| Satan or Soul? You tell me....... |
Mar 20, 2008 3:23 pm
105 Views | So many people always seem to want to say that everytime something aparently goes awry that its always satan at work and we have to come against him.
Body, Soul and Spirit. Thats what we as people are made of.
Body is our outer shell
Soul is made up of our mind, emotions and will
Spirit is our eternal being formed in God's likeness. It is always in agreement with God
The word says that we have the mind of Christ as a born again believer.
The word says satan has no authority over us as a believer because of the finished work on the cross of Jesus Christ.
does satan have authority over non-born again believers? Yes he does.
We battle our soul. Is our will submissive to the will of God.
Do we allow our emotions to lead us or do we trust in God? That is a battle too.
We battle our flesh. Our mind against the mind of christ which is the spiritual mind that we have.
We need to get away from ourselves.
So when God asks you why you did something wrong are you gonna say it was that nasty satan daddy and break down crying like a child does when they are confronted about what they do?
Lets get real | |
|
2 Comments | |
| Its a shame they do not allow links in blogging |
Mar 20, 2008 5:23 am
97 Views | It would make blogging here much easier. I know they want to be able to restrict people from exchanging personal info unless they are paying client accounts.
The truth is if people want to bad enough, other people pass on info that are paying. You can also meet people over the friendfinder messenger. So who is fooling who?
Putting up links would save room and make things much easier. All that would need to happen is it being cleared before it is put up and they use filters now from what I understand. | |
|
0 Comments | |
| The Mark of the Beast.... back then |
Mar 20, 2008 4:44 am
121 Views | It says all those who follow the beast, they are given the mark of the beast, and this mark is 666. What is 6? 7 is the number of fullness, and normally it speaks of God, His fullness and perfection. 6 is certainly the number of man. The day on which man was created – Day number 6. Man who never quite made it to fullness in God. We never reach God’s rest day of 7 except in Christ.
On the coins of the Roman world was the Emperor, with references to his divinity. The early Christians called this the "mark of the beast," and would not handle such coins, and so were excluded from buying and selling, unless they accepted the mark of the beast. Firstly they accepted the mark in their heads, in their thinking, and then they accepted the mark in their hand.
~ A N | |
|
12 Comments | |
| The Symbolism of Revelation |
Mar 20, 2008 4:26 am
188 Views | by A N
When we come to the Book of Revelation, we must ask the following questions.
Who wrote it?
To whom was it written?
When was it written?
Why was it written?
What is the historical context?
To answer our questions, it was written approximately AD 95. It was written by John the Apostle, even though he was a very old man. John wrote to 7 real churches, Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamon, Thyatira, Sardis Philadelphia, and Laodecia’.
John was in prison on Patmos, which is a small island near Turkey. His crime? He was a Christian. We know from history that in 95 the Roman emperor was called Domitian. Domitian was a fanatic about emperor worship. Now by emperor worship, we mean that once a year every citizen of the Roman Empire, would have to stand in front of a statue, raise his right hand, and say the Emperor is Lord, and God. The citizens would then take a pinch of incense, and drop it into the flames.
Domitian began every one of his letters, ‘Your Lord and your God Domitian speaks’. And when he entered a theatre, everyone had to stand and state, ‘Our Lord and Lady, our God’. Many Christians would not stand, and simply confess, ‘Jesus Christ is Lord’.
Therefore when John refused to bow to the Emperor, he was imprisoned, and he worked in the marble mines, John had chains around his wrists and feet; he lived on bread and water, as he had done for a number of years.
The word witness in the book of Revelation actually means martyr. As far as these early Christians were concerned, if you are going to give witness or testimony that Jesus Christ is God, you have a martyr mentality. This book was written to people under persecution of such a degree, that if they opened their mouth, and confessed they were Christians, they had better already have faced up to martyrdom. A martyrdom of real bloodshed and death, or a martyrdom, which was a living martyrdom, banishment like John, or the loss of home or job.
So as we come to this book, we must take into account the Christians it was written to. Just supposing that this Book was only about future prophecy; if that were the case, then we have got to find it plainly stated to those first-century readers. They must understand that when they’d finished reading this book, they will have to close it and say, we understand that there is nothing in this book for us, it awaits another 2000 years before its fulfilment, because if God wrote this book to the people that are alive today, and did not tell those first-century readers, who thought it was for them, then God is cheating them. Unless of course, God put in the letter, ‘this letter is not for you’.
The only way to read the book of Revelation is by reading it over the shoulder of the first century believers. It was only written to us, as the whole Word of God was written to us. We will never understand it until we understand what it meant to the first century believers.
In verse 3 the Book promises to be a unique blessing to everyone who reads it. ‘Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy’. Now that is suddenly taken out of the context of the first century readers and is now for us, but we must read it looking over their shoulder.
In the very first verse of Revelation the original Greek is ‘He sent and made it known by signs and symbols’. When you read of a Lamb that has been slain, everyone knows that the lamb is Jesus. Now if you use that same logic for every other part of Revelation, then it is a very simple book to understand.
We will find a lamb that is full of eyes and horns, and we will also find a woman sitting on a beast, and she is carrying a cup full of blood.
This is a book full of signs and symbols, picture numbers, and picture colours. So when we meet a city called Jerusalem, even though we do not know what it is, we know it is NOT Jerusalem. For a symbol is pointing away to something else.
If we are going to look at a book that was written 2,000 years ago, and interpret it by looking at today’s newspaper, we are heading for a lot of misinterpretation. So our aim in this work is to bring the pictures and symbols to life. We couldn’t possibly give you all of the symbols, echoes and allusions on this tape. So we have set out to give you the big picture and then you can fill in the blank spaces yourself.
There is no chronological order to this book, for example chapter seven might be relevant to what is happening to the local church in a city in southern India. Whilst in the next city the local church there may be experiencing chapter thirteen. The local church in Peking China, may be going through the tribulation, while the local church in Moscow, Russia is not. The early believers were being thrown into a den of lions; try handing them a book of theology that said the tribulation would not take place for another 2,000 years or so. In fact in the very first chapter of this book the writer tells us that they are in the tribulation. All of the events in this book are about the first and second coming of Christ. The following interpretation of the Revelation symbols has been in the church since the 1st century.
As we begin to feel the atmosphere of this book, we begin to feel we are in an opera – it is a cosmic opera. There is a choir and there is a lot of singing. You have gone to your cave and you are looking over the Mediterranean sea, above you is the bright dome of the sky – behind you is the dark cave, where a trumpet sounds, and you see in symbolic form a picture of Jesus, and then he tells you write, you grab your pen and you begin to write as he dictates the letter, to the seven churches.
The result was that the book of the Revelation, written in Greek, it is the worst Greek of the New Testament. It was obviously written by someone who did not have time to look at the last sentence. Whoever wrote the book of Revelation, is writing it as fast as he can, following the pictures and symbols all of the time.
So the code that interprets the symbols that reveals Jesus must be so utterly simple that the newest Christian can break the code. God makes it so simple, He puts the book at the end of the Bible, gives us 65 books which come before it, and then fills the last book with echoes and allusions to every other book of the Bible. Almost every verse of the book of Revelation has a direct or implied reference to another part of the Bible, and as you go back to that other part of the Bible, you find the symbol.
What about when the water becomes blood? What about when rocks fall from the sky? That is in the OLD TESTAMENT. What about the 2 witnesses? Read Deuteronomy, Deuteronomy tells you what the two witnesses are. God made it so simple, A heathen comes along reads it and says, I knew these Christians were stupid, he doesn’t know what it means, the code is only for the initiated, those who are born again and have an Old Testament in their hands. The whole of the book of revelation takes place between the first and second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. If you DELETE the chapters and verses, the outline of this book is very simple. There are seven visions.
The first vision, which is from chapters 1- 3, shows us Christ in the middle of His Church. The second vision is from chapter 4 through chapter 7, which portrays the Church in trial and persecution. The third vision, which is chapters 8 to 11, shows that the Church is protected– it is triumphant, in fact, God avenges the Church.
The fourth vision chapters 12 through to 14, Christ in His church opposes the satanic trinity. The fifth vision, which is chapters 15 and 16, shows us the wrath of God, which falls on those who will not repent. The sixth vision, which is chapters 17 through to 19, shows us the fall of Babylon and the destruction of all that oppose God. The final vision is chapters 20 to 22, which are about the judgement of Satan, and the eternal victory of Christ, forever and ever. | |
|
36 Comments | |
| Todays Prophets and Apostles |
Mar 19, 2008 10:40 pm
119 Views | APOSTLES AND PROPHETS TODAY
There are those who claim to be apostles and prophets by their own word. Others claim it by showing their signs, wonders and miracles. This so-called signs and wonders movement is part of an effort to restore what they understood to be the five-fold ministry described in Ephesians 4:11.
The proliferators of the movement claim that these dynamics are what is necessary for the church to have power. In actuality, those who lay claim to this ministry today are operating under a misunderstanding of apostles and prophets of the Bible.
The Lord confirmed His signs to the apostles' words to show a transition of authority from Israel and its priesthood to the apostles who were laying down the foundation for the church, a new entity. This unique anointing testified to Israel and to the gentiles a new order of leadership, the demonstration of spiritual authority was transferred to the church Christ body. Becoming aware of what the Bible says about these positions in the early church can help us guard against misleading teachings in the church today.
Validated by signs and miracles, the apostles deemed the faith for the whole Church and established the written word by inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Once the scriptures were completed, the Church had all that was necessary in the area of revelational truth. The apostles' instructions were in words, then put to paper for all succeeding generations on how to live in obedience to the faith.
Once a foundation is laid down and a house is built, we don't rebuild the foundation.(Eph.2:20) Neither should we rip apart the house that the Lord has built.
A true apostle would point out the false ones. Yet today, not only do those who claim to be apostles fail to do so, but there are threats and manipulations for those who do not go along with what they are trying to portray. 'Jezebel,' 'Antichrist,' and 'Blasphemer of the Holy Spirit' are common terms used for those who speak against them.
Alarmingly, these impostor’s claim to be exclusively without error in their interpretations and teachings on these matters. They are to be questioned by no one. In reading the letter of Jude, we find him exhorting the believers to contend for their faith among apostates in the church.
More specifically, verse 17 reminds the church of the apostles' warnings of mockers coming in the last days that are natural men not having the Spirit. Today we find those who claim to have more of it than others. Nowhere do we find the apostles preaching they are anointed and certainly did not imply they were more so than others. The danger of these mislead leaders is that they will cause divisions without realizing the harm they do, nor the judgment that they will eventually incur upon themselves.
Most scholars agree there are at least 3 and possibly as many as 5 groupings of apostles in the NT. First is Jesus who stands alone as the apostle in Heb.3:1-6 sent by God to be the Savior of the world. All other apostles derive their position under him. We find an apostle is 'one sent from'. There is a technical use and a general use in this term.
Scripturally we find that the apostles were all personally chosen by the Lord Jesus. Mt.10:1-4 and in Lk.6:12-16 names the 12 apostles, one of which was chosen for perdition. The 70 as well as the twelve were also trained and sent out. The position of the apostles were not permanently fixed number until after the resurrection (Matt. 19:28-30; Lk. 22:28-34; Jn. 21:15-1 . The number 12 then becomes an eternally established number.
Matthew and Mark use the term “apostle” only once for the Twelve who were sent on a missionary journey (Matt. 10:2; Mk. 6:30). Luke uses the title the most frequently and almost exclusively calls the Twelve “apostles” (Lk. 6:13; 9:10; 17:5; 22:14; 24:10; Acts 1:26; 2:43; 4:35,37; 5:2,12,18; 8:1. )
One of the Biblical requirements for one to be rightly regarded as an apostle were those following Jesus from the time of John’s baptism. They also were to have seen the risen Lord be witnesses of his resurrection. When the closed group of twelve became eleven, they sought another to take Judas' office: Acts 1:21-22 “Therefore, of these men who have accompanied us all the time the Lord Jesus went in and among us beginning from the baptism of John to that day he was taken up from us One of these must become a witness with us of his resurrection.' “
The men went on to cast lots, and the lot fell on Mattias which closed the group of 12 permanently. We later see God choosing Paul in Acts 9. Also see 1 Corinthians 9: 1.) We find that the apostles were given authority to perform special miracles .
In Revelation 12:12 there are 12 gates and the name of the 12 tribes in Rev.21:14, there is reference to twelve foundations with the names of the 12 apostles of the Lamb which are written on them in Heaven. Jesus referred to this in Mt.19:28, that in the millennium those who have followed him (the apostles) will sit on 12 thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel. These twelve seem to relate to Israel specifically, while Paul does not.
Paul's own words in defense of his apostleship claim in 1 Cor. 9:1: “Am I not an apostle? ... Have I not seen Jesus Christ our lord? Essentially there were two different groups those who were with Jesus when he was alive and then were witnesses of his resurrection and Paul as one who was witness to his resurrection only not having him be of the 12.(I need to mention that there are some who hold the position that apostleship was temporary and as Judas was replaced so could be any of the others. This does not seem to be a tenable position since there is no mention of this occurring in scripture.)
In 1 Cor. 15 Paul describes the gospel and concentrates on the resurrection and the sequence of his appearing during the 40 day period after the resurrection.Vs.5 “And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve: then by over 500.” Vs.7 “Then he was seen by James then by all the apostles.”
After the resurrection the “twelve”, is a number used to Identify the apostles originally with Jesus. This does not necessarily mean their were 12 only gathered to see him. It certainly cannot mean it was Matthias as one of the 12 since he was picked after Jesus left and ascended. Their is no account of a special appearance to him or anyone else as was with Paul only. The term 12 identified them as the group number that began with John and saw the resurrection. But from the group of 500 he appeared to, there were apostles among them as well as in vs.7 Then the apostles all.
Other requirements within this first qualification of being from John and a witness to the resurrection. He must have been taught divine truth by Jesus personally (Gal.1:1,12; 1Cor.15:3). The 11 were commissioned together as Jesus breathed on them the Holy Spirit as an indication of their unity and authority to forgive sins ads they proclaimed the Gospel
. The exception is Paul who was taught personally by Christ while he was in Arabia for 3 years. When he emerged he had the same teaching as the 12. (Jn.14:26, 16:13; 1 Cor.13:37) So an apostle will agree with the already commissioned apostles in Scripture.
They were commissioned to communicate the very words of the Lord (1 Thess.2:13;1 Jn.4:6) They could speak words of judgment and the miraculous and have it immediately executed (Jn.20:23; Acts 5:3-11; 13:10, 1 Cor.5:3-5; 1 Tim.1:20). The Apostles exercised a position of authority as a community of elders over the church which was to be obeyed as if it was the Lord himself. (1 Cor.5:3-5; 2 Cor.10:6,8,11; 2 Thess.3 -12,14). All these were in the nature of the office of an apostle.
Paul sometimes uses the term “apostle” in a broader sense for a messenger like a legate (2 Cor. 8:23; they are called apostles of the church),” a non technical term with a general meaning. There is a difference supported in scripture to be an apostle of the Lord, personally chosen and sent by him; and an apostle of the church, sent out by the body of believers. This broader usage made it possible to include others who would be considered false apostles, messengers (2 Cor.11:14; Rev 2:2). Paul also uses the word for a group of witnesses who had seen the risen Lord before him and had received a specific call to an apostleship. This group was larger than the Twelve.
The book of Acts is recording a transitional period from when Christ left physically and sent the Holy Spirit to continue his ministry. The book of Acts traces the missions of two of the apostles specifically and others when they relate to their ministry. Peter to the Jews and Paul to the Gentiles.
When the apostles came and laid hands on people they received the Spirit in the dramatic way like Pentecost. The Bible never shows any regular Christian laying hands and their receiving the gift of the Spirit in this way.
A question often posed is, 'Can others do miracles like the apostles, since Mark 16:17-18 describes “and these signs will follow those who believe in my name they will cast out demons they will speak in other tongues and… will heal the sick.” (' Note: these particular verses are not found in the majority of the manuscripts, granted that they are...) The answer is found in a careful examination of the text. Where we find in the Mark 16:14 narrative that Jesus is speaking to the 11 and commissions them to preach the Gospel first then baptizing the believers.
So we find that the Lord is in fact speaking directly to the apostles just before he is taken up into Heaven (verse 19). Afterward, the apostles went out and preached, and the Lord was working with them confirming His Word through accompanying signs. Therefore, there is no evidence that all believers can do what the apostles did. What did occur is the word was first preached and the signs and wonders followed to validate the new leadership for the church. In much the same way Jesus’ miracles were to validate his person and message.
If these signs and wonders were to follow all who believe how could one tell who the apostles were? There would be no distinction in leadership. The very reason for the signs and miracles were to appoint the apostles as a governing leadership over Gods new entity the Church. If we look at the book of Acts who was it that took up a serpent? Paul an apostle. Who laid hands on the sick and they recovered? The apostles. This was never a normal occurrence for everyone who was a Christian. When Dorcas died the believers did not raise her but sent for Peter to raise her from the dead (9:36-42). This also shows that Mk.16:17 is not a promise that was being exercised to all believers.
“ Truly the signs of an apostle were accomplished among you with all perseverance, in signs and wonders and mighty deeds.”(2 Cor. 12:12) The sign of an apostle was the miracles done, this distinguished them from the other believers.
Unlike those who claim miraculous healings today the apostles healed totally and instantaneously. It was permanent not as some claim today that one must continue in faith or the devil will steal it away. They were able to heal all such as Paul on the Island of Malta in Acts 28 healed Publius and the rest of the people who had diseases came to him.
He was also able to be unaffected by a poisenous snake. They healed organic disease on those from birth. They raised the dead . Peter raised Dorcas Acts 9:36-42, Paul raised Eutyches back to life after he fell 3 stories Acts 20:6-12. Like Jesus it was by a word or a touch, as God approved their office it was immediate and permanent .
Acts 2:43: “Then fear came upon every soul and many signs and wonders are done through the apostles. Acts 5:12 “And through he hands of the apostles many signs and wonders were done among the people. Acts 14:3” Paul and Barnabas speak boldly in the Lord, who bears witness to His word of grace, granting signs sign and wonders to be done through their hands.”
All these and many more scriptures show that the apostles were special men commissioned for a unique role in a particular time period for the Church. (Ephesians 2:20) “Having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets…Notice past tense, been built. Once a foundation is laid it does not need to be laid down again, it is built upon “ It was upon these men the apostles and prophets that the foundation the church was built on, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone.
Those who claim apostolic authority today are attempting to rebuild the church whose foundation was already laid and built . Later on in Eph.4:11 Paul writes, “and he himself gave some to be apostles and prophets, some evangelists and some pastors and teachers…” he does not say he keeps on giving apostles and prophets for the simple reason formerly stated they were the foundation of the church. Paul makes no distinction of what is continued or what is not in this passage. Anything mentioned in Eph.4:11 must be in light of the former statement in 2:20 of the apostles and prophets laying down the foundation in the past tense (foundation in the scriptures for us to come to the unity of the faith.)
We do see Pastors and teachers continue as they are not supernatural offices or sign gifts but leaders and rulers over the congregations after the apostles were gone. The Apostles wrote down the teachings for the Church to follow. If their are apostles today in the sense of the Church’s beginnings there would have to be new revelation. This would have to be included as Scripture because apostolic revelation is authoritative and infallible. It would then be on the same level as our Bible.
This is what the Mormon church claims and many other cult groups. To say we have modern day apostles like Matthew and Paul is to say Scripture is continually being written which means rejecting the former revelation of the apostles given by Jesus. As John writes in his 1st epistle 1:1-4 “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life-- the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us-- that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. And these things we write to you that your joy may be full.”
The greatest men who influenced the church throughout history never claimed they were apostles or prophets. They never taught that these 2 offices continued. Athanasius, Irenaeus, Hippolytus, Augustine, Luther, Calvin, Edwards, Finney, Great theologians like Charles Hodge , A.H Strong or Gill and all others were satisfied to build upon the foundation already laid by the original apostles.We find the only apostles mentioned in Church history after the bible was completed were false ones.
The gift and office of apostleship was the first and most important gift given after Christ ascended, but it was a temporary gift and office that does not continue to our present time. For the simple reason people do not see Jesus Christ in His bodily resurrection. For this to be so he would have to leave the right hand of God and make a special appearance.
We know from scripture the next time he comes is for everyone at the rapture, there are no secret comings. The apostles had completed their mission of laying the foundation of the Church and the doctrine was inscripturated. God's Word is complete no new revelation is needed. While the Lord does speak to us today he does not give any new revelation or doctrine since it has been delivered and completed.
There were also apostolic legates those directly commissioned by an apostle, their were no apostolic miracles done except in the presence of one or being commissioned by one. Two examples are Stephen and Philip. Acts 6:5-8: “And they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, and Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas, a proselyte from Antioch, whom they set before the apostles; and when they had prayed, they laid hands on them. Then the word of God spread, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith. And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and signs among the people.”
Stephen was directly appointed by an apostle approved into ministry. He was what is called an apostolic legate, one that is commissioned by an apostle. It is these legates like Philip who went to Samaria (Acts ahead of the apostles to bring the gospel to new areas until Paul and Barnabas were sent. Even in Acts 8 when Philip preached Christ and did miracles they believed and were baptized. They sent for the apostles vs.14-15 and when they came and prayed it was then as they laid hands on them they received the Holy Spirit from on high. also in Acts 10, and 19. So all the miracles were in the presence of one of the apostles or one commissioned by one. (James the Lords brother was called an apostle Gal.1:19, James is included in Gal. 2:9 also Barnabas 1 Cor. 9:5-6)
Paul became an apostle by seeing the resurrected Christ Acts 9 and 1 Cor.15:8. Paul was picked by Jesus. There are those today who claim that someone can see Jesus and be an apostle just like Paul. We have to look at this event carefully. Jesus appeared to choose him, he was an unbeliever at the time. It became his conversion. Jesus appeared to him in glory more in the manner of what John saw on the Isle of Patmos when he wrote the Revelation, not like the disciples saw him after his resurrection.
Acts 9:5 It is clear, from this event that there was a personal appearance as he states who was the object of his contempt. Jesus appeared in a manifestation “crowned with glory and honor.” As Paul states in Gal 1:16 I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood. Paul certainly understood what this shekinah glory was knowing the OT. as he did. Paul actually became blind from seeing the glory Acts 22:11.
In Acts 9:17, after the Lord speaks to Annanias in a vision he States to Paul “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you came.”
And Barnabas states when he brought him before the apostles at Jerusalem, he declared to them how he had SEEN the Lord in the way, and that he had spoken unto him; and in Acts 22:14, “The God of our fathers has chosen you that you should know His will, and see the Just One, and hear the voice of His mouth.”
Gal 1:1 Paul, an apostle (not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised Him from the dead). He then became an apostle to the gentiles (as well as Barnabas Gal.2:9; Acts:13:2,7, 15:12) as Peter and the others was to the Jews. In 1 Cor. 9:1 Paul in defense of his position states “Am I not an apostle? Am I not free. Have I not seen Jesus Christ our lord? He then validates his position by their salvation. So he met the 2nd requirement, to be a witness of the resurrection Acts 1:22.
Paul defended his apostleship in 2 Corinthians 12:11-12, using examples of signs and wonders. If these miracles and signs were common for everyone, how then could Paul use these as proof of his authority? Even when the apostles were alive, all Christians could not do signs and wonders so they certainly cannot do them today. Some of these were unusual miracle uncommon occurrences such as healing from his handkerchiefs Acts 19:12. Again, God used these miracles as witnesses to confirm His gospel as truth, and to identify His new leadership it was these men who penned down the words of the Holy Spirit that has become our New Testament. Once the scripture was completed we find no more apostles
How can we know this for sure? Because Paul states unequivocally in 1 Cor.15: after going through the witnesses of the resurrection. Vs. 8 “Then LAST OF ALL seen by me also, as one born out of due time.” Paul is appealing to his unusual appointment. He was the last on earth (Gr. last in time) to see the risen Christ (Thayers Gr. optanomai or optomai- to look at, to behold , to allow oneself to be seen, to appear ) and that his encounter was an abortion. “Paul resembled such a birth, in the suddenness of his new birth, in that he was not matured for the apostolic function, as the others were, who had personal converse with our Lord. He was called to the office when such conversation was not to be had, he was out of time for it. He had not known nor followed the Lord, nor been formed in his family, as the others were,” (from Matthew Henry's Commentary)
In the same sense neither are there any more apostles by abortion today. Since Paul was the LAST OF ALL. “Paul’s adverbs of time here is chronological: then (eita), then (epeita), then (epeita), then (eita), last of all (eschaton pantoôn)”. (A.T. Robertsons word Pictures)
This should settle the issue that just as the 12 became a closed group, so likewise Paul ended the Lord choosing others. The fact is there is no more apostles chosen after Paul.
The pastoral epistles give the principles and positions for church leadership throughout history, they mention elders, teachers and deacons. They never mention apostles. The only apostolic category that consists today is the one of being sent out as a missionary planting Churches. There are pastors, teachers and elders for Church government today also evangelists, as well as spiritual gifts being operational for the local body.
Jude said, “But you, beloved, ought to remember the words that were spoken beforehand by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Jude 17). Jude does not mention any continuance of apostles in the Church, he points back to them. When the apostles spoke, there was no debating. They were already recognized as the leaders revealing Gods will for the Church . Whereas the prophets, whose words had to be judged as to their accuracy.
While there is no contest that at least some of the gifts of the Spirit are operating today (God still heals supernaturally and does miracles), but we must keep our views in healthy balance with the scriptures. The Biblical portrayal or definition of the position of apostle is as an appointed office by Christ, not merely a spiritual gift. The word apostle can be used in a general sense in reference to someone commissioned to go out and start churches (2 Cor. 8:23). In this sense, a believer can exercise the gift of apostle today, as a 'sent out one.' However, one cannot claim to hold the office of an apostle as in the 12 as we see many doing today.
The Apostles set position were authenticated by the miraculous. Acts 3:3-11Peter healed the crippled man at the gate of the Temple as well as others. (Acts 5:15-16) Paul had also brought Eutychus back to life after he had fallen to his death (Acts 20:6-12). No apostolic miracles were ever performed in the apostolic era by anyone other than the apostles and those who were commissioned by them, showing this office was unique to its time.
It is also worth pointing out that the apostles were limited on the miracles they performed; none of them ever fed five thousand as Jesus did, nor did they ever walk on water or translocate into a room on their own. Yet they did do unusual healings and miracles and resurrect people, which was also the last sign Jesus said would be given to the unbelieving generation at that time. Today it seems we are again surrounded by unbelief, even in the church, because so many are following those who do signs and wonders. Jesus said it was an evil and adulterous generation that seeks after a sign and a wonder. Today our generation is repeating the same error as the unbelieving Jews except it supposedly from believers.
The apostles never preached signs and wonders to attract the multitudes much less those who already believe. Seeing a sign was never a assurance of belief.
We are warned of false apostles those who claim authority that is not from God and can do miracles. In much the same way as the false prophets God told Jeremiah,” I have not sent them or spoken to them.”
With all this in mind Paul did not use the signs and miracles as the absolute proof of his apostolic position.
1 Cor. 4:9-13: “For I think that God has displayed us, the apostles, last, as men condemned to death; for we have been made a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to men. We are fools for Christ's sake, but you are wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are distinguished, but we are dishonored To the present hour we both hunger and thirst, and we are poorly clothed, and beaten, and homeless.
And we labor, working with our own hands. Being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we endure being defamed, we entreat. We have been made as the filth of the world, the offscouring of all things until now.” Notice he says they were last examples condemned to death, weak, poor, hungry, beaten and homeless. Its obvious we don’t see those who claim these positions today living in such a manner. They for the most part became martyrs. Today those who claim apostolic positions live in luxury and opulence.
Col. 1:24 “I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church.” Paul’s life of weakness and suffering showed his gifting and position. Paul’s life of denial showed his anointing.
2 Cor.1:6: “Now if we are afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effective for enduring the same sufferings which we also suffer. Or if we are comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation.”
History tells us that all of the apostles (minus one Judas) were killed for their service to the Lord. This is hardly the case for those claiming this position today.
There are numerous warnings in scripture, in Mt.7 there is number of people who claim before the Lord have we not prophesied in your name, cast out demons in your name and done many wonders. Clearly they are laying claim to some type of apostolic position.
Then I will declare to them I never knew you, depart from me you who practice lawlessness.” They tried to be accepted by what they did , by the power they supposedly had but they did not do the will of the Lord which is to preach the Gospel in truthfulness. Yet the lord said he never had a relationship with them. So his name is not a stamp of authenticity for anyone (obviously it was a different Jesus who was their source of power.) They were lawless they were not under his leadership, or guidance they did not practice the law of Christ. They tried to approach God on their own merit by their good deeds saying look at what we did, we had power. It wasn't about power but about knowing him in a relationship. “I never knew you “he gave them what they already possessed, since they were departed from him to begin with.
In Rev. 2:2: “unto the church in Ephesus write… Thou hast tried them that say They are apostles and are not, and has found them to be liars.”
They were false apostles because they did not see the risen Lord nor were they commissioned by him. They did not live or teach to the standard of scripture.
2 Cor.11:12-14: “For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light, Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works.” They can look right but if they do not speak according to the word already delivered then whatever follows in miracles is not from God but from another source.
The true apostles are unique in their ministry , office, and power never to be duplicated. They were for a specific period in Church history. It is impossible for their to be modern day apostles as in the beginning since none of those today possess the necessary credentials to be an apostle. In 1 Cor.4:9 Paul explains what it was to be an apostle. “For I think God has displayed us, the apostles, last, as men condemned to death; “ (this is in the aorist tense meaning that they do not continue.) The apostles example were that they gave their lives for Christ and the Church. It was their teaching and it being written including miracles that made them apostles.
In warning, Jesus said to those who were following Him for the blessings, 'Unless you people see signs and wonders you will by no means believe.' Our choice today is to believe His Word that he spoke, not self-appointed men in spiritual offices in which they clearly do not belong.
Jude said, “But you, beloved, ought to remember the words that were spoken beforehand by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Jude 17).This is Gods word to those who think they are in the category of the ancient apostles.
The apostolic age was unique in histories timeline and it ended. Jesus says it, Paul does, history teaches this, theology teaches it, and the New Testament itself continually affirms it.
What makes a prophet
What makes a prophet a true spokesman for God?
The Old Testament prophets taught the basic truths and principles of God, and the facts and nuances of man's relationship with Him. They condemned sin, they brought comfort to the remnant, and conviction to those who sinned. They were invariably persecuted by the target portion of Israel, and most importantly, they spoke of things to come both near and far into the future Deuteronomy 18:15 -19 tells us of the nature of a true prophet. Verses 20 through 22 state that if one claiming to be a prophet speaks in the Lord's name, something God has not given him to say, or speaks in the name of other gods, then he is to die. Thankfully, the Lord provides a method for identifying fallacies spread by would-be divine spokesmen. If what is said in His name does not come to pass, then God has not spoken it.
In Ezekiel there is an interesting scripture Ezek. 13:2-3 “Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel who prophesy, and say to those who prophesy out of their own heart, 'Hear the word of the LORD!'“ Thus says the Lord GOD: “Woe to the foolish prophets, who follow their own spirit and have seen nothing! God says one can actually say they are hearing from the Lord but it really is their own spirit.
In the OT prophets prophesied within three time frames . Their own time, for the 1st coming and the 2nd coming. The test of a prophet was his near prophecies which would be fulfilled in his own lifetime. Obviously, if it was beyond his lifetime, he wouldn't be around to have to answer for it. Prophecy was very specific in the Old and the New Testament. They would foretell God's revelation to the people and if one looks back at Biblical record to study a prophet's calling, it was God who picked them and they are often found arguing not to have the office. In contrast, there are now schools to train new prophets because the people desire this office.
Another test used on would be prophets, found in Deuteronomy 13:1. In addition to whether or not their predictions came true is whether they used signs and wonders as tools to draw people to other gods or a different representation of God. (Such as Jannes and Jambres in 2 Timothy 3:. Here, God is testing the people to see if they love only Him. This is probably the most overlooked scripture pertaining to examining the claims of those who profess supernatural powers that come from God. If they were to contradict the teaching that had already been revealed - which had provided knowledge of the one true God then they were seen as false prophets. God did not, and still does not tolerate false prophesying.
If they wrong once, they are false, they were to be stoned. If this occurred today many if not all who lay claim to this position would have a quick end to their so called anointing!
Remember: just because one performs miracles, even inside a church, does not mean God is working. We should be more on guard inside the church than we would like to think. In 1 Corinthians 4:6, we are told no to go beyond what in written. If one contradicts the apostolic writings and teachings, then they are false (2 Cor.11:14).
Those who go beyond the word having God speak to them directly with new revelation, become puffed up with self deception. There is something called humility that is practiced when one adheres to the same standard that everyone else does. Isa.8:16” bind up the testimony (of the Prophets) seal the law among my disciples”. (Moses) vs. 20 “To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because their is no light in them.” This standard distinguishes a believer from an unbeliever.
The test of the prophet was his conformity to the word of God, he condemns sin, he comforts the brethren, and he speaks of things in the near future and later than his life. A prophet, like an apostle, not only functioned as a gift, but as an office. A prophet would declare God's will for his generation, addressing idolatry or lukewarmness. We see this personified in John the Baptist who warned and rebuked the people preparing the for the Messiah.
Jesus said there was no greater prophet than John the baptizer (of the old Testament dispensation) because he had the privilege to introduce the messiah.
In the Old Testament there were prophets who did not speak for God yet the people loved to hear what they had to say more than the true prophets words. Jer.23:16 “They speak visions from their own minds, not from the mouth of the LORD”. A few verses later God calls them lying prophets, v. 30 “who steal from one another words supposedly from me.”
Isa. 29:10-13: “For the LORD has poured out on you the spirit of deep sleep, and has closed your eyes, namely, the prophets; and He has covered your heads, namely, the seers. The whole vision has become to you like the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one who is literate, saying, “Read this, please.” And he says, “I cannot, for it is sealed.” Then the book is delivered to one who is illiterate, saying, “Read this, please.” And he says, “I am not literate Therefore the LORD said: “Inasmuch as these people draw near with their mouths and honor Me with their lips, but have removed their hearts far from Me, and their fear toward Me is taught by the commandment of men.”
When we see new prophets operate outside the written word or give new unknown meanings to the word they have become illiterate to expounding truth. When this happens many turn to signs and wonders to validate their ministry. Its not truth that they have to give, but the power to display. 2 Tim.4:3 The time will come when they will not adhere to sound doctrine but according to their desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers, and they will turn away from the truth and be turned aside to fables.” Fables are all things beyond what is written in the word.
Time is the enemy of a false prophet, so if one cannot discern from their conforming to scriptures, then they will certainly be able to tell by waiting to see if what was said will come to pass. In the New Testament, when the foundation of the faith was being laid down, a prophet saying “thus saith the Lord” would bring forth new revelations which in turn became our scripture. This is a strong reason why there are no more prophets today.
Acts 13:1: “Now in the church that was at Antioch there were certain prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the holy spirit said “now separate unto me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” Remember the NT. was still being written down and there was revelation given. The prophets here were Saul and Barnabas and more likely the others were the teachers mentioned.
God is able and still does speak in various ways, yet he has chosen a more explicit but simple way to convey his message. It is by his son. Not just any Son but one who is God himself who delivered it in person. his words are written down so it can be understood equally to all. To change this or reject this method is to reject God.
Not everyone mentioned in the Bible who received direct revelation from God was a prophet or even a believer. God spoke to Pharaoh in a dream also Nebuchadnezzar. In Gen.20 Abimelech is warned by God not to take Sarah into his harem. So just because one receives a dream or vision does not mean they are of God. Also we need to know the enemy can give prophecies that will come to pass but will oppose Gods word. So all needs to be tested by the words of the true prophets and apostles.
In Jeremiah’s day he was commissioned to be the prophet to the people as they were in Babylonian captivity. Jeremiah was made an illustration to the Hebrew people as the time was ordained to be 70 years of captivity. The children of Israel were to submit to being in captivity for the duration ordained by God for the sake of their own survival or it was considered rebellion. Jeremiah’s message to Zedekiah the king was not to believe the false prophets they encourage the people to rebel. We find Jeremiah is put in a yoke for 4 years to illustrate Israel captivity to Babylon.
In Jer.28 Hananiah the prophet publicly prophecies in the temple that within 2 years Jeconiah and all taken captive with him the vessels of the Lords house will be brought back into Jerusalem. The yolk will be broken. To illustrate this he takes the yoke off Jeremiah that the Lord had him wear and breaks it. Jeremiah immediately receives a word from the Lord in which he says Go tell Hananiah Thus says the Lord you have broken the yokes of wood but you have made in their place a yolk of Iron.
Gods response to his self made prophecy is he will put all the nations in the surrounding area in a yolk of iron to serve the king of Babylon. It is then Jeremiah addresses him directly saying “hear now, Hananiah, the Lord has not sent you, but you make these people trust in a lie. Therefore says the Lord I will cast you from the face of the earth, this year you shall die because you have taught rebellion against the Lord and so he died in the 7th month of the same year. Obviously Jeremiah and others were in no position to bring sentence on the false prophets so God did.
What we see is false prophets incorporate their own agenda. We find censoring the false prophets protects Gods people from harm, physically and spiritually. Anyone who allows people of this type of questionable ability to go for it in their church needs to question whether they are pleasing man or God. As a shepherd do they really care for the sheep or are for promoting their own ministry. We don’t read of any second chances for false predictions or an attitude of let bygones be bygones.
The scripture does not allow to let prophets practice because practice makes perfect. There are no readjustments in their figures. Nor do we hear, lets see if any harm comes from what they say first before we judge. 2 Peter 1:19 says we have a more sure word of prophecy. No prophecy of scripture is of any private interpretation. There seems to be a common denominator with all the new cults that disguise themselves as the original. They have new views on basic fundamental doctrines that have been accepted for almost 2,000 years it usually starts with the Lord told me or he appeared to me or I went to heaven. Sorry the job description has been filled your to late.
Hebrews 1:1 I tells us that God has spoken in times past to the fathers by the prophets in many various ways, but in these last days, He has spoken by His Son. Once the New Testament was completed, there was no longer a need for prophets to reveal God's will or new revelational knowledge. His Son's words are all we need. prophets are not a continuing position. However, we do have the gift of prophecy functioning for edification, consolation, and exhortation within the local church body. But this is never doctrine. Prophets are not sent, as in Old Testament times, to rebuke; rather the gift is to console and build us up.
God is able and still does speak in various ways yet he has chosen a more explicit but simple way to convey his message. It is by his son. Not just any son but one who is God himself to delivered it in person. To change this or reject this method is to reject God. As Jesus said he who receives you receives me and he who receives me receives the one who sent me, the father.
What do all false prophets have in common? A hope of not being tested! They count on the people not to test their writings by putting guilt and fear in those that would dare to question Gods “anointed ones”. Most people think that if we just teach the truth then we don’t have to address error. However error dies a slow death and must be exposed and then killed by the truth.
Infections don’t leave the body by just eating right they need to be combated by antibiotics. The writers of the scripture did not believe in the concept of just teaching the truth. We have numerous letters that have their major content and themes addressing the false views and practices that arose in the early church. 1 Cor., 2 Thess. and 2nd John, Jude would not have been written if the apostles did not put the truth alongside error to expose it. All error challenges the truth and if accepted will usually rise above it.
It was chased out of the early church and if a church is to be true to the words delivered by the apostles then it needs to be forged with the same attitude today. To be apologetic in ones approach to the culture and beliefs of the people is to be evangelical. That is to make sense out of the Gospel. The Bible teaches to preach the word not new revelation knowledge. If someone claims the position of a prophet they need to be brave enough to accept the consequences of one.
Today prophecy dos not have the same import that it did with the prophets to Israel.1 Cor. 14:3 “But he who prophesies speaks edification and exhortation and comfort to men.”
Ephesians 2:20 says that the church has been built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets. Ephesians 3:5 reads that the mystery concerning the church has been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets through the Holy Spirit. The scriptures indicate that these roles were fulfilled in the first century, and do not continue today. Many believe the apostles were also the prophets and that they wrote the future down in scripture for us.
Acts 13:32 names Judas and Silas as also being prophets. Jude admonishes his readers to avoid false doctrines not by listening to the living prophets or apostles, but by recalling what the apostles already taught them in vs.17. The church today does not need new prophets and apostles today, just to listen more carefully to the old ones
LURM | |
|
0 Comments | |
| cHRIST AS uS |
Mar 19, 2008 10:23 pm
114 Views | Now in our generation there is a rising 'voice', another rushing wind of the Spirit, speaking one collective word, which is Paul's "mystery hid from ages and generations, which is Christ in you."
In the past, this has been a hidden truth, known only to a few in each generation but, today, it is being shouted from the housetops, spoken from the mouths of many who will bring their own light as to who Jesus Christ is in their unique temple of His own body.
That simple word is this; "I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me."
This word is bringing to the Body of Christ the fulfillment of its purpose, as our attention has been diverted from ourselves and our perpetual weakness onto the Living God who, by His Spirit, is manifesting Himself as Christ in our individual human lives. Those who discover this total consciousness-changing Reality, know the time of "the singing of the birds has come."
Nature indeed joins in the chorus, for it is in the "rest" of the people of God, where, paradoxically, we join Him in His travail to bring forth the Bride of Christ in purity and beauty, by taking "His yoke upon us," and thereby find "rest unto our souls" in the midst of Divine Labor.
The Church perhaps has come to its end and final hour, when a great time of testing may be coming on the earth. Though we feel the stress; the weakness of our own human frame, we still know Christ is in us and -- "The shout of a King is among us!"
For the King has come, who has all authority, all power, and He has come taking the reins of the government of each of our lives upon His shoulders, as we know Him as ourselves in union and oneness.
Christ as Us Ministry | |
|
0 Comments | |
| The Beauty of Adversity |
Mar 19, 2008 10:19 pm
117 Views | by Dan Stone
Taken from a message given by Dan Stone in Alexandria, Virginia on May 16, 1981
Our relationship to Christ has many facets, not all of which we see at once. Initially we see our salvation in Christ, our freedom from condemnation, and the effects of sin, Later we begin to understand our freedom from sin itself. And with that firm assurance of our godliness, we finally move out of ourselves and into the lives of others. We become intercessors.
Paul's letter to the Romans describes this three=part growth pattern. Romans 1-5 emphasizes the blood of Christ as an atonement for our sins, Romans 6-8 shows how the body of Christ takes care of the person of sin; and Romans 9-15 deals with Christ's life in us as co-saviors for others.
Let's talk first about the blood and the body of Christ. When we take communion, we are meant to see beyond the elements, "The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we being many are one bread, and one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread" (I Cor. 10:16). This is expanded on in Colossians 1:13-14: "[God] has delivered us from the power of darkness and has translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son, in whom we have redemption through His blood which is forgiveness of sins."
In verse 20, "Having made peace through the blood of his cross, by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven; and you who were sometimes alienated and enemies in mind by wicked works, yet now hath He reconciled in the body of His flesh through death: to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in His sight."
On one side of the cross you see the blood of Christ providing justification for the sins of the world. On the other side of the same cross you see the body of Christ and us in Him, made holy, blameless and unreproachable because of our new position in Christ.
Let us create a scene to demonstrate the blood side of the work of Christ for the forgiveness of our sins. As part of a large audience, observers of a tremendous drama, we see the man Jesus being crucified. Someone walks up and lays around Jesus' neck the chain of adultery. Someone else walks up and lays around His neck the chain of fornication, another the chain of uncleanness. Others lay on Him lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, strife, seditions, envyings, murders, drunkenness, and so forth. As this picture of Jesus develops, we see draped on Him every expression of sin-and then we watch Him die.
The Holy Spirit steps forward and says to us, "Everything that you've done, I've laid on Him." An invitation is extended to all: "Will you receive this gift of mine? I've laid on Him all your sins which means they are not laid on you. If you will accept that transference as my love-gift to you, you're justified. You will be to Me as though you'd never committed them. "
All positively respond, "We accept that. As mere spectators all we can do is sit in the audience and hear someone tell us what all this means and accept it. In this analogy Christ pays the price for the sins of the world, and all we can do is receive the gift and, say "Thank you." Now if you are like I was for so many years, this was the only side of the cross you knew. But Paul turns the cross around and says, "Now wait a minute, don't go away too soon. We have another scene."
In this second scene, we are more than spectators-we are participants in Christ. To imagine this scene we must draw a big mental circle around the audience and see ourselves as one. We are all in Him. Paul, in describing the Lord's Supper says that we received the benefits of the blood, but we partake of the body of Christ (I Cor. 10:16-17). The body is all of us, so whatever is happening to the body is happening to us. We are not just observers of a drama on stage; we are the drama. It is as if Jesus loses His identity and becomes us.
The blood side of the cross expresses the glorious fact of our forgiveness, but the body side is a deeper truth. Paul shows us that we became Him, and He became us. We've put a lot of emphasis on Christ being in us, and rightly so. What Paul is teaching now is that we're in Him, so that we ourselves are on the cross.
The people standing watching Christ die are really on that cross themselves. What is happening is a death. We are not dealing with the human body which the Spirit lives in, but with what's happening to the Spirit when it leaves the body. When a body dies, the Spirit leaves and is no longer a part of the body.
The realm of God is the realm of spirit. God looks on the heart. That is why Jesus said to those people whose actions were supposed to be good and righteous, "You do what you see your father the Devil doing" (John 8:44). There are two fathers: God and Satan. We express one or the other.
Hebrews 2:14 says, "Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, Jesus also Himself took part of the same, that through death, He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil." Satan has been destroyed as a person who can reign in our lives, captivate us, motivate us and keep us under control. When Christ died, we died-we participated in His death and lay in the grave three days, and were raised with Him on the third day.
Recently, I had lunch with a young couple and their two-year old. The child kept grabbing for the paper napkin on my lap. She finally got it and began to tear it up into little bits, but she couldn't put it back together again. Her mother went to the kitchen and tore off a paper towel. She handed it to me and said, "This is your new napkin." It wasn't a napkin. It was a towel. But she made it a napkin.
That's what God did. He made Jesus to be sin. Jesus wasn't sin, but God made Him to be sin. The girl's mother said, "This towel is now a napkin." God said, "This precious Son of Mine is now Mr. Sin." In other words, God made Jesus to be us.
Paul says, "He died for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them and rose again" (II Cor. 5:15). We never live for self again. If we only look at self, we will often appear to be living for self. Likewise, when we were lost and self-oriented, we sometimes appeared as if we weren't living for self. But the realm of appearance is not the place where the battle is fought-it is fought in the spirit realm. As a result of that battle, Paul says, "You were an expression of that person regardless of what the outcroppings were. But now you are an expression of another person, Christ." We need to get that point home, and we need to know who we are, before we start worrying about conduct.
For years we spent time dealing with our conduct, not knowing who we were, but this did not bring us to a consciousness that "Christ is my life." Instead it brought confusion about who we are related to. This confusion fostered the big lie of two natures. Reasoning from actions back to truth is dangerous, for we may or may not reach truth. But if we start from truth, which is spirit-reality-from "He and I are one"-the conduct is His. Starting from conduct, we are not sure who is in control, and it never brings any of us the awareness of union with Christ. The blessed love of God is to let us worry about conduct until it kills us. It produces the "Oh, wretched man that I am" in a man who was anything but wretched. That is its glory. Paul says, "If there is a glory in the ministry of condemnation, there is a greater glory in this ministry of grace." So let's praise God for misery in the believer.
Recently a woman told me that her marriage was on the rocks. Her husband had a girlfriend, etc. God was showing the wife a lot of things, and she didn't like any of them. She said, "You know, I think I'm going insane."
I said, "No, darling, you're not going insane. You're real close to God though, because you're almost at the end of self."
She had said about her husband, "He's my god," so I said, "Well then, you're not going to get him back, because God isn't going to share you with anybody. You're close to getting God, so keep on being miserable."
"Misery" is the name of the door that moves us from the self room to the spirit room. More people come into the union life through misery than through any other door. In fact, I don't know of anybody who hasn't come through some kind of personal misery. The point I made with this woman was that the very end of herself, which she was afraid was insanity, was really where she was going to meet God.
Paul says that we can cease to live for ourselves now. We may appear to be living for ourselves, but if you take the stand that we and He are one, no matter what the appearance looks like, then we are not living for self. Something may look in the first two chapters to be all self, but the final chapter's going to be for the praise and glory of God, because we can never live for self-and the fact is, we don't want to live for self !
The Dan form of Satan died in 1949 and a brand new creature emerged, a Dan form of Christ. Never before has there been a Dan like this. And the same happened to you. Put your own name there-a new creature in Christ. You began to operate from a new person, a new energy, a different approach, and a whole new excitement. You've got a new "wanter" in you. You don't want sin anymore. You may find yourself sinning occasionally, but you don't want to. What you want is God. I often tell believers, "I know your heart. Your heart's for God. Your thoughts and your emotions may not always be, but your heart's for God l" Go with your heart. When you go with God, you're safe, because all He's after through you is the privilege of loving someone else by means of you.
Paul says in Colossians, "It's through the blood side of the cross that we come to the forgiveness of sins." That's the knowing side of the cross. Turn the cross around and we'll see something that to the natural mind is unbelievable. We'll see all of the attributes of God have been poured into us.
We come to the awareness of our perfection in Christ through the operation of choice. God means His creatures to have choices and the consequences of those choices. He means us to have the consequences of whatever we attach ourselves to. If we attach ourselves to the flesh He means us to have the consequences of that attachment.
If we can serve God from the flesh, then why does He strip us down? If all the teaching about performance, doing, attaining, and striving from the flesh is right, then why did God strip Moses? If it is true that we can serve God from the flesh, why did He take Jacob across the brook Jabok and wrestle with him all night and leave him with an outer sign that he had been with God? If he could have served God from the flesh why did Joseph go through what he did? Why was Jesus Himself led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil? Even our Lord had to get fixed so His whole life was a Spirit life.
Let's take the case of Moses. There was nothing wrong with Moses' intention. He got the call-he knew what life was all about. Exodus 2 says: "It came to pass in those days when Moses was grown, that he went out unto his brethren, and looked upon their burdens. And he spied an Egyptian smiting a Hebrew, one of the brethren, and he looked this way and that, and when he saw there was no man, he killed the Egyptian, and hid him in the sand." What's interesting is the parallel account in Acts 7, long after Moses. The Holy Spirit told Stephen some things that Moses did not tell us.
The Holy Spirit told Stephen to say that this was to be the sign of Moses to the people that he was the deliverer of Israel, "by this sign you will know that I am this deliverer that you've been awaiting." And yet the next day Moses encountered two of his own brethren striving together, and they said, "Are you going to do to us what you did to that fellow yesterday?"
In the Old Testament the Holy Spirit doesn't hide anything about anybody's flesh. But in the New Testament, He sees the same people from the point of view of perfected faith. So in the Old Testament we see that Moses fled because he was afraid of Pharaoh. But when we read Hebrews, we see that wasn't the case at all. He forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, says Hebrews 11. But Exodus 2 says that he was afraid of the king.
Moses had plenty of dedication, but he needed to change his method. Or rather, he needed to quit his own methods and let God take over. That's when things began to happen. That's when the Lord said to Moses. "See, I've made you God to Pharaoh" (Ex. 7:1, literal). "When Pharaoh sees you, he's going to know he's dealing with Me. I'll make you God to Pharaoh."
That's what Moses wanted all along. Of course he had his share of weaknesses, and God needed every one of them. God gave him somebody to speak for him, gave him a staff to lean on, and then Moses learned what his forty years in the wilderness were for. In less than three months the Hebrews began to wander around in the same area, and Moses needed to know where all the water holes and oases were, as well as everything else that is necessary for desert life.
We have dedicated our lives many times. We have worn out altars by laying our bodies down on them. God says, "I know you're dedicated. I know your heart. I am your heart." The struggle is not over dedication but over methodology. God does us a favor to let us collapse. That is hard for us to comprehend. Why? The world doesn't appreciate failures.
Norman Grubb, writing in the book Rees Howells, Intercessor, saw the glory of the man, yet as far as England was concerned, Rees Howells was discredited in his last word of faith. In other words, if that final word of faith had been realized on the appearance level, everybody would have glorified Rees Howells. Real intercessors may well die in their last intercession.
Don't ever again take anything in your life as from Satan. Don't see him. It's God. Every negative experience that comes your way is a privilege if you turn it over and call it God. If you don't you'll get disturbance and discouragement. Turn it over, and you'll get a blessing.
At Passover, when the head of the family gathers his children around him, the emphasis is not on how Moses delivered them, but on how God delivered them. If Moses had taken them out when he was forty, they would have talked about how Moses delivered them. But when Moses got to the Jordan and wanted to cross over, God said, "You're not going over. I'll take them over. But you've laid down your life for them." This is not literal; it's figurative language. It's as if Moses laid down his life, with his heels on one side of the Jordan and his head on the other, and the Israelites walked across his body.
When we know who's doing it, we can lay down our lives for the joy set before us, and watch people walk over us. When we know who we are when the Prince knows he's the Prince then we lean be paupers in the situation. When we know we've already won, we can look like losers. But if we don't know we're the Prince, and we don't know we've won, it tears out our hearts. Thank God that He lets us have those miseries in our flesh.
There isn't any crash that's too embarrassing or too difficult or too horrible if we come through to knowing who we are. It is God's love to let our flesh collapse that He may establish us in spirit-knowing about who He is in us as us. And then we can move out and be a person. No more, "It isn't me, it's Jesus." Now we can go out, and call ourselves the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, because we are. We have been bought with a price. And we've been accepted in the Beloved.
| |
|
0 Comments | |
| Enjoy Being Yourself |
Mar 19, 2008 10:16 pm
107 Views | by Dan Stone
The religion I preached for twelve or thirteen years told people what they ought to become. Everybody else told me I "gotta become," so that's what I taught others.
Do you know what that kind of religion is like? It's like a bunch of us who all bought new shoes which were too tight for us. We paid so much for them, we thought we had to smile. But all the time we were smiling, our feet were killing us.
A group of six or seven of us who know "Christ in us" as our hope of glory were together recently, and it was wonderful to have this dimension of truth in common. I find in my own life that I don't need to be with people who really know this mystery, whereas once it was very necessary for me; but I enjoy that kind of sharing and look forward to more of it.
You see, I'm tired of people telling me what I "ought" to do. I want to be with people who already know who they are, so that we can just rejoice in God and know that we are complete in Christ - that we are already holy, already unreprovable, already blameless. When we know this, we can have fellowship in the "I Am" and drop the "I gotta become."
During the years of my ministry when Christianity was a matter of trying to "become," I really did try to smile, because Jesus was supposed to be so good. But it was painful. I came to the place where I began to think that God wasn't a God of love. He was a tyrant. Do you know why I thought He was a tyrant? Because every time I got a little close to Him, He seemed to pull. back a little bit. I'd get near, and He'd draw back and say, "Now you've got to work a little harder to get this next step." And about the time I'd get there, He'd point to the next step and say, `"Now you gotta work a little harder if you want to get there." And I could never get to Him. I could never reach Him.
I'd scratch my head sometimes and say, "Well my goodness, we're worshiping a God of love, so why can't you ever get to Him?" I always longed to hear that "Well done, good and faithful servant"; but I never did hear it. While I sat in the pew at church I heard: "You're no good. You ought to confess your sins. You ought to try harder." Oh, I sure did want to hear that "Well done, good and faithful servant." But it looked as though the cheese was always just out of my grasp.
If there's a theme verse in my life, I guess it's Galatians 2:20. Recently my first experience with this verse came back to my mind. I remembered that when I got saved as a young man, this was one of the first verses to hit me. I was a pagan in those days. I had no biblical background - didn't know anything about the Bible. I walked into church one Sunday morning, not caring one thing about God, and walked out in love with Him.
The first thing I did was to buy a new Bible. My mother gave me a Bible when I was about eleven because I joined the church, but this was the first one I bought. Buying new Bibles became a habit in my years as a struggling Christian. Every time I had a new experience with God, I bought a new Bible. I've got about thirty of them! But when I got saved I thought I ought to have a new Bible because I had made a new start.
I was working for my father at that time and it was a boring job. He had what we called a "job printing shop." We did hand bills, letterheads, envelopes, and all kinds of jobs of that nature; and I was supposed to be learning the business. But all I did was stand in the back and watch a press go "clickety click, clickety click, clickety click." As long as it went "clickety click," I didn't have a thing to do but be bored. But if it threw a piece of paper out, or something else went wrong, Then I had to do five minutes work. But I'd start it up again and watch it go "clickety click." So I read the Bible, and I came across Galatians 2:20. This was just after I became a Christian. In those days I didn't know anything about the Spirit of God within a person being the Teacher. I may have read it, but I didn't know it. So the only thing I knew was to depend on outside sources, mainly people in whom I had confidence. Well, I really loved this man who had become my pastor, and he always had time for me. So I went to see him because I had read Paul's statement that "I don't live, but Christ lives in me." I didn't understand that, so I decided to ask my pastor about it. Whatever his answer was, it didn't quicken me.
The next time I came across the verse was when I had been called to preach. I was at one of the Baptist colleges, because in those days I was a Baptist. (I'm nothing now - just a Christian.) The one who had a real influence on me at that time was the Bible professor. Somehow or another Galatians 2:20 came up and I went to him. But again, his answer didn't quicken within me. Later I was at Louisville Baptist Theological Seminary, and while studying New Testament Galatians 2:20 once again struck me. I went to another person whom I loved and trusted, and I asked, "Is that real?" But still there was nothing quickening in his answer.
In 1973 I was outwardly and inwardly "bothered." I praise God for that time. That's the way He got my attention. I didn't have my life together either outwardly or inwardly, and He used that to reach me. It was during this period that I met a man who knew Galatians 2:20 as a living reality. What he had to say had a quickening effect. It became real to me. I saw it for the first time as a possibility, now Paul isn't talking about an ideal situation," I said to myself. "He isn't talking about something I'm going to get when I die.
There are so many things that popular teaching, such as I gave for all those years, pushes on into the future. People talk about, "Oh when I get to that place in the sky, I'll have peace!" What are you going to need it for? "When I get to that place in the sky, I'll have faith!" Again, what are you going to need it for? When You need it is now. I found that it was now I was in a desperate situation, didn't you? This is when we need faith, peace, and all of the other fruit of the Spirit.
As I listened to this man unfolding the mystery of "Christ in You, the hope of glory," it was so clear that it was real to him. "That's what the gospel is all about," he said. As a Baptist minister, all that had really grabbed me up to this point was the fact that Christ died for me, and I could trust Jesus for the forgiveness of my sins. That was all I could preach. I had to have three sermons a week, and this was my whole message. I don't mean that I couldn't construct a special sermon for Mother's Day, or a sermon on tithing, or on other topics; but regardless of what my subject was, I'd always get around to the only thing that had so far really grabbed me, which was the blood side of the cross. I really only knew the first five chapters of the book of Romans, and my message was capsulized in Romans 3:25 -justification as a gift of His grace, which is redemption.
Of course, this message left me in a quandary. I was still as self-centered now that I was a saved person as I was when I was a lost person. I was terribly sin-conscious. "Is that the right thing to do, or is this the right thing to do?" "Should I have said this, or should I have said that?" "Lord, forgive me for this, and forgive me for that." And I would repeat the process over and over again, trying to make the right decision, making the wrong one, and then asking forgiveness for my sins.
Every morning I would say something like: "Now, Lord, I want to be a good Christian today, and I don't want to miss a chance to witness if it comes along. I want my language to be clean, my thoughts to be pure, and to live a good life" Then when night came I'd say, "Lord, forgive me for not doing it." If I could get today into the past, I could get it forgiven because the blood had cleansed my sins. But this kept me on a treadmill, and the attention was always on me. How am I doing? Am I succeeding? Am I failing? Am I really imitating Christ? Is He really my Lord? Am I in His will?
Then I discovered that we don't really get on in the Lord until we can just forget ourselves. Because as long as we are preoccupied with ourselves we really see ourselves as a liability to God. As long as you still have the attention on yourself, imagining that there's still something that needs to be done for your soul, you see yourself as God's liability. "Oh, I can't really do that, because I haven't conquered this yet." "I can't do this because I don't have enough love." "I can't do this because I don't have enough faith." The attention isn't on God in all of this, it's on you! And I think we would all agree that this kind of living doesn't measure up to the biographies of the great believers of God in the Bible. It isn't until I got hold of the reality of Galatians 2:20 that I could take old Dan, put him on the shelf, and forget him. Only then could I begin to say, "I'm not God's liability - I'm God's asset."
I'm not bragging, but the truth is God has got to have Dan! Why? To reach Dan's world. You can't reach my world, and I can't reach your world. God has to have me to reach the world that I come in contact with. So I'm His asset. He has to have a vessel, and He needs the kind of vessel that sees himself as O.K.
I'm fifty-three, and I finally decided when I was fifty years old that if it had taken fifty years for God to get me this way I was going to quit trying to change myself. So I went to my shelves and threw all of those "how to" books away. Because if I don't end up like me, how is God going to reach my world?
If I end up acting like you, then I've lost contact with the world God wants me to reach. He wants my warts - the things that look like my failures -so that His strength can come through. He doesn't want me to try to copy you, and He doesn't want you to try to copy me. He wants you to be you, and He wants you to be satisfied with yourself. Because through you as His asset, His vessel, He is going to touch the world you are in contact with.
Now you don't have to be a missionary for God to do that. My wife Barbara and I thought that we might be called to be missionaries, because Baptists think that way. I was so glad when I passed thirty-five years of age, because I knew that you can't be called as a missionary then! But we are all ministers, in all our different walks of life, and that's the way God means it to be.
Why do I stress that we need to get the attention off ourselves? Because there is so much emphasis on the self in our churches. Crucifying the self, for instance. I don't try to crucify the self; I just try to enjoy the uniqueness of myself! I'm through with crucifying myself. Do you know why? Because I've already died. I died in Christ, didn't you? I've already been buried, haven't you? I've already been raised. And I get excited like Paul and say as he did in Ephesians 2:6 that I've already ascended! Haven't you? We're living the ascended life. So we are acceptable to God.
We are all like fruit trees. All fruit trees aren't apple trees. Some are orange trees, some grapefruit, even lemons and limes. Now I've noticed that everyone doesn't run up and grab an apple when fruit is served to a group. Some like oranges, and some like' grapefruit. But if all of the apple trees were trying to be like grapefruit trees, what would people do with all those apples? We are all meant to be just what we are. God isn't trying to change
The key is recognizing that God has actually put His nature into us. I think one of the difficulties people have in believing that Christ already lives in them as a present reality lies in the difficulty they had believing that Satan ever lived in them. Most of us at one time thought of Satan as "out there," so that he just had an influence on us. We really thought we were independent people, but that Satan could have an influence on us and God could also have an influence on us. But we never really knew that from the time of our birth - from the dawn of the human race, when our first parents took the wrong fruit -we were born with Satan in us. You don't find many people who believe that Mr. Sin, Mr. Phony God, Mr. False Way, Mr. Self indwelt them before their conversion. No, we weren't merely under the influence of evil: Jesus rightly said that we were of our father the devil and fulfilled his lusts from within (Jn. 8:44).
I didn't like to hear that at first, because there were some days of my misspent youth when I wasn't quite so bad. But then it dawned on me that whether I was good or bad, everything I did was from unbelief. Everything was based on self. Finally I saw the folly of the "good and evil" game. You can be just as good as you want to be, but if you're indwelt by the wrong god you are lost! The "good and evil" game still amounts to evil.
In I Corinthians 10:16-17 Paul says that we share in not only the blood of Christ, but also the body. We received the benefits of the blood as the necessary sacrifice for sins. But it is the participation in the body that takes care of Mr. Sin - Satan - within us. Paul witnesses to the effect of the body of Christ in his own life, in Galatians 2:20. He teaches it plainly in Romans 6. Paul saw in the death of Christ a spiritual truth that transcends time. He saw that though he wasn't there bodily, he was in Christ on the cross. Whatever Jesus experienced on that cross, he experienced it as Paul (indeed, II Corinthians 5 makes it for the whole human race). So he said in 11 Corinthians 5:21 that God made Jesus to be sin. He looked at Him and said, "He is really the sinful human race. I make Him the embodiment of all who are in sin." As a sinner, I was in that body; and what that body experienced, I experienced. So I have already died.
If you are not a Christian, then you are a spirit in prison. If you are a Christian, you are the spirit of a just man made perfect. Spirit is who we really are; it is where we live. Now if I died in Christ, I was also buried, because He was buried. Jesus' opponents went to Pontius Pilate and said, "He's dead, but we hear a rumor that they plan to steal His body and claim He was raised from the dead. Put a seal on that tomb if you will, and guard the tomb, because we're absolutely convinced that He's dead and we want to be sure He stays in there."
But just as surely as Jesus was dead, and I in Him, God raised Him from the dead the third day and I rose with Him. That's why Paul says to walk in newness of life. But this isn't Christ and me, or Christ with me. A lot of people get excited about what I preach about "Christ in you, the hope of glory," and they run up to me after a meeting and say, "I've heard that before - I know what you are talking about. I've read Andrew Murray," or something similar. No, no, no! We're not talking about Christ and me, and we're not talking about Christ with me.
We're talking about Christ having replaced Mr. Sin in us so that He now lives His holy, blameless, unreprovable, perfect life through us. This is a replaced life. It's not Christ and me, or Christ with me, but Christ is me. Not that Christ is Dan, you understand, because I'm just the vessel to contain Him. But He is evidencing His love life, His concerned life, His jealousy for the world - my world - through me. How? As me. What I'm interested in, He's interested in. Where I go to speak, He speaks. Where He takes me, He's there. What I'm doing, He's doing. And the only way He has of doing that in my world is as me.
This is what Paul saw. He said that he filled up the suffering of Christ in his body. He was an extension of Christ. It wasn't Paul living. It looked like Paul - people called him Paul. But it was Christ, the hidden One, living out His concerned life for the world as Paul.
When this dawned on me, I saw the reality of spirit. When God told me I had died, I stopped disagreeing with Him. When God said that He had buried me, I agreed with Him. And when He said that He raised me, I said, "Yep, You raised me." I saw that I was already walking in the heavenlies. I was already participating in the kingdom life.
You have been born again, haven't you? Well then, you can understand the kingdom. The kingdom is spirit, and the realm of the kingdom is within. Christ is the head of that kingdom, and we are the means by which that kingly person manifests Hi self. Paul described us as ambassadors for the King.
I see myself in so many biblical characters. Take the harlot at the well. She asked where to worship - in Samaria, or in Jerusalem. Which is the right outer place? Which is the right religion? What is the right thing to do? "Well, I'll tell you," Jesus said to her. "The day is coming when you won't worship here, and you won't worship down there. You'll worship in here. Because God is not in this place and He's not in that place. He is spirit." This account in John 4 really helped me to get the spotlight off the outer me.
I began to see that God is a world lover. If the God of the new covenant really dwells in me, He will love the world through me. But until that light breaks in on us through the Holy Spirit we still want Him to be a "me" lover. So we run to services looking for blessings. We still say, "Bless me, bless me." But when you see the truth of Christ as your life, the bless-me days are over. You are no longer a body-fusser, trying to save your outer skin. They'll say, "Heal Thyself, Physician," to you too. But your glory will be in seeing your life poured out, if necessary to the last drop. Poured out for others. Because that's the world-lover in you. He's not a "me" lover. He loves you because He's got you; He loved you through some other human instrument. But now He's got you, and as He lives in you, you forget about yourself.
From this point on you don't live from need, from shortage, trying to get a blessing. You have total sufficiency in you. There's no shortage in Him. You don't have any more spiritual needs. You've drunk the water and you've eaten the bread. If you have the living water and the living bread within you, you don't get hungry or thirsty anymore. You quit saying, "Lord, give me, give me, give me." It's unbelief! God is your sufficiency, and He lives in you to pour out His life through you for others. This is John 7:37-39. Out of your innermost being flow rivers of living water. To you? No. No wonder some of your prayers aren't answered! God is tired of body-fussers. He's interested in the world - your world, which only you can touch. Now you are broken bread and poured out wine, to be eaten and drunk by others.
When it dawns on you that you truly are the temple of the Holy Spirit, and that He lives and walks in you, you begin to see all life from God's point of view. You are no longer hung up on good and evil as absolutes. You begin to see that the human situation, or what some call the "facts" of life, is nothing but God's necessary prerequisite for His Self-revelation. So you are always looking for God in every situation. As Jesus said, if your eye is single your whole body is full of light. You are full of light because you see only One person operating in all of life's situations. But as long as you are asking, "Is this good? Is this bad?" you are in darkness. To call it God if it looks good, and to say it isn't God if it looks bad, is darkness.
God has met me three times in my life with great truths, and I was in hell all three times! He had to get me into hell before He could show me something about Himself. It's the aggravating situations in life that get our attention. But they are not absolutes. They are merely God's calling-card.
I don't know of one single occasion when Jesus got up off His straw pallet in the morning, stretched, and said, "Oh, I feel so good today, I think I'll do a dozen miracles." But sometimes that's the way we act. We're going to get up today to do something for someone. He may not ask us to do it, but we're going out to do good deeds. Jesus never did that. He never went out to do a single good deed. The situation of need drew forth the action. If there had never been a need, there would never have been a miracle. There had to be a negative to draw forth the positive. There has to be evil so that we can see God's love for us.
We live in a world full of opposites. But we don't see it like that anymore. We see this world with a single eye. We see only the One person operating in it, the sovereign God. And all situations - particularly the stress ones, the negative ones, the horrible ones - are God's calling-card. "It looks like this," we say, "but wait a minute, because God is coming." And we become people of faith by saying that God is here. He is going to bring forth the supply.
That's what Jesus did, just brought forth the supply. And thank God He isn't here in bodily form today, because He'd have to go to a twenty-four-hour prayer meeting to be able to do it! No, He just said to the sick person, "Let him be well." Or when the crowd was hungry, "Let's sit them down. We're going to feed them." Someone came one day begging, "Oh, Master my servant is sick." Jesus' answer was simply that He'd be glad to come. No sweat. I think He'd be most uncomfortable in most of the prayer meetings we have. If He were the first to leave, I'd be right behind Him! Because He just knew that when the need came forth, the supply was there. It wasn't His supply. "Oh, Me, I can't do anything. I do what I see the Father do." And He was very casual: "Let there be." The same words used by the Word to create the universe.
John in his first letter, the second chapter, called this the "father" level in the Christian life. It's the ascended life. In this level we live as troops in the outer trenches. We are the people who can see what God is doing in the world, and we are privileged to be faith people.
Now I want to say a few words about faith, because I hear a whole lot about having to work up faith. I don't ever try to work up faith. Faith jumps out of me. When God wants me to see something He brings it to my attention. I don't go around trying to take somebody else's burden. Don't come and tell me that so-and-so is sick. If God wanted me to know, He'd tell me Himself. If He told you, it's a pretty good sign He wants you to do something about it. He shows me my mountains, and He'll show you your mountains. And you take a stand on what He shows you. You are not going to hope it's done. It is done. His life jumps out from you. You don't work up faith. It might take you some time to get hold of His thoughts so that you can speak His thoughts, into being, but you don't have to work up faith. God is the One who exists to meet that need, and He is going to explode out of you. "Rivers of living water!"
This means that you will say, "I just don't see that problem there. Yes, it's there - but I see God. God is healing that situation. He is bringing that thing together. He has a job there, and it's already done."
Several years ago when we were first beginning to learn this truth, our son was about twenty-two and he wasn't walking with the Lord. He had a lot of problems, so we just said, "Lord, get on with what You are going to do in His life." Do you know the next thing He did? He put him in jail. Now in the old days I would have said, "Lord, we didn't pray right, because if we had prayed right You would have him down here in the sawdust on his knees." We had told God to get on with His business, but now he was in jail!
Well, women are so wonderful because they get direct messages from God. Sometimes I think God has forgotten my address. I have to walk in blind faith! That night my wife was in bed and God said to her, "Don't call my sanctuary a jail" So we said that what was happening was perfect, and that our son was right where he had to be. We affirmed that God had already got him. Now, about five years have gone by.
But a few months ago my wife called him on the telephone because we had sold our house and bought another. The house needed painting. This time he stayed on the phone, and he asked questions about us. "I want to paint the house for you," he said. He's been down two times already - almost a 450-mile roundtrip - to paint the house. Before, he lived within three miles of us and didn't come but three times in the whole year. He doesn't yet know that God has got him, and there really are no religious overtones to his visiting. But we were excited for five years when we didn't have one single shred of evidence visible, and now God has given us this little touch of confirmation. We didn't have five years of hand-wringing; we had five years of praising God, watching Him do what He said He had already done.
We need to rediscover the authority of the word. "Thus saith the Lord!" "It is finished!" We tend to be action people, but the Scriptures point us to the authority of the word, and the action comes along at God's good pleasure. So many of us have said that God hasn't done anything until we see the action. But when we see spiritual reality, that puts us on top of situations, and it's an exciting life. So God in me rises up and says, "You say about your son, It is finished!" And that is reality, because spirit is reality, even if he dies never having come home.
We operate as He does in this world. We tell the mountains God has put in our life to be moved. We read in Mark 11:22-24 that faith in God means we do not doubt in our heart. Our emotions may give us a little trouble at times, as can appearances. But at our center is God, and when He in us says it is finished, it's done.
This is the life of the intercessor. There are times when God commissions us, as His agents. He puts a mountain before us - a need. Mordecai came to Esther and spoke the word of faith: "We're going to be saved." He asked Esther if she was going to be the intercessor in the situation. When she had God's thoughts, she said she would do it. So she went in and approached a king who hadn't called for her in thirty days. If she walked into his presence without his extending his scepter, she would lose her life, even though she was a queen. But God had commissioned her, and she became an intercessor for her people. It wasn't a religious situation; it was a real-life crisis.
Jesus said that unless a corn of wheat falls into the ground and dies, life cannot come forth. When God commissions you as an intercessor, there is a cost. But when you have counted the cost, you move into the joy of the Lord, the joy set before you in doing it. You see that He is wanting a change in a home, in a community, in a particular situation. Everything else now becomes secondary. Your family, your home, your lands - everything goes into this commission. You pour out your life in the death that has to occur, but you gain what God is after.
The second chapter of Hebrews tells us that Jesus gave His life that He might bring many sons to glory. God wants sons who know what life is all about and who know that the real joy of living is seeing His life being poured through them to reach the world - their world. And that becomes the consuming passion. "The zeal of Your house has eaten me up."
I enjoy my commission of traveling on the road to share this message. People wonder how I can travel as much as I do, but I can't do anything else. This is the joy of the Lord for me. And it's a complete life; there's nothing missing in it. I no longer pitch problems to God. I can give His all to those problems. "Christ in you, the hope of glory." Yes, glory now, just as they saw the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. God intends for others to see the glory of Christ in us. Don't you look for it. It isn't yours to see. It's for someone else to see, and those God means to see it as they cross your path will see it. Those who are hurting are going to see Him - the sinners, the harlots, and the publicans. To the rest, He looked like Beelzebub. But to those who were desperate, the light of God was on His face. You know Christ is pouring His life through you, so take it by faith that it's so and others will see Him. And they'll be drawn to the One who is in you, thinking they have been drawn to you. But you know it isn't you, it's Him.
Don't change yourself, or they couldn't be drawn to you. Don't call yourself a liability, because you are God's beautiful asset. And don't be so concerned about sin-consciousness; instead be consumed with godliness. "Set your mind on the things above, where Christ is, seated on the right hand of God; for you are dead, and your life is hidden with God in Christ." Get on with the glory of life, because Paul said that He has not only justified you, He has glorified you.
| |
|
0 Comments | |
| Accepting Our Humanity |
Mar 19, 2008 10:14 pm
111 Views | by Dan Stone
I have emphasized how God made us new creations at our new birth. That is rock bottom truth. In a sense, though, you have the same humanity now that you had before. Your spirit is new, but you didn't receive a new personality the moment you received Christ. You are still mostly outgoing, or reserved, or spontaneous, or considered. Your humanity is basically the same before and after. But can you glory in it now? If they put a new engine in your car, even though it still has rust spots, can you glory in your car?
That's what God is saying to us. "If I am willing to put a new engine in your car and glory in your car, can you glory in your car? Will you glory with Me?" That's one of the hardest lessons we have to learn: to glory in our humanity. To be satisfied with ourselves as we are. Is there a harder lesson?
Every one of us has something about our humanity-our personality, or for some of us our body-that we wish God would change so that we'd look better for Him, at least from our perspective. We think, "God, if you'd just take that thing away, I'd look better for You." That "thing" may be with us until they plant us six feet under.
We come to a place where we say, "Lord, even though that thing is still in my humanity, I'm going to praise You for it." You know what I discovered? The minute I started praising God for my impatience, I didn't see it anymore. I don't mean it disappeared, but I didn't have a fixation on it. I wasn't anxious about it any longer. That's the way God moves on in us, when we accept ourselves as He does.
I'm not advocating sin, by any means. I am saying that when we shift our focus from ourselves-some neutral aspect of our personality that we don't like, or, yes, even some flesh pattern that keeps recurring-and instead focus on Christ in us, God does His work in us. We are transformed into His image as we behold Him, not as we behold ourselves (2 Corinthians 3: 1.
God takes those things that are fixations in us when we're flesh-oriented and turns them into blessings when we're spirit-oriented. What I despised became a blessing in somebody else's life. Those things become the years the locusts ate that God restores, the dung that God makes into a compost pile. He lets it sit there until it's done a work in us. Then we can take our humanity back and say, "It's perfect to God right now. If He wants to do any altering of it, He is at work in me to will and do of His good pleasure. If He wants to change it, He who began a good work in me will bring it to pass. He can finish what He started."
I'm not going to take my humanity back on my own terms. I don't want it back that way. It took me long enough to get rid of it-as the source of my life. When you see it's no longer the starting point of your life, but rather the means by which God's life is manifested, you can take it back. You can accept yourself as you are. You can accept yourself as God's asset.
Finally we are able to say, "Lord, through my family tree and all of the circumstances I've come through, You've made the outer person that I am. You live in that person, and you set that person in the world in a way that's going to attract some people to You. I'm not going to attract everybody. The ones You don't attract through me, You'll catch through someone else."
That's why we all fit together, isn't it? We fit together into a whole. Nobody can attract everybody. I used to try to attract everybody. But there are all kinds of fruit. There are oranges. There are apples. There are lemons. God uses all kinds. I say to people, "I am a lemon." God attracts some through my lemonness.
We don't have to be anybody else; we don't have to submit to anyone trying to make us like anybody else, either. We are free to be ourselves. God is pleased to manifest His beautiful variety of expression through each of us in our uniqueness.
From: Stone, Dan, The Rest of the Gospel: When the partial Gospel has worn you out. Dallas: One Press. 2000. pgs. 115-117 | |
|
0 Comments | |
| A Mediocre Merry Christmas Message |
Mar 19, 2008 5:01 am
156 Views | At Christmas time, Lauren Green on Fox News hosted Rick Warrens Christmas service called “Christmas with Rick Warren.” This is an opportunity most pastors would love to have- a large captive audience at Christmas time to give the saving message of the gospel to millions of people. But was the gospel presented?
The following are highlights of his sermon with an observation analysis and biblical assessment.
LURM
(I keep these short so that the list on my page is able to leave more visible ) | |
|
1 comment | |
|
