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Yes indeed those who have crucified the flesh find their strength in the Lord.
I had struggled for a long time, it was 17 years in total, wanting to know HOW to cast off the old man but the more I tried the worse it was. It cannot be done through will power.
Initially, coming to Christ was a profound experience as I had been raised in an atheist family in an ungodly environment in England where religion had no place in the culture. I met a young couple training for the ministry while I was looking at various religions and then one night at 9 pm on 23rd September 1973, after reading their books, Christ showed me He had died for me. But within a few months things began to slide.
I tried to find out where I was going wrong but no answer came and like George Fox, wondered in the wilderness.
God bless to you too and I am a sister btw.
Brother, I rejoice with you. You are in my prayers. Our God is faithful.Lots of excellent posts.
Recently i have been offering up my thoughts, sinful thoughts etc, to God, and asking Him to replace them with His grace. I have been thanking God for His grace. I do believe that God is helping me in my struggles.
We have to turn to God when we sin, ask for repentence and His grace and then, TRULY BELIEVE we have received them.
I am not as knowledgeable as most on here. I am no theologian.
Some know my struggles. I truly believe i have turned the corner through God's grace!
May God bless and protect you all.
Thank you for your kind words.Brother of Mature Faith,
This is spiritual food for the soul! I have read what you have written and it encourages me. I gotta be honest, old Lu is probably REALLY mad you gave this testimony!
I have followed your thread with anticipation to read this! I quote it so little lately, and yet that Armor is so very precious! We don't just wear it as His Cloak, but it IS our Armor and Gospel Equipment!
I took the time to read every word you wrote and I didn't resist a single one!
Humility! You have found True Humility in him. This being said... I'll stop being so positive about your writing now, go get the Tar and Feathers, so your hat will keep fitting.
Sincerely! This is a read that is full of Gospel Faith, Hope and Love!
All Faith, Hope and Above ALL LOVE to you from The Origin of all wonderful things, such as these!
Thank you for your kind words.
What God is about to do in our midst will be mind blowing. His Church is scattered throughout thecworld, with every denomination having both sheep and goats, some with more sheep than others, lol.
But we have a problem. As a body, we are not one. We are fractured, splintered, Divided. Why? Because we have not been walking as one with Him. Eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil rather than from the tree of life.
When the awakening is in full swing, how will the church look? Here it gets murky, but is getting clearer day by day. I. know this. There will be no televangelists. No begging for money for a ministry. No suave ministers milking sheep. No evangelistic societies named after a man. What pride! What arrogance.
One thing I have noticed in those who have discovered their newness is the soft humility. It is is easy to be humble when you come to the place you have NOTHING to offer God, no strength, no resolve, no talent, thoroughly broken of all self confidence.
Those who are ordained to minister will truly do so from the point of being servants of all. No more ministers living in million dollar homes. They will live what they preach, and like Paul, say "I don't want yours, but you." I cannot wait.
It will be a grass roots fire, one saint catching fire from another. Buckle your seatbelt, it is about to get amazing.
God tells us in Ezekiel 36 that the heathen will know the our God is Lord when He shall be sanctified in us before their very eyes. This is what you and I have to look forward to being a part of.
Sleep well my friend.
Gids
This is no mystery and certainly not a contradiction. Paul is simply saying we are saved by faith to do good deeds. James is simply saying if the good deeds do not follow we do not have faith. The problem comes when our spirit begins to war with our faith, accusing and deceiving us into thinking we are failing. If we do not maintain our faith in God/Christ we will fail, so hear we are right back to being saved by faith not works. Can you dig it, is it too simple? We must rely (have faith) in the promise of God that the war has already been won by Christ no matter how it may appear to us at any given moment. This is the good news my friends and always has been!I have been a member here on and off for 12 years and during that time, I have seen countless debates as to whether we are saved by faith alone or whether there is a need for works to be produced to verify that our faith was true faith. And in that time, I suspect not one person has been swayed to believe the other's point of view.
Each side has their pet scriptures, and staunchly ignore those of the other side. From a casual viewpoint, it seems the scriptures are contradicting one another, which is impossible. Should this not concern us at least a little bit?
I have my own views on the matter but in truth they are not found in either camp. My point in this post is not to delve into the debate again, but to ask a question I believe is far more significant.
Think for a minute. The debate of faith or faith plus works errs in this regard. If we have to work, it is no more faith. Yet if works do not accompany our faith, we are deceived. Is it any wonder so many have grabbed onto the faith alone tenant? Because if we have to produce fruit to prove we have faith..... well, we are in deep doo-doo.
Those who say faith must be accompanied by works cannot help but be looked at as sliding backwards into self effort, and this legalism. And yet those scriptures that faith must be accompanied by works cannot be ignored. They are plainly there.
This conflict forces us to assume either Paul or James were in error, and one had a "greater" revelation than the other. But think for a minute. If this were true, then the word of God is not totally true, and once that bridge is crossed, and we admit the Word of God has errors, then it is back on our shoulders to decide what is true and what is not. And that leads us right back to eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
There must be a way to rectify this apparent contradiction.... and glory to God, there is!
Stay tuned for part two. I make this promise to you. If you will receive it, your walk with the Lord will be transformed.... and so will you!
blessings,
Gideon
Yes, we must lose our lives..... our old natures..... but until our sin becomes so exceedingly sinful that we truly HATE the old us, the us that refuses to bow the knee fully to the Lordship of Christ over us, the us that thinks God winks at our sins now because of the blood of His beloved Son, we will find it impossible to fully repent, and thus, impossible to fully believe what He is actually offering us.
You and I are early risers, so it seems, but praise God, every single true sheep WILL soon awaken, and light their lamps by reckoning their old man as DEAD. Until we do that we cannot walk in our new nature that hates sin and self rule. Thus we rob ourselves of progress as well as joy.
Regardless, we are destined to be the blessed generation of those who will awaken to His call, and we will light our lamps by finally confessing and believing that the old "us" is truly dead.
God is beginning to do something in our midst and no amount of our religious satisfaction with our Bible knowledge, church functions, volunteer activities will stand a chance from the avalanche of love and separation unto Him that we will witness with our own eyes, and even better,, experience in our very lives. .
What God wants from us is not for us to die. He wants us to die to our trying to die, and then to believe we are already dead.
Regarding original sin, my personal opinion, is the following. . .
When Adam and Eve sinned, they were suppose to die that very day as God warned and promised them they should. While indeed they lost that Spiritual union with God when they sinned, they did not die physically at that time. Even so, the Paradise was lost at that time to all humanity.
God spared Adam and Eve in His mercy, and so he also spared the whole human race that would come from Adam and Eve. God did this because His plan - through Christ - was to save those He foreknew would walk with Him by faith, to those who love God. God foreknew these faithful ones through time. And to these faithful ones, God also predestined for salvation in His Son - the 2nd Adam.
So original sin means to me that all humans should have never existed because Adam and Eve were suppose to die the very day they sinned, and so the whole human race should have died with Adam and Eve.
God spared Adam and Eve, and so gave the entire human race an opportunity to believe in Him according to His love and grace, even so, Paradise is lost to humanity at this time in this present world system. And to those who do believe, God credits the righteousness of Christ to their accounts and re-establishes Spiritual union with these faithful ones.
This plan of God's is now being worked out in real time, and the sons of God are being revealed throughout time according to His plan and foreknowledge. Even so, as Scripture teaches, only a remnant of humanity will truly believe and be eternally save.
- God promises those who believe a fulfilling life in the peace of God now as they listen to and follow Him in that New Life of faith - this is salvation.
- And in the age to come God promises and rewards these same faithful ones an eternal inheritance after their life here is ended - Paradise regained.
Brother... this is a hard line of disagreement for us then, and I joyfully agree to disagree with you there.
Privation is the Origin of sin. The Devil exalted himself in pride, out of a ridiculous need to be something he had not been created to be. No man is without it, physically, in some sense, until death.
The Devil made Eve feel inadequate, right off rip, by telling her the lie that she lacked something. She was convinced it would benefit her to have the "Wisdom of God".
I do not deny that God can loose chains of sin...
But, here is where I see danger in what is being proposed... No one, but JESUS was ever PERFECT in the flesh for a single second. I guess I'll go ahead and finish the thought... it is Sin to suggest otherwise, thus proofing my aforementioned point. Sorry all... (1 John 1:8-10) All men are in need of Jesus, moment to moment. Not because of a propensity to sin, or some mystical failure on God's part, but because only ONE BEING of all existence is Genuinely Selfless.
All men have the opportunity to walk the straight and narrow, but no man, but He Who Is God, did so. This is why Jesus is the Rightful King.
This is merely my opinion... All Love to you, in Jesus Christ, Brother bmjackson
I have been a member here on and off for 12 years and during that time, I have seen countless debates as to whether we are saved by faith alone or whether there is a need for works to be produced to verify that our faith was true faith. And in that time, I suspect not one person has been swayed to believe the other's point of view.
Each side has their pet scriptures, and staunchly ignore those of the other side. From a casual viewpoint, it seems the scriptures are contradicting one another, which is impossible. Should this not concern us at least a little bit?
I have my own views on the matter but in truth they are not found in either camp. My point in this post is not to delve into the debate again, but to ask a question I believe is far more significant.
Think for a minute. The debate of faith or faith plus works errs in this regard. If we have to work, it is no more faith. Yet if works do not accompany our faith, we are deceived. Is it any wonder so many have grabbed onto the faith alone tenant? Because if we have to produce fruit to prove we have faith..... well, we are in deep doo-doo.
Those who say faith must be accompanied by works cannot help but be looked at as sliding backwards into self effort, and this legalism. And yet those scriptures that faith must be accompanied by works cannot be ignored. They are plainly there.
This conflict forces us to assume either Paul or James were in error, and one had a "greater" revelation than the other. But think for a minute. If this were true, then the word of God is not totally true, and once that bridge is crossed, and we admit the Word of God has errors, then it is back on our shoulders to decide what is true and what is not. And that leads us right back to eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
There must be a way to rectify this apparent contradiction.... and glory to God, there is!
Stay tuned for part two. I make this promise to you. If you will receive it, your walk with the Lord will be transformed.... and so will you!
blessings,
Gideon
Brother, you have no idea how wonderful it is to read your words. I so identify with what you are saying. I know the loneliness, the accusations of error and heresy. At times it would set me back, but my pendulum would always swing back to BELIEVE. Just the way when I was walking in my old nature, no matter my effort, my pendulum would always swing back to sin.So true brother @Gideons300. I have been saying this for 15+ years on forums and have been called a heretic and many worse things lol. It has greatly encouraged me to read your writings particularly when you say this:
I had come to the conclusion that it was not going to happen in my lifetime, and anyway feel too old now due to chronic sickness, but could not understand why things have been so hard this last 18 months with such satanic attack I have never known. Please tell me why you think it wil be soon?
This:
Yes indeed it was done in the past and we are required to just believe it. Not just as a mental acknowledgement but as the basis of all of our thoughts and actions. I am dead to sin therefore I can no longer entertain it. One error being taught is that we must die to self. That is a new age concept.
Oh if only people would believe that it is that simple and give up trying to crucify themselves and just believe it.
Two are better thsn one, and a three fold cord is not easily broken, amen?
LOL, sorry about the brother stuff. Duly noted.Dear brother @Gideons777
Yes Amen to that. I have been in a state of being weary after all of my attempts to help fellow believers and had withdrawn a lot. At one time all I thought about was the highway to holiness and I wrote articles and discussed it endlessly. But with no response really. I can empathise with you and even to wish to avoid the backlash. But you know what, something has been strirring so I think you might be right.
First of all I have been going through some deep emotional healing from my childhood and with my body I have recently found answers and understanding that I have a genetic connective tissue condition and there are things I can do to improve (as God has not healed me so far even though I believe He can).
And there has recently started up a fellowship group in my church that looks promising that the others might listen to me. They do recognise that I have an indepth understanding of scripture which of course we do have when we have been sanctified.
I am also greatly encouraged by you brother.
ps I am a sister.
I've been on both sides of the debate. I was raised in a very strict and legalistic Pentecostal tradition. When I left, I went whole hog into faith alone grace teaching. However, as with the legalism teaching, I still faced the same old weaknesses, temptations, and sinful inclinations. But then I discovered something that revolutionized my spiritual walk with Christ. It came as a result of soaking prayer. I struggle with PTSD and the quiet time of meditative surrender to the Spirit of God brings me much peace. It was during one of these soaking prayers that the LORD impressed upon me this passage...
John 15:1-11 English Standard Version (ESV)
1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 3 Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. 7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. 9 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. 10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. 11 These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.
Then the Holy Spirit spoke to me in a still small voice, an impression if you will, saying...
"Is the vine and its branches one organism or many organisms?"I said...
"One organism LORD."
And that's when He said...
Since then I've realized that we are one with the Lord in spirit through the abiding Holy Spirit. We are one spirit with the Lord. Branches of the true vine, living extensions of Jesus Himself.
"Know that thou art likewise."
As I approached my spiritual walk knowing that He and I are one, that He lives in me, my spiritual walk has truly become an adventure. I sense when the Lord truly wishes to speak and work through me. And in deep soaking and prayer sessions I've spoken with the Lord and this is one of the things I felt Him speak to me regarding division and holiness...
My child, I will tell you why you are all so divided. It is your religions. They are not of me. Each of you has a list. A list of do’s and don’ts. And each of you think that I authored your respective lists. Baptists have their lists, Catholics have their lists, Pentecostals have their lists, Methodists have their lists, Lutherans have their lists, Charismatics have their lists, Messianics have their lists, Episcopals have their lists… and each list is different. I’m not a God of confusion. Each list is a doctrine of man. Some say you must keep the Ten Commandments that I delivered to Moses to give to my people. Some of you expand upon these and add feast days, Sabbaths, dietary regulations, linguistic nuances of eccentricity wherein you think you are shown to be wise, yet you are looking foolish in your conceits. You want to be so much like my people… but not like me. You fail to realize… I’m the eternal, the constant, the source; the Alpha, the Omega, the beginning, the ending, the all in all, the great I AM that I AM… I’m not Catholic, Protestant, or Evangelical… neither am I Jewish. I’m GOD. Still some of you have codified my teachings into a strict body of church law in which you seek to please me by changing your “behavior”… but not your “being”. Then some of you codified the methods with which I addressed issues in Israel or the first generation of churches... making them “commandments” instead of seeing the spirit behind the reasoning. A reasoning that endures in any context, be it time or culture. Then you added historical traditions established by various religious leaders and founders. You codified congregational structures, financial models, added liturgies, added dietary regulations, added special days of worship, added dress codes, even added prohibitions on both men and women I never required. Each of you has these LISTS! Stop trying to please me by living these man-made lists! They divide you because you measure yourselves against one another based on your respective man-made LISTS. Ask the Pharisee to list exactly what must be done to please me! Let him present his list! And suddenly you’ll see another Pharisee argue against something on the first Pharisee’s list, or seek to add something from their list to it!!! Eventually they are all squabbling over which commandments on which list has to be obeyed and which do not! Why? It is because the spirit of legalism leaves you awash on the sea of subjective personal interpretation wherein one mans interpretation is just as good as another's. Yet you cling to these lists because you think they make you “holy”. These lists don’t make you holy. What makes you Holy is… ME.
You see… I am the Vine, and you are the branches. You are called to be living extensions of me… not living extensions of the ancient nation of Israel, your given church, or your given denomination. You are called to be conformed into the image and likeness of Christ… not the image and likeness of your respective church, movement, or denomination. When you live by their LISTS… you are becoming like them… NOT like me.
And so you ask… How do I become like you? I, the LORD, shall answer you this day. He who has an ear, let him hear!!!...
The answer is in the very nature of my being my beloved. You see… I AM… love. When you are loving, gracious, forgiving, kind, compassionate, patient, long suffering, temperate, and giving… you are being like Me. Do you wish to fulfill “the law”??? DON’T strive live by it. Find its core. Find its essence. Find my reason for delivering said laws in their given contexts. You’ll discover that it is because I was teaching many different things… but the core was and always has been… MY love. Love me my child. Love me with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. And demonstrate your love for me by loving others as yourself. If you do this you will have fulfilled the essence of MY law. If there is any other commandment ever brought to your attention, know this… it is fulfilled in this single statement, “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” In this you do no wrong… and in loving… you become like me… the one who is love itself.
So be not swayed by their LISTS. Do not be deceived by their vain and eccentric verbiage. Do not emulate a nation, a denomination, or a church. Instead… emulate Me and you will find rest for your souls. Love Me with all your being… and show me that you love Me by loving others as yourself. The only commandment I give you is this… LOVE. For love will not murder, steal, covet, slander, commit adultery, rage, revenge, or blaspheme. Love will set every day aside as holy… because love seeks to give absolute devotion every single day without end.
I am not impressed with your LISTS. First, your lists all differ. And second, you don’t even keep your own lists perfectly! This makes you hypocrites of the worst kind. Why do you do this to yourselves??? Do you really think I’m IMPRESSED by anything you do? Am I impressed by cherry picked LISTS of commandments you’ve chosen to embrace… at the expense of others that you chose not to? Do you really think I’m going to open the books and judge you by each of your respective lists???! Will I judge according to dress code, hairstyles, feast days, and your labored mispronunciations of an ancient language??? Will I praise you for acting Jewish… even though if the truth were to be told… you don’t have a single drop of Hebrew blood in your body??? No. When you stand before Me… I will only seek to know two things:
Did you love me with all your being?
Did you seek to show your love for me by loving others as yourself?
And you’ll then begin to see how your LISTS hindered you from loving your neighbors. You will see how your lusts, adulteries, thievery, slander, etc. are not rooted in failing to obey a rule on a LIST… but in your failure to LOVE. For love does no harm to the object of its affection.
So I leave you with this… become like Me. Be conformed into the very image and likeness of Jesus Christ, my beloved Son. And in this you will find true holiness. In this you will find the law of liberty… the law of LOVE. You will have discovered… ME.
Do you mind if I do a bit of scriptural word adjusting for you?I understand what you are saying. I really am just a Sinful man, Saved by Jesus... In Love with Jesus and offered as His Bond Servant out of a desire to be nothing but that.
I Love People, by Christ... but Brother... Know I am well to live out however many days He wills or not live, as He wills... I understand John 12:25 passionately.
I long for Jesus. I am jealous that Paul could run to the Chopping block in His name.
I’m not saying I want that, but Jesus has consumed me. I’m thankful for His Spirit, but be it by death or other... I want to be with Him above all things.
One thing God is teaching me is that if I try to open peoples eyes by simply quoting scripture, the natural tendency is for them to counter with scriptures they understand to counter-act mime. Thus, it is still a head knowledge battle which is almost pointless.
Just recently, however, God has shown me the way to open people to the truth is to speak to their hearts.The true sheep, God's elect, may still be asleep, but inside they ARE already new creatures, and that is how I am to address them. They simply have not lit their lamps by putting them on.
I am glad it blessed you. Heck, it blessed me. LOL.I have been thinking about this and I think you are right. I also see that I have sometimes been more concerned about being right, than showing love. Thank you for this revelation brother.
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