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Press Release: Christlikeness Reminders in My Spirit’s Musings

02 Sunday Apr 2017

Posted by in Published Book

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My latest book of poetry—My Spirit’s Musings—reveals why reflecting God’s Image is the best way for believers in Christ to demonstrate their genuine Christlikeness. Below is the press release for My Spirit’s Musings, which highlights the main reason why today’s followers of Christ are failing to demonstrate Christlikeness.

Some verses that point out God’s call to Christlikeness are as follows:

 

Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. ~ Romans 12:1-2, NASB

 

For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he will instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ. ~ 1 Corinthians 2:16, NASB

 

for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, ~ 2 Corinthians 10:4-5, NASB

 

Only conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or remain absent, I will hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel; ~ Philippians 1:27, NASB

 

Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, ~ Philippians 2:5, NASB

 

having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude. ~ Colossians 2:7, NASB

 

Thank You, God, for calling us to Christlikeness. Thank You, Jesus, for showing us how we need to live so that we can reflect the Image of God.

How Powerful Is Your Knowledge?

07 Wednesday Sep 2016

Posted by in Poetry

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knowledge-isnt-power

“Behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord GOD,
“When I will send a famine on the land,
Not a famine for bread or a thirst for water,
But rather for hearing the words of the LORD.
“People will stagger from sea to sea
And from the north even to the east;
They will go to and fro to seek the word of the LORD,
But they will not find it.” ~ Amos 8:11-12, NASB

But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these. ~ 2 Timothy 3:1-5, NASB

                 

                    If a little learning is a dangerous thing,
                    How much will bring
                    Freedom, Peace, and Security
                    In a world saturated with heady,
                    High-minded, trucebreakers; covetous
                    Traitors, unthankful, unholy impetuous
                    Boasters, self-loving blasphemers,
                    Disobedient, unnatural lovers
                    Who prefer worldly pleasures
                    More than they aspire to spiritual heights—
To know, love, trust, and obey God? What He delights!

                    We’ve outrivaled past knowledge seekers,
                                        ‘tis true,
                    Only to unearth a godliness that’s skewed,
                    For the learning in which we most trust
                    Is New Age fables that dismiss the Creator
                                        of dust
                   And the power of His Breath that fills our
                                        nostrils
Making molded-earthen bodies living souls—godly models.

                    Though ensnared, from time eternal, by the
                                      old Serpent
                    Who succeeded to outwit through wily ways,
                    Countless faithful minds still longed for
                    Godly wisdom, understanding, knowledge, and,
                                        what’s more,
                    The Gift of everlasting life,
                    For righteous, spiritual knowers, know, that, in
                                        Jesus’ name,
The hunter gets captured by the game.

 

~ from the “Well-Timed Seclusion” chapter in “My Spirit’s Musings” manuscript

We Didn’t Choose Christ

01 Thursday Oct 2015

Posted by in Devotional

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John 15_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. ~ John 15:5, ESV

You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide…. ~ John 15:16, ESV

 

 

In the Jewish culture, students (disciples) traditionally choose their own Rabbis (teachers). However, Christ reverses that tradition. He does the choosing. This reversal of Jewish tradition is typical of God’s Economy—His sovereign Plan for mankind. For example, God’s Kingdom is revolutionary primarily because it is an upside down Kingdom in which the first becomes the last, or the last becomes the first; the leader becomes the servant, or the servant becomes the leader; and so forth.

Now although most of today’s college or university students can choose their postsecondary schools, professors and majors, believers in Christ still do not choose Him. They also do not choose their calling(s).

Because of His finished Work on the Cross, Christ gets to choose who gets to abide in Him. In other words, the Vine selects who He wants to be His Branches. The uncomfortable truth for many of today’s believers to swallow is that we are not called to work in Christ’s Vineyard, because of a feeling within us, or because others believe God wants us to be preachers, pastors, Sunday School teachers, and etcetera. 

The bottom line is that Father God ordains us so that we can work for Christ in His Vineyard. Then too, even though the Lord is our true Vine, it is the Holy Spirit who is our true Husbandman. As branches, whatever we do or say that glorifies God comes from the Vine—comes from Christ via the Holy Spirit and the Word of God. This Divine Truth is why we have to allow the Life of the Vine (Holy Spirit) to flow through us so that we can produce the Fruit of the Holy Spirit. Since the Holy Spirit prunes and cleanses our lives, via Living Water and Fire or His Practical Sanctification Process, this is the reason why He (Life of the Vine) and Christ (the Vine) expect us to bear much fruit.

As moral free agents, we can choose not to follow the purpose Father God has for us—we can refuse to respond to the Vine’s Divine Call and the Husbandman’s Divine Care—but to do so will cause us to forfeit our fruit-bearing position in the Vine—to be deprived of our service privilege. The point here is that the only way we will be able to produce the Fruit of the Holy Spirit is to answer the Vine’s Divine Call and then yield to the Husbandman’s Divine Care. Shalom. 

 

~ from my soon-to-be-published manuscript – Keeping It Real: Daily Renewing the Mind

Our Spiritual DNA: Divine Nature & Authority

06 Wednesday Nov 2013

Posted by in Spiritual

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Animated DNA

The time came when the Lord God formed a man’s body from the dust of the ground and breathed into it the breath of life. And man became a living person. ~ Genesis 2:7, TLB

When I look up into the night skies and see the work of your fingers—the moon and the stars you have made— I cannot understand how you can bother with mere puny man, to pay any attention to him!  And yet you have made him only a little lower than the angels (or Elohim, in Hebrew) and placed a crown of glory and honor upon his head. ~ Psalm 8:3-5, TLB; the inserted parenthetical words are this blogger’s emphasis

He told his disciples, ‘I have been given all authority in heaven and earth. Therefore go and make disciples in all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and then teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you; and be sure of this—that I am with you always, even to the end of the world.’ ~ Matthew 28:18-20, TLB

that even though we were spiritually dead and doomed by our sins, he gave us back our lives again when he raised Christ from the dead…and lifted us up from the grave into glory along with Christ, where we sit with him in the heavenly realms—all because of what Christ Jesus did. And now God can always point to us as examples of how very, very rich his kindness is, as shown in all he has done for us through Jesus Christ. Because of his kindness, you have been saved through trusting Christ. And even trusting is not of yourselves; it too is a gift from God. ~ Ephesians 2:5a&b, 6-8, TLB

 

In the blog entry, Being Changed from the Inside Out, the main point is that, even though there can be no doubt that God certainly saves everybody just as he or she is, it is evident in His Word that God never intended to leave anybody the way He finds him or her. For sure, the second a believer in Christ Jesus is born again in his or her spirit/heart, God Himself deposits in that believer’s heart or spirit His DNA (Divine Nature and Authority, which include but are not limited to His Power and His Will, the Source of which is His Holy Spirit). Therefore, it should be obvious that God’s intent always was, and still is, to begin His Holy Spirit’s sanctification process, which is what changes from the inside out each born-again believer who has received God’s Gift of Salvation.

This Divine Truth also is touched on in the blog entry, Working God’s Perfect Will Out of Us. In this blog entry, the main point is that the ultimate goal of every believer is NOT to make it into Heaven. Without doubt, the central purpose of God’s Salvation Plan is to have every one of His sons and daughters achieve Christlikeness, while he or she is living on this Earth. Now, the only way to achieve this Christlikeness objective is to work OUT of every believer in Christ Jesus everything God Himself already has worked INTO each believer’s born-again heart or spirit—for example, to work God’s Perfect Will out. It is important to note here that the Holy Spirit not only is every believer’s Source of godly Power, Authority, spiritual gifts, practical sanctification, and so forth, but also the Source of God’s Perfect Will in each believer’s born-again heart or spirit is His Holy Spirit!

This working OUT of believers what God Himself has put inside them also is addressed in the blog entry, Your Old Man Is Dead. The main point that is made in this blog entry is that through the apostle Paul’s marriage analogy or metaphor, believers are shown that just like the Jewish wife, whose first husband’s death releases her from the marriage part of the Law, believers’ new-man nature, which is married to the Lord, also has been released from the Law. In other words, the one point of Divine Truth in the apostle Paul’s marriage analogy or metaphor is this: Death removes a person from the bondage of the Law. Put differently, the reason why every born-again spirit (heart) within each believer is no longer under the Law is because every believer’s old man or sin nature no longer exists! The believer’s spiritually DEAD heart (spirit), in which the old man used to live, has become a New Creation (see Romans 6:4,6; Ephesians 2:5-6; and Colossians 2:12-13). Thus, because of God’s Grace, each believer in Christ Jesus now has new life—is a new man with a sinless nature. 

Having said all that, it now is important to mention that from the beginning of mankind God’s plan has been to put Himself inside of human beings. This Divine Truth is documented in Genesis 2:7. Furthermore, the only way that the dust God formed Adam from was able to become the structure in which the living, moving, breathing person (Adam) could exist was because the eternal Creator God filled Adam full of Himself—God breathed His Spirit into Adam. As a result, the original purpose of Adam’s body was to house his true self, which was his spirit.

Scripture says that Adam’s spirit, which is who ‘man’ is—NOT the dust God breathed His Spirit into—was  created to be a little lower than the Triune God who made him (see Psalm 8:5a). For this reason, beginning with Adam, it is clear that once human beings have inside of them God’s spiritual DNA (the God-breathed Divine Nature and Authority, which include but are not limited to God’s Power and His Will) their individual identity (true self) is then determined by that spiritual DNA that is in their own spirit, instead of by the DNA from their ethnic, cultural, or other known physical roots.

Thus, before Adam sinned, his spiritual DNA made him the highest kind of created being. Indeed, once God had filled Adam full of Himself, Adam had become spiritually bountiful, wealthy—he was holy, righteous, healthy, spiritually gifted, and etc., as well as spiritually royal and majestic; in essence, Adam was crowned with glory and honor; see Psalm 8:5b. This Divine Truth means when Adam was created, he lacked nothing!

Now the reason God filled Adam full of Himself was so that in this Earth Adam would be a visible being who was created after God’s Likeness, in His Image, and having His Nature. Then too, God also filled Adam full of Himself so that Adam would multiply God’s Likeness, Image, and Nature in this Earth—so that Adam would pass God’s Nature, Likeness, and Image (the Creator’s Holiness, Righteousness, Royalty, Majesty, Power, Will, Health, Wealth, and so forth) on to his offspring.

However, once Adam sinned, he immediately became spiritually dead. As a result, God’s DNA (Divine Nature and Authority, which includes but is not limited to His Power and His Will)—God’s Holiness, Righteousness, Majesty, Royalty, Power, and so forth—left Adam.

While there can be no doubt that Adam was born to rule, born to have dominion over Satan, Adam lost control of this Earth the second he rebelled against God—the moment he sinned. Thus, because Adam spiritually lost EVERYTHING God originally had breathed into him, and because it always was God’s intent for mankind to be filled up with Him, centuries later God made the Sovereign decision to send His beloved Son, Jesus the Christ, to the Earth to be the second, and last, Adam. It is through Christ Jesus that everything God initially had given to the first Adam now had been restored.

This restored spiritual DNA is why Jesus the Christ taught the Kingdom of God was within believers, and why He stressed how important being born again was. These Divine Truths mean that the only place God not only Planned but also Willed for His Kingdom to be set up is in believers’ hearts (born-again spirits). In other words, God’s Kingdom rule begins in the heart or spirit of born-again believers. For this reason, as much as believers allow Him to rule in their individual heart or spirit is the degree to which God also is able to rule in their individual day-to-day life.

For sure, because of Christ Jesus’ life, death, burial, and resurrection, since the Day of Pentecost, after the Lord ascended from Earth to Heaven, the Lord’s centuries of disciples’ bodies have housed their true selves or born-again spirits, just like the first Adam’s body used to house his true self or spirit, before he sinned. Moreover, through Christ Jesus, God now is able to call human beings back to their true identity—back to that initial “new thing” God first did in Adam, which was to make a “man” who had God’s Spirit and His Mind housed in flesh. As a result, God’s spiritually born-again children supernaturally are able to live, move, and breathe in His presence, as well as supernaturally communicate with and worship God, spirit to Spirit, just like Adam once was able to do. 

Furthermore, since God not only has given the Lord’s disciples His Likeness and Image but also His Nature, having His Nature means that being like God will come naturally. That is to say, those parts of His “Nature” that God put inside of believers in Christ Jesus will establish their “natural” response to His Nature. In other words, just like the first Adam didn’t need to be taught how to live, move, think, or speak like God, the same is true for the Lord’s centuries of disciples. In fact, having God’s Nature also means that He should see His children’s born again new nature (spirit), their being sanctified soul (mind, will, emotions, etc.), and their being sanctified body doing what they are naturally expected to do, which is living and behaving totally Christ-like (holy, righteously, lovingly, friendly, compassionately, and so forth).

However, until the majority of today’s believers in Christ Jesus see themselves the way God sees them, the Body of Christ members never will be able to manifest in this Earth what God has put inside of each believer, which is His Kingdom—these believers never will be ready to see His Kingdom come and His Will be done on Earth the way they are in Heaven. In other words, until this 21st century’s countless believers in Christ Jesus see themselves the way God sees them, His Kingdom on Earth, which is inside each one of them, never  will manifest in the ways that resemble His Kingdom in Heaven.

Now the apostle Paul says that when God resurrected and lifted Christ Jesus up to Heaven, He also did the same for the Lord’s believers. That means that we, in our born-again spirit, right now are sitting in heavenly places with Christ Jesus (see Ephesians 2:5-6), even though we physically are living on this Earth. Therefore, until we stop treating our outward appearance, our body in which our spirit is housed, as if that is who we truly are, we will continue to live way below our true identity. Once again, our true identity in God is His children who have been filled with God’s spiritual DNA (His Splendor, Glory, and Honor—His crowned royal, majestic kings or queens, who spiritually have abundance/wealth and the authority and power of God on the inside).

In the Kingdom of God on this Earth, we who are truly born again, saved, and being sanctified by the Holy Spirit are the only ones who have been given God’s spiritual DNA (Divine Nature and Authority, which include but are not limited to His Power and His Will), which will manifest, for example, as God’s righteousness, peace, and joy in the Earth. The people who profess to be born again, saved, and being sanctified believers in Christ Jesus yet do not manifest righteousness, peace, and joy in the Earth either do not know about (or have not accepted) their true identity’s spiritual DNA, which only can be found in their born-again heart or spirit.

Ultimately it is by the Holy Spirit, who both lives in and infills true believers with God’s spiritual DNA, that true believers in Christ Jesus literally are being changed from the inside out! Because the Holy Spirit is the only One who has been given to believers to work out of them EVERYTHING God has put inside them (to get them to manifest Christlikeness, righteousness, peace, and joy in this Earth), there is no other way for God’s circle of divine life in mankind to be perfected.

The Creator began His circle of divine life in mankind with the first Adam, intending that Adam pass on to his offspring God’s Likeness, Image, and Nature. When Adam failed, because of sin, God sent His only begotten Son to restore in mankind EVERYTHING Adam had lost, which was God’s spiritual DNA (Divine Nature and Authority, which include but are not limited to His Power and His Will). These Divine Truths are why it is only by way of the Holy Spirit that God’s Kingdom on Earth is able to manifest righteousness, peace, and joy, and this manifestation happens only when those individuals who have God’s spiritual DNA are functioning as the holy, righteous, and spiritually wealthy royal kings and queens God has raised them in Christ Jesus to be.

The bottom line is that any believer in Christ Jesus who doesn’t naturally know about (or hasn’t willingly accepted) his or her true identity in God never will have the Kingdom of God worked out of him or her so that he or she can see the Kingdom of God manifested in this Earth. A word to the wise should be sufficient. Amen!

Becoming Holy Spirit Filled

04 Sunday Jul 2010

Posted by in Spiritual

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baptism-of-holy-spirit

I remember a time when I used to scoff at those who were slain in the Spirit.  Like the convinced skeptics on the Day of Pentecost, it gave me great pleasure to mock those who, in my experience, were speaking in an unknown tongue while eagerly waiting for a touch that would leave them reeling and rocking as if intoxicated. I also remember when I used to laugh at those ministers who, to me, resembled pompous, pedantic, self-righteous shepherds whose words seemingly were filled with fear and trepidation, as they uttered them while they simultaneously forcefully planted their hands upon accepting brows.

I also can remember a time when I, still firm in my convictions, especially while approaching a man of God who looked and behaved like the above-mentioned ministers, would not allow myself to be bullied into accepting the pushing and prodding others seemed to welcome so willingly.  No way would I fall back and hit the floor. How funny and, more important, how uncivilized that was to me. So, unlike those who had gone before me, and those who would go after me, I refused to let some sweaty, boisterous, blustering person beat against my forehead, push me down flat on my back, and knock me into an unconscious state, as a result of my head connecting with the floor. Likewise, I also vowed not to let this man lull me into some kind of trance of sorts from his hypnotic vocal persuasion.

I also can remember, from my pre-enlightened days, how some individuals who, while allegedly under the Holy Spirit’s influence, often would mutter some unintelligible sounds. Back then, these speakers seemed to be doing a very bad job at conversing in Spanish, or French, or Japanese, or some God-awful language. As I look back, I now find that my prior ignorance of God in the person of the Holy Spirit, and how He manifests Himself, astounds me. For the Word of God always has reflected that the manifestation of the Holy Spirit is given for every person to take advantage of by using the Holy Spirit’s gifts for both collective and individual edification (cf. 1 Corinthians 12:7). So, why did I see consenting to be baptized in the Holy Spirit like giving permission for an alien invasion?

Back then, little did I know about God’s Spirit being diverse, having many spiritual gifts, including those involving being slain in the Spirit and the infamous speaking in the tongues. Likewise, I did not know that many of these spiritual gifts also function as different ministries, producing myriad effects, and that both the ministries and the effects are co-joined so that they work through the one, same Holy Spirit (cf. 1 Corinthians 12:6-11).

Before I received the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, I could not understand that speaking in tongues, laying on of hands, and being slain in the Spirit, as crazy as they looked and seemed to me back then, were spiritual gifts that were just the tip of the iceberg. So, needless to say, where the gifts of the Holy Spirit were concerned, the only edification that I accepted back then was an understanding that some people have excesses that they need to curb.

My much later charismatic, Full-Gospel indoctrination, which taught me better how to worship and fellowship with God, and with my brothers and sisters in Christ, also taught me a thing or two about excessiveness. What I learned is that any person who wished to become submerged in the Holy Spirit ultimately would experience an immeasurable degree of God’s power, as demonstrated by the Holy Spirit’s indwelling, infilling, and anointing. What I also learned is that since being spiritually anointed with the Holy Spirit is conferred upon Christians by God (cf. 2 Corinthians 1:21), then this anointing expresses the sanctifying powerful influences of the Holy Spirit upon Christians who are now priests and kings in the Kingdom of God.

Additionally, I learned that being Holy Spirit filled with God’s dunamis power would cause some phenomenal excessiveness that should not be curbed, because believers are not supposed to quench the Holy Spirit. Indeed, once believers are baptized in the Holy Spirit, His supernatural manifestations will far exceed those excesses I had believed some people needed to curb. But, I would be remiss if I didn’t say here that there is no way that the fullness of the Holy Spirit’s power could be understood or received, if someone has even a modicum of unbelief!

My mind often goes back to the day when I woke up filled with much unbelief and disbelief. I was very troubled by many situations in my life, yet insatiably hungry for the promised new thing that God was supposed to do in my life. Throughout the morning on this day, I repeatedly compared myself to the father of the epileptic son, for I frequently found myself crying out to God: “Lord I believe, but help my unbelief.”

It was later on this day, sometime in early evening, that God set me up so He could take me up higher in the Spirit. I remember sensing that I would be receiving the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, so just before my friend came to take me to a meeting in which there were only Holy Spirit filled, tongues speaking, laying hands on, prophesying women, I silently prayed: “If becoming Holy Spirit filled means I’ll be speaking in tongues, then, please God, give me a full-blown language and not just a few syllables or a few words that I hear so many people repeating.” A few hours later, I was on the floor, lying flat on my back, slain in the Spirit, and talking to God in my native tongue of English, when one of the Lord’s prophetesses stood over me and said: “God said to speak in your heavenly language.” My full-blown tongues immediately flowed out of me, and I have been speaking in tongues ever since.

How then could I ever have thought that God’s ways were so comical and unbelievably beneath my intellectual capacity?  How could I ever have limited God to what I believed were His ways of expressing Himself, ways that were minus people sheepishly being slain in the Spirit and/or foolishly uttering meaningless sounds?  How could I ever have thought that God could not work the same way in twentieth (and today’s twenty-first) century believers as He did during the Apostles’ day?

The old adage about ignorance being bliss is not absolutely true, and, as such, was not a credible excuse in my case.  Whereas I once did believe wholeheartedly in this expression, I now, on a spiritual footing, have to disagree with those people who believe “ignorance is bliss” is a  “wise” saying.  Why?  Well, first, let me say that even back then, I knew that it is written in the Bible that God’s people are cut off (they perish) because they have a lack of Godly knowledge and wisdom. I knew that because the Israelites rejected God’s wisdom and knowledge, and because they forgot His Law, that God in turn rejected them and forget their children (Hosea 4:6). Thus, not knowing who God is, not knowing His covenanted promises that He has made with His people, not knowing how He operates in His people’s lives, and not knowing how He expects His people to operate in this world, according to His Word, is ignorance that does not promote happiness.

Secondly, I knew that ignorance not only would destroy people, both physically and emotionally, but also it could destroy people spiritually, which, in turn, means that there could be an eternal separation from God. So, I knew that what people do not know about God could hinder their receipt of both His natural and spiritual promises and gifts, and that, ultimately, this lack of knowledge could impede their relationship with God; for sure, their ignorance could cost them their very lives!

It has been said that a mind is a terrible thing to waste.  The moral that is in this saying is standing the test of time. Even believers who agree with this saying are motivated by this moral, which is: Seek that which you have been told is unattainable. However, isn’t it interesting to note, though, that the same fundamental truth, which operates in the aforementioned expression, also is operational in the spirit realm, but people would much rather go after that which the world says cannot be attained than opt to seek after that which God says they have, if they only believe.

The indwelling and infilling of the Holy Spirit are promised gifts for those sons and daughters who not only believe in the Holy Spirit but also who are willing to wait on Him (Luke 24:49).  Moreover, being baptized in the Holy Spirit not only gives believers the fearless authority [exousia] of God (Luke 10:19a) but also the mighty power [dunamis] of God (Luke 10:19b; Acts 1:8). This authority and power enable believers both to subdue and to have dominion in this world (Genesis 1:27-28). Yet, for some reason, this kind of spirituality, regardless of the positive benefits of being able to put the devil in his place, not only is NOT sought after but also is a wasted Holy Spirit gift because, again, people are preferring to seek after the natural, physical world’s systems more than they are choosing to seek after the Holy Spirit’s mighty workings.

Thus, when people relinquish the spiritual side of their nature (character) to worldly understandings and acceptances  (when they stop being Holy Spirit prompted, led and taught), this surrender becomes the primary reason why they definitely are wasting the gift of the Holy Spirit, for His power and influence would then be quenched (stifled), which I also had learned about but had misplaced my knowing with what I like to say was a temporary bout of selective amnesia. Nevertheless, the end result of wasting the gift of the Holy Spirit is that people, myself included, lose the effectiveness and fullness of God’s promises and gifts, which always have been yes and amen to those who believe (2 Corinthians 1:20). And, even more important, sometimes people lose their spiritual existences, as well as their physical lives, without being given the opportunity to re-adjust and re-focus on God’s promises and gifts.

Even though what always has belonged to God’s children and always has been theirs to obtain in the Spirit, I’m referring now to the spiritual gifts of the Holy Spirit, the devil has perverted. Today, the devil’s perversions have been accepted as those things which are “true.” As a result, his alleged truths, which are really lies, have become fortified in the minds and hearts of skeptics, manifesting themselves as rejections of the Holy Spirit and His spiritual gifts, because the Holy Spirit and His gifts are viewed by the masses as being not only unattainable but also undesirable.

Throughout history, even to this day, there have been those who have claimed Christ as their personal Savior, but they have not entered into God’s promised perfect rest (total reliance upon God, His Will, His Patience, His Peace, His Joy, His Love, His Gifts, and His Promises) primarily because they didn’t combine God’s Word with faith (cf. Hebrews 4:1-11). Consequently, believers’ inability to know who God is and their inability to trust in all of His promises and gifts have developed from their inability to choose to exercise their faith by believing fully in their God who will do a new thing in their lives. Because of their unbelief (void of faith), their human spirits and their souls have become closed to what God says to do, which is to trust in Him and in His power and in His might. Failure to trust (have faith in the new relationship with God) will make both God’s promises and their faith useless or meaningless. . .to  no effect (cf. Romans 4:13-14), i.e., NO REST!

Fortunately, there will come a time when, like with me, every man, woman, boy, and girl will have to confess that he or she also remembers a time when he or she forsook the totality of the Godhead:  the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  Everyone will then recall a time when, like me, he or she referred to the actions of Spirit-filled believers as stupid, unnecessary, and unrealistic.  Also, there will come a time when, like me, everyone will remember how he or she refused to accept the whole truth, which is that God wants ALL of His children to believe and trust in ALL of His ways of manifesting His promises and gifts.

Moreover, just like I did, people will remember when they looked with unbelief and distrust on those who appeared to be in some sort of a trance, when really these seemingly unconscious individuals merely were slain in the Spirit.  Unbelievers, like I was, also will remember having a suspicious, dubious attitude toward so-called babblers of unintelligible speech, professors of healing and prophetic gifts, discerners of diverse spirits, workers of miracles, professors of faith, interpreters of tongues, and spreaders of the Word of knowledge and wisdom (cf. 1 Corinthians 12:8-10), each, by the way, is a Holy Spirit-filled gift.

However, for some of those once scoffers, ridiculers, refusers, and unbelievers who have become confessors, it might be too late to rectify their folly. They might not have any time life in this life to be given another opportunity to live in the fullness of God’s rest, promises, and gifts, which include being Holy Spirit filled and ALL that this “being filled” entails.

Once again, it is written that He made known to true believers the mystery of His Will according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Christ (cf. Ephesians 1:9).  But, for the life of me, I cannot understand why I procrastinated and fought against what God wanted me to know about Him and to receive from Him. The thought of how long it took me to receive the Baptism of the Holy Spirit often saddens me, yet I am joyful and blessed that God gave me another chance to learn these mysteries about Him, and another chance to receive His power and authority. Now, I live to help others avoid living the same lackadaisical, unfulfilled existence I experienced before receiving the initial Baptism of the Holy Spirit.

Those who, for whatever reasons, refuse to accept the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, refusing, as well, to covet the gifts of the Holy Spirit, are analogous to the Israelites in the story of the twelve spies sent to Canaan, in the following respect. Even though God had promised this lavishly rich land to His people, promising them as well that NO nation could defeat them as long as they kept His Word and trusted and believed in His promises, instead of choosing the good report from the two spies, they chose to accept the evil report from the ten spies. Thus, by accepting the evil report, the Israelites (like present-day scoffers, ridiculers, refusers, and unbelievers), by default, rejected the report of the Lord, which in the Israelites’ case, was given by two true believers, Joshua and Caleb (Numbers chapters 13 and 14).

Furthermore, those who provoked God with their unbelief and distrust, both in Him and in His ways, did not enter in to the fullness of God’s promises. They were cut off (they perished) in the wilderness. Similarly, rejecting who God is by rejecting the gift of the Holy Spirit is nothing more than a willful avoidance and/or denial of the truth about God’s promises and His gifts (not only in respect to the Israelites but also in regards to today’s scoffers, ridiculers, refusers, and unbelievers). If God’s truths and promised gifts are avoided and/or denied for too long, or too often, the end result, for many, could be eternal destruction.

Knowing what I know now, I am able to enjoy the mysteries involved with being Holy Spirit filled.  I am positive that God takes great pleasure in revealing Himself to me, and I take great pleasure in receiving His truths.  For me, the knowledge of the totality of the Godhead, especially the mighty workings of His Holy Spirit, make all the difference in my relationship with God. Yielding myself to the mighty workings of the Holy Spirit is God’s Will that has become a way of life for me.  My choice is not to have it any other way.  So, in all things, I will choose the report of the Lord.

It’s Time To Grasp The Heavenly Things Of God

28 Wednesday Jan 2009

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In all of us there is a little bit of the unbelief seen in Nicodemus. Like him, we do not understand, completely, the full implications of God’s new covenant promised to Israel concerning the new ‘spirit’ and heart of flesh that God would give His wayward chosen people that would cause them to renew their love and commitment to God—an astonishing change in their attitude and demeanor that would move even Gentiles to become believers in Christ. Christ of course meant God’s sanctification process through which all of mankind—Hebrews and Gentiles—who were first born again then saved and justified could then be transformed into the image of Christ.

Since this spiritual Truth was way above the heads of the people in Christ’s day, Christ tells Nicodemus that He recognizes that because spiritual discernment is lacking in mankind, even in men and women who are of the type of high moral, religious, social, and economic caliber as is Nicodemus, no one FULLY will be able to comprehend the spiritual Truth concerning mankind’s total new birth process. Furthermore, Christ tells Nicodemus that because he did not believe in all of God’s earthly principles, he also will not be able to grasp heavenly principles with his own wisdom, knowledge and understanding.

Such is the case with many New Testament believers. Knowing that it is most expedient that every man and woman become born again and believing totally in that new birth’s full process are two completely different spiritual Truths around which we need to wrap our minds. The first spiritual Truth (we must be born again and justified), our Positional Sanctification, we readily accept by faith. However, the second spiritual Truth (we must be filled with the Holy Spirit), our Practical Sanctification, we try to comprehend, but our blasted unbelief causes us to miss the mark. It is time for us to grasp the “heavenly things” of God. Let us be born of God’s Holy Spirit in the true sense that Christ proposes, which is for us to become new creations in whom His Holy Spirit not only indwells but also infills with God’s desires and His anointings (divine empowerments) like spiritual gifts, holiness, righteousness, power, and authority. AMEN.

“If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell ye of heavenly things” (John 3:12, KJV; cf. Jeremiah 31:31-34; Ezekiel 36:22-31)?

Doubt NOT…Fear NOT…Don’t Look Back

11 Sunday Jan 2009

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For those of you who may not know, it is possible to have faith in Jesus the Christ and still have unbelief. No one demonstrates this truth better than the very strong willed and vociferous Simon Peter. Like this Peter, who believes in God and Christ, yet shows unbelief during his walking on water fiasco, too many of us who confidently profess our belief in God and Christ will speak or show unbelief when we are in situations that stretch our minds beyond our intellectual capacities.

Therefore, it is never enough for us to say that we believe, if we cannot display that belief by stepping out of our boats (comfort zones), without looking back at the blustering wind and roaring waves, and acting afraid. Simon Peter steps out of his boat, but then with fear, he looks back at his natural world instead of looking ahead with faith in his supernatural Creator. Even though Christ who just fed thousands of people with a few loaves of bread and fish is the One walking on the water toward His disciples’ boat, Peter still demonstrates unbelief.

Although Peter begins to walk on the water toward his Lord and Savior, he still lets his natural senses override the supernatural occurrence taking place–he begins to fear the wind and the waves more than he reveres the Creator of them. Thus, because of his unbelief, Peter loses his spiritual insight about Christ, and then he sinks! When we are convicted in our spirits that the Lord will see us through our storms, and are certain, without ever fearing that we surely will drown, then we really believe. Although Christ will reach out his hand to us and save us, as He does for Peter, He wants us to believe that, if we never doubt the supernatural that is working through Him, He will keep us safe from ever having to sink!

Sink, swim, or walk on water. It’s our choice, true, but the point of this walking on water fiasco is that it didn’t have to be a fiasco. If Peter had an unreserved trust that was void of any doubt (unbelief), he could have continued doing the supernatural! We, too, can do the supernatural, as long as we do not doubt the power and authority that we have in us, nor doubt the omnipotence, omniscience and omnipresence of the Sovereign One who gives us His power and authority! AMEN.

“And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?“ (Matthew 14:31, KJV).