Talking about what the adulterous spirit is between us and God and us and others and how it’s purged from our lives. Incredibly important truth for these days for our actions are being revealed for what they are … thus we are living out the consequences of our thoughts/actions.
Hosea 4:10 For they shall eat, but not have enough; They shall commit harlotry, but not increase; Because they have ceased obeying the LORD.
1 Peter 3:7 Husbands, likewise, dwell with them with understanding, giving honor to the wife, as to the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life, that your prayers may not be hindered.
Would you rather be operating by God’s mind or by your own? God is giving you the choice.
The Choice
Deuteronomy 30:19 “I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live;
The pilgrimage through this earth comes down to a singular decision. Will you choose to be TOTALLY governed by God or self? What you choose depends on the life you will have; the first manifests true life and the second death. It’s one or the other because God is life and anything contrary is death. Most people unknowingly choose death because of the lie that has kept people from God; that life fully governed by God is less than what they can give themselves. When in reality, the only things you miss out on are the things of death.
The life we desire; peace, joy, righteous love, truth, rest, contentment, and blessing, comes when our souls are united to God’s Spirit so that His spirit operates our being in every way. This life is manifested when our self-will is literally dead, silenced, and God’s Spirit takes the reigns. Galatians 2:20
The ultimate blessing is to be completely directed by God so that our every desire, thought and word is of Him, by Him and through Him; a place where we are fully governed by the Spirit of God and nothing of our self-will. Lamentations 3:24 In this state abundant life is manifested in us and in our lives.
Isaiah 58:13 If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, From doing your pleasure on My holy day, And call the Sabbath a delight, The holy day of the LORD honorable, And shall honor Him, not doing your own ways, Nor finding your own pleasure, Nor speaking your own words,
The eternal Sabbath is being at complete rest, so that you are totally powered by God’s spirit. When you are governed by Him, you are at rest because it’s all Him and nothing of you. John 15:5 In rest, you do nothing of yourself. You give up all your ways, pleasures and words to God and He drives your life. If you aren’t working, efforting, striving or exerting your will, then His will can prevail. You cultivate no trust or confidence in anything of this flesh existence. The exterior life is nothing but the shell that is powered by God. In this state, you are a complete slave to God and His righteousness and know no other greater delight, for He is life. Acts 17:28
Romans 6:18 And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.
Imagine if ALL you did was directed by God who knows everything … the outcome and ripple effect of every action? All you do would be done in truth and righteous love. Imagine how your life would blossom into all it was meant to be. This is what Christ came to create, God’s spirit abiding within souls of mankind, Immanuel.
How to silence your self-will?
What is the path to make this choice; to be completely governed by God?
SEEK God in TRUTH and SPIRIT. You need to know the difference of your self-will and God’s will and the extent of its control in your life. If you don’t seek truth FROM GOD, you can’t make this decision because you don’t have the knowledge of what the decision entails. You can’t choose what you don’t know. How can you know without diligently seeking daily and above all else?
Jeremiah 7:13And now, because you have done all these works,” says the LORD, “and I spoke to you, rising up early and speaking, but you did not hear, and I called you, but you did not answer
BUILD a relationship with God so you can TRUST Him. To honestly let go of all, you have to trust God and nothing of yourself. How can you trust without an intimate relationship?
ACT on His instruction specifically to you. As you act according to God’s counsel and witness His faithfulness, you come to a point of forsaking all to be completely governed by Him – then the choice is the result. How can you act if you aren’t listening to Him?
In our limited awareness, we have no idea the outcome of what we do. If we hold onto our own judgments about what is good (essence of religions), we’ll make errors (sin) leading to pain and suffering in our lives and others. No matter how good our intentions, we don’t know the beginning and the end. Thus, anything done of ourselves, no matter if we judge it good or not, is sin. Sin equates to death. Therefore, we need to be at rest and letting God flow through us as He wills which is accomplished by forsaking every aspect of our self-will and letting His will rule. John 5:30
Seeking God and His truth with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, abiding in rest, and experiencing the fruit of His Spirit testify that we have chosen His will over ours; a life we can start experiencing now. When we come to this point, we are ruled by God’s Spirit thus walk in His commandments, because He is living through us and His righteousness taking us over.
What did Jesus Christ preach while on earth? What is the gospel of Christ? He didn’t preach His death and resurrection … so what was it?
Luke 4:43 but He said to them, “I must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also, because for this purpose I have been sent.”
He preached about the kingdom of heaven or the kingdom of God. It’s this reality we are to seek first and above all else because it is the way to eternal and abundant life now.
Matthew 6:33 But SEEK FIRSTthe kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.
What is the kingdom of heaven?
Luke 17:21 For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.”
It’s God’s spirit powering our souls and no longer our spirit of death. It’s God’s spirit dwelling in us. It’s being a part of the divine nature. It’s being a part of God’s living temple where His spirit dwells. When God is in us, we have eternal life as He is eternal. We abide with Him in unity, truth, and love for we are a part of Him as His children for we intimately know Him. John 17:3
Colossians 1:27 To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory
Those who are a part of the kingdom of heaven have: 1. Repented; fully turning from their ways to God’s ways and truth (we have to know His ways to turn to them which comes from diligently abiding in the Word of Truth), 2. Become God’s workmanship being crafted and remade in their souls by God’s truth and are being filled with God’s spirit.
Repentance
Matthew 4:17 From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
Repentance (dying to self, crucifying self) comes when at our deepest core we fully turn from following our self-will and seek to walk in unity with God’s will in all areas. We no longer play jugde; we seek God’s counsel. We no longer are in control of our lives; we surrender our creative self-will to God’s sovereignty. We can’t follow our will and God’s will at the same time unless they are the same. Repentance is a crucial step toward the kingdom of heaven, because it’s leaving our ways behind to embrace God’s. 2 Corin 5:17
Repentance is giving up all of our self-will to gain God’s. When you learn through the Word of Truth and your life lessons that God’s will is truly far better and much more desireous, then you want His will in ALL areas.
Matthew 13: 44 the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid; and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.
Matt 13:45 Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it.
Remade in Truth and Filled with God’s Spirit
Next, the kingdom reigns in our souls when God’s truth, The Word of God (Christ), abides in us. Being a part of God means our truth is God’s truth. If we are walking in our own truths and ways, we aren’t in unity but opposition. The path to gaining His truth is one of diligently seeking truth and learning from God Himself. In unity, we enter a complete rest as God works through us always and in all things. Hebrews 4:10-11.
The souls fashioned by God in the truths of the prophets, apostles, and Christ become a part of His living temple made without hands. Ephesians 2:19-22 Being molded in truth by the Holy Spirit, not by ourselves or another, prepares our spirits to be in unity with God’s thus filled with His Spirit. 1 John 2:27, Hebrews 8:10
As we seek and abide in the truth of God being taught by Him, His Spirit begins to fill every aspect of our souls. The spirit of God starts small and as we diligently seek it spreads to take over every area of our lives in tremendous power, truth and love. When powered by God’s spirit there is no limit to what God can do in and through us. John 14:12, Eph 3:20
Matthew 13:31 The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field, which indeed is the least of all the seeds; but when it is grown it is greater than the herbs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches.”
Matt 13:33 The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till it was all leavened.”
Like a new day dawning, the spirit of God dawns in our souls transforming us glory unto glory. 2 Corin 3:18 It continues until like Christ, we hold the fullness of God, Eph 4:13, 3:19. This filling of God’s spirit in us is the kingdom of heaven.
2 Peter 1:19 And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts;
For those who repent, diligently seek God’s ways to be remade in truth, and are transformed by the power of His spirit within them, they become the temple of God, the kingdom of heaven. Yet in this life many won’t partake in this glorious kingdom. Many are called but few are chosen Matthew 22:14, because narrow is the path Matthew 7:14 and few find it. The depth of repentance and diligent seeking of truth are done by few as many are consumed with the cares of this world and not of God. Matthew 13:3-9
Matthew 13:47 the kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet that was cast into the sea and gathered some of every kind, which, when it was full, they drew to shore; and they sat down and gathered the good into vessels, but threw the bad away.
Fervently seek God in truth and spirit that you may partake in the glorious eternal kingdom of heaven with Christ now.
Matthew 6:10 Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven.
To hear more on this topic you can listen to an audio recording, The Kingdom of Heaven, which can also be downloaded at Itunes – search for Stirring the Deep under Podcasts.
An email was forwarded to me from a man who listed several points about the Word of God in a response to the claim by Dr. Laura that homosexuality is an abomination according to the Word of God. He addressed issues regarding the laws of the OT (Old Testament), in which he thought they were nonsensical. His point was to show the laws were absurd and therefore dismiss anything it may say about homosexuality. Many stumble at these issues so I felt it was important to talk about them. Here I address each of the topics he mentioned. I hope this brings some light though I realize there is much to learn.
Seeking with a mindset to truly know and not to lift ourselves above God allows us to be open to learn from Him. If we seek to know God as He is, then we will start to see the perfection in all His ways, and how all works together to teach us and instruct us. God is love. All He does is in love. As we seek to understand His truths with this mindset and trust the Holy Spirit to teach us, we see that is the case.
Before we get started a couple of points. The Word is written layer upon layer so that each passage holds layers of truth. It’s incredibly rich and deep, which makes seeking and learning an on going process. Second, those of the OT didn’t have the Holy Spirit to guide and to teach them, therefore they needed numerous external rules to live by. Third, the stories and events of the OT point to spiritual truths, eternal truths. The laws are symbolic and reminders of God’s truth. Each one pointed to a deeper spiritual truth, and those truths endure though many of the rules do not – as they were no longer need with the coming of Jesus and the anointing of the Holy Spirit.
God is God and we are not. We see a sliver. He sees eternity. He knows how all works together. We think we know better and we know best, we don’t. God knows our nature better than we do. He understood that the Israelites needed boundaries, rules, reminders of His truths to be constantly before them. He understood if you give people an inch they take a mile. God knows the human nature better than any. All the “rules” were for the Israelites protection and continuance of a nation. He needed to protect them because from that lineage Christ would come. At the manifestation of Jesus Christ not only was He the perfect fulfillment of the law but we are now able to receive the Holy Spirit to guide us so we didn’t need all those outward reminders. Further, God was building illustrations that taught eternal truths and many pointing to Christ. On with the issues …
God allowed slavery for a reason to serve certain purposes. It caused history to play out in a certain way. We can’t understand the beginning from the end or the full purpose of its existence, because all we’ve know is history with it. Like today, our systems serve certain purposes though far from perfect. Some systems seem unfair, but that is our estimation. We aren’t qualified to judge, because we see only a sliver of time. We think we know what fair is. We haven’t a clue. We don’t see the beginning and the end. We don’t understand the fullness of our purpose here on earth. Ecc 3:11 We are trying to play God when we think we do.
In addition, the way the world is at any one time is to teach us spiritual truths and the “negative” teaches just as much as the positive, if not more so. Slavery in the physical taught us about slavery in the spiritual. If there was no slavery we would lack understanding. We can’t see the spiritual so the physical is there to teach us about it in a way we can understand.
The more important truth is we are all slaves either to God or to “Satan”. It’s the spiritual life that matters much more than the physical. The physical life is but a nit; the spiritual for eternity. We put far too much weight on the physical and not enough on the spiritual life. Many people today are slaves to greed, lust, and a whole host of things that are far worse than physical slavery. And it this internal slavery that Christ came to free us from. Freedom is an illusion to those who are slaves to this world.
Animal sacrifices pointed to Christ. God designed this world that life is to be given for life for there to be forgiveness; blood for blood. The sacrifice of the animals was to teach us about the seriousness of our sin – how it separates us from God and what is required for us to be reunited to Him – the life of another. For the Israelites, it was a constant reminder of their need for forgiveness and that it’s only life that can pay the price for sin.
With Christ, the eternal sacrifice, an animal sacrifice and having to do it over and over is no longer needed.
Lately, free will has been brought up in several conversations carrying the assumption that we have free will and it got me to thinking . . . how much free will do we really have?
Let’s look at what we didn’t choose in our physical life; to be born, where, when and to whom we were born, where we grew up, who we grew up around, our family, our genetic make up, our IQ, our body type, our race, our gender, our personality, generational weaknesses and strengths.
Given all these restrictions, how much free will do you think we have? Our will is constricted to certain things, whether we like it or not.
Those things pertain to our physical life, what about the spiritual life?
I believe it is very similar, because throughout the Word, this earth, our lives, the physical parallels the spiritual. First, I believe we don’t chose salvation. We didn’t choose our physical birth and we didn’t choose our spiritual birth. How can a dead life choose life? It is dead. It can’t comprehend the things of God. It can’t understand the spirit life to choose the spirit. It is in rebellion against God, not wanting to draw near. Isaiah 53:6
God saves, God calls, God chooses. We don’t think that is fair? What about the ones who didn’t have a choice where they were born and were given horrible circumstances, in slums, in drug addictions, in a place where human life isn’t valued, and no love? Is that fair? How much choice did they have?
Romans 9:11-23, John 6:44, Romans 8:28-30, Matthew 22:14, 1 Peter 2:9
Second, like our physical life, we live within defined limits in our spiritual life. God saves us and gives us new life. He determines the grace we have, the spiritual gifts we possess, and our spiritual growth. Romans 12:3 1 Corinthians 12:11 Ephesians 2:10 Philippians 2:13 Our will comes into play in seeking Him, drawing near and abiding in His truth. Matthew 7:33, Hebrews 11:6 If we seek Him, then He has promised to do all sorts of wonderful, powerful and amazing things in our lives. Our will, what we say happens or doesn’t happen and the choices we have, is limited.
Acts 17:26-28 And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, 27 so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; 28 for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’
There are two faulty beliefs that cause us to think that God being in control of our salvation isn’t fair and therefore couldn’t be.
1. The beliefs about hell.
2. The beliefs about God’s complete plan of salvation.
I don’t profess to completely understand either though I am seeking, but from what I read I am not convinced of an eternal torment as most churches teach or that we fully understand God’s plan of salvation and the roles we each play. Romans 9:22 We don’t know His thoughts, and I believe there is more to this life than we know. God is not like us, He is much bigger and we tend to forget that truth. We each try to fit Him and His ways into what we can understand right now.
To try to make God’s Word fit our ideas of justice and fairness is not seeking The Truth but trying to establish our own. We need to be okay with what we read, keep questioning, asking, learning, admitting we don’t know, and acknowledging there is more to learn. The entire Word fits together like a puzzle if certain pieces don’t fit we don’t have all the pieces yet. Only with all the pieces can we understand His Truth. We need to remove our church filters telling us what to believe and read His Truth to know and not to convince ourselves of what we currently believe. Only then do we have teachable hearts. God doesn’t want us to assume we know all or throw up our hands and say how can we know? He wants us each one of us to seek, grope, and ask for truth because that creates intimacy with Him.
Our will only comes into play in certain things. God holds the reigns. After all, He is God we are men. Psalm 9:20 We need to stop trying to make His truth fit ours and seek His.
Living Light 