Redirect

This site is being consolidated with another that I have been working on, so there will be no further entries on this site. You will find new posts as well as other stuff (pending) at the new site which you will find at:

http://straitgate.wordpress.com

The Snare of Sin

In the transgression of an evil man there is a snare:  but the righteous doth sing and rejoice.  [Prov. 29:6]

The above Scripture points out to us that there is something that takes place when we transgress that goes beyond the mere consequences or outcome of that sin or transgression.  It says to us that there is a snare, a hidden trap that enslaves the soul, until, as declared in 2 Timothy 2:25-26:

. . . if God peradventure will give them repentance to the ackowledging of the truth; and that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at His will.

What is being said here is this:  if you sin or transgress against God, knowingly or unknowingly, for there is no difference, you not only suffer the penalties and consequences of the sin or transgression, as well having to live with the outcome, but you also create a bondage upon your soul that enslaves you, that will not be removed until you come to acknowledge the transgression that you have committed in the fullest scope of what that transgression entails. (i.e. how it is so sinful, and why it is so grievous to God).

For example, many people have trifled with drugs at one time or another in their lives.  This is a sin against God and your own soul because you were created to be a temple of the living God.  There are penalties and consequences, such as a drug habit and poverty, as well as a myriad of inherent other issues such as paranoia, a persecution complex, an addiction to pleasure, an inability to tolerate or suffer pain in any form, soul bondages to those with whom you came into agreement with in your rebellions against God and the law, soul bondages from lying, perhaps going so far as to be bound with a lying spirit, warped perceptions of reality and the motives and intents of others and so on.  Drugs in particular affect your mind and your brain in ways that are only just being discovered.

You can repent before God for smoking dope, or whatever your particular flavor of sin happened to be.  However, complete deliverance from the desire, the bonds and soul ties, the hidden agreements you have made with death and unrighteousness come only as you are willing to receive the truths concerning that which you have done, it’s affect upon others unto sin, and how it has violated God and His righteousness, unto the damage and detriment of your own soul.  This is where true contrition for sin comes in rather than merely worldly sorrow for the consequences of what you have done.

God gives His grace to the humble.  It is when you come to a place to be willing to receive the truth concerning the deeds you have done, and come to acknowledge not only that they are a sin against God and His righteousness and truth, but also how it is that they are, and why it is that they are, that you are delivered from that which has ensnared your soul.  This is how it is that it is the truth sets you free, and not a deliverance ministry. All a deliverance ministry can do is cast out the unclean spirit that troubles you.  However, it is the removal of the lies that gave it a place and bound you to it that deliver your soul from it’s bondage.

You can confess your sins and wrongdoings according to the flesh, but man has a triune nature.  That means that he sins in thought, word and deed.  To repent of deed sin only, leaves the other two areas of your life untouched by the righteousness of God and the cleansing blood of Christ.  This is the significance of the three areas of the Tabernacle of God - the Outer Court (fleshly deeds), the Holy Place (our motives and intents), and the Most Holy Place (our beliefs and words).

One of the primary reasons that Christians are still the ingloriuos lot than they are is because we consider our repentance for sin to end with the sinners prayer.  Yet, this is just the beginning.   If we would walk in liberty of life, meaning the liberation of the life of Christ in us unto sinless, spotless, holy purity of faith and love, we need to confess every sin and transgression that we have made against God, others and our own souls, in thought, word and deed.  The more that we are cleansed, the greater the manifest presence of God becomes, the more we come to know God as He really is, and His ways, and so greater will be the witness AND testimony of the power of the Word of God to save.

Only the Scriptures have the power to deliver your soul.  And those Scriptures are only opened to your understanding through the agency of the Holy Spirit, according to your willingness to hear and obey that which He shows you.  His ministry is to reprove or convict you of sin, whether it be past or present, that He might cleanse you of it, and liberate your soul from the prison that it has been kept in because of it.

Therefore:

Take heed how you hear: with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you: and unto you that hear shall more be given.  For he that hath, to him shall be given:  and he that hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he hath.  [Mark 4:24-25]

Sin ~ More Than You Think.

Sin is something more than just a mere violation of one of the Ten Commandments of God. Sin is a powerful, malevolent force that draws and attracts every soul that enters into this earth, whose sole purpose is to consume and forever bind the soul to a damnation the knowledge of which cannot even be borne.

Sin is an integral part of what makes man what he is. Ever since Adam fell from grace, sin has dominated the mind, the heart and the soul of mankind, infected his entire genetic makeup and there is no escape from its grip by any effort or technology of mere man.

Sin is so powerful that it took the strength and power of the Almighty God to redeem us from it. Even Jesus Christ, the holy and sinless Son of God suffered in an agony so intense as to cause him to sweat blood in the Garden of Gethsemane in His efforts to gain His own victory over the force and draw and power of it. It even required the presence of an angel to strengthen Him and to help Him to overcome and get through.

You cannot minimize or get rid of sin, simply by downplaying it or changing it’s name and calling it something different, any more than you can negate the force of gravity by calling it helium. Sin is still sin, always has been, will continue to be. Sodomy is still sodomy, sexual promiscuity is still adultery and prostitution, sickness and infirmity are still judgments of God against unconfessed sin and rebellion.

Sin exists independent of man, and man can only affect it according to his ability to withstand and overcome it. Sin gains it’s strength through those who keep giving themselves up to it. The more you sin, the greater the pull and attraction and the greater it’s influence upon others grows. This is how principalities and strongholds become established over families, communities, cities and nations. You may never know you are even caught up in it except the Lord grant you grace to ’see’ it.

The strength of sin is the law. That also means that every soul that has not sought the salvation and deliverance from the power of sin is under the law of God, a law that will bring divine wrath and judgment on all who transgress it even in the least jot and tittle. Those who do so willfully and willingly are destined for a perdition so terrible that it can only be described as a lake of fire.

That lake of fire isn’t just for your body or flesh. That lake of fire is for the soul, for whether it be heaven or hell, the flesh still profits nothing. Your soul will be consumed in eternal flames of torment for your unconfessed guilt and shame, with terror, anguish, pain and horror so exceeding intense as to defy description, and it will be renewed every morning and it will be without deliverance or end. And the greatest torment of all will be the recognition that there was a way in which you could have been delivered from it all, a way that was free for the choosing, AND YOU MISSED IT. You passed it over for some shiny bauble, or toy, or fleeting gratification of carnal pleasure. If you cannot live with that thought now, how do you expect to endure it later? And who is to say that your door has not been closed already? How may times has the grace been extended to you and you turned your back on it?

Jesus Christ is your only hope of deliverance from the grip and power of sin. He alone has overcome it, and you have read the agony He endured to do it. We are called to trust in Him and in His strength by calling upon Him for salvation to resist the power and draw and influence of sin. You cannot do it without Him, and if you do not do it, sin will as assuredly draw you unto hell, from which there is no return, as day follows night.

Those who do not believe the insidious power and influence of sin have never been separated from it. They merely walk with a difference of opinion in it. They can tell you much, but they do little about it. Many call upon Jesus to be the Lord of their life, but the gospel that was given to them concerning this salvation has merely promised them that they can have their cake and eat it too.

Many call upon Jesus Christ to be Lord and Savior of their lives, but have not confronted the reality of the price that needs to be paid for that salvation. Sooner or later they come to a place that calls them to a sacrifice they do not believe they need to make, and so they begin their subtle slide into the service and servitude of sin once again, for you are servants of whom you obey, whether it be God or sin. You cannot turn away from the light of God, the light of the truth, and expect all things to continue as they were. The issues of your salvation are not a case of Door #1, Door #2, or Door #3, and it is not multiple choice. There is only one salvation, and it will cost you your all to attain unto it. Jesus gives you the grace you need to attain unto it, but it is up to you to receive that grace and make the most of it.

Woe to the backslider that turns their back on Christ, whose slide has been so imperceptable in Christ until the day that they realize their lives are nothing but a living, internal hell. Your return to your right mind is as simple as repentance, but it is a gift from God. Make no mistake. It you have slid, it is only by the grace and mercy of God or the prayers of others that you will be turned or delivered from the pit that has snared you. If such is the case, you dare not let the least opportunity given you to do that which is right in the sight of God pass you by, for therein is the means of your return.

The prodigal son was one who knew his Father. He took his portion of the inheritance and went his way. He took his gifts and walked. However, even though God had mercy on him and he ‘came to his right mind’ while he was in the midst of the pig pen, feeding the pigs of a stranger who would not feed him, he still had to make the journey home, and walk back through every step that he had walked out. There was no instant teleport, beam-me-up-Daddy to get back home. And make no mistake, there would have been little in the way of help or mercy from those who were of his own people on the way back, what with the smell of pig clinging so closely upon him. Those who would not help brought their own judgment upon themselves, but it will not make your walk any easier. And so it needs to be. It is the walk of faith unto humilty that brings with it great honor. Keep the Father’s reception of him when he got back ever before you.

The problem that most of Christiandom has at this present time is that the great majority of it has never been separated from it’s sin, and so still loves it in one form or another. These are the backsliders, the ones who will not come forward to the light to have their deeds reproved, those who have received the grace of God in vain, those who are the clouds without rain, the adulterers and adulteresses, the liars, cowards, sorcerers and diviners who do not know their God, and so invent one of their own imaginations to lead them and make their sin and iniquity acceptable. These are those who will not be told, will not be reproved nor corrected, the deaf who will become the dumb when the Lord spews them from His mouth, and they will be the ones that will show up at the wedding without their wedding garment, to be cast out into outer darkness of their hypocrisy, to weep and bewail their foolishness and stupidity.

Those who have been separated from their sin, know the vileness of sin, such that they will leave no stone unturned in the breaking up of the fruitful field they are unto God, no clod unbroken that exalts itself and stands against the fullest of unions and communions with Christ. Those who have been separated from their sin are those who are willing to suffer for His sake and the Gospel’s, those who will choose the furnace rather than bend their knee to any golden calf or idol, those who choose the strait and narrow gate that leads unto life, rather than the broad and easy way that leads to destruction.

Many are deceived by sin, because they have never come to acknowledge that if they would have the life of Christ made manifest in them, the price must be the laying down of their own. Resurrection life and power does not come to those who still live. It is given only to those who die and only to those who die in Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit. It was not without cause that our Lord Jesus Christ told us to take up the cross and follow Him if we would abide in and with Him. We cannot be His disciples without it. We can be someone else’s disciples without it, but we cannot be His. If you do not die to self, self will eat you alive, for you cannot serve two masters. Woe to the one who tries.

Even when you are separated from your sin, and you taste of holiness, and sin becomes so vile, and the uncleanness of your own flesh becomes such that you cry day and night for deliverance from it, you are still prone to be blindsided by your own ignorance into transgression against God, which will make you wonder what all your fuss is about.

Sin draws both the willful and willing, but it also snares through the subtlety of using your own pride of knowledge against you to keep you in ignorance of that which God calls sin. Adam fell through willful transgression, but Eve fell through ignorance and deceit. She did not know God herself, and so she did not believe God. She had no faith of God, and ended up with faith in herself, and trusted her own judgment about what was good and pleasant and to be desired.

Cast aside your good, old fashion, conviction producing and sin revealing King James Bibles if you will. Proliferate your Frank Sinatra versions that glorify doing it your own way, or that tell you that there are many ways to God. Sin is still sin, and God is still God, and the Law remains, and the judgments continue, and God is the one that decides, and God is the one that judges, and He will use the word you throw away and cast behind your back to do it. Take the knowledge of the commandments of God out of the schools and substitute your own moral equivalency, and your own do-it-yourself version of salvation. You will fail, and in the end, you will be just as bound over to the damnation you thought you could escape on your own as if you had never bothered.

Religion and good works cannot save you, philanthropy and community service will not avail you, because sin is a force, a power than no mere man can overcome. Charismatic faith for healing and deliverance and financial prosperity, the things of this world and this life, will not save you either, for you will become the servants of that which you obey, a transgressor unworthy of the salvation that was poured out so abundantly upon you. Our salvation and deliverance was declared to be from that which blinds and deceives this evil generation, not making friends with it and trying to clean it up. You cannot obey God and mammon or your own will and ways at the same time.

The fight of faith is to come to those places to wholly submit your will unto God, to wholly yield your life to His hands to work out in you what needs to be worked out, that you might be a vessel fit for His use, a temple fit for His glory, sanctified and purified unto holiness and love unfeigned. This is not a work of a moment, and anyone who believes that it is, is deceived. It is the ongoing fight of your life, and there will be no discharge from that war. And if you fail, you take untold others with you, for every door that you do not open is a door that remains closed to the others.

I call unto you now, Repent and get your life reconciled to God before it is too late, before the gravitational pull of sin is so great that you are inevitably dragged into it’s field of dominion, and all hope of escape departs from you.

I leave you with three verses of Scripture to encourage those of you who dare to believe, that there is hope to overcome the draw and drag of sin in all it’s forms:

But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name: [John 1:12]

Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing IN Me. [John 14:31]

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, AND to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. [1 John 1:9]

The Book of Revelations speaks and says, ‘Woe unto the inhabitors of the earth and of the sea’, (those who have been redeemed but still cleave to the flesh, and those who have not yet ’seen the light’), ‘for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time’.

That worm in you that dieth not, that has become a serpent, is about to become a dragon. Your only hope is to hold fast to Christ and get your soul delivered from the bonds of it’s iniquities and sins, each one of which is a hook that Satan can use to drag you out of your Lord’s grasp. Jesus may never let go of you, but rest assured, you most certainly can let go of Him, and then where will you be? Caught in a tribulation and tug of war that will grind you to powder to shred you to pieces.

Get yourself reconciled unto God, not just through your lip service and fervent emotion, but in truth, that you may abide in Him and be preserved from the hour that is about to come to test the world. Repent and get your soul reconciled unto God, and your ways conformed to His ways, and abide in the Spirit of truth, that you may be accounted worthy of the salvation that has been made so freely available unto you.

Know this: that which has been so abundantly and freely given, that which has been made so exceedingly possible to all who will, bears the unspoken recognition that those who will not or do not avail themselves of it are unworthy of it in the first place. This is the reality of the strait gate. Know as well that every knee WILL bow, and every tongue WILL confess that Jesus IS Lord. You are the one who will decide how it is that you will confess it, for even the devils believe and tremble.

God will move heaven and earth to uphold each one who shows through their steadfast perseverance of the grace of God unto the light of the truth that delivers once and for all from sin and all it’s deceits, but woe to the one that takes his salvation for granted. IN the end, you will end up losing that which you only think you had to begin with, for if you had truly pursued it to obtain it, you would never have lost it.

The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and My people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end thereof? [Jeremiah 5:31]

Faith and Healing


Most people believe that it is ‘faith healing’, meaning that if you have faith to believe Jesus can and will heal you, then that is all it takes to be healed. Much damage has been done through this erroneous approach to healing, and it is the primary inroad into all that is false and misleading concerning the realities of faith and of salvation and Christ. It is also the most grievous distortion of the work and will of God in Christ, and is in truth one of the two golden calves of Jeroboam, as concerns the charismatic church. (The other is prosperity and abundance, but that is another post).

The Tabernacle of God was not put together in just any old fashion. God walked Moses through it once on the Mount Zion, He guided Bezaleel through it once again to build it, and He instructed Moses in the erecting of it. Three times in Exodus, the issues that pertain to the Tabernacle of God were gone over in great detail, with the admonition of God to Moses to make sure that it was built exactly according to the pattern shown him.  Likewise when David was given the blueprints for the Temple, and when Ezra and Nehemiah and the Levites restored the Temple after the captivity of Babylon.

It is also known and understood that Christ Jesus Himself is the Tabernacle, the true Tabernacle and that all things that pertain to the Tabernacle are summed up and contained in Him. There have been a number of works written to explain how the layout of the Tabernacle resembles the cross, and a great number of expositions concerning them, so I wont go over it here in this post.

However, in all of these things, we have missed the primary point of what has been shown to us through the Tabernacle, which is also the truth and the reality of what it means to be healed and restored and made whole in Christ, the end of our salvation and faith, and our hope of glory.

God does not, has not and will not separate obedience to His commandments from the salvation that has been promised us in Christ. To be given the light of the truth and the strength to obey in Christ is one thing, but the outworking of that salvation is our wholeness, the full restoration of our lives and all that pertains to it from the curses and ravages of sin, rebellion and transgression, the epitomy of which will be our new and glorified bodies which we will receive either upon our resurrection or in the moment that we are caught up unto the Lord.

It is written in the Gospels that Jesus ‘healed them by His word.’ Many are the instances whereby faith was made evident through another’s faith in the word that Jesus spoke. Other instances have been the healings that occured by others touching Him or the hem of His garment, which represents the tzit-tzits or tassels of the prayer shawl which were the reminders of the commandments of God. In matter of fact, salvation can only be yours upon the recognition that you are where you are because of your rebellion against God, and the evidence of your return to God is a new-found desire and ability to now obey Him and desire to do so. This is the witness and testimony of Christ in you, that which makes us prophets before God, that which makes us kings and priests unto God.

We are the temples of God. That means that each one of us that has received the salvation made known to us and made manifest in us through the indwelling Christ, the fulfillment of the prophecy of God dwelling in the midst of us, are the Tabernacles of God. That would also indicate to us that the realities of our sanctification, our healing, and our restoration, in the height, breadth, and the depth of our lives, body, soul and spirit, can also be understood and worked out in us, through understanding how it is that the Tabernacle relates to us, and us to the Tabernacle.

Perhaps it would be best to see it like this:

The Temple of God, Whose Temple You Are!

Overview:

Briefly, for you would do well to take this diagram and study it and the Scriptures in the light of it, here are some things to consider:

The entrance into the Tabernacle or into the knowledge of the things of God begins with the issues of how you regard the vessel that is your body, particularly your sexual participations.  Sexual conduct is one of the foremost issues of Scripture, and this is why.  Those who choose carnal knowledge over the knowledge of God will suffer accordingly, aligning themselves with the flesh, rather than with the Spirit.  Adam did not know Eve until they fell and were evicted from the Garden.  The way back in, is through the total cleansing and purging and renouncing of all sexual activities and participations that are contrary to the way of God.

The Altar of Sacrifice relates to the navel - the source of all of our fallen lusts, desires and ambitions and the seat of the god of the belly, who exalts himself above all that is God.  This area is the Outer Court, the form of godliness, accessible by natural light, and relates to natural understandings versus spiritual ones.  This area relates to religion in all its forms and guises, and declares that it is only through our willingness to take up the cross and die to all that is ’self’, as did Christ, that we will ever come to progress further into the knowledge of God and the ways of holiness.

The Bronze Laver relates to the liver.  The liver cleanses and filters or purifies the blood, removing the bad, and replacing it with good.  It essentially washes the blood.  The Laver of the Tabernacle was made from the looking glasses of the women.  We are called to look into the Word of God and see ourselves in it. As we come to see and acknowledge the truth, we are washed from our sins and unrighteousness.   Jesus Christ did not come to save the righteous, but the sinner.  If what you see are the filthy rags of your own self-righteousnesses, then you can be cleansed, purged and purified unto life, by faith in the blood of Christ that was shed for you.

The first veil is that of the flesh, and signifies the baptism into the death of Christ.  Die to self, and the veil of the flesh is stripped way, and you enter into the light of the Spirit, the light of regeneration.  We are saved by faith, not by intellectual considerations and reasonings.  Salvation is by faith, and if you do not sense or see your need for salvation, then you will never see or know God.  God gives His grace to the humble, to those who are willing to receive the truth that He has spoken concerning their need, and the redemption that He has made available to them in Christ.

The Holy Place contains the 7-branched Menorah, the Table of the Shewbread or Table of Presence, and the Altar of Incense.   The Menorah  are the lungs, the breath of life.  The Table of Presence is the heart.  We judge ourselves through the Table of Presence, the Eucharist, as outlined for us in 1 Cor. 11:23-32.  This is where the true healing and restoration of the life and the spirit take place, which brings about the health of the body - that which is inward, working out.  The 7-branched Menorah speaks of the seven spirits of God, the seven Churches, the seven-fold outpouring of the glory of God.

The Altar of Incense is that which unites all of these items, all of which point to that which is behind the second veil - the Ark of the Covenant.  We receive the truths of the Word of God, we judge ourselves, or better yet, ask God to open our eyes and judge us.  We repent and renounce, and walk according to the light of that which was shown us.  We cleanse our ways before God.  We grow in the grace and the light of God.  Those who order their ways aright will be shown the salvation of God - the revelations of God, that which He has laid up for those who love Him, that which fills our spiritual houses with substance, that which feeds His sheep, that which is the hearing of faith.

The Altar of Incense relates to the voice box.  Life and death is in the power of the tongue - to pray, to speak unto God, to speak unto others, to edifgy or to destroy.  The words of our own mouths will be our judges, for out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.  As God abides in our heart, and we obey that which is of the heart, of His righteousness, our words become cleansed and renewed to right words concerning God and the realities of His kingdom.  This is what is to guide our prayers, and it is how we grow into ever increasing authority in the issues of intercession for others.  Jesus was the Intercessor of Intercessors, and God heard Him in all things, because He ever walked in the righteousness of God.  It comes through maturity, through having your senses exercised to discern truth from error.

The second veil is that of the ’self’ life.  Those who have truly died to self abide in the secret place of the Most HIgh. It is where you become crucified to the world, and the world to you.  Your robes are now washed clean in the blood of the Lamb,  your mind is renewed unto holiness, and the righteousness of God is now the strength and purpose of your life.  Those who do not make it past this veil, will be those who will be spewed out of the mouth of the Lord, as lukewarm - the hypocrites that are making a lie out of the Way of LIfe, who will not die to self, but prefer instead to rewrite the intents and purposes of God to justify themselves and their ways.  These are the false prophets, the lying seducers, the lovers of self more than the lovers of God.

Behind this veil is the Ark of the Covenant, which holds the Commandments of God, the Pot of Manna, and the Rod of authority, and it answers to the Scripture of Revelation 3:21:

To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with Me in My throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with My Father in His throne.

This is the seat that we have been raised up to in heavenly places, not just because the general riff-raff of the mixed multitude claim it to be so, but it belongs unto those who, by faith and a single minded, single-hearted love of the truth that mortifies all that is a lie, have fought through and overcome the world unto the overcoming victory of faith that is Christ now made manifiest in us, our hope of glory!

It is here that we hear the voice of our Lord.  He is set between the two cherubim, those which guard the entrance into the Garden of God, the Garden of Eden, which keep the way of life.  Christ is the one who is the flaming sword that turns every which way in the midst of them, the double-edged sword which is the Word of Life, which is able to sever soul from spirit, and is able to discern the thoughts and intents of the heart.

This is the light that we are called to come to, the light that we are called to abide in, the light wherein there is no shadow of darkness, the fullness of our salvation, where every tear is wiped away, and every hear filled with joy.  This is where we neither hunger nor thirst, the place of the fountain of the living waters, thr throne of righteousness and mercy, where we serve God before His throne for all eternity.

We are constant called to renew our mind from the vanity of the Gentiles.  A carnal mind is in enmity against God.  The mind must be renewed to the truth of God, which can only come about, not by memorizing Scripture or wallpapering your understandings with your own interpretation of Scripture, but through receiving the truths that the Scriptures are pointing to, and abiding in the Wisdom and Righteousness of them.  This is the way of holiness, the way to a clear conscience before God and man, that brings about the boldness or confidence of those who are truly righteous, and not just putting it on.

This is the reality of our salvation, wherein is our healing, to the height, depth and breadth, body, soul and spirit.  It is the way of the cross, the mark of the son. It is the power of the resurrection made manifest in us, which will lift us up and out of our graces on the day of the Lord, and which will bring healing and wholeness of mind and soul now.

God has spoken many, many times throughout the Scriptures that sickness, disease, infirmity, and all the attendant miseries that we have enshrined as being the new normal of our lives are the products and results of our rebellions and disobediences against Him and against righteousness and truth.  There is not one that cannot say that they do not suffer in one form or another for the wounding of their conscience, whether it be by their own deeds or those of another.

It is for this cause and this reason that we adomonish you to seek unto the Lord for your health and your healing.  Receive the Word against your sins and wrongdoing that you might be cleansed, healed and restored.  Renounce your participations with the ways and wisdom of this world, a way that is eternally enshrouded in death, that you might live.  Wash yourself clean in the blood of the Lamb and do it God’s way, for the end of His ways are life, and glory, and a place before Him for all eternity.

After the captivity of Israel in Babylon, the foremost issue was a return to Jerusalem, which entailed the restoration of the walls of Jerusalem and the Temple of God.  Two books of Scripture, Ezra and Nehemiah both pertain to this time, as well as the mnistries of the last of the prophets,  Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi.

Only Believe

. . . all things are possible to him that believeth.  [Mark 9:23]

21st century Christianity has focused on the ‘all things are possible’ aspect of this verse of Scripture.  However the key here is not the ‘all things are possible’.  The key here is ‘to him that believeth’.

All things require faith to accomplish, whether they are of God or of the world.  It took faith to bring forth the lightbulb (after 10,000 attempts, faith had to be in there somewhere!).  It took faith to turn visions of flight and wireless communication into realities, yet these are not the impossibilities that Jesus was referring to in the above scripture.

21st century Christiandom has taken this scripture concerning belief and turned into a licence for witchcraft, re-framing it to mean if you can believe it, God will do it.  That is what has led to so much deception and delusion in the Church today, and prepared the way for the lying signs and wonders that are becoming prevalent in many charismatic circles.  Yet this is also not what was referred to in this Scripture.

Jesus reply of all things are possible to him who believes, was a response to the fathers cry: If thou canst do anything, have compassion on us, and help us.

Jesus reply was an answer to one who no longer believed that God could or would have compassion on him and his child to deliver them, or do anything for them, especially seeing as nothing happened through the efforts of His very own ministers who had a track record of being able to do these things.  Even they could not understand why their ‘anointing’ failed them at this time.

The root issue of the disciples failure was their unbelief in God, not a lack of fasting or praying.  Fasting and praying are not about performing deliverances or healings but the end to which those things (fasting and praying) are directed ~ a purified belief that God is willing to help all and do good to all.

The issue here is, Do you believe?  It isn’t about what you believe for.  It is simply, Do you believe?  Do you believe that God will deliver you from your afflictions?  Do you believe that God will have compassion on you in your distress?  Do you believe that God can effect a permanent and lasting, effectual deliverance of your life from sin and all that pertains to it?  If you do not believe that God will do it for you, then how do you expect to come to a faith to believe that He will do it for anyone else?  And how do you figure that you will come to believe, if none of these things arethe things you have been believing God for?

Furthermore, if you do not believe in God for these things, then what kind of faith-oil are you selling in the name of Jesus?  What is the good news of your Gospel, if it isn’t about deliverance from sin and all that pertains to it, that we might serve God without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him all the days of our lives [Luke 1:74-75].

If Christians actually believed this promise of God unto salvation and the virtue of sinlessness that flowed from Christ, then we would actually see Christians walking in the holiness, purity and sanctification of the Holy Spirit. It was this purity of faith and sanctification unto the purposes of God that brought forth the glory of the first church.  It was this purity of faith and sanctification that overturned the world in such short order.  Furthermore, it is through this purity of faith and sanctification whereby you would know the will and heart and purpose of God, for you would be perfected in your love of God.  You wouldn’t have to play 20-questions concerning what the will of God was, and toss the dice to see if He really wants you to have this or go there and such like.

The fact remains, one look at the Church declares most evidently that you do not believe that God can do anything at all unto purity, holiness and sinlessness, for no one is bothering to seek unto God for these things.  It would also appear that we do not regard eternity and our resurrection from the dead to be the outcome of our faith and our salvation, but a mere byproduct ~ the given that is not a given. Instead, we fast, and pray, and seek to and fro, running from hill to dale looking for ever more powerful or more anointed ministers to get us what we want, rather than deal with God concerning the issues of unbelief that hinder us from obtaining that which we need ~ to be found without spot, wrinkle or blemish before God, perfected in love and faith, the Bride worthy of the Lamb.

The Church is going through a season right now of the prophesied lying signs and wonders.  This is the result and outworking of our unbelief.  We would prefer to believe in the evidential and sensoried miraculous of signs and wondes and prophetic words and impartations rather than confront our own individual issues of the many and manifold ways that we, with our words, and with our deeds, and with our attitudes, outlooks and pursuits, call God a liar, and portray Him to be wholly ineffectual to do anything for us or for His own kingdom, all of which has also profaned and polluted the truth of what the Gospel and our salvation is really all about.

If you would deliver your soul from the strong delusion that has enshrouded this nation and generation, then seek not the ‘all things are possible’, but seek to enter into the ‘to him who believes’.  If you believe, you will obey God, in all of the mundane, everyday sort of things, all day, every day.

In short, if you believe Jesus is your strength, then be willing to be made weak.  If you believe Jesus is your glory, then let Him rid you of yours.  If you believe Jesus is your all in all, then let Him empty you of all this is yours.  If you believe Jesus is with the needy, then be willing to be made needy, and if you believe that He is with those who are afflicted for His sake and the Gospel, then we willing to be afflicted.  If you believe Jesus is your LIght, then acknowledge your darkness.  If you believe Jesus gives His grace to the humble, then be willing to be humbled.  If you believe all that Jesus is, then we willing to be made all that you need Jesus for.  And if all you believe is that Jesus is merely your banker and your doctor, then woe unto you, for you have chosen the consolations of this life only.

Belief of God is a process.  Not one single person alive has ever had full blown, to the uttermost height, breadth and depth belief of God unto all things from the first ~ not even Abraham.  If such were the case, we would be blown up in a moment.  What we have is what we think is belief.  This is what needs to be addressed in our lives.

We think we believe, tell ourselves that we do believe, we search the scriptures and convince ourselves that we are in fact believing, yet when the test comes, we show by our very prayers and efforts, our declarations and proclamations and all of our calling forth that we do not believe God is paying attention at all.

Understand that belief of God does not rest in a natural outcome.  Abraham did not believe ‘for a son’.  He believed that God was able to do what He had said He would do.  It was because Abraham believed God,  and not an outcome, that He was enabled to endure and wait upon God in trusting faith and belief, even until the point when all natural hope was long and far gone.  His faith got moved out of the highly unlikely, unto the abiding faith of God to do what He said He would, when He would, and this was the source of the righteousness that was attributed to him.

If you would honor and glorify God, then start looking to Him for this living faith, that believes God can do what He has said He would do, and that He will do it when He will do it.  Stop redirecting His promises to lay the foundation to convince yourself for getting what you want, or doing what you want.

They soon forgat His works; they waited not for His counsel: but lusted exceedingly in the winderness, and tempted God in the desert.  And He gave them their request, but sent leanness into their soul.  [Ps. 106:13-15]

You may very well get what it is that you wanted and hoped for, but know that if your faith was vested in an ‘outcome’, chances are more than likely you now suffer from the very leanness of soul that is nothing more than a poverty of that faith and righteousness that was of Abraham.  And the general condition of the Church attests to this very thing.

The words of Peter are those that lead us into the right direction concerning this issue of faith:

Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.  But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.  1 Pet. 5:8-10]

The faith of God is what brings you through the afflictions, tests and trials that perfect your faith and love of God, the process of which is what strengthens, settles and establishes you in a faith that cannot be moved, regardless of what you see, regardless of what you hear, regardless of who you see or hear it from.  This faith knows truth from error, and cannot and will not be led away by a deceit or a delusion, for this faith is brought forth by God, upheld by God, made secure through God.

There is a counterfeit for all things that are of God.  Be sure that your ‘faith’ is not one of them.

He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be My son.  But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone:  which is the second death.  [Rev. 21:7-8]