An Analogy of Faith

Faith is one of the most misunderstood issues of salvation.  I hope this little analogy might serve to bring it into clearer focus, and give you a better perception of what it is all about.

Is it faith

• to know that brakes will stop a car or
• to simply have brakes in your car, or
• to use brakes to stop your car?

Faith without works is dead, so faith is to use brakes to stop your car.  In other words, if you do not use those brakes, you do not have faith in them, whether they are in your car or not, and chances are you could end up dead to boot.

When do you use your brakes?  When

• you need to obey the law or
• when something unexpected happens (accident, someone else’s carelessness etc.) or
• in the ordinary course of your travels or
• all of the above?

You would use the brakes on your car in all of the above situations.  You use them to obey the Law.  If you do not obey the Law, you will end up with no car.  No car, and brakes will be the least of your concerns.

You use them in the face of your own or another’s carelessness, accidental or otherwise.  Many are the times you will need to take emergency or evasive action to avoid a collision, accident or other damage.

You use them in the ordinary course of your day, to obey the Law, to avoid trouble and otherwise go on about your business.  No sane person will even set out to do anything at all if they don’t have brakes to start with.

Faith is that matter-of-fact.  It is not some meta-physical hyper-spiritual zone  or super-nova in which miracles happen.  It is ordinary, and common place, rugged and durable.  It is the source of that faith that is extraordinary.

Faith is given you that you might obey the Law, not as an issue of works, but as an issue of a willing heart.  A heart that is willing supercedes the ’shall not’ requirement of the Law, because there is no longer any desire ‘to’ disobey it.  Where there is, the Law is there to show you that such is the case, so that you might repent and be cleansed of that which makes you want ‘to’ break the Law.

Faith is given you that you might avoid unforseen accidents, blots to your soul, through calamity or ignorance.  It is given you to make you wise through the Scriptures.  Faith to believe what God has said concerning how you are to conduct your life will preserve you from much.  Faith to trust in what God has said when you find yourself in the middle of it all, despite your best efforts, is what will minimize the impact of your looming head-on collision with sin.  Faith is also what will heal you when that happens ~ your spiritual physiotheraphy.  It might be painful, but you will come through if you do it God’s way.

Faith is given you that you might continue on with the ordinary course of your life, without having to walk through your life going, “lions, and tigers, and bears, O my . . .”  Many rely on a ‘faith’ that is nothing more than the equivalent of ‘whistling in the dark’, hoping something doesn’t jump out and scare you, or force them to exercise a faith that can’t handle it.  There used to be a term for these types of drivers, or ‘faith people’ . . . they were called, ‘Sunday drivers’, oblivious to anyone but themselves, disobedient to the rules of the road in the name of grace, a hazard to those paths they crossed.

Without faith, it is impossible to do anything, for somewhere along the line you have to trust in someone, or something other than yourself, even if it’s just your alarm clock.  Faith is truly that simple.

The real issue behind faith is not the ‘what’ or the work that signifies ‘faith’, but the who and the what that you put your faith in, and the end that you have in mind for it.  i.e.  it takes faith to trust your alarm clock.  It takes faith of God to give you another day in which to use it.  When Christ is your Who, and The Word, or Commandments of God are your what, and eternity your objective, then you can rest assured that you will probably end your journey arriving safe and sound and in the good order that the Holy Spirit has been appointed of God to bring through to [Isa. 35:8].

Put your faith in anything or anyone else, or for any other purpose and you will be as much as lost , and be a moving target to boot, for you will have nothing to direct you, nothing to trust, and nothing to stop you when things get out of hand either.

This may not be the greatest analogy, but it’s purpose is to get you to recognize that faith is matter-of-fact.  It is simple, it is grounded in a reality that is the wisdom and love of God as made known through His word, particularly in the Old Testament, just as the rules of the house of a parent were also grounded in their love and wisdom for the health, safety and benefit of their child (at least when there was a fear of God in it and in them).  It also has an end or objective in mind.

Faith is given to all, for no one can do anything without faith.  Faith in Christ is given us to overcome the lusts and greeds and rebellions of this world with all it’s snares, pits and accidents waiting to happen  while we await the return of Christ.  It has been given to us for a purpose, and woe to the one that has it, but will not use or exercise it, or will not exercise it for the ends and purpose to which it was given you for.

As some rock singer sang somewhere, Life is a highway.  Make sure your brakes work.

Connect 2

The understandings of the New must be built upon the Old, and the Old must be understood in the light of the New, if the two are to come together unto one new creation in Christ.

Leviticus 20:22

Ye shall therefore be shomer (watchful, guard) over all My chukkot (statutes), and all My mishpattim (judgments), and do them; that HaAretz, whither I bring you to dwell therein, vomit you not out. [OJB]

Revelation 23:16

But because you are posher (lukewarm) and neither kham(hot) nor har (cold), I am about to spew you out of My mouth. [OJB]

The verse of Leviticus brings a close to two chapters of Scripture detailing the commandments of God unto holiness in His sight. The entire work of the Holy Spirit of God is to bring us unto a fit state of holiness, that He might present us to Himself, holy, spotless, pure. Therefore, hot pertains to holiness, the inward glory of God, and not some state of emotional zeal, and it is the result of obedience unto God and His commandments.

The following verses of Revelation also make it clear that without holiness, we are poor, wretched, blind and naked. Holiness is the gift of righteousness that the Holy Spirit is the earnest of. Holiness is the true inheritance that is ours in Christ.

This is what constitutes the Bride of Christ. Failure of holiness is what constitutes the Great Whore of Babylon. Pursue holiness, without which no one shall see the Lord. Depart from me, ye workers of iniquity, for I never knew you.

To be spewed out of Christ’s mouth, is to be spewed out and cut off from the people. It is the place of the hypocrites and the unbelieving, where there will be weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth, Jew and Gentile alike.

These two Scriptures also make it clear that Christ is Spiritual Israel, just as the Jews are Natural Israel. Natural Israel has been spiritually superceded by Christ, but Natural Israel will also be the seat of His throne, for all eternity.

Connect 1

The understandings of the New must be built upon the Old, and the Old must be understood in the light of the New, if the two are to come together unto one new creation in Christ.

Leviticus 19:5-8:

v5. And if ye offer a zevach shelamim (sacrifice of peace offering) unto Hashem, ye shall offer it for your acceptance.
v6. It shall be eaten the same day ye offer it, and on the next day; and what remains until the yom hashelishi (the third day), it shall be burned in the eish (fire).
v7. And if it be eaten at all on the yom hashelishi (third day), it is piggul (unclean sacrificial flesh); it shall not be accepted.
v8. Therefore every one that eateth it shall bear his avon ((iniquity, offence, sin) because he hath desecrated as chillul the set-apart-as-kodesh (holy) thing of Hashem: and that nefesh (life) shall be cut off from among his people. [OJB]

1 Corinthians 3:11-17:

v11. For no other yesod (foundation) other than the one that has been laid can be laid: Rebbe Melech HaMoshiach.
v12. Now if anyone builds on the yesod with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble,
v13. The ma’aseh (work) of each bannai (builder) will become evident, for, haYom [Yom HaDin](Day of Judgment) will make it have its hisgalus (manifestation), because by Eish (Fire) it is revealed: and the Eish (Fire) itself will test the quality of each one’s ma’aseh (labor, handiwork).
v14. If anyone’s ma’aseh he built on the yesod will survive, a sachar (reward) he will receive;
v15. If anyone’s ma’aseh will be consumed, he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved, yet so as through Eish (Fire).
v16. Do you not have da’as (knowledge) that you are a Heikhal Hashem (Temple of God) and the Ruach Hakodesh (Holy Spirit) dwells in you?
v17. If anyone attempts to cause churban(destruction, ruin) to the Heikhal Hashem, G-d will destroy this man, for the Heikhal Hashem is kadosh (holy), and you are that Heikhal. [OJB]

Verse 5 of Leviticus gives the sense of what verse 11-12 of 1 Corinthians is being referred to.

Verse 6 of Leviticus makes it clear that there are really only 2 days in which this sacrifice can be consumed (a day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years is as a day). It is a verse of very prophetic significance. Verse 12 of 1 Corinthians makes it clear that the issue is one of becoming a temple of the Lord’s building.

Verse 7 makes it clear that what has not been consumed by the third day will not be accepted of God. Verses 13 to 15 make it clear that those who are in Christ are accepted, but that which has not been consumed by the third day will be burned with fire. You will go through the fire, now unto refining, or then through consuming.

Verse 8 of Leviticus and verses 16-17 of 1 Corinthians speak of the same thing, that the desecration of the holiness of God is of dire significance.

Those who cleave fast to a cheap and easy grace would do best to re-examine the Scriptures, and seek unto the truth before they find themselves as the five foolish virgins that had no oil for their lamp. They will be those who have left of the sacrifice until the third day, and likewise will have the door closed on them.

A New Study

I have posted a new study entitled Your Spiritual Map under ‘Articles’. The introduction is posted here. I believe that it is too significant to not post a portion here that others can follow up reading in the article itself, if they so choose.

Introduction

If you separate your walk in Christ from the foundation of the Old Testament, you will get lost. There is no means by which can come to know where you are, or fully understand what is being worked out in your life unless you follow the map that was given us, the map that constitutes the Old Testament - Law, Prophets and Writings combined.

Likewise, if you separate the New Testament from the Old, you will not enter into the spiritual heritage that was also made yours in the Old. Your circumcision will abide as only that which is in the flesh, and you will miss out on the glory that was appointed and apportioned to you, the chosen people of God.

We are called to become new creations in Christ. This is the lesson of the generations. Two separate people must come together to make one new one. Christ comes into us, Jew or Gentile alike, and makes us one new person. Likewise, the Holy Spirit of God comes into each of those who are in Christ, to unite both Old and New Testaments into a unified understanding that builds, one upon the other, to bring forth the children of God. The two must become one, if there are to be a people, holy unto God.
Part 1 - The Map Overview
There are five major points on your spiritual map. They are as follows:

• The Passover in Egypt/acknowledging Jesus-Yeshua as Lord-Messiah
• The Crossing of the Red Sea/water baptism into His death
• The Journey to Mount Sinai/Day of Pentecost, Baptism of the Holy Spirit
• The Wilderness Journey/working out your salvation unto sanctification
• The Crossing of the Jordan/circumcision of heart unto love of the truth

This particular study will simply give you a brief, or sometimes not so brief overview of their significance to your walk of faith. It is by no means complete, and is only the tip of the iceberg, if even so much as that. However, many a journey gone awry is put back on the right track by just such an overview. Such being the case, The Lord will be the one who will direct you back on track, for He alone is the only one that really knows where you are.

For the rest of this article, go to Articles > Your Spiritual  Map

Love and the Law

There is no argument between Law and Love.

Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him . . .

This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it . . .

This is the end of our faith, not a sky-hook to glory (otherwise known as the pre-trib rapture).

And they overcame him (Satan), by the blood of the Lamb, and by the Word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death. [Rev. 12:11]

We have already shown in a previous post that if you love God, you will do His commandments. There is no argument with God between Law or Love, for both are the same in His eyes. Consider: how could He give a set of laws to guide us that were less than righteous, less than the epitomy of love? To do so would to have been to withhold, to sell short, to mislead. To do so would have been to sin. God cannot sin. If therefore, the evidence of the love of God lies in the righteousness of His commandments, how can we possibly call something that contradicts His commandments ‘love’?

How can it be said that we love God or others, when we continue to leave them wallowing in their sins and trespasses, free to terrorize, intimidate, humiliate, shame and otherwise abuse and shame themselves and their neighbors, because we will not tell them about the righteous commandments of the Law of God. Things would not have come to this pass if we had not substituted ‘love’ for obedience to God.

They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of My people slightly, saying Peace, peace; when there is no peace. [Jer. 6:14]

Obedience to God and His commandments is the sole, and only way to walk in the love of God. Many Jewish prayers begin:

Blessed art Thou, Lord our God, King of the Universe, Who has sanctified us with His commandments . . .

We are sanctified, set apart, made holy, by and through the commandments of God.

Keep therefore and do them (the commandments); for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. For what nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them, as the Lord our God is in all things that we call upon Him for? And what nation is there so great, that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day? [Deut. 4:6-8]

The great promise of God in Jeremiah is this:

But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be My people. [Jer. 31:33]

We stand and proclaim that the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, and then we turn around reject the Law of God for some sort of grace that stands in direct opposition to His commandments!~ a grace that justifies the wicked, the lawless, the idolatrous and rebellious and condemns the prophet and the righteous. When will we come to understand that Jesus and the Law are One. The Holy Spirit and the Law are One. God and the Law are One. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit are One!!! The Law and the Spirit are One. It is their administration that differs.

And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is the truth. For there are three that bear record in heaven, The Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one. [1 John 5:7-8]

It isn’t without cause or reason that these particular verses are missing from almost every modern version of the Scriptures. Christ’s own prayer in the Garden, before His crucifixion, the prayer of our Lord is this:

Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on Me through their word; THAT THEY ALL MAY BE ONE; as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in thee, THAT THEY ALSO MAY BE ONE IN US: that the world may believe that thou hast sent Me. AND THE GLORY WHICH THOU GAVEST ME I have given them; THAT THEY MAY BE ONE, EVEN AS WE ARE ONE: I in them, and thou in Me, THAT THEY MAY BE MADE PERFECT IN ONE; and that the world may know that thou hast sent ME, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved Me. [John 17:20-23]

That is the true ‘unity of the Spirit, and the bond of peace’, not this cultish, sentimental and teary-eyed hug-fest in the name of grace that constitutes the Church today.

The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. The same who speak of this love are the very same that deny or reject the Law of God, either as His laws, or as the Holy Spirit HImself, or the bringing us into the obedience to the Law as the ministry of the Holy Spirit. These are the blasphemers who even now stand in peril and jeopardy of committing the unforgiveable sin.

Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; who opposeth and exalteth himself above all this is called God, or that is worshipped; SO THAT HE AS GOD SITTETH IN THE TEMPLE OF GOD, SHEWING HIMSELF THAT HE IS GOD. [2 Thess. 2:3-4]

Lawlessness means to be without law. Those who are without the law of God written in their inward parts are lawless. It is the lawless that are destined to perdition. It is the lawless who are the proud boasters of a grace that is no grace. It is the lawless who love their own lives. It is the lawless who are covetous, who have made righteousness a pursuit for prosperity instead of a pursuit for truth in the inward parts.

Repent and renounce the lawlessness of your ways, for it will serve you no purpose to call upon the name of the Lord for your salvation and then reject and deny Him when He attempts to exercise that Lordship over you. Worse even, if you consider that exercise to be the work of Satan, to be rebuked and bound. Woe unto you, for you are reaping the rewards of your ignorance even now, except ye repent.

And behold, I come quickly; and My reward is with Me, to give every man according as his work shall be. I am the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. Blessed are they THAT DO HIS COMMANDMENTS, THAT THEY MAY HAVE RIGHT TO THE TREE OF LIFE, AND MAY ENTER IN THROUGH THE GATES INTO THE CITY. For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie. [Rev. 22:12-15]

REPENT, FOR THE DAY OF THE LORD IS AT HAND! REPENT, AND MAKE YOUR WAY STRAIGHT BEFORE HIM, FOR THE DAY OF HIS VENGEANCE IS CLOSE AT HAND!

Whatever You Fear . . .

Whatever you fear will be used as leverage against you to move you out of, or keep you from entering into God’s plans and purposes for your life.

Fear of lack, fear of reproach, fear of death, fear of loss, fear of anger, fear of violence, fear of poverty, fear of rejection, fear of lonliness, fear of failure . . . the list itself is endless. The issues that pertain to your life consist of the consequences of your personal transgressions and rebellions against God.

There is one great promise and one exceeding great hope that God has given us, that we might be overcomers:

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins AND CLEANSE US OF ALL UNRIGHTEOUSNESS! [1 John 1:9]

This is our great promise. Our great hope is this:

Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world comes AND HAS NOTHING IN ME. [John 14:30]

There is power in the blood of Christ to cleanse you from every iota of unrighteousness that exists in you, if you will but receive the teachings of the Holy Spirit of God, as ministered to you through the Scriptures, to show you what they are.

There was a certain creditor which had two debtors: the one owed five hundred pence, and the other fifty. And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell Me therefore, which of them will love Him most? And Simon answered and said, I suppose that he, to who he forgave most. And He said unto him, Thou hast rightly judged. [Luke 7:41-42]

If your Bible does not make your sin known to you, then what good is it to you? How can you be reconciled to God, if you have no idea what it is that separates you from Him? Why do you think He gave us His Word, and His Son who is the living Word? To read your Bible unto any other end that to be wholly reconciled to God, made holy, purified, that you might be a vessel fit for His use and glory is pointless and defeats the end of your salvation.

Festering wounds of uncleaness and unrighteousness will make themselves known sooner or later, in the pressures that come through your life, and in those which are about to come. If you only look to the Scriptures as a balm and a salve to nurse your self-pities and woes, you will die. If you look to the Scriptures to find out your sin, you will live.

This is the way of humility that leads to grace upon grace, which moves us from faith to faith. As you begin to clear out the debris of the wreck that your life used to be, the new that you have been made in Christ begins to be more evident and manifest. The less you fear, the less the devil can use as leverage against you. The less leverage that he has against you (which are all your unconfessed sins, transgressions and rebellions, in thought, word and deed, body, soul and spirit, for these are the true roots of all fear) the less you will be moved from your place that God has appointed you in Christ.

This is what makes you a vessel meet for the master’s use. The more you humble yourself to acnowledge the judgments of God against your old man, your old nature, your old ways, the more grace is given to you to see more of what needs to be dealt with. The more you deal with, the greater the enemies that you will be put in front of, so that you can deal with ever greater issues that are separating you from your God and hindering His purposes for you in your life.

We make the mistake of considering that to pay attention to these ‘laws’ of God is to be under legalism. “We are not under the law but under grace”, is the cry that goes up. But the truth is this: That which is in the flesh is under the law. You abide in the flesh, with all it’s fears and woes, and you are under the law. Use the law to reveal that fear, reveal that sin, reveal that lie, reveal the real issue, confess it, and be cleansed by the blood of Christ, and that area of your life is no longer under the law.  It is only that which is confessed and cleansed by the blood that is in the Spirit, for flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God.

But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in My name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. [John 14:26]

The way to a clear conscience before God is to confess those things that burden your conscience and darkened your knowledge of God. This is the reality of faith and the works that we are to be occupied in. All those other works we hold so dear will be brought forth naturally, with grace and simplicity in the love of God (not our pumped up version of it) as simply and easily as they were intended to, to the far greater edification of all. Let me tell you, there is no greater insult to soul of the poor than to be regarded as an object of pity by one who is afraid to be poor, or who has judged you for being poor. Many are poor because they did not or will not buy into the same god that you did (mammon).

Christ Jesus was able to stand in His hour of temptation in the wilderness, because He was without sin. We go through our wilderness, with all our times and trials of temptation that we might be cleansed of ours. We argue and say that Jesus did it on the cross and I was cleansed of all my sin when I received Jesus. I say to you that you were cleansed of the original sin of Adam and now have peace with God. But peace with God, and being reconciled to God are two different matters altogether, and your sins of ignorance bind your soul as effectually as the ones you knew of.

How can two walk together except they be agreed? [Amos 3:3]

The faithful witness of Christ makes manifest the life of Christ. The Great Commission was to go forth, baptizing in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. John’s baptism was the baptism of repentance. Those who received His baptism repented for their sins and rebellions against God. The Pharisees would not receive this baptism, and so they persecuted Christ. Jesus Christ went forth preaching, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. We go forth preaching Jesus loves you. Something wrong with this picture.  We have missed the mark.

You want to get closer to God, then start receiving the judgments of God against your sin and repent. You want to be a vessel meet for the Master’s use, then start receiving the judgments of God against your sins and transgressions and be cleansed. You want to be able to stand, to take your place in the hosts of the Lord, and be able to take out the foe assigned to you, then be cleansed of all that gives the devil leverage in your life that has the power to move you out of His way.

Perfect love casts out fear [1 John 4:18].

If ye love Me, keep My commandments. [John 14:15]

He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me: and he that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father [John 14:21]

If ye keep My commandments, ye shall abide in My love; even as I have kept My Fathers’ commandments, and abide in His love. [John 15:10]

How much clearer does it need to be? If we love God, we will keep His commandments. We will keep them by confessing all that exalts itself against the doing of them. If we are cleansed by the blood of Christ in this manner, then the righteousness that we walk in is His, which will abide forever. If we try to do it without the cleansing power of the blood applied through confession, thjen we are walking in ours, which will die with us.  We will remain just another wolf in sheeps clothing, without fruit, twice dead . . . to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. [Jude 1:12-13]

Soul or Spirit ~ A List For Now

For the Word of God is quick, and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. [Heb. 4:12]

This is the reason why ‘dynamic equivalence’ interpretations of the Scriptures are unreliable and as a whole unable to accomplish the purposes of God. One word does NOT mean the same as another. A look through this list reveals that each word differs by a shade or a hair-breadth in meaning, yet that difference is the difference between your soul and a holy spirit, that which is life and that which is death.

Posts will be done over the coming days and weeks taking each pair of words and explaining what the differences are between the two, and the significance that it has for your life, but for now, I just give the list that I have compiled thus far for you to ponder and reflect upon. I am certain that once you start going through the list, those with discernment will immediately begin to see the difference.

If you do, I hope you will read the article “About Your Bible’. If you have been able to see the difference in this short list of words, you need to know the effect that your ‘dynamically’ rendered Bible translation is having upon your faith and your life in Christ. If any of you are wondering why your walk in Christ isn’t all that it either used to be, or as you would like it to be, the Bible you’re using could very well be the culprit.

…..

• defiance…………………………resolution
• uninhibited……………………………..free
• condemnation…………………conviction
• sympathy…………………….compassion
• subservient…………………….submitted
• self-pity……………………………remorse
• save the lost…………preach the gospel
• division…………………………separation
• think………………………………….ponder
• remember……………………………reflect
• accusation…………………………reproof
• pleasure……………………………..delight
• obsessed……………………….consumed
• manipulate……………………….motivate
• work…………………………………….labor
• success……………………………..victory
• secrecy………………………………privacy
• reject………………………………..forsake
• impulsive…………………..spontaneous
• caution………………………….discretion
• sanction……………………………sanctify
• passive……………………….surrendered
• lifestyle…………………………………..life
• reporter………………………..messenger
• easy…………………………………..simple
• utopia…………………………………..Eden
• excess………………………….abundance
• creative………………………..resourceful
• hero……………………………………Savior
• purpose…………………………..objective
• compromise………………………flexibile
• control……………………………discipline
• harden……………………………..toughen
• charismatic………………………dynamic
• imaginations………………………visions
• ethics………………………righteousness
• supported…………………………..upheld
• abuse………………………….persecution
• inventive……………………….innovative
• change…………………………..transform
• recycle………………………………..renew
• compare…………………………reconcile
• I deny………………………………..Adonai
• omen…………………………………..amen
• fun………………………………………..joy
• similarity…………………………likeness
• surreal………………………………so real
• cope…………………………….overcome
• ease……………………………………..rest
• reason……………………understanding
• expectation………………………….hope
• insurance……………………..assurance
• entrenched…………………….anchored

The Triune Nature of Man

For the Word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.  [Hebrews 4:12]

This scripture makes it clear that soul and spirit are to be divided asunder, separated one from the other and that this is done through the Word of God.  That the Word of God is able to do this is because it is a living Word.  This it is purposed to do this is because the Word of God accomplishes the purposes for which it has been sent forth.  That it is something that we are to take heed to and pay attention to is evident in that it has been spoken at all.

Therefore I am going to be taking some time to focus on addressing some of these issues concerning that which is soul and that which is spirit, for it is the primary cause of so much confusion in the Church and in the world today, beginning with understanding the triune nature of man.

The triune nature of man cannot be understood through Adam alone.  Adam was not triune.  He was a body that became a living soul.  It was from this living soul that Eve was brought forth. Eve is the type of the Spirit, the helpmeet of Adam.    The two must come together and become one in order for the trinity to take place.  The children of Adam and Eve were to be triune in nature, soul and spirit together, making one new creation, God dwelling in the midst of His people, who would speak the words and commandments of God from a deep and personal acquaintance with God.

Eve, when she was tempted in the garden distorted the words that Adam spoke to her concerning eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, choosing to add her own (neither shall ye touch it).  Eve had already fallen from the place that she had been given.  She ws not steadfast nor faithful to the words of Adam.  This is why the last admonitions in the Book of Revelation, the end that was from the beginning, is to neither add (as did Eve) nor take away (as did Satan) from the words of this book.  The distorted words of God can only bring forth death, not life.  One of the three temptations of Christ in the wilderness was the accuracy of His understanding of Scripture, and His faithfulness to not take anything from that word that God spoke.

Adam’s sin was that of listening to ‘the voice of his wife’ who added to the word, and through that simple addition, had the word twisted and diminished in her as well.  The promise of God that we would speak with new tongues is not about possessing an unintellible language.  That is the manifestation of the evidence of the indwelling Christ, but it’s purpose is to cleanse and purify our words unto the purity of being able to speak the words and commandments of God once again.  The Church as a whole has abused this gift so grievously, it is not without cause that verbal abuse is one of the paramount abuses in this world today.

When Adam fell, man became created in his image and likeness instead of God’s.   A rebellious Adam and a fallen, deceived and corrupted Eve came together to form one fallen and corrupted man, severed and separated from God, filled with his own knowledge and ways and speaking his own words.  This is the stuff that we have been made of, and this is what our salvation in Christ is to remedy.  Our salvation is purposed to restore us to the way we were created to be, by giving us the light of the knowledge of God (that He is), by revealing to us the knowledge of His ways (His Word, Christ) and speaking His words once again (through the ministry of the Holy Spirit cleansing and purifying ours).  This is accomplished through the severing of that which is soul from that which is spirit; severing that which is of us, from that which is God, that the purity of the knowledge of God would be restored to the creation once again.

The promise of the resurrection is new bodies.  This is something that no one ever speaks of anymore.  We will receive new bodies, uncorrupted by sin.  The glory of the new body that you will receive, will be according to how much of the old creature that you have become is stripped away.

This is the effectual and sanctified use of the Word of God, then end of which is holiness, in a pure heart. This is the what, why and wherefore of the scripture we began with, which we will restate here:

For the Word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. [Hebrews 4:12]

Slaves! All Slaves!

I just finished watching a news report on CNN about how slaves are being made of illegal immigrants in Florida. The question that I have is this: how long before we wake up and realize that we are all slaves in this earth!

All the world ever talks about anymore is money. All the Church ever talks about anymore is how to get money. Money has become the god of this world, and we are now starting to see the fruits of it. There is not one that cannot say that they are not a slave to money. If you have it, it owns you to keep looking after it. If you do not have it, it owns you to get it. The cycle of your days, and your life all revolve around money. It has become the hub of your soul, the fetters of your life.

Children are being sold out for a crust of bread. Their inheritances . . . ha! what inheritances I ask you! No wonder the greater majority of them have the problems that they have. They have no hope in this world, nor do they see any in the next, judging by what they see from the so-called faithful. What hope have they, and what hope have we given them. All the church does anymore is lull them into a false sense of security with a slice of pizza, some rockin’ praise and a prosperity/potential carrot thrown in for good measure. Have faith your way, we tell them, as we sit by and watch them go up in flames.

Daily we are bombarded with almost explicit sex in the name of advertising. There is no where you can look without being assaulted by the visual imagery of lust in it’s grossest forms. Whoever needed a near naked woman to sell toilet paper? What protection do you think you are giving your children by monitoring the internet for them? Look outside your home. Look at your television. Look at the commercials. Look at the programming. Listen to the allusions and the innuendo. Even nature videos have to have the obligatory mating ritual thrown in. Examine your own life and the message that you give your children with your words, your deeds, your ways, your jobs. And what are you doing Church? Justifying it? Excusing it? Supporting their right to it? Making Church and God painless and trouble free? You have made an agreement with hell, and death and the grave if this is the road you have taken. You have sold out the righteous with your fear and idolatry.

Sex has become a hobby. Something to do when you get bored. People change relationships as often as they change underwear, if they wear any, that is. We are destroying our children, destroying our lives, and enslaving our souls unto hell, and what are you doing about it Church? Sitting in your padded pews, calling out for another thank offering for another prosperity preacher? Sowing your seed for another windfall? Shelling out a few guilt-bucks to the underpriviledged? What have you really ponied up for with all your tithes and offerings? Do you really know? What are you really doing? Paying for your wonderful building with all it’s wonderful programs that you have to keep pumping in order to keep paying the rent? Putting up a down-payment for your eternity? Get real! All your money and prosperity preaching has done is make you all a bunch of blind, self-serving, self-righteous, self-centered idolaters and spiritual prostitutes!

It is an offence and an abomination in the sight of God what is going on. Righteousness has fallen in the street, mercy and truth are laid in the dust and who really cares anymore? Woe unto you rich, the ones that say “what recession”? You will be consumed in the very consumerism that you have fostered and exploited. Woe unto you who look the other way when your sin and your shame are made known unto you. Woe unto you Church, who justifies the guilty, and makes place for the transgressor, that has called black white, and evil good to justify the filth of your wicked ways. Woe unto all of you.

The day of the Lord is at hand. Repent now, while you have time and opportunity to do so, for woe unto the one who will not come out of the Babylon that the world and Church have become. Woe unto you all, for the trumpets are about to sound, and the judgments of God are about to begin. Woe unto all of you, who have not made your ways straight before the Lord, for the tide and the storm that is to come will take you all out to sea.

Repent while you are still able, and pray that the Lord will have mercy upon your soul. Pray that you will survive the shipwreck that life is about to become. Pray that you might be accounted worthy to escape that which is most assuredly about to come, and even now is at the door of each and every one of your homes. Repent I say, for the days of tribulation are here. The days of tribulation that will call every man’s soul to account are here, even now, knocking at the doors of your heart, pressing upon the gates of your soul.

Get it together now, world, get it together now Church, before it’s too late and you find the doors shut tight against you.

God Will Not Be Mocked.

God is not the answer to your existential angst.  He is the answer to your hunger and thirst for righteousness and truth.  If you have no hunger or thirst for righteousness or truth, particularly truth, (yet there can be no righteousness without it), then all your God-ness is merely a balm for your conscience, a salve for your wounds, a paste over for your unconfessed sin and transgression.

Jesus did not die on the cross to be your hideout or to be a mere balm or a salve to your guilt and shame.  He came to deliver you from it.  How can He do that if you will not acknowledge and admit it?

God the Father did not subject His beloved Son to His wrath in our place, just so that we could get away with those same sins in the name of grace.  How do you figure God will dismiss in His children, that which He has condemned in the world?  God is not a hypocrite.

Jesus did not endure all that He endured to release the gift of the Holy Spirit to us, so that we could shut Him up and shut Him out.  Why bother to seek for God if you will not listen to His rebukes, His reproofs or His corrections, nor His Word?

Therefore, if you have no desire to be cleansed from your sin, no desire to be separated from it, no desire to hear what God has to say to you about it, then why did you seek Him for salvation in the first place?

God will not be mocked with a vain confession of faith.  Take not the name of the Lord in vain does not mean ’swearing’.  It means, if you are not serious, then you should never have bothered, for woe to the one who does despite to the Spirit of Grace that was given you.  Better to never have known, than to have known and not pursued.

If you want cleansing, healing, deliverance and restoration unto eternal life, then start taking God seriously.  Start looking at His judgments, and paying attention to what He has to say, for it is only in this that your ways are cleansed before Him.

If you do not, then lay aside your hypocrisies and admit it.  There is no half-way salvation in Christ.  It is, as it has always been, an all or nothing affair.

And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith the LORD, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein.  And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and I will try them a gold is tried:  they shall call upon My name, and I will hear them:  I will say, It is My people: and they shall shay, The LORD is My God.  [Zech. 13:8-9]

And if you don’t believe that Jesus Christ is the way to your salvation, then why do you keep looking for one?