Living by God’s thoughts verses our own thoughts

Part 3

In the Old Testament the Israelites were constantly complaining to Moses because they had needs and they were holding him accountable to mediate for them to God for their needs and wants to be met.  There was no independent thinking and a commitment with in themselves to petition God on their own behalf and become tenacious and warrior like in their pursuit of righteous living.  Being a part of church fellowship is beneficial if, God is building this house of believers.  Now being a part and having a church membership was never meant to be a constant sitting in a pew and belonging to one denomination all of your life like chicks being fed week in and week out. 

It was meant to be like a nursery where God’s children can be loved and taught not judged into wholeness by God ordained leaders.  These leaders were called on by to disciple and nurture God’s children to become a mighty armed force of independent thinking people who get to know the voice of the Holy Ghost and go forth in their arena of life to do the works of Jesus.  Jesus knew the word and by knowing it, He didn’t fall for that trick and form another denomination with His own beliefs.  Where this condition exists it grieves and quenches the Holy Ghost from moving freely in their midst.

“Again, the devil took Him up on a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory (the splendor, magnificence, preeminence, and excellence) of them.  And he said to Him, These things, all taken together, I will give you, if you will prostrate yourself before me and do homage and worship me.  Then Jesus said to him, be gone, Satan! For it has been written, you shall worship the Lord your God, and Him alone shall you serve. Then the devil departed from Him, and behold, angels came and ministered to Him.”

(Because the devil couldn’t get Jesus to doubt His position as God’s son; God the Father used it as a test that caused Jesus to meditate on trusting His heavenly Father’s word verses the Devil’s influence. This made Him stronger and able to handle the second temptation because it showed Him to not lean to His own understanding but speak to the devil by the inspired word of His Father’s voice.  Finally the ultimate temptation was for the devil trying to bribe Him by showing Him all the pleasures of sinful behavior He could participate in l on His temporary season of His existence  on the earth. )

Scripture defines this in 1 John 2:16 as, “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life.”  Jesus told His disciples that His kingdom was not of this world.  We are in a spiritual battle and it’s going to take a complete yielding to trust the Holy Ghost in us so we can use His strength to wrestle in the spiritual world.  This is going to take a decisive commitment of knowing who we are as God’s children if we really intend to take back and rule over what Adam and Eve surrendered to Satan in the garden.  As long as the body of Christ stays on the milk of the word and does not start eating deeper truths of God’s word, they will never really come to know the wiles of the devil. Let’s define from scripture what John meant when he made this statement.

Agitating passions fall under the category of the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes which brings with it the pride of life. Our basic nature has a desire put in us by God at birth that wants to conquer and be a ruler in our lives. However, we must rule and conquer His way if we are going to represent Him in the earth.  That was God’s intent when He created Adam and Eve and put a protective hedge around them called the Garden of Eden.  Satan was cast down to earth from heaven and His spirit rules the earth to do evil.  When Satan came on the scene, he waylaid God’s plans not by taking away man’s tenacity to conquer and rule to take back God‘s domain but it he who wants to feed that  nature to do it his way.  So when Adam surrendered his authority to Satan; there he was having a tenaciousness to conquer and rule however; Satan had put him in chains and he began to use the conquering gift with in him; selfishly and in bondage to his fleshly cravings.

Even though a born again Christian has God’s power and His authority in them; they can not truly interact with the Holy Ghost because; there is a wall up in their thinking which keeps them ignorant of their heritage and God’s purposes for their life.  In turn; they can not be a over comer in God’s service as His ambassador. Paul defines this when he says the devil had put a drunken spiritual stupor over their minds in 1 Cor 15:34.

I said this earlier and it must be repeated. The Spirit World has a life of its own and only the Holy Ghost can instruct us as to how it operates.  How well do you know Him?  Spiritual life has nothing to do with obeying rules and having the attitude that; “if it kills me; I am going to be obedient.”   It is us walking in our righteous spirit that causes us to obey God’s love laws of life. When one lusts there is a great eagerness or enthusiasm to obtain some gratification for something like a desire for power; and those things which we set our mind and heart upon to have a selfish need fulfilled.

The word for flesh in the Greek translation is sarx: meaning something external.  It is our basic human out side covering with its physical weaknesses as opposed to our soul and spirit.  Peter the apostle tells us that; man is a triune being and he states that it was his prayer that God would make us whole in spirit soul and body. The lust of the flesh causes us to cater to our bodily appetites.  That is one reason why we have drug addiction; a person gets hooked on drugs.  People with a sweet tooth all of their lives and the intake of sweets over a period of time slowly kills the pancreas and one can become insulin dependent.  Sexual perversion of all kinds running ramped on the earth to the degree that the craving for sexual gratification can never be quenched, and mankind thinks up new pervasive acts to get a greater high for his fulfillment. Alcoholism and becoming addicted to it to the point that the bodies brain cells and liver become destroyed and shortens our life span in the earth. Simply being undisciplined and becoming a sluggard to sleep in and not rise up in the morning to the new day God has made and ask Him what He has planned for our day.  I could go on and on but I believe you get the point. 

This lust in our flesh is the devils clever ingenious temptations that he tried to use on Jesus because of being hungry after having fasting for forty days and nights. The devil tempted Him to act irresponsible in having Him use His power to make bread and focus on His fleshly need and lean towards His own understanding as to how to supply it. We next come to the lust of the eyes.

The word eyes in the Greek Concordance is ophthalmic: meaning to be given a vision, or to discern something.  The devil can not create anything and all he can do is imitate God’s ways to motivate us to do it His way.  We must be able to recognize who and what is trying to persuade us to its bidding.  When the body of Christ is taught and given a vision to focus on their behavior and stay in a mode of trying harder to please God, they can not discern where the Holy Ghost is at work which is the intents of our hearts where the issues of life are formed.

When this happens;  they are never able to discern the deep truth’s of the gospel and God’s ways of thinking with His actions.  Paul says it best when he states in 11Tim. 1:12 “ I know in whom I believe in and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day.” Paul had turned his entire life over to the leaning of his whole personality on God and he was every day being persuaded that when he saw Jesus face to face that; he would have nothing to feel ashamed about. The devil is very persuasive also and unless we know the deep truths of God’s word, we can be ignorantly misinterpreting the Holy Ghosts leadings and falling under a spell of the devil’s persuasions.  I am not exaggerating things here and the body of Christ must fully understand that; this battle in the spiritual world is very real and God has equipped us to fight the good fight of faith His way with the weapons He has given us to win the battle.

God is trying to persuaded us that; He is a loving Father and it is His pleasure to give good gifts to his children.  He doesn’t have a problem giving His children worldly things and finances.  When we do not understand how our Fathers heart wants to supply and give us our needs and wants, the devil is quickly there to persuade us to do it His way.  There is nothing wrong with lusting; it just depends what you’re lusting after and why. We now come to the pride of life.  When we lust in our quest for purpose and fulfillment in our flesh and eyes thinking which is contrary to the Holy Ghost’s leading; the same pride that got Satan kicked out of heaven increases in our lives.

The definition of pride in a negative sense is, being boastful, or having an excessive vanity and a higher opinion of your own abilities and having a feeling of being superior over others. The spirit of pride in all its ugly forms comes from a spirit of jealousy. When we manifest jealousy it show us to be resentful and suspicious of a rival or being hostile or envious over the advantages and good fortune of others. Us participating and co-operating with this spirit makes us live in a continual environment of strife or (strong opposition) in our relationships with God and with others.

Isaiah 14:12-14, tells us that, “Lucifer who is defined as the light bringer, son of the morning meaning, (with great diligence and total purpose to do evil to humanity) fell from heaven to earth and became the ruler over this world system and now he has the capability to weaken and destroy human natures intense purpose to seek the Lord.” He became jealous of all God had and because of the adoration God received from all the other heavenly beings, he was thrown out of heaven with all of the other angels who sided with him. The original author of pride comes from the nature of Satan himself and if we submit to this spirit, rather to the Spirit of God, it puts us cross wise from God’s nature and within our soul, it brings an addiction that controls our thought life and actions.

King Solomon in all his wisdom and wealth at the end of his life states in Ecc.11: 8, “ if a man lives many years, let him rejoice in them all, but let him also remember that, he will have many days of sorrow, ignorance and be very little noticed by men. All that life consists of without a hunger for God is, vanity, being boastful and  valueless.”

In James 3:14-16 he states, “ If you have bitter jealousy, rivalry and selfish ambition in you heart, do not pride yourselves on it and thus be arrogant and be living in a false sense of security. This type of wisdom does not come from God, but is earthy, unspiritual, even devilish or demonic. For wherever there is jealousy, envy and  (rivalry and selfish ambition) there will also be confusion, unrest, disharmony, rebellion and all sorts of evil and (disgusting and corrupt) practices.”

Who in their right mind would want to participate in this type of addiction. It takes a person with some real intense passion and a desire for freedom to acknowledge to God that demonic forces are controlling them and living in this alienated condition from Him. Pride in our lives when the Holy Spirit exposes it, should make us bow our hearts and bend our knee in thankfulness to Him for exposing this vile and disgusting nature that originates from Satan.  This condition is extremely serious and we need to take into account when it says, where this condition exists, there is all sorts of evil and vile (disgusting and corrupt) practices taking place. This takes into account about all of the opposition against God that can separate us from experiencing His unmerited favor and love. There is a continuous theme in the bible that brings out this principle of pride, which causes jealousy and strife. Let’s name a few.

Prov.20:3 says, “It is an honor for a man to cease from strife and keep aloof from it, but every fool will be quarreling.  Timothy 6:4 says, “Any one puffed up with pride and having dull spiritual senses with fanciful elaborate ideas, although he is woefully ignorant, has an un-wholesome fondness for controversy and loves to argue and debate over words.” Pride rather then promoting peace; produces insults and places guilt on people rather then thinking the best of them. You notice here that it says we can be ignorant of this attitude. When this is going on our souls are sick because of the deception.  A Man can only proper as his soul prospers.( 3 John 2)

In Galatians 5:19-20 it names every evil and vile thing that we said pride represents. These are defined as flesh sins or sins of carnality. Paul the Apostle names these sins as, “ immorality, impurity, indecency, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, divisions, party spirits, factions, heresies, envy, drunkenness, carousing and the like. He goes on to say to say, I warn you, that they who participate in these things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.” Now if you are really saved and know Jesus as your savior, why would you want to live in any one of these bondages.

I can understand people who do not know the Lord living in this type of life prison of ignorance and emotional behavior. However, to be a child of God and still participating in this type of bondage is beyond my understanding. How blind has the Devil made us to live in such poverty and away from God’s favor and mercy? Paul gave a warning to these people who were born again believers that while they were in bondage to these things they could not participate in enjoying the heritage that God gave them when they became born again believers. He did not mean that they were going to hell like we hear in many of the pulpits of today.

Philippians 2:3 says, “do nothing by being cliquey and taking a constant argumentation stance which causes strife, being motivated by only your own personal needs and being overbearing and arrogant. Instead, in the true Spirit of humility (lowliness of mind) let each regard the others as better than himself, thinking more highly of one another than we do of ourselves. Let us not only look after our own interests, but on the interests of others. In turn, we will have the same attitude of Jesus when He being equal with God, put away His equality with God and became a servant by becoming a human being and dying on the cross for our sin.”

I do not believe we fully understand what Christ in Jesus gave up to become human and a servant to mankind. It is only as we begin to see Jesus the man and His humanity in the scriptures that, we can learn to be as humble as He was because of His desire to walk in total obedience to His Heavenly Fathers will for his life. Let’s keep in mind that these lusts of flesh and eyes and pride of life is us focused on our own selfish needs and not on the needs of others. We have spent some time defining agitating passions and now we must define moral conflicts as stated in the (Amplified) 1Peter 1:2.

When we say moral we have thoughts dealing with issues of right and wrong and how individual people should behave. These issues are derived from personal conscience: based on what their conscience suggests is right or wrong, rather than on what rules or the law says should be done.  When we reason like this; we are being influenced to encourage goodness and decency and concentrate on  giving guidance on how to discipline our behavior to act decently and honorably.

Now all this definition sounds really good however, Jesus died on the cross to deliver us from this type of thinking.  Now bear with me for a moment?  Jesus told us that there is no man that is good but God. ( Math 19:17)  Our soul runs into moral conflicts because our thinking has us trying to make up some righteous standards to live by that has nothing to do with our righteous spirit of Christ that now lives in us. 

In 1 Corinthians 6:9-14 Paul states this. “ Don’t you know that the unrighteous  will not inherit the kingdom of God?  Don’t be deceived : neither fornicators , nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminates nor abusers of themselves with mankind. Nor thieves, nor covetous nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you: but you have been washed and you are sanctified and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. 

All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not advisable and appropriate. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any law.  Meats are for the belly and the belly for meats: but God shall destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for fornication; but for the Lord and the Lord is for the body.  God has raised up the Lord and He will also raise us up by His own power.”

A person who has had the miracle of becoming a born again child of God, becomes righteous as Jesus is righteous. John in 1John 3:7 says this. “ Little children, let no man deceive you; he that does righteousness is righteous even as he is already righteous.”  Once you become born again you are righteous permanently. You can’t become more righteous or lose your righteousness.  Accepting Jesus sacrifice on the cross is what made us righteous permanently and nothing we did or can ever do by thinking in right and wrong concepts can help that out. Also becoming righteous you inherit the kingdom of God and all of God’s possessions. Since Paul says we  been washed we are not any long branded as being any of the things that he says will not inherit the kingdom.  What the real tragedy is, many born again believers are still practicing some of these behaviors because they walk in their own understanding in their undisciplined flesh and have no clue as to the power they have to overcome these evil tendencies.  They live with a sin conciseness by working hard to love God and dotting all the I’s and T’s in following rules for  living.

A person who has been sanctified and justified by God is looked at by God as being blameless, free from evil and set apart as unto to the Lord for His purposes.  Since Paul understood this; that is why he could say “All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not advisable and appropriate. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any law or rule.

Paul became aware of the fact that it was by God’s unmerited favor ( His Grace) that he would rise or fall as unto the Lord doing the evaluation of his thoughts and actions and not by him judging his behavior.  He had learned to identify the difference between him thinking with his own mind to measure up to God’s standards verses the Holy Ghost lavishing the love of God on him and letting this be the motivation to let go of living by rules verses flowing in his righteous spirit in Christ.  Unless the body of Christ comes to identify the difference between being religious verses being righteous; God’s children will be a rag time army stumbling their way in heavenly ways here on earth and when they meet Jesus face to face.

Those who have the Holy Ghost living on the inside of them are the only ones who are God’ children.  The Holy Ghost is tireless in trying to show God’s children who and what they are as they with diligence lean on every spoken word that He drops in their ear.  I on occasions meet people and get into conversations and I ask them “ what is the Lord talking to you about” only to get a strange look as to be saying  “does God talk to us.”  For the child of God who has the Holy Ghost; the main moral conflict is the unrest with in them self of letting go and letting the Holy Ghost convince them that; it is He who empowers and changes the hearts of mankind. It is only as we experience God’s love and holding power that makes our behavior change and we learn how to rest from our laboring to measure up and fly right.

The struggle we all face is the battle of having two mind sets at odds with in ourselves.  Our wisdom of life verses God’s wisdom of life.  Jesus tells us to come to Him all those who are heavy laden and he would give us rest.  It’s by allowing the Holy Ghost the freedom to renew our mind daily as we get comfortable walking with Him and letting Him give us a fresh vision with the knowledge of how to attain it.  God will be as real to you as you allow Him to be.