By: J.Farrell Fisher, August 24-26, 2017

Does humanity change much when it comes to earthly existence but void of the reality of divine truth, God’s purpose, and Christ’s remedy for their problems? I don’t think so! In fact, I’m not sure there are many who ‘tire out’ in their fleshly pursuits, never looking to Holy God as He relates to His Eternal intent in truly available lives, but being unavailable to God and His purpose for their lives, they still, and in spite of an attitude of unbelief in redemptive faith through Another, “feel” they are being fulfilled but are “starved” in their fleshly imaginations concerning what it means to be living a “successful” life, because to live in the “best” of “flesh-will” is to cancel the perfect will of God for their lives, futures, or destinies!

Spiritual unbelief in divine intent is to ‘live’ (?) in a state of exhaustion though active day by day intending to prove their ‘self-lives’ can and are meaningful to them but “starving” God’s eternal plan for their available lives to His Throne-Room designation. Self-will rather than divine will produces a “tiring” that drains one more and more of eternal meaning and eternal purpose being fulfilled through available vessels because they “shut God out”, sure they know best how to be successful in their known, warped, ‘self-created’ world.

A powerful inspired Verse of the Holy Word is found in Isaiah 26:3 that says: “You (God) will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because He trusts in You.”

I pray the title doesn’t offend you – I’d rather it spurs divine conviction in every listener or reader to “Examine yourself whether you be in the true faith or not!” (2 Corinthians 13:5!). Some get ‘drained’ and quit rather than quickened by the Word and the Spirit. Some choose to forget Christ’s purpose in them and through them rather than, day by day, remembering His eternal calling. Some are zeroed in His designation for their journey of faith rather than “zoned in” to Holy Spirit leadership, guidance, instruction, and inspiration!

Do you remember Moses as he met with the Lord before entering the Promised Land? In Exodus 33:13-18 we read, Moses saying first to the Lord, “Now therefore, I pray, if I have found grace in Your sight, show me now Your way, that I may know You and that I may find grace in Your sight. And consider that this nation is Your people.” And God said, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you “REST”.” Then Moses said to Him, “If Your Presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here. For how then will it be known that Your people and I have found grace in Your sight, except You go with us? So we shall be separate, Your people and I, from all the people who are upon the face of the earth.”

So the Lord said to Moses, “I will also do this thing that you have spoken for; for you have found grace in My sight, and I know you by name.” And Moses said, “Please, show me Your glory.” Dare I ask if YOU are walking under, in, and through the glory cloud of God’s Presence?

Let me ask you about, yes, God’s unveiling of ‘who’ and ‘what you are about’ as an “unbeliever in anything related to the “God-crowd”, or a “professing disciple”, ‘active church member’, ‘paralyzed ‘disciple’ (?)”, OR A TRUE “BEING-PERFECTED-SON OR DAUGHTER OF THE TRUE FAITH”! And, dare I tell you that the Word says, “By their fruits you shall know them”? Zechariah 4:6 says, “Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit”, says the Lord of hosts! Yet the “crowd” mentioned in the title could care less about Holy God’s “Spirit-provision” of victorious living!

Do you remember Moses and Aaron confronting Pharoah of Egypt about “letting God’s people go”, and he responded in Exodus 5:2, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, now will I let Israel go.”?

In Psalm 101:1-3 David sang! (I often wonder how many “professing believers” live day by day with a song in their hearts!). He said: “I will sing of mercy and justice; To You, O Lord, I will sing praises. I will behave wisely in a perfect way. Oh, when will You come to me? I will walk within my house with a perfect heart. I will set nothing wicked before my eyes; (Does that mean less TV time in this modern-day?). I hate the work of those who fall away; it shall not cling to me.”

“Falling away”? Is that “the work” of ‘pompous preachers, paralyzed disciples, or poverty-stricken churches’? Or is there in YOUR heart, mind, and will the “resting” in the finished work of Christ as “being perfected sons and daughters of the True Faith”?

Having been both a high school and collegiate athlete – high school for me was football, basketball, and baseball in Bradley High School, Cleveland, Tennessee, but in college only football on scholarship at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. One thing I knew early on: Holy God Himself gifted me as an athlete and He called me, set me aside, anointed me to be His earthly vessel for Christ’s Heavenly Presence – and I’ve never doubted His “perfecting”, “equipping”, and “pouring out more and more of my ‘old man’ in exchange for the fullness of the blessing of the gospel in and through and for the glory of “Jesus Only” in the “new man” of Christ’s blood redemption!!

Whether preachers, churches, or an individual, paralyzed disciple trying his/her best, the lesson, the truth, the only hope, must be learned: It’s “Christ in you the hope of glory.” And, beyond the victory Christ Jesus won over sin, Satan, fallen flesh and their ‘best efforts’, Christ Jesus promised every son and daughter of redemptive faith, saying in John 14:25-27, “These things I have spoken to you while being present with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you. Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you.”

Yet, how many do you know who are “professing disciples, “church related”, and “who sincerely try their best”, but sense something is sadly wrong in their spiritual journeys , good folks, sincere folks, ‘failing’, ‘falling short’, ‘feeble in the journey’, because no one EVER taught them about “taking the sentence of death daily to the old man separated from Christ in order that His Resurrection Presence would be manifested in and through their mortal bodies”! And you’ll hear some say, “You mean my faith in Christ has nothing to do with my ‘trying’, my ‘best efforts’, or my determined mind-set to BE a “successful disciple”?

“Crucified with Christ” doesn’t mean He overlooks your “best” fleshly nature! No! He didn’t overlook it – He crucified it on the Cross several thousand years ago so you, being convicted because of your sin and sin nature, then repenting before Holy God, and willfully putting your “redemptive faith” in Christ alone, can take that sentence of death daily to the old man, and CHOOSE to live “by the Life of Another, even live in, by, and for His Resurrection Life, Resurrection Glory, Resurrection Honor, and Resurrection Ministry and Service in and through Him!

In James 4 the brother of Jesus said, Verses 4-10, “Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you think that the Scriptures says in vain, “The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealousy?”

But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: ‘God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.’ Therefore submit TO God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you DOUBLE-MINDED. Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.” Christ’s Presence in you is God’s will, God’s Way, and God’s Wisdom in directing your life in Christ as a testimony of His great, abiding, and transforming Life as Jesus brings glory to the Father through you as you yield yourself to His awesome Presence!

How many “successful people” do you know who would willfully look to their ‘old, sin-natured life’, crucified with Christ, and buried in the ‘sea of God’s forgetfulness’, understanding that God rejoices over them, IF, as they lean not to their own understanding, but accept His judgment about their sin nature and its crucifixion, then thank God for His grace, mercy, and love, even praising Him for exposing what they tried to hide for a long time, but now Rejoice over God the Father’s sacrifice of His only Son to reconcile them to Him? Sadly, many worldly, self-centered men could care less about the crucifixion of Christ – they don’t see He shed His own blood for them!

Do I need to remind you of John 14:26? “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.” Nowhere in the Word do you find mankind are instructed to “try your best” but “Give the Spirit His rightful place as your guide, your equipper, your trainer, and, yes, your convincer, ministering deep conviction when you choose a wrong path!

The Holy Spirit is “the spiritual parent” training, equipping, disciplining, inspiring every true “child of the King.” He’s YOUR “tutor”! In fact, in Galatians 5:16, Paul said: I say then, “Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh,” then contrasting the “works of the flesh” and the “works of the Spirit”! In Galatians 5:19-25 the anointed Apostle instructs us:

“Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murder, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. BUT the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. AND those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.”

The question of the day is: “As a disciple of Christ do you walk day by day under the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit, promised by Christ, to be YOUR equipper in the “Overcoming Life of Christ”, yes, overcoming sin, Satan, the flesh or old sin-nature, and, overcoming the temptations, by the Spirit, of the world, the flesh, and the devil”? Let’s resolve the question right now! “Will YOU receive Christ’s gift of the Holy Spirit to be your guardian of faith and your guide into all Truth”?

By J.Farrell Fisher, December 12-14, 2017

Recently from a television show I heard the statement, “To thine own self be true.” I think it came from Shakespeare in “Hamlet”. But the huge, life-changing or life-destroying question is, “What ‘self’?” Scripturally there is the ‘old self’ or the ‘new self’, the ‘old man’ or the ‘new man,’ the ‘fleshly birthed self’ or the ‘spiritually birthed new man’! And the challenge to answer ‘what self?’ is ever before both the unredeemed and the blood-bought servants of Christ, before the ‘lost’ or the “found”, before the devoted to their flesh-nature or the “re-born” through Holy Spirit birthing!

Do you understand that millions and millions of people live on the “self-philosophy” ingrained by unredeemed parents, blinded by godless educators, and governed by one’s old sin-nature, while in the Spirit-world of “Blood-redemption” and Holy Spirit-Indwelling there are those who’ve had unveiled to them the “true faith”? The truly “born-again” are governed by the Indwelling Christ and the eternal Word of God, yes, revealed in the Bible and from the testimonies of “new-born” sons and daughters of the “True Faith”!

It’s so interesting to me that in Proverbs 6:16-19 the “wise man” unveiled for us the seven things God Himself “hates”! It says: “These six things the Lord hates, yes, seven (things) are an abomination to Him: A proud look, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that are swift in running to evil, a false witness who speaks lies, and one who sows discord among brethren.”

Do you realize or sense the height that some unbelievers rise to in devising their own wicked plans to opposition to eternal Truth or willfully speak ‘lies’, sowing discord in the minds of some who desire the truth but are coerced by friends, family, or forceful world persuaders in rejecting Truth and settling into ‘flesh-acceptance’ of the godless?

In the early days of the birthing of the church through Christ’s Resurrection presence, Acts 19:23 tells us “there arose a great commotion about the Way.” (Are you aware of any great commotions today about the Way? Check out many university campuses and classrooms!). Acts 19:24-34 unveils this strong opposition that continues worldwide even to the present century! It says:

“For a certain man named Demetrius, a silversmith, who made silver shrines of Diana, brought no small profit to the craftsmen. He called them together with the workers of similar occupation, and said: “Men, you know that we have our prosperity by this trade. Moreover you see and hear that not only in Ephesus, but throughout almost all Asia, this Paul has persuaded and turned away many people, saying that they are not gods which are made with hands.

So not only is this trade of ours in danger of falling into disrepute, but also the temple of the great goddess Diana may be despised and her magnificence destroyed, whom all Asia and the world worship.” Now when they heard this, they were full of wrath and cried out, saying, “Great is Diana of the Ephesians!”

So the whole city was filled with confusion, and rushed into the theater with one accord, having seized Gaius and Aristarchus, Macedonians, Paul’s traveling companions. And when Paul wanted to go in to the people, the disciples would not allow him. Then some of the officials of Asia, who were his friends, sent to him pleading that he would not venture into the theater.

Some therefore cried one thing and some another, for the assembly was confused, and most of them did not know why they had come together. And they drew Alexander out of the multitude, the Jews putting him forward. And Alexander motioned with his hand, and wanted to make his defense to the people. But when they found out that he was a Jew, all with one voice cried out for about two hours, “Great is Diana of the Ephesians!”

I pray you “get the drift”! You are aware of strong, significant, sick opposition, at times in some places, where people arise to defend themselves in their sinful natures, defend their own ‘idolatrous’ ways, and would just as soon see “followers of Christ” martyred than to meet the demands of Biblical Truth: “Repent or else!” In fact, in Acts 20:17-24, Paul testified,

From Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called for the elders of the church. And when they had come to him, he said to them: “You know, from the first day that I came to Asia, in what manner I always lived among you, serving the Lord with all humility, with many tears and trials which happened to me by the plotting of the Jews;

How I kept back nothing that was helpful, but proclaimed it to you, and taught you publicly from house to house, testifying to Jews and also to Greeks, REPENTANCE TOWARD GOD AND FAITH TOWARD OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. And see, now I go bound in the spirit to Jerusalem, not knowing the things that will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies in every city, saying that chains and tribulations await me.

But none of these things move me; nor do I count my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.”

And, thank God, Paul stressed, emphasized, declared the True Faith that begins to be unveiled with repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ! He said later in Acts 20:27-28, “For I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God. Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.”

The True Faith Unveiled? Yes, it begins, having been convicted of our sin and separation from Holy God by the Holy Spirit, and enlightened by the Spirit and the Word of Truth, that apart from Christ men and nations are hopeless, convicted men and women rest in the finished work of Christ at Calvary’s cross, repenting and resting and reaching moment by moment into the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Jesus Christ!

Mrs. H.M.Hall and John T.Grape wrote an old hymn entitled “Jesus Paid It All.” It says: “I hear the Savior say, “Your strength indeed is small, Child of weakness, watch and pray, Find in Me your all in all.

Lord, now indeed I find Your power and You alone, Can change the leper’s spots, And melt the heart of stone.

For nothing good have I Whereby Your grace to claim – I’ll wash my garments white In the blood of Calvary’s Lamb.

And when, before the throne, I stand in Him complete, “Jesus died my soul to save,” My lips shall still repeat.

Jesus paid it all. All to Him I owe; Sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow.

I was so inspired by the words of Richard Baxter found in “The Saint’s Everlasting Rest,” (VI), when he wrote: “Despair of ever being saved, ‘except you be born again,’ or of seeing God ‘without holiness,’ or of having part of Christ except you ‘love Him above father, mother, or your own life.’ This kind of despair is one of the first steps to heaven.”

What did Jesus Himself tell us in John 10:9-11? “I AM the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it abundantly.”

SECOND, HAVING REPENTED TOWARD GOD AND RESTED BY FAITH IN HIS RESURRECTED PRESENCE, WE BEGIN THE SPIRITUAL JOURNEY FROM INFANCY, TO CHILDHOOD, TO YOUTHFUL ADVANCE IN THE FAITH, AND TO ‘ADULT’ MATURITY! In 2 Corinthians 5:17 we read, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” Didn’t the Lord and Savior say that “you must be born again”? And if that’s true, and it is, are “infants” in the faith mature in every phase of the divine ‘life in Christ’?

Don’t you find it interesting that in 1 John 2:1 that the beloved John addressed new believers to whom he wrote as “my little children”? Arrogance or spiritual wisdom and understanding? Later in 1 John 2:12-14 he discussed ‘little children,’ ‘fathers of the faith’, and ‘young men’. Follow: “I write to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for His name’s sake.

I write to you, fathers, because you have known Him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you have overcome the wicked one. I write to you, little children, because you have known the Father.

I have written to you, fathers, because you have known Him who is from the beginning. I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the wicked one.”

The strong foundation for one’s redeemed life is the reality, the miracle of grace, the transformation from spiritual blindness and alienation from God to an assured, changed servant of the Redeemer and Lord. In John 9:24-25 the arrogant, religious Pharisees were challenging the man born blind that Jesus healed. The Pharisees said to the “new-born” man, “Give God the glory! We know that this Man is a sinner”, speaking of Christ Jesus the Healer-Redeemer, with the “healed man” answering in verse 25, “Whether He is a sinner or not I do not know. One thing I know: that though I was blind, now I see.”

And, of course, the Pharisees wanted no part with a “Healer”, telling the healed blind man, in verse 29, “We know that God spoke to Moses; as for this fellow, we do not know where He is from.” The “healed man” responded in Verse 30, “Why, this is a marvelous thing, that you do not know where He is from; yet He has opened my eyes,” saying also in verse 33, “If this Man were not from God, He could do nothing.”

The ‘religious Pharisees’, then and now, were and are intent on silencing voices of Truth and redemptive faith through Christ alone, so the “healed man” was cast out! When Jesus heard that they had cast him out, Jesus sought the formerly blind man, saying to him in Verse 35: “Do you believe in the Son of God?” He said: Who is He, Lord, that I may believe in Him?” Jesus responded, “You have both seen Him and it is He who is talking with you.” And the formerly blind man said, “Lord, I believe!”(I trust in, rely upon, and adhere to the Blessed Redeemer!).

The Lord Jesus then responded in Verse 39, “For judgment I have come into this world, that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may be made blind.” The ‘non-seers’ who have their eyes opened are made by grace to be seers of the True Christ, but the “seers” who don’t see the Christ are “made blind”! And, the “redeemed to see” the eternal Truth are “gifted” by the grace of God and begin their pilgrimage in the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Jesus Christ!

THIRD, THAT JOURNEY OF FAITH IN THE “MASTER-TEACHER” IS A LIFE OF SUBMISSION AND OBEDIENCE TO HIS EXAMPLE! In Luke 22:24-27 we learn about an early dispute among Jesus’ disciples as to which of them should be considered as the greatest. And He said to them, “The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those who exercise authority over them are called benefactors. BUT NOT SO AMONG YOU; on the contrary, he who is greatest among you, let him be as the younger, and he who governs as he who serves. For who is greater, he who sits at the table, or he who serves? Is it not he who sits at the table? Yet I am among you at the One who serves!”

Horatius Bonar once said: “Go, labour on; spend and be spent – your joy to do the Father’s will; it is the way the Master went; should not the servant tread it still?” And ‘service’ in and through and for the honor of Christ Jesus is not “best-effort- attempts” to be like Him, but allowing Him to be Himself through our available vessel!

According to Psalm 100:2-4 there is such illuminating understanding of what service to Him is all about, which is finished with one’s self-motivation’ and allowing Him to be His all in all in and through us! The psalm of thanksgiving, in verses 2-4 says, “Serve the Lord with gladness; come before His presence with singing. KNOW that the Lord, He is God; it is He who has made us and not we ourselves; we are His people and the sheep of His pasture. Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise.”

Yes, it is “Christ in you that is the hope of glory,” not fine-tuned, best effort ‘flesh’ but Holy Presence being Himself in obedience to the Father’s eternal, heavenly will! Perfect liberty in Christ Is death to one’s self that His Resurrected, Reining Presence may be released through children of the True Faith!

If there is gladness in a redeemed heart, it goes beyond the reality of one’s forgiveness in and through the Master’s shed blood, death, and resurrection, but in the reality of His Resurrection Presence, being Himself in us and through us! Did Paul tell us in 1 Corinthians 15:31, “I die daily”? Died daily? In 2 Corinthians 1:9 he said, “Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raise the dead…” And, in Christ we were raised to “new life” which is “Christ in you the hope of glory”!

Isn’t there a modern-day chorus that says: “Jesus, be Jesus in me, no longer me but Thee; ‘Resurrection Power’ fill me this hour, Jesus, be Jesus in me”? That’s the journey of faith in the “Master-Teacher”, which even for Him was a life of submission and obedience to His Father in heaven! “Father, Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.” And that was through His availability to the Father as a surrendered Son, yes, even the Cross!