An excerpt from a article my friend Art Licursi wrote.A New Moral Consciousness for Man
By Receiving the Light of Christ’s Life
Rich
http://www.angelfire.com/al4/artlicursi
Mankind Deluded
That first deluded choice was made by Adam and Eve, although it was not totally deliberate on their part, as was Lucifer’s choice. Lucifer’s choice established him as false deity with his self-for-self nature. Adam’s choice placed mankind within Lucifer’s grasp. By this, Lucifer could and did infect Adam and Eve with his false-self, joined to their soul-selves. Lucifer is "that (evil) spirit who works in us the children of disobedience." Eph. 2:1-3. Man was the one 2 Cor. 4:4 In whom the god of this world (the Devil) hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
By now I hope you can see that all humans are born under a delusion, thinking of our selves as being self-acting persons, when in actual fact we are expressing another life and nature. We are "driven" to express the nature of an indwelling spirit who is "working" within us. This delusion is the huge lie that prevents Christians from enjoying the life and power of the indwelling Christ as their life with rest in their souls. When we were sinners we thought it was "just us." There never was a "just us." It was formerly "Sin" as us, and now, now being regenerated, it is "Christ" as us.
The Sin-spirit himself – the Devil, was the first to occupy man’s being, and he is at work in all "the children of disobedience". Therefore, the plain and simple outcome is that, through the fall, mankind became spontaneous expressers of Lucifer’s self-for-self nature ("in sin did my mother conceive me" Psalm 51:5), yet at the same time we are deluded into thinking it is just we who are failing and having a hard time trying to be like Jesus of Nazareth. The truth is that we are not to be "like" Jesus; we Christians have Christ alive in us, desiring to live His life through us as the new us.
No Longer I
Paul ultimately saw through this delusion saying Romans 7:17 Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. Paul saw that an indwelling nature, Sin, had usurped mankind and him. Yet, Paul also came to see the remedy that is the Christian’s via the cross. The remedy is ours when we see Christ’s death as our death to our "old man" (Rom 6:6-7), and receive His indwelling life and nature as our new life and nature in place of that old, fallen nature of Sin. Gal 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. This is man made alive by Christ, just as God purposed in Christ Jesus.
Now when they heard this, they were cut to the quick, and they {began} gnashing their teeth at him. Act 7:55 But being full of the Holy Spirit, he gazed intently into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God; Act 7:56 and he said, "Behold, I see the heavens opened up and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God." Act 7:57 But they cried out with a loud voice, and covered their ears and rushed at him with one impulse. Act 7:58 When they had driven him out of the city, they {began} stoning {him;} and the witnesses laid aside their robes at the feet of a young man named Saul. Act 7:59 They went on stoning Stephen as he called on {the Lord} and said, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!" Act 7:60 Then falling on his knees, he cried out with a loud voice, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them!" Having said this, he fell asleep.
I love how the foolishness of God is greater than all of man's wisdom, and how the weakness of God is greater than all of man's strength. How much of this life we now have in Christ Jesus is assumed to be either ours in a fixed auto-pilot setting, or it happens by osmosis.
So many have assumed wrongly that this arresting of Saul of Tarsus was done without human agency, but I beg to to differ.
Wasn't it Jesus himself that said a very similar thing in his closing moments on the cross..Father forgive them for they know what they do.
Stephen..Lord do not hold this sin against them--those about to kill him.
A door opened up in Christ Jesus through laying his life down that had been closed since the fall in the garden..salvation for whomsoever.
Stephen laying down his life, opened a door for all that were there that day, but for whatever reason, the only one I can see that was affected-infected by this was Saul.
Why is it that we can not grasp the fact the Father is more than capable of making known His heart to us?
For conversation sake, is it remotely possible that the Lord spoke to Stephen's heart and maybe to others about this murder of the church called Saul?
Maybe it was never meant to be a showy thing at all. Those sensing Father's heart in this case for Saul, simply lifted this man up to the only one capable of reaching a very closed heart?
Maybe there was no need to recruit others to pray for this one Father wanted to meet. Perhaps the Damascus Road encounter with the Living God was a natural out working of something the Father had worked into the lives of those not willing to cling to self, willing to loose their lives in order to truly find them
How did they overcome the wicked one, by the blood of the Lamb, by the word of their testimony and not clinging to their lives.
Maybe there is a militancy in this Life of the Father that few ever get to experience. No greater love has any man than being willing to lay down their life for another.
Except a grain of wheat fall into the earth and die, it abides alone, but if it dies, it will produce a rich and lasting harvest.
Even a blind man can count the seeds in an apple, but only our Father can count the orchards in one Seed.
Maybe the church (the family gathering) Jesus is forming is truly unobtrusive (invisible) as far as anyone wanting to be seen for who they are or what they can do.
Maybe we are to live as His works of art reflecting His glory, with no attempt to solicit anyone to join our denomination, flavour or group.
So live as His works of art, that men may see your Heavenly Father!!
Rich
Paul in addressing the believers of his day warned them of the Judaizers, those wanting to mix law with grace.
What is the current name for our Judaizers?
Did Jesus warn his own of just a little bit of leaven (of the Pharisees) as in, Our pastor preaches mostly grace with only a tiny but of law?
How much Law does it take to make null and void His grace? I think Paul said, it's either all Law or it's all Grace.
But Richard, there is no perfect 'church'. No, but His grace is!
Rich
Values Education
Character Building
Character Education
To me, all the above are nothing more than a smoke screen for the age-old scam – Satan’s diabolical scheme to convince us that we don’t need God.
(By our own self-effort, we can manage just fine, thank you. Satan, the god of this evil world, has blinded the minds of those who don't believe, so they are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News that is shining upon them. They don't understand the message we preach about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God).
‘Values Education’ would have us focus on improving our self-esteem, our self-worth, self-respect, self-image, etc. Hmmmm…I seem to detect a common thread here: SELF! Contrary to what God says, we are NOT flawed beyond repair. We were NOT ‘born in sin and shaped in iniquity’. We were born good! All we have to do is work on our bad points. We do NOT have to depend upon God because we have it all within our own grasp. By our own self-effort, we can BE LIKE GOD.
My wife often sees what she is doing as a junior and senior kindergarten teacher as merely civilizing them (aging from three and a half to five) and setting up with what she is permitted to do to help them navigate through life.
According to someone, God was supposedly removed from the class room, funny how He is still very much there in the lives of so many teachers, simply being Jesus to whomever.
I find it interesting the wording Paul uses in the New Testament, Ephesians 2:3, ‘By nature we were children of wrath.’
My perception on the whole garden scene was allowing Adam a choice represented by the two trees. Each tree represented a nature, why?Is it possible that man (all those in Adam) were created without a nature? Man was going to be governed or ruled by a nature, God or Satan.
(I love the song by Bob Dylan, ‘You’ve got to serve somebody.’)In choosing to disobey God, man, in eating of the wrong tree then became at that moment one now possessing a nature of a father, but sadly, the nature of one whom Jesus called, ‘the father of lies.’
Sadly in my opinion what we have mistakenly adopted and adapted to is an erroneous name given to our nature as being human.Maybe what happened was the prince of this fallen world Satan himself became cloaked in a stealth mode totally invading man disguised as human nature?
I think it is a pretty normal thing for anyone who has ever had to go to the hospital to have an x-ray taken, and seen the results come back showing clearly what was not seen by the naked eye.Is that what happened for instance when Jesus said, ‘You are of your father the Devil?’
The heart surgeon specialist Jesus, seeing and revealing clearly what in fact was mans true nature, not human but indwelt by Satan himself.This robber, killer, destroyer and liar was being exposed for who he was, and consequently caused a vicious attack by those Jesus addressed as having Satan as their father.
These people that came apart at the seems in hearing Jesus calling them sons of the devil were in fact religious and outwardly good, nice, fine upstanding folk, but don’t look inside, you won’t like what you see. (Pay no attention to that liar cloaked in human flesh)All have sinned and fallen from His glorious purpose, there are none that seek Him-none!
I see Satan being the master architect of all religion and although it wasn’t clearly being presented this way to Adam and Eve in the garden, Satan desired, craved to be worshiped.
There has been birthed within us a whole army of coping tricks (props) and man has become successful in learning and applying them to his living in this world, but at his core apart from the rebirthing there is the illusion of grandeur and superiority of some flesh being better than others.
Flesh is and always will be only flesh Jesus said. In His partaking of and becoming flesh, maybe by experience He discovered that apart from the nature of the Father within him, he could not do anything of himself as he continually reminded us.
It is this very subject I long to see in greater clarity and will share as further light is given to me.
Our enemy Satan has been stripped of his power over our lives, which is all part of the Message of life and hope freely given to us in Christ Jesus, but, there is still a cloaked hidden enemy within our and all flesh. It is the progressive and continued working of grace being applied to our souls that continues to free us from Satan’s influence.The spirit of this world (age) has one intention, to conform us, to shape us from within our souls as if we were play dough and the father of lies Satan displaying an expression of humanity that has become its own god.
Maybe Paul clearly saw through the smoke and mirrors of deception, when he said, ‘Don't be naive. There are difficult times ahead. As the end approaches, people are going to be self-absorbed, money-hungry, self-promoting, stuck-up, profane, contemptuous of parents, crude, coarse, dog-eat-dog, unbending, slanderers, impulsively wild, savage, cynical, treacherous, ruthless, bloated windbags, addicted to lust, and allergic to God. They'll make a show of religion, but behind the scenes they're animals. Stay clear of these people.’
I hope to continue on this theme as I am further directed.
Rich
What Our Cheers Might Reveal
http://www.lifestream.org/blog/
That may be why so many people who have seen through the bondages of religious systems have yet to find great freedom and life beyond it. It is easy to cheer for the destruction of things that have hurt us. I get emails like that all the time, cheering on things I’ve written about the ineffectiveness of religion. Some of those I know who call out the loudest for the destruction of organized religion as we know it are sometimes the least transformed personally to reflect the compassion and character of God to people around them—especially to those still captive in the system.
Interestingly, I do not get the same cheers back from people when I talk about letting God rework us from the inside and what needs to die in us if we’re going to experience the fullness of his life. If we could only see that our pride and independence are even more destructive, especially because they live with us every day. Real transformation doesn’t happen out there in structures and systems, but first in those who are willing to let him transform them at the most broken places of their lives.
And if you’re not ready for that, then you’re just really not sure yet how much this awesome God loves you. Keep exploring that until finally your joy at his dealing with your pride is greater than your hope at him blowing up religion. Then we’ll know we are well on the path to his life!
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I loved this piece Wayne Jacobson posted on his blog, it reminds me of Pogo-“We have met the enemy…and he is us”.
Jesus, the same yesterday today and forever!The Lord seems to be persistently getting into our faces and asking His probing question, “Who do you say that I Am?”
What the Lord is doing in this hour we’re living in can not be confined by our trite limited band wagon tripe, we sport about with, the next move of God etc, what a crock of crap.In Him we Live, move and be!!!!
He is alive in us now, but without the one-on-one working of the Holy Spirit making known to us His life in us, and our very much obscure and secret identity, we will end up being much ado about nothing.
I have no idea how what I am sharing here ties in with what Wayne shared on his blog, and I’m not overly concerned about it, but I will try and continue to think out loud here.
Kings and Kingdoms will all pass away, but there’s just something about that name-JESUS!
It is most curious to see how many might be saying now that they’re out of the box-outside the camp-outside of the institutional church that they are experiencing great freedom. And yes there is freedom, but His name is Jesus, not something, but somebody.
I speak as one that is now living outside of the building-place-meeting mentality, but to say that all and any pride or arrogance that was displayed in my life was because of the institution or its leaders is crap.
The insidious nature of Satan working through any form of substitutes (anti-Christ) is that which causes us to see how clean we can appear on the outside, while missing out on the Life of his Son being formed within.
The longing within my heart is to co-operate with His grace, to continually be transformed for any and all to take notice of the living God my Father very much alive in Richard as Richard.
Rich
I was listening, to a current pod cast this weekend and the person sharing said something to this affect, he was not naturally predisposed toward ever being depressed, and in fact he had a most hope filled out look on life.
Well no harm in that, but! What does a person say with a similar (sunny-perky-spunky) disposition to somebody not dealt the same hand? In other words those struggling with not having a ‘hope filled outlook’ or whatever, they need His grace, but the others don’t?Maybe all of the scripture quoting is nothing more than empty words to someone under the gun in the thick of what they battle on a daily basis. Meaning, the ones not prone to ever being depressed see no need for the grace of God in that area of their lives. Why, because they see no defect within this aspect of their disposition.
I think someone once said, the good is the enemy of the best.
It is so comforting to me having the authoritative and final word on this subject clearly made manifest by Jesus. That which is of the flesh is flesh.
The father of lies persuades Christians (actually humanity) into believing that there is good flesh and bad flesh. A mentality that sees the life of God simply being a add on to their almost sufficient capabilities.
To the degree we do not see the utter depravity (having Satan within our flesh) of our fallen condition, we think just because we are a half full kind of optimistic person we have what it takes to cut the mustard of the nasty now in now stuff we will face. Maybe this is part of what Paul means here, ‘I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness comes by rule keeping, (resorting to fleshly means) then Christ is dead in vain.’
Our ability to boast is not because of any fleshly predispositions we have in the flesh, or out of any of the remnants of the first Adam.As one brother put it, no matter what stock you came from, it all collided at the cross.
If we’re going to boast, it will be in Him, the One who said, ‘It is finished!’
I wonder in light of my musings here about the story of Job, maybe he was one of those good ole boys that was naturally inclined (a predisposition) to being able through fleshly abilities to stay abreast with life’s upheavals.
Maintaining our spiritual equilibrium has nothing to do with being positive vs negative.
It is amazing to see sooner or later how the Lord knows what buttons have to be pressed in our lives to reveal the utter illusion of us being in control or being able to stay positive or optimistic, no matter how great we thought our genes might be.
Perhaps in the reality of the warfare we are involved in like Job, there is a discovery coming into play in our lives that nothing within our human disposition is capable to handle life’s unfolding.
Maybe this infusion of His life was meant to be the source of our finding total fulfillment, (in Him we live, move and discover our purpose) but as long as we believe the lie that we can handle things, we settle for a form of godliness, at the expense of being filled with dead men’s bones.
It is most natural to be drawn to upbeat out going charismatic personality types, but to confuse this with His Life is a sad mistake.If all it takes is, ‘Don’t worry, be happy’ then what need was there for the sinless Son of God to die as a criminal in our place?Maybe it is the self-righteous flesh in our lives that ensnares us into thinking we know what grace is, but in fact we have no understanding of it at all?
1 Corinthians 2:3-5 (The Message)
3-5 I was unsure of how to go about this, and felt totally inadequate—I was scared to death, if you want the truth of it—and so nothing I said could have impressed you or anyone else. But the Message came through anyway. God's Spirit and God's power did it, which made it clear that your life of faith is a response to God's power, not to some fancy mental or emotional footwork by me or anyone else.
Rich
In Galatians 2:20 it says, I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
I see this being all part of the chief corner stone our brother Peter talks about in his letters, a very tongue and grove connecting with what Paul is saying here.
I wonder as I wonder in this journey with Father, is it a thing of, ‘I’m trying to trust you Lord, or Lord, I’m trusting you, or, wow, He is teaching me to trust Him?’
Maybe the truth is as follows, and I do not see this simply being semantics but the difference between being ‘like vs as’.
If in fact we’re living by His faith, then maybe it is, Lord you are my trust! Maybe it is God the Holy Spirit wanting to reveal (make known) the Trust Worthy One??
I do not see this simply being a matter of using the right-correct words vs the wrong ones, but much more to the point of it being a growing revelation of my All in All now present Lord and Elder Brother Jesus Christ. The trust worthy One.
Perhaps this could save me from trying to arrive at this place-destination of trust-trusting? Maybe it is meant to be a journey whereby I can grow in the true knowledge of Him, the trust worthy one?
I simply want to know the Truth, not opinions, not even mine-why? Jesus said if you continue to follow me, you will know the Truth, and the Truth will set you free!! Free from what I ask? Maybe a whole lot of lies still based upon exerting our fleshly efforts to be ‘like’ Him.
Rich
What do I treasure, who is my treasure?
Where your treasure is, so will your heart be, said Jesus.
I was reading from Oswald Chambers this morning... “He led every one of them to the place where their hearts were broken.”
http://www.heartlight.org/cgi-shl/my_utmost/utm.cgiThis ties in with some things stirred up within me after listening to the latest pod cast at the God Journey, ‘Expectations That Ruin The Journey’… http://www.thegodjourney.com/wordpress/index.phpAnother thought here is this, He said he came not to bring peace but a sword, and yet He is the Prince of Peace.My take on this is, anything not rooted, founded established in Him the Prince of Peace will experience the cutting power of the Word that is sharper than any two edged sword (lazar) separating between the soul-flesh and the spirit.
The prophet said to Mary, and a sword will pierce even your own soul--to the end that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.
A good friend of mine has shared with me how he sees the Father breaking in upon the lies that have kept him ensnared in his journey.It goes something like this, Son, I’m thrilled that you love me, but the ME that you love isn’t really me!
Is it possible to be in love with loving feelings etc., Or in love with our expectations? How many were ultimately offended in the Father’s Son’s performance?Maybe this has a lot to do with us as well.Maybe this whole thing of Him coming to us so that we might experience Life in its abundance just isn’t measuring up or out to what we expected.
Many see it this way; I have come that your Hollywood dreams and caviar wishes can be fulfilled.
I have come that you might have an abundance of great and pleasant circumstances and situations.
Is our Life in the Son, plus other things, or did he say-He that has the Son has Life. Period!!!
Maybe that is why we too will be led to a place where our hearts are broken because of motives and expectations that do not line up with His purposes? After all, He is the heart specialist.
PS
For any that read here at my blog, I want to share this disclaimer.I feel there is much I want to say-share on my blog, but I so struggle with using correct grammar-punctuation.My wife whom I treasure and love madly is an English major, but I get so frustrated in my seeming language handicap of waiting for her to bail me out that I have not written anything on my blog for some time now. This isn’t her problem but mine.I refuse to allow this to bring me into a petrified condition, I will trust Him to be the One that will speak His heart through however polished or not what I share here at, and then Life happened!
Rich
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