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Transformed by the Words of God

Transformed by the Words of God

It’s not hearing words from another about God that changes us (opens our eyes, changes our desires, renews our mind), it’s hearing the words God speaks directly to our souls through whatever medium. Romans 10:15-17, John 6:45, 1 Thessalonians 4:9

God can speak to our soul through another; but any truth received is all His doing within us. Thus, it’s His voice we must seek to know and hear within us; for that is where He meets us. Others can point the way, share what they’ve learned and experienced, but we each must seek to hear the sweet whisperings of our heavenly Father to us personally. Hebrews 8:10

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

How do we hear His voice so His truth becomes ours? Through the circumstances in our lives; for His truth is real and directly impacts our reality.

By taking time each morning to be still and listen in a private communion with God is how we hear His counsel. How do we know unless we take time to listen? How to listen unless we quiet our soul and tune into His voice, which is often crowded out by all the noise of life?

What we seek is to hear thus know is His love and His nature that makes up His love. We seek is to hear His instruction regarding the workings of our soul, and how our soul is interacting with the world around us. As we hear His counsel, we follow. His words are the words of life; if we will walk in them. They teach us about love, and following them is how we abide in love. John 15:10

Our life reveals our truth. Our words, choices, desires and actions reveal the truths we hold. The universal purpose we all share is to love God and love others as ourselves, thus loving ourselves as well. Mark 12:30-31 It isn’t a selfish love but a holy love that comes from the Father to us; then toward ourselves and out to others. Proverbs 4:23, Luke 6:45

Only God can teach us and change our hearts to be able to truly love in honor and without hypocrisy, for in each of us the dishonor and hypocrisy (trying to appear loving; yet lacking love in our hearts) runs deep. Romans 12:9 Our part is to seek and listen as the situations we face are speaking to us and revealing the issues of our hearts. To seek to “see” our part in creating our irritations, pain, suffering, illnesses, discord, contentions with others, and not focusing on the faults of others, but our own is how we learn to love. When we know love, then we are on the path to becoming a vessel love.

Some quibble over doctrine; but each comes to the understanding of the truth as they listen to God speaking the words they need to hear when they need to hear them. Loving-kindness often gets pushed aside in conflicts over doctrines. Don’t judge or argue over a truth someone holds; for only God can truly write the truth on one’s heart and open up one’s eyes to see His truth. He gives the increase. 1 Corinthians 3:7 Share truth in love, and trust God to put truth deep into a soul; as He does in yours. Know we are all God’s workmanship, and if by some grace we are used in others’  lives for good; it’s all God’s work. Ephesians 2:10 Don’t seek doctrine; but seek pure love that underscores all true doctrine. Then, you will begin to understand doctrine as you should. Romans 12:9-21, 1 Corinthians 13:2 Love is the purpose of the commandments; thus seek this foundation in all you do and learn. 1 Timothy 1:5

Sometimes we try to force truth on another, but this isn’t how truth is manifested in someone’s life. You can see this dynamic is true in your own life. You’ve heard truths in your past, but you weren’t prepared or able to receive them until you learned through your life. The manifestation of truth in our physical lives is how the truth becomes our truth. Be patient with yourself and others on the journey of learning and gaining pure truth in all love.

If you judge and cast judgment, then judgment is what you receive. If mercy is what you give; mercy is what you receive. Matthew 5:7, Romans 2:1 Only God is qualified to judge for only He is truly good and pure. We are to discern truth verses lies among spirits, but leave the judgment of a soul up to God.

Seeking is very important; for it leads us to the light/truth. Seeking moves us toward God’s presence so we can become a part of His presence. As you seek love you will find it’s impossible to love; impossible without God’s spirit in you. But all thanks be to our Father, who gives us His spirit in Christ to do in us the impossible; to love in all purity. And this hope is fulfilled when Christ resurrects us to eternal life.

As you seek and find, desire to be the love you “see”, and desire to be the kindness you desire. For we reap what we sow. In desiring to love, thus desiring to walk in His ways; God gives us the grace to enable to us to grow in love; for this is His will. 2 Corinthians 12:9


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Forsaking Suffering & Embracing Life

Forsaking Suffering & Embracing Life

Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.

Galatians 6:7

As you connect and become a part of the divine nature, all that isn’t of it is purged from your life.  As you connect to God’s perfect love and truth, it reshapes you from within thus recreates your reality. This transition is leaving death and entering into life. It’s being born of the spirit. It’s gaining a spirit-mind in place of a flesh-mind. It’s leaving the pit and entering into the kingdom of heaven.

To live from a flesh-mind is to abide in the pit; it’s a tortuous place on many levels. Thus to leave the pit, you have to leave all the tortuous/harmful behaviors behind. You have to cease to be a creator and a “proliferator” of harm, and instead embrace the liberty, healing and redemption of a new pure mind of wisdom and love; the mind of Christ. It’s a state of mind in which you are dependent on God’s wisdom to direct you step by step.

Do you want to be healed? Jesus asked the man of an infirmity of 38 years? John 5:5-6

People surprising are unwilling to leave or address what causes harm in their lives to themselves and others. They are unwilling to leave the pit ultimately because of their lack of understanding of the pure wisdom of God; so shouldn’t all be seeking that wisdom? Proverbs 10:21

Death, the pit, the flesh mind is an arena where love doesn’t exist because it’s a separation from God, who is love. In the absence of love; all that is left are unloving actions causing harm to ourselves and others; and often torturous. 1 John 5:19

We have to seek what true love is; thus to truly know our heavenly Father. We have to learn to leave the pit and that means stop engaging in harmful thoughts, words and actions. Ask God to reveal them in your life. Haggai 1:6-7

Here are some areas to consider:

  1. Our consumption. There is massive cruelty done to animals in regards to the foods we eat; meat, dairy, eggs, the products we use, and the clothes/shoes we buy. This world has done a surprisingly good job of covering up this horrific treatment of animals. Seek this truth then choose to be a vessel of honor .. to all. Let your love, the Father’s love, be known to all; even the least of them. Seek to walk in this love. (A Cry Against Hypocrisy & Cruelty)
  2. Our words. Words can be healing or destructive. People easily harm others by the unkind words they speak and the lies they propagate as truth. James 3:8  Let your words be words of life by letting God establish them. For as you speak so shall your life reflect.
  3. Supporting institutions of oppression; which there are many.
  4. Holding fast to a false image of God which promotes good as evil and evil as good. (ie, eternal torment doctrine)
  5. Feeding the lust image; men in desiring it and women in trying to be it. Both create massive ripple effects of destruction. There is a vast continuum in this area, seek to be off the continuum completely as Jesus spoke of. By seeking Truth, this lust spirit can be starved and replaced with true love. Matthew 5:28-29
  6. Criticizing, judging, holding grudges, unwilling to forgive, resentments, bitterness, anger. Many hold onto these behaviors to “punish” others, to feel justified, and as a form of personal vengeance. These destroy those who hold them.
  7. Staying in abusive relationships, and being abusive to ourselves, which takes on many faces. (Separation vs. Healing in Relationships)

Seek to understand how you are holding onto the pit by the harm you are holding onto in this life. Let all be purged but what is of the purest of wisdom and love. Malachi 3:2-3

Christ is returning within. If people continue to wait for an outside happening, they will remain blind to the call within them to walk in the spirit of grace that enables them to walk in righteousness. That walk transitions us into new creations. It is these who seek and grow in the righteousness of Christ working them who will abide in peace.

Zephaniah 2:3 Seek the Lord, all you meek of the earth, Who have upheld His justice. Seek righteousness, seek humility. It may be that you will be hidden In the day of the Lord’s anger.


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Beware of Hypocrisy

Beware of Hypocrisy

In this video, I’m discussing how important it is to seek to destroy the spirit of hypocrisy from our lives … it’s the spirit of the anti-Christ. Contrived love, humility, and righteousness blinds us to God’s true righteous love and it prohibits us from hearing and following His voice. It is a thing God hates, yet in many ways proliferated by religions and philosophies of the world.


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Why do Christians Seem Two-Faced?

Why do Christians Seem Two-Faced?

Two Face

Scenario One:
A married Christian friend, Sarah, vehemently expressed her disbelief about how a mutual friend of yours could cheat on her husband and claim to be a Christian. The next week you are out with some friends and Sarah starts flirting with another man.

Scenario Two:
You’re out one night with some friends, and your married Christian friend, Rebecca, starts flirting with another man.

These two women, Sarah and Rebecca, represent the two definitions of being two-faced.

Two-faced (adj)

1. The first definition is hypocritical or double-dealing; deceitful. It is the definition we most commonly associate with this term and is represented by Sarah. She claimed one thing then did another.

2. The second definition is literally having two faces or surfaces. True Christians have two conflicting natures – one driven by their flesh one driven by their spirit – in a sense two faces. This is represented by Rebecca. She didn’t claim one thing then do another, so she wasn’t being hypocritical. What we saw was the face of her flesh.

Christians who are two-faced in regards to the first definition are those who aren’t Christians and say they are or those who think or claim they are “good”.

We all understand hypocrisy, but what we often misunderstand are those who fall under the second definition.

This post touches upon an area that is often misunderstood in Christianity– even among Christians. How often have we heard from other Christians something like- “I can’t believe she did that – and she is a Christian!”

Battle between the flesh and spirit

In a previous blog, Where to Focus – A Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, I talked about the battle authentic Christians face between the flesh and spirit. The more I abide in God’s Word the more the dissonance between my flesh and spirit becomes apparent. It is a strange phenomenon living with this duality. And one that people can’t understand if they have never experienced it. This is why many non-Christians can’t understand why Christians are so faulty. How can we talk about this new life and yet do things so contrary? How can we talk about the love of God in our lives and yet do something so utterly unloving?

The reason is we are living with two wills – one of the flesh and one of the spirit. (flesh being our self-will and spirit being of the will of God) Sometimes the one we don’t want, the flesh, is the one that shows up in situations. Romans 7:15-25 We do what we don’t want to do. When our self-will takes over, then bam we’re critical, inappropriately judgmental, complaining, hurtful, selfish, passive, prideful, arrogant, and so on.

If you are truly a Christian you don’t want to do these things, but you do and a lot more often than you want to. Growing in the spirit life takes time. It is a journey. God designed it this way for several reasons that I’ll address in a later blog.

In the beginning, Christians understand their corrupted nature. It is this awareness that helps them to grasp the meaning and purpose of Jesus’ sacrifice. However, immediately after the awareness of a new life – sometimes it’s assumed that they are supposed to be immediately good. I don’t believe it works that way. It is a process.

The spirit starts small in us like a baby – it takes time for the spirit to grow. It takes time abiding in God’s Word, which is the nourishment for our spirit. (Which few truly do.) If we don’t abide, then our spirit stays weak and the flesh dominates. It takes years for our spirit to grow even with proper nourishment – like it does a child. As we learn and grow throughout our entire physical lives, so do we in our spiritual lives. We will never walk perfectly in the spirit while living in these physical bodies. So there will always be a falleness about us. But if we nourish our spirit, it will grow stronger and over time we live more in the spirit than in the flesh. 1 Corinthians 3:1-3

No One is Good

Usually our judgment of goodness is based on each other. Well I’m better than him! I’m better than most! I’m a pretty good person! But God views goodness from His goodness. And that is the goodness I’m talking about. No one is good against the standard of a holy, pure and perfect God. That is why God gave us Jesus Christ to stand in our place. He judges our goodness against true goodness – not our definitions which vary person to person. And His judgment is the only one that matters.

We would do ourselves a huge favor by removing this misnomer of goodness. Any true goodness is of God and God working in us. It is all Him. John 15:5

Being Hypocritical

If we accept the praise of goodness from others or call ourselves or anyone else good we are being hypocritical and fall under the first definition. Then we are being a poor witness to the truth that no one is truly good but God.

Matthew 19:17 So He said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.”

I love this verse because it lays it all out. We aren’t good. We enter eternal life not by our goodness, but by Christ’s. One of His commandments is to trust in His righteousness not our own. If we trust in our own, we will be judged by our own, and in the eyes of a holy God we don’t have a chance of standing for a second.

When you see Christians acting “out of line” – don’t be so quick to judge. We are to help one another not stand pointing a finger. It is a struggle for all of us. And the closer you draw near to God and His purity the more you see yourself as you are without Him, wretched, and the more understanding and compassion you will have for the struggle of others. God is judge. We are to encourage and exhort each other not because it is about being good, but when we walk in His commands and wisdom we walk closer with Him and experience more of the abundant life He came to give and His power is shown to the world.

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Hypocrisy vs Immature Spirits

Hypocrisy vs Immature Spirits

 

Hypocrisy, saying one thing and doing another, is one complaint I hear more than most about Christians.

In their brethrens defense, Christians often reply with a chuckle that is why they are in church, they need it!

Hypocrisy on any level shouldn’t be tolerated. Jesus didn’t tolerate it and neither should we among each other. (Matthew 23:28-29, Romans 12:9. James 3:17) Yet, I feel too often we overlook it. We will whisper behind Susie’s back about what she is doing and wonder how she can claim to be a “good Christian” . . . but to her face in private exhorting her in truth and love? We don’t see this accountability very often and possibly because of the fear of appearing self-righteous. It isn’t self-righteous it is love, and we should expect Susie to hold us accountable as well.

However, what I think happens more often than not is what non-believers are witnessing are immature spirits more so than hypocrisy. Immature spirits live mostly in their flesh lives and not of their spirits. And with the mistaken identity of “goodness” hanging over Christians’ heads when others see us not acting in the expected manner then we are called hypocrites. If we don’t claim to be good then we aren’t hypocrites. People misunderstand what authentic Christianity (not the copycat religion of Christianity of following rules, trying to be a good person, and following a strict code of behavior) means; we have to share with them the truth.

1. It is a huge fallacy that being a Christian means you are good. Conversely, it means you realize you aren’t good and never will be and therefore need the goodness of Christ so you can intimately abide in the presence of a Holy God.

2.  Authentic Christianity entails becoming a new creation by having a new spirit born within and from that spirit true life blossoms. The new spirit is born small and needs proper nourishment to grow and mature. When the new spirit grows then it desires to do the will of God. It isn’t a forced obedience but a natural desire. However, because the new spirit co-exists with our old, we will never perfectly do the will of God that is faultless and good, but hopefully we become more inline with it.

3. Christianity isn’t a performance based religion of good works like every other religion. It is a union with God that is made possible when we become a living spirit as He is spirit. The world and religious Christianity imposes rules and behaviors on us, but true Christianity isn’t about rules but being connected to God, us in Him and Him in us. As a result, good things may come from us, but is has nothing to do with us. It is the fruit of God’s Spirit flowing through us because we are connected to Him.

4. This flowing fruit that comes as we surrender our will to His isn’t instant. It takes years of abiding in God’s truth, learning, growing. And even then our flesh is a strong contender to our spirits’ wills. In my experience to live as a new creation is a long process that I imagine will last a lifetime.

5. Authentic Christianity teaches people have no goodness of their own. No one is good but God. Matthew 19:17 The key to understanding this truth is how we define goodness and how God does is different. His goodness is defined by His omniscience, pure love and complete truth – three things no human has. Therefore only He is truly good. The rest of us have warped versions and ideas of goodness. Christians who praise, claim, or try to be good don’t get this truth. They have a copycat religion of because we can’t have our own goodness.

We, Christians, need to be comfortable with who we are and who we are not, and stop claiming, giving and accepting the praise from others that we are good. We all have a desire to be good that is why there are so many performance based religions but that desire is to draw us to God’s goodness not our own. We need to stop focusing on goodness like every other religion and put our energy into cultivating a relationship with God, what the gospel is all about.

Our response to the accusers shouldn’t be to excuse our brethren, but to say to you are right, hypocrisy is wrong and educate them on who we truly are – we aren’t about goodness we are about abiding in a relationship with God and if good flows from that then give credit where credit is due.

Psalm 71:16 I will go in the strength of the Lord GOD; I will make mention of Your righteousness, of Yours only.