Day: March 5, 2020

We are not as many, who corrupt the word of God: But as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God speak we in Christ. (2 Cor. 2:17)

If, then, we have spoken the word of God, the genuine unmixed word of God, and that only; if we have put no unnatural interpretation upon it, but [have] taken the known phrases in their common, obvious sense, … and when they were less known, explained scripture by scripture; if we have spoken the whole word, as occasion offered, though rather the parts which seemed most proper to give a check to some fashionable vice, or to encourage the practice of some unfashionable virtue; and if we have done this plainly and boldly, though with all the mildness and gentleness that the nature of the subject will bear; …. then, believe ye our works, if not our words; or rather, believe them both together. Here is all a Preacher can do; all the evidence that he either can or need give of his good intentions. There is no way but this to show he speaks as of sincerity, as commissioned by the Lord, and as in his sight. If there be any who, after all this, will not believe that it is his concern, not our own, we labour for; that our first intention in speaking, is to point him the way to happiness, and to disengage him from the great road that leads to misery; we are clear of the blood of that man; … it rests on his own head. For thus saith the Lord, who hath set us as watchmen over the souls of our countrymen and brethren: “If thou warn the wicked of his way to turn from it;” … much more if we use all methods possible to convince him that the warning is of God; …. “If he does not turn from his way,” …. which certainly he will not, if he does not believe that we are in earnest, “he shall die in his iniquity, but thou hast delivered thine own soul.”

(JOHN WESLEY)

(JOB 13:15) Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him:

It is the inner motive of wanting to follow Him that counts, even if we have not been too successful in doing that so far. Even if we lose, even if we fail, we must still always desire to follow Him.

The main way to do that is two-fold:

• die to ourselves so that we do not project our own emotions and opinions and ignorance on a topic. We must do our best to become a zero. We must realize that we do not count.

• our mission is just to reflect the Word of God.

Jesus, the Word, is the only One that matters.

So, walking in the Spirit we must take Jesus at his word. For the fulness of the Godhead bodily dwelleth in him.

We must regard ourselves as nothing. I am not interested in what suits me. I must want to do His will. So, all a person can do is surrender their self-will to Jesus, of their own free-will, because they want to do that. A person who has died to themselves and regards themselves as nothing, becomes a perfect reflector of the Word of God.

All we quote is what the Bible says. We do not point people to any person, just to Jesus the Word.

Each person must focus on their personal experience with Jesus, as He is revealed in the Bible.

(JOHN 7:38) He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.

(JOHN 7:39) (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)

Water gives life in the natural. The Holy Spirit gives supernatural life.

“Believeth on Me”, refers to the thoughts in the mind or spirit that are produced by the faith in the human soul. These thoughts must be based on Scripture. Scriptural faith then motivates our actions or works.

The soul is a garden that is watered by the Holy Spirit. The Seed Word of God is planted in the garden of the soul. The Seed Word germinates the faith needed to control the spirit or mind. The thoughts of the mind bring the body under control.

(JEREMIAH 31:12) and their soul shall be as a watered garden;

(LUKE 8:11) Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God.

Mind and spirit are used interchangeably in Scripture. Thus, they mean the same thing.

(ROMANS 8:27) And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit,

(EPHESIANS 4:23) And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;

(I CORINTHIANS 15:38) But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body.

Once the Holy Spirit comes into our lives, then He begins to bring the body under subjection. Then we do not rely on our self discipline, which may fail. We rely on the fact that the Holy Spirit changes our way of thinking and makes us want to obey His will.

(ROMANS 8:10) but the Spirit is life

(I SAMUEL 25:29) but the soul of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of life with the LORD thy God

The human soul is bundled up inside the spirit.

The soul is where the Word of God grows like a Seed. The soul is where our faith is anchored to the Word.

(I THESSALONIANS 5:23) And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

This is the order that it works. The spirit is the water that is poured onto the garden of the soul where the Seed of God’s Word is planted. The Seed Word germinates and illuminates our mind or spirit which is then able to bring the body under subjection to the Word of God.

When we are born, we have a soul, but no supernatural in our human spirit. There is a vacuum there that readily attracts sinful activities, but these things fail to bring any lasting satisfaction.

This endless dissatisfaction makes people become atheists or want to pursue or worldly pleasures.

But for some, this worldly emptiness drives them to repent of their sins and accept the Lord Jesus as their personal Saviour.

When this happens, God injects a small portion of His Holy Spirit into that vacuum that is around the soul.

We walk in the Spirit as It guides us through what is written in the Word.

As we learn more of Scripture and walk more closely in God’s ways, so His Spirit guides us and grows within us to reveal more of Scripture that we had not previously seen.

This growth of the Spirit within us is called “growing in grace”.

(II PETER 3:18) But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

(I PETER 2:2) As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:

SHALOM!

Since I surrendered my heart unto the Lord, I have encountered people who seemed to be more Spiritual than others. Some even boast of the number of days they fasted. Others also live sanctimonious life who would not even step on an ant. They all claimed to be Walking in the Spirit. But is this really true?

However to walk in the Spirit, we ought to know the mind of Christ.

(I CORINTHIANS 2:16) For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.

We cannot tell God what to do. We cannot even understand what God is doing unless we have the mind of Christ to explain it all to us. God will do nothing that contradicts the LOGOS, the revealed WORD.

(ISAIAH 53:1) Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?

The Bible tells us what God does ….. but only the Spirit of Christ can reveal this to us.

So, the more we learn about the Bible, the better we understand the mind of God. God’s plan at the end time is to reveal the mysteries of Scripture so that we can follow what He is doing.

(JOHN 16:13- 14) Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. He shall glorify me:

The purpose of the Holy Spirit is to glorify Jesus, not some man.

We only walk in the Spirit if the Spirit is able to guide us on how to understand the truth of Scripture.

We only walk in the Spirit when we understand for ourselves what the Bible is talking about.

(JOHN 6:44) No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him:

Jesus is the Word. The Spirit of God draws us towards the Word.

(ISAIAH 53:1) Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?

Who is prepared to believe only what is written in Scripture? We are drawn towards the Word when the Spirit of God reveals what the Scripture means.

(DEUTERONOMY 29:29) The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.

(GENESIS 25:21) And Isaac entreated the LORD for his wife, because she was barren: and the LORD was entreated of him, and Rebekah his wife conceived.

God is outside of time and sees the past and the future as one picture. So, He knows all the decisions that humans will make. Because He can see over the curtain of time and know the end, He can tell us what the end result is going to be.

(GENESIS 25:22-23) And the children struggled together within her; and she said, If it be so, why am I thus? And she went to enquire of the LORD. And the LORD said unto her, two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger.

(ROMANS 9:13) As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.

This sounds unfair. Esau was a good man, but Esau of his own free-will despised his birthright. God knew he would do that. Thus, God hated him for despising something of great value.

Jacob was a crook but he desperately wanted that birthright.

God was not that concerned over whether their lives were good or bad. That was secondary. God was more concerned over their attitude towards His Word.

The birthright was important. What they thought about God’s Word was more important than the quality of their lives.

You can only walk in the Spirit as far as you can follow and understand the Scripture.

Predestination simply means that God already knows the end product.

If we plant a bean seed, we know what the end product will look like, as the beans will hang on the plant.

Christianity involves uniting two opposites, free-will and predestination. These two seem to contradict each other. But not really. Free-will describes our human point of view because we are free to make choices. But we do not know the future and thus do not know the consequences of our choices.

Predestination is God’s point of view. He already knows the end, as He is outside of time, and thus He knows the consequences of our free-will choices.

Free-will is concerned with the small puddle of our own lives, and the decisions we make for our own benefit, as we are unable to see the future.

This includes our desire to get saved and live a holy life, because that is obviously for our own benefit. We can be sure of being saved from hell while we swim around in our little self-obsessed puddle, but we can never be sure that we will escape the tribulation by being ready to be caught up to meet the Lord in the air. This is often called the Rapture. We can never be sure that we are good enough to go as long as we remain in the puddle of our self-will.

Predestination is concerned with God’s big Picture.

God has prepared a plan long ago in the past which is the only way to cope with the future that He can already see in advance. This is the mighty river of Life that flows from His throne in Heaven. Our problem, after getting saved, which allows us to call Jesus our Savior, is to get into this River where we are controlled by God’s Will. Because only then can we call Him Lord. Lord means Supreme Boss. We are then totally under His control.

(I CORINTHIANS 12:3) and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.

The biggest positive that we have is to focus on God’s promises. That He will guide us into all truth if we are prepared to believe that the Bible is the Absolute Truth. So, to Walk in the Spirit we ought to take the totality of the written Scriptures.

Shalom!

Isn’t it Amazing? Light can behave as a wave or as a particle.

For sometime now this dual nature of Light has baffled Scientists. They see light as a wave ripples on the surface of water that move in all directions. Sometimes they see light as a stream of particles like bullets that just move in all directions. It is impossible to really to understand how the same light can behave in such contradictory ways but it does.

Our Lord Jesus Christ is our Spiritual light. (John 4:12) Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.

He behaved both as a man and God whiles here on earth. Seemingly impossible and confusing? Combination of Man and God at the same time.

• He walked on the sea.

(Mathew 14:25-28) And in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went unto them, walking on the sea. And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, it is a spirit; and they cried out for fear. But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid

(Job 9:8) Which alone spreadeth out the heavens, and treadeth upon the waves of the sea.

• God moves through thin air. (2 Samuel 22:11) And he rode upon a cherub, and did fly: and he was seen upon the wings of the wind

The Lord Jesus moved towards heaven through thin air on the day of ascension and was seen by his disciples

(Luke 24:51) And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven.

• Jesus fed the multitude with 5 Loaves of bread and 2 fishes.

(Mathew 14:19-22) And he commanded the multitude to sit down on the grass, and took the five loaves, and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, he blessed, and brake, and gave the loaves to his disciples, and the disciples to the multitude. And they did all eat, and were filled: and they took up of the fragments that remained twelve baskets full. And they that had eaten were about five thousand men, beside women and children. Impossible for human to do.

• He raised Lazarus from the tomb.

(John 11: 44) And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, loose him, and let him go.

Our Lord Jesus Christ as light of the world is a mysterious merging of both Man and God.

SHALOM!

In (2 kings 4:38 – 41) we read,

And Elisha came again to Gilgal: and there was a dearth in the land; and the sons of the prophets were sitting before him: and he said unto his servant, Set on the great pot, and seethe pottage for the sons of the prophets.

And one went out into the field to gather herbs, and found a wild vine, and gathered thereof wild gourds his lap full, and came and shred them into the pot of pottage: for they knew them not.

So, they poured out for the men to eat. And it came to pass, as they were eating of the pottage, that they cried out, and said, O thou man of God, there is death in the pot. And they could not eat thereof.

But he said, then bring meal. And he cast it into the pot; and he said, pour out for the people, that they may eat. And there was no harm in the pot.

The clueless Jews found a wild vine that represents a doctrine that grows wild outside the Bible. Anything outside the Bible brings death.

Today gentiles in Christendom have Endless traditions that are not in the Bible. And this is destroying them. “Senior Pastor”, “Trinity”, “Easter eggs”, “Easter rabbits”, “Archbishop”, “Cardinal”, “Pope”, “Lent”, “Ash Wednesday”, “Rosary”, “Sign of the cross” “Christmas”

The list of unscriptural human ideas grows and mutates like viruses. These ideas are “wild” as they are unscriptural

Alarmingly End time message believers have also joined the bandwagon: “Are you in the message?” The thunders are revealed” “The cloud of 1963 is the mighty Angel of Revelation 10”. Etc. Beware these are wild vine which is unscriptural!

Christ is the Bread of life. Bread is made from meal. So, putting meal into the pot means that he brings them to Christ, and throws Christ into all their interpretations of Scripture. He will show them how the Scriptures were fulfilled in Christ.

SHALOM!