Living by love verses a life of obligated rules of obedience
Part two
There is a reoccurring theme deception through out the New Testament church which is a ploy of the devil
that Paul primarily had to deal with in his letters to different churches. We will define a few of these doctrines that were
not scripturally interpreted correctly as we did earlier when we wrote about this idea that God got sick of us and wanted
to vomit us out of his mouth.
Paul the Apostle in his letter to the Hebrew church is encouraging them to grow up in Christ and learn to
understand God’s loving attitude towards His children. When ever we don’t walk in love we are walking in an obligated
life style and it’s like saying we owe some thing to some one or something. This is indeed a bothering weight that tries
our minds and spoils our peace with our relationship with the Lord as Paul states in Hebrews 12:1-2 when he says. “Let
us throw off the weight that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked
out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the
cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from
sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.”
A person who has not been discipled through teachers or preachers called
of the Lord with the true interpretation of the word of God, they live in an obligated life style. Our sanctification
in Christ that God wants us to live in can only be fed to our spirit with a love flow through the Holy Ghost. When false interpretations
of God’s word are sown in our heart, love can not have its perfect way. The only way our sinful behavior ends is us
living and flowing in God’s perfecting love and grace.
Paul the Apostle in Hebrew 5:7-14 & 6:1-8 in these fifteen verses states that a person must rightly
divided the word of God in their heart and they must have a passionate desire to mature and live in the love of the Lord.
When we allow false interpretations of God’s word into our heart, the Holy Ghost has to take us back through these false
concepts and erase them from our heart so He can plant the true interpretation of His word. This is a painful process and
we must guard our heart where the issues of life are formed. Let’s now rightly interpret these verses.
“In the days of His flesh Jesus offered up definite, special petitions for that which He not only wanted
but needed] and supplications with strong crying and tears to Him Who was [always] able to save Him out from death,
and He was heard because of His reverence toward God His godly fear, His piety, in that He shrank from the horrors
of separation from the bright presence of the Father. Although He was a Son, He learned obedience through what He suffered
and, His completed experience making Him perfectly equipped and, He became the Author and Source of eternal salvation to all
those who give heed and obey Him, Being designated and recognized and saluted by God as High Priest after the
order (with the rank) of Melchizedek. Concerning this we have much to say which is hard to explain, since you have
become dull in your [spiritual] hearing and sluggish [even slothful in achieving spiritual insight. For even though
by this time you ought to be teaching others, you actually need someone to teach you over again the very first principles
of God’s Word.
You have come to need milk, not solid food. For everyone who continues to feed on milk is obviously
inexperienced and unskilled in the doctrine of righteousness (of conformity to the divine will in purpose, thought,
and action), for he is a mere infant [not able to talk yet]! But solid food is for full-grown men, for those whose senses
and mental faculties are trained by practice to discriminate and distinguish between what is morally good and noble and what
is evil and contrary either to divine or human law.
Therefore let us go on and get past the elementary stage in the teachings and doctrine of Christ (the Messiah), advancing steadily
toward the completeness and perfection that belong to spiritual maturity. Let us not again be laying the foundation of repentance
and abandonment of dead works (dead formalism) and of the faith [by which you turned] to God, with teachings about purifying,
the laying on of hands, the resurrection from the dead, and eternal judgment and punishment. These are all matters of which
you should have been fully aware long, long ago.] It is God’s desire that we go on [to advanced teaching.
For it is impossible to restore and bring again to repentance those who have been once for all enlightened,
who have consciously tasted the heavenly gift and have become sharers of the Holy Spirit, And have felt how good the Word
of God is and the mighty powers of the age and world to come, if they then deviate from the faith and turn away from their
allegiance—[it is impossible] to bring them back to repentance, for (because, while, as long as) they nail upon the
cross the Son of God afresh [as far as they are concerned] and are holding [Him] up to contempt and shame and public disgrace.
For the soil which has drunk the rain that repeatedly falls upon it and produces vegetation useful to those for whose benefit
it is cultivated partakes of a blessing from God. But if [that same soil] persistently bears thorns and thistles, it is considered
worthless and near to being cursed, whose end is to be burned.”
We will now rightly interpret these verses and as you read this, you may find that over the years of your
Christian walk you may have had planted in your heart mingled seed that has kept you from receiving God’s love and grace
and you are living in a obligated mentality of measuring up because of a fear that; you can go to hell even though your are
born again and a child of God. This is how we stay doubled minded and we doubt God’s holding power of love.
We first see that Jesus had all the emotional fear attacks as we all have and how badly He knew that He had
to receive His Fathers loving kindness to have His needs met. We must all be persuaded that God loves us as much as He loved
Jesus our brother and the first born again believer. His vision and purpose had God His father as a first and only priority
in His life with passion. We must follow His example since He is our mediator between God the Father and ourselves and has
been tempted as we are and yet with out sinning. It is a matter of life or death to our spirit that we understand what this
means as not sinning. When we don’t understand this statement; our common understanding that He became like us and we
are like Him is not believed. Many people who I have had the opportunities to share a word of wisdom with have said they had
become weary of being a Christian have told me, “I am not like Jesus and can never be like Him. That statement
is not in agreement with scripture and when a Christian confesses this, they curse themselves and, their vision of what God
wants them to believe in is side tracked and it stops them from reaching their potential in their walk with God in His kingdom.
We also are suffering as Jesus did and learning how to become obedient because we are learning to lean our
whole personality on our relationship with Christ and allowing Him to be our faith and strength in our lives.
Most born again believers tell me that they have faith in Christ Jesus which is absolutely opposite of what the bible teaches.
The bible says we must live by the faith of Jesus. We must come to understand with a deep meaning that; it is
the Faith of Jesus who is alive in us which makes us willing and empowers us to live the Christian life. This
is stated in Philippians 2:13 by Paul when he says, “Not in your own strength, for it is God Who is all the while
effectually at work in you energizing and creating in you the power and
desire, both to will and to work for His good pleasure and satisfaction
and delight.”
When I first recognized this many years ago, it released me from a great weight of trying to measure up to
be accepted by God and man. It is the born again believer living in an obligated life style that burns them out as they attempt
to love God and themselves. This is the spirit of religion that is the real enemy of the Christian faith of Jesus Christ that
we need to walk in. We as born again believers are being prodded by the Holy Ghost to now go on and get off of the milk of
the word and mature as adults as God’s children.
All babies in life start out with drinking milk and as they grow and their teeth grow they come off of milk
and start eating sold food. This is the same application in the spiritual world.
Young born again believers can not eat solid spiritual food if; they are being fed false interpretations
of God’s word which makes them lethargic and addicted to a alms mentality of help me, help me, help me, which intern;
keeps them as poor spiritually bankrupt people and they are not able to live in the faith of Christ. This condition which
is running rampant with in the born again churches of to day is keeping God’s kids messing their diapers and forever
needing help and deliverance from one thing or another.
We must through necessity come to understand what it is to become independent in the Holy Ghost.
One person living in independents with the Holy Ghost with in a congregations of thousands is more powerful
then; that a bunch of people living in the flesh in the guise of the Holy Ghost. It is always amazing to me when I see what
the born again church believes to be the norm for the body of Christ. Unless we come to grow and understand how to give the
Holy Ghost his rightful place among God’s children, Jesus life will never really be lifted up so all men can be drawn
to Him.
Since Paul tells us that; God wants us to go on he tells us how to do this. He says, let us not again
be laying the foundation of repentance and abandonment of dead works (dead formalism) and of the faith [by which you turned]
to God, with teachings about purifying, the laying on of hands, the resurrection from the dead, and eternal judgment and punishment.
These are all matters of which you should have been fully aware long, long ago. It is God’s desire that we
go on to advanced teaching.
These are the doctrines of salvation that is still being preached to the children of God. Very rarely do
we hear teachings from the church on any thing other then a salvation message in some form or another and that is even if
it is being preached at all. That’s because we have more social club churches in America then we have God’s children
gathering in Christ’s name with signs and wonders happening with in the gathering of the saints of God. I said saints
of God not sinners of God.
Jesus was not looked at by His Father as a sinner but a saint that is why He could not sin. He could not
sin because He was physically born coming out of Mary womb a born again believer and a saint in God’s sight. Unless
the body of Christ understands this; they will be forever laboring in vain teaching to the born again church how to get sin
out of their lives which will keep them forever on the milk of the word. A child who is never taught the basic skills of how
to eat and how to read and write will be forever imprisoned in a life of want and poverty. This must not take place spiritually
in the body of Christ and put the cross of Calvary to a shame like this. It is not a sin for a baby to mess his diaper, spill
his food all over and stumble and fall as he tries and is coaxed by his parents to walk across a room with out holding on
to something.
There is a difference of night and day between having a sinful nature which was taken away from us when we
became born again and a Christian attempting to walk in his sainthood character after becoming one of God’s children.
How dare the born again pulpits across the world condemn and slander God’s children by making little of what Jesus delivered
us from at the cross. What they do is blaspheme the word of God and in their ignorance curse God’s children.
This concept of the laying on of hands that Paul tells us to go on from these teachings is Old Testament
teaching and what the Levitical priest did when sacrificing animals every year for the sins of the people. By them laying
their hands on the animals they would transfer the peoples sins on to the animals and when they were sacrificed and burned
up the sins of the people were burnt up also. This is what happened when Jesus was sacrificed once and for all times
and we need no other teachings in the born again church talking about Christians having a sinful nature. When this happens
it reminds them of the old nature that we once had that was crucified with Jesus at the cross. Let’s remember that 11Cor.
5:17 tells us that “we have become a new creation in Jesus Christ. Old things have passed away and behold
all things have become new. When our new nature is not fed with our new position in God’s sight; you can not have
a vision and revelation by the Holy Ghost and behold with a true witness from with in ourselves.
The Old Testament doctrines also taught that they had to do works in their own strength to be accepted by
God.
When we became born again people; we must be discipled by those who have gone on into advanced teaching and
be told how to operate in God’s kingdom with power and authority looking to Jesus the author and finisher of our faith.
When we have Old Testament doctrine taught in any denomination; it absolutely burdens down the
people sitting under these types of teachings. We see here that; Paul was trying to encourage these people to grow up and
not stay in a stagnant condition that makes Christianity a boring uneventful life of following a bunch of rules and obligated
actions.
Paul goes on to say, For it is impossible to restore and bring again to repentance those who have been
once for all enlightened, who have consciously tasted the heavenly gift and have become sharers of the Holy Spirit, And have
felt how good the Word of God is and the mighty powers of the age and world to come, if they then deviate from the faith and
turn away from their allegiance—[it is impossible] to bring them back to repentance, for (because, while, as long as)
they nail upon the cross the Son of God afresh [as far as they are concerned] and are holding [Him] up to contempt and shame
and public disgrace.
This one area of scripture is one of the most misunderstood parts of scripture by the body of Christ in the
bible. Paul is simple saying here that; once a person becomes born again and has experienced the spiritual world of the kingdom
and become born again if they deviate or are taught and participate in any doctrine or actions contrary to the true word of
God they can not be saved again because once you are born again; you are permanently born again. We crucify Jesus afresh on
the cross because in spite of our missing the mark of His high calling it is His forgiving love attitude in heaven; that has
not changed because He was the one who healed the riff between us and our heavenly Father and stands as our mediator of our
new covenant relationship with God the Father.
This being true however; there are consequences that a born again believer has to deal with when God’s
love is not having its perfect way in our lives. We must separate our judgmental thinking between missing God’s best
verses God’s unconditional love that never ends and we have an eternal hope that we can be sure that we are never forsaken
by Him.
This firm foundation must be in place if we are ever to mature to the limit of Jesus own perfection. Our sin nature that we were born
with was a sickness that was inflicted and inherited from our greatttttttttttttt grand parents who were diseased by Satan
himself. It is the same type of disease as a cancer that ravishes the physical body and we must have a miracle by God to heal
us. Becoming born again is the biggest miracle that any one can experience because; it makes Jesus our brother, God our Father
and we have the anointing, authority and discernment of interpreting God’s word through the Holy Ghost who lives in
us permanently. Paul
tells us the consequences when we deviate from living by Jesus faith, he says. For the soil which has drunk the rain that
repeatedly falls upon it and produces vegetation useful to those for whose benefit it is cultivated partakes of a blessing
from God. But if [that same soil] persistently bears thorns and thistles, it is considered worthless and near to being cursed,
whose end is to be burned.”
As I have said this is one of the most misinterpreted areas of scripture that has actually crippled the body
of Christ. It has been interpreted as people back sliding from their born again experience and God sending them to hell. This
has kept God’s children controlled and manipulated to not use the mind of Christ they received when they asked Jesus
to save them. It makes our flesh flourish and it flat out stops us from interacting in our new covenant as a new creature
in Christ.
The last part of these verses tells us that it is the Spirit of God and His love that constantly wants to
rain on us and produce in us His works and abundant life. If it is not being taught properly, the results will be worthless
endeavors that will have no eternal purposes in God’s kingdom. In turn, these works will be burnt up and the only thing
left standing will be God’s perfect will that was accomplished in our lives.
The only foundation that should be laid in the Christian life must be built on the Apostles and Prophets
doctrine with Jesus being the chief corner stone which in turn will make us able to go on to teach mature doctrines of kingdom
living.
Paul the apostle defines this in 1Cor. 10-15 when he says, “According to the grace of God which
was given unto me, as a master builder, I have laid the foundation, and another can now build upon it. However,
let every one who builds on it be careful how he adds to it, for there is no other foundation that a person can build on except
the Lord Jesus Christ. Now if any man builds on this foundation
gold,
silver, precious stones, wood, hay or straw; every man’s work shall
be made clear to see and understand for the day of Christ will declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire
will critically appraise the character and worth of the work which each person has done. If any man’s work is burnt
up under the test, he will suffer the loss of it all losing his reward. However, he himself shall be saved but only
as one who has passed through the fire. Do you not understand the whole body of Christ is a temple and God’s
Spirit is a permanent dwelling in you
to be a home in you both collectively as a church but also individually?”
As long as we have so called leaders teaching that this fire that Paul was talking about was a person backsliding
and going to burn in hell, there will be no hope for the child of God who believe this. God’s wants His children to
prosper and live by whatever amount of financial income they have the faith to believe for. However, that is to not be the
priority and foundation that so many born again assemblies focus on which is financial prosperity. Scripture shows that a
majority of the body of Christ is in a state of apostasy which was predicted to happen in these last days. God does not care
what type of materials you use to build your life on as Paul uses in these many examples in these preceding verses that I
have underlined. Paul wrote to the Galatian church because, they were having trouble building on the foundation that Paul
had laid with false interpretation of scripture and were leaning toward their own understanding of how to mature.
He states in Gal. 7-8 “ Do not be deceived and mislead; God will not allow himself to be sneered
at, scorned or mocked by people having mere untruthful declarations by having His precepts set aside. A person inevitably
deludes himself who attempts to delude God. For what ever a man sows into his life it is that what he will also reap. For
if, he sows to his own understanding of God, it will reap decay and ruin. However, if he sows his life in the Holy Spirits
counsel, he will reap the reward here and now and the continuance in heaven for eternity.”
It is not God’s intensions as many believe to inflict pain on His children. The born again believer
needs to be taught how kingdom living works. A parent tells his children don’t touch the hot stove or you will be burnt.
The child either heeds the parent’s warning or suffers the consequences. God never gets angry with His kids, He just
grieves over their ignorance and the loss that they live with by not receiving His love, forgiveness and their inheritance
as being his children.
All of your endeavors to follow Christ in your maturing will be tested by fiery trials of life, which is
the way we learn. Yes, some of the wounds that we experience are self-inflicted. I believe more than we want to admit to.
The real enemy I have learned is ignorance of God’s ways and we need to be equipped by sound doctrine to handle the
warfare of life and become winners as God always intended.
God’s kingdom came into the world the day Jesus was born in the earth. When we became born again, the
kingdom was born in us and the ball was put in out court. When the born again believer does not function with the mind of
Christ with their new nature they received when they received Christ, they stay in ignorance under a task master of legalistic
codes. One cannot pray them out of this death sin life style because of the fact as stated; they
put Christ up to contempt and public shame. In reality, they become a reproach unto Him. This happens because they always
live in a shame of realizing they have done something wrong. This is what a sin conscience mentality does for one self.
The Holy Spirit grieves over us when we punish ourselves like this. The born again believer must decide to
come to the end of them selves and come to God broken and repentantly by allowing the Holy Spirit to show them the difference
between kingdom living verses our works in the flesh. It is in us recognizing our weakness and bringing them to the Lord that
cause us to grow strong and straight in his kingdom.
Thirty-five years ago, a prophetic word came out at a Sunday morning worship service. It set a tone and anchor
of my soul all of these many years. When I heard it, I thought that the prophesy would take place immediately only to find
out it is the work that the Holy Spirit has been doing in the body of Christ then and is more important today then ever.
God said, “My people over the years you have grown but only by the measure of man’s understanding.
Because of this you have become a reproach and have felt ashamed of yourself because you know you have done something wrong.
There’s no reason to reproach yourself, because there was nothing you could do about it in your own strength. Therefore,
make a decision to come to me with your hands up raised and surrender to me and I will take the old tight fitting clothes
that you are wearing off of you. When they come off you will murmur and complain because they have grown into your flesh and
some of your flesh will come with them. However,
if you are willing, I will put a white robe of Righteousness on you and you will be able to walk in my courts
with
great freedom.”
This is what happens when we grow thorns and thistles in our heart and the Holy Ghost has to do surgery by
taking us back through our mingled seed interpretations that were planted in our heart of God’s word. Never let anyone
tell you that as a born again believer, God our heavenly Father ever gives up on any of His children no matter how many crevices
or thickets of life they get caught in. He is a restoration God and there is no one like Him. However, since
we are His children and have all of His characteristics He is determined to make us be like Him in word and deed. Continued
in part three.
