If your church or your pastor is not instructing you s to the how of holiness... how to walk in victory over the world, the flesh and the devil.... how to see your entire nature changed from sinner to obedient child of God.... how to please God in all things... then you are being shortchanged.
I know this sounds a bit harsh, but it is not meant to be. It is simply trying to get our attention to a problem in the vast number of churches across all denominations.... yes, yours as well. Ouch, huh?
Here is what I see going on. People are led to the Lord, and are sincere in their hunger for the Lord. But as Leonard Ravenhill once stated, we are so anxious to see them get saved that we uank them out of the womb before their time. This we fail to tell them critical details. For instance, being saved is a “transaction”. Between God and us. A covenant. We give Him all of us, and all our little gods, and in exchange we get the pearl of great price. I have heard people say that to tell them that such an approach will put people off. But is this not exactly what Jesus taught us?
Another example. We tell people that God is now ours. And He is! But we fail to tell them that the opposite is true even more so. We are God’s! You see, the word tells us that we are not our own, we are bought with a price and we are to glorify God with our new lives.
But one of the greatest oversights in our take on Christianity is that living pure, peaceful lives, keeping our bodies under is the calling of every believer. Getting saved is not the end of our race, but rather it is the beginning! And we are to run with a single eye, Jesus above all, and to do so with vigilance, for we have an enemy who wants to steal from us before our newly sprouted seed puts out deep roots.
But herein lies the problem. New believers are to be instructed in righteousness.... How to get the upper hand over their fleshly desires. How to bring every thought.... wow..... every thought into subjection to the Lord. They are to be told how to escape the trap of Romans 7 so that they can truly flourish in Romans 8.
What do we give them? Read your Bible. Pray. Go to church. Do good. Don’t do bad. Is it not any wonder why we are languishing, and drifting ever so gradually into worldliness and lukewarmness, and a lot of guilt. And what does God think of this? He says that H is astonished. Did He not plant us wholly a noble vine? How have we turned into a degenerate plant to Him? We may start out on fire and excited, but are warned that this is common for it is our honeymoon period, but marriage is hard work. Sadly, that seems to be a common state of affairs in our marriages as well.
Should not our love and excitement for God grow exponentially as we continue on the path? Yes, it should. Sadly, with great regularity however, it does not. And why? Why do we settle in for Sunday services as the best God can do. Throw in a prayer chain, some sort of helps ministry and think this is Christianity, because after all, no one is perfect. Right?
But you see, when we really read the words God has given us to stand on, His promises, we see something is truly amiss. Consider:
1) He said that He would not allow us to be tempted above our ability to resist. Our response is that we are only human, so that voids that promise. But we always have forgiveness, Yes, we do, but God’s will is that we finally learn how to possess our vessels in sanctification and honor. Forgiveness is wonderful IF we slip, but evidently there is a way to walk with sin under our feet. Hmmmmmm.....
2) God tells us that our shields of faith will quench... WILL.... all.... ALL..... the fiery arrows of the enemy.
Listen, Peter tells us that we are given these amazing promises because it is through our believing them as OUR promises that the change God promises to perform in us will occur. As we first start out, stumbling is normal. But if we have been walking with God for years, and still willfully sinning, leaning on His forgiveness but with no desire to walk as overcomes, giving glory to God, our Christianity has been gutted of its goal, that we bring forth fruit unto God.
How many churches today preach every single service on forgiveness,but never on how to walk pleasing to God, how to overcome fleshly appetites, how to be changed into fruit bearing saints. Here is the danger, and it cannot be overstated. When we sin the same sins over and over, we are told that the real danger is that our hearts get hardened towards God.
Oh, we keep up our words,our core beliefs, but our prayer life becomes dead... hollow... lifeless. So we settle for learning ABOUT God, rather than learning from Him. We end up religious, but not righteous, and this, my friends, is what the vast number of believers have settled for.
Why are pastors letting such things happen to their sheep? They too have lost sight of victory as our birthright and have succumbed to the pressure to become CEO’s. The concept of giving themselves continually to prayer and ministry of the Word so that their sheep thrive and draw other sheep with their light of life... Jesus in their hearts.... filling them... changing* them.... is lost. Holiness is not preached because it is thought impossible anyway.
But I am here to tell any who will listen that there IS a path prepared for us to walk on, where we walk as overcomes, not as the forgiven overcome. This amazing highway does not lead to holiness... it IS the highway of holiness! Praise God, He tells us that on this highway, a man may be a fool and STILL will not err there in. Glory! I qualify! And so do you!
If you find this encouraging, I ask that you keep reading the blog as I add to it. What God has given me to share is truly amazing.... and it works.... HE works!
Blessings to you all.
Gideon
I know this sounds a bit harsh, but it is not meant to be. It is simply trying to get our attention to a problem in the vast number of churches across all denominations.... yes, yours as well. Ouch, huh?
Here is what I see going on. People are led to the Lord, and are sincere in their hunger for the Lord. But as Leonard Ravenhill once stated, we are so anxious to see them get saved that we uank them out of the womb before their time. This we fail to tell them critical details. For instance, being saved is a “transaction”. Between God and us. A covenant. We give Him all of us, and all our little gods, and in exchange we get the pearl of great price. I have heard people say that to tell them that such an approach will put people off. But is this not exactly what Jesus taught us?
Another example. We tell people that God is now ours. And He is! But we fail to tell them that the opposite is true even more so. We are God’s! You see, the word tells us that we are not our own, we are bought with a price and we are to glorify God with our new lives.
But one of the greatest oversights in our take on Christianity is that living pure, peaceful lives, keeping our bodies under is the calling of every believer. Getting saved is not the end of our race, but rather it is the beginning! And we are to run with a single eye, Jesus above all, and to do so with vigilance, for we have an enemy who wants to steal from us before our newly sprouted seed puts out deep roots.
But herein lies the problem. New believers are to be instructed in righteousness.... How to get the upper hand over their fleshly desires. How to bring every thought.... wow..... every thought into subjection to the Lord. They are to be told how to escape the trap of Romans 7 so that they can truly flourish in Romans 8.
What do we give them? Read your Bible. Pray. Go to church. Do good. Don’t do bad. Is it not any wonder why we are languishing, and drifting ever so gradually into worldliness and lukewarmness, and a lot of guilt. And what does God think of this? He says that H is astonished. Did He not plant us wholly a noble vine? How have we turned into a degenerate plant to Him? We may start out on fire and excited, but are warned that this is common for it is our honeymoon period, but marriage is hard work. Sadly, that seems to be a common state of affairs in our marriages as well.
Should not our love and excitement for God grow exponentially as we continue on the path? Yes, it should. Sadly, with great regularity however, it does not. And why? Why do we settle in for Sunday services as the best God can do. Throw in a prayer chain, some sort of helps ministry and think this is Christianity, because after all, no one is perfect. Right?
But you see, when we really read the words God has given us to stand on, His promises, we see something is truly amiss. Consider:
1) He said that He would not allow us to be tempted above our ability to resist. Our response is that we are only human, so that voids that promise. But we always have forgiveness, Yes, we do, but God’s will is that we finally learn how to possess our vessels in sanctification and honor. Forgiveness is wonderful IF we slip, but evidently there is a way to walk with sin under our feet. Hmmmmmm.....
2) God tells us that our shields of faith will quench... WILL.... all.... ALL..... the fiery arrows of the enemy.
Listen, Peter tells us that we are given these amazing promises because it is through our believing them as OUR promises that the change God promises to perform in us will occur. As we first start out, stumbling is normal. But if we have been walking with God for years, and still willfully sinning, leaning on His forgiveness but with no desire to walk as overcomes, giving glory to God, our Christianity has been gutted of its goal, that we bring forth fruit unto God.
How many churches today preach every single service on forgiveness,but never on how to walk pleasing to God, how to overcome fleshly appetites, how to be changed into fruit bearing saints. Here is the danger, and it cannot be overstated. When we sin the same sins over and over, we are told that the real danger is that our hearts get hardened towards God.
Oh, we keep up our words,our core beliefs, but our prayer life becomes dead... hollow... lifeless. So we settle for learning ABOUT God, rather than learning from Him. We end up religious, but not righteous, and this, my friends, is what the vast number of believers have settled for.
Why are pastors letting such things happen to their sheep? They too have lost sight of victory as our birthright and have succumbed to the pressure to become CEO’s. The concept of giving themselves continually to prayer and ministry of the Word so that their sheep thrive and draw other sheep with their light of life... Jesus in their hearts.... filling them... changing* them.... is lost. Holiness is not preached because it is thought impossible anyway.
But I am here to tell any who will listen that there IS a path prepared for us to walk on, where we walk as overcomes, not as the forgiven overcome. This amazing highway does not lead to holiness... it IS the highway of holiness! Praise God, He tells us that on this highway, a man may be a fool and STILL will not err there in. Glory! I qualify! And so do you!
If you find this encouraging, I ask that you keep reading the blog as I add to it. What God has given me to share is truly amazing.... and it works.... HE works!
Blessings to you all.
Gideon
