Words of Life For This Generation

OUR CHRISTIAN ARENA OF LIFE PART 2

4). He is leading me in His paths of righteousness by His Spirit. Ephesians 2:20 tells us. "This doctrine of Righteousness was established and taught by the first Apostles and Prophets who were called on by the Lord to nurture and ground His body with Christ being the chief cornerstone. When this is taking place the whole building fits and is framed together and grows into a place for God to live in. In turn, we have a living relationship with God through the working of the Holy Spirit who lives with in us."

When any other foundation doctrine then our righteous state in Christ is used to build our life on, Christians are led as sheep to the slaughter and they live their whole life in a watered down weak life style with no intense passion to seek and discover God's anointed best for their lives.

Their can be no greater tragedy that can befall a born again believer when this is taking place in any form in any Christian assembly. Just because a person says that their a follower of Christ or that Jesus name is mentioned in many churches in this country; it does not mean that, righteousness is being preached in these assemblies and people are walking in God's Righteous Spirit. The world and a majority of born again believers are deceived in understanding what a born again Christian represents as far as God is concerned. Since righteousness is the foundation and principle thing to walk in, we must prayerfully and with much patience wait on God as we are seek Him and allow the Holy Spirit to interact God's Righteous Spirit in our lives continually.

Righteousness in the Greek translation means, we are justified (absolved from all sin of the past, present and future,) innocent (free from evil) and holy (set apart unto God forever as His child. This transformation occurred when we became the new creature in Christ the day we were born again. By accepting Jesus act of dying on the cross, we allowed His Spirit to permanently come and make a home with in us which now gives us the power to walk in obedience to His commands. Our righteousness is in what Christ did not any thing we do or have to do.

Prior to our born again experience; we had no will power and strength to not violate His commandments. It's very difficult at times to realize that God looks at us as innocent and holy in His sight, because we have to deal with being tempted to look at our faults and failures as we attempt to walk with the Lord. It is our hungering after Him that makes us realize what our righteous position represents in His sight. This constant reminding by Him of how highly He esteems us; helps us to clearly understand those areas that He is trying to change in our lives so He can make us become like Him in thought, purpose and action. It makes us experience peace and joy in our walk with the Holy Spirit and it is acceptable and pleasing to God because, we are prospering as He intended. He cries over us when we fail and rejoices over us when we prosper.

"Unless we are skilled and have come to understand our righteousness in Christ; we will continue to live as babes and struggle trying to be good Christians."

It's absolutely critical we understand, we do not become more righteous by doing more things in God's service or that we lose our righteousness by missing God's will from time to time.

Jesus did not save us because of us trying to live up to some religious moral code. God knew that man could not be trusted to help save himself. This was the sickness that we inherited from Adam and Eve because of them breaking covenant with God in the Garden of Eden. They became self righteous with in themselves because, they hid from God and went into denial and their fig leaf aprons that they put on represents them living in a religious moral code of conduct. It is God's pity and mercy and His premeditated plan of uniting Himself to man without us doing anything and we need to rid ourselves of any idea that we have to do something to earn His love and favor.

Adam and Eve began judging them self and tried to clean up their act by covering their guilt with fig leaf aprons. When we function in an attitude of finding fault in ourselves or others, we operate in a self righteous mentality which is pure religion and un-godliness. Religion in its true sense is a set of beliefs that people live by in their seeking of God which is built on a philosophy of them pulling God down from heaven and having Him conform to their image or life style. This is demonic in nature and one can become obsessed to the point that; it can sap a person's strength and stop them from having a healthy, independent, exciting and adventurous life with Jesus Christ.

Heb.1:8 states, "God's scepter or measuring stick in his kingdom is righteousness. God's scepter is the power of God with all His characteristics which he gave us the day we became a born again believer and we must submit to the Holy Ghost for them to work in our life. When we flow in the righteousness of God's Spirit, we live in the seven characteristics of the Holy Spirit which are found in Isaiah 11:1-5.

It states. "Jesus shall be born out of David's lineage and He will grow and bear fruit and the spirit of God will be resting on Him. The seven characteristics resting on Jesus was, Wisdom, Understanding, Council, Might, Knowledge, Reverence and Obedience. Because of these characteristics resting in Him, this made Him have a quick understanding and His delight was in being reverent and He had an obedient fear of the God. Because of this type of thinking He did not judge things by their outward appearance or by the things that He heard.

He judged things with a righteous spirit operating with in Him when it came to sensing the hearts of the poor and the meek and the people who were oppressed as He walked this earth. He also rebuked the oppressing spirits by speaking God's word and defeated them and He did this by wearing righteousness as the girdle of His loins and faithfulness was the girdle of His reins"

Jesus let the Holy Spirit chain Himself to Himself and He ran His spiritual race as a thoroughbred because, He was being stripped and unhindered by any philosophy that could torment or curse Him in His thinking.

Jesus the man obeyed the inner voice of the Holy Spirit and was not controlled by any outward manifestation of sight, sound or religious philosophy. Too many Christians that I have met do not understand that, Christ gave up His righteous position of safety and power in heaven to become a man like us. Therefore, He can now relate and have a fellow feeling with our trials and sufferings, so when we call upon Him, He can come to our aid and we can live in the same victory that he lived in through the power of the Holy Spirit. When we truly understand that we were baptized or totally submerged spiritually into God's Righteous Spirit, it's then that we will be able to do the same.

Our emotions and decision making is based on our thought patterns that we live by and when a born again Christian does not understand their righteous position as a child of God; their life is built on unrelated episodes that are not tied to a pattern of God's righteous thinking. When we became saved, our spirit became active and it now has to be nourished every day to stay alert and this only happens by seeking God with passion with purpose.

All truth from scripture comes through a Spirit of righteousness teaching us. Righteousness is the living presence of the Holy Spirit not us reasoning in right and wrong concepts.

By living in our righteous state; it causes us to walk in the light of God's counsel and our heart and mind is constantly being cleansed from having a sin consciecness and fault finding mentality about our self. We violate God's love law and concept of how he looks at us when; we consider ourselves as still being a sinner rather then a saint. All born again believers are tempted by the devil to skin peal them self and examine them self to see if; they have broken any of God's laws. This type of temptation must be recognized or we will not be able to rebuke these thoughts because; we do not know the difference between righteous thinking verses un-righteous thinking in our endeavor to understand God's ways.

We now need to define these seven characteristics that Jesus had at work in His life because; we also have them as god's children.

1.) Wisdom: = (The ability to recognize subtle differences of what is true or false which gives us the ability to make sound judgments based on this type of discernment.) Proverbs 4:5-9 tells us, "Make it your aim to get skillful and Godly wisdom, get understanding and don't forget or ignore what the Holy Spirit is telling you. Do not abandon her (Wisdom) and she will preserve you: love her and she will guard and defend you from harm. Skillful and Godly wisdom is the principle thing. Prize wisdom highly and exalt her and she will exalt and promote you and she will bring you honor. Put your arm around her in a greeting of affection. She will give to your head a wreath of grace and a crown of beauty and glory she will deliver to you."

If you look at the way King Solomon wrote this, it was as if he was having a love affair with a lady. This wreath of grace that he was talking about means,

We are to allow the Holy Spirit to totally envelope His being and character into our mind to the point of being a hovering cloud over and through us swimming in His grace.

Let's say that; grace is the aroma of the Holy Spirit that has a cleansing effect and washes out any un-righteous and stinky thinking. Grace is like us receiving a kingly crown that gives us a sense of well being and prospering in all areas. King Solomon in Eccles. 9:17-18 also states, "The words of a wise man heard in quiet are better than the shouts of him who rules among fools. Wisdom is better than weapons of war, but one sinner's false concept of faith destroys much good." There is no faith when we live with a sin consciousness.

James 3:17 tells us, " when we function with wisdom from above it is first of all pure, peaceable, gentle and earnestly expressed. It is full of mercy and shows up in our outward behavior towards all and it will not take sides and has no false pretenses. In order for us to live as righteous beings in Christ Jesus the seeds of the Holy Spirit can only be sown in peace settings meaning no strife because, the person who is growing up in righteousness has a desire to find peace with God and with one another."

People who live under strict measuring up doctrines of obligated works can never function in this kind of Godly wisdom. They live with an unforgiving spirit for them self and others and they stay in a petrified mode of not being free in their mind to reason with God and make free will decisions to love or not love.

B.) Understanding = (Having the ability to perceive the nature of a thing and know what direction to take by the Holy Spirit's 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.

When a person is controlled by vanity; they have no solid foundation and live with an excessive pride in their 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 which are idealistic 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 they treat without respect the teachings of Christ."

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.

Paul's prayer in Ephesians 1:16-18 is what the body of Christ needs more then ever in these trying times. "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. That you may come to know what your high calling is and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance is to all the saints and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us, who believe in the working of his mighty power with in us."

Paul also tells the Corinthian Church. "There is a time in our lives of walking in a understanding as a young child however; 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 mature however; only as God intended.

C.) Counsel = (To consult and consider carefully and at great length with argument if necessary; 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?

In Isaiah 55:1-3 we have an account of God talking to Isaiah the prophet and telling him the type of relationship He wants to have with His people as 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 it and than allow the Holy Spirit to have accesses to our will so He can empower us to keep the agreement.

He also tells us that only thirsty people can receive His counsel. God knew because of our fallen nature that; we would struggle and complain when we feel that he disappears 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 come into agreement in our conversation with the Holy Spirit; our soul is constantly being sanctified and cleansed as it is being washed by our meditating on His word day and night." As I have said, our soul represents 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 Christ Jesus the day we became born again and we have a surety with in us that; we can never lose it. Even though we can never lose this position, 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.

D.) 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 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.

When writing or sharing the gospel there is a spirit in me that rises up 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." It is the word of our testimony that strengthens our resolves.

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 it is going on 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 the fallen nature that we were born with 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.