E.) 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. However, 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,
well and very real some forty five 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. Our spiritual
knowledge with power comes from having a sense of urgency and a need to proclaim a thing. "This takes place as we participate
with our born again spirit." When we asked Jesus into our heart, that was only the beginning. Without having a total
resolve to seek the knowledge of God and be on a constant vigil of meditating and thinking with our spiritual mind, 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 today
with in the body of Christ and get anchored in us understanding 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
to be discovered 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.
We must stay quiet and give God time to prove to you that, He is real
and allow His holding power of love to keep you safe from all harm.
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.
F.) Reverence: = (A feeling of profound respect with awe, affection with having a gracious and courteous
behavior.) When there is a reverence towards someone, you pay close attention and focus your thought life towards the feelings
of that person.
In Hebrews 12:24-29 we have Paul the Apostle giving us a vision,
direction and the attitude of the reverence we need to have in running our race of faith. He states, " Jesus is the mediator
of the new covenant and to the blood of sprinkling, which speaks of mercy and gives us a better testimony and gracious message
than the blood of Abel whom was killed by his brother Cain in the Old Testament because, Abel's blood cried out for vengeance.
See then that when God speaks to you that; you do not refuse to listen. For the
people who lived by the Ten Commandments in the Old Testament before Jesus died on the cross for our sins did not have His
power of His grace to obey His Commandments. When they broke the Law they paid a terrible price here on earth and did not
escape the consequences of their actions. We now also will pay an awful price if we do not heed the voice of the Holy Spirit
because heaven is now in us and we have a more excellent covenant then they had and more to loose.
At Mount Sinai where God gave the Ten Commandments to Moses His voice shook the earth. Yet once more God's
is not only shaking the earth but also the heavens. Now this means that God in this last dispensation of time is determined
to shake every thing He created in order to get rid of anything that does not line up with His perfect will. If we truly understand
God's resolve and motivation in doing this; let us receive and live in this type of kingdom by receiving His grace which
is pleasing and acceptable to Him and it will produce a reverence and a Godly fear of Him. For God is a consuming fire"
When it says God is a consuming fire it means, Jesus act of dying for our sin
and as we become symbiotic in our relationship in dying with Him and being raised to a new life in and through Him, His spirit
and ours becomes one. This happens as we allow the Holy Spirit to weave His spirit in and out of our soul and eat away all
the misunderstandings and anything operating in our life contrary to the faith of Jesus. This is a supernatural work that
must be operating in our heart and mind at all times because; we are having an intense and focused commitment with the Holy
Spirit. When something is consumed it is destroyed.
Paul states in 1Cor.10-16.
"Because of the grace of God operating in my life and by me using it; I have become an architect and a master builder.
This foundation that I have laid in people's life has been Jesus Christ crucified and there is no other foundation of
importants that can be laid. Now since this is the main foundation, you can build it up with gold, silver, precious stones,
wood, hay or straw. However, the way and the material how the structure is built will be tested in the storms of life by the
fire or the purifying of the Holy Spirit's shaking the building and appraising the work that has been done.
If the work that any person has built on this foundation in product or effort survives the test,
he will get a reward. However, if any persons work is burned up under the test, he will suffer the loss of it all, losing
his reward or allotment of his inheritance, although he himself will be saved."
All
of us will go through the fire. The Body of Christ is the temple or sanctuary of God. His Spirit lives in us corporately and
individually. It is God's grace at work in us that burns up any false concepts of faith that we may be living by. God's
fire of grace delivers us from our self and does not send people to hell or take them home to glory ahead of time.
G.) Obedience: = (To do the bidding of, execute commands and be guided by certain laws.) We now come
to putting the Faith of Jesus into works of righteousness. You can see if you have read so far with intense discernment that
unless these other six characteristics are in operation in your life; there is no obedience to walking in God's statutes.
What I am about to say I have said many times before and it bears being said again.
In
John 14:23, Jesus says, "If a person really loves me, he will keep my commandments." Blind obedience without love
will maintain order, but does nothing to enhance a loving relationship. Blind obedience without recognizing its value is destined
for failure. Love gives the reason to obey and gives us value and worth. The hungering heart will seek with Passion the kingdom
of God. The complacent heart or the self absorbed person will grow restless in his walk with God.
A prolonged mind set of trying live by "do's and don'ts" distract us from God's intended
goals. When we are accepting and absorbing God's love, we can truly love one another. I have learned that without the
sensitivity of the Holy Spirit, my mind drifts into a thinking mentality of faultfinding about others and myself. Jesus did
not come to earth to impose the law or to rule over us with a dictating and dominating attitude. He came to empower us to
be able to keep the law by His love and His Spirit of accepting His divine favor with our earning it. He came to bridge the
gap between, His creative orders by giving us an awareness of His devoted love. God's love can only be described as His
"forgiving grace." When a person senses forgiveness; they lay aside and depart from feelings of blame or obligation.
Jesus while celebrating the last supper with His disciples refers to His blood
as, "The blood of the New Testament (or the new covenant) which He would shed for the remission of our sins." The
word remission means, a release from the penalty and consequence caused by a crime. When we respond and walk in the Spirit
of forgiveness; only then can we walk in obedience to God's statutes because; God's righteous nature is the Spirit
of forgiveness. Our first encounter of tasting forgiveness was at the cross when we had our born again experience and received
our new nature in Christ.
1 Peter 1:19-23 tells us. "We were bought with
the blood of Christ because He offered himself up as a sacrificial lamb, which was faultless and not guilty of ever doing
anything wrong. It was God's plan from the beginning for Him to offer Himself up in this way. It is in us believing that
He was raised from the dead and our faith should be focused on this one act. If you are going to walk in obedience, you must
know and be participating in the truth of this and it can only be reveled and lived through the workings of the Holy Spirit.
This relationship with the Holy Spirit will keep our motives and attitudes pure and unsoiled and we will be able to love ourselves
and the brethren."
Experiencing the love of God the Father and His tender
mercy and grace allows Him to soothe those areas of our lives that are raw and sensitive. We need to allow the Lord to invade
those areas and not cover them up with religious hype, emotional rhetoric which is nothing more then a camouflage and living
in denial. When we live in self hate in any form, we can not see value in ourselves and we give the quality of our own self
worth in our own sight to each other. This causes us to live in prolonging the curse in ourselves and our relations with others.
We have ministries at work with in the body of Christ where people have to be delivered from bondages that have controlled
their life for years.
After they get delivered they have to go on and not live
in error as to how they are to submit their lives to God. If we do not start teaching how to stay free once delivered, we
go back to our vomit and the condition worsens. If I haven't made it clear to you yet, this is a disease of the curse
and a sickness that can no longer be ignored or tolerated anywhere in the body of Christ. It is time for us to take the medicine
of forgiveness from God and continue to take it as we mature in our adventures with Him. This is the key that will make us
healthy and we can walk with authority in freedom in our Godly pursuits. The enemy we face is the person we see in the mirror
and we must surrender and let God deliver us from our self. Since we have become a new creation in Christ; we must learn a
new way of life and not try to obey a set of rules through obligation.
In Hebrews
10:22-23 Paul states. "Let us draw near with a true heart in a full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from
an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast to our profession of faith with out wavering; for
God is faithful for what He has promised. And let us focus on encouraging each other to love acts which are the only way to
walk in obedience in doing Godly endeavors."
This process of heart sprinkling
and having our conscience and body washed with pure water is what fighting the good fight of faith is all about. A body washing
is us constantly being conformed to God's will and becoming healthier every day. It is the Holy Spirit's job and His
commitment to us in letting us know how sanctified and pure we are as a born again believer.
The word for conscience in the Greek is suneidesis: This is where we become aware, informed, and have our
eyes opened to right and wrong concepts. In the Webster's dictionary it means, a mental inbred or inherited gift from
our physical parents by which we distinguish between right and wrong concepts of life. You might say it's our moral barometer.
It acts as a filter to screen out healthy or unhealthy thoughts and motives which then gives us the freedom to make choices
on which course to take. It acts like the liver we all possess in our physical body which purifies our blood. With a healthy
liver, we have uncontaminated blood to nourish our body. The bible tells us that, the life is in the blood.
Our conscience works the same way. However; it was contaminated when we inherited our broken relationship
with God because of Adam eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. When we in our attempts to measure up in
our own efforts try to please God and get acceptance, we go back and try to function with our sick conscience.
Since we are now born again people, and become a new creation; our consciousness has now become the
mind of Christ that we received and this is the new covenant consciousness we need to be thinking with. Our conscience needs
to be reprogrammed as we are learning and allowing the Holy Spirit to persuade us to do it His way and there becomes an awareness
of a new set of laws beginning to take shape in our mind as we reason with Him. It is us living by these love laws of acceptance
that not only justifies us, but it also, empowers us to know how to be obedient. These are the new laws of the new covenant
that we signed up for when we became born again. It is as we function in these seven characteristics of the Holy Spirit that
we have defined; that causes us to walk in obedience.
5). "Even though I
am walking threw the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil." There is no escape from anyone of us from walking
threw this valley that casts a shadow of death. This shadow causes us to fear and makes us feel from time to time that, we
are dying physically or spiritually and these feelings can be intense and exhausting.
Eph.
6:12 says, "We are not struggling against people who are physical opponents, but against the pain and insensitive ruler
ship from controlling spirits of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in the heavenly (supernatural) spheres."
The day we became born again; we entered into battle and we need to know how to handle the trials and adversities of life
that constantly come against all of us.
When we do not operate in our anointing
that constantly lives with in us, we try to dance, sing and do everything in its own power to emotionally have the feel goods
and our root and position of security in Christ never takes on substance. Unless we function in our anointing and begin to
exercise our individual right to hunger and thirst after God, we will never walk in the power of the Holy Ghost. As a person
is totally saturated swimming under water; so were we baptized and submerged in the Holy Ghost when we had the miracle of
being born again from heaven. Let's now define some of the terms underlined in this verse from the Hebrew Concordance.
1.) Walking: This person looking for maturity and being lead to wander to and fro. We all go through
this process. However, the unsaved and many saved people do not recognize that; God's concerns and eyes are continually
watching and motivating all peoples to find their true origin and wholeness in Him. God made a plan that all things whether
good, bad or indifferent that transpires in our life will lead us to Him and we will discover the unconditional love that
He has always wanted us to experience. Most Christians because they do not know how God's protective hedge works, live
in a total amazement when tragedy strikes in any areas of their life and in the lives of others.
2. Valley: It means a deep, narrow and rocky valley with obstructions in a passage; like a mass of ice obstructing
a river because of its lofty sides; therefore it is a narrow way. It also means a process of a person going through a character
change and developing into a mature person. In our lives we have obstructions which the bible describes as a fleshly arrogance
which is a strong feeling of a pride of self-importance.
These type obstructions
are expressed by treating ourselves and others with contempt and disregard; and it hinders God from hollowing out our soul
so He can make room for Himself to completely flow through us with His Righteous Spirit. This is the curse that plagues all
mankind when He leans towards his own understanding and does not co-operate with the Holy Spirit for change. This attitude
causes us to stay in a state of not being sincere, genuine, and we lack righteous integrity because; we never realize how
significant we are in God and how highly He esteems us in His sight. This process that we are all going through has to stop
being interpreted as God getting even because, we have committed some great sin that is unforgivable. When we think like this,
it brings feelings of despair and a feeling of instability that says. "God loves me and He loves me not."
God uses our trials of life; to germinate and let grow from a seed or a word given by Him in our
trials of life, which in turn takes root and makes us grow strong and straight. This is what the teaching of righteousness
does for the believer as we gather together and talk and roll model it to each other. It acts as a reminder among other things
that, our trials and how we relate to them should be encouraging us to not to despair because, we can now define our growing
pains and how God is in control of our lives.
(I pray the Holy Ghost is making
this real to your heart as it is badly needed in God's family)
When we try
to hold on to God for our security, it hinders us to live by Jesus faith which gives us a spiritual awareness that His faith
is more powerful then us trying to be good in our own efforts.
Man's idea
of security is what his five senses tell him. If we are going to walk in righteousness, our maturity will only come by us
hearing and recognizing every word that comes out of the Holy Spirit's mouth as we seek Him on a personal basis. We have
to continually be reminded where ever we gather in Christ's name, whether in a church setting or in our every day travel
at home or in the market places of life, to learn to be comfortable and aware that we walk in the presence of the Lord at
all times.
If Jesus was still here in His physical body and we were walking with
Him, we would be acknowledging and be talking to Him where ever we went. When He hung out with His disciples back when He
walked the earth, even though they physically handled Him and saw the glory of God resting on Him they still took Him for
granted. He was just one of the guys. If they actually saw His glory back then and took Him for granted, God forgive us for
our religious pride and lackadaisical attitude in not hungering and thirsting after Him in these lasts days.
Where there is no passion there can be no personal intimate relationship.
3. Shadow of death: This is a phantom, (something felt with no physical presence) or an illusion (something
that deceives the senses or the mind, for an example, it is something that appears to be one thing when it is in fact something
else as a vain show. When things are vain they lack quality of substance. This also represents an idol worship of something
other than the true knowledge of God's ways. Hebrew describes a phantom as an apparent power or somebody or something
that appears to have power over somebody however; it has no reality which is the every day things of life we have to deal
with.
Scripture tells us that, "the Devil is a very real force and he goes
around as a roaring lion seeking to devour people or trying to lead them astray." Even though he has the ability to deceive
us as born again Christians, our walking in our righteous understanding makes us know his devices and the reality of his presence
should no longer deceive us because; our reality which has great substance; should be the leading of the Holy Spirit.
When reading and meditating on the New Testament writings, you cannot help but notice that one of
Jesus challenges was with the personal attacks of the devil in His temptings as He was being led by the Holy Spirit in His
wilderness walk. This life that we live in is our wilderness walk and the Holy Spirit wants to lead us the same way.
However, Jesus was also always being challenged by the religious leaders of that day. The Romans
might have carried out the sentence of nailing Jesus to the tree, but the religious leaders of that day did the devil's
bidding in having Jesus crucified, even though God‘s turned His crucifixion around as the greatest victory for mankind.
When we are influenced and participate in the devils thoughts, it is because of us being ignorant of God's kingdom love
laws and we are not able to flow in His Righteous Spirit.
This shadow represents
the devil using different disguises in different settings using different people trying to influence and confuse the believer
so; they can not fulfill their destiny that God ordained for them. Now it is difficult enough to live under this demonic attack
every day when we are awake or sleeping out side a Church setting. The church or the body of Christ is (supposed to be a sanctuary
or a safe place and hospital of rest to people who are being persecuted.) This is where people gather who have a like passion
in following Jesus example.
This only takes place when we are lifting up the
Lord Christ Jesus; which draws all men unto Him. I have visited different churches over these last twenty five years and I
have found that a large majority are teaching every other doctrine but the doctrine of our righteous position in Jesus Christ.
What's going on in Christian television has me concerned with the cavalcade of stars walking across our stages. The arrogance
and attitude of them having God in their pocket has got me at times amazed at the antics and emotional hype that they believe
is a leading of the Holy Spirit. It is sad to say that, the example of following Christ to the body of Christ is their giftings
and talents that are God given and their priority is to parade themselves and let every body have a chance to show their wares.
Sometimes in watching Christian programming; it reminds me of many years ago
watching on Sunday night the Ed Sullivan talent show. When does the body of Christ begin to walk in power, rather then being
constantly telling people to send me your money and buy this book or cassette and wait on this promise and God is going to
do this and this is the year of this happening and so on and so on and so on? When we veer from understanding and operating
in Christ's Righteous Spirit, we become religious and as I said become empire builders and not live as a kingdom resident.
The spirits and principalities of religion in its many forms is the real enemy that we face and what influences us daily.
In Colossians 2:15-23 Paul tells us, "God disarmed the principalities and
powers that had been raging against us and made a bold and public display of them when He died on the cross. Therefore, don't
let anyone sit in a position of authority over your life. Don't let them tell you that there are certain foods you can
not eat or that, there are certain special days of the year you have to celebrate or give you any ritualistic opinions. Such
things are only a shadow of things that are taking place and they have only a symbolic value. The real reality to the born
again believer that has substance is our bonded relationship with Jesus Christ and this reality should be dominant over all
these other realities.
Let no one deprive you by acting as an umpire and telling
you that you are unworthy and saying that there are things that disqualify you for living in your inheritance. They make you
degrade your self by telling you that, you have to worship in certain ways, believe in visions which are only sensual experiences
which are exaggerated expressions inflated by unspiritual thoughts and fleshly imaginations. This causes the body of Christ
not to be united in a common cause and they can never grow strong and mature. However, since we have been born again we need
to realize that we have died to that way of a man reasoning in his mind and him trying to deal with his behavior by being
taught that he has to try harder, stop sinning and start doing more acts of kindness.
We
need to stop living by rules and regulations and by being told things like don't handle this, don't taste that and
don't even touch certain things. When you live like this, you are living by mere human precepts and following man made
doctrines. Now to the out ward appearance this passes for godly wisdom and is popular. However, what this promotes is vigorous
devotion and an addiction to self humiliation (which caters to our shame based nature.) All these things have no value in
controlling the indulgences of our flesh and they do not honor God."
What
we have here are denomination doctrines in its many forms. The most asked question I hear as I get the opportunity to share
the gospel is, "what church do you belong to." My answer is, "We all who are born again are the embodiment
of the Church independently."
Continued in part 4
