Our Thought Life.

Isaiah 26:3
You wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusts in thee.

Our emotions can be a red flag to let us know where our mind is and what or who we are trusting in. The Bible says that perfect peace comes to all those mind is stayed on God because they trust God.
If we are feeling depressed or angry or feeling condemned it might be because our thoughts and trust has shifted to a wrong place. If we are feeling fearful or anxious it might just be because our mind and our trust has shifted away from God and back to ourselves or to this seen temporal world.. Whoever or whatever we are putting our trust in will often determine where are thoughts are as well and if we want to stay in Gods unshakeable peace then our full trust and thoughts must be stayed upon God who is for you and absolutely not against you.                                                                                                                                                                                                                   Romans 8:31 what shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?

Now Jesus gives us some more clear instructions about our thought life and how we should direct it.

Matthew 6:31-33                                                                                                                                               

³¹ Therefore take no thought, saying, what shall we eat? Or, what shall we drink? Or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?

³² (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knows that ye have need of all these things.

³³ But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you

Now notice Jesus said take no thought saying… Did you know that you give power to your thoughts by saying them? And this can be good or bad thoughts but if we will learn how to take captive every thought and bring it into the obedience of Christ then we can walk in the peace and freedom that God has called us to walk in. For example when bad thoughts  come to your mind if you don’t say or speak those thoughts then you will not give power to  these thoughts  to produce any kind of fruit in your life.. What we need to get a hold of is that speaking or saying thoughts will give power to our thoughts to grow in our lives. Now of course If it’s a good thought like a thought about Gods word or a revelation of God’s word then you can give power to these thoughts as well by speaking these thoughts or sharing these thoughts with others. This is why God tells us to speak His word and even sing His word over and over as it will establish His word in our lives that in turn will produce good fruit.

What we speak always begins with a thought.

Now Bad thoughts are kind of like birds flying over your head. If you feed them then they will keep coming around and eventually make a nest in your head, but if you stop feeding them and instead shue them away they will quit coming around.

We own a coffee house on the beach where there are a lot of birds, especially pigeons and pigeons can be very annoying birds and what we have learned is that if we feed them they become even more annoying. They will keep coming around day after day and bring other pigeons with them. We also know that pigeons can make a mess everywhere they go. So we ask our customers to please not feed the pigeons because it does create a big messy problem.. So instead of feeding the pigeons I usually shue them away and guess what? The pigeons don’t come around as often this is how thoughts are.. We do of course want to feed the ones that we want to stay and not feed and shue away the ones we don’t want to stay.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Now that we have said that, remember when Jesus told us not to worry about tomorrow? Do we take him seriously about what He said? And shue those worry thoughts away or do we allow them to build a nest in our head? It is amazing to me how many Christians actually embrace worry. They even brag on the fact that they are just worry warts!, but Jesus told us not to worry or even think about tomorrow and  we will either believe this and know it’s for our good or we will ignore the word and continue to worry about tomorrow.

Its interesting to note that Jesus said take no thought five times! five is the number of grace. Jesus is telling us to look for Gods grace every day. We have grace for today so don’t worry about tomorrow!

Now our mind really is the battle ground and what we do with our thoughts will determine if we live in joy and victory or defeat and misery.

Wrong thoughts can cause us to become like the steel ball on a pin ball machine! Wrong thoughts will bounce us all over the place in an emotional mess but if we will learn to take our thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ and we learn to follow the Holy Spirit the result will be life and peace.

Romans 8:6 For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

What we need to learn today is that thoughts will come and go like birds flying over our heads but we do not have to feed every thought or give power to every thoughts by saying it or speaking it!

You have heard people say well you know I just speak what’s ever on my mind! And they act like that’s a good thing! It is not good to always speak what is on your mind that will cause a lot of unnecessary hardships to come into your life. Some thoughts you need to let die so they will not take root in your life and produce hardship.

We are told in scripture the things we should always think on and the things we should not think on. This is one reason we study and meditate on the word , it will cause us to think in the right way.

Philippians 4:8 whatever is true, whatever is worthy of reverence and is honorable and seemly, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely and lovable, whatever is kind and winsome and gracious, if there is any virtue and excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think on and weigh and take account of these things [fix your minds on them]

1 Corinthians 13:4

Love tells us how to think!

⁴ Love endures long and is patient and kind; love never is envious nor boils over with jealousy, is not boastful or vainglorious, does not display itself haughtily.

⁵ It is not conceited (arrogant and inflated with pride); it is not rude (unmannerly) and does not act unbecomingly. Love (God’s love in us) does not insist on its own rights or its own way, for it is not self-seeking; it is not touchy or fretful or resentful; it takes no account of the evil done to it [it pays no attention to a suffered wrong].

⁶ It does not rejoice at injustice and unrighteousness, but rejoices when right and truth prevail.

⁷ Love bears up under anything and everything that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of every person, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances, and it endures everything [without weakening]

⁸ Love never fails

If our thoughts line up with the love of God then we will remain free if they do not then we can find ourselves in bondage.

For example if we hold on to thoughts of resentment or of the wrongs that someone has done to us then it will cause an emotional up heavel in our lives. We can lose our sense of Joy and peace and instead walk in unnecessary pain and depression. Our thoughts must line up with Love for us to remain free.

Now I want to make mention of one vital point that is very critical to our thought life and it is found in.

2 Corinthians 10:4-5

 (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)

⁵ Casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;

Now we have often mis-interpreted this scripture by thinking it is saying that we should always be introspective always looking and checking to make sure that we are obeying the Lord but this is not what it is saying. Notice is says that we are to bring our every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, not our obedience but Christ’s obedience! If we will get a hold of this revelation it will set us free from condemnation and fear. We are not righteous today because of our obedience but because of Christ’s obedience and this is vital for us to know and set our thoughts on this, for if we do then the devil will lose his influence over our lives. Let’s look what the scripture says about the obedience of Christ.

Romans 5:19

For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.

Today we are righteous and remain righteous because of the obedience of Christ… Why is this important? Because when the devil comes around trying to get you to think about your obedience or have you done enough to please God today then you will always find an area that you have fallen short in and right away he brings condemnation, but as you walk in the right thinking that you are righteous today not because of what you do but because of what Christ has done then satan looses his authority over you. So when he comes with his voice of condemnation you tell him to talk to the nail scared hand because when Jesus said it is finished it is finished and there is now nothing left for me to do but to believe and give thanks for the obedience of Christ

The Spirit of Truth

 

John 14:17   The Spirit of Truth, Whom the world cannot receive (welcome, take to its heart), because it does not see Him or know and recognize Him. But you know and recognize Him, for He lives with you [constantly] and will be in you.

John 15:26 But when the Comforter (Counselor, Helper, Advocate, Intercessor, Strengthener, Standby) comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of Truth who comes (proceeds) from the Father, He [Himself] will testify regarding Me.

John 16:13 But when He, the Spirit of Truth (the Truth-giving Spirit) comes, He will guide you into all the Truth (the whole, full Truth). For He will not speak His own message [on His own authority]; but He will tell whatever He hears [from the Father; He will give the message that has been given to Him], and He will announce and declare to you the things that are to come [that will happen in the future]

As born again Christians the Holy Spirit resides in us and He is now our guide, teacher,  and gives us the wisdom and truth of God. Today  we are called to walk in newness of the Spirit. This means we must believe that He is in us and He is in us to direct our lives. The Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of truth.  In order to be led by the Spirit we must not be led in the way we use to be led and that is with our fleshly emotions, lusts, desires, thoughts, imaginations. As we are led by the Spirit of truth we will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. The key to victory over the flesh is not so much in our trying our best not to be led by the flesh but in learning how to be led by the Spirit of  truth that is in us. He is our internal GPS. He is the one who says turn left, turn right, slow down or stop. The Holy Spirit is kind of like our permanent driving instructor who is always right there with us. As we walk in the Spirit we will reap of the Spirit that is we will reap the fruit of the Spirit.. Also we do not need man to teach us we have the Holy Spirit in each of us. This does not mean that God does not use teachers because we know that He does, but wht God wants us to know is that each of us now has our own personal tutor and He is in us to continually give us revelation and the wisdom of God. We are called to know the Holy Spirit personally. We can wake up every morning and say good morning Holy Spirit I am ready to be led by you, to hear and listen, to be directed by your promptings.. This is the new law that we are under the law of the Spirit of life. Let’s look at what Romans says about this new way of Spirit living.

Romans 8:1-9

8 Therefore, [there is] now no condemnation (no adjudging guilty of wrong) for those who are in Christ Jesus, who live [and] walk not after the dictates of the flesh, but after the dictates of the Spirit.

² For the law of the Spirit of life [which is] in Christ Jesus [the law of our new being] has freed me from the law of sin and of death.

³ For God has done what the Law could not do, [its power] being weakened by the flesh the entire nature of man without the Holy Spirit]. Sending His own Son in the guise of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, [God] condemned sin in the flesh subdued, overcame, ^[deprived it of its power over all who accept that sacrifice],

⁴ So that the righteous and just requirement of the Law might be fully met in us who live and move not in the ways of the flesh but in the ways of the Spirit [our lives governed not by the standards and according to the dictates of the flesh, but controlled by the Holy Spirit].

⁵ For those who are according to the flesh and are controlled by its unholy desires set their minds on and pursue those things which gratify the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit and are controlled by the desires of the Spirit set their minds on and ^[e]seek those things which gratify the [Holy] Spirit.

⁶ Now the mind of the flesh [which is sense and reason without the Holy Spirit] is death [death that comprises all the miseries arising from sin, both here and hereafter]. But the mind of the [Holy] Spirit is life and [soul] peace [both now and forever].

⁷ [That is] because the mind of the flesh [with its carnal thoughts and purposes] is hostile to God, for it does not submit itself to God’s Law; indeed it cannot.

⁸ So then those who are living the life of the flesh [catering to the appetites and impulses of their carnal nature] cannot please or satisfy God, or be acceptable to Him.

⁹ But you are not living the life of the flesh, you are living the life of the Spirit, if the [Holy] Spirit of God [really] dwells within you [directs and controls you]. But if anyone does not possess the [Holy] Spirit of Christ, he is none of His [he does not belong to Christ, is not truly a child of God].

¹⁰ But if Christ lives in you, [then although] your [natural] body is dead by reason of sin and guilt, the spirit is alive because of [the] righteousness [that He imputes to you].

¹¹ And if the Spirit of Him Who raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you, [then] He Who raised up Christ Jesus from the dead will also restore to life your mortal (short-lived, perishable) bodies through His Spirit Who dwells in you.

¹² So then, brethren, we are debtors, but not to the flesh [we are not obligated to our carnal nature], to live [a life ruled by the standards set up by the dictates] of the flesh.

¹³ For if you live according to [the dictates of] the flesh, you will surely die. But if through the power of the [Holy] Spirit you are [habitually] putting to death (making extinct, deadening) the [evil] deeds prompted by the body, you shall [really and genuinely] live forever.

¹⁴ For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.

 

John 14:15-16  The Holy Spirit now abides in us. He lives in us.. In the Old Covenant He would come and visit but today through the new birth He came to live in us.. We must get a hold of this revelation that God is in us.. He is always with us and everywhere we go He goes. You may not always feel Him but He is always there in us. He has joined Himself with us.. He does not come and go like a flighty bird as religion has often taught. No! He is here to remain.

Verse 26  The comforter will bring all things to your remembrance.. We do not need to memorize things in our mind.. He will bring the word we need to our remembrance..

Our emotions will often cry out O God where are you? Please hear my cry and all the while God is saying if you will stop crying out O God hear my cry! And be still enough to listen then you will hear my voice. God is not on some distant planet. He is in us. We don’t have to scream at God but just be still and know He is always there

God inside Minded

Galatians 2:20

 I have been crucified with Christ [in Him I have shared His crucifixion]; it is no longer I who live, but Christ (the Messiah) lives in me; and the life I now live in the body I live by faith in (by adherence to and reliance on and complete trust in) the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself up for me

Philippians 2:13                                                                                                                                                                                                                  for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure

Most Christians walk around with God inside of them and are completely unaware that He is even there… It’s kind of like you’re walking around desperately trying to find your cell phone and then all of a sudden you realize you’re talking on the cell phone you’re looking for! Or you are frantically looking for your reading glasses and they are on your face!  The Apostle over and over mentions the truth about Christ being in us.. We don’t have to desperately look for Him.. He is always with us in fact He is as close as the mention of His name and In Him we live and move and have our being.

All Christians are wonderfully and uniquely made but all have Christians who have truly received Christ have one common denominator.. And that is God is above all through all and in all of us.

Ephesians 4:4-6   One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.

To Renew our minds means see and become aware of what has already been given to us in and through Christ.. And we  become so fully convinced of it that it transforms us from the inside out.     The Bible says that we  are transformed by the renewing of our minds to the truth of what God says about us.

We as Christians already have been give all that we will ever need in Christ.. We have His treasure in this earthen vessel but we need to know how to tap into this treasure and experience all that we have in Christ..

Now let me ask you a question what would be easier? to go home and eat a pie that already been made and cooked or to go home , roll out the dough and make one? Of course it would be much easier to just go home and eat a piece of pie. We need to understand and believe that God has already accomplished all that needed to be done through His son and now all we have to do is receive and enjoy it.

We must understand that man is a Spirit that possesses a soul and all this is in a body… When we were born again we were made new in our Spirit.. A new creation, a new species never created before. This according to 2 Corinthians 5:17-21 has already been done

God now lives in me that is in my Spirit. We must become God inside minded and we must believe this and confess this truth until we are fully aware of this truth.

We are not saying that we are God! We are saying that God has joined himself with us as to make us one Spirit with Him.

Most of the church is not aware of the fact that God lives in them. He is alive in their Spirit..

But this is as part of the gospel as much as Christ died for us! In fact Christ died for us so that He could then come and live His life in us and through us.. Galatians 2:20.

We must become God inside minded!. We do this through reading the scripture and then choosing to believe it! As we believe this truth then we will experience His resurrection power that is in us..

Today we need to manifest the power of His resurrection! We need to walk in and demonstrate the power of His resurrection! And of course this is not what the devil wants us to know..

Philemon 1:6   says as we acknowledge the good that’s already in us we will then manifest what is already on the inside out!

We as Christians must believe Gods word before we see it manifest in our lives! This is how Gods kingdom works. The world says I will believe it when I see it! But God says the very opposite! He says Believe it first and then you will see it.. All things are possible for those who will believe.

We as Christians must believe Gods word before we see it manifest in our lives! This is how Gods kingdom works. The world says I will believe it when I see it! But God says the very opposite! He says Believe it first and then you will see it.. All things are possible for those who will believe. As you believe that you are the righteousness of God in Christ then you will see His righteousness manifest in and through your life.. 2 Corinthians 5:17-2

We cannot see God in us but that does not change the fact that He is there and that He is in us! Have you ever seen your brain? Most haven’t but that does not change the fact that you do have one. Of course the way that some people act we wonder sometimes if they do have a brain, but that is a different subject but have you ever seen electricity? No!, Do you know how electricity works? No! But you do know when you flip the switch the lights are going to come unless of course you didn’t pay your bill..

Believing the truth of the gospel will in essence flip the switch back on in your life and you will experience the power of God once again in your life.

The law of Faith

Notes from Norman

Romans
By Norman P. Grubb

Paul talks about the word faith.  At the end of the third chapter, Paul speaks about the One Whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood.  By what Law, works?  Nay by the ‘Law of Faith.’  Therefore, this is a principle that will take some further explanation than Paul gives here.  In Chapter 4, he exemplifies what faith is against—our self effort, against our doing things by our own initiative, from relying upon our own deeds—works.  He illustrates that to us by the final great act of Abraham’s faith, when it said towards the end of Chapter 4, that we can understand faith by Abraham.  We also understand that it doesn’t depend on law because Moses came long after Abraham—400 years after.

So, Law wasn’t God’s Grace.  Law came to expose us, not to reveal Christ.  That is what we get wrong.  Law didn’t come to expose God.  That is why God didn’t give the Law.  It came by an angel.  It was outer form.  We had to find His character before we could find Him.  We were not prepared to find His character as Love.  It says love fulfills the law.  Paul had to show righteousness by saying what we should not do, such as, hate, murder, lie and so on.  He said we have to worship God, but that we had worshipped other gods.  We have to be called on it.  We have lied, we have hated, etc.  By the Law is the knowledge of sin. The real God of course, God Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, is the God of grace.  And, grace means free gift to the undeserving.  So, he is telling us in Romans the difference between works and faith.  This is the final danger as well as the final privilege of religion and high standards, that self is so subtle we find that we taken them upon ourselves.  We think we can justify ourselves because we are attached to certain church laws, certain commandments and so on.  There can still be the danger right among us Christians, as it was among the Jews, to take on certain forms, as if the forms meant something.

He exemplified faith as coming in this instance to Abraham physically at a time that was beyond physical possibility.  At the end of Rom. 4, God said to Abraham, “I’ll make you a father of many nations.”  “Quickened the dead and called those things which be not, as though they were.”  He said this to Abraham and Sarah when it was physically impossible for them to have a child, where it was impossible for physical fulfillment of this word that they might know.

“Now I have come to you, you are to have a son.”  So it says that this is given to us as a standard example of faith.  You may say it is a very extreme form and therefore it is extravagant to offer an extreme form.  It would be better to offer an example in a simpler form.  It says, when this word came to Abraham from God, “Against hope, he believed in hope that He might be the father of many nations.”  He wasn’t weakened in faith by considering his own condition.  That is the first step when you don’t consider your own condition, because that is hopeless.  Romans 4:19, “And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead when he was about a hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah’s womb.”  So faith’s first step is, “I’m not going to be influenced by my sight or my reason or my outer reaction.”  We say that it is hopeless, it is impossible.

Paul then says that faith moves on.  It will stretch in and will take an impossible promise and not stagger at it.  That is the next move in the spirit.  In a sense you are moving back from soul to spirit, with the soul, emotions, reason, it is impossible—with the body it is impossible.  Spirit can, which is in tune with God.  This is talking about Abraham.  His faith was in tune with God.  In his spirit he can take this promise of God which is ridiculous and not stagger at it because God says so, because he has the promise of God so he wouldn’t stagger.  So the Bible says, “He staggered not at the promise of God.”  Then it says faith had its consummation.  He was strong in faith when he gave God glory, when he said, “Okay, it is going to be.”  So faith had these phases.  He had rejected being controlled by the outer appearances when it was ridiculous.  It moved him into saying “God does the impossible and in this condition, in this situation where it is impossible to me, I am going to take it.”  So, he spoke the word of faith.  Being strong in faith giving glory to God, being fully persuaded that what He had promised He was able also to perform.  Because when there is that word of faith there comes the inner witness.  “He that believes has the witness in himself.”  And, we come to see, He will do it.  So that the link to word of faith and giving glory to God was the inner assurance, “That will come to pass.” Rom. 4:22, “Therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness.”

In other words what that meant was now he totally conformed himself to the promise of God.  He was totally delivered of any idea of self-reliance.  It was destroyed.  How can you relay on a body in that condition?  So, he relied totally on the promise of God, against his body condition, and against Sarah’s body condition.  That was what was imputed to him as righteousness, because he was confirming the righteousness of God, because when God said a thing, that is it.  Righteousness just means right.  God is right.  Paul then says that it was written as a standard example to us of what this faith is.  It means that we know this first stage of redemption comes about when we consider not our sins—like Abraham considered not his body.  It means that we have first of all admitted our sins and have now moved into repentance.  We have changed our minds and admitted our sins, and are guilty before God.  We are done for with all this wrath and judgment.  We move over to the presented fact of the shed blood of Jesus Christ and the resurrection which confirms that in that shed blood and resurrection all that should come to us through our sinful condition is out.  So, we stagger not at the promise of God then by the folly of faith, we praise God.

Getting Past the Past

Philippians  3:13-14

¹³ I do not consider, brethren, that I have captured and made it my own [yet]; but one thing I do [it is my one aspiration]: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead,

¹⁴ I press on toward the goal to win the [supreme and heavenly] prize to which God in Christ Jesus is calling us upward.

God does not want us to get stuck in our past failures whether they were failures  5 years ago or 5 seconds ago.. Romans 8:1 There is now  condemnation for those who are in Christ.. Now means right Now this present time and no means never , never, emphatically never is God condemning you so we should never condemn ourselves..

We cannot drive forward while looking in our rear view mirror.. Rip off the mirror of your past for your future is nothing but bright in Christ.

Knowing God’s Great Love for You

Do we know and believe the love that God has for us? God’s love is so strong there really is no human word that can ever adequately describe the Love that God has for us, so God demonstrated His love by giving His only begotten Son to come and die for us. Many believe that God sent His only son to just satisfy His justice. In other words God sent His Son and had him scourged and crucified, nailed to a cross just to appease His wrath and to satisfy His Judgment… and although the cross did satisfy the justice of God, this was not the main reason that God sent His son. The main reason God sent His son was because of His great love for us. God loves us and wants to spend eternity with us. He sent His Son to permanently secure us to Himself so that absolutely nothing would be able to separate us from God and His love  ever again. The Apostle Paul was persuaded by Gods great love for Him and God wants us to be fully persuaded as well

Romans 8:38-39

³⁸ For I am persuaded beyond doubt (am sure) that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities, nor things impending and threatening nor things to come, nor powers,

³⁹ Nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

As we realize Gods great love for us then it will cause every other unhealthy fear to be purged from our lives. It will cause us to become free to be all that God made us to be and to enter His Rest. Faith works by love and it’s not so much our love for God but faith works by believing the love that God has for us. Religion will try and get you to doubt Gods love for you. Religion will make you think that Gods love is conditional based on your performance. That is if you read your bible enough, pray enough, attend church enough, tithe enough and do enough good works then God will continue to love you but that is not true. God’s love is not based on your legalistic efforts or performance. God loves you for you.  In fact while you were a sinner God loved you and sent His only son to die for you . As we are convinced of God’s great love for us then we will be filled with all the fullness of God. As we know Gods love then all our motivation to read the Bible, Pray, Attend Church, Give and serve will not be to get God to Love us more or to maintain Gods Love for us but it’s because we know that we are  first unconditionally Loved by God. We keep Gods commandments and obey because we are loved by God and when we know that we are loved by God His commandments are not grievous.

God’s love has been shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit and God wants us to know His love for us so that in turn we are able to express His love to others and as we receive love and express His love then all the law is fulfilled in and through us. In this is Love not that we love God but that God first loved us and gave himself for us. Love begins with our knowing and receiving the Love that God has for you.

I John 4;10  This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation (the atoning sacrifice) for our sins

 

Do you know Life?

Do You Know Life?            by  Dan Stone

 

There are three truths that we have the right to know:  that our sins are removed from God’s sight; who and where the Life is; and who we are. According to 1 Corinthians 2:11, only the Spirit of God can give this “knowing” to us.  In spiritual matters, knowing comes by revelation.  To “know about” is a work of the intellect.  Even though we may accumulate a great amount of “know about,” or information, we will never know spiritual truth if the Spirit does not reveal it to us. When the Holy Spirit, or the Spirit of God, has done His work, we will know the things freely given to us by God (v. 12).  The Spirit reveals that the key to all three truths that we need to know is found in the Person who is imparted to us.  We do not earn something or some one; rather, it is a gift already given.  Mark it down—when one does not know he has the Life, he will seek to earn the Life, by gaining more information about it or by trying to deserve it. Knowledge is know-about.  But, in the unseen or eternal realm, knowing is spirit.  We are tempted to think that a direct positive relationship exists between the amount of know-about acquired about spiritual matters, and our ability to perform them.  Experience teaches the opposite.  The more the individual knows about spiritual matters, the more frustrating are the results.  A square peg will not fit a round hole.  That round hole is made for just one item—a round ball.  Jesus Christ is that round ball. Incredible as it may seem, it is the love of God to frustrate the “know-abouters in matters of the Spirit.  He never permits the square peg to fit the round hole.  He never stops us from trying to fit it either.  The attempt and the frustration are a part of most believers’ search.  The resulting frustration keeps us searching, for in the final analysis we are on a spiritual quest.  We think it is a cerebral one.  Consequently, when we come to our end, and are at our worst in the flesh, we are the nearest to hearing the Spirit of God.  He will say something like: “Jesus Christ is the Life; you will never become the Life.  Rest, let Him be what you have trying to become.” Put aside the concept of knowing spiritual matters via the mind.  Let the Spirit teach the spirit in you.  After all, it is His responsibility. I will take for granted that readers have experienced the first truth we need to know:  the forgiveness of our sins.  It is not a slighting of the question, but a recognition of a fact of the reader’s life. Now to the other two truths: “Who and where is the Life,” and “Who am I?”  Underscore this:  If I know where Christ is, I will know that the Life will look like my life. “I am the Life,” states John 11:25.  Who is this “I am” speaking?  It is Jesus.  What claim does He make?  He makes the claim to be the Life.  In the Scriptural context mentioned above, Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead by imparting life to that body.  Lazarus had no life and could do nothing to earn life.  Life is always imparted.  It is never earned. John 14:6-10 informs us that Jesus does not claim to be His own Life.  He says that the Father is His Life.  As the Father was His Life, Jesus is our Life. To Philip, Jesus said, “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father.”  Isn’t it possible that such a statement to Philip at this time was too much for him to comprehend?  Remember, when you know who the Life is and where the Life is, you will know that the Life looks like you.  Jesus is the speaker, but the words and works are of the Father.  Until the Spirit brings the revelation, it is more than Philip can handle.  “The only way you will see the Father, Philip, is to take a good look at me in faith believing,” Jesus might have said. Remember that Jesus told the disciples: “The Holy Spirit – He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you” (John 14:26).  Knowing the deep things of God awaits the work of the Spirit of God in the believer.  Jesus did not play the game of modern religion—that of trying to fabricate a life and then present it to the Father as an offering. Who is the Life in Paul’s writing?  We know Galatians 2:20:  “It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.”  This coupled with Galatians 4:19, “until Christ be formed in you,” presents the idea of who the Life is and where he is.  It is in Paul and it looks like Paul. In Colossians 1:27 Paul speaks of “Christ in you.”  Then again, continuing in verse 28, Paul states that his purpose is to present every man perfect in Christ, thus providing us with another picture of who and where the Life is. Philippians 1:21 states, “For me to live is Christ.”  Who is doing the living?  Is it Paul, or is it Christ?  This coupled with 3:4, where Paul calls Christ “our life,” indicates again just who Paul knew the Life to be. Finally, look at 11 Corinthians 5:20: “We are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us.”  What is God doing in this new creature called Paul?  He is pleading as Paul.  God is doing His pleading for the Gentile world in the form of Paul, His willing servant. The second question is:  “Where is the life?”  He is in me!  When I know He is in me being the Life, then I do not have to try to become the Life I already am.  I am free to let someone operate me.  Union is simple.  When I know who the Life is and where the Life is, my main frustration is removed. For years I lived from a separated concept of my relationship with God.  The result—I had a duty to look like Christ and to act for Christ.  My pattern was to get information (know-abouts) so that I might properly pattern my life after His.  I wanted people to say, “Now there goes a person whose life looks like Christ’s!” At the start, I had a sins problem.  If someone had told me that Christ lived in me I would probably have linked it with the fact that He died for me.  I was happy just being saved and forgiven.  My big problem was sins.  It was sometime later that the frustration began.  The complete answer to the problem was only resolved when the Spirit of God revealed to me and illuminated me with the total truth of who and where the Life is. The last question is:  “Who am I?”  11 Corinthians 4:7 tells us that we are earthen vessels.  It is easy for me to be me.  Also, it is difficult to become someone I was never meant to become.   As an illustration, I am a right-handed person.  It is natural for me if I am doing something right-handed.  But if I tackle the same task left-handed, it is a disaster.  The results in me are frustration, anger, depression and eventually surrender.  Haven’t we all experienced these results in the Christian life in trying to become someone we were never intended to become?  It will always happen when we are attempting the unnatural, let alone the impossible. In Genesis 2:7, we read the incident of God’s making us the earthen vessel.  He formed man of the dust of the ground and inspirited him with the capacity to receive Him and express Him.  The earthen vessel becomes the means by which the treasure flows out.  It is the serpent’s lie that we should try to become like God.  What are some examples of the earthen vessel?  The vessel is like the fruit to the tree, the branch to the vine, the wife to the husband in expressing the husband’s seed, the temple to the icon it contains, or the slave to his master. Scripture teaches that we are joint heirs with the Heir, brothers to the elder Brother, and sons by faith to the Son.  We have been raised to a level we could never earn.  It is bequeathed!  Consequently, an earthen vessel is a royal position, or as Peter said, “a royal priesthood.”  The vessel is the means by which the unseen and eternal is known on the plane of the seen and temporary (11 Cor. 4:18). Indeed, this is an important role to perform.  To be an earthen vessel is a privilege.  I do not have to become like anyone else, nor do I have to submit to anyone for retraining.  I am free to be me, with the wink!  It really is He, and it is me. One autumn in New England, I reveled in the colors of the leaves provided for our viewing.  All with whom I talked expressed the same delight.  We were spellbound by the variety of color, mixed with the firs and green pastures.  It was perfect.  No one desired for every leaf to be the same color and every tree to be the same species.  Sometimes I think that Christians all try to look alike—just like Jesus, of course.  But when we know who the Life is, we will know that the Life has a variety of colors. The key is this:  If I do not know who and where the Life is, I will attempt to make my life look like Christ’s; but if I know who and where the Life is, I will know that the Life looks like me.

Stand Fast in Liberty

Galatians 5:1                                                                                                                                                                                                                   Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.

² Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing.

When we turn back to any portion of the law for righteousness or even our own denominational laws for righteousness  then we are  not trusting what God has said concerning faith righteousness. Today we often say we are saved by grace but we still need to keep at least some of the law or try our best to keep the law to be pleasing to God, But the Bible says that we are no longer under the Law or the letter but we are now under grace now and a new law called the law of the Spirit of life in Christ. Romans 8:4

³ For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law.

⁴ Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.

If we turn back to any portion of the law then we turn away from freedom and we return back to bondage and  Christ will profit us nothing. When we turn back to any part of the law the Bible says that we have fallen from grace and we have then position ourselves to be a debtor to do the whole law which no one can do so then we are back under the curse of the law, which gives strength to sin and fills us with all kinds of fear and condemnation.

Now many who read this may say well our church does not teach that a man must be circumcised  to be righteous before God so this does not apply to us and although it may be true that we don’t teach a man must be circumcised  for righteousness let me ask you this question  “do we teach that a man must attend church to be in right standing with God? or Tithe, or  read his Bible or do community work? or dress a certain way to be pleasing and in right standing with God?  We don’t teach circumcision but maybe  we have created our own set of laws and attached them to the finished work of Christ? When we give people the impression its Jesus plus what we do that saves us and keeps us in right standing with God? Then we  have just created another gospel that is not the gospel of Christ.

Today  we have been taught another gospel through scriptures  that have been taken out of context and we have been conned because of it. Listen when you take the word text out of context then all you have left is con.. A con is someone who sells you a lie with smooth convincing talk. Remember the old song” killing me softly with his words?” That’s what happens when we sit under a gospel that has a mixture of law and grace does not bring life but death and condemnation to the hearers.

The devil has a silver tongue or you could say he is a silver tongued devil and he has been successful in moving most of the church with lies from faith righteousness back to works righteousness and the law.

From resting in the finished work of Christ for righteousness back to our own performance for righteousness.

When we do this the Bibles says that we have fallen from grace. It did not say if you fallen into sin you have fallen from grace no when you fall into sin you actually fall into grace but the one who returns to the law and self effort are the ones who have fallen from grace. I wonder if this is what the Bible was really talking about when it speaks of the great falling away? Returning back to any portion of the law for righteousness is to fall from grace and it frustrates grace.

We are called to not rely on our flesh for righteousness but we to rely on the finished work of Christ for righteousness

⁵ For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.

How does righteousness come through our lives by works? no! it comes  by faith and waiting. We are now under a new law called the law of the Spirit of life that God has put into motion in our spirit. This is the new law that we are now under and have been called to respond to. The law of the Spirit of Life in Christ is at work in us to produce fruit of righteousness unto God. But in order for all this to happen we must see ourselves dead to the law and joined to the Lord.

Romans 7:4 Likewise, my brethren, you have undergone death as to the Law through the [crucified] body of Christ, so that now you may belong to Another, to Him Who was raised from the dead in order that we may bear fruit for God

Romans 7:6 but now we are discharged from the Law and have terminated all intercourse with it; having died to what once restrained and held us captive. So now we serve not under [obedience to] the old code of written regulations, but [under obedience to the promptings] of the Spirit in newness [of life

Today we are called to rest and respond to the promptings of the Spirit. That means we rest in the finished work of Christ and respond to the One who now lives in us.

Now the main fruit of the Spirit is love but again this love is not a fleshly mechanical love but a love that is expressed through our lives as we rest in the finished work of Christ and we respond to the Spirit of life who now works in us. The fruit of  love comes from the Holy Spirit and is a love that is directed by the Spirit. This love is a much more effective and powerful  than external fleshly mechanical love because the Spirit knows each person individually and knows how to love each one in a very personal way. His love is personal.

For example as we love people not according to the law or legalistically but we love according to the law of the Spirit of life.. The Spirit of God will show us how to specifically love each person in a very unique personal way. It will not be a mechanical love. It will be a love extended in such a personal way that it will touch each person’s heart intimately and personally..  For example God may by His spirit tell you to hug someone or give something to someone that a certain person needs or has been praying for .. You didn’t know the persons need but the Spirit does for He knows every hair on their head  and you are simply obeying the prompting of the Spirit..

The Spirit of God is now to lead us and guide us. The Spirit of God will teach us how to live and how to love and who to specifically touch and He will even give us the words to say. He will prompt us on what to do. Jesus was born under the law but He was led by the law of the Spirit of life. Jesus was affective because He was directed by the Spirit. We are called to walk in the same way.

Taking the Precious Out of the Vile

Jeremiah 15:19 If you take out the precious from the vile,
You shall be as My mouth.

Judgment comes natural to all of us. You have heard that you can’t always Judge a book by its cover and although this is a true statement we still all have a tendency to Judge people by externals or by what we see.

The Holy Spirit is the one that knows all things and He is the one who convicts.. We do not need to do His Job for Him. We are called to walk in Love and share the good news. Our job is not to try and convict and clean people up that’s that the Holy Spirits Job. Our job is not to tell people what they should wear and how they should act and live no that’s Gods Job not mine, my job is to Love as Jesus Loved me and to look past their faults and see their true need. My job is to forgive as Jesus forgave me and to do good.. For it’s the goodness of God working through me that will lead people to repentance not my Judgment. We do not want to be known as people who say they love God but who Judge and condemn people. That sounds like the Pharisee to me

We must look past the external fleshly realm and see what Gods sees …the precious… Man is precious to God.  Yes the external flesh and the soul of man can be very messed up because of sin but we are never to forget that each person is precious to God, each one has been fearfully and wonderfully made by God and is very valuable and very much loved by God.  We should never forget  John 3:16 for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son .We should never forget that while we were all sinners that Christ died for us  to reconcile us back to the Father and we who are now saved are Gods instruments on this earth to see others reconciled to Him just as we have been, so God has called us to  look past the vile and speak to that which is precious to God the good news about Christ Romans 1:16 says the gospel is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes and  as we share the good news and  demonstrate the Love of God we will then become Gods mouth peace and instrument calling that which is precious out of darkness.

God help us not to Judge people by their external condition and be quick to write them off!, but help us to see them in the  same way that you see them sheep without a Sheppard..                                                  Man looks at the externals but God looks at the heart.

Jesus hung around all kind of people who were externally messed up but He saw that which was precious in them and He loved them and as their spirit responded to His love for them then the external was affected as well.. God’s love extended to people will change them from the inside out!

Jesus never told people get right with God first and then I will heal you! No the Bible says that Jesus was moved with compassion and healed all who were oppressed by the devil and as they were healed they then glorified God. God’s love and goodness is what will cause people to repent and come to God. It is the goodness of God that leads people to repentance.

Jeremiah 15:19 God wants us to be His mouth peace in this world and no I didn’t spell peace wrong.. What was the message that the angels declared at Christ’s birth? Peace on earth and Good will to all men. Gods desire is expressed in Jeremiah 15:19

If you take out the precious from the vile,
You shall be as My mouth.

As we begin to look past the vile and see what is precious and speak to that which is precious then we can be an affective instrument and mouth piece in the hands of God.

All mankind is very precious to God, yes they may appear very vile and externally their lives because of sin can be a wreck, but this who God came for. He came for the lost, the sick, and the unrighteous.

God wants to use us to draw out the precious from the vile.. It’s kind of like mining for gold or diamonds hidden in the dirt.. You remember the song “I’m just an old chunk of coal but I’m going to be a diamond some day!

I just heard on the news where a young lady was walking around in a state park and as she looked on the ground she saw a yellow stone in the dirt and as she picked it up low and behold it was a four caret yellow diamond!

And God wants us to know that there are many gems out in the world that are ready to be revealed in these last days! But we must look past the vile and see the precious!

And we must learn to speak peace and Gods good will toward all men.

We must not see people as vile sinners but as lost sheep without a Sheppard.

Lost coins, Lost treasure. Do we have the attitude of God or the Pharisee?

Luke 15

New King James Version (NKJV)

The Parable of the Lost Sheep

15 Then all the tax collectors and the sinners drew near to Him to hear Him. ² And the Pharisees and scribes complained, saying, “This Man receives sinners and eats with them.” ³ So He spoke this parable to them, saying:

⁴ “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? ⁵ And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. ⁶ And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!’ ⁷ I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance.

The Parable of the Lost Coin

⁸ “Or what woman, having ten silver coins,^[a] if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? ⁹ And when she has found it, she calls her friends and neighbors together, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the piece which I lost!’ ¹⁰ Likewise, I say to you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

Jesus hung out with vile sinners because that’s who He came for and He knew that He was being used by the father to take out the precious from the vile.

Their are a whole lot of broken hearted , bruised people in the world that have been damaged by sin but Jesus came to heal the broken hearted and set free those who have been bruised and we are called to do the same.

Luke 4: 16-

¹⁶ So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read. ¹⁷ And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written:

¹⁸ “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,^[j] To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed; ¹⁹ To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. This was Christ commission and now it is ours.

Psalm 126:6

King James Version (KJV)

⁶ He that goes out  weeping, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.

God has given us the precious seed of the gospel to go out and sew into peoples hearts and as we sew His precious seed we will see the hurting healed and the lost found.

Thoughts Captive to the Obedience of Christ

Obedience of Christ

2 Corinthians 10:4-5

⁴ (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)

⁵ Casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;

A major key to our victory over the enemy and his lies is for us to continually bring our every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.. Today we must understand and continue to believe that we are not made righteous because of our own obedience or any works or law that we do but we are righteous only because of Christ’s obedience to the cross. This is what it means to bring every though captive to the obedience of Christ.

Romans 5:19

For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. What Adam did made all sinners but What Christ did (His obedience to the cross) will make all who believe righteous!

Often our minds will wander with legalistic thoughts of have “I been fully obedient to Christ today in my actions and attitudes? Or have I done enough to please God today? Have I prayed enough? Have I read the bible enough? Have I given enough? Have I been kind enough? And of course the enemy is right behind us to help fuel these thoughts because he knows that these thoughts will only lead to doubt, condemnation and despair.  Again when we continually focus on our own obedience of have I done enough? Instead of Christ’s obedience that He did enough! Then we will always be brought into doubt and condemnation because we will always discover an area in our lives that we are falling short in.

As long as the enemy can keep us thinking that our right standing before God comes through our obedience to law, works or by what we do then he has got us trapped in a stronghold that creates a vicious cycle of up and down short victories and lots of condemnation.

And when we are in condemnation then the only full time ministry that we are engaged in is to self.

Now our legalistic religious mindset has often caused us to read the above scripture the wrong way. We have often read this scripture as something that we must again do to stay righteous and pleasing to God.  In other words we read this and think I must strive to stay obedient, I must strive to reject wrong thoughts and accept only good thoughts , I must be obedient to Christ by keeping all the rules that I have been taught to keep, so again the focus is again on I instead of Christ!, but this is not what this scripture is saying. It is telling us that our victory over every evil imagination and stronghold comes as we keep our eyes and thoughts on Christ’s obedience to the cross for righteousness and as we do this then our fleshly  disobedience will be dealt with at its very core and our obedience will naturally follow as its fueled by Gods unconditional love for us and the spirit of Grace in us. This is why the Apostle Paul said I determined not to know anything but Christ and Him crucified!. As we keep our eyes on the finished work of the cross then the enemy cannot affect us with his lies and condemnation.

As we embrace the truth that our right standing before God comes through what Christ has already done at the cross it will set us free from all condemnation so that we can walk in newness of life! And this newness of life is Christ’s life working in us ,for it is in Him that we live and move and have our being.. Acts 17