Every word from that nonsense-prolific orifice of yours is heresy. Worried about what others will think and what's embarrassing. Broken speech of a useless philosophy. Searching for a part of life to hold on to is within your broken psychie. You're just like the rest of them, blending in with the canvas so gray. Your nonsense isn't based on anything at all, what you haven't said I needn't say. You've wandered around in the dark for too long. Wandered so far your direction is wrong. Away from God's light leads you to a life of despair. What's at the end of the wrong path is a real nightmare. The sort of things you go to bed and dare not think about. That's the result. That's what happens when your light is out. Your nonsensical philosophy only builds more anger, confusion, doubt. Useless words trying to make sense of life by running off at the mouth. I want to help you, I want to lift up your days. Surely, not me, but God, can change your ways. ~ 2:58 PM 11/13/2003
I'm new to sowing seeds. And I suffered a lot of frustration. I'm willing to take on the promised trials and tribulation. And I've taken it. The proud-hearted impatience, I've taken as a sower of seeds, fisher of men. New to it. I asked the Lord to reduce my time at Wal-Mart, but I didn't know what I was asking: He was disciplining me there to sow seeds. I'd serve thousands of people, young and old, nice and mean, tall and short, and I'd take their imperfections and believed in what Christ said about the world being full of darkness and the works of the flesh being complete truth, apparent.
But I just got frustrated, so I turned to the Word. Here's what's written: "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth." That's me. I'm meek, I don't have anything. The Lord Jesus wants me to sow seeds, fish men, but He didn't give me excellent speech, didn't make me a good conversationalist. Didn't give me any sort of proper that I could use to sow seeds, that would help. I'm physically intimidating, my voice makes people afraid...
I was reading my sister Marley Exodus as a bed-time story lastnight, and I read when the Lord set up the signs for Moses, Moses pleaded with the Lord and said, Lord, I'm not eloquent with speech, I'm slow when I speak, and have a slow tongue. Like...! That's me!
I'm a Brit. Us Brits talk slow. And I have these terrible teeth, and my speech is just awful... I have a weird deep, dark voice.... How can I sow seeds? I said myself...
But the Lord said to Moses, "Who hath made man's mouth? Or who makes the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? Have not I the LORD?" He didn't give me those great talents for a reason.
If I would have had those things, it would actually get in the way of the kingdom. All of those Beatitudes Christ spoke about on the mountain, precious Lord Jesus, were about broken-hearted, contrite, poor people. They have nothing, so they're able to receive all things in Christ Jesus. If I had those things naturally, they would get in the way of the Kingdom of God, because if I tried to do it myself, my own ability gets in the way of the things of God. I'd count on myself or my own strength.
If counting on myself were anything Godly, I'd be the one to pay for my sins, meaning I'd go to hell and pay for them myself. But Christ didn't have it that way, He bore them on the cross Himself and everything is in, of, and through Him. Because my own right hand can't save me, I need Jesus. I need Him. The Kingdom of God isn't for the richest, bravest, most perfect people, it's for us, the world's losers.
And I'm thankful now that I see it that I can depend on the Lord above and not myself when sowing seeds.
Paul wasn't a loser. He was a full-blown Jew, Pharisee, expert in poetry and literature, excellent in speech, and a Roman, with high worldly status. When Christ called Paul to suffer for Him, Paul said, "I consider them rubbish that I may gain Christ." My smarts and sense of humor are trash! Blessed are those that don't have. And I want that to be me.
Jesus took His 3 best disciples on a mountain. The Lord doesn't play favorites. But these are the disciples that had something that the other 9 didn't have yet (one was with the devil, Iscariot).
Right before their eyes, Jesus was transfigured. He stood before them wearing clothes made of light. And Joseph said, "I don't know how they could tell it was them, but Elijah and Moses stood at Christ's right and left. They didn't know what they said."
And then Peter said, Master, it is good for us to be here...
They were dumbstruck. Dumbfounded. They fell on their faces. Everyone in scripture that ever sees a manifestation of the Lord our God in heaven has fallen on their face. Trembling. Ezekiel fell on his face, God lifted him up, but afterward, he sat staring, eyes wide open, not eating or drinking for 7 days.
Then Peter said the stupidest thing. "Let us make three tabernacles; one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah."
Peter didn't know what he was saying, but Peter knew from that old testament mind he carried, the Lord would always find a container for His glory concerning man. They weren't able to bear it. He was suggesting to build a booth to contain all of that radiant glory and beauty and power. 3 of them. But the Lord was saying that no more will He dwell in temples concerning man. Under Christ, under the testament He redeemed with man, He's dwelling in temples made without hands.
No more will He contain His glory, but He will put it in us, His temples, to have the burning fire within us, the consuming fire, the Holy Spirit.
Then a cloud overshadowed them, with a voice out of it saying, "This is my Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him."
They hit the ground. Trembling. Trembling... Their faces were in the dirt. No one's ever seen a movie or watched a football game or eaten food or committed any sin where the emotional or physiological response causes you to hit the ground, face down, trembling and shaking and crying. Sobbing.
And always, the Lord picks them up. Jesus said, "Arise, and be not afraid." When they looked up, the law of Moses disappeared. The prophets of Elijah disappeared. The law and the prophets were gone. But Jesus only.
And at that point... Joseph and I both held back tears.... But, Marana tha. Teacher's Coming. He'll wipe every tear, as it says in Revelations. Heal our wounds with the living water. My brothers and sisters and I will know Him as He is, and no longer will anyone have to preach to another Him, or worry about the present things. The sufferings of this present time aren't worthy to be compared.
So, carrying over the list of the works of the flesh in Galatians Chapter 5, starting right around verse 21, we're just going to continue defining these terms brought up from the Greek words, and relating some of them to the commandments that Jesus Christ would lay on the hearts of the stony hearted, proud hearers too stop their mouths and make them like the broken-hearted, contrite hearers that He said He'd come to preach for in Matthew (right around Chapter 4, reading from book of Isaiah).
At this moment I'm listening to some pastor preaching on some Christian station about the flesh.
It was very hard for me to put down the works of the flesh. I remember picking up the old ways again and falling right back into what I had repented of, many months after the Holy Spirit entered in and I was permanently saved, and the Spirit resided within. I'd get very angry, and would still, if I'd fall into an old way, or an old way over and over again. It was sad. It separates you from the Lord your God. It separated me from the same Jesus who loves me so much. Satan would fill my mind with so much confusion, and I'd feel so much darkness. The Lord would keep right on accepting me, forgiving me, taking me back. He would, one-by-one, forgive every time I fell and accept me back, being very patient.
When people are at this point when they've fallen in love with Christ, they don't see that what they're doing, just as when before they accept Christ, is sinning unto DEATH. That they were making themselves still in danger of hellfire, because after Christ's washed us clean, and forgiven our sins, and we continue to sin having known the truth and tasted the fruit of the Spirit, there doesn't remain a sacrifice for those sins if we take off the Lord Jesus Christ and give into satan (Hebrews Chapter 10, Verse 26). We become spiritual sons of satan. When you were born, you resembled the parents that bore you. When you're born twice, by the Holy Spirit when you begin to believe, you're born to resemblance to the Son of God, taking up spiritually everything that embodies Him: You must think like Him, have all of the love characteristics that He had for so many (First Corinthians Chapter 13, Verse 4, ), being the very author of our faith. And if He's the author, He'll be the finisher, and there is no reason to turn back to the old ways that condemn us to hell (Hebrews 12, Verse 2).
How do I do it? Well, I'm pretty new to sowing seeds. I'm still learning as of the time this post was posted. But from the message the Lord has delivered me, and from what the Holy Spirit's having me do, I must first tell the unrepented that it's time to repent, tell them that they need the saviour. I go through the commandments, and I diagnose with them the disease, then when they know that they are in fact guilty and have sinned against God, that's when I have to deliver grace to them. It's how Christ and the disciples sowed seeds, and it's how I now do it. But if I'm guilty of breaking, still, the 10 commandments that I just identified in that person, aren't I a hypocrite? How can someone, anyone, saved in Christ, save a soul if they're condemned by the same thing they're telling the person that they're condemned with? I couldn't see because my eyes were filled with so much wood and saw dust, I couldn't pull out the speck in my neighbour's eye. Which is why the Lord didn't teach me how to be a fisher of men until I was ready. Until I had fully repented. If the newly converted is unrepented and doesn't understand that their old ways, the fleshly ways, are sins against the Father and worthy of death, and keeps on sinning, I would have built their foundation on sand, they would backslide, and I would be guilty of lying to them, being carnal myself by not following what Christ taught.
Now that being understood, let me explain what I had to learn (and am just now coming to realize what I had internalized by the Spirit enough to talk about it, heheh) in order to sow seeds for Christ, to save souls...
Galatians Chapter 5, Verse 1, "Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage." This particular part of this letter in the written Word is written to fix this problem. We're set free by the truth, which is the Holy Spirit, in and of, and what we're doing is taking back up the yoke that bound us before we were set free in Christ. It's like the Hebrews going back to the Pharaoh after crossing the red sea and being set free under Moses, who typifies Christ in the sense.
The letter speaks spiritually for the next few verses. Those that are under the circumcision are those that are justified by the law. "Christ is become of no effect to you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; you are fallen from grace." Verse 4 The law is put in place that we might be guilty in the Lord's eyes. It doesn't save us, or bring us righteousness, it just leaves us guilty, and stops us from justifying ourselves. Because, righteousness is given in the hope that we have faith in, and faith works by love, which the next three verses say.
"For, brethren, you have been called to liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another." We're not using the death of the Lord of the universe out of His compassion to do evil things, or to continue in sin. He died to set you free from sin, to bring righteousness. Here we see two key things, the verse says don't use the freedom to go out on a limb and sin more and thereby return to what you were set free from, by Paul mentions serving one another. That's a work of righteousness.
"This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh." Powerful thing that was just said. What wasn't written was, put down the lust of the flesh and stop all of your sinning, and then Walk in the Spirit. It says to Walk in the Spirit and THEN you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh, as a result. Read this verse over and over. It's the entire point of the message I'm trying to get clear to you. Memorize it, even. "This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh."
What is the flesh?
"For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary the one to the other: so that you cannot do the things that you would." The flesh is attached to your biology, the body or hardware side of you. It is a nature, a collection of what the world has programmed into you since birth and the carnal lusts and desires you bear inside. It's like your BIOS, your DOS operating system if you will, that is your basics to your hardware-body, if that's worthy to be compared to it.
If you're not in step with the Spirit, you're liable and susceptible more to temptation because the roots of those lusts that can grow in your flesh start springing up again, in a sense. But when you're in step with the Spirit, who resides within because of the second birth, there's no way possible to fulfill what the flesh desires. This is what Christ does, having the Spirit and being one with the Spirit at the same time, in Matthew Chapter 4 and Luke Chapter 4, when He was tempted by satan in the desert.
So, Jesus Christ is the only way to keep from falling. Who sends the Holy Spirit to you when you ask for Him? Who said that the Holy Spirit will do what He hears from above? Wasn't it this same Jesus? Same Lord of all? Jude says "Not unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy," It couldn't be more clear-cut than that.
So do you love Jesus Christ? If you love Jesus Christ, you'd trust in Jesus Christ. Because He said, "He that has my commandments and keeps them, it is he that loves me, and he that loves me shall be loved by my Father and I will love him and manifest myself to him." Gospel of John Chapter 14, Verse 21.
That's a pretty powerful piece of information. It's also one of the first verses that I recite in full in my mind when I'm tempted. It says that those that love Him do what He says. How did you come to Christ? Love? He loved you before you loved Him, even before you knew you were a sinner? So then what did Christ say gives away that someone is His disciple? Didn't He say that if they have the love He was talking about (which is John 15, 10)? Those that don't do what He says aren't truly His disciples, because they don't follow after Him. When you walk in the Spirit, this is the exact thing you're doing: "If you keep my commandments, you shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love." This verse in Chapter 15, Verse 10 of the same Gospel explains why exactly Christ is the fulfilling of the law and sets us above it when we submit ourselves to Him.
So then back to Galatians.
Verse 18, "But if you be led of the Spirit, you are not under the law."
Verse 19, this is where it lists the things that are works and bad fruits of the flesh, things unto death, whereas you sin against the Lord Himself: "Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness," Jesus said that if you've ever looked on a woman (or man) to lust after them, you've already broken Thou shalt not commit adultery in your heart. You've already coveted, and broken that commandment, with fornication and proverbs says that he that does those sins against himself, and these are sins against God Himself to death. Do not take your sins lightly. You sin against God Himself, who has so much endless compassion and love, and who would be the just Judge to give those that sin against Him willfully even after repentance their place with those that receive the second death. "The wage of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord." We've sinned, and the exact just reward for our sins is death, we bring on ourselves, but the gift freely given (Ephesians 2; 8, 9) not by the commandments or by "being 'good'" (worldly righteousness is a mole of water in Noah's flood compared to God's righteousness, which is why Jesus answer Job and Job said Behold, I am vile, and called himself dust and ash).
Moving on.
"Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations" Idolatry. Ever told someone, 'I don't go to Church because I worship the Lord in my own way?' I have. How dare I say that... The Lord has the way in which He wants to be worshipped, and any other way is a sin against Him to death. Or, if you choose what to and what not to believe in out of His written Word, you're guilty of breaking the second commandment. Witchcraft. The word here is pharmakeia, Strongs #5332, which means the use of or administering drugs. They're like things of seductions. Hatred. Jesus Christ said in the Gospels that he that calls someone thou fool is in danger of hell fire, he that hates has broken the commandment Thou shalt not murder, and murderers cannot enter into the kingdom of Heaven unatoned. It's enmity in Greek. Variance. The word means strife. That means a concention or debate against someone. Instigators fall in the same category. Emulations. Ever look at someone or two couples and envy them in your heart? You feel bad because of what they have and you sort of feel angry at one of them? Emulations. It's like a jealousy. It's a work of the flesh. And there's a way to combat that with the Spirit, but that's another blog. Wrath. It's a wine of passionate anger, says the Greek. A certain fierceness. This is the sinful sense of the word. Strifes. The word behind this means a form of selfishness. Jesus told His disciples to bare the burdens of one another, to look to His neighbour's problems, rather than bite each other up or look only at one's own problems. If we do that, it pleases the Lord greatly. Seditions. It's the sinful act of wanting to cause divisions among people out of hatred. The Greek is like, "Two-stands." And Heresies. If I just walked up to someone and started babbling about the things on my own mind to plant a seed, I'd be guilty of idolatry again. I wouldn't speak the things of the Holy Spirit. I'd be putting my own understanding in place of the one given to me by Jesus Christ, who says lean not on your own understanding. So a lot of dissensions arise from people's opinions about things, gossips...
If you want to get the punchline of this spiritual 'joke' (speaking spiritually, not a real joke, very serious), then please read on to part two of this psot.
I got off of work at 8, but didn't get any studying done. :-/ Pathetic. The Lord appointed a season, and I screwed it up. :-( Can't see out of my swollen red eyes barely, and it's time to get up in two hours. Confronting my past now, no more creating backsliders. No more building foundations on sand, fighting satan with a feather duster, fishing without a net. Christ despises these things. I'm going to do it His way from now on. So thankful He's telling me how to sow seeds.
