Jesus said, “And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold.” But ‘cold-hearted’ people need to know that the Holy Word of God tells us in Romans 5:20, “…But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more,” Verse 21 then saying, “so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

And I believe our Lord is telling us that the person who is the furtherest throw away from God is His target with the arrow of grace, mercy, and love – and though they’ve abounded in misery and chaos, our God is ABLE through advocacy peace and blessing to birth new life, new hope, new purpose, with God glorifying Himself through a transformed sinner to a Heavenly saint!

2 Corinthians 1:3-7 speaks so clearly, hopefully, powerfully, assuringly about those who had abounded in misery and chaos, sinners separated, bound, hopeless, and unknowingly ‘separated from God’ – but they meet the Resurrected Christ and are ‘comforted’ by God! It says:

“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 tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds through Christ. Now if we are afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effective for enduring the same sufferings which we also suffer. Or if we are comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation. And our hope is steadfast, because we know that as you are partakers of the suffering, so also you will be partakers of the consolation.”

Abounding misery or Advocacy Peace? Abounding chaos or Advocacy Blessing? Tribulation or consolation? Trouble or comfort? Hopeless or steadfast? Sufferings debilitating or Eternal Salvation Elevating? Bondage and chains or liberty and freedom? A sin-bound life of death and separation from God or ‘sainthood’ by the Life and oneness “in Christ”? A paralysis of sin and guilt or the eternal pleasure of forgiveness, freedom, and fullness through our bondage-breaker, the Lord Jesus?

And the amazing, life-changing Truth? Romans 8:28 declares, “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose,” even suffering! Do YOU long for the Lord’s nearness to YOU? In Psalm 34”18 David said: “The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart, and saves such as have a contrite (or crushed) spirit.” David didn’t stop there but went on to say in verse 19, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all.”

Advocacy peace and blessing reigns supreme! Years ago Andrae Crouch wrote and sang the song entitled “Through It All.” It’s a spiritual classic! It says:

“I’ve had many tears and sorrows, I’ve had questions for tomorrow, there’s been times I didn’t know right from wrong. But in every situation, God gave me blessed consolation, that my trials come to only make me strong.

I’ve been to lots of places, I’ve seen a lot of faces, there’s been times I feel so all alone. But in my lonely hours, yes, those precious lonely hours, Jesus lets me know that I was His own.

I thank God for the mountains, and I thank Him for the valleys, I thank Him for the storms He brought me through. For if I’d never had a problem, I wouldn’t know God could solve them, I’d never know what faith in God could do.

Through it all, through it all, I’ve learned to trust in Jesus, I’ve learned to trust in God. Through it all, through it all, I’ve learned to depend upon His Word.”

No doubt this is why David wrote in Psalm 32:7, “You are My hiding place; You shall preserve me from trouble; You shall surround me with songs of deliverance.” Do you believe, have you experienced the reality of the God who “gives songs in the night”?

Reading through Acts recently I came across Acts 16:25. “But at midnight Paul and Silas [imprisoned] were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.”

I’m telling you: Dark nights are OUR opportunities for “songs of light”! A night of sorrow may be your hallowed moment of Holy Presence like you’ve never known before! It may be in “the dark” when your enemies come to arouse and threaten you, but then Holy God steps in, in the Light of His Glorious Presence! It may be a dark night of fear and doubt but Holy Truth raises you above it! It may be a dark night of worrisome anxiety but Holy Peace stands up in Holy Promises! And the dark night becomes your “song of light”!

Out of “The Mourning Bride,” William Congreve wrote: “What do the damned endure, but to despair?” Despair or to delight, to sorrow or to celebrate, to be assaulted by the powers of darkness and the enemies of God or to be affirmed by our advocate of peace and blessing?

It was John Calvin, in his “Institutes of the Christian Religion,” who wrote: “God foreordained for His own glory and the display of His attributes of mercy and justice, a part of the human race, without any merit of their own, to eternal salvation, and another part, in just punishment of their sins, to eternal damnation.” Are YOU the “called” or the “cursed”?

Can you believe it? Jesus dared to say, [Matthew 23:33], “Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell?” And I love what Thomas Scott once wrote when he said: “No affliction nor temptation, no guilt nor power of sin, no wounded spirit nor terrified conscience, should induce us to despair of help and comfort from God.”

Why? How? Who? Because His Word says: “Whosoever will may come.” That tells me of God’s pardon and forgiveness, not His penalty and unforgiveness! What does Revelation 22:17 tell us? And the Spirit and the Bride say “Come”! And let him who hears say, “Come!” And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely.”

Acts 2:21 tells us, And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Or, how could one resist the words of Jesus in John 11:25-26? “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?” “Believe”? That means “trust in, rely upon, adhere to!!” Is that YOUR testimony of belief and trust? Do you really have a mind and heart of “trust” in God?

It was Horace Bushnell who said: “Trust God for great things; with your five loaves and two fishes, He will show you a wat to feed thousands.”

ABOUNDING MISERY AND CHAOS, OR ADVOCACY PEACE AND BLESSING? I’m sure you understand that a Christless life is a life of continual, addictive sin, but when we come to Christ as Lord and Savior we hear Him say, “Go and sin no more.”

But the beloved John tells us in 1 John 2:1, “My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And IF anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” John then said in Verse 6, “He who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk just as He walked,” and He never walked in sin but He went to the Cross to die for your sin and mine, that we, in faith, no longer have to live in bondage to our old sin natures!

And before Father-God we see Jesus, our advocate, representing us before Him because of our faith and trust in our Lord and Savior’s atoning work in our behalf as our ‘legal attorney’! I don’t know who wrote it, but the words are so encouraging: “We have listened to the preacher – Truth by him has now been shown; But we want a Greater Teacher, from the everlasting throne: APPLICATION is the work of God alone.”

In 1 Thessalonians 5:5-11 there are powerful statements of encouragement by Paul. He said: “You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night. But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation. For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him. Therefore comfort each other and edify one another, just as you also are doing.”

Both the above Scripture and words by Spurgeon really challenge all true believers in their ministries! Spurgeon said: “As the spiritual guide of the flock of God along the intricate mazes of experience, it is the duty of the gospel minister to point out every turning of the road to heaven, to speak concerning its dangers or its privileges, and to warn any whom you suspect to be in a position peculiarly perilous. Now, there is a portion of the road which leads from the City of Destruction to the Celestial City, which has in it, perhaps, more dangers than any other portion of the way. It does not abound with lions; there are no dragons in it; it has no dark woods, and no deep pitfalls; yet more seeming pilgrims have been destroyed in that portion of the road than anywhere else, and not even Doubting Castle, with all its hosts of bones, can show so many who have been slain there. It is part of the road called the Enchanted Ground. The great geographer, John Bunyan, well pictured it when he said: ‘I then saw in my dream that they went on till they came into a certain country, whose air naturally tended to make one drowsy, if he came a stranger into it.

And here Hopeful began to be very dull, and heavy of sleep; wherefore he said unto Christian, I do now begin to grow so drowsy that I can scarcely hold up my eyes; let us lie down here, and take one nap.

‘Christian’: By no means, said the other, lest sleeping, we never awake more.

‘Hope’: Why, my brother? Sleep is sweet to the laboring man; we may be refreshed if we take a nap.

‘Christian’: Do you not remember that one of the shepherds bid us beware of the Enchanted Ground? He meant by that, that we should beware of sleeping: wherefore, ‘let us not sleep as others do, but let us watch and be sober.”

And Spurgeon went on to speak “concerning the condition of the majority of churches in the present day.” He said, “they are lying down on the settles of LUKEWARMNESS, in the Arbors of the Enchanted Ground. There is not that activity and zeal we could wish to see among them; they are not, perhaps, notably heterodox; they may not be invaded by the lion of persecution, but they are somewhat worse than that, – they are lying down to slumber, like HEEDLESS and TOO-BOLD in the Arbor of Sloth. May God grant that His servants may be the means of arousing the church from its lethargy, and stirring it up from its slumbers, lest haply professors should sleep the sleep of death.”

What was the verse that inspired that? 1 Thessalonians 5:6, “Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober [self-controlled].” Advocacy peace and blessing does not breed abounding misery and chaos – but sin and self-abandonment to sin does just that! Sin and self-abandonment to sin breeds spiritual paralysis and satanic deception! Advocacy peace and blessing breeds true security, eternal peace, and Heavenly Hallelujahs! Amen?

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

“CONTENTED WITH SELF OR CONVERTED TO NEW LIFE?”

Have you ever heard the term or word called “self-aggrandisement”? Noah Webster’s 1828 Dictionary defines ‘aggrandisement’ as: “One exalting self in power, rank, or honor – exalting one’s self as greater – (should I dare insert ‘even greater than God Himself’?), or enlarged in one’s own opinion of self…”

It was Paul, in Romans 12:3, who said: “For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.”

And, contextually, it’s clear that every birthed human being has a ‘measure of faith’, but that ‘measure’ can turn inward rather than upward, me rather than what God has willed, my becoming rather than a “new birth” reality!

No doubt this is why the author of Proverbs gave us the strong word in Proverbs 25:27! “It is not good to eat much honey; so to seek one’s own glory is not glory.” How clear is that revelation word?

‘Contented with self people’ are more than likely people who have no control over themselves, though they want you to think that they do! ‘Contented with self people’ want you to think they have control in ‘all things’, but, really, they have no control even over themselves! You’ll usually find that ‘self-contented people’ are usually those with ‘the city of their lives broken down without walls’, because they have no rule over their own spirits though they want to rule over you!

You do see that ‘self-pride’ people, content with who they are and what they do, never can come up with a truthful answer of what it is he/she is really proud of. And, of course, pride goes before a fall. Sheared Samson is a prime example of one who allows self-promotion to take precedence over God Himself being number One in one’s life.

Contented with self people are symbolized, yes, by many pastors who ‘tone down truth’ because they might lose financial support for the local church they pastor! Sadly, Samson was shorn, and so are many pastors because ‘contented with self’ they would compromise Divine Truth!

Can you even begin to imagine Jesus, confronted by the scribes and Pharisees, and those ‘religious freaks’ threaten Him with a ‘closed-door’ to the Temple if He doesn’t tone down His preaching to them? “Why, you brood of vipers and snakes”!! And Jesus didn’t back off!

Don’t ever forget Queen Esther!! She was wife to the strong ruler, Ahasuerus. Haman is determined to destroy her nation and he gets a decree to do just that! Here cam Mordecai! He confronts Esther that she must speak to the king. If she does, she knows she’ll possibly die! And Esther? “If I die, I die; but I must speak deliverance for my people, because who knows if I came to my ‘Queen’ position for such a time as this? “ Was the Queen guided by convenience or conviction? And what guides your life as a believer, a follower, a disciple, a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ?

In 1 John 2:18-20 John tells us: “Little children, it is the last hour; [not long until 70 AD and the destruction of Jerusalem forever, replaced by the New Jerusalem!]; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us. [“None of them?” The Jewish leaders, elders, priests, and the deceived who followed them rather than the Resurrected Christ!]. But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things.”

Paul put it like this in 1 Corinthians 11:19, “For there must also be factions among you, that those who are approved may be recognized by you.” Have you ever faced the dilemma in your faith-walk of those who ‘shout’ convenience over commitment to need, or ‘greater blessing’ over the ‘laid-down life’ at the point of the truly greatest need?

Contented with self or converted to new life? Don’t you find it so amazing and, yes, so disturbing, as we read 2 Timothy 4:10 where Paul told Timothy, “Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world”?

Do you remember Paul’s word to the church at Colossae? [Colossians 4:17]. “And say to Archippus, ‘Take heed to the ministry which you have received in the Lord, that you may fulfill it.” Every single disciple IS a minister while some are pastoral ministers, but all followers of Christ are commissioned as ambassadors, ushering in His kingdom-rule!

The Apostle Paul spoke to the Ephesian elders in Acts 20:22-24, “And see, now I go bound in the spirit to Jerusalem, not knowing the things that will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies in every city, saying that chains and tribulations await me. BUT NONE OF THESE THINGS MOVE ME; NO DO I COUNT MY LIFE DEAR TO MYSELF, so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I have received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.”

He understood who he was ‘in Christ’! In Galatians 1:1 he wrote: “Paul, an apostle (not from men,, nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised Him from the dead.” He saw “converted to new life” – not devoted to religious activity! In Galatians 1:15-16 he wrote, “But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, to REVEAL HIS SON IN ME…!!” And if you hadn’t seen it yet in your own pilgrimage, Galatians is God’s call to each of us in FAITH, FREEDOM, FULLNESS, FRUIT, and the FIGHT!

Do you remember the disciples coming to Jesus and saying to Him, (Matthew 18:1), “Who then is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” And Jesus answered in Verses 3-4, “Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted [“born again”] and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”

But you choose “senior, adult, manly pride in self” while Jesus says the greatest is the one dependent as a little child? You choose “fleshly wit” over divine wisdom? You choose what your fallen flesh dictates (even “my fleshly best”) over the Holy Revelation of Divine Truth? You choose reason, your reasoning ‘genius’, over the Divine mind and will of God?

Contented with self or converted to new life? Oh, I tell you, Paul hit a ‘world series home run’ when in 2 Corinthians 10:5 he said: “Casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, [thus] bringing every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.” Contentment with self is blind allegiance to ‘fallen flesh’ alleging even higher, greater thoughts and deeds than God Himself in Christ!

And only when one brings a captive mind to Christ will the enslaving chains be broken and shattered. In fact, in 2 Corinthians 10:4, Paul said: “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal (fleshly) but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds.”

A ‘contented self’ is a powerful stronghold in defiance of Holy God and the Servant Spirit of Christ because ‘contented selves’ are those who want to be served rather than to serve. But sometimes even immature new believers impulsively begin to act on their own, and spiritual problems occur! In “My Utmost For His Highest,” Oswald Chambers said: [p.186], “Then take ourselves – a vivid religious experience, and every project born of impulse put into action immediately, instead of being imprisoned and disciplined to obey Christ.”

“I’m saved from my sin, but I believe I’m smart enough to make decisions on my own and even fight my own battles!” Well, just how childish and immature and irrational is that when the Resurrected King of kings is available to be our rescuer?

This is why Chambers said on the same page: “We are apt to forget that a man is not only committed to Jesus Christ for salvation; he is committed to Jesus Christ’s view of God, of the world, of sin and of the devil, and this will mean that he must recognize the responsibility of being transformed by the renewing of his mind.” And, of course, yielding to the control of the Indwelling Christ and His gift of the awesome Holy Spirit!

Contented with self or converted to new life? And contented with self is the testimony of an unregenerated life of pretense while converted to new life is the eternal truth and testimony of “Christ in you the hope of glory.” It’s not in an unregenerate man to bring about in himself eternal salvation or even a life that honors Holy God. Even a regenerate man has no testimony in himself of a saving ability but he has fully repented, trusted in the finished work of Christ At The Cross, and experienced the “new birth” and infilling of the Holy Spirit! Doesn’t the Word of God tell us, “For it is God who works in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure?”

Contented with self? Oh, sadly, there is a world filled with people who don’t even know they are spiritually dead before Holy God, and His desire to give them His Resurrection Life, Resurrection Power, and Resurrection Hope that is eternal through Christ Jesus! Do you remember Ezekial 37:3 where God asked Ezekial, “Son of man, can these bones live?” Ezekial said, “O Lord God, You know,” as if to say in that given moment he wasn’t sure. But he did as God commanded him, and in Verse10 Ezekial tells us, “So I prophesied as He commanded me, and breath came upon them, and they lived, and stood upon their feet, an exceedingly great army.” Oh, there IS conversion to new life!

And for all those who’ve gone on through death to await God’s final rendering, in John 5:25-29, Jesus spoke: “Most assuredly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live…

For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself,

And has given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice

And come forth – those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection.”

Every individual will stand personally before Holy God to receive either his sentencing or his blessing.

That means that professors who know nothing of being possessed by Him will give an account of their empty faith or rebellious reasoning. Historical verifiers who stand before the Author of His-story but no testimony of re-birth will hear His verdict of aliens and strangers. Devoted legalists will hear the Savior say, “I never knew you – depart.”

Daniel 12:2-3 tells us, “And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, some to shame and everlasting contempt.

Those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the firmament, and those who turn many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever.”

William Wordsworth, in “Intimations of Immortality”, wrote: “Not in utter nakedness, bit trailing clouds of glory do we come.”

Paul said in 1 Corinthians 10:31, “Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”

That sounds like a person converted to new life, not one contented with self! Someone anonymously wrote “Out in the Fields” – and I pray as you read it that you stand before God’s fields of service and spiritually sense what Holy God would have you do from this day forward in His “fields of service and blessing”!

“The little cares that fretted me, I lost them yesterday, Among the fields above the sea, among the winds at play…Among the hushing of the corn, where drowsy poppies nod, Where ill thoughts die and good are born – Out in the fields of God.”

Are you playing in your ‘sand-boxes’ of fleshliness or God’s fields of true harvest?

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

“VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED? MUTUALLY INDIFFERENT OR MERCIFULLY INVOLVED?”

When one reads 1 John 3:1, he/she stands in awe of God’s amazing love and grace! “Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!” And true believers are, yes, constantly in awe of the love and mercy of God!

But then, in Verse 2, John wrote, “Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.” Mutually indifferent people who ignore the love of God through the Resurrected Savior and Lord are “common sense people” who’ve figured out their existence for themselves, telling themselves, deluding their own hearts and minds, “I don’t need a “born-again life – I’m steady and sure of myself,” which is a lie out of the Pit of Hell itself and the influences of the devil in his deception that “you can sin and not die”! But, “ALL HAVE SINNED AND FALL SHORT OF THE GLORY OF GOD!” “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in and through Christ alone!”

How many ‘mutually indifferent’ folks have you crossed paths with who assure you, “I know my way, and I like what my way gives me,” without one ounce of understanding of being created by God for God’s purposes, not our own? Most ‘common sense’ folks mastered life’s plan for themselves with deaf ears and closed eyes to the “Highway of Holiness”, yes, without an ounce of guilt over sin or sadness over ignoring God’s eternal plan for their lives!

The ‘mutually indifferent’ to the heart of God and His desires for “HIS CREATIONS” are lives constructed on a faulty foundation that stresses ‘self-indulgence’ is the god they bow down to – they are devoted to the “sublime intimacy” of the idol of “me, my, mine”, and they don’t appreciate you telling them otherwise!

The measure of human merit is, for many, how they view ‘success’ in life or ‘failure’ in life without one ounce of any accountability to the God who made them, lost them, then paid for their sin debt through the shed blood of His Own Son! They are spiritually blind and deaf to the “godly sorrow that works repentance leading to salvation.”

In John 8, beginning in Verse 3 and reading through Verse 12, we have the victorious story of the woman caught in adultery and ready to be stoned by the scribes and Pharisees! “Then the scribes and Pharisees brought to Jesus a woman caught in adultery. And when they had set her in the midst, they said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in adultery, in the very act. Now Moses, in the law, commanded us that such should be stoned. But what do You say?”

This they said, testing Him, that they might have something of which to accuse Him. But Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with His finger, as though He did not hear.”

So when they continued asking Him, He raised Himself up and said to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.” And again He stooped down and wrote on the ground.

Then those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest even to the last. And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.

When Jesus had raised Himself up and saw no one but the woman, He said to her, “Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, Lord.”

And Jesus said to her, “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.” Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.”

When one reads about ‘the scribes and Pharisees’, you understand, this was the leading ‘religious figures of their day’, yet they were men who walked overshadowed by clouds and darkness, who knew nothing of “Light” shining in redeemed hearts and lives! Those who ‘walk in darkness’ are fleshly flippant and walk, some even religiously, in the familiarity of ‘fleshly indulgence’ in sin and a dominant sin-nature, because they don’t understand or comprehend that they are in bondage to the devil himself and know nothing about “delivered out of the hands of the wicked one”!

But, also, one of the disturbing realities of the human condition, men separated from Holy God because of their sin natures and deafened ears to His “calling”, is the personal paralysis of disillusionment and disbelief that only God Himself can make the eternal difference in the human heart and mind! Oswald Chambers said in “My Utmost For His Highest,” [p.154], “Our Lord’s confidence in God and in what His grace could do for any man was so perfect that He despaired of no one. If our trust is placed in human beings, we shall end in despairing of everyone.” Oh, how true is that statement?!

But fallen humanity, alienated and separated from Holy God, seldom sees that as a ‘desperate state of affairs’ or a ‘dark cloud of despair and hopelessness’ – “I’ve got hope in my own abilities to overcome anything I face – and to mention despondency or spiritual destitution is to hear stupidity from the ‘religious’ crowd who doesn’t understand or comprehend human potential!” Yet how many have you known pumped up in ‘fleshly pride’ who suddenly face the reality of death, and wonder, “How stupid have I been? God made ME for a heavenly purpose, but I chose to live for my fleshly pleasures?” Sometimes rude awakenings alert one to his/her need of Holy God!

That attitude or frame of reference to human living without God may be why the Spirit inspired Paul, in Ephesians 5:13-14, “But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light, for whatever makes manifest is light. Therefore He says: “Awake, you who sleep, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light.” Does that mean that enlightenment to spiritual need is a vital step to reaching out of ourselves to the God who made us? Present or past desperation is usually the only firm and faithful step to eternal resolution of life’s greatest problem: sin and one’s separation from Holy God and His eternal purpose for that man’s life!

Earlier, in Ephesians 5:11-12, Paul wrote: “And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful to speak of those things which are done by them in secret.”

“Unfruitful works of darkness”? You are aware of how the choice of “mutually indifferent” to God darkens one’s heart and mind to the eternal purpose of glorifying God in the human life and walk, evading His “calls,” and ignoring, yes, His pleas: “Come unto Me, and I will give you rest,” satisfied in being his/her own personal dictator, regardless of the consequences!

Do you remember Jesus saying in John 11:40, “Did I not say to you that if you would believe [trust in, rely upon, adhere to] you would see the glory of God?’ But a “common-sense mentality” says: “What difference does that make for me? I’m independently strong, common-sense guided, fleshly determined, and on my “mount” I reign, and nothing or no one can take me down,” until they stand before Him at the Eternal Throne of Judgment! It’s so easy to “retire” into one’s own expectations of himself/herself, and shut the door in the face of Merciful God! Personal ‘gain’ breeds “silence” while God’s glory released in a man births “shouts” of “Glory-be-to God for His grace, mercy, and love”!

I remind you of Moses and Aaron going in to Pharoah of Egypt, challenging him by God’s order, “Let My people go!” But in Exodus 5:2 we read, Pharoah saying, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, nor will I let Israel go,” signing his own death warrant! Pharoah’s strong assertion of “not knowing God”, and possessing no desire to know Him, always brings one to their ‘valley of indecision’ or even the ‘mountain-peak’ of total resistance and rebellion to Calvary’s love!

But beyond a Pharoah’s assertion of not knowing God, there is the reality of “professors of ‘a’ faith”, because most men will at least acknowledge God’s reality and existence, but rebel against their need of Him! So, in the absence and denial of the True Faith in the Blood Redemption of Christ, fallen men have always established ‘religions’ of some kind, but eventually there comes the day when Holy God reveals, and they realize, they’ve established and entered a ‘gorilla cage’! Have you ever witnessed, experienced, or become aware of ‘religious activity’ that indicates a ‘dry-as-dust’ walk that stirred Martin Luther King’s passionate heart?

That’s like Robert Andrews Millikan, I believe former professor at Yale, who once stated, “The service of the Christian religion and my own faith in essential Christianity would not be diminished in one iota if it should in some way be discovered that no such individual as Jesus existed.” [ University Press, From “The Encyclopedia of Religious Quotations, Fleming H. Revell com., Westwood, NJ,p371]. Apart from Jesus Christ there is no ‘Christian religion’, but certainly religious scams perpetrated by the devil himself and proud, self-centered ‘pious’ men, atheists, and demons in disguise!

Are you aware of the deadly disease of “human egotism” that produces “deadly fevers” of monumental proportions, diluting the brain, damaging the heart in deathly fashion, and blinding one’s spiritual vision, to the point they’ll war against the one “True Faith” and murder their supporters, because “Our religion is more deserving than your statement of redemptive and reconciliation to God by the blood of one called Jesus!”

So, their ‘religion’ comforts them, but they’re not reconciled to the one true Living God? Their ‘religion’ is sometimes at least considerate of the sick but void of true faith in the Great Physician? Oh, of course, if it pumps ‘faith’ in their compassionate, at times, service to the needy, at least they get pats on the back from their religious, political, and social engineers who are out to promote their “good image” to the public at large!

What does James 1:26-27 tell us? “If anyone among you thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this one’s religion is useless. Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.”

In James 2 the brother of Jesus shattered the “faith without works” precept as delusional, deceptive, deadly, and destructive, when he said in Verses 21-24, and Verse 26, “Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? Do you see that faith was working together with his works (obedience!), and by works faith was perfected? And the Scriptures was fulfilled which says, ‘Abraham believed [trusted in, relied upon, adhered to!] God, and it was accounted [credited to his account!] to him for righteousness.’ And he was called the friend of God. You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only.

Verse 26, “For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.” Wasn’t it St. Augustine who once said, “Before God can deliver us we must undeceive ourselves”? And ‘disobedient’ “professors of faith” are folks as delusional as they come when it relates to the “mutually indifferent” or the “mercifully involved”, yes, THE true disciples of Christ Jesus! If the Lord Jesus still says, “By their fruits you shall know them,” is that still operative and functional today, or is “bad fruit” so prevalent in the church world today, who cares whether it’s “fleshly best” or “The Father’s fruit in us”?

The words you’ve read in this particular chapter may not have initially bode well with you, but, by the Conviction of the Holy Spirit, we know there is: “mercifully involved”! No doubt this is why James closed his writing with the following words in James 5:19-20! “Brethren, if anyone among you wanders from the truth, and someone turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.” SO… let’s examine “the mercifully involved”!

“Mercy”? In “The Random House College Dictionary” of 1973, “mercy” is defined as “compassionate or kindly forbearance shown toward an offender, an enemy, or other person in one’s power; compassion, pity, or benevolence.” And this is why “Mutually Indifferent Or Mercifully Involved?” becomes such a huge question in our modern day time period!

And, if true believers are, by His grace and mercy, “made partakers of the divine nature”, we’re not those who live ‘merciless lives’ but are in the forefront of laying down our lives, if necessary, to see the needy, body, soul, and spirit, blessed in and through His sovereign care and mercy THROUGH US! True believers are not to be examples of ‘impoverished people’ who know nothing of ‘true wealth’ and ‘true, divine identities’, but sons and daughters of the Holy Family of God who allow His Indwelling Presence and Compassionate Presence to “make all grace abound”, because stamped, sealed, and sent, we extend His Life, express His Love, and prove His Power!

In Ephesians 1:17-23 we read of the “merciful mandate”! Paul wrote: “that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, MAY GIVE TO YOU the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, AND what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly placers, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. AND He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head OVER ALL THINGS to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.”

It was William Shakespeare, in “The Merchant of Venice,” [Act 1V,sc.1,l.184], who wrote: “Tis mightiest in the mightiest: it becomes The throned monarch better than his crown…It is enthroned in the hearts of kings, it is an attribute of God Himself…”

Revelation 5:8-10 tells us of the “twenty-four elders who sang a new song”! They sang: “You are worthy to take the scroll, and to open its seals; For You were slain, and have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and have made us kings and priests to our God; and we shall reign on the earth.” Are YOU, “in Christ”, reigning on earth?

In 2 Corinthians 4:5-6 Paul was so very clear concerning the true foundation of the “merciful mandate”! He wrote: “For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus’ sake. For it is God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”

But far too many ‘professing believers’ see themselves as ‘kings and priests’ with very little or no understanding of the ‘kingly reign of Christ’ and the ‘priestly role’ as He laid down His life as “the servant of men”, even demonstrating the humility of the True Lord and Savior as He knelt down to wash the feet of His disciples! It’s so interesting that as the Lord Jesus made His “triumphal entry” into the city of Jerusalem, fulfilling Isaiah 62:10-12, Matthew 21:4-5 tells us: All this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying: “Tell the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your King is coming to you, lowly, and sitting on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey.”

The true ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ? In John 13:13-17 our Lord laid out His intent as “Emmanuel” – “God with us” – with the visual example of the “foot-washing” call on His true servants and followers: “You call Me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you. Most assuredly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master; nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.”

It’s so interesting as Paul spoke, in Romans 8:28, about knowing “that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” And you can hear some, even today, talking about their positioning around His Throne, with no desire to be servants, slaves, foot-washers, or “mop-pushers”, having to deal with King Jesus’ example and instruction about ‘servanthood’!

Do you remember the disturbance among the disciples, yes, a major dispute among young, spiritually immature disciple? It’s found in Luke 22:24-27! Now there was also a dispute among them, as to which of them should be considered the greatest. And Jesus said to them, “The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those who exercise authority over them are called ‘benefactors.’

But not so among you; on the contrary, he who is greatest among you, let him be as the younger, and he who governs as he who serves. For who is greater, he who sits at the table, or he who serves? Is it not he who sits at the table? Yet I am among you as the One who serves!”

In Philippians 2:5-9 we read about our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who humbled Himself before fallen mankind and was exalted by Father God! It says for our learning, maturing, understanding, and appropriating of His very Life and Spirit,

“Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, BUT MADE HIMSELF OF NO REPUTATION, taking the form of s bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name…”

One of the most dangerous tendencies among the ‘Christian communities’ is an attitude of ascendency, even over those Jesus cared about the most! Do you remember the mother of Zebedee’s sons coming to Jesus with her sons asking Jesus, “Grant that these two sons of mine may sit, one on Your right hand and the other on the left, in Your kingdom.” [At least she knew about “Your kingdom”!]. The ten other brothers heard it and were greatly displeased! Jesus called them to listen carefully to what He had to say. In Verses 25-28 Jesus declared to them and us the call to “true kingdom service’!

“You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who are great exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave – JUST AS THE SON OF MAN DID NOT COME TO BE SERVED, BUT TO SERVE, AND TO GIVE HIS LIFE A RANSOM FOR MANY.” Glory! “Yes, Lord, that once again we might see “servants” birthed who are willing to lay their lives down in caring and serving and blessing others!”

Do you remember the “servant” sent by Isaac’s family to find a bride for him, meeting Rebekah, needing water to drink but no pitcher? Rebekah emptied her pitcher for him, his servants, and the camels! Genesis 24:26-28 tells us: Then the man bowed down his head and worshipped the Lord. And he said, “Blessed be the Lord God of my master Abraham, who has not forsaken His mercy and His truth toward my master. As for me, BEING ON THE WAY, the Lord led me to the house of my master’s brethren. So the young woman ran and told her mother’s household these things.”

I remind you over and over again that the scriptural, profound writings of Oswald Chambers have inspired me for years and years as he faithfully made practical and inspirational the Word of God. In “My Utmost For His Highest,” (p.236), he said: “We have to be so one with God that we do not continually need to ask for guidance. Sanctification means that we are made the children of God, and the natural life of a child is obedience – until he wishes to be disobedient, then instantly there is the intuitive jar. In the spiritual domain the intuitive jar is the munition of the Spirit of God. When He gives the check, we have to stop at once and be renewed in the spirit of our mind in order to make out what God’s will is. If we are born again of the Spirit of God, it is the abortion of piety to ask God to guide us here and there. “The Lord led me,” and on looking back we see the presence of an amazing design, which, if we are born of God, we will credit to God.”

Are YOU “led by God”? Out of the old “Broadman Hymnal”, published by “The Broadman Press, [Nashville, Tenn.,Copyrighted in 1940, p.236], is a song by Ernest W. Shurtleff and Henry Smart entitled “Lead On, O King Eternal.” It says:

“Lead on, O King Eternal, The day of march has come; Henceforth in fields of conquest Your tents shall be our home. Through days of preparation Your grace has made us strong; And now, O King Eternal, We lift our battle song.

Lead on, O King Eternal, Till sin’s fierce war shall cease, And holiness shall whisper The sweet Amen of peace; For not with swords loud clashing, Nor roll of stirring drums; With deeds of love and mercy, Your heavenly kingdom comes.

Lead on, O King Eternal, We follow, not with fears; For gladness breaks like morning Wherever Your face appears; Your cross is lifted over us; We journey in its light: The crown awaits the conquest; Lead on, O God of might.”

“In the way,” are you yielded to our Lord’s sovereign, deliberate, and victorious conquest over sin, self, the devil, temptation, even wars of the world and the flesh and their strong leanings away from God rather than fully yielded TO GOD?

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

“RABID RESISTANCE TO GOD OR REDEMPTIVE RECONCILIATION?”

There are carnal, fleshly, sinful, unbelieving, even resentful people toward the Lord Jesus, who have no desire to hear about, examine, reflect upon, or turn to Him as their “Savior and Lord”! Some remain in, not only total opposition to the ‘mercy of God’, but are “rabid resistors” to anything Biblical, anything promoting, teaching, or preaching about “King Jesus, the Lamb of God”!

Smug indifference, self-interest ‘sleep’, self-morality “as I determine it” is one self-wedded to one’s independence, and especially from God and ‘spiritual’ people, self-centered individuality that has no room or reason for any ‘faith’ considerations, a selfish ‘shell’ with no need of God’s indwelling, has become much of modern man’s determinations about their present state, but without any consideration as to the Creator’s eternal purpose!

“Rabid resistance” to the will and Word of God heats up when one becomes aware of the call to total abandonment of ‘self’ in allegiance, submission, and obedience to the King of kings and Lord of lords. “No thank you; I’ll take care of myself in my own way,” and they shut the mind and heart’s door to the Eternal Savior and True Lord of Life!

There has emerged in my lifetime of eighty years an awareness of a ‘fetish’ indifference to the reality of one’s need of God in their lives and a fanatical opposition to the Gospel of Christ, many literally mindless of even who Christ Jesus is! It’s like Isaiah speaking in his day, Isaiah 40:30, “Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall.” Yes, even Jeremiah said about his day, Jeremiah 3:13, ‘Only acknowledge your iniquity, that you have transgressed against the Lord your God, and have scattered your charms to alien deities under every green tree, and you have not obeyed My voice,’ says the Lord.”

The beloved John, brother of Jesus, wrote in 1 John 2:15-17, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world – the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life – is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.”

Do you remember Jesus saying in John 8:36, “Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed”? Free from what? A prisoner of what? Bound as a captive by what? Enslaved to what? In John 8:34-35 Jesus opened the door of our understanding of true freedom when He described ‘spiritual slavery’! “Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. And a slave does not abide in the house forever but a son abides forever,” sharing the choice of slavery to the world, the flesh, and the devil, or servants as spiritual sons and daughters of God!

You do understand that birthed into this world, we were birthed as descendants of Adam and Eve, becoming sons and daughters of the ‘flesh’ inheritance, with Paul telling us in 1 Corinthians 2:14, “But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” So, spiritual birth IS an absolute necessity, with Jesus telling us in John 3, “You must be born again!” He, in the next chapter, made mention of “mere men” – that’s the ‘natural man’ who does not receive the things of the Spirit of God – he’s incapable, and must experience a miraculous birth from the natural to the spiritual, from the ‘flesh’ to the Spirit-man, from the old creation to the new creation!

“Mere men ‘manhood’”, sadly, is ‘brainless’, ‘mindless’, even ‘heartless’ when it comes to spiritual realities and the true salvation that only comes through Christ Jesus – to them the “True Gospel” relates to “silly things” that only “silly” church members have a mind for. Fleshly unbelief is the incarnation of men who ‘think’ they can live without God! Fleshly unbelief is one guided, girded, and guarded by, yes, the love and satisfaction of what their sin natures produce in them, and they have no desire to live apart from it – unless THEY ARE CONVICTED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT and “LIGHT DAWNS” before them, around them, and in them!

Most of the unbelieving world lives with “the reflex action of disgust” with true disciples of Christ because they are so “satisfied” with their sin natures that they have no desire to hear about being “freed” from their bondages!

Fault-filled, bound-in-the-flesh-bondage-to-sin, utterly impure in heart without God, fruitless as to the nature and character of God but plenteous in the fruit of the flesh or sinful nature: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish and self-centered ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, or “reflections, imitations of the devil himself”! What you’ve just read? The inheritance of every man, woman, youth, or child, birthed by the flesh, in need of “New Birth” by the Spirit through the shed blood of the Lamb of God!

What is the “foundation” of your ‘life-building? And if it is on any other foundation than Christ Jesus, you are presently crumbling, and the “full crash” is about to happen! If your “life-foundation” is anything other than Christ Jesus, then you are in a perilous condition! If there is reliance on anything other than God Almighty for true “life-blessing”, your faulty foundation already has the sign on it: “Building Condemned – Stay Clear”, imminent danger, it’s about to explode!

“Rabid resistance” to the things of Holy God? “It’s just my natural affinities! That’s what really guides me; why should I have to ask God what He would have me to do?” Yet, Paul said, in Philippians 3:19, “that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.” Yet, the “resisters”, some without even knowing it, “are enemies of the cross of Christ”; why? “Their god is their belly, whose glory is in their shame – who set their minds on earthly things” with no desire to be transformed!

Do you understand “self-centeredness”? Have you witnessed “strong, self-assertiveness”? How would YOU describe that perilous pit of “self-indulgence” that governs far too many lives? Are you aware of how devoted most people are to ‘proper diets’ of their physical foods as they seek to maintain good body health, but when it comes to the spiritual nature of their lives they could careless what their bodies and minds digest!

And “rabid resistance” to the things of God breeds a spiritual disease called “stagnation” or no flowing to the true things of spiritual health and a life-giving, receiving- relationship with “Living Water” but stagnating, no ‘flow’ in the Spirit but becoming more ‘foul’ in the flesh, a regressing more and more into rebellion, disobedience, unbelief, ‘excuses’, and even a ‘pumping’ of the ‘flesh-man’ as superior to the “man in Christ”!

Some ‘rabid resistance” emerges or “blooms” because one has been mesmerized, deceived by, yes, poisoned by the sad spirit of self-indulgence, like addictive drugs or booze or immoral sexual rebellion, even deceived that their darkness is brighter than the Light, more pleasurable to the flesh than obedience to God in the Spirit, and more rewarding in temporal satisfaction than the call to please and honor and glorify God alone in one’s earthly pilgrimage. But if one is truly “in Christ”, even though trouble may be in one’s pilgrimage, our Savior grants “the peace that passes all understanding”; even though pain may be in the path, we “pray, and don’t faint”; we reach beyond our grasp to the grace of God; we sign on to our Savior’s Cross, understanding even death is “three days away from resurrection life”!

How often have you been reading the Word of God, and you read about Moses, in Numbers 10:35? That “whenever the ark set out, Moses would say: “Rise up, O Lord! Let Your enemies be scattered, and let those who hate You flee before You [or Your Presence!].” And God’s enemies are your enemies! To be “in Christ” is to become aware of “rabid resistance” to the King of kings and Lord of lords, and His people! There IS a vitriolic, caustic, embittered opposition to Christ, His Truth, His Mission, His salvation, His people, and His purpose of true blood Redemption!

But also be aware that “rabid resistance” comes, not only from those clear, distinct, vocal enemies of God sold out to their debauchery, disgraceful, fleshly indulgences, but also the reality of “smarter-than-God”, ‘elite’ intellectuals who deem themselves more brilliant than God; they frown upon the “faith community”, they “look down” upon true believers; they promote the ‘writers’ they believe make more sense to them than God’s Holy Word! There’s not one ‘sand-grain’ in their minds that would ever yield to our Lord’s Word about “deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Me” – their idol of individuality is the call to “our real worship and adoration – the bowing to the best of ‘me,my, mine’, because “who needs the Master?” It’ not that they possess an undisciplined spiritual nature – they are owners of only a flesh-nature given over to the lusts of the flesh, overwhelmed by the ways of the world, and deceived by the distractions of the devil himself from anything that would turn their attention to Holy God! Their ‘individuality’ counterfeits ‘worship’ of the one, true, living God! They say, “Why salt when I can be “hot pepper”? Why ‘Light’ when my darkness pumps my flesh? Why a man called Jesus when I’m accepted by those like me who ‘love’ the flesh and can play with the devil’s crowd?”

But the Holy Word tells us, Galatians 5:24, “And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” This is why Oswald Chambers wrote [“My Utmost For His Highest,” p.256], “It is not a question of giving up sin, but of giving up my right to myself, my natural independence and self-assertiveness, and this is where the battle has to be fought.” Who or what reigns in your heart and mind? Self-independence or truly Savior-dependence?

No “rabid resistance” for you? Good! But what about “rabid indifference”? That’s just as bad! What about ‘perpetual procrastination’? Do you not even consider the danger of postponing when ‘sudden, unexpected death’ can happen in a flash? No! It’s time to turn to “redemptive reconciliation”!

In Colossians 1:12-14 Paul told the Colossians’ believers AND US, “giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.”

How often do you hear or read about ‘reconciled to God by the blood of the Lamb’? I’m afraid not often, because many major on ‘church membership’ apart from ‘blood redemption’, leaving, yes, many unredeemed and unborn because divine truth is omitted!

In 2 Corinthians 5:18-21 Paul wrote, “Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us ‘the ministry of reconciliation’, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.

Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. For He [God] made Him [Jesus] who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

“Redemptive Reconciliation” is far more than ‘awareness’ about Christ Jesus – it is the divine reality, following repentance toward God and faith in Christ’s finished work at the Cross, that the human life is exchanged for the Resurrection Presence of Christ within you as His holy temple, His earthly tabernacle, His abiding presence!

In Ephesians 2:4-7 Paul wrote, “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”

It’s so interesting to grasp what Christ Jesus was speaking about when in Luke 16:9 Jesus said, “And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon, that when you fail, they may receive you into an everlasting home.” Are you aware of how many people live on “best effort”, a “friend’s influence”, a philosophy of ‘here and now’ with no consideration of one’s eternal ‘home’ that becomes Hell? Christ Jesus is “the door of eternal blessing”; ‘flesh’ is “the door of the curse”; Christ Jesus is “the door of glory”; ‘unbelief’ is the door of spiritual fools; Christ Jesus is “the door of divine fulfillment”; rebellion to Him is to be the recipient of the devil’s award of spiritual stupidity!

Redemptive pretentiousness is not the “Redeemer’s playtime” with people’s lives but “blood redemption” is the divine reality of transformation from the sinner’s bondage to the “saints in Christ blessing”, who live in divine liberty and freedom through the indwelling presence of the King of kings and Lord of lords, his/her life having become the “temple” of His abiding presence!

Didn’t Paul tell us wisely in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 the following Truth? “Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is IN YOU, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.”

“You are not your own any longer? You were bought at a price? The price was the shed blood of the Lamb of God to free me from the pain, penalty, and prison of guilt in sin? I then will no longer be my own?” And some reject “divine ownership” and settle for self, the world, and the demonic, devilish bondage that binds them to their ‘chains’ but they think they are free as birds!

In 1 John 1:5-7 we read, “This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. BUT if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.”

Are you aware of “the many” who would suggest that being one with God is by “attaining,” by, yes, even fleshly resolution and determination to do ‘better’? They ‘pay the price’ in their self-effort, their ‘anguish of spirit’, their determined effort for peace with God through themselves, with no understanding of the Cross?

But the Apostle Paul graciously gives glory to God, understanding “dead men” in themselves are bankrupt when it comes to resolving their alienation and separation from God, pointing to Christ alone, not legalistic performances by fallen men WHO CANNOT GET UP ON THEIR OWN! In Colossians 2:13-15 he wrote: “And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.”

If we are “saved by grace through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God,” then where does self-determination come in rather than self-abandonment to the mercy, love, and grace of God? ‘Flesh-determined’? James 1:14-15 is clear: “But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.” But, praise God, James didn’t stop there, leaving fallen mankind hopeless – In James 1:18 he tells us: “Of His [God’s] own will He brought us forth [into “new life”] by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures.” This is why James later told of fulfilled Scripture in the life of Abraham in James 2:23, And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.”

“Redemptive Reconciliation” is through “Blood Atonement” and that alone! That’s God’s grace, mercy, and love in full and everlasting terms! It was Charles Wesley who wrote in his writing “Free Grace” who said: “He [Jesus] left His Father’s throne above, (So free, so infinite His grace!), Emptied Himself of all but love And bled for Adam’s helpless race.”

William Cowper and Lowell Mason wrote the old Hymn, “There Is A Fountain”. “There is a fountain filled with blood Drawn from Immanuel’s veins; And sinners, plunged beneath that flood, Lose all their guilty stains.

The dying thief rejoiced to see That fountain in his day; And there may I, though vile as he, Wash all my sins away.

Dear dying Lamb, Your precious blood Shall never lose its power, Till all the ransomed Church of God Be saved, to sin no more.

Ever since by faith I saw the stream Your flowing wounds supply, Redeeming love has been my theme, And shall be till I die.

When this poor lisping, stammering tongue Lies silent in the grave, Then in a nobler, sweeter song, I’ll sing Your power to save!”

Though nailed to the Cross, both feet and hands, and a crown of thorns thrust on His brow, though pierced in the side by a soldier’s spear, and immediately blood and water came gushing out, Jesus cried as He died, “It is finished!”, and from the throne of His cross they buried Him in the Tomb, for three days of rest before He arose to give them the composition of the Great Commission and to sing from His heart His eternal intention: “Receive the Spirit’s power and carry out your mission; witnesses of Me in your generation, and witnesses of Me in all times of eternal restoration, extending the call, before Me to fall, understanding My mission to see men saved from their perverse generation, redeemed by My blood for the forever regeneration, continuing steadfastly in the Spirit’s anointing and overseeing, guiding our walks to our Lord’s honor and praise, seeing others “new born” to His glory and favor, blessed in His promises in our assigned endeavors, captured and kept by His calling, inspired in His love and inflamed by His Spirit we faithfully walk seeing Him bless every jot and tittle!

“Redemptive Reconciliation”? The Holy Word doesn’t author spiritual hallucinations, but visible “holy births”! Faith in His shed blood is faith in the “new covenant” which is His shed blood for many “for the remission of Sins.” Faith in the blood covenant is the “Gospel Truth” that “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” The redemptive reconciliation is so evident: the old man is gone, and in true faith the “new man” is created, birthed, blessed “in true righteousness and holiness.”

The “blood redeemed” are indwelt by “Christ in them the hope of glory,” the “eternal Light of Holy Presence has been ‘turned on’, never to dim but intensify in its brightness”, the fruit of the Holy Spirit becomes so evident in His flood of holy goodness, the divine righteousness, and eternal Truth that becomes more and more evident as faithful, born-again servants yield to His control! And, yes, as the “blood redeemed” receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, their sons and daughters of the true faith see the Holy Spirit poured out on them as eternal fresh springs, and, as a result those sons and daughters also rise up to prophesy, they see visions and they dream eternal dreams – apart from that, they’re just “pew sitters”!

“Redemptive Reconciliation”? It’s ‘knowing Him, loving Him, serving Him’ with the word of our Lord inspiring us when He said, “Go, and do likewise”! Remember, Jesus said in Matthew 7:21, “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.”

I know that many ‘profess’ to follow, but He says “few find the true way”! Our Lord said in Matthew 7:13-14, “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.”

The “door” of blood redemption is, always has been, and is, even now, in your brief lifespan and mine, “Yes” to Him in all He asks us to do – and it relates to victorious living in Him by the daily sentence of death to ourselves and the willing surrender to His presence in us that He wants to express through us! Sovereign grace mercifully exposes our inabilities and unveils ALL Christ is willing to do Himself through us! “Let go, let God, let the Resurrected Christ be Himself in you”!

It’s a paraphrase of what Philip Schaff once wrote or said: “Without Christ life (in the flesh) is as the twilight with dark night ahead;”(but I write,JFF), “in Christ, it’s eternal presence like a continual ‘Sonrise’, with eternal light and life motivating us as we yield to His dawning of morning lights and the Radiant Presence of the Indwelling Christ feeling more and more at home in us as our days move forward under His guidance!”

What did Paul write in Romans 6:6-13? And these words follow Paul’s declaration in Verse 5, “For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection.” Is that your clear understanding, appropriation, and settled resolve? “Yes, I was deserving and needy of my Lord taking Me to the Cross to die with Him!” “Knowing this: Verses 6-13, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin. NOW if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.

Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.”

“Redemptive Reconciliation”? United with Christ in His death, my old man of sin crucified with Christ, washed in His blood is my victory over sin and death, no longer slaves of sin and the old sin nature but servants of our Master and partakers of His divine nature, living in resurrection life, freedom, and the power of His indwelling presence; daily we take the sentence of death to our flesh that Christ might reign supreme through the Spirit’s indwelling, and we daily present ourselves to God and our walks, words, and witness as instruments of righteousness to God!

And, friends, it has nothing to do with any religious “bents” we may have felt in our lives, or our determined “self-efforts” or the “best flesh can produce”; the “blood atonement” and our trust in who He is and what He did, and now our full surrender to His Lordship, is the only ‘door’ to ministry and service that glorifies God: “Christ in us, Christ through us, to the glory of God”!

When Paul said in 1 Corinthians 1:2 that “those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints,” sanctified and sainthood are basically identical: men and women, yes, boys and girls, called by God are “set apart” in honor, glory, and praise to Him in us and through us as we choose death to ourselves, life in Christ, anointed in the fullness and blessing of the Holy Spirit!

CHAPTER NINETEEN

“VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED? BOUND IN SIN OR BLESSED IN

TRUSTING THE SAVIOR AND LORD?”

The Lord Jesus had returned to Nazareth where He had been raised, and “as was His custom,” He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath, opened the Scriptures and read a prophetic passage from Isaiah about the coming of Messiah. That’s Luke 4:17-19. It speaks of being anointed by the Spirit, appointed to preach “the Gospel” to the poor; sent to heal the brokenhearted, TO PROCLAIM LIBERTY TO THE CAPTIVES..,” with more following, like: “Setting at liberty those who are oppressed.”

It didn’t take long in His public ministry until in Luke 4:31-33 we read about the Lord Jesus going down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, teaching on the Sabbath, when Verse 33 tells us, “Now in the synagogue there was a man who had a spirit of an unclean demon.” Jesus rebuked the demon and commanded it: “Be quiet, and come out of him!” AND IT DID COME OUT!

Luke 4:36 says, Then they were all amazed and spoke among themselves, saying, “What a word this is! For with authority and power He commands the unclean spirits, and they come out.”

Bound by demons is not a spiritual state one should ever desire or long for, but many unbelievers and deceived pretenders are primary targets of the powers of darkness! Still as critical, destructive, and enslaving are individuals living in denial of the need of “saving grace and mercy”, bound by their own strong, self-centered trust in themselves!

Do you ever sense that “men are so full of themselves,” that they can’t help but put false values on themselves and willingly “crucify Christ” again and again and again? How many men do you know that are ever ‘disappointed’ in themselves? Most men ‘pump’ flesh and deny the Spirit of God! As one ‘grows’ up in himself, he lessens his need of ‘saving grace and mercy’, embraces more and more ‘self-love’, rejecting the love of God in and through Calvary’s Cross, building ‘altars’ on which they offer their sacrifices in ‘self-worship’, with never a turning from self to the Savior and Lord, satisfied with “my own universe” where he/she willingly tears God off His throne [they think!] to establish their own rule, their own constitution, their own ‘playground in sin and death’, really believing, “I’m living the life to its fullest!”

Sir Walter Scott’s words in “The Lay of the Last Minstrel”, (VI), says profoundly: “The wretch concentered all in self, Living, shall forfeit fair renown, And, doubly dying, shall go down To the vile dust from whence he sprung, Unwept, unhonored, and unsung.”

Are you aware of the dreaded disease I would call as “spiritual impertinence”? That’s radical stupidity against Holy God’s declaration that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”! That’s insolence against Innocent Jesus who took our sinfulness upon Himself and shed His blood for our forgiveness and restoration to Holy God’s eternal intent for men “in Him.” It’s ‘unmanly’ as one refuses to relate to the Father’s eternal purpose; it’s ‘insolence’ masquerading as “my right”; it’s absurd reasoning when one, so self-centered, has no understanding of the purpose or desire of His Creator; it’s the false premise or the “mask-wearing” of “I’m as good as God without His help!”

It was James Milner who once wrote: “While a man rests on his own merits for acceptance with God, it is little consequence whether he be a pagan idolater, or a proud, ignorant Pharisee. – I know not which of the two is most distant from the kingdom of God.” While a man holds a high opinion about himself without God, be assured, he’s already experienced “the fall” away from Him! These are men who are convinced they can change the world, yes, without Him, though they are men operating in total darkness, deadly deception, and demonic influences!

I’ve never known a single man who feels himself “blessed” who lives only for the satisfactions of himself. A life apart from God is a life full of ‘self-worship, self-praise, and self-adulation’, a life committed to ‘self-preservation’ without any consideration of ‘preserved for Who and Why’, a life that one writer called living “on the banana peel of self-interest”!

Do you sense how serious the situation is when the ‘world’ around you senses for itself “no need of God, we can handle things on our own”? But then, William Congreve, in his “The Mourning Bride,” [Act 111,sc.1], wrote: “What do the damned endure, but to despair?” And that’s a problem for many because “in the democracy of the dead”, with only mortal vision, they never have seen “The Upper Room” of Holy Presence in the Resurrected King of kings and Lord of lords – they’ve never sat down before Him as He “breaks the bread” and “drinks the wine”!

Death to an unbeliever is the devil’s ‘celebration’ because he leads another ‘bound slave’ to his table of celebration with the demons and the saddened, mournful unbelievers in their chains of bondage with their ‘dearth’ songs of desperation, sadness, loneliness, mournfulness, and ridicule! They’ve learned quickly “death’s sting” and the grave’s “constant bitterness” and see the devil’s smile as they “weep” over their indifference to the Truth of Holy God!

“Bound in sin”? Does ‘foul shame’ penetrate your mind and heart? Does “deadly disease” stir spiritual ‘dis-ease’ in you? What will be YOUR ‘tale of death’ as you stand before Holy God to give an account? A ‘sin-nature’s debt’ is enormous for a man, a husband, a father, a friend, because he/she learns accounting day has come, as he has died, and now, “the books are opened”! And God explains why you were so brazenly indifferent to Him!

The “bound in sin” are oblivious to the need of the Redeemer and one true Lord, many unaware of the blessed reality of His Redemption Sacrifice, and through His Presence the creative life of divine power and privilege as sons and daughters of the Most High God, and enlightened by Paul in 1 Corinthians 1:5-9, that true sons and daughters of redemptive faith “were enriched in everything by Him in all utterance and all knowledge, even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you, so that you come short in no gift, eagerly waiting for the revelation [or unveiling] of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will also confirm you to the end, that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will also confirm you to the end, that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.”

I find it so interesting and enlightening that also, in Romans 15:29, Paul informed the church at Rome, and us, “But I know that when I come to you, I shall come in the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ.” “Fullness? The blessing? The fullness of the blessing? The blessing of the gospel? The blessing of the gospel [“good news”] of Christ?” Is the testimony of Paul your testimony of “blood redemption”, or have you, as an unbeliever, defined your reasoning of disobedience and rebellion, or defined the surface goals and aims of sinful living, or settled in to the end result of a Christ-less life?

The writer of Hebrews, in Hebrews 10:26-27, and 29-31, wrote: “For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries. Verses 29-31, Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. And again, “The Lord will judge His people.” It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”

Oswald Chambers made an applicable statement relating to God’s judgment. [“My Utmost For His Highest,” p.206]. “God nowhere holds a man responsible for having the heredity of sin. The condemnation is not that I am born with a heredity of sin, but if when I realize Jesus Christ came to deliver me from it, I refuse to let Him do so, from that moment I begin to get the seal of damnation. “And this is the judgment.” (the critical moment), “that the light is come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light.”

Men loved darkness rather than light; men loved fleshly pleasure more than the divine will of pleasing God; men were blinded to the reality that their sin brought death; men were pleased with moral degradation rather than the Master’s deliverance; men slander the Master rather than allowing the Master to save them from sin and death; men are mesmerized, fascinated, ‘spellbound’ by the depths of depravity they can fall into with many uncaring about any deliverance or healing; men, in a majority, fail to grasp the danger of the devil’s stronghold or his deceptive control over their mind-set and heart understanding – in fact spiritual blindness is the powerful tool of Satanic activity!

Fallen men, bound by satanic forces, mostly are unaware they are citizens of the kingdom of darkness controlled by the devil! They’ll even blindly say, “My earthly kingdom of ‘me, my, and mine’ may dwell in eternal darkness, but I find nothing but fleshly bliss – I’m not interested in a ‘dove-eyed’ Master who says He’ll bring me into the “Light” and give me eyes to see what really counts. I’m satisfied with ‘self’ and have no desire for One to rule over my passions, they’re pleasurable!”

It’s amazing to me that much of fallen mankind, alienated and separated from Holy God, is like an animal instinct of survival but for men the sinner’s bent in defending their ‘right’ to live in spiritual death, when the highest message of Holy God is ‘death on the Cross with Christ in order to be birthed into the reality of the eternal death to self-importance and resurrected with Him in the fullness of Holy Presence, Holy Purpose and Holy Power, which is why Paul said in 2 Corinthians 4:10-12, “always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life of Jesus may be manifested in mortal flesh. So then death is working in us…”. And that’s ‘daily death to self’ that Christ’s presence is manifested in us and through us to God’s Glory!

Which leads us to “A Life of Blessing in Trusting Our Lord and Savior”! Do you remember and reflect often upon Proverbs 3:5-6? “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not to your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.”

Do you remember what Jesus said in John 2:23-25? Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name when they saw the signs which He did. But Jesus did not commit Himself to them, because He knew all men, and had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man.”

Oh, and the very next chapter, John 3:3, Jesus declared Eternal Truth, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

But if true conversion is a heart matter, and it is, some have no desire for that necessity because they are still gripped by the love of the world, the unclean desires of their own hearts, and they don’t want to surrender to the control of Another, even Christ, His Spirit, and His Word!

True conversion is total surrender to His saving grace and mercy and His power to raise men up in His Resurrected Life! You’ll remember that Jesus said, in both the Old and New testaments, and especially for us in this chapter, Hebrews 10:7 declaring about Christ: Then I said, “Behold, I have come – in the volume of the book it is written of Me – to do Your will, O God.”

Be reminded! John 3:16-17 tells us: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in [trusts in, relies upon, adheres to] Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.”

Trust! Not trying! Trust! Not even despairing about yourself! Trust! Not choosing the endless sense that you’re able! Trust! Not relying upon what Robert Browning described as “dumb-founder doubt” in one’s self – because in one’s ‘self’ there is no true foundation, there is no ‘solid rock’ of resistance to life’s storms, there is no ‘self-ascendency’ into the atmosphere of divine, blessed, abiding life! Trust! Not choosing “the profane and idle babblings and contradictions of what is called knowledge” by wayward men and women, “straying from the true faith.”

Psalm 4:1-5 is a profound and powerful declaration about the true “chosen vessels” of Holy God. King David wrote these words under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit: “Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness! You have relieved me in my distress; have mercy upon me, and hear my prayer. [And God responds!],

‘How long, O you sons of men, will you turn my glory to shame? How long will you love worthlessness and seek falsehood?’ But know that the Lord has set apart for Himself him who is godly; the Lord will hear when I call to Him. Be angry, and do not sin. Meditate within your heart on your bed, and be still. Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, and put your trust in the Lord.”

We’ve already seen that the Lord Jesus did not commit Himself to some ‘believers’ because He knew what was in ‘pretenders’! In Hebrews 10:5-7 the author tells us, Therefore, when He came into the world, He said: “Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but a body You have prepared for Me. In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You had no pleasure. Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come – in the volume of the book it is written of Me – To do your will, O God.”

Oh, but His Truth doesn’t stop there! In Verses 9-10 the Holy Word declares, “Behold, I (the Lord Jesus!) have come to do Your will, O God.” He takes away the first (sacrifices and burnt offerings for sin) that He may establish the second. By that will we have been sanctified [“set apart”] through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all,” followed by Verse 14, “For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.”

Do you see that Jesus declared, “I have come to do Your will, O God,” and true disciples are those yielded daily to His indwelling presence and His expression of daily obedience to the Father’s will! The ‘best of the flesh’ is death as it has always been! But yieldedness to Christ is “true trust” that honors God the Father! Is your trust truly in His marvelous Name and finished work, or are you still ‘trying’ rather than “trusting”?

In Matthew 11:25 Jesus declared, “I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes.” That’s “new-born babes in Christ”, not the earthly-wise, the philosophically mature, or the best-efforts of human flesh! In Christ we don’t ‘try’, we trust; in Christ we don’t ‘strive’ in flesh, we yield to His Indwelling Presence; we don’t think ‘good thoughts’, we “Trust” His eternal Truth!

Paul said in Romans 16:25-27, “Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery kept secret since the world began but now made manifest, and by the prophetic Scriptures made known to all nations, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, for obedience to the faith – to God, alone wise, be glory through Jesus Christ forever. Amen.”

I was reading in the doctor’s office recently From Charles Stanley’s “In Touch” daily readings for April, 2016, about “The God Who Saves.” Dr. Stanley wrote: “Recently I was talking with a man about his spiritual life. When I asked, “Are you saved?’ he answered, “No, but I’m working at it.” When I pressed him, he explained that he was making some changes in his life. He had given up smoking and drinking, among other things. I knew I should help him understand a few important principles, as he was making some incorrect assumptions.

Dr. Stanley went on, This gentleman needed to realize that what we do or what we give up for Jesus doesn’t amount to much. The Lord isn’t looking for people who change a few habits by sheer force of will; He’s calling for people to surrender themselves to Him. The only action God expects of a seeker is to believe in Jesus [which means trust in, rely upon, adhere to!] – that He is who He says, He will do what He says, He has the authority to forgive, and He will equip His people to live a godly life. Because of those convictions, a new Christian is empowered to turn away from his old life – in other words, to repent – and begin the process of becoming “a new creature” (2 Corinthians 5:17).”

It’s so true: WE DON’T WORK AT ATTEMPTING TO BE LIKE CHRIST! That’s “imitation theology” when true salvation is the crucifixion with Christ of the Old man and raised by Him in Resurrection Life! Our Lord and Savior doesn’t ‘patch up our natural virtues’ – He crucified them when He died At Calvary!

What did Paul tell us in Ephesians 4:20-24? “But you have not so learned Christ, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.”

Paul had just prayed for the Ephesian Christians and us, saying in Ephesians 3:16-19, “that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might THROUGH HIS SPIRIT in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height – to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”

A ‘decision’ about Christ is never an entrance into Christ, but religious sentiments only that are not a part of His “Redemption Story”! He’s “King of kings and Lord of lords” – and the entrance into His Kingdom is by repentance toward God and True faith in His finished work through His Cross and His Resurrection! Does “the peaceable fruit of righteousness” describe you, trained by His disciplines, chastened for a few days, “that we may be partakers of His holiness”?[Hebrews 12:11].

“Blessed In Trusting The Savior And Lord”? Do you understand or grasp that the pilgrimage of true faith has spiritual disciplines, encounters, battles, war zones, and the true disciple, though disciplined, and even rebuked by the Lord or chastened, knows the Lord loves Him, and discipline by the Father is necessary? This is why in Hebrews 12:7-9 the author was inspired to write, “If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? But if you are without chastening, OF WHICH ALL [true believers} have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons. Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live?”

In Christ we are not maimed any longer, but “Mastered” by His presence within us! In Christ we are no longer spiritually bankrupt men and women, but enriched through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace! In Christ we are no longer determined as “sinners” but “saints” set apart by God Himself in honoring His Son through us! We’re no longer a part of the “old humanity” living in and through their fallen sin natures, but the “new creations” living in the power of His “new birthing” and the power of His Holy Spirit!

I don’t believe I have to tell you that true discipleship is the toughest battle an earthly man redeemed by the blood of the Lamb has ever faced! Your enemy, the world, the flesh, and the devil, is out to hold on to you at any cost! If the Lord Jesus Christ is bringing you into the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Jesus Christ, do you believe that’s a clear, smooth surface walk-way or is there a cross before you? Remember, Jesus said, “Take up YOUR cross, and follow Me.”

I think it was Oswald Chambers who once spoke about people who want Jesus as a ‘poetical genius’ but flinch when He requires ‘a sternly surgical path’!

Isaac Watts and Thomas A. Arne, in the old “Broadman Hymnal” of 1940, published by The Broadman Press, Nashville, Tennessee, wrote the old hymn, “Am I A Soldier of the Cross?” It says: “Am I a soldier of the cross, A follower of the Lamb? And shall I fear to own His cause, Or blush to speak His name?

Must I be carried to the skies On flowery beds of ease, While others fought to win the prize, And sailed through bloody seas?

Are there no foes for me to face? Must I not stem the flood? Is this vile world a friend to grace, To help me on to God?

Sure I must fight, if I would reign; Increase my courage, Lord; I’ll bear the toil, endure the pain, supported by Your word.”

“Vital Awareness Unveiled”? “Bound in sin or Blessed in Trusting Christ As Savior and Lord”? If you’ve come with me this far, I’m sure YOU KNOW! Are YOU ‘the slave of Christ” who has learned ‘obedience leading to righteousness’? And, no longer does ‘sin’ and the ‘old sin nature’ have dominion over you, but YOU are yielded to His Lordship and God’s Sovereign rule over your life, expressed in His love, grace, and mercy!

And your spiritual eyes have been eternally opened to see His amazing grace bountifully supplied to you in His faithfulness and fulfilling of every promise! Sin no longer holds dominion over you, but YOU are ruled, guided, blessed, uplifted into His Eternal Kingdom, yes, even now, not someday out there in the “sweet by and by”! No longer the slave of sin, by His love you’ve become a servant of His righteousness! “Vital Awareness Unveiled” is a poem or writing I penned on May 10, 2016! It says:

“Unbelief is the road to superstition with the devil’s intent of God’s elimination. To him, truth is a lie, as souls to him easily deny the one True God and Savior of men, to be deceived by his deceptive spin.“You won’t die” was his voice to Eve, as he came to easily deceive, to turn her from God to the fleshly sod.

‘Wise men’ are the devil’s ‘dumbed-down’, eventually changing their smiles into frowns; ‘pleasure-seekers’ are his main targets, to “pleasing God,” not even a nod!

“Sin is God’s term,” he so easily spouts, blinding men to what God’s all about. Separation from Truth is his main occupation: “Quit listening to those who speak about “God’s Restoration”!

He wants you bound, spiritually unsound, indulging the ‘flesh’ to your own satisfaction. To him, God’s intent has no relevance to a devil’s program of personal devastation.

“Me, my, mine” are his themes of personal praise, with no desire for heavenly anthems raised – “deny yourself? What a ridiculous request! Give me your will as your most beloved bequest!”

But the Savior of men, Christ Jesus is His name, needs no “Hall of Fame”, because across our vast worlds is His Signature stamped, and especially in the lives of men who with Christ have camped.

Forgiveness of sin is His divine appointment and renewal of true faith in the Savior of anointments – “Free at last” is their holy cry as upon the Savior they faithfully rely.

“Set apart” to His glory, transforming men in His everlasting story, with repentant men becoming witnesses of Him, extending His Kingdom, yes, with redemptive hymns.

Spending their lives in His glorification, daily desiring His continuous exaltation, true men of faith will honor the Son, as day by day, person by person, they share His story of divine restoration.

There comes a time when one examines his life, and begins to evaluate: “Have I ended some strife, as I pointed others to the Savior of their life?” “Have I shown them the door to the fruit of His Spirit,” fully desiring His holy blessing as I showed them “the door” to His precious resting?

“Come unto Me” is still His call, as repentant men faithfully fall, resting in His “finished work”, they rise to duty and calling that they’ll never shirk!

But, if you’re not prepared for the day of your death, what will your florist have to post on your door? Dead flowers for a life poorly lived, or a welcoming wreath to God’s Holy Presence, because you at least boasted in His finished work and YOUR Restoration.

Birthed to “new life” – and in Him you never die, because of His love, you eternally rely – from the door of death to His throne on high, you give evidence: “On Him, I’ll never deny, but constantly hear His faithful reply: ‘Your walk of faith has finished its course – Welcome Home, son, to your merciful reward.’”

J. Farrell Fisher, May 10, 2016

CONCLUSION:

“Vital Awareness Unveiled”! As I close out the second book of this theme, I’m awed by our Lord’s graciousness and kindness in allowing me the blessed privilege of writing both this book and the first book on the same theme!

You do understand that divine privilege is before every human born, past, present, or future, and it is up to each individual to respond to deny God’s calling on their lives. He “proved His love for us” by the sacrificial death of His Son on Calvary, and then sent His Holy Spirit to “knock” on every life’s heart and mind! You either respond in repentance and faith or you deny Christ His rightful place as Lord and Savior of your life!

It can be in a man’s mind and heart to please God, accept Christ’s “finished work” at the Cross, or close the door of your heart to Him. The Savior doesn’t ‘force’ His way in! But if a man/woman, boy or girl, does open that door of true repentance and faith to the Savior and Lord, “New Life” begins, and one grows from spiritual babyhood to mature, adult men and women of the faith!

But if a man/woman, boy/girl doesn’t have it in their mind, heart, will to surrender, but they rebel in unbelief, denial of the Gospel, a yielded life to the flesh and their old sin natures, HELL AWAITS!

There is the “door of redemption” or the “door of self-reliance”; the “door of reconciliation” with God Himself or the “door of the devil’s ‘entertainment” (?); the “door of adoption in our Lord’s eternal family” or the “door of demonic bondage”; the “door of the blessing of the fruits of righteousness” or the “door of devilish rottenness”; the “door of restoration of God’s eternal intent” or the “door of eternal distress, darkness, constant discontent, or constant discord and disease.”

I pray with all my heart that YOU have repented, received forgiveness, renewed in God’s eternal purpose for your life, and that you have and will continue in the “Vital Awareness Unveiled” that daily can and will guide your life as daily you take the sentence of death to yourself that His resurrection life may be manifested !