Breaking Ranks 2

 

…. God says, “Do not be afraid, for I have ransomed you.  I have called you by name; you are Mine. When you go through the deep waters, I will be with you.” Isaiah 43:1-2

I was reminded of a passage written by the prophet Ezekiel.  A man (probably Jesus) showed Ezekiel water that was coming up from beneath the threshold of the temple.  The stream passed to the right of the alter and went though the south side of the east gate. The man measured the stream every 1750 feet.  He did this four times and each time told Ezekiel to cross the stream.  The first time it was up to Ezekiel’s ankles.  The second time it was up to his knees.  The third time it was up to his waist and the fourth time the stream had turned into a river that was too deep to cross without swimming.  The man led Ezekiel back along the riverbank and to Ezekiel’s surprise there were suddenly fruit trees growing on both sides of the river producing a new fruit crop every month.  This fruit was for food and the leaves from these trees for healing (Revelation 22). The river then flowed into the desert where it entered the Dead Sea where it turned the salt water into fresh water.  Fish of every kind abound there and fishermen would stand along the opposite of shores drying their nets but the marshes and swamps did not become purified but became sources for salt.  (Note Ezekiel 47:1-12)

What a WONDROUS illustration this should be to us….

Combined God’s word and Spirit (the stream/river) is the source of power and life for His temple (us).  His Word and Holy Spirit purify and flow from within, maturing, sanctifying and clothing us.

1 Corinthians 3:16 says “Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in your midst?”

His Spirit brings an understanding of His GREAT love until we are literally swimming in it (Ephesians 3:17-20, 2 Peter 1:5-8).  God’s Spirit goes where? The desert.  He sought me out in the desert.  He brought me life and he planted me along the riverbank (Psalm 1) where we produce the fruit of the Spirit and gifts of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23, 1 Corinthians 12:4-11).

His Spirit brings life to where there was nothing.  He touches people of every kind and leaves us examples of what happens when we don’t trust God, try to control, are not obedient to HIM and look to and practice sin -hence the salt marshes and swamps where nothing lives and death remains.

God is the God who makes all things new.  His thoughts are higher then our thoughts and His ways are higher then our ways. (Isaiah 55:8-9, Revelation 21:5)

Without God’s Spirit at work within us, we are naked. 

Jesus said to the Laodicea church, “I know all the things you do, that you are neither hot nor cold.  I wish you were one or the other!  But since you are like lukewarm water, I will spit you out of my mouth!  You say, ‘I am rich.  I have everything I want. I don’t need a thing!’ And you don’t realize that you are wretched and miserable, and poor and blind and naked.”  Revelation 3:15-17

 

We have no relationship with God if we don’t have the Spirit of God at work within us... Remember the foolish brides/virgins in Matthew 25?

 

A people, who experience spiritual death and spiritual birth/LIFE, should break ranks.  They should want to experience renewal and LIFE and not settle.  Remember God speaking to the dry bones in the valley and giving them tendons and them with flesh and skin and breath again? (Ezekiel 37:1-14) 

Does God Challenge You? 4

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BORN AGAIN?

Before I was saved, I believed there was a God and I believed there was a Jesus Christ…   We celebrated Jesus’ birthday on Christmas and his resurrection at Easter but just because I took in the material benefits of those holidays and believe there was a God and there was a Jesus Christ didn’t mean I was saved. I mean… even Satan, the Devil, the old serpent and his demons know there is a God and a Jesus Christ.     

So what does “born-again” mean?

Jesus replied, “I assure you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit. Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life. So don’t be surprised when I say, ‘You must be born again.' The wind blows wherever it wants. Just as you can hear the wind but can’t tell where it comes from or where it is going, so you can’t explain how people are born of the Spirit.” John 3:5-8

"Born-Again"... means you have “trusted in” and “believe in” Jesus Christ as your LORD and Savior.  You have given Him your life, and He in return has given you "His" Spirit (Holy Spirit) who enlightens your understanding.  God's Spirit transforms your life as you learn to live/abide by the Holy Spirit and word of God- The Holy Bible.

 

A "Born-again" Christian does not continue to "practice, exercise, habitually or regularly do the sinful things they used to do.  Are they perfect?  No!... They make mistakes and they have to fight the lustful ways of the flesh and the solicitations of evil by God who is Spirit and the word of God. 

“The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you--they are full of the Spirit and life.” John 6:63

^"Then he said to me, 'This is what the Lord says to Zerubbabel: It is not by force nor by strength, but by my Spirit', says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies."  Zechariah 4:6

No one is perfect that is why we all need Jesus Christ as our LORD and Savior.  The born-again Christian forgets at times to depend on God and succumbs to outside pressures and falls into sin.  The unbeliever needs Jesus just as all do to be saved and transformed.  A "born-again" believer wants to please God with their life and the unbeliever doesn’t want to please God but themselves. 

Ezekiel 36:26-27   "And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart. And I will put my Spirit in you so that you will follow my decrees and be careful to obey my regulations."

The born-again Christian wants nothing to come between them and God so often even in challenges, revealed by God, a believer will go to God for clarification, understanding, and strength. 

The born-again Christian knows a guilty conscious wreaks havoc on the soul….  so they will quickly and humbly repent before God and other believers.

“Holding fast to faith (that leaning of the entire human personality on God in absolute trust and confidence) and having a good (clear) conscience. By rejecting and thrusting from them [their conscience], some individuals have made shipwreck of their faith.” 1 Timothy 1:19 AMP

CONTINUING TO BE CHALLENGED

As a born-again believer- I am not repulsed by those who speak in tongues.  A specialized word from the LORD given to the congregation is pretty regular… I am not uncomfortable when fellow believers raise their hands in worship.  Anointing oil and the laying of hands on people is pretty common. It is not unusually to see people dance in service.  "Slain" in the Spirit, laughter in the Spirit, drunk in the Spirit- isn’t commonplace but I have seen it and experienced it. - Yes and this is coming from one who was once a skeptic.  

I think as a Christian, it is important to ask God to direct you according to His Word when you are spiritually challenged.  For we know God, who is Spirit, is living spiritual truth… and that TRUTH inspired the scripture in the bible. 

“All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right.” 2 Timothy 3:16

God can often challenge us to show we can’t put Him in a box of our own understanding- no matter how big or small the box maybe.   And sometimes I think God shows us new things so we will have a conversation with Him.  He loves us and he doesn’t want us to limit all he can be in our lives

GOD - THE LIFE CHANGER. Pt 2

The SPIRITUAL CREATION in CHRIST

Religion is of man BUT faith in Jesus Christ has to be birthed by GOD.

JESUS said “The truth is, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit.  Humans can reproduce only human life but the Holy Spirit gives new life from heaven.  So don’t be surprised at my statement that you must be born again.  Just as you can hear the wind but can’t tell where it comes from or where it is going, so you can’t explain how people are born of the Spirit.” John 3:5-8

“And I will give you a new heart with new and right desires, and I will put a new spirit in you.  I will take out your stony heart of sin and give you a new obedient heart.” Ezekiel 36:26

For no born-again Christian, really understood what faith in Jesus Christ meant until the Spirit of God transformed them.  For once we lived and understood as the world lives and understands but when God touched us a new WAY of understanding was birthed.  It is an understanding that is hidden to all men until they submit their lives to God/ Jesus Christ. 

Birthed by the Spirit of God, we no longer find encouragement and nourishment in the world as we once did.   Those things died to us and became strangely dim to us when Christ came into our life and we began to abide in HIM.  

In fact when we put our eyes on the world and try to find encouragement and worth or meaning in the world we quickly lose peace become disillusioned and discouraged because our soul’s can no longer "feed" on what the “worldly system” provides.

JESUS said, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” Matthew 4:4

A man does not truly live until the words of GOD come alive in HIM.   God gives power to His words.   A man may use God's words but no power is given to them unless the Spirit fills them.  God speaks and encourages His people through HIS Spirit.   He gives understanding where there was no understanding before and deeper understanding to build upon understanding he has already given.

GENESIS 1 said GOD made the heavens and the earth.  He spoke them into exist.  From out of nothing he made them.  This is no different then our FAITH.  It is a mystery is it not… “Just as you can hear the wind but can’t tell where it comes from or where it is going, so you can’t explain how people are born of the Spirit.”   

God formed us in our mother's womb.  Doctors still find this a wonder of how this takes place- how this choreography of cells divide and come together.  Oddly some doctors kill what they find a wonder in a woman’s womb when it's LIFE made in the image of GOD. 

ROMANS 1:20-21 states.  GOD is our CREATOR.   Without God none of us would be here today.  WHO do people instinctively pray to when they are in trouble?  Is it not GOD?  Why do those who don't even praise Him or worship Him do this?  God gave us a measure of knowing “of” God – that we might perhaps come to HIM to be saved and the "knowing of" would become FAITH of “knowing” HIM.    

A FAITH that we did not even know existed or could possess came into us.  Where we are filled with the fullness of God. (EPHESIANS 3:19)  Our faith was not birthed by any know how or understanding of man- all we did was give GOD our life and GOD awesomely and mercifully answered back.

Our soul has been awakened to the truth of God   A DOOR out of the darkness was graciously OPENED to US.  It was like HE was always there… we could see traces of the things he had done in our life but do to PRIDEFUL ignorance and understandings and worldly desires we always separated ourselves from HIM. 

In a sense we have been made aware of the "matrix" that holds people captive to the lusts and empty cares of this life.   Satan and his demons (who I have already told are real), hate ALL humanity.  It doesn't matter if you are Christian and not....  If God created you then he hates you for you are the likeness of GOD.

“So God created people in his own image; God patterned them after himself; male and female he created them.  God blessed them and told them, ‘Multiply and fill the earth and subdue it.  Be masters over the fish and birds and all the animals.’” GENESIS 1:27-28

Satan, the poor loser, defeated by GOD now goes after the GOD’s chosen creation to get back at GOD.   He subtly and shrewdly went after Adam and Eve.  And since he has blinded people of this world with the corrupt understanding that has been passed down from Adam and Eve.  Satan and his minion puppet, manipulate and entice the human race.  

Ever see someone use the exact right words to figuratively rip someone's heart out or hinder them?  Who do you think gave them those precise words? That is why the scriptures say, "For we do not fight flesh and blood but against the evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against those mighty powers of darkness who rule this world, and against wicked spirits in the heavenly realms?" EPHESIANS 6:12.

Satan doesn't just want to keep his existence secretive but wants to keep his schemes as well.   Satan, knowing his DOOMED fate wants to take as many souls with him to hell.  He doesn't want people to come out of the dark cloud of haze or wake up and hear about JESUS!

EPHESIANS 5:13 says: “But when the light shines on them, it becomes clear how evil these things are.  And where your light shines, it will expose their evil deeds.  This is why it is said, ‘Awake, O sleeper, rise up from the dead, and Christ will give you light.’”

People of this world are feed death not knowing it is death in which they drink and enjoy.

But those who have been awakened and changed by the Spirit of God can now only spiritually feed on the things of God.  Our spiritual make up has changed and can no longer serve this fallen and perverse world without doing harm to our souls.

Some may say we have become narrow minded in our conservative views but if our narrow mindedness comes from God what does that say about the rest of the world?  If we are submitted to will of God where does that leave the rest of the world?

Remember Noah and his family?  They seemed to be the minority in how they lived and believed until God flooded the earth with his judgment.  Who was being narrow minded then? 

“It was by faith that Noah built an ark to save his family from the flood.  He obeyed God, who warned him about something that had never happened before.  By his faith he condemned the rest of the world and was made right in the sight of God.” HEBREWS 11:7

The circumstances that were to happen seemed impossible yet Noah built an ark by FAITH.

We are told in Matthew 24:37-42 that our faith will have the same affect as Noah's faith when the impossible happens and JESUS comes to take us HOME.

"As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.  For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away.   That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man,  Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left.  Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.  Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come."

God’s ways are not the world’s ways.   God does not share the same lens as the liberal, compromising, perverse world wears in fact GOD has PERFECT vision.

GOD says, "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.  For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.:  ISAIAH 55:8-9

GOD- THE LIFE CHANGER. Pt. 1

FAITH

While reading Deuteronomy 6... I could not help but see what FAITH does in GOD.  It is a very different landscape and new world with God.   It is an indeed a very “unexpected” journey.  Though once part of "this" world we now become like foreigners and nomads living and sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ with our fellow man while we look forward to the time when we can finally fall asleep and the angels lift us out of these bodies and we go to our rightful HOME... that is if we are not taken up or ruptured first.

 

TO SEE JESUS... the one when we think about -brings all good things to our soul.   Though HIS smile, I have only seen in visions and dreams , it instantly lifts and lights my burden soul.  How wonderful this affect is on the soul - I do wonder how much more wonderful it will be when there is nothing separating us from HIM.  

Like a child who loves the embrace of a parent or relative, I look forward to JESUS' embrace.    To hear his laugh and hear the voice that called everything into being.  Can you imagine? We will hold the very hands that made and formed us and even took the punishment for us.    

John 1:3 says: “God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him.”

GOD the FATHER thought it, JESUS spoke it, and the Spirit created it.

 

Can you imagine the hands lifted in such JOY and PRAISE!  Hands raised in golden rain that soaks and saturates our smiling faces (I do not how this will be because I have only seen glimpses of this in vision.) I look forward to be without fail in his continual presence where no fleshly hindrances interrupt - for full surrender is that what will be lived in heaven of every moment of eternity.   The peace and energy that will encompass us.  It will be beyond comprehension.  

We gave nothing compared to GOD who gave everything to become personal with us.  We gave ourselves and GOD gave us HIMSELF which is everything!   

Now we draw water from cisterns we did not dig and eat from vineyards and olive trees we did not plant.   The Spirit gives us living water and we are anointed and baptized in HIS Spirit.  The LORD has broken the chains of our slavery and rescued us from Hell.  We have opportunities everyday to stop from our basic cluttered thinking and start afresh- abiding in His SPIRIT of GOD who is richly stocks us with unlimited goods and resources to encourage and relieve us from our load.   Where we receive understandings and spiritual food we did not produce or thinking up on our own.  He is the one who becomes our guide of the day- organizing the tasks at hand and we often don’t thank GOD for doing such thing- and for this I am sorry for not recognizing the efforts you have put forth for me. 

By GOD’s patient teaching, we realize LIFE is about trusting GOD with holy surrender and reverence knowing in doing so he blesses and preserves our soul.

Religion does not do this for how could it if GOD is absent and it only preserves the traditions of man.  Religion is acting.  Religion is left to it's own unsatisfying devices; it is absent of the assurances, hopes and leadership of GOD. 

GOD is the GOD of FAITH not RELIGION.

Faith is finding GOD is GOOD and FULL OF MERCY.   FAITH is KNOWING GOD is SPIRIT and HE ALONE renews the SOUL and makes us RIGHT with HIMSELF.       

RELIGION can use God’s name or not use God’s name and even those who claim to have no religion have the religion of their own understanding.  Religious people like to crawl into the seat, which is rightfully GOD’s.  They are like kings and rulers who kill their predecessor so they can be ruler but GOD cannot be killed and no one can sit on HIS throne but HIM. 

    

RELIGION is dependent upon all the accomplishments and deeds of the USER and excludes GOD from being SOLE SAVIOR.   

JESUS said: “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing.  The words I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.” JOHN 6:63

JESUS speaking of himself said: “There is no judgment awaiting those who trust him.  But those who do not trust him have already been judged for not believing in the only Son of God.  Their judgment is based on this fact: The light from heaven came into the world, but they loved the darkness more than light, for their actions were evil.  They hate the light because they want to sin in the darkness.  They stay away from the light for fear their sins will be exposed and they will be punished.  But those who do what is right come to the light gladly, so everyone can see they are doing what God wants.” JOHN 3:18-21

  

Religions may seem wise in appearance because they require strong devotion, pious self-denial and even serve bodily discipline but they provide no help in godly maturity and conquering a person's evil desires. (Note Colossians 2:23).  Religion is blind to the path of GOD's grace and prevents others from experiencing the transforming power of JESUS CHRIST.  

ASK any Christian; if they were not saved by some religious rule of man.  Did they break free of some stronghold on their own?  Of course not....  They were saved by GOD who birthed them into the realization of Himself/ JESUS CHRIST.   

"Born-again" Christian?

Jesus replied, “I assure you, unless you are born again, you can never see the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit. Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives new life from heaven.”

“Born again” Christian, I had always thought that was an “odd” term before I became one.

Ever try to play games such as Chinese checkers, chess, Cribbage or Mancala without knowing the directions? Ever try to build one of those Lego models without instructions? How about painting a picture of a landscape without knowing the basic principles of perspective, dimension, scale, and color?

Those things would be difficult to do and even harder to appreciate without some kind of knowledge or direction.

That was what it was like before I was a "born again" Christian. I couldn’t appreciate, behave, act or live out a Christian life because had not received the Holy Spirit from heaven. Before I was “born again” I saw Christianity as a religion even though I considered myself Christian. And I only regarded myself Christian because I attended “Christian” churches as a child and believed in God not Buddha, Muhammad or some other god.

I knew some bible stories but the stories didn’t make this collective cohesion that made total sense. I would also try to read the bible but it either didn’t bring much meaning or didn’t stick. Church services… I might as well been wearing earplugs.
It was like I had this great treasure map but the “X” to mark the spot to change my life was invisible.

You could have told me that Jesus is the “X” on the treasure map but it would had made no difference. I would have been blind and deaf to the fact that Jesus was the “X”.

Christianity didn’t start make sense until I was “born again”.

Just as Ananias placed his hands on Saul and he received the Holy Spirit I too had received the Holy Spirit when a woman, a total stranger, prayed and placed her hand on me when I went to church as a courtesy to some family moving out of state . (ACTS 9:17) A new spirit had come within me. Figuratively the Holy Spirit had turned on the lights.

The Holy Spirit let me see the things of God and the importance of the role of Jesus Christ in our lives. He let the words and messages from the bible and our pastor make sense as I soaked them up like a sponge. A tender heart that was receptive to what God was showing and teaching me had replaced the stony heart. In short not only was my blindness and deafness healed but I had been given new life.

The love of the Father God and Jesus had birthed me a new spiritual life by the Holy Spirit.

Isaiah 35:5 “And when he comes, he will open the eyes of the blind and unstop the ears of the deaf.”

Ezekiel 11:19 “And I will give them singleness of heart and put a new spirit within them. I take away their hearts of stone and give them tender hearts instead, so they will obey my laws and regulation. They will truly be my people, and I will be their God.”