By: J.Farrell Fisher, September 16-17, 2017

Very, very interesting when reading 2 Corinthians 10:3-6 Paul said: “For though we (in the flesh physically, and, yes, spiritually) walk in the flesh (our physical bodies), we do not war according to the flesh. 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, and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.”

Is ‘your obedience’ to Christ Jesus absolutely essential in overcoming disobedience in your walk as a disciple? Of course it is, but many scold themselves rather than daily taking the sentence of death to the old man that the resurrection life of Christ may be manifested in their mortal flesh.

Many “professing Christians” are thankful for their “justification” by God Himself “as if they’d never sinned”, but “sanctification”, or set apart for the glory of God in Christ alone, becomes a major hurdle that some never appropriate in and through Christ Jesus! Christ Jesus dealt with our “sin natures” in and through His “blood redemption” at Calvary’s Cross, but the battle between ‘flesh’ and spirit, between the old man and the new man, between the natural of the past and the Spirit-life of the present, faces an on-going struggle, battle, and warfare that has to be “fought” in and through Biblical Faith alone, not one’s “best effort”, but resting in Christ’s victory over sin, death, and the world of fallen mankind around Him!

In his book “My Utmost For His Highest”, (p.185-186), Oswald chambers wrote: “Deliverance from sin is not deliverance from human nature. There are things in human nature, such as prejudices, which the saint has to destroy by neglect; and other things which have to be destroyed by violence, i.e., by the Divine strength imparted by God’s Spirit…It is only when God has altered our disposition and we have entered into the experience of sanctification that the fight begins. The warfare is not against sin; we can never fight against sin: Jesus Christ deals with sin in Redemption. The conflict is along the line of turning our natural life into a spiritual life, and this is never done easily, nor does God intend it to be done easily. It is done only by a series of moral choices. God does not make us holy in the sense of character; He makes us holy in the sense of innocence, and we have to turn that innocence into holy character by a series of moral choices. These choices are continually in antagonism to the entrenchments of our natural life, the things which erect themselves as ramparts against the knowledge of God. We can either go back and make ourselves of no account in the kingdom of God, or we can determinedly demolish these things and let Jesus bring another son to glory.”

Again, what did Paul tell us in 2 Corinthians 10:4-5? “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, bringing every thought captive to the obedience of Christ…”!!

The obedience of Christ? Captive to the obedience of Christ? Bringing every thought captive to the obedience of Christ? Is it possible in a modern world that some ‘disciples’ have been ill-trained in some church communities that ‘obedience is an option in the age of grace’, even if Jesus said in Luke 6:46, “But why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord’, and do not do the things which I say?” Are you not aware that Christ Jesus calls us to a life of submission and obedience to, yes, King Jesus and to God as our Father and the Holy Spirit as our “Guide”?

“Christ Jesus is what?” “Christ Jesus – My Giver, Guide, and Guardian!” It’s as if some ‘believers’ (and I use that word hesitantly!) have never read the foundation-truth of Galatians 1:20-21a! Paul said: “I (we) 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 do not set aside (or frustrate) the grace of God.”

Some fail to see that true discipleship IS “living by THE faith (that is in) in the Son of God!” Our faith or His faith? And that’s the problem: Many live or try to live by their ‘faith’, in themselves, and not the true faith in Christ’s work in and through the Cross and the empty tomb!

Our hearts “burn within us” when we live in and through His Resurrection Presence! The Holy Word teaches us three things which MUST BE the true foundation of our saving faith! It Says, FIRST:

“CHRIST JESUS IS MY GIVER!” Vitally important passage in Matthew 11:25-30 when Jesus said: “I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent (IN THEIR OWN EYES) and have revealed them to babes. (That’s the “new-born” in Christ!). Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight. (Do we today survey, examine, decide what’s best for us in what ‘we see’ or from “God’s sight, His eyes, His purpose for us in and through Christ?).

All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him. Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I WILL GIVE YOU REST. Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

Do you remember Paul’s anointed word in Galatians 5:1? “Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.” Are you truly aware of, yes, the yoke of bondage and the yoke of liberty? A yoke of bondage is a yoke of personal imprisonment to your old sin nature! The yoke of liberty is Christ’s yoke of freedom from the law of sin and death – He CONQUERED BOTH SIN AND DEATH, and HE LIVES AS OUR VICTOR, the One who is more than conqueror over your old life of sin and transgression against the law and the death it always produces! We who are “in Christ” are not living by our “best effort” of imitating Christ – we ARE “more than conquerors through Him who loved us and gave Himself for us” – we live, we obey, we overcome, we live victoriously because He “paid it all, all to Him we owe, sin had left a crimson stain, but He washed it white as snow!”

Christ Jesus opened the closed door to God’s Presence and unveiled One living and dying for the will of God, and Galatians 6:24 tells us, “And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” But there can be, and too often is, in the lives of ‘professing believers’ a counterfeit of outward allegiance apart from the Christ-like desire of being one with God and His attitude of: “Lord, what would You have Me to do?” What did Paul later say in Galatians 6:14? “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.”

Christ Jesus our eternal, blessed “Giver”? Matthew 10:1, “Jesus gave us power over unclean, demonic spirits!” In Matthew 25:14-30, Jesus spoke about the gifts of the talents and how some honored Him while there were those who dishonored Him! OH, and He “broke the bread and gave them the juice to drink!” He gave some their ‘sight’ who had been blind! (Let that sink in!). How about John 1:12-13? John said, “But as many as received Him (gave Him His rightful place in their hearts as Savior and Lord!) to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name; who were born (regenerated), not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, BUT BORN OF GOD!” Have YOU truly been “born again”?

“CHRIST JESUS IS ALSO YOUR GUIDE!” Genesis 24:27 says: “As for me, being on the way, the Lord led me…”. Again, what did Jesus say to the Father? “Lord, what would You have me to do?” Our Savior, the Lord Jesus, lived His earthly existence in complete and total obedience to the Father! And, it’s not our option whether we will or we won’t – if YOU won’t, you don’t know Christ Jesus as Lord, Savior, and Master over your life!

Hear Oswald chambers again! (“My Utmost…p.237-238): “Most of us live on the borders of consciousness – consciously serving, consciously devoted to God. All this is immature, it is not the real life yet. The mature stage is the life of a child which is never conscious; we become so abandoned to God that the consciousness of being used never enters in. When we are consciously being used as broken bread and poured-out wine, there is another stage to be reached where all consciousness of ourselves and of what God is doing through us is eliminated. A saint (one “set apart” to the glory of God only) is never consciously a saint; a saint is consciously dependent on God.”

Are you familiar with Psalm 25? Examine Verses 12-15 where David said: “Who is the man who fears the Lord? Him shall God teach in the way God chooses. He himself shall live in prosperity, and his descendants shall inherit the earth. The secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him, and He will show them His covenant. My eyes are ever toward the Lord, for He shall pluck my feet out of the net.” To be without true, redemptive faith in God is to live trapped in the “net” of the world, the flesh or old sin nature, and to be under Satan’s domination!

But Christ Jesus takes us out of the “trap” and guides into the spiritual plains of eternal blessings and heavenly fulfillment!

William Williams and Thomas Hastings, in the old Broadman Hymnal of 1940, (published by The Broadman Press, Nashville, Tenn.), the blessed and scripturally founded hymn entitled, “Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah”. It says: “Guide me, O Thou great Jehovah, Pilgrim thro’ this barren land; I am weak, but You are mighty, Hold me with Your powerful hand; Bread of Heaven, Feed me till I want no more; Bread of Heaven, feed me till I want no more.

Open now Your crystal fountain Whence the healing waters flow; Let the fiery, cloudy pillar Lead me all my journey thro’; Strong Deliverer, Be Thou still my Strength and Shield; Strong Deliverer, Be Thou still my strength and shield.

When I tread the verge of Jordan, Bid my anxious fears subside; Bear me thro’ the swelling current, Land me safe on Canaan’s side; Songs of praises I will ever giver to You, Songs of praises I will ever give to You.”

Christ Jesus my Giver, Christ Jesus my Guide, and, LAST, “CHRIST JESUS OUR GUARDIAN”! In Isaiah 60:1-3 you see a strong Word of Holy God for the “true remnant of trusting Israel” but even of the “gentiles”, like us today, who trust in God’s faithfulness through His Son and our Savior and Lord! Isaiah wrote:

“Arise, shine; for your light has come! And the glory of the Lord is risen upon you. For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and deep darkness the people; BUT the Lord will arise over you, and His glory will be seen upon you. The Gentiles shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.”

Dare I ask YOU? Believe I will! “Have YOU been ‘raised up’ in the brightness of Resurrection Light, Resurrection Life, Resurrection Power, and Resurrection Hope?” In Matthew 4:16-17 Jesus came to the ‘regions of Zebulun and Naphtali, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying’: “The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and upon those who sat in the region and shadow of death LIGHT HAS DAWNED.”

Oh, and then He disappointed those who like the “darkness” because in Verse 17 Jesus began to preach and to say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” And through His life, His ministry, His death, His resurrection, THE KINGDOM OF GOD CAME ON EARTH AS IT HAS ALWAYS BEEN IN HEAVEN!!! If you are “in Christ”, you’re not looking for His Kingdom-Rule out there in the “sweet by and by” – YOU, IN CHRIST”, are reigning in the kingdom of your own heart and life to His glory, honor, and praise, extending His kingdom, expressing His love, and proving His power!

Another old hymn says: “THE KINGDOM IS COMING” specifically saying: “From all the dark places Of earth’s heathen races, O see how the thick shadows fly! The voice of salvation Awakes every nation, Come over and help us, they cry.

The sunlight is glancing over armies advancing To conquer the kingdoms of sin; Our Lord shall possess them, His presence shall bless them, His beauty shall enter them in.

With shouting and singing, And jubilant ringing, Their arms of rebellion cast down; At last every nation The Lord of salvation Their King and Redeemer shall crown!

The kingdom is coming, O tell you the story, God’s banner exalted shall be! The earth shall be full of His knowledge and glory, As waters that cover the sea.” And what did Jesus say as He began His earthly ministry? Matthew 6:33, “But seek FIRST the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” ARE YOU BEING “ADDED TO” BY THE CHRIST WHO FILLS ALL IN ALL?

In Luke 21:19 our Lord and Savior said: “By your steadfastness possess your souls,” understanding Christ Jesus IS the door and we enter kingdom living in and through Him, and when He says “possess your souls”, He was so aware of those who seldom accept discipleship responsibility, but many failing to “build” on the foundation He laid and is, ignoring His promises, provision, and power, choosing to ‘live out the faith’ with undisciplined, ‘fleshly’, or unaroused allegiance to the King of kings! They are blinded, clouded, or willfully neglectful of discipleship, yes, responsibility! They ‘joined the church’, got ‘baptized’, and for far too many that is the height of their spiritual assignment!

Oh, but beyond that, there is an ignoring willfully or ignoring spiritually the reality of the Holy Spirit in “guiding us into all truth”! You’ve heard it! “I got saved, baptized, and joined a church – nothing else is necessary.” Really? I believe Jesus said, “Forsake all, and follow Me,” and does that mean, having forsaken all, we’re willfully committed to extend His Kingdom, express His love, and prove His power?

I close with a very old hymn from the early 1900’s entitled “You Christian Heralds!” It says: “You Christian heralds! Go proclaim Salvation through Immanuel’s name; To distant climes the tidings bear, And plant the Rose of Sharon there.

He’ll shield you with a wall of fire, With flaming zeal your hearts inspire, Bid raging winds their fury cease, And hush the tempest into peace.

And when our labors all are o’er, Then shall we meet to part no more – Meet with the blood-bought throng to fall, And crown our Jesus – Lord of all.” AMEN?

A few questions to heighten your interest in the subject matter of this message: Have YOU been “turned aside” or are YOU “fixed” body, soul, and Spirit IN our Lord’s ‘unchangeableness’? Have you “drifted” or are YOU “established” or “being established” in Him? Are YOU “still asleep” or “fully awakened” to God’s eternal intent in you and through you with the Resurrection Presence of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ? Do YOU ‘daily’ reserve your life for your fleshly intents or ‘daily’ take the sentence of death unto yourself that His resurrection Presence may be manifested in your mortal flesh?

Are YOU willing to “be abased” by God Himself or are you ‘self-determined’ to map out your own spiritual significance in our modern world? Do YOU base your spiritual journey on ‘fleshly-grit’ or on “Christ-given amazing grace”? Do you continue, ‘though being a professing believer’, to examine yourself on “an awakening sympathy” for yourself, OR rest in the eternal Truth that your old man was crucified WITH Christ? If ‘dejection’ about one’s spiritual maturity or lack of it prevails or arises, where or upon Whom does one’s allegiance really lie? “Trust Him and His Word or ‘rely’ upon my own abilities or intents”?

It’s really interesting how Paul identified himself and the early true followers of Christ as “fools for Christ’s sake” but “pretenders” are the “puffed up” in full array of “self-best” rather than “dead to self but alive in Christ”! In 1 Corinthians 4:8-17 Paul wrote: “You (Corinthians) are already full! You are already rich! You have reigned as kings without us – and indeed I could wish that you did reign, that we also might reign with you! For I think that God has displayed us, the apostles last, as men condemned to death; for we have been made a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to men.

We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are distinguished, but we are dishonored! To the present hour we both hunger and thirst, and we are poorly clothed, and beaten, and homeless. And we labor, working with our own hands. Being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we endure; being defamed, we entreat.

We have been made as the filth of the world, the offscouring of all things until now. I do not write these things to shame you, but as my beloved children I WARN YOU. For though you might have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel.

Therefore I urge you, imitate me. For this reason I have sent Timothy to you, who is my beloved and faithful son in the Lord, who will remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach everywhere in every church.”

How often have YOU wondered or questioned if today the “true gospel of Christ Jesus is preached” or one’s opinion as to “saving grace and mercy and love of God”?

In 1 Corinthians 1:17-31 Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit, wrote “foundational Truth” for truly “seeking souls” longing for understanding about reconciliation with Holy God! 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.” [Prudent being judicious or wisely cautious, careful concerning one’s present and future, without little, if any, consideration of God’s plan and provision!).

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.

For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence.

But of Him you are IN CHRIST JESUS, who became for us wisdom from God – and righteousness and sanctification and redemption – that, as it is written, ‘He who glories, let him glory in the Lord.”

“True Disciples of Christ Jesus”? Do YOU think it would be necessary to see what the Holy Word has to say about the “foundation” of True Temple Building (which IS YOUR life, His holy Presence in YOU!) to the honor and glory of Christ alone? In Romans 1:1-7 Paul instructs, inspires, and informs all “seekers” about the path and person of truly following Christ Jesus! He said:

“Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, [Have you been ‘branded’, ‘marked’, ‘signed on’ to God’s eternal intent and purpose of ‘Christ in you His hope of glory through you’?], CALLED to be an apostle, SEPARATED to the gospel of God, which He promised before through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures (Old Testament!), concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead. THROUGH HIM we have received grace and apostleship (or grace and His servant ministry) FOR OBEDIENCE TO THE FAITH among all nations for His name, among whom you also ARE THE CALLED OF JESUS CHRIST; To all who are in Rome, beloved of God, CALLED TO BE SAINTS: Grace to you AND peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”

What do YOU see in these previous few verses about YOUR identity “in Christ”? 1) Marked or set apart to His honor, glory, and administration only? 2) Called? – in 2 Timothy 1:9-11 Paul enlightens us even more about our “calling”! He said, “…who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace WHICH WAS GIVEN TO US IN CHRIST JESUS BEFORE TIME BEGAN, but 3) has now been revealed by the appearing of our SAVIOR Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, to which I was appointed (What’s YOUR appointment?) a preacher, an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles.”

It’s so, so interesting when one reads Isaiah 42:6-7 with God Himself speaking to humanity, “I, the Lord, have called You (Christ Jesus and His true disciples!) in righteousness, and will hold Your hand; I will keep You and give You as a covenant to the people, as a light to the Gentiles, to OPEN blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from the prison, those who sit in darkness from the prison house.” [That ‘prison house’ is one’s “self-enslavement” under the devil’s domination and even a ‘religion’ apart from Divine Truth!].

Proverbs 1:20-33 tells us about “wisdom” from God Himself, but how some have rejected His earnest entreaties! It says: “Wisdom calls aloud outside; (Question! “Wisdom calling aloud to those outside God’s eternal Kingdom of love, grace, and mercy through His Son and the world’s ONLY Savior”?). She raises her voice in the open squares. She cries out in the chief concourses, at the openings of the gates in the city she speaks her words:

How long, you simple ones, will you love simplicity? For SCORNERS delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge. (That’s like, “The fool says in his heart, ‘there is no God’”?). Turn at my rebuke; surely I will pour out my spirit on you; I will make my words known to you.

Because I HAVE CALLED AND YOU HAVE REFUSED, I have stretched out my hand and no one regarded, Because you disdained all my counsel, and would have none of my rebuke. I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your terror comes, when your terror comes like a storm, and your destruction comes like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you.

Then they will call on me, but I will not answer; they will seek me diligently, but they will not find me. Because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord, they would have none of my counsel and despised my every rebuke. Therefore they shall eat ‘the fruit of their own way’, and be filled to the full with their own fancies.

For the turning away of the simple will slay them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them; BUT whoever listens to me will dwell safely, and will be secure, without fear of evil.”

Are you aware that ‘unbelievers’ are described in the Word as ‘enemies’ of God? In Romans 5:10 we read, “For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be (being) saved by His life.” Glory!

But apart from Christ? “Enemies of God”! Apart from Christ? “Death through sin”! Apart from Christ? “Bound in the chains of slavery to sin”? OR, as Paul said 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 be NO LONGER SLAVES OF SIN. For he who has died has been freed from sin. NOW IF we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise you also, RECKON YOURSELVES to be dead INDEED to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Glory!

I love how Oswald Chambers put it in his book, “My Utmost For His Highest,” (p.223), “It is my obedience that puts me right with God, my consecration. NEVER!! I am put right with God because prior to all, ( and I say, yes, prior even to world creation), Christ died…Lamb slain BEFORE the foundation of the world”, in God’s heart and mind!). When I turn to God and by belief (trust in, rely upon, adhere to) accept what God reveals I can accept, instantly the stupendous Atonement of Jesus Christ rushes me into a right relationship with God; AND by the supernatural miracle of God’s grace I stand justified, not because I am sorry for my sin, not because I have repented, but because of what Jesus has done. The Spirit of God brings it with a breaking, all-over light, and I know, though I do not know how, that I am saved.”

Apart from Christ? Alienated, separated, other worldly, rather than submission to God’s will and Kingdom allegiance! Apart from Christ? Astutely minded but brainless and heartless to the good, acceptable and perfect will of God! Apart from Christ? “Allegiance to my concept of fleshly independence, emancipated from loyalty to your Christ! Why should I even think about loyalty to your Christ?” Apart from Christ? Like a statement made on national TV recently, “The cop who breaks the law doesn’t deserve to wear the shield,” and when did THAT change? When ‘law-breakers’ in the heart refused submission, repentance, and true faith to the eternal ‘Law-Giver’, Holy God, they have NO appreciation or desire to ‘know’ Christ, and certainly not to be one with Him!

Apart from Christ? It’s ‘self-gratification,’ ‘self-emphasis,’ ‘self-indulgence’, or ‘self-denial debunked,’ ‘self-choice promoted’, with no concern if it pleases self, without even a thought if it ‘honors’ or shames the Lord Himself! Apart from Christ? No concern about ‘the strong ‘husk’ of individual independence from God’, but only, “what pleases ME, my thoughts, my fleshly indulgences, my emancipated personality with ‘sinners’ of a like-mind and self-indulgent body”!

Apart from Christ? Though the Holy Word says, (Ephesians 5:25-27), that “Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water BY THE WORD, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish,” but YOU say, “Who needs the church if I profess Christ?”

In Hebrews 10:24-25 the author, under the anointing of the Holy Spirit, wrote: “And let us CONSIDER ONE ANOTHER in order to stir up love and good works, NOT FORSAKING THE ASSEMBLING OF OURSELVES TOGETHER, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.” You ‘draw nigh to God’, but have no desire to be drawn in as a part of His earthly ‘Body’ called the church of Jesus Christ? Are YOU unaware of His great love of the “local assembly” of His born-again children of faith and His desire to minister to you and through you by your devotion to “the church Jesus loved and gave Himself for”? Oswald Chambers wrote: (“My Utmost For His Highest,” p.263), “The idea is not that we do work for God, but that we are so loyal to Him that He can do His work through us – ‘I reckon on you for extreme service, with no complaining on your part and no explanation on Mine’. God wants to use us as He used His own Son.”

I haven’t prepared or preached the following thought, but I believe it has to be expressed: “Bestowed Grace – Blessed Victory”! In 1 Corinthians 15:9-10 Paul tells us: “For I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. BUT by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.” Glory!

Do YOU consider “the Christ in you” to be ‘incompetent’ to be Himself in you and through you? OR, do you major on ‘your redeemed, but imperfect spiritual inclinations’, voiding out “Christ in you the hope of glory”? How many have you witnessed who ‘professed’ faith in Christ but continued walking in the darkness of the ‘unredeemed’? John said in 1 John 1:7, “But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ God’s Son cleanses us from all sin.” His grace is not ‘in vain’, but MY grit blinds me to the blessing of “the blood of Jesus cleansing me from all sin;” which is why some don’t want to know the whole of Biblical Truth in Christ, because they desire to be forgiven as they willfully continue ‘to sin’!

Doesn’t the Holy Word declare, Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord”? And that, “here and now”, upon one’s repentance before Holy God and faith in Christ and His “It is finished” on the Cross? God wants you understanding that true salvation is His gift, not a position you earn in His Kingdom! And that precious journey of redemptive faith is not one’s reflection of how good he/she “thinks” he/she behaved in God’s Kingdom – reflect even for a brief moment upon 2 Corinthians 5:21 where Paul said, “For He (God) made Him (Christ Jesus) who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

“Identifying True Disciples of Christ”? By His grace, mercy, and love, repentant and faith-filled, grace-abounding sinners made saints by Him, strike a “new chord” of heavenly music and praise and adoration, and the Resurrected, Reigning Christ declares them His “Holy Temple”, and again He shines , illuminating the world around you by His presence IN YOU! HE IS THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD! Why would one profess faith in Him but still ‘enjoy’ the darkness?

Reflect upon Ephesians 1: 3-14!! Our “new”, “eternal”, “family of God identity” BEGINS HERE! “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places IN CHRIST, just as He (God) chose us in Him (Christ Jesus) before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having PREDESTINED US to adoption as sons BY JESUS CHRIST HIMSELF, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He (God the Father) made us accepted in the Beloved (Christ Jesus the Son).

IN HIM (in Christ Jesus) we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace (not your ‘grit’!) which He (God the Father) made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, HAVING MADE KNOWN TO US THE MYSTERY OF HIS WILL, (reconciling sinners & declaring them saints, sons, servants of God!), according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth – in Him.

In Him also WE HAVE OBTAINED AN INHERITANCE, being predestined according to the purpose of Him (ALMIGHTY GOD) who works all things according to the counsel of His will, THAT WE WHO FIRSTED TRUSTED IN CHRIST SHOULD BE TO THE PRAISE OF HIS GLORY. (Is THAT how YOU see yourself in your walk with Christ?).

In Him you also TRUSTED, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed (trusted in, relied upon, adhered to!), you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.”

Reflect upon Titus 3:4-7! MARK IT IN YOUR BIBLE – AND REJOICE EVERMORE! It says: “But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, THROUGH the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that HAVING BEEN JUSTIFIED BY HIS GRACE we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” [But YOU see it differently? YOU’RE CONVINCED GOD SHOULD APPRECIATE YOUR BEST EFFORTS?] Give me a break from intellectual and fleshly pride – Yes, God, humble the proud and shatter the shell of mental and maligned understanding and mind-set, darkened hearts, and captured wills!

What did Jesus say in Matthew 9:12-14? “Those who are ‘well’ have no need of a physician, but those who are sick (‘sin-sick’?). But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’ For I did not come to call the righteous (‘self-righteous’?) but sinners to repentance.”

Are you ‘a goat’ or a ‘lost sheep’ in need of the “Seeking Shepherd”? Are you a ‘secure family-member in the household of unbelief’ OR a ‘lost soul’ , sought, found, and liberated by the One True Shepherd of men’s souls? Are YOU aware that Christ Jesus came to “bring division” not unity in fleshly intents? In Matthew 10:34-39 the Savior said:

“Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. For I HAVE COME TO ‘set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law’; and ‘a man’s enemies will be those of his own household.’ He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me. He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it.”

What is it YOU hold onto in the place of His love, grace, and mercy extended to you as if YOU were the only man or woman to ever live – what He did for all on the Cross, He did for you intentionally! 2 Corinthians 5:17 declares: “Therefore, if ANYONE is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”

“New creation”! It was John Newton who once said: “There is a signature of wisdom and power impressed on the works of God, which evidently distinguishes them from the feeble imitations of men.” “New birth”! “Newness of life and newness of spirit”! “New name”! “New song” in a redeemed, re-born, resurrected Life in Christ”! “New creation”! “New wine” in “new bottles”! “New man”! “New testament”! “New garment – His robe of righteousness”! “New spirit”! “New heart”! “New Day”!

Do you understand, comprehend, and yield to the Master, the Savior, the Lord, the Author of the eternal epistle of “New Creations”? In Romans 6:4 Paul wrote: “Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that JUST AS Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life”!

Dare you to say with Paul, 1 Corinthians 15:10, “But BY THE GRACE OF GOD I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain…”? How about saying daily with thanksgiving and great joy: “I have repented ! I have returned to Holy God! I have been born again, born of Truth and Born of the Spirit! My “new day” has dawned – I AM One With and In Christ!” “His grace was not in vain toward me!” Glory!!!

Oh, but then what did Jesus say in Matthew 12:33b? “For a tree is known by its fruit”! For you? Fruit of the flesh or fruit of the Spirit?

By: J.Farrell Fisher, Nov. 19-21, 2017

Interesting verses for your consideration in 1 Corinthians 15:44b-49 for Paul wrote saying: “…There is a natural body and there is a spiritual body. And so it is written, ‘The first man Adam became a living being.’ The last Adam (Jesus) became a life-giving spirit. However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual.

The first man was of the earth, made of dust; the second Man is the Lord from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are made of dust; and as is the heavenly Man, so also are those who are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man,” telling us that true manhood IS the exact image, likeness, presence of Christ in His Resurrection Presence highlighted by the Holy Spirit who, yes, “guides us into all Truth”!

But “nutty-natured” unbelievers and pretenders of religious activity? In Titus 1:15-16 Paul enlightened a young disciple named Titus, telling Him, “To the pure all things are pure, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure; but even their mind and conscience are defiled. They profess to know God, but in works they deny Him, being abominable, disobedient, and disqualified for every good work.” Are “nutty natured” people ‘defiled’ because they do not possess the nature and character of the Resurrected Christ? Does ‘unbelieving’ describe the atheist, the agnostic, the unbelieving, or the pretender?

Oh, but then look at Paul’s words in Titus 2:11-15! He said, “For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, TEACHING US that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.”

Dare I say it? I believe I will! “It’s a ‘nutty-natured’ individual that denies the need of the “Blood Redemption” in and through Christ alone! Impure hearts deny the need of a “Redeemer”! Self-pride and love of their fallen sin-natures easily identifies ‘unbelievers’! There are those among men who live selfishly to be admired by ‘world-captured, sin-bound men, and Satan himself’, and this because they are ‘lovers of themselves’ and not God, ‘lovers of money’ rather than Truth treasures, they are boastful, fleshly proud, blasphemers of biblical truths and those who stand for Truth, being unloving, unforgiving, unholy, easily slanderous, void of self-control, at times ‘brutal’, especially some ungodly ‘bosses’, resentful of the good, easily even a traitor to friendship, vows, or oaths, headstrong rather than heart-strong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, some even possessing ‘a form of godliness’ but deny its power, resisters of Truth, corrupt in the mind AND heart, bankrupt of any faith but experts in what God calls foolishness! (Be sure you check that very last statement out!)

Tell me: “Lately, have you heard preachers, teachers, religious leaders, even disciples, talking about God’s JUDGMENTS when He sends ‘the mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance of those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, punished with everlasting destruction from the glory of the Lord and from the glory of His power’?” (2 Thessalonians 1:8-9). Sadly, it’s not only unbelievers we ought to be concerned about but also the uninformed, who’ve never seen, sensed, or heard one word of truth about the need of the Savior and Lord! Who is accountable for that situation?

Even as ancient, early men sought to live apart from God, even today there are those who live under a ‘cloud’ of indifference and unbelief because there still are recurring tides and strong waves of encroachment against the Author and Finisher of eternal salvation. Many men are, yes, obstinate to God and His will, His Word, and His way! ‘Self-willed individuals’, cemented and set in their own ambitions and fleshly, even religious desires, will, like the ‘religious Pharisees’ of Jesus day, live today to deny, reject, cloud over, and darken anyone’s attempts at turning them to “revealed Truth”, yes, even to King Jesus, the Promised Messiah!

Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ really laid out heavenly concerns, biblical heartaches, and personal examinations for all life situations, believers or unbelievers! In Mark 4:13-20 Jesus declared a Word you must have understanding about! He said: And Jesus said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables? The sower sows the word. And these are the ones by the wayside where the word is sown. When they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that was sown in their hearts.

These likewise are the ones sown on stony ground, who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with gladness; and they have no root in themselves, and so endure only for a time. Afterward, when tribulation or persecution arises for the word’s sake, immediately they stumble.

Now these are the ones sown among thorns; they are the ones who hear the word, and the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things entering in choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. BUT these are the ones sown on good ground, those who hear the word, accept it, and bear fruit; some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred.” From this parable do YOU gain understanding about “Nutty Natures” or “New Minds”?

“Nutty Natures”? That’s not only the “stars” of flesh achievement but also the “slow minded” who have no confidence at all in what it truly means to have ‘faith’ in God – both intuitively knowing, yes, ‘there is God for sure’, and they are sovereignly designed for Him but with a ‘free will to choose’ their sinfulness, their ‘shallow’ minds, and their devotion to “natural individuality”, blinding most unbelievers because they take great pleasure in satisfying their ‘tyranny of fleshliness’ with no concern for reconciliation to Holy God!

In 1 Corinthians 15:33-34 we read: “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,” and Paul was writing to the church in Corinth!

Oswald Chambers had Spirit-instilled understanding when in “My Utmost For His Highest” (p.59) he wrote: “If the Spirit of God detects anything in you that is wrong, He does not ask you to put it right; He asks you to accept (what) the light (exposes), and He will put it right. A child of the light confesses instantly and stands bared before God; a child of darkness says – “Oh, I can explain that away.” When once the light breaks and the conviction of wrong comes, be a child of the light, and confess, and God will deal with what is wrong; if you vindicate yourself, you prove yourself to be a child of darkness.” WOW!

In 2 Chronicles 14:9-12 Zerah marched out against (God’s people) with a vast army…(As God’s people or God’s person of faith, do YOU know about “the enemy” that comes against you and your faith?). Then Asa called to the LORD his God and said, “LORD, there is no one like you to help the powerless against the mighty. Help us, O LORD our God, for we rely on you, and in Your name we have come against this vast army. O LORD, you are our God; do not let man (the world, the flesh, the demons, or Satan!) prevail against you.”…and The LORD struck down the Cushites.”

I don’t know who wrote the following, but it is so true! “We cannot kindle when we will The fire which in the heart resides, The spirit blows and is still, In mystery our soul abides; But tasks in hours of insight willed Can be through hours of gloom fulfilled.”

And the task in you is accepting ‘the light’ the Spirit brings, exposing in you, what He needs to make right, IF you will let Him! But ‘self-effort’ of correcting ‘sin’ always fails, but The Holy Spirit convicts, convinces, yes, and corrects what He knows only He can eternally correct what is opposite the nature and character of Holy God!

The New Living Translation of 1 Samuel 17:45-47 tells us: David shouted to Goliath, “You come to me with sword, spear, and javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord Almighty, whom you have defied. Today the LORD will conquer you, and I will kill you and cut off your head…And everyone will know that the LORD does not need weapons to rescue His people. It is His battle, not ours. The LORD will give you to us.”

I know you’ve heard of “prayer warriors”, but I’ve wondered at times if they are also truly “trusting warriors”! Are you aware that “big ships” don’t leave shorelines at low tides? And could we say that “big believers” (which all are who are truly “born again”) are those who don’t trust themselves but are those who yield to “High-Tide, Holy God” as He says, “I’m able to handle your warring enemy – give Me My place in your “low-tide moment” – I can take care of you and defeat your Enemy of darkness, deceit, and devilishness!!” No doubt this is why Paul wrote: (Galatians 2:20b-21a), “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 do not set aside the grace of God…!” And the better translation of “faith IN THE SON OF GOD”, what about “the faith OF THE SON OF GOD”? Oswald Chambers wrote: [“My Utmost For His Highest”, p.58], “This faith is not Paul’s faith in Jesus Christ, but the faith that the Son of God has imparted to him “the faith OF the Son of God”. It is no longer faith in faith, but faith which has overleapt all conscious bounds, the identical faith OF the Son of God.” AMEN?

“Nutty Natures OR New Minds”? Do I dare to say that there are those “New Minds” that displace the Resurrected Christ within them for moments, days, weeks, and years for “illusions of a self-conscious ability of self-improvement in the faith” for “Christ in you the hope of glory”? Of course it happens! Immature, young disciples, at times, betray their ‘saving faith’ for a “best-effort” mentality that they ‘think’ will free them when it’s not emancipating but enslaving them to one’s old sin-nature! Is that the ‘ancient, rampant individualism’ of the Pharoahs of the past who saw no need for the True God because they’ve invented their own or, yes, ‘determined believers today’ who are deceived they can live “Christ-like” without the Christ!

“Nutty Natures OR New Minds”? Does ‘religious thinking’ define “new-born sons and daughters”? I don’t think so! ‘Religious thinking’ apart from Holy Spirit conviction and Holy Spirit conversion leads to the establishment of ‘false religions’, even much of modern-day ‘Christian’ (?) thinking! Societal secularization can, and often is, birthing ‘false faiths’ and, yes, birthing enemies of the crucified and resurrected Christ Jesus!

David F. Wells, in his book, “No Place For Truth”, (William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, Mich. (1993),p.84) wrote: “Amid the peals of freedom, there are the modern thunderclaps of damnation.” In Psalm 87:7, didn’t the singers sing, “All my springs (my fresh springs) are in You, God”? Best-effort in Christian living is a contaminated spring – if you are His, you were “crucified with Christ”, and any hope you have for victorious living in the Faith is when daily you take the sentence of death to yourself that His Resurrection Presence be manifested in your mortal flesh – that’s Jesus being Jesus “in YOU!” “New Minds!!” How?

From the world, the flesh, or demonic bondage of darkness to the Kingdom of Life in the Lord of Light AND to the Victor over darkness and spiritual death in and through and by the Lamb’s shed blood…

From the temporal, outward beauty and pleasure of the flesh-nature-indulgence to the gift, the blessing, and the power of His Resurrection Life in one being “born again”, “born the second time by repentance and faith,” and “born again by the power of the Promised Holy Spirit who came and still comes”!!

From the darkness of the soul’s night to the Day of the Savior’s Light, from the bondage of slavery to the nature of sin and death under the devil’s and demons control TO the freedom of liberty and LIGHT and everlasting love, crucifying the soul’s drought of faith, and by the Holy Spirit giving the gift of eternal life!

From the seizure of sin, ‘self-paralysis’, and soul death to the Savior’s healing grace and “New Life’s giftings”, including a “new creation”, a “new garment of eternal righteousness”, “NEW FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT”, a “new name”, a “new heart”, a “new testimony of a re-born life”, a “new and living way”, a “new name written down and recorded in glory for even angels to rejoice in”!

It was E.Edwin Young and Gypsy Smith who wrote the old hymn, “Jesus, Revealed in Me”, (Copyrighted in 1931 and printed in London, England). It says: “Christ, the Transforming Light, Touches this heart of mine, Piercing the darkest night, Making His glory shine.

Here, Lord, I bring my heart, My love, my strength, my will; Cleanse me in every part, With all Your Spirit fill.

Life is no longer mine, I yield it all to Thee; Fill me that I may shine Until Your face I see. Triumphant peace is mine, Now Jesus reigns within; He gives joy divine, And victory over sin.

Oh, to reflect His grace, Causing the world to see, Love that will glow Till others shall know Jesus, revealed in me.”

In Psalm 16:8-9 David came to a clear, convicting, consecrating understanding of “New Minds” rather than “Nutty Minds”! He wrote: “I keep the Lord always before me; because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. Therefore my heart is glad, and my soul rejoices; my body also rests secure.”

One of the Verses of the old hymn, “A Child of the King”, written by Hattie E. Buell and Rev. John B. Summer, says: “I once was an outcast stranger on earth, A sinner by choice, and an alien by birth; But I’ve been adopted, my name’s written down, An heir to a mansion, a robe, and a crown…I’m a child of the King, A child of the King; With Jesus my Savior, I’m a child of the King.”

I don’t know of a better word in closing: “Nutty Natures or New Minds”!! Amen?