ContinuedOur coming to the living God who, unbeknownst to us, was to become our Father was a simple, but miraculous response to His initiative. Everything from that point forward would have been most wonderful had we continued to listen to His spirit wanting to make known to us Who it was who had become our Life (Jesus speaking of the Holy Sprit’s agenda, ‘He will reveal and glorify me’).
We chose to do what we did. Unless the Holy Spirit has been permitted to reveal to us that the enemy of our soul is still resident within our flesh, we were and are still clueless. This in no way diminishes the perfect and finished work of the cross, which did not, by the way, proclaim “Jesus in, Satan out!”
Food for thought here: nowhere in scripture is there mentioned anything about man having a ‘human nature’. I personally believe that the two trees in the garden spoke of a reality pertaining to a nature humankind could choose to have: one was death (the knowledge of good and evil); the other was Life, as represented by the Tree of Life. The soul of man was meant to be governed by someone, ergo, the choice of the trees. Who are we going to serve?
Despite the fact that our spirit has been reborn, our soul has not. Clearly, life and death issues are paramount in our continued walk with the Lord. ”The mind set upon the spirit is life; the mind set upon the flesh is death.” It is in this area of our lives we are most blind and ignorant. Although saved, we do not yet grasp that the enemy of our soul still beckons to us from his hidden position within our flesh. He appeals to our soul, trying to dazzle and beguile us through the mind, will and emotions.
Genesis 3:5-7 5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.
7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.
I am learning to love the apparent contradictions and paradoxes that keep popping up in scripture. For example, the above scriptures refer to eyes being opened, but the results did not benefit humankind. This one-time eye-opening experience spelled death for man.
Yet in Ephesians 1:17-18, it says,
17 For I always pray to] the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, that He may grant you a spirit of wisdom and revelation [of insight into mysteries and secrets] in the [deep and intimate] knowledge of Him,
18 By having the eyes of your heart flooded with light, so that you can know and understand the hope to which He has called you, and how rich is His glorious inheritance in the saints (His set-apart ones),
This continuous eye-opening experience spells Life, in that we see Him as our only Life. Many would think that this is a one-time event, rather than a journey of learning to trust in the Lord with all of our heart, and not leaning unto our own understanding. Oh, the glory that beckons us, as the Spirit of Truth has access into opening the eyes of our heart more and more!
Everything outside of Christ is religion, and the father of it all is Satan.
It’s amusing when one mentions ‘religion’. Those within the institutional church agree, yes it’s ‘out there’, but they do not see it existing within the confines of their doctrines. A co-mingled gospel, i.e. ‘another gospel’, results from mixing anything, such as performance or works, with God’s 100% grace.
”Don’t let the world squeeze you into its mold, but be transformed by the continuous renewing of your mind.
”Being renewed in the spirit of our mind frees us from the matrix of religion.
Rich
Ephesians 5:13-14
13 But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, 14 for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says,
"Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead,and Christ will shine on you."
Is it the Sandman or one of his cohorts who has put so many to sleep within the institutional church? Not asleep towards religious activities, but asleep towards the Lord - alive in their spirit, but fast asleep in their soul.
John Eldridge in “The Sacred Romance” writes (and this quote is like smelling salts right up the nostrils):
”We tell ourselves that this small, passionate voice is an intruder who has gained entry because we have not been diligent enough in practising our religion. Our pastor seems to agree with this assessment and exhorts us from the pulpit to be more faithful. We try to silence the voice with outward activity, redoubling our efforts at Christian service. We join a small group and read a book on establishing a more effective prayer life. We train to be part of a church evangelism team. We tell ourselves that the malaise of spirit we feel even as we step up our religious activity is a sign of spiritual immaturity and we scold our heart for its lack of fervor.
Sometimes later, the voice in our heart dares to speak to us again, more insistently this time. Listen to me—there is something missing in all this. You long to be in a love affair, an adventure. You were made for something more. You know it.When the young prophet Samuel heard the voice of God calling to him in the night, he had the counsel from his priestly mentor, Eli, to tell him how to respond. Even so, it took them three times to realize it was God calling. Rather than ignoring the voice, or rebuking it, Samuel finally listened.In our modern, pragmatic world we often have no such mentor, so we do not understand it is God speaking to us in our heart. Having so long been out of touch with our deepest longing, we fail to recognize the voice and the One who is calling to us through it. Frustrated by our heart’s continuing sabotage of a dutiful Christian life, some of us silence the voice by locking our heart away in the attic, feeding it only bread and water of duty and obligation until it is almost dead, the voice now small and weak. But sometimes in the night, when our defences are down, we still hear it call to us, oh so faintly—a distant whisper. Come morning, the new day’s activities scream for our attention, the sound of the cry is gone, and we congratulate ourselves on finally overcoming the flesh.”
”For what shall we do when we wake one day to find we have lost touch with our heart and with it the very refuge where God’s presence resides.”
”This longing is the most powerful part of any personality. It fuels our search for meaning, for wholeness, for a sense of being truly alive. However we may describe this deep desire, it is the most important thing about us, our heart of hearts, the passion of our life. And that voice that calls to us in this place is none other than the voice of God.
We cannot hear this voice if we have lost touch with our heart.”
To be continued…
Rich
Proverbs 29:18, (Amp), Where there is no vision (no redemptive revelation of God), the people perish.
In this battle we are in, we are either being tempted to ‘lose heart’, or we’re ‘being dazzled’ by the enemy of our soul. Either way, to give in to him, is to lose. This ongoing unfolding revelation of ‘Christ in us the hope of glory’ is not a static position. In Him we live, move and have our being.
The saving of our spirit was an event, but the outworking of our salvation within our soul is a process, a glorious journey. The notion that somehow, in the miracle of being re-birthed, our soul was also instantly transformed is as ludicrous as straining at gnats and swallowing camels.
If the scripture is true (‘Jesus the same, yesterday, today and forever’), why is there an enticement to long after something other than Him?
I love reading and seeing how the Father expressed the one life of His Son in and through our early brothers and sisters in the church, but instead of worshipping Him, we begin to worship that ‘expression’ of Him operating in and through others.Is he not bigger than that limited expression? I mean the whole thing of communal living and its many spin-offs is most commendable, but who He is has not changed.Without the eyes of our heart being constantly opened to the unfolding revelation of the Christ in us, it is very easy to view Him being somewhere out there, kind of like Fox Mulder on the X-Files: ‘The truth is out there.’
I remember when my wife discovered she was pregnant (with our first child) and not just sick with the flu as she had thought. Talk about a revelation! I don’t think it is stretching things too far, using the illustration of our family Doctor clearly detecting the real cause of my wife’s situation, than it is with God the Father, through the Holy Spirit, clearly defining what has and is happening in us since being re-birthed.
The present need to see Him and know Him in the now of our moment is going to be life or death for us. Paul asked, ‘Who has bewitched (bedazzled) you?’ (and of course he was addressing stupid pagan gentiles right? I don’t think so!). ’O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified.’
Is there really much difference between us and the prodigal son famished eating pig food, refusing to listen to the Holy Spirit? Rather than feasting upon the hidden manna we have in Him, in our blindness and hunger, we imbibe in another gospel than only intensifies the leanness of soul.Rich
I had left "church", but didn't know why. I just knew I was sick of all the crap I saw and was a victim of.
"What could be done to fix all the problems we saw?" "How could things flow as smoothly as we saw in the New Testament?" "How come we can't get back to the new testament model of church?"
I'm not sure the word 'victim' fits in, in light of the many repeated warnings that are given, about not giving heed to 'another' gospel!
It is not about ‘blame,’ it has nothing to do with the IC (institutional church) or its man made leadership.
Was Adam/Eve, victims? Or, was it a choice they made with their eyes wide open so to speak?!
Was He not speaking, warning us in our journey? 'In the day you hear the voice of the Lord, harden not your hearts.'
How could any of us come to see the Truth in the person of the living Christ apart from being brought to see that 'we choose' a path that seemed right in our own eyes, but that path lead away from knowing Him, into a place of becoming very religious, which resulted in, having a form of godliness, but having no power.
It is of my opinion that until we come to not only seeing the reality of Christ in us the hope of Glory along with, It is no longer I that lives, but Christ, tempered with the knowing, (revelation) although re-birthed, us still having Satan in our flesh, it will continue to be the blame game.
Hey you wouldn't hit a person wearing their victim glasses would you?
Another gospel that bites us on the ass is this one. "How could things flow as smoothly as we saw in the New Testament?" "How come we can't get back to the New Testament model of church?"
Without a continuously growing revelation of Him being our only Life, (he that is joined to the Lord is one spirit) we gravitate towards models, types, shadows.
If in fact He IS the same yesterday, today, and forever, why are we looking to anything other than to Him today??? 'Today is the day of salvation.'
Most of churcianity is consumed with an external Jesus...reach out and touch the Lord as he passes by...or if He would only step down from heaven, then surely the gates of hell would fall. Or take me past the brazen alter into the Holy of Holies etc, etc.
What crap! Apart from being deceived, why do we insist on having a shadowy relationship with the Lord?
2 Corinthians 11: 1
I wish you would bear with me in a little foolishness. Do bear with me! 2 I feel a divine jealousy for you, for I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ. 3 But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. 4 For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough. 5 I consider that I am not in the least inferior to these super-apostles. 6 Even if I am unskilled in speaking, I am not so in knowledge; indeed, in every way we have made this plain to you in all things.
Rather than turning our eyes upon Jesus, we look to the past or the future, why, because He is seemingly nowhere to be found in the now of our daily living.Is it possible along with our other brothers and sisters we also need,
Ephesians 1
15 For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, 16 I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, 17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, 18 having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe,
Rich
I will sing of the mercies of the Lord for ever: with my mouth I will make known your faithfulness to all generations.
The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, His mercies never come to and end,They are new every morning, new every morning,Great is your faithfulness to me, oh Lord, great is your faithfulness to me.
I am so over come in how the Lord continues to reveal the greatness of his heart for me. I so delight in how His spirit is confirming to my heart the Truth of Christ in me the Hope of Glory. It has been most thrilling the reading I have been doing of late.I am just finishing the book, The Journey of Desire by John Eldridge. In it on page 199, he makes a reference to a story he laid out in the previous pages about how a village in Mexico had been subjected to a plague of insomnia, and how it seeped into every day living.He goes on to say under the heading of,
Our Worst Enemy
The first time I read this story I simply laughed. But it haunted me, and on a second reading I began to realize that it’s my story too. I said to myself, it’s not a bad plan. Right above my bed I think I shall hang a sign that says, God Exists. You see, I wake most mornings an unbeliever. It seems that during the night, I slip into forgetfulness, and by the time the new day comes, I am lost. The deep and precious truths that God has brought to me over the years and even yesterday seem a thousand miles away. It doesn’t happen every morning, but enough to make it an ongoing reality. And I know I am not alone in this.”
Later on page 200, he continues; Forgetting is no small problem. Of all the enemies our hearts must face, this may be the worst because it is insidious.Forgetfulness does not come against us like an enemy in full battle formation, banners waving. Nor does it come temptingly, seductively, like the lady in red. It works slowly, commonly, unnoticed. Forgetfulness, it can so easily cut us off from our Life, so slowly, we barely notice, until one day the blooms of our faith are suddenly gone.”
I love this quote from Deut. 4:9 Only take care, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. Make them known to your children and your children's children--Later on Paul is appalled, (Gal.1:6) I am shocked that you are turning away so soon from God, who in his love and mercy called you to share the eternal life he gives through Christ. You are already following a different way.
He has to send Timothy to the Corinthians to “remind you of what I teach about Christ Jesus in all the churches wherever I go” (1Cor.4:17)
Peter, who knew firsthand the grief that comes from forgetting, writes his letters to combat this cancer of the soul:1Pet.5:10And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.
2Pet.1:11-13
for in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you.12 Therefore, I will always be ready to remind you of these things, even though you already know them, and have been established in the truth which is present with you.13 I consider it right, as long as I am in this earthly dwelling, to stir you up by way of reminder,
People tie strings to their fingers to offset forgetfulness.God told the Jews to bind what He told them to their foreheads. Some of them took him literally and what exists today is hilarious in their antics.I need it strapped right there in front of me, every single day.
God Exists!
Rich
What options do I have? Let’s see, there’s the ‘right way, and the wrong way.’I guess that math would work except for the G Word~God, and oh yeah, His WAY!Is it any wonder that God in the person of the Christ seems to have vanished? (move over Houdini) But this disappearing act seems to plague most ‘Christians’, what’s that all about?This is a great article that I believe addresses much of the malady believer’s face today.
http://www.christ-life.org/LIS-Mag/LIS300.pdfHas God Disappeared Part 2Rich
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