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 20, 2016

A life bleak or blessed, a life scarred with sin and the old sin nature, or a life conceived by the Holy Spirit, a life trying or trusting, a life programmed by the world, the flesh, and the devil, or a life purposed, promised, and spiritually prosperous in God’s Kingdom because of “new births”, or a life experiencing, exposed to, exasperated by, encapsulated by fears, anxieties, worries, doubts or a life enraptured with, enduring, exciting, and exhilarating in the joy of Jesus’ indwelling, overcoming, victorious Resurrection Presence?

What is your life? Is it the life in Christ Jesus with a peace that passes all understanding or is it a life of spiritual death of the guilty, a life of sinful flesh to offer as best one can, or the “Life in Christ” graciously granted in victorious, overcoming, rejoicing- in- Jesus hearts with symphonic Hallelujahs and glorious praise and thanksgiving from a new-born heart?

A ‘worldly life’ sustained by physical bread alone and the best ‘fallen flesh’ has to nibble on without an ounce of true repentance or pure sustenance or purified heart and mind, void of the Holy Spirit, void of the “fruit” of heavenly love, eternal peace, and life-changing joy that never subsides, wanes, or falters, is a life, though mentally religious but never “born again”, that tries to imitate, even pretend, and attempts with all flesh has to offer, but falls short of the reality of truly transformed hearts and lives by the miracle of the “new birth”!

Do you ever consider, think about, evaluate ‘God-less –living’ as empty, self-centered, mindless, purposeless, unfulfilling, unrewarding in its long haul, or a life filled with the manifestations of Holy Presence in Christ?

Do you remember Jesus saying, “Come to Me, learn of Me, rest in Me, and you’ll find “rest” that is eternal and blessing for your soul” that truly is indescribable?

Is your life based on fleshly ‘fairy’ tales or a life blessed on the divine, eternal, revelation of the Christ of Resurrection Life, Resurrection power, and Resurrection Hope?

The enemy of the “God-Life”, the devil, deceives, entraps, blinds men to the “Christ-in-you-Life” of Holy presence, Holy purpose, and Holy power, with ‘imitation’, ‘non-redemptive,’ ‘fleshly intents alone,’ without any consideration of the miracle of “new birth,” the blessing of “Christ-in-you,” or the fulfillment of divinely-ordained, eternal intent, or sovereignly, ordained, and graciously given “Oneness” with the divine nature in and through Christ!

It was Philip James Bailey, in his “Festus, A Country Town,” who once wrote: “We live in deeds, not years; in thought (or Truth) not breath: In feelings, not figures on a dial. We should count time by heart-throbs. He most lives who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best. Life’s but a means unto an end; that end Beginning, mean, and end of all things – God.”

What is YOUR life? “Hell’s bells” or “the Joy-Juice of Jesus’ Presence”? A fleshly flame revealing failing, futile living or the pure flame of the Eternal Son and Sun of Life within us, the Crucified, Resurrected King of kings and Lord of lords?

Life is not a ladder finitely stepped – never has been, never will be – Life was extraordinarily given to give men personal choice of ‘flesh-life’ or the “Divine Life” – life without God or life in Him – not fleshly dreams, finite feelings of sensual pleasures, or faltering feelings of human successes, but a life, not of temporary thoughts of pleasure and satisfactions, but one of eternal peace, resurrection presence, and heavenly joys!

Is your life the “bondage” of your ‘old- as- ADAM’ SIN NATURE OR THE “BLESSING” of LIVING IN, BY, and FOR THE LIFE OF ANOTHER, EVEN CHRIST ALONE THE HOPE OF GLORY?

A man who lives only to satisfy his Adam’s original nature, his flesh, his old, ancient sin nature, his selfish ambitions, is a man who never discovers perfect peace in Christ, selfless surrender to the sovereignty of God, or complete liberty and freedom and desire to honor, bless, exalt, and please the Savior, the Blessed Redeemer only!?!

A life that is satisfied with ‘flesh’ (the old sin nature), that knows no ‘self-denial’, that accepts the devil’s ‘slant’ that ‘You Can Sin And Not Die, That Thinks “devotion to God” is unnecessary, that’s been deceived by the powers of darkness, that loving the world and its lust of the flesh is not evil, never submitting to the reality that THAT world of idiotic, fleshly foolishness, is fading, failing, unfulfilling, and that the lust of it is death constantly just warmed over, and is passing away into a dark abode of demon presence, insisting it’s ‘OK’ – and that’s a life ‘OVERCOMING’ ?– just not overcoming by the blood of the Lamb?

You’ve heard it: “Live while you live – satisfy the passions of your old sin nature, realize you are your own, do as you please, never silencing the demons, and you “just go to Hell” – “it’s OK” – “everybody does it”; while that’s true for the most – it’s not true for God’s redeemed, blood-bought remnant – they find the only Way, the only Truth, and the only Life!

How sad that many never come to know the Life that is “in Christ”, never know the true pleasures that never fade that Jesus brings, that never experience the peace that passes all understanding, that never knows “death to self” and “Life in the Savior”, or “death to the fallen nature” and Life in the fullness of the divine nature, or the “death of bad fruit” and not the Life of “the fruit of the Spirit”!

Are you aware of the man-made philosophy that ‘best effort here’ is worthy of life in the “here-after”, that “fleshly best ensures life forever”, that “trusting is good for humanity,” even if God says trusting in Him alone is your only hope?

“Live while you live as your ‘flesh’ dictates” or “Live in Me alone” as Jesus declared? “Live while you live for the pleasures that satisfy your fleshly tendencies” or is it “Live for the purpose of honoring the God who made you, lost you, but bought you with a price, even the blood, innocent blood, of the precious Lamb of God?”

How many do you know who see “life is living it to the fullest for yourself as YOU see it for yourself,” or is it “Life is living as God desires, defines, declares, and delivers me to through a repentant heart, fully trusting and receiving forgiveness, and the fullness of the blessing of the Gospel of Jesus Christ?

Have you ever heard it? “A man’s ingress into his own world is knowing, satisfying, and promoting himself with all due diligence”, without any consideration of the eternal purpose of God of ordination as a vessel or container of divine life and holy presence? It’s not ingress in ‘self’ but INDWELT by Resurrection Life in Christ alone!

Facts of human existence are not as Fosdick once spoke of as ‘loose types with many meanings,” but human existence was intended before time began to be habitations of Holy Presence as “temples” of a loving Lord and Savior, but many have fallen victims desiring the “Las Vegas’ residences of self-indulgence, unbelief, and fleshly rebellion”!

Can you even ‘see’ in fallen humanity the reality of “chaotic disarrangement” and “self-centered”, self-serving, cynical or godless arrangements, fleshly affirmations and loyalties, and descents into hellish, hollow, and ‘holey’ attempts at life in the flesh alone ,but wanting spiritual existence on their own terms? That’s nothing more than fragments of existence offered as one’s best but never aligning or becoming one with God’s intent! But in 2 Corinthians 4:7-15, (Is this the testimony, not simply of your existence but God’s Indwelling?),

“But we have this treasure in earthern 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, but life in you. And since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, ‘I believed and therefore I spoke,’ we also believe and therefore speak, knowing that He who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus, and will present us with you. For all things are for your sakes, that grace, having spread through the many, may cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God.”

Do you see it? Do you sense it? Have you settled it? Are you aware of it? There is the reality of one’s “best”, the “fleshly unfulfilled”, or God’s “best”, the spiritually re-born, indwelt, regenerated, Spirit-anointed, and “blessed” with the Resurrection Presence of the Living Lord, OR there is the unending evidences of the godless OR the eternal workings of Christ in the “Spirit-Man”.

Yes, there is “the sufferings of the saints” who ARE SUSTAINED BY THE SAVIOR, and who know both toughness in determination to overcome the world, the flesh, and the devil, and at the same time are tender followers who show others the way of Redeeming grace, purpose, and power! And though most saints are “forgotten by the world”, they live “fulfilled, blessed, contented, peaceful lives in and through Christ alone”! They are prayers, prepared, and equipped by the Word and the Spirit!

Do you comprehend “fleshly lives as containers of man’s best” or “spiritual lives birthed by the Spirit as recipients and containers and vessels of God’s best, the Living Christ, crucified, resurrected, ascended, reigning, and available to any repentant heart willing to be the temple of the Eternal Christ”?

In ‘fallen flesh” the “best” of human existence is only ‘variations’ and ‘shadows of the True’, but only ‘IN CHRIST’ is there the ‘victory over sin and death and emptiness and meaninglessness’, when only in the flesh is there the rewards of God’s enemy; but ‘IN CHRIST’ is the reaping and receiving of everlasting Life in Him! Christ-less lives are “oil-less lamps” with no ‘Light” that shines forth God’s glory.

Christ-less lives are ‘fragmented’ left-overs of ‘what could have been’ rather than Christ-Indwelt lives, fully revealing a God-ordained, and God-birthed Resurrection Presence!

Fleshly lives at the human-level “best” is only a cheap imitation of illumined, divine, resurrection presence of eternal life, eternal hope, and eternal fruit.

Free men? That’s not ‘freedom’ to do as one “damn well pleases”, but spiritual freedom in the Spirit to honor Christ alone! Only “in Christ” are men truly liberated to honor Holy God!

Most men, apart from God, arise each morning thinking, “What will really make ‘my day’ and ‘pump my flesh’ to historic levels?”, rather than, “What will honor God and exalt Christ through me to the world around me?”

A mortal man is only committed and satisfied in his self-complacency, his self-promotion, and his self- indulgence , but the “Christ-man” desires, longs for, driven by, and holds onto “honoring Christ alone, the hope of glory through me, as a vessel!”

Everything that promotes ‘flesh’, even ‘flesh at its best’, gives honor to the ‘old sin-nature’, turns a blind eye to the will, the Word, and purposes of Holy God, and is a clear exposure of one’s spiritual nakedness and his ‘egression’ willfully further away from God, and not his willful ‘ingression’ in Him by “repentance toward God and faith in the finished work of Christ alone.”

Misspent lives apart from the presence of Christ are like ‘empty glasses or vessels’ rather than residences of Christ in them as His Holy Temple!

Useless living is ‘born in sin’ with no desire to be reconciled to God, just indifferent to His Word and will, with no desire or longing or fleshly impulse to reconciliation or understanding of His Word or anything different from ‘fleshly satisfaction’ or even a thought about ‘birthed in Christ’ through repentance and faith! Yes, millions live without any desire to be “citizens of the Kingdom of God”, living consumed in promoting ‘self’ , not understanding the rebellious attitude that is the ‘death-nail’ to eternal purpose. Personal imagination and personal intent is not divine life nor divine presence nor divine power, but simply “best of the flesh” honoring “self-made men” of temporary existence, fading fame, tainted rewards, and terrible, eternal residences apart from the God who loved them, wanted them, but lost them by their lusts, their stubbornness, indifference, and mindlessness and heartlessness to His good, acceptable, and perfect will –“best effort” or “fallen flesh” is acceptable to them, and not even the Crucified and Resurrected Christ matters to them!

It’s not even ‘how long you lived’, but “in Whom you lived”, not the “best of self-effort existence in the sands of life” but “the solid foundation” of the True Rock who is Christ alone.

Do YOU fathom, do you understand, do you comprehend lives that are nothing more than ‘helpless pieces’ on “Life’s Game-board” with no submission or open door in them to the True Author of Everlasting Life, Purpose, or Divine Moves on their ‘play-boards’ of one’s earthly existence? Apart from Jesus it’s emptiness, vainness, personal game-playing – not the unveiling and revealing and revelation of Eternal Intent!

Life ‘found’ for one’s self apart from the Savior and Lord is a life guaranteed of eternal loss and one of serious desperation and consequences, but life “FOUND” in Christ for His honor, His glory, His praise, will stand eternally before Holy God, constantly reflecting, radiating, revealing Jesus’ everlasting Presence! It was Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, in his “A Psalm of Life,” who wrote: “Life is real! Life is earnest! And the grave is not its goal,” but I’m not sure if he even grasped, “Life is eternal” – and it’s either ‘in your best’ or Jesus’ “Resurrection Life and Holy, Resurrected Presence”; yes, there is life that continues beyond the grave and Hell with all its demons, devil, and unbelievers, but with the “graced saints” graciously living in God’s gift of eternal life in and through Christ’s “finished work”, there IS Heaven! Yes, Jesus Only!

Any definition of ‘life’ that has no foundation under it of honoring and glorifying Christ Jesus as Lord and Savior is ‘fruitless’, even ‘hollow religions’, ‘unregenerate church members’, or ‘temples steeped with ‘hypocrites’! But Jesus IS “the Light”, and “Jesus Only” is the ONLY UNVEILING OF LIGHT within men!

Christ Jesus, Emmanuel, Promised Messiah, IS the “Life”, the “Bread of Life”, is the “Author of LIFE” and that more abundantly, IS the “gift of God” and the only door to “eternal life”, and Paul says, “To live ‘in Christ’ is to flourish, and to die ‘in Christ’ is to gain eternal Presence and an eternal home in Heaven; life apart from Christ is a ‘vapor’ that only ‘exists’, and that ‘forever’ with flesh’s author and finisher who is the devil, but ‘in Christ’ there is victorious presence that never dies, falters or fades away in insignificance, but constantly joins Heaven’s Angels in the “Hallelujah Chorus”!

Unhappy lives or even ‘happy lives’ are not “God-blessed” or “Spirit-birthed” but just Adam-seeded, sin-natured attempts at “doing one’s best” with even totally unconcerned, misinformed, or blinded allegiance to God’s purpose in their ‘creation’. Have you ever heard someone say, “The purpose of life is just be yourself to your fullest and be happy?” when God’s intent is one being through with himself, accepting God’s judgment of his/her death with Christ as his/her only hope, and rejoicing daily in His Resurrection Presence in their repentant, redeemed, reconciled to God hearts!

It was Shakespeare, in his “Macbeth”, [Act V, sc.5.1,26], who wrote: “Life…is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.” Did the prophet mention the one who says, “Peace, peace, but there is no peace?”

You do understand, you do comprehend, you have evaluated the consequences of “Godless-men, nations, individuals” who ‘try’ to live with “no need of God”! Leo Tolstoy was right on target when in his writing “The Kingdom of God,” (Chapter 12), he said: “The only significance of life consists in helping to establish the kingdom of God; and this can be done only by means of the acknowledgement and profession [and I, JFF, would add ‘confession’ and ‘acceptance’] of the Truth by each one of us.”

I like what Augustine said when he spoke, “Before God can deliver us we must undeceive ourselves”! “The wages of (“my”) sin is death, but the ‘gift of God’ IS eternal life in and through Christ ONLY!” And as a result of receiving the “finished work of Christ AT THE CROSS,” resurrected to the King’s Presence, His Kingdom, and His witness in us and through us, He gives us graciously the “gift of the Holy Spirit,” and Romans 8:16 declares: “The Spirit (the Holy Spirit!) Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs – heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together.”

As a result of the amazing miracle of grace and the habitation of the Risen Christ within repentant hearts, and the recipients of the Holy Spirit “bearing witness in us and through us,” do you doubt, or just never informed and discipled to be led by the Holy Spirit? “The Spirit bears witness!” Is He “bearing witness” in you and through you?

I love Oswald Chambers’ explanation of “The Witness of the Spirit” in his amazing writings entitled, “My Utmost For His Highest.” (p.218). “We are in danger of getting the barter spirit when we come to God, wanting the witness before we have done what God tells us to do. “Why does not God reveal Himself to me?” He cannot, it is not that He will not, but He cannot, because you are in the road as you won’t abandon absolutely to Him. Immediately you do, God witnesses to Himself. He cannot witness to you, but He witnesses instantly to His own nature in you. If you had the witness before the reality, it would end in sentimental emotion. Immediately you transact on the Redemption, and stop the impertinence of debate, God gives the witness. As soon as you abandon reasoning and argument, God witnesses to what He has done, and we are amazed at our impertinence in having kept Him waiting. If you are in debate as to whether God can deliver from sin, either let Him do it, or tell Him He cannot. Do not quote this and that person, try Matthew 11:28, – “Come unto Me.” “COME”, if you are weary and heavy laden; “ask”, if you know you are evil. (Luke 11:13).

Chambers went on to say: (p.219), “The Spirit of God witnesses to the Redemption of our Lord, He does not witness to anything else; He cannot witness to our reason. The simplicity that comes from our common-sense decisions is apt to be mistaken for the witness of the Spirit, but the Spirit witnesses only to His own nature, and to the work of Redemption, never to our reason. If we try to make Him witness to our reason, it is no wonder we are in darkness and perplexity. Fling it all overboard, trust in Him, and He will give the witness.”

That’s so true “IF”! “If any man be in Christ, If any man is finished with his old life, old sin-nature, and his ‘fleshly ambitions’, willing ALL old things “are passed away,” then the “new-creation man”, indwelt by Resurrection Life in Christ, is then ready to “receive the Holy Spirit” to guide, direct, empower, and overflow in you and through you with, yes, “the gifts of the Spirit,” ready to reveal a redeemed, re-born, Spirit-filled, appointed, anointed witness to the glory and honor of Resurrection Life, Resurrection Power, and Resurrection Hope!

In the old American hymnal of Robert Coleman’s, published by The Broadman Press in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1933, I came across the song By Horatuis Bonar entitled “I Heard The Voice of Jesus Say.” It says:

“I heard the voice of Jesus say, “Come unto Me and rest; Lay down, you weary one, lay down your head upon My breast.” I came to Jesus as I was, Weary, and worn, and sad; I found in Him a resting-place, And He has made me glad.

I heard the voice of Jesus say, “Behold I freely give The living water; thirsty one, Stoop down, and drink, and live.” I came to Jesus and I drank of that life-giving stream; my thirst was quenched, my soul revived, and now I live in Him.

I heard the voice of Jesus say, “I am this dark world’s light: Look unto Me, your morn shall rise, And all your days be bright.” I looked to Jesus and found in Him my Star, my Sun; And in that light of life I’ll walk Till all my journey’s done.”

Old man – “new man”; flesh – Spirit; the sinner’s man – His saint; the Undone – in Him a “finished work” complete in Christ lacking nothing; grit, grease, garbage, and gall – “in Christ” is grace, victorious virtue, “fresh springs”, and perfect “God-Likeness”; empty, insignificant, earthly dwelling of ‘human flesh’ – “in Christ” is eternal Life, Holy Presence, and All-Sufficient grace; ‘flesh-poverty? – how about “enriched in Him, heirs, sons and daughters of the Heavenly Father, co-laborers in the Savior’s eternal, redemptive work, recipients of the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Jesus Christ, blessed with “amazing assurance”, divine anointings, holy callings, the natural crucified but resurrection Life amplified, Kingdom living and resident address, Kingdom presence, Kingdom power, Kingdom privileges, and Kingdom testimonies, visions and dreams, and Holy anointings in fulfilling His good and acceptable and purposeful will, citizens of the eternal Kingdom, members of the divine Family, appointees “in Christ” to the mission of world-wide “redemption” through our testimonies of “the blood of the Lamb and His Resurrection Presence in every “born-again” life! “Rise up, O men of God!”

By J.Farrell Fisher, August 10-12, 2017

It was John Greenleaf Whittier who wrote: “In simple trust like theirs who heard beside the Syrian sea the gracious calling of the Lord, Let us, like them, without a word Rise up and follow Him.” Have YOU risen up out of spiritual death to follow Christ, being willing and obedient to whatever the Lord and Savior tells you to do? In Luke 6:46 the Lord Jesus spoke to a large gathering who had been following Him, saying to them, “But why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord’, and not do the things which I say?”

In Luke 6:47-49 we read Christ Jesus’s further unveiling of false and true disciples! He said: “Whoever comes to Me, and hears My sayings and does them, I will show you whom he is like: He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently against that house, and could not shake it, for it was founded on the rock. But he who heard and did nothing is like a man who built a house on the earth without a foundation, against which the stream beat vehemently; and immediately it fell. And the ruin of that house was great.”

How would you define the distinguishing trait of true ‘religious’ faith? “ Well, in Jesus I’m set free from the penalty of my sin – and, thank God, He continues to forgive me as I continue to sin.” Really? And one feels that way when Jesus clearly said to His new disciples, “Go, and sin no more”?

It was Henri Frederic Amiel who wrote: “The distinguishing mark of religion is not so much liberty as obedience, and its value is measured by the sacrifices which it can extract from the individual.” Is ‘a sacrifice’ “the taking of the sentence of death daily to my old man so that day by day I might walk in victory over the old sin nature that was crucified with Christ?”

What did the beloved John write in 1 John 3:9? “Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God.” That will go over well for those who believe Christians can’t stop sinning until they get to heaven in the “sweet by and by”, RIGHT? WRONG!

Here’s how Oswald Chambers addressed it in his book, “My Utmost For His Highest.” “Do I seek to stop sinning or have I stopped sinning? To be born of God means that I have the supernatural power of God to stop sinning. In the Bible it is never – Should a Christian sin? The Bible puts it emphatically – “A Christian must not sin.” The effective working of the new birth life in us is that we do not commit sin, not merely that we have the power not to sin, but that we have stopped sinning. I John 3:9 does not mean that we “cannot” sin; it means that is we obey the life of God in us, we “need not” sin.”

Without a doubt, if one is interested in determining “Kingdom of God rule”, the evidence is one of a “new birth” relationship to Holy God, a “new gift of Holy Spirit presence within”, and, yes, willing to walk in the Biblical revelation that one, through the blood and Indwelling Life of Christ, takes the sentence of death to himself/herself daily that the Resurrection Life may be manifested in mortal flesh – and His Eternal Life is void of the sin nature or the desire to sin! Does Christ Jesus LIVE within YOU as His earthly “Temple Presence” where “sin” has been washed away through His shed blood and you’ve chosen to, yes, die daily to your old sin nature?

In Psalm 16:7-9 David wrote: “I will bless the Lord who has given me counsel; my heart also instructs me in the night seasons. I have set the Lord ALWAYS before me; because He is at my right hand I shall not be moved. Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices; my flesh also will rest in hope.” Paul said in Philippians 1:21, “For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” And, to me, I don’t see the ‘dying’ as ultimate physical death, but that daily sentencing of the death of the old sin-nature that Christ’s Resurrection Presence have ‘holy ground in and through me washed in the blood of the Lamb,’ unveiling His awesome victory at the Cross over sin and Satan!

And, certainly, this without a doubt is why Paul wrote in Romans 15:13, “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing (trusting, adhering to, relying upon), that you MAY ABOUND IN HOPE by the power of the Holy Spirit.” And when it comes to “joy and peace” in the life of true believers, notice what the Lord Jesus said in John 15:10-11! Jesus said:

“IF you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.” (HOW MANY “JOYFUL CHRISTIANS” DO YOU REALLY KNOW TODAY?). Are YOU abounding in hope over your sin and sin-nature?

Is it possible that in modern-day churches that there are those who teach “Great blessings in Christ” but oppose loving obedience to Him as unattainable and unnecessary, describing it as “salvation by works”, when obedience is a reality of having been saved, not to be saved or born again? There IS a ‘closed door to God’s abiding presence’ if one determines for himself, “Obedience to God’s every command is not expected but is simply uninformed stupidity!” And a lot of folks stand on that foundation-less frame of reference to “knowing God”!

What was Paul speaking about when in 2 Corinthians 6:12 he wrote: “O Corinthians! You are not restricted by us (the apostles), but you are restricted by your own affections,” stating further in Verses 14-16, “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 (the ‘wicked’ or ‘ungodly’)? 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 the living God.”

As “the temple of the living God” are we thus declared free from sin’s penalty if we willfully choose to “sin as I please because Jesus understands my nature?”, even though He crucified sin and its nature in Himself on the Cross? What did Samuel tell us in 1 Samuel 15:22-23? “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams. For REBELLION is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He also has rejected you from being king.” I know Samuel was speaking to Saul, but I also know the Word declares repentant believers “kings and priests”.

Therefore, take notice, “kings and priests”! Willful sin and disobedience will be faced with two doors! One, being true repentance and a forsaking of sin with a wide-opened door into His Abiding Presence, or Two, willful sin and disobedience without repentance facing God’s “door-closing” to you into His Presence and a cancelation of your Royal Ambassadorship! And that’s serious!

Consider! Is “fleshly ambition” idolatry if one omits Holy God’s eternal intention for that life? It was Thomas Southerne in his writing “The Loyal Brother” who said: “Ambition is our idol on whose wings Great minds are carried only to extremes; to be sublimely great, or to be nothing.” But ‘ambition’ is not evil when one desires to be fully available in honoring one’s Lord and Savior in his/her chosen occupation or lifestyle or relationships! ‘Greatness’ without God ends empty – ambition without God breeds sublime ‘nothingness’!

In Luke 12:41-46 is a sharp, awakening, convicting story Jesus interpreted for Peter AND US about “faithful servants” or “Unfaithful servants! Get ready! Get geared up! Then Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, do you speak this parable only to us, or to all people?” And the Lord said: Verses 42-46, “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.”

Does what I’ve just read from the lips of Jesus ring the bell of remembrance with Jeremiah 34:17-20? Therefore THUS SAYS THE LORD: “You have not obeyed Me in proclaiming liberty, every one to his brother and every one to his neighbor. Behold, I proclaim liberty to you, says the Lord – to the sword, to pestilence, and to famine! And I will deliver you to trouble among all the kingdoms of the earth. And I will give the men who transgressed My covenant, who have not [performed the words of the covenant which they made before Me, when they cut the calf in two and passed between the parts of it – the princes of Judah, the princes of Jerusalem, the eunuchs, the priests, and all the people who passed between the parts of the calf – I will give them into the hands of their enemies and into the hand of those who seek their life. Their dead bodies shall be for meat for the birds of the heaven and the beasts of the earth.”

Does that sound serious to you about those who do not walk in submission and obedience to every Word of the Lord’s declaration to His followers who are called to be servants to their Master, Lord, and Savior? Is “partial obedience” to King Jesus a satisfying response for you OR are you permanently committed to a permanent separation from the world, the flesh, and to Satan, and a “Lord, what would You have me to do?” He tells you in His Word – AND YOU DO IT WITHOUT HESITATION!

Isaiah 1:9-20 is one of the most helpful, hopeful, holy Word of Scripture anywhere, anytime, for anyone hungry for more than his/her flesh has been able to produce, even at their “flesh-inspired, gut-level best”! It says: “Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom; give ear to the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah; [That’s the high priests of Israel’s ‘religious faith’, the kings and priests, and regular attenders in the sanctuary!]; To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to Me?” says the Lord.

“I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed cattle. I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs or goats. When you come to appear before Me, who has required this from your hand, to trample My courts? Bring no more futile sacrifices; incense is an abomination to Me. The New Moons, the Sabbaths, and the calling of assemblies – I cannot endure iniquity and the sacred meeting. Your New Moons and your appointed feasts My soul hates; they are a trouble to Me, I am weary of bearing them.

When you spread out your hands, I will hide My eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood. Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes. Cease to do evil. Learn to do good; seek justice, rebuke the oppressor; defend the fatherless, plead for the widow.

“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.”

Are you fully aware of the amazing grace of our Lord when one truly repents, takes the sentence of death to his old sin nature daily, receives the anointing and abiding of the Holy Spirit, and, yes, feeds on the bread, milk, and meat of the Word daily, willfully following Christ Jesus in “offering Himself without spot to God”, then seeing God “cleansing your conscience from dead works to serve the living God”? Are you ‘dying daily’ to the old sin-natured man, yes, “permanent separation” from what you once were TO TODAY HONORING CHRIST JESUS IN THE “NEW MAN” WASHED IN THE BLOOD OF THE LAMB, ANOINTED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT, AND COMMISSIONED AS HIS ROYAL AMBASSADORS IN OUR NEEDY WORLD?

“Partial obedience” can result in permanent separation from God, but I pray you clearly understand that after one’s disaster of “Partial Obedience”, and because he/she receives the conviction of the Holy Spirit, that the ‘forgiven sinner’ can turn to permanent separation from ‘partial obedience’ to a fully surrendered, Christ-honoring life!!

By: J. Farrell Fisher, July 24-25, 2017

A craving, fleshly heart is because of all lives birthed in the ‘natural’ world void of the “new creation miraculous birth” through the free gift of God Himself through the shed blood of the Redeemer! Didn’t Jesus say to the ‘religious’ Nicodemus, in John 3:3, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is BORN AGAIN, he cannot see the kingdom of God”?

In fact, in John 3: 5, Jesus unveiled the process of redemptive faith! He said: “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water (the water of the Word,) AND the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God,” saying also in Verse 6, “That which is born of flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” Peter amplified the eternal ministry of “blood redemption through Christ” when in 1 Peter 1:22-23 he wrote: “Since you have purified your souls IN OBEYING THE TRUTH through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the Word of God which lives and abides forever.” Are YOU SPIRIT-BIRTHED by the living and abiding Word of God?

A craving, fleshly heart? A life lived independent of the Word, satisfying the impulses of a fleshly mind and heart, fitting in to the natural world of sin, deceit, and fleshly indulgences, yes, disobedient to the revealed Word of God, consumed by fleshly lusts warring against one’s soul and God Himself, living in the biblical ignorance of foolish men, camouflaging devilish hearts with “beautiful and handsome appearances”, embracing one’s appearance in its sinful nature as the height of fleshly wisdom, even openly and willingly denying the revealed Word of God, accepting of fornication, uncleanness, covetousness, even disobedience to the revealed will of God while stating “I’m a believer”, but drunk on the ‘wine’ of self-will and self-pleasure assuming falsely, “God understands”! Really?

Craving, fleshly hearts for the most part live in opposition to the good, acceptable, perfect will of God, ‘satisfied’ that as they disobey, “God understands and continually forgives,” as if in all our ‘fleshly dispensations’ or understanding, God just wipes, wipes, keeps on wiping, because forgiving through the blood of Christ is capable of changing ‘my nature’ – No! He crucified your sin nature with Christ!

Holy God was not fashioned, nor ever needed to be, because God IS Holy God – always has been and forever will be, but men birthed in the image, likeness, and nature of Adam, Jesus says, “These MUST be born again, born of the Spirit, born in and through His revealed Word”!

Mortal men are not like God, nor God like mortal men! God is not flesh but Spirit, not sin-natured but divine holiness and perfect righteousness, not striving but speaking who and what He is, always has been, and forever will be, the Way, the Truth, and the Life! But mortal men too often rest in themselves and lose out on the eternal blessing of “Christ in them the hope of glory”! And how many do you know or have heard speak about their own abilities, and how blessed God must feel to have them on His team, with no consideration of what and who Christ took to the Cross with Him!

If God made us for Himself, making us free to choose how and in whom we choose to live, having been created ‘free to choose’, sadly many choose to live independently of God, reasoning, “my best effort should be acceptable to God”, but reconciliation is by His terms, not fallen men’s terms! Fallen men announce from the mind and heart of “fallen flesh”, while Holy God announces His “finished work” and only way of reconciliation in and through the “shed blood” of Christ alone! It is dangerous grounds on which men stand if they fail to heed the voice of God: “Only guiltless blood redeems, regenerates divine life within, or restores men to My eternal will, plan, and power, in overcoming the world, the flesh, and the devil!”

It was J. Wilbur Chapman who wrote years ago these words: “I know of a name that is sunk in shame, where hearts often faint and tire; But I know a Name, a precious Name, That can set that world on fire: Its sound is sweet, its letters flame. I know a Name, a precious Name, It’s Jesus!”

But, how many really live unashamed in Christ Jesus’ Name? Are there still a few “Judases” who will sell Him for a “few pieces of silver” or a “few indulgences in my fallen flesh” or a “few transgressions understanding there is no consequence for a ‘believer’”? In the “modern-day” of “church life” the modern-mind of “professing Christians” must be reminded: “The wages of sin IS death”! When did that change? Or how many ‘church folk’ do you hear refuting that Biblical declaration? Fallen human natures ‘professing faith in Christ’ are more likely than not what the Duke of Wellington said: “Men who have nice notions of religion have no business to be soldiers (of the Cross of Christ)!” So true!

A craving, fleshly heart, baptized or not, has no business declaring their dependence upon God when they live with a declaration of independence from Holy God as they willfully choose to indulge the “flesh” He crucified! It was John Bunyan, in “The Pilgrim’s Progress” (Pt.11), who wrote: “One leak will sink a ship; and one sin will destroy a sinner;” and, I add, “One sin will sink a ‘saint’ if there is no repenting and forsaking of sin and the sin nature Christ took to the Cross”! How many “Christians” do you know who truly possess a repugnance about sinning “after choosing to be Christ’s disciple” yet excuse their ‘sinning tendencies’?

1 John 3:5 says, “And you know that He (Christ Jesus) was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin,” understanding that a ‘good tree’ birthed by Christ Jesus, according to Matthew 7:18, “cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.” It certainly doesn’t mean a full tree of fruit cannot witness even “one bad apple” – it happens! If you examine studiously I John 3:5, you’ll discern at least four truths:

• Jesus was manifested to take away our sins; and in Him is no sin.”
• Christ within you is the eternal presence and manifestation of Holy God who is senseless, only abiding and never changing in eternal Truth.
• Being one with Christ means, yes, we’re to live senseless lives.
• It is the height of absurdity to profess allegiance to the Sinless Savior and Lord but believe it’s OK without any awareness of or conviction about sinning as an evidence one never knew Him! “in Him is no sin.”

If that is true, and it is, what does Paul tell us in Romans 6: 5-11? “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 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 (were YOU crucified with Christ?) has been FREED FROM SIN. (Has YOUR body of sin been crucified with Christ?).

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 CHRIST 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.” Dare I tell you that Jesus not only took our sins and sin nature upon Himself to wipe out the disgrace of sinful hearts and minds, but through His shed blood also to vanquish sin’s grip – and if we’re “joined to Christ by grace and mercy”, what spirit is it that has deceived us if we ever get to the place we say, “sinning is Ok as long as we ‘believe’ in Jesus”, when ‘belief’, true belief, true scriptural evidence, doesn’t introduce an ‘OK’ to sin!!

But some ‘compromising believers’ disavow victory in and through Jesus concerning their old sin natures! In 2 Corinthians 4:2-7 Paul tells us: “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 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 (Satan and/or the ‘false religious leaders of the day who are ‘tools of 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. 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 Christ Jesus.” Counterfeit lights in ‘self-made followers of Jesus’ are not the Salvation Light of the Indwelling Disciple who has lived with a truly repentant heart toward God and faith only in the Christ within them, not their cheap imitation!

A.W. Pink wrote in his book “An Exposition of 1 John”, (p.115), commenting about “whoever sins has not seen Him, nor known Him,” saying: “Between abiding in Christ and sinning there is such an absolute incompatibility, that whoever sins (And keeps on saying, I JFF say!) is for the time not merely in the position of not abiding in Christ, but in the position of not having seen or known Him. In so far as he is sinning, his is virtually the very same case with that of the man who has never either seen or known Christ. The statement is very emphatic and very categorical. It is more than a mere assertion of a sort of moral inconsistency or incongruity, a certain manifest unsuitableness, in the view of common sense and right feeling. It is an assertion of absolute incompatibility, in the nature of things; and it is a very strong assertion of that, put in two forms, positively and negatively, to make it all the stronger.”

Did YOU “die with Christ”? And are YOU “abiding in Christ” through the conviction of the Holy Spirit, confession of your sin and sin nature through the Spirit, and guided by the Holy Spirit that Christ Jesus only is YOUR WAY, YOUR TRUTH, and YOUR LIFE? You “live resurrection life” because of the Spirit of the Resurrected Christ in you, yes again, “the hope of glory”! It’s not “servile pretense” but “Spirit of Christ presence”, being Himself in and through your convicted, broken, cleansed heart by the Blood of the Lamb, washing you, resurrecting you to be Christ’s resident Temple of Holiness! If you live with a faithful heart, you live your life of faith apart from sin and your old sin nature! It’s clear, at least in the Word! “If YOU are Christ’s child of faith you’ve offered your life to be dead from and in sin so the Victorious Christ will have an earthly home to be Himself! And, IF SO, “Go and sin no more!”

Again, John, in 1 John 3:7-10, in a convicting declaration states: “Little children (which can include 80-year-olds who’ve just believed!), let no one deceive you. He who practices (and keeps on practicing!) righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous. He who sins is of the devil. For the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. (It’s extremely sad that some choose Satan’s works over God’s grace and mercy, but they do!). Whoever has been born of God (in the spirit-realm) does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God.”

And, some just laugh, saying: “Well, I guess I’ll just have to show Jesus!”, as they rebel, deny, AND choose to do as they please rather than as God decrees and declares: “The wages of sin IS death, but the gift of God IS eternal life in and through Christ Jesus only!!”

Sadly, around you flourishes a ‘society of sinners’ under the rule of Satan that see their sin-tendencies as blessings not curses, because of sinful mind and heart, dictated to by Satan, yes, desires to satisfy their ‘flesh-nature’, failing to understand it exposes their true identity of godlessness! Yet, at the same time, “confession booths” are open doors for many to ‘feel’ forgiven as they walk out, but intent on doing the same things over and over! There isn’t a ‘heavy-heart’ of brokenness about how their sin breaks God’s heart, but a ‘confession’ without any desire to be delivered from their bondage!

“Natural, worldly, self-centered, Satan-influenced individuals,” are spiritually bankrupt when it comes to understanding, receiving, reaching out to, or resting in the Word of God – they are part of societal madness, void of spiritual discernment, and blind to the grace, mercy, and love of God demonstrated in and through Calvary’s Cross!

Is it for you a craving, fleshly, God-forsaking heart or are you willing to be another “new creation miracle” out of the overflow of God’s heart and out of the abundance of Christ’s promises and fulfillment in millions and millions of lives?

There is: A new blood-covenant, the promise of a “new name”, the eternal miracle of a “new heart”, a “new door or new gate of entrance into the fullness, the brightness, the glory of God’s presence in you, the hope of glory,” a “new drink of eternal blessing – the wine of Truth, mercy, and love”, a “new spirit, attitude, outlook, and fulfillment”, a “new creation”, a “new man”, a “new and living way”, “all things made new by His eternal creative powers”, a “new vision, a new dream” not figments of one’s sleepy dreams but the formulated plans of God for your destiny as clay in the hands of the Master-Potter!

The prophet, Joel, wrote in Joel 2:28-29, God speaking: “And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions. And also on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days.”

Dare I tell you that apart from God’s visions and dreams for every individual soul, mankind lives only with the best or worst of fallen men’s fleshly ambitions apart from eternal intent! It was James Russell Lowell who once said: “The wicked and the weak, by some dark law, have a strange power to shut and rivet down their own horizons round us, to unwing our heaven-inspiring visions.” So absolutely true, but then I came across Peter Marshall’s word in “Mr. Jones, Meet the Master,” when he said: “Give us clear vision that we may know where to stand and what to stand for, because unless we stand for something (and I say, FOR SOMEONE EVEN CHRIST!), we shall fall for anything.”

But how many do you know who willfully and intently stand, yes, opposed to God’s heavenly vision unveiled in and through Christ alone? But we have the Word of God in Christ – and it is not an old Aladdin’s lamp with ‘flickering, dying flames”, but eternal Truth “setting the captives free” and appointing them to extend His Kingdom and express His love, and exercise and prove His eternal power in bringing Heaven and the Kingdom of God to earth in the repentant, believing, trusting hearts of His disciples! ARE YOU ONE OF HIS DISCIPLES?

Milton Littlefield and E.M.Wren, in the old “American Hymnal” of 1933, wrote this hymn entitled, “Follow Me, the Masrter Said” – it says: “Follow Me”, the Master said; We will follow Jesus: By His word and Spirit-led, We will follow Jesus. Still for us He lives to plead, At the throne He does intercede, offers help in time of need: We will follow Jesus.

Should the world and sin oppose, We will follow Jesus; He is greater than our foes; We will follow Jesus. On His promise we depend, He will succor and defend, help and keep us to the end: We will follow Jesus.

Though the way may dark appear, We will follow Jesus; He will make our pathway clear; We will follow Jesus. In our daily round of care, As we plead with God in prayer, With the cross which we must bear, We will follow Jesus.

Ever keep the end in view; We will follow Jesus: All His promises are true; We will follow Jesus. When this earthly course is run, And the Master says, Well done!” Life eternal we have won: We will follow Jesus.”

Tell me! Who or what has your heart and on what path are you following? Are YOU “following” Jesus, anywhere, everywhere, any time, any place, any battle field He’s already fought and won for His glory, His honor, His praise alone? Dare I tell you, “the way of the Cross leads home”!

“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?