Establish Your Hearts.

James 5:8 “You also, be patient.  Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.”

I find in this day and age, people aren’t as patient as they used to be.  They want things the day after they order them from a website.  They want their shows to be nicely wrapped up by the end of the episode.  They want a quick fix to their problems.  

People are offered a pill to solve their problem but does it? (Have you heard or read some of the side affects to some of these medications that can result in death?  They are often worse then the problem itself.)  And does it solve the problem or just mask the symptoms or issues? 

(Not much good to say about many of man's quick fixes as the mind goes to things like abortion and death at convenience.)

Patience is difficult.  It is also difficult in the most difficult of circumstances.  
 
When we don’t avail ourselves to God we don’t have patience.  When we think we should be the one in control, we don’t have patience. When things aren’t going the way we think they should go, what happens?  Many destructive and sad things happen when we try to control.  True in the bible and true now.

Do we really have control?

The word of God says that Spirit of God (The Holy Spirit) gives us self-control/self-restraint.  He is given to those who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.  He is to help us from wandering into the busy unsafe highways of lust, fear, depression, anxiety, hopelessness, worry, frustration, and doubt.

He establishes our heart.  He feeds the heart of what it needs most. He prepares our heart.  He encourages our heart.  He gives our heart hope.  He gives our heart boldness and strength yet humility.  He gives our heart the ability live in the satisfying will of Himself… IF we just avail ourselves to Him.

  

The issue is… we as people of Adam and Eve are accustomed to availing ourselves to us and our understanding, not to Him/God.  God says not to depend on our own understanding because often it leads to harm and hurt to us and others.

We each have been given a will and it is our choice to trust God or not.  God’s word says he has put a measure of faith of Himself in each one of us to see and know He exists.  God knows what is going on in our hearts and what is happening in our days.  Like flipping the pages of a small book with his fingers, He has seen our so brief life.  He also knows our eternity and our choice to trust in His Son, Jesus Christ, as our Savior or not.

The baby that was born of a virgin on Christmas morning will be returning as King for those who have surrendered their heart to Him (Jesus Christ).  Some have and will scoff at this and the bible speaks of people who will scoff at this.  BUT what matters more then the temporary scoffing, which will mean nothing in the complexity of eternity, is that our heart is established for His coming?

 

If this truth doesn’t warm our heart but unsettles our heart think why?

If our heart is unsettled maybe a reason is because we haven’t surrendered or completely surrendered our heart to Jesus (the reason for Christ-mas) who lives and establishes our heart with this comforting reality that He is coming back for us.

Our relationship with God is suppose to be daily- (for me it needs to be an hourly thing… I need it.)  But in journaling, reading His word, listening and conversing with Him, God settles and confirms our heart.  As we avail ourselves to Him, God avails Himself to us.  

True. This takes time. Time not to be filled with just ourselves and our own schedule but time with God.  For we must remember this time in which we live is all we got.  There is no more and we really don't know how much we do have.  But time with God is worth every little bit to our soul.  And I am a bit amazed when He expands on what was previously thought already expanded upon.  And how what was so dry and crusty before can become a refreshing piece of food for my soul.    

 For the Word of God says, “For in Him we live and move and have our being.”

This experience we call “life” (this type of school, this type children’s camp, this type of hotel or boot camp) will soon be over, as we know it.  Jesus will be loading up the “spiritual buses” and taking us home… a home He has created for those who have trusted and believed in Him.

Some of you know this but let the "knowing"… remain in the living knowing of the heart not just the mind -for what comes out of the heart will also come out of our words and actions.  Amen.

Again, in love… “You also, be patient.  Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.”

 

Prospering the Soul

Everyone wants to prosper his or her soul.  They purchase things to try to prosper their soul, they travel to try to prosper their soul, they make personal connections with others, they eat things to try to prosper their soul, exercise, practice religions and/or precepts, work hard accumulating successes and even drink, do drugs and party - thinking they will somehow prosper their soul.  And though some of these are good things, they will never satisfy the yearning soul.  What they thought would satisfy soon lacks it’s “luster” and they are once again looking for something or someone else to satisfy their soul. 

Strangely they avoid or skip and/or neglect the very "One" that is suppose to prosper their soul.    

David wrote,

“The LORD is my shepherd; I lack nothing.” (Psalm 23:1 NIV)

Wow! What a thought! Lacking nothing…

WHERE THE LACK BEGAN

Before Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, they “lacked nothing”… except maybe clothing. :) 
Their souls were “satisfied”.  And in them was this empowering glory of light that prospered their soul.

Their soul prospered in the things of God.  Gratitude, serenity, peace, love, hope, wisdom, mercy, grace, and goodness super-naturally manifested in their life.

BUT once they ate the forbidden fruit we notice right away a sudden spiritual deficiency. (Genesis 3)  Contempt, fear, anxiety, pride, anger, blame, rudeness filled their mouths as they brought forth of what now suddenly polluted and filled their hearts.  The music of their souls was suddenly darkened by sin.  The strong internal compass that once pointed due north to God’s love was now malfunctioning.  What spiritually protected their souls was stripped from them.  Sin was then free to taint their thoughts and reality.  This sickness and disease did not just affect them but their offspring… us.

They not only have to leave their home, the Garden of Eden because of disobeying God, but in a big sense lost their spiritual home as well to their soul.  The good pleasant sustaining reality they had lived in was now gone.   

We are all born with this spiritual deficiency.  Our reality is skewed…  We lack the very ONE who prospers and satisfies the soul.  We are born with this immense need for the reality of God’s love. 

In short, God created us to be reliant on Him and without Him... the soul is certain not only to not prosper but spiritually deteriorate. 

Think for minute ... How many times have we tried to control, fix, and deliver ourselves by "our means only to end up serving things and dark emotions instead of being delivered from the those things by God.  We make things and emotions gods over our soul then turning to THE DELIVER of our soul.

We get hurt by someone so we turned to revenge, anger, and hate.   We wanted to stop being addicted to one substance so we exchange it for another substance.  We get on antidepressants to cover up our symptoms depression never dealing with the root reason(s) for why we are depressed... and the list goes on and on and on....   

JESUS IS THE ANSWER

 BUT HERE is the good news …

The Word of God says, Jesus himself took our infirmities and carried away our diseases. (Note Matthew 8:17)

Through faith in Jesus Christ we can walk in what Adam and Eve lost.  We can be cured from the curse of Adam and Eve.

Jesus came not only to save us from hell but also to deliver us from the mindset of bondage....

The word of God says, "WHEN HE (Jesus) ASCENDED ON HIGH, HE LED CAPTIVE A HOST OF CAPTIVES, AND HE GAVE GIFTS TO MEN." Ephesians 4:8

Jesus said, “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill and to destroy.  I have come that they may have life, and they may have it more abundantly. I am the good shepherd.  The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” John 10:10-11

We can grow and mature (prosper) in the “knowing” of God’s love. We can know where our spiritual home is for our soul that leads the our heart and mind.  That is something Adam and Eve lost.
 

 It’s only in surrendering our life to Jesus Christ, can God take down the blinding and deafening deficiency in our life and we can partake in the prospering unlimited goodness God wants and intends to enrich and clothe our soul.
  

Often limited and trapped by our own understanding, God tells us not to depend on our own understanding but seek Him and reverence Him above all things and he will give us health and vitality.  (Proverbs 3:5-8)

THE HEART AND SPIRIT
Spiritual health and vitality (the capacity to mature and endure) are vital in our soul prospering and they are also dependent upon the condition of heart and spirit in which a person lives.
    

In the book of Ezekiel, God says,

If we stop looking to “things/idols” to prosper the soul and turn and give our life to Him, He will put a new spirit within us and take away the undiscerning heart of stone and give us a tender heart instead.  He will give us a heart that receives and acknowledges and feels the good prosperous things of God in our life.

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

And one of my personal favorites:

        "God blesses those whose hearts are pure for they will see God." Matthew 5:8
 
God is the only one who can make our heart pure, we obviously can't.  When we have this transformed heart and God’s spirit living in us, our soul should not only prosper but God’s goodness and glory should be seen in our life.

“His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.” 2 Peter 1:3

KNOWLEDGE
Man has a lot of knowledge but the type of knowledge I am talking about is “LIVING” personal knowledge that God has put in each believer in Christ Jesus.  It isn’t something we have learned by rote but knowledge that dwells in the soul of the believer.  It’s “personal” knowledge that God, is at work in our life.   This living knowledge not only prospers our soul but also enables us to persevere in the challenges of this life.

John writes: “Beloved, I pray you prosper concerning all things and be in good health, just as your soul prospers.” 3 John 1:2

HEALTH
There is that word “health” again.   This word “health” in the concordance means:

Health of the “soul”: to be sound, to be well, to be in good health

1.     Christians who opinions are free from any mixture of error (like our understanding and erroneous doctrine.)

2.     Christians who keep the graces and are strong in faith (caused by a dependence and trust in God.) 
 

What emanates from us when we trust in things and/or ourselves and not God?  What happens when those things fail?  What emanates from us when we trust God and trust in what God’s word says?

PERSEVERANCE

James writes, “Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” James 1:4

Perseverance doesn’t happen by itself.  It needs us to draw close and surrender to God, so God can empower our daily lives.  

Our plans maybe to accomplish a great many things but what does it matter if our soul doesn’t prosper in God?  I mean… one day we are going to have to leave behind all our worldly ventures and accomplishments… what then?  Did we take the time to know God? Did we give your life to God? Have Him become the patron of our soul?  If not then God isn’t our God at all and our soul really has what… nothing?  What a waste.  God gave us free will to trust HIM or not.  The choice is ours but God does have plans for us if we only turn to HIM.

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11

God is the one who prospers us as an individual, a husband and wife, a family, a church and the entire body of Christ. 

HE doesn't want us to live lacking.... 
 

So the question is, are you going to allow God to prosper your soul?    Do you want to see God work in your life?  Do you want to see and know God?  Did you want to live beyond how you are living now with peace, hope, love, grace, joy, maturing in faith, wisdom and mercy?  Then what is stopping you?  

Take that step and give your life to Jesus Christ.  It will be the first of many greatest steps in allowing God to prosper your soul. 

If you are feeling the Holy Spirit drawing you with this message- it is your opportunity right now.  Don't waste anymore of your precious time.

Call on Jesus with your own sincere words and heart.  Tell Him the truth- if you are scared or uncertain, tell him that.  He won't mind.  It's not like He doesn't know already.  I remember feeling if I gave my life to the Lord I would no longer have any control over my life.  I thought I would be like some kind of puppet.  But that was not at all true but a lie from the pit of hell to keep me stuck and pinned down and keep my soul from prospering.   The plain fact is- do you have any real control over today or tomorrow?  No.  So why not give your life to God who can empower and prosper your soul with HIS love.  

Jesus said. "Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For My yoke is easy and My burden is light." Matthew 11:29-30

Take some time now... and if God is speaking to you, give your life to him and receive the prosperity your soul as been looking for in Jesus Christ. 
 
God Bless

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

Saved From All Things Mortal Part 3

It is difficult for us to even imagine the original mindset God gave Adam and Eve because of the familiarity of the former mindset and daily exposure of this world.

  

Maybe this might help.  I don’t know the inspiration of the Vulcan species in the fictional universe of Star Trek but imagine being a Vulcan in the world of humans.  Vulcans strive to live by reason and logic with no emphasis on the emotional or fleshly desire.  How would you perceive human understanding and logic if you were a Vulcan?   What would a Vulcan base “human” logic upon?  They might not even see “human” logic as even logical because of where the logic comes from. 
 

Some still confused and manipulated and pulled by the opinions of the world might construe that this inherited knowledge from Adam and Eve as “sound” but what kind of wisdom is that?  Is it wisdom to take the word of man over the word of God? You want to place your life in a man’s hand or God’s hand?  Which one gives you eternal life?  Which one returns to the earth as dust?

The body was never designed to be the source of guidance and leading of one’s life.  If the body had been, God would have designed the body to use the knowledge of good and evil in a “productive” manner and not how it immediately became and has become… perverse in every way.

In taking the sentiment from J.R.R. Tolkien about the ring and I translate it to the flesh.

“Understand, my friend. I would use the flesh from a desire to do good… but through me, it would wield a power too great and terrible to imagine.”

The knowledge of good and evil within humanity has turned everything upside down and sideways.   Take just the simple desired principle of love in this day and age.  How does the world define love? Is love defined the same way God defines love?
 

God defines love as this: “Love is patient and kind, not jealous, boastful or proud or rude.  Love does not demand its own way.  Love is not irritable and it keeps no record of when it has been wronged.  It is never glad about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out.  Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful and endures through every circumstance.” 1 Corinthians 13:4-7

How does the world define love?  Is it in those things listed?  Do people expect those things from others but not the other way around to give?  Do they really believe in commitment? Is love just a friendship with benefits?  Does love include in sickness?  Does love include “poorer”?   Does it include loss? Does it continually bring up the past? Does it keep score? Is it jealous and untrustworthy?  Does it compete and compare? Is it selfish/self serving? Is love just when it’s convenient? Is love for the selected few or everyone?  Is love based only on physical pleasure?  Is love materialistic?  Is love conditional? 
     

Feet solely standing on “the knowledge of good and evil in the human understanding has brought a great deal of irrational thinking into this world and even the church.  False teachers are popping up all over the place.  It has brought a lot of devastation to souls and loss into the world.  The pile of irrational thinking is so immense it has become a tower and monument of the foolishness of man.  A great pile of litter to be burned.  AND the further things go in this world of corrupt thinking the more foolishness and dangerous and hostile to the things of God. 

It comes down to this truth.  God was always to be the one guiding and directing the human vessel.   

Proverbs 3:5-6 says:
“Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.”

Romans says, “When they refused to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their evil minds and let them do things that should never be done.  Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, fighting, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip.  They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful.  They are forever inventing new ways of sinning and are disobedient to their parents.  They refuse to understand, break their promises, and are heartless and unforgiving.  They are fully aware of God’s death penalty for those who do these things, yet they go right ahead and do them anyway.  And worst yet, they encourage others to do them, too.” (1:28-32)

The soul controlled and yoked by flesh is condemned because the works of the flesh end in death/hell. The soul controlled and yoked by the flesh seeks to be commended by the temporal things of this life not by God.

Romans 5:18-19
“Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation of all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people.  For just as through disobedience of one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.”

Adam and Eve brought death to the human race but Jesus brought life and eternal life in heaven for those who choose to trust in Him.  They are made righteous by Jesus’ obedience to the God Father.   Jesus, Alpha and Omega-the beginning and end, makes right what Adam made wrong.  Jesus is a life-giving Spirit.(1 Corinthians 15:45)

Romans 8:5-8 
“Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.”

I find life is a journey that one wishes had constant puppet strings tied to the fingers of God.  I find as a Christian, when one doesn’t abide in the Spirit of Christ, the flesh goes right off to war. 

Galatians 5:17-18
“The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions. But when you are directed by the Spirit, you are not under obligation to the law.”

The heart, if not transfixed on God, goes digging like some undisciplined bloodhound under gravestones we had purposefully stayed away from.   It puts its nose where it doesn’t belong. It digs up the past.  It comes back and accuses us of intentions we hadn’t thought of.  It brings us burdens in which we were never meant to carry.  It even tries to persuade us to sit on prideful thoughts like a fool.  The flesh loves to crown us in our circumstances, failures and shortcomings and have its court jester point and make fun.  Thank God he took what had been harden, stubborn, foolish, and arrogant and changes it into something we might call “good”. Thank God he uses what is imperfect to show it’s not us… but Him.  Thank God he is greater then our hearts.

“For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God.” 1 John 3:20-21

And I suspect we all fall into using candlelight instead of what our house is now wired to as Christians.  We all see dimly at times forgetting we have a source of sight within us that is better then what our eyes can comprehend, see and perceive.  We let the eyes haze and drape shadowy themes over the soul… we let the ears play uninspiring soundtracks into our day -yes, the Spirit is willing but the body is weak. 
 

I have never honestly thought of it this way, but the Spirit showed me that when we are not guided/directed by the Holy Spirit -the sinful nature of the flesh/body goes after the changed Christian heart (Ezekiel 11:19).  It’s like a person who has had an organ transplant and has to take anti rejection medication so the organ isn’t rejected but in the Christian’s case the anti-rejection medication for the changed heart is the Spirit of Christ.  The Spirit of Christ keeps the changed heart empowered for it can no longer be empowered by the flesh or the things of this world but God Himself who has unlimited resources to inspire and build sole confidence in Him.