Our Commitment

Psalms 1:1-6, reads, “Blessed is the man that doesn’t (1.) Walk in the counsel of the ungodly, nor is (2.) Standing in the way of sinners, nor is (3.) Sitting in the seat of the scornful. However, his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in the law of the Lord, he meditates both day and night. Because of this, he will be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that brings forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither and whatsoever he does shall prosper. The ungodly will not be the same, but they are like the chaff, which the wind drives away. Therefore, the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, or sinners in the congregation of the righteous. The Lord knows the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.” Let’s discuss these verses and discover there meaning.

Blessed means, you have come to the realization that without a vital nourishing life in Christ, nothing else will ever satisfy your longing for satisfaction and give you the power to cope with life’s issues. Without this vision and purpose, you will not have a desire and without a desire, you aren’t able to go forward and have a closer relationship with the Lord. This is why the first act of obedience after accepting Christ is found in Mathew 6:33 where Jesus says. “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all things will be added to you.”

Having this blessed attitude in our hearts is defined in James 3:17. It says, “Our way of reasoning will be like God’s wisdom and reasoning. First, it will be pure and not religious. It will be loving and searching for peace, considerate and gentle. It will listen to reason meaning hungry for truth rather than trying to always prove your own point. You will be a ready listener and able to identify yourself with other peoples searching for God. You will have a very giving spirit of support with incites of wisdom or finances, depending on the need. You will be straightforward no lies, non-judgmental, but patient and unafraid. The outcome of this attitude produces freedom from doubt, being double minded (always not sure, having many opinions) and not being real.”

Now all this definition of blessed represents only us being a hearer of the word of God. We now have to become doers of the word to maintain this attitude or heart condition. The beginning of doing does not start with witnessing, going to church, giving or preaching and so on. Now although this is the result, we first have to spend time and learn to interact with the Holy Spirit daily. Then we need to have some real fellowship, gather and visit each other in our homes and share our everyday experiences in the market place with people and pray one for another.

This fellowship strengthens our resolve, so we don’t feel like we are alone or like lost sheep. This represents a healthy attitude and the only kind of heart preparation that can receive and participate with God’s nature.

Scripture tells us to come into God’s light and allow the Holy Spirit to appraise what our real attitudes and feelings are about Him. If we are honest with ourselves, and come to the conclusion that, we have not come into the light or don’t want to come into the light to have our feelings exposed, the alternative is, we fall into these next three categories that this scripture points out. There is no middle ground with God. Your either for Him or have become scattered. When we become scattered, we break our marriage vows to Christ that we made to Him the day we were saved and, we lose our intimate fellowship by not walking in the inner circle with Him. We become double minded in our decision-making and rather then walking in total obedience to our Fathers will, we are deceived by the Devil and lose our allotted share of our inheritance given to us by God. I said we lose our share of our inheritance, not our salvation.

James 2:24/26, says that, “ a man is proved to be guiltless and blameless in God’s sight and pronounced by God to have a blessed spirit, because he operates by what God and Him alone is telling him of how He looks at us, who are born again people.” Meaning, believing what the Holy Spirit says about us not what a man thinks in his own mind and reasoning apart from the Spirit of God. There is no value in our pursuit of God if we are not walking in total nakedness in His sight and us allowing Him to move in our lives as He freely wills.

Let’s now define these three categories that these scriptures point out. 1. Walking, 2. Standing and 3. Sitting are verbs and are action words. God only wants us to function in these three action words with Him this is always what He intended. The question is whom are we walking, standing and sitting with, God or the Devil? So if we fall into these categories and are actively participating in this type of life style contrary to God’s will, it is because we are not hungering after God. This makes us ignorant of His word and we are participating in these areas unawares. We are more then fortunate that God has such mercy and grace on us as He shows us our self-centered ways. Why people would want to walk contrary to God’s leading has always been beyond my comprehension. The only answer I can come up with, they have no clue on how much they are really loved by the Lord.

(1.) Walking in the counsel of the ungodly. The word walking, in the Hebrew, is episkeeptomai: meaning to visit, inspect and make a choice. You will notice that this is a three-step process. If we are not walking with the Lord, then what we are doing is concealing our true intentions from Him. We are lying to Him and ourselves.

In turn, we are counseling ourselves and making deliberations or deciding to do our own thing and trying to make God into our image of what we think Christianity is. When we walk like this, God says that we are un-god like and deceiving ourselves, or living in denial. It does not mean we are unsaved and we do not know Jesus as Savior. It means, we have never made Jesus Lord over our lives and we are functioning as unsaved people and still children messing our diaper. Rather than us walking prudently or wisely to avoid error and follow God’s reasonable course of action in all things, we function in false religious unconscious ideas of God’s ways.

We are being influenced and are becoming mesmerized by a false understanding of God’s way of thinking. The longer we live like this, the greater hold this delusion takes control in our lives. We become chained in our inner soul and addicted to un-god like thoughts and behavior. Rather than us being molded into the image and nature of God, we become more addicted to the Devils manipulation and abuse. Therefore, we see that we are functioning in a relationship within ourselves of making false assumptions on our permanent position in Jesus Christ.

2.) Standing in the way of sinners. The word standing in the Hebrew is mad: meaning, to live, make a home and be employed or be steadfast and firm. Now these are good qualities if you’re standing with the Lord by being employed, firm, and steadfast and making our home in Him. However, this scripture says that your standing is with sinners or you see yourself as a sinner. The word sinners is defined in the Hebrew as not receiving God’s total allotment, one who is feeling guilty, missing the mark, living in a lack of self worth and not perceiving your self as pure and innocent, as God sees us in His sight. This is described from scripture as, us living with a shame-based nature. So we see here that we don’t become like this because, we are hanging out with people who give us this attitude. We hang out with other people who have this same poor self-image that we have, because birds of a feather flock together. This self-image exists within us.

Where it says that we are standing in the way of sinner’s means that, we are functioning in the same shame based nature we received from Adam’s fallen nature in the Garden of Eden. This word way means, participating in a certain course of action. We are participating and carry the spirit of sin with us and because of our ignorance of God’s ways; we are standing firm in lack and spiritual poverty. Now standing firm in ways that are false concepts rather than God ways, is a serious and dangerous business. We reap terrible consequences with this kind of behavior.

(3.) Sitting in the seat of the scornful. In the Hebrew, the word sitting is yashab: meaning, to be ambushed or hidden and make a marriage with a Spirit that visits you on a regular basis. You set up house with a haunting hidden relationship.

The word sitting can be interacted with the Lord or the Devil, but with different results, depending on whose spirit is visiting you. This scripture says that we are sitting in a position of us being scornful. The word scornful in the Hebrew is lusts: meaning to be looted, or to make mouth.

The bible says that we are to be God’s bride and to be hidden in Christ, like a marriage. If our relationship is not hidden in Christ, then our goods, loves and healthy life experiences are being stolen or looted by the Devil. The reason is because of what is coming out of our mouth. Instead of us speaking God‘s precepts of abundant life, we replace this with backbiting gossip, foolish jesting and un-god like cursing. This happens because; the word of God has not been sown in our mind and memory. We don’t confess what God says because we don’t know His word. What we actually do is spit on Christ, mock and make light of the fact of Him dying on the cross for us. We actually throw His love sacrifice away. We need to be aware of what kind of seat we are sitting in. The word seat means either a condition that can be very costly or a seat that is very valuable. It depends on who you are sitting or living in a marriage with.

This scripture goes on to say that after we realize and understand that we need to have our intentions to hunger and thirst after the Lord because, we do have a blessed attitude. We begin to delight in the law of the Lord. Delight, in the Hebrew, is chephets: meaning pleasure, being inclined to and having a desire above all things. As we begin to participate in this exchange with the Holy Spirit, this pleasure and desire grows and grows and we become totally consumed with our relationship with Him.

The word law in the Hebrew is torah: meaning a statute, to teach, or to point out. The laws of the Lord are precepts, which are a prescribed rule of thinking which in turn becomes our conduct. All of this teaching has to come from a foundation of us understanding and becoming deep rooted in the love of God. We can’t do anything to earn His affection. It is given to us freely and with out any force being put on us that goes against our will. You will not expose yourself to someone whom you do not trust. It is only as we allow this desire and delight to grow, that we will open our hearts to the Lord.

This happens because, we are experiencing His grace, which is His (unearned favor), this is what makes us aware of the great love He has for us. 1John 4:18-19 says, “There is no fear in love.” If we have a full-grown concept of love, we will be able to cast off a feeling that God is going to let us perish, because we think we have failed Him in some area and this gives us anxiety and annoying thoughts.

We learn to love Him because; we are learning how to allow Him to love us.”

This scripture goes on to say that, we need to meditate in God’s word night and day. The word meditates is hagah: meaning to murmur in pleasure or anger, to mirror, reflect, or to study. The word night is laylah: meaning seasons of adversity or to fold back. The word day is yowmam: meaning to be passionate, perpetual, and continuing at all times. Let’s simplify what this means. The Holy Spirit is trying to tell us that, He wants to talk to us at all times. We have to put this as top priority in our lives because, the word night means that, we are constantly experiencing adversity in the world that we are living in and it also means that we are dumb or silent in confessing God’s truths, only because of our ignorance of His word.

This process of seeking God has to be us allowing God to fold back the hidden agendas of our hearts and expose those areas that makes us miss His perfect will.

As He is flushing out our misunderstanding of His ways, He begins to give us a revelation of His will and a warning to us of impending danger with hope. This is why it is so important to have a blessed heart understanding, because it makes you recognize that without interacting with Him in this manner, there is no hope for mankind. When we mirror with someone, we learn how to walk naked in our soul before God, totally transparent and unashamed. This then allows God to mirror and expose His nakedness and true feelings to us. It takes time to learn how to grow in this freedom before Him. When this process takes place, a deep rooted assurance wells up in us and we know, He will never forske us.

In Isaiah 1:18, it says, “we should come to God and spend time reasoning with Him; if we will to do this, He will take our sin or faulty thinking away and persuade us that His way of thinking is better. In turn, our soul will become as white as wool.” In other words, He will clean up our thinking and make us walk in victory.

The definition of meditate is murmuring either in pleasure or anger. It depends how long you have been sowing bad seeds of thinking in your life. It’s like us wearing the same old dirty clothes and over a period of time, these clothes have become too small and begin to grow into our skin. When we come to God, it’s His intention to take these old clothes off and give us a Kingly Robe. (A healthy self-image as He sees us.) When we allow Him to take these old cloths off, some of the contaminated skin comes with it. This is painful, but necessary. This will make us murmur in anger as this process is going on.

That’s why we must constantly pursue Him, because the whole idea of growing up is us living in a constant attitude and physical characteristics of changing to be like Him. We want to be constantly bathing and changing on a regular basis in our soul, meaning our thoughts will and emotions, so we don’t have to live in this pain and soulish fleshly skin condition.

Romans 12:2, tells us, “ to not be conformed to this worlds way of thinking, but to be transformed (changed) by the entire renewal of our minds, by having new ideas with a new attitude so that we can prove for ourselves what is the good and perfect will of God.” This word renewal in the Greek is ana-kainoo: meaning repairing, cleaning, reinvigorating and to make like new. The prefix of this word is ana: meaning with intense repetition. This change and renovating going on between the Holy Spirit and us has to be with passion and a great love between two people. The thing that we really need is an echoing in our spiritual ears daily from the Lord. ! I love YOU! Isaiah 28:29 tells us that,” the counsel of the Lord is excellent in wisdom and this wisdom has the power to produce whatever God intends to accomplish in our lives.”

God is able in the addictions and needs that we have in our lives to deliver, fulfill and maintain us in all things. When we walk in obedience according to this life style, the scripture goes on to tell us that we will reap the following consequences. We will be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that will bring forth our fruit in its season.

The word tree is ates: means to make firm. It also means among other things, a staff. A staff represents an emblem of authority. The word planted, is shatha: meaning to transplant. When one is transplanted, that means we were removed from one condition or place and changed to another condition or place. The word rivers, is peleg: meaning a rill or a channel of water as irrigation. The word water is mayim: meaning semen, course or spring. This word semen is the sperm containing fluid of male animals. In addition, it is the male reproductive and fertilizing fluid that carries the genetic material normal for its species. Genetics are characteristics we pick up from our parents.

We see here that it says that we were transplanted into a different arena than the arena where we first were planted. In 1Col:13, Paul tells us that, “God the Father has delivered and drawn us to Himself out of the dominion or control of darkness and has transformed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love.” Transformed meaning, our entire nature and characteristics in our lives have been changed.

This word darkness means a shadow, like a living being, that makes our thought life unclear, and makes us live in a state of confusion that constantly hinders our reasoning power.

This arena or atmosphere is the spirit shadow of the devil that influences and keeps us away from the abundant life and presence of the Lord. Psalms 23, which is probably one of the most famous Psalms quoted, says, “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. For you are with me; your rod and staff comfort me.” God’s rod is a word of correction and direction and His staff is the sustenance like a child nursing from a mother’s breast. In the book of John, among other places, Jesus tells us to live in this new revelation He is giving us of His kingdom. He says if we do this, this atmosphere or shadow of darkness that exits will never overtake us and we will never again be dominated by it. Therefore, we will no longer be drifters going in and out of the light. We need to be totally saturated with His light or life and the revelation of His presence and thoughts. This verse goes on to give us a further example in laymen terms, of being planted by the rivers of living water, which is the only way God could explain what took place when we were born spiritually in to His family.

If we understand reproduction from a physical sense, then we can understand this concept of water being the living force of God’s spiritual sperm, which we received when we became born again. Paul the Apostle, in his second letter to the Corinthian church writes this in 11Cor. 5:16-17, “Before we became born again and were adopted into God’s family, we knew Jesus only as a man of legend who did good works from strictly a human point of view. But since we now have been grafted into Christ, we have become a new creature or a new person and our old way of thinking about Him and life has completely changed.” The word grafted in modern language meaning, a living tissue implanted into the same or different organism.

When we became born again, we became implanted with the life of God Himself. We received the genetic characteristics of God. God has now become our Father. Unless we really get this understanding deep into our heart and soul, we will never be anchored and forever settled on how united we are with Christ. When we do not commit our lives fully to God and make Him Lord over our lives, we become under nourished and we do not grow strong in our spiritual understanding and deep rooted like this tree, firm and walking in authority. The Holy Spirit daily becomes the lifeline of nourishment we need to grow strong in God. You may say as example, that He is the permanent umbilical cord that is forever connected to us that nourishes our spirit.

It is only an example because, I believe the body of Christ has taken the Holy Spirit for granted and really doesn’t understand that, He is a (PERSON) and God Himself.

We need to fully understand that, Jesus died for us on the cross for our sins and He is the only mediator that bridges the gap between God the Father and ourselves. However, it’s the Holy Spirits power and direction that feeds our spirit and brings us from childhood to our adulthood in Christ.

We must interact with Him now that the sperm of God has transformed us into His children. We need to now grow up and let God’s characteristics begin to manifest themselves in our lives. This word season does not represent different seasons like spring, summer, fall and winter.

As this is taking place in our lives, this will bring forth his fruit in season. The word bring forth is nathan: meaning, to give, add to, pour out, or to yield to God with no restrictions in our thought life or actions. The word fruit is periy: meaning a disbursement of rewards or an increase. The word season is eth: meaning now, continual, forever and world with out end. This life style and commitment alone will allow this outcome to take place.

The scripture goes on to say that our leaf shall not wither and whatsoever we do shall prosper. The word leaf is aleh: meaning, growth or being raised up. The word withers is nabel: meaning to fail, faint, act foolishly or come to nothing. The word whatsoever is iskowl: Meaning, whole or complete and perfect. The word prospers, is tsalach: meaning to push forward or to break out. What a perfect example of a tree that is planted in rich soil and as the rain falls on it, you can see the blooms or buds breaking forth and bearing fruit with no effort just enjoying the rain and sun.

A tree grows with no striving and effort. Think on this statement for a while, it will give you an overwhelming peace and security.

In Matthew chapter 6:33, Jesus says that, “we should hunger and thirst after Him or inquire of Him and ask Him how we are to function in His kingdom now that we are His children.” If we learn to live like this, all of our needs physical and emotional will be met. He goes on to say, do not worry about your future. We are always going to have challenges and things to be conquered on our every day travels. So He says be like the tree and realize that you are planted in Me and let Me take on the responsibility to cause you to grow strong and straight. Now this sounds too good to be true to some. The reason for this is because, they have spent all their lives trying to compete for some standard, and live in a survival mode mentality. They were taught that, God helps those who help themselves.

Too many Christians today are working at staying saved and not enjoying smelling the flowers along the way. If this is you, please rest from all your tiring works.

The scripture goes on to say, that the un-god like will not be the same, but they are like the chaff, which the wind drives away. The word chaff is mowts: meaning to blow away or to be oppressed and be extorted. The word wind is ruwach: meaning a breathe, spiritual being or a life force. The word drives is nadaph: meaning, to scatter or to be tossed back and forth. The word away is cuwth: meaning, to prick with mental pain, to be seduced and provoked and be trashed. We see here a perfect example made very clear that, if we are not being anchored in our life with Christ, there is another spirit at work driving us and we will be scattered, trashed, seduced and oppressed.

The day we made Jesus our savior, we received all of the wealth and fullness of everything God has. Everything He owns, we now own. In Ephesians 3:19, Paul, the Apostles says, “we should be interacting with the Lord and through this experience; we will be feeling His love that is beyond our human understanding. By having this relationship with Him, we will be overflowing with the fullness of God.”

The word fullness is pieroma: meaning, abundantly filled up, or crammed full. Now if we really understand this and believe this principle, then we can better appreciate the meaning of this other life force or wind that is tossing us from here to there, which is causing us mental and emotional pain.

In turn, we are being seduced and not all of our inheritance that Jesus has already given us is being used, enjoyed and appreciated. Let’s not be afraid to admit that the Devil is a very real enemy that will steal everything God has given us. That’s why God says, “you’re either for me or you have been scattered.” There is no middle road. God doesn’t take back His inheritance as some Christians think. Because we are ignorant or decide to do our own thing, we allow the Devil to trash and steal all of the gifts God has given us.

The remainder of our base scripture reads like this. Therefore, the ungodly or those that are un-god like shall not stand in the judgment, or sinners in the congregation of the righteous. The Lord knows the way of the righteous: but the way of the un-god like shall perish. Let’s define some terms and then put it all together. We understand that if we’re un-god like, we are functioning in a relationship contrary to Matthew 5:6, where Jesus tells us, “ blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness for they will be filled.”

We said stand means to make a home, be employed or be firm and steadfast. The word judgment is mishpat: a verdict, or code of conduct, either favorable or unfavorable. We said sinner means, one that feels guilty, missing the mark or allotment and living in a lack of self worth. The word congregation is edah: meaning, an assembly, family, testimony or a witness. The word righteous is tsaddiyg: meaning to be right or cleansed. The word knows is yada: meaning, given recognition, teachable and having perception. We said earlier that, way was a course of action and a way of perceiving one self. The word perishes, is abar: meaning, set apart, unfriendly, or against.

Over these many years of seeking the Lord for myself, I have heard some of the most condemning interpretation from pulpits on the meaning of this verse that at one time I believed. It has been interpreted that, the backslidden people of God along with the unsaved will all go to hell.

Now, I hope that whomever you are who are reading this article, really understands that, a person does not go to hell for his sins nor does he go to heaven for his good works. The only foundation that entitles you to heaven and not hell is, have you made Jesus the Savior of your life and asked Him to come into your heart? Simply put, have you asked Him to take over your life and become your best friend? I have many times in my news letters on my web site said that, the moment we become born again or made a heart commitment to Christ; we were immediately ushered into the kingdom of God and received a down payment of our total inheritance.

Because this basic foundation of truth has not been laid in our hearts and minds, it’s no wonder that this scripture has been interpreted with this condemning interpretation. In reality, it has been interpreted by a spirit of law and not by His grace or (the undeserved favor, which God has, gives us.) With this being said, let’s now lay a good foundation and interpret the remainder of this verse as God intended.

It says that the un-god like or those that are not hungering and thirsting after God, have made a decision through their ignorance or on purpose, to stand firm and fast in their un-god like counseling of themselves. They have the opinion of themselves as being guilty and of missing the mark and therefore have low self-esteem and do not see themselves as righteous. Meaning, cleansed and in a right standing with God. Remember, if you have a blessed spirit, you see yourself as God sees you, with a white robe on and without sin. Now, because of this false concept that we have of ourselves, the judgment that we fall under is an unfavorable condition and we do not have the ability to function in God’s total abundance for our lives.

Revelations 5:10 and 11Corinthians 5:20 tells us that, “God has made us kings and priests and we are to exercise authority and rule on this earth as His ambassadors.”

Now if we are in this un-god like unfavorable condition. We cannot participate with other healthy growing Christian. In turn, we cannot enjoy fellowship and all the other benefits of joy, thankfulness, with a testimony of freedom and deliverance from a former life style that has kept us as slaves. We are not even talking about the new and neat understanding that God gives us daily of the great love He has for us as we are having fellowship with Him. I have heard from too many Christian over the years telling me that being a Christian is boring. It’s obvious to me, they don’t hang out with the same Lord that I do. When we live in this condition, it stops the Lord from teaching us His ways or course of action in our lives and we become disassociated from the rest of the body of Christ. Let me point out again that this happens because,

Now if your having fellowship or attending a church that every Sunday or whenever, is always teaching on behavior and constantly pointing out your deficiencies, you won’t have a chance of ever understanding the love of the Lord. This scripture ends up saying that we are perishing or our relationship with the Lord is estranged or unfriendly because we have withdrawn and will not come into His presence and live in it. With this attitude, we stop Him from the desire He has to come to our aid at all times.

Who in their right mind and understanding on what I have said in these articles would want to walk, stand or sit and be planted in any other place than this new life that God has given us. Uncommitted hearts will never reveal to us the deep truths of God, only perseverance and a discipline to seek after God in our own daily travels through the market places of life will produce the real life of Christ in us.

The continual theme for our lives has to be us having a passion and a focused goal of allowing God to interact His total and all surrounding love into our lives. If we learn to walk in this inner circle with God, we then won’t be so easily deceived with false interpretations of scripture. Through my communication with people, I find that they have to begin to allow the Holy Spirit to use an eraser and erase the false interpretation of God’s word that they’re using to govern their lives, and allow the Holy Spirit to re-teach them the truth of how God really loves them.

Learning about God’s love should be an unending and the most rewarding experience that anchors our being. God’s love as we surrender to it will cause us to walk in peace and safety with a trust that supersedes our own human reasoning. 

It is my honest prayer that you seriously consider what you have just read and allow yourself to say as King David the Psalmist said, In Psalms139:23-24. “Search me thoroughly O God and know my heart. Try me and let me know my true thoughts and see if there is any troublesome or hurtful way in me, and lead me in your way of understanding.”