By J.FARRELL FISHER, JUNE 13-15, 2017

1 Corinthians 15:33-34 reveals so much about folks who are deceived and, yes, true believers who have been enlightened. The Word says, “Do not be deceived: Evil company corrupts good habits. Awake to righteousness, and do not sin; for some do not have the knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame.” But SOME do!

It was in 2 Corinthians 10:4-5 that the Apostle Paul highlighted the difference between ‘fleshly determinations or divine discernment” when he wrote: “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ…”! Have YOU been brought into a state of life of obedience to King Jesus our Lord and Savior and Master of our redeemed lives?

Did Paul mention ‘warfare’? I was just a small boy when the Second World War broke out. I was under the care of my grandparents from three years of age to about twelve. And I’ll never forget Papa Lemons glued to his radio in his main chair listening intently because he had two sons in Armed Services, one a “flight engineer” for a bomber and the other a “top turret gunner on a bomber”! My granddad was intent about learning all he could about warfare because he knew his sons could be killed – he did know about intercessory prayer!

But some around us are aware of national warfare more than they are the warfare between Heaven and hell, even unaware of the demonic warfare for the captivity of one’s soul under devilish domination – they’re blind and deaf about their separation from God as they give themselves fully to the natural, the fleshly, the worldly without a thought about why Christ took them to the Cross to be crucified with Him, then resurrected from the dead spiritually to a “new creation,” a “new life”, and an “eternal hope”!

Fleshly lives, living by fleshly determinations, yes, are enraptured with ‘fleshly imaginations and every fleshly thing that exalts itself or one’s self from the true knowledge of God’!

In Hebrews 2, having amplified ‘bringing many sons to glory’, the author unveils the intent of Christ, in His coming, AND His willful offering for our salvation though He knew the pain and trouble involved in crucifixion! Hebrews 2:14-18 tells us, “Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who has the power of death, that is, the devil (or Satan!), and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. For indeed He does not give aid to angels, but He does give aid to the seed of Abraham. Therefore, in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted.”

But, if the Lord Jesus “suffered” because of Satan’s temptations, modern believers even in the reality of Christ’s “suffering”, see no place for “modern Christians today ever believing they’ll be tempted by the same devil or having to suffer to overcome”! All I can say is, “They are not students of the Holy Word of God or they excuse Jesus not meaning what He said”! “In the world you’ll have great tribulation,” “In the world of a disciple’s walk there will be demonic opposition,” “In the world of ‘churchianity’ be careful of the false teachers who resent My Word,” “In the world of ‘Christian professionalism’ be alerted to the, yes, false teachers and preachers who deny the devil and his demons – they are foreign to the mind, heart, and spirit of the Living God and the Resurrected Christ and the Holy Word” especially of Revelation 12:7-17!! The Holy Words says:

And war broke out in heaven: Michael and the angels fought with the dragon (or Satan); and the dragon and his angels (demons) 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 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.”

Now when the dragon saw that he had been cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male Child. But the woman was given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness to her place, where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time, from the presence of the serpent.

So the serpent spewed water out of his mouth like a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away by the flood. But the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the flood which the dragon had spewed out of his mouth. And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.”

But remember, and never forget or overlook, Hebrews 2:14-15, because it illumines ‘fallen mankind’ in need of the Deliverer! “Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.”

Unbelievers without Christ are dominated, controlled, instructed by the devil who operates in and out of the power of death – and unbelievers don’t even know they are tools of Satan, from the highest intellectual PhD professor to the lowest slave of darkness, all under his subjection to bondage, godlessness, and faithlessness!

“Fleshly determinations”? Just how big do you see this problem in the church, in the minds of those who’ve never truly been disciples in the Spirit of Christ who faced ‘warfare’ with the devil and won?

Paul instructs us wisely in Colossians 2:18-20 & 2: 23-3:6 “Let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly PUFFED UP BY HIS FLESHLY MIND, and not holding fast to the Head (King Jesus), from whom all the body, nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, grows with the increase that is from God. Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations –

Chapter 2:23-3:6 then says, These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility, and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh. 3:1-6 then says: If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.

For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears (manifested or unveiled!), then you shall also appear with Him in glory. Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry (and it’s also the very nature of the devil!). Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them.” Be assured: A SELF-IMPOSED LIFESTYLE IS THE VERY RESIDENCE AND THRONE OF SATAN AND HIS DEMONS!

Let’s shift gears!! If the Holy Spirit of God “guides us into all Truth”, if Satan is out to “deceive us” who are in Christ, then what does Satan do to turn us away from a true walk in Christ?

FIRST, SATAN TWISTS BIBLICAL TRUTH, EVEN ENCOURAGING COOPERATION AND PARTICIPATION WITH GOOD AND EVIL, BUT HIGHLY OPPOSED TO HOLY TRUTH, PRODUCING COOPERATORS WITH THE DEVIL BUT NOT DEVOTED FOLLOWERS OF HOLY GOD! Look at Genesis 3:1-24, the whole chapter! It says:

Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’? [Casting doubt on the Word of God!]. And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.”

Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” SO when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, AND THEY KNEW THAT THEY WERE NAKED; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings. [A ‘covering’ does not convert, transform, or make new – it only promotes pretense, self-illusion, and clouds one’s vision of the need of the Savior and Lord!].

And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves ( and unbelieving men and women are still “hiding themselves” from divine reality!) from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. (I call this man-made “Fig-Leaf Religion”!).

Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, “Where are you?” [That’s the eternal clear calling to every man, woman, boy or girl – WHERE ARE YOU?]. So Adam said, “I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.” [Where are YOU hiding yourself right now as Holy God calls your name?].

And God said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?” Then the man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.” [Blaming behavior?]. And the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

So the Lord God said to the serpent: “Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all cattle, and more than any beast of the field; on your belly you shall go, and you shall eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

To the woman God said: “I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; in pain you shall bring forth children; your desire shall be for your husband and he shall rule over you.” [If you didn’t know, husbands ‘ruling over their wives as well as wives ruling over their husbands’ is an anathema – if a husband is the ‘head of the wife’ it’s because he has chosen to walk as the servant of Christ! Jesus said, “I didn’t come to be served, but to serve and to lay down my life as a ransom for the many!” True biblical marriage is “mutual submissiveness in the will of God”!].

Verse 17, Then God said to Adam, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, “You shall not eat of it,” ‘Cursed is the ground for your sake; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for dust you are, and to dust you shall return.’”

Verse 20, And Adam called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. Also for Adam and his wife the Lord God made tunics of skin, and clothed them. [Tunics of skin? Why not the robes of righteousness? Because Adam and Eve were not righteous! Why not clothed with salvation? Because Adam and Eve fell away from Holy God! Why not clothed in blood redemption? Because Adam and Eve walked with closed ears to spiritual Truth! Why not clothed in blessed assurance? Because, remember, in Luke 8:2 Christ Jesus met a certain man from the city “who had demons for a long time. And he wore NO CLOTHES, nor did he live in a house but in tombs.” He didn’t know what to do about Jesus, but Jesus knew what to do with him!

In Verse 30 Jesus asked him, saying, “What is your name?” And he said, “Legion”, because many demons had entered him. And they (the demons) begged Jesus that He would not command them to go out into the abyss. (For them, a herd of swine would do! So they begged Jesus that He would permit them to enter the swine. He did!).

The scene changes dramatically! Verse 35, Then the city went out to see what had happened, and they came to Jesus, AND FOUND THE MAN FROM WHOM THE DEMONS HAD DEPARTED, SITTING AT THE FEET OF JESUS, clothed and in his right mind. And his fellow citizens were afraid. They even asked Jesus to depart from them “for they were seized with great fear.” They departed further away from Christ Jesus as men still do today!

Jesus told the man set free from his demons: “Return to your own house, and tell what great things God has done for you.” Are YOU telling what great things God has done for you through Christ?

SECOND, YOU MUST SEE HOW SOME MEN LIVE IN THEIR IMAGINARY ‘SELF-CLOTHING’ APART FROM THE GIFTS OF HOLY GOD – FLESHLY DETERMINATIONS APART FROM DIVINE DISCERNMENT AND HOLY INSPIRATION! It’s so awakening to discern what happened to, yes, religious Jews when the Apostle Paul “stripped” Judaism of its pretense and ‘play-acting’! In 2 Timothy 3:1-7 Paul wrote: “But know this, that in the last days (of Judaism! Not ‘end-times’ as some allege!) perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away! [A form of godliness is not godliness!].

For of this sort are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts, always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Now as Jannes and Jambres resisted Moses, so do these men also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, disapproved concerning the faith; but they will progress no further, for their folly will be manifest to all, as theirs also was.”

Oh, but then there are “the few” as Jesus told us: “Few there be who find it, or find the only Way, the only Truth, the only Life in Christ Jesus alone!”

In 2 Timothy 3:14-17 we learn about “divine discernment and holy inspiration”! Paul wrote: “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.”

THIRD, ONE MUST COME TO “REST”, NOT IN WHAT HE OR HIS FALLEN WORLD AROUND HIM DETERMINES AS ACCEPTABLE, BUT “RESTING” IN THE FINISHED WORK OF CHRIST AT THE CROSS, LIFE BURIED, THEN RESURRECTED IN THE FULLNESS OF THE BLESSING OF THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST!

In Galatians 5:24-25 Paul wrote: “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.”

I love Oswald Chambers’ wisdom and enlightment in his book, “My Utmost For His Highest,” (p.256), “It is the things that are right and noble and good from the natural standpoint that keep us back from God’s best. To discern that natural virtues antagonize surrender to God, is to bring our soul into the center of its greatest battle. Very few of us debate with the sordid and evil and wrong, but we do debate with the good. It is the good that hates the best, and the higher up you get in the scale of natural virtues, the more intense is the opposition to Jesus Christ. (But, Chambers then said:), “They that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh” – it is going to cost the natural in you everything, not something. Jesus said – “If any man will be My disciple, let him deny himself…”. Beware of refusing to go to the funeral of your own independence.” Amen?

FOURTH AND LAST, THERE MUST BE A WILLFUL, FULL SURRENDER OF WHAT THE “OLD MAN LOVES” AND WHAT ,YES, CHRIST JESUS DEMANDS! There’s an inspiring Verse in Psalm 138:8 when David, King David, wrote: “The Lord will perfect that which concerns me,” and we can rest assured, “In Christ, our Lord, Savior, and Master of our lives WILL PERFECT IN US THAT WHICH CONCERNS HIS NAME, HIS MISSION, HIS PURPOSE”!

Prior to Jesus’ betrayal and arrest, He prayed for His disciples then AND even NOW! John 17 unveils Christ’s intent for, yes, every single disciple: Verse 6, “I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world…”

Verse 8, “I have given them the words which You have given Me…”. Verse 9, “I pray for them…”. Verse 17, “Sanctify them by Your truth. You word is truth…” Verse 18, “I have sent them into the world…” to be salt and light! Verse 20, “I pray for those who will believe in Me through their word…”. Verse 22, “And the glory which You gave Me I have given them,” – Are YOU living in, under, through, around His glory-cloud? [A glory hidden in the privacy of one’s proud heart, or a glory shared to the needy world around you?]. Verse 23, “that the world may know that You sent Me, and have loved the world as You have loved Me.”

I believe it’s time for, yes, every disciple to begin praying, “Lord, what is Your eternal, perfect, Christ-honoring purpose for my life? It was George Eliot who once wrote: “It is vain thought to flee from the work God appoints us, for the sake of finding a greater blessing, instead of seeking it where alone it is to be found – in loving obedience?”

It’s so clear! In John 4:34 Jesus said, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work.” Can you say, as Jesus did, before His crucifixion, John 17:4, “I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do. Verse 5, AND NOW, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.”

Can you take yourself back before the world was and see God’s planned intent, ministry, and way of glorifying Himself through YOU? It’s time!!

UNLIMITED SURRENDER?”

BY: J.FARRELL FISHER, Oct. 9-11, 2017

It’s without hesitation that I sense and say that our ‘modern-day’ religious philosophies have very little, if any, to do with Biblical Revelation! In fact many deny the validity of the Holy Word of God birthed in the minds and hearts of men and women, convicted by the Holy Spirit, converted by the inspired Word, and anointed as His messengers of Divine Truth!

In the inspired word of Hebrews 11:1-3 we read: “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good testimony. By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.”

Verse 6 of Hebrews 11 then tells us, “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” (Are YOU a diligent seeker?). Not only Abel and Enoch, but we read of Noah, Abraham, and Sarah, with Hebrews 11:13 telling us: “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.”

Tell me about “what YOU are assured of,” tell me, have YOU embraced Christ or is your belief in Him one of ‘measured devotion’, AND have YOU “confessed” that you also are now a stranger and pilgrim on the earth, because your ‘faith’ is not measured but IS “unlimited full surrender” to the King of kings and Lord of lords? And that does declare you “a stranger and pilgrim on the earth”!

In Matthew 5:48 Jesus said about the “truly blessed disciples”, “Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.” In Christ we’re not called to be “children in understanding” but from birth on BY THE SPIRIT, we are to be disciples of Christ who understand and commit to and follow Him in “Unlimited Surrender”!

In the ‘flesh’ there is a ‘maimed existence’ void of God’s presence, but in the “Spirit” we are birthed into the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Jesus Christ! That’s “new creations”, “new men and new women”, truly living under, in, and by, to us, the “new Spirit” who “guides us into all truth”!

Are you a possessor of ‘measured devotion’ or do you live in and by the power of unlimited surrender? Follow carefully Psalm 33:1-11 and verses 13-14 and verses 18-22!

Psalm 33:1-11 says: “Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous! (Righteous because of what you do or what Christ did on the Cross?). For praise from the upright is beautiful. Praise the Lord with the harp; make melody to Him with an instrument of ten strings. Sing to Him a new song; play skillfully with a shout of joy.

For the word of the Lord is right, and all His work is done in truth. He loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of the goodness of the Lord. 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. The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; He makes the plans of the people of no effect. The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of His heart to all generations.”

Verses 13-14 tells us: “The Lord looks from heaven; He sees all the sons of men. From the place of His dwelling He looks on all the inhabitants of the earth;

Verses 18-22 then says: “Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him, on those who hope in His mercy, To deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine. Our soul waits for the Lord; He is our help and our shield. For our heart shall rejoice in Him, because we have trusted in His holy name. Let Your mercy, O Lord, be upon us, just as we hope in You.”

“Unlimited surrender” actually, effectively, and ultimately continues to, day by day, bless beyond measure because true disciples have birthed within them by the Holy Spirit an unflinching loyalty to the Word of God in Christ, “Come unto Me, and I will give you rest”! And didn’t the psalmist say, “Let Your mercy, O Lord, be upon us, just as we hope in You”? Where and in whom does your hope lie, if you have any hope?

But, for some, there IS the reality of “measured devotion”! Yes, there are limited limits of one’s ‘discipleship-loyalty’ because, for them, “Jesus asks too much”, which He never did – He just took your old life and old sin nature to the Cross and, yes, it WAS “crucified with Christ”, and seeking to resurrect what He carried to the Cross unveils one’s faith in himself and a lack of trust in what Christ did to give one new life, new hope, and a new eternal destiny!

In Philippians 3:10-14 Paul wrote: “…that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

Hear me! There IS a maturing process in one’s relationship to Christ! “Babies” in Christ sometimes ‘mess up’, ‘children in the faith’ also will ‘mess up’, ‘youngsters in the faith’ will ‘mess up’, and, dare I say it? Even Mature followers of Christ will, at times, yes, tragically ‘mess up’! But in 1 Corinthians 1:9 we read of God’s faithfulness! Paul wrote: “God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.”

In 1 Corinthians 2:1-4 Paul added: “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 have 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.”

“Measured devotion” is revealed in “professing folks” who are, yes, always looking inward to themselves as an explanation of whether or not they are ‘maturing’. Yet Paul said: “I take the sentence of death daily to the ‘old man’ that the resurrection life of Christ may be manifested in my mortal flesh!” So, in 1 Corinthians 2:9-12, Paul illumines true spiritual witness and spiritual understanding, saying, 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.” Glory! In fact, that’s a “GLORY! HALLELUJAH! PRAISE BE TO GOD FOR HIS UNSPEAKABLE GIFTS!” And, did Paul say, “freely given to us by God”? Yes, he did!

But, “measured devotion” in place of or a substitute for “unlimited surrender”? In 1 Corinthians 1:17-25 the Apostle Paul writes a “game winning, historic, world series competition ‘heart-run’ between flesh and Spirit”, between the natural at its best and the spiritual rallying in “unlimited surrender”, and ‘religious do-gooders’ against the “new-born” sons and daughters of Christ’s eternal family! He said:

“For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect. For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written: ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent,” (Holy God defines fallen, self-inspired men as “those who are perishing” from those “who are being saved” because those who ‘are being saved’ rest in God’s wisdom and God’s redemptive power, not in their fleshly intellect!). Paul continued, Verses 20-25,

Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the 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 the 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.”

In which community have YOU chosen to live? The community of unbelievers, the community of “measured devotion” which is the one with self-limitations, OR the community, the family of God, the Bride of Christ who live in “unlimited surrender” to His sovereign rule? There’s an amazing word in 2 Corinthians 6:1-7:1 – don’t miss this!! It says:

“We then, as workers together with Him also plead with you NOT TO RECEIVE THE GRACE OF GOD IN VAIN. [Are there those who do?]. For He says: “In an acceptable time I have heard you, and in the day of salvation I have helped you.” Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.

We give no offense in anything, that our ministry may not be blamed. But in all things we commend ourselves as ministers of God: in much patience, in tribulations, in needs, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in sleeplessness, in fastings; by purity, by knowledge, by longsuffering, by kindness, by the Holy Spirit, by sincere love, by the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, by honor and dishonor, by evil report and good report; as deceivers, and yet true; as unknown, yet well known; as dying, and behold we live; as chastened, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things.

O Corinthians! We have spoken openly to you, our heart is wide open. You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted by your own affections. (Question! WHAT REALLY HAS YOUR HEART AND MIND?). Now in return for the same (I speak as to children), you also be open. 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? 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.” Therefore “Come out from among them (the world, flesh, and Satan-devotees!) 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.” 2 Corinthians 7:1, “Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” “Measured devotion” OR “Unlimited Surrender”? Have YOU received “the grace of God in vain”? Measured devotion is ‘the treasure of self-effort at its best, leading to nothing’, but unlimited surrender is the eternal riches of being dead to the old man and living day by day in the fullness, the blessing, the ‘finished work’ of the Resurrected Christ!

In Jeremiah 1:8, as God called Jeremiah to ministry and service, He said to him and to every true child of faith in Christ, “…I am with you to deliver you!” Do YOU give the Lord Jesus His rightful place “in you” as your Lord and Savior, as the Master of your life, as, yes, Sovereign Administrator of your every- day step? Is Jesus King of your heart and mind? Is Christ Jesus “in you” as your Deliverer from your old sin-nature, your bondage to ‘devilish’ activity, and your fleshly allegiance to the world-influence around you that desires to maintain your allegiance to a “less than God devotion” but satisfying ‘personal desires’ without God interfering? Godless living is maniacal, manipulated by Satan, and spiritual insaneness! “God, move on the spiritual brainlessness by the Holy Spirit!”

By J. Farrell Fisher, April 2-4, 2017

Have you ever heard someone say about their “Christian relationship with Christ”: “I did my best but fell short!” In God’s Holy Name where does one “trying” appear in the Gospels of Christ in the New Testament or the Old?

In Galatians 2:20 The Holy Word, inspired by the Holy Spirit, speaking through 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.”

I guess it might be important to ask: “Concerning ME and ‘crucified with Christ’, was that just my worst and/or my best included, my earthiness, my worldliness, my religious leanings, my, at times, attempts at good or godly behavior?”

In Galatians 6:14-15 the Apostle Paul tells us: “But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation.”

Are you ever confronted, while walking with Christ in the “community of faith”, hearing someone talking about their “sincere attempts to live Christ-like, but their attempts fell short”? Is much of ‘religious Christianity’ today ‘fleshly attempts’ at imitating Christ, yes, apart from His resurrection presence within? Is this why Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 2:9, “For to this end I also wrote, that I might put you to the test, whether you are obedient in all things,” BECAUSE some ‘church folk, church pastors’ lean toward what you ‘try’ and not in whom you trust, some even saying and teaching that obedience is salvation by works, when in reality and biblical truth, obedience is the outward evidence of Christ’s indwelling!

Paul went on to encourage the Corinthians, and us, saying in 2 Corinthians 2:14-17, “Now thanks be TO GOD who always leads us in triumph in Christ, [“more than conquerors in and through Christ alone” or “super-human spiritual achievers”?], and through us {Sovereign, Holy, Merciful God!} diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place. For we are to God the fragrance of Christ (not our best efforts!) among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. To the one we are the aroma of death leading to death (if our attempts are ‘best effort trying’), and to the other the aroma of life leading to life. AND WHO IS SUFFICIENT FOR THESE THINGS? For we are not, as so many, peddling the word of God; but as of sincerity, but as from God, we speak in the sight of God in Christ.”

Some ‘religious-minded’ men and women know how to put on a “religious movie” that is fiction and not spiritual reality and Truth! Some are “self-commend-ers” with, they feel, adequate evaluation of their own religious devotion, with Paul challenging us in 2 Corinthians 3:1-6, “Do we begin again to commend ourselves? Or do we need, as some others, epistles of commendation to you or letters of commendation from you? You are our epistles written in our hearts, known and read by all men; clearly you are 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, the heart.

And we have such trust through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, who also MADE US SUFFICIENT as ministers of the NEW COVENANT, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” Made sufficient by the grace of God or ‘marred messes of fleshly attempts at “trying” to be Christ-like’?

There is a powerful demonstration of “Trusting” in Mark 1:40-42 that should give “eternal hope” to those WHO KNOW they are “spiritual lepers”, alienated and separated from God by their “sin natures”! It tells us, “Now a leper came to Him, imploring Him, kneeling down to Him and saying to Him, ‘If You are willing, You can make me clean.’

Then Jesus, moved with compassion, stretched out His hand and touched Him, and said to him, ‘I am willing; be cleansed.’ As soon as He had spoken, immediately the leprosy left him, and he was cleansed. And He strictly warned him and sent him away at once, and said to him, “See that you say nothing to anyone; but go your way, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing those things which Moses commanded as a testimony to them. “

I would assume that those who have suffered from “leprosy” know their desperate state of life, but in the spiritual frame of reference “all have sinned, all are separated from God”, but many are blinded to their condition, blinded to the seriousness of a godless life, and sadly, blinded to Holy God’s divine intervention in their behalf!

Romans 3:23-26 Paul declares: “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 Christ Jesus.”

HOW DESPERATE DO YOU FIND IT TO LEARN WITHOUT CHRIST YOU LIVE A MAIMED EXISTENCE BUT, IN CHRIST, Matthew 5:48, Jesus speaking, “Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect”! It was Oswald Chambers, in his book “My Utmost For His Highest”, (p.111), who said, “But it is better to enter into life maimed and lovely in God’s sight than to be lovely in man’s sight and lame in God’s.”

In the writing, “Poetry of the Anti-Jacobin, The Progress of Man,” (l.55), we read: “Man only – rash, refined, presumptuous Man – Starts from his rank, and mars Creation’s plan! Born the free heir of nature’s wide domain, To art’s strict limits bounds his narrowed reign; Resigns his native rights for meaner things, For Faith and Fetters, Laws and Priests and Kings,” but the call of Christ falls on deafened ears, blinded minds, and cold, diseased hearts!

‘Lovely in man’s sight or lame in God’s sight”? Hardened against God or softened to God’s love in the sacrifice of His Son and our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ? Brittle, hardened, alienated from God, comfortable in one’s baseness rather than blessed in God’s grace and mercy and love, suffering in silence because of one’s ‘sin disease’ but vocal in his/her independence from God in fleshly, self-satisfaction, clones of the devil himself and satisfied with that likeness, basking in one’s own ‘star’ but blinded to the True Light in Christ, one foot on earth while the other has stepped into Hell, the godless man lives for himself like Aristotle said: “Man is either a beast or a god”, but void of the reality of God’s Presence within as His earthly Temple without Christ Jesus as Lord and Savior, many being ‘religious without true repentance’, and as Robert Burns wrote in his “Inscribed to the Hon.C.J.Fox, “Good Lord, what is man? For as simple as he looks, Do but try to develop his hooks and his crooks! With his depths and his shallows, his good and his evil: All in all he’s a problem must puzzle the devil.”

Are you “an anything other than a God- type of man” because you see yourself as your own creator and sustainer, not realizing that without God you ARE a little ‘being’ out to camouflage your spiritually dead self? How blinded not to know that “in Christ” a truly ‘born-again life’ is the crowning wonder of all of God’s creative abilities!

God spoke to Isaiah with Isaiah 1:8 saying, “…For I am with you to deliver you, says the Lord,” but the ungodly, unreconciled, unbelieving cry out: “Deliver me from what,” sadly blinded, deafened, and stiff-necked before the awesome love of God at Calvary’s Cross, knowing nothing, even refusing to know, about personal deliverance from the bondage of one’s sin-nature, from the powerful influences of the worldly, from the claws of the devil like a wild animal after its prey – God longs to grace you, grant you, glorify you in and through Christ with Resurrection Life, Resurrection Power, and Resurrection Hope, as in Paul’s Ephesian epistle, Ephesians 3:14-19, he wrote: “For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, THAT HE WOULD GRANT YOU, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell (feel at home) in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height – to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”

“Trying Or Trusting?” Can a ‘wise man’ be made aware of the foolishness of his fleshly wisdom without God but made wiser by Christ’s “I AM the way, the truth, and the life”, or a ‘strong man’ weakened and made aware of his need of surrender to the True Lord of life, or a rich man ‘bankrupted’ to learn of His need of the Lord and Savior as “the True Riches”? Peter highlighted in 1 Peter 3:7, speaking of husbands dwelling with their wives with understanding, giving honor to the wives, then stating, “and as being heirs together of the grace of life,” living a graced life “so that your prayers may not be hindered”!

“Trying Or Trusting?” I’m convinced that men are aware of “something” or “Someone” outside themselves who or what will make the difference between ‘meaning of life’ or the ‘meaninglessness of their existence’! There are times when every man is confronted with the awareness that he is earthly, but there must be something or Someone more for his life’s meaning and blessing! The sad state of men’s affairs is when they determine they are the ‘star’ to light their earthly, fleshly existence, but only sense awareness of the finite but ‘dumb’ concerning the infinite, eternal, after-life destiny! Fallen men do not see their very earthly existence as the act, the intent, the purpose of God, for His “tabernacle”!

It was George Gordon and Lord Byron, in “Lara”, (Canto1,st.2) who wrote: “Lord of himself; that heritage of woe!” And in John Bunyan’s “A Book For Boys and Girls”, he wrote: “From God he’s (man) a backslider; Of ways, he loves the wider; With wickedness a sider; More venom than a spider; In sin he’s a confider; A make-bate and divider; Blind reason is his guider; The Devil his rider.” It was Thomas Carlyle who once wrote: “The older I grow, and I now stand on the brink of eternity – the more comes back to me that sentence in the Catechism I learned when a child, and the fuller and deeper its meaning becomes: ‘What is the chief end of man? To glorify God and enjoy Him forever.”

And yet many ‘live’ as “little souls” trying their best to be someone beyond a “living corpse”! [That’s Epictetus in his “Fragments”!]. In 2 Peter 2:9-10 Peter, anointed in the Holy Spirit, wrote: “…the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment, and especially those who walk according to the flesh in the lust of uncleanness and despise authority. They are presumptuous, self-willed. They are not afraid to speak evil of dignitaries…”

Do you remember the Lord Jesus describing the “scribes and Pharisees” in Matthew 23? These were the ‘religious elite of Judaism’ in Jesus’ day! They WERE the “great men of Judaism”, ‘self-appointed’, with no awareness of the heart, purpose, or plan of God through the Promised Messiah – in fact, they crucified Jesus! My Holman Study Bible introduces Matthew 23 with “Woe to the Scribes and Pharisees”! Seven times in Matthew 23 Jesus said to them: “Woe to you,” with their ‘name-identity’, by Jesus, as “hypocrites”! In Verses 27-28 the Lord Jesus said of them, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.” And you wonder how Jesus the True Lord and Savior views “American Christians”?

I don’t know if you are a student disciplined in the Word of God or not, but as you read Matthew 24 and Jesus’ prediction of the destruction of the Temple, I know it was a warning also for any believer, any church, any nation, anytime, because “All Scripture is divinely inspired and is profitable anytime, anywhere, for anyone!” Consider: “Perilous Times,” which are times of great deception, great conflicts, great sufferings, great, open sin, great opportunities, and either great joy or great sorrow! What’s YOUR choosing?

But, YOUR LIFE can be, in Christ, a demonstration, a celebration, a Hallelujah Chorus of Victory in Jesus! But, without Christ? Ecclesiastes 7:29 says, “Truly, this only I have found: That God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes.” It’s so interesting, convicting, and awakening to hear Jesus say in Matthew 16:24, “If ANYONE desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me,” followed by Verse 25, For whoever desires to save his life (for himself) will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.”

“Trying Or Trusting?” I have no hesitation in saying that the “triers” have never rested in “trusting” God’s Holy Word! In Galatians 2:20 Paul clearly stated, “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 (physical body) I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me,” which he clearly understood that his old man ( disobedient to God, lord over his own life, filled with sin and the sin nature) DESERVED TO BE CRUCIFIED! AND CHRIST TOOK US WITH HIM TO CALVARY!! And YOU are either living in ‘flesh’s best effort’ or thankful your old sin nature “died with Christ, crucified with Christ”, and you’ve also been raised up in the blessing of Christ’s resurrected life, presence, power, and promises! He said: “I’ll never leave you nor forsake you.” Glory!

“In Christ” we’re not hopeless but hope-filled! “In Christ” we’re no longer alienated and separated from God but made one in Him! “In Christ” we’re no longer condemned with the hideous nature of sin and Satan and the fallen world, but made one with Christ in His fullness and blessing and guaranteed promises – “I’ll never leave you nor forsake you!” “My grace frees you from your bondage of sin and frees you to an awareness you can go and sin no more!” “My grace transforms the sin nature into the gift of the divine nature!” “My grace obliterates the old man and blesses us with the “new man”, born again by the Spirit of God!”

Holy God shows mercy! Holy God births a “new creation”! Holy God indwells a man with Christ’s resurrection presence! Holy God “fills” repentant hearts with the fullness of His Holy Spirit! Holy God “stamps” us with His designation of ownership – “You are Mine!” And He will take care of us! He does so because He says: “You hold fast My name, and you have not denied My faith.”

It’s time now for YOUR “Hallelujah Chorus”! Sing it out! Live it out! Share it out! Proclaim it out! “I’m not a ‘trier’ – I’m a truster! I lean not to my own understanding, but In Christ I yield to His Holy Way!” Is that true of you?