2. Understanding = (Having the ability to perceive the nature of a thing and know what direction to take by the Holy Spirits leadings.) When we come to understand a thing, we then have the know how to lay our hand to something and prosper as God intended. Proverbs 12:11 states, “A vain person is void of understanding.” Man’s basic nature was born in slavery to a spirit of vanity. It is a disease of the shame based nature we received under Adams curse.

When we trust in any form of a vanity persuasion, it keeps us deceived and keeps a dark cloud over our spiritual minds and we can not walk in the freedom that Jesus gave us at the cross.

When a person functions in vanity he has no solid foundation and lives with an excessive pride in his own efforts.

The Apostle Paul in Col. 2:7-8 states, “ Have your roots firmly and deeply planted in Christ and continue to be built up and confirmed in the faith, just as you have been taught. Live with enthusiasm and be forever thankful in all things. See to it that no man carries you off as spoils or makes you become captive by his so-called philosophy and intellectualism and vain deceits ( Ideal fantasies and plain nonsense ), following the human traditions of men’s ideas of the material rather than the spiritual world. These are just crude notions and undeveloped and foolish teachings of the universe and treat without respect the teachings of Christ the Anointed one.”

Unless we are being taught the difference between faith verses man’s ideas of living the Christian life, the body of Christ will remain foolish, unstable and unfit for the Masters use.

It is a great comfort and stabilizing promise that I saw many years ago in the word that has given me hope in believing God as I have endeavored to understand His heart in all matters. In Ephesians 1:16-18 the Apostle Paul prayed for them and I believe that it is a prayer that the body of Christ badly needs in these trying times. Paul states, “That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him and that, the eyes of your understanding become enlightened.

In Corinthians the Apostle Paul says that, “ there is a time in our lives of walking in a understanding as a young child but as we grow in the Lord eventually we are to put away the understanding of a child and get the understanding of a more mature Christian.” It is long past due that the body of Christ stops drinking milk and starts eating solid food and matures.

3. Counsel = (To consult and consider carefully and at length with argument, for or against an idea and to come to a final decision.) How much time do you spend in a running conversation with the Holy Spirit during the day? How God conscience are you in your thought life at work or at home or wherever and how intense is your desire to function daily in the power of the Holy Spirit? Being a born again believer puts us on the devils number one hit list and he will do every thing possible to make us miss our destiny in Jesus Christ. Our walk with God began with a personal commitment with Jesus when we confessed Him as Savior. It must now remain personal as we make Him Lord of our lives. Jesus would have died if only one person was living on this planet. He is a personal God who lives to communicate with His people. A friendship on a passionate personal bases must be the first priority which creates a common fellow feeling with two people learning and loving together.

In Isaiah 55:1-3 we have an account of God talking to Isaiah the prophet and telling him the type of relationship and counseling He wants to have with His people. He says, “Wait and listen, every one who is thirsty. Come to the waters where you don’t need any money or reputation and I will give you priceless spiritual wine and milk simply for surrendering your self and accepting my blessing. Why do you spend your time and efforts on things that do not satisfy you? Pay attention to what I am telling you and take what I am giving you, it will make you prosper and it will give you My joy which is my strength. Bow your heart and bend your knee in humility and reverence and open your spiritual ear to hear me and I will make an everlasting covenant with you.”

God is incapable of lying. A covenant is a binding agreement between Him and us and if we want to agree to the terms of the agreement, we first have to know the rules of the agreement and than allow the Holy Spirit to have accesses to our will so He can empower us to keep the agreement.

People who are ignorant of their terms of the agreement have no chance to live abundant lives and they become like sheep being led to be slaughtered. He also tells us that only thirsty people can receive His counsel. It has become apparent to me that the majority of born again believers do not know their agreement that they have with God because, they are ignorant of God‘s ways. God does not have a problem with our mistrust and double mindedness when it comes to believing what He says.

He knew because of our fallen nature that we would struggle and complain when we don’t understand where He disappears to, when at times we desperately need Him. This verse also tells us that, as for the young Christian who is still drinking a milk diet or the older Christian who is drinking wine, God made provision for both and He is not a respecter of persons. Also when He says for us to come to these waters, what he is talking about is described in Ephesians 5:25-26 where Paul says, “Christ so loves His church that He gave up His life on the cross and as we participate in conversation with the Holy Spirit our souls are constantly being sanctified and cleansed as our souls are being washed by meditating on His word day and night.” When we talk about soul, we mean our intellect, will and emotions.

When our relationship with the Holy Spirit is healthy, we can hear Him reminding us that in God’s sight we became free from sin and pure in Jesus Christ the day we became born again and that, we can never lose it. Even though we can never lose this position, as born again believers we can be deceived and contaminated with the thoughts that, we did lose it. This happens when we focus on our faults and behavior and we begin to think that, God is unpleased with us and He changes His mind in His covenant promises too us.

We mentioned earlier how John the Apostle had a word for the seven churches of that day. To the church at Laodicia because they had become indifferent in there pursuit of Godly counsel he tells them through the Holy Spirit in Rev. 3:18, “I counsel you to 1.) Buy from Me 2.) Gold refined and 3.) Tested by fire, that you may be truly wealthy, and 4.) White clothes to clothe you and to keep the 5.) Shame of your nudity from being seen and 6.) Eye salve to put on your eyes that you may see.

By counseling, He does not mean let me dictate to you that, you have to clean up your act. This counseling is a jointly conversation with Him of debate if necessary and reasoning together. For this to take place, we have to volunteer and become willing to interact with Him. He then goes on to tell us how to do this and empowers us to do it. Remember the key to receiving from God can only happen through a willing heart. Let’s define these six terms.

1.) Buy:

To repossess something that had been lost and awake from a slumber they had been in and become active again in their relationship with Him.

2.) Gold Refined:

This is the power God gives us to change our attitude to comply with doing what He just said. This gold is His grace. It can only be refined through our use of it. When we use it, our spiritual ears identify with the Holy Spirit in our thought life and we speak what God says out of our mouth. 3.) Tested by fire;

The power of God’s grace that He gives us will be tested and tried through the process we will be going through to change. It not only heals, but it also destroys the spiritual decease, behavior and any stronghold we may have in our life that keeps us from all God wants to give us. There are things in our lives that have to be shaken loose, so the only thing left standing is God’s perfect will in us. He goes on to say, if we allow this to take place, it will make us truly rich in God’s sight. This happens because, we open up our spirit to receive everything and more that God wants to give us for our every need when we need it.

4.) White clothes to clothe:

Our perception of ourselves has to be the same as God’s perception. When God the Father looks at us, He sees Jesus, perfect in His sight. This concept of understanding has to be nurtured daily with our walk with God, because of all of the negative influence we are bombarded with daily. 11 Peter 3:14 tells us that, “Jesus is coming back for a church without spot and wrinkle and people who have a serene confidence in their relationship with Him.”

If we know that we are without spot and wrinkle in God’s sight and ours, it will keep us free from fears, agitating passions and moral conflicts.

5.) Shame of our nudity from being seen:

The nudity or shame talked about here is the reaping in our lives of the curse. This happens when we don’t see ourselves as God sees us. This causes us to live with painful feelings caused by a sense of guilt and unworthiness. It is the shame base nature that we have been talking about that Jesus came to deliver us from when He gave His life up for us on the cross. When we do not interact with the Holy Spirit, we can not experience God’s grace (unearned favor) and love.

6.) Eye salve on your eyes so you may really see:

The definition of eye salve means to keep company with, join to, or be glued to. It also means a “poultice” A poultice is a warm substance like a plaster that is put on the body in different areas to heal it. You will notice here God says that we must have this eye salve or poultice put on our spiritual eyes, if we are really going to see. An example of this is found in John chapter 9:1-7 “as Jesus was walking along He noticed a blind man that was blind from birth.” His disciples asked Him, “Master who sinned, this man or his parents, that caused him to be born blind?”

You notice here that the disciples had a condemning thought rather then a loving thought. Jesus answer was, “neither was it his sin or his parent’s sin, but he was born blind so that I can reveal and display my mercy and healing power. My whole purpose is to do my fathers business while I am in the world, because I am the light or life of the world. He then spit on the ground and made mud (poultice) with His saliva, and spread it as an ointment (the anointing) on the man’s eyes. He then told him to go wash in the pool of Siloam. Therefore, he went and came back seeing.”

In the Hebrew concordance, the word Siloam where He told him to go and wash represents an attitude of (putting away one condition and embracing another condition.) Now, the blind man‘s latter condition was a lot more favorable then his former condition. It is a matter of life or death for us who call ourselves born again believers to live this life of allowing God to (anoint our spiritual eyes with the eye salve of (! Himself! ) and really begin to interpret His thoughts and purposes clearly without distortions of the truth. We know from scripture that the word Christ means, the anointed one. This anointing that is in Him is now also in us. It is a permanent gift given to us by God. It is the power of God working in our thought life and being, that arouses those heart-felt feelings that God wants to impart to us, which supplies our needs and the needs of others. It’s the power and the grace of the Holy Spirit, and we need to be in counsel with Him at all times to understand life and how to be kingdom kids walking in the spirit.

4. Might = (Having great power, influence and resources to handle all situations.) This definition to me isn’t very profound. We have had men and women over many centuries who have accomplished some great things and have made a mark in history that are taught to our kids in school today. I personally believe that all ability comes from our creator, and God has given man a free will to make his own choices. You are either leaning towards your own understanding of what your priorities are or you are acknowledging God in all of your ways and having a running conversation with the Holy Spirit as I have stated.

There is no middle ground in our spiritual walk. We need to realize that we are in warfare and it is time for all of us in the body of Christ to stand up and make a difference in our arenas of life. To obtain the life style that God intended, we are going to have to learn how to allow God’s might to work in our lives. Like I said man in his own strength has accomplished many things but not all of them have been in obedience to God’s plan.

In Zechariah 4:6 God tells him that, “it is not by mans power or might but by His Spirit that His will is to be done.” It is only as we in the body of Christ become hungry for an intense focused relationship with the Holy Spirit daily, that will empower us to not fall back from receiving God’s grace or spiritual power and favor.

When we have no hunger and thirst in seeking God, we stay ignorant of his ways.

In writing these newsletters, there is a spirit in me that rises up at times and wants to declare or proclaim a thing. Scripture says, “Let them who are the righteous say so in their daily speech and carry themselves as righteous people.”

Paul the Apostle makes a plea to the Christians in Rome when he states in Romans 12:1-3. “ I appeal to you brethren and beg of you in looking at what Christ did for you by dying on the cross that, you make a dedicated disciplined effort of presenting your self to God by trying to please Him which is the reasonable and intelligent thing to do in your spiritual hungering after Him.

The distractions that we live in today have become almost unbearable. I have never in my life heard so much noise in the spiritual world as is going on in the world today. Man’s human will power has an almost supernatural quality to try and mimic the anointing of the Holy Spirit in their lives. Some of the antics and behavior going on in Christian television today is nothing more than the flesh in operation.

In some circles, church has become a drugged up fix of emotion to relieve the tension and problems facing people every day where the gut wrenching decisions of life are being made.

When people who believe that, through their own emotional effort they have to try to reach up to God for acceptance, it causes them to live in a slave attitude of being followers and they have a lack of independent thinking with the mind of Christ that they possess as born again believers.

I am not trying to be unkind and unloving here. The truth will set you free, if you receive it. We all have a tendency because of our fallen nature to operate in our own ideas of how to live the Christian life. When we get dull of hearing and uncommitted in our endeavor to mature in Christ, man works out his own idea of how to please God and lives as Adam did in the Garden of Eden with a fig leaf mentality by hiding from the true knowledge of God. This was his way of justifying his behavior in trying to please God. The battle of living by faith has not changed in all these years. Man will continue to try and make God into his own image rather than the other way around.When this happens, it is nothing more than idolatry and a worshiping of self.

5. Knowledge: = (A specific accumulated body of facts through a field of study coming by experimental experiences.) There are hundreds of things that we can spend our life on in learning and getting knowledge for every reason under the sun. When we talk about knowledge in this context, we mean acquiring the knowledge of the Lord by having a living relationship with Him. I have found that learning about God gives you the feeling of a conscience presence of a person that has an unending desire to reveal himself to you and who has a profound way of thinking that, staggers your imagination. It is the inquisitive mind and the need of discovery that God gave me in my searching for Him that made me find Him alive and real some forty years ago. It was this discovery that, catapulted me towards an invisible walk with a person that has never given up on me, when at times I wanted to give up on myself.

In 11Peter 3:15-18 he urgently pleads with these people by telling them, “It is the Lords longsuffering (His slowness in avenging wrongs and judging the world) which we can count on because, we have participated in salvation.

This is a time when I sense an urgency and a need to proclaim a thing. This scripture says, “We have to participate in salvation.” When we were first saved by asking Jesus into our heart, that was only the beginning. Without us having a total resolve to seek the knowledge of God’s ways and be on a constant vigil of meditating and thinking with our spiritual minds, the confusion and hundreds of interpretation of God’s word today will continue to totally blind and cause people to give up and believe that there is no absolute truth and standard for living. The body of Christ today has no united front. God’s mouth pieces are scattered and are still crying out for righteous living on Radio and T.V. in few areas. Thank God for His longsuffering and mercy.

We have to get back to preaching Jesus Christ crucified and the true meaning of this and how to participate with His sacrifice in Him laying down His life for mankind. If there was confusion in Paul and Peter’s day when the church was just getting started, we desperately need to repent and change our minds to day with in the body of Christ and get grounded and become secure and anchored in our total acceptance by God. I have said this over and over again and will continue to say it.

“It is the true knowledge of God and the entrance of that knowledge into our hearts and minds that will keep us free to make choices with out intimidation or fear of retaliation by God or man.”

This Christian walk of ours is a mystery of discovery and not a game of, we seek God today and we do our own thing tomorrow. The least thing we can do, if we really care about ourselves is to once and for all make a quality choice to seek God or to not seek Him. You will find if you don’t know it.

That’s why, “we must run our race with patient endurance and stead fast persistence only as the Holy Spirit shows us.” It is in the quiet moments of deep thought and peace that God speaks and gives us a word of wisdom and knowledge of Him that, we can truly understand. We can’t live a life of eating fast foods in our searching for true knowledge. God’s truths have to be mined like gold or precious diamonds. At times I think most Christians don’t really want to know the truth and they try to run away from themselves.

Continued in part three.