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“Persuaded Better Things of You”

Posted in Christian Walk, tagged , , , on September 25, 2015| Leave a Comment »

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Scripture reading: Hebrews 6:3-20

Let us look at Hebrews 6:3-6, “And this will we do, if God permit. 4 For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, 5 And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, 6 If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.”

What are we saying? I am going to put it in short words for you. If you reject the Holy Ghost, you are lost. If the Holy Ghost ever leaves you, you are finished. The Holy Ghost will never leave you unless you are totally condemned to hell. Have you ever seen anybody who was baptized with the Holy Ghost backslide? Yes, you have. We see them all the time. Well, the Holy Ghost will not leave him, unless he gets to the stage where he has totally, categorically, deliberately rejected God. If the Holy Ghost lifts from him, he will be an atheist and he will be happy, glad, free and no problem anymore. He is already in hell. Do we see the Word of God?

Verse 6 says, “If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.” Verse 9, “But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak.” In other words, we lay down principles and thoughts of what can happen, BUT we don’t expect it to happen to you. I don’t expect one person reading this article to come under the category of one who would reject the Holy Ghost, reject Jesus Christ, turn your back on Him and be lost.

Verse 10, “For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have shewed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister.” This is such a marvelous God that we serve, that He is not going to allow you to go to hell. He will kill you before you go to hell. Isn’t He a wonderful God? Tell me now. Isn’t He a wonderful God? He is a God Who would rather let your body perish and your soul live, than to allow you to go down into hell. This is the confidence that you have in God, isn’t it? So, why do you not understand God when you see some of us dying? God will destroy the body that the soul may live. You have made a commitment. You have made a covenant. You are part of God’s Body and He said, “If your right hand offend you, cut it off” (Matthew 5:30). Yes, if a person is going to lose his life spiritually and go to hell, I would rather see him dead, see her dead. Whoever it is, I would rather see them dead and with the Lord than see them go into hell. Is that your consciousness, too? Praise be to God.

Verse 18, “That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us: 19 Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the veil; 20 Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.”

(Excerpt from Keeping in Touch, December 2007, pg. 9)

Thought for today: He is a God Who would rather let your body perish and your soul live, than to allow you to go down into hell.

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A Christian Does Not Commit Sin

Posted in Christian Walk, tagged , , , , , , , on September 24, 2015| Leave a Comment »

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Scripture reading: Romans 6:23

Do you believe in the doctrines in Hebrews 6:1-2? They are so simple and so basic that you must believe in them. If you don’t, go repent, get them and make sure you have them stored in your heart, because these are your basic foundation. You are going to be called to stand upon them in the midst of battle. You must get the resurrection of the dead and the eternal judgment right. You must know that everything you do, EVERYTHING you do will appear in the judgment. Every thought you had will appear in the judgment. You get forgiveness of sins if you pray to Jesus and ask Him for forgiveness. Now, can you pray about something that you did deliberately? Yes, you can, but you mustn’t do it again. In other words, you are supposed to be changed.

Do you know that a Christian doesn’t sin and a sinner doesn’t do righteousness? That sounds rough, doesn’t it? I am just quoting our Brother John. You have to decide whether John is right or wrong, whether he was in the Spirit when he wrote that. “Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin” (1 John 3:9). Now, the key word here is commit.

You get together and say, “Brother, let us rob the bank tomorrow.” You lay out your plans to rob the bank and execute the robbery. You are NOT born of God. If you were working on the roof of a bank and the roof gave way, you fell into the vault, picked up a few coins and put them in your pocket, then you might be able to go and repent, and say, “Lord, forgive me.” But what I am saying is that he that is born of God, that is a son of God, cannot deliberately, willfully sin. No one that is born of God can willfully sin. NO ONE that is born of God can continue in sin. You can fall into sin, but you cannot continue in it. If a person is continuing in sin, he needs repentance from the beginning. He has to go back and repent from some dead works.

There is a judgment on sin. The judgment on sin is already pronounced, “For the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). Now if you believe that, you will not sin. Unfortunately, we sin both in thoughts and in deeds.

(Excerpt from Keeping in Touch, December 2007, pg. 8-9)

Thought for today: You must know that everything you do, EVERYTHING you do will appear in the judgment.

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“It Is Good”

Posted in Christian Walk, tagged , , , on September 17, 2015| Leave a Comment »

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Scripture reading: Genesis 1:31

I have been thinking and meditating on Mary Magdalene. She was very close to Jesus in her whole heart and soul. Her heart leaned toward Him so much that when she saw Him crucified, she couldn’t think of herself. A lot of the disciples ran away. Peter cursed and lost it. Mary Magdalene was with the other Marys, maybe about five Marys; they stood right there. They didn’t care if there were any there that wanted to kill them. Did you ever think of it? They stood, right there, beneath the cross. They never thought about whether they would lose their lives or not.

After He was crucified, they were the ones that remembered He had said that He would resurrect on the third day. So, they took ointment and spices to the tomb. I personally believe that they used that as a pretext to go to the grave and see what they could see. The Bible says that when they got to the gate, there was an earthquake accompanied by an angel of a very bright countenance (Matthew 28:2). That was the time of the resurrection – you know the whole story. Mary Magdalene wouldn’t leave there. She wanted to see Him. She saw a man and she went to talk to him. She talked with who she thought was the gardener, but it turned out to be Jesus Himself. The message He gave her was the first resurrection message that was given to the Church (John 20:17). It was given to a woman whose heart and soul was totally sold out to God. She took the message to the disciples, but they didn’t believe her.

She said, “He is risen, as He said” (Matthew 28:6). He is risen as He said, and we, when we think of Jesus Christ, we think of our risen Savior. He appeared to them many times, but there was only one time He appeared with wounds in His hands and in His side and He only appeared that way to convince the doubters (John 20:25-29). Amen?

Now, it is 2,000 years since that has happened and Jesus has been coming closer and closer and closer in the revelation of Himself to the church. His plan is not to reveal Himself to you so that you could go and preach. His plan is to reveal Himself in you, so that when you see Peter, you see Jesus, so that Jesus would have many faces, millions of faces. We will all look the way that we look, but it will be Jesus Who will be seen. That is, your mind will be the mind of Christ. Once your mind becomes the mind of Christ, you begin to think like Christ, you begin to act like Christ, you begin to walk like Christ and you begin to behave like Christ!

Now, for last 2,000 years, we have been working on the church, and if God wasn’t God, He would be disappointed. You know, I look at God sometimes and wonder why He isn’t disappointed. Do you know why? Because He is seeing something that I am not seeing and He is hearing something that I am not hearing.

God made this man, a magnificent creature, and He let him loose to walk. And as the man walked along, God said, “It is good” (Genesis 1:31). Now, God said, “It is good,” and God saw you. God saw what Adam would do, and God said, “It is good.” What is good? Deterioration from a magnificent, mighty creature down to little people like we are now? We deteriorated not only in the body but we have deteriorated in mind. We have deteriorated in every way from Adam, except in Christ. And Christ’s intention is to come forth in Adam.

(Excerpt from Keeping in Touch, December 2007, pg. 4)

Thought for today: Once your mind becomes the mind of Christ, you begin to think like Christ, you begin to act like Christ, you begin to walk like Christ and you begin to behave like Christ!

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Death at the Golden Altar

Posted in Christian Walk, tagged , , , , , on September 1, 2015| Leave a Comment »

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Scripture reading: Leviticus 10:1-7

The Golden Altar of Incense in the Tabernacle of Moses is a place of life. The whole idea of the Holy Place is the type of entering into the life of Christ, BUT one must remember that when one enters into the life of Christ, one must give up his own life. It stands out as truth, therefore, that to enter into the very fullness of the life of Christ, one must settle the question of SELF LIFE and ALL OTHER ALIEN TYPES OF LIFE, upon which the Covenant of the Outer Court was sealed and signed with blood.

There is a fearful record of DEATH AT THE GOLDEN ALTAR. Leviticus 10:1-2 records the death of Nadab and Abihu, two sons of Aaron who were also priests. In our time, it represents not only ministers, but those who have reached that stage in Christ.

“And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them his censer, and put fire therein, and put incense thereon, and offered strange fire before the LORD, which He commanded them not. And there went out fire from the Lord, and devoured them, and they died before the Lord. Then Moses said unto Aaron, This is it that the Lord spake, saying, I will be sanctified in THEM THAT COME NIGH ME, and before all the people I will be glorified. And Aaron held his peace. And Moses called Mishael and Elzaphan, the sons of Uziel the uncle of Aaron, and said unto them, Come near, carry your brethren from before the sanctuary out of the camp. So they went near, and carried them in their coats out of the camp; as Moses had said. And Moses said unto Aaron, and unto Eleazar and unto Ithamar, his sons, Uncover not your heads, neither rend your clothes; lest ye die, and lest wrath come upon all the people: but let your brethren, the whole house of Israel, bewail the burning which the Lord hath kindled. And ye shall not go out from the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, lest ye die; for the anointing oil of the Lord is upon you. And they did according to the word of Moses.” Leviticus 10:1-7

God did not kill these people. They transgressed basic principles, and became the victims of their own folly. No other fire was to be used in the tabernacle but the fire from the Outer Court altar of sacrifice, which God Himself lit, and which was a holy fire to be perpetuated. They disregarded instructions, and EXPERIMENTED in things of God. All this sounds familiar to me. The men and women of our day are transgressing in this very thing at the Altar of Incense, and are indeed DROPPING DEAD, both physically and spiritually.

Adam was created of God, a LIVING SOUL, but Adam died. Since that time, the perfect will of God for man has been to see man move again, NOT ONLY INTO LIFE, BUT INTO IMMORTALITY.

2nd Timothy 1:10, “But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.”

It is God’s will, therefore, for man to move higher than just being a LIVING SOUL, but to the very LIKENESS OF GOD, becoming a QUICKENING SPIRIT.

This, in other words, is the SONSHIP MESSAGE which we now preach. It is the message of God to His creatures to lift them from SERVANTSHIP to SONSHIP. They are to be masters and rulers in the natural, but children in the spiritual.

It transpires, therefore, that when the soul realm is conquered, and the GIFTS AND FRUITS of the Spirit begin to come forth in our lives, and we begin to have power over the enemy, having overcome the enemy within, THEN there remains only one enemy, or one VEIL yet, and that is ourselves. The veil represents flesh, and there are three to be crossed in the Tabernacle, before we come into the Holy of Holies, where God meets with man in a FACE TO FACE relationship.

Exodus 25:22, “And there I will meet with thee and commune with thee from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubims which are upon the ark of the testimony, of all things which I will give thee in commandment unto the children of Israel.”

(Excerpt from The Pattern, 2nd Edition, 1995, pg. 136-138)

Thought for today: It is God’s will, therefore, for man to move higher than just being a LIVING SOUL, but to the very LIKENESS OF GOD, becoming a QUICKENING SPIRIT.

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Without Spot or Blemish

Posted in Christian Walk on August 31, 2015| Leave a Comment »

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Scripture reading: Proverbs 23:7

The horns of the Altar of Incense in the Tabernacle of Moses signify the absolute necessity of the work which they depict – the necessity of the soul being offered. The offering must be “without spot or blemish, a male of the first year.” God’s perfect offering is prime, not second grade. Many of us give God what is left of a life half lived for Him, but He wants the FIRST FRUITS of our lives. The term WITHOUT SPOT OR BLEMISH carries much meaning here. Hebrews 5:9 speaks of Jesus Christ on this wise,

“And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation.”

To the casual reader, this would suggest that Jesus was not perfect but was made perfect, BUT when we see the thing in the Spirit, then we understand that Jesus Christ could only be made the perfect sacrifice through BEING SACRIFICED. Thus, it was through His suffering that He became the perfect sacrifice. To be this, He had to suffer in the flesh. Here again, we have another scripture which has sometimes been misinterpreted by us.

1st Peter 4:1 says, “For as much then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin.”

It is a fact that many have suffered in the flesh and have not ceased from sin, therefore, the word “suffered” here must carry a specific spiritual meaning. The suffering in the flesh which God requires is not a type of penance as some think, but the RESISTING OF THE FLESH AND ALL its desires. Thus, suffering in the flesh destroys the power of the flesh life and immobilizes the force of its enticements. The mind of Christ leads us into this type of suffering.

When we look at the term “without spot or blemish,” we can see, therefore, that it speaks of a soul as the lamb of old without any scar or tarnish of sin, which has been thoroughly cleansed of God, and emptied of self, and offered to its Maker for His use. It is possible that a person can reach the stage right HERE AND NOW, where he or she does not sin with his Mind, neither with his or her Emotions, neither with the Will, nor with the Desire. When you are in this condition, then you only need to make sure that your motive for all this was not SELF. Self PRESERVATION could easily make a man get so smart with His God that he would submit and do all he needs to do. If self-anything is our motive, then self is still alive. All our motive must be GOD AND GOD ALONE. God’s people, God’s plan, God’s will. Lost, utterly lost in God, and absolutely rejecting that which we knew to be the thing called self. When Adam fell, his thought pattern fell. Now we rise and our thought pattern must rise.

“For as he thinketh in his heart, SO IS HE” Proverbs 23:7.

(Excerpt from The Pattern, 2nd Edition, 1995, pg. 139)

Thought for today: If self-anything is our motive, then self is still alive. All our motive must be GOD AND GOD ALONE.

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