Blog

08/16/09

My youngest son, almost 6 years old, accepted Christ in his heart today. It was awesome. We were watching the Sid Roth tv show. A woman, Suzy Yaraei, was on the show. She sang so beautifully. I perceived the anointing. And then I realized I could hear the Spirit of the Lord ‘knocking’ on my younger son’s heart. My other son received the Lord in his heart about a year and a half ago. I asked my younger son, “Ben, do you hear God knocking on your heart?” His eyes got big and he said, “Yes, I do.” A few weeks prior, I talked with both boys and asked Ben if he wanted to know the Lord. He said he wanted to think about it some more. I said, “Okay, just let Daddy know when you’re ready.” This time I asked Ben, “Do you want to ask Jesus in your heart? Do you want to know Him?” He said, “Yes.” He prayed with me and it was one of the most beautiful thing to experience. Later, he told me he already did this at Sunday school, which I thought was funny, but this was still so special.

Heb. 3:7,15; Heb. 4:7, “To day if ye will hear his voice…” “…harden not your hearts”

Eph. 4:18, “Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:”

Prior to Christ, the heart is calloused. KJV says “blindness.” Blindness due to callousness. A callus caused by constant abrasion of the judgment of the self-imposed law written on the Gentile heart due to a defiled or non-purged conscience. A conscience that is aware of the judgment and guilt of the law. This hardening of the heart could potentially hinder the light of the word if that were possible. Self-condemnation seems to be the instigator of the ‘hardening’ on the heart or legalistic self-abrasion. Self beating up self. Rebuilding the things which were destroyed. Our justification is by His faith in us.

This is the effect of the Word on our hearts,

Heb. 4:12, “For the word of God [is] quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and [is] a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”

The discernment of the Word is according to revelation, faith and grace in Christ by hearing and hearing the word.

His will is that our hearts be established by grace and that our hearts be unblameable,

Heb. 13:9, “Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines. For [it is] a good thing that the heart be established with grace; not with meats, which have not profited them that have been occupied therein.”

The effect of a heart established by grace,

1 Thess. 3:13, “To the end He may establish your hearts unblameable (irreprehensible) in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints.”

I believe His will is even to separate us from ourselves and the condemnation and even justification through self. He separates me from me to be who I really am in Him by righteousness, His nature and righteousness. So, this statement, “His will is that our hearts be established by grace and that our hearts be unblameable” could mean that our hearts are UNBLAMEABLE or irreprehensible even from ourselves!

Or He is the Priest in you.

Today, 08/20/09, talking to a co-worker. He has a lot on his plate these days. He pretty much just needed someone to hear him. He apologized for whining. I did not seem him as whining, but overwhelmed. I responded, “It seems like you have a lot on your plate.” He then said thanks.

Afterwords, the Lord told me, “You are a priest.” I realized I was a priest ministering grace and peace to my collegue.

Ever notice how streaks end? Christ is the end of all streaks or “an uninterrupted series”. A streak supposedly is based on luck. God is about purpose, Eph. 1:9,11.

Gal. 2:18 says, “If I rebuild what I destroyed, I prove that I am a lawbreaker.” The other day a friend smoked a cigarette in the lab at work. The building I work at is a non-smoking facility. How did he get away with it? Well, it is a new type of “electronic cigarette.” No joke. It uses a battery, water vapor for smoke and liquid nicotine.

After seeing this person, I was reminded of a few years back of one of several times I quit smoking. Back then, I told electric cigarette man, “I quit smoking.” He thought I was like him and would start smoking again. This person did not support my desire to quit. Instead, week after week he would ask me if I smoked over the weekend? He would ask me if I wanted to go out and smoke. Until finally, I believe it was around the 6th or 8th week he invited me for a smoke and to his surprise I accepted. We went outside. He gave me a cigarette and I smoked it. I did not willingly smoke it, but smoked it to “end the streak.” Guess what? Afterwords, he stopped asking me. I also did not continue to smoke after. God gave me grace to continue not smoke, but I truly did not want to smoke.

Romans 5:20-21 says, “Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Smoking among other things was an area I was missing the mark in. The mark is love, grace and liberty in Christ. The mark is only through grace by His faith according to hearing the Word. When I smoked the cigarette on the 6th or 8th week I threw off the self-imposed law that this particular person was trying to put on me and grace abounded. I will say even the Lord enabled me to smoke the cigarette? What? Chapter and verse please. Sure. Phil. 2:13, Rom. 1:17, Gal. 3:11, to name a few. Also, I didn’t have to smoke the cigarette. I was not trying to prove anything. I did perceive faith and power in me to do what I did so I acted on it.

1 Cor. 6:12 says, “Everything is permissible for me-but not everything is beneficial. Everything is permissible for me-but I will not be mastered by anything.”

If I am truly set free then if I were to smoke a cigarette it should not have the same affect on me if I really know I’m free. Otherwise, it is my master. Why? Self-imposed law.

Today, 08/03/09, at the YMCA, I was shooting some basketball. There were basketballs all over the court. I finished shooting and was going to leave the basketball on the court with the other balls. It is amazing how the Lord can use the simplest things to unveil His will and truth. As I said, I finished shooting the ball and I perceived the Lord ask me, “Are you going to put the ball back on the ball rack?” I responded yes inside, but really just wanted to leave the ball there. I took the ball and put it on the ball rack.

Then the Lord ask me another question that blew me away, “Was that obedience?” I am reminded of two scriptures, Rom. 1:5 (NIV), Heb. 8:10, 10:8-10.

I thought to myself and laughed and said, “No, I don’t think it was. I did it because You said so.” Apparently, this may not be the obedience of Rom. 1:5. I did not want to put the basketball in the rack. The obedience of Rom. 1:5 is according to faith and grace and enables His willingness. This willingness would not have hesitated to put the ball back. I no this is small, but I believe is significant. It is significant in life, marriage, work, parenting and so on. Galatians 4 talks about two sons. One is under the law and the other is under the New Covenant and grace. The grown or maturing son is under grace. The child under the schoolmaster, tutors and guardians must be told what to do and looked after until faith is revealed by Christ.

Ephesians 4:13 talks about “the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” The church will not be the Church or His Body until faith is revealed by grace unto obedience by grace and not ‘churchiness’ or dead works.

Gal. 6:4,”But let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another.” This reminds me of American Idol the tv show a little. I believe what Paul is saying is in Christ we are who we really are. We are real, genuine, and authentic. If I compare myself to another then what authenticity do I offer. I am not honoring myself. My value is the life of Christ. His life in me authenticates me by grace. Therefore, my rejoicing is really about Him in me “and not in another.”

Paul re-emphasizes this in Gal. 6:15, ”  For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.”

Gal. 6:3 says, “For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself.” The word deceiveth or deceive in the Greek literally means, “to deceive in one’s mind by fancies.” What is a fancy? (That’s what I thought too.)

Fancy:  imagination or fantasy, esp. as exercised in a capricious, impulsive or unpredictable manner.

Paul says in 2 Cor. 10:5, “Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;”

So, if it seems that vain imaginations are the catalysts to deceiving self with arbitrary fantasies and imaginations which is not revelation or walking by faith. In this case, I would be putting myself back under the law by enabling the old nature and rebuilding the things which were destroyed, Gal. 2:18.

Self-deceit really is deception enabled by the old self empowered by self-imposed law.

No wonder Paul says in Gal. 5:1, “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.” If we live in the Spirit let us walk in the Spirit by revelation of Christ according to hearing the word of life and truth. If I live and walk in presumptuous decisions this is akin to self-deceit.

Prov. 3:5, “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine (your) own understanding.”

We trust and have faith in God by and through the faith of Christ in us. The just shall live by faith in everything.

Playing foosball today, 07/28/09, and was playing very well. Played basketball the other day and I almost couldn’t miss. I’ve noticed players like Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Kobe Bryant, Tom Brady and the like who get to where they are at because of who they are really. Part of who they are I believe is an inherent and consuming willingness to win. The will to win does not think about loosing. It can only think about winning. Spiritually speaking, His hope is incapable of disappointment or being let down. The promises in Christ are always yes and amen. We abide in constant expectation of His righteousness becoming our righteousness reckoning to our account.

Hebrews 4 says to enter the Holy of Holies now with boldness and not fear. We have spiritual substance in us that is called “thoughts without fear.” Over time, as we spiritually grow in the knowledge and grace of Christ, this substance becomes more of who we really are in Christ. We grow into His nature and righteousness. We begin to think, know, live and speak what we know because of Who we know in us.

I believe this is part of moving in the fullness of the blessings of the gospel. This also seems related to faith unto knowing, Rom. 15:29. How could I move, dwell or live in His fullness if I don’t know? You’ve got to know. We can know by grace through revelation. The messenger needs to be sent to impart the revelation, Rom. 10:15.

Galatians 4:6 says, “And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, ‘Abba, Father!’ ”

“Sons” in the Greek means full grown sons. I think “crying” means, “I am your son and you are my Father.” It is an unhindered acknowledgement to the Father. It is  God the Father’s acknowledgement to us by grace through the ministry of reconciliation, Eph. 2:18, 2 Cor. 5:18. It speaks of an unspeakable or fully definable union or bond with our Creator and Father of our spirits by His beloved only Son.

This is the will of the Father that we be fully matured spiritual adults and to be ultimately His true offspring, Eph. 1:4-5. Christ said if we saw Him then we also saw the Father. Heb. 1:3 says Christ is the express image of the Father’s person, substance and essence. And Christ is the first born of many brethren.

“”Abba, Father!” is not “da-da, da-da”, but “Father! Father!” I am your offspring you are my Father.

2 Cor. 11:4, “For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or [if] ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with [him].”

How do I know which Jesus I am listening to if there could be another Jesus?

Eph. 1:19 says, “And what [is] the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power,” Do you have power in your life? Power to bear His fruit, power to heal, power to see miracles, the witness of a changed life? These all and others could be evidence of His salvation. Jesus said, “You’ll know a tree by its fruit.” John said, “Whoever does not love (agapeo, supernatural, godly love) does not know God, because God is love”, 1 John 4:8.

So, one’s love could be pretentious and the other sincere, but what is the motive? The motive is Him in us by His grace.

A new creature in Christ also has a new motive. The motive is living this life by and through His will in us and not to do so legally, rigidly or like an automaton, but to live life free and experience what His life has to offer which is life eternal. I don’t mean just going to heaven, but His life nature. To experience the actual life of God. Death is through sin. He has separated me from the body of this death by purging my conscience from dead works. In Christ, I do not know what the judgment or penalty of the law is anymore. I know what Christ has done. He is the Testator, Mediator and High Priest of the New Covenant. This is an eternal covenant with no end because He cannot change unlike the Aaronic priesthood who had to have a new priest after the old one died. Jesus Christ is our High Priest in the order of Melchizedek (or King of righteousness) forever. His is immutably righteous. His nature is constantly righteous. This is His priesthood. I am a partaker of this priesthood. I am a priest and part of His priesthood ushering others into the Holy of Holies free of no charge.