Words of Life For This Generation

OUR CHRISTIAN ARENA OF LIFE PART 4

The scripture that states, we should not forsake the assembling of ourselves together in these last days has become so distorted to the point that the Catholic faith teaches that; people who do not attend mass commit a mortal sin and if they die in that state they go to hell. This mortal sin business is absolutely one of the most obligated fear tactic and false doctrines ever perpetrated by man to bring people into bondage and slavery to their shame based nature and under control to an evil entity.

In the Protestant circles, we tell people to get saved and make sure that they attend church on Sunday. We should be telling them how to begin to become independently dependent on Christ, come along side them and show them how to begin to meditate on the scriptures and learn about the Holy Spirits leadings and what true Kingdom living is all about.

The devils devices are totally focused to destroy and cause death to a Christian in having a vital and exciting life in his relationship with the Holy Spirit, who is our teacher and comforter as we go through our valley walk. The devil's influence is not something that we should be ignoring and to be taken lightly. Death in this verse is described as a pestilence or an epidemic of a highly contagion or infectious disease such as bubonic plague, or something like a harmful evil belief, influencing us with an evil presence. Bubonic plague is a disease that contaminates the lymph nodes of the body which protects it from the risk of infection in a physical sense. In the spiritual sense, Proverbs 4:23 tells us, "we need to be watchful and alert in guarding our own heart's because out of it flows the springs of life."

We said earlier that the heart is where the center of a man's character is formed. When our heart has springs operating in it, we have the ability to be very sensitive and have a vital awareness of the presence and voice of the Holy Spirit to speak to us at any given moment. When we ingest into our mind and heart thoughts and attitudes contrary to the Holy Spirits leadings, a seed is planted that infects our heart and we in comparison to bubonic plague, can not fight off the shame nature curse infection that effects our soul.

Jesus in Mark 4:23-24 says, "If any man has ears to hear, let him pay close attention and especially notice some things that escape most people and be able to discuss what you have heard. Also be careful to what you are listening to. The measure and thought and study of the truth you hear; will be the measure of VIRTUE and knowledge that comes back to you and a greater measure you will also receive.

When virtue is being perfected in our understanding; our righteous position in Jesus Christ flourishes. As we are being influenced under anointed teaching of what righteousness means, it will keep us in a hunger and thirsting after the presence of God and our knowledge of the intension of God's heart will become our intensions and increase rapidly. On the other side of the coin, if we are sitting under religious teachings, we will receive a religious measure that will continually increase and our shame based nature will dominate our life.

It is the devils tactics to cast this shadow of his influence of shame in church settings and in our daily walk in the market places of life. God is patience and faithful in His pursuit to guide and to show an unending mercy for His children even when the body of Christ has no awareness of His presence working in their lives. (This really grieves the Holy Spirit because of His sensitivity.)

4. Fear- This is a living entity that frightens and drives a person. Being driven verses being led are at the opposite ends of the spectrum. God's sheep are led by Jesus who is their Sheppard where; the devils tactics are to drive people. This type of fear brings anxiety and unpleasant feelings of apprehension or distress caused by the presence or anticipation of danger. It also causes thoughts and feelings of irrational worry of receiving bad news and that there is a chance that; undesirable things will happen to you. Fear in its many forms immobilizes a person and they stagnate, fail to develop and make necessary changes to mature.

Sheep when they become alarmed by impending danger by predatory animals; all they know to do is stand still and bleat. When this type of condition exists there is no lying down in green pasture and it is the Sheppard's responsibility to guard the sheep. If God's eyes are on the sparrow; He surly is watching over us who are His children.

Jesus tells us, "The devil comes to steal, kill and destroy however; He has come to bring us life more abundantly." We must know how to aggressively pursue our new life that Jesus gave us. The emotion of fear is so real in many of our lives and the only way it can be driven out is for us to be experiencing the love and holding power of the Lord.

Scripture tells us that, "perfect love casts our fear" Fear has to be cast out with deliberation and force. When we are not fully aware of the devil's devices; we are not able to get in touch with the unpleasantness of our feelings of fear, and we cover that emotion with anger. Many people today are dominated by fear and anger and totally frustrated because; they are seeking God the way they have been told to; but it is contrary to scripture and they can not truly rest in God.

In turn, they regress into living in denial and stay in the shadows and never become a vital thriving joyous believer. When the true love of the Lord is not being experienced and being participated with in the fellowship of the believer, there is no middle ground of safety where they can rest from the bombardment of the devil to dump his fear spirit into their mind. It is the believer who has to live a life of meditating on the word of God day and night and have the Holy Spirit weld God's word deep with in their very being to the point; as our mind is being constantly bombarded with the devils thoughts; the Holy Spirit will constantly be reminding him of what the word of God says about the devil's lies.

Meditating on the word day and night, there will be times when we will have no adversity and the word of God will be easily understood. That is the atmosphere of day. In the night time it means, we will be in a combat situation in our mind through outward pressures and it is then we must be consistent and continue to seek God. God doesn't want us to hide in denial, but to face our enemy head on and take our authority over him in speaking the word of God to him.

The Apostle Paul reminded Timothy in 1Tim. 1:7 that, "God has not given us the spirit of fear; but of power and of love and a sound mind." When our mind is sound; we can very clearly hear what the Holy Spirit is saying to us. Since we are all walking under the shadow of death, we have to know how to walk in unison with the Spirit of God. This has always been our warfare and the problem we all face as a born again believer.

Now you can't help but see a trend that Paul was trying to communicate to Timothy in his second letter to him. He tells him in chapter 3:7-8 that a person can get into a state of "for ever learning and never being able to come to the true interpretation of the scriptures. He points out two such people who in the Old Testament went against Moses in his attempt to fulfill his calling from God. These two people were called Janes and Jambres. Their minds had become corrupt and they had become reprobate concerning the faith." This condition can happen to any Christian if; they become slack in not guarding their heart where the issues of life are formed. Fear manifesting and taking hold in our hearts can produce a condition of becoming a reprobate.

Reprobate sounds like some perverted human being however; it produces an empty life with out meaning and purpose as God intended for the believer. When the born again believer does not hunger and thirst after God's Righteous Spirit, he stays in degrees of this condition. This is what makes God‘s children become; lethargic and living in vanity and futility. You are either passionately seeking God or falling back from receiving God's love through His grace. There is no place of riding a fence of anything that resembles a crisis Christian life style or a Sunday going to meeting life style or a I feel the emotional hype hairs of my neck rising on my neck life style or the I‘ll discipline myself and present my body as a living sacrifice after I get all my own self centered priorities done. All these type conditions and I am sure I have missed many other excuses are the manifestations of a fear driven life style. We must guard our hearts against this type of imprisonment.

David the King was a man after God's own heart because; he had a passion to seek God with every fiber of his being. In Psalms 4:2 he was told by God as he was seeking an audience with Him and heard God say to Him.

"O son of man meaning, (man endeavoring to live without God's influence on his life directing him) how long will you show and display a behavior which is an example of your shame based nature and say that this is an example of my glory on you. How long will you love vanity and be pursuing a lying spirit? I want you to take this statement seriously and meditate on what I have just said." The devil is the father of lies and devil's lying spirit is the spirit of fear. When we are ignorant of God's word; the devil can manipulate and control us at his will. Our basic nature of shame that we were born with is vanity. Vanity in its true sense is void of Godly purposes and is nothing more than idolatry.

5. Evil has an unending meaning however; it causes a person to feel wretched, be a slave to inadequacies, be spoiled, broken down in spirit and any attitude that is causing them to harm themselves and I can go on and on and on. It is evil in its true sense that crippled mankind in the Garden of Eden. Mankind took on the nature of the beast and only man becoming born again from above by having the Spirit of God come in and take up residence with in him; is what will cause him to be able to change from the savage beast into the likeness of God.

True shepherding means to tend a flock, keep company with and make a friend. When we are deceived and do not know our true position in Christ, the one shepherding us becomes a task master. This is the outcome of being trained with religious indoctrination and a behavior modification life style of making God into our image.

The Apostle Paul tells us of the conflict that he had in trying to live the Christian life because of an inner conflict of wanting to obey God however; he had an inadequacy in himself with no power to control his behavior and he confessed his weakened condition and was looking for help to be released from this attitude that he defines as being a wretched man. Remember wretchedness represents being under an evil persuasion.

In Romans 7:24-25 Paul comes to this conclusion. "I am unhappy and living with an utter disgust and hatred for myself, and I am wretched or feeling very inadequate. Who will deliver and release me from the oppression and stress of this mental torment and conflict of interest in my mind? O thank God He will through Jesus Christ, the anointed one who is our Lord. So I finally come to understand that, with in me, if I continue to try and obey God's laws in my own strength, it will only bring more inadequacy and a loss of me having a vital joyous and prosperous life in Christ."

Paul's answer came by being honest with his growing pains and coming out of any denial by confessing his need. He referred to Jesus as being his Lord the anointed one. There is an absolute total difference between making Jesus our Savior and making him our Lord. Savior in the Greek means, a deliverer and a healer. Lord in the Greek means, supreme authority and master. Jesus as Savior tells us that he can and does deliver but, it is only as we cooperate and submit to His control and supreme authority that causes us to mature and make Him Lord. Jesus puts us in His family and then He restores by; nurturing us in the Righteous Spirit of God our Father so; we can have the true knowledge of His thoughts.

11 Peter 3:18 tells us, "we have to mature and grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." We have everyone preaching Jesus saves and people get saved. However, when are we going to spend the effort on helping people to know Jesus as Lord the Anointed one and not let our shame and wretchedness be considered as the glory of God? This shadow of evil that is hovering over the believer is not playing a game. The consequences and the penalty for the believer are too great to take our salvation for granted and treat Jesus death with such disdain.

God's grace and the devils fear are very real entities. However; the Lord assures us that; the will of God will never lead us where the grace of God can not protect and empower us to do His will. As relentless as the Holy Spirit is to restore and grow us up, the devil is also determined to destroy and steal everything God has given us. Let's not be naive and be deceived, our walk under these two influences are very real and we do not have to hide and be afraid, we just have to commit to a total surrender to God's direction and learn about him.

6). He is always with me; His rod and staff comfort me.
Since you have become born again; you are always in a in separable with the Lord and no trial or circumstance from the devil or mankind; will ever separate us from the love of God our Father because; we are his children. Once a person becomes born again through God's spirit, they are permanently wielded together and we will always have the character of God. Now this is what God says however; I wonder how many of His children really believe this.

Paul clarifies this when he says this in Romans 8:35-39. "Who shall separate us from Christ's love? Shall suffering, affliction or tribulation, calamity, distress, persecution, hunger, destitution, peril or the sword? Scripture tells us that all the days of our lives we are dying daily and it looks like we are sheep being led to be slaughtered. However, even though it looks from the outward appearance that this is true, we are more then conquerors and gain a surpassing victory through Him who loved us. For I have been persuaded beyond a doubt and am sure. That, neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things impending and threatening, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all of creation will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

The American language could not describe our security and dilemma any better then what Paul just stated. Unless we understand our position as righteous people in Christ, no one can become persuaded. Our security should be like the oxygen surrounding us in the atmosphere. There is a protective hedge that we can live in with God however; we must have a living reality of it. Since we are under demonic influences at all times and our minds are being bombarded constantly by all these perils, we must be actively pursuing an understanding of how to walk in the Spirit. Experiencing the love of the Lord is not mere head knowledge that God loves us but a living relationship with a loving Father who we can identify with every situation of our life.

2. His Rod and Staff: means, a scepter or to endow someone with power and authority and a walking stick for support and sustenance as we operate with in a protected hedge that God puts around us. Remember, we said earlier that "God's scepter is His righteousness" which is the power of God with all His seven characteristics which he gave us the day we became a born again believers. If you take a good look at this interpretation, it is Christ actually alive having His perfect way living again with in our physical body wanting to do the same miracles He did when He walked the earth in Jesus; but now through us. ! My goodness; how more intimate can you get with a person?!

3. Comfort: As a child of God; we can allow God to console us and know that He feels sad when we harm our self and is totally forgiving when we have growing pains and wants to give us relief from pain or discomfort. Experiencing His pity makes us know that; he is merciful at all times. As Paul stated the dilemma that he considered himself in when he said, he was a wretched man and having a conflict of interests going on with in him self, we also are under attack by this same entity.

In Acts 9:31, Paul the Apostle was teaching the churches that were founded by him in that day in Judea, Galilee and Samaria and there was a peace operating with in these assemblies because, they were being edified by growing in virtue, wisdom and piety. This was taking place because, they had a reverential fear of the Lord and they were being comforted and being exhorted by the Holy Spirit and the church was continuing to grow as God intended.
This word for edified in the Greek is oikodomeo: It means a structure, or to be a house builder. Remember we said earlier that the Apostles and Prophets were called on by God to lay a righteous foundation with Christ being the chief cornerstone of the building. When our righteous position is being laid, it is only then that we can grow in virtue which is the power of the Holy Spirit empowering and laying the instructional blue print of how the body of Christ is to be fitted together.

Functioning in the Holy Ghost's spirit of piety causes us to walk in obedience and be loyal our parent who is God our Father. If we are learning the ways of God our Father who is our parent, we will find that no matter what you teach or preach about; the Holy Spirit is constantly showing up in the scriptures as the one behind the scenes maturing and teaching Christ's body.

This edifying is not to be taken for granted and we must allow the Holy Spirit to make us aware if we are doing it our way or His. The believer has a spiritual ear to hear what the Holy Spirit is saying to God's body. However, God's body is having a difficult time recognizing His voice because of their lackadaisical attitude of having a real hunger after Him and being influenced by other spirits.

7). He prepares a table in the presence of my enemies; we will describe these underlined terms.

1. Prepares: When some one prepares; they put things in order and are furnished to be an expert in warfare. This Christian life we were born into the day we made Jesus our Savior was not just a commitment to stop us from going to hell and just have the feel goods in church settings and the like. For ten years before I got saved and knowing I was breaking God's commandments I lived with the fear that; I was going to hell and that fear came to an end the day I met Christ Jesus. At the age of twenty five I had an encounter with Jesus through the Holy Spirit.

The last forty five years has been a wilderness walk of experiences with the Holy Spirit of at times, having a raging warfare of being changed from the inward out. This born again experience that we all have been brought into, if you have had the miracle of salvation; brings us into a world of warfare for ourselves our families and the people we come into contact with daily. When we are descipled by leadership that does not proclaim what our righteous position in Christ represents, a believer never becomes edified. That is why the a large majority of the churches today are not affecting the young ones because, they are still teaching an Egypt type existence as the Israelites were in bondage in the Old Testament to Pharaoh and that whole culture of wandering in the wilderness for forty years and never submitting to God's leadings.

2. Table: This means a meal of forsaking some things and to be reaching for other things. It also means to live long and earnestly seek the ways of the Lord. I ask you, what type of meal are you eating at your table in the Lord in a spiritual sense?

3. Presence: It means a counterpart, one who predicts, explains or declarers and one who praises. A counterpart is one who fits together with our born again nature. It is the Holy Spirit who comes along side and we have an intimate relationship with Him that we can walk in this oneness. We need to learn how to practice the presence of the Lord at all times.

4. Enemies: These are spirit entities of adversity, oppressing us; causing us emotional pain and wanting to shut us up so we will not be able to confess our freedom and prosperity in our walk with Christ. When a person is oppressed, they become surrounded and imprisoned in a certain arena of their life and they are robbed of the excitement and adventure to dream and envision God's purposes for themselves.

God gives us the authority of His righteous Spirit where we will have the ability to let Him deliver us from our own self righteousness; and be molded into His image and life style. We do this by always learning how to recognize the Holy Spirit leadings in our life and cooperating with His commands. We have people in the body of Christ having conflicts in marriages, child rearing, additive immorality and curses that have been passed down from prior generations of all kinds. This is caused by being ignorant of the scriptures and not allowing the Holy Ghost the freedom to write the word of God on the fleshy tables of our heart where the issues of life are formed and able to be acted on.

As I write and meditate; I have an awareness of the substance of the spiritual world which can not be touched or seen with our physical senses and it becomes more real and it intensifies my desire to get God's understanding and favor, which is what I consider to be the core of all life. When you compare eternity to our temporary time on this planet; the only conclusion you can come to is that, man has a higher purpose then to just go through the mundane tasks of surviving from day to day. Unless we step back and are remind by God and those who truly know Him and are experiencing His presence, life goes on in its minuscule time periods and we never get in touch with what our life is really worth and meant to be.

The main theme through out the whole bible is of a Personal, Holy and Loving God trying to console and provide a place of royal reign with His children. The thing that amazes me over the years, I run into countless number of Christians who love God and seek Him but not according to the real knowledge and fellow feelings of His heart. Scripture tells us how are people going to believe unless, God sends a preacher or teacher who will truly explain God's ways. The world has become a rat race of bad news and more bad news. Sometimes I don't know what it's going to take for people to just sit down and cry for God's presence and allow His intervention in the noise and confusion that has erupted upon this planet.

We must develop a spirit of excellence with in ourselves and understand that, this born again world that we entered into the day we made Jesus our Savior has real substance. We can not any longer take for granted and ignore God's presence by not participate in the warfare going on all around us. We have to start making a difference for our families and the other people in our arena of life. If we will teach the fundamental doctrine of righteousness of the gospel; it will equip the body of Christ to know how to practice the presence of the Lord.

We are not talking about corporate worship in church on Sunday morning or where ever. This has to be a continual every minute of the day relationship with the Holy Spirit. You can not learn how to be a tenacious empowered Christian from Sunday morning bible class of forever being taught, fulfill your obligation and go home to the every day problems and then show up at church and get our Sunday morning fix the following week.

David the King said, "Taste and see that the Lord is good" I ask you, "have you really tasted and seen?" When you really taste; this desire for excellence and passion with an every day commitment starts growing. However; it must be watered with the true word of God and not man making God into his image. When we practice the presence of God, his glory on us delivers and empowers us to be over comers with Him.