Don't Count On You

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Then Jesus told them, “This very night you will all fall away on account of me, for it is written:

“ ‘I will strike the shepherd,

and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’

But after I have risen, I will go ahead of you into Galilee.”

Peter replied, “Even if all fall away on account of you, I never will.”

“Truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “this very night, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times.”

But Peter declared, “Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.” And all the other disciples said the same. Matthew 26:31-35

This may seem absurd that Peter told Jesus, who is God, who knows all... who is the author and finisher of his faith -that he wouldn’t do something that God already knew he was going to do.  Jesus was not speaking over Peter’s life.  He just knew what would come against Peter. 

“Simon, [Peter] Simon, Satan has asked to sift each of you like wheat. ³² But I have pleaded in prayer for you, Simon, that your faith should not fail. So when you have repented and turned to me again, strengthen your brothers.”  Luke 22:31-32

Satan would sift Peter with Peter himself.   He would use Peter’s own understanding against him.  He would have Peter rely on his own mental capacities of will power, might, strength, intellect and so on... Things that would be sure to fail him because God was not empowering or guiding them.

Peter's understanding was boat with a hole as big as Jesus in it and as soon as it touched the water it was going to sink.
  

Yes, Peter lived with the Word of God.   Yes, Peter knew the Word of God.   Yet like us at times… Peter got caught up in himself.  Think when Israel got caught up in the moment and decided to go into battle without God... what happened?  They lost but when God did go with them int battle, it didn't matter how out numbered they were God gave them victory.

Satan, wants to us to unintentionally separate ourselves mentally from God who enables us to overcome.   Satan knows our weak esteems, fears, anxieties, pride, prejudices, and so on and when we aren't aware of what we are figuratively chasing or being chased by, we step right off our firm foundation, which causes us to stumble, trip and fall. 

“If you want favor with both God and man, and a reputation for good judgment and common sense, then trust the Lord completely; don’t ever trust yourself.  In everything you do, put God first, and he will direct you and crown your efforts with success.

Don’t be conceited, sure of your own wisdom. Instead, trust and reverence the Lord, and turn your back on evil; when you do that, then you will be given renewed health and vitality.” Proverbs 3:4-8

"This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel saying, 'Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,' says the LORD of hosts. What are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you will become a plain; and he will bring forth the top stone with shouts of "Grace, grace to it!" Zechariah 4:6-7

Not submitting, humbling himself and drawing close to God robbed Peter of being empowered by God’s peace, assurance, grace that are included in His love.  Those things were there for Peter but he turned inward toward himself instead of towards God.  Can you think of a time when you have done this? What were the results? 

Do you remember what Jesus told Paul?

“But He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness.’  Therefore I will boast all the more gladly in my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest on me.”  2 Corinthians 12:9

We are not to be separate from God as Christians but find our fullness and completeness in God through submitting to God and seeing our need for God.

“God blesses those who realize their need for him, for the Kingdom of Heaven is given to them.” Matthew 5:3

When we do this, it is no longer us but Christ within us doing the heavy spiritual lifting. We understand in the Spirit that it's Jesus who gives us LIFE and is our life.  Our existence isn't run by our understandings, fears, anxieties, imaginations, false hopes, frustrations, and so on but God who gives us peace, love, hope, joy, patience, faithfulness, contentment and so on.
 

As I was speaking about this with a brother in Christ, I saw a vision.  It was of a person lying down on their back where I could see the inside view of the stomach area.   The outer surface of the body/flesh had the appearance of charcoal wood and it was crumbling away in small cube like pieces to reveal the brilliant colors that translate Christ within.  I was then reminded of these two verses.

“He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.” John 7:38

"You are the light of the world-like a city on a mountain, glowing in the night for all to see.  Don't hide your light under a basket! Instead, put it on a stand and let it shine for all." Matthew 5:14-15   

 This question also came to mind later…

“Why do people put so much into what is perishing instead of letting go and letting God build up the soul man?"

Consistency of GOD

The consistency of God must not be determined in the substrates of human understanding, which might be prejudice and carried in the matters of indecision. 

The consistency/faithfulness of God is proven when God imprints himself on the individual regardless of earthly circumstances. 

For the sky is veiled by blue in the day and only reveals the stars at night.  

When one insists on the consistency of God and/or questions the consistency of God I wonder from what they are referencing.

I am not saying GOD is unfaithful but I am saying to really understand the consistency of God we must trust beyond the confines of the human conditions and mindsets that trip us up.  Let us take comforts for example.  American Christians wouldn't say creature comforts determine the faithfulness of God but if certain circumstances came upon them, would they question God's faithfulness?  Would they remember Job from the bible?  Would they remember all Jesus suffered and spoke?

“I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world." John 16:33

One who reads Ecclesiastes finds everything in this life is meaningless without God.  I do wonder if the American ideals of comfort have mixed into the American church, causing a weakness in the understanding the consistency of God.

And like Pastor Charles Stanley spoke this morning, sometimes God allows certain uncomfortable situations to occur in our life to get our attention, that he might benefit our soul.    I know that is true when it came to me coming to Jesus.  God had to get my attention- so I would not just drift along in the affairs of the world and life. 

The proven consistency of GOD … needs to go beyond ourselves.  It needs to go beyond what we consider faithful in the faithful sense.  Is this not true... good as well as bad can be used for our good? 

God touched on this last time.

“Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Just as it is written, "FOR YOUR SAKE WE ARE BEING PUT TO DEATH ALL DAY LONG; WE WERE CONSIDERED AS SHEEP TO BE SLAUGHTERED." But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.…” Romans 8:35-37  

Sense GOD is Spirit, his faithfulness does not just stop with the physical but through the Spirit, moves in us effecting our "mental/emotional state as an individual.  It causes a "self-control" that is not dependent on the faulty wiring within us.  We have peace though we should not have peace.  We are merciful in situations that could be unmerciful.  We are unforgiving in situations that seem unforgivable... and so on.

God's consistency is answering the spiritual need not just the physical need. 

It is humbling to visit a 3rd world country and see people with hardly anything yet God is their strength.  And they know, regardless of what they have or not have, they are children of the Most High.    

God allowed nearly everyone of his faithful disciples to be slaughtered except John who was boiled alive and survived? But did their faith in God break? Of course not! Jesus even told Peter how he would die. 

“Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were younger, you used to gird yourself and walk wherever you wished; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will gird you, and bring you where you do not wish to go." Now this He said, signifying by what kind of death he would glorify God. And when He had spoken this, He said to him, "Follow Me!" John 21:18-19

But how did God empower them?

God had to become BIGGER then the physical.  God had to become BIGGER then death.  The faith and consistency of God had to become known in the spiritual not the material or physical sense.

And throughout the centuries many Christians have been murdered and martyred for their faith in Jesus Christ but only stood to face the darkness because they saw WHO was mightier then the darkness. 

God does care about our physical everyday needs to sustain this mortal body of ours, which is His temple. (John 2:20-22 Reference of Jesus speaking of His body has the temple)

“Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him, for the temple of God is holy, and that is what you are.” 1 Corinthians 3:16

In many cases God’s temples has been trampled, ripped apart, shot, burned, beheaded, hung, crucified... hence not respected.

This temporal body, a temple, isn’t to last, it is only a vessel that holds our soul, our soul that is to be imprinted upon by God as we trust and submit in Him.  The soul is what matters most!  It is what will last forever! Not this body which will return to the ground.      

“For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down (that is, when we die and leave this earthly body), we will have a house in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands.” 2 Corinthians 5:1

We must recognize that our trust in God needs to go beyond confines of the human condition.   The human condition will be broken someday and the soul will be whatever God has made with it through our relationship with Him. 

The Christian soul thrives when it seeks, looks and resigns itself to God in whatever comes but it suffers when it does not.

Jesus said he came to give life and life more abundantly.  In many aspects we must think of LIFE as not us having life but LIFE possessing us for GOD is LIFE.

Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” Johns 14:6

How many times have you seen a person’s faith grow stronger not dimmer in stimuli and circumstances that have brought about certain finalities?  What is supernaturally happening in those individuals?

Have you ever watched a Christian who is dying?  Have you ever heard the conversations and sentences they speak when they sleep?  Profound…

Their soul is being prepared to leave its dying and broken confines, in fact their soul even seems to come in and out of this reality, to where God is. 

Their dying body struggles but beyond the body is a soul at peace and rest.  (Not so for the soul that is not a Christian.)

Then after all has been accomplished in the soul, God lifts the soul out the body like taking a long sleeve shirt off over someone’s head.   The hands go up and the head lifts, the eyes open briefly and then they are gone.   All that is left is a broken shell that was once animated by the soul.

The soul that was not made for this world but made for God, to glorify God on this earth in the body which is was given.

God DOES heal.  God DOES rescue.  God DOES restore.  God DOES provide.   I have experienced these things but but let's not the circumstances in life short change us in getting a fuller deeper understanding of the faithfulness of God.

“All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.” John 1:3-5

 

Living in the Knowledge of the Truth

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As my mind became quiet these words came to mind.

“To come to the knowledge of the truth.”

So I looked up this verse:

“who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” 1 Timothy 2:4

God doesn’t just want us to be saved but come to the knowledge of the truth- to live in it, understand it, and hence- be empowered by it!  God’s truth is not just some words on a page but guided empowered by the Holy Spirit liberate soul from all that is in the world, others, and ourselves. 

They usher us into a new way of seeing day to day.

In paraphrasing what Pastor Antonio recently shared with me from Mexico, “God is manifesting goodness in our life, not by the limitations and strings of our conscious mind, but beyond.”

For me I was presented with a picture.  Our understanding is a hallway of doors.  Doors we have opened, experienced and lived by.  But when we come to the end ourselves we are presented with a DOOR that surpasses all the others doors of our understanding.  And when this DOOR opens and by the grace of God- this magnificent light floods our soul. It takes the blinders off, cleans, clarifies, unshackles, and makes new what has been exposed to the elements of this corrupted world.  We desire not the old doors but the ONE in which the light is pouring forth, the DOOR that gave us something much more satisfying and liberating then all the other doors that are were futile and ineffective.  This is the DOOR in which we desire.

“I know all the things you do, and I have opened a door for you that no one can shut.  You have little strength, yet you have obeyed my word and did not deny me.” Revelation 3:8

I am reminded of this verse.

“May you experience the love of Christ, though it is so great you will never fully understand it.  Then you will be filled with the fullness of life and power that comes from God.” Ephesians 3:19

Just as the miracle of our salvation cannot be fully understood when we surrendered our life to Jesus Christ so it is when we continue to surrender to God daily (sanctification).  After all it is not we, (our strength, our might, or our intelligence that was so easily enticed by the flawed and fallen understanding) but the knowledge of truth working in our lives that comes only by surrendering to Christ.  It is God and in God alone.

1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 says “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.  He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it.”

C. S. Lewis wrote:

Let us picture a woman thrown into a dungeon. There she bears and rears a son. He grows

up seeing nothing but the dungeon walls, the straw on the floor, and a little patch of the

sky seen through the grating, which is too high up to show anything except sky. This

unfortunate woman was an artist, and when they imprisoned her she managed to bring

with her a drawing pad and a box of pencils. As she never loses the hope of deliverance she

is constantly teaching her son about that outer world which he has never seen. She does

it very largely by drawing him pictures. With her pencil she attempts to show him what

fields, rivers, mountains, cities and waves on a beach are like. He is a dutiful boy and he

does his best to believe her when she tells him that that outer world is far more interesting

and glorious than anything in the dungeon. At times he succeeds. On the whole he gets on

tolerably well until, one day, he says something that gives his mother pause. For a minute

or two they are at cross-purposes. Finally it dawns on her that he has, all these years, lived

under a misconception. ‘But,’ she gasps, ‘you didn’t think that the real world was full of

lines drawn in lead pencil?’ ‘What?’ says the boy. ‘No pencil marks there?’ And instantly,

his whole notion of the outer world becomes a blank. For the lines, by which alone he was

imagining it, have now been denied of it. He has no idea of that which will exclude and

dispense with the lines, that of which the lines were merely a transposition—the waving

treetops, the light dancing on the weir, the colored three-dimensional realities which are

not enclosed in lines but define their own shapes at every moment with a delicacy and

multiplicity which no drawing could ever achieve. The child will get the idea that the real

world is somehow less visible than his mother’s pictures. In reality it lacks lines because it is

incomparably more visible….  Our natural experiences (sensory, emotional, imaginative) are

only like the drawing, like penciled lines on flat paper. If they vanish in the risen life, they

will vanish only as pencil lines vanish from the real landscape; not as a candle flame that is

put out but as a candle flame which becomes invisible because someone has pulled up the

blind, thrown open the shutters, and let in the blaze of the risen sun.

Living in the knowledge of the truth is living beyond the dungeon walls of what we know or understand.  What made sense in the dungeon walls no longer makes sense when we are exposed to the living knowledge of the truth.  Though we live in the walls of this world, our reality is no longer curtailed to the understanding of the world.

 "If you belonged to the world, it would love you as it’s own.  As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world.  That is why the world hates you.” John 15:19

Wisdom

“Happy is a person who finds wisdom and gains understanding.  For the profit of wisdom is better than silver, and her wages are better than gold.  Wisdom is more precious than rubies; nothing you desire can compare with her. She offers you life in her right hand, and riches and honor in her left.  She will guide you down delightful paths; happy are those who hold her tightly.   By wisdom the LORD founded the earth; by understanding he established the heavens.   By his knowledge the deep fountains of earth burst forth, and the clouds poured down rain.”  Proverbs 3:14-20

Wisdom, how opposite it is of what most of us think.  It is not some old hardened well- educated chap that has seen, heard, and experienced it all. 

For wisdom is a child, you come by her through the Gate (Jesus Christ), and she grabs your hand and pulls you in- to green hills and lush green forests to the left.  You discover as you step through the Gate, you are no longer your age but a child.  Energy and a gleeful delight fills your soul and bubbles up as you both run like the wind.  Oh the joy of those who find wisdom and take hold of her.  

Jesus said to his disciples,

“Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 18:3

I would say as we mature as children of God our reality has no place to sleep and rest on the things of this world but in God alone.  And there the banquets of fruit are produced and fill the tables of heaven.

The foxes that spoil the vine, the things of the fallen world and fallen understanding, are caught and they are seen/exposed for what they are- they are things that ruin what God wants to grow and prosper in our lives.

Every single day of this life we stand at a door, knowingly or unknowingly, where God asks, “Are you going to come in? Are you going to allow me to show you a better way to live?”

Jesus said,” The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” John 10:10

The thief is the master of trickery…

Who would think by letting go of your life you would save it or even find it but the thief wants you to keep it -that you might save it but you know what Jesus says,

“If you cling to your life, you will lose it; but if you give up your life for me, you will find it.” Matthew 10:39

As I thought about this I wondered how often does our understandings often collides with God’s will in our life because we haven’t surrendered it to Him fully. 

Later I was reminded of a one of the books in my bed stand.  It’s a book written by Thomas a Kempis, called “The imitation of Christ”.

I looked at the table contents where I saw the title, “Pure and Entire Resignation of Self to Obtain Freedom of Heart”.

I turned there (page 98)

The Voice of Christ

My Child, renounce self and you shall find Me.  Give up your own self-will, your possessions, and you shall always gain.  For once you resign yourself irrevocably, greater grace will be given you.

The Disciple

How often, Lord, shall I resign myself? And in what shall I forsake myself?

The Voice of Christ

Always, at every hour, in small matters as well as great- I except nothing.  In all things I wish you be stripped of self.  How otherwise can you be mine or I be yours unless you be despoiled of (deprived/ relieved) of your own will (disposition, bias, preference, partiality) both inwardly and outwardly? The sooner you do this the better it will be for you, and the more fully and sincerely you do it the more you will please Me and the greater gain you will merit. Some there are who resign themselves, but with certain reservation; they do not trust fully in God and therefore they will try to provide for themselves.  Others, again, at first offer all, but afterward are assailed by temptation and return to what they have renounced, thereby making no progress in virtue (morality, integrity, righteousness, purity, goodness).  These will not reach the true liberty of a pure heart nor the grace of happy friendship with Me unless they first make a full resignation and daily sacrifice of themselves.  Without this no fruitful notion lasts nor will last.  I have said to you very often, and now I say again: forsake yourself, renounce yourself, and you shall enjoy great inward peace.  Give all for all.  Ask nothing, demand nothing in return.  Trust purely and without hesitation in Me, and you shall possess Me.  You will be free of heart and the darkness will not overwhelm you. Strive for this, pray for this, desire this- to be stripped of all selfishness and naked to follow the naked Jesus, to die to self and live forever for Me.   Then all vain imaginations, all wicked disturbances and superfluous cares will vanish.  Then also immoderate (heavy, unrestrained, reckless, unwarranted, unbridled) fear will leave you and inordinate (excessive care for self which causes unrestrained feelings or behavior) love will die.

To come/live in the knowledge of the truth we must let go/resign/surrender ourselves completely to the LORD in all matters in life that we might exist/abide/live- liberated in CHRIST JESUS (who is the way, the truth and the life) – John 14:6.

Nothing exists without Him, no power, no peace, no life, no knowledge of the truth, no liberation, no resurrection, no fullness of life, nothing satisfying exists without Him.

No wonder why John wrote;

^“ In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. ” John 1:4-5

The Age of You

My wife and I watched the Age of Adaline.  It is about a woman who, after a car accident, never ages.  Being a secular movie, it takes on mostly a worldly morality but several things struck me while I watched this film.

The first is Adaline’s tells her boy friend, “Tell me something I can hold onto forever and never let go.”
And her boyfriend replies, “Let go.”

Reminds me of the verse Jesus says to us, “If you cling to your life, you will lose it, but if you let it go you will save it.” Matthew 10:39

It’s human nature to hold onto things of this life and connect our lives with the things of this life.  They give us meaning, comfort, purpose, a sense of reality of who we are- no matter if they are true or false.  

Have you ever allowed people and/or circumstances tell you who you are?  Have you ever lost a sense of meaning in life when you lost someone special in your life?

Have you ever invested time, energy, money, heart into something that failed and since it failed- it soured you from putting in that much effort into something ever again?  

Thank God, He doesn’t do that to us.

How about when you fail you?  What happens then?  What happens when your body or mind starts to fail you? 

What happens when we hold onto and put our hopes in people and things that are not going to be here forever?
  

Jesus says, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.  But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Matthew 6:19-21

Don't get me wrong here... It is good to invest our lives into other people’s lives, it is good to love others and pray for them and see them as gifts from God.  But when people and ourselves out rank God in telling us who we are, then that is a problem.  We can’t assume since people think of us in a certain way that God thinks of us in the same way. That goes for both the positive and/or negative.
 

It does not matter if we are loved or hated by the world- what matters is are we for God.  Are we being influenced by the world or by God?  What context are we living in, seeking, trusting in?  The temporal or God the eternal?  This determines how the heart will be guided.
  

“Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.” Proverbs 4:23

What gives light to your soul -regardless to the difficult circumstances in this life?

LIVING VERSES LIFE

Harrison Ford’s character, in the same movie says, “How is this possible? For all those years you’ve lived, you’ve never had a life.”

How true it is that people “live” but have never had a “life”?  They seek “life” but it only in the these temporal forms and way but they never find LIFE.  Think of the richest people who have ever lived but have never found LIFE.  

People instinctively seek what God gives such as joy, peace, love, goodness, and so on but they don’t look to Him.

Even intelligence and wisdom of God's word won't get us there!  

Jesus said, “Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.” John 4:23

Adam and Eve decided on the “temporal” in the Garden of Eden instead of God who is eternal and always and they lost what was essential, the Spirit of God, in their life.  They may have had the wisdom and knowledge and truth but the Spirit of God was not there to help them live in that wisdom, knowledge and truth.  So they lived but did not have life.

God not only creates the living and provides for the living but also gives LIFE to the living. 

Jesus says, “I am the truth, the way and the life, no one comes to the Father but through me.” John 14:6

John says, “In him (Jesus) was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.” John 1:4

Life is through the Holy Spirit -which God gives through His Son, Jesus Christ.

“But when the Holy Spirit controls our lives, he will produce this kind of fruit in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Here there is not conflict with the law.” Galatians 5:22-23

“For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.” Romans 8:2

How our heart sinks and goes to dark places when we trust in and look to the temporal things of this life.

The last thing that struck me in the movie, was when Adaline finally decides to stop running from the truth and.... she receives her life back. (Sorry spoiler coming!)  She ceases from just living and begins to have life she never thought would be possible.

Is this not true of our spiritual life as well?  It’s only when we “stop running” from God and turn to God in whatever condition we are in- that we realize and grow in Jesus who is the truth, the way and life.  We find LIFE and value, freedom is in Him not the temporal things of this world.

Yep... "He has made everything appropriate in it's time.  He has also set eternity in their heart, yet so that man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end" Ecclesiastes 3:11

For each of us has an eternal soul that God has created.  A soul that is to live forever.   God has set eternity in our hearts, which is LIFE, and we only discover this LIFE and find and get to experience it in Him.  That we don’t have to continue make the same mistakes as Adam and Eve by seeking life in the temporal but instead -the eternal.  God is to be the author and finisher of our faith/life but in order for that to happen we must surrender and continually surrender to Him.  And in doing so we discover and experience what God has planned for us from beginning to end in Him.

In a manner of speaking this is the age of you.  Jesus came to... what did he say, "I have come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." Note John 10:10
 
We all have decide is if we only want to just live or if we want LIFE.

    

Is Praying For Yourself Selfish?

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I find it odd- this philosophy that it is selfish to pray for one’s self.  In fact last night as I put my head down on my pillow this philosophy was still on my mind.   It did not sit right in my soul.   In my mind I saw it as thorny stem.

I could be misunderstanding the perspective of such teaching but prayer- is it not communication with the LORD who is to be the source of our LIFE?   To deny communication and help from the LORD is to deny LIFE itself from living within us.

As I write this word comes:

“Don't let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Christ.”  Colossians 2:8   

The Lord is my strength and that is why I pray for myself, for without Him I am lost within myself and the things of this world can easily overwhelm me.

I am reminded of the Lord’s Prayer.

Jesus says: “This, then, is how you should pray: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.”

God is gives me the daily spiritual bread to sustain my faith- like I said before- a living word not a religious word.

In what manner is one praying for one's self- selfish? I am not praying to be materially rich however I am praying to be spiritually rich in Him.  For the things of this life never satisfy but God who is boundless never ceases to amaze me and He will BE forever as those things of this life will disappear and vanish. 

I pray for myself on a daily -sometimes even on an hourly basis.  I pray that God transform my thinking that I may live as God intended.   I pray for God's liberating will to work in my life.   Is this selfish or is this surrendering to God to allow Spirit and truth to live in me?

I do not think praying for yourself in this manner is selfish.   For if one strives only in the flesh and prays in the flesh and lives accordingly to flesh...  can they see their obvious need for God?  Where is the Spirit working in our life if we do not pray for ourselves to be refreshed, encouraged, inspired by God?  I believe to pray in this manner (for refreshing, encouragement, inspiration, guidance, etc) is to deny our fleshly understanding and agree and consent with God’s will for our life.  In deed how refreshing it is just to think about prayer in this life giving way.  Now think about how a refreshed, encouraged, inspired soul behaves?  It is a light that is put on a stand.  It is a city on a hill.   It is salty.  It is a soul of beatitudes living in us!

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+5&version=NLT 

Thank you Lord that you are doing all these things in my soul this day! In Jesus Name Amen.

Prayer does changes things but it first starts with the one who prays.

Knowing You See Things Imperfectly

Paul wrote,  "When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child.  But when I grew up. I put away childish things.  Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity.  All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me complete." 1 Corinthians 13:11-12

Can you trust your eyes? Can you trust your ears? Can you trust your understanding?

Was Jesus ever accused for things he was not? Can you think of when he might of been accused of being a cannibal, a liar, a false prophet, or being the prince of demons?  How about being guilty of something he was not guilty of because he spent time with Samaritans, drunks, and tax collectors?
People perceived him guilty by association, what they saw, what they heard and in how they understood?

Have your eyes and understanding ever let you presume something that was untrue? Have you ever jumped to conclusions?  Have you ever not heeded the Lord's warnings and did what you thought was right and/or justified? What fruit came of those actions?

Scripture says... "Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him."  Isaiah 64:4

 

.... Let me suggest a bit of caution to the idea of knowing enough of a situation or going it alone in your own understanding and suggest a bit of caution on any zealous acts - acts that come from any aspect of impatience, personal pride and prejudice.   Wait and be surrendered to God in thought and see how God directs and intercedes for you.

I remember before I was a Christian there were a couple Christians that didn't treat me with respect.  I didn't need their respect to  "agree" with me but I needed their  respect that I was a person no better then they were yet they acted as if they were better then me.   I saw pride and prejudice in their actions instead of the grace and love of Jesus Christ.  

Jesus said the flesh profits what...?

"It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." John 6:63

We should not claim to know all there is to know of God, His Word or a situation but seek God for discernment, wisdom, direction, and emotional stability in many of the opportunities presented to us in this life. Yet I feel this is not always taught or maybe it's not matured in our spiritual coverings.

"And all who have been united with Christ in baptism have put on Christ, like putting on new clothes." Galatians 3:27

We are to "put on Christ".  How did Jesus speak and interact with people?  

Yes let there be a confidence but not a confidence with ourselves but with God.
"Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God.  Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit.  For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life."  2 Corinthians 3:4-6

We are to be as children, but not children of ignorance, but children of our Heavenly Father.

The Word of God is a double-edged sword- you want to use it and use it to heal then let the Spirit of God direct you in "how" to use through your actions.     
     
Some may say being "persecuted, hated, resented, bullied, disregarded, and called haters and worse" are causes and effects in walking in pretentious ways but that is not necessarily true.

We could just as easily receive the same treatment for doing right and living a wholesome lifestyle then doing wrong.  And why might this be a problem?  Why might this offend others?  Why do those in the world want to force us to agree with things that go against God's word?  Why do they want to change us?  It's odd how conviction of sin comes in many ways and forms.  

Just a comparison of lifestyle can make one envious and feel guilty.   If everyone agreed with their sinful behavior- then they would not feel guilty but as God's representatives living in truth - this makes them feel convicted.   Just the goodness of God's Spirit working in our lives is conviction enough.  It's like a little song bird chirping on a tree branch in the morning and because a few want to sleep, those who want to sleep despise the little song bird.  The song bird did nothing to deserve such resentment.  It was just doing what it was created to do by God.    Ever notice how guilty people have to justify themselves causing them to fall deeper into sin?  They live in the law of sin/ law of their understanding.  They are trapped and they will do anything in their power to try to feel not trapped resulting to childish things as put downs, lies, manipulations, violence, curses, and name calling.  And because the world works in the same faulty understanding, the world agrees with them and makes laws and regulations against those who choose to live by the word of God.            

No surprise there.... Jesus said we would be hated because for our allegiance to him. 

Mark 13:13 “And everyone will hate you because you are my followers. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.”

We must speak the truth but be careful however to be sure we speak and act according to the Spirit in love not in some stuck up fashion that is not humble and does not remember where he/she stands- for we all have sinned and come short to the glory of God.

“For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;” Romans 2:23

"Let your speech always be with grace as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person." Colossians 4:6

We must be "approachable" people that know what it means to have all the short comings of being human...  we have all had trouble, failed, hurt, won, lost, loved, been betrayed, doubted, been angered, fallen, not been understood, been enslaved and so on... but in these things we are to weave what it means to have Christ in those situations and share that with others in gracious speech.

 "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God." 2 Corinthians 1:3-4

"... I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some.  I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings."  Note: 1 Corinthians 9:19-23

"Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves." Philippians 2:3
 
"For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas world grief produces death." 2 Corinthians 7:10

Let us not just look at grief but other aspects of life as well.

We have all grieved...
We have all been angered...
We have all loved...
we have all... fallen short of the glory of God....

But it is in "how" we do those things that ends in life or death and it's "in" who or WHO we turn to that leads to life or death.  When we look to ourselves and the world, grief can turn to prideful self-pity ... anger can turn to resentment and unforgiveness and... love to ignorant shallowness, empty lust.   All which are sin in God's eyes.

 We find reasons to stay away and reject God because we want to stay in sin.  These sins become like shards of glass in the veins of our blood stream and we stay away from the very ONE who can give us LIFE.... GOD.

But when we look to God, grief can become things like hope and a stronger dependence upon God.  Anger can turn to godly resolve, living justly and putting God above all things and people.    Love becomes unselfish and a want to build up and encourage those around us and to love our spouse more deeply.

Again.... If we turn to just ourselves and our understanding of grief, anger and love- these things turn to darkness and death.  If we turn to God in our grief, anger and understanding of what love really is, it leads to life.

GOD is the strong thread that keeps all our life from coming all unraveled.
       
Paul who wrote the majority of the New Testament said: "I do not claim that I have already succeeded or have already become perfect.  I keep striving to win the prize for which Christ Jesus has already won me to himself. Of course, my friends, I really do not think that I have already won it; the one thing I do, however, is to forget what is behind me and do my best to reach what is ahead. So I run straight toward the goal in order to win the prize, which is God's call through Christ Jesus to the life above."

We should always strive to live for and as Christ, as we have the opportunity to share the love of Christ with others.  You and I can't be all that God wants us to be without Jesus flowing through our spiritual veins. 

How imaginative and undisciplined our minds are and how our thoughts float in all different directions.  How presumptuous they can be and how these very thoughts fade to judgments. 

In life, I could easily fill up the pages of my thoughts but to leave the pages as simple humble surrendered prayers of mediation upon God, I find God filling them and I can easily find what he has written on them.

Ever heard the saying, "You are the only bible some people will ever read"?

I am not saying to become so heavenly minded that you are no earthly good but how can one do the kind of good that survives the testings of fire if you are not heavenly minded, clothed and directed?

 What will stand when our works are tested by God?  Our salvation will still be there but if our works are not done in a manner that honor God in Spirit and truth what will stand when the flames touch them?  How might your actions towards others honor God or dishonor God?

"If any man's work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. If any man's work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire." 1 Corinthians 3:14-15

From where does your inner compass start?  From where is it drawn?  From where is it pointed?  From where might it go?

We come upon situations and circumstances that present themselves as bitter water.   And anyone who drinks and partakes of this bitter water comes down with side affects of that bitter water but those who drink from Jesus the living water can speak into that bitter situation and help people taste what it means to drink God's sweet water- by your graceful actions and words seasoned by salt.

Serenity Prayer "God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference."
 
So yes there will be those who still want to drink from the bitter water but let God grant us the wisdom to see what we can change and not change and not be discouraged by.

For Jesus said, "... but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil." John 3:19

 

"But to you who are listening I say:
Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you." Luke 6:27-28

Note: This doesn't mean to intentionally get walked all over but you turn the other cheek and not give pearls to swine because you know your value is not in your circumstances or in people but in God.

So do not cling onto these experiences too tightly but onto God who is your life of faith and allows you to give grace, have peace, know hope, be secured in love and have the mindset of Christ. 
  
Knowing all these things will help you become a better representative of Christ Jesus.

Ponder these things with the Lord as you watch this clip.

   

AND IN DOING, - Spirit and Truth

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-->Jesus said, “But the time is coming and is already here when true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth.  The Father is looking for anyone who will worship him that way.  For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in Spirit and truth.” John 4:23

So what does this mean to you to worship God in Spirit and truth?

One of the ways to help us define what is living in Spirit and truth is to see what God considers the opposite of living and worshiping God in Spirit and truth is. 

“And the Lord said, ‘Because the people draw near with their words And honor Me with their lip service, but they remove their hearts far from Me, And their reverence for Me consists of tradition learned by rote,” Isaiah 29:13-14

“They fear the LORD and served their own gods according to the custom of the nations from among whom they had been carried away into exile.  To this day they do according to the earlier customs; they do not fear the LORD, nor do they follow their statutes or their ordinances or the law, or the commandments which the LORD command the sons of Jacob, whom He named Israel.” 2 Kings 17:33-34

“Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof…” 2 Timothy 3:5

“Always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.” 2 Timothy 3:7

So living and worshiping God in Spirit and truth is NOT:

1.             Head knowledge alone.

2.            Religious tradition

3.             Repetitious prayers or words.  

4.             A complacent or false love for God.

5.             Denying the Holy Spirit in one’s life.

6.             Disregarding a personal relationship with the True and Living GOD.

7.             (What did the Spirit point out to you in these scriptures?)

Spirit and truth.

Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6

Think…. This ever-growing revelation of Jesus being “the way, the truth and the life” didn’t come until the Holy Spirit came upon us and resided within us.

For the truth to become “active” in our soul the Holy Spirit must make it “living” in our soul.  For instance scriptures on a page are just words until God’s Spirit awakens them in our soul with meaning, insight, assurance, confidence and ability.

But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. John 16:13

Do we hear God?  Do we hear God some of the time?  How much do we hear God?

We shut off God by denying him within our daily lives either consciously or unintentionally.  We can get carried away in daily tasks that we leave God behind instead of Him having him central amongst the tasks of life.  We tend to follow the path of least resistance (our own humanness) if we aren’t mindful, and that path is our ignorance, imagination, our insecurities, our pride, our perceptions, our feeling, our routines, our order of things, our orthodox reasoning, our experiences and even those we surround ourselves by.  We limit God when we think we have God all figured out and know it all.  We shut God off when we think we know His Word in all its richness and fullness.  We shut God off when we think we have “arrived” in some kind of spiritual self-sufficiency.  In such cases God’s Spirit becomes minimized, dormant, and even irrelevant in our lives.

I love this these verse...

“Lift up your heads, O gates!  And be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in.” Psalm 23:7

How of often does our human intellect and understanding become gates separating us from God?  Where we try to figure out everything on our own.  I find even in the best of intentions in seeking or pursuing God in our ways, we miss God because it’s about us and not us surrendering us to God.  But God’s word says, “Lift up your heads, O gates and be lifted up- that the King of Glory may come in!”      

If we build and base our day on just our self what do you have in the end? Have we gained any greater mindset or heart? Has our relationship with God grown?

“Trust in the LORD with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding.  Seek his will in all you do, and he will direct your paths.  Don’t be impressed with your own wisdom.  Instead fear the LORD and turn your back on evil.  Then you will gain renewed health and vitality.” Proverbs 3:5

For as long as I have lived I have never known anyone to gain renewed health and vitality in themselves.   How could anyone gain renewed health and vitality without living in Spirit and truth of God?  How could anyone the catch the fire of God when God isn’t allowed in any and all aspects? For this LIFE giving principle of trusting in the LORD and not depending on our own understanding makes us persist and endure in all things!  It’s where we cease and where God’s loving, comforting and encouraging Spirit takes over!

I am reminded of what Jesus said to the church of Ephesus in Revelation 2

“I know all the things you do.  I have seen your hard work and your patient endurance.  I know you don’t tolerate evil people.  You have examined the claims of those who say they are apostles but are not.  You have discovered they are liars.  You have patiently suffered for me without quitting.  But I have this complaint against you.  You don’t love me or each other as you did at first!  Look how far you have fallen from you first love!  Turn back to me again and work as you did at first.  If you don’t, I will remove your lampstand from its place among the churches.” Revelation 2: 2-5   

For those who have ever fallen in love, I want you to think on what it meant and felt like to be “in love”. What was that glow?  What was that want to be near that person?  How you threw yourself at that person with a special trust.  You seemed to want to do just about anything for that special person of the opposite sex.  It was no burden or hassle at all.  You seem to be almost floating…  You seem to have this renewed health and vitality about you, did you not as you walked in this unexplainable thing called “love”.  Now put God in that place… Do you see this?.

A. W. Tower wrote: “Behind the veil is God, that God after Whom the world, with strange inconsistency, has felt, ‘If haply they might find Him.’ He has discovered Himself to some extent in nature, but more perfectly in the Incarnation; now He waits to show Himself in ravishing fullness to the humble of soul and the pure in heart.  The world is perishing for lack of the knowledge of God and the Church is famishing for want of his Presence.  The instant cure of the most of our religious ills would be to enter the Presence in spiritual experience, to become suddenly aware that we are in God and that God is in us.  This would lift us out of our pitiful narrowness and cause our hearts to be enlarged.  This would burn away the impurities from our lives as the bugs and fungi were burned away by the fire that dwelt in the bush.”

Jesus said, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’” Matthew 22:37

How quickly we dismiss such words out of familiarity not realizing they are the key out of cage of ourselves and everything else that chips and nags at us.  We don’t necessary see them as what we are to build and pour our life into but just orders and commands.  But God gives us these words to liberate us from the monotony of close-minded themes that keep us captive within the world’s ideals and ourselves.   Instead God says, “Come to ME, LOVE ME with all your heart soul and mind and I will show you what it means to LIVE.  Take a moment to think how this pertains to living Spirit and truth.

God wants us to develop, grow, endure and mature in the supernatural grace and the glorious unfolding of His daily invigorating love.

Paul writes with great and humbling admiration:

“I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will give you might inner strength through his Holy Spirit. And I pray that Christ will be more and more at home in your hearts as you trust in him.  May your roots go down deep into God’s marvelous love.  And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s peoples should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love really is.  May you experience the love of Christ, though it is so great you will never fully understand it.  Then you will be filled with the fullness of life and the power that comes from God.  Now glory be to God!  By his mighty power at work within us, he is able to accomplish infinitely more than we would ever dare to ask or hope.” Ephesians 3:16-20

I don’t know about you but my soul says, “Wow!”  Staying in Spirit and truth, which is to stay in the ‘knowing of God’s love’ brings about the fullness of life and the power that comes from being in His Love.

Is this an easy task? Of course not, for the things of self, love to be our obstacle.   They like to barge to the front of the line and make their demands and in the process redirect our focus away from God.

As A.W. Tozer so eloquently points out, “Self is the opaque veil that hides the face of God from us.  It can be removed only in spiritual experience, never by mere instruction.” 

Realizing this we must make a personal effort to live a circumcised life in Spirit in order to enjoy the encompassing elements of God.  For we were meant to have such a wonderful outlook as Paul speaks yet many times we find ourselves settling for far less.

“Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.” Romans 12:2

How many times has Christ Jesus overcome for us and shown us His goodness?  Why has he continually made a way where their seems to be no way?  Why has he kept the path clear for us?  This path we love to discover and walk upon but somehow… forget throughout our day.  But Jesus calls to us… Can you hear Him? “Let me be LORD OVER ALL THINGS!”

Isaiah 55:8-9 “My thoughts are completely different from yours,” says the LORD.  “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts are higher than your thoughts.”

Is this not REFRESHING!!!  God’s thoughts and ways are HIGHER then our thoughts and ways!  Some may ask, “Why is this a good thing?”  This is a good thing because we who have been born-again in Christ Jesus can live in, by HIS SPIRIT, in God’s thoughts and ways. We can be in-tuned with God.

“Who can know the LORD’s thoughts?  Who knows enough to teach him? But we understand these things, for we have the mind of Christ.” 1 Corinthians 2:16

This morning’s scripture verse reads,

“Roll your works upon the Lord [commit and trust them wholly to the Him;  He will cause your thoughts to become agreeable to His will, and] so shall your plans be established and succeed.”  Proverbs 16:3

And this is what the Spirit said to me, “Your thoughts of the day’s tasks are transformed when you give and entrust them to the Lord and they become satisfying and liberated because they are in His will which is perfect, pleasing and good for the soul.”

You don’t just see natural contexts of life but in the contexts of life you walk in the spiritual contexts as well -instead of just the tendencies or leanings of our selves.

As we digest these things, “What is established and success in God’s eyes?”  Is it being materially rich? I don’t remember my Jesus ever being materially rich.  And I have seen many who are materially rich who are yet unsatisfied.  So that is not being established or a success in God’s eyes.  Is it having a degree?  Did Jesus have a degree?  How about the completion of many tasks and worldly successes?  We can complete many tasks yet still feel unsatisfied…  God has shown me what is established and a success is those things God put’s His hands to.  It’s allowing God to work in us as his holy priest.

“And now God is building you, as living stones, into his spiritual temple.  What’s more you are God’s holy priest, who offer the spiritual sacrifices that pleas him because of Jesus Christ.” 1 Peter 2:5

What is established and a success is how we go about those tasks in life by His Spirit.  I am reminded that everyone’s life’s work will be tested by fire.   Are we doing those tasks in the ways and thoughts of God (Spirit and truth) or are we doing them with burden, only as obligation, self-sufficiency, self-promotion, egotism, etc?  These things neglect the Spirit’s love, counsel and encouragement and without the Spirit there is no “edible” fruit to partake from for us or anyone else.  For the good fruit is our witness of God working in us and manifesting Himself in us.

“But when the Holy Spirit controls our lives, he will produce this kind of fruit in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.  Here there is no conflict with the law.” Galatians 5:22-23

“If we are living now by the Holy Spirit, let us follow the Holy Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives.” Galatians 5:25

“But if you keep looking steadily into God’s perfect law- the law that sets you free- and if you do what it says and don’t forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it.” James 1:25

Anyone can accomplish something but it’s in how we accomplish that something that matters most to God.

GOD who inspired the words, “We walk by faith not by sight,” wants to graciously bestow upon us a new perspective daily and hourly.  A perspective only He can give.   No wonder why the Word of God states nothing can separate us from the love of God.  Note Romans 8:39

  Acts 17:28 says “For in Him we live, and move and have our being; as also certain of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’”

Jesus said, "Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me.  I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.…” John 15:4

To quietly and humbly surrender to the Spirit and truth is to pass through the veil of our stumbling and burdening understanding and have every need… want… thirst… hunger… thought … circumstance… and experience to be “spoken to” and satisfied!

“And God spoke ‘Let there be light’ and there was light.” Genesis 1:3

God wants us to know that in Him we lack nothing….

Romans 8:37 says… “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.”

I find in many experiences in life we find ourselves out of our league.  We live in this world but we are not of this world.   Most of us are aware of our moment-by-moment need and if we are cognoscenti of WHO can hold and carry us and encourage us through our need we are the most lucky and blessed individuals on the planet. 

“You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.” 1 John 4:4

And it becomes overwhelmingly clear we can’t have this unless we give our life to the son- Jesus Christ, who is God’s most greatest gift of love.

 ^“This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.  This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.  If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God.  And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.  This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. We love because he first loved us” 1 John 4:9-19

As I was writing the early parts of these pages a song came on.  I don’t think this was by accident.  Here are the lyrics to “You are my Vision”

You are my vision, O King of my heart
Nothing else satisfies, only You Lord
You are my best thought by day or by night
Waking or sleeping, Your presence my light

You are my wisdom, You are my true word
I ever with You, and You with me Lord
You're my great Father, and I'm Your true son
You dwell inside me, together we're one

You are my battle-shield, sword for the fight
You are my dignity, You're my delight
You're my soul's shelter and You're my high tower
Come raise me heavenward, O power of my power

I don't want riches or man's empty praise
You're my inheritance, now and always
You and You only, the first in my heart
High king of Heaven, my treasure You are

High king of Heaven, when victory's won
May I reach Heaven's joy, O bright Heaven's Son
Heart of my own heart, whatever befall
Still be my vision, O ruler of all

 

Jesus said, “But the time is coming and is already here when true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth.  The Father is looking for anyone who will worship him that way.  For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in Spirit and truth.” John 4:23