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!!

BY: J.Farrell Fisher, August 31-Sept.2, 2017

Really, seriously, personally, even corporately as a church, denomination, individual disciple, family, or international community of faith, consider the title and then consider if the world at large or locally or near-people around you has any understanding or comprehension of “The awareness of a God-blessed life”!

When it comes to a God-blessed life, there is a major warfare in the minds and hearts of men that face stiff opposition from the world, the old sin-natured man, and, of course, from Satan and the powers of darkness who want to blind you to the Truth of a “God-Blessed Life”!

But, at the same time, in immature disciples, there is the significant problem of failing to understand and deal daily with the ‘old nature’ that wants to remain dominant in you even if you ‘believe’. Some seriously do not grasp the tendencies of the old sin nature to be justified to remain around, even if you desire to be a professing believer and active church member! And, of course, in the maturing process from ‘babes in Christ’ to maturing disciples, and, yes, to senior citizens of the Kingdom, it is the blessed, powerful professor of Christ-like ‘citizenry’ and ‘loyalty’ and “royalty”, the Holy Spirit, who “guides us and matures us in the True Faith”!

Some fail to understand what Paul spoke about in Galatians 4:19 when he said, “My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is (fully) formed in you.” The problem exists of young, immature, untrained disciples, who are unaware of “standing fast in the liberty by which Christ has made us free,” Paul, having said earlier in Galatians 4:5, “For we through the Spirit eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.”

So, there is for some, in the state of spiritual immaturity, an unawareness of the Sovereign God’s blessing of, yes, “the gift of the Holy Spirit”, who instills blessing after blessing, Sovereign gifting of the necessary arms to equip you in fighting the good fight of faith, AND manifesting in you the victorious nature of Christ, not your old man’s best ‘fleshly giftings’, but the “fruit of the Spirit” of God’s tree of life!

In Galatians 6:22-25 Paul enlightens every believer, saying, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. And those WHO ARE CHRIST’s have crucified the flesh (daily!) with ITS passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.”

Have you been discipled in, discipling now in others, the reality, the spiritual reality of the “new-birth”, born into the Kingdom of God by the Spirit, Paul saying in 2 Corinthians 6:16b, “For you (“in Christ”) ARE THE TEMPLE OF THE LIVING GOD!” You’re the structure – the Holy Spirit is the “manifested Spirit of Christ in you the hope of glory!” You’re the ‘tabernacle’ – He’s the cloud of Holy Presence!

What was it Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5:20-21? “Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that WE MIGHT BECOME THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD IN HIM.” And, if the “Him” is not in you, evidenced by the presence, anointing, fruit-producing of the Spirit, releasing God’s power through your crucified life daily, that His Spirit might then manifest Himself in power through our available bodies, or is it ‘try your best?’, demonstrating a ‘failing religiosity’?!?

Or, in the awareness of a God-blessed life, is it your ‘striving, trying, attempting’, or is it faithfully taking the ‘sentence of daily death that His Resurrection Life, Spirit, and Power may be manifested in YOUR mortal flesh’? How shocking did you find it when in 2 Corinthians 6:12 Paul wrote of, yes, Corinthian believers, “You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted by your own affections.”

And that’s so valid across the spectrum of ‘church life’ because “our best” that was crucified with Christ has, by some, Christian people been ‘resurrected’ to inspire them, rather than “to REST” in His Presence through them by His Holy Spirit!

The awareness of a God-blessed life? In 1 Corinthians 1:26-31 we read: “For you see YOUR CALLING, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence. But OF HIM you are in Christ Jesus, who BECAME FOR US wisdom from God – and righteousness and sanctification and redemption – that, as it is written, ‘He who glories, let him glory in the Lord.’”

But, in the reality, worldwide, of “the awareness of self-made lives”, consider those who are “wise in their own eyes”, enormously ‘self-sufficient’, extremely ‘braggadocios’ about their own manifested abilities, their own manipulated mind trained to be above and beyond the ‘lesser achievers’ that surround them, and just as arrogant as Pharoah of Egypt who didn’t know the Lord, didn’t want to know the Lord, and led his armies to their death opposing God and His people! And you’d be surprised if you thought the “pharaohs” were still around trying to expose God? There is a known world AROUND YOU who’d just as soon see attempts on God, on His Son, on His Spirit, on His Word, on His Church, on His sons and daughters of Redemptive Faith – “Let’s wipe them out”, “let’s dumb them down”, “let’s ignore their ministries and bodies and cloud their callings, and seek to expose their dumb, twisted, unlearned ways which are of no benefit in our world of prosperity and fleshly achievements”!

But then, confronted by different ‘world philosophies’ and ‘man-designed religions’, God prophetically unveiled in the Old Testament Holy Word the coming of the Promised Messiah! And Christ Jesus came, born of the Virgin Mary, matured in His true identity as a child, fully equipped by Merciful God to be His reconciler for fallen mankind into, yes, the Holy People of God, who become “salt and light” in their needy worlds around them! At the same time, Holy God knew, understood, and provided for His repentant people the Holy Spirit to “bless” His chosen people, and see that the Resurrected Christ is manifested in them and through them, becoming God’s “fruit producer” in every knew son or daughter of “blood redemption faith”!

In fact, Jesus said in Luke 11:13, “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!” [Tell me, do you know if your church leads in new discipleship training, and does it include the necessary ministry of the Holy Spirit?]. Let my highlight Biblical Truths about “The Blessed Life”!

FIRST, BE AWARE YOU’RE BEING LED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT! In Romans 8:23 Paul mentioned disciples having “the first-fruits of the Spirit”, yet he went on to say that, “we who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves (at times) groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body,” understanding IT IS THE TEMPLE OF THE LORD, and we must daily learn to allow the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, to glorify Christ in us and through us. Are YOU “led by the Holy Spirit”?

SECOND, THERE WILLFULLY MUST BE A “LEANING” ON THE HOLY SPIRIT AS WE NO LONGER TRUST EVEN A HAIR OF OUR BEST IN THE FLESH – WE ACCEPT THAT THAT WAS CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST, AND THE HOLY SPIRIT DOESN”T WANT YOU FORGETTING THAT HISTORICAL, ETERNAL EVENT: YOU WERE CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST!

I don’t find it ‘shocking’, but I do find it heart-breaking to learn what we ALL were like void of the presence of Christ in us! In Proverbs 1:24 the God of wisdom allows wisdom to speak! Proverbs 1:24-33 says, “Because I called and you refused, I have stretched out my hand and no one regarded, because YOU DISDAINED ALL MY COUNSEL, and would have none of my rebuke, I also will laugh at your calamity; (I wonder if He’s saying, “How stupid, thoughtless, mindless can they be before My open arms?”).

I will mock when your terror comes, when your terror comes like a storm, and your destruction comes like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you. THEN they will call on me, but I will not answer; they will seek me diligently, but they will not find me.

Because they have hated knowledge and DID NOT CHOOSE THE FEAR OF THE LORD, they would have none of my counsel and despised my every rebuke. Therefore they shall eat the fruit of their own way, and be filled to the full of their own fancies. For the turning away of the simple will slay them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them; BUT whoever listens to me will dwell safely, and will be secure, without fear of evil.” WOW! THE RICH TREASURE OF EXPOSURE FOR THE FOOLISH WHO REJECT EXPOSURE AND DIE WILLFULLY, SELFISHLY, AND FUTILELY, BUT THE RICH TREASURE OF THE FEAR OF THE LORD THAT BLESSES AND KEEPS ON BLESSING!

THIRD, WE DO “LEARN” FROM THE HOLY SPIRIT AS HE GUIDES US INTO ALL TRUTH! In a “godless life”, a “godless purpose and meaning of one’s existence”, a “civilized leanings void of God’s purposes”, a “manly (?) misleading and misleaning attitude further marring the heart and mind and flesh into deeper darkness away from eternal intent”, and a “self-picking-up of the pieces of a godless live that inevitably shatters into emptiness, frustration, despair, and desperation, as one learns what it means to live without the “Redeemer’s intervention”, facing eternal darkness, eternal death that will not die, and living with eternal disgust with one’s self because they leaned to fleshly stupidity rather than “resting” in the Eternal Savior and Lord!

That veil of life promoting ‘vainness of the flesh’ and ‘self-rule, self- management’ and ‘self-indulgence’ comes about from ‘godless lives, godless professors, spiritual shysters, satanic deceivers, deadly truth-twisters unknown to themselves that they are the very mindless source of their own deception, but, at least and at last, they learn they are rejoiced over by the demons of Hell but rejected by the Eternal God of the Throne who gave His ALL so that they wouldn’t have to face a godless future, but the day does come when they will face that spiritual dilemma!

So Holy God the Father, having sent the Son as the source of eternal redemption, calls Jesus home, and sends the Holy Spirit to reside in your “born-again” life as the Eternal Temple of Holy Presence, plus, God having redeemed, re-birthed, raised up, and Rested the Holy Spirit in new disciples, releases the Spirit to guide our lives of ministry, mission, service, and blessing of the “New Life” in us!

I want you to see God working, not only in early New Testament disciples, but, yes, disciples in our own very day and time-period of God continuing to reclaim His own people to Himself and to His purpose. So He sends messengers and the ministry of the Holy Spirit!

In Acts 9:10-20 we read: Now there was a ‘certain disciple’ (Not a prophet, not an evangelist, not a ‘Bible scholar’, not a ‘well-trained’ senior citizen of the Kingdom!) at Damascus named Ananias; and to him THE LORD SAID in a vision, “Ananias.” And he said, “Here I am, Lord.” So the Lord said to him:

“Arise and go to the street called Straight, and inquire at the house of Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus, for behold, he is praying. And in a vision he has seen a man named Ananias coming in and putting his hand on him, so that he might receive his sight.”

Then Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard many things about this man, how much harm he has done to Your saints in Jerusalem. And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on Your name.” But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen vessel of Mine to bear My name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel. For I will show him how many things he must suffer for My name’s sake.”

And Ananias went his way and entered the house; and laying his hands on him he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you came, has SENT ME THAT YOU MAY RECEIVE YOUR SIGHT AND BE FILLED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT.” Immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales, and he received his sight at once; and he arose and was baptized. {Water baptism AND THE BAPTISM OF THE HOLY SPIRIT? Without a doubt!}.

So when he had received food, he was strengthened. (Including the bread of life, the meat of the Word, AND the fruit of the Spirit?). Then Saul spent some days with the disciples at Damascus. Immediately he preached Christ in the synagogues, that He is the Son of God.” Was he Spirit-guided in sharing the Word? If so is true of early New Testament disciples, have we in the modern-day just outgrown the Lord speaking and instructing us? I don’t think so, but, of course, many “church folks” could care less about evangelism and missions in their daily lives – “That’s divisive!”, some say! SO???

If the maturity in true discipleship involves justification, sanctification, and glorification, how and why do so many ignore “being set apart to Christ’s ministry” WHICH IS SANCTIFICATION!

FOURTH, TRUE BELIEVERS “LEARN TO LOVE” OTHERS, (AND I SAY: ESPECIALLY A LOST, NEEDY, ALIENATED AND SEPARATED MANKIND!!) JUST AS FATHER-GOD LOVED US! “God so loved the world”! And you hear some saying: “Just sentimental garbage, not reality! Why should He love me, love us, if He really does?” John 3:16 Eternally declares, Personally shares, Extends the very heart of God, yes, to every man, every family, every nation, saying: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that WHOEVER believes (trusts in, relies upon, adheres to) in Him SHOULD NOT PERISH but have Everlasting Life!”

What you must realize is that Holy God envisioned creating humanity with a choice, a freedom, yes, an option of whether or not they would choose, desire, and sense the need of being reconciled to God on His terms – not forced, but convicted and convinced by the Spirit and the witness of the truly redeemed the need to be reconciled to God. And faithful witnesses, yes, are “LOVING” people into the Kingdom!

FIFTH, HAVING BEEN BORN AGAIN, BIRTHED INTO THE KINGDOM, LEARNING, LEANING ON THE SPIRIT, TRUE DISCIPLES “LISTEN”!! In John 5:24-29 HEAR JESUS! He said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life. Most assuredly, I say to you, the hour is coming, AND NOW IS, when the dead (Physical death or spiritual death?) will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself, and has given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth – those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation. I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me.”

And the statement of faith and obedience of every true disciple every day should be: “Lord, this Is the day You have made; what would You desire today to do through Me. I AM LISTENING!” And, more likely, you’ll be influenced by those who’ll say in their “self-centered Christian walk”: “Isn’t God blessed to have me on His Son’s team – I can surely enhance His reputation”; AND I WANT TO CHOKE, THROW UP, OR SOMEHOW, SOME WAY, OVERTHROW “RELIGIOSITY OF SELF WORSHIP” in those who deny Christ His rightful, Living Presence within them to, yes, DO HIS WORK! How many do you know who “try to serve”, and that’s not Jesus’ commands! In Matthew 11:15 JESUS SAID: “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”

Again, what did Jesus say in John 5:24? “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who HEARS MY word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation or judgment, but has passed from death into life.”

SIXTH, HAVING LEARNED TO LISTEN TO JESUS, WE LEARN TO LEAD! I can’t remember the preacher in earlier years who said it, but one stout preacher said: “Clean out your ear wax, your gobbledy-gook eyes, your dim, fleshly mind, grasping the truth that Jesus never said He came to be served, but to serve and lay His life down in the care and concern for others!” And He led His disciples by example of the “servant spirit”, caring for others more than Himself – He was willing, and did, lay His life down as our example!

SEVENTH, AND IN LIVING THE LIFE THAT LEADS IN THE SERVANT SPIRIT OF CHRIST HIMSELF, WE LEARN TO “LAST”, ENDURE, PERSEVERE, OVERCOME WHATEVER WOULD COME AGAINST US FROM ENTERING THE FULLNESS OF THE BLESSING OF THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST!

In Ephesians 6:10 we read: “Finally, my brethren, be strong IN THE LORD and IN THE POWER OF HIS MIGHT,” yet how many “try and try and try”, yes, “falling short of the glory of God”! Notice Verses13-18! “Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having girded your waist with Truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness (Whose righteousness?), and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith (What YOU work up or what Christ instills in His Presence within You?) with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.

And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; praying always with prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints –!”

EIGHTH, WE LEARN TO “LIGHTEN” OURSELVES AND “ENLIGHTEN” THE GLORY OF CHRIST IN US AND THROUGH US! To “lighten” ourselves is day by day taking the sentence of death to ourselves and seeing the “enlightment” of Christ’s radiant, ruling, reigning, and releasing of victory after victory, Him honoring His Father, the Spirit, and the Word – even you who “rest” in Him alone!

“Christ in you” unveils to the world around you the awesomeness of the Resurrected King of kings and Lord of lords! You see, it’s of God, to “lighten” ourselves and “enlighten” to others the awesomeness of our Savior and Lord! I tell you: “Sing the wondrous love of Jesus, Sing His mercy and His grace; Sing the wonderful words of life in Christ, Sing His song of pardon and peace, Sing Him reconciling us to God!”

NINTH, AND LAST, WE ARE TO “LUMINATE” OUR “BLESSED LIFE IN CHRIST”! In Psalm 67:1-2 the chief musician taught God’s people in song. He sang: “God be merciful to us and bless us, and cause His (Christ’s) face to shine upon us, That Your way may be known on earth, Your salvation among all nations.” I dated the day I read it, and recorded in my Bible about “us”, Farrell & Sue, my wife! And that’s because the two of us in Christ together long to see the ushering in on earth as it is heaven the very Kingdom of God in the here and now!

It’s time to be finished with ourselves, but fulfilled and filled full of the Reigning, Victorious Christ! Amen? At His altar, would you present yourself to Him as His abiding and ministering location on earth? Now is the Time!!