In his book entitled “Inklings of God”, Kurt Bruner used a quote by Winston Churchill in his Introduction that says: “Man will occasionally STUMBLE OVER THE TRUTH, BUT MOST OF THE TIME HE WILL PICK HIMSELF UP AND CONTINUE ON,” and I say, totally ignoring ‘divine intervention’!

But do YOU realize how true that statement is? And, especially when confronted by Christ Himself saying to us all, “You MUST be born again, born from above, born of the Spirit,” but many are offended, resentful, and continue on in unbelief.

I was impressed by Kurt Bruner when later in the same book, (p.147), he said, “Frankly, I embrace the Christian faith because it points to a God who expects us to behave ourselves but who also knows we can’t.” But do YOU also know that God KNOWS we can’t ‘redeem’ ourselves? Yet, man-made ‘religions’ worldwide think and act ‘synthetically’, thinking they are ‘authentically’ worshipping, even though like the Pharisees of Jesus’ day, deny Christ, the Promised Messiah, and deny His calling: “You must be born again”, and still today the ‘synthetic’ denies the “authentic”, “eternal reality of the Crucified, Resurrected Lord and Savior”!

And, sadly, many modern-day, so-called ‘Christian churches’, live in the façade of even active denial of “new birth” when they believe ‘church membership’ is the same!

Walter Chantry, in his writing, “Today’s Gospel,” (p.13), wrote: “Products of modern evangelism are often sad examples of Christianity. They make a profession of faith, and then continue to live like the world… ‘Decisions’ for Christ mean very little. Only a small proportion of those who ‘make decisions’ evidence the grace of a transformed life.”

But sadly a large number of American churches AND some preachers major on a “you can do it” mentality rather than “Christ in you the hope of glory”! No wonder Socrates became a well-appreciated philosopher! He once said: “To move the world we must first move ourselves.” Where do you find that in the Word of Almighty God? Didn’t Paul tell us, 2 Corinthians 1:9, [New Chain Reference Bible], “But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raises the dead”?

Most humans all across the world in their nations, or here in the USA, are mostly oblivious to the state of their spiritual death and separation from Holy God! Spiritual success in life is not by the mental philosophy of ‘whatever you sense, you can succeed,’ which may have some ‘truth’ for the ‘flesh’, but has no relevance at all to the spiritual dimension that most know nothing about!

So many today, yes, even worldwide, are locked into the philosophy of ‘self-achievement’ so strongly that rewarding ‘self’ with pats on one’s back blocks, denies, ignores, or starves any Word, leaning, or turning from that ‘self’ to the “Savior”! Life is not a ‘do what you can’ mental philosophy, but an eternal opportunity to be ONE with God Himself through Christ alone!

It’s amazing to me, and exciting, as I read a statement by Benjamin Franklin. He said several hundred years ago,(?), “There is perhaps not one of our natural passions so hard to subdue as pride. Beat it down, stifle it, mortify it as much as one pleases, it is still alive. Even if I could conceive that I had completely overcome it, I should probably be proud of ‘my humility’.” That’s Why we were “crucified with Christ”!

Are you aware though, at times, of the “embarrassing encumbrances” that are brought on a lot of ‘church folk’ who are swamped by ‘self-importance’, who are drowning in ‘self-worth’ that Christ crucified, and stubbornly, stupidly, studiously in pagan teachings, devote themselves to “what we’ve become” apart from the revealed knowledge of God as to the Way, the only Way, to their salvation, healing, deliverance, and completion?

David F. Wells, in his book, “No Place For Truth,” [Wm.B.Eerdmans Publ. Com., Grand Rapids, Mich., & Inter-Varsity Press, Leichester, England, 1993], so unveiled for me a story that encouraged this message! [Introduction, p.10}” Wells wrote: “In saying that I am a staunch disbeliever in the modern world, I do not wish to appear immodest, as if I come finished with the knowledge of a new discovery. In fact, I do not. In this connection, I will remember G.K.Chesterton’s story about the restless yachtsman who set sail from England with the intention of arriving at an exotic South Sea Island. After many days, he sighted land and, as soon as he could, beached his boat and ventured inland. Before him stood a dreadful pagan temple. Undaunted, he decided to claim it for England. He scaled its walls and bravely planted the Union Jack [flag] at its pinnacle. Only then did he realize that what he had scaled was the Brighton Pavilion on England’s south coast! He thought he had sailed a straight line, but because of an unfortunate miscalculation he had ACTUALLY TRAVELED IN A CIRCLE. He imagined that he was first in the land, but it turned out that he was the last.”

Do you realize, sense, or discern, that many, many people begin their “religious journeys” on the basis of men’s speculations about what they think God expects rather than Jesus’ declaration: “You MUST be born again”?

Do you remember Paul saying in Romans 12:2, “And do not be conformed to this world, [and I would say also, “and don’t be conformed to a man-made religious world”!], but be {being} transformed by the renewing of your mind.” And what the Holy Word through Christ Jesus teaches is not simply a ‘mind change’ but a mind changed by the birthing of a new heart through our Lord’s love, grace, and mercy, AS A RESULT OF HOLY-SPIRIT-CONVICTION AND HOLY SPIRIT CONVERSION!

Several verses from John 3 that I want to use in the foundation and overview of this message: John 3:5-7 says: (Amplified Bible), Jesus answered, “I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, except a man be born of water (that’s the “water of the Word”!) and (even) the Spirit, he cannot [ever] enter the kingdom of God.[Ezekial 36:25-27].

What is born of [from] the flesh is flesh – of the physical is physical; and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not – do not be surprised, astonished – at My telling you, “You must all be born anew (from above).”

Oh, and then in John 3:16-21 (Amplified Bible) we read: ‘FOR god so greatly loved AND dearly prized the world that He [even] gave up His only-begotten (unique) Son, so that whoever believes in (trusts, clings to, relies upon) Him shall not perish – come to destruction, be lost – but have everlasting life.

For God did not send the Son into the world in order to judge – to reject, to condemn, to pass sentence on – the world; but that the world might find salvation and be made safe and sound through Him.

He who believes on Him – who clings to, trusts in, relies on Him – is not judged (he who trusts in Him never comes up for judgment; for him there is no rejection, no condemnation; he incurs no damnation). But he who does not believe (not cleave to, rely on, trust in Him) is judged already; (he has already been convicted; has already received his sentence) because he has not believed on and trusted in the name of the only begotten Son of God. – He is condemned for refusing to let his trust rest in Christ’s name.

The [basis of the] judgment (indictment, the test by which men are judged, the ground for the sentence) lies in this: that the Light is come into the world, and people have loved the darkness rather than and more than the Light, for their works (deeds) were evil. [Isaiah 5:20].

For every wrongdoer hates (loathes, detests) the light and will not come out into the light, but shrinks from it, lest his works – his deeds, his activities, his conduct – be exposed and reproved. BUT HE WHO PRACTICES TRUTH – who does what is right (according to God’s Word, will, and His ways!) – comes out into the light; so that his works may be plainly shown to be what they are, wrought with God – divinely prompted, done with God’s help, in dependence upon Him.”

“EVIDENCES OF NEW BIRTH CONVERSIONS”? FIRST, NO LONGER IS THERE THE DENIAL OF ONE’S ‘OLD MAN’ SIN NATURE AND SEPARATION FROM GOD BUT A PASSIONATE LONGING OF RECONCILIATION!

Sometimes it takes a Holy Word from God to release His deep conviction in one’s lost, alienated, separated from Him awareness in unbelieving hearts; and I believe 2 Peter 2:4-5 can be that ‘shock awareness’ in some hearts and minds! It says: [Amplified Bible], “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 (FINAL) 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 of ungodly [people].”

Notice! GOD DIDN”T EVEN SPARE ANGELS WHO SINNED BUT CAST THEM INTO HELL! GOD DIDN”T SPARE EVEN THE ANCIENT WORLD, EVEN ‘RELIGIOUS PRETENDERS’ CALLED “JUDAIZERS”, OR ‘PROMINENT’, WELL-KNOWN NATIONAL POLITICAL LEADERS, OR THE “DO MY BEST” CROWD OF the ‘self-anointed’ who worship and are devoted to their old sin natures as personal points of admiration to which they yield themselves!

In fact, Hebrews 10:25-31, my prayer is that “IT WILL SCARE HELL OUT OF YOU, IF NEEDED TO!” It says: “Not forsaking or neglecting to assemble together [as believers], as is the HABIT OF SOME PEOPLE, but admonishing – warning, urging and encouraging – one another, and all the more faithfully as you see the day approaching.

For if we go on deliberately and willfully sinning after once acquiring the knowledge of the Truth, there is no longer any sacrifice to atone for [our] sins – no further offering to which we look forward. [There is nothing left for us then] but a kind of awful and fearful prospect and expectation of divine judgment and the fury of burning wrath and indignation which will consume those who put themselves in opposition [to God]. [Isaiah 26:11].

Any person who has violated and [thus] rejected AND set at naught the Law of Moses is put to death without pity or mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. [Deut. 17:2-6]. How much worse (sterner and heavier) punishment do you suppose he will be judged to deserve who has spurned AND [thus] trampled under foot the Son of God, and who has considered the covenant blood by which he was consecrated common and unhallowed, thus profaning it and insulting the (Holy) Spirit (Who imparts) grace – the unmerited favor and blessing of God? {Exo.24:8}.

For we know Him Who said, Vengeance is Mine – retribution and the meting out of full justice rest with Me; I will repay – I will exact the compensation, says the Lord. And again, The Lord will judge and determine and solve and settle the cause and the cases of His people. It is a fearful (formidable and terrible) thing to incur the divine penalties AND be cast into the hands of the living God!”

IF you were “crucified with Christ”, does that not mean He took YOU, your old sin nature, your old godless-living life, and PUT IT TO DEATH on the Cross with Him as He shed His blood that ALL YOUR SIN AND MINE MIGHT BE WASHED AWAY? Why ‘resurrect’ what Jesus crucified?

SECOND, “EVIDENCE OF NEW-BIRTH CONVERSION”? “NO LONGER A DEEP, ABIDING LOVE OF THE WORLDLY INFLUENCES OR PEACE WITH ALL THE DEVILISH AND DEMONIC INFLUENCES AND CONTROL”! Here’s how John relates this, as we read his anointed exposure and heavenly challenge in 1 John 2:2-6!

“And He – that same Jesus Himself – is the propitiation (the atoning sacrifice) for our sins, and not for ours alone but also for [the sins of] the whole world. And this is how we may discern [daily by experience] that we are coming to know Him – to perceive, recognize, understand and become better acquainted with Him: if we keep (bear in mind, observe, practice) His teachings (precepts, commandments).

Whoever says, I know Him – I perceive, recognize, understand and am acquainted with Him – but fails to keep and obey His commandments (teachings) is a liar, and the Truth [of the Gospel] is not in him.

But he who keeps [treasures] His Word – who bears in mind His precepts, who observes His message in its entirety – truly in him has the love of ‘and’ for God has been perfected (completed, reached maturity). By this we may perceive and know and recognize and be sure that we are in Him;

Whoever says he abides in Him ought – as a personal debt – to walk and conduct himself in the same way in which He walked and conducted Himself.”

Christ Jesus was so aware of both the religious influences of false Judaism (not the true “remnant”!) and the darkness of devilish, demonic activities through man-made ‘religious expressions’, when in John 6:57-69, He said, with Peter then grabbing hold and holding on to “Jesus Only”:

“Just as the living Father sent Me, and I live (by, through, because of) the Father, even so whoever continues to feed on Me – who takes Me for his food and is nourished by Me – shall [in his turn] live through and because of Me. This is the Bread which came down from heaven. It is not like the manna which our forefathers ate and yet died. He who takes this Bread for his food shall live forever.

He said these things in a synagogue while He was teaching at Capernaum. When His disciples heard this, many of them said, This is a hard and difficult and strange saying – an offensive and unbearable message. Who can stand to hear it? – Who can be expected to listen to such teaching?

But Jesus, knowing in Himself that His disciples were complaining and protesting and grumbling about it, said to them: Is this a stumbling block and an offense to you? – Does this upset and displease and shock and scandalize you? What then [will be your reaction] if you should see the Son of Man ascending to the place where He was before?

It is the Spirit that gives life – He is the Life-giver; the flesh conveys no benefit whatever – there is no profit in it. The words (truth) that I have been speaking to you are spirit and life. But [still] some of you fail to believe and trust and have faith. For Jesus knew from the first who did not believe and had no faith, and who would betray Him and be false to Him.

And He said, This is why I have told you that no one can come to Me unless it is granted him – unless he is enabled to do so – by the Father. After this many of His disciples drew back – returned to their old associations – and no longer accompanied Him.

Jesus said to the twelve, Will you also go away? And do you too desire to leave Me? Simon Peter answered, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words (the message) of eternal life. And we have learned to believe and trust; and [more], we have come to know [surely] that You are the Christ, the Anointed One, the Son of the living God.”

There is such a vast difference between ‘religious’ individuals who WILL FALL AWAY and the vital picture and reality of a regenerated soul, indwelt by and led by the Holy Spirit! In John 6:63 Jesus said: “It is the Spirit that gives life – He is the Life-giver; the flesh conveys no benefit whatever – there is no profit in it. The words (truths) that I have been speaking to you are spirit and life.”

I love Watchman Nee’s word in his book, “Ye Search The Scriptures,” [Christian Fellowship Publishers, Inc. New York, Copyright 1974], (p.16), “Canst thou by searching find out God”, challenges the Book of Job (11:7). God is never arrived at through research. He is found by one way only – through the regenerated spirit.”

In 1 Corinthians 2:1-4, “As for myself, brethren, when I came to you I did not come proclaiming to you the testimony and evidence or mystery or secret of God [concerning what He has done through Christ for the salvation of men] in lofty words of eloquence or human philosophy and wisdom;

For I resolved to know nothing – to be acquainted with nothing; to make a display of the knowledge of [nothing] – among you except Jesus Christ, the Messiah, and Him crucified. And I (passed into a state of) weakness and was in fear (dread) and great trembling [after I had ] among you.

And my language and my message were not set forth in persuasive (enticing and plausible) words of wisdom, but they were in demonstration of the [Holy] Spirit and power of God, operating on me and stirring in the minds of my hearers the most holy emotions and thus persuading them.”

An unbelieving world, a self-indulgent flesh, and a demonically, devilish controlled mind will create and establish all kinds of ‘religious mannerisms’ but oppose “You must be born again”! For the most part, fallen humanity and the devil’s crowd and, yes, ‘church pretenders’ will settle for religious entertainment but highly oppose no longer living for yourself but living for Christ alone!

What did Paul write in 2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1? Don’t miss, overlook, or casually kind of knod at his word!! It says: [Again, Amplified Bible!], “Do not be unequally yoked up with unbelievers – do not make mismated alliances with them, or come under a different yoke with then [inconsistent with your faith]. For what partnership have right living and right standing with God with iniquity and lawlessness? Or how can light fellowship with darkness?

What harmony can there be between Christ and Belial [the devil]? Or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? What agreement [can there be between] a temple of God and idols? For (In Christ!) WE ARE the temple of the living God; even as God said, I will dwell in and with and among them and will walk in and with and among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.

SO, come out from among (unbelievers), and separate (sever) yourselves from them, says the Lord, and touch not [any] unclean thing; then I will receive you kindly and treat you with favor. And I will be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.

7:1, Therefore, since these great promises are ours, beloved, LET US CLEANSE ourselves from everything that contaminates and defiles body and spirit,, and bring [our] consecration to completeness in the (reverential) fear of God.”

I have no doubts that even most ‘church folk’ easily accept the blood of the Cross for their forgiveness but will rebel, excuse, accuse faithful men of the Word for lying when they even share Jesus saying, “Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord’, but you do not do what I Say?” Dare I tell YOU that obedience is not an option in the age of grace?

Spiritual focus, even in a religious setting, is more often on fleshly concerns rather than divine revelation or the ultimate Will of God’s eternal intent? I love what Charles Stanley wrote in his booklet, “In Touch”, [April,2016, p.13], “The Lord isn’t looking for people who change a few habits by sheer force of will; He’s calling people to surrender to Him…We don’t evolve into a saved people by deleting old habits and instituting better religious ones; we are transformed by the saving power of Jesus Christ when we believe [trust in, rely upon, adhere to] Him.”

Many ‘church folk’ are highly appreciative of ‘compromisers’ because they ‘believe’ that “fleshly indulgence is justified because, though one is ‘saved’, he/she cannot do anything but sin until Christ comes again – so they blame God rather than trust His Truth! They are euphorically violent to those who uphold Jesus’ Word, like when He said, “Go, and sin no more,” but they believe sin in a believer is ‘normal, and that without ‘guilt’, because “God is love”.

There’s even by some a ‘ministerial’ maligning of the Holy Word because they feel ‘justified’ in ungodly behavior though a professing believer. And in the world around you there is philosophical rationalization because of spiritual ‘brain-tumors’ called resistance to Holy Truth! “Who needs a ‘Savior’? We’re OK , you with or without Christ are OK”! Really?

But I can tell you without hesitation that to continue sinning as a ‘believer’ is to deny Jesus’ Victory at the Cross and to refute Jesus’ words in John 15:22, “If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin, but NOW they have no excuse for their sin.”

Do you remember Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 15:34? “Awake (from your drunken stupor and return) to sober sense and your right minds, AND SIN NO MORE. For some of you have not the knowledge of God – you are utterly and willfully and disgracefully ignorant, and continue to be so, LACKING THE SENSE OF GOD’S PRESENCE AND ALL TRUE KNOWLEDGE OF HIM. I say this to your shame.”

But, in Isaiah 41:8-15, there is a powerful word of hope to, ‘sometimes’, discouraged disciples who’ve ‘tried’ to live the overcoming life, (with no ‘discipleship’ training), but only a sad pastoral “do your best”. IF YOU DIDN’T KNOW, at the Cross Jesus took YOUR worst and YOUR best, and it was “crucified with Christ”! Look at Isaiah’s ‘Word of Hope’!

• Isaiah 41:9, “I have chosen you and not cast you off.” 2) Verse 10, “Fear not…for I am with you.” 3) Verse 10, “I AM your God…(Elohim), meaning the “high and lifted up, the mighty One,” and He’s ‘able’ to sustain us, strengthen us, and guard us (if we let Him) against the world you face, the “old man” trying to resurrect, AND even victorious over Satan! 4) Verse 10, “I WILL STRENGTHEN AND HARDEN YOU TO [DIFFICULTIES]…”. This is probably why Paul shared, “When I am weak, then I am strong,” because he did not lean on ‘fleshly abilities’ but Holy Presence – ‘Christ in YOU the hope of glory’! 5) Verse 10 again – “I will hold you up and retain you with My victorious right hand of rightness and justice.” God said in Isaiah 42:13, “The Lord will go forth as a mighty man; HE WILL ROUSE HIS ZEALOUS INDIGNATION AND VENGENCE LIKE A WARRIOR; HE WILL CRY, YES, HE WILL SHOUT ALOUD, HE WILL DO MIGHTILY AGAINST HIS ENEMIES.” 6) Verses 11-13 – “Behold, all they who are enraged and inflamed against you shall be put to shame and confounded; they who strive against you shall be as nothing and shall PERISH. You shall seek those who contend with you, and shall not find them; they who war against you shall be as nothing, as nothing at all.” 7) Verse 15 – “Behold, I will make you to be a new, sharp, threshing instrument having teeth…” In 2 Corinthians 13:10 Paul wrote: “So I write these things while I am absent from you, that when I come to you I may not have to DEAL SHARPLY in my use of the authority which the Lord has given me, [to be employed, however] for building [you] up and not tearing you down.” The “SHARP TOOL” of Holy Truth will ‘shape’ you in His image or ‘silence’ your voice if you betray Him!

“Evidence of NEW-BIRTH CONVERSIONS”, sharpened in life by His Word, Will, and Work OR slicing to threads the disobeying, compromising, contented disciple who “plays” on both sides of the street? WHICH LEADS US TO NUMBER THREE AND LAST: “NO LONGER DEVOTION TO WALK OUT ONE’S LIFE OF ‘FAITH’ (?) ON THE “STREETS OF SELF-INDULGENCES AND SELF-FLESH EMPHASES,” BUT STEPPING FAITHFULLY ON THE HIGHWAY OF HOLINESS!

In Colossians 2:5-10 Paul so strongly lays the foundation of a truly birthed and overcoming ‘Life In Christ’! “For though I am away from you in body, yet I am with you in spirit, delighted at the sight of your [standing shoulder to shoulder in such] orderly array and the firmness and the solid front and steadfastness of your faith in Christ, [that leaning of the entire human personality on Him in absolute trust and confidence in His power, wisdom and goodness]. As you therefore received the Christ, [even] Jesus the Lord, [so] walk – regulate your lives and conduct yourselves – in union and conformity to Him.

Have the roots [of your being] firmly and deeply planted [in Him] – fixed and founded in Him – being continually built up in Him, becoming increasingly more confirmed and established in the faith, just as you were taught, and abounding and overflowing in it with thanksgiving.

See to it that no one carries you off as spoil or makes you yourselves captive by his so-called philosophy and intellectualism, and vain deceit (idle fancies and plain nonsense), following human traditions – men’s ideas of the material [rather than the spiritual] world – just crude notions following the rudimentary and elemental teachings of the universe, and disregarding [the teachings of] Christ, the Messiah.

For in Him the whole fullness of Deity (the Godhead), continues to dwell in bodily form – giving complete expression of the divine nature. AND you [in Christ] are in Him, made full and have come to fullness of life – in Christ you too are filled with the Godhead: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and reach full spiritual stature. And He is the Head of all rule and authority – of every angelic principality and power.”

Don’t you think this foundation of the true “Evidence of New-Birth Conversion” is seen in what Paul wrote to us? And it strongly agrees with what Christ Himself said when in John 7:37-38 we read: “If any man is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink! He who believes in Me – who cleaves to and trusts in and relies upon Me – as the Scripture has said, Out from his innermost being springs and rivers of living water shall flow (continuously).”

Even in the walk of redemptive faith there are doors before us – some to condemnation, frustration, and captivity, while others are Christ’s ‘door’ to liberty, freedom from bondage to the old sin nature and ‘birthed’ to the freedom of everlasting life in the here and now, in and through Christ alone! SO…it’s either:

Self-directed in one’s ‘walk of faith’ OR “born-again to new LIFE IN CHRIST”; it’s either a ‘kingdom rule’ that is fleshly rich in sensual satisfactions or the Holy Spirit-enriched life in the very wealth of Holy God and Heaven’s Son, better known as “Emmanuel”, or “God With Us, God in Us, God through Us”, because of Resurrection Life in Christ, Resurrection Power through Christ, and Resurrection Hope instilled within us by His Holy Presence!

It’s ‘philosophically-wise’ in godless ways or personally and intimately blessed with the very “mind of Christ”! It’s either trained by the best of a world’s ‘master’ deceivers, even the devil himself, or Sovereignly guided by the Holy Spirit, truly enriched by the treasures of His Holy Word, and “Master-led” disciple makers who “feed” us on the “bread of life,” the “milk of the Word,” and upon the very “meat” of God’s Holy Truth!

The claim of Christ that He had come that we might have life and that abundant was not a fictitipous claim of a ‘false prophet’ but from the Creator of mankind and the Savior and Lord over mankind!

Jesus said: “I AM THE DOOR” to reconciliation with God, the door of divine forgiveness, the door to abiding presence of God within repentant and faith-filled hearts, and the door of receiving, walking in, and being blessed by the fruit of His Holy Life and His Holy Spirit!

Don’t you find it sad and heart-breaking that you see around you, yes, multitudes who are ‘satisfied’ with the ‘flesh-life’ and all it has to offer, closing the door on the love, grace, and mercy of God. But time will unveil for many the fundamental reality that vocational and financial successes fall short of filling the inner hunger that only Christ Jesus meets and fills!

In Catherine Marshall’s book, “Something More,” [COPYRIGHT, 1961, by Catherine Marshall, Published by Chosen Books, Lincoln, Va. 22078], (p.3), she wrote about “the famous Hollywood actress, Mary Astor, (who) has known the fairy-tale of movie stardom. An Academy Award, glamourous marriages, two children, several Beverly Hills mansions, furs, jewels, publicity – what more could any woman want? Yet Mary Astor admitted in print that ‘for years – even in the midst of fame and glamor – I yearned for contentment, happiness. It took me almost twenty years to go from idle curiosity about religion…to meeting God as a Person and a Father, and knowing that walking in (redemptive) faith meant growing up.”

AND THAT “GROWING UP” IS “FALLING DOWN” before the King of kings and Lord of lords, REPENTING, TRUSTING, RESTING IN HIS FINISHED WORK AT THE CROSS< AND EXPERIENCING THE REALITY OF HIS INDWELLING PRESENCE THROUGH THE “EVIDENCES OF A NEW-BIRTH” RELATIONSHIP!

IS YOUR BODY NOW THE “HOLY TEMPLE”?

By J. Farrell Fisher

It’s so highly interesting to me that in the early history of mankind, through God’s creation of human presence on His earth, in Genesis 3:8, Adam and Eve heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, “and Adam and Eve hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.”

But the one thing I pray you learn from this time together around God’s Holy Word is that God isn’t interested in you hiding from His Holy Presence but letting Him unveil Himself to you! In Luke 24:31-32 we read of the early disciples, seated at a table with the Lord, but unsure of WHO He really was! It says: “Then their eyes were opened and THEY KNEW HIM; and (then) He vanished from their sight. And they said to one another, “Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while HE OPENED THE SCRIPTURES TO US?”

I tell you, there is nothing dull or dreary when Christ Jesus knocks on YOUR heart’s door – there IS “a burning heart sensation that pulsates within you”! In Revelation 3:20-22 we hear our Lord speaking to us! “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, AND HE WITH Me. To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”

What does the word of wisdom say to us in Proverbs 1:24-32? “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 upon me, 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.”

You are aware that many have no desire to hear anything God has to say to them! In Psalm 10:3-7 we read: “For the wicked boasts of his heart’s desire; he blesses the greedy and renounces the Lord. The wicked in ‘his proud countenance’ does not seek God; God is in none of his thoughts.

His ways are always prospering; God’s judgments are far above, out of his sight; as for all his enemies, he sneers at them. He has said in his heart, ‘ I shall not be moved; I shall never be in adversity.’ His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and oppression; under his tongue is trouble and iniquity.” Oh, and then in Verses 8-11, the psalmist, inspired of the Spirit, describes the “godless, the faithless, the unredeemed” with the images of “wild animals”!

Did Luke 24:32 say, “Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road…”? Is there a “road” called “wherever you go”? Doesn’t Joshua 1:9b tell us: “..do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go”?

Do you remember Moses saying to both Israel and Joshua, as he faced his earthly departure, these words? Deuteronomy 31:6, “Be strong and of good courage, do not fear nor be afraid of them (the world, your enemies, the devil and his demon-tribes?); for the Lord your God, He is the One who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you.”

“In Christ” every disciple has begun a ‘faith pilgrimage’, like Moses and Israel in the journey of the “Promised Land”- walking with our Lord and Savior AND His people, His servants, His ‘soldiers of the Cross’! And as I was reading in Luke 10 as the “seventy were sent out” commissioned by the Lord Jesus, I was uplifted to the seventh heaven again when I read Luke 10:17! Then the seventy returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name.” Do you think those early disciples learned about walking, serving, and ministering in and with His Holy Presence?

How strange it is that somehow, someway, by some insane reasoning, many ‘professing Christians’ have never entered the “blessed, holy land of oneness with and in Christ”! But then the Holy Word enlightens us! In Colossians 3:1-11, Paul instructs us and challenges us:

“If then you were raised with Christ [brought out of sin’s death in you to resurrection life in Him!], seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. [Is seeking those things which are above the reality of ‘pressing in to the eternal’ rather than captured by the temporal?].

Set your mind on things above, not on things of the earth [the ‘fleshly,’ the ‘devilish’, the worldly’?]. FOR YOU DIED [ with Christ!], 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 [When you get to Heaven someday or the manifestation of heavenly glory in His resurrection presence in you through His Spirit here and now?].

Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon sons of disobedience, in which you yourselves once walked WHEN YOU LIVED IN THEM. [But “in Christ” you don’t live or walk their anymore!].

But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you have PUT OFF THE OLD MAN with his deeds, and HAVE PUT ON THE “NEW MAN” who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him, where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor fee, but CHRIST IS ALL IN ALL.”

The passage you’ve just read is one of those ‘identifying passages’ of true believers! Have YOU been “raised with Christ”? Are YOU a “seeker” of eternal things? Is your MIND easily adaptable to world thinking OR is it “fixed” on eternal Truth revealed in Christ? Are you ‘comfortable’ with ‘world thinking’ or captured by Christ on His Heavenly Throne equipping your mind in Eternal Truth? Were YOU “crucified with Christ” or does your ‘religious (?) sin-nature’ still reign?

Did Paul tell us that “in Christ” our life “is hidden with Christ in God”? No wonder Paul said in Galatians 6:14-15, “But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. For in Christ neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation.”

FIRST TRUTH I WANT TO NAIL DOWN ABOUT LIVING IN OUR LORD’S PRESENCE: Does ‘deliverance from the bondage of sin and death, from devilish captivity, or world allegiance’ speak to you at all? What do we see related to how we should respond to or react to Old Testament events? But I see a physical picture that has eternal meaning and relevance in our journey through life with enemies like the world, the flesh, and the devil, out to take us down! In 2 Samuel 22:1 we read: Then David spoke to the Lord the words of this song, on the day when the Lord had delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul. And he said:

“The Lord is my rock and my fortress 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.” David then spoke about “waves of death that surrounded him,” about “floods of ungodliness made me afraid,” and then in Verses 17-20, David sang: “He sent from above, He took me, He drew me out of many waters. 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. He also brought me out into a broad place; He delivered me because He delighted in me.”

It was in Psalm 17:8-9 that David also prayed: “Keep me AS THE APPLE OF YOUR EYE; hide me under the shadow of Your wings, From the wicked who oppress me, from my deadly enemies who surround me.”

Don’t you find it extremely sad when in Deuteronomy 32, in the song of Moses, there was a sad refrain when he said in Verse 18: “Of the Rock who begot you, you are unmindful, and have forgotten the God who fathered you”? Oh, but then in Verse 43d, Moses sang, “He (God) WILL PROVIDE ATONEMENT FOR HIS LAND AND HIS PEOPLE!” In Israel there was a faithful remnant WHO “RESTED” IN HIS HOLY PRESENCE AND PROMISES! What a tower of blessed assurance!

SECOND, THERE IS A TOWER OF SACRED TRUST! In 1 Timothy 4:10 we read Paul strengthening our foundation of assurance, protection, and the overcoming Life in Christ when he said: “For to this end we both labor and suffer reproach, because we TRUST IN THE LIVING God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of all men, especially of those who believe (trust in, rely upon, adhere to).”

In Proverbs 28:25-26 we read God’s discernment about the ‘foolish’ and the “faithful”; “He who is of a proud heart stirs up strife, but he who trusts in the Lord will be prospered. He who trusts in his own heart (I say, or mind!) is a fool, but whoever walks wisely will be delivered.”

Have you, as a disciple of Christ, ever found yourself centered in the midst of trouble, testings, turmoil of the world opposed to the reign of the King of kings and Lord of lords, even questioning your survival because you’ve been ‘burdened beyond measure’? In 2 Corinthians 1:8-10 Paul wrote to the Corinthian church then, and us now, “For we do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, of our trouble which came to us in Asia; that we were burdened beyond measure, above strength, so that we despaired even of life. 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 (that’s dead in our trespasses and sins!), and does deliver us; in whom we trust that He will still deliver us…”

In Proverbs 3:5-6 ‘wisdom’ speaks! “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him (give Him His rightful place as Lord of your life!), and He shall direct your paths.”

THIRD, THERE IS THE TOWER OF SPIRITUAL TRIUMPH! Aren’t you thankful, every day, as a true follower of Christ, that Holy God has given us a “hymn of praise” of “Victory in Jesus”? Spiritual triumph? And, even if we go “through the valley of the shadow of dark trials and deathly circumstances”, in Christ we reside in the ‘tower’ of spiritual triumph!

In Romans 8:18-25,28-30, and Verses 35-39, we read: “For I (Paul) consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the EARNEST EXPECTATION of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God.

For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now.

Not only that, but we also who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body. FOR WE WERE SAVED IN THIS HOPE, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees? BUT if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance.

Come to Verses 28-30! 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. 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. Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.

OH, AND THEN IN VERSES 35-39, WE COME TO THE “HALLELUJAH DECLARATION”! “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 things, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

And you doubt yourself in Christ as a servant who lives in “the tower of spiritual triumph”? This isn’t “the power of positive thinking” – it’s the gift of living in His tower of spiritual triumph, and “resting” in His finished work! In Colossians 1:19-23 we receive the Apostolic message of true reconciliation!

“For it pleased the Father that in Him (Christ Jesus!) all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross. And YOU, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight – if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister.”

Here’s the question: If God declares us “in Christ” to be more than conquerors, then WHY did Paul state in the Colossians passage, Colossians 1:22-23, “present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight – IF INDEED you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are NOT MOVED AWAY from the hope of the gospel…!??” But tragically there are some who become so totally deceived, they ‘move away from the hope of the gospel’ to live in “their main attraction” of proving their self-worth, without Christ!

Never forget Colossians 2:9! “For in Him (in Christ) dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.”

FOURTH, THERE IS ALSO THE TOWER OF SET TIMES BY THE LORD! In Psalm 118: 24 God’s people gathered together and they sang: “This is the day the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.”

I began pastoring in the early 1960’s as I finished my final year at Baylor University, attended Southwestern Seminary for three years, and from the early days of pastoral ministry, mission enterprises in Brazil, India, and other nations, and I can tell you without a fear or a doubt, I’ve seen and heard many men, women, children and youth, on their ‘death-beds’ proclaim the goodness of the Lord, yes, even in the day when they knew they had come to their final breath in their physical bodies, and because of true, redemptive faith, they understood, “absent from the body, present with the Lord.”

True born-again believers live in God’s time-clock – not their own! “My times on earth are in His hands – and He assures me, in Christ, “I” never die!” And they are at peace, whether on earth or in heaven around the throne of the King of kings and the Lord of lords!

Oh, certainly, there are vessels of wrath fitted for Hell, but vessels of grace are adorned in Resurrection Life, Resurrection Power, and Resurrection Hope! They are clothed in the glory of the Glorious One even Christ! They are heirs of all Jesus is and has! They are ‘marriage partners’ in Christ with all His great covenant promises! “As He is so am I in this world!” “As Jesus sits on the throne of Heaven as King, as He is so am I!” It’s not a matter of ‘common sense’ but “sacred trust”!

It was Spurgeon, in his “Spurgeon’s Sermons,” (Vol.19, Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, Mich.,p.356) , who said: “The things we have to preach of, such as everlasting life, union with Christ, resurrection from the dead, reigning with Him forever and ever, seem to the dull hearts of men to be as idle tales. Tell them of a high interest for their money, of large estates to be had for a venture, or of honors to be readily gained, and inventions to be found out, they open all their eyes and their ears, for here is something worth knowing; but the things of God, eternal, immortal, boundless – these are of no importance to them. They could not be induced to go from Ur to Canaan for such trifles as eternal life, and heaven, and God Himself!”

“This is the day the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it,” because we “lean not to our own understanding, but in all our ways, we acknowledge Him, we give Him His rightful place as Lord and Master of our lives and all He desires to do through us, and we become “living sacrifices”, taking the sentence of death unto ourselves, that His resurrected Presence may be manifested in mortal flesh!”

H.G.Spafford and P.P.Bliss wrote the old hymn, “It Is Well With My Soul.” [American Hymnal, The Broadman Press, Nashville, Tennessee, 1933]. It says:

“When peace, like a river, attendeth my way, When sorrows like sea-billows roll; Whatever my lot, You have taught me to say, ‘It is well, it is well with my soul.’

Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come, Let this blest assurance control, That Christ has regarded my helpless estate, And has shed His own blood for my soul.

My sin – oh, the bliss of this glorious thought – my sin – not in part, but the whole, Is nailed to the Cross and I bear it no more, Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

And, Lord, haste the day when the faith shall be sight, The clouds be rolled back as a scroll, The trump shall resound and the Lord shall descend, “Even so” – it is well with my soul.

It is well, with my soul, It is well, it is well with my soul.” Is it well with YOUR soul?

By J. Farrell Fisher, June 9-11, 2017

There is in Luke 19:41-42 a very sad response as Jesus drew near the holy city of Jerusalem and wept over it, saying: “If you had known, even you, (religious Judaism!), especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.”

But one has to ask, “Does Jesus look over our cities today and weep over them?” Though for Jews in Jerusalem, it may have been a ‘foreign god’ that they bowed down to and worshipped, is it possible that today our nation and citizenry bows down to the gods of their own making?

A greater question! “Does Christ Jesus look upon YOU and weep over you ‘in this your day’?” “Your day” determines what YOU have allowed to rule and master you, and, yes, whether You have allowed “Acceptance Or Defeat of Demonic Activity”!

1 Peter 5:8-10 tells us, (This is Peter the disciple who walked with Him those three years of His public ministry and probably in his and Jesus’ growing up years together!), “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring 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 for a while, perfect, establish (or make to stand), strength, and settle you.”

And, “in this YOUR day, what is it that you have experienced, are experiencing, or will soon experience, as your adversary, like a roaring lion, stalks you to devour you”? And I say, if you don’t know, haven’t experienced demonic activity, it’s because you belong to him so fully your captivity has become so comfortable that you’ve accepted your enslavement to the powers of darkness! “If you had known” – are you aware of your culpability? ‘Culpable’? The Random House Collegiate Dictionary says ‘culpable’ means, “Deserving blame or censure, held liable, (being) reprehensible.”

Understand! The Holy Word of God in 1 Peter 5 says that true disciples KNOW “the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world.” And also understand: It’s because you’ve been born again by the Word and the Spirit, and the Christ in you calls for the intense opposition to the powers of darkness!

But that same word also says, “the God of all grace, after you have suffered for a while, will perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you,” everlasting words of eternal hope! If the Lord Jesus suffered in agony as the Son of God, as sons of God also, are we convinced we don’t have to face the same Gethsemane highway? Didn’t Peter just tell us n 1 Peter 5:8-9, “Be sober (or serious-minded!), be vigilant (armed and ready against your enemy); because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring 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.” Dare I tell you that “the greatest world wars are in the souls of all men, women, boys, and girls, between them, YOU, and the devil and the powers of darkness called ‘demons’?”

In John 16:33 Jesus said, “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.” So, disciples of Jesus who have troubles from the world, the flesh, and the devil (or Satan himself or his demons) have been marked out by the powers of darkness for assaults, accusations, attacks, or to tempt you away from your God-given assignment as Christ’s ambassador to follow your own fleshly pleasures, your own mental, moral, or Christless purpose, opening wide the door to self-interests, inner desolations, worldly dreams of self-satisfied ‘flesh’ and ‘fleshly feelings’, leaving Jesus alone in your world of choice as you willfully deny His Lordship to satisfy your lusts!

Don’t dare miss in your Bible the reality of the “Prayer-Life of Jesus” and “sleeping disciples”, because what happened then still happens today! In Matthew 26:36-46 we read: What you’re going to see is a picture of “disciples” accepting “demonic activity” rather than defeating and resisting demonic activity! And so, one has to ask himself/herself: “Have I opened or closed the door to demonic activity”? It says: Then Jesus came with His disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and said to His disciples, “Sit here while I go and pray over there.”

And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and He began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed. Then He said to them, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me.” He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.”

Then He came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, “What! Could you not watch with Me one hour? Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

Again, a second time, He went away and prayed, “O My Father, if this cup cannot pass away unless I drink it, Your will be done.” And He came and found them asleep again, for their eyes were heavy. So He left them, went away again, and prayed the third time, saying the same words.

Then He came to His disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us be going. See, My betrayer is at hand.”

You understand: Sleeping for the natural body IS normal and natural, but sleeping for the spiritual body is extremely dangerous! Yet how easy is it for many believers to “sleep” and leave Jesus Christ “alone” to the darkness of the devil, to the ignoring of His purpose and providence, and let Satan has his way with family, friends, our nation, and a blinded, darkened, demonized world?

But what was Jesus’ last words in John 16:33? Don’t miss this! “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.” And Jesus overcame, not only the world, but His flesh and the devil!

Oh, and then, in John 17, Jesus lifted up His eyes to heaven again, praying for Himself about what He faced, praying for His disciples, and praying for all believers, then and now! Do not casually read and then overlook what Christ Jesus declares to us!

John 17:6, “I (Christ Jesus) have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world” – are YOU the chosen of God in Christ?

John 17:11b, “Holy Father, keep through Your name those You have given Me.” Are YOU a “gift of God” to His Son Christ Jesus? Verse 13b, “that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves.” How’s your “joy-in-Jesus register”?

John 17:15b, “that You, Father, should keep them from the evil one.” Are YOU being kept from the evil one by Jesus or do you fit in with a Judas? Verse 17, “Sanctify them (“set them apart”) by Your truth. Your word is truth.” Are YOU set apart to the glory of Christ Jesus only?

John 17:20-23, Get ready! Firm yourself up in Christ with what we’re about to hear! Jesus prayed! “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe (or trust) 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 to them, that they may be one just as We are one: I in them, and You in My; 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 did YOU receive it? “and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.” SO THE WORLD MAY KNOW!

Oh, I know some of the world gathers around “what they know about themselves”! Agnostics, atheists, unbelievers, dissenters, active opposers against anything that has to do with Truth, with Christ, with the Word written and living, with especially the “True Church”, with missions, missionaries, evangelism and discipleship – there Are enemies for them! It was Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, in his writing, “Faust”, (Pt.11), who said: “While man’s desires and aspirations stir, (in himself!), he cannot choose but err.” That’s because man’s desires and aspirations, apart from Divine Will, instill within fallen men unbelief in the need of God as Lord and Savior but adaptable to devilish and demonic activity- so he errs! And especially was I encouraged by the wisdom of St. Augustine, in his writing entitled “Sermons”, (no. 164, sec.14): “It is human to err; it is devilish to remain in error,” even understanding, “Yes, there is an ‘acceptance, by many, of demonic activity’ rather than its defeat”!

But what about “the defeat of demonic activity” in their attacks, in their deceit, in their intimidation and accusation of you as simply a ‘pretender’ in following the Jesus you claim to be surrendered to as you find it convenient to follow or not, to obey or disobey, to proclaim allegiance as you’re defiled by devilish domination, yet at the same time have been the most faithful follower of Christ up to now, not a claim but a testimony – but then the sad moment came and you didn’t resist? Maybe, like Jesus, in Matthew 16:23, even indicting Peter at that moment as a slave of Satan: But Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men,” and, yes, even the ‘most faithful’ do face dangerous moments, but usually it’s fleshly, demonized men who can be, and often are, the tools Satan uses to bring the ‘walks’ of the most faithful to a stand-still or to use them to frustrate your faith-walk, inciting you and tempting you! Yes, at times in the spiritual world, there are or can be dangerous, demonic, disappointing, disillusioning temptations to ‘shame the name of Jesus’ by His own ‘professing servants’ like a Judas!

You may remember Shakespeare in his writing “Hamlet” saying, “The spirit I have seen may be the devil: and the devil has power to assume a pleasing shape,” and immature ‘disciples’ become a major ‘front’ of the devil’s spiritual warfare, yes, even in “pleasing shapes”!

Hollywood’s Academy Award Winners are no match for the devil himself! He can, at times, appear as an angel, but he comes to shoot death into one’s veins! He’ll even bring the best world symphonies to play their melodious, historic melodies, while he opens death’s door for your entrance! Even ‘sweet voices’ are not necessarily men at their best but the devil himself at his worst! And his ‘marching bands’ and symphonic voices are nothing more than Satanic attempts to calm one before his/her eternal enslavement in the devil’s headquarters! The devil doesn’t introduce himself to one as an enemy but a ‘virtuous friend’, and when one succumbs he leads that one downward, not upward toward the throne of God!

I came across a statement by Henry Fielding, in his writing entitled “Tom Jones,” (Bk. XV111, ch.8), that pictures devilish ‘dads’ in our world today: “What the devil and Doctor Faustus, shan’t I do what I will with my own daughter?” That’s godless, devilish, demonic activity that achieves Hell’s highest awards!

Be careful about the glib talk of family, friends, professors, worldly men and women, even some “pastors or preachers”, whose conversation often readily reveals they easily have been “ensnared” by the devil himself when “snared” by the devil can become, yes, eternal slavery, bondage, and captivity, taking one, a family, friends , often even businesses and ‘churches’ down the dark trail in “chains”!

This is why the inspired Word of God through Paul in Ephesians 6:10-16 tells us: “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 to done all, to stand.

Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 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.”

You do know, you understand, you equip yourself and your family, to faithfully “quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one” who is Satan who has you and yours targeted for spiritual destruction! 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.” AMEN? Sadly, the “perishing” ARE the result of demonic and devilish domination, entrapment, slaves to the will of the devil’s darkness!

It was Robert South who once said: “He who would fight the devil with his own weapons, must not wonder if he finds him an overmatch.” Never assume on your own that YOU can win any battle with Satan you find yourself in – not so! The devil is stronger than you, smarter than you, and able to destroy the best a godless world has to offer – only Christ Jesus speaks with Heaven’s Authority! “Get behind Me Satan!” And YOU better be ONE IN CHRIST, WITH CHRIST, THROUGH CHRIST as you wage war against him and his armies of demon-powers!

There’s an old, old chorus that my church in my early years used to sing. It says: “Moment by moment I’m kept in His love; Moment by moment I’ve life from above; Looking to Jesus till glory does shine; Moment by moment, O Lord, I am Thine.”

To WHOM do you belong? “The world, the flesh, the devil”? Or do YOU belong to Jesus, bought by His precious blood on Calvary’s Cross? And King Jesus IS conqueror over the world, your old sin nature, and the devil himself! Amen?

MAY 23,2019, BY: J.FARRELL FISHER

HENRY WARD BEECHER ONCE SAID: “THERE IS NOT A HEART BUT HAS ITS MOMENTS OF LONGING, YEARNING FOR SOMETHING BETTER, NOBLER, HOLIER THAN IT KNOWS NOW.” AND WHEN I READ THAT STATEMENT LONG AGO, IT WAS A STATEMENT I COULD NOT LET GO OF, BECAUSE WITNESSING, AT TIMES STRONGER THAN THE LAST, EITHER THE ACCEPTANCE OF DIVINE TRUTH OR OPPOSITION TO IT, I ‘SAW” & “RESTED” IN WHAT I KNEW TO BE DIVINE, ETERNAL TRUTH THAT ALLOWS ONE TO OPEN “GOD’S DOOR-KNOCK” ON HIS HEART & HIS MIND & HIS WILL & “REST” IN THE LORD JESUS’S “FINISHED WORK” AT CALVARY AS HE SHED HIS INNOCENT BLOOD TO WASH AWAY “GUILT” & MANIFEST THE GRACE OF GOD UPON THE TRUSTING, RESTING, RELIANT FAITH OF A SINNER IN THE SAVIOR’S MARVELOUS WORK THROUGH HIS CROSS, DEATH, BURIAL, & RESURRECTION!

BUT IN THE MIDST OF A “FALLEN WORLD OF MANKIND” WHO SEES NO NEED OF A “SAVIOR” &, CERTAINLY, “NO NEED OF SERVING SOME MAN-MADE GOD ‘BIRTHED’ IN THE MINDS & HEARTS OF RELIGIOUS ‘FREAKS’ WHO ARE BOUND IN FALSE FAITHS, FICKLE RELIGIONS, & FANATICIZED PRETENSE, YES,PRETENDING WHEN THERE IS NO ‘REAL GOD’, THEY, IN THEIR INFANTILE, MISGUIDED MINDS & HEARTS, GIVE US FOLKS WHO SAY, “GOD WHO LOVES THE WORLD HE CREATED, BUT NOT THE FALLEN MANKIND HE ‘BIRTHED’? WE MAY BE ‘GOD-LESS’, BUT WE’RE NOT STUPID!” SO, SPIRITUALLY BLINDED BY ‘SELF-WILL, SELF-LOVE, SELF-APPROVAL’, WHEN THE HOLY WORD OF GOD DECLARES, THAT CHRIST CARRIED ‘FALLEN HUMANITY’ ON HIMSELF ON THE CROSS, OF PAST,PRESENT, & FUTURE MANKIND, (WHICH IS WHY, IN ROMANS 6:6, PAUL WROTE, “KNOWING THIS, THAT OUR OLD MAN IS CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST, THAT THE BODY OF SIN MIGHT BE DESTROYED, THAT HENCEFORTH, WE SHOULD NOT BE SERVANTS OF ONE’S OLD SIN-NATURE!!”), UNBELIEVERS DEBUNK, DENOUNCE, & DEGRADE “THE LOVE OF GOD”, LAUGHING AT IT, DENYING IT, & RIDICULING THOSE WHO “TRUST” IN JESUS’ FINISHED WORK AT THE CROSS & HIS EMPTY TOMB!!

OH, BUT UNSAVED, UNREDEEMED, WORLD-SPIRIT-BLINDED, SATAN-BOUND PEOPLE,DEMONICALLY CONTROLLED INDIVIDUALS, “BET” THEIR LIVES ON ‘DARKNESS NOT LIGHT’, ON ‘SELF-INTEREST NOT THE SAVIOR’S LOVE’, ON ‘SELF-ACCEPTANCE & SELF-AGGRANDISEMENT & SELF-EVALUATION’, YES, WILLFULLY BLINDED TO THE JUDGMENT & MERCY OF HOLY, LOVING, INTENTIONAL GOD, IN RECONCILING FALLEN MANKIND BACK TO HIMSELF THROUGH HIS “AMAZING GRACE”!!!’ THERE IS AROUND YOU INDIVIDUALS, COUPLES, FAMILIES, THAT KNOW NOTHING ABOUT SOVEREIGN INTENT, THE SAVIOR’S LOVE, OR THEY WILLFULLY IGNORE THE HOLY SPIRIT’S “KNOCK” ON THEIR HEARTS’ DOORS!!

HAVE YOU READ GENESIS 3:1-8 LATELY? “NOW THE SERPENT (SATAN!) WAS MORE SUBTIL THAN ANY BEAST WHICH THE LORD GOD HAD MADE. AND HE SAID UNTO THE WOMAN, ‘YES,HAS GOD SAID, YOU SHALL NOT EAT OF EVERY TREE OF THE GARDEN? AND THE WOMAN SAID,WE MAY EAT OF THE FRUIT OF THE TREES OF THE GARDEN:BUT OF THE TREE WHICH IS IN THE MIDST OF THE GARDEN, GOD HAS SAID, YOU SHALL NOT EAT OF IT, LEST YOU DIE.AND THE SERPENT SAID UNTO THE WOMAN, ‘YOU SHALL NOT SURELY DIE: FOR GOD KNOWS THAT IN THE DAY YOU EAT OF IT, THEN YOUR EYES SHALL BE OPENED, & YOU SHALL BE AS GODS, KNOWING GOOD & EVIL.

AND WHEN THE WOMAN SAW THAT THE TREE WAS GOOD FOR FOOD, & THAT IT WAS PLEASANT TO THE EYES, & A TREE TO BE DESIRED TO MAKE ONE WISE, SHE TOOK OF THE FRUIT OF THE TREE, & DID EAT, & GAVE ALSO TO HER HUSBAND WITH HER; & HE DID EAT. AND THE EYES OF THEM BOTH WERE OPENED, & THEY KNEW THAT THEY WERE NAKED; & THEY SEWED FIG LEAVES TOGETHER, & MADE THEMSELVES APRONS. AND THEY HEARD THE VOICE OF THE LORD GOD WALKING IN THE GARDEN IN THE COOL OF THE DAY: & ADAM & EVE, HIS WIFE, HID THEMSELVES FROM THE PRESENCE OF THE LORD GOD AMONG THE TREES OF THE GARDEN.”

AND SINCE THOSE HISTORIC DAYS THE “ADAMS & EVES” OF FALLEN MANKIND STILL WALK ‘SPIRITUALLY NAKED, UNCLOTHED, & FOR MANY, UNAWARE OF THE NEED OF “BEING CLOTHED”, & RECONCILED TO HOLY GOD THROUGH HIS SON & SAVIOR, THE LORD JESUS CHRIST!’ BUT ‘FALLEN HUMANITY’, STILL SPIRITUALLY BLINDED, REMAIN ‘UNCLOTHED’ BEFORE HOLY GOD, &, YES, EVEN THO’ THEY THINK THEY ARE ‘CLOTHED’ IN THEIR ‘SELF-MADE,RELIGIOUS ATTIRE’, BUT ARE STILL FAR FROM THE “BLOOD ATONEMENT” THAT GOD PURPOSED IN & THROUGH HIS SON, THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, GOD’S SACRIFICIAL “LAMB”, WITH MANY BEING ‘RELIGIOUS’, BUT NOT “RE-BORN”!

OH, & THEN GENESIS 3:24 SAYS, “SO GOD DROVE OUT THE MAN; & HE PLACED AT THE EAST OF THE GARDEN OF EDEN CHERUBIMS, & A FLAMING SWORD WHICH TURNED EVERY WAY, TO KEEP THE WAY OF THE TREE OF LIFE,” & THAT’S DIVINE,HOLY PROTECTION,BECAUSE HOLY GOD PROTECTS “THE WAY OF THE TREE OF LIFE” FROM HUMANITY’S ‘FALLEN-AWAY-ATTEMPTS IN THEIR FLESH-INVENTED,YES, ATTEMPTS OF BEING RECONCILED TO GOD IN “BEST-EFFORT-RELIGIOUS ATTEMPTS” TO BE RECONCILED–NO INTEREST IN “BLOOD ATONEMENT”! ACROSS THE KNOWN WORLD OF THE 21^ST CENTURY, HAS THAT CHANGED? ARE MEN TODAY STILL ‘RELIGIOUSLY INCLINED’,BUT WITH NO DESIRE TO BE RECONCILED TO GOD GOD’S WAY?

IN ROMANS 15:13 PAUL WROTE: “NOW THE GOD OF HOPE FILL YOU WITH ALL JOY & PEACE IN BELIEVING, THAT YOU MAY ABOUND IN HOPE, THROUGH THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.” DOES THAT EXPOSE “BEST-EFFORT-RELIGIOUS ATTAINMENT” THAT IGNORES THE MERCY OF GOD IN & THROUGH CHRIST ALONE? IN VERSE 29 PAUL SAID: “AND I AM SURE THAT, WHEN I COME TO YOU, I SHALL COME IN THE FULLNESS OF THE BLESSING OF THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST,” WHICH, YES, RULES OUT ‘TRYING RELIGIOUSLY’ APART FROM “TRUSTING IN, RELYING UPON CHRIST’S BLOOD ATONEMENT”!!!

TO THE CHURCH AT COLOSSAE, IN COLOSSIANS 1:9, PAUL ALSO SAID, “FOR THIS CAUSE WE ALSO, SINCE THE DAY WE HEARD IT, DO NOT CEASE TO PRAY FOR YOU, & TO DESIRE THAT YOU MIGHT BE FILLED WITH THE KNOWLEDGE OF HIS WILL IN ALL WISDOM & SPIRITUAL UNDERSTANDING.” HOW TRUE IS THAT OF YOU, IF AT LEAST YOU HAVE SOME ‘RELIGIOUS LEANING’?

IN PSALM 91:1-16 WE LEARN OF “THE SECRET PLACE OF THE MOST HIGH” & WHERE OR “IN WHOM” YOU SHOULD BE HIDDEN AWAY, YES, FROM THE WORLD, THE OLD SIN-NATURES, & FROM SATAN HIMSELF! THE WORD SAYS: “HE THAT DWELLS IN THE SECRET PLACE OF THE MOST HIGH SHALL ABIDE IN THE SHADOW OF THE ALMIGHTY. I WILL SAY OF THE LORD, HE IS MY REFUGE & MY FORTRESS; MY GOD; IN HIM WILL I TRUST.

SURELY HE SHALL DELIVER ME FROM THE SNARE OF THE FOWLER, & FROM THE NOISOME PESTILENCE. HE SHALL COVER YOU WITH HIS FEATHERS, & UNDER HIS WINGS SHALL YOU TRUST: HIS TRUTH SHALL BE YOUR SHIELD & BUCKLER. YOU SHALL NOT BE AFRAID FOR THE TERROR BY NIGHT; NOR FROM THE ARROW THAT FLES BY DAY; NOR FROM THE PESTILENCE THAT WALKS IN DARKNESS; NOR FOR THE DESTRUCTION THAT WASTES AT NOONDAY. A THOUSAND SHALL FALL AT YOUR SIDE, & TEN THOUSAND AT YOUR RIGHT HAND; BUT IT SHALL NOT COME NEAR YOU.

ONLY WITH YOUR EYES SHALL YOU BEHOLD & SEE THE REWARD OF THE WICKED. BECAUSE YOU HAVE MADE THE LORD, WHICH IS MY REFUGE, EVEN THE MOST HIGH, YOU HABITATION; THERE SHALL NO EVIL BEFALL YOU, NEITHER SHALL ANY PLAGUE COME NEAR YOUR DWELLING. FOR HE SHALL BEAR YOU UP IN THEIR HANDS, LEST YOU DASH YOUR FOOT AGAINST A STONE.YOU SHALL TREAD UPON THE LION & SADDER: THE YOUNG LION & THE DRAGON SHALL YOU TRAMPLE UNDER FEET.

BECAUSE HE HAS SET HIS LOVE UPON ME, THEREFORE WILL I DELIVER HIM: I WILL SET HIM ON HIGH, BECAUSE HE HAS KNOWN MY NAME. HE SHALL CALL UPON ME, & I WILL ANSWER HIM; I WILL BE WITH HIM IN TROUBLE; I WILL DELIVER HIM, & HONOR HIM. WITH LONG LIFE WILL I SATISFY HIM, & SHOW HIM MY SALVATION.” WOW! WHAT A WORD OF WONDER, ADMIRATION, & CELEBRATION!!

BUT MASSES OF PEOPLE WORLDWIDE HAVE SUBSTITUTED A RELIGIOUS ZEAL FOR SOVEREIGN GRACE, MERCY, & LOVE, CALLING IT ‘BELIEF’ THAT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH “CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST”, ‘BELIEF’ THAT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH A “NEW CREATION”, ‘BELIEF’ THAT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH SOVEREIGN TRANSFORMATION OF A REDEEMED SOUL, OR ‘BELIEF’ THAT HASN’T NOTHING TO DO WITH REPENTANCE TOWARD GOD & FAITH IN CHRIST’S FINISHED WORK AT THE CROSS & HIS EMPTY TOMB, & ASCENSION TO THE ETERNAL THRONE OF GOD WHERE HE STILL CALLS THE SHOTS!! THOMAS PAINE,IN HIS WRITING, “AGE OF REASON,PT.1”,STATED, “INFIDELITY DOES NOT CONSIST IN BELIEVING OR DISBELIEVING; IT CONSISTS IN PROFESSING TO BELIEVE WHAT ONE DOES NOT BELIEVE.”

THE EVIL OF UNBELIEF, OR THE EVIL OF BELIEF BUT IGNORES BEHAVIOR, IS THE QUANDARY, THE MISERY OF SPIRITUAL SUPPOSITION APART FROM “SPIRIT RE-BIRTH”,& SO MULTITUDES OUT OF THE CHURCH, EVEN IN THE CHURCH, IGNORE: “YOU MUST BE BORN AGAIN”, ASSUMING IF ONE RETURNS TO A CHURCH REGULARLY THAT HE/SHE MUST BE O-K SPIRITUALLY, WHEN GOING TO CHURCH REGULARLY DOES NOT UNVEIL ONE AS “TRULY BORN AGAIN” – IT’S THE WALK, THE WILL, THE WISDOM OF ‘DAILY TAKING THE SENTENCE OF DEATH TO THE OLD MAN, THAT THE “NEW MAN IN CHRIST” MAY BE CLEARLY REVEALED TO AN UNSAVED INDIVIDUAL, COUPLE, OR FAMILY WHO NEED TO BE “RECONCILED TO GOD.”

IT’S AMAZING BUT SO TRUE, THAT AS PAUL WROTE IN ROMANS 10:2 OF PEOPLE WHO HAVE “A ZEAL FOR GOD, BUT NOT ACCORDING TO KNOWLEDGE,” THAT THAT IS SELF-MOTIVATED RELIGIOUS,BIBLICAL KNOWLEDGE, BUT NOT ACCORDING TO HOLY SPIRIT INSPIRED REVELATION & UNDERSTANDING, THE MOTIVATION BY THE SPIRIT OF THE DYNAMIC INSPIRATION OF THE HOLY WORD, NOT THE WEAKNESS OF ‘FLESH-EFFORT’ OR THE HEART&MIND DEADNESS OF “I TRIED” RATHER THAN “YES, I’VE TRUSTED LEANING, NOT TO MY OWN UNDERSTANDING, BUT YIELDING TO THE LORD DAILY AS I, YES, INVITED HIM INTO MY LIFE TO REIGN IN ME, OVER ME, & THROUGH ME TO THE LOST, NEEDY, ALIENATED & SEPARATED FROM GOD CROWD THAT IS AROUND ME NEEDING CHRIST’S BLOOD REDEMPTION & RECONCILIATION TO THE GLORY OF GOD”! THE WILL & THE WONDER OF THE,YES, MYSTERIOUS MIRACLE OF AN ETERNAL RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD THE FATHER, GOD THE SON, & GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT “IS” THE MIRACLE & THE MERCY & THE MAJESTY OF GOD’S AMAZING GRACE!

THE CHRISTIAN FAITH A FALSE ATTEMPT? YES, WHEN ‘RELIGIOUS MEN’ TRY RATHER THAN TRUST, BEST-EFFORT RATHER THAN THE BLESSED ENTRANCE THROUGH THE ‘DOOR’ OF CHRIST ONLY, ‘RELIGIOUS EMOTION RATHER THAN SOVEREIGNLY RELEASED PEACE THAT PASSES ALL UNDERSTANDING’, OR EVEN THE ‘SPIRIT OF THE ANTI-CHRIST’ THAT ‘PRETENDS WITHOUT HIS PRESENCE’, THAT DAILY DENIES FATHER, SON, & HOLY SPIRIT, THEIR RIGHTFUL PLACE OF MINISTRY IN THE “BLOOD-BOUGHT” HEART – CHRIST’S BLOOD, CHRIST’S HEART, HIS MIND, EVEN HIS ABLENESS TO DO EXCEEDINGLY ABUNDANTLY ABOVE ALL WE ASK OR THINK!!!!!

THE CHRISTIAN FAITH A FALSE ATTEMPT? YES,LIKE SYDNEY J.HARRIS’ WRITING IN THE CHICAGO DAILY NEWS WRITTEN YEARS&YEARS AGO,SAYING, “THE REAL HERETIC OF OUR TIME IS NOT THE ATHEIST OR THE AGNOSTIC (WHO ARE OFTEN GOOD & DECENT PEOPLE WITH A RESPECT FOR REALITY & HUMAN DIGNITY) BUT THE FAITH-IN-FAITH FANATICS WHO MURMUR, ‘IT DOESN’T MATTER WHAT YOU BELIEVE, AS LONG AS IT MAKES YOU FEEL GOOD.’ THIS TURNS RELIGION INTO A WHOLLY SUBJECTIVE MATTER, LIKE TASTE IN FOOD OR FURNISHINGS, & THUS ROBS THEOLOGY OF ITS CLAIM TO ULTIMATE TRUTH.” SO TRUE!!

THE CHRISTIAN FAITH IS NOT AN ATTEMPT AT IMITATION – THE TRUE CHRISTIAN FAITH “IS” “CHRIST IN YOU THE HOPE OF GLORY”! THE TRUE CHRISTIAN FAITH IS: ONE TRUSTING IN THE GRACE, MERCY, & LOVE OF GOD, & AS HE, BY HIS HOLY SPIRIT, KNOCKING ON ONE’S HEART-DOOR ASKING TO ‘COME IN’, FAITH-FULLY OPENED,& WILLING FOR THE “INDWELLING CHRIST TO ESTABLISH HIS HOLY PRESENCE”, WILLING FOR THE HOLY SPIRIT TO BIRTH IN US THE LORD’S RESURRECTED PRESENCE, THEN GUARDING & GUIDING US IN ALL HIS HOLY TRUTH! IT WAS AN ANONYMOUS QUOTE IN THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF RELIGIOUS QUOTATIONS (PUBLISHED IN 1965 BY FLEMING H.REVELL COM., WESTWOOD, NJ) THAT DEFINED CHRIST JESUS AS: “COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OF THE CELESTIAL ARMY, KING OF ZION, ETERNAL EMPEROR, PONTIFEX MAXIMUS OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH, ARCHBISHOP OF ALL SOULS, ELECTOR OF TRUTH, ARCHDUKE OF GLORY, DUKE OF LIFE, PRINCE OF PEACE, DEFENDER OF THE GATES OF HELL, CONQUEROR OF DEATH, HEREDITARY LORD OF ALL NATIONS, LORD OF JUSTICE, & HEAD OF THE SACRED COUNCIL OF THE HEAVENLY FATHER,”! & SHOULDN’T I ADD: SOVEREIGN LORD & KING OF KINGS, ESTABLISHING HIS RESIDENCE IN EVERY REPENTANT, TRUSTING, SURRENDERED HEART & MIND TO HIS KINGLY REIGN, BEING GUIDED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT INTO ALL HEAVENLY TRUTH?

IN THE “BROADMAN HYMN” OF 1940, (PUBLISHED BY BROADMAN PRESS, NASHVILLE, TENN.) IS A HYMN ENTITLED “OUR TIMES ARE IN GOD’S HAND”, BY HOMER HAMMONTREE. IT SAYS: “OUR TIMES ARE IN YOUR HAND:” FATHER, WE WISH THEM THERE; OUR LIFE, OUR SOUL, OUR ALL, WE LEAVE ENTIRELY TO YOUR CARE.

OUR TIMES ARE IN YOUR HAND, WHATEVER THEY MAY BE; PLEASING OR PAINFUL, DARK OR BRIGHT, AS BEST MAY SEEM TO THEE.

OUR TIMES ARE IN YOUR HAND; WHY SHOULD WE DOUBT OR FEAR? OUR FATHER’S HAND WILL NEVER CAUSE HIS CHILD A NEEDLESS TEAR.

OUR TIMES ARE IN YOUR HAND, JESUS, THE CRUCIFIED! THE HAND OUR CRUEL SINS HAD PIERCED, IS NOW OUR GUARD & GUIDE.”

I’M SURE IT’S WHY J.WILBUR CHAPMAN WAS QUOTED IN “THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF RELIGIOUS QUOTATIONS”, (P.51), SAYING: “I KNOW OF A WORLD THAT IS SUNK IN SHAME, WHERE HEARTS OFTEN FAINT & TIRE; BUT I KNOW OF A NAME, A PRECIOUS NAME, THAT CAN SET THAT WORLD ON FIRE; ITS SOUND IS SWEET, ITS LETTERS FLAME. I KNOW OF A NAME, A PRECIOUS NAME, IT’S JESUS.”

THERE IS A JUDGMENT DAY COMING WHEN EVERY MAN, WOMAN, BOY,OR GIRL, WILL STAND BEFORE HOLY GOD, & HE’LL ASK YOU: “WHAT DID YOU DO WITH MY SON & YOUR SAVIOR & LORD, JESUS CHRIST?” AND “YOU” WILL ANSWER! THERE WILL BE TWO DOORS TO BE OPENED, BUT THE ONE YOU ENTER MUST TO HAVE BEEN SETTLED BEFORE GOD’S CALL TO UNVEIL FOR YOU EITHER THE DOOR OF LIFE FOREVER IN THE PRESENCE OF CHRIST OR THE DEVIL’S DOOR TO ETERNAL DAMNATION BECAUSE YOU REJECTED CHRIST JESUS AS LORD & SAVIOR OF YOUR LIFE, HAVING DETERMINED THE ‘BAD FRUIT’ OF THE WORLD, YOUR OLD SIN-NATURE, & SATAN’S DECEPTION!

JOHN MILTON WROTE IN HIS “SAMSON AGONISTES”, (1.293),SAYING: “JUST ARE THE WAYS OF GOD, & JUSTIFIABLE TO MEN; UNLESS THERE BE WHO THINK NOT GOD AT ALL.” TELL ME! YOUR LIFE’S JOURNEY, GODLESS OR GOD-BLESSED, REPUTABLE OR GOD-BIRTHED, SURPRISED IN YOUR JUDGMENT HEARING BEFORE HIM, OR CELEBRATING WITH JESUS, HIS REDEEMED, BLOOD-BOUGHT SAINTS,& HAVING BEEN GUIDED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT INTO THE GATES OF CHRIST’S BLOOD-BOUGHT KINGDOM RULE, YOU’RE READY, DAILY, WHETHER ON EARTH OR IN HEAVEN TO BE SINGING PRAISES TO THE KING OF KINGS & LORD OF LORDS?

DO YOU DAILY CLIMB THE ALTAR STAIRS TO FELLOWSHIP WITH KING JESUS? IT WAS DWIGHT BRADLEY, IN HIS WRITING, “LEAVES FROM A SPIRITUAL NOTEBOOK,” (HARPER & ROW, PUBLISHERS INC.), THAT SAYS:

“FOR WORSHIP IS A THIRSTY LAND CRYING OUT FOR RAIN, IT IS A CANDLE IN THE ACT OF BEING KINDLED, IT IS A DROP IN QUEST OF THE OCEAN…IT IS A VOICE IN THE NIGHT CALLING FOR HELP, IT IS A SOUL STANDING IN AWE BEFORE THE MYSTERY OF THE UNIVERSE,…IT IS TIME FLOWING INTO ETERNITY,…A MAN CLIMBING THE ALTAR STAIRS TO GOD.” TRUE, TO AN EXTENT! SOME DO CLIMB THE ATAR STAIRS DAILY TO GOD, WHILE SOME, IN SELF-WILL & SELF-PLEASURE CHOOSE WHAT APPEARS TO BE AN EASY WAY OF LIFE, SLIDING DOWN BUT THEY DON’T KNOW TO WHERE, UNTIL,YES, THEY VISUALIZE SATAN OPENING “HELL’S GATES” WHERE “CHRISTLESS” THEY LIVE BOUND ETERNALLY IN THE DEMONIC CHAINS! YOU DO HAVE A CHOICE!

“CHOOSE YOU THIS DAY WHOM YOU WILL SERVE, BUT AS FOR ME & MY HOUSE, WE WILL ETERNALLY SERVE THE LORD”!! AMEN?

OR VICTORY THROUGH THE WORD OF GOD?

By J.Farrell Fisher

September 30, 2014

Hebrews 4:12, “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 redemptive faith 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 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 of the daily discipline 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 yourselves to discover His will, His ways, His directive word, but you settle in, “I’m saved; that’s all I need to know?” I believe that I read in Psalm 25:12, “Who is the man that fears the Lord? Him shall He teach in the way that He chooses.” And God’s choice? Matthew 4:4 But He [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.”

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 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,” [I 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 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 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 of 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.” 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 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!” And if you haven’t learned it yet in your classrooms or from many university professors who are smarter than God Himself, they believe, by human interaction you will learn that the most harmful ‘curse’ in life’s spiritual realm is personal pride and intellectual superiority, yes, even superior to Jesus Himself who IS “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.” Sanctify? “Set them apart,” “save them, redeem them, declare them ‘holy’ by Your Word”!! As Josh MacDowell used to say 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 believers 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 they 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 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!

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! 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 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 of His grace 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 all: “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 I 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 I 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 I John 5:4-5 John tells us: “For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome 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 will 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 “justified by His blood”?

The author of the Hebrews letter 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.” Is it your daily ambition to honor Christ in your earthly walk?

I close this teaching with Oswald Chambers’ words: “Beware of refusing to go to the funeral of your own independence.” [“My Utmost For His Highest,” p.256].

AMEN?