In John 17:1-5 Christ Jesus prayed to the Father, lifting up His eyes to heaven, and said: “Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You, as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him. And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do. And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.”

The hour that came in the life of the Son of God, on earth, birthed in the Virgin Mary, cared for by Mary and Joseph for many years, watched over by Father-God and the army of angels appointed and anointed by Holy God, did “the appointed hour” come, having been established before the world had even been created, that God, through the “Son”, would invade this world to reconcile a rebellious world unto Himself? Of course He did!

Not only, “in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,” but before its beginning, Holy God saw the “Fall” and determined “The Fall’s” reconciliation to Holy God through the sacrifice of God’s only Son, the Lord Jesus Christ!

And IF God did it for Adam and Eve, if God did it for a Moses or a prophet, if God did it for all of fallen humanity, was it just simply for them alone in the past, or is there “a finished Work”, an “It is done” for every birthed individual past, present, or future?

In Acts 10:34-43 Peter declared: “In truth I perceive THAT GOD SHOWS NO PARTIALITY. But in every nation whoever fears Him and works righteousness is accepted by Him. The word which God sent to the children of Israel, PREACHING PEACE THROUGH CHRIST JESUS – HE IS LORD OF ALL – that word you know, which was proclaimed throughout all Judea, and began from Galilee after the baptism which John preached: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him. And we are witnesses of all things which He did both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem, whom they killed by hanging Him on a tree. Him God raised up on the third day, and showed Him openly, not to all the people, but to witnesses chosen before by God, even to us who ate and drank with Him after He arose from the dead. And He commanded us to preach to the people, and to testify that it is He who was ordained by God to be the Judge of the living and the dead. To Him all the prophets witness, that through His name, whoever believes in Him will receive remission of sins.”

But a “fallen world”, without an awareness of the need of “reconciliation” to Holy God, will manufacture, invent, substitute, all kinds of human inventions to seek to appease their guilty, alienated from, blinded, sinful hearts by multitudinous, impotent, self-assertive ways of improving, over-looking, or excusing their sinful state!

And in spite of many of fallen mankind’s ‘fleshly innovations’ of ‘spiritual disciples’(?), even man-made religious systems, God overlooked, God intervened, God proved His love for fallen mankind, through the blood sacrifice of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, on Calvary’s Cross!

Do you remember God “testing” Abraham in Genesis? Follow the Word! [Genesis 22:1-18], Now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham, and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.”

Then God said, “Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.”

So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son; and he split the wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place which God had told him. Then on the third day Abraham lifted his eyes and saw the place afar off.

And Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; the lad and I will go yonder and worship, and we will come back to you.” [“We will come back to you”? “WE”? Abraham and Isaac? You mean he understood, even before the sacrifice of his son on the altar, that , though willingly offered as the sacrifice, Holy God was able to raise his son from the dead?!?].

So Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife, and the two of them went together. But Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, “My father!” And he said, “Here am I, my son.”

Then he said, “Look, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” And Abraham said, “My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering.” So the two of them went together.

Then they came to the place of which God had told him. And Abraham built an altar there and placed the wood in order; and he bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, upon the wood. And Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son.

But the Angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” So he said, “Here I am.” And He said, “Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.”

Then Abraham lifted his eyes and looked, and there behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns. So Abraham took the ram, and offered it up for a burnt offering instead of his son. And Abraham called the name of the place, ‘The-Lord-Will-Provide’; as it is said to this day, ‘In the Mount of the Lord it shall be provided.’

Then the Angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time out of heaven, and said: “By Myself I have sworn, says the Lord, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son – blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies. In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, BECAUSE YOU HAVE OBEYED MY VOICE. “

What was God’s intent in His testing of Abraham? If there is a willingness to obey, God sees the heart through which He can reveal Himself! In fact, In Matthew 4:19, Jesus said to Simon Peter and his brother Andrew, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men”, but that was after He had said in Matthew 4:17, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

Matthew 4:23 then tells us that Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom…”. Do you know what Isaiah 52:7 says? “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who proclaim peace, who brings glad tidings of good things, who proclaims salvation, who says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns!’”

And Abraham, and Jesus, or you as His disciple and follower and servant? Do you know about “beautiful feet”, about “proclaimers of good news and peace” and about those “who proclaim salvation”, saying, “God reigns” – will you allow Him to reign over your life, your home, your family, your business, your community, your nation? Jesus said what? “It is finished – It is done!”

FIRST, NOTICE, NO MORE UNAWARENESS OF GOD’S CONCERN FOR HIS CREATED WORLD! I remind you of what Paul said to Timothy in 2 Timothy 3:16-17 because it relates to every follower of Christ in the time period of his/her present existence in whatever nation, state, or circumstance: “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; (So) that the man of god may be adequate, equipped for, (or thoroughly furnished) for every good work.”

And if that is true, and it is, then are you and I to be alerted to what Jesus has to say, not only to the Israelites in Jerusalem or the nation of Israel, but to every disciple, regardless of his present residence – the U.S., Europe, Asia, Africa? What did our Lord say in Luke 21:10-28?

Then He [Christ Jesus] continued by saying to them (but not to you?), “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be earthquakes, and in various places plagues and famines; and there will be terrors and great signs from heaven.

But before all these things, they will lay their hands on you and will persecute you, delivering you to the synagogues and prisons, bringing you before kings and governors for My name’s sake.

It will lead to an opportunity for your testimony. So make up your minds not to prepare beforehand to defend yourselves; for I will give you utterance (or a mouth) and wisdom which none of your opponents will be able to resist or refute.

But you will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death, and you will be hated by all on account of My name. Yet not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your lives (or souls).

But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then recognize that her desolation is at hand. Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, and let those who are in the midst of the city depart, and let not those who are in the country enter the city;

Because these are days of vengeance (for the blood covenant), in order that all things which are written may be fulfilled. Woe to those who are with child and to those who nurse babes in those days; for there will be great distress upon the land, and wrath to this people,

And they will fall by the edge of the sword, and will be led captive into all the nations; and Jerusalem will be trampled under foot by the Gentiles until the time of the Gentiles be fulfilled. (That’s the “Present Age” to the Advent!!).

And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and upon the earth dismay among the nations, in perplexity at the roaring of the sea and the waves, (or a flood of words), men fainting from fear and the expectation of the things which are coming upon the world; for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.

And THEN they will see The Son of Man Coming In a Cloud with power and great glory. “But when these things begin to take place, straighten up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”

LOOK UP! YOUR REDEMPTION DRAWS NEAR! LOOK UP! JESUS CHRIST IS ON THE THRONE, RULING AND REIGNING, AND HIS KINGDOM HAS COME AND HIS RULE ASSURES YOU OF YOUR VICTORY IN YOUR WORLD OF TODAY! God cares about YOU, and has never taken His eyes off of you or your circumstances in your world!

SECOND, NO MORE UNAWARENESS OF GOD’S CARE FOR THE LOWLIEST OF MANKIND, FOR THE WORLD’S INSIGNIFICANT, FOR THE ONE NO ONE CARES ABOUT BUT GOD HIMSELF!

I think Daniel 4 was eternally sealed by the Spirit for this very point: “No unawareness of God’s Care for the most insignificant of mankind, but His care for the ‘least’, or the most well-known of all mankind?”

Daniel 4:1-17 is an amazing declaration and illuminating Word from Holy God: Nebuchadnezzar the king to all the peoples, nations, and men of every language that live in all the earth: “May your peace abound!

It has seemed good to me to declare the signs and wonders which the Most High God has done for me. How great are His signs, and how mighty are His wonders! His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and His dominion is from generation to generation.

I, Nebuchadnezzar, was at ease in my house and flourishing in my palace. I saw a dream and it made me fearful; and these fantasies as I lay on my bed and the visions in my mind kept alarming me.

So I gave orders to bring into my presence all the wise men of Babylon, that they might make known to me the interpretation of the dream. Then the magicians, the conjurers, the Chaldeans, and the diviners came in, and I related the dream to them; but they could not make its interpretation known to me.

But finally Daniel came in before me, whose name is Belteshazzar according to the name of my god, and in whom is a spirit of the holy gods; and I related my dream to him, saying, ‘O Belteshazzar, chief of the magicians, since I know that a spirit of the holy gods is in you and no mystery baffles you, tell me the visions of my dream which I have seen, along with its interpretations.

Now these were the visions in my mind as I lay on my bed: I was looking, and behold, there was a tree in the midst of the earth, and its height was great. The tree became large and became strong, and its height reached to the sky, and it was visible to the end of the whole earth.

Its foliage was beautiful and its fruit abundant, and in it was food for all. The beasts of the field found shade under it, and the birds of the sky dwelt in its branches, and all living creatures fed themselves from it.

I was looking in the visions in my mind as I lay on my bed, and behold, an angelic watcher, a holy one, descended from heaven. He shouted out and spoke as follows: ‘Chop down the tree and cut off its branches, strip off its foliage and scatter its fruit; let the beasts flee from under it, and the birds from its branches.

Yet leave the stump with its roots in the ground, but with a band of iron and bronze around it in the new grass of the field; and let him be drenched with the dew of heaven, and let him share with the beasts in the grass of the earth.

Let his mind be changed from that of a man, and let a beast’s mind be given to him, and let seven periods of time pass over him. This sentence is by the decree of the angelic watchers, and the decision is a command of the holy ones, in order that the living may know that the Most High is ruler over the realm of mankind, and bestows it on whom He wishes, and sets it over the lowliest of men.”

King Nebuchadnezzar knew of the sovereignty of Holy God and God’s concern for the “lowliest of men”, yet a humble spirit was unknown to him, and God removed his sovereignty from His life, even though he ‘professed’.

But in Ezekial 34:31 Holy God declared that days were coming when He would establish a “new covenant” – and we know that “new covenant” was the blood covenant through the sacrifice of God’s only begotten Son, Emmanuel, which means “God with us”, not like the old covenant which the Israelites willingly broke, even though they’d entered ‘marriage’ with Him.

Jeremiah gave us even a clearer picture of this “new covenant”. Jeremiah 31:31-34 says: “Behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah,

Not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord.

But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the Lord, “I will put My law within them, and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. And they shall not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, “Know the Lord,” for they shall all know Me, FROM THE LEAST OF THEM to the greatest of them,” declares the Lord, “for I will forgive their iniquity, and THEIR SIN I WILL REMEMBER NO MORE.”

How is that? BECAUSE YOU AND YOUR OLD SIN NATURE WERE “CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST”, PUT TO DEATH, AND YOU THROUGH REPENTANCE AND FAITH BECAME THE RECIPIENT OF RESURRECTION LIFE, RESURRECTION POWER, AND RESURRECTION HOPE! Through the blood of the Lamb, from the “least” to the greatest, new life has come!

THIRD, NO MORE UNAWARENESS OF GOD’S COMPASSION FOR THE LONELIEST OF THE ALONE! Ecclesiastes 4:7-12 is a powerful, piercing, heart-wrenching explanation of individuals who, yes, more than not, CHOOSE to walk through life alone, unaware of the Greatest Friend the lonely have ever known! It says:

Then I returned, and I saw vanity under the sun: There is one alone, without companion: he has neither son nor brother. Yet there is no end to all his labors, nor is his eye satisfied with riches. But he never asks, ‘For whom do I toil and deprive myself of good?’ This also is vanity and a grave misfortune.

Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor. For if they fall, one will lift up his companion. But woe to him who is alone when he falls, for he has no one to help him up. Again, if two lie down together, they will keep him warm; but how can one be warm alone? [Insert! How many ‘alone’ people have crossed your path and you’ve witnessed their ‘cold’ nature?]. Verse 12, Though one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him. And a threefold cord is not quickly broken.”

Who is the third cord in the two-fold relationship of friend to friend or husband to wife or wife to husband or parent to child or child to parent? Consider that two-fold union plus the presence of the Resurrected, Reigning Christ Jesus!

Consider even Jesus Himself! Even his intimate disciples left Him & He stood alone often, yet He said in John 8: 16b, “…for I am not alone, but I am with the Father who sent Me,” and in Verse 18 The Lord Jesus said, “I am One who bears witness of Myself, and the Father who sent Me bears witness of Me.”

You do not have to walk through life alone! God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit has “knocked on your heart’s door before and still does now”! Revelation 3:18-22 says, Jesus speaking, “I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent. 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.”

There’s an interesting verse in Jeremiah 49:31 where the Lord says, “Arise, go up to the wealthy nation that dwells securely,” says the Lord, which has neither gates no bars, dwelling alone.” Dare I tell you that the man rich in himself with his personal determination of wealth in himself without God, living in a false security state of mind, dwelling alone, and God says, “That’s the man I love, that’s the man I want to be One with, The loneliest of the alone – I love him, I seek him, I find him, and I say to that lonely man, – Matthew 11:28-30 –Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

FOURTH, NO MORE UNAWARENESS OF GOD’S COMPASSION FOR THE ‘LEAST-SENSING ‘ INDIVIDUAL! To say, like some, “Your God doesn’t care”, is without a doubt a senseless assertion, but in a time of great stress, even men like David, could complain, (Psalm 142:3-5), “When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, then You knew my path. In the way in which I walk they have secretly set a snare for me. Look on my right hand and see, for there is no one who acknowledges me; refuge has failed me; NO ONE CARES FOR MY SOUL.”

But then, at least King David, had the saneness and senseness of “I cried out to You, O Lord”; I said, “You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living.” But there are ‘senseless’ individuals whose hearts, minds, and brains are totally dead to the compassion and care of Holy God!

There are times in life’s pilgrimage when affliction deadens some’s ‘faith’, troubles and temptations harden their hearts, disappointments, rejections, betrayals, a serious sickness, a horrific betrayal of wedding vows or betrayal of what seemed to be ‘a true friendship’, hardens some hearts and lives, and they never consider “God’s compassion” for the sin-bound, the troubled, the lonely, or the fearful – they just stiffen in their dumb-foundedness of His love, grace, and mercy. Perplexity becomes their ‘cry’ rather than redemptive faith in the Lord’s ability to transform trouble into triumph!

It was Peter who was given a wise word in 1 Peter 5:5-11, “Likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for ‘God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.’ Therefore humble yourselves UNDER the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you. 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 a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you. To Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever.”

Holy God, Mighty God, Omnipotent God, is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all we ask or even think! And though YOU may sense, “NO ONE CARES FOR MY SOUL,” GOD DOES! LOOK AT THE CROSS AND THE EMPTY TOMB! The ‘least-sensing servant’ Jesus cares for and proves His love!

LASTLY, NO MORE UNAWARENESS OF GOD’S COMPASSION FOR THE CITIZENS OF EVEN REBELLIOUS NATIONS! Do you ever reflect upon, study, search out Psalm 2? The psalmist wrote about “the realness of rebellion”, but then amplified the Coming Messiah’s victory and triumph and Kingdom rule over sin and death! It says:

“Why do the nations rage, and the people plot a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, AGAINST THE LORD AND AGAINST HIS ANOINTED [The PROMISED MESSIAH!], saying, “Let us break Their bonds in pieces and cast away Their cords from us.” He (Holy God) who sits in the heavens shall laugh; The Lord shall hold them in derision. Then He shall speak to them in His wrath, and distress them in His displeasure: Yet I have set My King on My holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree: The Lord has said to Me, “You (Jesus) are My Son, today I have begotten You. Ask of Me, and I will give You the nations for Your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for Your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron; You shall dash them to pieces like a potter’s vessel.” Now therefore, be wise, O kings; Be instructed, you judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and you perish in the way, when His wrath is kindled but a little. BLESSED ARE ALL THOSE WHO PUT THEIR TRUST IN HIM (THE PROMISED MESSIAH!).”

Rebellious nations may rage, unbelieving leaders plot ‘vain things’, senseless rulers and self-centered individuals pool their foolish thoughts against God, but the Father begot the Son, and the Son lived and died in our place, and still reigns in Resurrection Life, Resurrection Power, and Resurrection Hope! And 2 Corinthians 7:10 declares, “For godly sorrow produces repentance LEADING TO SALVATION, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death.” Oswald Chambers wrote in “My Utmost For His Highest,” (p.254-255), “The marvels of conviction of sin, forgiveness, and holiness are so interwoven that it is only the forgiven man who is the holy man, he proves he is forgiven by being the opposite to what he was, by God’s grace. Repentance always brings a man to this point: I HAVE SINNED. The surest sign that God is at work is when a man says that and means it. Anything less than this is remorse for having made blunders, the reflex action of disgust at himself. The entrance into the Kingdom is through the panging pains of repentance crashing into a man’s respectable goodness; then the Holy Ghost, Who produces these agonies, begins the formation of the Son of God in the life. The new life will manifest itself in conscious repentance and unconscious holiness, never the other way about. The bedrock of Christianity is repentance.”

Repentance is not the license to continue sinning, but the freedom to walk in holiness and purity! Hebrews 10:14 the author superbly declares: “For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.” Are YOU?

Holy God, through the offering of Jesus on the Cross, offers the rebellious life through the sacrifice of Christ, a new life, a new hope, an eternal future with Him around the Throne forever and ever, but if one sins willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, “there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries”! Are you an “adversary” or true friend of the Christ of the Cross and the Christ of the Empty Tomb? “Blessed are all those who put their trust in “The Promised Messiah”!

THE HOLY SPIRIT’S SPIRITUAL DEMANDS?”

BY: J.FARRELL FISHER, AUGUST 19-20, 2018

Have you heard it on your TV or radio or from a casual friend saying, “Whether I’m right or whether I’m wrong, I’ve got to be me,”? How sad when you realize that many in the world around you are captured, deceived, and enslaved to the ‘flesh’ (old sin nature), to the ‘flesh’s’ Satan-inspired leanings, and to “the fallen world’s blinded opinion” about the loving, merciful, caring, out-reaching Holy God, ready to be ‘wrong’ rather than saved, healed, and delivered by “merciful God”!

JUNE 24-25, 2018, by J.Farrell Fisher

In Kurt Bruner’s book entitled “Inklings of God”, between his introduction and Chapter One, he recorded a statement of H.W. Webb-Peploe; it was: “Joy is not gush; joy is not jolliness. Joy is perfect acquiescence in God’s will because the soul delights itself in God Himself.”

And I certainly agree, but must add: “Joy is a fruit of the Spirit as the Holy Spirit unveils Christ fully to us, blessing us with our Lord and Savior’s gracious giftings, for those who desire to BE “the Potter’s House”!” Yet, I am afraid that there are those ‘believers’ (?) who are naïve to the spiritual dynamics of a Spirit-birthed, Spirit-presence, Spirit-guidance, AND Spirit-empowerment of a disciple’s pilgrimage! For many ‘Christian believers’ it’s as if the Holy Spirit doesn’t exist and isn’t necessary for the “illumination of true salvation ‘in Christ’!”

Plus, are there options ‘professing believers’ hold, or dismiss, related to Holy Spirit giftings, since ‘in and of themselves’ they sense no need of a ‘higher power’ to guide their spiritual pilgrimage: “We’re capable without the Spirit’s oversight”? Isn’t there in many ‘disciples’ a spiritual state of faith in living with a ‘spirit’ of ‘naivety’, void of Holy Spirit instruction, and unveiling of the ‘spirit-life’, a ‘journey’, a spiritual pilgrimage, apart from THE indwelling Holy Spirit who IS called our “Guide”, our “Tutor”, our “Equipper”, who is able to do, in us, exceedingly abundant and beyond what we dream or think to be possible in the spiritual journey of faith, obedience, and “Christ-revealing discipleship”!

Please understand! The Holy Spirit even begins the opening of our understanding of, yes, the “need” of trusting Christ’s saving grace, convicting us, appropriating for us and awareness of His eternal forgiveness of our sin and sin nature within us, and desiring to “open” the doors of our hearts to Christ so He may establish the Holy Temple in a repentant heart in eternal partnership with the Holy Spirit! Has He: “knocked”, but you didn’t truly “open the door” for His entrance IN YOU as His earthly dwelling, you “Choosing God In Christ”?!? Didn’t Jesus say, “I and My Father are one”? And dare I tell you? Believe I will! There IS NO choosing God in Christ for His graciousness and kindness and mercy apart from the Holy Spirit “guiding us into all Truth” under Father-God’s anointing of the Holy Spirit and the Spirit’s “conviction”, “converting”, “transforming”, “INDWELLING”, and “divine-fruit-bearing”!!

Highly interesting words from King Jesus when in Matthew 7:13-14 He said: “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.” Later, in Verses 21-23, the Lord Jesus said:

“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven (on earth!!!!), but he who DOES THE WILL of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And THEN I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!”

Have you ever heard ‘professing believers’ say to you: “It’s OK, I’m OK, even though as a ‘believer’ (?) I still live with a bent toward and an appreciation for my old sin nature and sin often, but I thank God He doesn’t see or hold me accountable any longer, because ‘I believe in Jesus’ mercy’.” Really? It’s in John 8:11 where Christ Jesus said to the former, but redeemed adulteress woman, “Go, and sin no more.” A suggestion or a biblical command?

Jesus says: “Sin no more”! – And that’s because the Lord Jesus says, “Sin no more!” “Sin no more” because Christ Jesus KNOWS what willful sin does in the human soul, human life, AND to the human body! “Sin no more” because willful sin ‘promotes’ and honors ‘fleshliness’ and the old sin nature, AND “IS NOT” THE “NEW LIFE OF LIBERTY AND FREEDOM AND UNVEILING OF THE SPIRITUAL NATURE OF DIVINE, HOLY LIVING”, honoring God alone, without a silly ounce of ‘sinful-self-acceptance and sinful -self-appreciation’! THAT WAS CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST AT THE CROSS!

In John 8:12 the Lord Jesus said: “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me SHALL NOT WALK IN DARKNESS, BUT HAVE THE LIGHT OF LIFE.” Darkness? “Falling short of the glory of God”! Darkness? “Choosing sin in place of the Light of heavenly glory”! Darkness? Leaning on Lucifer’s lie rather than TRUSTING in the Lord’s Truth! Darkness? Settling to co-mingle spiritual death with spiritual life, hoping, in time, maybe, the “Life” will crowd out the “spiritual death”! Darkness? Flawed, scarred, dis-eased nature, a world-spirit of rebellion against God, but convinced the Holy Spirit world overlooks one’s own rebellion because “he, she, at least tries to overcome it, as he, she does her ‘best’ in both worlds he/she has chosen to “live” in”! Really?

Dare I tell you? “There is no ‘broad-mindedness’ in the true disciple’s eternal world that allows his indulgence in ‘flesh’ or one’s ‘crucified sin-nature’ while he/she professes devotion to the Spirit-world of King Jesus!” That’s like the “fallen humanity’s belief” that marriage to one wife or one husband doesn’t exclude sexual indulgence with another woman or man at the same time. But, yes, we live in the time period of the ‘modern-day’ Christian world where “anything goes”, even contradiction to the revealed will, way, and Word of faith! Do you understand? If you accept, “anything goes in my Christian world if it gives me pleasure and satisfaction”, unaware that is ‘professing’ allegiance to death’s ways, not to Jesus, “the Way” – which means, the world of one’s compromising ‘old man’ or ‘sinful self’ opens the door to God’s condemnation!

IF THERE IS ONE LORD, ONE FAITH, ONE BAPTISM, what happens if I devote myself to a religious world which is nothing more than man’s creation, fallen man’s creation, of a great, enlarged spiritual smorgasbord, that gives me options in ‘legitimate faiths’ to choose from? Dare I tell you? Believe I will: There are ‘religious choices of pickles’- (Sour pickles at best!), while God unveils “THE PEARL OF GREAT PRICE”, whose name is the Lord Jesus Christ! There is no other redeeming faith – it’s Jesus Only!! “Pickles or The Pearl of Great Price”?

Most ‘religious activities’, non-inclusive of the Resurrected, Reigning, Royal Christ Jesus, are mythical ‘ideas’ (man-birthed) in order to better align his/her life with his/her ‘best’ of fleshly hopes, sensual dreams, and ‘self-motivated ‘religious’ ideals and tendencies, leaving God in Christ Jesus still ‘up’ on His Throne, not reigning in their hearts! (Doesn’t it ‘shock’ you when you hear some people or read about them in their ‘informative writings’ or newspaper articles asserting their ‘religious activity’, void of even the mention of Christ’s Name and purpose through the Cross and Empty tomb because, “our best at being ‘religious’ is all a true, living God expects”, like those who assert that “Your ‘holy God’ is (as Kurt Bruner wrote about), exposing ‘fleshly, religious ideals’, that “God is not a personal, loving father. He/She/It is the cosmic oneness we all inhabit, not God in flesh – ‘He is one of many enlightened ones who invite us to discover our higher selves.” (Bruner’s book, “Inklings of God”, p.167). He said also, indicting the religious, care-free world void of God’s love:

“Ours is not a world of fallen, sinful men and women. Ours is a world of men and women who have forgotten their true goodness – and their true goodness, learning to lean on our higher consciousness.” The ‘god’ or ‘gods’ of fallen man’s religious activities reveal the depths of their “fallen-away-faith”, being more and more of “satanic lies” and “warped, fleshly, religious ‘best’”, and a “spiritually dead world’s ‘higher concepts’ of ‘a true god’,” but sadly void of “saving grace, the Master’s mercy, and the height and extent of God’s Calvary Love, Grace, and Meaningful Power in Resurrection Life and Resurrection – Never-Fading Hope”!!

Do you remember Joshua gathering “all the tribes of Israel together with their leaders, their judges, and their officers”, exposing their religious indifference to the purpose of God? In Joshua 24:14-15 he said: (The Thompson Chain-Reference Bible, Copyright,1964, B.B. Kirkbridge Com., Inc.), “Now therefore fear the Lord, and serve Him in sincerity and in truth: and put away the gods which your fathers served…;and serve the Lord. And if it seems evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom you will serve; whether the gods which your (worldly) fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites (or the Americans) in whose land you dwell; BUT as for me and my house, WE WILL SERVE THE LORD.”

I think it’s absolutely essential that I have you to read also Deuteronomy 29:14-20! It says: “Neither with you only do I make this covenant and this oath; But with him that stands here with us this day before the Lord our God, and also with him that is not here with us this day: (For you know how we have dwelt in the land of Egypt; and how we came through the nations which passed you by; And you have seen their abominations and their idols, wood and stone, silver and gold, which were among them:)

Lest there should be among you man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart turns away this day from the Lord our God, to go and serve the gods of these nations; lest there should be among you a root that bears gall and wormwood; and it come to pass, when he hears the words of this curse, that he blesses himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of my heart, to add drunkenness to thirst; The Lord will not spare him, but then the anger of the Lord, and His jealousy shall smoke against that man,,. And all the curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him, and the Lord shall blot out his name from under heaven.” Does that sound serious to you? At the same time, IS THERE HOPE?

In Psalm 1:1-3 the psalmist wrote: “Blessed is the man that walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in His law he meditates day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he does shall prosper.” HEAR ME!!

“CHOOSE GOD ‘IN CHRIST” BECAUSE “IN HIM” WE ARE “GRACED”!! Notice, rejoice in, rest in, Romans 5:18-6:1-3, 5-12, and Verse 14!

Romans 5:18-21! “Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the FREE GIFT CAME TO ALL MEN, resulting in justification of life. (So, all men then are “saved, born again, guaranteed eternal life”! “NO! Ten thousand times ‘NO!”).

For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous. Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, GRACE abounded MUCH MORE, so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Romans 6:1-3, 5-12, and Verse 14! “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?

Verses 5-12, “For IF we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, KNOWING THIS, that our old (sin-natured) man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he WHO HAS DIED has been freed from sin.

Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin ONCE FOR ALL; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God, in Christ Jesus our Lord. Therefore DO NOT LET SIN REIGN IN YOUR MORTAL BODY, that you should obey it in its lusts.” Are YOU “graced” in Christ?

“CHOOSE GOD ‘IN CHRIST’ BECAUSE “IN HIM” WE ARE SOVEREIGNLY GUARDED! I want you to come with me to 2 Corinthians 1:18-22!! Paul wrote: “But as God is true, our word toward you was not yes and no. For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us, even by me and Silvanus and Timothy, was not yes and no, but in Him was YES! For all the promises of God in Christ are yes, and in Him Amen, unto the glory of God by us. Now He which establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us is God; Who has also SEALED US and GIVEN US THE EARNEST (or guarantee) of the Spirit in our hearts.” Are YOU GUARDED?

“CHOOSE GOD ‘IN CHRIST’ BECAUSE “IN HIM” WE ARE SUPERBLY AND FAITHFULLY “GUIDED”!! In “A song and psalm of the sons of Korah”, Psalm 48:14, we read: “For this is God; our God forever and ever; He will be our guide even to death.”

How encouraged are you when in Hebrews 13:5b you read: “For He Himself (Holy God!) has said: “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” Glory!

The old hymn by William Williams and Thomas Hastings, in the very old “The Broadman Hymnal” (pps 181-182) says: “Guide me, O thou great Jehovah, Pilgrim thro’ this barren land; I am weak, but You are mighty, Hold me with Your powerful hand: Bread of Heaven, feed me till I want no more; Bread of Heaven, Feed me till I want no more.

Open now the crystal fountain Where the healing waters flow; Let the fiery, cloudy pillar Lead me all my journey through; Strong Deliverer, You BE still my Strength and Shield; Strong Deliverer, You BE still my Strength and Shield.

When I tread the verge of Jordan (that’s “facing my death”!), Bid my anxious fears subside; Bear me through the swelling current, Land me safe on Canaan’s side; Songs of praises I will ever give to You; Songs of praises I will ever give to You.”

“CHOOSE GOD ‘IN CHRIST’ BECAUSE “IN HIM” WE ARE SACREDLY AND SOLEMNLY AND SONGFULLY GIFTED!! In Psalm 68:19-20, 32-35, we read: “Blessed be the Lord, who DAILY loads us with benefits, the God of our salvation! Our God is the God of (true) salvation; AND to God the Lord belong escapes from death.

Verses 32-35 says, “Sing to God, you kingdoms of the earth; Oh, sing praises to the Lord, To Him who rides on the heaven of heavens, which were of old! Indeed He sends out His voice, a mighty voice. Ascribe strength to God; His excellence is over Israel, and His strength is in the clouds. O God, You are more awesome than Your holy places. The God of Israel is He who gives strength and power to His people. Blessed be God!”

Are YOU rejoicing in “the gift of gladness”? How about “the gift of amazing grit”? And do you live by “the gift of the amazing grasp of holy understanding of His will, His Word, and His ways”?

Maybe you need to sing day by day, “Jesus, be Jesus in me, No longer me, but Thee, Resurrection power, Fill me this hour, Jesus, be Jesus in me”! HAVE YOU “CHOSEN” THIS HOUR FOR JESUS TO BE JESUS IN YOU?

By: J.Farrell Fisher, AUGUST 16-18, 2017

I know, after college and seminary training, that in church life there are “pastors” who are called, trained, and equipped in that ministry, but I also truly believe that every “born-again disciple” also has a pastoral ministry, whether in family, in social relationships, in school training, in neighborhood outreach, or in the business world.

Some say, “I’m trusting God,” when in reality they are “trusting” what their ‘flesh’ is dictating but with a “spiritual twist”, which is them deciding for themselves “how best I can please God”! They ‘trust’ their wits rather than His wisdom, their “best” which Christ crucified with their “worst”, rather than “Christ in me, my hope of glory”; they ‘trust’ what ‘fleshly men’ inspire within them rather than “guided by the Holy Spirit.”

But, sadly, ‘flesh’ sees ‘dead to one’s self’ to be a ‘hell of renunciation’ because of the all-consuming passion of doing what the ‘flesh’ dictates rather than what God “gifts” through the Holy Spirit! When it comes to ‘life significance, life purpose, life ministry’, it is never resolved through the personal self and one’s own wits, but in the secret chambers of the soul and heart that chooses only to serve on the marching orders of Holy God! “Lord, what would YOU have me to do?”

And be assured, ‘life ministry’ is never resolved in the light of one’s conscience, but in hearing, receiving, and walking in the words of the lips of Jesus as He tells you what He wants you to do.

There is a powerful passage of Scripture related to our subject found in Luke 18:18-27. It says: Now a certain ruler asked Jesus, saying, “Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” So Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery,’ ‘Do not steal’, ‘Do not bear false witness’, ‘Honor your father and your mother.’” And he said, “All these things I have kept from my youth.” So when Jesus heard these things, He said to him,

“You still lack one thing. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” But when he heard this, he became very sorrowful, for he was very rich.

And when Jesus saw that he became very sorrowful, He said, “How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God! For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” And those who heard it said, “Who then can be saved?” But He said, “The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.”

Then Peter said, “See, we have left all and followed You.” So Jesus said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or parents or brothers or wife or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, who shall not receive many times more in this present time, and in the age to come eternal life.”

If the Lord Jesus says, “Come, follow Me”, and He has, the question for you and me today, right now, is: “Have I forsaken all to see that the eternal will of God in Christ is being manifested in this day and time in my life and family, “leaning not to my own understanding, but in my present walk through life giving Jesus His rightful place as Savior, Lord, and Administrator of my position in the, yes, PRESENT KINGDOM OF GOD?”

I was reading an E-Mail recently from Rev. Pierre Bynum as he introduced John 13:35, “By this shall all men know that you are My disciples, if you love one another,” and he wrote to his “Praying Friends,” the following: Norman Grubb (1895-1993), British missionary, writer, and Bible teacher, wrote dozens of books, including:… “Howells was a Welsh coal miner who founded a Bible college and taught his students to pray. When the clouds of World War 11 gathered over Europe, Rees led his students in prayer over the Allied and Nazi air, naval, and land troop movements. These excerpts highlight their prayers that contributed to the Miracle at Dunkirk:

‘During the four years, previous to the outbreak of World War 11…the Lord was changing the burden on Mr. Howells from local concerns, centering on the development of the College, to national and international affairs. As he said, ‘The world became our parish and we were led to be responsible to intercede for countries and nations.’ We have also seen how the Lord was preparing in the company at the College a special instrument of intercession for the coming world crisis…

It was in March, 1936, that Mr. Howells began to see clearly that Hitler was Satan’s agent for preventing the gospel going to every creature. As he said later, “In fighting Hitler we have always said that we were not up against man, but the devil…

On the day of the declaration of war, he published the following statement: “The Lord has made known to us that He is going to destroy Hitler and the Nazi regime, that the world may know that it was God and God alone who has scattered the dictators..He will deal with the Nazis as He dealt with the Egyptian army in the time of Moses, God will cause Hitler to fall…!” AND HITLER FELL!

Life’s ‘wars’ today involve YOU, and YOUR victory in the world, flesh, and Satanic attacks, and I have no desire to minimize those wars at all, but to challenge you that just as Holy God dealt with Hitler, He still desires to be your Conqueror over the battle-fronts you face! And YOUR response? “Lord, what would You have me to do?” Or, I’m sure more consistent with Scriptural intent: “Lord, I need You, I surrender to Your Presence within me – in and of myself, I’m hopeless, but You in me, for me, through me, ARE MORE THAN CONQUEROR!”

Again, Luke 18:27, Jesus said, “The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.” Then, in Verse 29, Jesus said to His disciples then and NOW, “Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or parents or brothers or wife or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, who shall not receive many times more in this present time, and in the age to come eternal life.”

And, for you in your walk “for the sake of the kingdom of God”, I want YOU to examine YOUR calling relating to “Pastoring, Discipling, Evangelizing, Equipping, and Reflecting Christ Jesus.”

FIRST, IN THE “PASTOR’S CALLING”, UNDERSTAND THAT I’M NOT SPEAKING OF LEGITIMATE PASTORS OF LOCAL CONGREGATIONS, BUT OF SERVANTS OF CHRIST SET APART FOR THE CARE, SPIRITUALLY, OF A COMMUNITY OF THOSE THEY’VE PERSONALLY BROUGHT TO FAITH IN CHRIST !

In Matthew 5 Jesus began to equip His disciples in “Kingdom Character”! And following those first eleven verses, Jesus then said: Verse 13, “You, disciples, are the SALT of the earth…Verse 14, You are the light of the world…Verse 16, “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.” Oh, and then Christ Jesus “nailed” the pretenders when in Matthew 5:20 He said, “For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.” IS THAT CLEAR TO YOU! Paul followed, in Romans 14:17, saying, “For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” [Would it shock you that the kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven are one and the same?].

And the “Pastor’s Calling”, true born again disciples, born of the Spirit and the Word, are commissioned by Christ as, yes, His caretakers, overseers, messengers to the citizens around them of His desire to see them living in His Kingdom now! Do you just, maybe, might consider what Paul was saying when and what he said in Acts 26:22-23 that it has no relevance, meaning, or understanding to any ‘true’ disciples today? “Therefore, having obtained help from God, to this day I stand, witnessing both to small and great, saying no other things than those which the prophets and Moses said would come – that the Christ would suffer, that He would be the first to rise from the dead, and would proclaim light to the Jewish people and to the Gentiles.”

What did Jesus say in Matthew 28:18-20? “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen?

In fact, before His Ascension, in Acts 1:8 Jesus said in Acts 1:8, “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” And that’s individually to our personal limitations or callings bodily, but corporately together united in “mission outreach”, we have responsibility to the ends of the earth! When a ‘pastor’ never mentions evangelism and missions locally, nation-wide, and world-wide, well, you’re in a dangerous place!

SECOND, ONCE CONVERTED, EQUIPPED, AND TRAINED, ALL PASTORS, CHURCHES, AND, YES, INDIVIDUAL DISCIPLES ARE TO SEE THAT THE “NEW-BORN” ARE EQUIPPED, TRAINED, AND DISCIPLED! Interesting verse in Colossians 4:1 when Paul wrote: “Masters, (Introducers of the “lost” to “servant-hood” in Christ!), give your bondservants what is just and fair, knowing that you also have a Master in heaven,” to Whom I believe all disciples MUST give an account of their “equipping ministries” of those that they lead to faith in Christ!

It’s so similar to mothers and fathers in the natural who, having given birth, have the responsibility of caring, nourishing, feeding, cleaning and changing “messy diapers, guarding, teaching, training, and equipping, yes, children, with the necessities of a God-honoring life of growth and glory in Him!

“Making, equipping, training, preparing” new Christians is a holy and high calling, not only to pastors and assemblies, but especially the “spiritual fathers and mothers” who “plant the seeds” and witness the miracles of “new birth”!

THIRD, AND THE “NEW-BORN”, PERSONALLY TRAINED AND EQUIPPED, ARE TO BE MOTIVATED BY, ENCOURAGED IN, AND CONSTANTLY SEEKING TO BROADEN THE “HORIZONS” OF THEIR OPPORTUNITIES TO BE WITNESSES and then he will have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another. For each one shall bear his own load.”! It begins in the personal heart, of having met Christ and repented, to be fully trained in personal growth, but, at the same time, instilled with the calling personally, “You shall be My witnesses, My ambassadors, My messengers to all the needy around you.”

But, I often wonder how many ‘Christians’, in their redemption, see their present positioning as the opportunity of extending Christ’s presence to others, knocking on their hearts’ doors, and challenging them to follow Christ who loves them more than they love themselves!

In 2 Corinthians 13:5-6 Paul wrote: “Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? – unless indeed you are disqualified. But I trust that you will know that we are not disqualified.”

Paul wrote in Galatians 6:2-5 “Bear one another’s burdens (how ‘burdening’ to do you find in the lost conditions of those around you? Does it really concern you? And do you DO something about it?), and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each examine his own work, and then he will have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another. For each one shall bear his own load.”

FOURTH, THERE IS THE AWESOME RESPONSIBILITY OF DAILY TAKING THE SENTENCE OF DEATH UNTO ONE’S SELF SO THAT CHRIST MAY BE MANIFESTED IN THEM AND THROUGH THEM! Sad to say, I don’t know if much training and equipping takes place today about “the redeemed life unveiling Christ through them, and them taking personal responsibility, like Paul, “I die daily”, so that His resurrection Life may be manifested in and through my mortal flesh”. You “in Christ” are the temple or tabernacle, but “Christ in you is the hope of glory”!

Some ask about certain Christian friends apart from examining themselves, “Is Christ truly living within them?” It was Oswald Chambers who wrote: “The characteristic of the new birth is that I yield myself so completely to God that Christ is formed in me.” Choose to die daily to self, to the old sin-natured man, until the perfect presence of Christ finds full expression in YOU! We who are “in Christ” have nothing to boast about EXCEPT “CHRIST IN US” – and by dying daily to our old man, Christ is being honored as He expresses Himself through us!

In Bill Johnson’s book, “The Supernatural Power of a Transformed Mind”, (Published By “Destiny Image Publishers, Inc., PO Box 310, Shippensburg, Pa. 17257-0310), Pastor Bill wrote in his Introduction: “This book is an attempt to address a very abused subject – “the mind of the believer”. On one hand the mind has been cast off by some creating a mindless gospel that is emotionalism at best, and cultic at worst. They delight themselves in doing things without reason, thinking that only then is God pleased by their great faith. On the other hand there are those who have elevated the mind above its rightful place, creating gospel that has reduced God to the powerless image of man. This group lives in the illusion that they are spiritually safe because they only accept the things they understand, raising cultural Christianity to an elite status. They unknowingly embrace the very deception they hoped to avoid. The challenge before us is to give ourselves completely to the full purpose of God for the mind of man through the model Jesus gave us, thereby giving us access to His supernatural life style.”

Isn’t that Paul’s scriptural explanation in 2 Corinthians 1:9-10 when he wrote: “Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead, who delivered us from so great a death, and (still) does deliver us; in whom we trust that He will still deliver us…”, unless, or, of course, you no longer CHOOSE to live by His Indwelling Life because your world, your flesh, and your demon desires the ‘flesh existence’ rather than the “Overcoming Life of Christ”! Are YOU living the life “Reflecting Christ’s Presence” or the ‘thankless life’ that no longer has any desire, discipline, or determination to “live by the Life of Another, even Christ alone”? Is your present life of faith a life with the “living epistle written in your heart, known and read by all men”, written “not with ink but written by the Spirit of the living God” firmly inscribed in your heart, mind, and body? It’s time, my friend, BEFORE the end of your earthly time comes. And, remember, it’s Hell or Heaven, unbelievers bound or believers blessed, Satan’s chains or the Savior’s freedom! It’s time to settle your present and eternal “residence” in Christ or Satan! Amen?

BY: J.FARRELL FISHER, JUNE 10-12, 2018

It is absolutely amazing to me that in our world, even as in the day of Adam and Eve, that men and women, just like them, embrace the “darkness” and cannot, in their minds, consider or give credit to Holy God for, not only the reality of “day-light or darkness”, but that there is an eternal difference in all of our spiritual worlds, and for some, like them, yes, hold onto the selfish indifference to God’s “Light”, choosing to “embrace one’s spiritual darkness, and hold onto it, when God graciously, mercifully, and lovingly, grants freely “The Light of the world” whose name is Christ Jesus the Lord!

It’s also amazing to me that, worldwide, men will CHOOSE to “embrace the darkness”, while Holy God extends the spiritual eyesight to see “the Light” or continue to embrace the darkness! God forces no man to ‘walk in the ‘Light’ if his mind, heart, and will wants to “walk in the darkness” and chooses to ignore God’s Light’!

It was Joshua who once said: “Choose you this day whom you will serve, but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord”! And the eternal choice a man makes about his earthly life and his eternal residence is determined by his/her response from the mind and heart to the eternal will, plan, and provision of merciful God “in Christ” or a continual commitment to the deception of the world, his open fallen flesh, or bondage to the powers of darkness instructed by Satan himself!

The heritage eternally of the unredeemed who ‘rest’ their lives in ‘fleshly’ commitment, ‘spiritual’ blindness, and demonic domination, is Satan’s ‘prison cell’ in place of God’s Paradise! One’s ‘life journey’ is either a ‘fairy tale’ of ‘best effort’ or the Sovereign history of the yielded, believing, trusting surrendered life to the Lordship of Christ made real by the Holy Spirit unveiling the “Lamb’s Blood, His Resurrected Presence, and His Spirit-Anointing Power and His Resurrection Presence” as a testimony around those and for those who are not “new-born”!

Alonzo B. Bragdon, in his writing, “When the Day is Done”, wrote: “From fibers of pain and hope and trouble And toil and happiness – one by one, – Twisted together, or single or double, The varying thread of our life is spun.

Hope shall cheer though the chain be galling; Light shall come though the gloom be falling; Faith will list for the Master calling Our hearts to His rest, – when the day is done.”

But in Hebrews 3:7-15 the anointed author wrote Hebrews 3:7-15, says, Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: (I have to ask! “Do YOU listen to the Holy Spirit guiding you and enlightening you to the Lord’s precious Word?”): “Today, IF YOU WILL HEAR HIS VOICE, Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, In the day of trial in the wilderness, Where your fathers tested Me, tried Me, And saw My works forty years. Therefore I was angry with that generation, And said, ‘They always go astray in their heart, And they have not known My ways.’ So I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest.’” HOW SAD THAT SOME HAVE ‘SHARED IN CHRIST’S “REST”, AND THEN CHOSEN TO WALK AWAY, YES, DECEIVED AGAIN BY THE WORLD, THE OLD-SIN NATURE, AND SATAN HIMSELF!! Right now, WHERE AND IN “WHO” DO YOU STAND?

Have you seen the TV Ad where a professor is on a tall ladder in his classroom finishing up a huge blackboard of his ‘present inspired’ writing for his class – all original, unfolding in his mind moment by moment, but then becoming aware of a school janitor back at the beginning of the class blackboard erasing his classical, highly informative statement that would have made him an international star in higher education, but the initial foundational statements were washed away, and he KNEW he couldn’t remember what he wrote?

The lost world citizens, your own condition, at times, find yieldedness to the ‘old man’ as alluring influences, AND the deceiving influences of Satan himself, CAN & WILL, at times, seek to impact your memory to WHO and to WHAT you committed yourself to!! Don’t ever “FORGET” Jesus and His “daily Bread” for continuing sustenance ,not sudden suffocating of His purpose THROUGH YOU!!

Highly interesting and convicting passage in Luke 12:35-40! Christ Jesus said: “Let your waist be girded and your lamps burning; and you yourselves be like men who wait for their master, when he will return from the wedding, that when he comes and knocks they may open to him immediately. Blessed are those servants whom the master, when he comes, will find watching. Assuredly, I say to you, that he will gird himself and have them sit down to eat, and will come and serve them. And if he should come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants.

BUT know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into. Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”

NOTICE!! VERSE 41!! Then Peter said to Him, “Lord, do You speak this parable only to us, or to all people?” Oh, don’t overlook, by-pass, or willfully ignore Verses 42-46!! And the Lord said, “Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his master will make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of food in due season? Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. Truly, I say to you that he will make him ruler over all that he has.

But if that servant says in his heart, ‘My master is delaying his coming,’ and begins to beat the male and female servants, and to eat and drink and be drunk, the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the unbelievers.”

Do you take accept the Truth of Old Testament words as important to a New Testament disciple’s walk with the Lord, the Savior, the Author of both Old Testament and New Testament? What was the Apostle Paul talking about when he wrote to his spiritual son, Timothy, in 2 Timothy 3:16-17? “ALL SCRIPTURE (BOTH OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS!!!) 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.” (Of course, there are some things ‘set aside’ because of the New Covenant – but there are some Old Testament truths that never are set aside because of, now, the New Covenant. As in the Old Testament some were “set aside”, so in the New Testament, Peter talks about a ‘servant’ betraying his calling, and “being cut into and appointed his portion with the unbelievers.”) And the unbelievers are assigned an eternal place of bars as well as the ‘believers’ who can’t decide between the Savior and their fleshly desires? In Hell itself – a God-appointed place for the devil and his angels along with the betraying sinners and careless, shameless disciples who “thought they could eat the ‘cake’ of their own desires”, and still have a chair at the Lord’s Table in eternity, ‘servants of the Lord’ living carelessly, selfishly, more in tune with the world and their old sinful selves but assuring themselves, apart from Divine Truth, that Heaven will still be their eternal home because they’re ‘in church’ a lot of Sundays but compromising lifestyles during the week?

“FOLLOWING THE LIGHT”; Jesus said: “I AM the LIGHT OF THE WORLD” – and some know He Is the True Light, but they willfully choose to “Profess the Light” for their ‘flesh’, but “embracing darkness” that they can’t seem to let go of, and, at the same time, it’s as if there is the path of “darkness” they have one foot in, and, at the same time, step over to “follow the Light”! Paul was very clear when in Ephesians 5:8-15 he wrote: “For you once were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), finding out what is acceptable to the Lord.

And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret. But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light, for whatever makes manifest is light. There He says: “Awake, you who sleep, arise from (or out of) the dead, and Christ will give you light.” (Sadly, there are precious people in the Lord, who, yes, for a short time, will camouflage who they are “in Christ”, pretending to be their former selves, momentarily putting on a worldly ‘coat’ of flesh-indulgence! Then the convicting Holy Spirit comes to correct the dark path they chose temporarily, and put them back on the Highway of Holiness and the Street of the Holy Spirit-led journey!

Paul actually said in Ephesians 5:15-21, “See then that you walk circumspectly (If “off the chosen path”, “if carelessly indiscreet, or momentarily deceived”, WAKE UP, EVALUATE, “turn back” if necessary, because indiscreet spiritual behavior can lead to “cast from the kingdom-rule if the sin-nature becomes more important to you than the gifted divine nature of Christ in us our only hope of glory” – back to Paul, “walking circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.

Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation (Could that ‘drunk with wine’ even be “Drunk on the wine of self-indulgence in the old fallen sin nature? Just asking!); BUT BE FILLED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT,( not flesh spirits or over-indulging in real wine!), speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another in the fear of God.” NO FEAR OF GOD, THEN ONE IS OPEN, YES, TO A CONTINUAL “Flesh Indulgence” as a believer that does lead to tragedy!!!

To Holy God, to your Loving Savior, to the convicting Holy Spirit, though ‘fallen away’, to return, yes, to the blazing Light of His glory, no longer to live with traces of shame, sadness, and dissatisfaction with one’s fleshly acts that do bring shame on the name of Christ one professes he/she is following! Most disciples, at some point in their journeys, have sinned while one with Christ in their hearts and minds, but temporarily led astray by Satan, the world, or one’s own weak flesh they thought to be strong, not aware in their “disciple’s understanding”, that old man was carried to the Cross by Christ, and there your ‘old man’ died, but Satan knows how to fool you and release your crucified self to a darkened spirit, darkened attitude, and the darkened world around you!

THERE MUST BE A RETURN TO THE “ADMISSION” THAT, YES, CHRIST JESUS BOUGHT YOU, OWNS YOU, AND MEANS TO RULE OVER YOU, but the world, the flesh, and Satan, put up a major warfare with Truth, surely informing you, “It’s OK. Jesus understands”, when He has no desire to see any child of faith who IS His straying from Him – His heart is broken, but He comes to pick up His shamed child of faith who temporarily fell into a moment of self-indulgence. Jesus knows it could become fatal if not confronted, fatal if not confessed, and fatal if the “fall” led one further and further and further away from Him!! If there’s presently unconfessed sin in YOU, you better run to the Lord’s Throne and be washed in the blood of the Lamb!

THERE MUST BE A RENEWING OF ATTITUDE AND ACTION IN ONE’S WALK OF OBEDIENCE AS HIS DISCIPLE! In 1 Peter 2:21-25 Peter wrote, “For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps: “Who committed no sin, Nor was deceit found in His mouth”; who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously; who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness – by whose stripes you were healed. For you were like sheep (not goats!) going astray, but HAVE NOW RETURNED TO THE SHEPHERD AND OVERSEER OF YOUR SOULS!” [Are you presently “embracing darkness” or RETURNING TO “THE EVERLASTING LIGHT OF CHRIST” FOR YOUR SOUL?]

THERE MUST BE A CONSTANT, NEVER-CHANGING, CROWNING OF THE TRUTH WITHIN YOU OF THE PREEMINENCE OF CHRIST JESUS, YES, “JESUS ONLY” AS THE EXPLANATION OF A VICTORIOUS LIFE AND WALK!

In Colossians 1:9-18 we read, “For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will, in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy; giving thanks to the Father WHO HAS QUALIFIED US TO BE PARTAKERS OF THE INHERITANCE OF THE SAINTS IN THE LIGHT.

He has DELIVERED US FROM THE POWER OF DARKNESS and conveyed us into the kingdom of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist (or are “held together” – be assured, if it’s falling apart around you, it’s man in charge, not King Jesus!!). And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from that the dead, THAT IN ALL THINGS HE MAY HAVE THE PREEMINENCE.”

THERE MUST BE HONEST HEARTS, MINDS, AND WILLS, FULLY SURRENDERED TO CHRIST’S LORDSHIP!

1) IT CANNOT BE, MUST NOT BE, INCLINATION WITHOUT APPROPIATION! 2) IT CANNOT BE THOUGHTS ABOUT A RELATIONSHIP WITH THE LORD AND SAVIOR IN THE MIND APART FROM DIVINE TRANSFORMATION IN BOTH HEART AND MIND FULLY SURRENDERED IN ONE’S WILL!

3)IT CANNOT BE VERBAL ARGUMENTATION WITHOUT WILLFUL ACCEPTANCE IN HEART, MIND, AND BODY OF CHRIST WITHIN YOU AND YOUR BODY AS HIS EARTHLY TABERNACLE AND ETERNAL, HOLY TEMPLE!

4) IT CANNOT BE A UNIVERSITY -PROFESSOR’S THEORY, OR A SCHOOL TEACHER’S RELIGIOUS THOUGHTS, OR EVEN A PARENT’S IDEAS ABOUGHT RELIGIOUS THOUGHT! IT MUST BE THE AUTHOR OF TRUTH, JESUS HIMSELF, GUIDING, UNVEILING, REVEALING, BLESSING HIS TRUTH IN YOU!

5) IT IS NOT ‘THIRST’ FOR RELIGIOUS IDEAS BUT THE HUNGER AND THIRST FOR THE “LIVING WATER”, FOR CHRIST’S ABIDING PRESENCE WITHIN, FOR “THE FULLNESS OF THE BLESSING OF THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST” AS TAUGHT AND GUIDED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT!

From an old Greek Melody Whitfield wrote these words: “I saw the cross of Jesus, When burdened with my sin; I sought the cross of Jesus, To give me peace within; I brought my soul to Jesus, He cleansed it in His blood; And in the cross of Jesus I found my peace with God.” Because you “tried” or because you “trusted” in Christ’s death, resurrection, and reigning throne Presence over sin and death?

BY: J.FARRELL FISHER, NOV.13-15, 2017

Highly interesting, prophetic, liberating words in Psalm 68:17-20! The Word says: “The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of thousands; the Lord is among them as in Sinai, in the Holy place. You have ascended on high, You have led captivity captive; You have received gifts among men, even from the rebellious, that the Lord might dwell there. Blessed be the Lord, Who daily loads us with benefits! Our God is the God of salvation; and to God the Lord belong escapes from death.”

‘Exile’ in the Hebrew Old Testament language is “galah” meaning to “uncover”, or to “remove”, suggesting “to be led into captivity”, which is Biblically certain where Satan led Adam and Eve out of the ‘Garden of Eden’ into willful, self-instituted, flesh-chosen bondage and slavery to the enticements and chains of their sin-natures!

Slavery? Bondage? Exile? Captured? Foreigner to the God-nature? Chained by the ‘flesh sin-nature’, chained by Satan and his demon armies, even by ‘proud’, self-assertive flesh and indifference to the will and Word of God, imprisoned to a world philosophy rather than yielded to the Voice of the Holy Savior and Lord? Despisers of “God’s pleasant land”? “Deaf to His Word, His calling, His instruction, His will and eternal purpose”? Blinded to His revealed intent? Rebelling to the Holy Spirit? Bound to the world, the godless spirit, and the demonic armies? ‘Minglers’, ‘mixers’, or the ‘mesmerized’ in idolatry and the waywardness of ‘flesh allegiance’?

And “exiled humans” often are so content in their state of devotion to the ‘flesh’ and not the Spirit that they are governed by deaf ears to the Voice of God! But in Psalm 106:44-45 we read: “Nevertheless He regarded their affliction, WHEN He heard their cry; And for their sake He remembered His covenant, and relented according to the multitude of His mercies.”

And, according to the multitude of His mercies, the compassionate, merciful, caring God is “knocking on the door of all the needy,” but, even though knocking, there are those who refuse to open the door of their hearts and minds and let Him in!

In Haggai 1:4-10, I pray you’re called to self-examination as to whether you are still an “exiled human” or an “evangelized holy one”! God spoke through Haggai saying: “Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, and this temple to lie in ruins?” Now therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts: “Consider your ways! You have sown much, and bring in little; you eat, but do not have enough; you drink, but you are not filled with drink; you clothe yourselves, but no one is warm; and he who earns wages, earns wages to put into a bag with holes.”

Thus says the Lord of hosts: “Consider your ways! Go up to the mountains and bring wood and build the temple, that I may take pleasure in it and be glorified,” says the Lord. You looked for much, but indeed it came to little; and when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why?” says the Lord of hosts. “Because of My house that is in ruins, while every one of you runs to his own house. Therefore the heavens above you withholds its fruit.”

But hear me: In 2 Corinthians 6:16 Paul wrote: “And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: ‘I will DWELL IN THEM and walk among them. I will be their God, and they shall be My people.”

Was “your own house crucified with Christ”? If so, and you were graciously transformed into His temple of Holy Presence, then why do some ‘professing believers’ try to maintain “my house” allegiance while professing they understand, by His grace and mercy, they are now His Holy Temple of Resurrection Presence? Rather than “Evangelized Holy Ones”, do some desire to hold onto their “exiled humanity”? Are some content to hold onto their bowing before their idol of materialism in place of Spirit-Mastering?

Are there, yes, choices God gives to His chosen people like Israel or, yes, to the “blood-bought” through the Lamb of God’s sacrifice? In Psalm 78 there are highly informative and convicting words about “spiritual pilgrimages” even today, with some beginning but being horribly distracted! Psalm 78:32-33 says, “In spite of this they still sinned (that’s some of His chosen people!), and did not believe in His wondrous works. Therefore their days He consumed in futility, and their years in fear.” Verse 41 says, “Yes, again and again they tempted God, and LIMITED THE HOLY ONE OF ISRAEL.” [I believe I’d follow that trail of truth and see where it leads!!].

Get ready!! Examine Psalm 78:56-61! “Yet they tested and provoked the Most High God, (Aren’t you glad we don’t have to be concerned about that today? Really?), and did not keep His testimonies, But turned back and acted unfaithfully like their fathers; they were turned aside like a deceitful bow.

For they provoked Him to anger with their high places, and moved Him to jealousy with their carved images. When God heard this, He was furious, and greatly abhorred Israel, So that He forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent He had placed among men, And delivered His strength into captivity, and His glory into the enemy’s hand.” WOW!!

“Exiled Humans Or Evangelized Holy Ones?” Paul the Apostle wrote to his spiritual son, Timothy, and in 2 Timothy 4:1-5 we read: “I charge you (That’s one of his spiritual sons in the faith!) therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom: (Kingdom of God in the future or, yes, the present Kingdom of God in the here and now?) Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching.

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers, and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.”

Do you understand that the “ministry to be fulfilled” is the calling on every true, born-again disciple’s life to be an “evangelizing holy one”, representative of the King of kings and Lord of lords, His appointed, anointed, assigned servants of expressing His love, touching the hearts and minds of the unredeemed around you? Every true disciple, every true follower of Christ, IS assigned the personal ministry of “ambassadors for Christ”!

In 2 Corinthians 5:17-21 the Holy Word gets clearer about out ministry roles! It says: ( Please remember: “Evangelized Holy Ones” are those “blood bought” and transformed to “new life” through the mercy and grace of God, but having been regenerated, we are re-assigned, not to pump our flesh, but to lift high the Banner of King Jesus to those around us!). The Corinthian passage?

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a ‘new creation’; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, AND has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, AND has committed to us the word of reconciliation.

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

“Evangelized Holy Ones”? Dare I tell you that the experience and miracle of “blood redemption” in and through Christ begins with “the conviction and convincing of the Holy Spirit” of the need to be reconciled to God? In John 16:7-11 the Lord Jesus spoke to enlighten His followers! (Hear me! “Followers” DO NOT ALWAYS REVEAL THE TRUE CHRIST AND HIS SAVING GRACE, MERCY, AND LOVE!):

“Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you. And when He has come, He will (through you!) convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment; of sin, because they do not believe in Me (or “trust” Christ!); of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; and of judgment, because the ruler of the world is judged.”

Oh, but then Jesus continued to magnify the ministry of the Holy Spirit saying in John 16:12-15, “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you.” The Spirit is our “faithful Guide”, who grants us a “full unveiling” of Christ’s intent in us and through us, yes, releasing to us a “forceful, heavenly empowerment”!

This is why in 1 Corinthians 2:4-5 Paul educates young disciples in the ministry of the Holy Spirit! “And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.” Glory!!

“Evangelized Holy Ones?” Having been converted through the power of the Holy Spirit on the fertile ground of repentance and faith, Revelation 4:5b speaks of: “Seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God,” or God in His completeness, birthing new sons and daughters of redemptive faith, now living, yes, in the full and complete brightness of the very Spirit of God, ready to be poured out as “drink offerings” to barren, thirsty, empty lives around you through YOUR Spirit-anointed witness!

Further, having been converted by the Spirit as “babes in Christ”, “new creations”, immature even in spiritual understanding, Merciful God sends the Holy Spirit to, as we saw in John 16:13, Jesus speaking, “…when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth..”!

Two verses from the old hymn copyrighted in 1885 entitled “Standing On the Promises” says: (Verses 4 & 5), “Standing on the promises of Christ the Lord, Bound to Him eternally by love’s strong cord; Overcoming daily with the Spirit’s sword, Standing on the promises of God.

Standing on the promises I cannot fall, Listening every moment to the Spirit’s call; Resting in my Savior as my all in all, Standing on the promises of God.” As an “evangelized holy one”, are you standing, surrendering, yielding, resting in the “guidance of the Holy Spirit daily”?

“Evangelized Holy Ones”? Guided by the Spirit of truth, are you fully aware of Holy God’s intent of our deliverance from demonic and satanic bondage? In Acts 10:38 Peter said: “how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.”

What an amazing word, but blinded to the majority of evangelical Christians who know NOTHING about the ministry of “deliverance” from demon presence, demon deceit, and demon binding! I’ll never forget an event in India of having a young lady with her husband asking to meet with me. I was in a hotel, and about 8am she and her husband knocked on my hotel-room door. I invited them in – almost immediately she was prostrate before me on the floor – I knew she was demon-possessed! I spoke to the demons, and they said, in a deep male voice, perfect English, “We don’t have to come out – and we’re not coming out!” It was about thirty minutes later, she opened her mouth, and out from her throat flowed a purple trail of demonic presence – she opened her eyes, and we led her in a prayer of faith and thanksgiving for our Lord’s ‘deliverance’ and salvation of her soul! There was a healing of that lady, because, though oppressed by the devil, Jesus is stronger! Amen?

“Evangelized Holy Ones”? For some, there is the reality of, yes, having “Hell” scared out of them by the grace and mercy of God! The prophet Isaiah had a strong, convicting word in Isaiah 46:12-13 when God spoke through him! Holy God said then, and still does now: “Listen to Me, you stubborn-hearted, who are far from righteousness: I bring My righteousness near, it shall not be far off; My salvation shall not linger. And I will place salvation in Zion, for Israel My glory.” [You do understand! There was and is a physical Israel and there was and is a spiritual Israel!].

But to the unbelieving, Jew or Gentile, God still speaks!! Examine Isaiah 47:6-11!! “I was angry with My people; (So you hear some say or even teach: “Thank God, that’s just God and rebellious Jews; no concern for compromising Christians!” Really?). I have profaned My inheritance, and given them into your hand. You showed them no mercy; on the elderly you laid your yoke very heavily. And you said, ‘I shall be a lady (a queen) forever,’ so that you did not take these things to heart, nor remember the latter end of them.

Therefore hear this now, you who are given to pleasures, who dwell securely, who say in your heart, ‘I am, and there is no one else besides me; I shall not sit as a widow, nor shall I know the loss of children.’ But these two things shall come to you in a moment, in one day: the loss of children and widowhood. They shall come upon you in their fullness because of the multitude of your sorceries, for the great abundance of your enchantments.

FOR you have trusted in your wickedness; you have said, ‘No one sees me’; your wisdom and your knowledge have warped you; and you have said in your heart, ‘I am, and there is no one else besides me.’ THEREFORE evil shall come upon you; you shall not know from where it arises. And trouble shall fall upon you; you will not be able to put it off. And desolation shall come upon you suddenly, which you shall not know.”

Have you just heard words about “Exiled Humans”, and especially “church pretenders”? I’ve paraphrased words from Elizabeth Barrett Browning from her work entitled “The Image of God”; they go like this: “You! Are you likened to God? Are you likened to the Son, then darkness appears? In all your glory works the ‘worm’ decay – ‘harvest’ of godlikeness fails to shine – you are not like God!

Are you like God or more the image of a death-filled soul? Do your thoughts ‘alight’ and your ‘musings’ roll downward , and then you hear the Spirit say, “You are not like God!”

But, by Christ Jesus, you are not ‘like God’ but only the vessel that contains His Holy Presence! Jesus bore your shame, He bore your sin, and He bore your woe – and you are free from the law of sin and death through the preciousness of Calvary’s love!

We’re not like God, but by Holy Spirit conviction, conversion, and consecration, we become the vessels of Resurrected Presence, letting Him be Himself in us as He loves as only He can love, because, NONE save Christ Jesus unveils God!” One more great promise and living word filled with hope from the voice of God in Isaiah 45:2-7!! Hear God the Father through Jesus the Son by the leadership voice of His Holy Spirit! God says:“I will go before you and make the crooked places straight; I will break in pieces the gates of bronze and cut the bars of iron. I will give you the treasures of darkness and hidden riches of secret places, that you may know that I, the Lord, who call you by name, am the God of Israel.

For Jacob My servant’s sake, and Israel My elect, I have even called you by your name. I have named you, though you have not known Me. I am the Lord, and there is no other; There is no God besides Me. I will gird you, though you have not known Me, That they may know from the rising of the sun to its setting that there is none besides Me. I am the Lord, and there is no other. I form the light and create darkness, I make peace and create calamity; I, the Lord, do all these things.” Where do YOU stand? Desiring the destiny of “exiled Humans” OR passionate, as the “Evangelized Holy Ones”, looking for, finding, and abiding in “the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Jesus Christ”? Fanny J. Crosby and W.H.Doane wrote the hymn “Near The Cross”. It says: “Jesus, keep me near the cross! There a precious fountain; Free to all a healing stream, Flowed from Calvary’s mountain. Near the cross, a trembling soul, love and mercy found me; there the bright and morning Star, Sheds its beams around me. Near the cross, O Lamb of God, Bring the scenes before me; Help me walk from day to day, With its shadows over me.

Near the cross, I’ll watch and wait, Helping, trusting ever; Till I reach the golden strand, Just beyond the river. In the cross, in the cross, Be my glory ever; till my raptured soul shall find, Rest beyond the river.” LET’S CROSS THE RIVER OF REDEMPTIVE FAITH INTO HIS FULLNESS OF THE BLESSING OF HIS RIVER OF ETERNAL LIFE, NOW! Not when you hope to get to heaven someday!! AMEN?

By J. Farrell Fisher

September 2, 2016

There’s an interesting verse in Jeremiah 45:5 where the Lord Himself speaks: “And do not seek great things for yourself? Do not seek them; for behold, I will bring adversity on all flesh,” says the Lord. “But I will give your life to you as a prize in all places, wherever you go.” And, if God is no respecter of persons, (and He’s not!), then what He said through the prophet to Baruch, does the same hold true to you? Is YOUR “gutsy grit” what Holy God desires from you or a broken, repentant heart, and truly godly sorrow over the sinful state of your God-less life?

One of the saddest words in all of Scripture, so definitive of “fallen men”, is found in Proverbs 21:2 where the Word declares: “Every way of man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the hearts.” A gutsy, gritty heart or a heart of Godly sorrow? A gilded heart of showy appearances or a graced heart of Godly indwelling?

Do you sense any of “gutsy grit” around you, whether child, youth, young adult, or aging adult? Do you ever view the “culture of fleshly intellect” and shake your head as you visualize “cultural unbelief” and fleshly rejection of Holy God and His love and purpose for all fallen men?

Jonathan Edwards, in his writing, “The Freedom of the Will,” wrote: “The heart (that’s the heart of fallen men!) is like a viper, hissing, and spitting poison at God.” The hearts of “fallen men”, alienated and separated from Holy God, are yielded to the aim of pursuing and satisfying the ‘flesh’ and its indulgences with no consideration of eternal purpose or what pleases and honors Holy God with His desire that they be reconciled to Him through the blood of the Lamb of God!

“Fallen men”, large in prominence or known by few, are no different! Both are citizens of the kingdom of darkness and the devil, intent on satisfying all fleshly desires, accepting of “seeming shows,” indulging in vain delights, programmed by civilized ‘stupidity’, critical of true men of redeeming faith through the Blood, satisfied with mental allegiance apart from ‘heart-transformation,’ and certainly with “No fear of God” but only acknowledgement of His existence, even if that! Faith, to them, is simply an awareness of God, if even that by some, but absent from true repentance and redeeming faith and them becoming the temple of Holy Presence on earth! Faith, to them, is for far too many, even some pastors, the faith of possibilities, not the faith of divine realities, which is why ‘philosophy’, factual or fiction, at least governs some’s ‘mental allegiance’!

“Gutsy grit” is never able to translate or transform the ‘chord discords’ or ‘off-key’ fleshly realities into an ‘orchestrated-life-harmony’ apart from the grace and the mercy of God! It was Thomas Carlyle who once said: [“The Encyclopedia of Religious Quotations,” edited by Frank S. Mead, Fleming H. Revell com., Westwood New Jersey,p.456], “There is but one thing without honor, smitten with eternal barrenness, inability to do or to be, and that is unbelief. He who believes nothing, who believes only the show of things, is not in relation with nature or fact at all.”

Do you remember Moses and Aaron going in to Pharoah of Egypt and telling him, (Exodus 5:1-2), “Thus says the Lord God of Israel, ‘Let My people go, that they may hold a feast to Me in the wilderness.’” And Pharoah said, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, nor will I let Israel go.” Yet, in Exodus 14 we read of the destruction of the Egyptian armies AND Pharoah with Verse 28 telling us, “Not so much as one of them remained,” and certainly not “gritted Pharoah”! And, dare I tell you, FROM HELL PHAROAH STILL GRIEVES AND GROANS, BUT NOW VOID OF HIS GUTSY GRIT!

“Gutsy grit” by unbelievers and rejecters of Resurrection Life in Christ are men, past, present, and future, who will reveal to you, if you’re ever able to ask them, (I hope not!), “We know now only anthems of despair, the themes of avenging demons, the scary, constant, unyielding voices of devilish phantoms,” or Harriet Beecher Stowe’s words, “No one is so thoroughly superstitious as the godless man. Life and death to him are haunted grounds, filled with goblin forms of vague and shadowy dread.”

There is no evil so great as the evil of the rejection of grace, mercy, forgiveness, and life in and through Christ, just as Paul wrote to Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:12b, “If we deny Him, He [the One True and Living God, the Resurrected Christ], ALSO will deny us.”

I find the anointed spirit of Paul so needed in this 21^st Century in our own journey of faith, and especially as one is cemented and grounded in the Holy Word, and fully aware of the fallacy of “gutsy grit”, and fully aware of the need of “godly sorrow”, “redemptive faith,” “and true repentance”! In 2 Timothy 2:23-26 he wrote: “But avoid foolish and ignorant disputes, knowing that they generate strife. And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, and that THEY MAY COME TO THEIR SENSES AND ESCAPE THE SNARE OF THE DEVIL, having been taken captive by him to do his will.”

Do YOU find that a frightening statement that unbelievers are those “snared by the devil”, functioning in their lives according to his wants, desires, and plans? Isn’t it amazing, shocking, awakening, alerting to you to even hear Jesus, in Revelation 3:9, even mention “those of the synagogue of Satan”? SO…let’s just call on “gutsy grit” to see us through in our earthly warfare with the devil and the powers of darkness – right? WRONG!

Examine Revelation 12:7-12! And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer. So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, “Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down. AND THEY OVERCAME HIM BY THE BLOOD OF THE LAMB AND BY THE WORD OF THEIR OWN TESTIMONY, AND THEY DID NOT LOVE THEIR LIVES TO THE DEATH. THEREFORE rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them!

Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time.”

But, hear me! Whether it’s the world, the flesh, or the devil, Psalm 50:15 tells us: “Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.” What a promise! Dare I ask YOU? “Do YOU stand on the promises in “gutsy grit” or “REST” in the finished work of Christ “At Calvary”? What does the Holy Word tell us in Ephesians 6:10-18?

“Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord [ Does that sound like “gutsy grit” to you?] 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, [that’s imparted, implanted, imputed righteousness by the grace and mercy of God!], 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 –“

Dare I tell you that the day of your ‘helpless feeling’ can be, should be, must be, the day of full awareness of ALL God Himself wants to be and to do through you? Proverbs 3:1-6 is a powerful expression from God that should be the launching of your life of faith and trust through “Godly Sorrow” from a heart and life that does not lean on “gutsy grit” or “fleshly best” but God’s mercy, grace, and love! It says: “My son, do not forget my law (the wisdom and instruction from “trust” in the Lord!), but let your heart keep my commands; for length of days and long life they will add to you. Let not mercy and truth forsake you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart, And SO find favor and high esteem in the sight of God and man.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and LEAN NOT ON YOUR OWN UNDERSTANDING; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths. [Look now at Verses 13, and 21-26]! “Happy is the man who finds wisdom, and the man who gains understanding.” That’s the wisdom of God and the understanding the Holy Spirit gives to you as you faithfully feed on His Word! Verses 21-26 says, “My son, let them not depart from your eyes – keep sound wisdom and discretion; So they will be LIFE TO YOUR SOUL and GRACE TO YOUR NECK.

Then you will walk safely in your way, and your foot will not stumble. When you lie down, you will not be afraid; Yes, you will lie down and your sleep will be sweet. Do not be afraid of sudden terror, nor of trouble from the wicked when it comes; For the Lord will be your confidence, and will keep your foot from being caught.”

So…what does a fleshly, sinful, mortal man do to obtain his personal salvation? Do you remember Paul and Silas imprisoned for the faith in Acts 16 when the jailer came to them after a great earthquake, finding all the prison doors opened, and Paul and Silas still there! He was ready to kill himself, but went in to Paul and Silas asking, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” And it wasn’t ‘saved from an earthquake but “saved from his sins”! And in Acts 16:31 Paul and Silas told him, “Believe [trust in, rely upon, adhere to] on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.”

That’s: BE FINISHED WITH YOURSELF AND ANY ATTEMPT AT BEING “RELIGIOUS”, AND REST IN THE FINISHED WORK OF CHRIST AT THE CROSS! Have you never received, rested in, or relied upon 2 Corinthians 5:17? “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he IS a ‘new creation’; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”

“In Christ” we sing a “new song”! “In Christ” we walk in “newness of life” and serve Him in “newness of spirit”! The Lord Jesus said in Revelation 21:5, “Behold, I make all things new…!” We’re ‘clothed’ with “new garments”, we “LIVE” by a “new and living way,” He grants us a “new name”, He bestows upon us out of our death the reality of “new-born”, a “new covenant,” a “new heart and a new spirit,” and as “newborn babes in Christ” we desire, hunger for, rest in, and are assured of His able-ness to keep what we’ve committed unto Him and to keep what He has committed unto us!

2 Corinthians 5:21 declares: “For He (God) made Him (Jesus Christ) who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God In Him.” ARE YOU “the righteousness of God IN CHRIST JESUS”? Hear me!

“In Christ” we are no longer ‘mere men’ but sons and daughters of redemptive faith birthed by God to bear, share, unveil His Name!

“In Christ”, by God’s mercy, grace, and love, we’ve been set apart to be “a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own special, blood-bought people”!

“In Christ”, ‘born again by the Spirit into the Holy Family of God, we are declared by Him to be the “righteousness of God in Christ Jesus”! We’re now “sons and daughters” of our Heavenly Father!

Our lives, now “in Christ”, are “hidden with Christ in God”! We’ve been “raised up to be seated with Him in heavenly places at the very right hand of God the Father!

Our lives “in Christ” are now identified as “ministers of reconciliation” and “ambassadors of Christ”! We’ve been counted worthy to walk with Christ, entrusted with His Gospel!

Christ Jesus is the Bridegroom – we’re “the bride of Christ”! We’re now “trustees of the ‘mysteries’! We’re “witnesses” of His Redeeming Grace! God even says of all repentant believers that they are “priests and kings unto Him.”

To God, we are the ‘fragrance of Christ,’ His ‘peace-makers’ in a troubled world, His disciples and disciplers, His “soldiers of the Cross”! We’re “more than conquerors” – we’re “new creations”!

“In Christ” we’re “living sacrifices”, eternal epistles, poems of the grace, mercy, and love of God! Doesn’t the Word declare the truth and reality, and visual presence of “apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers, or ‘disciples’ meaning “Followers of Christ”?

“In Christ” we’re “servants” of the King of kings and Lord of lords – we bear the image of the Heavenly Man, because WE ARE ‘the called, the separated, the anointed, indwelt by all the very fullness of God”!

“In Christ” we are His messengers, His proclaimers, the heralds of His gospel or ‘good news’! “In Him” we ARE the “glorious Body of Christ,” members of the Holy Body in particular!

“In Christ” we’re “vessels” through which God Himself reveals His Son, we’re “salt” and “light”, we’re the “Symphony” God sings about, the music of His heart, and over us He sings the sounds of joy and sweet pleasure!

It’s time to settle it for Eternity! Are you a ‘mere man’ or “the anointed, appointed, affirmed holy man of God, infilled by the Holy Spirit to be His holy messengers?

Are you a ‘mere man’ or the biblically-declared “mighty men of valor”? Are you a ‘worldly, anxious ant’ or an “ambassador of Christ”? Are you a ‘mere man’ or a son or daughter of the family of Father-God?

Are you a ‘mere man’ or a “true minister and servant of reconciliation”? Are you simply a ‘mere man’ or a true witness of Saving Grace, Master-Full Mercy, and overflowing in Calvary’s Song of eternal love and Christ-Alone “Blood Redemption”?

Are YOU a “witness” of “Saving Grace”? Are YOU “the elect,” the “set-apart”, the “chosen of God”? Are YOU “the apple of God’s eye”? Are YOU His “workmanship”? Are YOU a “partner with God”, a “vessel of honor before Him daily”, available for Him to do as He pleases through YOU?

Are You “clay in the hands of the Potter, being sculpted into His Holy Image and Likeness”? Are you a “partaker of the divine nature”, one with Him, the fullness of Him who fills all in all?

You do realize that a ‘roller coaster’, at least once in your life, ought to be fun to ‘play on’, but the “ups and downs”, the “around and around” moves you nowhere in life in relation to Holy God! A ‘ferris wheel’ at the State Fair will get you ‘up’ momentarily to look “over” for a brief glimpse of the beautiful side, but then it’s down again and around again to the same old circumstances!

And anonymous writer penned these words: “Do you know what makes man the most suffering of all creatures? It is that he has one foot in the finite and the other in the infinite, and that he is torn between the two worlds.” Are You “torn” or “settled” on the True Foundation of Eternal Life, Christ Jesus, our Lord, Savior, Redeemer, Reconciler of men to God?

PART 3 (by J. Farrell Fisher, November 17-19, 2016)

Are “true disciples of Christ” known by what church they attend or does the Holy Word of God express and interpret ‘true discipleship’ in a totally different manner or unveiling and revelation? Are “true disciples of Christ” mentally confused or the visible explanation of “Life IN Christ”, dead to ‘self-realization’ but alive to the purpose, presence, and promises of God? Are “true disciples of Christ” the ‘compromisers’ with ‘flesh’ and ‘the world around them’, OR the “committed” to the Lordship of Christ, the guidance of the Holy Spirit, evidenced by the Spirit’s “fruit” and anointings, and evidenced by God’s gift of “blood-washing”, God’s gift of heavenly declarations of His grace, mercy, and love, to birth you to “new life in Christ” that is pure, spotless, recognizable, no longer recognizable by the old sin-nature but recognizable as “new-born” into the Kingdom rule and reign of the Resurrected Christ?

I’ve often thought that one day I want to search out a “message” or Biblical teaching, on “irresponsible ‘self-impregnation’ of one’s identity as a disciple of Christ, or the “Sovereign-Birthing of the Spirit of God”, because there is a difference between physical birth and Born of the Spirit! There is a vast difference between one’s ‘self-awareness’ of his/her spirituality and one’s “New Life in Christ”, or one’s ‘spontaneous originality’ of his/her spiritual adequacy in himself/herself, or the divine intervention of the Holy Spirit, convicting, convincing, converting, and consecrating a ‘new life’ before the very Throne of Almighty God and King Jesus!

It’s so interesting, encouraging, convicting, and relieving to read of Isaiah’s awesome experience after the death of King Uzziah. He said in Verse one, “I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple, and, two seraphim, seeing the Lord, covered their faces, crying to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts’ the whole earth is full of His glory!” Then when Isaiah saw that Holy event of divine presence before him, he said: “Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.” Having encountered the Holy Presence of the King of kings, been convicted about himself and all fallen humanity before Holy God, God stepped in to say to Isaiah, you, and me, (Isaiah 6:7), “Behold, this has touched your lips; your iniquity is taken away, and your sin purged.”

But, be assured, God’s Promise only becomes reality in those who know their iniquitous ways, sorrow over it, confess it, and rest in the finished work of the Blood of the Lamb of God! And “true disciples” with Isaiah, then say as they become aware their sin is purged, and having heard the Voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send and who will go for Us (God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit)?”, Isaiah said, as every true disciple does, “Here am I! Send me.” And God said: “Go, and tell this people…!” (Are you telling life’s spiritual opportunities of receiving Christ or rejecting Him?).

As the Lord Jesus was instructing His disciples, in John 4:34-38, He said: “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work. Do you not say, ‘There are still four months and then the harvest’? Behold, I SAY TO YOU, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest!

And he who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life, that Both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. For in this the saying is true: ‘One sows and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored, and you have entered into their labors.”

“True Disciples of Christ”? They understand and are committed to the Master’s mandate and commissioning to “plow, sow, and reap,” to “plow, sow, and reap,” to “plow, sow, and reap”, because true disciples have heard, received, and respond to the Master’s Holy instruction, “Go, and make disciples!” And, of course, we KNOW it’s in every man’s mind, and , when confronted by Christ and His Word and will, as to whether he/she is even interested in obeying or closing their eyes and ears to the eternal beating of His compassionate, merciful heart, they will respond in faith and obedience or ‘walk away’ from God’s heart, mindful only of that which satisfies what they have set their minds and hearts to be or to do! Some respond positively, while others turn and walk away from His callings, gifts, and ministries!

It should excite you greatly and motivate, inspire, and encourage you as a true disciple of Christ to hear Him say to YOU in John 15:11-16, “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full. This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. You are My friends if you DO WHATEVER I COMMAND YOU. No longer do I call you servants, (as Jesus Himself was!), for a servant does not know what his master is doing, but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you. You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.”

But there is the “cost of Christ’s choosing you and me”! John 15:19 clearly says, “If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.” [Is it possible that YOU don’t sense ‘the hate of the world’ because there is that in you that says: “I want the ‘best’ of both worlds: ‘flesh’ and Spirit, compromise and convenience the world gives me AND the ‘calling’ with the ‘commissioning’ – why not the “best” (?) of both worlds?”

You do understand that there are even ‘unbelievers’ who are ‘pious’ unbelievers who hold, at least, a ‘dutiful spirit of reverence for God’, but not to the point of repentance or recognizing their sinful nature, their religious ‘feelings’ only about God, or their, sometimes, ‘religious indulgences’, as they continue in ‘pious deception’ about themselves and their need of God’s “saving grace” through Christ! BUT, TRUE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST?

FIRTST, TRUE DISCIPLES BEGAN OR NOW BEGIN THEIR JOURNEY OF FAITH WHEN CONVICTED, CONVINCED, CONVERTED, AND CONSECRATED BY AND THROUGH THE HOLY SPIRIT’S MINISTRY! In Romans 8: 12-17 we read of God’s gracious promise of the Holy Spirit’s ‘overseeing ministry’ of the lives of the true disciples of Christ! It says: “Therefore, brethren, we are debtors – not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh (your old sin nature and trying your ‘best’ by it!). For IF YOU LIVE ACCORDING TO THE FLESH YOU WILL DIE; BUT IF BY THE SPIRIT YOU PUT TO DEATH THE DEEDS OF THE BODY, YOU WILL LIVE (Victorious, overcoming , and conquering!).

For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these ARE sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, BUT YOU received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, ‘Abba, Father.’ The Spirit BEARS WITNESS with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs – heirs of God and JOINT HEIRS WITH CHRIST, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.”

‘Flesh’ never has, never will, never can bear witness that we’re ‘children of God, children of faith, children of the royal family of God’, but Christ Jesus was so very clear when He said to Nicodemus in John 3:5-6, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water (the water of the Word of God) 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.”

There is another interesting, convicting, and life-identifying word from Jesus in Luke 13:22-27 that certainly, initially, related to the ‘religious, Jewish community’ who were not a part of the True Remnant of repentant and ‘faith-trusting’ Jews, but only religious, traditional ‘back-slappers’! It says:

And He went through the cities and villages, teaching, and journeying toward Jerusalem. Then one said to Him, “Lord are there few who are saved?” Jesus said to them, “Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able…

When once the Master of the house has risen up and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open for us,’ and He will answer and say to you, “I do not know you, where you are from,’ then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets.’ But He will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know you, where you are from. DEPART FROM ME, all you workers of iniquity.’”

Did John say, “…that which is born (or birthed by) of the Spirit is spirit,” with Paul the Apostle affirming also in Romans 8:13-14, “For if you live ACCORDING TO THE FLESH you will die; BUT if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.” And what an awesome, identifying unveiling of “true disciples”!

The Holy Spirit of God, living IN the life of every true born-again believer, is there to initially bear witness to our “Blood-bought redemption”, then assuming, as one allows Him, to guide and direct their every step toward maturity, from birth to childhood, from childhood to youthfulness, from youthfulness to young adults, from young adults to adults, and from young adults to ‘senior’ adults IN SPIRITUAL MATURITY TO THE FULLNESS OF THE BLESSING OF THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST! Oswald Chambers said, in “My Utmost For His Highest” (p.219), not witnessing ‘to our reason,’ but “the Spirit witnesses (in us) only to His own nature, and to the work of Redemption, never to our reason.”

The ministry of the Holy Spirit in YOU? CONTINUING THE UNVEILING OF THE REALITY OF YOUR OLD MAN CRUCIFIXION WITH CHRIST ON THE CROSS, UNVEILING MORE AND MORE YOUR AWARENESS OF YOUR “NEW CREATION” STATUS, AND NOT ALLOWING THE “OLD MAN” TO CAPTURE YOUR INTEREST AGAIN, BUT MAGNIFYING THE UNENDING BLESSINGS OF YOUR ONENESS IN CHRIST! We’re not, under the Holy Spirit’s leadership, defined as simply a “refined order”, but a “new-born” son or daughter God’s Holy Family! And because of the Word AND the Holy Spirit, we can truly say with Paul, (2 Corinthians 2:14), “Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place (stage of life or circumstances!)” – and THAT by the Spirit, with Jesus telling us, in John 16:13, “When the Spirit of truth has come, He will guide you into all truth…Verse 14, He will glorify Me…(that’s the Lord Jesus)! And the Spirit “glorifies” Jesus in that faithful ministry THROUGH YOUR LIFE AND MINE, BORN AGAIN BY THE GRACE AND MERCY OF GOD AND INDWELT IN US BY HIS HOLY SPIRIT! And the Spirit’s continuing ministry in us and through us?

SECOND, TRUE DISCIPLES ARE IDENTIFIED AS THEY REFLECT, REST IN, RELY UPON, AND RESPOND TO THE WILL OF FATHER-GOD IN THEIR LIVES AS JESUS DID IN HIS! In Matthew 20:20-28 there is, for the young disciples before Christ, the eternal truth of ‘greatness’ in being the servant unto others. Jesus said: “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who are great exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among YOU, let him be your slave – JUST AS the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”

Superiority is NOT the calling of Christ for His disciples but the servant-spirit as He told His initial disciples in Luke 22:24-27 after His chosen disciples began to argue “as to which of them should be considered the greatest”, Jesus responded, “The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those who exercise authority over them are called ‘benefactors’. (That’s, according to The Random House Collegiate Dictionary, “one who confers a benefit, a kindly helper”). But not so among you; on the contrary, he who is greatest among you, let him be as the younger, and he who governs as he who serves. For who is greater, he who sits at the table, or he who serves? Is it not he who sits at the table? Yet I am among you as the One who serves.”

Certainly the Apostle Paul clearly understood the spirit, nature, and character of Christ in himself after his conversion and transformation from a Jewish ‘Rabbi” to a ‘servant’ that Christ Jesus exemplified! He wrote, in 2 Corinthians 12:15, “And I will very gladly spend and be spent for your souls; though the more abundantly I love you, the less I am loved.”

“Very gladly spend and be spent for your souls”? Is that not the spirit of Christ, our Lord, our servant, our example? “The Son of Man did not come to sit on a throne to be served and to be ministered to but to lay down His life in caring for others!”

But as one reads passionately Paul’s writing in the Letter to the Romans, especially in Romans 9 and Romans 10, you see Israel rejecting Christ, rejecting God’s purpose for them, even as we witness those today who turn deaf ears and blind eyes to the call of Christ to “Follow Me and I will make you fishers of men.” In Romans 9:6-8 we read, “But it is not that the word of God has taken no effect. For they are not all Israel who are of Israel, nor are they all children because they are the seed of Abraham; but, ‘In Isaac your seed shall be called.’ That is, those who are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God; but the children of the promise are counted as the seed.”

But as you continue into Romans 10:1-4, you see unfolded before you, not only Israel’s need of the Redeeming, Reigning Savior and Lord, but all of fallen mankind, void ‘in the heart’ as well as the mind, even “the religious” who are “ignorant of God’s righteousness”! Paul wrote, “Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved (re-born, regenerated, redeemed by the blood of the Lamb of God). For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes (trusts in, relies upon, adheres to).”

Paul went on to say in Verse 8 that ‘redeeming faith’ is “the word of faith which we preach” Verse 9, that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” How needful is that message for today?

THIRD, TRUE DISCIPLES ARE IDENTIFIED AS THEY HAVE THEIR EARS OPENED TO HEAR GOD AS JESUS OPENED HIS EARS, YES, TO HEAR, RECEIVE, AND WALK IN THE REVEALED WISDOM OF GOD! Wasn’t it Stephen, in Acts 7:51, speaking of, yes, ‘unbelieving Israelites’ saying, “You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did so do you.”

In Romans 10:8, as the judgment of God came upon ‘the unbelieving’, Paul said: Just as it is written: ‘God has given them a spirit of stupor, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear, to this very day.’

Yet, over and over, in the Four Gospels, Jesus said often, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!!” Paul, in Acts 28, encountered resistant Israelites who didn’t believe what they heard from the Apostle, but also, Verse 24, reveals: “And some were persuaded by the things which were spoken, and some disbelieved.”

If you open your Bible to 2 Thessalonians 2:9-16, you’ll see the “unbelievers” and the true disciples of Christ! It says: “The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, AND with ALL UNRIGHTEOUS DECEPTION among those who perish, BECAUSE they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

But we are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God from the beginning chose you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth, to which He called you to our gospel, for the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, brethren, stand fast and hold the traditions which you were taught by word or our epistle.

Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and our God and Father, who has loved us and given us everlasting consolation and good hope by grace, comfort your hearts and establish you in every good word and work.” Are YOU established, gifted, standing in, firmly rooted in Christ Jesus and His resurrection life, power, and hope?

FOURTH AND LAST, FOR THIS CHAPTER, ARE YOU A TRUE FAITHFUL DISCIPLE OF CHRIST WITH A HEART, MIND, AND SPIRIT TURNED TO DO AS JESUS DID IN “PLEASING FATHER-GOD”? In Mark 1:9-11 we read, It came to pass in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And immediately, coming up from the water, He saw the heavens parting and the Spirit descending upon Him like a dove. Then a voice came from heaven, “You are My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

So, is this not why Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 1:9, “Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead…”? The sentence of death in ourselves? Yes! Because it is so easy to pretend, to imitate, to do as best as we know how to ‘in the flesh’ – and as a result to miss the anointing and indwelling of the very Spirit and Life and Anointed Presence of the Resurrected Christ and the fullness of the Holy Spirit! Be through with yourself – Jesus crucified it – and promised the fullness of the Holy Spirit! Holy God has no desire to see you professing Christ, then trying your “best” as an “illuminated, imitation version”! God wants Christ, in and through His Spirit, indwelling, infilling, overflowing with Resurrection Life and Resurrection Hope! AMEN?

The Christ-like walk of discipleship is not a “sand-box life” of playing, but devotion to His Presence, His Lordship, His will! Didn’t Jesus say in John 15:4, “Abide [or remain] in Me, and I in you. As the Branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.” Have YOU resolutely determined to abide or remain IN CHRIST?

By: J. Farrell Fisher, July, 2017

There’s a powerful, eye-opening, convicting statement when Isaiah said in Isaiah 64:6-7, “But we are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousness are like filthy rags; we all fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. And there is no one who calls on Your name, who stirs himself up to take hold of You; for You have hidden Your face from us, and have consumed us because of our iniquities. [You are aware, I would think, that the ‘unclean thing’ or ‘filthy rags’ are rags stained, like a woman’s disposable rags, from her menstrual cycle!). And, how many do you know outside the ‘redeemed community’ who ‘appreciate’ Holy God’s description of their sinful lives and condemned position as ‘a menstrual rag’ prior to its ‘waste basket’ tossing?

In another prophetic book, Ezekiel 37, the prophet, in Verse One, describes, in a vision, “The hand of the Lord came upon me and brought me out in the Spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley; and it was full of bones.” In Verse Three God asked Ezekiel, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And Ezekiel said to Him, “O Lord God, You know.” Oh, and then there is the eternal calling of Holy God upon His ‘chosen people’ saying to an Ezekiel and every true, blood-bought servant of the Most High God, “Prophesy to these bones, and say to them, ‘O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! Thus says the Lord God to these bones: ‘Surely I will cause breath to enter into you (physical breath or the spiritual breath of Holy God?), and you shall live. I will put sinews on you and bring (new) flesh upon you, cover you with skin and put breath in you; and you shall live. Then you shall know that I am the Lord.’”

You are, more than likely, fully aware that many within the professing ‘church family’ are void of understanding or comprehension of “sinners made saints,” the “lost being found,” the “ungodly declared godly through God’s grace,” or the “worldly becoming true citizens of the Kingdom of our Lord and Savior”! The unredeemed have only a “grave address”, living without any hope in themselves to influence their world redemptively, but can do an admirable job in “fleshly best” living apart from God, leaving their “friends” as unredeemed as themselves! Only God’s amazing grace unveils what human nature looks like apart from “Christ in you the hope of glory”!

I’M SURE YOU’RE AWARE OF WHAT Genesis 6:5 DECLARES early in ‘human history’! It says: “Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” Romans 3:23 clearly says: “…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” And, sadly, many are aware of the glory of God but more devoted to their sin and sin nature! But they do not understand that “the wages of sin is death” when they are so alive in themselves to what their fallen flesh dictates! And impregnation with devotion to the old sin nature continues until convicted by the Holy Spirit and converted to “new life” in Christ! It was Spurgeon who once said: “Sin is a sovereign till sovereign grace dethrones it.” So true!

The counterfeit of obedience to God, if there is any inclination to that ‘thought’, is one’s “best effort” of determination to prove what many perceive “ought to please Him as He sees my strong self-will”! And nowhere in the Word of God do you find any indication of God desiring you to do your ‘best’ but acknowledging and resting in YOUR “crucifixion with Christ at the Cross” and receiving the fullness of the blessing of His Resurrection Life as you repent! Isn’t this what Paul was telling us in 2 Corinthians 7:10? “For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation; but the sorrow of the world produces death.”

You haven’t forgotten already Isaiah’s declaration of fallen men’s hearts before Holy God in Isaiah 64:6-7a? “But we are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; [and in the ‘flesh’, the old sin-nature] we all fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. And THERE IS NO ONE WHO CALLS ON GOD’S NAME, who stirs himself up to take hold of you,” BUT Jesus tells us in Revelation 3:20, “BEHOLD, I stand at the door (of your heart!) 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.”

And this is why I know Paul wrote in Romans 15:13, “NOW may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing (trusting in, relying upon, adhering to!), that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

Several things I want you to “rest in” as you see: “It’s A Matter Of The Heart!” FIRST, IT’S A MATTER OF HEART CONVICTION INITIATED BY THE MINISTRY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT! Receive Spurgeon’s words in “My Utmost For His Highest,” (p.255), when he wrote: “The entrance into the Kingdom is through the panging pains of repentance crashing into a man’s respectable goodness; then the Holy Ghost, Who produces these agonies, begins the formation of the Son of God in the life.”

In 1 John 4:9-13 the beloved John wrote: “In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us. By THIS WE KNOW THAT WE ABIDE IN HIM, AND HE IN US, BECAUSE HE HAS GIVEN US OF HIS SPIRIT.” Have YOU received, rested in, and relying upon the Holy Spirit daily?

Even in the short ‘epistle’ of Jude he wrote: Verses 20-21, “But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.”

SECOND, IT’S A MATTER OF THE HEART CONCERNING HEART PREPARATION DAILY FOR NOT ONLY ACKNOWLEDING HIS PRESENCE WITHIN US BUT YIELDING TO HIS LEADERSHIP THROUGH US IN GLORIFYING AND HONORING THE LORD JESUS! In the Galatian letter Paul wrote: Galatians 6:8, “For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life.” How vital is it to you in your journey of faith to be daily yielded to the ministry of the Holy Spirit in you and through you?

There Is, for some, a counterfeit of allegiance apart from full desire to be one WITH God and honoring the Christ within by being yielded to the Holy Spirit! It’s as if for them the Holy Spirit is an unnecessary part of the Godhead! But for true believers who honor Christ in their daily walks of faith, there is a deliberate, daily determination to be “led by the Holy Spirit”!

The Lord Jesus said in John 16:13-14 of the work or ministry of the Holy Spirit in every true believer: “…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 (from God the Father) 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.”

You do realize, out of spiritual immaturity or out-right rebellion, that some believers live with a pious attitude worked up in their flesh and minds with ‘good intentions’ but fall far short of glorifying or honoring Christ Jesus when we’ve just read King Jesus saying, “He, the Holy Spirit, will glorify Me!” Grace includes God’s gift of the Holy Spirit to the true child of the King! In John 7:37-38 we read: On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believed in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.”

Do you remember Jesus’ conversation with “the woman at the well” in John 4:23-24? He said: “…the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth.”

THIRD, IT’S A MATTER OF HEART-AND- MIND TRANSFORMATION BY THE HOLY SPIRIT! Paul told us in Romans 12:2, “And do not be conformed to this world, but be (being) transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”

Even in the Old Testament, Ezekial 11:19, as God informed Israel and the world-at-large of a coming “new covenant”, He declared, “Then I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within them, and take the stony heart out of the flesh and give them a heart of (tender) flesh”, willing to follow His Word and His Spirit!

In 2 Corinthians 11:13-15 Paul also exposes ‘fleshly’ disciples and pretenders, even demonic presence, desiring to keep people from the “eternal Truth”! He said: “For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to THEIR works,” not God’s work through Spirit-anointing, presence, and power within His true disciples!

Do you ever find yourself in a “so-called spiritual gathering” where some are so easily led astray, even falling away, because they bought in to ‘fleshly lies’ substituted for spiritual, eternal Truth? In 1 Timothy 6:20-21 Paul wrote to his spiritual son and us saying, “O Timothy! Guard what was committed to your trust, avoiding the profane and idle babblings and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge – by professing it some have strayed concerning the faith.”

The Spirit-inspired Word of 1 Peter 4:1-2 says, “Therefore, since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same mind, for he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh for the lusts of men, but for the will of God.”

Disciples of Christ today are often challenged, criticized, condemned, or ostracized by the ‘kingdoms’ or ‘worldly men’ of devotion to the “best of human ability”, whether by godless governments, spiritually-mindless educators, unbelieving entrepreneurs, or unredeemed neighbors who see your love of Christ, His Word, and His church as ‘misplaced, brainless devotion’ to an empty cause! But in 1 Peter 4:13-14 Peter went on to say: “…rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy. If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you, FOR the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.”

FOURTH, IT’S A MATTER OF HEART-ILLUMINATION AS TO THE REALITY AND EVIDENCE OF SPIRIT-ANOINTED SERVANTS OF CHRIST! In Matthew 7:15-20 our Lord and Savior warns us, saying, “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thorn-bushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore by their fruits you will know them.”

Paul had given a substantive challenge when in Galatians 5:16 he said: I say then: “Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.” In Verses 22-25 he then instructed us: “But the FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.” There are no ‘short-cuts’ to victorious living as a disciple of Christ or “cheap-shots of my best effort” – Death to self only and life in His Resurrection fullness, no fleshly, personal ambition but only His revelation and unveiling of the Spirit, no individual determination to reveal or unveil Christ ‘through me”, but only, as Jesus said, “You’ll know them by their fruit!”

Isaac Watts and George F. Handel really nailed it when they wrote the old Christmas classic together entitled “Joy To The World.” It says: “Joy to the world! The Lord is come; Let earth receive her King; Let every heart prepare Him room, and Heaven and nature sing!

Joy to the earth! The Savior reigns; Let men their songs employ; While fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains Repeat the sounding joy!

No more let sins and sorrows grow, Nor thorns infest the ground; He comes to make His blessings flow Far as the curse is found! He rules the world with truth and grace, And makes the nations prove The glories of His righteousness, and wonders of His love!” What song of faith do you sing right now in your life?

OR ONE’S DENIAL?”

NOVEMBER 17-20, 2017, by J.Farrell Fisher

I found an interesting statement in Dallas Willard’s book entitled “The Great Omission”, and the first sentence of his first chapter said the following, “The word ‘Disciple’ occurs 269 times in the New Testament. ‘Christian’ is found three times…”! He went on to say, “The New Testament is a book about disciples, by disciples, and for disciples of Jesus Christ.”

In our modern-day 21^st Century time period, I’m afraid I have to say that I’m not sure that across the “church community” that “church folk” really comprehend “separation from God” because of their ‘sin-natures’ or, if they do, do they accept God’s VERDICT of ‘sinner’ that needs to be redeemed by the blood of the Lamb of God, and yielded to Him as a vessel in which the Resurrected Christ is able to be Himself as truly Lord and Savior – “born again, born the second time of the Spirit” is strange terms for too many – “I’m a ‘church member, and have been most of my life”, but finished with the ‘old man’, crushed by God’s verdict of sin and death? Strange terms!

“One’s denial of God’s verdict” concerning their ‘First Adam’ sin nature is rampant, and especially when a society majors on ‘mental superiority’ without any concern for ‘godless’ hearts or ‘blinded’ minds related to spiritual awareness of one’s need of Holy God through Christ in fulfilling His eternal intent through the “Blood Redemption” of innocent Jesus’ sacrifice “At The Cross”!!

“One’s Denial?” or “Acceptance of God’s Verdict?” In 2 Corinthians 4:3-6 the Apostle Paul wrote: “But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, WHOSE MINDS THE GOD OF THIS AGE HAS BLINDED, (Do you think ‘the god of your age is Satan and his deceiving ways?), who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.

For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus’ sake. For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”

One’s denial of God’s verdict is the intentional verdict of fleshly pride to live, be, and do as one pleases without any concern for the divine intent of God in birthing human life, not as an existing, fleshly, independent creation, but a “willful vessel of divine presence”, fully surrendered and yielded to the Master’s management! But there are those with no interest in “Christ in you the hope of glory”! Grit is their calling card with no concern for the love, grace, or mercy of God “in Christ”!

BY: J.FARRELL FISHER,MAY 5-6,2019

I HAVE A BOOK I’VE HAD FOR YEARS PUBLISHED IN 1972 ENTITLED “SIDE-SADDLE on the GOLDEN CALF” WHICH I READ & WAS CHALLENGED BY. BUT TODAY, AS THE LORD MOVED ON MY HEART & MIND RELATED TO A NEW TEACHING, I WONDERED IF, MAYBE, THE MESSAGE HE WAS BIRTHING IN ME SHOULD BE ENTITLED, “SIDE-SADDLE on the golden goat”!

BUT THEN HE CLEARLY SAID: ‘ACTIVE RELIGION – INACTIVE RELATIONSHIP’,AND ,“IS” A CLEAR DESCRIPTION OF FALLEN, SIN-INFESTED, UNBELIEVING,REBELS IN HEART, WHO MAY BE ‘RELIGIOUS’ BUT NOT RE-BORN THROUGH REPENTANCE TOWARD GOD & FAITH IN CHRIST’S “FINISHED WORK AT THE CROSS” & THE REALITY OF HIS EMPTY TOMB, AS HE MINISTERED FOR FORTY DAYS BEFORE HE ASCENDED INTO HEAVEN ENTHRONED NEXT TO GOD HIS FATHER! “ACTIVE RELIGION – INACTIVE RELATIONSHIP?”

THERE ARE (!) “IMPOSSIBILITIES” IN ‘RELIGIOUS TRYING’, BECAUSE TRUE BIBLICAL FAITH IS TRUSTING, ALLOWING GOD TO BE HIMSELF IN YOU & THROUGH YOU! OF COURSE, THERE ‘IS’ THE FATALITY OF A RELIGIOUS MAN ATTEMPTING BUT NOT “ATONED FOR”,BECAUSE HE/SHE IS SO INDIFFERENT TO THE REVELATION OF HOLY SCRIPTURE!

YOU’LL HEAR MANY ‘RELIGIOUS ,OPINIONATED’, EVEN ‘SORELY CONCEITED INDIVIDUALS’ ‘VERY MUCH IN LOVE WITH THEIR RELIGIOUS SELVES’, THAT THEY ‘STRUT’ IN CHURCHES & THEIR NEIGHBORLY ACTIVITY OF TRYING TO “SAVE OTHERS” WHEN IN THE MIND & HEART & SPIRIT KNOW NOTHING ABOUT “BLOOD ATONEMENT”, OR “CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST”, OR THE OLD SINFUL SELF GONE, WITHOUT EVER TAKING “THE SENTENCE OF DEATH TO SELF DAILY THAT THE RESURRECTION LIFE OF CHRIST MAY BE MANIFESTED IN & THROUGH THEIR MORTAL FLESH”!!!

“ACTIVE RELIGION?” ARE YOU AWARE THAT IN ALL NATURAL MEN & WOMEN, CHILDREN OR YOUTH, THERE IS AN INWARD STRONG URGE TO BE ACCEPTED, TO BE ‘SOMETHING’ SOMEBODY LIKES; OR, LIKE ‘RELIGIOUS ATTENDANCE’IMPERSONATING BUT NOT RELEASING CHRIST JESUS TO BE HIMSELF THROUGH THEM, BECAUSE ITS THEIR PRETENSE NOT HIS PRESENCE THROUGH THEM!

“ACTIVE RELIGION?” “FEELING RELIGIOUSLY ACCEPTABLE”,BUT NOT KNOWING: “CHRIST IN ME MY HOPE OF GLORY”! SUNDAY APPEARANCES APART FROM EVERY MOMENT OF EVERY DAY WATCHING CHRIST BE HIMSELF IN YOU & THROUGH YOU, EXTENDING HIS LIFE, EXPRESSING HIS LOVE, & PROVING HIS POWER? MAN’S INVOLVEMENT IN ‘RELIGIOUS ACTIVITIES’ IS NOT AN EXTENSION OF CHRIST’S LIFE, AN EXPRESSION OF HIS LOVE, OR THE PROOF OF HIS POWER – THAT ONLY OCCURS IN “BORN-AGAIN BELIEVERS WHO ARE ,TRULY,MENTALLY, SPIRITUALLY & HISTORICALLY PRESENTABLE, AS THOSE WHO WERE “CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST”, & IN HIS RESURRECTION-PRESENCE, HE COMES IN TO “ABIDE, BEING HIMSELF”, AS “YOU” AS A NEW CHILD OF GOD, “TAKE THE SENTENCE OF DEATH DAILY THAT THE RESURRECTION LIFE OF CHRIST MAY BE MANIFESTED THROUGH YOUR MORTAL FLESH!”

“ACTIVE RELIGION? ‘TRYING’ OR “TRUSTING”? SELF-DETERMINED OR SAVIOR-GRACED? ‘ATTEMPTING’ OR “ATONED THROUGH THE BLOOD OF THE LAMB”, NEW-BORN, & SOVEREIGNLY,WILLINGLY,LIVING IN YOUR HEART AS HEAVEN’S KINGDOM-RULER IN REPENTANT, OBEDIENT HEARTS, GUIDED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT WHO GLORIFIES CHRIST IN YOU AGAIN & AGAIN & AGAIN!! IN WATCHMAN NEE’S BOOK, “THE SPIRITUAL MAN”, (PUBLISHED BY CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP PUBLISHERS,INC., NEW YORK,1968) ON PAGE 43 NEE WROTE: “THE MAN GOD FASHIONED WAS NOTABLY DIFFERENT FROM ALL OTHER CREATED BEINGS. MAN POSSESSED A SPIRIT SIMILAR TO THAT OF THE ANGELS & AT THE SAME TIME HAD A SOUL RESEMBLING THAT OF THE LOWER ANIMALS. WHEN GOD CREATED MAN HE GAVE HIM A PERFECT FREEDOM. HE DID NOT MAKE MAN AN AUTOMATON, CONTROLLED AUTOMATICALLY BY GOD’S WILL. THIS IS EVIDENT IN GENESIS 2 AT THE TIME GOD INSTRUCTED THE ORIGINAL MAN WHAT FRUIT HE COULD EAT &WHAT NOT. THE MAN GOD CREATED ‘WAS NOT’ A MACHINE RUN BY GOD:INSTEAD HE HAD PERFECT FREEDOM OF CHOICE. IF HE CHOSE TO OBEY GOD, HE COULD; IF HE DECIDED TO REBEL AGAINST GOD, HE COULD DO THAT TOO. MAN HAD IN HIS POSSESSION A SOVEREIGNTY BY WHICH HE COULD EXERCISE HIS VOLITION IN CHOOSING TO OBEY OR DISOBEY. THIS IS A MOST IMPORTANT POINT, FOR WE MUST REALIZE THAT IN OUR SPIRITUAL LIFE GOD NEVER DEPRIVES US OF OUR FREEDOM. UNLESS WE ACTIVELY COOPERATE, GOD WILL NOT UNDERTAKE ANYTHING FOR US. NEITHER GOD NOR THE DEVIL CAN DO ANY WORK WITHOUT FIRST OBTAINING OUR CONSENT, FOR MAN’S WILL IS FREE.” WOW! DOUBLE-WOW!” AND, “FREE TO CHOOSE”, HISTORIC MAN CHOSE ‘HIS WORLD, HIS FLESH-SIN-NATURE, HIS DECEIVED MIND, “THANKS TO SATAN”, AND FELL AWAY FROM HOLY GOD, THEN IN NEED OF RECONCILIATION THROUGH THE “LAMB’S BLOOD ATONEMENT”, BIRTHED UPON REPENTANCE TOWARD GOD & FAITH IN CHRIST’S FINISHED WORK AT THE CROSS,&, HE/SHE IS THEN BORN-AGAIN, INFILLED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT, & LED ON THE PATH OF TRUE RIGHTEOUSNESS TO HONOR THE SAVIOR & LORD!!

“ACTIVE RELIGION – INACTIVE RELATIONSHIP?” SADLY IN MANY ‘RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIES’ THERE IS THE FATALITY OF ‘FAITHLESS MEN’S INDIFFERENT ATTITUDE & MIND-SET’ TOWARD HOLY GOD &ALSO TOWARD THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, BELIEVING WITH THEIR MINDS, BUT VOID OF “CALVARY,BLOOD -BOUGHT-HEARTS”! ‘RELIGIOUS MIND-SETS’,AWARE OF THEIR ‘WEAKNESSES’, TRY TO IMPROVE WHAT HOLY GOD CRUCIFIED AS CHRIST JESUS, ON THE CROSS, SUFFERING & DYING, CARRIED MAN’S SIN-NATURE, TO WASH IT AWAY BY HIS OWN BLOOD, DYING, BUT BEING RESURRECTED BY HOLY FATHER TO GIVE REPENTANT SONS & DAUGHTERS NEW IDENTITIES!!

‘ANTSY RELIGIOUS PARTICIPANTS BIRTH ITCHY MINDS & FLESHLY WILLS IN THEIR STRONGEST DECEPTIVE,BLINDING, EMBARASSING IDEAS’ OF “DOING MY BEST FOR GOD”, AS THEY YIELD COLD, ICY, DEAD MINDS & HEARTS, WILLFULLY ‘PERFORMING’ BUT NOT IN “GRACED LIVING OF LIVES” THAT ARE “TEMPLES” WHERE THE LORD HIMSELF RESIDES TO BE HIMSELF THROUGH ONE’S AVAILABILITY FOR HIM, NOT THEM, WHO THEN WILLFULLY WATCH AS THE LORD MANIFESTS HIS PRESENCE AS THE “LIGHT” THAT OPENS ‘DARKENED HEARTS, MINDS, LIVING SOULISHLY’!!

CHARLES CALEB COLTON, IN HIS WRITING “LACON”,(Vol.1,25),WROTE: “MEN WILL WRANGLE FOR RELIGION; WRITE FOR IT; FIGHT FOR IT; DIE FOR IT; ANYTHING BUT – LIVE FOR IT.” TRUE FAITH IS NOT ‘RELIGIOUS EXPRESSION’, BUT “REDEMPTIVE FAITH” IS WHAT ONE IS ASSURED OF BY THE “RESIDENT JESUS”, PRESENT,PRESIDING, PRESENTING, & PERFECTING THE TRULY REPENTANT, TRUSTING SOUL THAT LONGS FOR THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST IN THEM, FOR THEM, & BEING HIMSELF THROUGH THEM! (ARE YOU “RESTING” IN REDEMPTIVE FAITH IN THE “BLESSED ASSURANCE OF CHRIST”?

IN MY OLD “AMERICAN HYMNAL”( PUBLISHED IN 1933 BY BROADMAN PRESS, NASHVILLE,TENN.) IS A HYMN ENTITLED “BLESSED ASSURANCE”. IT SAYS:

“BLESSED ASSURANCE, JESUS IS MINE!OH,WHAT A FORETASTE OF GLORY DIVINE! HEIR OF SALVATION, PURCHASE OF GOD,BORN OF HIS SPIRIT,WASHED IN HIS BLOOD.

PERFECT SUBMISSION,PERFECT DELIGHT, VISIONS OF RAPTURE NOW BURST ON MY SIGHT; ANGELS DESCENDING,BRING FROM ABOVE ECHOES OF MERCY,WHISPERS OF LOVE.

PERFECT SUBMISSION, ALL IS AT REST, I IN MY SAVIOR AM HAPPY &BLEST; WATCHING & WAITING, LOOKING (WITHIN), FILLED WITH HIS GOODNESS, LOST IN HIS LOVE.

THIS IS MY STORY,THIS IS MY SONG,PRAISING MY SAVIOR ALL THE DAY LONG;THIS IS MY STORY, THIS IS MY SONG, PRAISING MY SAVIOR ALL THE DAY LONG.”

MEN WITH ‘RELIGION’ DO SO IN THE ABSENCE OF THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD THAT UNVEILS THEIR ‘RELIGIOUS PRETENSE’, WHILE MEN WITH A HOLY SPIRIT-BIRTHED RELATIONSHIP LIVE AVOWING & AFFIRMING “THANKSGIVING” FOR THE CHRIST “IN THEM” THAT ETERALLY ABIDES, THANKING HIM FOR BEING HIMSELF THROUGH THEM DAILY,YES, EVEN MOMENT BY MOMENT!

AGAIN,SAME “THE AMERICAN HYMNAL”,(P.43),IS A HYMN BY MAY WHITTLE MOODY ENTITLED “MOMENT BY MOMENT”. IT SAYS: “DYING WITH JESUS, BY DEATH RECKONED MINE; LIVING WITH JESUS, A NEW LIFE DIVINE; LOOKING TO JESUS TILL GLORY SHINES, MOMENT BY MOMENT, O LORD, I AM THINE.

NEVER A TRIAL THAT HE IS NOT THERE, NEVER A BURDEN THAT HE DOES NOT BEAR; NEVER A SORROW THAT HE DOES NOT SHARE, MOMENT BY MOMENT, I’M UNDER HIS CARE.

NEVER A HEARTACHE, & NEVER A GROAN, NEVER A TEAR-DROP & NEVER A MOAN; NEVER A DANGER, BUT THERE ON THE THRONE, MOMENT BY MOMENT HE THINKS OF HIS OWN.

NEVER A WEAKNESS THAT HE DOES NOT FEEL, NEVER A SICKNESS THAT HE CANNOT HEAL; MOMENT BY MOMENT, IN WOE OR IN WEAL, JESUS, MY SAVIOR,ABIDES WITH ME STILL.

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.”

AND YOU “LOOK WITHIN” – NOT OUT & UP, HOPING YOU CAN BREAK THROUGH CLOUDS & DARKNESS & OPPOSITION TO FINALLY “SEE HIM”- “NO!” “CHRIST IN YOU THE HOPE OF GLORY!” “CHRIST THROUGH YOU CONFRONTING ANY ENEMY OF HIS THAT WOULD WANT TO BRING YOU & HIM DOWN!” JESUS IS “VICTOR” OVER THE LAWS OF SIN & DEATH! JESUS IS “VICTOR” OVER SATAN & HIS DEMON ARMIES!

IN ROMANS 8:29-39,THERE IS TEACHING WITH A REVELATION SO ENRICHING & INSPIRING TRUE SERVANTS OF CHRIST. PAUL SAYS:

“FOR WHOM GOD FOREKNEW, HE ALSO PREDESTINED OR PREDETERMINED TO BE CONFORMED TO THE IMAGE (EXACT LIKENESS!) OF HIS SON, THAT HE MIGHT BE THE FIRSTBORN AMONG MANY BRETHREN.

MOREOVER WHOM HE PREDESTINED, THEM HE ALSO CALLED:& WHOM HE CALLED,THEM HE ALSO JUSTIFIED (“JUST-AS-IF-THEY’D-NEVER-SINNED”!):& WHOM HE JUSTIFIED, THEM HE ALSO GLORIFIED.

WHAT SHALL WE SAY THEN TO THESE THINGS? IF GOD BE FOR US, WHO CAN BE AGAINST US? HE THAT SPARED NOT HIS OWN SON, BUT DELIVERED HIM UP FOR US ALL, HOW SHALL HE NOT WITH HIM ALSO FREELY GIVE US ALL THINGS?

WHO SHALL LAY ANY THING TO THE CHARGE OF GOD’S ELECT? IT IS GOD THAT JUSTIFIES. WHO IS HE THAT C ONDEMNS?IT IS CHRIST THAT DIED,YEA RATHER, THAT IS RISEN AGAIN, WHO IS EVEN AT THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD, WHO ALSO MAKES INTERCESSION FOR US.

WHO SHALL SEPARATE US FROM THE LOVE OF CHRIST? SHALL TRIBULATION, OR DISTRESS , OR PERSECUTION, OR FAMINE OR NAKEDNESS, OR PERIL, OR SWORD? NO, IN ALL THESE THINGS WE “ARE” MORE THAN CONQUERORS THROUG H HIM THAT 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 HEIG HT, NOR DEPTH, NOR ANY OTHER CRE ATURE, SHALL BE ABLE TO SEPARATE US FROM THE LOVE OF GOD, WHICH IS IN CHRIST JESUS OUR LORD.” I CLOSE WITH ANOTHER HYMN THAT SAYS:

HAIL TO THE BRIGHTNESS OF ZION’S GLAD MORNING! JOY TO THE LANDS THAT IN DARKNESS HAVE LAIN! HUSHED BE THE ACCENTS OF SORROW & MOURNING; ZION IN TRIUMPH BEGINS HER GLAD REIGN.

HAIL TO THE BRIGHTNESS OF ZION’S GLAD MORNING! LONG BY THE PROPHETS OF ISRAEL FORETOLD! HAIL TO THE MILLIONS FROM BONDAGE RETURNING, GENTILES & JEWS THE BLEST VISION BEHOLD!

LO! IN THE DESERT RICH FLOWERS ARE SPRINGING, STREAMS EVER COPIOUS ARE GLIDING ALONG; LOUD FROM THE MOUNTAIN-TOPS ECHOES ARE RINGING, WASTES RISE IN VERD UE & MINGLE IN SONG.

SEE, FROM ALL LANDS – FROM THE ISLES OF THE OCEAN,-PRAISE TO JEHOVAH ASCENDING ON HIGH; FALLEN ARE THE ENGINES OF WAR &COMMOTION, SHOUTS OF SALVATION ARE RENDING THE SKY.”

IN “THE ‘SKY’ OF YOUR LIFE-ARE THERE GLORIES TO GOD”? IS IT FOR YOU: “ACTIVE RELIGION – INACTIVE RELATIONSHIP”? OR, IN YOU, IS IT: “ATONING FAITH THROUGH THE SHED BLOOD OF CHRIST BIRTHING HIS ETERNAL LIFE IN YOU, & GIFTED BY GOD WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT, IS THE HOLY SPIRIT GLORIFYING CHRIST THROUGH YOU”?

DON’T YOU WONDER AT TIMES ? “IN THE ABSENCE OF TRUE FAITH, ARE MEN STILL ESTABLISHING ‘RELIGIONS’, & AFTER A PERIOD OF TIME REALIZE: “THIS ISN’T ‘GOD’S GARDEN OF TRUE FAITH! I’M IN A ‘GORILLA CAGE’?” AND THAT’S NOT GOOD!” WHY NOT FORSAKE YOUR ‘GORILLA CAGE’ & THROUGH TRUE REPENTANCE & FAITH ALLOW JESUS HIS ESTABLISHMENT OF YOUR LIFE AS HIS HOLY TEMPLE WHERE HE ABIDES, REACHING OUT THROUGH YOU TO TOUCH YOUR WORLD WITH HIS “AMAZING GRACE”?

[ BOOK ONE]

By J. Farrell Fisher

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

INTRODUCTION

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

FOREWARD:

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

OUTLINE

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

Chapter 2 – “VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[Written January 15- March 10, 2016]

CHAPTER ONE

“I NEVER KNEW YOU!”

SIGNED: “GOD”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

CHAPTER TWO

VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

CHAPTER THREE

THE VITAL AWARENESS OF THE NEED

OF SPIRITUAL LABORING

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

CHAPTER FOUR

VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED OF THE AMAZING GOD AND AMAZING GIFTS

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

LAST, (In this chapter!), LET ME STRONGLY EMPHASIZE THE AMAZING UNVEILING OF AWESOME TRUTH OF THE GOD OF THE SIGN AND WONDER OF DIVINE TESTIMONY! In Acts 2:22-24 Peter preached and preaches right now, “Men of Israel, hear these words of Jesus of Nazareth, a Man attested by God to you, by miracles, wonders and signs which God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves also know – Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death: whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be held by it.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

CHAPTER FIVE

THE AMAZING UNVEILING OF AWESOME TRUTH BY PREACHING

PEACE THROUGH CHRIST JESUS’ CROSS

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

CHAPTER SIX

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

CHAPTER SEVEN

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

CHAPTER EIGHT

“VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED? PRAYERLESS LIFE –

PRAYERFUL LIBERATION”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It’s the power released to proclaim a victorious witness of the Resurrected Christ! It’s the power released to live a holy life! In Romans 8:11-14 tells us, “But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

CHAPTER NINE

“VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED?

BESTOWED GRACE – BLESSED VICTORY?”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

CHAPTER TEN

“VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED? ONE LEGISLATOR – ONE LORD”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

CHAPTER ELEVEN

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jesus answered and said to Nicodemus, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”

Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water [that’s the “water” of the Word!], and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’” All believers, true believers, born again believers, will face worldly and satanic opposition to their true faith, but Paul tells all unbelievers in Ephesians 6:10-19,

“Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace;

Above all, taking the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, WHICH IS THE WORD OF GOD; praying always with all prayer, and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints – And for me, that utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

CHAPTER TWELVE

“VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED? EXPERIENCING THE POWER OF

THE PROMISED, PRECIOUS HOLY SPIRIT!”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Holy Spirit is the generating Spirit of Divine Life! In Romans 8:11 Paul wrote, “But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Holy Spirit anointing? Jesus tells us it is an unceasing, undying, passionate hunger for the third person of the Holy Trinity having His way in us! In John 7:37-39 we read, “On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out saying, ‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink…He who believes in ME, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water…But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive: for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.”

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

Are you hearing “process” in that? Are you hearing “passion” in that for more than you’ve experienced? Are you hearing “hunger” for the “much more” of a vibrant, victorious faith? Romans 15:13 says, “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Conflicting Loyalty? You’ve witnessed it: Intellectual attainments in one’s mind of their understanding of the Bible, God’s Holy Word, often becoming nothing more than crippling beliefs! “Thus says the Lord” is translated: “As I see it…!”

Conflicting Loyalty? Effort apart from transformation by repentance toward God and faith in the finished work of Christ at the Cross creates despair, not deliverance and healing and salvation!

Conflicting Loyalty? A change in outward behavior is not the spiritual circumcision of the heart! Romans 2:28-29 tells us: “For he is not a [true] Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; but he is a [true] Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter, whose praise is not from men but from God.”

Conflicting Loyalty? Reaching up, reaching high, is not the same as being raised from the dead by God’s power! Look at 1 Corinthians 15:14, 17! Verse 14, “And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is empty.” Oh, and then Verse 17 tells us, “And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.” WOW!

Conflicting Loyalty? Sinful natures are not cloaked with religious garments, religious conversations, or religious activities, but “crucified with Christ”! Galatians 2:20 is “confirmed eternal love”! “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”

Conflicting Loyalty? “I’m a man so devoted to the costly bricks and mortar, the lights and stained glass, of our beautiful church,” failing to understand HIS body is God’s holy temple because of His grace, mercy, and love! Examine 1 Corinthians 6:19 says, “Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?” Then 1 Corinthians 3:16 declares, “DO YOU NOT KNOW THAT YOU ARE THE TEMPLE OF GOD AND THAT THE SPIRIT OF GOD DWELLS IN YOU?” Unless you’re dominated by ‘conflicting loyalties’ desiring to direct your own spiritual journey on your own terms!

Conflicting Loyalty? “Discipline and self-determination are the marks of an award-winning follower of Christ.” NO! The mark of a true disciple is one “set apart by God Himself,” sanctified, meet for the Master’s use!

Conflicting Loyalty? “Fig leaves,” fashionable sophistication, proper outward attire, educated common sense, band-aids rather than heart transplants, a manly ticker-tape parade with myself on my terms, Ali’s style: “Superman don’t need no seat-belt”! Look at Matthew 13:15!

“For the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, SO THAT I SHOULD HEAL THEM.” But aren’t you aware of the “self-healers” who have no need of the Great Physician?

Conflicting Loyalty? I love what John Eldridge said in his book, “Waking The Dead” – so on target! [p.161], “Religion and its defenders have always been the most insidious enemy of the true faith precisely because they are not glaring opponents; they are IMPOSTORS.” Insidious? Noah Webster’s 1828 Dictionary defines “insidious” as: “lying in wait; watching for an opportunity to ensnare or entrap; deceitful, treacherous…”

Conflicting Loyalty? It’s not ‘fate’ but faith, fellowship, freedom, and a fight! Personal fate is out to steal God’s glory! Anarchy becomes a substitution for the Atonement! T.S. Eliot sorrowfully lamented: “Endless invention, endless experiment, brings knowledge of motion, but not of stillness; knowledge of speech, but not of silence; knowledge of words, and ignorance of the Word. Where is the Life we have lost in living? Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?” [Out of “Choruses from the Rock.”].

Conflicting Loyalty? Have you chosen the sanctified life or the starving life because to be without Christ as Savior and Lord, to be without the Bread of Life is to shrink, starve, and be shriveled up! Jesus said, “I have come that you might have LIFE and have it more abundantly!”

Conflicting Loyalty? “Temptation is not a trap – it’s an opportunity of discerning what I really want or not.” Oh, really? James 1:13-15 tells us: “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am tempted by God’; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted WHEN he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.”

Conflicting Loyalty? “Pressure, pressure, pressure! This job is so demanding – I’m going to have to ‘cut corners’ somewhere, somehow, someway, even if it’s wrong!” Hudson Taylor had difficult trials he had to face up to – he wrote out of that hard moment: “It doesn’t matter how great the pressure is. What really matters is WHERE THE PRESSURE LIES – whether it comes between you and God or whether it presses you nearer His heart.” Never let pressure to cause you to look away from or pass by the PRESENCE OF CHRIST JESUS HIMSELF!

Conflicting Loyalty? That’s when courage is called for but one allows cowardice to call the shots! No doubt this is why the famous Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn wrote in “East and West,” [New York, Harper & Row, 1980, p.45], “Must one point out that from ancient times a decline in courage has been considered the beginning of the end.”

Conflicting Loyalty? It was Martin Luther who once said: “The ultimate proof of the sinner is that he does not know his own sin.” Please read carefully from Jerry Falwell’s “25 of the Greatest Sermons Ever Preached,” [Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, p.18], a quote of George Whitefield from his famous message, “The Method of Grace,” based on Jeremiah 6:14! Whitefield said: “As God can send a nation or people no greater blessing than to give them faithful, sincere and upright ministers, so the greatest curse that God can possibly send upon a people in this world is to give them over to blind, unregenerate, carnal, lukewarm, and unskilled guides. And yet, in all ages, we find that there have been many wolves in sheep’s clothing…that prophesied smoother things than God did allow.”

In Niccolo Machiavelli’s, “The Prince,” [New York; BANTAM, 1966, p.63], he wrote: “Men are so simple and so much inclined to obey immediate needs that a deceiver will never lack victims for his deceptions.” WOW!!

Conflicting Loyalty? I was reading recently Dr. James Kennedy’s and Jerry Newcombe’s book, “Cross Purposes,” [Multonomal Publi., 2007, pps. 25-26]. “When I was in seminary, I went to a jail to preach the gospel to those who were locked up inside. I had never been to a place like that to preach, and I must say I was a little unnerved by it. I was sent into a big room where I was separated by bars from probably a dozen prisoners. As they were milling around, I started to talk to them. I probably hadn’t gotten two minutes into my talk when one of the largest inmates suddenly came at the bars (which I was happy were there at that point) and said to me, “Mister, you just go tell that God of yours all I want from Him is what I deserve!” “Sir,” I replied, “if you got what you deserved from God, the floor would open up right where you stand and drop you straight into hell, for that is precisely what you deserve. I don’t say that because you’re behind these bars while I’m outside them, because that is what we all deserve. If we got our just deserts, we would each and every one be condemned – because, you see, we’re actually already condemned. Christ said of the whole human race, “You are condemned already.” [John 3:18-19!].

Let me “shift gears”! I pray “conflicting loyalty never becomes the life-long pattern of your life, but that “by Faith” you appropriate our Lord’s “All-Consuming Love”! The Scripture I feel so led by our Lord to share with you here is Romans 8:35-39 where Paul wrote: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: ‘For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.’ YET IN ALL THESE THINGS WE ARE MORE THAN CONQUERORS THROUGH HIM WHO LOVED US. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

I don’t know how you read the above passage, but the one thing I’m sure of is the fact there are those who would like to “separate” you from Christ Jesus! “The love of Christ” is an offense to Satan and the powers of darkness; “the love of Christ” is a stumbling block to those who would be reconciled on their own terms; “the love of Christ” becomes contemptible to some because they don’t receive God in Christ Who FIRST “loved us;” “the love of Christ” separates some because, they believe, relationship to Holy God is merited, earned, rewarded by what THEY DO – not what CHRIST HAS DONE ONCE FOR ALL AT THE CROSS!; “the love Of Christ infuriates some because “my behavior should be recognized by God rewarding me because of my undaunted radiance – I shine brighter than even Jesus who was called ‘the light of the world’.”

Love for God is not manufactured in a fallen man’s heart or mind! It’s why John wrote in 1 John 4:19, “We love Him because He first loved us.”

There has never been a man, woman, boy, or girl, inclined to love God and be His follower and devoted servant. The darkness of one’s being has never produced ‘new life’ but only His amazing love transforms our darkness into His Life and Light and Liberty and Love! It is so very, very clear throughout all the Word of God that any man who does not passionately love God has never truly known Him or been ‘birthed’ into a family of faith relationships!

And if we have been ‘birthed’ into a family of faith relationship, does that mean our ‘LIFE-STYLE’ is unconditional love of others? In 1 John 4:10-11 we read: “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought [“must”] to love one another.”

Spurgeon was a very bold, brave, brilliant preacher and student of God’s Holy Word. In his ninth volume of “Spurgeon’s Sermons, [Memorial Library, pps.307-308] he wrote: “Now no man is a Christian who does not love Christians. He, who, being in the church, is yet not of it heart and soul, is but an intruder in the family. But since love to our brethren springs out of love to our one common Father, it is plain that we must have love to the Father, or else we shall fail in one of the indispensable marks of the children of God: “We know that we have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren;” but we cannot truly love the brethren unless we [do] love the Father; therefore, lacking love to God, we lack love to the church, which is an essential mark of grace.”

There are two verses in John 1 that we need to put together!! John 1:14 says, “And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen His glory, the glory of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.” Then John 1:18 says, “No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made Him known.”

Do you see it? THE WORD [Emmanuel, ‘God in Flesh’] became flesh! And the God mankind had never known became clearly visible! All of a sudden, flashing before us like ten million rays of the sun is Christ Jesus: GOD IS LIGHT! GOD IS LOVE! GOD IS LIBERTY! GOD LIFTS US OUT OF DESPAIR TO A THRONE OF GRACE, MERCY, AND LOVE!

Didn’t Paul tell us through his Colossians letter: “He [Jesus] is the image of the invisible God.” [Colossians 1:15], and then Colossians 1:22 says: “For in Him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.”

“Wondrous Love, so full of Life, Wondrous Love stripping strife, Wondrous Love to us is given, Wondrous Love transports to Heaven. Wondrous Love, there rings the Bell, Wondrous Love delivered from hell. Wondrous Love, Jesus came To show God, Jesus, and the Spirit the Same. Wondrous Love, Jesus came To set us free, No longer a captive of Satan to be. Wondrous Love, God’s Son was groaning, Because of His Love from sin atoning.” [JFF].

Paul said in Romans 5:8, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners CHRIST DIED FOR US.” What an awesome revelation! The word ‘demonstrates’ is from a Greek word meaning “to commend, establish, stood near, consists “ – or “holds together”! In Ephesians 4 Paul had been talking about “the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ,” Verse 12, and then said in Verse 15, “but speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head – Christ – Verse 16, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.”

HOW DO WE RATIONALLY, FAITHFULLY, PRACTICALLY, put all this together to honor God’s faithfulness to us?

• GOD HIMSELF PROVES, COMMENDED, DEMONSTRATED HIS LOVE TOWARD ALL MEN! What does John 3:16 tell us? “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
• GOD KNEW, UNDERSTOOD, GRASPED THE SORROWFUL TRUTH THAT MAN’S SIN BROUGHT SEPARATION FROM HIM! I don’t know who wrote it, but they surely understood sin’s consequences – “Sin is man’s declaration of independence from God.” It was John Bunyan in “The Pilgrim’s Progress” who wrote: “One leak will sink a ship; and one sin will destroy a sinner,” and God’s intent is to resurrect the dead, destroyed sinners who have been separated from His eternal love.”
• GOD SOVEREIGNLY DETERMINED ONLY A SINLESS SACRIFICE WAS SUFFICIENT, SUPREMELY EFFECTIVE, TO SAVE SINFUL MAN FROM HIS SIN AND RECONCILE HIM TO HOLY GOD!

Romans 6:23 is clear! “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life IN Christ Jesus our Lord.” Paul had told the church at Rome, and us, in Romans 5:21, “so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Oh, then Paul really dispelled the phoniness of some modern-day teachings that ‘Christians can’t do anything but sin until they get to heaven! Roman 6:1-3, 10 says:

“What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?

Verse 10, “For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.”

Oh, please read, contemplate, receive, stand on Oswald Chambers’ words concerning Romans 5:10 which says: “For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be [being] saved by His life.” He then wrote: [“My Utmost For His Highest,” pps.223-224], “The salvation of God does not stand on human logic, it stands on the sacrificial Death of Jesus. We can be born again because of the Atonement of our Lord. Sinful men and sinful women can be changed into new creatures, not by their repentance or their belief, but by the marvelous work of God in Christ Jesus which is prior to all experience. The impregnable safety of justification and sanctification is God Himself. We have not to work out these things ourselves; they have been worked out by the Atonement. The supernatural becomes natural by the miracle of God; there is the realization of what Jesus Christ has already done – “It is FINISHED!”

God’s Heavenly Love made practical for us? 2 Corinthians 5:21, “For He [God] made Him [Jesus] who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

• AMAZING LOVE? GOD IN CHRIST “DIED ON THE CROSS” FOR YOU AND ME! Amazing love? If YOU were the only person who had ever lived – past, present, future – on the Cross, Christ Jesus would have died there JUST FOR YOU!

“God commended His love for us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Can you say, “Christ died for me”? I don’t know how you respond to that, but in Job 42:5-6 we read: Job speaking, “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eyes see You. Therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”

To see Jesus on the Cross dying just for you, is to see yourself as God sees you, yet He loves you with an everlasting love for you – and He proved His love for you at Calvary’s Cross!

Dr. James Kennedy, in his book “The Presence of a Hidden God,” [p.191], wrote: “Just imagine for a moment that God were NOT love. Suppose, instead, that God were a cosmic ogre, playing with people like grasshoppers in a bottle’ – suppose God were a demon, filled with malevolent hatred, or suppose God were an impersonal force, like fate or some machine that had no feeling, no sympathy whatsoever toward mankind.”

But that’s not our God of Calvary’s Cross! Oh, there are those who truly wish God were dead, but even then to them the Cross and empty tomb still stand as expressions of eternal love for eternal fools! “The fool has said in his heart, ‘there is no God’! But, history stands, His-Story stands: Our God is the God who will not die – we serve a Risen Savior!

You need to know it if you haven’t heard it: “We love Him because He first loved us!” An old hymn says it like this: “See, from His head, His hands, His feet, Sorrow and love flow mingling down; Did e’er such love and sorrow meet or thorns compose so rich a crown?”

Do you understand? It’s only in seeing Christ Jesus suffer, bleed, and die for our sins that one truly discovers, discerns, and depends on the love of God! Here’s how Spurgeon put it long ago: [Spurgeon’s Sermons, Memorial Library, Vol.9, p.311],

“Again, our love to God does not spring from the self-determining power of the will. I greatly question whether anything does in the world, good or bad. There are some who set up the will as a kind of deity, – it does as it wills with earth and heaven; but in truth the will is not a master but a servant. To the sinner his will is a slave; and in the saint, although the will is set free, it is still blessedly under bonds to God. Men do not will a thing because they will it, but because their affections, their passions, or their judgments influence their wills in that direction. No man can stand up and say, ‘I, unbiased and unaided, will to love God and I will not love Satan.” Such proud self-assuming language would prove him a liar; the man would be clearly a worshipper of himself. A man can only love God when he has perceived some reasons for so doing; and the first argument for loving God, which influences the intellect so as to turn the affections, is the reason mentioned in the text: “We love Him because He first loved us.”

God Himself established forever His love for you as Jesus suffered, bled, and died on the Cross! God demonstrated! God proved His love for YOU at Calvary! Now, how is that awesome understanding maintained productively and efficiently and faithfully day by day? Examine Romans 5:5! “Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”

History! Historic Presence and Power! Romans 5:6 says, “For when we were still without strength (“helpless”), in due time Christ died for the ungodly.” We WERE “enemies” but reconciled to God through the death of His Son, Romans 5:10, and having been reconciled, “we shall be [being] saved by His life.”

History? John Piper, in his book “The Pleasures of God,” [p.165], wrote: “Jesus wants us to see that His willingness to lose His life is because of His love for the glory of the Father.” He then quoted John 17:4, “I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do.”

Then Piper said: “All of Jesus’ work was designed to honor the worth of His Father’s glory. Therefore, all His pain and shame and humiliation and dishonor served to magnify the Father’s glory, because they showed how infinitely valuable God’s glory is, that such a loss should be suffered to demonstrate its worth.”

And what about your life, your walk, your calling, your purpose? Is it to honor the worth of the Father’s glory? How did Paul put it? 1 Corinthians 10:31, “Therefore, whether you eat or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”

Let me close this chapter with words again from Oswald Chambers out of “My Utmost For His Highest.” [p.238]. “The tendency is to look for the marvelous in our experience; we mistake the sense of the heroic for being heroes. It is one thing to go through a crisis gradually, but another thing to go through every day glorifying God when there is no witness, no limelight, no one paying the remotest attention to us. If we do not want medieval haloes, we want something that will make people say – ‘What a wonderful man of prayer he is! What a pious devoted woman she is!’ If you are rightly devoted to the Lord Jesus, you have reached the sublime height where no one ever thinks of noticing you, all that is noticed is that the power of God comes through you all the time.”

O For A Thousand Tongues!! Charles Wesley wrote the famous hymn. It says: “O for a thousand tongues to sing My great Redeemer’s praise, The glories of my God and King, The triumphs of His grace.

My gracious Master and my God, Assist me to proclaim, To spread through all the earth abroad, The honors of Your name.

Jesus! The name that charms our fears, That bids our sorrows cease; It’s music in the sinner’s ears, It’s life, and health, and peace.

He breaks the power of canceled sin, He sets the prisoners free; His blood can make the foulest clean, His blood availed for me.”

In Revelation 1:4-5 John wrote: “Grace to you and peace from Him who is and who was and is to come and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness”; He loved us, washed us in His blood!”

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

“VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED? VICTIMS OR VICTORS?”

Noah Webster’s 1828 Dictionary defines “victim” as follows: “Something destroyed; something sacrificed in the pursuit of an object. How many persons have fallen “victims” to jealousy, to lust, to ambition!?!”

Then, Webster defined “victor” as “one who conquers in a war; a vanquisher; one who defeats an enemy in battle…one who wins, or gains the advantage…”; “…as, grace will carry us ‘victoriously’ through all difficulties.”

Victims! I want us to look at this truth before we unveil the reality of one, by repentance and faith, becoming “VICTORS”! It was the great Englishman, G.K. Chesterton, who once said: “Any one who doesn’t believe in God will believe in anything.” And there’s no doubt that some have slid into the muck and mire of “no God” and opened themselves up for an onslaught of victimization!

Stephen Olford, in his commentary on Philippians, made a comment about Dr. Arthur F. Glasser, dean of the school of world missions at Fuller Theological Seminary, evaluating Chesterton’s statement: “If you…fall into the relativistic vacuum of thinking any religion is as good as another, you can end up falling patsy to any kind of ideology, such as a Manson family, a Hitler, or a Jim Jones…The religious relativism and secularized nihilism of the times [leave] many unable to distinguish between religious realities and fraud, between the divine and the demonic.” And, oh, how true that statement IS!!

There came a moment in time in early human history, after the Fall, that God said: [Genesis 6:5-7], “Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. The Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. The Lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to the birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I have made them.”

John Piper, in his book “A Godward Life,” commented on the previous verses. [p.221], “To answer this, consider another instance of God’s action that (like creation) resulted in great sin and pain. Acts 2:23 says that Jesus was delivered up to crucifixion “by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God.” In other words, God knew ahead of time that he was sending Jesus to be killed. Yet the killing of the Son of God was more evil than all the evil in Noah’s day that made God feel regret that he had made man. Thus if God regretted the creation of mankind when he saw the great misery and evil that it unleashed, may we not assume that he also felt a similar regret over the incarnation of the Son when he saw the undeserved, wicked, infinitely evil murder and suffering of his “only begotten” and “beloved” Son?…Yet we are told explicitly that God not only knew this would happen, but planned it (Acts 2:23, Isaiah 53:10). So if he was capable of feeling genuine sorrow and revulsion of the wickedness of his Son’s murderers and at the suffering of the Son himself, then it must be that he was capable of approving the sending of the Son and at the same time experiencing in advance the sorrow and regret over the sin and suffering involved in the Son’s death. If this is conceivable in the incarnation of the Son, it is conceivable in the creation of man.”

What was Piper telling us? No doubt, God knew of the Fall of man – not happiness over it, no joy so He could then show His redemptive love, but showing us two sides of a ‘coin’ – sorrow over the Fall, sureness of His eternal purpose to make ‘victors’ out of ‘victims’!

Victims! If “the thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy,” are there those people who are captured by the ‘thief’ and his advancing armies? 1 Peter 5:8 says, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.” I sincerely regret, feel sorrow for, if YOU don’t believe ‘demons’ and ‘powers of darkness’ are real – it just reveals how ‘victimized’ you’ve become!

In Ephesians 6:11-12 Paul wrote, “Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.”

When the Word speaks of “pulling down strongholds” it certainly refers not only to manmade strongholds but those demonic strongholds where the powers of darkness have settled in to captured territory in one’s life. Deliverance is needed!

Victims? Do a word study sometime on ‘false gods’ and their origin – they all come out of rebellion to the One, True, Living God, and an unwillingness to bow before Him – so, they invent, fabricate, indulge in fleshly religious feelings and pleasures that deceptively make them feel good about themselves, which is ‘what I do’ rather than what Christ Jesus did!

You are aware that our world easily produces and accepts ‘religious frauds’ and their inventors – the ‘religious charlatans or religious elite’! In 2 Peter 2:1-3 we read: “but there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed. By covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words; for a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber.”

Paul warned the Philippians of the same deception! In Philippians 3:2 we read: “Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the mutilation!” F.B. Meyer called these “pests of every Christian community.” He said: These are “the fanatical and unbalanced [people in the church!], the ‘cranks’;…They exaggerate the importance of trifles; they catch up every new theory and vagary, and follow it to the detriment of truth and love…It is impossible to overestimate the harm that these people do, or the desirability of keeping clear of them…”

Victims? Because of Fallen sin natures, there are those captured by the intensity of “pumping flesh,” proud of their fallen sin nature, perverted in its demonstrations, powerless in themselves to break the ‘hold’ on their lives! Look at Romans 8:12-13a! “Therefore, brethren, we are debtors – not to the flesh [old sin nature], to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die;…” “Pumping flesh”? Someone wrote: “The man who sings his own praises always gets the wrong pitch.”

Victims? There’s an interesting verse in 1 John 4:18 where John wrote: “But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.” Fear is a crippler! In the “Bible Friend,” from the Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations,” there’s comments by Ann Landers, former famous newspaper counselor: “She was asked if there was any one problem, which predominates throughout the letters she receives, and her reply was, the one problem above all others, seems to be fear. People are afraid of losing their health, their wealth, their beloved ones. People are afraid of life itself.” I wondered if Ann Landers knew about “the spirit of fear”!

Victims? Have you ever wrestled with the difference between ‘speculation’ and ‘certainty’? Speculations are not bad when it involves ‘contemplation’. But when ‘speculation’ becomes simply one’s opinions it becomes that which has nothing to do with ‘fact’ but one’s theories. Truth isn’t speculative – it’s reality! Certainty is fact, certainty is verified, certainty produces eternal results – “I know that MY Redeemer Lives!” “Behold, as the eyes of servants look upon the hand of their masters, so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God.” [Psalm 123:2]. No speculation, just divine certainty!

Victims? Are you aware on any around you who became a ‘victim’ of those dark, subtle, seductive ‘fishing lures of sin’ that hooked them so strongly, and then led them to a cage for future skinning and death? Even some around you in the ‘Christian community’? You do know we have an ‘adversary’ who is out to ‘devour’ you?!?

Victims? What deception when one chooses the prism of self-analysis for an evaluation of himself! In 2 Corinthians 10:12 Paul wrote: “For we dare not class ourselves or compare ourselves with those WHO COMMEND THEMSELVES. But they, measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise.” You ‘choose’ your ‘self-consciousness’ over “Christ Consciousness”?

Are you aware that you’re either cemented in your self or you’re ‘anchored’ in Christ? Hebrews 6:17-20 tells us: “Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath, that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hope of the hope set before us.”

Victims? Yes, even ‘Christians’ who are faithful every Sunday to a local church but faithless, unresponsive, uncaring to a lost, alienated, separated world around them! I know, like in India, there were pastors who attended my conferences, and were later martyred for the faith. It was Dr. A.T. Pierson who once said: “A light that does not shine, a germ that does not grow, a spring that does not flow, is no more of an anamoly of a Christian who does not witness.”

Victims? In 2 Timothy 2:22 Paul wrote: “Flee…youthful lusts,” but across the American scene immorality is fast capturing a large segment of the youth population with shame becoming a lost term! Wild orgies, reckless alcoholic drinking, drugs, promiscuous sex – a youthful population being “pumped” to plunge into and wade and wallow in “dirt”!

Victims? It’s not true of ALL children who live under the influence of godless parents but it is true of a great number. Bossuet said: “Great men are formed on the knees of their mothers.” But also it is just as true that evil men are adversely impacted by godless dads and moms! There was a man I read about sentenced to 15 years hard labor for a violent crime. At his sentencing he was given permission by the judge to speak: “I pardon the judges; their sentence is just; I pardon the police; they did well to arrest me. But there are two people in this court I will never forgive. They are my parents, who brought me up without God and without hope.” How sad is That?!?

Victims? Is it heartless husbands or manipulative wives who neither know about “giving honor” to one another? Is it marriages that are marred because neither/or only one knows the Master? Is it marriages that have decided they are better ‘home-builders’ than God Himself? Psalm 127:1 says, “Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it; unless the Lord guards the city, the watchman stays awake in vain.”

Victims? 1 John 2:17 says, “He that does the will of God abides forever…”. Yet, there is no abiding or remaining because “the house” has NO ETERNAL FOUNDATION! In James 4:17 we read, “Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does it not, to him it is sin.” Have you ever paused, reflected, wrestled with, “what would Holy God have me to do?” Sadly, far too many have sought to forge their own way through life’s wildernesses, and they remain LOST! To then live in rebellion to His Way, defiance to His Truth, even facing His will and Word as abhorrent is to live miserably in bondage to one’s own sin and self!

Victims? Slaves to one’s past, preoccupied with one’s past, blinded by one’s past, always establishes high and impenetrable walls, unless one accepts the blood of Christ for the gift of new life, new hope, new victories because of Him!

Victims? In Hebrews 12:1 is an interesting verse! “Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.” But, there are those holding onto rather than throwing off, holding onto a path of sin rather than repenting and forsaking, and failing to get in on the race set before them – “no running for me, not even toward God!”

Victims? Yes, even a disciple of Christ can be a victim! When you read Paul in Romans 5:17, 19, you hear him say: “I do not understand what I do…For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do – this I keep on doing.” This is a time period in his spiritual journey when Paul was void of learning about the Spirit-controlled life of Romans 8! But he did learn, and he did overcome!

And if this is still your journey, their journey, our journey, what a sad state of affairs is: “He/she is a VICTIM!” But I believe there’s an opposite truth to ‘VICTIM’, and that’s the truth of “VICTOR!”

In 2 Corinthians 5:14-15 we learn afresh and anew, or reminded of, or settled into its truth, becoming a VICTOR! It says: “For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.”

The “victor” is one captured, by grace and mercy and love, birthed, renewed, overruled by the very love of Christ fully expressed “At The Cross” – and the new believer takes the Cross unto himself and experiences the reality of resurrection life, resurrection power, and resurrection hope!

In Matthew 12:20 there is a beautiful verse for our comfort as disciples of Christ. It says: “A bruised reed He will not break, and smoking flax He will not quench, till He sends forth justice to victory.”

Who has ever lived on the face of God’s earth and not known “bruised reeds” or “smoking flax”? And our Lord and Savior comes TO US with “blessed assurance”: Matthew 11:28-30, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and LEARN FROM ME, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

And, if you do not know “rest for your souls,” then you’ve never entered the Victory Land of Faith and Fulfillment! If you do not know “rest for your souls,” then you’ve never entered His Kingdom! In Romans 14:17 we read, “for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.”

“Rest for your souls”? “Victory”? “Righteousness”? “Kingdom of God Allegiance”? It’s the grace of God “in Christ” with the gift of a new man! In Ephesians 4:24 Paul said, “and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.”

THAT’S VICTORY! “New man,” “new life,” “new hope,” “new dreams,” “new purpose,” “new destiny,” “new songs,” “new covenant,” “new city,” “new creation,” “new name,”…Look at Romans 6:4! “Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.”

What a joy and delight to be a “new-born in Christ,” but just as with your own children neither you nor God wanted them remaining with spiritual diapers. In fact, Peter said in 1 Peter 2:2, “as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby.”

In our “victory” in Christ, we do have a goal! Romans 8:29 says: “For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.”

“Super-Saints” is not our calling – our calling is death to the old man, releasing ALL that Jesus is in Himself! “Christ in you the hope of glory!” Why ‘death to the old man’ as a true believer if every day we examine ourselves as we were without Christ? I believe Jesus said in Luke 9:23, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me,” which is why some aren’t “following” because they are too busy examining if THEY measure up! No, you don’t! You were crucified with Christ once for all!

We begin, continue, and end at the place of Victory in Jesus Himself. And from that point we begin our pilgrimage of “resting in” Him and fighting the fight of faith in being finished with the old man and starting, continuing, completing our journey in the “New Man”! Romans 12:2 says, “And do not be conformed to this world, but be [being] transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”

Isn’t it amazing to you? Our “victory” in Christ even has a faithful promise: Philippians 4:13 says: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

I’ll never forget a conversation I had with Dr. Bill Anderson a number of years ago. In college, over sixty years ago, we were teammates on Baylor University’s Sugar Bowl champions against number two in the nation, Tennessee Volunteers and All-American, Johnny Majors! We were either tenth or eleventh in the nation pre-game! No one favored our win at all – Bill mentioned a friend telling him after the game, listening on a radio broadcast, that a commentator said at half-time: “Don’t worry, Vols’ fans; Tennessee is too strong and Baylor is too weak. The Vols will pull it out.” But they didn’t! We held on and won 13-7!!

“Victory” is SWEET! “Victory” in Jesus is so satisfying! “Victory” in our Lord is so peaceful! “Victory” in the Master is to be in His triumphant Life and its fullness! What does 2 Corinthians 2:14 tell us?

“Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place.”

This victory in Jesus is far more than ‘believing’ – it’s a matter of TRUST! It’s a matter of “leaning not to our own understanding but in all our ways acknowledging Him.” Come Hell’s attack or the high waters of fleshly assaults – we “rest” in Him! In 1 Peter 4:19 we read: “Therefore let those who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls to Him in doing good, as to a faithful Creator.”

If Jesus had to be “about My Father’s business,” is there any circumstance of life in us Holy God cannot use for His business? Too many times too many saints fail to discern “the graces of His ministering life” at work in them!

When Jesus said in John 16:33, “In the world you shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world,” He knew what we would face but He also knew where our overcoming spirit and nature resided – “IN HIM!!”

“Victory” IN JESUS? Isaiah 40:29-31 says, “He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might He increases strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall, But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.”

“Victory” is never depending upon ‘self-awareness’ or ‘self-confidence’ or ‘self-realization’ – in Philippians 3:7-10 Paul wrote, “But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I MAY KNOW HIM and THE POWER OF HIS RESURRECTION, and THE FELLOWSHIP OF HIS SUFFERINGS, BEING CONFORMED TO HIS DEATH, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.”

“Victory”? Ephesians 4:13-15 illumines the true path true disciples walk on: “till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should be no longer children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head – Christ -!!”

“Victory”? It’s a deep, deep awareness of being on the journey with our Lord “pressing on” until all that is true of Him has found its freedom and liberty in you and me! Philippians 3:12-14 declares, “Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

Have you grasped it yet, understand, comprehend, “rest in,” unflinching loyalty to the Resurrected Christ in you? Here’s how Oswald Chambers put it: “The idea is not that WE do the work FOR God, but that we are so loyal to Him that He can do His work through us – God wants to use us as He used His own Son.” Galatians 5:24 says, “And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”

Isn’t that amazing? AND YET SO LIBERATING! If there is no denial of self, there is no appropriation of the fullness and victory of Christ! This is why Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2:4, “And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.”

“Victory”? I love what Oswald Chambers wrote after quoting John 8:36, “Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.” In his “My Utmost For His Highest,” [pps.239-240], he wrote: “If there is any remnant of individual conceit left, it always says “I can’t.” Personality never says, “I can’t,” but simply absorbs and absorbs; personality always wants more and more. It is the way we are built. We are designed with a great capacity for God; and sin and our individuality are the things that keep us from getting at God. God delivers us from sin;; we have to deliver ourselves from individuality, i.e., to present our natural life to God and sacrifice it until it is transformed into a spiritual life by obedience…Stop listening to the tyranny of individuality and get emancipated out into personality.” And I would add: Our victory is EMANCIPATION INTO HIS PERSON-ALITY!!

“Victory”? Please, please; I challenge you to open the door of your own life, right now, to Romans 8:35-39!! “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: ‘For Your sake we are killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.’

Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

F.J. Huegel, in his book “Forever Triumphant,” opens with this statement: “It comes as a shock when one realizes that the Christian life, as for the most part it is being lived, falls far short of the divine standard. The status of unnumbered Christians is sub-normal. They are below par. They are not out-and-out sinners along with the worldling, for they have named the name of Jesus in true faith and are indeed members of His church; but talk to them about a life of perennial victory, about being more than conquerors, about a life “hid with Christ in God” in unbroken and joyous communion, and you will fail to get an understanding response. You may provoke an incredulous smile.”

But, thank God, THERE ARE THOSE who have discovered, walked in, live by the truth of 1 John 4:17b, that “because as He is, so are we in this world.” In a previous fourth chapter verse, Verse 9, John also said: “In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that WE MIGHT LIVE THROUGH HIM.”

Do you know what pleases God? In Galatians 1:15-16 Paul said: “But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, to reveal His Son in me, I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood…”. With whom did he confer? How about Holy God Himself, the Resurrected Christ, and the Holy Spirit!

To the church at Colossae, Paul later wrote, Colossians 2:9-10, “For in Him [Christ] dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.” So, what took place at Calvary’s Cross as Jesus suffered, bled, and died? In Galatians 2:20 Paul said, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself FOR ME!” Isn’t that what we learned in Galatians 3:26? “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.”

If you haven’t heard it or learned it as yet, Christ Jesus won “the victory” at the Cross in our behalf, which is why Paul said in 2 Corinthians 2:14, “Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place.”

Are YOU living “victoriously” as the disciple of Christ? Are you “the overcomer”? Are you triumphant as a traveler on the Highway of Holiness? Having been “born of God” are you victorious over your world in and through Christ Jesus?

“In Christ” we’re not part of a hoax – we’re part of Heaven’s Royal Family! “In Christ” we’re not overcome but are overcomers through Christ’s Victory in our behalf! “In Christ” we’re not strugglers after a goal that can never be reached or crossed – we’re finished products of His amazing saving Grace, complete in Christ, lacking nothing!

Romans 8:2 says, “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ has made me free from the law of sin and death.” You’re not a victim! YOU ARE VICTOR IN CHRIST!!

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

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

I don’t know how you respond as you are reading the Word, but there are times when I am absolutely overwhelmed, burdened, and broken when I read like I did today Psalm 142:3-4 when David, King David, was overwhelmed, yes, distraught over the treatment of his persecutors! It says:

“When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, then You [God] knew my path. In the way which I walk they have secretly set a snare for me. Look on my right hand and see, for there is no one who acknowledges me; refuge has failed me; NO ONE CARES MY SOUL.”

Reading Isaiah again recently, I was awakened anew of the desperation many become aware of in their own lives because they lost the calling to care for others. In Isaiah 17:10-11 the prophet wrote about the ‘burden’ to come to Syria AND Israel because they had forgotten even caring about God Himself much less other nations and people!

“Because you have forgotten the God of your salvation, and have not been mindful of the Rock of your stronghold, therefore you will plant pleasant plants and set out foreign seedlings; In the day you will make your plant to grow, and in the morning you will make your seed to flourish; but the harvest will be a heap of ruins in the day of grief and desperate sorrow.”

Is Holy God telling us that, not only godless cities become desolations, but uncaring people, churches, and nations, can, and possibly will become destined for desolation because there is no compassion for the needy?!?

We must, before continuing the Title: “Caring For Others – The Sign of Christ’s Presence”, witness Him for ourselves in His compassionate ministry whether “we” are a part of Him or not! In John 13:1-10 we read, “Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come that He should depart from this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.

And supper being ended, the devil having already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray Him, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come from God and was going to God, rose from supper and laid aside His garments, took a towel and girded Himself.

After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded. Then He came to Simon Peter. And Peter said to Him, ‘Lord, are You washing my feet?’ Jesus answered and said to him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but you will know after this.”

Peter said to Him, “You shall never wash my feet!” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me.” Simon Peter said to Him, “Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head!” Jesus said to him, “He who is bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all of you.” Jesus knew then, and He knows now, those who would, will, and do betray Him!

In Hebrews 10:19-25 the author faithfully challenges us to remembrance of our true calling! “Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, and having a High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.”

And, dare I tell you, “that Day approaching” is the Day of our Lord’s examination of whether or not we followed His Example and cared for, yes, a lost, needy, unreconciled people, as well as our care for one another in family, the Faith, and the wounded of our spiritual warfare with the powers of darkness! “Jesus, You shall never wash my feet,” or are you one who now realizes, “Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head!” Clean hands to serve –clean heads in understanding our mission, our calling, yes, our major responsibility of touching our world around us with His love, His mercy, His grace, His Truth, His Son and their Savior! How does it come to fruition in us as His disciples?

ONE, IS AVAILABILITY! If I am His, and I belong to Him, is the path I walk as a true disciple “my way” or His way? We’ve all seen in the Word the encounter of Isaiah with the Living Lord in Isaiah 6:5-9, Isaiah said: “Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.” Isaiah had unveiled before Him the vision of the Kingdom of God, Isaiah experienced the removal of his sin, as we read in Isaiah 6:7, “Behold, this has touched your lips; your iniquity is taken away, and your sin is purged!”

Oh, but then Isaiah heard the heart-cry of Holy God! Isaiah 6:8, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?” And Isaiah responded, “Here am I! Send me.” And God said, “Go, and tell this people.”

When did that change? Or have we become so “spiritually mature” (?) that we’re not “weird disciples” who make themselves available to the lost, dying, perishing, unbelieving, unredeemed, fallen-away world of humanity, yes, deceived by the powers of darkness?

It’s a sad, sad day when church leadership, churches, yes, ‘disciples of Christ’, turn blind eyes to a needy world! Too many churches are intense on ‘self-realization’ to the extent that they sense no calling to truly “reach out” as “witnesses” of His saving grace and mercy! He loves the world – most churches love their own without any consideration of penetrating an unsaved, alienated humanity, with His love! If the church’s aim is to come, according to Ephesians 4:13, “to the unity of the faith AND OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE SON OF GOD, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,” did His fullness include laying down His life in witnessing? “I’ve come to seek and to save that which is lost!” Do you?

TWO, IS COMPASSION! Which I believe is truly a fruit of the Indwelling Holy Spirit! And, of course, Jesus said, “By their fruits you shall know them!” How many ‘disciples’ have crossed your path professing faith in Christ but, sadly, on a pilgrimage of “self-awareness” and “self-realization”, crowning ‘self’ as his/her only priority without any consideration or commitment to “You shall be My witnesses”?

Completeness in Christ without His compassion for the unsaved? In Hebrews 9:14 we read, “How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” But you claim ‘service to Him’ without any consideration of His calling?

In Luke 19:10 the Lord Jesus said: “For the Son of Man has come TO SEEK AND TO SAVE that which was lost.” And, of course, Judaism had lost God’s holy intent, and certainly Holy God passionately desired to see Israel’s salvation but also, through them, the salvation of the entire world!

Why did Jesus once say, Matthew 5:20, “For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.” Just how devoted do you think “the scribes and Pharisees” were to their ‘religious rituals’? But did they touch a dark world with the “Light of Heaven”? Did they touch the ‘lost’ with the true liberty of Heavenly love and grace?

Didn’t you, at first, find it so strange, when in John 7:15 the Jews marveled at Jesus, saying, “How does this Man know letters, having never studied?” [They were supposing without a Rabbi’s PhD that the Creator of it all couldn’t know or understand their religious plateau or prestige!]. In Verses 16-18 the Lord Jesus responded, “My doctrine is not Mine, but His who sent Me. If anyone wills to do His will, he shall know concerning the doctrine, whether it is from God or whether I speak on my own authority. He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but He who seeks the glory of the One who sent Him is true, and no unrighteousness is found in Him.”

Question! “Why did Father-God send Christ Jesus, the Son? In Romans 8:28-29 Paul tells us, “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, TO THOSE WHO ARE CALLED ACCORDING TO HIS PURPOSE. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to BE CONFORMED TO THE IMAGE OF HIS SON, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.”

What did Christ Jesus Himself say? John 10:10, “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” John 11:25, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, [rests in, adheres to, relies upon] though He may die, he shall live. Verse 26, And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?”

If Jesus says, “most assuredly…”, are you assuredly secure in the truth of His Word? In John 5:24-25 our Lord and Savior declared: “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life. Most assuredly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live.” What compassion our Lord has for you and me!

THREE, HIS PURPOSE COMING TO FRUITION IN HIS TRUE DISCIPLE? IT’S BY BRIDGE-BUILDING AWARENESS! Dare I mention ‘life without Him’, as Genesis 1:2 says of the earth, “was without form, and void, and darkness was on the face of the deep (darkness).And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters”? A life “without God” is absent of eternal purpose, void, empty, vain, trying every way possible to subdue the void and emptiness, trying to subdue the darkness in the mind, soul, heart, knowing nothing of “Kingdom-Now Living” in the here and now THROUGH the shed-blood of Christ alone!

Are YOU a true disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ, fully aware of an unbeliever’s destiny apart from Christ? But beyond that, what about Holy God’s eternal intention in Revelation of “Kingdom-Living” now, when in Revelation 21:1-8 He told John:

Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea [or separation?]. Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying.

There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away. Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” And He said to me, “Write, for these words are true and faithful.”

And He said to me, “It is done! I AM the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts. He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son.

But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”

Clean hands to serve and clean heads in understanding our mission, our calling, our presence in a needy world?

FOURTH, IN CARING FOR OTHERS THERE MUST BE THE BIBLICAL SOUNDNESS OF ETERNAL TRUTH IN TOUCHING HEARTS, TRAINING MINDS, AND RELEASING EDUCATED, ENLIGHTENED WILLS THROUGH REPENTANCE TOWARD GOD AND FAITH IN CHRIST’S FINISHED WORK AT THE CROSS!

In John 8:31-32 the Word tells us, Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

Of course, one of the human tragedies in the circles of ‘religious faith’ is what Holy God talked about through Paul in Romans 1:18-25! “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, WHO SUPPRESS THE TRUTH IN UNRIGHTEOUSNESS, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for GOD HAS SHOWN IT TO THEM. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse; because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man – and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, WHO EXCHANGED THE TRUTH OF GOD FOR THE LIE [“You can sin and not die!”], and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. SO BE IT!”

Do you remember the loving spiritual father, Paul, as he taught his spiritual son, Timothy, in 2 Timothy 3:16-17? “All scripture is given by inspiration of God [Holy Scripture, the Holy Bible, not the futile writings of Mohammed or any other false teacher!], and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

Paul went on in 2 Timothy 4:1-4 to say to Timothy and us today, “I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom: Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. BUT YOU BE WATCHFUL IN ALL THINGS, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, FULFILL YOUR MINISTRY!”

Did Paul, in challenging Timothy, challenge us? “Preach the word!” Are you convincing, rebuking, exhorting, with all longsuffering and teaching?

FIFTH, IN CARING FOR OTHERS THERE MUST ALSO BE INTERCESSORY FAITHFULNESS, PRAYING FOR OTHERS, AND CONTINUING TO PRAY!

In 1 Timothy 2:1-3 our intercessory faithfulness in prayer is clearly called for. Paul wrote, “Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings [presidents?] and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”

True spiritual discipleship is not a ‘professing’ life without the faithful practice of intercessory prayer! True spiritual disciples, men or women, are disciples of prayer! It’s conversation with the Father, it’s inter-change with one’s Lord and Savior, it’s petitions, it’s requests, it’s one’s desires refined by the mind, heart, Word and will of Holy God, it’s confession, intercession, the refining of one’s thoughts and dreams according to the Sovereignty of God, it’s thanksgiving, it’s yielded-ness to the “Yes” or “No” of trustful Lord and Savior, it’s requesting His counsel and advice not demanding ‘my way or the highway,’ it’s “asking in Jesus’ Name and leaving the results to God the Father,” and Oswald Chambers really nailed it when he said, “Have you reached such an intimacy with God that the Lord Jesus Christ’s life of prayer is the only explanation of your life of prayer?” [“My Utmost For His Highest,” p.160].

Intercessory Prayer is not a symphony of transfiguration that brings melody to one’s heart and through one’s heart, but knowing, receiving, and celebrating both the composer and conductor – Jesus Only! It’s not a supposed bright light after death experience, but fellowship, submission, and trust in the Light of Life, Jesus Only! It’s not the ‘blessed privilege of witnessing or praying for others, but opening the door through you – Jesus Only! It’s not even those, yes, multitudinous mountain-top experiences in prayer with Him – it’s Jesus Only!

Through your intercessory faithfulness and trust in Whom you offer your prayers, you’re at peace that He, the Lord Jesus Christ, is not fickle but faithful in fully answering you with blessed, eternal intent! As His faithful, praying servant, do you “rest” in Him!

SIXTH, IN CARING FOR OTHERS, IN FAITHFUL INTERCESSION, THERE MUST BE, IN YOU, THE UNDERSTANDING THAT THOSE FOR WHOM YOU PRAY MAY BE A LIFE OR LIVES OF TOTAL DISINTEREST IN THE THINGS OF GOD.

Are you aware that there are hard-shelled, hard-hearted men and women fashioned and shaped by a spirit of unbelief carved by the fallen nature of men dominated by “my respectable goodness”?

Oh, certainly there are many who experience ‘remorse’ for “a few blunders, but to say I need to be saved, born-again, reconciled to God? You, Sir Witness, I see only disgust with your suggestion!”

In Acts 14:2 we read, “But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brethren,” and to be a poisoner against true believers is to be “poisoned against Christ”! It’s a mind game, a heart issue, and a willful decision ‘for’ or ‘against’ the Truth of Christ Jesus as one’s Savior and Lord! Sadly, many, in their minds and hearts are not interested in the things of our Lord and Savior!

Disobedience, as a way of life, to the Holy things of God is personal enslavement to the things of the devil himself – and many are content with that degradation and personal disrespect of the Savior and Lord! Hindrances of true faith are often, like a stormy, destructive wave, sweeping minds, hearts, and wills with obstinacy, disrespect for the very Throne Of God itself, determined to be ruled by their passions, warped wills, and self-independence –“No God-stuff, thank you!” And they go to Hell with the devil and his demons and all unbelievers!

One of those heart-gripping verses in the Bible is John 6:66! “From that time [even] many of Jesus’ disciples went back and walked no more with Him!” Do you recognize that the holy things of Christ, His truths, His ministries, His visions and dreams, are so foreign to a life enslaved to its own opinions, views, desires, or fleshly wants, that rejecting the Life, the Way, The Will, and the Words of Christ, is a “fleshly piece of cake, flavored by the devil himself!”

NO WONDER WE’RE CHALLENGED WITH, AS DISCIPLES OF CHRIST, “PRAY WITHOUT CEASING!” Didn’t Jesus say in Luke 18:1 “that men always ought to pray and not lose heart!” And, praise God, we’ll not be those who lose heart, but press in to Him more and more!

Hattie Bell Allen and B.B. McKinney wrote in the Broadman Press of Nashville, Tenn., 1940!, the hymn, “Christ For the Whole Wide World! It says:

“Christ for the whole wide world! Our task has just begun, For millions wait in every land The message of God’s Son. Shall they be left in sin, To die without His Word, Without the Savior Jesus Christ, Because they never heard?

Christ for the whole wide world! His message must be sent To millions dying in their sin To call them to repent. Christ Jesus died to save, But they can never know Until we bring our gifts of love And bid His heralds go!

Christ for the whole wide world! His heralds will proclaim Salvation for men everywhere In Jesus’ blessed name. And we who cannot go To bear His tidings far Will pray for those who take the Word – And witness where we are.” Amen?

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

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

It always amazes me, not the sinfulness of all men, but the amazing grace of God, as I read Peter over and over again, saying to us: 1 Peter 2:21-25, For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps: “Who committed no sin, nor was deceit found in His mouth”, who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously; who Himself BORE OUR SIN IN HIS OWN BODY ON THE TREE [The Cross, Calvary!], that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness – “BY WHOSE STRIPES YOU WERE HEALED.” For you were like sheep going astray, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.”

Sadly, I’m not sure at all that most men/women, boys or girls, have any awareness of Sin and Its Complications or of Sin’s Only Remedy, but the one major thing at this moment for your consideration is God’s unveiling of its seriousness, so serious that the very Cross of our Lord and Savior is God’s declaration and revelation and unveiling of His judgment on your sin and mine, the sacrifice of His Son, the Lord Jesus, as the “at-one-ment” or atonement of Christ as the only hope of man’s escape from sin’s penalty, death, and our reconciliation with Holy God through the amazing unveiling of the heart of God in His love for us as He gave Jesus to become sin for us that, through Him, we might receive reconciliation to Holy God!

And, if you didn’t know it, Revelation 13:8 tells us of “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” God understood the necessity of man’s reconciliation with Holy God because of the Fall, necessitating divine intervention through the Lamb’s “blood sacrifice”! Oswald Chambers wrote in “My Utmost For His Highest,” [p.70], “Beware of separating God ‘manifest in the flesh’ from ‘the Son becoming sin.’ The Incarnation was for the purpose of Redemption. God became incarnate for the purpose of putting away sin; not for the purpose of Self-Realization.” And if, and it was, His crucifixion was to put away sin by His blood sacrifice, how does a “professing people”, and even “the church” of Christ HE atoned for, keep on sinning when He said, “Go, and SIN NO MORE,” [John 5:14], with the added few words, yet so frightening it ought to scare Hell right out of you, “lest a worse thing come upon you.”

Does the supposed “American-Christian culture” understand “Sin’s Complications” and its inevitable results? I’m afraid a “changed American culture” is void on understanding the seriousness of sin in and across the nation! It’s so alarming and disturbing to read an article published on Facebook by Franklin Graham, Billy Graham’s son, that says the following: “Time is like a river, You cannot touch the water twice, because the flow that has passed will never pass again.”

Franklin Graham was speaking at the First Baptist Church in Jacksonville, Florida, January, 2015, when he said America will not come back. “The American dream ended on November 6^th, 2012 in Ohio. The second term of Barack Obama has been the nail in the coffin for the legacy of the white Christian males who discovered, explored, pioneered, settled and discovered the greatest republic in human history. A coalition of blacks, Latinos, feminists, gays, government workers, union members, environmental extremists, the media, Hollywood, uninformed young people, the “forever needy”, the chronically unemployed, illegal aliens and other “fellow travelers” have ended Norman Rockwell’s America.

You will never again out-vote these people. It will take individual acts of defiance and massive displays of civil disobedience to get back the rights we have allowed them to take away. It will take zealots, not moderates and shy, not reach-across- the-aisle to RINOs to right this ship and restore our beloved country to its former status. People like me are completely irrelevant, and I will probably never again be able to legally comment or concern myself with the aforementioned coalition which has surrendered our culture, our heritage, and our traditions without a shot being fired.

The cocker spaniel is off the front porch, the pit bull is in the backyard. The American Constitution has been replaced with Saul Olinsky’s “Rules for Radicals” and the likes of David Axelrod along with international socialist George Soros have been pulling the strings on their beige puppet have brought us Acts 2 of the New World Order. The curtain will come down but the damage has been done, the story has been told.

Those who come after us will once again have to risk their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor to bring back the Republic that this generation has timidly frittered away due to white guilt and political correctness…” And I say, “Lord, help us!”

It’s early March, 2016, and I have personally been reminded of the serious, sinful, and sick situation our country is in politically, morally, spiritually, and leaning toward a flood of godlessness, deceit, rebellion, resentment, and, yes, hatred of the Holy Word of God. I wrote this the early morning hours of March 2, 2016, after a very restless night of sorrow over what American people do, yes, in opposition to divine will and purpose! I wrote the following concerning “God and Government.” It says:

“Fast approaching my 80^th birthday as of June 12, 2016, I’m disturbed to see a nation and people founded, yes, by God Himself as “one nation under God” but fast becoming, especially among leadership nation-wide as a nation by the people, of the people, and for the people – and, as in life, so in governments, the absence of God releases men to their own control, their own godless philosophies, their own reckless abandonment of “self, ‘my way or the highway,’ and certainly ‘less God because I want to govern myself, my family, my city as I damn well please’”, which reveals a people and nation on the fast road to fleshly decline!

To them, spiritual government is not ‘the American way’! Really? And, of course, they want the Holy Word of God out of government, out of schools and universities, out of homes and families and their own minds, and less and less and less of local and state over-sight – “Who or what government needs the advice or counsel of what some call Holy God, our Creator, Lord, Savior, and Master, because we can govern ourselves as we please, which to us means: keep the Bible out of our public domain and ways of godless living; He has no place telling us what we individually or as families, schools, businesses, or governments ought to be doing!”

It was King David, ruling over Israel by the grace of God, who, in Psalm 67:1-4, wrote: “God be merciful to us and bless us, and cause His face to shine upon us, That Your way may be known on earth, Your salvation among all nations. Let the peoples praise You, O God; let all the peoples praise You. Oh, let the nations be glad and sing for joy! For You shall judge the people righteously, and govern the nations on earth.”

But do you hear a ‘modern-society’ saying more and more: “God is not necessary in our governments, politically, morally, spiritually, individually or corporately – leave God out of our governments and out of our schools, out of our lives!” Oh, and they mean it – “To us, God has no place in our affairs because ‘good government’ (?) is allowing us to do as we please!”, which means: “less Faith, less guidance, less watch-care, less protection, less blessing of God, less Sovereign-Rule, less divine love, less of His omnipotence and more of our impotence – with many of the warped opinion that, ‘yes, we’re smarter than God Himself’!”

I know that the people of our formerly ‘great nation’ have set aside any “fear of God”. But Psalm 25:12-15 tells us, King David speaking, “Who is the man who fears the Lord? Him shall He teach in the way He chooses. He himself shall dwell in prosperity, and his descendants shall inherit the earth. The secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him, and He will show them His covenant. My eyes are ever toward the Lord, for He shall pluck my feet out of the net.”

A “net of Godless rule” is a strong, powerful net that wraps itself around people so powerfully that they end up with spiritual curses, spiritual bankruptcy, spiritual ignorance, and a spiritual destiny they really should not desire. Numbers 22:31-34 is a wake-up call for some people, but, sadly, many national, state, and local leaders have plotted their course, omitting God, His Word and His will.

In Numbers 22:31-35 we read, Then the Lord opened Balaam’s eyes, and he saw the Angel of the Lord standing in the way with His drawn sword in His hand; and he bowed his head and fell flat on his face. “Why have you struck your donkey these three times? Behold, I have come out to stand against you, because ‘your way’ is perverse before Me. The donkey saw Me and turned aside from Me these three times. If she had not turned aside from Me, surely I would also killed you by now, and let her live.” And Balaam said to the Angel of the Lord, “I have sinned, for I did not know You stood in the way against me. Now therefore, if it displeases You, I will turn back.”

Do you sense today in America, in Texas, in the Bedford, Texas, area a political climate that is, by some, “perverse before Me”, Holy God, the Founder of government to be Sovereignly ruled by Him – not proud, fleshly, independent of and separate from His Holy Word, wiser than God men and women?

How clear are you about Peter’s words in 2 Peter 1:2-4 that so relates to God’s people as His instruments impacting ‘godless governments’ and lives in every community? Peter wrote:

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

Isn’t it a shameful position that some take, “Keep God and His Word and Truth out of OUR governments – we’ll take care of ourselves in our own way!”

But then, there are those with Peter’s wisdom and understanding! 2 Peter 1:10-11, “Therefore, brethren, [true sons and daughters of the Eternal Faith!], be even more diligent to make your calling and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

You hear it in all political elections: “No God in our government – we do it our way, man’s way, the way of godlessness, and the way of fleshly compromises, alienating God and Truth from us!” Destructive heresies will seek to gain control, keep control, and hold onto man’s control and ways without heeding the Holy Word! “Alienate Truth and promote ‘our way’, which is the absence of God in our governments!”

Didn’t Peter go on to say in 2 Peter 2:19, “While they promise them ‘liberty’ [from being governed by God or His Truth!], they themselves are slaves of corruption, for by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into bondage;” Verse 22, But it has happened [does happen, will happen!] to them according to a true proverb: “A dog returns to his own vomit,” and, “a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire.”

Are you aware of how many “professing believers”, having escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior, find themselves easily entangled again in them and overcome, [that their] latter end is worse for them than the beginning?

In 2 Peter 2:21 the servant of God tells us: “For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them.”

Now? Prayerful intercession that Holy God, once again, will teach men, political leaders, “the way in which God chooses” – not their supposed “grass-roots” electorate! Accounting Day does come before Holy God at the Judgment Seat for, yes, their ‘political decisions’ (?)! So, newly elected politicians: Will YOU be led by Holy God and His Eternal Word?”

“Vital Awareness Unveiled? Sin’s Complications – Sin’s Remedy?” You are aware that a man’s sin is nothing more than impure rebellion against Holy God, not only impure but impotent of producing nothing but more and more deeper and deeper and wider and wider separation from God, a declaration of independence from God, and sins of both sins of omission and sins of commission with immediate spiritual death and ultimate judgment before His Holy Throne! I’m sure that as Thomas Carlyle once said, “The deadliest sins were the consciousness of no sin.” That would fit about every sinner today, including ‘church sinners’, who have no sense of God or His Holy revealed Truth but only the recipient of a sinful mind – “pure hearts” are viewed as off-the-wall , weird, strange teaching of dis-brained preacher-teachers!

There’s a passage in Numbers 16:29-30 that should awaken some, if not many, to the seriousness of their sins. Moses said, “If these men die naturally like all men, then the Lord has not sent me. But if the Lord creates a new thing, and the earth opens its mouth and swallows them up with all that belongs to them, and they go down alive into the pit, then you will understand that these men have rejected the Lord.”

THAT was a literal event for many rebellious men, but it is also symbolic, prophetic, and a preview of the “pit” for men of today who take pleasure in dishonoring God with their lives. The “Pit” awaits for God’s Word!

Jonathan Edwards was famous for a sermon he titled: “Sinners In The Hands Of An Angry God.” The foundation was out of Deuteronomy 32:28-39 which says: (Are YOU Ready?): “For they are a nation void of counsel, nor is there any understanding in them. Oh, that they were wise, that they understood this, THAT THEY WOULD CONSIDER THEIR END!

How could one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, and the Lord had surrendered them? For their rock is not like our Rock, even our enemies themselves being judges.

For their vine is of the vine of Sodom and of the fields of Gomorrah; their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter. Their wine is the poison of serpents, and the cruel venom of cobras.

Is this not laid up in store with Me, sealed up among My treasures? Vengeance is Mine, and recompense; their foot shall slip in due time; for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things to come hasten upon them.

FOR THE LORD WILL JUDGE HIS PEOPLE and have compassion on His servants, when He sees that their power is gone, and there is no one remaining bond or free. He will say: ‘Where are their gods, the rock in which they sought refuge?

Who ate the fat of their sacrifices, and drank the wine of their drink offering? Let them rise and help you, and be your refuge.

Now see that I, even I, am He, and THERE IS NO GOD BESIDES ME; I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; nor is there any who can deliver from My hand”

No doubt this is why Martin Luther once said, “Sin is, essentially a departure from God.” There are in the world, even some in churches, who live with “foolish minds, foolish hearts, foolish wills,” which is why Proverbs 14:9 tells us, “Fools mock at sin,” but because of the shed blood of Christ at Calvary’s Cross, Isaiah 1:18 says, “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.”

But, “SIN’S COMPLICATIONS”? Romans 6:23 says, “The wages of sin is death” – that’s spiritual death, that’s separation from God, that’s His guarantee of a room reserved in Hell for every “sinner”, every unredeemed man, woman, boy, or girl, that’s the embittered chains of darkness, desolation, and a death that will not die! Oh, and then are there even ‘believers’ or ‘followers of Christ’ who decide to disavow responsibility in upholding Christ’s Name and honor, what’s their settled fate in their own minds and hearts? Luke 12:45-46 says, “But if that servant says in his heart, ‘My master is delaying his coming, and begins to beat the male and female servants, and to eat and drink and be drunk, the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the unbelievers.”

“Sin’s Complications”? Not only a separation from God, but there is the condemnation of Holy God against those who pride-fully shake their fists in God’s face and go “My way”! “Sin’s Complications”? Do you know or have you ignored John 3:17-20 which reveals “My way” of loving darkness and hating God’s light. It says: “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.”

Sin injures, sin steals God’s intent, sin is the greatness of a man in sin: Great in unbelief, great in disrespect, great in personal loss and limiting God’s design and potential and privilege, great in sorrow and pain and destructive abuse, great in terrible transgressions, toxic trespasses, and total ‘heart-break’ and eternal suffering when God has to say, “Depart from Me, I never knew you!”

Sin is a spiritual scourge in impacting, indoctrinating, limiting, destroying lives, families and nations! Sin is why Holy God raised up prophets like Isaiah to tell people, even His Own ‘So-called’ People of God! In Isaiah 5:11-13 God exposed the ‘coming judgment’ on His own ‘religious people’! “Woe to those who rise early in the morning, that they may follow intoxicating drink; who continue in the night, till wine inflames them!…But they do not regard the work of the Lord, nor consider the operation of His hands. [Which means that there ARE some things Holy God WILL NOT HONOR OR BLESS OR EXCUSE!]. Therefore My people have gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge; their honorable men are famished, and their multitude dried up with thirst.”

THAT SHOULD BE ENOUGH TO “SCARE HELL” OUT OF SOME FOLKS, BUT THEN READ CAREFULLY ISAIAH 5:14-16! “Therefore Sheol [or “place of death”] has enlarged itself and opened its mouth beyond measure; their glory and their multitude and their pomp, and he who is jubilant [over his/her “party spirit”!] shall descend into it. People shall be brought down, each man shall be humbled, and the eyes of the lofty or proud shall be humbled. But the Lord of hosts shall be exalted in judgment, and God who is holy shall be hallowed in righteousness.”

In Isaiah 30:1, again the Prophet of God amplified the “woe” of rebellious children that excuse ‘sin’: “Woe to the rebellious children,” says the Lord, “who take counsel, but not of Me, and who devise plans, but not of My Spirit, that they may add sin to sin…” SIN is a “Reproach”; SIN is deceit with deadly results; SIN multiplies, quadruples, without the concern in the minds and hearts of sinful men – they “add sin to sin”; SIN is even ‘worshipped’ as men have their own altars they erect to bow before and indulge the ‘sinful flesh’ as their supposed ‘worship’ – some call them brothels!

But more than anything else “SIN BRINGS DEATH” AND “SEPARATION FROM GOD”! Romans 5:12 tells us: “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all men sinned…”

It’s astounding to me that many lives, even in the “church”, frown upon “Truth” yet worship at the altar of the “devil’s lies”: “You can sin and not die”! And, certainly, they will tell the world: “Sin doesn’t separate us from God,” when in Isaiah 59:2-4, God’s Word, declared through the Prophet tells us: “But your iniquities have separated you from God; and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue has muttered perversity. No one calls for justice, nor does any plead for truth. They trust in empty words and speak lies; they conceive evil and bring forth iniquity.” Who IS THAT? That’s the “I belive-ers” who profess allegiance but go on continuing in their sin, when, again, Jesus said, “Go, and sin No More!”

Oh, and then there are the “Jonathan Edwards’ prophetic prophets today who teach transfers out of “death in sin” to the eternal victory over sin through the Lamb’s “shed blood”! He said in his closing comments from “Sinners In The Hands Of An Angry God”,

“God has laid Himself under no obligation, by any promise to keep any natural man out of Hell one moment. God certainly has made no promises of eternal life, or of any deliverance from eternal death, but what are contained in the covenant of grace, the promises that are given in Christ, in whom all the promises are yes and amen. But surely [and Farrell Fisher adds, ‘sadly’] they have no interest in the promises of the covenant of grace who are not children of the covenant, who do not believe in the promises, and have no interest in the Mediator of the covenant.”

But, praise God, beyond “Sin’s Complications” IS “Sin’s Remedy”! How could any ‘sane’ person read Romans 5:8-11 and not be at the Throne of God’s Mercy repenting and trusting His “finished work” through Christ? It says: “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ DIED FOR US. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be [being][ saved by His life. And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.” [And the ‘reconciliation’ IS commitment in honoring Him daily through our walks, paths, assignments!].

How on target and inspiring do you find Peter’s words in 1 Peter 1:18-21? “knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you who through Him believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, SO THAT your faith and hope are in God.”

And, as a result of one’s redemptive faith in Christ alone, Peter added in 1 Peter 2:9-10 these words: “You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.”

Thank you Robert H. Coleman who in 1939 allowed his hymn, “Saved, Saved!” to be published in the old Broadman Hymnal by Broadman Press! It says: “I’ve found a friend who is all to me, His love is ever true; I love to tell how He lifted me And what His grace can do for you.

He saves me from every sin and harm, Secures my soul each day; I’m leaning strong on His mighty arm; I know He’ll guide me all the way.

When poor and needy and all alone, In love He said to me, “Come unto Me and I’ll lead you home, To live with Me eternally.” Saved by His power divine, Saved to new life sublime! Life now is sweet, my joy is complete, For I’m saved, yes, saved!

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

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

A fleshly-life in its most perfect demonstration, by man’s opinions and standards, is so void and empty of God-given power by His grace and mercy through the anointing of the Holy Spirit!

The kingdom of a man ruled by his own heart and mind is not the Kingdom of God in a repentant, redeemed life! In fact, man at ‘his’ best without God is a ‘victim’ or ‘slave’ of the ruler of the physical world who is known as Satan or the devil.

Jesus said in John 12:31-33, “Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out,” and ‘the ruler’ Jesus spoke of was the devil who deceives fallen mankind, alienated and separated from Holy God.

If you didn’t know, Matthew 4:1-11 tells us of Jesus’ encounter with the devil which every man, without the born-again divine nature, lives under his control , or his assigned demons who so want to intoxicate you, knowingly or unknowingly, as the enemy of God! Receive the Truth!

“Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry. NOW WHEN THE TEMPTER came to Him, he said, ‘If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.’ [Lust of the flesh!].

But Jesus answered and said, ‘It is written: Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’

Then the devil took Him up into the holy city, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, ‘If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written: He shall give His angels charge over you, [Boastful pride of life!], AND, In their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone.’

Jesus said to him, ‘It is written again, You shall not tempt the Lord your God.’ Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to Him, ‘All these things I will give You if you will fall down and worship me.’ [Lust of the eyes!].

Then Jesus said to him, ‘Away with you, Satan! For it is written, You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.’ Then the devil left Him, and behold, angels came and ministered to Him.”

Are you aware of what Paul revealed to Timothy and us in 2 Timothy 2:24-26? “And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, and that they may come to their senses, AND ESCAPE THE SNARE OF THE DEVIL, having been taken captive by him to do his will.” [Your life? Will of God or the will of the devil?]

In James 4:7 the brother of Jesus wrote, “Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” But rather than resist, unredeemed men, mostly, don’t even know their lives have become the residences of Satan or his demon powers!

The first creation, having been captured by men under Satan’s control, became literally a battleground dominated, surrounded, subverted away from God’s eternal intention, to becoming a devilish kingdom of resistance to Holy God and the people He wanted for His own, which is why Paul told us in Colossians 1:10-14, “that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy; giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has delivered us from the powers of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.” [And if God has delivered YOU, how is it you so easily entertain ‘demons unaware’?]

It doesn’t matter if one finished only the first grade in school or achieved the status of a PhD graduate, without Christ, he/she is a slave of Satan and led by demonic deception! “Old things” refers to a life of man/woman, fallen away, independent from God by his/her sin nature, living in fleshly kingdoms with Satan and demon powers, deceived and being deceived, but with the devil himself ruling over that kingdom of darkness – and without God as Lord and Savior, it’s the ‘kingdom’, even fleshly, that is the denial of God’s Sovereignty and a willing or even unwilling acceptance and captivity of the rule of the devil! A world of man’s “best”, a world of “fleshly goodness”, a world of even moral acceptance, without Christ it is the “kingdom of darkness and the devil”! It doesn’t matter to many, whether they know it or not, without Christ as Redeemer, Savior, and Lord, a man/woman is living under the domination of a devilish rule in the kingdom of darkness – and many feel, “I’m home! And I love it,” but Hell awaits their admission!

Even to believers, in 1 Peter 5:8-11, Peter wrote: “Be sober, be vigilant; because YOUR ADVERSARY the devil walks about like a roaring (“Toothless”) lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world. BUT may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory By Christ Jesus, after you have suffered awhile, perfect, establish (‘make to stand’), strengthen, and settle you. To Him be the glory and dominion forever and ever.”

Do you remember Shakespeare in his writing “Twelfth Night”? [Acts 111, sc.4,1. 108], “What, man! Defy the devil: consider, he’s an enemy of mankind.”

And that is not a “Hollywood” fictional story to scare the living ‘day-lights’ out of people, but the reality of the devil’s kingdom against the Holy Kingdom of God and the Eternal Rule of the King of kings and Lord of lords – and the devil is intent on enlarging and controlling and ‘dis-easing’ fallen humanity, with the desire to expand his darkened, demonic, diseased, and deadly kingdom!

It’s so interesting, at least to me, that John, in Revelation 12, unveiled a war in heaven! Verses 7-12 educates us as follows: “And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer. So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, ‘Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down.

And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their own testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death. THEREFORE rejoice, O heavens, AND YOU WHO DWELL IN THEM! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time.”

I’d say, without hesitation and with full confidence, that if YOU deny the reality of the devil, you are a “dishonor-student star” in his class of “stupidity”! His devilish works saturate nations, even like America – but I’ve traveled every continent in our vast world and seen his ‘dis-artistic’ drawings in men’s and women’s lives! And, true educators, interested in world history, know beyond any shadow of a doubt that the devil dominates the world of faithless, flesh-poisoned men, women, youth, and even children! But let me assure you: HOLY GOD WINS! And because you appropriate redemptive faith and a true confessing heart and mind, so will YOU win out over the devil’s tactics!

How familiar are you with Job’s dramatic story? Job 1:6-12 reveals, Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, AND SATAN ALSO CAME AMONG THEM [even a Sunday morning worship service?]. And the Lord said to Satan, “From where do you come?”

So Satan answered the Lord and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking back and forth on it.” [Have YOU seen him walking lately around your community and surroundings?].

Then the Lord said to Satan, [Get ready! You’re next!], “Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil?”

So Satan answered the Lord and said, “Does Job fear God for nothing? Have you not made a hedge around him, around his household, and around all that he has on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But now, stretch out Your hand and touch all that he has, and he will surely curse You to Your face!”

And the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your power; only do not lay a hand on his person.” So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.”

Job lost his fortune, his family, being severely tested by the devil! [But surely in our highly educated, affluent land, many believe devilish testings are unrealistic stories “out of YOUR unholy bible!”] – Oh, really?

Job 1:20-22 enlightens us: Then Job arose, tore his robe, and shaved his head; and he fell to the ground and worshipped. And he said: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I shall return there. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” In all this Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong.

The testing began to take its toll on Job! And Holy God allowed even more intense testing! Job 2:3 says: Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil? And still he holds fast to his integrity, although you incited Me against him, to destroy him without cause.”

Oh, and “through it all,” Job learned to trust more and more in the Living God! In Job 42:1-6 we read, Then Job answered the Lord and said: “I know that You can do everything, and that no purpose of Yours can be withheld from You.

You asked, “Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge? Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. Listen, please, and let me speak; You said, ‘I will question you, and you shall answer Me.’

Job then said, I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees You. Therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”

Should we dare read Job 42:12-17? I believe so! “Now the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning; for he had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, one thousand yoke of oxen, and one thousand female donkeys. He also had seven sons and three daughters.

And he called the name of the first Jemimah, the name of the second Keziah, and the name of the third Keren-Happuch. In all the land were found no women so beautiful as the daughters of Job; and their father gave them an inheritance among their brothers. [Daughters names but not sons’ names? Not sure, but Jemimah means “dove”, Keziah means “cassic” or cinnamon, and Keren-Happuch means “paint-horn” or cosmetic box (or a beautifier)! Job was a blessed man!

After this Job lived one hundred and forty years, and saw his children and grandchildren for four generations. So Job died, old and full of days.”

How would YOU describe “old and full of days”?

“Vital Awareness Unveiled? Humanly Developed Strength Or God-Given Power?” It is so vital that you and I allow the Word of God to illuminate us in His eternal Truth, and nothing is more vital for the victorious walk in Christ than the awareness of “God-Given Power, Anointings, In-Fillings, and Empowerment”! It is not by “our best” but submission to His Spirit!

Zechariah was given a word of the Lord for Zerubbabel in Zechariah 4:6, “This is the word of the Lord for Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, (fleshly initiative or flesh-pumped-up impotent power), but by My Spirit,’ says the Lord of hosts.” Dare I tell you that victorious living as a disciple of Christ is the promised supply of the Spirit of God in His fullness, His authority, His power, His insight, His leadership, and His guidance?!?

When you come to the early history of the “Acts” of new, young, immature disciples, one of the first “musts” of every new disciple is the “must” of Spirit-anointing! And that’s with the Book of Acts in foundational training and equipping! It says, in Acts 2:14-19a,

But Peter, standing up with the eleven, raised his voice and said to them, “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and heed my words. For these are not drunk as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel (Joel 2:28-32):

“And it shall come to pass in the last days, [that’s the last days of the Old Covenant!], says God, that I WILL POUR OUT MY SPIRIT ON ALL FLESH; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions, your old men shall dream dreams.

And on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days; and they shall prophesy. I will show wonders in heaven above and signs in the earth beneath…”

In Acts 2:38-39 the Holy Word declares: Then Peter said to them [specifically the Jews, the city of Jerusalem, the priests in the temple, the gathered house of Israel, AND every man, woman, boy, or girl whom the Spirit draws, Peter said, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you SHALL RECEIVE THE GIFT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.” Has the Lord called YOU?

In Ephesians 5:15-21, Paul instructs all gatherings of true believers: “See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.

Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but BE FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, [ “making melody in your heart to the Lord? That’s agreement and submission to the Holy Spirit as the ‘conductor’ of your life of praise and thanksgiving to the Lord!], giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another in the fear of God.” GLORY!!

Let’s examine a portion of the Holy Spirit’s ministry in the Word of God! If Genesis 1:1 tells us, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth!”, we do know that the Holy Word reveals one God who expresses Himself in the Trinity of Truth: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit! [For example, one man who is man, husband, and father!].

In the last part of Genesis 1:2 it tells us, “And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.” Could that be “the water of life” or “the water of the Word” or “the water of washing of men’s hearts” or “the water that separates the dark from men, the dirt in their hearts and lives, washing, cleansing, purifying, strengthening, equipping, ordaining, anointing for ministry and service”? In fact, do we not read in Genesis 1:26, Then God said, “LET US make man in our image, according to our likeness…?” Us? Father, Son, and Holy Spirit!

If YOU are a part of the true family of faith, I know you’re aware of David’s plea in Psalm 51:10-11, when in his ‘prayer of repentance’ to Holy God, he cried out: “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.” Was King David aware, because of his sin, that at that time there was no anointing on his life and walk as he transgressed the Holy Word of God? Had Holy Ghost conviction swept over his life?

John was so aware of the ‘brood of vipers’ called the Pharisees and Sadducees, the ‘spiritual elite’ leaders of Judaism, who came out to witness his baptism and baptizing of ‘convicted children of God’, that John said, in Matthew 3:7b-11, “Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? THEREFORE BEAR FRUITS WORTHY OF REPENTANCE, and do not think to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones. And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He [King Jesus] will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”

Oh, and then one really gets an unveiling of the Holy Spirit’s necessity in the walk of the Redeemer’s Life and ministry when in Matthew 12:28 He said, “But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you.” [Cast out demons? Evidence of the coming of the kingdom of God upon His servants? In the 25 years of my ministry in India, “casting out demons” was so normal – but “American ‘christianity’ of the 21^st Century? To speak of demon deliverance reveals one’s spiritual stupidity! That’s ancient ‘voodooism’!”, as they expose their Biblical ignorance!

In Matthew 28:31-32 the Lord Jesus went on to say, “Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy AGAINST THE SPIRIT will not be forgiven men. Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come.”

If you’re faithful as the true disciple of Christ, you’re SO familiar with Luke 11 as the early disciples witnessed Him praying, and they cried out to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray!” And the “Lord’s Prayer” became new disciples firm foundation of a blessed prayer-life! He majored on true persistence in Biblical prayers! This is so vital, in Luke 11:9-13, that YOU must ask, “Has MY prayer-life included praying for the ministry of the Holy Spirit in my life, including His authority over demons?” The Word says: Jesus speaking: “So I say to you, ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish? Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If you, then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father GIVE THE HOLY SPIRIT TO THOSE WHO ASK HIM!” [Have YOU asked, have YOU received, and are you led by the Holy Spirit to “cast out demons”? “No, Preacher, we’re far beyond your spiritual immaturity – there is no modern-day ministry in churches and communities of “casting out demons” – demons don’t exist!” Really? THERE IS BLASPHEMY AGAINST THE HOLY SPIRIT – and the Lord Jesus said in Luke 12:10, “and if anyone speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but to him who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven.” [“Holy God, please, please, help the American church and even the church world-wide, because the ministry of Your Holy Spirit is, sadly, so void and unknown!”]

Notice from the Word: 1 Corinthians 2:9-14, But as it is written: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, THAT WE MIGHT KNOW THE THINGS THAT HAVE BEEN FREELY GIVEN TO US BY GOD.”

The Holy Spirit, in the believer, teaches us! Paul shared that the natural man (without Christ) does not receive the things of the Spirit of God! And the Lord Jesus, as He taught His disciples in Luke 12:11-12, so aware of opposition from an unbelieving world or an unbelieving religious world, said to His disciples, “Now when they [the opposition!] bring you to the synagogue and magistrates and authorities, do not worry about how or what you should answer, or what you should say. For the Holy Spirit WILL TEACH YOU IN THAT VERY HOUR WHAT YOU OUGHT TO SAY!”

Don’t you find it amazing and encouraging to hear John say in 1 John 2:20, “But YOU [as a true disciple and follower of Christ] have an anointing from the Holy Spirit, and you know all things.”

The beloved John, in 1 John 3:16, amplified “By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought lay down our lives for the brethren.” And then in 1 John 3:24, John said, “Now he who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And by this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.” Is the very Holy Spirit of God confirming, affirming, testifying in you: “Yes! He/she lives ‘in Christ,’ labors through Me, and loves the Lord, evidenced by his/her laid-down-life to the Savior’s glory and honor. I affirm their testimony by My Holy presence within as the Very Holy Spirit of God!”

More than the Spirit’s testimony, consider what Paul wrote in Ephesians 1:11-14! “In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory.

In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, WHO IS THE GUARANTEE OF OUR INHERITANCE until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.” Glory! And again, I say, Glory! Thank You, Lord, for not only the gift of our salvation, but the gift of the Holy Spirit to abide in us and glorify Your name through us by His ministry of grace, love, fruit, and power!

And receive Ephesians 4:30! “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption!” But how does one truly know? In Ephesians 5:8-12 Paul, anointed by the Holy Spirit, tells us: “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), finding out what is acceptable to the Lord. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret.” Fruit-inspectors? You better believe it if you are a true disciple of Christ, because ‘modern- christianity’ smells of ‘rotten fruit’ as it tries to live out an unscriptural ‘faith’, filled with compromise, open sin and even proud of it “because Jesus forgives me as I can’t do anything but sin until I get to heaven someday,” and Jesus responds: “Garbage! Depart from Me; I never knew you!”

Edwin Hatch and B.B. McKinney wrote “Breathe On Me”, old hymn of the 1930’s? “Holy Spirit, breathe on me, My stubborn will subdue; Teach me in words of living flame What Christ would have me do…Fill me with power divine, Kindle a flame of love and zeal within this heart of mine.” Is that your prayer this very moment?

CHAPTER NINETEEN

“VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED? UNFOUNDED EXPECTATION OR ETERNAL TRUTH UNVEILED?”

In 2 Corinthians 13:5 Paul made a powerful challenge and a call for true personal evaluation related to one’s ‘professed faith’ or ‘disqualification’ from it! He said, “Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? – unless indeed you are disqualified.”

How did Paul address the ‘Galatian followers’ (?) unless he was aware of the difference between “possessors of true faith” or the “pretenders of faith”? In Galatians 6:3 he stated: “For if anyone thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself.”

You do remember Paul’s word to the church at Colossae, and to the modern-day church now, when he warned them and us in Colossians 2:8, “Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.”

Philosophy, void of God’s Word is empty, man-made beliefs and opinions with no true foundation based on God’s Holy Word! Empty deceit? “We’re ‘God’ in and of ourselves – no ‘Jesus’ has any claim on us”, only that He knew us all by name and still went to the Cross in behalf of us all, redeemed by the blood or a rejecter of His blood sacrifice!

And even with that awareness of divine reality, awareness of the broken heart of God over unbelieving faith, awareness of the crucifixion, burial, resurrection, ascension, or His coming again to judge all the world, past, present, or future, Acts 17:30-31 declares, “Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, (“winked at”), but NOW commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this by raising Him from the dead.” But “His-story” means nothing to you?

I think in the early verses of these particular chapters is evidence of John weeping as he witnessed the broken heart of God over men’s sins, but initially I want to major on four or five statements from eternal angels and blessed elders of the Eternal Faith Story out of Revelation, chapters 4 and 5!

Revelation 4:8b, “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, Who was and is and is to come!” Revelation 4:11, “You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and by Your will they exist and were created.” In Revelation 5:8, the twenty-four elders falling down before the Lamb, sang a new song: Verses 9-10, “You are worthy to take the scroll, and to open its seals; for You were slain, and have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, AND have made us kings and priests to our God; and we shall reign on the earth.” Revelation 5:12 declares, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom, and strength and honor and glory and blessing!” Oh, and then, in Revelation 5:13, we read: “Blessing and honor and glory and power be to Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, forever and ever!”

But there are unbelievers, ‘pretenders’, and out-and-out rebelling, defiling lives that resent God’s proven love, grace, and mercy! And they are firmly convinced Holy God should accept them “because of who we are, because of how intelligent we are, and because of our worthy earthly accomplishments – you couldn’t do any better, God, than accepting us for who we are and what we do!”

The Random House Collegiate Dictionary, [Revised Edition of 1975, by Random House, Inc.], defines “pretense” as “feigning, make-believe, a false showing of something, like ‘friendship’ when one is an enemy, an insincere or false profession, the putting forth of an unwarranted claim, a fabrication!” You are aware that there can be, and, sadly are, “High-priced counterfeits” or even “cheap imitations”!

Alexander Pope, in his “Essay on Man,” [Epis. 1, l,124], wrote: “In pride, in reasoning pride, our error lies; All quit their sphere and rush into the skies. Pride still is aiming at the blessed abodes, Men would be angels, angels would be gods.”

Perfection in Christ is not an achievement man even needs to attempt, but is the gracious gift of Holy God. Do you remember Nebuchadnezzar as Daniel informed Belshazzar of the king’s rise and fall? In Daniel 5:18-21 we read: “O king, the Most High God gave Nebuchadnezzar your father a kingdom and majesty, glory and honor. And because of the majesty that GOD GAVE him, all peoples, nations, and languages trembled and feared before him. Whomever he wished, he executed; whomever he wished, he kept alive; whomever he wished, he put down. BUT when his heart was lifted up, and his spirit HARDENED IN PRIDE, he was deposed from his kingly throne, and they took his glory from him. Then he was driven from the sons of men, his heart was made like the beasts, and his dwelling was with the wild donkeys. They fed him with grass like oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till he knew that the Most High God rules in the kingdom of men, and appoints over it whomever He chooses;” and it’s for sure: God will appoint to bless a people OR God will appoint to curse, blame, instructing all men by whom He appoints!

Examine Ezekial 14:6-14, and be repentant, not shocked! God said through Ezekial, “Therefore say to the house of Israel, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “Repent, turn away from your idols, and turn your faces away from all your abominations. For anyone of the house of Israel, or of the strangers who dwell in Israel, who separates himself from Me and sets up his idols in his heart and puts before him what causes him to stumble into iniquity, then comes to a prophet to inquire of him concerning Me, I the Lord will answer him by Myself. I will set My face against that man and make him a sign and a proverb, and I will cut him off from the midst of My people! Then you shall now that I am the Lord.

And if the prophet is induced to speak anything, I the Lord have induced that prophet, and I will stretch out My hand against him and destroy him from among My people Israel. And they shall bear their iniquity; the punishment of the prophet shall be the same as the punishment of the one who inquired, that the house of Israel may no longer stray from Me, nor be profaned anymore with all their transgressions, but that they may be My people and I may be their God,’ says the Lord God.’”

Question! If the Bible clearly declares in 2 Timothy 3:16, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work,” have there been those who read the Old Testament Word and then declared or declares, “That’s not for New Testament disciples! What you read in Ezekial referred to Israel, not to any modern-day man.” How blind do you sense modern-man who sees himself exempt from All Scripture inspired by God?

How familiar are you with Deuteronomy 30:15-20? God spoke and still speaks today: “See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil, in that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, His statutes, and His judgments, that you may live and multiply; and the Lord your God will bless you in the land, (city, state, nation) which you go to possess.

But if your heart turns away so that you do not hear, and are drawn away, and worship other gods and serve them, I announce to you today that you shall surely perish; you shall not prolong your days in the land which you cross over the Jordan (the Mississippi, the Thames, the Nile!) to go in and possess. I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before YOU life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore, choose life, that both you and your descendants may live; that you may love the Lord your God, that YOU MAY OBEY HIS VOICE, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days; and that you may dwell in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them.” Texas land? Tennessee? California land? Utah land? Lands of England or all of Europe? Lands of the Asian continent or African nations?

“Unfounded Expectations?” Unbelief of God, rejection of saving grace and mercy, the lawlessness of disobedience and the hunger for what the world ‘out there’ away from Him offers? Are you familiar with the “parable of the lost son” in Luke 15? He left the father, went into the world’s ways, wasted his possessions with prodigal living, spent all – don’t miss the next event! – his ‘boss’ sent him into the fields to feed swine, and Luke 15:16 says, “And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, and no one gave him anything.”

Do you understand, comprehend a life away from Father-God, from the Lord Jesus Christ, from the Holy Spirit, from the Holy Word which is your eternal Milk and eternal Meat and eternal Bread? “Away-from- the Father” men and women, boys and girls, yes faithless families have become “dumpster divers” so alienated from God that they simply live by the world’s menu of godlessness, “pigging out,” being served slop rather than what is on the Table of the Lord, deceived even into treasuring trash and counterfeit rewards!

But the Bible says in Luke 15:17, “But when he came to himself…!” That’s a glorious turning! He returned to the Father! What will it be for YOU? “Vital Awareness Unveiled – Unfounded Expectations Or Eternal Truth Unveiled?” What did the Lord Jesus Christ say in John 14:6? “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”

And whether in this moment you understand it or not, there has always been only One Way God ordained for reconciliation to Him, and it was the way of the Cross, the way of the “shed blood,” the way of Resurrected Jesus, King of kings and Lord of lords.

All through the Old Testament, the sacrificial system was the foretelling of the coming of Emmanuel, “God With Us,” the Promised Messiah that, yes, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob looked for! Galatians 3:5-9 tells us: “Therefore He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does He do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? – just as Abraham “believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” Therefore know that only those who are of faith are the sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, ‘In you all the nations shall be blessed.’ So then those who are of [Redemptive] faith are blessed with believing Abraham.”

If you “receive the Truth”, are you aware that Jesus said of Himself in John 8:58, Jesus said to them, [unbelieving Jews!], “Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM”?

Have you studied and studied and studied, yes, the Four Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, as each unveiled from his perspective the reality of Jesus’ identity? Matthew? In Matthew 1;1 we read, “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham.” In Isaiah 9:6-7 is his prophetic unveiling of the Coming Messiah: “For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end, upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, to order it with judgment and justice from that time forward, even forever!! The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.” That’s “the Son of David,” King of kings and Lord of lords!

But Matthew 1:1, in unveiling ‘the genealogy of Jesus Christ,” also called Him “the Son of Abraham”, which tells us, Genesis 12:1-3, Now the Lord had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

Mark, in his gospel, unveils another eternal dimension of Christ, and it is as, yes, “the Servant of Man.” I love the Holman Study Bible, NKJV Edition, by Holman Bible Publishers, [Nashville, Tennessee, Copyright 2013]. Their cover of Mark’s Gospel “emphasizes actions and deeds. Jesus is on the go – healing, casting out demons, performing miracles, hurrying from place to place, and teaching. In Mark everything happens “immediately.” As soon as one episode ends, another begins. The rapid pace slows down when Jesus enters Jerusalem (11:1). Thereafter, events are marked by days, and His final days by hours.” Mark was led to introduce the ministry of Jesus through John as Mark 1:7-8 says, “There comes One after me who is mightier than I, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to stoop down and loose. I indeed baptized you with water (unto repentance!), but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” No doubt this is why Paul, in Galatians 4:4-6 equips us with the foundational truth of all born-again disciples: “But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent forth His Son into your hearts, crying out, ‘Abba, Father,” multiplying, increasing, ordaining the servant-spirit in all true disciples! Luke magnifies Jesus as “the Son of man,” I’m sure myself because Luke, as a physician or doctor, desired to uplift Christ Jesus as the “Great Physician” with a number of “healing events” through Jesus! Also, there should never be a doubt in any student of the Word study concerning John magnifying Jesus as the “Son of God.” Consider simply John’s Introduction, John 1:1-4!

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things [that’s “all creation”!] were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.” John went on to say in John 1:14, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”

And the reason Holy God sent Christ Jesus into our, yes, sinful world? John 3:16-17 tells us, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes [trusts in, relies upon, adheres to] should not perish but have everlasting life. For GOD DID NOT SEND HIS SON INTO THE WORLD TO CONDEMN THE WORLD, but that the world through Him might be saved.”

It was Woodrow A. Geier, in his writing “Religion in Life”, who said: “In the Cross, God descends to bear in His own heart the sins of the world. In Jesus He atoned [the “blood atonement”] at unimaginable cost to Himself.” I don’t believe Holy God even viewed the Crucifixion but looked away, until the moment Holy God was ready to resurrect Him out of a borrowed grave!

What does Paul tell us in Romans 5:8-11? “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having NOW BEEN JUSTIFIED BY HIS BLOOD, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be [being] saved by His life.”

No wonder it was the famous missionary-pastor David Livingstone who once said: “I will place no value on anything I have or may possess except in relation to the Kingdom of Christ.” [Encyclopedia of Religious Quotations, Frank S. Mead, Fleming H. Revell Com., Westwood, New Jersey,p.55]

Do YOU even begin to fathom, understand, comprehend the fullness of the greatness of God’s love for fallen humanity, demonstrated through the guiltless blood of the Lamb of God for all guilty fallen humanity at the Cross, without the awareness in you of renewed guilt and sorrow, because it was YOUR sin and mine for which Christ Jesus shed His own blood and died in our behalf?

Barrington Booth wrote an old Hymn entitled “The Cross Is Not Greater,” [Published in the old Broadman Hymnal, by Broadman Press, Nashville, Tennessee, 1940!]. It says:

“The cross that He gave may be heavy, But it never outweighs His grace; The storm that I feared may surround me, But it never excludes His face.

The thorns in my path are not sharper Than composed His crown for me; The cup that I drink nor more bitter Than He drank in Gethsemane.

The light of His love shines brighter, As it falls on paths of woe; The toil of my work grows lighter, As I stoop to raise the low.

His will I have joy in fulfilling, As I’m walking in His sight; My all to the blood I am bringing, It alone can keep me right.

The cross is not greater than His grace, The storm cannot hide His blessed face; I am satisfied to know That with Jesus here below, I can conquer every foe.”

CHAPTER TWENTY

“VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED? THE REALITY OF HELL

AND HEAVEN?”

I’m sure that as you’re beginning this chapter, having come this far with me, that you are reasonably assured and confident in both the reality of Hell and the reality of Heaven! And if you began with your personal description of Hell, you’d probably say, “The abode and absence of redemptive faith – no help, no hope, no peace, no blessing – just worldly pleasures continuing into wild decay, a state of unbelief untouched by eternal grace, the reality of a death that will not die, pains and chains, a ‘fool’s dwelling’ that has no light, no love, no liberty – just suffering, sorrow, senselessness, and continuing satanic rituals!

I grieved when I considered Harry Leon Wilson’s evaluation of “The Spenders” when he said: [p.241], “Hell is given up ‘so’ reluctantly by those who don’t expect to go there.” And if you’re not fully aware of its dreadful benefits (?), it’s the gathering place of the crowd who wanted no God, no Savior, no Lord – just a place for the gathering of ‘good’ intenders, good intentions, or hurtful, cheap imitations of, yes, even ‘god-like’ desires, but of the idolatrous kind as many gathered at their ‘holy (?) tables’ of adultery and child sacrifices to show their full devotion! Has much changed in this “new” American or world century?

It was William Allingham, in his writing, “Blackberries,” who said: “I believe in This, That, and T’other; Whatever is current, no matter.” Which sounds to me like a mind and heart, dominated by ‘flesh’, fully blown up by the devil in stupidity!

If Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father (God) except through Me,” what is that man’s future ‘reward’? In Mark 9:42-48 the Lord Jesus Christ said: “But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea. If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed, rather than having two hands, to go to hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched – where ‘Their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.’

And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame, rather than having two feet, to be cast into hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched – where ‘Their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.’

And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye, rather than having two eyes, to be cast into hell fire – where ‘Their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.’”

Sin-maimed lives are “Hell-bound”! Sin-infested old sin natures, unredeemed by the “blood of the Lamb”, are “Hell-bound”! A sin-dominated ‘eye’, Jesus said, better for one eye to be plucked out if one enters the kingdom of God, than two eyes cast into hell-fire – where ‘Their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.’ Are you aware of how Job came to recognize that, if he turned to iniquity and lived in it, he would be ‘deserving of judgment’ followed by ‘a fire that consumes to destruction’?

At least King David knew his rock, his fortress, his deliverer, when strong enemies had surrounded him. He said, in 2 Samuel 22:5-7, and verses 17-20, “When the waves of death surrounded me, the floods of ungodliness made me afraid. The sorrows of Sheol surrounded me; the snares of death confronted me. In my distress I called upon the Lord, and cried out to my God; He heard my voice from His temple, and my cry entered His ears.” [If you KNOW Hell awaits you, I’d say, it’s time to cry out to Holy God in YOUR distress, because Hell is real, and has open arms waiting to pull you in!]. But then we read, Verses 17-20! “He sent from above, He took me, He drew me out of many waters. [At this moment, what ‘waters’ are YOU swimming in?]. He delivered me from my strong enemy, from those who hated me; for they were too strong for me. They confronted me in the day of my calamity, but the Lord was my support.”

And, thank God, for those who know “the Lord of my support,” but for those who have no faith, no trust, no surrender to the Sovereignty of God and His amazing love demonstrated in the sacrificial death of His own Son, Christ Jesus, AT THE CROSS, Hell awaits because they played with the fires of Hell itself, and have been burned, continue to burn, and will burn forever in those flames of godless burning that never cease, even after one dies!

In Mark 16:15-16, the Lord Jesus Christ, Resurrected King of kings and Lord of lords, said: “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes in [trusts in, relies upon, adheres to], and is baptized [as a testimony of saving grace], will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.”

Psalm 9:17 also declares: “The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.” How plain and so realistic with compassion and love when Jesus said in Matthew 10:28, “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him [the Holy Father] who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”

Just a few words written in the last few years on blank side-pages of “The Encyclopedia of Religious Quotations,” related to “Hell”! [ByJFF!], “Torture intended and never ending, day and night in the darkness of no light! Violence it’s reality, though paved with good intentions, – torturing poor souls with senseless pretensions! “Self-love” is a fleshly picture of love for the devil, pleasure-less decay that never brings one level, with Holy God or the Spirit or His Son in Heaven, but the lies of the devil in his untruth – leaven. The leaven of lies is the devil’s strong suit, and Heaven awaits to expose its rotten root; Satan is his oft-called name, constantly attacking God for the devil’s blame. Sad but so true, his days of deception are through, because Christ’s shed blood put the arrow of Truth through Satan and his race, released repentant hearts to their home in Heaven’s place!”

It’s so true: One doesn’t find his assignment to Hell with the expectation of celebrating with his friends! A rejecter of Christ may have many “friends” in Hell, but they aren’t smiling! Do you even think about “your friends, your family” who rejected Christ because of the absence of redemptive faith in their lives, but you feel, “Well, maybe they had no desire for Heaven but they’ll brighten up Hell with their parties,” when all they’ll experience is not parties but pity, not celebrations but curses, nor joy but the sour bitterness of the devil’s hate, nor self-confidence any longer but crushed outlooks for something beyond ‘bitter’, which is not better? Can you imagine the devil in Wall Street dress or Hollywood beauties with gorgeous gowns, but when they’re viewed, if one was even given a slight view from Heaven to there, you’d see only the very damnable of hell, stripped naked with bodies torn, carved on, bleeding in a state of death that will not die! Didn’t we earlier in this chapter read from Mark about ‘the worm that does not die,’ or where ‘the fire is not quenched’? It was Isaac Watts in his writing, “Heaven and Hell,” who wrote: “There is a dreadful hell, and everlasting pains; Where sinners must with devils dwell in darkness, fire, and chains.” Hell is real!

Mark used a few less words than Matthew when he recorded Jesus saying in Mark 12:4-5, “And I say to you, My friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear Him, who after He has killed, has power to cast into hell; yes, I say to you, fear Him!” That’s Holy God!

“Vital Awareness Unveiled? YES, THERE IS THE REALITY OF HEAVEN!” That’s the eternal “home-place” of God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, His faithful angels, and the “blood-bought sons and daughters” through their repentance toward God and faith, follow-ship, friendship with Christ Jesus, God’s crucified, resurrected, reigning, ascended Son, Jesus Christ, who will be magnified on earth as He is in His Heaven through “born again” children of His redemptive faith!

Yes, in Nehemiah 9 we find men of faith standing on the stairs of the Levites, crying out, worshipping the Lord their God, and in Verses 5-6 we read: “Stand up and bless the Lord your God forever and ever! ‘Blessed be Your glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise! You alone are the Lord; You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens with all their host, the earth and everything on it, the seas and all that is in them, and You preserve them all. The host of heaven worships You.’”

One of those very sad moments in Old Testament history is found in Isaiah 1 when the prophet sees the chosen people, Israel, as, Verse 4-7 tells us, “Alas, sinful nation! [That’s Israel!], a people laden with iniquity, a brood of evildoers, children who are corrupters! They have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked to anger the Holy One of Israel, they have turned away backward. [That’s away from God and His holiness!]. Why should you be stricken again?[Stricken by God Himself!]. You will revolt more and more. The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faints. From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness in it, but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores; they have not been closed or bound up, or soothed with ointment. Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire; strangers devour your land in your presence; and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers. [That’s cursed by God!].

Yet, in Verse 9, the prophet said, “Unless the Lord of hosts had left to us a very small remnant, we would have become like Sodom, we would have become like Gomorrah.”

And whether ancient Israel or modern-day America, Biblical Truth is, “God always sees a remnant of true believers who uphold His honor and His Truth!” But still, whether Ancient Israel or the modern-day American church, “the faithful city has become a harlot!” But, Isaiah 1:27-28, alerts us now, as He tried then, “Zion [the Kingdom of God, the spiritual Kingdom of God!], shall be redeemed with justice and her penitents with righteousness. [But] The destruction of transgressors and sinners shall be together, and those who forsake the Lord shall be consumed.”

The prophet gave a word of hope AND a warning from God when in Isaiah 1:18-20 he heard God saying also: “Come now, and let us reason together,” says the Lord. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured by the sword;” for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

But the prophet knew, by the grace of God, there would come the day when God would arise bodily through Emmanuel and He would shake the earth mightily – He has risen up, and He is still shaking the kingdoms of man as the Kingdom of Christ arises! [What do YOU believe Isaiah 7:13-14 is all about?] Then he said, “Hear now, O house of David! Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will you weary my God also? Therefore the Lord will Himself give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.” Immanuel means: “God with us!”

I pray you understand how vital it is in receiving the prophetic Word of God in the Old Testament, and then resting in its fulfillment all over the New Testament from Matthew through Revelation, but be patient as I share in this moment only 1 Peter 1:1-5, 10-12, and Verses 17-21!

1 Peter 1:1-5, “Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the pilgrims of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace be multiplied.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

1 Peter 1:10-12, Of this salvation the prophets have inquired and searched carefully [diligently], who prophesied of the grace that would come to you, searching what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ was indicating when He testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow.

To them it was revealed that, not to themselves, but to us they were ministering the things which now have been reported to you through those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven – things which angels desire to look into.

1 Peter 1:17-21, And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear; knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you who through Him believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.”

For YOU is it Immanuel, “God in flesh”, or simply the “best efforts” of one’s ‘religious faith’? For YOU is it the unveiling of your sinful heart and exposure to your only hope through Christ’s “blood Atonement”, or the futile heresy, a faithless frenzy, as a graduate of man’s private schooling in pride, false teachings, and even Satanic superstitions, or simply self-approval of anything that relates to even opposition to Holy Truth, Holy God, or a Holy Purpose and Eternal Plan?

I found Shakespeare’s words in “King John,” [Act 111, sc.1,L.175], so wise! “Blessed shall be he that doth revolt From his allegiance to a heretic.”

I’m sure the Apostle Paul had a clear understanding of “Faith in the Lamb of God” or faith in the ‘bondage’ of unbelief. He said in Titus 1:15-16, “To the pure all things are pure, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure; but even their mind and conscience are defiled. They profess to know God, but in works they deny Him, being abominable, disobedient, and disqualified for every good work.”

Oh, but then the Apostle properly and in an anointed spirit instructed Titus and us when in Titus 2:11-14 he said, “For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.”

I pray you’ve seen, received, clearly understand, that true disciples, still ‘in the world’ but not ‘of it’, are disciples set apart, re-born, filled with the presence and Spirit of the Resurrected Christ, [“Christ in you…”], governed, regulated, instructed, and living in the “overcoming life and Presence of Christ”, extending His life, expressing His love, and proving His power!

Yes, and though true disciples are still in the world but not of it, our calling is “taking the sentence of death daily, that the resurrection life of Christ may be manifested in mortal flesh” for an unbelieving world to see “Christ in you the hope of glory”!

Edward Mote and William B. Bradbury had their old Hymn, “The Solid Rock”, published in The Broadman Press Hymnal of 1940! [That’s Broadman Press, Nashville, Tennessee.]. It says: “My hope is built on nothing less Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness; I dare not trust the sweetest frame, But wholly lean on Jesus’ name.

When darkness seems to hide His face, I rest on His unchanging grace; In every high and stormy gale, My anchor holds within the vale.

His oath, His covenant, His blood, Support me in the whelming flood; When all around my soul gives way, He then is all my hope and stay.

When He shall come with trumpet sound, Oh, may I then in Him be found; Dressed in His righteousness alone, Faultless to stand before the throne.

On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand; All other ground is sinking sand, All other ground is sinking sand.”

Your “sure foundation”? 2 Timothy 2:19 is clear, sure, assured by Holy God Himself: “Nevertheless the solid foundation of God stands, having this seal: “The Lord knows those who are His,” and, “Let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity.”

CONCLUSION

This has certainly been an interesting journey! When Holy God put this in my heart and mind to write, I truly had no full understanding of where He would lead or to what extent He would allow me to unveil, yes, the small portion of “Vital Awareness Unveiled” that He’s given to me. I truly believe I’ve only touched the hem of the garment of this great Truth!

As I stated earlier, I approach my eightieth birthday, June 12, 2016! It’s been an interesting, exciting, fulfilling 80 years, and especially since God’s grace, mercy, and special blessing granted me my Godly wife, Susan McNabb Fisher, THE most beautiful woman on earth and a true ambassador of the love of Christ, the love of His Word, and, yes, the love of her husband, four grown, saintly, caring kids, nine grandkids, great grandkids with more on the way! Three sons and a daughter: Scott, Susan, Stan, and Steve, with three outstanding daughters-in law, Tammy, Leann, and Diane! Blessed beyond measure by them! Oh, and grandsons blessing us with their own beautiful wives, and a granddaughter with a loving husband, and now, their first child! [I believe Stephanie’s husband, Spencer Coleman, preferred six boys and four daughters! Not sure about that!]

As of June 10, 2016, we will celebrate our 60^th Wedding Anniversary! Sue has been so loving, so faithful, so strong, so wise, so caring, so desirous of Christ being honored through her, not only to her husband and her church, but to the community she touches, yes, by her very presence! And, how blessed to have married a woman who wasn’t sure about how to boil water initially, but came to be an outstanding cook, canner, baker, pie-maker, creator of many, many fine dinners, tastes, and recipes – and especially if it has a little wine to intensify its taste!

I’m so thankful for God’s choice for me a wife who loves the Lord Jesus, wise in His Word, faithful to His Name and reputation and honor, blessed with a heavenly wisdom that enriches His eternal praise and adoration – Proverbs 3:13 says, “Happy is the man who finds wisdom..” Her name is Susan Gail McNabb Fisher! Didn’t Proverbs 11:16 tell us, “A gracious woman retains honor,” and my dear wife’s amazing journey has been only to honor her Lord and Savior through her walk before Him and her walk before her world!

Didn’t Proverbs tell me in Proverbs 31:10-12, “Who can find a virtuous wife? For her worth is far above rubies. The heart of her husband safely trusts her; so she will have no lack of gain,” with Verses 30-31 painting Sue’s indelible print: “Charm is deceitful and beauty is passing, but a woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised. Give her of the fruit of her hands, and let her own works praise her in the gates.”

And, in the gates of glory, there will be the beautiful words from her Lord and Savior: “Well done, good and faithful servant; you’ve been faithful over a few things, now enter the fullness of everlasting joy in the Lord!” That’s my bride!

I pray you’ve been blessed as you’ve journeyed with me through “VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED”! Thanks, James Farrell Fisher

By J. Farrell Fisher

[Volume One]

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

Copyright: 2016, James Farrell Fisher and/or Susan M. Fisher

1809 Rollingwood Court, Bedford, Texas, 76021

FOREWARD

[“Dr.” David Clark, spiritual son of Farrell Fisher, longtime faithful disciple who has ministered in Florida prisons for years. His wife, Sharon, is also a strong faithful witness to the honor of Christ! They are a part of Farrell & Sue’s sons and daughters!].

INTRODUCTION

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

OUTLINE

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

Chapter 2 – “VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

CHAPTER ONE

“I NEVER KNEW YOU!”

SIGNED: “GOD”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Does a fountain send forth [simultaneously] from the same opening fresh water and bitter?

Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives, or a grapevine figs? Neither can a salt spring furnish fresh water.

Who is there among you who is wise and intelligent? Then let him by his noble living show forth his [good] works with the (unobtrusive) humility [which is the proper attire] of true wisdom.

But if you have bitter jealousy (envy) and contention (rivalry, selfish ambition) in your hearts, do not pride yourselves on it and thus be in defiance of and false to the Truth.

This [superficial] wisdom is not such as comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual (animal), even devilish (demonical),

For wherever there is jealousy (envy) and contention (rivalry and selfish ambition) there will also be confusion (unrest, disharmony, rebellion) and all sorts of evil and vile practices.”

And unless one receives the Truth, acknowledges his selfish guilt and envy, responds repentantly before Holy God of his rivalry spirit and selfish ambition, defies the Truth and is false TO the Truth and won’t repent, then he is bound by an earthly, fleshly, demonic spirit, and while calling out to Jesus will bust Hell’s doors wide open, enslaved to those devilish demons and the spirits of men overcome by anger, hatred, and fleshly bitterness, not even knowing the fruit of the Spirit they profess to possess!

The Amplified Bible, in Proverbs 16:5 says, “Every one proud and arrogant in heart is disgusting, hateful and exceedingly offensive to the Lord; be assured – I pledge it – he will not go unpunished.”

GOD SAYS: “I never knew you!” Let’s examine choices men make that shuts God out and away from them:

FIRST, ARE YOU AWARE OF THE FALSE GODS MEN CREATE TO BOW BEFORE PROFESSING ALLEGIANCE TO THEM BECAUSE THEY WANT TO BE RELIGIOUS ON THEIR OWN TERMS!

In Amos 8:13-14 we read: [“The Message” Bible by Eugene H. Patterson, Nav Press, Colorado Springs, co. 80935], “On Judgment Day, lovely young girls will faint of WORD-THIRST, robust young men will faint of GOD-THIRST,

Along with those who take oaths at the Samaria Sin-and-Sex Center, saying, ‘As the lord god of Dan is my witness!’ and ‘The lady goddess of Beer-Sheba bless you!’ Their lives will fall to pieces, they’ll never put it together again.”

Idol worshippers! Allegiance to man-made idols, whether religious, fleshly, sinful, or demonic. Literal idols that men bow before all over the world and never hear a word, never sense a touch, never receive an anointing, never entertain angels but have the full support of demonic powers.

In Acts 19: 23-28 we hear from the “loud mouths and lost minds” of those getting rich off making idols! Listen to their explanation:

But as time went on there arose no little disturbance concerning the Way [of the Lord Jesus].

For a man named Demetrius, a silversmith who made silver shrines of (the goddess) Artemis (not Diana), brought no small income to his craftsmen.

These he called together, along with the workmen of similar trades, and said, Men, you are acquainted with the facts and understand that [Are YOU ready?] from this business we derive our wealth and livelihood.

Now you notice and hear that not only at Ephesus but almost all over [the province of] Asia this Paul has persuaded and induced people to believe his teaching and has alienated a considerable company of them, saying that gods that are made with human hands are not really gods at all.

Now there is danger not merely that this trade of ours may be discredited, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemas may come into disrepute and count for nothing, and that her glorious magnificence may be degraded and fall into contempt, she whom all Asia and the wide world worship.

As they listened to this they were filled with rage, and they continued to shout, Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!”

Oh, but hear me: Idolatry is more than the worship of man-made, devil-inspired stones to worship before and bow down to! In 1 Corinthians 10:14 Paul pled with the Corinthian church and our church-world today, saying, [Amplified]

“Therefore, my dearly beloved, shun – keep away from, avoid by flight if need be – any sort of idolatry (of loving or venerating anything more than God).”

Did you hear that with your spiritual eyes and ears? “Keep away from – avoid – any sort of idolatry”! In “The Art of Worldly Wisdom, XXVI”, Baltasar Gracian Y Morales wrote: “All men are idolaters, some of fame, others of self-interest, most of pleasure.”

Oh, but then you read 1 Samuel 15:23 and the Word tells us: [Amplified Bible]“For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as idolatry and teraphim (good luck images). Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He also has rejected you from being king.”

It was Martin Luther in “Table Talk” who said: “We easily fall into idolatry, for we are inclined thereunto by nature, and coming to us by inheritance, it seems pleasant.”

The Amplified Bible in Colossians 3:5-6 translates Paul’s words as follows: “So kill (deaden, deprive of power) the evil desire lurking in your members – those animal impulses and all that is earthly in you that is employed in sin; sexual vice, impurity, sensual appetites, unholy desires, and all greed and covetousness, FOR THAT IS IDOLATRY [the deifying of self and other things instead of God…]

It is on account of these [very sins] that the [holy] anger of God is ever coming upon (those who are obstinately opposed to the divine will) the sons of disobedience.”

Did you receive that ? A son, a daughter of disobedience is the same as an idol! An idolater is one obstinately opposed to the divine will (the sons of disobedience)!

And Paul gives us all a warning in 2 Corinthians 6:16 when he said: “What agreement [can there be between] a temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God; even as God said, I will dwell in and with and among them [that’s the church!] and will walk in and with and among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.”

Paul was concerned about God’s people choosing to worship idols? Is it any different today than it was in Paul’s day?

SECOND, HOW GUILTY DO YOU BELIEVE GOVERNMENTS ARE WHEN MEN SUBVERT THE RULE OF GOD IN GOVERNMENT AND ENTHRONE THEMSELVES, YES, TO RUTHLESSLY AND SELFISHLY AND DECEPTIVELY RULE OVER THE PEOPLE?

Psalm 67 is one of the most informative passages about God’s rule in government you’ll not find in most national governments’ constitutions. It says: [Amplified Bible]

“God be merciful and gracious to us and bless us, and cause His face to shine upon us and among us, SELAH [pause, and calmly think of that]! That Your way may be known upon earth, Your saving power [Your deliverances and Your salvation], among all nations.

Let the peoples praise You, [turn away from their idols] and give thanks to You, O God; let all the peoples praise and give thanks to You. O let the nations be glad and sing for joy; for You will judge the peoples fairly, and guide, lead or drive the nations upon earth. SELAH [pause, and calmly think of that]!

Let the peoples praise You, [turn away from their idols] and give thanks to You, O God; let all the peoples praise and give thanks to You. The earth has yielded its harvest [in evidence of God’s approval]; God, even our own God will bless us. God will bless us, and all the ends of the earth shall reverently fear Him.”

And, if you happened not to hear it in your heart or overlooked or just didn’t understand it, let me highlight it for you! Judgment comes upon the nations! People who are truly praising the Lord are turning away from their idols! Holy God WILL guide, lead, or drive the nations upon the earth!

Question: Are there godless governments in churches or are some churches infiltrated by godless people intent on shaping ‘our church’ to ‘our way of thinking’?

1 Peter 4:17-18 tells us, “For the time [has arrived] for judgment to begin with the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will [be] the end of those who do not respect or believe or obey the good news (the Gospel) of God? And if the righteous are barely saved, what will become of the godless and the wicked?”

Proverbs 11:30-31 is both encouraging and frightening! It says: “The fruit of the [uncompromisingly] righteous is a tree of life, and he who is wise captures human lives for God [as a fisher of men] – he gathers and receives them for eternity. Behold, the [uncompromisingly] righteous shall be recompensed on earth; how much more the wicked and the sinner! [And if the righteous are barely saved, what will become of the ungodly and wicked?”]

Have you followed through with studying 2 Peter? If you did, you had ‘Hell’ scared right out of you if you lingered because Peter was inspired by Holy God to write 2 Peter 2:1-10! It says,

“But []in those days] there arose false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among yourselves, who will subtly and stealthily introduce heretical doctrines – destructive heresies – even denying and disowning the Master Who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction.

And many will follow their immoral ways and lascivious doings; because of them the true Way will be maligned and defamed. And in their covetousness (lust, greed) they will exploit you with (cunning) false arguments. From of old the sentence [of condemnation] for them has not been idle; their destruction (eternal misery) has not been asleep.

For God [even] spared not angels that sinned, but cast them into hell, delivering them to be kept there in pits of gloom till the judgment and their doom. And He spared not the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven other persons, when He brought a flood upon the world on ungodly [people].

And He condemned to ruin and extinction the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, reducing them to ashes []and thus] set them forth as an example to those who would be ungodly. [Genesis 19:24].

And He rescued righteous Lot, greatly worn out and distressed by the wanton ways of the ungodly and lawless. [Genesis 19:16,29]. For that just man, living [there] among them, tortured his righteous soul every day with what he saw and heard on [their] unlawful and wicked deeds.

NOW if [all these things be true, then be sure] the Lord knows how to rescue the godly out of temptations and trials, and how to keep the ungodly under chastisement until the day of judgment and doom; And particularly those who walk after the flesh and indulge in the lust of polluting passion, and scorn and despise authority. Presumptuous and daring – self-willed and self-loving [creatures]! They scoff at and revile dignitaries (glorious ones) without trembling.”

But can I tell you? There’s coming a day when the ungodly will want to shake themselves out of this world that belongs to Holy God, unaware they’ve shaken themselves into Hell itself!

THIRD, AND LAST, ARE YOU AWARE OF WHERE ‘FLESHLY’ PRETENSE LEADS THE ACTUAL ‘SELF-PROMOTERS’? ARE YOU READY TO BE CONFRONTED BY HOLY TRUTH? In Matthew 7:15-29 we read, [bear with me!], 14 Verses!

“Beware of false prophets, who come to you dressed as sheep, but inside they are devouring wolves. [Have you ever encountered them?].

You will fully recognize them by their fruits. Do people pick grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles? Even so every healthy (sound) tree bears good fruit – worthy of admiration; but the sickly (decaying, worthless) tree bears bad and worthless fruit.

A good (healthy) tree cannot bear bad (worthless) fruit; nor can a bad diseased tree bear excellent fruit – worthy of admiration. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and cast into the fire. Therefore you will fully know them by their fruits.

Not everyone who says to Me [that’s Jesus!], Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven. Many will say to Me on that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, and driven out demons in Your name, and done many mighty works in Your name?

And then I will say to them openly (publicly) I never knew you; depart from Me, you who act wickedly – disregarding My commands [Psalm 6:8]. So everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts upon them – obeying them – will be like a sensible (prudent, practical, wise) man who built his house upon the rock;

And the rain fell and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And every one who hears these words of Mine and does not do them will be like a stupid (foolish) man who built his house upon the sand; And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell; and great and complete was the fall of it.

When Jesus had finished these sayings [the Sermon on the Mount], the crowds were astonished and overwhelmed with bewildered wonder at His teaching. For He was teaching as [One] who had [and was] authority, and not as did the scribes.”

I’ve pastored in Florida, Alabama, Arizona, and Texas. And that was over a period of about 50 years. So the true story I’m about to share, you’ll not know where this story occurred, true, sad, and so convicting.

A man I know had a personal friend who was running for public office – and for certain this man was sure, confident, and at peace in giving his close friend full support.

But the man had a neighbor a few blocks away who had decided to run for the same office, and so he went to the neighbor, asking for his support.

The central man of the story told the neighbor, “I wish I could, but one of my long-time best friends is running, and I’ve committed my support to him.” The neighbor was incensed and marked the central man voting for his friend as the neighbor’s number one enemy. He became so embittered, and from that day forward lived with a grudge, a resentment, a tactic of nothing good to say about the man who voted for his friend rather than this neighbor.

Dare I tell you the embittered neighbor is an active church-goer? He professes Christ Jesus but lives in a state of unforgiveness and bitterness!

What did Jesus say in Matthew 7:23? “Ant then I will say to them openly (publicly) I NEVER KNEW YOU; depart from Me, you who act wickedly – disregarding My commands.”

Receive our Lord’s words in Mark 11:25-26! “And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, FORGIVE HIM AND LET IT DROP – leave it, let it go – in order that your Father Who is in heaven may also forgive you your [own] failings and shortcomings and let them drop.” But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your failings and shortcomings.”

I was 37-38 years of age, I believe, when I knew I had serious business to take care of if I wanted God’s blessing on my life, my wife, my children. I was the product of a broken home. At three years of age my parents divorced, and I was taken by my mother to the home of her parents who cared for me for about 9-10 years. Then my mother remarried, and I was taken to live with her and her new husband.

In all my years of life my father was never in my home with me, Sue, and his grandkids. One time, my senior year in high school, playing against Knoxville Central High School in Knoxville, I tackled their single-wing tailback, 230 pounds he weighed, hitting him at his knee level, knocked unconscious in the early second quarter, transferred to the Catholic Hospital in Knoxville, parents and family unsure that I might live through the night.

When I awoke at 4:30 in the morning, all of my family was standing at the door of my hospital room, including my Dad and his second wife. I lived – and I played the next Friday night against Notre Dame High of Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Beyond that, if I desired to see my Dad, which I did, I would ride a bus from Cleveland, Tennessee, to his office in Athens, Tennessee, where I was born. He never ever came to my home. At the 37-38 years stage of life, wanting God’s full and fresh blessing, God said, “Go, and forgive your mother and father now!” Which I did! And as a result, received “the peace of God that passes all understanding.”

It’s time – forgive, free yourself, and walk in His fullness and eternal blessing! Examine Ephesians 1:7-12, [NKJV Edition, Holman Bible Edition], “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth – in Him. In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory.”

Question! Are YOU living to the praise of His glory and honor? Do YOU walk in forgiveness to those who wounded YOU? Is your song “Mercy and Grace” or is it the song of unforgiveness, bitterness, resentment, even with flashes of hatred? In 2 Corinthians 7:10 we read, “For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death.”

In your journey through life, what is truly your spiritual desire? A disease or the fruit of the blessing of the Indwelling Christ who forgives by His shed blood? A man who walks in the spirit of unforgiveness WILL NOT KNOW our Lord’s blessing apart from exchanging their bitterness for His forgiveness, even seeking sincere relationships not closed doors, because we were reconciled to Christ through His Cross, and true reconciliation is not only with Christ but a true relationship with those who ‘hurt, offended, or slighted us’!

If you’ve “entered the Kingdom of God”, why not act like it? 1 John 4:9 says, “In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.” Have YOU entered the Kingdom of God? Are you living and demonstrating and validating the Truth of His Indwelling Life?

It was Gladden and Smith who wrote the old Hymn, “O Master, Let Me Walk With Thee.” It says: “O Master, let me walk with Thee, In lowly paths of service free; Tell me Your secret, help me bear The strain of toil, the fret of care.

Help me the slow of heart to move By some clear, winning word of love; Teach me the wayward feet to stay, And guide them in the homeward way.

Teach me Your patience! Still with You In closer, dearer company, In work that keeps faith sweet and strong, In trust that triumphs over wrong. In hope that sends a shining ray Far down the future’s broadening way, In peace that only You can give, With You, O Master, let me live.” Does He “know YOU” or not?

CHAPTER TWO

VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED

Are you aware of a ‘religious faith’ birthed in one’s mind on the basis of one’s distinct, self-actualizing moral efforts, or the ‘True Faith’ birthed, built, based and blessed on God’s initiative, inspiration, and divine insight?

Is there a religious spirit apart from the Holy Spirit that invents requirements apart from God’s revelation, unveiling, promise, and verification of divine life only through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ?

Have you ever witnessed a mass religiosity so opposite to ‘repentance toward God and true faith in the finished work of Christ on the Cross’? “Vital Awareness Unveiled”?

Religious convictions or Divine Truth? Devotion to a church’s constitution or devotion to Christ’s Resurrected, Reigning Indwelling Life? Devotion to what an ‘intellectual’ professor says or devotion to who Christ Jesus is? Devotion to a world’s united, unbiblical teachings that there is more than one way to God, including every religion manufactured by men’s deceived hearts, or holy revelation of the vital awareness unveiled of God’s only “one way”? Is it man’s ‘religious foundation’ offered by ‘the best’ in intellectual superiority or God’s best and blessed in the awesome Truth of who Christ Jesus is and what He did on Calvary’s Cross over 2000 years ago, and, in fact, birthed in the heart of Holy God before our world was ever created?!?

Is vital awareness unveiled by the ‘Apostates’ Creed’ or the “Apostles’ Revelation” unveiled by the sold-out disciples who all died for the Eternal Truth? [And maybe even a bigger question today: “Are you a true disciple ready to die for the only Way of true salvation – the death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and soon-coming of Christ Jesus?”] Is it vital unawareness unveiled by social experiments rather than the true declaration of the Holy Word concerning Christ, or the vital awareness unveiled by the sacrificial death of Christ on the Cross?

An ‘Apostates’ Creed’ is all in for self-awareness, self-individuality, self-honoring, while the “Apostles’ Creed” is the affirming, relying upon, declaration, and submission to Christ’s Lordship and His “victory” in and through His sacrificial death on the Cross, releasing men from the penalty of their sin and their surrender to His “Resurrection Life, Resurrection Power, and Resurrection Hope”!

In fact, in Matthew 16:24-26, Jesus declared, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” That’s the true words of the Lord Jesus!

Do you realize that one substituting his individuality in seeking to be reconciled to Holy God is “banking” on God believing our self-efforts are eternally rewarding, and God should be thankful to have us on His side? But, God says, Matthew 16:24, “If ANYONE desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.”

I was awe-struck when I read Dietrich Bonhoffer’s statement: [Bonhoeffer, by Eric Metaxes, p.138], “The church has only one altar, the altar of the Almighty…before which all creatures must kneel. Whoever seeks something other than this must keep away; he cannot join us in the house of God…The church has only one pulpit, and from that pulpit, faith in God will be preached, and no other faith, and no other will than the will of God, however well-intentioned.”

What was true in the very day of Christ Jesus is true even today! In John 6:66-68 we read, From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more. Then Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you also want to go away?” But Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” And there are those who “do go away”, captured in mind and spirit, because, for them, “the way of the Cross” does not lead home to safety, convenience, or acceptance by a sadly, Godless world, enslaving themselves to their religious bondage so opposite to the true freedom in Christ Jesus!

The sad truth of a ‘fallen world’, so expressive of ‘fallen man’, alienated and separated from Holy God, is that “the blood of Jesus Christ” shed on the Cross was totally unnecessary because their ‘sin’ and ‘sin nature’ was not that serious that a wise, understanding, sympathetic God, should, would, could, and did shed the literal blood of His own ‘assumed’ Son. The lost, alienated, unbelieving world says, “The ‘fleshly god’ of one’s own natural life is enough to deliver himself, even if one hears of a “greater salvation”, because there is nothing better in man than his own self-deification, self-strength, and self-ability to overcome any minor or major spiritual short-coming – who needs Jesus?” You’ve heard it!

But a greater, sadder truth? Just like the scribes and Pharisees in Jesus’ day who rejected Him and crucified Him, those in this modern day who do the same thing, Jesus says, John 7:33-34, “I shall be with you a little while longer, and then I go to Him who sent Me. You will seek Me and not find Me, and where I am you cannot come.” Are you a believer or an unbeliever, a receiver or a rejecter, an independent, foolish man or truly a wise man of redemptive, life-changing faith?

“Vital Awareness Unveiled?” Hear the words of Jesus Christ in John 14:6! “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”

FIRST, VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED IS CHRIST JESUS, THE ONLY WAY FALLEN MEN ARE RECONCILED TO HOLY GOD! What did Jesus Himself say? “No one comes to the Father except through Me.” And, if Christ Jesus declares, “I AM THE WAY,” then what is taking place in the minds and hearts of unbelievers? It’s total, complete, destructive deception, breeding ‘death’ for one’s eternal reward!

In Psalm 36:1-4, David wrote about the wickedness of a sinful man! “An oracle within my heart concerning the transgression of the wicked: THERE IS NO FEAR OF GOD BEFORE HIS EYES. For he flatters himself in his own eyes, when he finds out his iniquity and when he hates. The words of his mouth are wickedness and deceit; he has ceased to be wise and to do good. He devises wickedness on his bed; he sets himself IN A WAY THAT IS NOT GOOD; he does not abhor evil.”

And that takes place, without shame, before the Lord’s mercy, in spite of God’s faithfulness in working out his redemption, and his bed, at nighttime, is where he thinks out his wickedness, and ends up doing what? “He sets himself in a way that is not good!” No doubt this is why the author of Proverbs was inspired to write in Proverbs 12:15, “The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, BUT he who heeds counsel is wise.” And those who are spiritually unwise, in Proverbs 13:15, God declares, “the way of the unfaithful is hard.” Just a chapter later, in Proverbs 14:12, Yes, Holy God declares through His servant, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.”

Oh, but then in Psalms 18:28-30 King David was so inspired to write, “For You will light my lamp; the Lord will enlighten [illumine] my darkness. For by You I can run against a troop, by my God I can leap over a wall. As for God, His way is perfect; the word of the Lord is proven; He is a shield to all who trust in Him.”

Isn’t there an old hymn that says, “Trust and obey for there’s no other way?” In fact, in John 14:6, Jesus declared, “I AM the way, the truth, and the life. NO ONE comes TO the Father except through Me.” Wasn’t it Josh MacDowell who once said “Jesus? Liar, lunatic, or the Lord God?”

Aren’t you awed by God’s holy choices to serve Him in proclaiming Christ? Are you aware that Saul of Tarsus was an enemy of Christ Jesus, persecuting Him, imprisoning Him, and ready to slaughter Him, but Holy God had a different plan that even included God washing Saul of Tarsus in the blood of the Lamb and raised Paul the Apostle up to be one of His greatest witnesses!

In 1 Corinthians 15:9-20, [patience, please! Eleven verses! But eternal truth!], Paul wrote, “For I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. Therefore, whether it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.

Now if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty. Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up – if in fact the dead do not rise. For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins!

Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable. BUT NOW CHRIST IS RISEN FROM THE DEAD, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.”

Let me highlight an extremely valuable word for you in the tenth verse! “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain…!” That’s “bestowed grace – blessed victory!” Jesus raised you and me up out of spiritual death, instilled His Resurrection Life, planted our feet on the “Solid Rock,” and showed us “His Way”!

Do you remember the man meeting Rebekah as she drew water in Genesis 24:27, saying to her, “Blessed be the Lord God of my master Abraham, who has not forsaken His mercy and His truth toward my master. As for me, being in the way, the Lord led me…!” And “Christ Jesus, the only way fallen mankind is reconciled to Holy God? Yes! Ten thousand times, Yes! Jesus said, “I AM THE WAY!”

Are you aware of what King David said in Psalm 18:32? “It is God who arms me with strength, and makes my way perfect.” Follow in the Word! Proverbs 10:17 says, “He who keeps instruction is in the way of life!”

You are aware of a man’s choice of the ‘highway’ on which he chooses to walk. In Isaiah 35:8 we read, “A highway shall be there, and a road, and it shall be called the Highway of Holiness,” with Verse 9 saying, “…the redeemed shall walk there,” as they ‘return to God,’ ‘coming with singing,’ and overflowing with “everlasting joy and gladness on their heads”!

Isaiah 59:8 speaks of “the way of peace” that most Israelites did not know, sadly! Are you aware of “the way to Zion”? Jeremiah 50:5, the Word of the Lord! It relates to the nation of Israel that lost its ‘way’ to God! But the holy prophet challenged them [and, yes, even the ‘church’ in America today!], “They shall ask the way to Zion, with their faces toward it, saying, ‘Come and let us join ourselves to the Lord in a perpetual covenant that will not be forgotten.’” Sadly, only a remnant then and a remnant now seeks the way of Zion, which is, by the way, the Way of His abiding presence!

I know it may not sit well with ‘broad-minded’ preachers, but according to Jesus Himself, He said in Matthew 7:13-14, “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.”

Are you aware of ‘the way of God in truth’? [Matthew 22:16]. Do you know “the way of escape”? [1 Corinthians 10:13]. How many do you know and relate to who walk “the more excellent way”? [1 Corinthians 10:31]. What about “the new and living way”? [Hebrews 10:20]. Oh, I tell you, “All the WAY our Lord desires to lead us!”

SECOND, VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED IS ETERNAL TRUTH THAT IS ONLY, YES, THE VERY EMBODIMENT OF “CHRIST IN YOU” – ALL ELSE? HUMAN DECEPTION! What was it Paul said in Galatians 4:19? “My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you.”

Do you receive what Paul wrote in Colossians 1:26 about “the mystery” that “has been revealed to His saints”? Then, Verses 27-28, reveals to us the absolute essential of “Vital Awareness Unveiled”! “To them God willed to make known are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.”

“Christ in you, the hope of glory”? Vital awareness unveiled – in YOU? Aren’t you absolutely raised with joy and thanksgiving when you read 2 Corinthians 5:21? “For He [God Almighty, Lord over all!] made Him [Christ Jesus] who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become [through Jesus only!] the righteousness of God in Him.”

I’m also awed when I read Hebrews 10:14 where Holy God inspired the author to share these words: “For by one offering He [God] has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.” And the word ‘sanctified’ means “set apart”, yes, for His glory and honor and praise alone! By the death of the Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary’s Cross, and that alone, one is reconciled to Holy God, indwelt with King Jesus, infilled with the Holy Spirit, and declared God’s finished work in us through His Son and our Savior and Lord!

We have nothing in and of ourselves to boast, but we can boast on the Christ in us who has set us apart unto Himself, and we glory in the Lord Jesus Christ! No ‘flesh’ glories in Christ’s resurrected presence, but the true born-again disciple of Christ glories in His Indwelling Presence! 1 Corinthians 1:30-31 tells us, “But of Him you are in Christ Jesus who became FOR US wisdom from God – and righteousness and sanctification and redemption – that, as it is written, ‘He who glories, let him glory in the Lord.’” Are YOU glorying in the Lord Jesus Christ in your day by day journey?

THIRD, VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED IS, NOT DEATH AND ITS WORTHLESS FRUIT, BUT ABUNDANT, EVERLASTING, ETERNAL LIFE, AND ITS ETERNAL, FRESH, NEVER-WILTING FRUIT OF CHRIST AND HIS SPIRIT! Did Jesus tell us in Matthew 12:33 that “a tree is known by its fruit”- understanding that there is no fruit of the flesh that honors Holy God, but only the fruit of the Spirit of God!

How familiar are you with Galatians 5:22-25? It says: “But the fruit [the fruit of God’s Spirit] is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.”

The best of human flesh, regardless of its realms of performance, cannot, will not honor Holy God! The best efforts of human flesh never attain to even a small glimpse of the nature and character of Christ! God didn’t call us out for grand performances to look like Jesus, but He called us out to “rest” in Him! In Philippians 2:12-13 we read, “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.”

And your ‘working out’ your own salvation, and that with fear and trembling’? It is turning to Holy God – it is not you ‘perfecting your ways’ – they were crucified with Christ when He died on the Cross two thousand years ago – God’s interest in you is your availability to Him and all He can do through you!

In 1 Corinthians 2:1-4 Paul testified for our understanding: “And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God.

For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.”

It was Oswald Chambers who wrote the following in his book, “My Utmost For His Highest.” He said: [p.252], “When once you are rooted in Reality [that’s Divine Reality, Divine Presence in you!], nothing can shake you. If your faith is in experiences, anything that happens is likely to upset that faith; but nothing can ever upset God or the almighty Reality of Redemption; base your faith on that, and you are as eternally secure as God. When once you get into contact, personal contact, with Jesus Christ, you will never be moved again. That is the meaning of sanctification. God puts His disapproval on human experience when we begin to adhere to the conception that sanctification is merely an experience, and forget that sanctification itself has to be sanctified. I have deliberately to give my sanctified life to God for His service, so that He can use me as His hands and His feet.”

J.W. Van DeVenter and W.S. Weeden wrote the old hymn, “I Surrender All.” It says: “All to Jesus, I surrender, All to Him I freely give; I will ever love and trust Him, In His presence daily live.

All to Jesus I surrender, Humbly at His feet I bow; Worldly pleasures all forsaken, Take me, Jesus, take me now.

All to Jesus I surrender, Make me, Savior, wholly Yours; Let me feels the Holy Spirit, – Truly know that You are mine.

All to Jesus I surrender, Lord, I give myself to You; Fill me with Your love and power, Let Your blessing fall on me.”

Can YOU surrender ALL to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, owned by His purchase of YOU through His shed blood? He’s calling YOU right now!

CHAPTER THREE

THE VITAL AWARENESS OF THE NEED

OF SPIRITUAL LABORING

In Isaiah 66:7-11 and then Verses 22-24, we read both sad words and glad words from God because of a nation and people who, some, rejected God’s Holy Word, and a remnant received His Word and held on to it for generations ,for centuries, with its Truth upheld that God’s Son would be birthed and a new, eternal spiritual nation formed called “the children of God, the children of the Messiah, the children of the Holy Spirit!

Isaiah 66:7-11 says first, “Before she was in labor, she gave birth; before her pain came, she delivered a male child. Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things? Shall the earth be made to give birth in one day? Or shall a nation be born at once? For AS SOON AS ZION WAS IN LABOR, she gave birth to her children. Shall I bring to the time of birth, and not cause delivery? Says the Lord. Shall I who cause delivery shut up the womb? Says your God. Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad with her, all you who love her; rejoice for joy with her, all you who mourn for her; that you may feed and be satisfied with the consolation of her bosom, that you may drink deeply and be delighted with the abundance of her glory.”

Isiah 66:22-24 then says, “For as the new heavens and the new earth which I will make shall remain before Me,” says the Lord, “So shall your descendants and your name remain. And it shall come to pass that from one New Moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, all flesh shall come to worship before Me,” says the Lord. And they shall go forth and look upon the corpses of the men who have transgressed against Me. For their worm does not die, and their fire is not quenched. They shall be an abhorrence to all flesh.”

Did you see that? “That you may drink deeply and be delighted with the abundance of her glory”? Do you understand? Israel was chosen of God to receive and share Divine Blessing! Yes, it was through the ‘holy remnant of Israel’, through the ‘chosen virgin mother, Mary,’ there would come the unveiling of divine blessing, through the birth of the Christ-child, who would, when Holy God heard the voice of sorrow over sin, and the remnant of Israel’s cry over the sorrow for sin and their need of the Savior, Holy God in His Amazing Grace would use the few to touch the many!

It was in God’s timing, in His awareness of desperation for needy people, in their extremity of woefulness over their spiritual emptiness, which God saw and still sees as His eternal moment of divine opportunity; in their deep anxiety, in their moment of the ultimate agony of spirit, in their moments of darkness and seeing no light, God turned on the Heavenly Light, and darkness became the door of the Eternal Light, and the Lord Jesus was birthed by Mary to the glory of God!

I know you didn’t miss it! “As soon as Zion travailed, as soon as Zion was ‘in labor,’ as soon as the remnant saw the desperation for divine life outside their fleshly determination, outside their religious traditions, outside their “We can handle our own problems,” Holy God sent His Son – divine opportunity for new life, a new relationship, a new available presence and sustenance of Divine Life, a new resurrection power over sin and death and meaninglessness and emptiness, through His Son, God’s Promised Messiah whose name Isaiah told them and us about in Isaiah 9:6-8! It says:

“For unto us a Child is born,[does that ring a bell in your mind and heart?], unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end, upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, to order it and establish it with judgment and justice from that time forward, even forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this!”

But for many in Israel they were content with what the high priest and chief priests had to offer which was fleshly devotion to their religious pretense! Even the Pharisees and Sadducees in Jesus day were the pretenders who became the executioners of the King of kings and Lord of lords! And you must understand: There’s not much difference at all between hate and indifference – one can be very vocal and violent, while others, just in an attitude of “I couldn’t care less”!! Or, “corruption and compromise” related to the Spirit and the Word of God, Or, the true possession of one’s own pretense as he/she ‘fakes the faith’! Or, the best of ‘fleshly imitation’ or the “rest” of counterfeit imitation; Or, how about the devilish delusion of deception about ‘sin’ that says, ‘you shall not die’ as they keep on sinning and keep on dying in the death cycle that will not die! Holy God certainly has promised one the end result of his foolish life choices!

I’m sure this is why Charles Caleb Colton, in “ The Encyclopedia of Religious Quotations”, [Fleming H. Revell Company, Westwood, New Jersey, Edited and Compiled by Frank S. Mead], said: “After hypocrites, the greatest dupes the devil has are those who exhaust an anxious existence in the disappointments and vexations of business, and live miserably and meanly only to die magnificently and rich. – They serve the devil without receiving his wages, and for the empty foolery of dying rich, pay down their health, happiness, and integrity.” But it’s true of every ‘independent, self-serving man, rich or poor’!

Several lessons we must share related to “ The Vital Awareness of The Need of Spiritual Laboring”: FIRST, NO TRAVAILING – NO SPIRITUAL BIRTH! I was ashamed, heart-broken, to hear a TV pastor say recently that he never talked about sin and the wages of sin because the lost of this world need the “good news”! But do you understand that the Holy Word declares that the wages of sin is death, the wages of sin is separation from God, the wages of sin cost the Life of the Son of God on the Cross – and without “repentance toward God and faith in the finished work of Christ at Calvary”, there is no reason for one to come smiling before Holy God, but broken, sorrowful, ashamed, rejoicing that there is a way out of one’s eternal spiritual dilemma!

No travailing – no spiritual birthing! No repentance – no rejoicing! No seed of bitterness over the shameful life of sin, indifference, and fleshly indulgence and bondage – no true sons of God! No going away from an ungodly lifestyle, void of Holy Presence within – no coming into the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Jesus Christ! No brokenness – no blessing! No identifying evidence of a Godly presence within – no rejoicing in the joy of the Lord!

There was a time off and on when Israel hid from God, or sought Him – in the Old and New Testament it was like a spiritual roller coaster, up and down, around and around, one day with awesome devotion, allegiance, and affirmation of Holy God and His Truth, but another time a rapid departure and unfaithfulness to His calling and mission through them.

Are you aware of what Holy God said through the prophet Amos? In Amos 3:2-3, through the prophet, God spoke: “You only [Israel] have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities. Can two walk together, unless they are agreed?”

And then in Amos 3:7-8 the prophet shared, “Surely the Lord God does nothing, unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets. A lion has roared! Who will not fear! The Lord God has spoken! Who can but prophesy?”

Is Holy God the same yesterday, today, and forever? When God spoke of “her” in Hosea, He was speaking to those birthed for His glory, honor, and praise, but most of Israel chose to serve the gods of the world, the flesh, and the devil! So God said, Hosea 2:13, “I will punish her for the days of the Baals [foreign gods, idols!] to which she [Israel] burned incense. She decked herself with earrings and jewelry, and went after her lovers; But Me she forgot,” says the Lord.”

And if one lives his/her life in a spiritual state of ‘forgetfulness’ of God, what doors have been opened? In Job 8:11-15 Bildad said to Job, “Can the papyrus grow without a marsh? Can the reeds flourish without water? While it is yet green and not cut down, it withers before any other plant. SO ARE THE PATHS OF ALL WHO FORGET GOD; and the hope of the hypocrite shall perish, Whose confidence shall be cut off, and whose trust is a spider’s web. He leans on his house, but it does not stand. He holds it fast, but it does not endure.” How shocking do you find Psalm 9:17? “The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.”

I was recently reading Oswald Chambers in his book, “My Utmost For His Highest,” and he surely, truthfully, convictingly, affirmed what the Holy God of Scripture through His prophets, teachers, and evangelists, truly understand about “No Travailing – No Spiritual Birth”! He said: “The plaintive, self-centered, morbid kind of prayer, a dead-set that I want to be right, is never found in the New Testament [and I,JFF, might add, OR THE OLD TESTAMENT!]. The fact that ‘I am trying to be right with God is a sign that I am rebelling against the Atonement. ‘Lord, I will purify my heart if You will answer my prayer; I will walk rightly if You will help me.’ I CANNOT make myself right with God, I CANNOT make my life perfect; I can only be right with God if I accept the Atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ as an absolute gift. Am I humble enough to accept it? I have to resign every kind of claim and cease from every effort, and leave myself entirely alone in His hands, and then begin to pour out in the priestly work of intercession.”

Dare I tell you that much of worldwide ‘Christianity’ today is: “travailing is strange to our understanding salvation of how we’re ‘saved’ – repenting, forsaking our grasp of salvation independent of us ‘trying’? We don’t think so!” SO.. they must come in repentance toward God and faith in the finished work of Christ AT CALVARY as He suffered, bled, and died in their place!

“No travailing – no spiritual birth”? Oh, receive the words of King David! Psalm 51:1-13 is David’s repentant prayer of faith from a life broken because of his sin! “Have mercy upon Me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness; according to the multitudes of Your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.

For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against You, You only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Your sight – that You may be found just when You speak, and blameless when You judge. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me.

Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me hear joy and gladness, that the bones You have broken may rejoice.

Hide Your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me by Your generous Spirit. Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, and sinners shall be converted to You.”

The True Faith of the reality of eternal spiritual birth is never evidenced by an ungodly life style, the breaking of Holy Laws, the absence of sorrow over sin or the absence of brokenness over separation from God, because sin separates not interprets God’s love, grace, and mercy, but intensifies one’s need of Holy God’s divine conviction! Out of conviction comes confession; out of confession comes conversion; out of conversion comes consecration; out of consecration comes submission and obedience to the holy calling of Holy God, yes, miraculously turning the natural into the supernatural, the old man into the new man, the life of willful obstinacy into a life of “walking in the light, as Jesus is in the light”, fully aware that “the blood of Jesus has, is, and will cleanse us from all sin”, because, “I have no desire to walk in that which separates me from God, but a walk evidenced by His miracle of a “new-born life”!

Oswald Chambers wrote, in “My Utmost For His Highest”, [p.268], “The love of God at work in me makes me hate with the hatred of the Holy Ghost all that is not in keeping with God’s holiness.” Be assured, a ‘casual lifestyle of supposed commitment to Christ Jesus, as one has no concern, conviction, or abhorrence of the evil of their sin and a willingness to be separated from it, is evidence of the ‘professors of faith’ without possession and transformation of the True Faith!

SECOND, “THE VITAL AWARENESS OF THE NEED OF SPIRITUAL LABORING”? THE ETERNAL REALITY OF BEING ‘NEW-BORN’, BECOMING GOD’S EARTHLY MAN OR WOMAN UNVEILING CHRIST JESUS TO ALL AROUND HIM/HER!

In 1 Corinthians 2:14-16 Paul wrote: “But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. For ‘who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?’ But we have [the “new-born”] the mind of Christ.”

Our call to follow Christ is a journey, a pilgrimage, yes, even a ‘warfare’ between ‘flesh’ and Spirit, the devil and our Living Lord within us, a world of opposition from the world’s true enemies against Holy God and Divine Truth, and a pull from the ‘old man’ against the ‘new man’! And, if one understands the ‘infancy of faith’, the ‘maturing of faith,’ and God’s ultimate goal in us of “the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Jesus Christ”, he/she sees the pilgrimage to the unveiling of His fullness, yes, in every true child of faith!

As the Lord Jesus is “lifted up within us”, there is the drawing of His power through us to touch our world with His grace, mercy, and love. Even a little child of faith can touch their world by their faithful testimony though not yet in the fullness of spiritual maturity!

And the ‘eternal reality of the new-born’? I believe we hear Jesus saying, even in the infancy of our faith, Matthew 16:24-25, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.”

But, one asks, “What is spiritual awareness of the need of laboring”? Though positionally we are ‘in Christ’, the fullness of His practical and true presence within is being worked out, which is why Paul said, “I die daily”! In fact, in 2 Corinthians 4:7-12a, Paul challenged the Corinthian church and us, “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed [at times!], but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed – ALWAYS CARRYING ABOUT IN THE BODY THE DYING OF THE LORD JESUS, THAT THE LIFE OF JESUS ALSO MAY BE MANIFESTED IN OUR BODY. For we who live are ‘always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake,’ that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So then death is working in us..”

Dare I tell you that true spiritual reality in Christ is learning ‘daily’ that 2 Corinthians 1:9-10 enlightens, informs, trains, and spiritually educated and equips all disciples when Paul said, “Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead, who delivered us from so great a death, and does deliver us; in whom we trust that He will still deliver us…” AND HE DOES; HE IS WILLING AND ABLE TO DO EXCEEDINGLY ABUNDANTLY ABOVE ALL WE ASK OR THINK!

There are those even preaching, indoctrinating, misleading, informing deceptively, because they’re deceived themselves, “It’s over! You prayed a prayer, and it’s over!” No, the journey has just begun! Receive Philippians 3:12-14! Paul wrote, “Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold on me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I PRESS TOWARD THE GOAL FOR THE PRIZE OF THE UPWARD CALL OF GOD IN CHRIST JESUS!” Are YOU pressing in to Christ Jesus?

THIRD, THE VITAL AWARENESS OF THE NEED OF SPIRITUAL LABORING BECAUSE OF FALLEN MAN’S SEPARATION FROM HOLY GOD AND MAN’S NEED OF REDEMPTION, RECONCILIATION, AND SPIRITUAL RE-BIRTH! Oh, very simply: “Heart-birthed ‘travailing’ WILL AND DOES birth true, holy children of God, through the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ!”

It’s His Atonement, not our attempts at being like Him, that reconciles us to Holy God and to our foreordained eternal purpose! Tell me of YOUR church’s ministry, your personal vision, your personal call of God on your life to touch your world with His saving grace!

Is there truly a heart burden in you, a heart-cry, and, as a result heart-blessings, because you see your ministry of touching your world by Who He is in you, because you see and are broken over a lost world around you, and because you sense the Christ in you so longing to extend His Life, express His love, and prove His power through YOU?

Dare I tell you that, sadly, most of the modern church-world is silent, indifferent, distracted, unconcerned about “lost sinners”, empty lives, teetering marriages and relationships, Godless governments and leaders, a rebellious teen-world, and even Hollywood, mostly, not all, who would rather entertain their customers with garbage and indecency than extenders of a blessed life in Christ and His Word and goodness and holy honor of Him, even willing and content to contaminate their customers with ‘Hell on earth’! Oh, and it was Spurgeon who even once said, “God ploughs deep while sluggish churches sleep.”

FOURTH, THE VITAL AWARENESS OF THE NEED OF SPIRITUAL LABORING BECAUSE WEARY INDIFFERENCE, SOULISH UNCONCERN, WORLDLY – WAYS -COMPANIONSHIP NEVER PRODUCES GODLY, HOLY, WONDROUS RESULTS TO HIS HONOR! In Psalm 25:14 David wrote wisely: “The secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him.”

And because one is consumed by, not only knowing the secret of the Lord being with those who fear Him, but also consumed with a passion to honor His Will, His Word, and His ways, that disciple or those disciples began to say, “Lord, what would You have us to do?”! If our Lord and Savior says, “Watch with Me, wait for Me, walk with Me, work with Me, and, yes, witness with Me, how is it that a ‘thriving’ church has no “training of disciples to be witnesses”, frowns on visitation saturation of its community, sleeps as a world around them never hears their testimonies, which like, while Jesus prayed in Gethsemane, the disciples slept!

“Lord, what would You have us to do?” And in John 20:21 The Lord Jesus said to those disciples and us, “Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.”I’m telling you with all my heart: There is a counterfeit of true faith if there is no strong commitment to be one with our Lord and Savior in His mission of touching an unsaved world around Him; the ones who say, ‘we choose to be faithful to our church, but reaching out beyond the four walls of the church is somebody else’s calling, not ours,’ sadly, they walk in tragic deception. Before His Ascension, after His Resurrection, the Lord Jesus said to His disciples and us who are a part of His redeemed body and churches, Acts 1:8, “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” Oh, and then in Acts 2:32, the early disciples, in-filled with God’s Holy Spirit witnessed verbally: “This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses.” Is that so with this particular church-age?

Oswald Chambers had introduced a chapter in his book, “My Utmost for His Highest,” [pps. 218-219], based on Romans 8:16, “The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs – heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.”

Chambers said: “We are in danger of getting the barter spirit when we come to God, we want the witness before we have done what God tells us to do. ‘Why does God not reveal Himself to Me?’ He cannot, it is not that He will not, but He cannot, because you are in the road as long as you won’t abandon absolutely to Him. Immediately you do, God witnesses to Himself, He cannot witness to you, but He witnesses to His own nature in you. If you had the witness before reality, it would end in sentimental emotion. Immediately you transact on the Redemption, and stop the impertinence of debate, God gives on the witness;” and it gratefully becomes His witness through you. Will you daily die to yourself that the Resurrection Life and Witness may be manifested in and through your mortal presence, fully surrendered to what He desires to do through you?

CHAPTER FOUR

VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED OF THE AMAZING GOD AND AMAZING GIFTS

In Hebrews 13:8 our Lord is described as “Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever.” And then in Verse 15 the author wrote, “Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.” That is thanks to His name for Who He Is and for What He does!

In Acts 10:38, Dr. Luke wrote, “how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.” And the exciting news is, it was not only Christ upon whom the power of the Holy ministered to and through, but also upon His newly converted disciples. Follow Acts 19:11, “Now God worked unusual (or “extraordinary”) miracles by the hands of Paul.”

I want you to come to Psalm 33:6-9 and hear David: “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth. He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap; He lays up the deep in storehouses. Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him. For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast.”

And His Word and His works are still standing fast unveiling “Amazing God and Amazing Gifts”! Churches used to believe and stand on the eternal Truth that “There is power, power, wonder-working power in the precious blood of the Lamb.”

Reinhard Bonnke, in his book “Mighty Manifestations,” (p.12), wrote: “God is a God who specializes in the impossible. He thinks only in terms of the impossible.” We need to be reminded of the Kingdom of God being the present realm and the rule of God in which God’s awesome power is sovereign and supreme and supernatural and never dies!

Don’t overlook or forget, but remind yourself daily, Acts 2:39, Peter emphasizing that (Listen and receive and stand in and appropriate: “The promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off [even in 2016!], as many as the Lord our God will call.”

Later, (p33), Bonnke said, “The emblem of God is fire, not stone!” Yet how many believers have you been around who are more like an immovable Egyptian sphinx than a God-anointed “burning bush”? Is the Spirit of the Lord God upon you? Luke 4:18-19 says, Jesus speaking, (remember – “As He is so am I in this world!”), “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor, He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.”

When did this Word fall to the ground like Truth perishing in the streets? Receive John 14:12-14! “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.”

The question of this moment as you are confronted by His words, ‘Will you be a volunteer? Psalm 110:33 says, “Your people shall be volunteers in the day of Your power.” What an awesome, vital awareness unveiled! Volunteers surrendering to the God of grace and amazing gifts, surrendering to the God of Holy Ghost power, surrendering to the God of the awesome rivers of heavenly anointing!

Psalm 62:11 says, “God has spoken once, twice I have heard this: That power belongs to God!” Our God, yes, in Christ Jesus, is the God of unusual and extraordinary miracles! Our God in Christ is the God of the impossible! Our God is the God of amazing miracles of grace, the God of amazing gifts, and the God of amazing wonders!

In Jeremiah 32:17-20, the prophet responds to God’s amazing unveiling of His power and authority: “Ah, Lord God! Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and outstretched arm. There is nothing too hard for You. You show lovingkindness to thousands, and repay the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their children after them – the Great, the Mighty God, whose name is the Lord of hosts. You are great in counsel and mighty in work, for Your eyes are open to all the ways of the sons of men, to give everyone according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings. You have set signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, to this day, to this day, and in Israel and among other men; and You have made a name, as it is this day.” His name? The amazing God of amazing grace, amazing gifts, amazing greatness, ready to be the Same in you following your “repentance toward God and faith in the finished work of Christ”, followed by your obedient submission and death to yourself, but Resurrection Power, Presence, and Promises, as you yield to the leadership of His Living Presence in you!

Even Nebuchadnezzar declared in Daniel 4:2-4, “I thought it good to declare the signs and wonders that the Most High God has worked for me. How great are His signs, and how mighty His wonders! His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and His dominion is from generation to generation.”

What was Paul’s attitude after God’s mighty anointing on his life? Romans 15:17-19 is a word of Paul’s testimony: “Therefore I have reason to glory in Christ Jesus in the things which pertain to God. For I will not dare to speak of any of those things which Christ has not accomplished through me, in word and deed, to make the Gentiles obedient – in mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God, so that from Jerusalem and round about to Illyricum I have fully preached the gospel of Christ.”

Here’s how Shakespeare put it in “Henry V1” 9Part 1, Act 11) – “God is our fortress, in whose conquering name Let us resolve to scale their flinty bulwarks!” The Amazing God and the God of Amazing Gifts!

FIRST, LET”S EXAMINE SCRIPTURALLY THE GOD OF THE SIGN AND WONDER OF DELIVERANCE! Come to Exodus 7:1-5 where “So the Lord said to Moses, See, I have made you as God to Pharoah, and Aaron your brother shall be your prophet. You shall speak all that I command you. And Aaron your brother shall tell Pharoah to send the children of Israel out of his land. And I will harden Pharoah’s heart, AND MULTIPLY MY SIGNS AND WONDERS IN THE LAND OF EGYPT. But Pharoah will not heed you, so that I may lay My hand on Egypt and bring My armies and My people, the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great judgments. And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch out My hand on Egypt and bring out the children of Israel from among them.”

And you understand that the Exodus stands forever as the sign and wonder of the Amazing God revealing His Amazing gifts, the liberation of His people! But there’s more. Come to Daniel 6:20-27 and follow carefully: “and when he came to the den, he cried out with a lamenting voice to Daniel. The king spoke, saying to Daniel, Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you serve continually, been able to deliver you from the lions? Then Daniel said to the king, O king, live forever. My God sent His angel and shut the lions’ mouths, so that they have not hurt me, because I was found innocent before Him; and also, O king, I have done no wrong before you. Now the king was exceedingly glad for him, and commanded that they should take Daniel up out of the den, and no injury whatever was found on him, because he believed in God. And the king gave the command, and they brought those men who had accused Daniel, and they cast them into the den of lions – them, their children and their wives; and the lions overpowered them, and broke all their bones in pieces before they ever came to the bottom of the den. Then King Darius wrote: To all peoples, nations, and languages that dwell in all the earth: Peace be multiplied to you. I make a decree that in every dominion of my kingdom men must tremble and fear before the God of Daniel. For He is the living God, and steadfast forever; His kingdom is the one which shall not be destroyed, and His dominion shall endure to the end. He delivers and rescues, and HE WORKS SIGNS AND WONDERS in heaven and on earth, Who has delivered Daniel from the power of the lions.”

[And, of course, you understand that there are more than physical lions like in Africa, but there are spiritually demonic lions out of Hell itself!]

But do you remember what is said in Luke 4 about “The Spirit of the Lord upon Me?” And what was one of the ministries? “Deliverance to the captives!”

God is the God who is the bondage – breaker – Not the bondage-maker! God is the God who is the chain-buster – Not the chain-entangler! God is the God who is the prison-door opener – Not the prison-confiner!

Henry George Bohn, in his “Handbook of Proverbs,” wrote: “The Devil entangles youth with beauty, the miser with gold, the ambitious with power, the learned with false doctrines.” There are still ‘Pharoahs’ who want people enslaved! There are still ‘Pharoahs’ who want your family under hard taskmasters! There are still ‘Pharoahs’ who want you chewed up in a lion’s den of fleshly deceptions and sins! There are still ‘Pharoahs’ who want any decency or bent toward God swallowed up by the inhaling powers of darkness!

[On the ‘Inner-net’ today on my wife’s computer, she told me of a statement by the man named Stephen Hawking who said, “Heaven is a fairy tale for people afraid of the dark.” Immediately John Lennox responded, “Atheism is a fairy tale for those afraid of the Light.”] Amen?

Hear me! The God of the sign and wonder of deliverance arises with healing in His wings! I recently picked up Smith Wigglesworth’s book, “Greater Works – Experiencing God’s Power,” (p36). He shared a story that occurred just after his baptism in the Holy Spirit. He knew that infusion of divine power but was asking, ‘Why,’ ‘Why me?’ What’s the purpose? RECEIVE IN JESUS’ HOLY NAME!:

“One day I came home from work and went into the house, and my wife asked me, ‘Which way did you come in?’ I told her that I had come in the back door. She said, “There is a woman upstairs, and she has brought in an eighty-year old man to be prayed for. He is raving up there, and a great crowd has gathered outside the front door, ringing the doorbell, and wanting to know what is going on in the house.”

Wigglesworth said, “This is what I baptized you for.” I carefully opened the door of the room where the man was, desiring to be obedient to what my Lord would say to me. The man was crying and shouting in distress, “I am lost! I am lost! I have committed the unpardonable sin. I am lost! I am lost!” My wife asked, “Smith, what should we do?” The Spirit of the Lord moved me to cry out, “Come out, you lying spirit.” In a moment the evil spirit went, and the man was free. God gives deliverance to the captives! And the Lord said again to me, “This is what I baptized you for.” And then Wigglesworth said: “There is a place where God, through the power of the Holy Spirit, reigns supreme in our lives. The Spirit reveals, unfolds, takes of the things of Christ and shows them to us (John 16:15) and prepares us to be more than a match for satanic forces.”

The God of the signs and wonders of deliverance! You find yourself enslaved – through the Passover Lamb, there is liberty and freedom! You find yourself in a state of spiritual death – through Jesus there is Life, Life in the Spirit, Life abundant, Life eternal! You find yourself in guilt and condemnation – but Jesus says: “I the sacrificial Servant, the Lord Jesus Christ, through My shed blood, have brought pardons, innocence, justification, ‘just-as-if-you’d-never sinned’! You find yourself hopeless – He blesses you with a living, eternal Hope! You find yourself troubled – He is triumphant, “more than conqueror,” and always in the midst of stormy waters still says, “Peace, be still!” You find yourself separated from Holy God – in Christ He came to reconcile you! You find yourself aimless – “For me to live is Christ!” You find yourself sensing worthlessness about yourself – He counts you worthy because of the Lamb of deliverance!

SECOND, LET’S CONSIDER THE GOD THE MIGHTY GOD OF THE VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED OF THE SIGN AND WONDER OF DECLARATION! Look with me carefully at Deuteronomy 4:32-39! “For ask now concerning the days that are past, which were before you, since the day that God created man on the earth, and ask from one end of heaven to the other, whether any great thing like this has happened, or anything like it has been heard. Did any people ever hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of fire, as you have heard, and live? Or did God ever try to go and take for Himself a nation from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs, by wonders, by war, by a mighty hand an outstretched arm, and by great terrors, according to all that the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? To you it was shown, that you might know that the Lord Himself is God; there is none other besides Him [regardless of what Muslims or any other idolaters say!]. Out of heaven He let you hear His voice, that He might instruct you; on earth He showed you His great fire, and you heard His words out of the midst of the fire. And because He loved your fathers, therefore He chose their descendants after them; and He brought you out of Egypt with His Presence, with His mighty power, driving out from before you nations greater and mightier than you, to bring you in, to give you their land as an inheritance, as it is this day. Therefore know this day, and consider it in your heart, that the Lord Himself is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other.”

I pray that the Spirit of Holy God reveals to you “the Lord Himself in heaven above and on the earth beneath” – always has been and forever will be! The God of the vital awareness unveiled of the sign and wonder unveils Himself, reveals Himself – He is not, will not, hide Himself from you! In Exodus 6:7 God’s Holy Word says, “I will take you as My people, and I will be your God. Then you shall know that I am the Lord your God who brings you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians”, or from under the burdens of the ungodly poured out on you, or from under the burdens of godless people who seek to intimidate you, indict you in the halls of fleshly unbelief, or from under the burdens of demonic activity intending to weigh you down straight into Hell itself!

But you shall know, see, sense, understand, as the shackles fall off you or as the chains are broken, as cruel, evil sinful taskmasters drown under the weight of God’s judgment, that His declaration is your deliverance!

You’ll remember that Moses had a word from God for Pharoah that the plagues would come that they might know that there is none like our God in all the world. He wants even His enemies to hear His declaration! In Exodus 10:1-2, God sends Moses, “that I may show these signs of Mine before [Pharoah] and that you may tell in the hearing of your son and you son’s son the mighty things I have done in Egypt, and My signs which I have done among them, THAT YOU MAY KNOW THAT I AM THE LORD.”

On the journey God gives “bread” to His children that they may “know that I am the Lord your God.” He instructed that twelve stones were to be stacked in the midst of the Jordan River as His people crossed over so “that all the peoples of the earth may know the hand of the Lord, that it is MIGHTY, that YOU may fear the Lord your God forever.” (Joshua 4:24).

In 1 Samuel 17:46 David had struck down Goliath, “that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel.” What did Paul say to his spiritual son, Timothy, in 2 Timothy 1:12? “I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is ABLE…!!!”

You are to be a “stone” in the river of life declaring God’s power, His identity, His ability, His amazing love, His unlimited grace and mercy! There has never been an act or action of God that was not for the purpose of unveiling His heart so all might know Him! “For God so loved the world…!!!”

THIRD, EXAMINE FURTHER THE UNVEILING OF THE VITAL AWARENESS OF THE MIGHTY GOD OF THE SIGN AND WONDER OF DEPENDENCE! Joshua 24:13-15 is clear, “I have given you a land for which you did not labor, and cities which you did not build, and you dwell in them; you eat of the vineyards and olive groves which you did not plant. Now therefore, fear the Lord, serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the River and in Egypt. Serve the Lord! And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

God mentions land He gave them and groves and vineyards they did not plant! Do you know what Paul asked the church at Corinth? (1 Corinthians 4:7), “And what do you have that you did not receive? Now if indeed you did receive it, why do you glory as if you had not received it?” And all I have to consider to rattle my cage is the very breath of life itself! It’s a God-thing!

In 2 Corinthians 5:18, he said, “All things are of God!” Unless of course you’re a constant navel examiner and truly believe all you are and all you have is of yourself! Earlier, in 1 Corinthians 8:6, Paul said, “yet for us there is only one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and through whom we live.” For some it’s as if “we spoke and our worlds were framed!”

Let me deflate your progressive, self-importance just a little bit: According to Exodus 31:1-5, even your job skills are of God! According to Haggai 2:8, even your money belongs to God – you’re a trustee who will give an account of your stewardship! According to Psalm 50:10 the forest is His, the beasts of the forest are His, and even the cattle on a thousand hills! No Texas rancher has reason to boast except in God alone! The Lord even taught us to pray, “God, give us our daily bread!”

Do you realize how dependent we are upon God? It’s like I’ve heard my wife Sue say to our kids as they were growing up, “I brought you into this world and I can take you out!” (A little comedy please in the midst of heavy heat!).

I so love Paul’s confrontation with the Athenians in Acts 17:24-30. It’s too vital to omit even a syllable! “God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. Nor is He worshipped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things. And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their pre-appointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are His offspring.’ Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising. Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent.”

Here’s a vital question: Is it my reign over my life or God’s reign as I totally surrender in dependence upon Him, not only for the very breath of physical life but also that breath of The Spirit? R.A.Torrey, in his book, “The God of the Bible,” (p116), tells us about Napoleon: “Napoleon was the ablest general of his day, and probably of all time. At the same time, he was the most adroit politician the world has ever seen, and he was also a man of the most unconquerable will. He willed to have the whole world at his feet, and it seemed as if it would be, as if nothing could prevent it. But God willed otherwise. When Napoleon tried to enter Russia, God spoke, and the soft and gentle snowflakes fell and fell and fell and kept on falling, and Napoleon Bonaparte fell also. His army was decimated and his reign shortly came to an end.”

Revelation 19:6 says, “And the Lord God omnipotent reigns!” Are you committed and submitted as a dependent child of faith upon the Father’s reign over you?

FOURTH, GO DEEPER, DISCOVERING THE UNVEILING OF THE AWESOME AWARENESS OF THE SIGN AND WONDER OF DESTINY! I know you remember and are familiar with Elisha’s journey with Elijah and how Elijah had urged him to stay behind because God was sending Elijah on to Bethel. And Elisha responded, (2 Kings 2:2), “as the Lord lives and as your soul lives, I will not leave you.” They traveled together. Then the time came close for Elijah’s departure in that whirlwind of glory and he asks Elisha, “What may I do for you, before I am taken away?” And in verse 9 Elisha said, “Please let a double portion of your spirit be upon me.”

Elijah promised Elisha his request would be granted! Now, notice verses 13-15, “He also took up the mantle of Elijah that had fallen from him, and went back and stood by the bank of the Jordan. Then he took the mantle of Elijah that had fallen from him, and struck the water, and said, Where is the Lord God of Elijah? And when he also had struck the water, it was divided this way and that; and Elisha crossed over. Now when the sons of the prophets who were from Jericho saw him, they said, The spirit of Elijah rests on Elisha…”

Come now to 2 Kings 3:11! “But Jehoshapat said, Is there no prophet of the Lord here, that we may inquire of the Lord by him? So one of the servants of the king of Israel answered and said, Elisha the son of Shaphat is here, who poured water on the hands of Elijah.” Question!

What is the reputation you want about yourself in the eyes of the world around you? Is it that you fit in, that you are one of the gang, or one like Elijah or Elisha? Or would it be that “sense of divine destiny” – the servant of Elijah, a holy man of God that passes by, a man who reflects the image of his Lord, a man who walks in the double portion of Spirit-blessing and anointing and empowering?

In Acts 4:13 it is said of Peter and John, “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they were men who had been with Jesus.” What a testimony! I found an epitaph in a book that is such a blessing. It read, “Here lies the body of John Smith, who for 40 years cobbled shoes in this village to the glory of God,” which leads us to:

FIFTH, THE UNVEILING OF THE AWESOME AWARENESS OF THE GOD OF THE SIGN AND WONDER OF DEMONSTRATION! Isaiah 8:18 says, “Here am I and the children whom the Lord has given me! We are for signs and wonders in Israel from the Lord of hosts who dwells in Mount Zion.”

Did you receive that for yourself, your family, your employees or employer, for your city, state, or nation, and receiving that Truth and demonstrating that Truth, YOU SEE YOURSELF AS A SIGN AND WONDER to an unbelieving world to the glory of God?

It’s not just to the church at Corinth that Paul wrote the following but to our homes! Receive 2 Corinthians 3:2-4, “You (your homes, your families) are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men. YOU are manifestly an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart. And we have such trust through Christ toward God.”

An anonymous writer has penned these illuminating words: “Jesus began His ministry of miracles at a wedding feast. He was invited there. His presence made the difference. He turned a desperate dilemma into a memorable miracle.” That was in a home, at a wedding!

Spurgeon said, “When home is ruled by the Word of God, angels might be asked to stay with us, and they would not find themselves out of their element.” Are our homes ruled by the Word of God? Do we see our homes and families as signs and wonders of the glory of God to an unbelieving world and even as examples in our local churches? Are our homes and families “memorable miracles” or desperate dilemmas? Are they vital demonstrations of Holy Presence and eternal purpose?

SIXTH, EXAMINE THE GOD OF AMAZING SIGNS AND WONDERS OF DISTINCTION! Let’s let the Word speak powerfully and in a convicting reality within us: Mark 16:19-20, “So then, after the Lord had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God. And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through accompanying signs. Amen.”

Following Pentecost, having left the upper room where the disciples had hidden for fear of the Jews, and confronted their world in the anointing of the Holy Spirit, Acts 2:43 says, “Then fear came upon every soul, and many signs and wonders were done through the apostles.”

But here’s the strange turn – whenever God steps in to be Himself, even through His own people, opposition arises! When you come to Acts 4 the disciples are BEING DISCIPLES and the threats come! Peter and John pray for boldness that they may speak God’s Word, and look at verse 30, “by stretching out Your hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of Your holy Servant Jesus.” And the result?

Acts 4:33 says, “And with great power the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And great grace was upon them all.” Our prayerful, unceasing heart-cry as disciples should be passionately uttered that WE long for days of distinction, days of great grace, days producing holy fear in hearts of unbelievers and disciples alike because God steps down to be Himself through us! Hebrews 2:4 says, “God also bearing witness both with signs and wonders, with various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to His own will.”

Reinhard Bonnke has a tremendous statement of challenge to be repeated by true disciples of Christ until it permeates their total being, “God means me to be more than I thought I was.” That’s an amplification of 1 John 4:17 when John said, “As Jesus is, so are we in this world!”

What’s a “system of divinity” without the stream of divine power? What’s a “scheme of theology” without the Spirit of Truth? What’s a learned person with his PhD void of the lifting power of the Holy Ghost? What’s the best of human-flesh ‘churches’ without the baptism of the Holy Ghost and fire of the Spirit?

Ephesians 2:1 doesn’t say, “and you He stiffened” – it says, “you He made alive!” In Acts 1:8 Jesus said, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you.” That’s explosive, volcanic-erupting, dynamite power! Donald Gee preached, that the Spirit was not “the subject of theological dogma (or debate), but a burning experience,” and Holy Presence released within you! Are those around you observing your “burning” in awe of Holy God?

LAST, (In this chapter!), LET ME STRONGLY EMPHASIZE THE AMAZING UNVEILING OF AWESOME TRUTH OF THE GOD OF THE SIGN AND WONDER OF DIVINE TESTIMONY! In Acts 2:22-24 Peter preached and preaches right now, “Men of Israel, hear these words of Jesus of Nazareth, a Man attested by God to you, by miracles, wonders and signs which God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves also know – Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death: whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be held by it.”

Testimony! The call upon every true believer’s life! Testimony! Not cold-water committees but fellow comforters in God’s proven love for them! Testimony! That which blesses the church, encourages, uplifts, and challenges unbelievers with the Truth! Testimony! That which tips the scales of a life hanging in the balance! Testimony! That which gives honor to Jesus!

In Acts 20 you’ll remember Paul telling the Ephesian elders that he held back nothing that was helpful and profitable to them, Verse 21, “testifying to Jews and also to Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.” He knew he was “bound in the spirit”{ to go to Jerusalem, knowing trouble awaited him. Then in verse 24, (Oh, my!), “But none of these things move me; nor do I count my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, TO TESTIFY TO THE GOSPEL OF THE GRACE OF GOD.”

Do you see that calling and ministry upon your life to be a sign and wonder of divine testimony to the gospel of the grace of God?

Oh, it was Isaac Watts who wrote the old, old hymn, “Am I a Soldier of the Cross?” It says: “Am I a soldier of the cross, A follower of the Lamb? And shall I fear to own His cause, Or blush to speak His name?

Must I be carried to the skies On flowery beds of ease, While others fought to win the prize, And sailed through bloody seas?

Are there no foes for me to face? Must I not stem the flood? Is this vile world a friend of grace, To help me on to God?

Sure I must fight, if I would reign; Increase my courage, Lord; I’ll bear the toil, endure the pain, supported by Your word.” Amen?

And your ‘last days’ testimony as short as all of our lives are? “I’ll confront my dying world, I’ll confront in the Name of Christ and for His honor, glory, and praise; I’ll be consistent with Biblical Truth, conquering even the devil’s opposition, challenging repentance to God and a yielded given faith from God as a gift, yes, for every unbeliever, and teach them graciously of a yielded faith in Christ’s finished work at the Cross and through God’s Resurrection Power!

CHAPTER FIVE

THE AMAZING UNVEILING OF AWESOME TRUTH BY PREACHING

PEACE THROUGH CHRIST JESUS’ CROSS

I want you to be Holy Spirit inspired and informed and instructed as you read the following passage, Acts 10:34-38 & 43! Then Peter opened his mouth and said: “In truth I perceive that God shows no partiality. But in every nation whoever fears Him and works righteousness is accepted by Him. The word which God sent to the children of Israel, preaching peace through Jesus Christ – HE IS LORD OF ALL – that word you know, which was proclaimed throughout all Judea, and began from Galilee after the baptism which John preached: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.”

Verse 43, “To Him (the Lord Jesus) all the prophets witness that through His name, whoever believes in Him will receive remission of sins.”

“Believes in Him?” The word ‘belief’ truly means “trust in, rely upon, adhere to”! It’s not ‘ I believe’, and there is no heart-change, or I believe, and there is no relying upon, or I believe, and there is no adhering to! That’s modern-day ‘churchianity’, not eternal “Christ-ianity”! And, no doubt, this is why Paul had to write in Ephesians 2:1-2, “And you He [Christ Jesus] made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you ONCE WALKED according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience…”

Isaiah 32:13-15 unveils fleshly religiosity and then unveils Spirit conviction and wildernesses becoming fertile, fruitful fields! Isaiah wrote, God speaking, “On the land of my people will come up thorns and briers, Yes, on all the happy homes in the joyous city; Because the palaces will be forsaken, the bustling city will be deserted. The forts and towers will become lairs forever, a joy of wild donkeys, a pasture of flocks – Until the Spirit is poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, and the fruitful field is counted as a forest.”

And whether or not it is unveiled religiosity that is a seedless, barren, infertile life, absent of Holy Presence – so barren of true life, so sterile of Living Truth, so unproductive of even any acknowledgement of the need of Divine intervention – it’s a sad picture for true believers of a life unredeemed as a heart-breaking pain so desirous of witnessing the true fruit of Life in Christ in every life!

Are you aware that there is a ‘carnal world’ surrounding you every day, carnal lives captured by the powers of darkness, deceit, and disobedience before Holy God, convinced their way is better than the holy way, settled into defenses, life-styles, ‘my’ ideas, that exalts itself against the eternal knowledge of God, with their every thought captured by self-will, self-pleasure, and self-aggrandisement, determined or unaware they actually walk in “spiritual death” under the devil’s control, and miss out on the grandeur of God-ordained “re-birth” and “new-life” and “eternal blessing” – just living under the ‘curse’!

Christ Jesus dealt with all men’s sins at Calvary – and through His shed blood we “stand still and see the salvation of God in and through Christ’s shed blood”, but sadly a lost world, unbelievers, the “dire-straights of fallen humanity owned by the devil” never “stand still” in awe to observe the wonderful and marvelous grace of God seen in Christ Jesus as He paid the price for their sins through His shed blood at the Cross – and they miss out!

Sadly, spiritually indulgent people, living to satisfy the ‘flesh’, the ‘old sin nature,’ the ‘empty life syndrome,’ the ‘self-realization indulgence through sinful living’ trying to satisfy the evil heart, most are unaware of “saving grace,” “redemption,” the “new life gift by the grace of God through Christ Jesus” – but His life in You, His forgiveness through you, His power for you, is fully and readily available to any and every repentant soul – and opens the windows of heaven to reveal the awesome Truth that “the gift of eternal peace’ comes through Christ’s Cross”!

Luke 10:18-20 is such a powerful, comforting word from Christ to every repentant disciple. Jesus said to them and us, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I give you authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you. Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven.” ETERNAL PEACE!

In John 14:25-27 Jesus informs every true disciple of the “true evidence” of His life within them, even as they face a world of opposition and rebellion to divine Truth! He said, “These things I have spoken to you while present with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you. Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” “THE AMAZING UNVEILING OF AWESOME TRUTH BY PREACHING PEACE THROUGH CHRIST’S CROSS”! Let’s consider THIS eternal Truth!

FIRST, PREACHING PEACE THROUGH CHRIST’S CROSS REVEALS, UNVEILS, EXPOSES WHAT IS IN MEN OF ADAM’S FALLEN-AWAY NATURE?

Do you understand the reality of the ‘carnal man’ alienated, separated, even in an unconscious rebellion against the Holy God who made him, lost him, yet loves him, fully explained in Christ’s shed blood “At The Cross”?

Are you aware in your mind, and heart, “Cursed are the impure in heart; and they do not see God, except at His Eternal Judgment Seat?” But the Lord Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5:8, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”

And seeing God, knowing Him intimately and personally, is the absolute necessity of accepting your crucifixion and death of your old carnal nature with Him at Calvary, and your constant awareness of its former reality, and becoming more and more fully aware that it is “Christ in you, the hope of glory,” not fleshly devotion to one’s flesh-inspired religiosity!

Yes, when one is spiritually “born-again”, he-she receives new eyes to see God and a new heart fully indwelt by His peace-filled Presence in YOU! Though one is still living in the physical world with fallen humanity, because of one’s faith in Christ, repentance toward God, and indwelt by His Holy Spirit, one lives now in the new realm of the spiritual Kingdom of God, living in and on the eternal plain of His abiding presence in us – and that births His peaceful Presence in YOU and establishes another elevated plain of life in Christ, because Jesus said in Revelation 5:9-10 tells us of our representative ‘twenty-four elders falling down before the Lamb of God’ singing:

“You are worthy to take the scroll, and to open its seals; For You were slain, and have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and have made us kings and priests to our God; and we shall reign on the earth.”

Peace apart from repentance? Peace apart from reconciliation with Holy God? Peace as a slave of sin, and not as a true servant of our Master? Peace apart from our presence at the Cross with Christ, and totally unaware of “the godly sorrow that works repentance TO salvation”?

You are aware that there are “dreamers” living lives consumed by ‘flesh,’ ‘the old sin nature,’ captives of demonic activity and even ‘fleshly best’ but not “blessed” – and with Jude we gain insight: Jude 10, “But these speak evil of whatever they do not know; and whatever they know ‘naturally’, like brute beasts, in these things they corrupt themselves.” And that’s corrupting themselves more and more, and falling away more and more from the love of God and the Lordship of Christ Jesus!

Oh, but then Jude went on to say, Jude 20-21, “But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.”

In the old Broadman Hymnal of 1940 produced by the Broadman Press, Nashville, Tennessee, a hymn by Julia H. Johnston and J.W. Henderson, is entitled “He Ransomed Me.” It says:

“There’s a sweet and blessed story Of the Christ who came from glory, Just to rescue me from sin and misery; He in loving-kindness sought me, And from sin and shame has brought me, Hallelujah! Jesus ransomed me!

From the depth of sin and sadness To the heights of joy and gladness Jesus lifted me, in mercy full and free; With His precious blood He bought me, When I knew Him not, He sought me, And in love divine He ransomed me.

From the throne of heavenly glory – Oh, the sweet and blessed story! Jesus came to lift the lost in sin and woe Into liberty all-glorious, Trophies of His grace victorious, Evermore rejoicing here below.

By and by with joy increasing, And with gratitude unceasing, Lifted up with Christ forevermore to be; I will join the hosts there singing, In the anthem ever ringing, To the King of Love who ransomed me.

Hallelujah, what a Savior! Who can take a poor lost sinner, Lift him from the miry clay and set him free; (Hallelujah!) I will ever tell the story, Shouting glory, glory, glory, Hallelujah! Jesus ransomed me!”

SECOND, THERE IS THE VITAL UNVEILING OF AWARENESS OF PREACHING CHRIST OPENING THE DOOR TO THE BATTLE-FIELD OF FLESH AND SPIRIT, THE DEVIL AND JESUS, AND THE WORLD AGAINST THE KINGDOM OF GOD IN YOU AND AROUND YOU! Even as one comes to “new birth” and Christ’s indwelling, it doesn’t mean true believers are exempt from reality, opposition, even pain and suffering, in honoring, upholding, and desirous of living a life that exalts Him!

In John 16:33 Jesus clearly spoke to all disciples, then and now, saying: “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world [as you live out your earthly existence facing opposition!] you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”

Did the Lord Jesus say, “Disciples of Mine, you will have trouble!” But you thought it was a walk without trouble or tribulation? You thought it was a walk without the world, the flesh, or the devil in seeking your demise as a follower of Christ? You thought true Christianity was a ‘trouble-free’ zone?

Even in Galatians 1:6-7, Paul wrote: “I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ.”

The Lord Jesus never said, “Follow Me, and you’ll never face trouble again, or any opposition that opposes you, or any demonic influences to trip you up, or even any godless governments, enemies of God, cruel taskmasters or job bosses,” – No, a thousand times ‘No!’ To commit to Christ is to commit to His honor and praise, which means automatically you’ve committed yourself to walk in the vital awareness unveiled, preaching Christ, living Christ, magnifying Christ in your life, thus opening your life to ‘trouble’, or should I say ‘troubles’?

I’m convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that Jesus never said, “Following Me means no trouble,” when in reality we’ve seen in John 16:33, Jesus saying, “In the world you will have trouble”, which means our salvation in Christ is not the door to freedom from trouble, but His door, His presence, His promises, tell us of His presence with us as we live out our faith in the midst of our troubles!

I truthfully was freshly inspired when I read Thomas Carlyle’s clear statement: “The eternal stars shine out as soon as it is dark enough.” That’s from “The Encyclopedia of Religious Quotations” edited and compiled by Frank S. Mead [Fleming H. Revell Company, Westwood, New Jersey]. In the same encyclopedia, E. Stanley Jones wrote concerning “The Way” [p.235, Abingdon Press], “The Christian under trouble doesn’t break up – he breaks out,” and the ‘breaking out’ is leaning on Jesus, trusting His Word, like Paul said: Romans 8:35-39:

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: ‘For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.’ Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus.”

THIRD, THERE IS THE VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED OF PREACHING CHRIST BECAUSE CHRIST IS GOD’S ETERNALLY DETERMINED SACRIFICE AND OUR AMBASSADOR, AND THROUGH HIM, FOREORDAINED BY GOD THE FATHER, AS “MEDIATOR” BETWEEN GOD AND FALLEN MAN!

As Paul wrote Timothy to mature him in his young faith, His word to Timothy is so important for you and me. Paul said in 1 Timothy 2:1-7, [NKJV EDITION OF THE HOLMAN STUDY BIBLE], “Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and ONE MEDIATOR BETWEEN GOD AND MEN, THE MAN CHRIST JESUS, who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time, for which I was appointed a preacher and an apostle – I am speaking the truth in Christ and not lying – a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.”

Even ‘religions’ apart from Christ as Lord and Savior are fleshly determined and resemble nothing concerning His call upon their lives – no awareness of their fallen natures, no grasp of understanding about The Eternal Christ put to death on the Cross as a mortal man AND eternal Lord and Savior, and willingly laying down His life that they might be resurrected from the dead to be “new creations” of Holy Presence, extending His life, expressing His love, and proving His power, no longer in them unawareness of the unbelieving results of a Christ-less life, no longer pretense, imitation, or the best of their own fleshly efforts – Christ saves, redeems, reconciles, and, yes, restores to God’s eternal intent, releasing them under the Holy Spirit’s control and they begin to sing the repentant one’s song:

“Lord Jesus, to You I yield, wash Me in Your blood, and baptize me in the rivers of Your flood; redeeming grace for the human race, redeeming us from the disgrace of dishonoring Your Holy Face!

Lord Jesus, in You, I rest, so tired of deception in me as ‘my best’; I long to know the Holy Will, and until then I’ll not be still! My heart and soul is Yours, no longer a life of sin, but holiness within!

“Lord Jesus, I hear You call, and before Your throne I willingly fall, yielded to Your Spirit, made new by Your blood, willing to stand where You once stood; ‘New man’ celebration, a new voice for all Your creation.

Lord Jesus, I thank You for Your marvelous grace, and upon Your Word I safely rely, certain to sing what no one can erase – Your sacrifice is true and Your resurrection undeniable, Your empty tomb is still reliable.

Lord Jesus, from death to Life, Your blood applied removes the strife; No longer war with God or the devil and his demons; born-again men by the Spirit, reverence His meaning: Death to life as His blood is applied, firmly aware of His mercy that cannot be denied!

Lord Jesus, saved by Your grace because of Your love, my new desire is to rest with You forever in Heaven above; I know life is fleeting and only by receiving do we understand overcoming and beating; the lawless may libel, the sinners may slander, the religious may banter, but in Christ we surrender to His love, grace, and place in Your eternal heavens!”

Jesus bought us, He sought us, He found us, He convicted us, He received our repentance, He sings of our faith, and forever and ever we’ll gather around His Throne to praise His name over and over as His very own children of faith, resting from the wars and resting in His victory in our behalf! We know that a man’s life does not consist of what He possesses, but the wealth of awareness that we’ve found peace through His Life, peace through His death, peace through His Resurrection, and peace through His never-failing promises!

It was R. Kelso Carter who wrote: “Standing on the promises of Christ my King, through eternal ages let His praises ring; Glory in the highest, I will shout and sing, Standing on the promises of God.

Standing on the promises that cannot fail, When the howling storms od doubt and fear assail, By the living word of God I shall prevail, Standing on the promises of God.

Standing on the promises of Christ the Lord, Bound to Him eternally by love’s strong cord, Overcoming daily with the Savior’s sword, Standing on the promises of God.

Standing on the promises I cannot fall, Listening every moment to the Spirit’s call, Resting in my Savior, as my all in all, Standing on the promises of God.”

Yes! There must be in the church of this modern day the call to reverently, in a rejoicing manner, with a heart and mind and body fully yielded to the Glory of our Lord!

I close with Jesus’ words in John 8:34-35! “Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin! And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever, with Verse 36 added, Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.” Amen? Speak out about YOUR true freedom by “blood”, that’s Jesus’ Calvary blood to take away your sin and give “new life”!

CHAPTER SIX

“VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED? FALLEN FOLLOWER – FAITHFUL FOLLOW-UP!”

In Luke 22:54 it tells us Jesus had been arrested and taken to the high priest’s house with Peter following at what he thought a safe distance. Peter actually sat among the enemies of Christ around a bonfire in the courtyard. A servant girl in the crowd told the ruling authorities, “This man (Simon Peter) was also with Him (with Jesus).”

Verse 57 tells us, But he (Peter) denied Jesus, saying, “Woman, I do not know him.” Another in the crowd said the same thing, “You also are one of them.” But Peter said, Verse 58b, “Man, I am not!” He denied Jesus a third time, and Verse 61 says, And the Lord turned and looked at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how He had said to him, “Before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.” So Peter went out and wept bitterly.

The rooster crows three times! And a Peter is aware of being ‘a fallen follower’, so broken on the reality that what Jesus told him was a historic reality of an immature, though filled with still fleshly presumption, even a haughty attitude that it was certain he’d never fall, and though walking with the Lord of true confidence and assurance and awareness of who He eternally was, Peter didn’t understand what the writer, the wise writer, in Proverbs 16:18-20 had to say about pride and self-importance in a God-filled, God-blessed, eternal relationship of His doings, not immature disciples!

It says, “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. Better to be of a humble spirit with the lowly, than to divide the spoil with the proud. He who heeds the word wisely will find good, and whoever trusts in the Lord, blessed is he.”

Earlier, in Luke 22, before Peter’s actual “falling away”, Verses 31-32 tells us of what Jesus said, And the Lord said, “Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail;” [Jesus said that knowing Peter was going to be in this immaturity of childish faith!], but after His praying said, “and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren.” What an amazing revelation! Christ Jesus knew Peter was about to fall, and He knew Holy God would pick him up!

Peter’s falling away? Present-day followers today falling away? It was Spurgeon who once said, “Only to think that Peter, under temporary discouragement, should play the coward!”

But even today, in a world of destructive unbelief, unbelievers already fallen away from God and under the control of a birthed sin-nature, experience the natural curses of a ‘fallen away life-style’! In fact, many across our known world, as unbelievers, perceive it’s totally unimportant, for them, to consider ‘God-things’, and especially when one even mentions Christ Jesus to them – “how ridiculous to consider ‘a need of the Savior and Lord’ when we are all-sufficient in ourselves!”

In the Luke 22 passage, Verse 55 is highly significant because it alerts us to what can happen in the lives of some disciples: “Now when they [Christ’s enemies!] had kindled a fire in the midst of the courtyard and sat down together, Peter sat among them.” And he wasn’t there by the fire to warn Christ’s enemies, he was there warming his hands with them!

“Fallen followers?” Do you remember the Lord Jesus in Matthew 26 coming with His disciples “to a place called Gethsemane,” saying to His disciples, “sit here while I go and pray over there.” In Verse 38 Jesus said to His followers, “Sit here while I go and pray over there.” Between Verses 39 and 44 three times He sees His disciples “sleeping”! Later in the chapter Judas betrayed Him for thirty pieces of silver! And the end of Verse 56 tells us: “Then all the disciples forsook Him and fled.”

“Watch with Me,” not watch for Me! “Watch with Me,” not watch in view of what sometime Might happen! “Watch with Me,” not watch as you ‘sleep’ dreaming of your own safety and rewards! “Watch with Me” in the most critical time of His earthly journey, not watch as you consider the rewards of a ‘most needed’ fleshly nap! It was Oswald Chambers, in his book, “My Utmost For His Highest” [p.183] who wrote: “How are we going to understand sufficiently to watch with Him in Gethsemane, when we do not know even what His suffering is for?”

Too many ‘professing disciples’, though ‘watching FOR Christ’ while they ‘sleep’, are nothing more than examples of ‘fleshly unbelief’, or an ‘immature, self-protective faith’, that has no mature understanding of “Forsake all and follow Me,” “deny yourself and take up YOUR cross,” or, understanding that true discipleship is the willing choice of self-sacrifice even if it costs me a cross to bear!

In John10:11-18 the Lord Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep. But a hireling, he who is not the shepherd, one who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them. The hireling flees because he is a hireling and does not care about the sheep. I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own. As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep.

And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd. Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This COMMAND I have received from My Father.”

The majority of ‘professors’ for Christ without being “possessors of His Resurrection Life and Spirit” are those outwardly who adopt certain ‘traits’, but apart from the indwelling of the Author of Eternal Truth, they walk the walk of academy award winners who do well at pretense and outward appearances without inward transformation!

“Jesus may say, ‘Forsake all’, but to me that is an over-emphasis, an unnecessary request, a de-emphasis of what is necessary in one’s worldly existence,” which clearly indicates a ‘this world mentality’, a ‘me, my, mine style of life,’ that which unveils ‘my self-realization’ but shuts the door to one’s mind, heart, and will, to the intent of Christ-unveiling, Christ-realization, or Christ-actualization in the repentant heart and life! “Religious activity is my major desire – not the actual preeminence of Christ Jesus in and through me, that’s other worldly, even Heaven, if I get there!” And, sadly, that explains a lot of boring ‘religious activity’ that they assume essential to give a ‘boring testimony’ (?).

This powerful word and story that we’re examining has a ton of important eternal truths I want us to examine!

FIRST, ARE YOU AWED AND BLESSED THAT OUR LORD SEES US, KNOWS US, AND IS MOVED IN ETERNAL COMPASSION FOR US? In Mark 6:34 we read: “And Jesus, when He came out, saw a great multitude and was moved with compassion for them, because they were like sheep not having a shepherd. So He began to teach them many things.”

One of the most rewarding, abiding consciousness of life and hope, an unveiled present awareness and promise is: “His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He cares for me!” How awesome is that! In Hebrews 13:5b, we read: For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” So boldly we may say: “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?”

Remembering Peter’s awareness of the eyes of Christ upon him, even as he denied Him, there came that moment in him of Christ’s watchcare even as Christ Jesus looked upon Peter compassionately and longingly praying for Peter’s return to true faith, yes, that did cost Peter his own life eventually!

Our Lord sees us, oversees us, keeps on seeing us, never takes His eyes off of us – that ought to increase the intensity of Holy fear because there’s never a moment His eyes are not on us! Perfect, clear, unaltered eternal eyesight, unhindered by the dark activity in a soulish, fleshly, entertaining-sin-mind, never running from a life storm-tossed by the raging waves of the demons and personal sin-activity – Holy God, the Resurrected, Reigning Christ sees our ‘stormy’ choices and comes to say, “Peace, be still!”

I don’t believe it would be a stretch that most men, even some unbelievers, still, if they sin, are aware that it’s not unknown to Holy God, but are aware that, sometimes if God sees the tragic scene of sin in one’s life, He sighs and sorrows and sends by the Spirit a heavenly heartbeat of true desire: “Repent, return – and turn from that destructive choice!” Hear this! If one strays and roams or runs from “the true field of life”, the Shepherd is on that person’s heels, heart, mind or will, “Repent, return – I still love you! Don’t let the devil have his will in your life, but turn back to Me as your Way, your Truth, and your Life!”

SECOND, “VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED”? YOUR SAVIOR AND LORD IS A “MAN OF SORROWS” ACQUAINTED WITH THE GRIEF SIN BRINGS! It was C.S.Lewis, in his writing, “The Great Divorce”, who wrote: “There are two kinds of people: those who say to God, “Your will be done,” and those to whom God says [sadly, has to say at times!], “All right, then, have it your way.” How tragic is that?

And the blind Helen Keller of many, many years ago, used to say, “If the blind put their hand in God’s, they find their way more surely than those who see but have not faith in God.” [Doubleday & Company}.

In Isaiah 53:1-7 there is an awesome prophetic unveiling of our true Lord and Savior! It says: “Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness; and when we see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him.

He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.

But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth.”

So…how do you relate to too much ‘circus antics’, without a doubt far too much self-governing, silly-willy two-year old child’s play, even open gates of godless behavior, encouraging playing the flesh games out of church, even in church, as long as you say: “I’ve been baptized, I ‘joined the church’, and it’s over as far as I’m concerned.” Really? Where’s the Cross in your life? Where’s the “Follow Me”! Where’s the “laying down your life”? Where’s the “suffering Servant” Spirit?

Are you aware of going through the ‘winepress’ where “the grapes of life” are squeezed out as you willfully choose to honor Jesus at all costs? “Struggle in the Faith”? Study to be approved of God in the faith-walk? “Adapt to a culture of spiritual discipline, even laying my life down daily?” Hear me! True faith, after repentance toward God and faith in Christ, the true consistency of the saint is, laying down one’s life, even willing to suffer, and as I have known in India for many years, servants of Christ are punished, imprisoned, beaten, killed – and they do it with a smile on their faces!

Is this why Peter wrote, in 1 Peter 4:12-14, “Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you; but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy. If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.” Blessed because you partake of Christ’s sufferings? Blessed because you’re reproached for the name of Christ? Blessed because you’re called even to the fiery trials? Blessed because you willingly partake of Christ’s suffering when necessary? If Jesus suffered according to the will of God, is your walk in the will of God?

Consider, because of your young faith in Christ, rejection by unbelieving family members. Consider, constant abuse from fellow employees and even business owner and managers at times! Consider, stupid abuse of school or university leadership people anti-Christ, anti-Word, anti-Constitution, anti-You for your life-changing, eternal Biblical faith! But ‘suffering for the Name of Christ’ is celebration for the true disciple of Christ, and anticipatory celebration before Holy God’s Throne one day, but personal celebration now in you as you examine your identity in Christ!

THIRD, “VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED” AS WE LOOK AT FOLLOW-UP FORGIVENESS THROUGH THE ALL-SEEING EYES OF OUR LORD AND SAVIOR! In Luke 22:60b-62 we read, Immediately, while he [Peter] was still speaking, the rooster crowed! AND THE LORD TURNED AND LOOKED AT PETER. Then Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how He had said to him, “Before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.” So Peter went out and wept bitterly.

With all my heart, I don’t believe the look of Christ on Peter’s fall was resentment, bitterness, or “Watch out! Your judgment is coming,” but Peter, “You’ve sinned so dramatically, just as I said, but I love you and want you restored!” Is that like, “His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me”?

Are you aware that the Word tells us that there is the reality of divine conviction? If one even desires to come to Christ, it is because of Holy Spirit conviction of a man’s sin and His eternal need of the Savior. Men are born with an ‘Adamic’ sin-nature, dominated by it, controlled by it, blinded by it without any awareness of his/her need of restoration to Holy God apart from, yes, biblical conviction! And the Holy Spirit comes in biblical conviction to unveil for him/her specific sins that will unveil the sin nature that has released a corrupt spirit in his/her veins, yes, even an unclean spirit, and like Isaiah after King Uzziah had died, in Isaiah 6:4-5, the Word tells us, “And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke. So I said: Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.”

Holy God is so aware of the alienated heart and mind of fallen humanity! The Lord Jesus came, suffered, and died on the cruel Cross because of His great love for sinful humanity! The Holy Spirit unveiled the merciful heart of God as He viewed man’s sinfulness, assuring each of us that the devil’s accusations about Holy God and his view of deceit of our Lord was unfounded! In Galatians 3:1 Paul asked, “O foolish Galatians! Who has ‘bewitched’ you that you should not obey “the truth,” before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified?” And John said what in John 3:16-17? “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes [trusts in relies upon, adheres to] in Him should not perish [in his sin & sin nature] but have everlasting life. FOR GOD DID NOT SEND HIS SON INTO THE WORLD TO CONDEMN THE WORLD, but that the world through Him might be saved.” GLORY!!

There’s another amazing Word of God in Hebrews 2:9 when the author wrote, “But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone.”

“Forgiveness” by men’s great efforts? “Forgiveness” because a man sees himself as smarter than the feeble minds of ‘other men’ – and “I can handle my own life, knowing I can overcome my own sin – and God Himself ought to accept me”? I don’t think so! Do you see and sense “the hardened heart through the deceitfulness of sin” with no desire to be reconciled to Him through the “shed blood” of Christ on Calvary’s tree? Wasn’t it Augustine who once prayed, “O Lord, deliver me from this lust of always vindicating myself”?

Oh, and then hear Oswald Chambers who said in his book, “My Utmost For His Highest,” [p.244], “Spiritual leakage begins when we cease to lift up our eyes unto Him. The leakage comes not so much through trouble on the outside as in the imagination; when we begin to say – “’I expect I have been stretching myself a bit too much, standing on tiptoe and trying to look like God instead of being an ordinary humble person [or humble disciple!].”

In Ephesians 4:32 Paul talked about walking in the Spirit and true nature of Christ alone! He said: “And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.” Forgiveness how in your life? “AS GOD IN CHRIST FORGAVE YOU!”

“VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED”? AS WE LOOK AT FOLLOW-UP FORGIVENESS THAT UNDERSTANDS, YES, SEPARATION FROM FALLEN-MEN’S WAYS! It was a strong, powerful, convicting statement from Paul to the Corinthian church when he said in 2 Corinthians 6:14-18, “Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of living God. As God has said:

‘I will DWELL IN THEM and walk among them, I will be their God, and they shall be My people.’ Therefore, ‘COME OUT FROM AMONG THEM [their ways, actions, attitudes, sins] AND BE SEPARATE, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you. I will be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.’”

What happened to Peter when he realized the eyes of Jesus were fixed on him in his ‘self-indulgence’; but more importantly for this very moment in your own walk with Christ, if you’ve been wandering, overcome with a dry, unclean spirit, are YOUR eyes open to the Lord’s loving gaze on YOU in your sin?

What did the author of Hebrews tell us in Hebrews 12:1-2? “Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the Cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” ARE YOU CLOTHED WITH THE CLOUD OF HIS HOLY PRESENCE IN YOU?

CHAPTER SEVEN

“VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED? THE CALL TO ONE’S NEED OF SELF-EXAMINATION”

It was in the book, “Encyclopedia of Religious Quotations”, [Edited & Compiled by Frank S. Mead, Fleming H. Revell Com., Westwood, New Jersey, p.297], a statement by Donald T. Kauffman, in his writing “Gist of the Lesson”, “A good marriage is not a contract between two persons but a sacred covenant between three. Too often Christ is never invited to the wedding and finds no room in the home. Why? Is it because we have misrepresented Him and forgotten His joyful outlook on life?”

But what about the Biblical faith of “holy matrimony” between Christ as the ‘bridegroom’ and you as His bride? Did you simply ‘join’ His church or ‘take vows’ of surrender, dedication, and submission to be Savior, Lord, and Spiritual Head of your heart and life? I hate to be the one to tell you, but ‘church membership’ does not mean necessarily married and yielded to His Lordship!

In Matthew 21 Jesus had gone into the temple and was confronted by the chief priests of the temple and the elders of the people of Jerusalem. They said to Jesus in Verse 23b, “By what authority are You doing these things? And who gave You this authority?” Back and forth the conversation went on, and Jesus alerted them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”

Oh, and then in Verses 28-32, “the call to one’s need of self-examination” began with Jesus exposing their need of such an examination! Jesus said, “But what do you think? A man had two sons, and he came to the first and said, ‘Son, go, work today in my vineyard. He answered and said, ‘I will not,’ but afterward he regretted it and went. Then he came to the second and said likewise. And he answered and said, ‘I go, sir,’ but he did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father?”

They said to Jesus, “The first.” Jesus said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you that tax collectors and harlots enter the kingdom of God before you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him; but tax collectors and harlots believed him; and when you saw it, you did not afterward relent and believe him.”

Are you familiar with Jeremiah the prophet and how the Lord spoke to him about the difference between ‘the Jewish pretenders’ and ‘His true remnant’ among them? In Jeremiah 15:11, the Lord said to Jeremiah, “Surely it will be well with your remnant…,” and then said, BUT!, in Jeremiah 15:15-16 Jeremiah called out to Holy God!! “O Lord You know; Remember me and visit me, and take vengeance for me and my persecutors. In Your enduring patience, do not take me away. Know that for Your sake I have suffered rebuke. Your words were found, and I ate them, and Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart; for I am called by Your name, O Lord God of hosts.”

And the compassionate Lord God reassured His holy prophet in Verses 19-21, Therefore thus says the Lord: “If you return, then I will bring you back; you shall stand before Me; If you take out the precious from the vile, you shall be as My mouth. Let them return to you, but you must not return to them. And I will make you to this people a fortified bronze wall; and they will fight against you, but they shall not prevail against you; FOR I AM WITH YOU TO SAVE YOU AND DELIVER YOU,” says the Lord. I will deliver you from the hand of the wicked, and I will redeem you from the grip of the terrible.”

What an awesome word of conviction and confidence and comfort! Holy God KNOWS those who are His – and HE IS their defender! Does He know you? AND, How Vital is it for every professing believer to examine whether or not HE is a true worker in the Father’s vineyard fulfilling the Lord’s calling and assignments to every disciple?

FIRST, TWO SONS CALLED BY THE FATHER TO WORK IN HIS VINEYARD – ONLY ONE DID! Now, isn’t the son who didn’t go the picture of a ‘pretender’ of faith but the fruitlessness of his work exposes himself as one who walks in disobedience not obedience, in self-direction not Christ-directed, in outward performances but no inward heart-change, still as selfish and self-centered as he always was since birth!

Do you remember Pharoah of Egypt in Exodus 5:2 saying to Moses and Aaron, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, nor will I let Israel go.” At least the Pharoah spoke the truth! He didn’t know the Lord, and he wouldn’t let Israel go! But ‘a son’ who pretends before his father that he will go and do what the father said, but had no intention of doing it because of a self-centered, self-motivated style of life, and it didn’t include doing the father’s will?

Does the ‘unwilling, disobedient, yes, rebellious son’ describe even the scribes and Pharisees of Matthew 23:13-15 whom Jesus called ‘hypocrites’? What a strong indictment by the Lord of love! He said of them, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows’ houses, and for a pretense make long prayers. Therefore you will receive greater condemnation. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.”

Have you ever witnessed those who are ‘strong professors’ of the faith verbally but ‘sad examples’ of even those who are visible ‘actors’ still dominated by the corruption that is in the world through lust, even barren and unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, buying destructive heresies, even exploiting others with deceptive words, [“believers can’t do anything but sin until they get to heaven,” when Jesus said, “Go and sin no more!”], perishing more and more in their own corruption, presumptuous, self-willed, having eyes full of adultery and that cannot cease from sin, enticing unstable souls, constantly forsaking the right way, going astray, loving the wages of unrighteousness, even “dogs returning to their own vomit or a ‘sow’ wallowing in her mire”!

Hear me! Supernatural overcoming of the old sin nature is not devotion to it but Christ’s deliverance, in you, from it! As a ‘true son’, fruitful in the work of the father’s vineyard, one is not to walk in their own lusts – a ‘true son’ walks in the fullness of the Indwelling Christ and the fullness of His Holy Spirit, overcoming the world, the flesh, and the devil, not dominated by them! In Acts 24:14-16 Paul testified: “But this I confess to you, that ‘according to the Way’ which they call a sect, so I worship the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the Law and in the prophets. I have hope in God, which they themselves also accept, that there will be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and the unjust. This being so, I myself always strive to have a conscience without offense toward God and men.” Are your ears, your heart and mind, sensitive to the Word and the Spirit, or dominated by what separates one and keeps him/her from hearing “Holy Truth,” what is the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God?

SECOND, IS IT FALSE FAITH – VERBAL FAILURE, OR TRUE FAITH- VICTORIOUS FULFILLMENT? What did Matthew 21:32 reveal to us? “For John came to you ‘in the way of righteousness,’ and you did not believe him; but tax collectors and harlots believed him; and when you saw it, you did not afterward relent and believe him.”

Do you understand the vastness of people who ‘hear’, but they do not respond, do not receive, do not repent, do not rest in God’s finished work At The Cross through the Lord Jesus’ “blood sacrifice”, but go their own way, even saying “yes” at times to Christ Jesus as they continue in the ‘broad way’ of personal administration and rejecting God’s calling by a willful response, “We’ll do it our way”!

Are you aware that “many are called, but few are chosen”? Even as you come to Matthew 22 Jesus’ concern grows stronger and stronger as He unveiled a “False faith – Verbal failure”! Beginning in Verse 2 of Chapter 22 of Matthew , Jesus illuminates divine invitations to “The Holy Wedding”, and then exposed a man dressed so inappropriately. Let the Holy Spirit do a work of grace in you if this story touches you! Jesus said: (Verses 2-14),

“The kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who arranged a marriage for his son, and sent out his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding; and they were not willing to come. Again, he sent out other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who are invited, “See, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and fatted calf are killed, and all things are ready. Come to the wedding.”

But they made light of it and went their ways, one to his own farm, another to his business. And the rest seized his servants, treated them spitefully, and killed them. But when the king heard about it, he was furious. And he sent out his armies, destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city.

Then he said to his servants, “The wedding is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy. Therefore go into the highways, and as many as you find, invite to the wedding. So those servants went out into the highways and gathered together all whom they found, both bad and good. And the wedding hall was filled with guests.

But when the king came in to see the guests, HE SAW A MAN THERE WHO DID NOT HAVE ON A WEDDING GARMENT. So he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless. Then the king said to the servants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ “For many are called, but few are chosen.”!!

Are you aware that there are those who, in a fleshly way, ‘like’ to be a part, at times, of a spiritual celebration, but have no desire to ‘dress’ as the King requires! “Requires? You, preacher, must be a part of a strange cult – why should I be concerned about how I dress at the wedding if I show up?” And the Lord Jesus SAID: “Depart! I never knew you!” Clothed properly matters?

It was Paul who said to the Corinthians, 2 Corinthians 5:1-5, “For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven, if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked. For we who are in this [earthly] tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life. Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.”

Do you know what Job said in Job 29:14? “I put on righteousness and it clothed me..” That’s God’s righteousness, imputed, imparted, implanted by His grace, mercy, and love! Are you aware of being “clothed with humility”, (1 Peter 5:5b), the where does ‘fleshly pride’ fit in to a believer’s humble journey? What’s the color of the robe you wear? Pure and white linen? What about a “robe dipped in blood”?

In 2 Corinthians 13:5 Paul wrote TO THE CHURCH specifically but also to the world at large: “Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? – unless indeed you are disqualified.” How convicting is that?

False Faith – Verbal Failure or True Faith – Victorious Fulfillment? In Malachi 3:1-3 the prophet, used By God, brings HIS life-changing Word of faith-transformation and true offerings as the evidence! God spoke: “Behold, I send My messenger, and he will prepare the way before Me. And the Lord [Christ Jesus, the Promised Messiah!], will suddenly come to His temple [1 Corinthians 3:16-17 which asks, “Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.”], even the Messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight. Behold, He is coming, says the Lord of hosts.

But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner’s fire and like launderers’ soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; He will purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer to the Lord an offering in righteousness.”

True Faith – And Victorius Fulfillment? I don’t know who wrote the old song that is worth treasures, at least the words!

“The King Himself comes near, and feasts His saints today; Here we may sit and see Him here, And love, and praise, and pray.

One day amidst the place Where my dear God has been Is sweeter than ten thousand days of pleasurable sin.”

In Psalm 84 I want you to be inspired by Verses 1-2 and Verses 10-12! “How lovely is Your tabernacle, O Lord of hosts! My soul longs, yes, even faints for the courts of the Lord; My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.

Verses 10-12, “For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness. For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord will give grace and glory; no good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly. O Lord of hosts, blessed is the man who trusts in You!”

It just may be that in this moment’s time in your own spiritual story or time-period of faith or lack of it, you discover Psalm 85:6 as the ‘sons of Korah’ cried out, “Will You not revive us again, that Your people may rejoice in You?”

Why would anyone who has personally known, received, and rejoiced in the presence of the Lord in his/her life not want to know the amazing grace of renewal, fresh resurrection power, a new baptism of Calvary’s river of blessing that still flows, and a restoration of renewal with the God who calls Himself “My Friend”, if for some reason, one fell away.

You don’t reject – you receive! You don’t deny – you accept! You don’t substitute – you surrender! You don’t try to evolve – you accept His “You must be born again!” You don’t depend upon your superior education – you turn and accept His imputed righteousness! You don’t stamp yourself with ‘the insolence of self-righteousness’ – you surrender to the righteousness of God, sealed together in His shed blood! You don’t settle for the poisonous juices of an immoral, old sin nature – you trust in the power of the “new life, new hope, new awareness and understanding, of the Resurrected Christ in you, the hope of glory”! You don’t settle for a life outside His church, but commit yourself to honor Him in and through the church He loved and gave Himself for, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together!

I’m truly, truly sorry, but I have no understanding of anyone who looks at the Cross of Jesus, knowing it was for him/her He suffered, bled, and died, but chooses to shut his ears, close his eyes, turn away from His Word and will, and settles for a “best-effort style of life” I cringe for fear of their ultimate, sure, pain-filled life in Hell with the devil, his demons, and the darkened souls of a faithless, disobedient life – they will burn forever and ever in Hell without a second’s relief!

Do you think this just might be why Jesus said in Luke 12:40, “Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect,”?

I’m a super-fan of Oswald Chambers and his historic, loved, deeply appreciated book, “My Utmost For His Highest.” On pages 63-64, I found a true word that should alert, awaken, and uplift every seeker of the true faith. He wrote:

“Jesus rarely comes where we expect Him; He appears where we least expect Him, and always in the most illogical connections. The only way a worker can keep true to God is being ready for the Lord’s surprise visits. It is not service that matters, but intense spiritual reality, expecting Jesus Christ at every turn. This will give our life the attitude of child-wonder which He wants it to have. If we are going to be ready for Jesus Christ, we have to stop being religious (that is, using religion as a higher kind of culture) and be spiritually real.”

“Vital Awareness Unveiled”? THE CALL TO ONE’S NEED OF SELF-EXAMINATION! Is Jesus the Author and Finisher of Your Faith – and are you ready for Him to examine you? Felice De Giardini wrote an old Italian hymn entitled “Come, Thou Almighty King.” It says: “Come, Thou Almighty King, Help us Your name to sing, Help us to praise: Father, all glorious, Over all victorious, Come, and reign over us, Ancient of Days.

Come, Thou Incarnate Word, Gird on Your mighty sword, Our prayer attend; Come, and Your people bless, And give Your Word success; Spirit of holiness, On us descend.

Come, Holy Comforter, Your sacred witness bear In this glad hour: You who Almighty art, Now rule in every heart, And never from us depart, Spirit of power.

To the great One in Three Eternal praises be Hence evermore. His sovereign majesty May we in glory see, And to eternity Love and adore.” Amen?

CHAPTER EIGHT

“VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED? PRAYERLESS LIFE –

PRAYERFUL LIBERATION”

How does a person examining a true disciple’s life and walk do so without the awareness of his prayer life and prayer ministry? Oh, I know: “By their fruits you shall know them,” but without that unveiling of his ‘work’ in the prayer closet one can come up with an exemplary report that doesn’t interpret the true disciple’s greater ministry – the ministry of intercessory prayer! I believe it was Oswald Chambers who once said, “Prayer does not fit us for the greater works; prayer “is” the greater work.”

A ‘stalwart’ disciple’s life is not sustained in power and authority apart from the ministry of prayer. Stalwart means “strongly and stoutly built, sturdy, robust; strong and brave; valiant. Firm, steadfast, or uncompromising.” [That’s “The Random House Collegiate Dictionary”, Revised Edition, 1975!]

You know, if you’re a student of God’s Holy Word and you “feed” on His daily bread, that He teaches us the vital importance of “prayerful liberation”, not a prayerless life! As Paul was equipping the saints in Ephesus he wrote, Ephesians 6:13, about “taking up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.” And then in Ephesians 6:18 he included in ‘the whole armor’, “praying always with all prayer and supplication for all the saints, and for me”, which is absolutely vital but only a part of one’s faithful prayer-life!

I was reminded again recently as I was reading in the Gospel of Luke, coming to Luke 18, and in the first five Verses the Lord Jesus spoke a parable of great, great significance. It says, Luke 18:1-5, “Then He spoke a parable to them, THAT MEN ALWAYS OUGHT TO PRAY AND NOT LOSE HEART, saying, “There was in a certain city a judge who did not fear God nor regard man. Now there was a widow in that city; and she came to him, saying, ‘Get justice for me from my adversary. And he would not for a while but afterward he said within himself, ‘Though I do not fear God nor regard man, yet because this widow troubles me I will avenge her, lest by continual coming she wears me out.”

Dare I tell you that Holy God is not troubled by your continual coming before Him in prayer but welcomes it? Didn’t Christ Jesus tell us in Luke 18:1, “Men always ought to pray and not lose heart”? Yet, many ‘lose heart’ to pray because the very heart of fleshly individuality is so strong, believing “I’m able”, that they seldom pray, except, maybe, in their desperate stage of failure, futility, and fear!

One of the sad stages of a spiritual journey is when a ‘mature’ (?) believer thinks that by his/her many, many prayers, Holy God should recognize how blessed He is to have such a strong ‘prayer’ on His team. Too many, still ‘fleshly’ disciples, consider God blessed by their exemplary prayer-life rather than them blessed by God’s inspiration for them to pray!

In fact, in John 16:23b-24, Jesus said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you. Until now you have asked nothing IN MY NAME. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.”

But many times a believer ask, ask, ask, ask – doesn’t receive because God operates from His throne of wisdom and understanding; if my asking violates Sovereign Will, God sovereignly does not answer! Often though it is a process of maturing, understanding, and acceptance of His holy time table. For example, my mother, after being divorced from my father for about ten years, re-married, and I had an unsaved step-father. Did I pray for Him? You better believe I did! I prayed for him for about 50 years (?), and six weeks before his 89^th birthday, as I visited him in the nursing facility, Frank said to me, my wife present also, “Farrell, I know all these many years that you’ve shared the Gospel story. Would you tell me one more time how I can be saved?”

I shared the gospel story with Frank Callaway, and he responded, “Farrell, would you help me to pray a sinner’s prayer?” I did – he did, and just before he died about six weeks later, the ladies in the facility said: “Farrell, Sue, what has happened to Frank? He is a totally changed man, even joining in Bible Study and prayer-time!” We told them, “Frank prayed to receive Christ as Lord and Savior of his life!” Glory! Yes, Glory Hallelujah!

And, day by day, as the spiritual journey continues, the Lord Jesus continues to say, “Lean not to your own understanding, but in all of your ways, (including prayer), acknowledge Me, give Me My rightful place on the throne of your heart – I’ll see and will answer your unselfish prayer!”

Do you remember the sisters, Martha and Mary, in John 11, whose brother, Lazarus, was sick? They sent to Jesus, Verse 3, saying, “Lord, behold, he whom you love is sick.” Verse 4 says, When Jesus heard that, He said, [Hasn’t even seen Lazarus at this point!], “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”

John 11:5-6 tells us, Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So, when He heard that he was sick, He stayed two more days in the place where He was. Oh, but then in Verse 11 Jesus said to His disciples, “Our friend Lazarus sleeps, but I go that I may wake him up.” Dare I tell you that that ‘sleep of Lazarus’ was “The Sleep of Death”? Jesus said in Verse 14-15 to His disciples, Lazarus is dead. And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, that you may believe. Nevertheless let us go to him.”

It gets better, and especially as the sisters encounter Christ Jesus! John 11:21-27 we read, Now Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You.” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”

Martha said to Jesus, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?”

Martha said to Him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who is come into this world.”

After several more Verses, in Verse 34, Jesus said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to Jesus then, “Lord, come and see.” Verse 35 then says, “Jesus WEPT!” He wept over their sorrow, He wept over Lazarus’ suffering and pain and death, and He wept over those who experience death because of sin, and He wept over those who weep for whatever circumstance they find breaking their heart!

Beginning at Verse 38-44, we find the raising of Lazarus from the dead! Jesus prayed to the Father! [Isn’t that amazing to some folks – JESUS PRAYED!]. Then Jesus said, Verse 43, “Lazarus, come forth!” He was raised from the dead, graveclothes on, and Jesus said, “Loose him, and let him go.” But YOU, in your graveclothes of spiritual death and separation from Holy God, are unaware that He has stood before your tomb of spiritual death, called your name, “Come forth”, which you haven’t, and as a result, it tells me You’ve refused to hear, you’ve refused to see, and you continue on the self-made journey of doubt and unbelief!

Oh, but then in John 11:40, Jesus said to Martha, and to you and me, “Did I not say that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?” Doesn’t it awaken, excite, and point you to pressing in to see the glory of God? At the end of John 12, Verse 41, John wrote: “These things Isaiah said when he saw His glory and spoke of Him.”

This Chapter heading? “Vital Awareness Unveiled”? PRAYERLESS LIFE – PRAYERFUL LIBERATION! Do YOU think Martha and Mary prayed? Did they pray for divine invasion of human need? Did they pray for one they loved deeply? Of course! They wanted divine help, the divine remedy, the divine Lord and Savior to come in where they were in the midst of their tragic sorrow and pain!

Is your life a “prayerless life”? In 1 Samuel 12:21-25 we read of, yes, spiritual tragedy for those who abandon prayer to Holy God. It says, “And do not turn aside; for then you would go after empty things which cannot profit or deliver, for they are nothing. For the Lord will not forsake His people, for His great name’s sake, because it has pleased the Lord to make you His people. Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you; but I will teach you the good and right way. Only fear the Lord, and serve Him in truth with all your heart; for consider what great things He has done for you. But if you still do wickedly (forsaking the prayer-life?), you shall be swept away, both you and your king.” Satan is so, yes, abusive, even in introducing to ‘believers’ the “incoming of craftiness”, even emphasizing the unimportance of prayer, except when you need something, but the devil doesn’t desire you praying to God because you love Him or needing a definite supply of Heaven’s glorious blessings!

Rather than, with Jesus, saying, “I have finished the work You’ve given Me to do,” far too many ‘followers’ do not know Whom they follow or why they follow, but they would be like a little child who’s glad his parent gave him some sweets to chew on!

Too often the prayerless life is evidence of carry-over forces from the natural life that really sees no need in asking God in prayer for ‘things,’ praying to Him because someone told you He likes to hear you pray, or void of the need to pray because the ‘self-sufficient’ life still has a hold! Didn’t Chambers once say, “It is not so true that ‘prayer changes things’ as that prayer changes “me” and I then, by the grace of God, become instruments of His change.” “God is abundantly able to do above all we ask or think!” When did that change?

In the Sermon on the Mount, in Matthew 6:5-13, we find our Lord’s ‘life-training’ of His true disciples! Jesus said: “And when you pray you shall not be like the hypocrites. [“Play-actors!]. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men.

Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut the door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.

And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words. Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him. In this manner, therefore, pray:

Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.

And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen [Or “so be it!”].”

The Lord Jesus was, yes, passionately training and equipping His “new followers” in true “kingdom of God discipleship” on earth! Several vital considerations for YOUR mature, Christ-like prayer-journey!

In Matthew 5:48 I’m convinced our Lord is challenging disciples to “look to the Father as He truly has been, is, and always will be”: Therefore, you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect – which means true disciples consider Who and What has gone before! In Luke 6:35-36 we read Jesus saying, “But love your enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High. For He is kind to the unthankful and evil. Therefore be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.” True disciples who faithfully pray only to be seen and heard by God? Are YOU a ‘son of the Most High?’

“When YOU pray?” Matthew 6:6, “but you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.” Do you understand that prayer is one of the most important things you do between you and your Heavenly Father – and it’s done not to be seen of men! [That doesn’t mean public prayer is ungodly – I don’t buy that for a minute!]. But spiritual intimacy between a disciple and His Master is a privileged and blessed relationship! That means: Shut out the distractions, shut out noise interference, shut out being judged by fleshly men as you pour out your heart and mind before Holy God, get still, quiet, resting in Him!

Biblical praying? It’s the power to understand His Resurrection Power, His judgmental power, His creative power, and His power, though reserved in the secret place, He can reward you openly as He reads your heart, mind, soul, and desires!

It’s the power released to proclaim a victorious witness of the Resurrected Christ! It’s the power released to live a holy life! In Romans 8:11-14 tells us, “But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.

Therefore, brethren, we are debtors – not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh [That’s the “old man, old sin nature, old ways without Christ!]. For if you live according to the flesh you will die [and your ‘prayers?’ also!]; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.” But the Spirit doesn’t lead you to pray? You can do it on your own?

It’s also power unveiled to see things happen, even mighty manifestations as the Spirit so desires! In 1 Corinthians 12:7-11 we read, “But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all: for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings by the same Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills.”

I find it so amazing, as I approach my 80^th birthday as of June 12, 2016, that very little is made in this particular age of ‘the church’ of “Holy Spirit” helps! In Romans 8:26-27 we read of what should happen but not necessarily does happen: “Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.”

It’s the power released as our Lord told us in John 16:12 of His appointment of the Holy Spirit for ‘Spirit-assistance’: In John 16:12-15 our Lord and Savior said, “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. HOWEVER, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He WILL TELL YOU THINGS TO COME. HE WILL GLORIFY ME [through YOU!], for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you.”

The following hymn is from the old “Broadman Hymnal” of 1940, [The Broadman Press, Nashville, Tennessee], entitled “Holy Spirit, Faithful Guide,” by Marcus M. Wells. It says:

“Holy Spirit, faithful Guide, Ever near the Christian’s side; Gently lead us by the hand, Pilgrims in a desert land; Weary souls forever rejoice, While they hear that sweetest voice, Whispering softly, ‘Wanderer, come! Follow Me, I’ll guide you home.

Ever present, truest friend, Ever near God’s aid to lend, Leave us not to doubt and fear, Groping in the darkness drear; When the storms are raging sore, Hearts grow faint, and hopes give o’er, Whisper softly, ‘Wanderer, come! Follow Me, I’ll guide you home.”

When our days of toil shall cease, Waiting still for sweet release, Looking up to heaven in prayer, Joyful that our names are there: Fearing not the dismal flood, Pleading naught but Jesus’ blood, Whisper softly, “Wanderer, come! Follow Me, I’ll guide you home.”

Why not, right now, pray: “Holy Spirit, to you I yield, in my life for you build, The fullness of Christ’s Indwelling Life, through me forever overcoming life’s strife!” Amen?

CHAPTER NINE

“VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED?

BESTOWED GRACE – BLESSED VICTORY?”

Aren’t you overwhelmed, overjoyed at times when you come across a particular Verse of Scripture, and you’re awed by what you read with a ‘fresh touch’ of Spirit-anointing?

1 Corinthians 15:10 tells us, “But by the grace of God I am what I am. And His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.”

Rather than ‘spiritual, perplexing, back-slapping’ before God because one thinks He ought to be overjoyed by who it is for Him to have on His team, meaning a proud, bloated, self-promoting, spiritual-world personal back-slapper, as if one’s own superior effort birthed his/her salvation and blessed His kingdom, all true believers should see themselves humbled before Holy God for His marvelous grace, mercy, and love given to a child of faith who has humbled himself/herself before the Cross!

I hope and pray your spiritual eyes are truly open as you witness what took place in Matthew 14:14-21, yes, beyond our Lord’s ability to feed five thousand men, plus women and children! Read carefully examining whether or not you see the difference He desires and can make in your own life and circumstances and opportunities! It says:

“And when Jesus went out He saw a great multitude; and He was moved with compassion for them, and healed their sick. When it was evening, His disciples came to Him, saying, ‘This is a deserted place, and the hour is already late. Send the multitudes away, that they may go into the villages and buy themselves food.”

But Jesus said to them, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.” And they said to Him, “We have here only five loaves and two fish.” Jesus said, “Bring them here to Me.” [That’s, bring your five loaves and two fish.].

Then He commanded the multitudes to sit down on the grass. And He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed and broke and gave the loaves to the disciples; and the disciples gave to the multitudes. [Multitudes? Would you think, maybe, 20,000-30,000 people?].

So they ALL ATE AND WERE FILLED, and they took up twelve baskets full of the fragments that remained. Now those men who had eaten were about five thousand men, besides women and children.”

Don’t you find it so amazing, so encouraging, so uplifting, that our Lord took a natural need and turned it into a supernatural provision for those He cared about? And as He saw YOU, convicted YOU, called YOU to Himself, what was His intent, His plan, His worthy provision in you to help Him change the world around you? Was His call, “You’re filled up with what men need, join Me, and let’s change men’s hearts and minds,” or, “I see your emptiness – I want to fill you with My presence,” or, “I see no potential in you, therefore an empty vessel becomes My earthly tabernacle,” or, “I see your earthly wisdom certificates – let me wash them away by My blood so I can then invade a blood-bought container and express Myself through you!”

There’s a very strong prayer the Lord Jesus made, early in His three-year public ministry before the Cross. It’s Matthew 11:25-27! At that time Jesus answered and said, “I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent, and have revealed them to babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight. All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.”

It’s very clear that Holy God knew, understood, and, yes, was broken-hearted over the unbelief of men toward Him AND over the ‘belief’ in some, yet, it did nothing for them except promote ‘religious pride’ without ‘life-change’ by the grace, mercy, and love of God!

I’ve written over Psalm 14, a psalm written by King David, the words: “A Fool’s Paradise”! Psalm 14 says, “The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God.’ They are corrupt, they have abominable works, there is none who does good. The Lord looks down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there are any who understand, who seek God.

THEY HAVE ALL TURNED ASIDE, they have together become corrupt; there is none who does good, No, not one. Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge, who eat up my people as they eat bread, and do not call on the Lord?

There they are in great fear, for God is with the generation of the righteous. You shame the counsel of the poor, but the Lord is his refuge. Oh, that the salvation of Israel would come out of Zion! When the Lord brings back the captivity of His people, let Jacob rejoice and Israel be glad.”

Early mankind, except for a few men touched and taken over by God, highlighted the fallen-away generation after generation, with Holy God then finding a Moses and an Aaron, and God speaking through them. In Exodus 20 Holy God unveiled the Ten Commandments , but I only highlight one here – Exodus 20:3 is Holy God declaring, “You shall have no other gods before Me.” Other gods were fallen men’s creations to try and appease the guilt of their godless lives because they surely had no desire to believe in, trust, or obey the Eternal God of Creation and the God of the coming Cross they would learn about! Shed blood, to them, was an animal slain and the blood strewn over their ‘religious tables’ but certainly didn’t, couldn’t, wouldn’t be covering for their sin, sins, or sinful nature – they didn’t have one, they thought, because they were so religious!

Has our ‘modern world’ embraced or rebelled against Holy God? Are ‘major religions’ the imprint of Christ’s Resurrection Presence or ‘cheap imitations’ of devotion to the exalting of the ‘best’ humanity has to offer – and, “If your God, your Jesus can’t accept us in our interpretation of the best of fleshly man’s religion, let Him be crucified again, and we’ll put the nails in his hands and feet, and gleefully watch Him die again. So what?”

Modern-day humanity, as a whole, since Jesus said, “Few there be who find the Holy Way,” is a world still gripped in shame, but overcoming it by criticism of the True Faith, slurs on the Holy Bible, devalued as counterfeit declaring Himself Savior and Lord, “no divinity there – maybe a good man trying to make a difference in a Hell-bent world,” and “even His faith, of a conservative variety, was ‘narrow,’ obstinate to other religions, unyielding concerning compromise; and though there are millions across the world who acknowledge Him, our vast world denies His saving blood and even His purported resurrection. We’re religious – Jesus deceived the masses in His day.” Really?

Hear me! Paul the Apostle dealt Spirit-Anointed in heavenly brilliance when in 2 Corinthians 5:16-21 he told us, “Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. NOW all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, THAT IS, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.

Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us; we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. For He [God] made Him [Christ Jesus] who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” Glory!!

The man who says he has been reconciled to God and believes He[Jesus] became sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him, yet goes on sinning, is the man who hears Christ say to him, “Go and sin no more,” but takes pleasure in his lack of understanding that God the Father ‘made Jesus Christ the Son who knew no sin, to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him,’ which is religious unbelief parading as true spiritual understanding that professing Christians can’t do anything but sin until they get to heaven someday, totally ignoring “death to self and life in and through the Indwelling Christ”!

Are you aware that 2 Corinthians 6:21 tells us, “For He (God) made Him (Christ Jesus) who knew no sin to be sin FOR US [on the Cross], that we might become the righteousness of God in Him,” so some ‘sinning believers’ simply say, “So what? I believe even as I choose to sin,” which means their old sin nature is very much alive as they ‘celebrate’ their old sin nature and deny their “new creation life in Christ”!

Some preachers, teachers, even some ‘professing disciples’ teach that by Christ’s death on the Cross ‘for me’, I can go on sinning until I get to Heaven ‘out there,’ is not Biblical teaching anointed of the Spirit! But His Holy Word declares ‘death to the old sin nature’ and resurrection life in Him because I accept my death with Him and praise Him that my bondage to sin was broken, yes, put to death at the Cross, and by His grace I receive His gift to me of His very righteousness!

Are you even aware that in Psalm 4:1 that David sang to the Lord God Almighty, “Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness,”? Even in Isaiah 51:1 God spoke, “Listen to Me, you who follow after righteousness, you who seek the Lord; [because there are those who want to walk in His fullness!]: Look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the hole of the pit from which you were dug. [No doubt the pit of spiritual death, religious death, yes, sinful death!].

Oh, and then in Isaiah 51:7-8, we read, “Listen to Me, YOU WHO KNOW RIGHTEOUSNESS, you people in whose heart is My law; do not fear the reproach of men, nor be afraid of their insults. For the moth will eat them up like a garment, and the worm will eat them like wool; but MY RIGHTEOUSNESS will be forever, and My salvation from generation to generation.”

God said what? “MY RIGHTEOUSNESS WILL BE FOREVER”, except in modern-day churches where men perform as best as they can, never grasping that His righteousness is imparted through Christ, implanted by the very Seed of His Life, Death, and Resurrection, imploding the old sin nature as He releases Himself, the Divine Nature, in repentant hearts and faith in Truth, yes, imputing grace, mercy, and love fully by the ruling presence of His Indwelling Resurrection Life, because as Paul wrote in Colossians 2:9, “For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; AND YOU ARE COMPLETE IN HIM, who is the head of all principality and power.” You’re not made ‘complete’ by what you do, but by WHAT JESUS DID IN YOUR PLACE ON THE CROSS!

Aren’t you awed, inspired, encouraged, uplifted, when you read Paul, in 2 Corinthians 1:9, saying, “Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead…”! That’s spiritual death in all men but raised to “new life” by Christ, and even with Paul saying in 1 Corinthians 15:31, “I DIE DAILY!”

“VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED? BESTOWED GRACE – BLESSED VICTORY?” When one comes to Romans 5:17, what is he/she being discipled in? Performance or Position? Gritted or Graced? Trying or Trusting? Keeping, as best as one can, or Kept by the power of God? 1 Peter 1:3-5 tells us: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to HIS ABUNDANT MERCY has begotten us again to a living hope THROUGH THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS CHRIST FROM THE DEAD, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does fade away, reserved in heaven for you, WHO ARE KEPT BY THE POWER OF GOD through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”

“VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED? BESTOWED GRACE – BLESSED VICTORY?” Are you overwhelmed, awed, uplifted, motivated, Kept by the power of God? Romans 8:35-39 inspires us, Paul saying, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: ‘For Your sake we are killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.’ Yet in all these things WE ARE MORE THAN CONQUERORS THROUGH HIM WHO LOVED US. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

“VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED? BESTOWED GRACE – BLESSED VICTORY?” Poor confession or rich profession? Bankrupt confession or enriched by God confession? Penniless confession or Prince of Peace confession? In 1 Timothy 6:11-16, the Apostle Paul trains, equips, inspires, and illuminates the heart and mind of young Timothy, telling him: “But you, O man of God, flee these things and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness. Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. I urge you in the sight of God who gives life to all things, and before Christ Jesus who witnessed the good confession before Pontius Pilate, that you keep this commandment without spot, blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ’s appearing, which He will manifest in His own time, He who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to whom be honor and everlasting power. Amen, or “so be it!” Is He the “Amen” of YOUR life??

“VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED? BESTOWED GRACE – BLESSED VICTORY?” The Eternal Truth of God unveiled or the eternal nakedness of man’s deception appealed by the faithless? Our fallen, faithless world must be constantly reminded that man’s view of truth falls away from God, while the Crucified, Resurrected Christ of Eternal Truth leads us to God! “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life! No one comes to Father-God but through Me!”

Dare I tell you? Christ Jesus IS the “Highway of Holiness”! In Isaiah 35:8-10 the prophet unveils the glory of our Lord and the excellency of our God. “A highway shall be there, and a road, and it shall be called the Highway of Holiness. The unclean shall not Passover it, but it shall be for others. Whoever walks the road, although a fool, shall not go astray. No lion shall be there, nor shall any ravenous beast go up on it; It shall not be found there. But the redeemed shall walk there, and the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with singing, with everlasting joy on their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.”

There’s an old, old hymn by Fanny J. Crosby and Mrs. J.F. Knapp in the 1940 Baptist Hymnal, published by Broadman Press, Nashville, Tennessee, entitled, “Blessed Assurance” that never grows old really. It says:

“Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine! Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine! Heir of salvation, purchase of God, Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood.

Perfect submission, perfect delight, Visions of rapture now burst on my sight; Angels descending, bring from above Echoes of mercy, Whispers of love.

Perfect submission, all is at rest, I in my Savior am happy and blest; Watching and waiting, looking above, Filled with His goodness, lost in His love.

This is my story, this is my song, Praising my Savior all the day long; This is my story, this is my song, Praising my Savior all the day long.”

“VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED? BESTOWED GRACE – BLESSED VICTORY?” Fleshly faith that always falls short or Eternal Faith in Christ’s “finished work” that always leads one in blessed confidence and eternal assurance because of ‘perfect submission’, not my will but His will be done in and through one’s daily walk! Have you grasped as yet that “kingdom living” under His Lordship is present and future, while some process ‘in Christ’ as future without consideration of Christ-honoring life in the here and now!

Sorry, but I don’t see Revelation 21 as ‘future’ but Kingdom Living Now! John wrote, Verses 21:1-8, “Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away [Crucified WITH Christ!”]. Also there was no more sea [or “separation”!]. Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, THE TABERNACLE OF GOD IS WITH MEN, [“You are the holy tabernacle or Temple of the Resurrected, Indwelling Christ!”], and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things are passed away.”

Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” And He said to me, “Write, for these words are faithful and true. He said to me, “It is done!” “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts. He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son. But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.” [And that’s the eternal death that never dies for the Christless lives, even the ‘religions’ (?) of the world!].

You don’t gain ‘merit’ for eternity as you “try your best” – one’s “FAITH” is in mercy through the grace of God, birthing Christ’s eternal, indwelling, Resurrection Life! One’s hope is in Him – not his/her self-will or self-determination! The question from Holy God will be, “What then did YOU do with Jesus who is called the Christ?” Are YOU the “illumined temple” of His indwelling in you through your faith alone in His finished work at the Cross and your old man of sin crucified with Him – and NOW you celebrate daily your death with Him and YOUR resurrection to “new life” through Him? The eternal is Now, not when or if you get to Heaven someday!

I was shocked when I read recently a statement by Augustine. In his “Letter 130” he actually wrote: “The sole purpose of life in time is to gain merit for life in eternity.” The sole purpose of life in the here and now is to gain the mercy of God through repentance toward God and faith in the finished work of Christ at the Cross, which without, one misses mercy and continues his messes in Hell! There is no merit for life in eternity ignoring the Cross! Or ignoring Resurrection Life, Resurrection Power, and Resurrection Hope!

A best-effort, self-constructed life, even with its ‘stained glass windows of self-improvement’, doesn’t house the Resurrected King of kings and Lord of lords! Jesus said, “You must be born again!”

CHAPTER TEN

“VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED? ONE LEGISLATOR – ONE LORD”

Have you ever sought to write for yourself your own ‘life agenda’? Some would say, “I live by the bread I produce day by day, though as far as the inner, spiritual part of me is concerned, who cares?” Or, “I live by the good fleshly deeds I do – what’s this ‘living by the life of another’? – I choose me, my, mine!” Others would say, “I live in my ‘dream world’ – fairy tale living is as good as it comes!” Or, “The beginning, means, and end of all things, is that I tried to do my best.” Or, “The ruling reason of my life is, “just do what makes YOU happy – who cares what others or some God has to say!”

Think with me about fallen humanity as we will eventually consider “One Legislator – One Lord”! But as we look to fallen humanity, fallen away from God, fallen from God’s intent in man’s creation, fallen away from the need of “blood redemption”, what is it men settle for? Well, “Certainly for my view, no consideration of what some call immortality – let me spend or expend my life’s resources for myself in the here and now; why consider what’s after death?” “Me? Whatever pumps my flesh and satisfies my glands, what else matters?” Or, “What’s the problem with a useless life? I’m my own man and ought to satisfy my own lusts!” Or, “I’ll spin the web of my own life on my own terms. Who cares what God’s intent was?” And fallen men have no clear understanding that the mind of fallen men, alienated and separated from Holy God, is an evil life of unbelief, with God’s Holy Word declaring in Genesis 6:5, “Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”

MAN WITHOUT GOD! And, yes, in early Genesis we see “the beginning of the unveiling” of God’s grace, mercy, and love! But even with that view of God, there are those who dim the mind to the Light of God, sear and steel the conscience with indifference toward God’s Word written and viewed in and through Emmanuel, God in the flesh, dim their hearts toward the Cross, the suffering, the death of Christ on the Cross in their behalf, as totally unimpressive: “What a foolish man!” they say.

MAN WITHOUT GOD? The majority of fallen men have no true or abiding consciousness of God, though some men will acknowledge but sense no need of Him because they are ‘god unto themselves’! Many are so stale, stoic, selfish, sin-sick, superior to any idea of God or need of repentance before their Creator. Plus, godless men, and women, birth family victims, family dis-function, disgrace, and despair, family separation, family sorrow and abuse, resentment, anger, disgust, accusations after accusations, dislike with an “I hate you” stance of relationships, followed by a disloyal pledge of bitterness! And without loving God as their hope and help, they live unfulfilling lives with no fulfilling relationships and rewards because they have no place in their hearts for a sacrificial, serving, selfless love!

MAN WITHOUT GOD? Are you aware most men exalt selfish imaginations, and really, anything or anyone that exalts himself/herself against the knowledge of God? They know zero about deliverance from sin and death, but celebrate in it, totally unaware of seeing a natural life birthed by God into a spiritual life that exalts and honors Him – with rich and eternal rewards! They possess no sense of innocence before Holy God and man because they are guilty, live in guilt, and try to cover it any way they can – which never happens apart from the shed blood of Christ as Emmanuel, “God with them.”

MAN WITHOUT GOD? Captives in their own souls, minds, wills, unaware of “the wages of unrighteousness”, walking in the counsel of the ungodly, drawing iniquity with cords of vanity like a cart with no wheels, famished souls with no true ‘bread of life’ or ‘water’ of the Word and the Spirit, living in rejection to the Law of the Lord of hosts, despising the Living Word, the Holy One of Israel, without knowing their life choices ‘stricken them’, and ‘the walking dead’ are like the carcasses of refuse in the very middle of a “Hollywood-like Boulevard” with their banners flying over every unbelieving life: “Unbeliever, and proud of it,” not knowing, Proverbs 16:18, “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall,” fall after fall after fall, deeper and deeper and deeper in the grips of a hellish devil, and eternal destruction that never fades or dies away!

MAN WITHOUT GOD? Alienated, separated, enslaved, deceived, enticed violaters of the Word and Will and Ways of God, being swallowed by the bad breath of Sheol, greedy for gain anyway, anytime, anywhere, with anyone, disdaining of counsel and eternal help, loving the darkness without any Light, delighting in the perversity of the wicked, devious to gain the upper hand and unearned wealth and unrewarding consequences, “just so I can have my way in all things”!

MAN WITHOUT GOD? Proverbs 6:16-19 says: “These six things the Lord hates, Yes, seven are an abomination to Him: A proud look, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that are swift in running to evil, a false witness who speaks lies, and one who sows discord among brethren.”

MAN WITHOUT GOD? That’s the one or many or masses that ignore Christ Jesus, inspire lustful living, betray the Holy Word, bow before “scientific discoveries” more than to the Lord God who created them, resistant to governorship of the Lord Jesus who loves them far more than they know how to ‘love’ themselves, so in love with the perversions out of the selfish hearts of men they had just rather crucify the King of kings and Lord of lords and bow unto their sin natures, God-less ideals, and their lives governed by “flesh” alienations than Holy Spirit birthing!

MAN WITHOUT GOD? Proverbs 27:6 expose so much about the nature and character of our fallen world. It says, “Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy [toward God and YOU] are deceitful.” Can you grasp that? But, not only the deception of one’s enemies, including the devil and his appointed demons, how easy is it for unreconciled, unrighteous, unbelieving, ungodly men and women, even youth and children, to be encouraged toward rebellion against God rather than submission to His eternal Way and ways? For far too many “blood redemption” by the Lamb of God is unreality, unnatural, and unnecessary!

MAN WITHOUT GOD? It was John Greenleaf Whittier, in his writing, “A Sabbath Scene,” who said: “Foul shame and scorn be on you all Who turn the good to evil, and steal the Bible from the Lord and give it to the devil.” Of course, though, we don’t have to worry about that in this ‘modern-day’, do we?

Are you familiar with Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s writings? One is entitled “The Cry of the Human,” and in it she wrote: “There is no God,” the foolish saith, But none, “There is no sorrow”: And nature oft the cry of faith In bitter need will borrow.

Eyes, which the preacher could not school, By wayside graves are raised; And lips say, “God be pitiful,” Who never said, “God be praised.” Does that still ‘fit’ in an unbelieving state of life and mind today?

Many unbelieving men will question true believers at times, “How can you believe in God?” And only true wise men of faith stand to say, “I examine the billions of planets He designed, then the awesome people He created, lost, and re-birthed – and I rejoice, thank, and praise His Holy Name,” which now leads us to examine, “Vital Awareness Unveiled? One Legislator – One Lord!”

Taking a look at the nation enslaved in Egypt yet liberated by Holy God and given “a land of promise”, Israel is or was the recipient of God’s faithfulness yet there came a time that most of Israel, except the remnant, abandoned God and promoted ‘religion’ without a personal relationship!

In Joshua 24:14-15 we see the challenge that is just as true today as it was in Joshua’s day imprinting the call to turn to the “True Legislator and the Only Redeeming Lord”! Joshua said, “Now therefore, fear the Lord, serve Him in sincerity and truth, [any different Word for today in our service to the King of kings and Lord of lords?], and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the River and in Egypt. SERVE THE LORD! [Unless you’re content with enslavement to your old sin nature and your ‘fleshly faith’!].

And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

Self-legislation – self-rule or One Legislator – One Lord whose name is Christ Jesus, the Promised Messiah? Flesh domination – flesh damnation or Christ Rule – Christ’s Reign? Wicked thoughts – wicked separation or Divine Truths – Divine Oneness? Seared consciences – sickened life or New Ruler – New life, new hope, new peace, new rejoicing, new awakened consciences accountable to Holy God!

Formerly self-righteous thinking is transformed by the grace and mercy of God through Christ’s shed blood, and having repented, a man of faith begins to say daily, “Lord, what would YOU have me to do?” And what excuse do “born-again believers”, who have died to the old man and old sin nature and been indwelt by “Christ who is our life”, have? Were YOU crucified with Christ? Does Christ live in you? Do you scripturally possess now “the mind of Christ”? Are you a recipient, now owner, of the Glorious Word of God called the Holy Bible, yes His instruction manual on living the overcoming, never-ending, victorious life of Christ who is more than conqueror? As YOUR liberator, He’s your educator, legislator, yes, the Lover of your soul, your mind, and should be, your will, your wisdom, your warrior of overcoming faith!

Dare I tell you that the “mind of God in Christ” is omnipotent, omnipresent, all-wisdom, all-Truth, all understanding, all-love, all-seeing, all-knowing – Emmanuel, “God in the flesh”, King of kings, Lord of lords, Who desired to make YOUR life the residence of His abiding presence, YOUR life His earthly extension, His heavenly expression, and His Kingdom throne which is righteousness, peace, joy, and the fullness of Holy Spirit anointing, guidance, illumination of what He is all about in touching the world around you with eternal desires, directions, disciplines, discernments, and destiny!

Are you so diseased in mind and heart that God’s eternal plan may be for others, but not you? Have you been so alienated from Holy God so long, and witnessed the death sentences being lived out around you by family, friends, and fellow-unbelievers, that for YOU it is beyond even considering that if you were the only man/woman, teenager, child, to ever live, “how could I, (we), them, my closest family and friends, ever consider the audacious Truth, if it is true, that the Crucified, Resurrected, Reigning Christ, chose me, us, to establish His earthly residence and reign?” And it’s TRUE!

Hear me! Romans 3:23-26 declares for us all, all human residents on earth, yes, worldwide: “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, BEING JUSTIFIED FREELY BY HIS GRACE through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.” Justified? By grit or by grace? By self-effort or Sovereign provision? “Justified”? Working for it or resting in our Lord’s finished work at the Cross?

Romans 5:17 declares the repentant heart, forgiven, washed in the blood, surrendered to His earthly throne IN the “blood-washed life”, filled with His Holy Spirit and His abiding Presence, teaches us about the Royal, Residing, Reigning Christ in and through every true born-again believer! It says: “For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, MUCH MORE those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.” Glory! Glory be to God!

Have YOU ever considered, searched out, rested in God’s eternal revelation of one’s true identity “in Him,” “in Christ”, “in the blood-bought family of God”?

Genesis 15:1, “Do not be afraid, Farrell Fisher; I AM your shield, your exceedingly great reward.”

Genesis 17:2-4, Loving God expanded Abram’s vision and His desire for YOU! “And I will make My covenant between Me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly. Then Abram fell on his face, and God talked with him, saying, “As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations.” But the powers of darkness tell you, “But that couldn’t be YOU!?”

How many do you know that, like Jacob, had a dream as Holy God revealed Himself more and more THROUGH A DREAM?!? In Genesis 28:15-17 we read: “Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you.” Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.” And he was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven!” Have YOU EVER SEEN YOUR LIFE AS THE HOUSE OF GOD AND THE GATE OF HEAVEN?

Oh, it gets deeper, richer, more awe-inspiring! In Genesis 35:10-12 we read: And God said to him, “Your name is Jacob; your name shall not be called Jacob anymore, but Israel shall be your name.” So He called his name Israel. Also God said to him, “I am God Almighty. Be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall come from your body. The land which I gave Abraham and Isaac I give to you; and to your descendants after you I give this land.”

Do YOU read the Word discovering Holy God’s true identity and how He identifies you under His watch-care? In Exodus 3:14-15 it gets richer and, yes, even more rewarding! And God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And He said, “Thus YOU shall say to the children of Israel, (to the children of the U.S.A. and worldwide!), “I AM has sent me to you.” Moreover God said to Moses (and to Farrell Fisher!), “The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is My name forever, and this is My memorial to all generations.” Even your generations in America and beyond?

Are you awed when you learn it is God’s eternal desire to set YOU apart as He did ‘the chosen of Israel’? In Exodus 31:13 He identifies “My Sabbaths you shall keep, for it is a sign between Me and you throughout all generations, that YOU may know that I AM the Lord who sanctifies YOU [or sets YOU apart for His honor, glory, and praise!!].”

All through the Word Holy God is reminding people: “I AM the Lord your God,” yet many of the Israelites fell away! And He confronts, convicts, convinces that “I AM the Lord your God who brought YOU out of a deceived world, like Egypt, OUT OF THE HOUSE OF BONDAGE,” with the command, “You shall have no other gods before Me.”

If you’ve never known, it’s so vital that you ‘rest’ in His eternal truths and Truth this very moment! In Psalm 46 David sang: “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in time of trouble. Therefore we will not fear, even though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; though its waters roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with its swelling,” with Verses 10-11 challenging us, “Be still, and know that I AM GOD; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!” The question? Is He exalted in YOU and YOURS?

And, the New Testament doesn’t speak to YOU about “the Great I Am”? How familiar are you with Matthew 11:28-30? Jesus said, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light,” yet He bore the sins of all fallen humanity on the Cross!

Really now, just how spiritually hungry are you? If so, in John 6:35, Jesus says to us, “I AM the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.” But the ‘fleshly thirsty’ keep looking and looking but never find “True Bread” or “Living Water”, and wander in spiritual darkness and deception, but the Lord Jesus Christ said then and now in John 8:12, “I AM the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.”

The Lord Jesus said in John 14:6, “I AM the way, the truth, and the life. NO ONE comes to the Father except through Me;” and was it John Wimber who used to ask? “Christ Jesus: Lord, liar, or lunatic?” I’m telling you: Jesus is the Author and Finisher of our faith. “Jesus is Emmanuel, ‘God with us,’”; Jesus is the “True Vine”; our Lord said, “I AM the resurrection and the life. He who believes in [trusts in, relies upon, adheres to] Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?”

Christ Jesus IS Alpha and Omega, Christ Jesus IS the Bright and Morning Star, Christ Jesus IS the root of all “New-Born, Spirit-filled lives”, Christ Jesus is the Eternal Bridegroom who says to His Bride, “Forsake all, and follow Me!”

It was Oswald Chambers, in “My Utmost For His Highest,” [pps.200-201], who wrote about the Lord’s statement in Mark 10:21, “One thing you lack…come, take up your cross, and follow Me.” Chambers wrote: “The rich young ruler had the master passion to be perfect. When he saw Jesus Christ, he wanted to be like Him. Our Lord never puts personal holiness to the fore when He calls a disciple. He puts absolute annihilation of my right to myself and identification with Himself – a relationship with Himself in which there is no other relationship.” Jesus doesn’t ‘fit in’ – He takes over the “crucified life” and resurrects it in His fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Jesus Christ!

What did Paul tell us in Galatians 2:20-21a? “I have been crucified WITH CHRIST; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh [or fleshly body!] I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God…”!

This is why in 2 Corinthians 5:17 Paul wrote: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new!”

“New Birth”, “New Life,” “New Hope,” “New Day Dawning,” “New Glory,” “New Help,” “New Heaven on Earth, “New Dwelling Place – Eternal in the Heavens,” “New Helps,” “New Confidence and Assurance,” “New Work,” “New Spirit” coming upon every new born-again believer!

New words recently given – I pray they inform, inspire, and introduce the Lord and Savior, Christ Jesus, more and more:

“A new-born person, blessed even in the midst of strife, conquers by the Peace Christ brings through His Resurrection Life.

Though trouble may come to new creations, Christ blesses that life by His invasion; storm-clouds may cover, but He rules over whatever may come whether dust-like or clover!

Holy Presence of Resurrection blessing, storms and troubles become sure of His place and resting. No wind so strong, no storm so severe – His Presence assures they go to the rear!

“Peace I leave with you, peace I give unto you,” and every trouble becomes His personal conquering; battles extreme, wars so brutal, but love so sweet and peace so enduring!

Christ-less lives can mindfully enjoy a man-made journey like a child with a toy; temporary distraction, but no eternal satisfaction – made for God but buried in the sod, no understanding, not even a nod.

Restricted in true love, no peace of the dove; striving in flesh to the best of one’s effort; void of the blessing of God’s restoration, never considering their final destination.

Void of life, they live in death; void of His love, they live with hesitations; so unsure if the journey of life can live with the strife – knowing for certain, without Him there is nothing pertinent!

But workers of faith and conquerors over self have a reverence of life no one can deny; heroic in spirit, they walk in a world so void of faith, they watch as a world enthrones its self, slumbering daily, no faith in God, just waiting soon to be buried in earth’s sod.

Denying self, there’s no desire to be called up for hire; there one ambition becomes, for them, God’s desire! No reverence for self or put on a shelf, they cry to God, “Lord, what should I do to honor You and fulfill Your plan, as You scope around us, and design our walk, hearing Your voice and learning how we should talk!”

Touching our world with Your peace and grace, we offer our lives to redeem the race, of godless men and devil inspired, “God, help us to be able to say, ‘by our witness, Your desire has graciously transpired’; Men have repented, fully consented, to follow our Lord, blessedly contented, at peace with our Lord, no longer bored, but divinely inspired to live our lives to His glory and honor, fully at peace through His Indwelling Spirit, newly born, gloriously saved, laying down our lives, others are born no longer torn, but now daughters and sons heavenly born!” Does His Word speak of “One Legislator – One Lord”? Of course! It does!

CHAPTER ELEVEN

“VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED? VOID OF GOD’S WORD OR VICTORY THROUGH GOD’S WORD?”

In Hebrews 4:12 we read: “For the Word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword…”. Have you ever considered that you as a believer are to be guided by God’s Holy Word? Being united WITH Christ in your heart, soul, and mind, is it in the fabric of your redemption of “be being saved” by your devotion to His Holy Word? Is it possible that in your “wedding vows” with Christ you omitted “devoted to His Word and His will”?

Is it in you as it was with King David as he wrote in Psalm 25:4-5, “Show me Your ways, O Lord; teach me Your paths. Lead me in Your truth and teach me, for You are the God of my salvation; on You I wait all the day,” but you know nothing or little of the daily devotion of His Word to be personally taught day by day by the King of kings and Lord of lords?

“Your will be done” but you never daily yield yourself to discover His will, His ways, His directive word, but you settle in, “I’m saved; that’s all that I need to know?” I believe that I read in Psalm 25:12, “Who is the man who fears the Lord? Him shall He teach in the way that He chooses.” And God’s choice? Matthew 4:4, But He [Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, Promised Messiah, Lord of lords, King of kings!], answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” “God said…”, but that is not essential to your professed faith?

I would challenge you as you’re reading this to evaluate your “saving experience” in Christ if you are void of His Word! So-called “religious experiences” that never leads one to His “revelation” and a hunger to know His will and His Word absolutely frightens me! If one has been “born again”, I believe one of the evidences is “that we might KNOW the things that are freely given to us of God,” [1 Corinthians 2:12].

To his spiritual son, Timothy, Paul wrote in 2 Timothy 2:15, “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” I look upon God’s revelation of divine truth in both the Old and New Testaments as magnificent promises for maturing men and women, boys and girls, who have come to Him in true repentance and redemptive faith.

It was Peter who told us in 2 Peter 1:2-4, “Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that THROUGH THESE you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”

Tell me about your reception daily (in comparison to three square meals a day of physical bread!) through God’s Holy Word of His “exceedingly great and precious promises,” of your daily discovery and acquired knowledge of “the things freely given to us by God,” yes, and your appropriation of His truths that show YOU the “escaping [of] the corruption that is in the world through lust.”

Do you remember Abraham’s servant, sent by Abraham to find a bride for his son Isaac? In Genesis 24:48 the servant speaks: “And I bowed my head and worshipped the Lord, and blessed the Lord, and blessed the Lord God of my master Abraham, who had led me IN THE WAY OF TRUTH to take the daughter of my master’s brother for his son.” Thank God for His servants who are “led in the way of truth!”

In Mark 4 Jesus had been explaining His parables to the new disciples. Verses 33-34 tell us, “And with many such parables He spoke the word to them as they were able to hear it. But without a parable He did not speak to them. And when they were alone, He explained all things to His disciples.” [Have YOU asked Him to explain to YOU His Word?]. The very desire of Jesus for you right now is that you listen TO Jesus and LET HIM “explain all things in the Word to you” by the Holy Spirit who “guides us into all truth.” In John 16:13-14 our Lord told His disciples, “However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.” The Holy Spirit is Heaven’s personal “Tutor” in the Holy Word of God!!

But haven’t you heard it? “I don’t need a personal “Tutor” to teach me the Bible! I don’t accept the Bible as the authoritative Word of God – I’m smart enough in myself, in this world’s wisdom, – to sense there is no divine truth as there is no ‘heaven’ or ‘hell’ – find a brain-dead ‘christian’ and you’ll probably fool THEM – not me!” And if you haven’t learned it yet in your classrooms or from any university professors who see themselves as smarter than God Himself, they believe, by human interaction you will learn that the most harmful ‘curse’ in life’s spiritual realm is belief in God’s Holy Word when they believe ‘smart men’ are wiser in intellectual superiority, even personal pride, and superior to Jesus Himself who IS Emmanuel, “God in Flesh”!

Have you ever examined thoroughly Jesus’ passionate prayer in John 17 for you and for all mankind as He described “grace” as that which reveals Him, and then He UNVEILS “eternal life” by His “grace”? John 17:3 says, “And this is eternal life, that they may know You [God Himself], the only true God, AND Jesus Christ whom You sent.” Oh, and then in Verse 17 Jesus prayed, “Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.” Sancitfy? “Set them apart,” “save them, redeem them, declare them ‘holy’ by Your Word”!! As Josh MacDowell used to say of Jesus, as I’ve quoted before of Jesus: “Liar, lunatic, or the Lord God?”

But “void of the Word of God” men will, at least some, profess a mental knowledge of Him but never experience “victory in Him through His eternal Word”! Oswald Chambers wrote in his famous book, “My Utmost For His Highest,” []p.4], “Natural devotion may be all very well to attract us to Jesus, to make us feel His fascination, but it will never make us disciples. Natural devotion will always deny Jesus somewhere or other.” What did the Lord Jesus tell us in John 3:3-7?

Jesus answered and said to Nicodemus, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”

Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water [that’s the “water” of the Word!], and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’” All believers, true believers, born again believers, will face worldly and satanic opposition to their true faith, but Paul tells all unbelievers in Ephesians 6:10-19,

“Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace;

Above all, taking the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, WHICH IS THE WORD OF GOD; praying always with all prayer, and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints – And for me, that utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel.”

Natural mankind poses fierce opposition to Jesus because , in their natural minds, are “void of the Word of God” and have no heavenly understanding. Even the early disciples like Philip had a hard time understanding who Jesus was and what He was about. Look at John 14:7-11! “If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him and have seen Him.”

Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works. Believe Me that I AM in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves.”

Natural mankind is void, opposed, and ‘willfully’ resists Biblical Truth that “the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin.” Natural mankind is highly opposed to Biblical Truth that says “obedience to Jesus is required: as evidence of a born-again life”, even when Jesus said in Matthew 7:21, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but HE WHO DOES THE WILL OF MY FATHER IN HEAVEN.” In fact, in Luke 6:46, Jesus said: “But why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do the things which I say?” Obedience is not an option in the age of grace but is the evidence grace is at work in you finishing its work in you and through you!

We do know beyond a shadow of a doubt that not all of Israel was “lost” because of rejection of the coming of the Promised Messiah – there was a ‘remnant’! But Romans 10:21 says, But to Israel he says, “All day long I have stretched out My hands to a disobedient and contrary people.” And even as “Jews” there are those who lived in the “natural”, yes, fully opposed to “saved by grace”! Natural mankind are those who are “a disobedient and contrary people” who have no desire to live by the Life of Another, even by Emmanuel, “God in flesh”!!

Natural mankind does not “know” Father-God or the Son of God or the Holy Spirit, yes, the THREE IN ONE!! We ALL came into this world through “fallen Adam”, yes, “hiding from God, without hope in ourselves, or hope in each other” – we needed a miracle of God!

In John 17:25-26 Jesus prayed, “O righteous Father, THE WORLD HAS NOT KNOWN YOU, but I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me. And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the Love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.” Yes, Jesus prayed for YOU and ME that God’s love would capture our minds and hearts and wills, drawing us out of the land of darkness of unbelief to the “Promised Land” of heavenly living on earth through His Resurrection Life, Resurrection Power, and Resurrection Hope!

“Void of the Word of God”? I pray that you have not set aside the Epistle to the Hebrews! In Hebrews 1:1-3 we read, “God, who at various times and in various ways, spoke in times past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.”

But those who are “void of the Word of God,” “void of Christ Himself”, willfully shut the door to His saving grace and mercy and have no seat in the heavenly places! Read carefully Ephesians 2:4-7! “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), AND RAISED US UP TOGETHER, AND MADE US SIT TOGETHER IN THE HEAVENLY PLACES IN CHRIST JESUS, that in the ages to come “HE MIGHT SHOW” the exceeding riches in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”

“Void of the Word of God”? That’s those blinded by the world, the flesh, and the devil! It’s why in Galatians 6:7-8 Paul tells us: “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh [that’s his old sin nature, old man, First Adam] will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit [of God] will of the Spirit reap everlasting life.”

“Void of the Word of God”? Are you aware of the “stumblers”? Peter told us in 1 Peter 2:8, “…they stumble, being disobedient to the word, to which they also were appointed.” God Himself read their hearts and appointed them to their just reward, yes, because of a mental, willful, head and heart rejection of the Lord Jesus Christ!

I think it vitally important to have you read 1 Corinthians 1:18-31!! Receive it for yourself: “For the message [or word] of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

For it is written: ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.’ Where is the wise? Where is the scribe, Where is the disputer [debater] of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?

For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; But we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.

Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty;

And the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh [First Adam, old sin nature], should glory in His presence.

But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God – and righteousness and sanctification and redemption – that, as it is written, ‘He who glories, let him glory in the Lord.’” Foolishness of men ‘void of the Word’ OR victory through the Word because we “glory” only in the finished work of Christ “At The Cross” living a celebratory life because of His Resurrection from the dead?

How about for you an eternal shift by the grace of God to “Victory Through His Word”? In 1 John 5:4-5 John tells us: “For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And THIS IS THE VICTORY that overcomes the world – our faith. [Our trust in Christ, our relying upon Christ, our total dependence upon Christ through His shed blood, His death, His Resurrection, His Ascension, and His soon coming to celebrate with Him eternally!!]. Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?”

I’m forever sorry and broken that ‘religious’ people never see Jesus in heaven but only at the Judgment Seat as He tells them, “Depart from Me, you who work iniquity!!”

But “born of God”? Are you familiar with Galatians 1:15-16? “But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, to reveal His Son in me..” What an awesome revelation!

Do you remember what Jesus said in John 5:38-40? “But you do not have His word abiding in you, because whom He sent, Him you do not believe. You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.”

There are those who will “read” the Word without “resting” in its Author. There are professors of allegiance to the ‘paper’ of the Book but fail to possess its Author and His Resurrection Life, Power, and Hope! There are ‘historical verifiers’ without “blood-bought, redeemed hearts”! And certainly there are devoted legalists without the Person and heavenly love of the Lord.

The Holy Word tells us: 2 Timothy 3:14-17, “But you MUST continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.

All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

Have YOU been “made wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus alone”? What did Paul tell us in Romans 5:10? “For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be [“being”] saved by His life.” Have you forgotten or never learned, “justified by His blood”?

The author of Hebrews put it like this in Hebrews 9:11-14, “But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation.

Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh,

How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”

If your life is not a testimony of continuous rejoicing in God for His forgiveness and, yes, forgetfulness of your old sin nature and your pattern and participation in fleshly sins, I believe I would seriously examine what I “thought” was my salvation and what God Himself “says” it is!

Hebrews 10:12-14 tells us, “But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool.

For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.” Your sin became His “pain,” your pain became His suffering, His suffering became your freedom, and your freedom became the theme of your praise to your true Savior and Lord! So you take the sentence of death daily that the Resurrection Life of your Lord and Savior may be manifested in and through you for an unbelieving world to see and seek!

Have you forgotten, overlooked, or never seen Paul’s word to us in Galatians 5:24? “And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires,” so,…Verse 25, “If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.”

CHAPTER TWELVE

“VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED? EXPERIENCING THE POWER OF

THE PROMISED, PRECIOUS HOLY SPIRIT!”

It’s amazing to me that many write or speak or preach or teach about “evangelical spirituality” and totally ignore or try to refute the words of Jesus Himself about “wait for the promise of the Father,” which relates to the “anointing, enduement, filling, or baptism in the Holy Spirit.”

In no way do I ignore, make light of, or substitute “the Gospel of Christ which is the Power of God Unto Salvation,” for a “power” that pumps my “flesh.” But I do recognize in my ‘flesh’ an inability to fulfill the “good, acceptable, and perfect will of God” through my walk as a disciple in the best energy of my flesh without His Promise of Holy Spirit anointing and empowering!

If my Savior “fills All in All,” I hunger for the “ALL” filling me so that HIS ALL is fulfilled through me! If “wait” was among Jesus’ last words for His disciples then, I’m asking, is that “wait” relevant for NOW?

I know there is redemptive power in the Gospel of Christ, but I also know about a released power in the Holy Spirit given His rightful, reigning presence in your life and mine.

The question of Paul to the Ephesian followers in Acts 19 is urgent for today: “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” (Acts 19:2), And they responded in verse 3, “We have not so much as heard whether there is a Holy Spirit.”

I have no hesitation in saying to you that “the counterfeit of consecration” is a believer’s life lived independently of the awesome anointing of the Holy Spirit, evidenced by no true Godly freedom or fullness or “fire in my bones”!

Disciples with uninformed lives about the necessity of the Holy Spirit anointing never experience the unrivaled, unlimited power of God released through their lives.

In Galatians 3:3 Paul asked a vitally important question: “…Having begun in the Spirit (that’s “born of the Spirit” in the second birth), are you now being made perfect by the flesh?” Much of the ‘churchianity’ of today is a ‘cosmetic covering’ without the reality of Spirit-anointing and empowerment! Maybe, “a cheap imitation”?

Paul was so on target when in 2 Timothy 3:5 he spoke of “having a form of godliness but denying its power,” which is why Samuel Chadwick once wrote: “A religion of mere emotion and sensationalism is the most terrible of all curses that can come upon any people. The absence of reality is sad enough, but the aggravation of pretense is a deadly sin.”

Are we willing to settle for our impotence when there is the reality of His omnipotence? Are disciples of today content to stand at our Lord’s tomb or to walk through the doors of the power of Pentecost? Are we asleep on pillows of indifference or standing at the pillars of divine enabling? Are we “mesmerized spectators” or mounted on the wings of Holy Ghost anointing?

It was Isaiah who sadly said, (Isaiah 64:7), “And there is no one who calls on Your name, who stirs himself up to take hold of You…” God help us that we not be men and women who do not stir themselves up to take hold of His promised anointing, but that we be truly men and women God-graced, God-gripped, God-galvanized in the fullness of His Holy Spirit! How do we experience that power of His promised, precious Holy Spirit?

FIRST OF ALL, God’s Word is so very clear – HE IS NO RESPECTOR OF PERSONS! AND IF HE FILLS ONE, IT’S HIS DESIRE TO FILL ALL! Come to Acts 10:38! “…how God ANOINTED Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.”

Don’t you find it amazing that the Son of God who became the Son of Man, Emmanuel – “God in flesh” – received and experienced God’s anointing “with the Holy Spirit and with power”? And there’s a reason or explanation: In Philippians 2:7 Paul said Jesus “made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bond-servant, and coming in the likeness of men…” the NASB says “emptied Himself.”

John 17 explains the “emptying” so there could be in His life God’s FILLING! Verse 2, “no authority” – but God gave it to Him. Verse 5, “no glory” – but God glorified the Son. Verse 6, “no disciples” – but the Father gave Him His disciples. Verse 8, “no words” – but God gave Him the very words to speak.

In John 17:18 Jesus said, “As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.” Jesus chose to be totally dependent upon all the Father is so He could appropriate all the Father has! And by His example, we are to be dependent disciples anointed by the Father with the Holy Spirit and power just as Jesus was!

John 5:19 says, “Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do…” Verse 30 says the same thing, “I can of Myself do nothing!” But we believe we can? No, as the Father anointed Jesus, so He is to anoint us. RECEIVE THE ANOINTING!

SECOND, YOU BEGIN TO EXPERIENCE THAT POWER WHEN YOU CLEARLY UNDERSTAND, “IT IS THE WILL OF GOD!” Come to Ephesians 5:17-18. Receive! “Therefore do not be unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is, and do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation, BUT BE FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT.”

The Holy Spirit is the generating Spirit of Divine Life! In Romans 8:11 Paul wrote, “But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.”

Flesh effort is a futile possibility of honoring our Lord through our walk, but Spirit-anointing, which is God’s will for each of us, fills us full of faith, fire, and power. It’s the will of God!

In his book, “Rent Heaven,” R.B. Jones wrote, “A few years ago a warm current called El NinA, which ususally comes before Christmas, swept southward along the west coast of South America in greater volume than ever before. I brought with it torrential showers, which visited parts of South America which had not known rain since the year 1551. El Nina turned thousands of miles of desert into paradise in an incredibly short time, as it caused millions of hardy seeds which had lain dormant in the ground through decades of drought to sprout and grow with incredible vigor.”

And God’s will? It’s for a spiritual El Nina in your barren life, if it is, germinating divine seeds of Life through you “with incredible vigor.” IT’S THE WILL OF GOD!!

THIRD, EXPERIENCING GOD’S POWER COMES ALSO AS AN ANSWER TO INTERCESSORY OR PERSONAL PRAYERS! In Ephesians 3:16 Paul prayed, “that He would grant you, according to the riches of His grace, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man.”

Do you remember Jesus saying, “You have not because you ask not?” And sadly many walk in spiritual futility about dynamic service to our Lord because they are prayerless or have no one praying in their behalf. If it is the will of God that we be filled with the Holy Spirit, do we really believe if we pray to that end He’ll not answer? I don’t think so. PRAY TRUSTING, PRAY BELIEVING, PRAY REJOICING!

It was not only God’s will for Paul but for all disciples to know and experience the anointing. And Romans 15:29 says, Paul speaking, “But I know that when I come to you, I shall come in the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ.”

The Ephesian Christians hadn’t heard of the Holy Spirit, but Acts 19:6 tells us, “And when Paul laid hands on them (without praying? I don’t think so!), the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke with tongues and prophesied.”

FOURTH, THERE IS, YES, THE NECESSITY OF SHOWING UP FOR “THE FIGHT”! Look carefully with me at Galatians 5:16-17, and Verses 24-25!

Verses 16-17, “I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.”

And then Verses 24-25 tells us: “And those WHO ARE CHRIST’S HAVE CRUCIFIED THE FLESH WITH ITS PASSIONS AND DESIRES. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.”

Drew Bennett is a Presbyterian Pastor, Reformed, in Winter Haven, Florida. Drew used to travel with me to India, and on one occasion I remember him using ‘the Spirit and flesh’ as “two dogs in a fight.” Which one is stronger? And Drew said, “Feed one and starve the other.”

It is imperative that, if we walk in the fullness of God’s Spirit, it is because we’ve starved that doggish ‘flesh’ spirit that wants to dominate. And to be gut-level honest, I don’t believe there is a true “Spirit-filled life,” even if one speaks in tongues, while at the same time that one walks with an unbridled flesh life, professing without possessing “the fruit of the Spirit”!

In Romans 8:12-14 we read, “Therefore, brethren, we are debtors – not to the flesh (old sin nature!), to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are sons of God.”

Let’s reverse those last three Verses. “Who Are The Sons Of God? 1) They are those led by the Spirit of God! 2) They are putting to death, by the Spirit, the deeds of the body or ‘flesh’! 3) And, they understand no debt to their old sin natures and long for the Holy Life of the Spirit and its fullness in them!

FIFTH, WE EXPERIENCE THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT AS, IN TUNE WITH CHRIST, WE RESIST TEMPTATION AND REFUSE TO ENTERTAIN SATAN! Luke 4:1-14 is so vital to our understanding of this Victorious, Spirit-Anointed Walk! [Patience, please!]:

Then Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, being tempted for forty days by the devil. And in those days He ate nothing, and afterward, when they were ended, He was hungry.

And the devil said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” But Jesus answered him, saying, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.’”

Then the devil, taking Him up on a high mountain, showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said to Him, “All this authority I will give You, and their glory; for this has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. Therefore, if You will worship before me, all will be Yours.”

And Jesus answered and said to him, “Get behind Me, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.’”

Then he brought Him to Jerusalem, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down from here. For it is written: “He shall give His angels charge over You, to keep You,” and, “In their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone.’”

And Jesus answered and said to him, “It has been said, ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God.’” Now when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from Him until an opportune time.

THEN Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and news of Him went out through the surrounding region.”

If you look at Verse 22 of Luke 3, after Jesus’ baptism, “the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon Jesus…!!” Chapter 4, Verse 1 says, “Then Jesus filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, Verse 2, being tempted by the devil for forty days.”

Was that a test God allowed in the life of His Son? We are all tested – and we are all tempted! But Jesus resisted! Hebrews 4:15 says of Jesus, “…in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.” Then Hebrews 4:16 follows, “LET US therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.”

Grace to help? That’s the Holy Spirit! Now, come back to Luke 4:13-14, “Now when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from Him until a more opportune time…THEN (when?) Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit t6o Galilee…”

I have no reservation in saying to you His resistance brought a mighty release of power in Jesus’ walk and ministry! Though filled with the eternal reservoir of Holy Ghost power, the release came because He refused to entertain Satan’s temptation, choosing to honor His Father!

Do you know my concern for believers and their relationship to the Holy Spirit? They want, some of them, to be “zapped” in an instant when God wants them to zero in on one’s resistance to temptation! Some want a “quick-fix” without an eternal qualified fight! They want an easy path when it’s experience and expression of precious privilege through the “bloody battles” against our Enemy who wants to lead us back into black darkness and bondage. “Resist the devil and he will flee from you,” and as you resist a river, a wind, a fire breaks out from within your inner man!! Which leads us to the sixth truth about experiencing the explosive power of the promised, precious Holy Spirit!

SIXTH, IT COMES BECAUSE OF OUR UNWAVERING UNDERSTANDING THAT WE CANNOT WIN THE WAR AGAINST THE POWER OF DARKNESS APART FROM SPIRIT-ANOINTING! Matthew 12:28 are words from Jesus! Listen! “But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you.” Do you have a problem with that Verse? If so, it is because you have omitted in your training as a disciple understanding about the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of darkness. “Vital Awareness Unveiled?”

If it’s a problem it’s because someone blinded you to the gracious, merciful activity of God’s Kingdom. In Luke 9:1-2 Jesus “called His twelve disciples together and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases He sent them to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.” [Many preach that the ‘kingdom of God’ is future, unaware or decidedly indifferent to what He said!]. And if you’ve been taught that ended with the early apostles, then you bought into as great a deception as [ ], which has hindered the effective, eternal ministry of Christ Jesus!

We know that Satan was cast down from heaven and that he deceives the whole world, but our Lord said that He has no desire for His people to be caught up in that deception but to deliver people from it. Fighting the good fight of faith surely includes setting people free from demonic control and even setting them free from the blindness of spiritual warfare, as if there were none!

Holy Spirit anointing? Jesus tells us it is an unceasing, undying, passionate hunger for the third person of the Holy Trinity having His way in us! In John 7:37-39 we read, “On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out saying, ‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink…He who believes in ME, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water…But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive: for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.”

And check out the verbs! “Present tense verbs” which meant in the original Greek, present tense, continuous Action. I thirst and keep on thirsting; I come and keep on coming; I drink and keep on drinking; I believe and keep on believing! And the result? “Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water – but He was speaking of the overflow of the Holy Spirit!!”

Are you hearing “process” in that? Are you hearing “passion” in that for more than you’ve experienced? Are you hearing “hunger” for the “much more” of a vibrant, victorious faith? Romans 15:13 says, “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

But a sad word when Paul had to say to the church at Corinth, (2 Corinthians 6:12), “you are restrained by your own affections.” Restrained or released to the fullness? Hindered or helped by divine power? Restricted or fully active in the rivers of living water?

SEVENTH, ARE YOU COMMITTED TO EXPERIENCING THE POWER BY THE FAITHFULNESS OF “TARRYING” AND “WAITING” UNTIL THE FIRE OF ANOINTING FALLS? Luke 24:49 says, “Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem UNTIL you are endued with power from on high.”

What was Jesus saying? There is nothing more important in a disciple’s life after conversion than welcoming, experiencing, and celebrating God’s power! Nothing should distract! Nothing should become a substitute for the Savior’s Spirit- Anointing! Nothing should divert our attention away from “the rushing, mighty” wind of Holy Spirit enduement!

I so love how John the Baptist put it in Matthew 3:11, “I indeed…but He!” Look at it in your Bible! Sit until it sinks in!

“I indeed” can give you a taste! “But He..will give you the tool!” “I indeed” can accomplish a few things for you – “BUT HE…fulfills everything in you!”

Would you pray, “Holy Spirit, Come, in me, through me, to bear strong witness for my Lord and Savior! Anoint ME with those ‘rivers of living water’ so that flowing in and through me is truly a Godly witness of ‘saving grace’. You are our Lord’s promised empowerment and powerful anointing. I settle for nothing less than Your marvelous testimony of Christ through me! Give us Your song of praise of Christ the Redeemer! Amen!!

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

“VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED? WORLD PHILOSOPHERS OR WILLFUL PROMOTION BY GOD?”

It’s shocking that, even for some, a person like me, former pastor for many years and missionary to India mainly but also other countries in the Asian area, would have any reservation about ‘world philosophers’, revealing to them my brain limitation!

But there’s an interesting couple of verses for YOU to examine as you look at Psalm 75:6-7 where the psalmist, Spirit-inspired, said: “For promotion comes neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south. But God is the judge; He puts down one, and sets up another.”

In Psalm 147:6 it speaks of God’s Word AND His providence: “The Lord lifts up the humble; He casts down the wicked to the ground.” All world philosophers are not “wicked”, but the majority are “too smart in themselves” to ever see God as necessary in their lives!

Didn’t Paul tell us over 2000 years ago, in Colossians 2:8, “Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ,”?

Acts 17:16-21 is about philosophical “new things” in opposition to the Eternal Truths of God. Follow it: Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit provoked him when he saw that the city was given over to idols.

Therefore he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and with the Gentile worshippers, and in the marketplace daily with those who happened to be there.

Then certain Epicurean and Stoic philosophers encountered him. And some said, “What does this babbler say?” Others said, “He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign gods,” because he preached to them Jesus and the resurrection.

And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new doctrine is of which you speak? For you are bringing some strange things to our ears. Therefore we want to know what these things mean.”

For all the Athenians and the foreigners who were there spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or hear some new thing.

And if you follow it carefully, you’ll discern that ‘world philosophies’ are devotion to “wise things” that really have nothing to do with the heart – it’s all mental, and divorced from the spiritual nature of fallen men!

Participants in world culture of which we all are a part does not mean we deny Him but affirm, surrender, and yield to our Lord and Savior who IS the King of kings and Lord of lords! It doesn’t mean we’re “not at home” unless we sell our souls as the majority of the world, but we recognize our “worldly home” is in need of God’s grace, mercy, and love.

World philosophers or willful promotion by God Himself?!? Read carefully Oswald Chambers in his writing, “My Utmost For His Highest,” [pps.175-176]. “Beware of not acting upon what you see in your moments on the mount of God. If you don’t obey the light, it will turn into darkness. ‘If therefore the light that is in you be darkness, how great is the darkness!’ The second you waive the question of sanctification [it means: “set apart to the glory of God only”!] or any other thing upon which God gives you light, you begin to get dry rot in your spiritual life. Continually bring the truth out into actuality; work it out in every domain, or the very light you have will prove a curse…The most difficult person to deal with is the one who has the smug satisfaction of an experience to which he can refer back, but who is not working it out in practical life. If you “say” you are sanctified, “show it.”…Beware of any belief that makes you self-indulgent”! What’s that? ‘What pleases me and doesn’t line up with the Spirit of God who sacrificed His all!

World ‘philosophers’ are so adept at convincing people that belief, trust, repentance and faith in Holy God is so unnecessary for the ‘smart folk’ – yet the educated crowd can center their lives in the darkest darkness and call it ‘light’!

It doesn’t take long to discover the worldly, self-righteous individual, or the ‘professor’ of self-satisfaction – and if you stay around them very long you sense a spirit of discontent with all they know and an uncertainty of mind as unbelief always brings on fractures in what they really think.

So often when the Holy Word and the convicting Holy Spirit is shared with a world philosopher, you’ll see and sense degrees of dismay in many because they’re on the threshold of discovering their lost condition and separation from God!

In life as a believer, transformed by the mercy and grace and love of God, aren’t you shocked at times when you see the worldly crowd comfortably seated at a worldly table, easily laughing at any worldly, trashy, dirty joke, when in the innermost heart is a person at war with Holy God, embittered by their own set of circumstances, AND WILL NOT LOOK UP TO THE CARING THRONE OF GOD AS THE GOD OF CALVARY’S CROSS?!?

Psalm 4:2 says, “How long, O you sons of men, will you turn My glory to shame? How long will you love worthlessness and seek falsehood?” You realize there are “sons of men” and there are “sons of God”! You understand that there are those whose hearts are cemented in ‘earthly, fleshly, trashy values’ that are worthless in comparison to the heavenly treasures that increase in worth and blessing and value and true enrichment more and more!

In 2 Corinthians 4:1-4 Paul lifts the worldly veil that blinds or hinders true spiritual understanding of the gospel of Christ. He wrote: “Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we do not lose heart.

But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.

But even if our gospel is veiled, it ios veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.”

And that will break your heart, if it hasn’t already, because there are those whom you know whose hearts are ‘veiled’ to truth and whose minds are ‘blinded’ by the god of this age – they at least feel comfortable in their spiritual state of lost-ness because they are not alone; tragically, they’re blinded to the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, not knowing they reflect the darkness of the devil himself!

“World philosophers”? It was Paul in Colossians 3:2 who said, “Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.” And because you received the death of Christ and your crucifixion with Him, and you died with the result that your life is now hidden with Christ IN GOD, Verse 5, “therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.”

An ‘idol worshipper’? That’s the worldly ‘dude’ who has saved his life for himself because he loves the sinful world and all that it offers, not God! I know that you are not totally ‘brain-dead’ because you look at our world today and you witness ‘civilization catastrophes’ that grow more corrupt and, yes, ‘sinful’ world-wide!

“World philosophers” certainly major on ‘riches’ any way they can get it! But they are void of understanding about what ‘great gain’ is all about. In 1 Timothy 6:6-10 Paul advised his spiritual son, saying: “Now godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.

And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition.

For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.” When did that change?

I believe when the author of Proverbs 14:24 spoke of “the crown of the wise”, he certainly was not speaking of “the crown of life” or “the crown of glory” because wisdom apart from God’s wisdom and revelations is a false righteousness that does not lead to repentance and true redemptive faith. It says: “The crown of the wise is their riches, but the foolishness of fools is folly.”

In Proverbs 1:28-33 the ‘wise-man’, inspired by God Himself, gives us ALL a word of warning: “Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me: For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord. They would [have] none of my counsel; they despised all my reproof. Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices. For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them. But whoso hearkens unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil.”

“World Philosophers or Willful Promotion by God?” Oh, I tell you, God’s Word is so rich and man’s worldly philosophies are so bankrupt! Proverbs 3:5-6 tells us, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart; and lean not unto your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.” Led by the world or led by God Himself?

What did Paul say in 2 Corinthians 4:3-5? “But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age [the devil] has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them. For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus’ sake.”

Willful promotion by God? Bound in the flesh to the world philosophies, ideals, earthly gains, human pride in self-effort, but freed in Christ to divine life, eternal principles, heavenly blessings, holy privilege in sharing God’s faithful provisions, joy in the Lord forever not fleshly happiness, and a crown of glory and rejoicing that does not fade away, with an eternal family under the Fatherhood of God and His Sovereignty!

Willful promotion by God? We’re no longer “slaves of Satan” bound in satanic chains – in Christ we’re “sons and daughters of God” in the Heavenly Family! We’re no longer ‘flavorless’ but we’re the salt of the earth! We’re no longer ‘darkness’ – we’re light in the Lord! We’re no longer empty in the inner man, but filled with the Holy Presence of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit!

We’re no longer of the unrighteous descendants but men and women who through repentance toward God and faith in the finished work of Christ at the Cross have been declared righteous in the very righteousness of God imparted and implanted in our washed vessel of trust in Him! We’re not the “happy hour” crowd – we’re the eternally blessed members of the Royal Family of God! Our identity is no longer slaves of Satan, but now the very children of Holy God! We’re not ‘impersonaters’ of our Lord and Savior, but possessors of His Resurrection Life, “vessels of the Victor”!

We’re not distant stars blinking in the darkened nights of men’s souls but “lights” on a hill that cannot be hidden.

Robert Browning, in “Paracelsus”, wrote: “If I stoop, into a dark tremendous sea of cloud, it is but for a time; I press God’s lamp close to my breast; its splendor soon or late Will pierce the gloom; I shall emerge one day.” And even when destiny brings us temporarily to a “dark tremendous sea of cloud,” WE WILL EMERGE BRIGHTER THAN EVER BEFORE!

We’re sons and daughters of God’s eternal faith family, and though doubt, at times, will try to rob us of light’s glow and meaning, and even when I find myself in my darkest moment as a follower, I choose to rest in Him!

I found it so interesting that the agnostic or atheist, Robert Ingersoll, at his brother’s funeral, spoke and said: “From the voiceless lips of the unreplying dead there comes no word. But in the night of Death, Hope sees a star, [but for him it was not the Bright and Morning Star whose names is Jesus Christ!] and listening Love can hear the rustle of a wing.” Oh, that somehow Browning learned of the Love of God, but I doubt that he ever did!

If God gave you “existence”, did He do so apart from eternal purpose? Of course not! His one beckoning call is, “Be reconciled to God,” and in that ministry of reconciliation, the blood of Christ Jesus takes center-stage, first place, the only door through which we can walk into the Holy Presence of God! It’s why in Matthew 5:8 Jesus said: “Blessed are the pure in heart; for they shall see God.”

It was Thomas a’ Kempis who said: “Simplicity reaches out after God; purity discovers and enjoys Him.”

I so appreciate Noah Webster’s description of ‘providence’ in his 1828 Dictionary. He said: “Providence – in theology the care and superintendence which God exercises over His creatures. He that acknowledges a creation and denies a ‘providence’, involves himself in a palpable contradiction; for the same power which caused a thing to exist is necessary to continue its existence…By divine providence is often understood God Himself.”

The God who made you, is He unable to save, sustain, and complete you to His good pleasure as it relates to YOUR eternal design and destiny? In Romans 3:24-26 God’s Holy Word tells us: “being JUSTIFIED FREELY by His grace through the resurrection that is in Christ Jesus; Whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God has passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”

Thank God for Chambers’ insight! Listen to what he wrote in “My Utmost For His Highest”: [p.247], “The Gospel of the grace of God awakens an intense longing in human souls and an equally intense resentment, because the revelation which it brings is not palatable. There is a certain pride in man that will give and give, but to come and accept is another thing. I will give my life to martyrdom, I will give myself in consecration, I will do anything, but do not humiliate me to the level of the most hell-deserving sinner and tell me that all I have to do is to accept the gift of salvation through Jesus Christ.” BUT THAT’S IT! IT’S ALL OF HIM and not us in the matter of our redemption, our re-birth, and our reconciliation!

He said a few sentences later, “He can do nothing for us if we think we are sufficient of ourselves, we have to enter His Kingdom through the door of destitution.” WOW!

Oh, I’m telling you: Jesus is to every repentant believer the complete and whole treasury of God!

Remember – we’re looking at “World Philosophy OR Willful Promotion By God”!! And when “world philosophy” begins to surface strongly and willful promotion by God takes a backseat, you begin to sense a sad decaying of true faith, an allegiance to the flesh [your old sin nature – so anything goes!], even church attendance by many who have no intention of denying self and taking up His Cross [and our own], and suddenly the Word of God is set aside, truth is left outdoors, and doubt about the veracity of God’s Holy Word takes over the pulpit and the classroom!

Philosophy may give you a few insights, but Christ Jesus births “new men”! It was the German theologian, Soren Kierkegaard, who said: “Not until man has become so utterly unhappy, or has grasped the woefulness of life so deeply that he is moved to say, and mean it: LIFE HAS NO VALUE FOR ME – NOT TILL THEN IS HE ABLE TO MAKE A BID FOR CHRISTIANITY.”

AND ALMIGHTY, HOLY, WISE, LOVING, CARING GOD STEPS UP TO REVEAL HIS UNCHANGING LOVE AND MATCHLESS MERCY TO WOUNDED HUMANITY BY OUR SELF-INFLICTED SIN NATURES!

John 3:14-18 illumines Heaven on earth! “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,

That whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.

He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”

Paul built out of the Cross of Christ and His Resurrection eternal truth! Look at Romans 5:6-11!! “For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die.

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For is when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be [being] saved by His life.

And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.”

There’s an old hymn entitled “Grace Greater than Our Sin.” It says: “Marvelous grace of our loving Lord, Grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt. Yonder on Calvary’s mount outpoured, There where the blood of the Lamb was spilled.

Sin and despair, like the sea waves cold, Threaten the soul with infinite loss; Grace that is greater, yes, grace untold, Points to the refuge, the mighty cross.

Dark is the stain that we cannot hide. What can we do to wash it away? Look! There is flowing a crimson tide, Brighter than snow you may be today.

Marvelous, infinite, matchless grace, Freely bestowed on all who believe! You that are longing to see His face, Will you this moment His grace receive?

Grace, grace, God’s grace, Grace that will pardon and cleanse within, Grace, grace, God’s grace, Grace that is greater than all our sin.”

World philosophers OR WILLFUL PROMOTION BY GOD? It’s your choice!

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

“VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED? CONFLICTING LOYALTY OR ALL- CONSUMING LOVE?”

Conflicting Loyalty? Is that saying one thing but doing another? Is that the demonstration of divided allegiance? Is that the picture vividly being painted on one’s life-canvas of one foot in heaven and the other foot touching the outer limits of hell itself?

Conflicting Loyalty? Is that “Yes, Sir,” to the General or “Do as I please” to the corp? Is that public dedication to be honorable and godly to the vows you make to your wife to be, and then feel you’re at liberty to play the field of available women?

Conflicting Loyalty? Is that a vow of dedication to be honest in your school or university exams but you determine the best way to cheat on your exams?

Conflicting Loyalty? Is that a president’s public oath to defend, protect, uphold his nation’s constitution but daily, verbally, and in deeds, shreds every page he can, and inflame disobedience, irreverence, and destruction of a nation’s founding fathers’ intent?

Conflicting Loyalty? You’ve heard it! “Yes, I believe the Bible is divinely inspired, God-breathed, Holy Word, but I also believe my devotion to it is our option we hold for ourselves!”

Conflicting Loyalty? “Oh, yes! One man – one woman for life,” but then voices support of men with men and women for women in gross violation of God’s Holy Word – and the sad thing is public support of immorality increases!

Conflicting Loyalty? “I’m a devoted kind of guy – He [God] can count on me,” but stumbles, falls, rebels, on the first lap with no intention of getting up! Conflicting Loyalty? You’ve seen him/her so consumed by worldly ambition that the Kingdom of God is squeezed out by an undaunted intent of “making a name for myself”, and glorifying the Lord takes a back seat!

Conflicting Loyalty? “The high cost of following Jesus? I thought this was a free ride, but I’ll do what I feel at ease to do, as it pleases me.”

Conflicting Loyalty? Many professing disciples become totally disillusioned, disappointed, even despairing because they believed they were called to ‘give your best’ – they do, then get a failing grade because discipleship has nothing to do with ‘our best’ but His best – the sacrifice of His life once for all for us all! Denying ‘self’ for some is asking way too much!

Conflicting Loyalty? “I will uphold my devotion to Christ and be a staunch warrior defending the faith,” but after several skirmishes, peer pressure, or procrastination, it takes a damaging toll!

Do you remember the son born blind and healed by Jesus? The Pharisees came to his parents: “We don’t know how – ask him – he’s of age to answer for himself!” And John 9:22 says: “His parents said these things because they feared the Jews.” They didn’t want to be put out of the synagogue!

Conflicting Loyalty? You’ll remember that Jesus said: “Whosoever does not bear his cross and come after Me, cannot be My disciple.” There are those “who want to” but the price appears extremely steep! Spurgeon once said, “A life in which we have shunned the Cross of Christ will lead to a state in which we shall miss the crown of glory.”

Conflicting Loyalty? In relationships between man to man, sometimes compromise has benefits, but to seek to “compromise” God’s revealed Truth breeds disaster! To compromise our Lord’s commands is to acknowledge disobedience and to stand under God’s judgment. To compromise is to decay obedience and to bring on a deterioration of morals. To compromise is to vacate privilege. To compromise is to willingly slice off those parts on “unpleasant truths” that you sense “don’t fit my personality and make-up of who I know I am”!

Conflicting Loyalty? Spurgeon, in his “Spurgeon’s Sermons,” [Memorial Library, Vol.19, p.359], has a message entitled “No Compromise.” He said: “The new plan is to assimilate the church to the world, and so include a larger area within its bounds. By semi-dramatic performances they make houses of prayer to approximate the theatre; they turn their services into musical displays, and their sermons into political harangues or philosophical essays – in fact, they exchange the temple for the theatre, and turn the ministers of God into actors, whose business it is to amuse men. Is it not so, that the Lord’s day is becoming more and more a day of recreation or of idleness, and the Lord’s house either a joss-house full of idols, or a political club, where there is more enthusiasm for a party than zeal for God.” And, I say, “Lord, help us!!”

Conflicting Loyalty? How many people have crossed your paths “in church” who are more at ease with church as a combat zone than a celebration of Jesus? Divisiveness is their strong “suit”, opposition their true bonnet they wear regularly, commitment to their way fighting the pastor and God’s true people to the death in one bitter struggle after another! Proverbs 21:2 says, “All a man’s ways seem right to him, but the Lord weighs the heart.”

Conflicting Loyalty? Oh, they play the religious game as “one cool dude,” calloused to the core, with willingly closed eyes to anything but their way or the highway! [Proverbs 23:7].

Conflicting Loyalty? You’ve witnessed it: Intellectual attainments in one’s mind of their understanding of the Bible, God’s Holy Word, often becoming nothing more than crippling beliefs! “Thus says the Lord” is translated: “As I see it…!”

Conflicting Loyalty? Effort apart from transformation by repentance toward God and faith in the finished work of Christ at the Cross creates despair, not deliverance and healing and salvation!

Conflicting Loyalty? A change in outward behavior is not the spiritual circumcision of the heart! Romans 2:28-29 tells us: “For he is not a [true] Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; but he is a [true] Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter, whose praise is not from men but from God.”

Conflicting Loyalty? Reaching up, reaching high, is not the same as being raised from the dead by God’s power! Look at 1 Corinthians 15:14, 17! Verse 14, “And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is empty.” Oh, and then Verse 17 tells us, “And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.” WOW!

Conflicting Loyalty? Sinful natures are not cloaked with religious garments, religious conversations, or religious activities, but “crucified with Christ”! Galatians 2:20 is “confirmed eternal love”! “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”

Conflicting Loyalty? “I’m a man so devoted to the costly bricks and mortar, the lights and stained glass, of our beautiful church,” failing to understand HIS body is God’s holy temple because of His grace, mercy, and love! Examine 1 Corinthians 6:19 says, “Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?” Then 1 Corinthians 3:16 declares, “DO YOU NOT KNOW THAT YOU ARE THE TEMPLE OF GOD AND THAT THE SPIRIT OF GOD DWELLS IN YOU?” Unless you’re dominated by ‘conflicting loyalties’ desiring to direct your own spiritual journey on your own terms!

Conflicting Loyalty? “Discipline and self-determination are the marks of an award-winning follower of Christ.” NO! The mark of a true disciple is one “set apart by God Himself,” sanctified, meet for the Master’s use!

Conflicting Loyalty? “Fig leaves,” fashionable sophistication, proper outward attire, educated common sense, band-aids rather than heart transplants, a manly tickering with myself on my terms, Ali’s style: “Superman don’t need no seat-belt”! Look at Matthew 13:15!

“For the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, SO THAT I SHOULD HEAL THEM.” But aren’t you aware of the “self-healers” who have no need of the Great Physician?

Conflicting Loyalty? I love what John Eldridge said in his book, “Waking The Dead” – so on target! [p.161], “Religion and its defenders have always been the most insidious enemy of the true faith precisely because they are not glaring opponents; they are IMPOSTORS.” Insidious? Noah Webster’s 1828 Dictionary defines “insidious” as: “lying in wait; watching for an opportunity to ensnare or entrap; deceitful, treacherous…”

Conflicting Loyalty? It’s not ‘fate’ but faith, fellowship, freedom, and a fight! Personal fate is out to steal God’s glory! Anarchy becomes a substitution for the Atonement! T.S. Eliot sorrowfully lamented: “Endless invention, endless experiment, brings knowledge of motion, but not of stillness; knowledge of speech, but not of silence; knowledge of words, and ignorance of the Word. Where is the Life we have lost in living? Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?” [Out of “Choruses from the Rock.”].

Conflicting Loyalty? Have you chosen the sanctified life or the starving life because to be without Christ as Savior and Lord, to be without the Bread of Life is to shrink, starve, and be shriveled up! Jesus said, “I have come that you might have LIFE and have it more abundantly!”

Conflicting Loyalty? “Temptation is not a trap – it’s an opportunity of discerning what I really want or not.” Oh, really? James 1:13-15 tells us: “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am tempted by God’; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted WHEN he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.”

Conflicting Loyalty? “Pressure, pressure, pressure! This job is so demanding – I’m going to have to ‘cut corners’ somewhere, somehow, someway, even if it’s wrong!” Hudson Taylor had difficult trials he had to face up to – he wrote out of that hard moment: “It doesn’t matter how great the pressure is. What really matters is WHERE THE PRESSURE LIES – whether it comes between you and God or whether it presses you nearer His heart.” Never let pressure to cause you to look away from or pass by the PRESENCE OF CHRIST JESUS HIMSELF!

Conflicting Loyalty? That’s when courage is called for but one allows cowardice to call the shots! No doubt this is why the famous Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn wrote in “East and West,” [New York, Harper & Row, 1980, p.45], “Must one point out that from ancient times a decline in courage has been considered the beginning of the end.”

Conflicting Loyalty? It was Martin Luther who once said: “The ultimate proof of the sinner is that he does not know his own sin.” Please read carefully from Jerry Falwell’s “25 of the Greatest Sermons Ever Preached,” [Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, p.18], a quote of George Whitefield from his famous message, “The Method of Grace,” based on Jeremiah 6:14! Whitefield said: “As God can send a nation or people no greater blessing than to give them faithful, sincere and upright ministers, so the greatest curse that God can possibly send upon a people in this world is to give them over to blind, unregenerate, carnal, lukewarm, and unskilled guides. And yet, in all ages, we find that there have been many wolves in sheep’s clothing…that prophesied smoother things than God did allow.”

In Niccolo Machiavelli’s, “The Prince,” [New York; BANTAM, 1966, p.63], he wrote: “Men are so simple and so much inclined to obey immediate needs that a deceiver will never lack victims for his deceptions.” WOW!!

Conflicting Loyalty? I was reading recently Dr. James Kennedy’s and Jerry Newcombe’s book, “Cross Purposes,” [Multonomal Publi., 2007, pps. 25-26]. “When I was in seminary, I went to a jail to preach the gospel to those who were locked up inside. I had never been to a place like that to preach, and I must say I was a little unnerved by it. I was sent into a big room where I was separated by bars from probably a dozen prisoners. As they were milling around, I started to talk to them. I probably hadn’t gotten two minutes into my talk when one of the largest inmates suddenly came at the bars (which I was happy were there at that point) and said to me, “Mister, you just go tell that God of yours all I want from Him is what I deserve!” “Sir,” I replied, “if you got what you deserved from God, the floor would open up right where you stand and drop you straight into hell, for that is precisely what you deserve. I don’t say that because you’re behind these bars while I’m outside them, because that is what we all deserve. If we got our just deserts, we would each and every one be condemned – because, you see, we’re actually already condemned. Christ said of the whole human race, “You are condemned already.” [John 3:18-19!].

Let me “shift gears”! I pray “conflicting loyalty never becomes the life-long pattern of your life, but that “by Faith” you appropriate our Lord’s “All-Consuming Love”! The Scripture I feel so led by our Lord to share with you here is Romans 8:35-39 where Paul wrote: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: ‘For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.’ YET IN ALL THESE THINGS WE ARE MORE THAN CONQUERORS THROUGH HIM WHO LOVED US. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

I don’t know how you read the above passage, but the one thing I’m sure of is the fact there are those who would like to “separate” you from Christ Jesus! “The love of Christ” is an offense to Satan and the powers of darkness; “the love of Christ” is a stumbling block to those who would be reconciled on their own terms; “the love of Christ” becomes contemptible to some because they don’t receive God in Christ Who FIRST “loved us;” “the love of Christ” separates some because, they believe, relationship to Holy God is merited, earned, rewarded by what THEY DO – not what CHRIST HAS DONE ONCE FOR ALL AT THE CROSS!; “the love Of Christ infuriates some because “my behavior should be recognized by God rewarding me because of my undaunted radiance – I shine brighter than even Jesus who was called ‘the light of the world’.”

Love for God is not manufactured in a fallen man’s heart or mind! It’s why John wrote in 1 John 4:19, “We love Him because He first loved us.”

There has never been a man, woman, boy, or girl, inclined to love God and be His follower and devoted servant. The darkness of one’s being has never produced ‘new life’ but only His amazing love transforms our darkness into His Life and Light and Liberty and Love! It is so very, very clear throughout all the Word of God that any man who does not passionately love God has never truly known Him or been ‘birthed’ into a family of faith relationships!

And if we have been ‘birthed’ into a family of faith relationship, does that mean our ‘LIFE-STYLE’ is unconditional love of others? In 1 John 4:10-11 we read: “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought [“must”] to love one another.”

Spurgeon was a very bold, brave, brilliant preacher and student of God’s Holy Word. In his ninth volume of “Spurgeon’s Sermons, [Memorial Library, pps.307-308] he wrote: “Now no man is a Christian who does not love Christians. He, who, being in the church, is yet not of it heart and soul, is but an intruder in the family. But since love to our brethren springs out of love to our one common Father, it is plain that we must have love to the Father, or else we shall fail in one of the indispensable marks of the children of God: “We know that we have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren;” but we cannot truly love the brethren unless we [do] love the Father; therefore, lacking love to God, we lack love to the church, which is an essential mark of grace.”

There are two verses in John 1 that we need to put together!! John 1:14 says, “And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen His glory, the glory of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.” Then John 1:18 says, “No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made Him known.”

Do you see it? THE WORD [Emmanuel, ‘God in Flesh’] became flesh! And the God mankind had never known became clearly visible! All of a sudden, flashing before us like ten million rays of the sun is Christ Jesus: GOD IS LIGHT! GOD IS LOVE! GOD IS LIBERTY! GOD LIFTS US OUT OF DESPAIR TO A THRONE OF GRACE, MERCY, AND LOVE!

Didn’t Paul tell us through his Colossians letter: “He [Jesus] is the image of the invisible God.” [Colossians 1:15], and then Colossians 1:22 says: “For in Him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.”

“Wondrous Love, so full of Life, Wondrous Love stripping strife, Wondrous Love to us is given, Wondrous Love transports to Heaven. Wondrous Love, there rings the Bell, Wondrous Love delivered from hell. Wondrous Love, Jesus came To show God, Jesus, and the Spirit the Same. Wondrous Love, Jesus came To set us free, No longer a captive of Satan to be. Wondrous Love, God’s Son was groaning, Because of His Love from sin atoning.” [JFF].

Paul said in Romans 5:8, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners CHRIST DIED FOR US.” What an awesome revelation! The word ‘demonstrates’ is from a Greek word meaning “to commend, establish, stood near, consists “ – or “holds together”! In Ephesians 4 Paul had been talking about “the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ,” Verse 12, and then said in Verse 15, “but speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head – Christ – Verse 16, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.”

HOW DO WE RATIONALLY, FAITHFULLY, PRACTICALLY, put all this together to honor God’s faithfulness to us?

• GOD HIMSELF PROVES, COMMENDED, DEMONSTRATED HIS LOVE TOWARD ALL MEN! What does John 3:16 tell us? “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
• GOD KNEW, UNDERSTOOD, GRASPED THE SORROWFUL TRUTH THAT MAN’S SIN BROUGHT SEPARATION FROM HIM! I don’t know who wrote it, but they surely understood sin’s consequences – “Sin is man’s declaration of independence from God.” It was John Bunyan in “The Pilgrim’s Progress” who wrote: “One leak will sink a ship; and one sin will destroy a sinner,” and God’s intent is to resurrect the dead, destroyed sinners who have been separated from His eternal love.”
• GOD SOVEREIGNLY DETERMINED ONLY A SINLESS SACRIFICE WAS SUFFICIENT, SUPREMELY EFFECTIVE, TO SAVE SINFUL MAN FROM HIS SIN AND RECONCILE HIM TO HOLY GOD!

Romans 6:23 is clear! “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life IN Christ Jesus our Lord.” Paul had told the church at Rome, and us, in Romans 5:21, “so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Oh, then Paul really dispelled the phoniness of some modern-day teachings that ‘Christians can’t do anything but sin until they get to heaven! Roman 6:1-3, 10 says:

“What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?

Verse 10, “For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.”

Oh, please read, contemplate, receive, stand on Oswald Chambers’ words concerning Romans 5:10 which says: “For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be [being] saved by His life.” He then wrote: [“My Utmost For His Highest,” pps.223-224], “The salvation of God does not stand on human logic, it stands on the sacrificial Death of Jesus. We can be born again because of the Atonement of our Lord. Sinful men and sinful women can be changed into new creatures, not by their repentance or their belief, but by the marvelous work of God in Christ Jesus which is prior to all experience. The impregnable safety of justification and sanctification is God Himself. We have not to work out these things ourselves; they have been worked out by the Atonement. The supernatural becomes natural by the miracle of God; there is the realization of what Jesus Christ has already done – “It is FINISHED!”

God’s Heavenly Love made practical for us? 2 Corinthians 5:21, “For He [God] made Him [Jesus] who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

• AMAZING LOVE? GOD IN CHRIST “DIED ON THE CROSS” FOR YOU AND ME! Amazing love? If YOU were the only person who had ever lived – past, present, future – on the Cross, Christ Jesus would have died there JUST FOR YOU!

“God commended His love for us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Can you say, “Christ died for me”? I don’t know how you respond to that, but in Job 42:5-6 we read: Job speaking, “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eyes see You. Therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”

To see Jesus on the Cross dying just for you, is to see yourself as God sees you, yet He loves you with an everlasting love for you – and He proved His love for you at Calvary’s Cross!

Dr. James Kennedy, in his book “The Presence of a Hidden God,” [p.191], wrote: “Just imagine for a moment that God were NOT love. Suppose, instead, that God were a cosmic ogre, playing with people like grasshoppers in a bottle’ – suppose God were a demon, filled with malevolent hatred, or suppose God were an impersonal force, like fate or some machine that had no feeling, no sympathy whatsoever toward mankind.”

But that’s not our God of Calvary’s Cross! Oh, there are those who truly wish God were dead, but even then to them the Cross and empty tomb still stand as expressions of eternal love for eternal fools! “The fool has said in his heart, ‘there is no God’! But, history stands, His-Story stands: Our God is the God who will not die – we serve a Risen Savior!

You need to know it if you haven’t heard it: “We love Him because He first loved us!” An old hymn says it like this: “See, from His head, His hands, His feet, Sorrow and love flow mingling down; Did e’er such love and sorrow meet or thorns compose so rich a crown?”

Do you understand? It’s only in seeing Christ Jesus suffer, bleed, and die for our sins that one truly discovers, discerns, and depends on the love of God! Here’s how Spurgeon put it long ago: [Spurgeon’s Sermons, Memorial Library, Vol.9, p.311],

“Again, our love to God does not spring from the self-determining power of the will. I greatly question whether any thing does in the world, good or bad. There are some who set up the will as a kind of deity, – it does as it wills with earth and heaven; but in truth the will is not a master but a servant. To the sinner his will is a slave; and in the saint, although the will is set free, it is still blessedly under bonds to God. Men do not will a thing because they will it, but because their affections, their passions, or their judgments influence their wills in that direction. No man can stand up and say, ‘I, unbiased and unaided, will to love God and I will not love Satan.” Such proud self-assuming language would prove him a liar; the man would be clearly a worshipper of himself. A man can only love God when he has perceived some reasons for so doing; and the first argument for loving God, which influences the intellect so as to turn the affections, is the reason mentioned in the text: “We love Him because He first loved us.”

God Himself established forever His love for you as Jesus suffered, bled, and died on the Cross! God demonstrated! God proved His love for YOU at Calvary! Now, how is that awesome understanding maintained productively and efficiently and faithfully day by day? Examine Romans 5:5! “Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”

History! Historic Presence and Power! Romans 5:6 says, “For when we were still without strength (“helpless”), in due time Christ died for the ungodly.” We WERE “enemies” but reconciled to God through the death of His Son, Romans 5:10, and having been reconciled, “we shall be [being] saved by His life.”

History? John Piper, in his book “The Pleasures of God,” [p.165], wrote: “Jesus wants us to see that His willingness to lose His life is because of His love for the glory of the Father.” He then quoted John 17:4, “I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do.”

Then Piper said: “All of Jesus’ work was designed to honor the worth of His Father’s glory. Therefore, all His pain and shame and humiliation and dishonor served to magnify the Father’s glory, because they showed how infinitely valuable God’s glory is, that such a loss should be suffered to demonstrate its worth.”

And what about your life, your walk, your calling, your purpose? Is it to honor the worth of the Father’s glory? How did Paul put it? 1 Corinthians 10:31, “Therefore, whether you eat or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”

Let me close this chapter with words again from Oswald Chambers out of “My Utmost For His Highest.” [p.238]. “The tendency is to look for the marvelous in our experience; we mistake the sense of the heroic for being heroes. It is one thing to go through a crisis gradually, but another thing to go through every day glorifying God when there is no witness, no limelight, no one paying the remotest attention to us. If we do not want medieval haloes, we want something that will make people say – ‘What a wonderful man of prayer he is! What a pious devoted woman she is!’ If you are rightly devoted to the Lord Jesus, you have reached the sublime height where no one ever thinks of noticing you, all that is noticed is that the power of God comes through you all the time.”

O For A Thousand Tongues!! Charles Wesley wrote the famous hymn. It says: “O for a thousand tongues to sing My great Redeemer’s praise, The glories of my God and King, The triumphs of His grace.

My gracious Master and my God, Assist me to proclaim, To spread through all the earth abroad, The honors of Your name.

Jesus! The name that charms our fears, That bids our sorrows cease; It’s music in the sinner’s ears, It’s life, and health, and peace.

He breaks the power of canceled sin, He sets the prisoners free; His blood can make the foulest clean, His blood availed for me.”

In Revelation 1:4-5 John wrote: “Grace to you and peace from Him who is and who was and is to come and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness”; He loved us, washed us in His blood!”

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

“VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED? VICTIMS OR VICTORS?”

Noah Webster’s 1828 Dictionary defines “victim” as follows: “Something destroyed; something sacrificed in the pursuit of an object. How many persons have fallen “victims” to jealousy, to lust, to ambition!?!”

Then, Webster defined “victor” as “one who conquers in a war; a vanquisher; one who defeats an enemy in battle…one who wins, or gains the advantage…”; “…as, grace will carry us ‘victoriously’ through all difficulties.”

Victims! I want us to look at this truth before we unveil the reality of one, by repentance and faith, becoming “VICTORS”! It was the great Englishman, G.K. Chesterton, who once said: “Any one who doesn’t believe in God will believe in anything.” And there’s no doubt that some have slid into the muck and mire of “no God” and opened themselves up for an onslaught of victimization!

Stephen Olford, in his commentary on Philippians, made a comment about Dr. Arthur F. Glasser, dean of the school of world missions at Fuller Theological Seminary, evaluating Chesterton’s statement: “If you…fall into the relativistic vacuum of thinking any religion is as good as another, you can end up falling patsy to any kind of ideology, such as a Manson family, a Hitler, or a Jim Jones…The religious relativism and secularized nihilism of the times [leave] many unable to distinguish between religious realities and fraud, between the divine and the demonic.” And, oh, how true that statement IS!!

There came a moment in time in early human history, after the Fall, that God said: [Genesis 6:5-7], “Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. The Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. The Lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to the birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I have made them.”

John Piper, in his book “A Godward Life,” commented on the previous verses. [p.221], “To answer this, consider another instance of God’s action that (like creation) resulted in great sin and pain. Acts 2:23 says that Jesus was delivered up to crucifixion “by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God.” In other words, God knew ahead of time that he was sending Jesus to be killed. Yet the killing of the Son of God was more evil than all the evil in Noah’s day that made God feel regret that he had made man. Thus if God regretted the creation of mankind when he saw the great misery and evil that it unleashed, may we not assume that he also felt a similar regret over the incarnation of the Son when he saw the undeserved, wicked, infinitely evil murder and suffering of his “only begotten” and “beloved” Son?…Yet we are told explicitly that God not only knew this would happen, but planned it (Acts 2:23, Isaiah 53:10). So if he was capable of feeling genuine sorrow and revulsion of the wickedness of his Son’s murderers and at the suffering of the Son himself, then it must be that he was capable of approving the sending of the Son and at the same time experiencing in advance the sorrow and regret over the sin and suffering involved in the Son’s death. If this is conceivable in the incarnation of the Son, it is conceivable in the creation of man.”

What was Piper telling us? No doubt, God knew of the Fall of man – not happiness over it, no joy so He could then show His redemptive love, but showing us two sides of a ‘coin’ – sorrow over the Fall, sureness of His eternal purpose to make ‘victors’ out of ‘victims’!

Victims! If “the thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy,” are there those people who are captured by the ‘thief’ and his advancing armies? 1 Peter 5:8 says, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.” I sincerely regret, feel sorrow for, if YOU don’t believe ‘demons’ and ‘powers of darkness’ are real – it just reveals how ‘victimized’ you’ve become!

In Ephesians 6:11-12 Paul wrote, “Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.”

When the Word speaks of “pulling down strongholds” it certainly refers not only to manmade strongholds but those demonic strongholds where the powers of darkness have settled in to captured territory in one’s life. Deliverance is needed!

Victims? Do a word study sometime on ‘false gods’ and their origin – they all come out of rebellion to the One, True, Living God, and an unwillingness to bow before Him – so, they invent, fabricate, indulge in fleshly religious feelings and pleasures that deceptively make them feel good about themselves, which is ‘what I do’ rather than what Christ Jesus did!

You are aware that our world easily produces and accepts ‘religious frauds’ and their inventors – the ‘religious charlatans or religious elite’! In 2 Peter 2:1-3 we read: “but there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed. By covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words; for a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber.”

Paul warned the Philippians of the same deception! In Philippians 3:2 we read: “Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the mutilation!” F.B. Meyer called these “pests of every Christian community.” He said: These are “the fanatical and unbalanced [people in the church!], the ‘cranks’;…They exaggerate the importance of trifles; they catch up every new theory and vagary, and follow it to the detriment of truth and love…It is impossible to overestimate the harm that these people do, or the desirability of keeping clear of them…”

Victims? Because of Fallen sin natures, there are those captured by the intensity of “pumping flesh,” proud of their fallen sin nature, perverted in its demonstrations, powerless in themselves to break the ‘hold’ on their lives! Look at Romans 8:12-13a! “Therefore, brethren, we are debtors – not to the flesh [old sin nature], to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die;…” “Pumping flesh”? Someone wrote: “The man who sings his own praises always gets the wrong pitch.”

Victims? There’s an interesting verse in 1 John 4:18 where John wrote: “But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.” Fear is a crippler! In the “Bible Friend,” from the Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations,” there’s comments by Ann Landers, former famous newspaper counselor: “She was asked if there was any one problem, which predominates throughout the letters she receives, and her reply was, the one problem above all others, seems to be fear. People are afraid of losing their health, their wealth, their beloved ones. People are afraid of life itself.” I wondered if Ann Landers knew about “the spirit of fear”!

Victims? Have you ever wrestled with the difference between ‘speculation’ and ‘certainty’? Speculations are not bad when it involves ‘contemplation’. But when ‘speculation’ becomes simply one’s opinions it becomes that which has nothing to do with ‘fact’ but one’s theories. Truth isn’t speculative – it’s reality! Certainty is fact, certainty is verified, certainty produces eternal results – “I know that MY Redeemer Lives!” “Behold, as the eyes of servants look upon the hand of their masters, so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God.” [Psalm 123:2]. No speculation, just divine certainty!

Victims? Are you aware on any around you who became a ‘victim’ of those dark, subtle, seductive ‘fishing lures of sin’ that hooked them so strongly, and then led them to a cage for future skinning and death? Even some around you in the ‘Christian community’? You do know we have an ‘adversary’ who is out to ‘devour’ you?!?

Victims? What deception when one chooses the prism of self-analysis for an evaluation of himself! In 2 Corinthians 10:12 Paul wrote: “For we dare not class ourselves or compare ourselves with those WHO COMMEND THEMSELVES. But they, measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise.” You ‘choose’ your ‘self-consciousness’ over “Christ Consciousness”?

Are you aware that you’re either cemented in your self or you’re ‘anchored’ in Christ? Hebrews 6:17-20 tells us: “Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath, that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hope of the hope set before us.”

Victims? Yes, even ‘Christians’ who are faithful every Sunday to a local church but faithless, unresponsive, uncaring to a lost, alienated, separated world around them! I know, like in India, there were pastors who attended my conferences, and were later martyred for the faith. It was Dr. A.T. Pierson who once said: “A light that does not shine, a germ that does not grow, a spring that does not flow, is no more of an anamoly of a Christian who does not witness.”

Victims? In 2 Timothy 2:22 Paul wrote: “Flee…youthful lusts,” but across the American scene immorality is fast capturing a large segment of the youth population with shame becoming a lost term! Wild orgies, reckless alcoholic drinking, drugs, promiscuous sex – a youthful population being “pumped” to plunge into and wade and wallow in “dirt”!

Victims? It’s not true of ALL children who live under the influence of godless parents but it is true of a great number. Bossuet said: “Great men are formed on the knees of their mothers.” But also it is just as true that evil men are adversely impacted by godless dads and moms! There was a man I read about sentenced to 15 years hard labor for a violent crime. At his sentencing he was given permission by the judge to speak: “I pardon the judges; their sentence is just; I pardon the police; they did well to arrest me. But there are two people in this court I will never forgive. They are my parents, who brought me up without God and without hope.” How sad is That?!?

Victims? Is it heartless husbands or manipulative wives who neither know about “giving honor” to one another? Is it marriages that are marred because neither/or only one knows the Master? Is it marriages that have decided they are better ‘home-builders’ than God Himself? Psalm 127:1 says, “Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it; unless the Lord guards the city, the watchman stays awake in vain.”

Victims? 1 John 2:17 says, “He that does the will of God abides forever…”. Yet, there is no abiding or remaining because “the house” has NO ETERNAL FOUNDATION! In James 4:17 we read, “Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does it not, to him it is sin.” Have you ever paused, reflected, wrestled with, “what would Holy God have me to do?” Sadly, far too many have sought to forge their own way through life’s wildernesses, and they remain LOST! To then live in rebellion to His Way, defiance to His Truth, even facing His will and Word as abhorrent is to live miserably in bondage to one’s own sin and self!

Victims? Slaves to one’s past, preoccupied with one’s past, blinded by one’s past, always establishes high and impenetrable walls, unless one accepts the blood of Christ for the gift of new life, new hope, new victories because of Him!

Victims? In Hebrews 12:1 is an interesting verse! “Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.” But, there are those holding onto rather than throwing off, holding onto a path of sin rather than repenting and forsaking, and failing to get in on the race set before them – “no running for me, not even toward God!”

Victims? Yes, even a disciple of Christ can be a victim! When you read Paul in Romans 5:17, 19, you hear him say: “I do not understand what I do…For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do – this I keep on doing.” This is a time period in his spiritual journey when Paul was void of learning about the Spirit-controlled life of Romans 8! But he did learn, and he did overcome!

And if this is still your journey, their journey, our journey, what a sad state of affairs is: “He/she is a VICTIM!” But I believe there’s an opposite truth to ‘VICTIM’, and that’s the truth of “VICTOR!”

In 2 Corinthians 5:14-15 we learn afresh and anew, or reminded of, or settled into its truth, becoming a VICTOR! It says: “For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.”

The “victor” is one captured, by grace and mercy and love, birthed, renewed, overruled by the very love of Christ fully expressed “At The Cross” – and the new believer takes the Cross unto himself and experiences the reality of resurrection life, resurrection power, and resurrection hope!

In Matthew 12:20 there is a beautiful verse for our comfort as disciples of Christ. It says: “A bruised reed He will not break, and smoking flax He will not quench, till He sends forth justice to victory.”

Who has ever lived on the face of God’s earth and not known “bruised reeds” or “smoking flax”? And our Lord and Savior comes TO US with “blessed assurance”: Matthew 11:28-30, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and LEARN FROM ME, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

And, if you do not know “rest for your souls,” then you’ve never entered the Victory Land of Faith and Fulfillment! If you do not know “rest for your souls,” then you’ve never entered His Kingdom! In Romans 14:17 we read, “for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.”

“Rest for your souls”? “Victory”? “Righteousness”? “Kingdom of God Allegiance”? It’s the grace of God “in Christ” with the gift of a new man! In Ephesians 4:24 Paul said, “and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.”

THAT’S VICTORY! “New man,” “new life,” “new hope,” “new dreams,” “new purpose,” “new destiny,” “new songs,” “new covenant,” “new city,” “new creation,” “new name,”…Look at Romans 6:4! “Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.”

What a joy and delight to be a “new-born in Christ,” but just as with your own children neither you nor God wanted them remaining with spiritual diapers. In fact, Peter said in 1 Peter 2:2, “as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby.”

In our “victory” in Christ, we do have a goal! Romans 8:29 says: “For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.”

“Super-Saints” is not our calling – our calling is death to the old man, releasing ALL that Jesus is in Himself! “Christ in you the hope of glory!” Why ‘death to the old man’ as a true believer if every day we examine ourselves as we were without Christ? I believe Jesus said in Luke 9:23, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me,” which is why some aren’t “following” because they are too busy examining if THEY measure up! No, you don’t! You were crucified with Christ once for all!

We begin, continue, and end at the place of Victory in Jesus Himself. And from that point we begin our pilgrimage of “resting in” Him and fighting the fight of faith in being finished with the old man and starting, continuing, completing our journey in the “New Man”! Romans 12:2 says, “And do not be conformed to this world, but be [being] transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”

Isn’t it amazing to you? Our “victory” in Christ even has a faithful promise: Philippians 4:13 says: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

I’ll never forget a conversation I had with Dr. Bill Anderson a number of years ago. In college, over sixty years ago, we were teammates on Baylor University’s Sugar Bowl champions against number two in the nation, Tennessee Volunteers and All-American, Johnny Majors! We were either tenth or eleventh in the nation pre-game! No one favored our win at all – Bill mentioned a friend telling him after the game, listening on a radio broadcast, that a commentator said at half-time: “Don’t worry, Vols’ fans; Tennessee is too strong and Baylor is too weak. The Vols will pull it out.” But they didn’t! We held on and won 13-7!!

“Victory” is SWEET! “Victory” in Jesus is so satisfying! “Victory” in our Lord is so peaceful! “Victory” in the Master is to be in His triumphant Life and its fullness! What does 2 Corinthians 2:14 tell us?

“Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place.”

This victory in Jesus is far more than ‘believing’ – it’s a matter of TRUST! It’s a matter of “leaning not to our own understanding but in all our ways acknowledging Him.” Come Hell’s attack or the high waters of fleshly assaults – we “rest” in Him! In 1 Peter 4:19 we read: “Therefore let those who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls to Him in doing good, as to a faithful Creator.”

If Jesus had to be “about My Father’s business,” is there any circumstance of life in us Holy God cannot use for His business? Too many times too many saints fail to discern “the graces of His ministering life” at work in them!

When Jesus said in John 16:33, “In the world you shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world,” He knew what we would face but He also knew where our overcoming spirit and nature resided – “IN HIM!!”

“Victory” IN JESUS? Isaiah 40:29-31 says, “He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might He increases strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall, But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.”

“Victory” is never depending upon ‘self-awareness’ or ‘self-confidence’ or ‘self-realization’ – in Philippians 3:7-10 Paul wrote, “But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I MAY KNOW HIM and THE POWER OF HIS RESURRECTION, and THE FELLOWSHIP OF HIS SUFFERINGS, BEING CONFORMED TO HIS DEATH, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.”

“Victory”? Ephesians 4:13-15 illumines the true path true disciples walk on: “till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should be no longer children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head – Christ -!!”

“Victory”? It’s a deep, deep awareness of being on the journey with our Lord “pressing on” until all that is true of Him has found its freedom and liberty in you and me! Philippians 3:12-14 declares, “Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

Have you grasped it yet, understand, comprehend, “rest in,” unflinching loyalty to the Resurrected Christ in you? Here’s how Oswald Chambers put it: “The idea is not that WE do the work FOR God, but that we are so loyal to Him that He can do His work through us – God wants to use us as He used His own Son.” Galatians 5:24 says, “And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”

Isn’t that amazing? AND YET SO LIBERATING! If there is no denial of self, there is no appropriation of the fullness and victory of Christ! This is why Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2:4, “And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.”

“Victory”? I love what Oswald Chambers wrote after quoting John 8:36, “Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.” In his “My Utmost For His Highest,” [pps.239-240], he wrote: “If there is any remnant of individual conceit left, it always says “I can’t.” Personality never says, “I can’t,” but simply absorbs and absorbs; personality always wants more and more. It is the way we are built. We are designed with a great capacity for God; and sin and our individuality are the things that keep us from getting at God. God delivers us from sin;; we have to deliver ourselves from individuality, i.e., to present our natural life to God and sacrifice it until it is transformed into a spiritual life by obedience…Stop listening to the tyranny of individuality and get emancipated out into personality.” And I would add: Our victory is EMANCIPATION INTO HIS PERSON-ALITY!!

“Victory”? Please, please; I challenge you to open the door of your own life, right now, to Romans 8:35-39!! “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: ‘For Your sake we are killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.’

Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

F.J. Huegel, in his book “Forever Triumphant,” opens with this statement: “It comes as a shock when one realizes that the Christian life, as for the most part it is being lived, falls far short of the divine standard. The status of unnumbered Christians is sub-normal. They are below par. They are not out-and-out sinners along with the worldling, for they have named the name of Jesus in true faith and are indeed members of His church; but talk to them about a life of perennial victory, about being more than conquerors, about a life “hid with Christ in God” in unbroken and joyous communion, and you will fail to get an understanding response. You may provoke an incredulous smile.”

But, thank God, THERE ARE THOSE who have discovered, walked in, live by the truth of 1 John 4:17b, that “because as He is, so are we in this world.” In a previous fourth chapter verse, Verse 9, John also said: “In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that WE MIGHT LIVE THROUGH HIM.”

Do you know what pleases God? In Galatians 1:15-16 Paul said: “But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, to reveal His Son in me, I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood…”. With whom did he confer? How about Holy God Himself, the Resurrected Christ, and the Holy Spirit!

To the church at Colossae, Paul later wrote, Colossians 2:9-10, “For in Him [Christ] dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.” So, what took place at Calvary’s Cross as Jesus suffered, bled, and died? In Galatians 2:20 Paul said, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself FOR ME!” Isn’t that what we learned in Galatians 3:26? “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.”

If you haven’t heard it or learned it as yet, Christ Jesus won “the victory” at the Cross in our behalf, which is why Paul said in 2 Corinthians 2:14, “Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place.”

Are YOU living “victoriously” as the disciple of Christ? Are you “the overcomer”? Are you triumphant as a traveler on the Highway of Holiness? Having been “born of God” are you victorious over your world in and through Christ Jesus?

“In Christ” we’re not part of a hoax – we’re part of Heaven’s Royal Family! “In Christ” we’re not overcome but are overcomers through Christ’s Victory in our behalf! “In Christ” we’re not strugglers after a goal that can never be reached or crossed – we’re finished products of His amazing saving Grace, complete in Christ, lacking nothing!

Romans 8:2 says, “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ has made me free from the law of sin and death.” You’re not a victim! YOU ARE VICTOR IN CHRIST!!

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

“VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED? CARING FOR OTHERS – THE SIGN OF CHRIST’S PRESENCE!”

I don’t know how you respond as you are reading the Word, but there are times when I am absolutely overwhelmed, burdened, and broken when I read like I did today Psalm 142:3-4 when David, King David, was overwhelmed, yes, distraught over the treatment of his persecutors! It says:

“When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, then You [God] knew my path. In the way which I walk they have secretly set a snare for me. Look on my right hand and see, for there is no one who acknowledges me; refuge has failed me; NO ONE CARES MY SOUL.”

Reading Isaiah again recently, I was awakened anew of the desperation many become aware of in their own lives because they lost the calling to care for others. In Isaiah 17:10-11 the prophet wrote about the ‘burden’ to come to Syria AND Israel because they had forgotten even caring about God Himself much less other nations and people!

“Because you have forgotten the God of your salvation, and have not been mindful of the Rock of your stronghold, therefore you will plant pleasant plants and set out foreign seedlings; In the day you will make your plant to grow, and in the morning you will make your seed to flourish; but the harvest will be a heap of ruins in the day of grief and desperate sorrow.”

Is Holy God telling us that, not only godless cities become desolations, but uncaring people, churches, and nations, can, and possibly will become destined for desolation because there is no compassion for the needy?!?

We must, before continuing the Title: “Caring For Others – The Sign of Christ’s Presence”, witness Him for ourselves in His compassionate ministry whether “we” are a part of Him or not! In John 13:1-10 we read, “Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come that He should depart from this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.

And supper being ended, the devil having already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray Him, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come from God and was going to God, rose from supper and laid aside His garments, took a towel and girded Himself.

After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded. Then He came to Simon Peter. And Peter said to Him, ‘Lord, are You washing my feet?’ Jesus answered and said to him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but you will know after this.”

Peter said to Him, “You shall never wash my feet!” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me.” Simon Peter said to Him, “Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head!” Jesus said to him, “He who is bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all of you.” Jesus knew then, and He knows now, those who would, will, and do betray Him!

In Hebrews 10:19-25 the author faithfully challenges us to remembrance of our true calling! “Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, and having a High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.”

And, dare I tell you, “that Day approaching” is the Day of our Lord’s examination of whether or not we followed His Example and cared for, yes, a lost, needy, unreconciled people, as well as our care for one another in family, the Faith, and the wounded of our spiritual warfare with the powers of darkness! “Jesus, You shall never wash my feet,” or are you one who now realizes, “Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head!” Clean hands to serve –clean heads in understanding our mission, our calling, yes, our major responsibility of touching our world around us with His love, His mercy, His grace, His Truth, His Son and their Savior! How does it come to fruition in us as His disciples?

ONE, IS AVAILABILITY! If I am His, and I belong to Him, is the path I walk as a true disciple “my way” or His way? We’ve all seen in the Word the encounter of Isaiah with the Living Lord in Isaiah 6:5-9, Isaiah said: “Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.” Isaiah had unveiled before Him the vision of the Kingdom of God, Isaiah experienced the removal of his sin, as we read in Isaiah 6:7, “Behold, this has touched your lips; your iniquity is taken away, and your sin is purged!”

Oh, but then Isaiah heard the heart-cry of Holy God! Isaiah 6:8, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?” And Isaiah responded, “Here am I! Send me.” And God said, “Go, and tell this people.”

When did that change? Or have we become so “spiritually mature” (?) that we’re not “weird disciples” who make themselves available to the lost, dying, perishing, unbelieving, unredeemed, fallen-away world of humanity, yes, deceived by the powers of darkness?

It’s a sad, sad day when church leadership, churches, yes, ‘disciples of Christ’, turn blind eyes to a needy world! Too many churches are intense on ‘self-realization’ to the extent that they sense no calling to truly “reach out” as “witnesses” of His saving grace and mercy! He loves the world – most churches love their own without any consideration of penetrating an unsaved, alienated humanity, with His love! If the church’s aim is to come, according to Ephesians 4:13, “to the unity of the faith AND OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE SON OF GOD, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,” did His fullness include laying down His life in witnessing? “I’ve come to seek and to save that which is lost!” Do you?

TWO, IS COMPASSION! Which I believe is truly a fruit of the Indwelling Holy Spirit! And, of course, Jesus said, “By their fruits you shall know them!” How many ‘disciples’ have crossed your path professing faith in Christ but, sadly, on a pilgrimage of “self-awareness” and “self-realization”, crowning ‘self’ as his/her only priority without any consideration or commitment to “You shall be My witnesses”?

Completeness in Christ without His compassion for the unsaved? In Hebrews 9:14 we read, “How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” But you claim ‘service to Him’ without any consideration of His calling?

In Luke 19:10 the Lord Jesus said: “For the Son of Man has come TO SEEK AND TO SAVE that which was lost.” And, of course, Judaism had lost God’s holy intent, and certainly Holy God passionately desired to see Israel’s salvation but also, through them, the salvation of the entire world!

Why did Jesus once say, Matthew 5:20, “For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.” Just how devoted do you think “the scribes and Pharisees” were to their ‘religious rituals’? But did they touch a dark world with the “Light of Heaven”? Did they touch the ‘lost’ with the true liberty of Heavenly love and grace?

Didn’t you, at first, find it so strange, when in John 7:15 the Jews marveled at Jesus, saying, “How does this Man know letters, having never studied?” [They were supposing without a Rabbi’s PhD that the Creator of it all couldn’t know or understand their religious plateau or prestige!]. In Verses 16-18 the Lord Jesus responded, “My doctrine is not Mine, but His who sent Me. If anyone wills to do His will, he shall know concerning the doctrine, whether it is from God or whether I speak on my own authority. He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but He who seeks the glory of the One who sent Him is true, and no unrighteousness is found in Him.”

Question! “Why did Father-God send Christ Jesus, the Son? In Romans 8:28-29 Paul tells us, “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, TO THOSE WHO ARE CALLED ACCORDING TO HIS PURPOSE. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to BE CONFORMED TO THE IMAGE OF HIS SON, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.”

What did Christ Jesus Himself say? John 10:10, “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” John 11:25, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, [rests in, adheres to, relies upon] though He may die, he shall live. Verse 26, And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?”

If Jesus says, “most assuredly…”, are you assuredly secure in the truth of His Word? In John 5:24-25 our Lord and Savior declared: “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life. Most assuredly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live.” What compassion our Lord has for you and me!

THREE, HIS PURPOSE COMING TO FRUITION IN HIS TRUE DISCIPLE? IT’S BY BRIDGE-BUILDING AWARENESS! Dare I mention ‘life without Him’, as Genesis 1:2 says of the earth, “was without form, and void, and darkness was on the face of the deep (darkness).And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters”? A life “without God” is absent of eternal purpose, void, empty, vain, trying every way possible to subdue the void and emptiness, trying to subdue the darkness in the mind, soul, heart, knowing nothing of “Kingdom-Now Living” in the here and now THROUGH the shed-blood of Christ alone!

Are YOU a true disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ, fully aware of an unbeliever’s destiny apart from Christ? But beyond that, what about Holy God’s eternal intention in Revelation of “Kingdom-Living” now, when in Revelation 21:1-8 He told John:

Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea [or separation?]. Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying.

There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away. Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” And He said to me, “Write, for these words are true and faithful.”

And He said to me, “It is done! I AM the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts. He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son.

But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”

Clean hands to serve and clean heads in understanding our mission, our calling, our presence in a needy world?

FOURTH, IN CARING FOR OTHERS THERE MUST BE THE BIBLICAL SOUNDNESS OF ETERNAL TRUTH IN TOUCHING HEARTS, TRAINING MINDS, AND RELEASING EDUCATED, ENLIGHTENED WILLS THROUGH REPENTANCE TOWARD GOD AND FAITH IN CHRIST’S FINISHED WORK AT THE CROSS!

In John 8:31-32 the Word tells us, Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

Of course, one of the human tragedies in the circles of ‘religious faith’ is what Holy God talked about through Paul in Romans 1:18-25! “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, WHO SUPPRESS THE TRUTH IN UNRIGHTEOUSNESS, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for GOD HAS SHOWN IT TO THEM. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse; because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man – and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, WHO EXCHANGED THE TRUTH OF GOD FOR THE LIE [“You can sin and not die!”], and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. SO BE IT!”

Do you remember the loving spiritual father, Paul, as he taught his spiritual son, Timothy, in 2 Timothy 3:16-17? “All scripture is given by inspiration of God [Holy Scripture, the Holy Bible, not the futile writings of Mohammed or any other false teacher!], and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

Paul went on in 2 Timothy 4:1-4 to say to Timothy and us today, “I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom: Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. BUT YOU BE WATCHFUL IN ALL THINGS, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, FULFILL YOUR MINISTRY!”

Did Paul, in challenging Timothy, challenge us? “Preach the word!” Are you convincing, rebuking, exhorting, with all longsuffering and teaching?

FIFTH, IN CARING FOR OTHERS THERE MUST ALSO BE INTERCESSORY FAITHFULNESS, PRAYING FOR OTHERS, AND CONTINUING TO PRAY!

In 1 Timothy 2:1-3 our intercessory faithfulness in prayer is clearly called for. Paul wrote, “Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings [presidents?] and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”

True spiritual discipleship is not a ‘professing’ life without the faithful practice of intercessory prayer! True spiritual disciples, men or women, are disciples of prayer! It’s conversation with the Father, it’s inter-change with one’s Lord and Savior, it’s petitions, it’s requests, it’s one’s desires refined by the mind, heart, Word and will of Holy God, it’s confession, intercession, the refining of one’s thoughts and dreams according to the Sovereignty of God, it’s thanksgiving, it’s yielded-ness to the “Yes” or “No” of trustful Lord and Savior, it’s requesting His counsel and advice not demanding ‘my way or the highway,’ it’s “asking in Jesus’ Name and leaving the results to God the Father,” and Oswald Chambers really nailed it when he said, “Have you reached such an intimacy with God that the Lord Jesus Christ’s life of prayer is the only explanation of your life of prayer?” [“My Utmost For His Highest,” p.160].

Intercessory Prayer is not a symphony of transfiguration that brings melody to one’s heart and through one’s heart, but knowing, receiving, and celebrating both the composer and conductor – Jesus Only! It’s not a supposed bright light after death experience, but fellowship, submission, and trust in the Light of Life, Jesus Only! It’s not the ‘blessed privilege of witnessing or praying for others, but opening the door through you – Jesus Only! It’s not even those, yes, multitudinous mountain-top experiences in prayer with Him – it’s Jesus Only!

Through your intercessory faithfulness and trust in Whom you offer your prayers, you’re at peace that He, the Lord Jesus Christ, is not fickle but faithful in fully answering you with blessed, eternal intent! As His faithful, praying servant, do you “rest” in Him!

SIXTH, IN CARING FOR OTHERS, IN FAITHFUL INTERCESSION, THERE MUST BE, IN YOU, THE UNDERSTANDING THAT THOSE FOR WHOM YOU PRAY MAY BE A LIFE OR LIVES OF TOTAL DISINTEREST IN THE THINGS OF GOD.

Are you aware that there are hard-shelled, hard-hearted men and women fashioned and shaped by a spirit of unbelief carved by the fallen nature of men dominated by “my respectable goodness”?

Oh, certainly there are many who experience ‘remorse’ for “a few blunders, but to say I need to be saved, born-again, reconciled to God? You, Sir Witness, I see only disgust with your suggestion!”

In Acts 14:2 we read, “But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brethren,” and to be are poisoner against true believers is to be “poisoned against Christ”! It’s a mind game, a heart issue, and a willful decision ‘for’ or ‘against’ the Truth of Christ Jesus as one’s Savior and Lord! Sadly, many, in their minds and hearts are not interested in the things of our Lord and Savior!

Disobedience, as a way of life, to the Holy things of God is personal enslavement to the things of the devil himself – and many are content with that degradation and personal disrespect of the Savior and Lord! Hindrances of true faith are often, like a stormy, destructive wave, sweeping minds, hearts, and wills with obstinacy, disrespect for the very Throne Of God itself, determined to be ruled by their passions, warped wills, and self-independence –“No God-stuff, thank you!” And they go to Hell with the devil and his demons and all unbelievers!

One of those heart-gripping verses in the Bible is John 6:66! “From that time [even] many of Jesus’ disciples went back and walked no more with Him!” Do you recognize that the holy things of Christ, His truths, His ministries, His visions and dreams, are so foreign to a life enslaved to its own opinions, views, desires, or fleshly wants, that rejecting the Life, the Way, The Will, and the Words of Christ, is a “fleshly piece of cake, flavored by the devil himself!”

NO WONDER WE’RE CHALLENGED WITH, AS DISCIPLES OF CHRIST, “PRAY WITHOUT CEASING!” Didn’t Jesus say in Luke 18:1 “that men always ought to pray and not lose heart!” And, praise God, we’ll not be those who lose heart, but press in to Him more and more!

Hattie Bell Allen and B.B. McKinney wrote in the Broadman Press of Nashville, Tenn., 1940!, the hymn, “Christ For the Whole Wide World! It says:

“Christ for the whole wide world! Our task has just begun, For millions wait in every land The message of God’s Son. Shall they be left in sin, To die without His Word, Without the Savior Jesus Christ, Because they never heard?

Christ for the whole wide world! His message must be sent To millions dying in their sin To call them to repent. Christ Jesus died to save, But they can never know Until we bring our gifts of love And bid His heralds go!

Christ for the whole wide world! His heralds will proclaim Salvation for men everywhere In Jesus’ blessed name. And we who cannot go To bear His tidings far Will pray for those who take the Word – And witness where we are.” Amen?

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

“VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED? SIN’S COMPLICATIONS – SIN’S REMEDY!”

It always amazes me, not the sinfulness of all men, but the amazing grace of God, as I read Peter over and over again, saying to us: 1 Peter 2:21-25, For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps: “Who committed no sin, nor was deceit found in His mouth”, who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously; who Himself BORE OUR SIN IN HIS OWN BODY ON THE TREE [The Cross, Calvary!], that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness – “BY WHOSE STRIPES YOU WERE HEALED.” For you were like sheep going astray, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.”

Sadly, I’m not sure at all that most men/women, boys or girls, have any awareness of Sin and Its Complications or of Sin’s Only Remedy, but the one major thing at this moment for your consideration is God’s unveiling of its seriousness, so serious that the very Cross of our Lord and Savior is God’s declaration and revelation and unveiling of His judgment on your sin and mine, the sacrifice of His Son, the Lord Jesus, as the “at-one-ment” or atonement of Christ as the only hope of man’s escape from sin’s penalty, death, and our reconciliation with Holy God through the amazing unveiling of the heart of God in His love for us as He gave Jesus to become sin for us that, through Him, we might receive reconciliation to Holy God!

And, if you didn’t know it, Revelation 13:8 tells us of “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” God understood the necessity of man’s reconciliation with Holy God because of the Fall, necessitating divine intervention through the Lamb’s “blood sacrifice”! Oswald Chambers wrote in “My Utmost For His Highest,” [p.70], “Beware of separating God ‘manifest in the flesh’ from ‘the Son becoming sin.’ The Incarnation was for the purpose of Redemption. God became incarnate for the purpose of putting away sin; not for the purpose of Self-Realization.” And if, and it was, His crucifixion was to put away sin by His blood sacrifice, how does a “professing people”, and even “the church” of Christ HE atoned for, keep on sinning when He said, “Go, and SIN NO MORE,” [John 5:14], with the added few words, yet so frightening it ought to scare Hell right out of you, “lest a worse thing come upon you.”

Does the supposed “American-Christian culture” understand “Sin’s Complications” and its inevitable results? I’m afraid a “changed American culture” is void on understanding the seriousness of sin in and across the nation! It’s so alarming and disturbing to read an article published on Facebook by Franklin Graham, Billy Graham’s son, that says the following: “Time is like a river, You cannot touch the water twice, because the flow that has passed will never pass again.”

Franklin Graham was speaking at the First Baptist Church in Jacksonville, Florida, January, 2015, when he said America will not come back. “The American dream ended on November 6^th, 2012 in Ohio. The second term of Barack Obama has been the nail in the coffin for the legacy of the white Christian males who discovered, explored, pioneered, settled and discovered the greatest republic in human history. A coalition of blacks, Latinos, feminists, gays, government workers, union members, environmental extremists, the media, Hollywood, uninformed young people, the “forever needy”, the chronically unemployed, illegal aliens and other “fellow travelers” have ended Norman Rockwell’s America.

You will never again out-vote these people. It will take individual acts of defiance and massive displays of civil disobedience to get back the rights we have allowed them to take away. It will take zealots, not moderates and shy, not reach-across- the-aisle to RINOs to right this ship and restore our beloved country to its former status. People like me are completely irrelevant, and I will probably never again be able to legally comment or concern myself with the aforementioned coalition which has surrendered our culture, our heritage, and our traditions without a shot being fired.

The cocker spaniel is off the front porch, the pit bull is in the backyard. The American Constitution has been replaced with Saul Olinsky’s “Rules for Radicals” and the likes of David Axelrod along with international socialist George Soros have been pulling the strings on their beige puppet have brought us Acts 2 of the New World Order. The curtain will come down but the damage has been done, the story has been told.

Those who come after us will once again have to risk their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor to bring back the Republic that this generation has timidly frittered away due to white guilt and political correctness…” And I say, “Lord, help us!”

It’s early March, 2016, and I have personally been reminded of the serious, sinful, and sick situation our country is in politically, morally, spiritually, and leaning toward a flood of godlessness, deceit, rebellion, resentment, and, yes, hatred of the Holy Word of God. I wrote this the early morning hours of March 2, 2016, after a very restless night of sorrow over what American people do, yes, in opposition to divine will and purpose! I wrote the following concerning “God and Government.” It says:

“Fast approaching my 80^th birthday as of June 12, 2016, I’m disturbed to see a nation and people founded, yes, by God Himself as “one nation under God” but fast becoming, especially among leadership nation-wide as a nation by the people, of the people, and for the people – and, as in life, so in governments, the absence of God releases men to their own control, their own godless philosophies, their own reckless abandonment of “self, ‘my way or the highway,’ and certainly ‘less God because I want to govern myself, my family, my city as I damn well please’”, which reveals a people and nation on the fast road to fleshly decline!

To them, spiritual government is not ‘the American way’! Really? And, of course, they want the Holy Word of God out of government, out of schools and universities, out of homes and families and their own minds, and less and less and less of local and state over-sight – “Who or what government needs the advice or counsel of what some call Holy God, our Creator, Lord, Savior, and Master, because we can govern ourselves as we please, which to us means: keep the Bible out of our public domain and ways of godless living; He has no place telling us what we individually or as families, schools, businesses, or governments ought to be doing!”

It was King David, ruling over Israel by the grace of God, who, in Psalm 67:1-4, wrote: “God be merciful to us and bless us, and cause His face to shine upon us, That Your way may be known on earth, Your salvation among all nations. Let the peoples praise You, O God; let all the peoples praise You. Oh, let the nations be glad and sing for joy! For You shall judge the people righteously, and govern the nations on earth.”

But do you hear a ‘modern-society’ saying more and more: “God is not necessary in our governments, politically, morally, spiritually, individually or corporately – leave God out of our governments and out of our schools, out of our lives!” Oh, and they mean it – “To us, God has no place in our affairs because ‘good government’ (?) is allowing us to do as we please!”, which means: “less Faith, less guidance, less watch-care, less protection, less blessing of God, less Sovereign-Rule, less divine love, less of His omnipotence and more of our impotence – with many of the warped opinion that, ‘yes, we’re smarter than God Himself’!”

I know that the people of our formerly ‘great nation’ have set aside any “fear of God”. But Psalm 25:12-15 tells us, King David speaking, “Who is the man who fears the Lord? Him shall He teach in the way He chooses. He himself shall dwell in prosperity, and his descendants shall inherit the earth. The secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him, and He will show them His covenant. My eyes are ever toward the Lord, for He shall pluck my feet out of the net.”

A “net of Godless rule” is a strong, powerful net that wraps itself around people so powerfully that they end up with spiritual curses, spiritual bankruptcy, spiritual ignorance, and a spiritual destiny they really should not desire. Numbers 22:31-34 is a wake-up call for some people, but, sadly, many national, state, and local leaders have plotted their course, omitting God, His Word and His will.

In Numbers 22:31-35 we read, Then the Lord opened Balaam’s eyes, and he saw the Angel of the Lord standing in the way with His drawn sword in His hand; and he bowed his head and fell flat on his face. “Why have you struck your donkey these three times? Behold, I have come out to stand against you, because ‘your way’ is perverse before Me. The donkey saw Me and turned aside from Me these three times. If she had not turned aside from Me, surely I would also killed you by now, and let her live.” And Balaam said to the Angel of the Lord, “I have sinned, for I did not know You stood in the way against me. Now therefore, if it displeases You, I will turn back.”

Do you sense today in America, in Texas, in the Bedford, Texas, area a political climate that is, by some, “perverse before Me”, Holy God, the Founder of government to be Sovereignly ruled by Him – not proud, fleshly, independent of and separate from His Holy Word, wiser than God men and women?

How clear are you about Peter’s words in 2 Peter 1:2-4 that so relates to God’s people as His instruments impacting ‘godless governments’ and lives in every community? Peter wrote:

“Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”

Isn’t it a shameful position that some take, “Keep God and His Word and Truth out of OUR governments – we’ll take care of ourselves in our own way!”

But then, there are those with Peter’s wisdom and understanding! 2 Peter 1:10-11, “Therefore, brethren, [true sons and daughters of the Eternal Faith!], be even more diligent to make your calling and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

You hear it in all political elections: “No God in our government – we do it our way, man’s way, the way of godlessness, and the way of fleshly compromises, alienating God and Truth from us!” Destructive heresies will seek to gain control, keep control, and hold onto man’s control and ways without heeding the Holy Word! “Alienate Truth and promote ‘our way’, which is the absence of God in our governments!”

Didn’t Peter go on to say in 2 Peter 2:19, “While they promise them ‘liberty’ [from being governed by God or His Truth!], they themselves are slaves of corruption, for by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into bondage;” Verse 22, But it has happened [does happen, will happen!] to them according to a true proverb: “A dog returns to his own vomit,” and, “a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire.”

Are you aware of how many “professing believers”, having escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior, find themselves easily entangled again in them and overcome, [that their] latter end is worse for them than the beginning?

In 2 Peter 2:21 the servant of God tells us: “For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them.”

Now? Prayerful intercession that Holy God, once again, will teach men, political leaders, “the way in which God chooses” – not their supposed “grass-roots” electorate! Accounting Day does come before Holy God at the Judgment Seat for, yes, their ‘political decisions’ (?)! So, newly elected politicians: Will YOU be led by Holy God and His Eternal Word?”

“Vital Awareness Unveiled? Sin’s Complications – Sin’s Remedy?” You are aware that a man’s sin is nothing more than impure rebellion against Holy God, not only impure but impotent of producing nothing but more and more deeper and deeper and wider and wider separation from God, a declaration of independence from God, and sins of both sins of omission and sins of commission with immediate spiritual death and ultimate judgment before His Holy Throne! I’m sure that as Thomas Carlyle once said, “The deadliest sins were the consciousness of no sin.” That would fit about every sinner today, including ‘church sinners’, who have no sense of God or His Holy revealed Truth but only the recipient of a sinful mind – “pure hearts” are viewed as off-the-wall , weird, strange teaching of dis-brained preacher-teachers!

There’s a passage in Numbers 16:29-30 that should awaken some, if not many, to the seriousness of their sins. Moses said, “If these men die naturally like all men, then the Lord has not sent me. But if the Lord creates a new thing, and the earth opens its mouth and swallows them up with all that belongs to them, and they go down alive into the pit, then you will understand that these men have rejected the Lord.”

THAT was a literal event for many rebellious men, but it is also symbolic, prophetic, and a preview of the “pit” for men of today who take pleasure in dishonoring God with their lives. The “Pit” awaits for God’s Word!

Jonathan Edwards was famous for a sermon he titled: “Sinners In The Hands Of An Angry God.” The foundation was out of Deuteronomy 32:28-39 which says: (Are YOU Ready?): “For they are a nation void of counsel, nor is there any understanding in them. Oh, that they were wise, that they understood this, THAT THEY WOULD CONSIDER THEIR END!

How could one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, and the Lord had surrendered them? For their rock is not like our Rock, even our enemies themselves being judges.

For their vine is of the vine of Sodom and of the fields of Gomorrah; their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter. Their wine is the poison of serpents, and the cruel venom of cobras.

Is this not laid up in store with Me, sealed up among My treasures? Vengeance is Mine, and recompense; their foot shall slip in due time; for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things to come hasten upon them.

FOR THE LORD WILL JUDGE HIS PEOPLE and have compassion on His servants, when He sees that their power is gone, and there is no one remaining bond or free. He will say: ‘Where are their gods, the rock in which they sought refuge?

Who ate the fat of their sacrifices, and drank the wine of their drink offering? Let them rise and help you, and be your refuge.

Now see that I, even I, am He, and THERE IS NO GOD BESIDES ME; I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; nor is there any who can deliver from My hand”

No doubt this is why Martin Luther once said, “Sin is, essentially a departure from God.” There are in the world, even some in churches, who live with “foolish minds, foolish hearts, foolish wills,” which is why Proverbs 14:9 tells us, “Fools mock at sin,” but because of the shed blood of Christ at Calvary’s Cross, Isaiah 1:18 says, “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.”

But, “SIN’S COMPLICATIONS”? Romans 6:23 says, “The wages of sin is death” – that’s spiritual death, that’s separation from God, that’s His guarantee of a room reserved in Hell for every “sinner”, every unredeemed man, woman, boy, or girl, that’s the embittered chains of darkness, desolation, and a death that will not die! Oh, and then are there even ‘believers’ or ‘followers of Christ’ who decide to disavow responsibility in upholding Christ’s Name and honor, what’s their settled fate in their own minds and hearts? Luke 12:45-46 says, “But if that servant says in his heart, ‘My master is delaying his coming, and begins to beat the male and female servants, and to eat and drink and be drunk, the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the unbelievers.”

“Sin’s Complications”? Not only a separation from God, but there is the condemnation of Holy God against those who pride-fully shake their fists in God’s face and go “My way”! “Sin’s Complications”? Do you know or have you ignored John 3:17-20 which reveals “My way” of loving darkness and hating God’s light. It says: “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.”

Sin injures, sin steals God’s intent, sin is the greatness of a man in sin: Great in unbelief, great in disrespect, great in personal loss and limiting God’s design and potential and privilege, great in sorrow and pain and destructive abuse, great in terrible transgressions, toxic trespasses, and total ‘heart-break’ and eternal suffering when God has to say, “Depart from Me, I never knew you!”

Sin is a spiritual scourge in impacting, indoctrinating, limiting, destroying lives, families and nations! Sin is why Holy God raised up prophets like Isaiah to tell people, even His Own ‘So-called’ People of God! In Isaiah 5:11-13 God exposed the ‘coming judgment’ on His own ‘religious people’! “Woe to those who rise early in the morning, that they may follow intoxicating drink; who continue in the night, till wine inflames them!…But they do not regard the work of the Lord, nor consider the operation of His hands. [Which means that there ARE some things Holy God WILL NOT HONOR OR BLESS OR EXCUSE!]. Therefore My people have gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge; their honorable men are famished, and their multitude dried up with thirst.”

THAT SHOULD BE ENOUGH TO “SCARE HELL” OUT OF SOME FOLKS, BUT THEN READ CAREFULLY ISAIAH 5:14-16! “Therefore Sheol [or “place of death”] has enlarged itself and opened its mouth beyond measure; their glory and their multitude and their pomp, and he who is jubilant [over his/her “party spirit”!] shall descend into it. People shall be brought down, each man shall be humbled, and the eyes of the lofty or proud shall be humbled. But the Lord of hosts shall be exalted in judgment, and God who is holy shall be hallowed in righteousness.”

In Isaiah 30:1, again the Prophet of God amplified the “woe” of rebellious children that excuse ‘sin’: “Woe to the rebellious children,” says the Lord, “who take counsel, but not of Me, and who devise plans, but not of My Spirit, that they may add sin to sin…” SIN is a “Reproach”; SIN is deceit with deadly results; SIN multiplies, quadruples, without the concern in the minds and hearts of sinful men – they “add sin to sin”; SIN is even ‘worshipped’ as men have their own altars they erect to bow before and indulge the ‘sinful flesh’ as their supposed ‘worship’ – some call them brothels!

But more than anything else “SIN BRINGS DEATH” AND “SEPARATION FROM GOD”! Romans 5:12 tells us: “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all men sinned…”

It’s astounding to me that many lives, even in the “church”, frown upon “Truth” yet worship at the altar of the “devil’s lies”: “You can sin and not die”! And, certainly, they will tell the world: “Sin doesn’t separate us from God,” when in Isaiah 59:2-4, God’s Word, declared through the Prophet tells us: “But your iniquities have separated you from God; and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue has muttered perversity. No one calls for justice, nor does any plead for truth. They trust in empty words and speak lies; they conceive evil and bring forth iniquity.” Who IS THAT? That’s the “I belive-ers” who profess allegiance but go on continuing in their sin, when, again, Jesus said, “Go, and sin No More!”

Oh, and then there are the “Jonathan Edwards’ prophetic prophets today who teach transfers out of “death in sin” to the eternal victory over sin through the Lamb’s “shed blood”! He said in his closing comments from “Sinners In The Hands Of An Angry God”,

“God has laid Himself under no obligation, by any promise to keep any natural man out of Hell one moment. God certainly has made no promises of eternal life, or of any deliverance from eternal death, but what are contained in the covenant of grace, the promises that are given in Christ, in whom all the promises are yes and amen. But surely [and Farrell Fisher adds, ‘sadly’] they have no interest in the promises of the covenant of grace who are not children of the covenant, who do not believe in the promises, and have no interest in the Mediator of the covenant.”

But, praise God, beyond “Sin’s Complications” IS “Sin’s Remedy”! How could any ‘sane’ person read Romans 5:8-11 and not be at the Throne of God’s Mercy repenting and trusting His “finished work” through Christ? It says: “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ DIED FOR US. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be [being][ saved by His life. And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.” [And the ‘reconciliation’ IS commitment in honoring Him daily through our walks, paths, assignments!].

How on target and inspiring do you find Peter’s words in 1 Peter 1:18-21? “knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you who through Him believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, SO THAT your faith and hope are in God.”

And, as a result of one’s redemptive faith in Christ alone, Peter added in 1 Peter 2:9-10 these words: “You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.”

Thank you Robert H. Coleman who in 1939 allowed his hymn, “Saved, Saved!” to be published in the old Broadman Hymnal by Broadman Press! It says: “I’ve found a friend who is all to me, His love is ever true; I love to tell how He lifted me And what His grace can do for you.

He saves me from every sin and harm, Secures my soul each day; I’m leaning strong on His mighty arm; I know He’ll guide me all the way.

When poor and needy and all alone, In love He said to me, “Come unto Me and I’ll lead you home, To live with Me eternally.” Saved by His power divine, Saved to new life sublime! Life now is sweet, my joy is complete, For I’m saved, yes, saved!

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

“VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED? HUMANLY DEVELOPED STRENGTH OR GOD-GIVEN POWER?”

A fleshly-life in its most perfect demonstration, by man’s opinions and standards, is so void and empty of God-given power by His grace and mercy through the anointing of the Holy Spirit!

The kingdom of a man ruled by his own heart and mind is not the Kingdom of God in a repentant, redeemed life! In fact, man at ‘his’ best without God is a ‘victim’ or ‘slave’ of the ruler of the physical world who is known as Satan or the devil.

Jesus said in John 12:31-33, “Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out,” and ‘the ruler’ Jesus spoke of was the devil who deceives fallen mankind, alienated and separated from Holy God.

If you didn’t know, Matthew 4:1-11 tells us of Jesus’ encounter with the devil which every man, without the born-again divine nature, lives under his control , or his assigned demons who so want to intoxicate you, knowingly or unknowingly, as the enemy of God! Receive the Truth!

“Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry. NOW WHEN THE TEMPTER came to Him, he said, ‘If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.’ [Lust of the flesh!].

But Jesus answered and said, ‘It is written: Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’

Then the devil took Him up into the holy city, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, ‘If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written: He shall give His angels charge over you, [Boastful pride of life!], AND, In their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone.’

Jesus said to him, ‘It is written again, You shall not tempt the Lord your God.’ Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to Him, ‘All these things I will give You if you will fall down and worship me.’ [Lust of the eyes!].

Then Jesus said to him, ‘Away with you, Satan! For it is written, You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.’ Then the devil left Him, and behold, angels came and ministered to Him.”

Are you aware of what Paul revealed to Timothy and us in 2 Timothy 2:24-26? “And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, and that they may come to their senses, AND ESCAPE THE SNARE OF THE DEVIL, having been taken captive by him to do his will.” [Your life? Will of God or the will of the devil?]

In James 4:7 the brother of Jesus wrote, “Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” But rather than resist, unredeemed men, mostly, don’t even know their lives have become the residences of Satan or his demon powers!

The first creation, having been captured by men under Satan’s control, became literally a battleground dominated, surrounded, subverted away from God’s eternal intention, to becoming a devilish kingdom of resistance to Holy God and the people He wanted for His own, which is why Paul told us in Colossians 1:10-14, “that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy; giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has delivered us from the powers of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.” [And if God has delivered YOU, how is it you so easily entertain ‘demons unaware’?]

It doesn’t matter if one finished only the first grade in school or achieved the status of a PhD graduate, without Christ, he/she is a slave of Satan and led by demonic deception! “Old things” refers to a life of man/woman, fallen away, independent from God by his/her sin nature, living in fleshly kingdoms with Satan and demon powers, deceived and being deceived, but with the devil himself ruling over that kingdom of darkness – and without God as Lord and Savior, it’s the ‘kingdom’, even fleshly, that is the denial of God’s Sovereignty and a willing or even unwilling acceptance and captivity of the rule of the devil! A world of man’s “best”, a world of “fleshly goodness”, a world of even moral acceptance, without Christ it is the “kingdom of darkness and the devil”! It doesn’t matter to many, whether they know it or not, without Christ as Redeemer, Savior, and Lord, a man/woman is living under the domination of a devilish rule in the kingdom of darkness – and many feel, “I’m home! And I love it,” but Hell awaits their admission!

Even to believers, in 1 Peter 5:8-11, Peter wrote: “Be sober, be vigilant; because YOUR ADVERSARY the devil walks about like a roaring (“Toothless”) lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world. BUT may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory By Christ Jesus, after you have suffered awhile, perfect, establish (‘make to stand’), strengthen, and settle you. To Him be the glory and dominion forever and ever.”

Do you remember Shakespeare in his writing “Twelfth Night”? [Acts 111, sc.4,1. 108], “What, man! Defy the devil: consider, he’s an enemy of mankind.”

And that is not a “Hollywood” fictional story to scare the living ‘day-lights’ out of people, but the reality of the devil’s kingdom against the Holy Kingdom of God and the Eternal Rule of the King of kings and Lord of lords – and the devil is intent on enlarging and controlling and ‘dis-easing’ fallen humanity, with the desire to expand his darkened, demonic, diseased, and deadly kingdom!

It’s so interesting, at least to me, that John, in Revelation 12, unveiled a war in heaven! Verses 7-12 educates us as follows: “And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer. So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, ‘Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down.

And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their own testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death. THEREFORE rejoice, O heavens, AND YOU WHO DWELL IN THEM! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time.”

I’d say, without hesitation and with full confidence, that if YOU deny the reality of the devil, you are a “dishonor-student star” in his class of “stupidity”! His devilish works saturate nations, even like America – but I’ve traveled every continent in our vast world and seen his ‘dis-artistic’ drawings in men’s and women’s lives! And, true educators, interested in world history, know beyond any shadow of a doubt that the devil dominates the world of faithless, flesh-poisoned men, women, youth, and even children! But let me assure you: HOLY GOD WINS! And because you appropriate redemptive faith and a true confessing heart and mind, so will YOU win out over the devil’s tactics!

How familiar are you with Job’s dramatic story? Job 1:6-12 reveals, Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, AND SATAN ALSO CAME AMONG THEM [even a Sunday morning worship service?]. And the Lord said to Satan, “From where do you come?”

So Satan answered the Lord and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking back and forth on it.” [Have YOU seen him walking lately around your community and surroundings?].

Then the Lord said to Satan, [Get ready! You’re next!], “Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil?”

So Satan answered the Lord and said, “Does Job fear God for nothing? Have you not made a hedge around him, around his household, and around all that he has on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But now, stretch out Your hand and touch all that he has, and he will surely curse You to Your face!”

And the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your power; only do not lay a hand on his person.” So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.”

Job lost his fortune, his family, being severely tested by the devil! [But surely in our highly educated, affluent land, many believe devilish testings are unrealistic stories “out of YOUR unholy bible!”] – Oh, really?

Job 1:20-22 enlightens us: Then Job arose, tore his robe, and shaved his head; and he fell to the ground and worshipped. And he said: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I shall return there. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” In all this Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong.

The testing began to take its toll on Job! And Holy God allowed even more intense testing! Job 2:3 says: Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil? And still he holds fast to his integrity, although you incited Me against him, to destroy him without cause.”

Oh, and “through it all,” Job learned to trust more and more in the Living God! In Job 42:1-6 we read, Then Job answered the Lord and said: “I know that You can do everything, and that no purpose of Yours can be withheld from You.

You asked, “Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge? Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. Listen, please, and let me speak; You said, ‘I will question you, and you shall answer Me.’

Job then said, I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees You. Therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”

Should we dare read Job 42:12-17? I believe so! “Now the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning; for he had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, one thousand yoke of oxen, and one thousand female donkeys. He also had seven sons and three daughters.

And he called the name of the first Jemimah, the name of the second Keziah, and the name of the third Keren-Happuch. In all the land were found no women so beautiful as the daughters of Job; and their father gave them an inheritance among their brothers. [Daughters names but not sons’ names? Not sure, but Jemimah means “dove”, Keziah means “cassic” or cinnamon, and Keren-Happuch means “paint-horn” or cosmetic box (or a beautifier)! Job was a blessed man!

After this Job lived one hundred and forty years, and saw his children and grandchildren for four generations. So Job died, old and full of days.”

How would YOU describe “old and full of days”?

“Vital Awareness Unveiled? Humanly Developed Strength Or God-Given Power?” It is so vital that you and I allow the Word of God to illuminate us in His eternal Truth, and nothing is more vital for the victorious walk in Christ than the awareness of “God-Given Power, Anointings, In-Fillings, and Empowerment”! It is not by “our best” but submission to His Spirit!

Zechariah was given a word of the Lord for Zerubbabel in Zechariah 4:6, “This is the word of the Lord for Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, (fleshly initiative or flesh-pumped-up impotent power), but by My Spirit,’ says the Lord of hosts.” Dare I tell you that victorious living as a disciple of Christ is the promised supply of the Spirit of God in His fullness, His authority, His power, His insight, His leadership, and His guidance?!?

When you come to the early history of the “Acts” of new, young, immature disciples, one of the first “musts” of every new disciple is the “must” of Spirit-anointing! And that’s with the Book of Acts in foundational training and equipping! It says, in Acts 2:14-19a,

But Peter, standing up with the eleven, raised his voice and said to them, “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and heed my words. For these are not drunk as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel (Joel 2:28-32):

“And it shall come to pass in the last days, [that’s the last days of the Old Covenant!], says God, that I WILL POUR OUT MY SPIRIT ON ALL FLESH; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions, your old men shall dream dreams.

And on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days; and they shall prophesy. I will show wonders in heaven above and signs in the earth beneath…”

In Acts 2:38-39 the Holy Word declares: Then Peter said to them [specifically the Jews, the city of Jerusalem, the priests in the temple, the gathered house of Israel, AND every man, woman, boy, or girl whom the Spirit draws, Peter said, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you SHALL RECEIVE THE GIFT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.” Has the Lord called YOU?

In Ephesians 5:15-21, Paul instructs all gatherings of true believers: “See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.

Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but BE FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, [ “making melody in your heart to the Lord? That’s agreement and submission to the Holy Spirit as the ‘conductor’ of your life of praise and thanksgiving to the Lord!], giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another in the fear of God.” GLORY!!

Let’s examine a portion of the Holy Spirit’s ministry in the Word of God! If Genesis 1:1 tells us, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth!”, we do know that the Holy Word reveals one God who expresses Himself in the Trinity of Truth: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit! [For example, one man who is man, husband, and father!].

In the last part of Genesis 1:2 it tells us, “And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.” Could that be “the water of life” or “the water of the Word” or “the water of washing of men’s hearts” or “the water that separates the dark from men, the dirt in their hearts and lives, washing, cleansing, purifying, strengthening, equipping, ordaining, anointing for ministry and service”? In fact, do we not read in Genesis 1:26, Then God said, “LET US make man in our image, according to our likeness…?” Us? Father, Son, and Holy Spirit!

If YOU are a part of the true family of faith, I know you’re aware of David’s plea in Psalm 51:10-11, when in his ‘prayer of repentance’ to Holy God, he cried out: “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.” Was King David aware, because of his sin, that at that time there was no anointing on his life and walk as he transgressed the Holy Word of God? Had Holy Ghost conviction swept over his life?

John was so aware of the ‘brood of vipers’ called the Pharisees and Sadducees, the ‘spiritual elite’ leaders of Judaism, who came out to witness his baptism and baptizing of ‘convicted children of God’, that John said, in Matthew 3:7b-11, “Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? THEREFORE BEAR FRUITS WORTHY OF REPENTANCE, and do not think to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones. And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He [King Jesus] will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”

Oh, and then one really gets an unveiling of the Holy Spirit’s necessity in the walk of the Redeemer’s Life and ministry when in Matthew 12:28 He said, “But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you.” [Cast out demons? Evidence of the coming of the kingdom of God upon His servants? In the 25 years of my ministry in India, “casting out demons” was so normal – but “American ‘christianity’ of the 21^st Century? To speak of demon deliverance reveals one’s spiritual stupidity! That’s ancient ‘voodooism’!”, as they expose their Biblical ignorance!

In Matthew 28:31-32 the Lord Jesus went on to say, “Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy AGAINST THE SPIRIT will not be forgiven men. Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come.”

If you’re faithful as the true disciple of Christ, you’re SO familiar with Luke 11 as the early disciples witnessed Him praying, and they cried out to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray!” And the “Lord’s Prayer” became new disciples firm foundation of a blessed prayer-life! He majored on true persistence in Biblical prayers! This is so vital, in Luke 11:9-13, that YOU must ask, “Has MY prayer-life included praying for the ministry of the Holy Spirit in my life, including His authority over demons?” The Word says: Jesus speaking: “So I say to you, ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish? Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If you, then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father GIVE THE HOLY SPIRIT TO THOSE WHO ASK HIM!” [Have YOU asked, have YOU received, and are you led by the Holy Spirit to “cast out demons”? “No, Preacher, we’re far beyond your spiritual immaturity – there is no modern-day ministry in churches and communities of “casting out demons” – demons don’t exist!” Really? THERE IS BLASPHEMY AGAINST THE HOLY SPIRIT – and the Lord Jesus said in Luke 12:10, “and if anyone speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but to him who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven.” [“Holy God, please, please, help the American church and even the church world-wide, because the ministry of Your Holy Spirit is, sadly, so void and unknown!”]

Notice from the Word: 1 Corinthians 2:9-14, But as it is written: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, THAT WE MIGHT KNOW THE THINGS THAT HAVE BEEN FREELY GIVEN TO US BY GOD.”

The Holy Spirit, in the believer, teaches us! Paul shared that the natural man (without Christ) does not receive the things of the Spirit of God! And the Lord Jesus, as He taught His disciples in Luke 12:11-12, so aware of opposition from an unbelieving world or an unbelieving religious world, said to His disciples, “Now when they [the opposition!] bring you to the synagogue and magistrates and authorities, do not worry about how or what you should answer, or what you should say. For the Holy Spirit WILL TEACH YOU IN THAT VERY HOUR WHAT YOU OUGHT TO SAY!”

Don’t you find it amazing and encouraging to hear John say in 1 John 2:20, “But YOU [as a true disciple and follower of Christ] have an anointing from the Holy Spirit, and you know all things.”

The beloved John, in 1 John 3:16, amplified “By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought lay down our lives for the brethren.” And then in 1 John 3:24, John said, “Now he who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And by this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.” Is the very Holy Spirit of God confirming, affirming, testifying in you: “Yes! He/she lives ‘in Christ,’ labors through Me, and loves the Lord, evidenced by his/her laid-down-life to the Savior’s glory and honor. I affirm their testimony by My Holy presence within as the Very Holy Spirit of God!”

More than the Spirit’s testimony, consider what Paul wrote in Ephesians 1:11-14! “In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory.

In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, WHO IS THE GUARANTEE OF OUR INHERITANCE until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.” Glory! And again, I say, Glory! Thank You, Lord, for not only the gift of our salvation, but the gift of the Holy Spirit to abide in us and glorify Your name through us by His ministry of grace, love, fruit, and power!

And receive Ephesians 4:30! “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption!” But how does one truly know? In Ephesians 5:8-12 Paul, anointed by the Holy Spirit, tells us: “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), finding out what is acceptable to the Lord. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret.” Fruit-inspectors? You better believe it if you are a true disciple of Christ, because ‘modern- christianity’ smells of ‘rotten fruit’ as it tries to live out an unscriptural ‘faith’, filled with compromise, open sin and even proud of it “because Jesus forgives me as I can’t do anything but sin until I get to heaven someday,” and Jesus responds: “Garbage! Depart from Me; I never knew you!”

Edwin Hatch and B.B. McKinney wrote “Breathe On Me”, old hymn of the 1930’s? “Holy Spirit, breathe on me, My stubborn will subdue; Teach me in words of living flame What Christ would have me do…Fill me with power divine, Kindle a flame of love and zeal within this heart of mine.” Is that your prayer this very moment?

CHAPTER NINETEEN

“VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED? UNFOUNDED EXPECTATION OR ETERNAL TRUTH UNVEILED?”

In 2 Corinthians 13:5 Paul made a powerful challenge and a call for true personal evaluation related to one’s ‘professed faith’ or ‘disqualification’ from it! He said, “Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? – unless indeed you are disqualified.”

How did Paul address the ‘Galatian followers’ (?) unless he was aware of the difference between “possessors of true faith” or the “pretenders of faith”? In Galatians 6:3 he stated: “For if anyone thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself.”

You do remember Paul’s word to the church at Colossae, and to the modern-day church now, when he warned them and us in Colossians 2:8, “Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.”

Philosophy, void of God’s Word is empty, man-made beliefs and opinions with no true foundation based on God’s Holy Word! Empty deceit? “We’re ‘God’ in and of ourselves – no ‘Jesus’ has any claim on us”, only that He knew us all by name and still went to the Cross in behalf of us all, redeemed by the blood or a rejecter of His blood sacrifice!

And even with that awareness of divine reality, awareness of the broken heart of God over unbelieving faith, awareness of the crucifixion, burial, resurrection, ascension, or His coming again to judge all the world, past, present, or future, Acts 17:30-31 declares, “Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, (“winked at”), but NOW commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this by raising Him from the dead.” But “His-story” means nothing to you?

I think in the early verses of these particular chapters is evidence of John weeping as he witnessed the broken heart of God over men’s sins, but initially I want to major on four or five statements from eternal angels and blessed elders of the Eternal Faith Story out of Revelation, chapters 4 and 5!

Revelation 4:8b, “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, Who was and is and is to come!” Revelation 4:11, “You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and by Your will they exist and were created.” In Revelation 5:8, the twenty-four elders falling down before the Lamb, sang a new song: Verses 9-10, “You are worthy to take the scroll, and to open its seals; for You were slain, and have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, AND have made us kings and priests to our God; and we shall reign on the earth.” Revelation 5:12 declares, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom, and strength and honor and glory and blessing!” Oh, and then, in Revelation 5:13, we read: “Blessing and honor and glory and power be to Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, forever and ever!”

But there are unbelievers, ‘pretenders’, and out-and-out rebelling, defiling lives that resent God’s proven love, grace, and mercy! And they are firmly convinced Holy God should accept them “because of who we are, because of how intelligent we are, and because of our worthy earthly accomplishments – you couldn’t do any better, God, than accepting us for who we are and what we do!”

The Random House Collegiate Dictionary, [Revised Edition of 1975, by Random House, Inc.], defines “pretense” as “feigning, make-believe, a false showing of something, like ‘friendship’ when one is an enemy, an insincere or false profession, the putting forth of an unwarranted claim, a fabrication!” You are aware that there can be, and, sadly are, “High-priced counterfeits” or even “cheap imitations”!

Alexander Pope, in his “Essay on Man,” [Epis. 1, l,124], wrote: “In pride, in reasoning pride, our error lies; All quit their sphere and rush into the skies. Pride still is aiming at the blessed abodes, Men would be angels, angels would be gods.”

Perfection in Christ is not an achievement man even needs to attempt, but is the gracious gift of Holy God. Do you remember Nebuchadnezzar as Daniel informed Belshazzar of the king’s rise and fall? In Daniel 5:18-21 we read: “O king, the Most High God gave Nebuchadnezzar your father a kingdom and majesty, glory and honor. And because of the majesty that GOD GAVE him, all peoples, nations, and languages trembled and feared before him. Whomever he wished, he executed; whomever he wished, he kept alive; whomever he wished, he put down. BUT when his heart was lifted up, and his spirit HARDENED IN PRIDE, he was deposed from his kingly throne, and they took his glory from him. Then he was driven from the sons of men, his heart was made like the beasts, and his dwelling was with the wild donkeys. They fed him with grass like oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till he knew that the Most High God rules in the kingdom of men, and appoints over it whomever He chooses;” and it’s for sure: God will appoint to bless a people OR God will appoint to curse, blame, instructing all men by whom He appoints!

Examine Ezekial 14:6-14, and be repentant, not shocked! God said through Ezekial, “Therefore say to the house of Israel, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “Repent, turn away from your idols, and turn your faces away from all your abominations. For anyone of the house of Israel, or of the strangers who dwell in Israel, who separates himself from Me and sets up his idols in his heart and puts before him what causes him to stumble into iniquity, then comes to a prophet to inquire of him concerning Me, I the Lord will answer him by Myself. I will set My face against that man and make him a sign and a proverb, and I will cut him off from the midst of My people! Then you shall now that I am the Lord.

And if the prophet is induced to speak anything, I the Lord have induced that prophet, and I will stretch out My hand against him and destroy him from among My people Israel. And they shall bear their iniquity; the punishment of the prophet shall be the same as the punishment of the one who inquired, that the house of Israel may no longer stray from Me, nor be profaned anymore with all their transgressions, but that they may be My people and I may be their God,’ says the Lord God.’”

Question! If the Bible clearly declares in 2 Timothy 3:16, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work,” have there been those who read the Old Testament Word and then declared or declares, “That’s not for New Testament disciples! What you read in Ezekial referred to Israel, not to any modern-day man.” How blind do you sense modern-man who sees himself exempt from All Scripture inspired by God?

How familiar are you with Deuteronomy 30:15-20? God spoke and still speaks today: “See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil, in that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, His statutes, and His judgments, that you may live and multiply; and the Lord your God will bless you in the land, (city, state, nation) which you go to possess.

But if your heart turns away so that you do not hear, and are drawn away, and worship other gods and serve them, I announce to you today that you shall surely perish; you shall not prolong your days in the land which you cross over the Jordan (the Mississippi, the Thames, the Nile!) to go in and possess. I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before YOU life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore, choose life, that both you and your descendants may live; that you may love the Lord your God, that YOU MAY OBEY HIS VOICE, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days; and that you may dwell in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them.” Texas land? Tennessee? California land? Utah land? Lands of England or all of Europe? Lands of the Asian continent or African nations?

“Unfounded Expectations?” Unbelief of God, rejection of saving grace and mercy, the lawlessness of disobedience and the hunger for what the world ‘out there’ away from Him offers? Are you familiar with the “parable of the lost son” in Luke 15? He left the father, went into the world’s ways, wasted his possessions with prodigal living, spent all – don’t miss the next event! – his ‘boss’ sent him into the fields to feed swine, and Luke 15:16 says, “And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, and no one gave him anything.”

Do you understand, comprehend a life away from Father-God, from the Lord Jesus Christ, from the Holy Spirit, from the Holy Word which is your eternal Milk and eternal Meat and eternal Bread? “Away-from- the Father” men and women, boys and girls, yes faithless families have become “dumpster divers” so alienated from God that they simply live by the world’s menu of godlessness, “pigging out,” being served slop rather than what is on the Table of the Lord, deceived even into treasuring trash and counterfeit rewards!

But the Bible says in Luke 15:17, “But when he came to himself…!” That’s a glorious turning! He returned to the Father! What will it be for YOU? “Vital Awareness Unveiled – Unfounded Expectations Or Eternal Truth Unveiled?” What did the Lord Jesus Christ say in John 14:6? “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”

And whether in this moment you understand it or not, there has always been only One Way God ordained for reconciliation to Him, and it was the way of the Cross, the way of the “shed blood,” the way of Resurrected Jesus, King of kings and Lord of lords.

All through the Old Testament, the sacrificial system was the foretelling of the coming of Emmanuel, “God With Us,” the Promised Messiah that, yes, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob looked for! Galatians 3:5-9 tells us: “Therefore He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does He do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? – just as Abraham “believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” Therefore know that only those who are of faith are the sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, ‘In you all the nations shall be blessed.’ So then those who are of [Redemptive] faith are blessed with believing Abraham.”

If you “receive the Truth”, are you aware that Jesus said of Himself in John 8:58, Jesus said to them, [unbelieving Jews!], “Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM”?

Have you studied and studied and studied, yes, the Four Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, as each unveiled from his perspective the reality of Jesus’ identity? Matthew? In Matthew 1;1 we read, “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham.” In Isaiah 9:6-7 is his prophetic unveiling of the Coming Messiah: “For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end, upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, to order it with judgment and justice from that time forward, even forever!! The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.” That’s “the Son of David,” King of kings and Lord of lords!

But Matthew 1:1, in unveiling ‘the genealogy of Jesus Christ,” also called Him “the Son of Abraham”, which tells us, Genesis 12:1-3, Now the Lord had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

Mark, in his gospel, unveils another eternal dimension of Christ, and it is as, yes, “the Servant of Man.” I love the Holman Study Bible, NKJV Edition, by Holman Bible Publishers, [Nashville, Tennessee, Copyright 2013]. Their cover of Mark’s Gospel “emphasizes actions and deeds. Jesus is on the go – healing, casting out demons, performing miracles, hurrying from place to place, and teaching. In Mark everything happens “immediately.” As soon as one episode ends, another begins. The rapid pace slows down when Jesus enters Jerusalem (11:1). Thereafter, events are marked by days, and His final days by hours.” Mark was led to introduce the ministry of Jesus through John as Mark 1:7-8 says, “There comes One after me who is mightier than I, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to stoop down and loose. I indeed baptized you with water (unto repentance!), but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” No doubt this is why Paul, in Galatians 4:4-6 equips us with the foundational truth of all born-again disciples: “But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent forth His Son into your hearts, crying out, ‘Abba, Father,” multiplying, increasing, ordaining the servant-spirit in all true disciples! Luke magnifies Jesus as “the Son of man,” I’m sure myself because Luke, as a physician or doctor, desired to uplift Christ Jesus as the “Great Physician” with a number of “healing events” through Jesus! Also, there should never be a doubt in any student of the Word study concerning John magnifying Jesus as the “Son of God.” Consider simply John’s Introduction, John 1:1-4!

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things [that’s “all creation”!] were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.” John went on to say in John 1:14, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”

And the reason Holy God sent Christ Jesus into our, yes, sinful world? John 3:16-17 tells us, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes [trusts in, relies upon, adheres to] should not perish but have everlasting life. For GOD DID NOT SEND HIS SON INTO THE WORLD TO CONDEMN THE WORLD, but that the world through Him might be saved.”

It was Woodrow A. Geier, in his writing “Religion in Life”, who said: “In the Cross, God descends to bear in His own heart the sins of the world. In Jesus He atoned [the “blood atonement”] at unimaginable cost to Himself.” I don’t believe Holy God even viewed the Crucifixion but looked away, until the moment Holy God was ready to resurrect Him out of a borrowed grave!

What does Paul tell us in Romans 5:8-11? “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having NOW BEEN JUSTIFIED BY HIS BLOOD, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be [being] saved by His life.”

No wonder it was the famous missionary-pastor David Livingstone who once said: “I will place no value on anything I have or may possess except in relation to the Kingdom of Christ.” [Encyclopedia of Religious Quotations, Frank S. Mead, Fleming H. Revell Com., Westwood, New Jersey,p.55]

Do YOU even begin to fathom, understand, comprehend the fullness of the greatness of God’s love for fallen humanity, demonstrated through the guiltless blood of the Lamb of God for all guilty fallen humanity at the Cross, without the awareness in you of renewed guilt and sorrow, because it was YOUR sin and mine for which Christ Jesus shed His own blood and died in our behalf?

Barrington Booth wrote an old Hymn entitled “The Cross Is Not Greater,” [Published in the old Broadman Hymnal, by Broadman Press, Nashville, Tennessee, 1940!]. It says:

“The cross that He gave may be heavy, But it never outweighs His grace; The storm that I feared may surround me, But it never excludes His face.

The thorns in my path are not sharper Than composed His crown for me; The cup that I drink nor more bitter Than He drank in Gethsemane.

The light of His love shines brighter, As it falls on paths of woe; The toil of my work grows lighter, As I stoop to raise the low.

His will I have joy in fulfilling, As I’m walking in His sight; My all to the blood I am bringing, It alone can keep me right.

The cross is not greater than His grace, The storm cannot hide His blessed face; I am satisfied to know That with Jesus here below, I can conquer every foe.”

CHAPTER TWENTY

“VITAL AWARENESS UNVEILED? THE REALITY OF HELL

AND HEAVEN?”

I’m sure that as you’re beginning this chapter, having come this far with me, that you are reasonably assured and confident in both the reality of Hell and the reality of Heaven! And if you began with your personal description of Hell, you’d probably say, “The abode and absence of redemptive faith – no help, no hope, no peace, no blessing – just worldly pleasures continuing into wild decay, a state of unbelief untouched by eternal grace, the reality of a death that will not die, pains and chains, a ‘fool’s dwelling’ that has no light, no love, no liberty – just suffering, sorrow, senselessness, and continuing satanic rituals!

I grieved when I considered Harry Leon Wilson’s evaluation of “The Spenders” when he said: [p.241], “Hell is given up ‘so’ reluctantly by those who don’t expect to go there.” And if you’re not fully aware of its dreadful benefits (?), it’s the gathering place of the crowd who wanted no God, no Savior, no Lord – just a place for the gathering of ‘good’ intenders, good intentions, or hurtful, cheap imitations of, yes, even ‘god-like’ desires, but of the idolatrous kind as many gathered at their ‘holy (?) tables’ of adultery and child sacrifices to show their full devotion! Has much changed in this “new” American or world century?

It was William Allingham, in his writing, “Blackberries,” who said: “I believe in This, That, and T’other; Whatever is current, no matter.” That sounds to me like a mind and heart, dominated by ‘flesh’, fully blown up by the devil in stupidity!

If Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father (God) except through Me,” what is that man’s future reward who doesn’t come His way? In Mark 9:42-48 the Lord Jesus Christ said: “But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea. If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed, rather than having two hands, to go to hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched – where ‘Their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.’

And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame, rather than having two feet, to be cast into hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched – where ‘Their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.’

And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye, rather than having two eyes, to be cast into hell fire – where ‘Their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.’”

Sin-maimed lives are “Hell-bound”! Sin-infested old sin natures, unredeemed by the “blood of the Lamb”, are “Hell-bound”! A sin-dominated ‘eye’, Jesus said, better for one eye to be plucked out if one enters the kingdom of God, than two eyes cast into hell-fire – where ‘Their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.’ Are you aware of how Job came to recognize that, if he turned to iniquity and lived in it, he would be ‘deserving of judgment’ followed by ‘a fire that consumes to destruction’?

At least King David knew his rock, his fortress, his deliverer, when strong enemies had surrounded him. He said, in 2 Samuel 22:5-7, and verses 17-20, “When the waves of death surrounded me, the floods of ungodliness made me afraid. The sorrows of Sheol surrounded me; the snares of death confronted me. In my distress I called upon the Lord, and cried out to my God; He heard my voice from His temple, and my cry entered His ears.” [If you KNOW Hell awaits you, I’d say, it’s time to cry out to Holy God in YOUR distress, because Hell is real, and has open arms waiting to pull you in!]. But then we read, Verses 17-20, “He sent from above, He took me, He drew me out of many waters. [At this moment, what ‘waters’ are YOU swimming in?] He delivered me from my strong enemy, from those who hated me; for they were too strong for me. They confronted me in the day of my calamity, but the Lord was my support.”

And, thank God, for those who know “the Lord of my support”, but for those who have no faith, no trust, no surrender to the Sovereignty of God and His amazing love demonstrated in the sacrificial death of His own Son, Christ Jesus, AT THE CROSS, Hell awaits because they played with the fires of Hell itself, and have been burned, continue to burn, and will burn forever in those flames of godless burning that never cease, even after one dies!

In Mark 16:15-16, the Lord Jesus Christ, Resurrected King of kings and Lord of lords, said: “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes in [trusts in, relies upon, adheres to], and is baptized [as a testimony of saving grace], will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.”

Psalm 9:17 also declares: “The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.” How plain and so realistic with compassion and love when Jesus said in Matthew 10:28, “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him [the Holy Father] who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”

Just a few words written in the last few years on blank side-pages of “The Encyclopedia of Religious Quotations,” related to “Hell”! [By JFF!], “Torture intended and never ending, day and night in the darkness of no light! Violence it’s reality, though paved with good intentions, – torturing poor souls with senseless pretensions! ‘Self-love’ is a fleshly picture of love for the devil, pleasure-less decay that never brings one level, with Holy God or the Spirit or His Sin in Heaven, but the lies of the devil in his untruth – leaven. The leaven of lies is the devil’s strong suit, and Heaven awaits to expose its rotten root; Satan is his oft-called name, constantly attacking God for the devil’s blame. Sad but so true, his days of deception are through, because Christ’s shed blood put the arrow of Truth through Satan and his race,, released repentant hearts to their home in Heaven’s place!”

It’s so true: One doesn’t find his assignment to Hell with the expectation of celebrating with his friends! A rejecter of Christ may have many “friends” in Hell, but they aren’t smiling! Do you even think about “your friends, your family” who rejected Christ because of the absence of redemptive faith in their lives, but you feel, “Well, maybe they had no desire for Heaven but they’ll brighten up Hell with their parties,” when all they’ll experience is not parties but pity, no celebrations but curses, nor joy but the sour bitterness of the devil’s hate, nor self-confidence any longer but crushed outlooks for something beyond ‘bitter’, which is not better! Can you imagine the devil in Wall Street dress or Hollywood beauties with gorgeous gowns, but when they’re viewed, if one was even given a slight view from Heaven to there, you’d see only the very damnable of hell, stripped naked with bodies torn, carved on, bleeding in a state of death that will not die! Didn’t we read earlier in this chapter from Mark about ‘the worm that does not die,’ or where ‘the fire is not quenched’? It was Isaac Watts in his writing, “Heaven and Hell,” who wrote: “There is a dreadful hell, and everlasting pains; Where sinners must with devils dwell in darkness, fire, and chains.” Hell is real!

Mark used a few less words than Matthew when he recorded Jesus saying in Mark 12:4-5, “And I say to you, My friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear Him, who after He has killed, has power to cast into hell; yes, I say to you, fear Him!” That’s Holy God!

“Vital Awareness Unveiled? YES, THERE IS THE REALITY OF HEAVEN”! That’s the eternal “home-place” of God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, His faithful angels, and the “blood-bought sons and daughters” through their repentance toward God and faith, follow-ship, friendship with Christ Jesus, God’s crucified, resurrected, reigning, ascended Son, Jesus Christ, who will be magnified on earth as He is in Heaven through “born again” children of His redemptive faith!

Yes, In Nehemiah 9 we find men of faith standing on the stairs of the Levites, crying out, worshipping the Lord their God, and in Verses 5-6 we read: “Stand up and bless the Lord your God forever and ever! ‘Blessed be Your glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise! You alone are the Lord; You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens with all their host, the earth and everything on it, the seas and all that is in them, and You preserve them all. The host of heaven worships You.’”

One of those very sad moments if Old Testament history is found in Isaiah 1 when the prophet sees the chosen people, Israel, as, Verse 4-7 tells us, “Alas, sinful nation! [That’s Israel!], a people laden with iniquity, a brood of evildoers, children who are corrupters! They have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked to anger the Holy One of Israel, they have turned away backward. [That’s away from God and His holiness!]. Why should you be stricken again? [Stricken by God Himself!]. You will revolt more and more. The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faints. From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness in it, but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores; they have not been closed or bound up, or soothed with ointment. Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire; strangers devour your land in your presence; and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers. [That’s cursed by God!].”

Yet, in Verse 9, the prophet said, “Unless the Lord of hosts had left to us a very small remnant, we would have become like Sodom, we would have become like Gomorrah.”

And whether ancient Israel or modern-day America, Biblical Truth is, “God always sees a remnant of true believers who uphold Hid honor and His Truth!” But still, whether Ancient Israel or modern-day American church, “the faithful city has become a harlot!” But, Isaiah 1:27-28, alerts us now, as He tried then, “Zion,[the Kingdom of God, the spiritual Kingdom of God!], shall be redeemed with justice and her penitents with righteousness. [But] The destruction of transgressors and sinners shall be together, and those who forsake the Lord shall be consumed.”

The prophet gave a word of hope AND a warning from God when in Isaiah 1:18-20 he heard God saying also: “Come now, and let us reason together,” says the Lord. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured by the sword;” for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

But the prophet knew, by the grace of God, there would come the day when God would arise bodily through Emmanuel and He would shake the earth mightily – He has risen up, and He is still shaking the kingdoms of man as the Kingdom of Christ arises! [What do YOU believe Isaiah 7:13-14 is all about?]. Then He said, “Hear now, O house of David! Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will you weary my God also? Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.” Immanuel means: “God with us!”

I pray you understand how vital it is in receiving the prophetic Word of God in the Old Testament, and then resting in its fulfillment all over the New Testament from Matthew through Revelation, but be patient as I share in this moment only 1 Peter 1:1-5, 10-12, and Verses 17-21!

1 Peter 1:1-5, “Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the pilgrims of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace be multiplied.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

1 Peter 1:10-12, Of this salvation the prophets have inquired and searched carefully [diligently], who prophesied of the grace that would come to you, searching what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ was indicating when He testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow.

To them it was revealed, not to themselves, but to us they were ministering the things which have been reported to you through those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven – things which angels desire to look into.

1 Peter 1:17-21, And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear; knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you who through Him believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.”

For YOU is it Immanuel, “God in flesh”, or simply the “best efforts” of one’s ‘religious faith’? For YOU is it the unveiling of your sinful heart and exposure to your only hope through Christ’s “blood Atonement”, or the futile heresy, a faithless frenzy, as a graduate of man’s private schooling in pride, false teachings, and even Satanic superstitions, or simply self-approval of anything that relates to even opposition to Holy Truth, Holy God, or a Holy Purpose and Eternal Plan?

I found Shakespeare’s words in “King John,” [Act 111, sc.1, L.175], so wise! “Blessed shall be he that doth revolt From his allegiance to a heretic.”

I’m sure the Apostle Paul had a clear understanding of “Faith in the Lamb of God” or faith in the ‘bondage’ of unbelief. He said in Titus 1:15-16, “To the pure all things are pure, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure; but even their mind and conscience are defiled. They profess to know God, but in works they deny Him, being abominable, disobedient, and disqualified for every good work.”

Oh, but then the Apostle properly and in an anointed spirit instructed Titus and us when in Titus 2:11-14 he said, “For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.”

I pray you’ve seen, received, clearly understand, that true disciples, still ‘in the world’ but not ‘of it’, are disciples set apart, re-born, filled with the presence and Spirit of the Resurrected Christ, [“Christ in you…”], governed, regulated, instructed, and living in the “overcoming life and Presence of Christ”, extending His life, expressing His love, and proving His power!

Yes, and though true disciples are still in the world but not of it, our calling is “taking the sentence of death daily, that the resurrection life of Christ may be manifested in mortal flesh” for an unbelieving world to see “Christ in you the hope of glory”!

Edward mote and William B. Bradbury had their old Hymn, “The Solid Rock”, published in the Broadman Press Hymnal of 1940! [That’s Broadman Press, Nashville, Tennessee.]. It says: “My hope is built on nothing less Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness; I dare not trust the sweetest frame, But wholly lean on Jesus’ name.

When darkness seems to hide His face, I rest on His unchanging grace; In every high and stormy gale, My anchor holds within the vale.

His oath, His covenant, His blood, Support me in the whelming flood; When all around my soul gives way, He then is all my hope and stay.

When He shall come with trumpet sound, Oh, may I then in Him be found; Dressed in His righteousness alone, Faultless to stand before the throne.

On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand; All other ground is sinking sand, All other ground is sinking sand.”

Your “sure foundation”? 2 Timothy 2:19 is clear, sure, assured by Holy God Himself: “Nevertheless the solid foundation of God stands, having this seal: ‘The Lord knows those who are His,’ and, ‘Let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity.’”

CONCLUSION

This has certainly been an interesting journey! When Holy God put this in my heart and mind to write, I truly had no full understanding of where He would lead or to what extent He would allow me to unveil, yes, the small portion of “Vital Awareness Unveiled” that He’s given to me. I truly believe I’ve only touched the hem of the garment of this great Truth!

As I stated earlier, I approach my eightieth birthday, June 12, 2016! It’s been an interesting, exciting, fulfilling 80 years, and especially since God’s grace, mercy, and special blessing and love, granted me my Godly wife, Susan McNabb Fisher, THE most beautiful woman on earth and a true ambassador of the love of Christ, the love of His Word, and, yes, the love of her husband, four grown, saintly, caring kinds, nine grandkids, great grandkids with more on the way! Three sons and a daughter: Scott, Susan, Stan, and Steve, with three outstanding daughter-in-law, Tammy, Leann, and Diane! Blessed beyond measure by them! Oh, and grandsons blessing us with their own beautiful wives, and a granddaughter with a loving husband, with one with child and another on the way! [I believe Stephanie’s husband, Spencer Coleman, preferred sin boys and four daughters! Not sure about that!

As of June 10, 2016, we will celebrated our 60^th Wedding Anniversary! Sue has been so loving, so faithful so strong, so wise, so caring, so desirous of Christ being honored through her, not only to her husband and her church, but to the community she touches, yes, by her very presence! And, how blessed to have married a woman who wasn’t sure about how to boil water initially, but came to be an outstanding cook, canner, baker, pie-maker, creator of many, many fine dinners, tastes, and recipes – and especially if it has a little wine to intensify its taste!

I’m so thankful for God’s choice for me for a wife who loves the Lord Jesus, wise in His Word, faithful to His Name and reputation and honor, blessed with a heavenly wisdom that enriches His eternal praise and adoration – Proverbs 3:13 says, “Happy is the man who finds wisdom…” Her name is Susan Gail McNabb Fisher! Didn’t Proverbs 11:16 tell us, “A gracious woman retains honor,” and my dear wife’s amazing journey has been only to honor her Lord and Savior through her walk before Him and her walk before her world! Didn’t Proverbs tell me in Proverbs 31:10-12, “Who can find a virtuous wife? For her worth is far above rubies. The heart of her husband safely trusts in her; so she will have no lack of gain,” with Verses 30-31 stamping Sue’s life, “Charm is deceitful and beauty is passing, but a woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised.” The “good and faithful servant”? That’s my wife, my bride, my partner in ministry and service!

“TROUBLING TOMBS OF GODLESS LIVES!”

Troubling Tombs? Troubling Tombs of Godless lives, like self-centered lives striving in a Godless existence, even striving to find meaning to life without God but assured in self, worldly, demonic deception that your life will work it out and find meaning, a sense of peace and purpose without Him, though for most with godless minds, they never consider what or who or why life has to be a struggle finding any sense of blessing or peace or satisfaction as they see it, doing so without eternal identity and eternal purpose!

Troubling Tombs of Godless Lives? When in James 1:8 the brother of Jesus said, “A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways,” you get a true picture of a godless life that has a hint of a God-filled life as a possibility, but has no desire to die to the ‘flesh’, the old sin-nature, or devotion to a world of unbelief – he, she desires, though troubled, because their greater allegiance is satisfying the ‘fullness of the flesh’ rather than experiencing “New Birth” in and through the Holy Spirit!

Troubling Tombs of Godless Lives? How clear do you find the words of Christ Jesus in Luke 11:34 when He said: “The light of the body is the eye: therefore when your eye is single (Settled in on God alone in His love, grace, and mercy!), your whole body is full of light; but when your eye is evil, your body also is full of darkness.” Some say Jesus was “too strong” in His words about lives that choose to accept, visit, remember, hold on to, indulge in a false confession of faith with one foot stepping forward in Him and the other foot yielding to the world, the old sin-nature, and, yes, to Satanic, demonic deception! Haven’t you crossed paths with, yes, many ‘religious’ (?) people who want the best of both worlds?

Troubling Tombs of Godless Lives? Is that a “downcast life”, a life that seldom, if ever, looks UP toward the King of kings and Lord of lords, as He sits on His throne ready to respond to the needy, empty, sin-sick soul, though they mentally, at times, at least ‘wanting’ to be religious without being ‘dead to the old sin-nature’, but they never ever consider being made ‘alive’ in the Resurrection Presence of the Reigning Lord and Savior?

Troubling Tombs of Godless Lives? How easy is it for Godless lives, even some modern-day ‘religious profess-ors’, to ‘profess’ but never “POSSESS” the fullness of the blessing of the Resurrected Christ? There are ‘religious-cave-dwellers’ that are not just prehistoric men but modern-day-religious pretenders dwelling in the cave of self-determination, “saying” one thing about their ‘faith’ (?) but “living” still in their ‘godless life’, though they sing about “blessed assurance” as they practice their “cursed existence”!!

Troubling Tombs of Godless Lives? How aware are you of the disease of “the reverence of a man’s self-nature”, so in love with his/her ‘fleshly passions’, that he/she never looks to the eternal Truth of, yes, “crucified with Christ”; or, as some, they profess allegiance to the false expression: “God helps those who help themselves, saying “I try”, rather than truly trusting in Christ’s finished work at the Cross”, or, “Do your best”, as religiously they bow at the altar of ‘self-control’ rather than “resting” in Resurrection Life, Resurrection Power, and Resurrection Hope IN “Christ Only, One’s Only Hope of the Glorified Life”!!

Troubling Tombs of Godless Lives? Oh, how easy it is for far too many people to live in a false pretense of faith rather than the “blessed assurance” in and through Christ alone! Alexander MacLaren once said, “All along the Christian course, there must be set up altars to God on which you sacrifice yourself, or you will never advance a step.” This is why in Galatians 2:20 Paul said, “I AM CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in this fleshly body I live by The Faith of The Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me,” adding in Verse 21, I do not frustrate the grace of God!”

In the short but sensational word of Jude you find him writing about “pretenders”, though they ‘dressed’ daily in imitation garbs! In Verses 3-5 and Verses 8-15 Jude exposes not only those in his day but also those in modern centuries and in our current century who live the “victimized life of religious pretense” filling some church pews!!

Jude said, Verses 3-5, “Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.

For THERE ARE CERTAIN MEN CREPT IN UNAWARES, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God INTO LASCIVIOUSNESS, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.

I will therefore put YOU in remembrance, though you once knew this, that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not.

Verses 8-15 then says: Likewise also these filthy dreamers (who) DEFILE THE FLESH, DESPISE (CHRIST’S) DOMINION, AND SPEAK EVIL OF DIGNITIES. Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke you.

But, these speak evil of those things which they know not; but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves. Woe unto them! For they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core.

These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear; clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withers, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots;

Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his saints,

To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds, which they have committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.”

It was Sir Francis Bacon in his writing, “New Atlantis”, who said: “The reverence of a man’s self is, next to religion, the chiefest bridle of all vices.” Have you ever crossed paths, in a local church, with ‘active’ church members who are ‘brain and heart dead’ to “taking the sentence of death daily to the mortal sin-nature that the Resurrection Life of Christ may be manifested in and through their mortal flesh?”

Oh, and reflect upon the startling, shocking, awakening words of Charles Caleb Colton, (The Enclypodia of Religious Quotations, p.397, Fleming H. Revell Company, Westwood, New Jersey)!! “Heroism, magnanimity, and self-denial, in all instances in which they do not spring from a principle of religion (and, I say, “Biblical Faith”!), are but splendid altars on which we sacrifice one kind of self-love to another.”

TROUBLING TOMBS OF GODLESS LIVES ARE DARKENED HEARTS SADLY DENYING RESURRECTION LIFE IN AND THROUGH CHRIST ONLY!

TROUBLING TOMBS OF GODLESS LIVES ARE DARKENED HEARTS DOMINATED BY FLESHLY “WARPED WITS”!!

TROUBLING TOMBS OF GODLESS LIVES ARE DARKENED HEARTS STILL SATISFIED WITH HIGHLY EDUCATED WORLDLY WILLS, YES, CELEBRATED BY SATAN AND HIS DEMONIC DECEIVERS!!!

TROUBLING TOMBS OF GODLESS LIVES ARE INDIVIDUALS VICTIMIZED BY THE POWERS OF DARKNESS RADIATING THE “FLESHLY LIGHTS OF SEIF-IMPORTANCE AND SELF-INDULGENCE” WITH NO NEED OF BEING RESCUED BY GOD!

TROUBLING TOMBS OF GODLESS LIVES ARE LIVES JOHN MILTON ONCE DESCRIBED AS: “HE WHO REIGNS HIMSELF AND RULES HIS PASSIONS, DESIRES, AND FEARS IS MORE THAN A KING,” and, I say,- “HE, SHE IS A DECEIVED SINNER WITHOUT ANY NEED OF A SAVIOR SINCE “SELF-RULE” STUPIDLY REIGNS!!”

TROUBLING TOMBS OF GODLESS LIVES ARE LIVES RADIATING THE ‘DARKNESS’ OF CAGED SELFISHNESS THOUGH ‘PROFESSING’ A RELIGIOUS FAITH!

TROUBLING TOMBS OF GODLESS LIVES? OH, THERE IS FOR MANY A TROUBLING AWARENESS OF THEIR ‘SIN-NATURE’ BUT IN THEIR DARKENED HEARTS AND BONDAGED-SELF-WILL NO AWARENESS OF THE NEED OF GOD’S INTERVENTION – THEY CAN HANDLE THEIR ‘MENTAL MISTAKES”! REALLY?

TROUBLING TOMBS OF GODLESS LIVES? HAVE YOU EVER CROSSED PATHS WITH,YES, CROWDS OF PEOPLE WHO ARE APPRECIATIVELY INFORMED ABOUT CHRIST’S “BLOOD SACRIFICE” IN THEIR BEHALF BUT SEE AT AS AN UNNECESSARY EVENT BY GOD SINCE THEY SEE THEMSELVES AS RELIGIOUSLY “OK”?

TROUBLING TOMBS OF GODLESS LIVES? “BELIEF” THAT IS DARKENED UNBELIEF THAT DESTROYS BECAUSE, THOUGH “CONFESSING CHRIST”, ONE’S WALK- HIS PATH, HER PILGRIMAGE-IS AN IMMORAL DESERT WHERE ONE CONTINUES TO WALK DEAFENED TO THE PRECIOUS VOICE OF GOD AND BLINDED TO HIS FOOTSTEPS TO CALVERY, OUT OF THE TOMB, BUT HIS CONTIUNUING WALK WORLD-WIDE TO KNOCK ON THE DOORS OF MEN’S HEARTS! HAVE YOU OPENED THE DOOR TO THE SAVIOR’S LORDSHIP AND SOVEREIGN REIGN OVER YOUR WALK, YOUR PATH, YOUR PILGRIMAGE TO HONOR HIM DAILY? It was Elizabeth Barrett Browning, in her writing “The Cry of the Human”, who wrote:“There is no God,” the foolish says, But none, “There is no sorrow”; And nature oft the cry of faith In bitter need will borrow. Eyes which the preacher could not school, By wayside graves are raised; And lips say, “God be pitiful,” Who never said, “God be praised.”

Sadly, yes, across many ‘Christian paths’, people walk and talk and pretend but are blinded in unbelief by the mind of religious human reasoning, superficial in religious thoughts and pretense, but void of Resurrection Presence – Christ knocked, but they didn’t answer because their pretense was sufficient rather than His Presence!

How clear and convicting was Paul when in 1 Corinthians 13:11 he wrote, “When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.” Are You ruled by ‘self-love’ or fully embraced and overflowing with your love for Christ Jesus who suffered, bled, and died on the Cross of Calvary as He, yes, carried YOU with Him to be “crucified with Christ”? In Mark 8:34 Jesus said: “Whosoever will come after Me, let him deny himself, AND TAKE UP HIS CROSS (DYING DAILY!), AND FOLLOW ME.” For YOU? A TROUBLED TOMB OR TRIUMPHANT IN JESUS?

In the old “American Hymnal” of 1938, Broadman Press, Nashville, Tennessee, is a hymn entitled, “O For A Faith That Will Not Shrink.” It says:

“O for a faith that will not shrink Tho’ pressed by many a foe, That will not tremble on the brink Of poverty or woe.

That will not murmur nor complain Beneath the chastening rod, But in the hour of grief or pain Can lean upon its God.

A faith that shimes more bright and clear When tempests rage without, That, when in danger, knows no fear, In darkness feels no doubt.

Lord, give me such a faith as this, And then, whatever may come, I taste even now my hallowed bliss Of my eternal home.”

Can YOU say Amen to that Truth? Are YOU settled and cemented in Christ alone, or do you ‘rest’ in your fleshly self?

Are YOU a TROUBLED TOMB OR HIS TRIUMPHANT TEMPLE OF ETERNAL PRESENCE REIGNING VICTORIOUSLY THROUGH YOU?

BY:J.FARRELL FISHER, NOV.2-4, 2017

In John 16 the Lord Jesus was preparing His disciples for coming opposition AND His soon departure, the opposition even by religious leaders and many of the Jewish community opposed to Christ Himself and the “true seekers”; Verses 1-4, Jesus speaking, “These things I have spoken to you, that you should not be made to stumble. They will put you out of the synagogues; yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service. And these things they will do to you because they have not known the Father nor Me. But these things I have told you, that when the time comes, you may remember that I told you of them. And these things I did not say to you at the beginning, because I was with you.”

Oh, but things were about to change! And Almighty God was sending the Holy Spirit because the Son’s ‘cross sacrifice’, His death, burial, resurrection, and Ascension would soon take place, and the Victorious Jesus would be seated at God’s right hand on the throne of Heaven and earth but with the promise, power, and participation of the Holy Spirit in the conviction of men’s heart, the convincing of their need of the Savior, their conversion, and guarding, guiding, and gifting the “new-born” sons and daughters of True, Eternal Faith “in Christ” for their earthly reigns, ministries, and extending of that Resurrection Life in Christ!

But for all true believers, that ministry of the Holy Spirit begins with “The Piercing Sword of Divine Conviction” – that’s God the Holy Spirit knocking on the door of your heart, mind, and will in yielding to King Jesus!

Follow John 16:5-15! “But now I go away to Him who sent Me, and none of you asks Me, ‘Where are You going?’ But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you.

And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment; of sin, because they do not believe in Me; of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; of judgment, because the ruler of the world is judged. I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth;

For He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you.”

As an ‘intro’ into the ministry of the Holy Spirit before I get to this message’s main emphasis, three things I want you to be aware of: 1) The Holy Spirit is our “faithful guide”, 2) The Holy Spirit grants us a full unveiling of Jesus (“He will glorify Me” in and through YOU!), 3) The Holy Spirit releases in all true, repentant, born-again believers “a forceful empowerment”!

And, “the forceful empowerment”? IT IS “THE PIERCING SWORD OF DIVINE CONVICTION”! There are powerful verses in Revelation 1 when John unveiled His vision of the Son of Man! Examine carefully Verses 12-19! John wrote: Then I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the seven lampstands One like the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band.

His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes like a flame of fire; His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, and His voice as the sound of many waters; He had in His right hand seven stars, out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength. And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. But He laid His right hand on me, saying to me,

“Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last. I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death. Write the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which will take place after this.”

Do you think that Christ Jesus was unveiling to John and us the continuing ministry of Christ through the Holy Spirit and His “eternal spiritual work” of the “piercing sword of divine conviction”? And, without a doubt, THAT is a vital ministry of the Holy Spirit! Jesus said, reminding you, of John 16:8-11, “And when He (the Holy Spirit) has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment; of sin, because they do not believe in Me (So they keep on “sinning”!); of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; of judgment, because the ruler of the world is judged.”

I want you also to examine, reflect upon, and study Paul’s words in 1 Thessalonians 1:4-6! He said: “knowing, beloved brethren, your election by God. (Election? The Greek word is “eklogon” meaning God’s initiative, God’s selection, God’s choice, which He sovereignly has the right to do! And you know the “chosen” by the unveiling of Christ in them and through them!). For our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit and in much assurance, as you know what kind of men we were among you for your sake.”

SO, FIRST, LOOK AT THE PIERCING SWORD OF DIVINE CONVICTION THAT IS AVAILABLE TO, YES, USHER IN DIVINE CONVERSION! Come to John 3 and receive Jesus’ words to Nicodemus and to us! John 3:1-8 says: There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with Him.”

Jesus answered and said to Him, “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 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.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” (Has “the wind of God’s Spirit” blown upon your life, and have YOU been born again?).

‘Born of the Spirit’ is no reality apart from the deep conviction of sin and its birthing of the state of sinful death, alienated and separated from Holy God! No awareness of sin and the sin nature is evidence of a godless mind intent on enjoying “its” fruit apart from repentance toward God and faith in Christ’s finished work at the cross.

What did we just read a brief time ago from 1 Thessalonians 1:5? “For our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit and in much assurance…”! Paul then said in Verse 6, “And you became followers of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Spirit…” There are those things, those attitudes, those outlooks in life that come, yes, from the world, the flesh, and from Satan himself, but ‘abiding joy’ in life comes only through the supernatural, new-birthing by the Spirit! We’re ‘born-again’ by the Spirit!

SECOND, WE EXAMINE THE SPIRITUAL SWORD OF DIVINE CONVICTION, THEN CONFESS, REPENT, TURN AWAY FROM THE PAST LIFE, AND REACH UP, INWARD, AND INTO ‘KINGDOM ALLEGIANCE’ AS EPHESIANS 2:18 TELLS US, “FOR THROUGH HIM WE BOTH HAVE ACCESS BY ONE SPIRIT TO THE FATHER! The Holy Spirit, Paul is telling us, The Spirit, having led us to conversion, now leads us into the spirit of faithful devotion as sincere ‘ambassadors’ in the Kingdom of our Lord and Savior, our walk being earthly representatives of His Kingdom-rule! He is and is to be King of kings and Lord of lords, and as servants in His Kingdom, we’re ‘set apart’ to extend His Kingdom-rule, express His Kingdom-fruit, and illumine His Kingdom-faithfulness! Christ Jesus never missed a ‘beat’ in the Hallelujah Chorus of world redemption and Kingdom of God purpose!

In 2 Corinthians 5:18-21 the Holy Word inspires the truly repentant and regenerated souls of men. It says: “Now all things are of God who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, AND has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

It’s “Christ in us, Christ through us, Christ being Himself” as Resurrected and Reigning Savior and Lord, graciously being “the hope of glory” in and through repentant, blood-bought, yielded vessels willing to be vessels only with Him our present, presiding Savior and Lord reaching out through us to extend His Kingdom, express His love, and prove His power!

THIRD, WE ENTRUST OURSELVES TO THE SPIRITUAL SWORD OF DIVINE CONVICTION, AND HAVING BEEN FAITHFULLY TRANSFORMED AND DECLARED SONS AND DAUGHTERS OF FATHER-GOD THROUGH CHRIST AND HIS HOLY SPIRIT, WE UNDERSTAND OUR STAMPING, “SEALING”, AND SERVICE TO BE FAITHFULLY LIVING LIFE TO THE HONOR OF CHRIST THROUGH THE HOLY SPIRIT!

Come to Ephesians 1:11-14, and Verses 17-19!! It says: “In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory. In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.[The gospel of your salvation? Your best efforts, your strong determination to honor Him as best you could, your mental mind-set apart from “crucified with Christ”, and even your ‘gloating’ at the ‘fruit’ you produced that has nothing to do with the “fruit of the Spirit”, your mind-set of ‘trust’ in self at its best as a substitute for being the redeemed tabernacle of Resurrection Presence to be Himself in you and through you that, like Paul, “I take the sentence of death daily to myself that His Resurrection Life may be manifested in me”? Ephesians 1:17-19!! “that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the KNOWLEDGE OF HIM, they eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power…”!! His power? His working? His greatness?

We choose to “die daily” and yield to His indwelling Spirit of power! In Ephesians 5:18 Paul also said, “And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit…”, yet, how easy it is for ‘believers’ to “grieve the Holy Spirit of God”, Ephesians 4:30!

Paul wasn’t finished yet! In Ephesians 6:17-18 Paul highlights true discipleship proof! They LIVE BY THE WORD OF REDEMPTIVE TRUTH, “taking 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…”

Is this why Romans 7:5-6 highlights living in “newness of the Spirit”? It says: “For when we were in the flesh (your unforgiven, sin-natured controlled life, strongly influenced by Satan and the world around you?), the sinful passions which were aroused by the law (the law of sin and death?) were at work in our members to bear fruit to death. But now we have been delivered from the law (of sin and death?), HAVING DIED TO WHAT WE WERE HELD BY, having died to what we WERE HELD BY, so that we should serve “in the newness of the Spirit” and not in the oldness of the letter.” How clear is that to you?

FOURTH, THE PIERCING SWORD OF DIVINE CONVICTION, THE SPIRIT UNVEILING MATURING IN CHRIST BY THE SPIRIT HIMSELF AND THE WORD, CONTINUES TO MANIFEST ETERNAL BLESSING, “GUIDING US INTO ALL TRUTH”! Luke 6:39 says, “Can the blind lead the blind?” Oh, but in Romans 8:12-17 we read, “Therefore, brethren, we are debtors – not to the flesh (the old sin nature!), to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die; BUT IF BY THE SPIRIT you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For as many as are LED BY THE SPIRIT, these are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.”

The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs – heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.”

As Christ Jesus ministered to His young disciples, and especially more pointedly as He knew He faced the Cross, He said to them in John 16:12-15, “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, HE WILL GUIDE YOU INTO ALL TRUTH; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine, and declare it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine . Therefore I said that He (the Holy Spirit) will take of Mine and declare it to you.”

The Holy Spirit is under “divine orders” from the Father to be your constant “guide”, your “faithful assistant”, and YOUR assured unveiling in you and through you to honor Christ Jesus, your Indwelling Lord and Savior! A few words of “Spirit-Inspiration”:

“God’s Spirit lights the Way, unveiling for me Christ’s glorifying ‘Day”; No longer highways of sinful indulgence, but the Pathway of Christ in me through Spirit-anointing.

God’s Spirit lights the fire, a fire of faithfulness to honor His Son; No longer the darkness of ‘flesh’ with no Light to guide, but The Spirit of fire, and from Him I will not hide.

God’s Spirit inflames the heart, the mind, and the will, and under His anointing God’s children cannot remain still; A world to touch, a life to see changed, blessed by the Spirit, heavenly rearranged!

God’s Spirit unveils the deceptions of self and Satan, clearly exposing the deceptions of a world of ‘flesh’; releasing the Light that make’s one’s pathways bright, I settle for Spirit-might, not a ‘fleshly candle light’!

God’s Spirit is the “faithful Guide”, and promised by Christ He does not hide; Presence is His promise, God’s power His provision, the mission of the Spirit is Christ’s ammunition!

God’s Spirit is about the ministry to ‘glorify Christ’, God’s appointment of ministry in Spirit-assistance; we’re not left alone in a world of unbelief but “Heaven-come-down” in sweet relief!

God’s Spirit abounds in Spirit-anointings – one mission in mind – to honor God’s Son! His anointings abound, and for every disciple, He waits to astound! He looks for the “child’ who needs help to obey, and offers His presence without any dismay!

God’s Spirit is sure: “Yes, there is the divine cure!” And He waits for the ‘servant’ to give Him His place, desiring in blessing, yes, His guardian gifts, intent in His ministry, no disciple’s rift!

God’s Spirit is certain – He’s the Spirit of Truth! Of Him, the world at large does not receive for its mind is deceived, because of the Spirit they neither see Him or know Him, content as spiritual orphans to live godless lives because it’s of the ‘flesh’ they think they spiritually thrive!

God’s Spirit has a ‘Day’, a time of explanation, when the Word clearly declares, “each of us shall give account of himself to God,” pray it’s not one of self-deviation, but one of “Christ Jesus exaltation”! Amen?

BY:J.FARRELL FISHER, NOV.2-4, 2017

In John 16 the Lord Jesus was preparing His disciples for coming opposition AND His soon departure, the opposition even by religious leaders and many of the Jewish community opposed to Christ Himself and the “true seekers”; Verses 1-4, Jesus speaking, “These things I have spoken to you, that you should not be made to stumble. They will put you out of the synagogues; yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service. And these things they will do to you because they have not known the Father nor Me. But these things I have told you, that when the time comes, you may remember that I told you of them. And these things I did not say to you at the beginning, because I was with you.”

Oh, but things were about to change! And Almighty God was sending the Holy Spirit because the Son’s ‘cross sacrifice’, His death, burial, resurrection, and Ascension would soon take place, and the Victorious Jesus would be seated at God’s right hand on the throne of Heaven and earth but with the promise, power, and participation of the Holy Spirit in the conviction of men’s heart, the convincing of their need of the Savior, their conversion, and guarding, guiding, and gifting the “new-born” sons and daughters of True, Eternal Faith “in Christ” for their earthly reigns, ministries, and extending of that Resurrection Life in Christ!

But for all true believers, that ministry of the Holy Spirit begins with “The Piercing Sword of Divine Conviction” – that’s God the Holy Spirit knocking on the door of your heart, mind, and will in yielding to King Jesus!

Follow John 16:5-15! “But now I go away to Him who sent Me, and none of you asks Me, ‘Where are You going?’ But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you.

And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment; of sin, because they do not believe in Me; of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; of judgment, because the ruler of the world is judged. I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth;

For He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you.”

As an ‘intro’ into the ministry of the Holy Spirit before I get to this message’s main emphasis, three things I want you to be aware of: 1) The Holy Spirit is our “faithful guide”, 2) The Holy Spirit grants us a full unveiling of Jesus (“He will glorify Me” in and through YOU!), 3) The Holy Spirit releases in all true, repentant, born-again believers “a forceful empowerment”!

And, “the forceful empowerment”? IT IS “THE PIERCING SWORD OF DIVINE CONVICTION”! There are powerful verses in Revelation 1 when John unveiled His vision of the Son of Man! Examine carefully Verses 12-19! John wrote: Then I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the seven lampstands One like the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band.

His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes like a flame of fire; His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, and His voice as the sound of many waters; He had in His right hand seven stars, out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength. And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. But He laid His right hand on me, saying to me,

“Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last. I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death. Write the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which will take place after this.”

Do you think that Christ Jesus was unveiling to John and us the continuing ministry of Christ through the Holy Spirit and His “eternal spiritual work” of the “piercing sword of divine conviction”? And, without a doubt, THAT is a vital ministry of the Holy Spirit! Jesus said, reminding you, of John 16:8-11, “And when He (the Holy Spirit) has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment; of sin, because they do not believe in Me (So they keep on “sinning”!); of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; of judgment, because the ruler of the world is judged.”

I want you also to examine, reflect upon, and study Paul’s words in 1 Thessalonians 1:4-6! He said: “knowing, beloved brethren, your election by God. (Election? The Greek word is “eklogon” meaning God’s initiative, God’s selection, God’s choice, which He sovereignly has the right to do! And you know the “chosen” by the unveiling of Christ in them and through them!). For our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit and in much assurance, as you know what kind of men we were among you for your sake.”

SO, FIRST, LOOK AT THE PIERCING SWORD OF DIVINE CONVICTION THAT IS AVAILABLE TO, YES, USHER IN DIVINE CONVERSION! Come to John 3 and receive Jesus’ words to Nicodemus and to us! John 3:1-8 says: There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with Him.”

Jesus answered and said to Him, “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 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.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” (Has “the wind of God’s Spirit” blown upon your life, and have YOU been born again?).

‘Born of the Spirit’ is no reality apart from the deep conviction of sin and its birthing of the state of sinful death, alienated and separated from Holy God! No awareness of sin and the sin nature is evidence of a godless mind intent on enjoying “its” fruit apart from repentance toward God and faith in Christ’s finished work at the cross.

What did we just read a brief time ago from 1 Thessalonians 1:5? “For our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit and in much assurance…”! Paul then said in Verse 6, “And you became followers of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Spirit…” There are those things, those attitudes, those outlooks in life that come, yes, from the world, the flesh, and from Satan himself, but ‘abiding joy’ in life comes only through the supernatural, new-birthing by the Spirit! We’re ‘born-again’ by the Spirit!

SECOND, WE EXAMINE THE SPIRITUAL SWORD OF DIVINE CONVICTION, THEN CONFESS, REPENT, TURN AWAY FROM THE PAST LIFE, AND REACH UP, INWARD, AND INTO ‘KINGDOM ALLEGIANCE’ AS EPHESIANS 2:18 TELLS US, “FOR THROUGH HIM WE BOTH HAVE ACCESS BY ONE SPIRIT TO THE FATHER! The Holy Spirit, Paul is telling us, The Spirit, having led us to conversion, now leads us into the spirit of faithful devotion as sincere ‘ambassadors’ in the Kingdom of our Lord and Savior, our walk being earthly representatives of His Kingdom-rule! He is and is to be King of kings and Lord of lords, and as servants in His Kingdom, we’re ‘set apart’ to extend His Kingdom-rule, express His Kingdom-fruit, and illumine His Kingdom-faithfulness! Christ Jesus never missed a ‘beat’ in the Hallelujah Chorus of world redemption and Kingdom of God purpose!

In 2 Corinthians 5:18-21 the Holy Word inspires the truly repentant and regenerated souls of men. It says: “Now all things are of God who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, AND has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

It’s “Christ in us, Christ through us, Christ being Himself” as Resurrected and Reigning Savior and Lord, graciously being “the hope of glory” in and through repentant, blood-bought, yielded vessels willing to be vessels only with Him our present, presiding Savior and Lord reaching out through us to extend His Kingdom, express His love, and prove His power!

THIRD, WE ENTRUST OURSELVES TO THE SPIRITUAL SWORD OF DIVINE CONVICTION, AND HAVING BEEN FAITHFULLY TRANSFORMED AND DECLARED SONS AND DAUGHTERS OF FATHER-GOD THROUGH CHRIST AND HIS HOLY SPIRIT, WE UNDERSTAND OUR STAMPING, “SEALING”, AND SERVICE TO BE FAITHFULLY LIVING LIFE TO THE HONOR OF CHRIST THROUGH THE HOLY SPIRIT!

Come to Ephesians 1:11-14, and Verses 17-19!! It says: “In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory. In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.[The gospel of your salvation? Your best efforts, your strong determination to honor Him as best you could, your mental mind-set apart from “crucified with Christ”, and even your ‘gloating’ at the ‘fruit’ you produced that has nothing to do with the “fruit of the Spirit”, your mind-set of ‘trust’ in self at its best as a substitute for being the redeemed tabernacle of Resurrection Presence to be Himself in you and through you that, like Paul, “I take the sentence of death daily to myself that His Resurrection Life may be manifested in me”? Ephesians 1:17-19!! “that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the KNOWLEDGE OF HIM, they eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power…”!! His power? His working? His greatness?

We choose to “die daily” and yield to His indwelling Spirit of power! In Ephesians 5:18 Paul also said, “And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit…”, yet, how easy it is for ‘believers’ to “grieve the Holy Spirit of God”, Ephesians 4:30!

Paul wasn’t finished yet! In Ephesians 6:17-18 Paul highlights true discipleship proof! They LIVE BY THE WORD OF REDEMPTIVE TRUTH, “taking 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…”

Is this why Romans 7:5-6 highlights living in “newness of the Spirit”? It says: “For when we were in the flesh (your unforgiven, sin-natured controlled life, strongly influenced by Satan and the world around you?), the sinful passions which were aroused by the law (the law of sin and death?) were at work in our members to bear fruit to death. But now we have been delivered from the law (of sin and death?), HAVING DIED TO WHAT WE WERE HELD BY, having died to what we WERE HELD BY, so that we should serve “in the newness of the Spirit” and not in the oldness of the letter.” How clear is that to you?

FOURTH, THE PIERCING SWORD OF DIVINE CONVICTION, THE SPIRIT UNVEILING MATURING IN CHRIST BY THE SPIRIT HIMSELF AND THE WORD, CONTINUES TO MANIFEST ETERNAL BLESSING, “GUIDING US INTO ALL TRUTH”! Luke 6:39 says, “Can the blind lead the blind?” Oh, but in Romans 8:12-17 we read, “Therefore, brethren, we are debtors – not to the flesh (the old sin nature!), to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die; BUT IF BY THE SPIRIT you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For as many as are LED BY THE SPIRIT, these are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.”

The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs – heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.”

As Christ Jesus ministered to His young disciples, and especially more pointedly as He knew He faced the Cross, He said to them in John 16:12-15, “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, HE WILL GUIDE YOU INTO ALL TRUTH; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine, and declare it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine . Therefore I said that He (the Holy Spirit) will take of Mine and declare it to you.”

The Holy Spirit is under “divine orders” from the Father to be your constant “guide”, your “faithful assistant”, and YOUR assured unveiling in you and through you to honor Christ Jesus, your Indwelling Lord and Savior! A few words of “Spirit-Inspiration”:

“God’s Spirit lights the Way, unveiling for me Christ’s glorifying ‘Day”; No longer highways of sinful indulgence, but the Pathway of Christ in me through Spirit-anointing.

God’s Spirit lights the fire, a fire of faithfulness to honor His Son; No longer the darkness of ‘flesh’ with no Light to guide, but The Spirit of fire, and from Him I will not hide.

God’s Spirit inflames the heart, the mind, and the will, and under His anointing God’s children cannot remain still; A world to touch, a life to see changed, blessed by the Spirit, heavenly rearranged!

God’s Spirit unveils the deceptions of self and Satan, clearly exposing the deceptions of a world of ‘flesh’; releasing the Light that make’s one’s pathways bright, I settle for Spirit-might, not a ‘fleshly candle light’!

God’s Spirit is the “faithful Guide”, and promised by Christ He does not hide; Presence is His promise, God’s power His provision, the mission of the Spirit is Christ’s ammunition!

God’s Spirit is about the ministry to ‘glorify Christ’, God’s appointment of ministry in Spirit-assistance; we’re not left alone in a world of unbelief but “Heaven-come-down” in sweet relief!

God’s Spirit abounds in Spirit-anointings – one mission in mind – to honor God’s Son! His anointings abound, and for every disciple, He waits to astound! He looks for the “child’ who needs help to obey, and offers His presence without any dismay!

God’s Spirit is sure: “Yes, there is the divine cure!” And He waits for the ‘servant’ to give Him His place, desiring in blessing, yes, His guardian gifts, intent in His ministry, no disciple’s rift!

God’s Spirit is certain – He’s the Spirit of Truth! Of Him, the world at large does not receive for its mind is deceived, because of the Spirit they neither see Him or know Him, content as spiritual orphans to live godless lives because it’s of the ‘flesh’ they think they spiritually thrive!

God’s Spirit has a ‘Day’, a time of explanation, when the Word clearly declares, “each of us shall give account of himself to God,” pray it’s not one of self-deviation, but one of “Christ Jesus exaltation”! Amen?

BY: J.FARRELL FISHER, AUGUST 20-22, 2017

In “The Thompson CHAIN-REFERENCE BIBLE”, published by Frank Charles Thompson and B.B. Kirkbridge Bible Co., Inc, Indianapolis, Indiana, there is found an awesome, inspiring, convicting Word of God about “The Soul’s Wars Or Life’s Victory”!! Come with me to Romans 7:4-11, and Verses 14-25! Read carefully!! It says, (The old King James Version!!), “Wherefore, my brethren, you also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that you should be married to another, even to Him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.

For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. (That’s ‘spiritual death’!). But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, not in the oldness of the letter. What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. No, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, You shall not covet.

But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. (Random House College Dictionary, defines it as “ardent, usually sensuous longing; sexual desire, lust, greatly desiring,” – or ‘gripped by desire, fleshly desires, rather than “led by the Holy Spirit”!). For without the law, sin was dead.

For I was alive without the law once; but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. (SIN ALWAYS BIRTHS SPIRITUAL DEATH!!). And the commandment which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me.

(Oh, then come to Verses 14-25!!). The Holy Word says: For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. For that which I do I allow not; for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. Now then, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwells in me. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh or old sin nature) dwells no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not; but the evil which I would not, that I do.

Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin dwells in me. I fins then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man; But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me INTO CAPTIVITY to the law of sin which is in my members.

O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from this body of death? I thank God through Jesus our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.” Natural mind bondage, gripped by the law of sin or death, even both, OR the spiritual life’s victory through Christ’s shed blood, death through the Cross, but three days later raised from death by the Word, Voice, and Authority of the One True Living God seated on His Throne of glory IN continuous Victory over that law of sin and death!

How many have you known who chose ‘spiritual blindness’ to the Highway of Holiness, continuing on, on the pathways of godlessness, content or deceived or enslaved to their “old nature”, ignoring Christ Jesus’ beckoning call, “I AM God’s Highway of Holiness – no one comes to Him except through Me!” The “spiritually blind” consider themselves, living under the cloud of good intentions, but blind to God’s grace, mercy, and love, unveiled in and through the life, death, and Resurrection of Christ, as ‘OK’- religious but not reconciled, good efforts but not graced by the Father, pretenders but not “New-Born” sons and daughters of Father-God through Christ alone!

In the old “American Hymnal”, published by The Broadman Press” in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1933, there is a very old hymn copyrighted in 1933 by Charles H. Gabriel, (Robert Coleman, the owner), entitled “Draw Near, Immanuel”. It says:

“Draw near to us, O God of hosts, And fill us to the uttermost With zeal to work for You today, In Your all-wise appointed way; Reveal Your will in us, and show Your hand divine, That we may know We are Your children, You our Guide And Hiding place, what’e’er betide.

Draw nigh to us, O Mighty One! Our shelter be from sun to sun; Our Alpha and Omega You Before whom every knee shall bow; Increase our faith, our strength renew, Fit us a mighty work to do.

Draw near to us, Immanuel, You Mighty God of Israel! Once more from Sinai’s flaming height Speak, that we may be led aright; Almighty, everlasting King of kings, with contrite hearts we sing, The righteous majesty and love Of Him who built the heaven’s above.

Draw near, Draw near, Immanuel, In grandeur and in majesty ,reveal Yourself today, Rejoice, rejoice, O Israel of God, Your God Omnipotent shall reign with universal sway; In grandeur and in majesty reveal Yourself today; Your God omnipotent shall reign with universal sway.” But YOU claim the “kingdoms of men”, “the kingdom of ‘best effort’ rather than the Kingdom of Sovereign, Merciful, Loving God?

Recently on TV I saw that ‘on-going commercial’ entitled “Growing Up Hip Hop in Atlanta”, and I thought, “Once again captured by the powers of darkness, totally blinded to the love, grace, and mercy of God “In Christ Jesus Only”, the way, the truth, the life that leads us into “the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Jesus Christ”?” And in the ‘known’ war of the soul, many captured by ‘the world, the flesh, and Satan’ parade daily in the “walk of death, the walk of rejection of Christ, and the walk in the dark clouds of rejection or, yes, the dark clouds of religious ‘pretense’”!

“The soul’s wars”? Do you remember in Exodus 5 as Moses and Aaron confronted the Pharaoh of Egypt with divine, eternal, life-changing truth, that Pharaoh said, in Verse 2, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go.” And in the “soul’s wars”, whether ‘religious distractions, flesh allegiance, or Satan-inspired unbelief’, unbelievers, though religious, choose,( hear me!), “Hell” over “heart-change” by the love, mercy, and grace of God, “self-determined ways of improvement, even religions”, over the Sovereign, sacred, sure way of everlasting life through Christ Jesus only!!

In 2 Kings 5, follow as we read about “Naaman’s leprosy”, so unveiling the “sin natures” of ALL mankind! It says: Now Naaman, captain of the host of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master, and honourable, because by him the Lord had given deliverance unto Syria: he was also a mighty man in valour, but he was a leper.

And the Syrians had gone out by companies, and had brought away captive out of the land of Israel a little maid, and she waited on Naaman’s wife. And she said unto her mistress, Would God my lord were with the prophet that is in Syria! For he would recover him of his leprosy. And one went in, and told his lord, saying, Thus and thus said the maid that is of the land of Israel.

And the king of Syria said, Go to, go, and I will send a letter unto the king of Israel. And he departed and took with him ten talents of silver, and six thousand pieces of gold, and ten changes of raiment. And he brought the letter to the king of Israel, saying, Now when this letter is come unto you, behold, I have therewith sent Naaman my servant to you, that you may recover him of his leprosy.

And it Came to pass, when the king of Israel had read the letter, that he rent (or tore) his clothes, and said, Am I god, to kill and to make alive, that this man is sent unto me to recover a man of his leprosy? Wherefore consider, I pray you, and see how he seeks a quarrel against me.

And it was so, when Elisha the man of God had heard that the king of Israel had rent his clothes, that he sent to the king, saying, Why have you rent your clothes? Let him come to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel. So Naaman came with his horses and his chariot, and stood at the door of the house of Elisha.

And Elisha sent a messenger unto him, saying, Go and wash in the Jordan River seven times, and your flesh shall come again to you, and you shall be clean. But Naaman was wroth (angry), and went away, and said, Behold, I thought, He will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the Lord his God, and strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper. Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? May I not wash in them, and be clean? So he turned and went away in a rage.

And his servants came near, and spoke to him, and said, My father, if the prophet had bid you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much rather then, when he says to you, Wash, and be clean? [Dare I tell you that ‘washing’ in the river was a forerunner of “washed in the blood of the Lamb of God”?].

Then he went down, and dipped himself seven times in Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God: and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean. And he returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and came, and stood before him: and he said, Behold, now I know that there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel: now therefore, I pray you, take the blessing of your servant.”

What a dramatic, life-changing event, when a man obeys the Word of God! In Luke 6:46 Jesus said: “And why can you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord’, and do not the things which I say?” In Titus 1:16 Paul, after exposing ‘unruly and vain talkers and deceivers’, ‘professing’ but not “possessing the Indwelling Christ”, wrote: “They profess that they know God; but in works (a daily life of yielding to all He tells us, yes, to do!!!) they deny Him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate.”

Oh, and then how do you respond as a ‘professing believer’, ‘hanging on’, but not sure, if persecution comes, that YOU as a regular ‘church attender’ will remain faithful?

Examine Romans 1:18-25! “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold (or suppress) the truth in unrighteousness; Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God has showed it unto them. For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead: so that they are without excuse; because that, when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations (or speculations), and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,

And changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things. Therefore God also gave them up TO UNCLEANNES THROUGH THE LUSTS OF THEIR OWN HEARTS, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves; Who changed the truth of God for “the lie” (one can sin, continue in sin, though a believer, and he/she will be saved in spite of their sin! How atrocious do you find that as you faithfully study, receive, and walk in the Word of God?).”

“God gave sinners up”? Verse 24! “God gave sinners up”? Verse 26! “God gave them up to a reprobate mind?” Verse28! OH! BUT… HEAR ME! ARE THERE THOSE WHO RECEIVE HOLY SPIRIT CONVICTION, GRANTED THE GIFTS OF REPENTANCE AND FAITH, AND WILLFULLY TURN FROM THE KNOWN WORLD PHILOSOPHY OF “DOING IT MY WAY”, REPENTING, REPENTING, REPENTING, THEN RESTING IN CHRIST’S CALVARY VICTORY AND RESURRECTION FROM THE TOMB, RECEIVING THE SPIRIT OF HIS INDWELLING, VICTORIOUS LIFE OVER SIN AND DEATH?

Do YOU believe that it is “the goodness and graciousness of God” that leads us to repentance and faith and an eternal heart and life change”? In Romans 2:4 Paul wrote: “Or do you despise the riches of God’s goodness and forbearance and longsuffering Spirit; not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?” In Acts 5 many “faithful disciples” were brought before the Council accused as ‘traitors’ to the Jewish faith, even suffering from the hands of the supposed ‘spiritual elite’. Acts 5:41 says, “And they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name.” They weren’t afraid to suffer for “doing the works of Jesus”, while at the same time many ‘professors of faith’ then and now will succeed and be financially rewarded by some, but lose sight of ministry and service to the glory of God in their daily walks, self-betraying their ‘faith’ because the religious world around them pumps their flesh!

Understand? Biblically, yes, there are ‘soul-worshippers’ in church attendance every Sunday but are blinded to “Life’s Continual Victory” through the abiding Presence of the King of kings and Lord of lords!!

• The Lord Jesus is not a ‘spiritual father’ who abandons or forsakes his own! In Hebrews 12:1-8 the author of Hebrews, inspired by the Spirit, illumines, yes, the warfare every disciple of Christ will face in their spiritual pilgrimage! “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily besets us, and let us run with patience (steadfastness) the race that is set before us.

Looking unto Jesus, THE AUTHOR AND FINISHER OF OUR FAITH; who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself, lest you be wearied and faint (or tired) in your minds. (Galatians 6:9, “And let us not be weary in well doing; for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.”)

You have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin!

And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as unto children, ‘My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when you are rebuked by Him.

For whom the Lord loves, He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives. If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with (obedient) sons; for what son is he whom the father doesn’t chasten? But if you be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then you are bastards, and not sons.”

• The Lord Jesus, as the spiritual father, will, does, and forever GUIDES HIS OWN!! In Luke 1:68-79 Zacharias, filled with the Holy Spirit, prophesied in Verses 68-79, saying: “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for He has visited and redeemed His people, And has raised up the horn of salvation in the house of His servant David; speaking by the mouth of His holy prophets, which have been since the world began;

That we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us; To perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember His holy covenant; the oath which He swore to our father Abraham, That He would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve Him without fear,

In holiness and righteousness before Him, all the day of our lives. And you, child, shall be called the prophet of the Highest; for you shall go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways; to give knowledge of salvation unto His people by the remission of their sins,

Through the tender mercy of our God; whereby the Dayspring from on high has visited us, To give Light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death (born in it!!), to guide our feet into “the way of peace”.”

In the old “American Hymnal” published in 1933 by Broadman Press, Nashville, Tennessee, are the words to “Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah. It says:

“Guide me, O Thou great Jehovah, Pilgrim thro’ this barren land; I am weak, But You are mighty, Hold me with Your powerful hand; Bread of Heaven, feed me till I want no more; Bread of Heaven, Feed me till I want no More.

Open now the crystal fountain Whence the healing waters flow; Let the fiery, cloudy pillar Lead me all my journey through; Strong Deliverer, Be Thou still my Strength and Shield; Strong Deliverer, Be Thou still my Strength and Shield.

When I tread the verge of Jordan, Bid my anxious fears subside; Bear me through the swelling current, Land me safe on Canaan’s side; Songs of praises I will ever give to Thee; Songs of praises I will ever give to Thee.”

Can YOU say, “I thank God for saving me, keeping me, and upholding me in His heavenly cloud of unending glory”?

I close with Romans 8:1-2! There is now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh (old sin nature!), but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.” Is “Hallelujah” your daily celebration of the love, grace, and mercy of Loving God?

BY: J.FARRELL FISHER, JULY 11-13, 2018

There’s no doubt if one “lives” in, through, by “The Word of God”, that he/she would be familiar with the fifth book of the New Testament that is referred to by many as the “Acts of the Apostles”, although faithful Bible students truly know that it WAS and IS “The Acts of the Holy Spirit” as the Spirit came at Pentecost to, yes, unveil Christ the Redeemer, Savior, and Lord of the Eternal, Heavenly, Resurrected Life in Christ! Without a doubt, it is one of the most thrilling, demanding, life-changing messages in all the Word of God! It unveils the “blood-bought”, “Christ-Indwelling Disciples”, AND their “mission” under the anointing of the Third Person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit! And true disciples are told by Christ, “Receive the Holy Spirit,” “Be filled with the Holy Spirit,” “Be guided by the Holy Spirit,” “Be empowered and led by the Holy Spirit”!!

But for many ‘professors of faith’, their service in honor of Christ is a call to “best effort” without any consideration of the need of the Holy Spirit to magnify, honor, or glorify Christ through them – “My best effort is all God asks of me”! Really? Is YOUR ‘faith’ what you hold in yourself as to your ability ‘to do’ whatever Holy God would ask of you? OR, is there “the raising up from spiritual death by the Holy Spirit” what must occur, has occurred, and will occur as loving God seeks to ‘save’ whoever is captive to their old sin natures and separated from Holy God, doing so by Christ’s purchase of men bound and enslaved to their sin natures by shedding His own precious blood FOR “their salvation and deliverance from the bondage of sin and Satan’s ‘hold’ on their lives”, freeing them to be “vessels” or “tabernacles” or “Temples” of His Resurrection Presence?

In Jeremiah 29 there are words from God through Jeremiah unveiling God’s heart not only for “captives” then, but I’m convinced even “captives” now enslaved to their old sin natures and under “satanic’ control! In Verses 11-14a we find a “Thus says the Lord”! “For I know the thoughts that I think toward YOU, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give YOU a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.

And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back from your captivity”! Are YOU “free in Christ” or still bound in ‘flesh-allegiance’, a strong ‘self-will’, or, even worse, ‘bound in Satanic allegiance though unaware YOU allowed him in your life’?

IN Luke 4:16-21 Jesus was rejected at Nazareth, but He still had Eternal Words that had to be shared then and now, The Word saying: So Jesus came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read. And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written (from Isaiah 61):

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”

Then He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him. And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

Several questions that each one reading this passage must answer! If Christ Jesus, the Son of God in a human body, necessitated the Holy Spirit’s anointing on His Life of Faith and Obedience, are we, like Jesus, to receive the Holy Spirit in our walk of faith and obedience? (Yet, I would dare say that at least 90% of the Christian community, past, present, and future, have, or will, remain ‘brainless’ about Spirit-Anointed living!).

Beyond ‘Spirit-Anointed Living’, like Christ Jesus, as an eternal necessity, there is the ‘divine unveiling of the necessity of response to the Holy Spirit’s will’! Luke 4:18b tells us, “because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor” – and without hesitation, I’m convinced ‘the poor’ includes but is beyond ‘street beggars’ but includes the vast volumes of life stories poor in God’s intent of the need of ‘lost men’ being reunited to Holy God! And King Jesus was fully aware of the necessity of Holy Spirit “Anointing” in fulfilling God’s call upon one’s earthly walk and journey of “Redeemed Faith Through Holy Spirit Anointing”!!

To be “in Christ” is to live in understanding of our new “eternal calling”, being witnesses of God’s “amazing grace through the blood redemption of the Son of God”, yes, enlightened by the Holy Spirit!

Oh, and then in Luke 4:20b, we read of “eternal enlightment”! “And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were FIXED ON JESUS.” Sadly, there is a ‘world’ surrounding you, even in most churches, whose “eyes” are “FIXED ON EVERYTHING BUT HIM”!!

I personally look upon the Book of Acts as “The Introduction To True Discipleship”, more than likely penned by Luke as a further explanation of his “The Gospel of Luke”! And Acts 1:1-3 is Dr. Luke telling us: “The former account I made, O Theophillus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, until the day in which He was taken up, after He through the Holy Spirit had given commandments to the apostles whom He had chosen, to whom He also presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs being seen by them during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.”

Hear me! To have eyes fixed upon Jesus’ resurrection presence is TO SEE AND HEAR AND LEARN OF ‘born-again disciples’ learning of, yes, the reality of Jesus’ ushering in “the kingdom of God in the here and now” AND “new disciples” being enlightened to the reality of extending His kingdom rule, expressing His kingdom love, and proving His kingdom power in touching the needy world with His love, His grace, His mercy, and His power through every new ‘citizen of His Kingdom-rule’!

In Acts 1:6-8 we read, “Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” And Jesus said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. BUT you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and TO THE END OF THE EARTH.”

But throughout ‘human history’, which has been and still is resistant to the Holy Spirit “guiding us into all truth”, in Romans 1:18-25, the Apostle Paul alerted us saying: “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, WHO SUPPRESS THE TRUTH IN UNRIGHTEOUSNESS, because what may be clearly known of God is manifest in them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse;

Because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man – and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, WHO EXCHANGED THE TRUTH OF GOD FOR ‘THE LIE’, (The Lie? One can ‘sin’ and not die!), and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.”

In “The Poetical Works of Elizabeth Barrett Browning”, published writings from 1826 to 1844, she had one writing entitled “The Soul’s Travelling” where she introduced it (p.76) saying: “I dwell amid the city, The great humanity which beats Its life along the stony streets, Like a strong unsunned river In a self-made course, is ever Rolling on, rolling on!” Oh, and a few sentences later she wrote about, “The whine of voices that have made Their own grief’s sacredness a trade – The curse that rings hollowly The crime against the misery –“!

Throughout all of human history, Holy God IS honored by some as they “rest” in the finished work of Christ, being guided by the Holy Spirit into all of Christ’s embodiment of Holy Truth! Has the Holy Spirit unfolded in you an understanding of what Christ Jesus was all about in His earthly walk, His faithful ministry, and His historic personal sacrifice “At The Cross”?

In “Unger’s Bible Dictionary”, compiled by Merrill F. Unger and published by Moody Press, (the twentieth printing in 1974!), he defines a “Christian” as follows: “A Christian is a believer in and a follower of Jesus Christ the Messiah. This name is more widely employed than any other designation of those who believe unto salvation. However, it occurs in the Sacred Text only three times: “And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch” (Acts 11:26); “Then Agrippa said unto Paul, ‘Almost you persuade me to be a Christian’” (Acts 26:28); “If any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed” (1 Peter 4:16).

The term Christian is clearly a Gentile designation for believers since the word Christ upon which the term was constructed, suggestions recognition of the Messiah, which no unbelieving Jew was prepared to do. Becoming a Christian, according to the N.T., is a very definite act with significant results. According to Lewis Sperry Chafer, no less than thirty-three simultaneous and instantaneous divine undertakings and transformations, which collectively constitute the salvation of a soul, take place the moment one exercises faith in Christ and is saved.

Among these is that a believer in Christ has the guilt of sins removed. Secondly he is taken out of Adam, the sphere of condemnation, and placed in Christ, the sphere of righteousness and justification. Thirdly, he is given a new standing by virtue of his being placed “in Christ” by the Spirit’s baptizing work (1 Corinthians 12:13, Romans 6:3-4) and “made…acceptable” (Ephesians 1:6). (Chafer continues):

A Christian then, as Chafer says, “Is not one who does certain things for God but…one for whom God has done certain things; he is not so much one who conforms to a certain manner of life as he is one who has received the gift of eternal life; he is not one who depends upon a hopelessly imperfect state but rather one who has reached a perfect standing before God as BEING IN CHRIST.” (This came out of “Systematic Theology”, Vol.7, p.75).

(Question! “If there are “false Christs” professing to be the “new Messiah”, are we to suppose there are “no false Christians”?). AND, in 2 Peter 2:1-3, Peter, inspired by the Spirit, confronts, whether in New Testament historic days or modern-day ‘Christianity’, the reality of the “pretenders” who must be challenged by the Living Truth! He said: “But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction.

And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed. By covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words; for a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber.”

When what you’ve been reading here, or in the Word of God, begins to “sound out” Biblical Truth, what does one do? Adapt to the ‘majority’ of Biblical followers who know NOTHING of redemptive truth, OR, be ‘sold out’ to full surrender to the Christ and His error free, Living Word?

Several truths to bring this teaching to an eternal, life-blessing fulfillment and completion: 1) THERE IS THE POWERFUL, SPIRITUALLY MAGNETIC, AWESOME PULL OF GOD ON ALL MEN, BEYOND AND ABOVE WHAT HE/SHE DETERMINES FOR ONE’S SELF! I will never forget C.S.Lewis’ statement in his book entitled “Mere Christianity” published by Simon & Shuster in 1996, p.121, “If I find in myself a desire that no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.” Could that be the ‘other world’ entitled “the kingdom of God” where Christ Jesus IS Lord over all?

I have no hesitation in saying to you that the “trash” of warped, fleshly, worldly, man-educated minds is not the “Treasure of Truth” that IS Christ the Lord Himself, the True –Redemption- Savior- the Master of the “blood-bought sons and daughters” who have understood, repented, rested in Christ’s “finished work” at the Cross, yes, becoming sons and daughters in the Eternal Family of God, having been transformed out of repentance and faith into “new creations” in the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Jesus Christ!

2) THERE IS THE “AT TIMES” SAD AWARENESS OF MEN’S LIVES WHO ARE, YES, TOTALLY SOLD OUT TO A LIFE-WALK VOID OF ALLEGIANCE TO THE GOD AND SAVIOR AND SPIRIT OF LIVES LIVED IN ETERNAL BLESSEDNESS! How ‘wise’ was Solomon when we read in Proverbs 10:6-9, 22-25, “Blessings are on the head of the righteous, but violence covers the mouth of the wicked. The memory of the righteous is blessed, but the name of the wicked will rot. The wise in heart will receive commands, but a prating fool will fall. He who walks with integrity walks securely, but he who perverts his ways will become known.

Verses 22-25, “the blessing of the Lord makes one rich, and He adds no sorrow with it. To do evil is like sport to a fool, but a man of understanding has wisdom. The fear of the wicked will come upon him, and the desire of the righteous will be granted. When the whirlwind passes by, the wicked is no more, BUT THE RIGHTEOUS HAS AN EVERLASTING FOUNDATION.” Glory!

Blessed or cursed? Walking securely or walking void of the presence of the God of unending promises? ‘Trying’ or “TRUSTING”? “Tiring through life’s journey or ‘resting’ in His abiding strength and power”? Whirlwind existence but with no Promise of Assurance to see you through your storm?

3) I PRAY THAT “YOU” KNOW THERE IS ETERNAL HOPE FOR THE BLESSED LIFE IN CHRIST AS DAILY THE “New-Born” in Christ TAKES THE SENTENCE OF DEATH DAILY TO THE OLD MAN THAT, YES, DAILY, CHRIST JESUS MAY HAVE HIS RIGHTFUL PLACE ON HIS THRONE IN YOUR HEART, MIND, AND DAILY WILL OF FULL SURRENDER TO HIS LORDSHIP! In Romans 5:9-11 we read, “Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God THROUGH THE DEATH OF HIS SON, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be (being) saved by His life. And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we HAVE NOW RECEIVED THE RECONCILIATION.” Are YOU “reconciled to God through Christ”, and YOU KNOW IT?

What does Romans 8:1-6 and Verses 9-17 tell us? There is therefore NOW no condemnation TO THOSE WHO ARE IN CHRIST JESUS, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh BUT (walk) according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

Verses 9-17 follows: But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.

Therefore, brethren, we are debtors – not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs – heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, IF INDEED WE SUFFER WITH HIM, THAT WE MAY ALSO BE GLORIFIED TOGETHER.’

4) ONE MORE VITAL POINT OF INTEREST AND CONCERN ABOUT “FAITHFULNESS FOREVER”! Get Ready! Some are going to be shocked by what they are about to read, even angry with God and with anyone who shares “the whole truth and nothing but the truth”! In Hebrews 3:7-19 we read:

Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, in the day of trial in the wilderness, Where your fathers tested Me, tried Me, and saw My works for forty years. Therefore I was angry with that generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart, and they have not known My ways.’ So I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest.’”

Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; but exhort one another daily, while it is called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ IF we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end, while it is said: ‘Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.’

For who, having heard, rebelled? Indeed, was it not all who came out of Egypt, led by Moses? Now with whom was He angry forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose corpses fell in the wilderness? And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who did not obey? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.”

Did you hear it and catch the spirit of those who, yes, do “fall away”? THEY DID NOT OBEY, THUS FALLING AWAY THROUGH UNBELIEF!! (PLEASE read carefully Luke 12:35-46, earth-shaking, foundation quaking in many professing lives who live their “faith” in self-awareness, not in and through Christ’s eternal Presence within them, truly their only hope of eternal glory!). (Even 1 Thessalonians 4:1-8 Paul the Apostle scared Hell out of a lot of professing believers who lived a compromised ‘faith-journey’, assured they were OK when Hell’s gates had already been opened wide for their entrance!).

I close with an old hymn by Charles Wesley and Lowell Mason entitled “A Charge to Keep”, found in The Broadman Hymnal published in 1940 by Broadman Press, Nashville, Tennessee. It says: “A charge to keep I have, A God to glorify; Who gave His Son my soul to save, And fit it for the sky;

To serve the present age, My calling to fulfill, – O may it all my powers engage To do my Master’s will!

Arm me, Lord, with jealous care, As in Your sight to live; And O, Your servant, Lord, prepare A strict account to give!” Are YOU ready to be examined by your Master as to His will, walk, and ways, being done in you by His Abiding Presence?

BY: J.FARRELL FISHER, JULY 11-13, 2018

There’s no doubt if one “lives” in, through, by “The Word of God”, that he/she would be familiar with the fifth book of the New Testament that is referred to by many as the “Acts of the Apostles”, although faithful Bible students truly know that it WAS and IS “The Acts of the Holy Spirit” as the Spirit came at Pentecost to, yes, unveil Christ the Redeemer, Savior, and Lord of the Eternal, Heavenly, Resurrected Life in Christ! Without a doubt, it is one of the most thrilling, demanding, life-changing messages in all the Word of God! It unveils the “blood-bought”, “Christ-Indwelling Disciples”, AND their “mission” under the anointing of the Third Person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit! And true disciples are told by Christ, “Receive the Holy Spirit,” “Be filled with the Holy Spirit,” “Be guided by the Holy Spirit,” “Be empowered and led by the Holy Spirit”!!

But for many ‘professors of faith’, their service in honor of Christ is a call to “best effort” without any consideration of the need of the Holy Spirit to magnify, honor, or glorify Christ through them – “My best effort is all God asks of me”! Really? Is YOUR ‘faith’ what you hold in yourself as to your ability ‘to do’ whatever Holy God would ask of you? OR, is there “the raising up from spiritual death by the Holy Spirit” what must occur, has occurred, and will occur as loving God seeks to ‘save’ whoever is captive to their old sin natures and separated from Holy God, doing so by Christ’s purchase of men bound and enslaved to their sin natures by shedding His own precious blood FOR “their salvation and deliverance from the bondage of sin and Satan’s ‘hold’ on their lives”, freeing them to be “vessels” or “tabernacles” or “Temples” of His Resurrection Presence?

In Jeremiah 29 there are words from God through Jeremiah unveiling God’s heart not only for “captives” then, but I’m convinced even “captives” now enslaved to their old sin natures and under “satanic’ control! In Verses 11-14a we find a “Thus says the Lord”! “For I know the thoughts that I think toward YOU, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give YOU a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.

And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back from your captivity”! Are YOU “free in Christ” or still bound in ‘flesh-allegiance’, a strong ‘self-will’, or, even worse, ‘bound in Satanic allegiance though unaware YOU allowed him in your life’?

IN Luke 4:16-21 Jesus was rejected at Nazareth, but He still had Eternal Words that had to be shared then and now, The Word saying: So Jesus came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read. And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written (from Isaiah 61):

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”

Then He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him. And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

Several questions that each one reading this passage must answer! If Christ Jesus, the Son of God in a human body, necessitated the Holy Spirit’s anointing on His Life of Faith and Obedience, are we, like Jesus, to receive the Holy Spirit in our walk of faith and obedience? (Yet, I would dare say that at least 90% of the Christian community, past, present, and future, have, or will, remain ‘brainless’ about Spirit-Anointed living!).

Beyond ‘Spirit-Anointed Living’, like Christ Jesus, as an eternal necessity, there is the ‘divine unveiling of the necessity of response to the Holy Spirit’s will’! Luke 4:18b tells us, “because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor” – and without hesitation, I’m convinced ‘the poor’ includes but is beyond ‘street beggars’ but includes the vast volumes of life stories poor in God’s intent of the need of ‘lost men’ being reunited to Holy God! And King Jesus was fully aware of the necessity of Holy Spirit “Anointing” in fulfilling God’s call upon one’s earthly walk and journey of “Redeemed Faith Through Holy Spirit Anointing”!!

To be “in Christ” is to live in understanding of our new “eternal calling”, being witnesses of God’s “amazing grace through the blood redemption of the Son of God”, yes, enlightened by the Holy Spirit!

Oh, and then in Luke 4:20b, we read of “eternal enlightment”! “And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were FIXED ON JESUS.” Sadly, there is a ‘world’ surrounding you, even in most churches, whose “eyes” are “FIXED ON EVERYTHING BUT HIM”!!

I personally look upon the Book of Acts as “The Introduction To True Discipleship”, more than likely penned by Luke as a further explanation of his “The Gospel of Luke”! And Acts 1:1-3 is Dr. Luke telling us: “The former account I made, O Theophillus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, until the day in which He was taken up, after He through the Holy Spirit had given commandments to the apostles whom He had chosen, to whom He also presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs being seen by them during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.”

Hear me! To have eyes fixed upon Jesus’ resurrection presence is TO SEE AND HEAR AND LEARN OF ‘born-again disciples’ learning of, yes, the reality of Jesus’ ushering in “the kingdom of God in the here and now” AND “new disciples” being enlightened to the reality of extending His kingdom rule, expressing His kingdom love, and proving His kingdom power in touching the needy world with His love, His grace, His mercy, and His power through every new ‘citizen of His Kingdom-rule’!

In Acts 1:6-8 we read, “Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” And Jesus said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. BUT you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and TO THE END OF THE EARTH.”

But throughout ‘human history’, which has been and still is resistant to the Holy Spirit “guiding us into all truth”, in Romans 1:18-25, the Apostle Paul alerted us saying: “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, WHO SUPPRESS THE TRUTH IN UNRIGHTEOUSNESS, because what may be clearly known of God is manifest in them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse;

Because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man – and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, WHO EXCHANGED THE TRUTH OF GOD FOR ‘THE LIE’, (The Lie? One can ‘sin’ and not die!), and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.”

In “The Poetical Works of Elizabeth Barrett Browning”, published writings from 1826 to 1844, she had one writing entitled “The Soul’s Travelling” where she introduced it (p.76) saying: “I dwell amid the city, The great humanity which beats Its life along the stony streets, Like a strong unsunned river In a self-made course, is ever Rolling on, rolling on!” Oh, and a few sentences later she wrote about, “The whine of voices that have made Their own grief’s sacredness a trade – The curse that rings hollowly The crime against the misery –“!

Throughout all of human history, Holy God IS honored by some as they “rest” in the finished work of Christ, being guided by the Holy Spirit into all of Christ’s embodiment of Holy Truth! Has the Holy Spirit unfolded in you an understanding of what Christ Jesus was all about in His earthly walk, His faithful ministry, and His historic personal sacrifice “At The Cross”?

In “Unger’s Bible Dictionary”, compiled by Merrill F. Unger and published by Moody Press, (the twentieth printing in 1974!), he defines a “Christian” as follows: “A Christian is a believer in and a follower of Jesus Christ the Messiah. This name is more widely employed than any other designation of those who believe unto salvation. However, it occurs in the Sacred Text only three times: “And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch” (Acts 11:26); “Then Agrippa said unto Paul, ‘Almost you persuade me to be a Christian’” (Acts 26:28); “If any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed” (1 Peter 4:16).

The term Christian is clearly a Gentile designation for believers since the word Christ upon which the term was constructed, suggestions recognition of the Messiah, which no unbelieving Jew was prepared to do. Becoming a Christian, according to the N.T., is a very definite act with significant results. According to Lewis Sperry Chafer, no less than thirty-three simultaneous and instantaneous divine undertakings and transformations, which collectively constitute the salvation of a soul, take place the moment one exercises faith in Christ and is saved.

Among these is that a believer in Christ has the guilt of sins removed. Secondly he is taken out of Adam, the sphere of condemnation, and placed in Christ, the sphere of righteousness and justification. Thirdly, he is given a new standing by virtue of his being placed “in Christ” by the Spirit’s baptizing work (1 Corinthians 12:13, Romans 6:3-4) and “made…acceptable” (Ephesians 1:6). (Chafer continues):

A Christian then, as Chafer says, “Is not one who does certain things for God but…one for whom God has done certain things; he is not so much one who conforms to a certain manner of life as he is one who has received the gift of eternal life; he is not one who depends upon a hopelessly imperfect state but rather one who has reached a perfect standing before God as BEING IN CHRIST.” (This came out of “Systematic Theology”, Vol.7, p.75).

(Question! “If there are “false Christs” professing to be the “new Messiah”, are we to suppose there are “no false Christians”?). AND, in 2 Peter 2:1-3, Peter, inspired by the Spirit, confronts, whether in New Testament historic days or modern-day ‘Christianity’, the reality of the “pretenders” who must be challenged by the Living Truth! He said: “But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction.

And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed. By covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words; for a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber.”

When what you’ve been reading here, or in the Word of God, begins to “sound out” Biblical Truth, what does one do? Adapt to the ‘majority’ of Biblical followers who know NOTHING of redemptive truth, OR, be ‘sold out’ to full surrender to the Christ and His error free, Living Word?

Several truths to bring this teaching to an eternal, life-blessing fulfillment and completion: 1) THERE IS THE POWERFUL, SPIRITUALLY MAGNETIC, AWESOME PULL OF GOD ON ALL MEN, BEYOND AND ABOVE WHAT HE/SHE DETERMINES FOR ONE’S SELF! I will never forget C.S.Lewis’ statement in his book entitled “Mere Christianity” published by Simon & Shuster in 1996, p.121, “If I find in myself a desire that no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.” Could that be the ‘other world’ entitled “the kingdom of God” where Christ Jesus IS Lord over all?

I have no hesitation in saying to you that the “trash” of warped, fleshly, worldly, man-educated minds is not the “Treasure of Truth” that IS Christ the Lord Himself, the True –Redemption- Savior- the Master of the “blood-bought sons and daughters” who have understood, repented, rested in Christ’s “finished work” at the Cross, yes, becoming sons and daughters in the Eternal Family of God, having been transformed out of repentance and faith into “new creations” in the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Jesus Christ!

2) THERE IS THE “AT TIMES” SAD AWARENESS OF MEN’S LIVES WHO ARE, YES, TOTALLY SOLD OUT TO A LIFE-WALK VOID OF ALLEGIANCE TO THE GOD AND SAVIOR AND SPIRIT OF LIVES LIVED IN ETERNAL BLESSEDNESS! How ‘wise’ was Solomon when we read in Proverbs 10:6-9, 22-25, “Blessings are on the head of the righteous, but violence covers the mouth of the wicked. The memory of the righteous is blessed, but the name of the wicked will rot. The wise in heart will receive commands, but a prating fool will fall. He who walks with integrity walks securely, but he who perverts his ways will become known.

Verses 22-25, “the blessing of the Lord makes one rich, and He adds no sorrow with it. To do evil is like sport to a fool, but a man of understanding has wisdom. The fear of the wicked will come upon him, and the desire of the righteous will be granted. When the whirlwind passes by, the wicked is no more, BUT THE RIGHTEOUS HAS AN EVERLASTING FOUNDATION.” Glory!

Blessed or cursed? Walking securely or walking void of the presence of the God of unending promises? ‘Trying’ or “TRUSTING”? “Tiring through life’s journey or ‘resting’ in His abiding strength and power”? Whirlwind existence but with no Promise of Assurance to see you through your storm?

3) I PRAY THAT “YOU” KNOW THERE IS ETERNAL HOPE FOR THE BLESSED LIFE IN CHRIST AS DAILY THE “New-Born” in Christ TAKES THE SENTENCE OF DEATH DAILY TO THE OLD MAN THAT, YES, DAILY, CHRIST JESUS MAY HAVE HIS RIGHTFUL PLACE ON HIS THRONE IN YOUR HEART, MIND, AND DAILY WILL OF FULL SURRENDER TO HIS LORDSHIP! In Romans 5:9-11 we read, “Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God THROUGH THE DEATH OF HIS SON, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be (being) saved by His life. And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we HAVE NOW RECEIVED THE RECONCILIATION.” Are YOU “reconciled to God through Christ”, and YOU KNOW IT?

What does Romans 8:1-6 and Verses 9-17 tell us? There is therefore NOW no condemnation TO THOSE WHO ARE IN CHRIST JESUS, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh BUT (walk) according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

Verses 9-17 follows: But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.

Therefore, brethren, we are debtors – not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs – heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, IF INDEED WE SUFFER WITH HIM, THAT WE MAY ALSO BE GLORIFIED TOGETHER.’

4) ONE MORE VITAL POINT OF INTEREST AND CONCERN ABOUT “FAITHFULNESS FOREVER”! Get Ready! Some are going to be shocked by what they are about to read, even angry with God and with anyone who shares “the whole truth and nothing but the truth”! In Hebrews 3:7-19 we read:

Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, in the day of trial in the wilderness, Where your fathers tested Me, tried Me, and saw My works for forty years. Therefore I was angry with that generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart, and they have not known My ways.’ So I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest.’”

Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; but exhort one another daily, while it is called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ IF we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end, while it is said: ‘Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.’

For who, having heard, rebelled? Indeed, was it not all who came out of Egypt, led by Moses? Now with whom was He angry forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose corpses fell in the wilderness? And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who did not obey? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.”

Did you hear it and catch the spirit of those who, yes, do “fall away”? THEY DID NOT OBEY, THUS FALLING AWAY THROUGH UNBELIEF!! (PLEASE read carefully Luke 12:35-46, earth-shaking, foundation quaking in many professing lives who live their “faith” in self-awareness, not in and through Christ’s eternal Presence within them, truly their only hope of eternal glory!). (Even 1 Thessalonians 4:1-8 Paul the Apostle scared Hell out of a lot of professing believers who lived a compromised ‘faith-journey’, assured they were OK when Hell’s gates had already been opened wide for their entrance!).

I close with an old hymn by Charles Wesley and Lowell Mason entitled “A Charge to Keep”, found in The Broadman Hymnal published in 1940 by Broadman Press, Nashville, Tennessee. It says: “A charge to keep I have, A God to glorify; Who gave His Son my soul to save, And fit it for the sky;

To serve the present age, My calling to fulfill, – O may it all my powers engage To do my Master’s will!

Arm me, Lord, with jealous care, As in Your sight to live; And O, Your servant, Lord, prepare A strict account to give!” Are YOU ready to be examined by your Master as to His will, walk, and ways, being done in you by His Abiding Presence?

BY: J.Farrell Fisher, August 31-Sept.2, 2017

Really, seriously, personally, even corporately as a church, denomination, individual disciple, family, or international community of faith, consider the title and then consider if the world at large or locally or near-people around you has any understanding or comprehension of “The awareness of a God-blessed life”!

When it comes to a God-blessed life, there is a major warfare in the minds and hearts of men that face stiff opposition from the world, the old sin-natured man, and, of course, from Satan and the powers of darkness who want to blind you to the Truth of a “God-Blessed Life”!

But, at the same time, in immature disciples, there is the significant problem of failing to understand and deal daily with the ‘old nature’ that wants to remain dominant in you even if you ‘believe’. Some seriously do not grasp the tendencies of the old sin nature to be justified to remain around, even if you desire to be a professing believer and active church member! And, of course, in the maturing process from ‘babes in Christ’ to maturing disciples, and, yes, to senior citizens of the Kingdom, it is the blessed, powerful professor of Christ-like ‘citizenry’ and ‘loyalty’ and “royalty”, the Holy Spirit, who “guides us and matures us in the True Faith”!

Some fail to understand what Paul spoke about in Galatians 4:19 when he said, “My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is (fully) formed in you.” The problem exists of young, immature, untrained disciples, who are unaware of “standing fast in the liberty by which Christ has made us free,” Paul, having said earlier in Galatians 4:5, “For we through the Spirit eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.”

So, there is for some, in the state of spiritual immaturity, an unawareness of the Sovereign God’s blessing of, yes, “the gift of the Holy Spirit”, who instills blessing after blessing, Sovereign gifting of the necessary arms to equip you in fighting the good fight of faith, AND manifesting in you the victorious nature of Christ, not your old man’s best ‘fleshly giftings’, but the “fruit of the Spirit” of God’s tree of life!

In Galatians 6:22-25 Paul enlightens every believer, saying, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. And those WHO ARE CHRIST’s have crucified the flesh (daily!) with ITS passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.”

Have you been discipled in, discipling now in others, the reality, the spiritual reality of the “new-birth”, born into the Kingdom of God by the Spirit, Paul saying in 2 Corinthians 6:16b, “For you (“in Christ”) ARE THE TEMPLE OF THE LIVING GOD!” You’re the structure – the Holy Spirit is the “manifested Spirit of Christ in you the hope of glory!” You’re the ‘tabernacle’ – He’s the cloud of Holy Presence!

What was it Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5:20-21? “Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that WE MIGHT BECOME THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD IN HIM.” And, if the “Him” is not in you, evidenced by the presence, anointing, fruit-producing of the Spirit, releasing God’s power through your crucified life daily, that His Spirit might then manifest Himself in power through our available bodies, or is it ‘try your best?’, demonstrating a ‘failing religiosity’?!?

Or, in the awareness of a God-blessed life, is it your ‘striving, trying, attempting’, or is it faithfully taking the ‘sentence of daily death that His Resurrection Life, Spirit, and Power may be manifested in YOUR mortal flesh’? How shocking did you find it when in 2 Corinthians 6:12 Paul wrote of, yes, Corinthian believers, “You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted by your own affections.”

And that’s so valid across the spectrum of ‘church life’ because “our best” that was crucified with Christ has, by some, Christian people been ‘resurrected’ to inspire them, rather than “to REST” in His Presence through them by His Holy Spirit!

The awareness of a God-blessed life? In 1 Corinthians 1:26-31 we read: “For you see YOUR CALLING, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence. But OF HIM you are in Christ Jesus, who BECAME FOR US wisdom from God – and righteousness and sanctification and redemption – that, as it is written, ‘He who glories, let him glory in the Lord.’”

But, in the reality, worldwide, of “the awareness of self-made lives”, consider those who are “wise in their own eyes”, enormously ‘self-sufficient’, extremely ‘braggadocios’ about their own manifested abilities, their own manipulated mind trained to be above and beyond the ‘lesser achievers’ that surround them, and just as arrogant as Pharoah of Egypt who didn’t know the Lord, didn’t want to know the Lord, and led his armies to their death opposing God and His people! And you’d be surprised if you thought the “pharaohs” were still around trying to expose God? There is a known world AROUND YOU who’d just as soon see attempts on God, on His Son, on His Spirit, on His Word, on His Church, on His sons and daughters of Redemptive Faith – “Let’s wipe them out”, “let’s dumb them down”, “let’s ignore their ministries and bodies and cloud their callings, and seek to expose their dumb, twisted, unlearned ways which are of no benefit in our world of prosperity and fleshly achievements”!

But then, confronted by different ‘world philosophies’ and ‘man-designed religions’, God prophetically unveiled in the Old Testament Holy Word the coming of the Promised Messiah! And Christ Jesus came, born of the Virgin Mary, matured in His true identity as a child, fully equipped by Merciful God to be His reconciler for fallen mankind into, yes, the Holy People of God, who become “salt and light” in their needy worlds around them! At the same time, Holy God knew, understood, and provided for His repentant people the Holy Spirit to “bless” His chosen people, and see that the Resurrected Christ is manifested in them and through them, becoming God’s “fruit producer” in every knew son or daughter of “blood redemption faith”!

In fact, Jesus said in Luke 11:13, “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!” [Tell me, do you know if your church leads in new discipleship training, and does it include the necessary ministry of the Holy Spirit?]. Let my highlight Biblical Truths about “The Blessed Life”!

FIRST, BE AWARE YOU’RE BEING LED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT! In Romans 8:23 Paul mentioned disciples having “the first-fruits of the Spirit”, yet he went on to say that, “we who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves (at times) groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body,” understanding IT IS THE TEMPLE OF THE LORD, and we must daily learn to allow the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, to glorify Christ in us and through us. Are YOU “led by the Holy Spirit”?

SECOND, THERE WILLFULLY MUST BE A “LEANING” ON THE HOLY SPIRIT AS WE NO LONGER TRUST EVEN A HAIR OF OUR BEST IN THE FLESH – WE ACCEPT THAT THAT WAS CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST, AND THE HOLY SPIRIT DOESN”T WANT YOU FORGETTING THAT HISTORICAL, ETERNAL EVENT: YOU WERE CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST!

I don’t find it ‘shocking’, but I do find it heart-breaking to learn what we ALL were like void of the presence of Christ in us! In Proverbs 1:24 the God of wisdom allows wisdom to speak! Proverbs 1:24-33 says, “Because I called and you refused, I have stretched out my hand and no one regarded, because YOU DISDAINED ALL MY COUNSEL, and would have none of my rebuke, I also will laugh at your calamity; (I wonder if He’s saying, “How stupid, thoughtless, mindless can they be before My open arms?”).

I will mock when your terror comes, when your terror comes like a storm, and your destruction comes like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you. THEN they will call on me, but I will not answer; they will seek me diligently, but they will not find me.

Because they have hated knowledge and DID NOT CHOOSE THE FEAR OF THE LORD, they would have none of my counsel and despised my every rebuke. Therefore they shall eat the fruit of their own way, and be filled to the full of their own fancies. For the turning away of the simple will slay them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them; BUT whoever listens to me will dwell safely, and will be secure, without fear of evil.” WOW! THE RICH TREASURE OF EXPOSURE FOR THE FOOLISH WHO REJECT EXPOSURE AND DIE WILLFULLY, SELFISHLY, AND FUTILELY, BUT THE RICH TREASURE OF THE FEAR OF THE LORD THAT BLESSES AND KEEPS ON BLESSING!

THIRD, WE DO “LEARN” FROM THE HOLY SPIRIT AS HE GUIDES US INTO ALL TRUTH! In a “godless life”, a “godless purpose and meaning of one’s existence”, a “civilized leanings void of God’s purposes”, a “manly (?) misleading and misleaning attitude further marring the heart and mind and flesh into deeper darkness away from eternal intent”, and a “self-picking-up of the pieces of a godless live that inevitably shatters into emptiness, frustration, despair, and desperation, as one learns what it means to live without the “Redeemer’s intervention”, facing eternal darkness, eternal death that will not die, and living with eternal disgust with one’s self because they leaned to fleshly stupidity rather than “resting” in the Eternal Savior and Lord!

That veil of life promoting ‘vainness of the flesh’ and ‘self-rule, self- management’ and ‘self-indulgence’ comes about from ‘godless lives, godless professors, spiritual shysters, satanic deceivers, deadly truth-twisters unknown to themselves that they are the very mindless source of their own deception, but, at least and at last, they learn they are rejoiced over by the demons of Hell but rejected by the Eternal God of the Throne who gave His ALL so that they wouldn’t have to face a godless future, but the day does come when they will face that spiritual dilemma!

So Holy God the Father, having sent the Son as the source of eternal redemption, calls Jesus home, and sends the Holy Spirit to reside in your “born-again” life as the Eternal Temple of Holy Presence, plus, God having redeemed, re-birthed, raised up, and Rested the Holy Spirit in new disciples, releases the Spirit to guide our lives of ministry, mission, service, and blessing of the “New Life” in us!

I want you to see God working, not only in early New Testament disciples, but, yes, disciples in our own very day and time-period of God continuing to reclaim His own people to Himself and to His purpose. So He sends messengers and the ministry of the Holy Spirit!

In Acts 9:10-20 we read: Now there was a ‘certain disciple’ (Not a prophet, not an evangelist, not a ‘Bible scholar’, not a ‘well-trained’ senior citizen of the Kingdom!) at Damascus named Ananias; and to him THE LORD SAID in a vision, “Ananias.” And he said, “Here I am, Lord.” So the Lord said to him:

“Arise and go to the street called Straight, and inquire at the house of Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus, for behold, he is praying. And in a vision he has seen a man named Ananias coming in and putting his hand on him, so that he might receive his sight.”

Then Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard many things about this man, how much harm he has done to Your saints in Jerusalem. And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on Your name.” But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen vessel of Mine to bear My name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel. For I will show him how many things he must suffer for My name’s sake.”

And Ananias went his way and entered the house; and laying his hands on him he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you came, has SENT ME THAT YOU MAY RECEIVE YOUR SIGHT AND BE FILLED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT.” Immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales, and he received his sight at once; and he arose and was baptized. {Water baptism AND THE BAPTISM OF THE HOLY SPIRIT? Without a doubt!}.

So when he had received food, he was strengthened. (Including the bread of life, the meat of the Word, AND the fruit of the Spirit?). Then Saul spent some days with the disciples at Damascus. Immediately he preached Christ in the synagogues, that He is the Son of God.” Was he Spirit-guided in sharing the Word? If so is true of early New Testament disciples, have we in the modern-day just outgrown the Lord speaking and instructing us? I don’t think so, but, of course, many “church folks” could care less about evangelism and missions in their daily lives – “That’s divisive!”, some say! SO???

If the maturity in true discipleship involves justification, sanctification, and glorification, how and why do so many ignore “being set apart to Christ’s ministry” WHICH IS SANCTIFICATION!

FOURTH, TRUE BELIEVERS “LEARN TO LOVE” OTHERS, (AND I SAY: ESPECIALLY A LOST, NEEDY, ALIENATED AND SEPARATED MANKIND!!) JUST AS FATHER-GOD LOVED US! “God so loved the world”! And you hear some saying: “Just sentimental garbage, not reality! Why should He love me, love us, if He really does?” John 3:16 Eternally declares, Personally shares, Extends the very heart of God, yes, to every man, every family, every nation, saying: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that WHOEVER believes (trusts in, relies upon, adheres to) in Him SHOULD NOT PERISH but have Everlasting Life!”

What you must realize is that Holy God envisioned creating humanity with a choice, a freedom, yes, an option of whether or not they would choose, desire, and sense the need of being reconciled to God on His terms – not forced, but convicted and convinced by the Spirit and the witness of the truly redeemed the need to be reconciled to God. And faithful witnesses, yes, are “LOVING” people into the Kingdom!

FIFTH, HAVING BEEN BORN AGAIN, BIRTHED INTO THE KINGDOM, LEARNING, LEANING ON THE SPIRIT, TRUE DISCIPLES “LISTEN”!! In John 5:24-29 HEAR JESUS! He said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life. Most assuredly, I say to you, the hour is coming, AND NOW IS, when the dead (Physical death or spiritual death?) will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself, and has given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth – those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation. I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me.”

And the statement of faith and obedience of every true disciple every day should be: “Lord, this Is the day You have made; what would You desire today to do through Me. I AM LISTENING!” And, more likely, you’ll be influenced by those who’ll say in their “self-centered Christian walk”: “Isn’t God blessed to have me on His Son’s team – I can surely enhance His reputation”; AND I WANT TO CHOKE, THROW UP, OR SOMEHOW, SOME WAY, OVERTHROW “RELIGIOSITY OF SELF WORSHIP” in those who deny Christ His rightful, Living Presence within them to, yes, DO HIS WORK! How many do you know who “try to serve”, and that’s not Jesus’ commands! In Matthew 11:15 JESUS SAID: “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”

Again, what did Jesus say in John 5:24? “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who HEARS MY word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation or judgment, but has passed from death into life.”

SIXTH, HAVING LEARNED TO LISTEN TO JESUS, WE LEARN TO LEAD! I can’t remember the preacher in earlier years who said it, but one stout preacher said: “Clean out your ear wax, your gobbledy-gook eyes, your dim, fleshly mind, grasping the truth that Jesus never said He came to be served, but to serve and lay His life down in the care and concern for others!” And He led His disciples by example of the “servant spirit”, caring for others more than Himself – He was willing, and did, lay His life down as our example!

SEVENTH, AND IN LIVING THE LIFE THAT LEADS IN THE SERVANT SPIRIT OF CHRIST HIMSELF, WE LEARN TO “LAST”, ENDURE, PERSEVERE, OVERCOME WHATEVER WOULD COME AGAINST US FROM ENTERING THE FULLNESS OF THE BLESSING OF THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST!

In Ephesians 6:10 we read: “Finally, my brethren, be strong IN THE LORD and IN THE POWER OF HIS MIGHT,” yet how many “try and try and try”, yes, “falling short of the glory of God”! Notice Verses13-18! “Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having girded your waist with Truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness (Whose righteousness?), and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith (What YOU work up or what Christ instills in His Presence within You?) with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.

And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; praying always with prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints –!”

EIGHTH, WE LEARN TO “LIGHTEN” OURSELVES AND “ENLIGHTEN” THE GLORY OF CHRIST IN US AND THROUGH US! To “lighten” ourselves is day by day taking the sentence of death to ourselves and seeing the “enlightment” of Christ’s radiant, ruling, reigning, and releasing of victory after victory, Him honoring His Father, the Spirit, and the Word – even you who “rest” in Him alone!

“Christ in you” unveils to the world around you the awesomeness of the Resurrected King of kings and Lord of lords! You see, it’s of God, to “lighten” ourselves and “enlighten” to others the awesomeness of our Savior and Lord! I tell you: “Sing the wondrous love of Jesus, Sing His mercy and His grace; Sing the wonderful words of life in Christ, Sing His song of pardon and peace, Sing Him reconciling us to God!”

NINTH, AND LAST, WE ARE TO “LUMINATE” OUR “BLESSED LIFE IN CHRIST”! In Psalm 67:1-2 the chief musician taught God’s people in song. He sang: “God be merciful to us and bless us, and cause His (Christ’s) face to shine upon us, That Your way may be known on earth, Your salvation among all nations.” I dated the day I read it, and recorded in my Bible about “us”, Farrell & Sue, my wife! And that’s because the two of us in Christ together long to see the ushering in on earth as it is heaven the very Kingdom of God in the here and now!

It’s time to be finished with ourselves, but fulfilled and filled full of the Reigning, Victorious Christ! Amen? At His altar, would you present yourself to Him as His abiding and ministering location on earth? Now is the Time!!

OR THE ETERNAL TRUTH: “GOD LOVES ME”!”

APRIL 25-26, 2019 BY J.FARRELL FISHER

IN THE DOCTOR’S OFFICE FOR AN APPOINTMENT TODAY, AS I WAITED I BEGAN TO READ A CURRENT “SPORTS ILLUSTRATED” MAGAZINE. THERE WAS AN ARTICLE ENTITLED “DONTE’S EPIC” WITH AN EARLY MAGAZINE ADVERTISEMENT CALLED “WRANGLER” WITH A STATEMENT: “STAY IN YOUR ELEMENT: EVERYDAY VERSATILITY, OUTDOOR CREDIBILITY”.

I WAS STARTLED,DISTURBED,AGITATED,‘BECAUSE’, I WONDERED,WHAT DOES ‘EVERYDAY VERSATILITY OR OUTDOOR CREDIBILITY’ HAVE TO DO WITH “RECONCILED TO GOD”,BY BIBLICAL REPENTANCE AND TRUE FAITH, WHERE ONE FINDS “RECONCILED” TO GOD BY THE CONVICTION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, THE HOLY SPIRIT GUIDING US INTO ALL TRUTH, AND THE HOLY SPIRIT SEEING TO IT THAT OUR HEARTS HAVE BECOME FERTILE GROUND OF THE FRUIT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, THE RESURRECTED CHRIST, AND THE THRONE OF GOD ERECTED IN THE TRUE DISCIPLE’S HEART!

HOW EASY, YET STRONGLY POISONOUS IN THE HUMAN HEART AND MIND IT IS TO LIVE WITHOUT GOD’S LOVE, GRACE, AND MERCY, OR THE TREE OF DIVINE LIFE SURELY PLANTED, THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT NOT BEING PRODUCED IN THE CONVICTED HEART, PLUS FAILING TO ALLOW THE INDWELLING GUIDANCE OF GOD HIMSELF TEACHING US BECAUSE, THERE IS NO FERTILE SPIRITUAL SOIL FOR THE SCHEDULED ERUPTION OF THE SEED PLANTED!?! “FLESH”, ONE’S OLD SIN NATURE IS UTTERLY UNABLE TO ‘PRODUCE’ THE LIFE OF GOD WITHIN APART FROM BIRTHED,MATURED,&GUIDED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT!

I’M SURE IT’S EASY IN DECEIVED MINDS AND HEARTS TO RELY UPON ONE’S ‘INNER SOCIAL AGENDA’ – TRYING TO BE THE FRIEND OF GOD WITHOUT “TRUSTING”, RELYING UPON A SOCIAL INNER SPIRITUAL ADVENTURE WITHOUT GOD ENLIGHTENING A TRUE REPENTANT, TRUSTING HEART! “BEST EFFORT” IS MAN’S ‘SICK THEOLOGY’ WHILE GOD’S DIVINE CONVICTION, GRACIOUS “GIFT”, AND, HAVING TRULY REPENTED, TO THEN KNOW THAT HE,GOD,OPENED THE DOOR OF ONE’S HEART, AND THEN THEY HEAR JESUS SAY: “I’LL COME IN!”

I’M NOT OPPOSED TO ‘OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES’, BUT ‘EPIC’ LIVING APART FROM “RECONCILED TO GOD”? NO DOUBT MILLIONS AND MILLIONS ACROSS THE WORLD, INCLUDING AMERICA,ARE FLOUNDERING, DROWNING, IN SOCIAL,PHYSICAL,& SELFISH SATISFACTION, WITHOUT BEING CONVICTED,CONVERTED,COMPOSED, FULLY AWARE OF CHRIST’S PRESENCE WITHIN THE HEART AS HIS NEW TABERNACLE OF “PRESENCE” AFTER OPENLY REPENTING& TRUSTING IN A HEART, MIND, & SOUL,

WHO WANTS “RECONCILED TO GOD” BY HOLY SPIRIT CONVICTION, “RE-BORN” BIRTHED BY THE SPIRIT, NURTURED, MATURED, & REVEALING CHRIST IN THE “NEW-BORN LIFE”, & IN EVERY “NEW-BORN LIFE”,REVEALING WHAT THEIR CALLING, MISSION, & MINISTRY IS IN HONORING THE “RESURRECTED CHRIST” WITHIN THEM!

IN HEBEWS 12:28 WE READ: “WHEREFORE WE RECEIVING A KINGDOM WHICH CANNOT BE MOVED, LET US HAVE GRACE, WHEREBY WE MAY SERVE GOD ACCEPTABLY WITH REVERENCE & GODLY FEAR!” THIS REMINDS ME OF SOLOMON, IN 1 KINGS 3:5-15! IT SAYS: “IN GIBEON THE LORD APPEARED TO SOLOMON IN A DREAM BY NIGHT: & GOD SAID, ‘ASK WHAT I SHALL GIVE YOU.’ AND SOLOMON SAID, “YOU HAVE SHOWN UNTO YOUR SERVANT DAVID,MY FATHER, GREAT MERCY,

ACCORDING AS HE WALKED BEFORE YOU IN TRUTH,&IN RIGHTEOUSNESS,&IN UPRIGHTNESS OF HEART WITH YOU; &YOU HAVE KEPT FOR HIM THIS GREAT KINDNESS,

THAT YOU HAVE GIVEN HIM A SON TO SIT ON HIS THRONE,AS IT IS THIS DAY.AND NOW,O LORD MY GOD,YOU HAVE MADE YOUR SERVANT KING INSTEAD OF DAVID MY FATHER;& I AM BUT A LITTLE CHILD:I KNOW NOT HOW TO GO OUT OR COME IN. AND YOUR SERVANT IS IN THE MIDST OF YOUR PEOPLE WHICH YOU HAVE CHOSEN, A GREAT PEOPLE,THAT CANNOT BE NUMBERED NOR COUNTED FOR MULTITUDE.

GIVE THEREFORE YOUR SERVANT AN UNDERSTANDING HEART TO JUDGE YOUR PEOPLE, THAT I MAY DISCERN BETWEEN GOOD & BAD: FOR WHO IS ABLE TO JUDGE THIS YOUR SO GREAT A PEOPLE? AND THE SPEECH PLEASED THE LORD, THAT SOLOMON HAD ASKED THIS THING. AND GOD SAID UNTO HIM, BECAUSE YOU HAVE ASKED THIS THING, & YOU HAVE NOT ASKED FOR YOURSELF LONG LIFE;NEITHER HAVE ASKED RICHES FOR YOURSELF, NOR HAVE ASKED THE LIFE OF YOUR ENEMIES;BUT HAVE ASKED FOR YOURSELF UNDERSTANDING TO DISCERN JUDGMENT; BEHOLD,I HAVE DONE ACCORDING TO YOUR WORDS; &LO, I HAVE GIVEN YOU A WISE AND AN UNDERSTANDING HEART; SO THAT THERE WAS NONE LIKE YOU BEFORE YOU, NEITHER AFTER YOU SHALL ANY ARISE LIKE UNTO YOU.

AND I HAVE ALSO GIVEN YOU THAT WHICH YOU HAVE NOT ASKED, BOTH RICHES & HONOR:SO THAT THERE SHALL NOT BE ANY AMONG THE KINGS LIKE UNTO YOU ALL YOUR DAYS. AND IF YOU WILL WALK IN MY WAYS, TO KEEP MY STATUTES & MY COMMANDMENTS, AS YOUR FATHER DAVID DID WALK, THEN I WILL LENGTHEN YOUR DAYS!” OH,! WHAT A WORD OF CONVICTION,

CONVERSION, CONSECRATION, COMFORT&CHALLENGE! AND “YOU” MUST REMEMBER 2 TIMOTHY 3:15-17 AS PAUL CHALLENGED A YOUNG SPIRITUAL SON & US!! HE SAID: “AND THAT FROM A CHILD YOU HAVE KNOWN THE HOLY SCRIPTURES,WHICH ARE ABLE TO MAKE YOU WISE UNTO SALVATION THROUGH FAITH “WHICH IS IN CHRIST JESUS”.ALL SCRIPTURE IS GIVEN BY INSPIRATION OF GOD, & IS PROFITABLE FOR DOCTRINE, FOR REPROOF, FOR CORRECTION, FOR INSTRUCTION IN RIGHTEOUSNESS: THAT THE MAN OF GOD MAY BE PERFECT, THOROUGHLY FURNISHED UNTO ALL GOOD WORKS.”

ARE “YOU” LIVING IN THE DECEPTION OF A FALLEN WORLD?” OR DO YOU KNOW THAT HOLY GOD “KNOCKS” ON YOUR HEART’S DOOR & MIND &WILL, TO SAY TO YOU, “OPEN THE DOOR & I WILL COME IN & I WILL GUIDE YOU INTO ALL BIBLICAL TRUTH!”?? I WROTE WORDS OF POETRY RECENTLY THAT SAYS: “STRANGERS IN A GOD-BLESSED LAND,SELFISHLY LIVE AS ‘SLAVES’ TO A WORLD, A DEVIL, & A ‘FLESHLY’ BAND;IGNORING GOD & SINGING THEIR OWN SONG, ‘OFF-KEY’, THEY’RE LOUD & SINFULLY STRONG.

STRANGERS TO “TRUTH” & ALL THINGS “RIGHT”, THEY WANDER ON EARTH IN THEIR ‘SOULISH NIGHT’ IGNORING THE GOD OF LOVE & LIGHT, DANCING &PRANCING & JUMPING IN THEIR SIN, THEY EASILY TUTN AWAY FROM “GOD’S MIGHT HAVE BEEN”.

“NEW LIFE IN CHRIST” IS TO THEM A ‘BORE’, BECAUSE LIFE ON THEIR OWN IN SINFUL PLEASURE, VOID OF GOD IS THE SIN-NATURE’S ‘LEISURE’:SO DAY BY DAY IN THEIR SELFISH WAY, THEY WILLFULLY LIVE BLINDED TO GOD’S “BEST DAY”; THE DAY OF REDEMPTION FOR SOULS N SIN, BUT MANY WILLFULLY CHOOSE WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN!”

ARE “YOU” LIVING IN “THE DECEPTION OF A FALLEN WORLD-CULTURE OR “LIVING IN” THE TRUTH: “GOD LOVES ME & SO WANTS TO REDEEM ME,RECONCILE ME,& RE-TRAIN ME ABOUT “TRUE DISCIPLESHIP”, SO THAT I,YOU, THE “BODY OF CHRIST” IN EVERY CONTINENT & NATION, STATE & CITY, MAY TRULY BE HIS “ROYAL AMBASSADORS” EXTENDING THE KING’S MINISTRY!!!

“GOD LOVES ME, THIS I KNOW, FOR THE BIBLE TELLS ME SO; LITTLE ONES TO HIM BELONG, THEY ARE WEAK, BUT HE IS STRONG! YES, JESUS LOVES ME,YES, JESUS LOVES ME; YES, JESUS LOVES ME – THE BIBLE TELLS ME SO!” IN THE OLD “THE AMERICAN HYMNAL”PUBLISHED IN 1933 BY ‘THE BROADMAN PRESS’, NASHVILLE,TENN.,IS A HYMN ENTITLED, “O COULD I SPEAK”,(P.11), THAT SAYS: “O COULD I SPEAK THE MATCHLESS WORTH, O COULD I SOUND THE GLORIES FORTH WHICH IN MY SAVIOR SHINE, I’D SOAR, &TOUCH THE HEAVENLY STRINGS, AND VIE WITH GABRIEL AS HE SINGS IN NOTES ALMOST DIVINE, IN NOTES ALMOST DIVINE.

I’D SING THE PRECIOUS BLOOD JESUS SPILT, MY RANSOM FROM THE DREADFUL GUILT OF SIN, & WRATH DIVINE: I’D SING HIS GLORIOUS RIGHTEOUSNESS, IN WHICH ALL-PERFECT, HEAVENLY DRESS MY SOUL SHALL EVER SHINE, MY SOUL SHALL EER SHINE.

I’D SING THE CHARACTERS HE BEARS, & ALL THE FORMS OF LOVE HE WEARS, EXALTED ON HIS THRONE:IN LOFTIEST SONGS OF SWEETEST PRAISE, I WOULD TO EVERLASTING DAYS MAKE ALL HIS GLORIES KNOWN, MAKE ALL HIS GLORIES KNOWN.

WELL,THE DELIGHTFUL DAY WILL COME WHEN MY DEAR LORD WILL BRING ME HOME, AND I SHALL SEE HIS FACE; THEN WITH MY SAVIOR, BROTHER, FRIEND, A BLEST ETERNITY I’LL SPEND, TRIUMPHANT IN HIS GRACE, TRIUMPHANT IN HIS GRACE.”

FOR YOU,YOUR CHOICE! SELF OR THE SAVIOR,LUST OR HIS LOVE, MY WORLD OR HIS KINGDOM, MY FLESHLY PLEASURES OR HIS ETERNAL PEACE, MY DARKNESS OR HIS LIGHT, MY ‘TRYING’ OR HIS WORD OF “TRUST”, MY SELF-EFFORT OR HIS SAVIOR’S LOVE EXCELLING, MY NATURAL BREATH OR HIS BREATH OF THE LOVING SPIRIT, MY ‘SPOTS’ AS SATAN’S MARKING OF SIN-CAPTURED LIVING OR HIS “SPECIAL GRACE” OF ‘NEVER-FAILING’ PRESENCE & POWER TO LIVE AS “MORE THAN CONQUERORS, BUT ETERNAL VICTORS” BECAUSE OF HIS BLOOD, HIS DEATH, HIS RESURRECTION, HIS ASCENSION, & HIS ETERNAL EYE ON YOU TO MAKE SURE YOU WALK IN HIS VICTORIOUS CONQUEST OVER SATAN, OVER SIN, & OVER PHYSICAL DEATH! CAN “YOU SAY, ‘HALLELUJAH! GLORY TO THE NAME OF KING JESUS!”

By J.Farrell Fisher, December 12-14, 2017

Recently from a television show I heard the statement, “To thine own self be true.” I think it came from Shakespeare in “Hamlet”. But the huge, life-changing or life-destroying question is, “What ‘self’?” Scripturally there is the ‘old self’ or the ‘new self’, the ‘old man’ or the ‘new man,’ the ‘fleshly birthed self’ or the ‘spiritually birthed new man’! And the challenge to answer ‘what self?’ is ever before both the unredeemed and the blood-bought servants of Christ, before the ‘lost’ or the “found”, before the devoted to their flesh-nature or the “re-born” through Holy Spirit birthing!

Do you understand that millions and millions of people live on the “self-philosophy” ingrained by unredeemed parents, blinded by godless educators, and governed by one’s old sin-nature, while in the Spirit-world of “Blood-redemption” and Holy Spirit-Indwelling there are those who’ve had unveiled to them the “true faith”? The truly “born-again” are governed by the Indwelling Christ and the eternal Word of God, yes, revealed in the Bible and from the testimonies of “new-born” sons and daughters of the “True Faith”!

It’s so interesting to me that in Proverbs 6:16-19 the “wise man” unveiled for us the seven things God Himself “hates”! It says: “These six things the Lord hates, yes, seven (things) are an abomination to Him: A proud look, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that are swift in running to evil, a false witness who speaks lies, and one who sows discord among brethren.”

Do you realize or sense the height that some unbelievers rise to in devising their own wicked plans to opposition to eternal Truth or willfully speak ‘lies’, sowing discord in the minds of some who desire the truth but are coerced by friends, family, or forceful world persuaders in rejecting Truth and settling into ‘flesh-acceptance’ of the godless?

In the early days of the birthing of the church through Christ’s Resurrection presence, Acts 19:23 tells us “there arose a great commotion about the Way.” (Are you aware of any great commotions today about the Way? Check out many university campuses and classrooms!). Acts 19:24-34 unveils this strong opposition that continues worldwide even to the present century! It says:

“For a certain man named Demetrius, a silversmith, who made silver shrines of Diana, brought no small profit to the craftsmen. He called them together with the workers of similar occupation, and said: “Men, you know that we have our prosperity by this trade. Moreover you see and hear that not only in Ephesus, but throughout almost all Asia, this Paul has persuaded and turned away many people, saying that they are not gods which are made with hands.

So not only is this trade of ours in danger of falling into disrepute, but also the temple of the great goddess Diana may be despised and her magnificence destroyed, whom all Asia and the world worship.” Now when they heard this, they were full of wrath and cried out, saying, “Great is Diana of the Ephesians!”

So the whole city was filled with confusion, and rushed into the theater with one accord, having seized Gaius and Aristarchus, Macedonians, Paul’s traveling companions. And when Paul wanted to go in to the people, the disciples would not allow him. Then some of the officials of Asia, who were his friends, sent to him pleading that he would not venture into the theater.

Some therefore cried one thing and some another, for the assembly was confused, and most of them did not know why they had come together. And they drew Alexander out of the multitude, the Jews putting him forward. And Alexander motioned with his hand, and wanted to make his defense to the people. But when they found out that he was a Jew, all with one voice cried out for about two hours, “Great is Diana of the Ephesians!”

I pray you “get the drift”! You are aware of strong, significant, sick opposition, at times in some places, where people arise to defend themselves in their sinful natures, defend their own ‘idolatrous’ ways, and would just as soon see “followers of Christ” martyred than to meet the demands of Biblical Truth: “Repent or else!” In fact, in Acts 20:17-24, Paul testified,

From Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called for the elders of the church. And when they had come to him, he said to them: “You know, from the first day that I came to Asia, in what manner I always lived among you, serving the Lord with all humility, with many tears and trials which happened to me by the plotting of the Jews;

How I kept back nothing that was helpful, but proclaimed it to you, and taught you publicly from house to house, testifying to Jews and also to Greeks, REPENTANCE TOWARD GOD AND FAITH TOWARD OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. And see, now I go bound in the spirit to Jerusalem, not knowing the things that will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies in every city, saying that chains and tribulations await me.

But none of these things move me; nor do I count my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.”

And, thank God, Paul stressed, emphasized, declared the True Faith that begins to be unveiled with repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ! He said later in Acts 20:27-28, “For I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God. Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.”

The True Faith Unveiled? Yes, it begins, having been convicted of our sin and separation from Holy God by the Holy Spirit, and enlightened by the Spirit and the Word of Truth, that apart from Christ men and nations are hopeless, convicted men and women rest in the finished work of Christ at Calvary’s cross, repenting and resting and reaching moment by moment into the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Jesus Christ!

Mrs. H.M.Hall and John T.Grape wrote an old hymn entitled “Jesus Paid It All.” It says: “I hear the Savior say, “Your strength indeed is small, Child of weakness, watch and pray, Find in Me your all in all.

Lord, now indeed I find Your power and You alone, Can change the leper’s spots, And melt the heart of stone.

For nothing good have I Whereby Your grace to claim – I’ll wash my garments white In the blood of Calvary’s Lamb.

And when, before the throne, I stand in Him complete, “Jesus died my soul to save,” My lips shall still repeat.

Jesus paid it all. All to Him I owe; Sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow.

I was so inspired by the words of Richard Baxter found in “The Saint’s Everlasting Rest,” (VI), when he wrote: “Despair of ever being saved, ‘except you be born again,’ or of seeing God ‘without holiness,’ or of having part of Christ except you ‘love Him above father, mother, or your own life.’ This kind of despair is one of the first steps to heaven.”

What did Jesus Himself tell us in John 10:9-11? “I AM the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it abundantly.”

SECOND, HAVING REPENTED TOWARD GOD AND RESTED BY FAITH IN HIS RESURRECTED PRESENCE, WE BEGIN THE SPIRITUAL JOURNEY FROM INFANCY, TO CHILDHOOD, TO YOUTHFUL ADVANCE IN THE FAITH, AND TO ‘ADULT’ MATURITY! In 2 Corinthians 5:17 we read, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” Didn’t the Lord and Savior say that “you must be born again”? And if that’s true, and it is, are “infants” in the faith mature in every phase of the divine ‘life in Christ’?

Don’t you find it interesting that in 1 John 2:1 that the beloved John addressed new believers to whom he wrote as “my little children”? Arrogance or spiritual wisdom and understanding? Later in 1 John 2:12-14 he discussed ‘little children,’ ‘fathers of the faith’, and ‘young men’. Follow: “I write to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for His name’s sake.

I write to you, fathers, because you have known Him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you have overcome the wicked one. I write to you, little children, because you have known the Father.

I have written to you, fathers, because you have known Him who is from the beginning. I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the wicked one.”

The strong foundation for one’s redeemed life is the reality, the miracle of grace, the transformation from spiritual blindness and alienation from God to an assured, changed servant of the Redeemer and Lord. In John 9:24-25 the arrogant, religious Pharisees were challenging the man born blind that Jesus healed. The Pharisees said to the “new-born” man, “Give God the glory! We know that this Man is a sinner”, speaking of Christ Jesus the Healer-Redeemer, with the “healed man” answering in verse 25, “Whether He is a sinner or not I do not know. One thing I know: that though I was blind, now I see.”

And, of course, the Pharisees wanted no part with a “Healer”, telling the healed blind man, in verse 29, “We know that God spoke to Moses; as for this fellow, we do not know where He is from.” The “healed man” responded in Verse 30, “Why, this is a marvelous thing, that you do not know where He is from; yet He has opened my eyes,” saying also in verse 33, “If this Man were not from God, He could do nothing.”

The ‘religious Pharisees’, then and now, were and are intent on silencing voices of Truth and redemptive faith through Christ alone, so the “healed man” was cast out! When Jesus heard that they had cast him out, Jesus sought the formerly blind man, saying to him in Verse 35: “Do you believe in the Son of God?” He said: Who is He, Lord, that I may believe in Him?” Jesus responded, “You have both seen Him and it is He who is talking with you.” And the formerly blind man said, “Lord, I believe!”(I trust in, rely upon, and adhere to the Blessed Redeemer!).

The Lord Jesus then responded in Verse 39, “For judgment I have come into this world, that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may be made blind.” The ‘non-seers’ who have their eyes opened are made by grace to be seers of the True Christ, but the “seers” who don’t see the Christ are “made blind”! And, the “redeemed to see” the eternal Truth are “gifted” by the grace of God and begin their pilgrimage in the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Jesus Christ!

THIRD, THAT JOURNEY OF FAITH IN THE “MASTER-TEACHER” IS A LIFE OF SUBMISSION AND OBEDIENCE TO HIS EXAMPLE! In Luke 22:24-27 we learn about an early dispute among Jesus’ disciples as to which of them should be considered as the greatest. And He said to them, “The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those who exercise authority over them are called benefactors. BUT NOT SO AMONG YOU; on the contrary, he who is greatest among you, let him be as the younger, and he who governs as he who serves. For who is greater, he who sits at the table, or he who serves? Is it not he who sits at the table? Yet I am among you at the One who serves!”

Horatius Bonar once said: “Go, labour on; spend and be spent – your joy to do the Father’s will; it is the way the Master went; should not the servant tread it still?” And ‘service’ in and through and for the honor of Christ Jesus is not “best-effort- attempts” to be like Him, but allowing Him to be Himself through our available vessel!

According to Psalm 100:2-4 there is such illuminating understanding of what service to Him is all about, which is finished with one’s self-motivation’ and allowing Him to be His all in all in and through us! The psalm of thanksgiving, in verses 2-4 says, “Serve the Lord with gladness; come before His presence with singing. KNOW that the Lord, He is God; it is He who has made us and not we ourselves; we are His people and the sheep of His pasture. Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise.”

Yes, it is “Christ in you that is the hope of glory,” not fine-tuned, best effort ‘flesh’ but Holy Presence being Himself in obedience to the Father’s eternal, heavenly will! Perfect liberty in Christ Is death to one’s self that His Resurrected, Reining Presence may be released through children of the True Faith!

If there is gladness in a redeemed heart, it goes beyond the reality of one’s forgiveness in and through the Master’s shed blood, death, and resurrection, but in the reality of His Resurrection Presence, being Himself in us and through us! Did Paul tell us in 1 Corinthians 15:31, “I die daily”? Died daily? In 2 Corinthians 1:9 he said, “Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raise the dead…” And, in Christ we were raised to “new life” which is “Christ in you the hope of glory”!

Isn’t there a modern-day chorus that says: “Jesus, be Jesus in me, no longer me but Thee; ‘Resurrection Power’ fill me this hour, Jesus, be Jesus in me”? That’s the journey of faith in the “Master-Teacher”, which even for Him was a life of submission and obedience to His Father in heaven! “Father, Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.” And that was through His availability to the Father as a surrendered Son, yes, even the Cross!

By: J.Farrell Fisher, August 9-11, 2018

It’s absolutely so sad to observe God-birthed individuals who, deceived by the powers of darkness, possess no fleshly desire to follow the Holy God who birthed life, eternal purpose, and holy awareness in them, with merciful God granting ‘free will’ as to whether or not one will serve Him or self! Merciful God was not out for ‘robots’ doing His ‘thing’, but willing individuals who were and are submitted to His eternal authority and His Loving Presence, following in repentance, faith, and trust in His willingness to bless and honor Him, through submission to His loving presence in the repentant heart and life!

“Falling away” from Him was assuming personal authority and lordship over one’s own life without any consideration of divine, eternal intent! In Romans 11:1 Paul asked, “I say then, has God cast away His people? Certainly not! For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew. Or do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel, saying, ‘Lord, they have killed Your prophets and torn down Your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life’? But what does the divine response say to Him? “I have reserved for Myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” Even so then, at this present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace…And if by grace, then it is no longer works; otherwise grace is no longer grace. But if it is of works, it is no longer grace; otherwise work is no longer work. What then? Israel has not obtained what it seeks; but the elect have obtained it, and the rest were blinded. Just as it is written: ‘God has given them a spirit of stupor, eyes that they should not see And ears that they should not hear, to this very day.”

THERE IS “THE GORINESS OF FLESHLY LIFESTYLES” OR “THE GLORY OF THE INDWELLING LIFE OF THE RESURRECTED CHRIST”! Even the prophet Isaiah saw the ‘goriness of fleshly lifestyles’ in the imitation lifestyles of the ‘religious people, Israel’! He heard God say, in Isaiah 29:13-16, Therefore the Lord said: “Inasmuch as these people draw near with their mouths and honor Me with their lips, but have removed their hearts far from Me, and their fear toward Me is taught by the commandment of men, Therefore, behold, I will again do a marvelous work among this people, a marvelous work and a wonder; for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hidden.” Woe to those who seek deep to hide their counsel far from the Lord, and their works are in the dark; they say, “Who sees us?” and, “Who knows us?” Surely you have turned things around! Shall the potter be esteemed as the clay; for shall the thing made say of him who made it, “He did not make me”? Or shall the thing formed say of him who formed him, “He has no understanding”?”

Did the Word strike a reminder cord in your mind and heart about the reality of “these people draw near with their mouths and honor Me with their lips, but have removed (or kept) their hearts far from Me”? How many do you know or have crossed paths with who are “trying” rather than “trusting”, resting their own “faith-fable” on ‘best effort achievement’ rather than “washed in the blood of the Lamb”, and allowing “Resurrection Presence” to knock and enter, substituting their best effort of an ‘all out attempt’ at proving their worthiness in place of “Christ’s finished work” at the Cross, AND through His third-day-Resurrection? OR, consider also that there are many who have no desire at all of considering the importance of God in their life’s journey – “that’s religious nonsense that I want no part of” – and they go their own “demented way”, void of spiritual mind or spiritual heart or spiritual Life, even fully pledged to a “godless life” in place of “eternal purpose”!

I dare you to consider, right now, in this present moment, the right, the privilege, the eternal intention of Holy God choosing your heart, your mind, your life, in which He desires to establish the extension of His Eternal Reign from Heaven to earth in your reconciled, redeemed, reclaimed body with the very Spirit of the Resurrected, Victorious Christ and His Spirit, extending His life, expressing His love, proving His power through you as His “vessel”, His “tabernacle”, with your “blood-bought life” the dwelling place of King Jesus! Does that make any difference at all in what you choose to be, to do, to try? Does your walk, your life choices, your doors of opportunity, have anything to do with what Christ wants to accomplish through you, or is it, “All that matters is what pleases and satisfies me”?

How many times growing up did you hear about the journeys of ships on perilous journeys encountering the results of “stormy seas” with the ship’s captain saying, “It’s time to abandon the ship to save our lives – the ship is fractured!” But they had available ‘life vests’ and substitute boats’! “In Christ” is the only God-declaration of “eternal safety” from fractured, disabled, sin-nature existences! More than that, only “In Christ” is there victory over world influences, flesh domination, and devilish deceit, satanic domination, and a devilish attempt at the dissolving of what IS God’s “shining Light and Eternal Glory in and through Christ alone”! Satan is not at all interested in YOU possessing even an ‘inkling of God’! In fact, he’ll promote “canned religions, false faiths, deceitful proclaimers of ‘our way of coming to God’ void of THE Way, THE Truth, and THE Life of the Resurrected King of kings and Lord of lords”!

The ‘goriness of fleshly lifestyles’ void of, absent from, or even “not interested in spiritual things” is rampant across both the known world AND the religious worlds! But in Matthew 16:24 Jesus said plainly, bluntly, lovingly, “If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.” But the gory lifestyle, being Godless, is determined to save its life for it’s self with no interest, time of day, or intent on accepting “the need of the Savior”! That is below and beyond his human understanding! Dr. James Dobson said in his book, “When God Doesn’t Make Sense”, (Copyright @ 1993 by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.), “A person who grows accustomed to life’s good things may not be drawn naturally to THE SACRIFICIAL WAY OF THE CROSS. Like the rich young ruler who walked away from Jesus, a wealthy person may find it more difficult to follow this Master who calls us to make the supreme sacrifice.”

The modern, Godless mind? “Go after a religious ‘freak’ in the Christian world when I have before me a highly enjoyable opportunity of ‘flesh indulgence in the natural world of ease, of comfort, of indulgence in what gives me pleasure,but not in what your God demands’?”

The modern, Godless mind laughs, mocks, and insults Holy Scripture, like when in Romans 5:3-4 Paul said: “We also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.” (Even some modern-day ‘theologians’ (?) mock at “taking the sentence of death daily that the Resurrection Life of Christ may be manifested in mortal flesh”! “Death to self daily when I’m determined to honor Him in all I do,” totally blind to “Christ in you, through you, for you – your hope of glory”?) “But suffering? Why? You’re telling me that it produces perseverance, birthing and releasing more and more of His Holy Presence in me, chipping away the natural to unveil more and more of the Eternal Christ in me, even allowing the ‘storm-winds’ to blow in our ship of faith so we can “see” Him standing up in us to say to our raging storms: “Peace be still”; and the ‘winds of opposition’ stop, the ‘troubled waters’ around us calm, and we hear Him say to us, “Yes! Peace be still in My servant, My child, My faithful family member!”

No wonder Henry Lyte, in 1824, was inspired to write the words to “Jesus, I My Cross Have Taken”, saying: “Jesus, I my cross have taken, All to leave and follow You; Naked, poor, despised, forsaken, You from hence my all shall be: Perish every fond ambition, All I’ve sought, and hoped, and known; Yet how rich is my condition – God and heaven are still my own!

Go, then, earthly fame and treasure! Come, disaster, scorn and pain! In Your service, pain is pleasure; with Your favor, loss is gain. I have called You, “Abba, Father”; I have stayed my heart on You; Storms may howl, and clouds may gather; All must work for good to me.” (Have YOU ever known “the peace that passes all understanding”?).

The goriness of fleshly lifestyles! It doesn’t take long in modern America to learn how Hollywood has almost fully embraced “godless living as natural as breathing”! The ‘seas’ of one’s life can often upsurge in ‘stormy waves and ways’, with James, the brother of Jesus, telling us in James 1:13-15, “Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is DRAWN AWAY BY HIS OWN DESIRES AND ENTICED. THEN, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.” What PATH are you walking on today? That PATH producing more and more of death OR the PATH OF CHRIST ALONE with “joy unspeakable and full of glory”?

Continuing in James 1:16-25, the brother of Jesus said: “Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. OF HIS OWN WILL HE BROUGHT US FORTH BY THE WORD OF TRUTH, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures. So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath; for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God.

Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. But be DOERS OF THE WORD, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.”

What an awesome unveiling of conflicting, diverse, totally opposite life-choices or life-styles – one aware but forgetful of what God says, or one aware and yielding to what he/she hears God say to them determined, settled, resolved, and committed to, “Yes, Lord, whatever You say, I want to be obedient to Your way, Your Word, and Your will!” Are you simply a “hearer” but not a “doer” of His Word? Is your testimonial walk one of disobedience or obedience, a walk of “Yes, Father-God”, or “Lord, that request doesn’t fit what I think and desire for myself”, or “Lord, You have demanded of me more than I’m willing to be submissive to; can You, God, not accept me as I am?” NO! You were crucified with Christ! And Holy God is honed in on repentant men and women who are completely dissatisfied with the “flesh-walk” and truly hungry for ALL Merciful God has to offer them! In James 2:17-24 and Verse 26 we read, (Remember! This is the brother of Jesus enlightening us!!), “Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works (or obedience to Christ’s revealed Word!), is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe – and tremble! But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect? And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God (obeyed God), and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” And he was called the friend of God. You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only”, followed by Verse 26 which says: “For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.”

In a modern-day ‘Christian world’, there are many who have assumed that “Now, since I’m in Christ, I don’t have to be concerned about my sinning; Jesus forgives and keeps on forgiving”, not convinced but deceived that sin doesn’t breed death, nor unveils the fullness and blessing and completion of “Christ in me my hope of glory”! The ‘old man’ void of Christ? It’s that life under the domination of the world, the flesh, and Satan! A life convinced sin does not lead to death is a life whose mind is twisted, and even blind to the scriptural truth that sin always breeds death! But the hopeless life that looks to “Jesus only” is the life aware of sin and death but “rests” in Christ’s “finished work at the Cross”, with Christ crucifying sin and death, and through death and Resurrection Power, offers eternal Life, eternal Presence, and eternal Hope in “the fullness of the blessing of the Resurrected, Reigning Christ” within the truly repentant heart! In fact, in Colossians 4:12 Paul wrote: “Epaphras, who is one of you, a BONDSERVANT OF CHRIST, greets you, always laboring fervently for you in prayers, that YOU MAY STAND PERFECT AND COMPLETE IN ALL THE WILL OF GOD.” (And is THAT ‘trying’ or “trusting”?).

The Apostle Paul was totally honest when in Romans 7:18-8:8 he, illumined by the Holy Spirit, tells us of the “overcoming Life of faith and trust in Christ only, one’s hope of glory”! He said: “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. For the good that I will to do (in ‘flesh’ choices!), I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice (in ‘flesh rebellion’!). Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.

I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God – through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.” The Holy Spirit came, and still comes, yes, to convict of sin, opening the heart’s door to the opportunity of repentance and rest in Christ alone, OR, choosing to live in self-condemnation rather than Christ-restoration!

Romans 8:1-8 continues! “There is therefore NOW (Since he’s surrender to Christ’s Lordship, fully in tune with Christ’s every demand!) NO CONDEMNATION to those who ARE IN CHRIST JESUS, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. FOR THE LAW OF THE SPIRIT OF LIFE IN CHRIST JESUS has made me free from the law of sin and death.For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh (or according to one’s old sin nature!) but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live ACCORDING TO THE HOLY SPIRIT, the things of the Spirit.

For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” ARE YOU LIVING YOUR LIFE TO SATISFY OLD SIN-NATURE ACTIVITIES OR ARE YOU, “IN CHRIST”, LIVING IN SUBMISSION TO THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST IN OBEYING HIS EVERY WORD, TAKING THE SENTENCE OF DEATH DAILY THAT CHRIST”S RESURRECTION LIFE MAY BE MANIFESTED IN YOUR MORTAL BODY? Now, examine Verses 12-14! “Therefore, brethren, we are debtors – not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.”

I doubt that there is one single believer that doesn’t understand or comprehend “the goriness of fleshly lifestyles”! But MANY true disciples of Christ are living, ‘trying their best, but blinded and deaf in the ears to the voice of the Holy Spirit who guides us into all biblical Truths! Did the Word say, “It’s by the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, that one learns to put to death the deeds of your old man, or what you once were without Christ, but in Christ you are anointed with the resident Holy Spirit to guide you into all truth! And the Spirit certainly emphasizes that “man does not live by physical bread alone but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God”! Which explains why many ‘believers’, void of the discipline of the Word of God, live clueless concerning the overcoming, victorious life of the Indwelling Christ; they ‘try’ rather than “Trust”!

Do YOU “trust” the Holy Spirit in your daily walk for the “overcoming, victorious, life in Christ”? In Romans 8 also, I want you to see Verses 26 through 27! Paul says: “Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints (“set-apart-ones”!) according to the will of God.”

How many in the Christian community have you encountered who look upon Holy Spirit dependence as a weird and strange thing, even with Christ instructing His own disciples that when the Spirit comes, He will guide you into all truth? Also, how thrilling is it for you to read in Acts 8 about the Holy Spirit’s ministry intended for ALL true believers? Acts 8:14-25 enlightens us saying: Now when the apostles who were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them, who, when they had come down, prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit. For as yet He had fallen upon none of them. They had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.

And when Simon saw that through the laying on of the apostles’ hands the Holy Spirit was given, he offered them money, saying, “Give me this power also, that anyone on whom I lay hands may receive the Holy Spirit.” But Peter said to him, “Your money perish with you, because you thought that the gift of God could be purchased with money! You have neither part nor portion in this matter, for your heart is not right in the sight of God.

Repent therefore of this your wickedness, and pray God if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you. For I see that you are poisoned by bitterness and bound by iniquity.” Then Simon answered and said, “Pray to the Lord for me, that none of the things which you have spoken may come upon me.” So when they had testified and preached the word of the Lord, they returned to Jerusalem, preaching the gospel in many villages of the Samaritans.”

Dare I tell you? Believe I will! This is the moment, the hour, the day, the time, for YOU to cry out to God for the full manifestation of the Holy Spirit in your life, your walk, your ministry as a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ! Are YOU willing to be indwelt of the Holy Spirit, to be guided by the Holy Spirit, to be empowered by the Holy Spirit, to abound in the gracious gifts of the fruit of the Spirit, even daily greatly enlightened by the Holy Spirit in all the truths of the Word of God? I tell you, the Holy Spirit is your heavenly armor against Satan and his demon armies!

FOR YOU, IS IT “THE GORINESS OF A FLESHLY LIFESTYLE”, OR IS IT “THE GLORY OF THE INDWELLING CHRIST AND THE FULLNESS OF HIS HOLY SPIRIT”? There’s an old “prayer hymn” by Isaac Watts in the old Broadman Hymnal entitiled, “Come, Holy Spirit, Heavenly Dove”, that says: “Come, Holy Spirit, heavenly Dove, With all Your quickening powers, Kindle a flame of sacred love In these cold hearts of ours.

Look! How we grovel here below, Fond of our earthly toys; Our souls can neither fly nor go To reach eternal joys… Come, Holy Spirit, With all Your quickening powers; Come, shed abroad the Savior’s love, And that shall kindle ours.” IS YOUR HEART “QUICKENED, KINDLED, OVERFLOWING IN SPIRIT-ANOINTED LOVE FOR OTHERS?” OR, DOES CHRIST’S PRESENCE IN YOU ABOUND IN SPIRIT EMPOWERED LOVE FOR THE LOST, THE UNBELIEVERS, THE GODLESS MASSES?

“THE JOY OF A HOLY HOPE!”

It’s so interesting, convicting, and illuminating to read the Book of Job, seeing the extremes of serious doubts and unbeliefs, but then to see a man coming into the fullness of the blessing of the Gospel of Jesus Christ! There was a time period of doubts, fears, and unbelief, but by the grace and mercy and love of God Job became an overcomer, victorious through God’s faithful pursuit of his soul! In Job 42:5 we read Job saying to the Lord, “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear: but now my eye sees You!” Verse 10 says, “And the Lord turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends; also the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before.”

In Job 31 Job highlighted the fatal, false steps of unbelievers who choose the ‘flesh walk’ totally void of the Spirit’s blessing, hearts ‘deceived’ and ending up experiencing ‘the consuming fire’, inheriting a consuming destruction, and rewarding one with spiritual bankruptcy eternally! I don’t know who said it, but I read in the “Encyclopedia of Religious Quotations”, (p.231), the following statement: “Life with Christ is an endless hope, without Him a hopeless end.” So very, very true! But there are many who refuse to answer God’s knock at their hearts’ doors, willfully, ignorantly slamming the heart’s doors when the Savior knocks!

“The Joy of The Holy Hope” but you choose a ‘faithless life’ that without Christ dissipates into a coveted state of eternal captivity under the control of the demons of Hell and Satan accepting you as their and his forever slave in darkness forever, separated from King Jesus and the Holy Father and the Holy Spirit who so desired to “guide you in all eternal Truth”? One never comes into the blessed state of life who never truly trusts in the eternal redemptive hope found in Christ’s crucifixion, His resurrection, and His ascension to the eternal throne of God patiently waiting for the full increase of redeeming grace manifested in the minds and hearts of all born-again-‘faithers’!!

As I write this truth I do so just a few weeks AFTER!! I’m sure if you’ve attended any churches you found some singing, “O Little Town of Bethlehem, The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight” – And that’s about the celebration of the birth of Christ who came to “set the captives free” through His sacrificial death, His Resurrection, His present reign at the right-hand throne of God, and ‘His resting men and women’ who, yes, let Christ in them BE their hope of eternal glory!

Dare I say it? Believe I will! “Lost eternal hope is the fainting, falling, faithless life that “play-acts” life’s purpose as he, she refuses to answer Christ’s “knock” at their heart’s door!”

Are you aware that there are, sadly, multitudes world-wide who, yes, choose to live in a darkened, gray, indeterminate world of spiritual unbelief, no mindful consideration of revealed truth, no “fix” on eternal spiritual Truth, and, for them, absolutely no consideration of anything the Holy Spirit, God the Father, or Christ Jesus has to say, and certainly, for many, no consideration of anything Christians or churches have to say?!?

“Christ in you the hope of glory”? Yet multitudes live their lives independent of Holy God and His “Holy Hope”, living lives in “false hopes”, not lives established on the eternal Truths spoken by God! Multitudes ignore God’s holy knock on their hearts’ doors, certain in themselves but uncertain about heavenly help! Are YOU living your life on uncertain foundations? Consider several uncertainties!

One, consider the uncertainty of one’s trust in his/her conception of true beauty! Psalm 39:11 says, “When you with rebukes correct a man for iniquity, you make his beauty to consume away like a moth; surely every man (without God in Christ as his/her Savior and Lord) IS VANITY!”

Two, consider the shallowness of fleshly trust in men! Psalm 146:3 clearly says, “Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help,” but put your trust only in God’s promises! How clear to you is 2 Corinthians 1:20? “All the promises of God in Christ Jesus are ‘yes’, and in Him “AMEN”, unto the glory of God.”

Three, consider the ‘fleshly pride’ in one’s self-allegiance that has no room for “trust in the finished work of Christ alone at Calvary”! In 2 Corinthians 1:9 Paul the Apostle said, “But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God, who raises the dead.” Men who are ‘fleshly alive’ and ‘preeminently alive’ in themselves exchange a false identity God never desired for them to be deceived in, and even for the ‘fool’, he says, “There is no God”, when forever and ever the Resurrected Lord and Savior reigns and keeps on reigning to the Father’s glory, honor, and praise!

Four, examine the reality of the troubling tombs of godless lives, yes, men/women, boys and girls, with “darkened hearts, warped wits, and worldly wills”, because there is eternal difference between ‘fleshly darkness’ and Christ Jesus God’s “Eternal Spiritual Light”!

Fifth, in 1 Thessalonians 2, Verses 4-13 we learn about our “calling” by Christ into His eternal Kingdom! Paul wrote: “But as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak; not as pleasing men, but God, which tries our hearts. Foe neither at any time used we flattering words, as you know, nor a cloke of covetousness; God is witness: Nor of men sought we glory, neither of you, nor yet of others, whom we might have been burdensome, as the apostles of Christ.

But we were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherishes her children: So being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you, not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because you were dear to us.

For you remember, brethren, our labor and travail; for laboring night and day, because we would not be chargeable unto any of you, we preached unto you the gospel of God. You are witnesses, and God also, how holily and justly and unblameably we behaved ourselves among you that believe:

As you know how we exhorted and comforted and charged every one of you, as a father does his children, That you would walk worthy of God, who has called you unto His kingdom and His glory. For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when you received the word of God which you heard of us, you received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually works also in you that believe.”

Dare I say it? Simply mental belief apart from full surrender to the Lordship of Christ with His “gift” of resurrection presence, eternal forgiveness, and new life, new purpose, new power, and new privilege, IS ‘head knowledge’ absent of a “new heart”! And that end result? Religious activities with open doors to Satan’s realm of deception rather than “kingdom allegiance” under the Banner of the Resurrected, Reigning, Royal King of kings and Lord of lords!

But because of grace that leads one to faith, as Peter wrote in 1 Peter 1:13-15, we “gird up the loins of our minds, being sober (eternally seriously minded!!), and hoping to the end for the grace that is to be brought to us as Christ is revealed in us, As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in our ignorance; But as He which called us IS HOLY, so you be holy in all manner of conversation or your walk through the journey of your earthly pilgrimage with Christ as your Lord, your Savior, and your guardian presence with Christ in you!!

Do YOU truly have the spiritual understanding of reconciliation to Holy God in and through the blood sacrifice of Christ and His victorious resurrection, now continuing to reign at the right hand Throne of Holy God, yet telling us He also makes the redeemed heart His place of earthly residence? Do you daily take the sentence of death to your old man in order for the Resurrected, Reigning Christ to be Himself in you and through you?

Hear me! Living without “Christ in you” as Savior and Lord is to be a life residing in abiding, hellish darkness, not freed into the “Light” of Resurrection Presence!

I truly love what John Wesley wrote in his writing entitled “Christian Perfection”! Wesley said, “The holiest of men still need Christ as their Prophet, as “the light of the world.” For He does not give them light but from moment to moment; the instant He withdraws, all is darkness. They still need Christ as their King, for God does not give them a stock of holiness. But unless they receive a supply every moment, nothing but unholiness would remain. They still need Christ as their Priest, to make atonement for their holy things. Even perfect holiness is acceptable to God only through Jesus Christ.”

Much of modern-day ‘Christianity’ is based upon misdirected curiosity but with limited inquiry totally short of, yes, the divine revelation! Reject the mystery of Christ’s existence, or look upon Him as only a historic person and riddle of a past life short-lived for only about 33 years, and the mixed mess of examining Christ Jesus sadly surfaces for some as only an “inexplicable riddle”!

SO…what does one do with John 3:16? “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes (or Trusts) in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

Blaise Pascal once said, “Jesus Christ is God to whom we can approach without pride, and before whom we may abase ourselves without despair.” Why? How? Because we understand through the revelation of God’s Holy Word that “all sinners were crucified with Christ on His Cross, buried with Him in His grave, but raised with Him through God’s power, released in us by, yes, our God-given faith and heart-led repentance, new-born, then filled with the Holy Spirit, and commissioned as His royal ambassadors! YES! We willfully crown Him in our hearts as “Lord of all”, you and me included because He called us, convicted us, converted us, anointed us, and declared us as His chosen, adoptive children in the Holy Family of God!!

Is it any wonder to you that “in Christ”, through the gifts of repentance and faith, that guided by the Holy Spirit you live royally blessed with the whole treasury that flows out of God’s heart, through His throne, through His Son, and, yes, through His born-again, new-birthed sons and daughters as the richness of His grace abounds, His graciousness embraces the true child of faith, and continues from one’s spiritual birth, to enrich their lives of faith with Heaven’s treasures??

Hear me! The Christian faith is not an intellectual theory or a self-centered speculation – it IS Christ’s Resurrection Presence living in the repentant heart and life resting in His promises! I grew up from early childhood of my home church in Cleveland, Tennessee, singing from the very old “American Hymnal” the hymn by R. Kelso Carter entitled “Standing On the Promises”, but you do know that far too many ‘professing Christians’ just “Sit On The Premises”, mindless of Christ’s intent of a repentant heart and faith-captured life becoming the Temple of His Holy Presence, yes, Christ in you, through you, as you daily take the sentence of death to yourself so that He might reign through you, extending His life, expressing His love, and proving His power! The Hymn?

“Standing on the promises of Christ my King, Thro’ eternal ages let His praises ring; Glory in the highest, I will shout and sing, Standing on the promises of God.

Standing on the promises that cannot fail, When the howling storms of doubt and fear assail, By the living Word of God I shall prevail, Standing on the promises of God.

Standing on the promises of Christ the Lord, Bound to Him eternally by love’s strong cord, Overcoming daily with the Spirit’s sword, Standing on the promises of God.

Standing on the promises I cannot fall, Listening every moment to the Spirit’s call, Resting in my Savior, as my all in all, standing on the promises of God.”

ARE YOU STANDING ON THE PROMISES OF GOD? The “Promises” are Merciful God’s “Creative Providence” in action, in you, for all around you to discover the Christ in you which can be their hope of eternal life, eternal rest, and eternal “Victory In Jesus”!! AMEN?

Once an outcast – but in Christ NOW a son or daughter in His redeemed, blood-bought family! Once living in darkness – but NOW living in the “Light” of His abiding Presence!

Once separated from God – but Christ’s coming, Christ’s Cross, Christ’s empty tomb, Christ’s “faithful knocking” at the hearts doors of all redeemed sons and daughters, Christ’s abiding presence and His constant, personal persuasion, blessedly favors us not to rest in “best effort, human trying” but trusting His Word: “I’ll never leave you nor forsake you”!!

In the old “American Hymnal” published in 1933 by the editor, Robert H. Colman, written by Fanny J. Crosby and W.H. Doane, is the hymn “Safe In The Arms of Jesus.” It says: “Safe in the arms of Jesus, There by His love overshadowed, Sweetly my soul shall rest. Hark! It’s the voice of angels, Borne in a song to me, Over the fields of glory, Over the jasper sea…Safe in the arms of Jesus, Safe on His gentle breast, There by His love overshadowed, Sweetly my soul shall rest.” Amen? Are YOU “Safe In The Arms of Jesus”? Proverbs 29:25 states, “The fear of man brings a snare; but whoso puts his trust in the Lord shall be safe,” followed by Verse 26 which says, “Many seek the ruler’s favor; but every man’s judgment comes from the Lord.”