Understanding the Kingdom Parables of Matthew 13
In order to understand the 7 Kingdom parables in Matthew 13, we need to establish a few things. There is in these days of the church confused teaching here and that has been the cause of a lot of misunderstanding concerning prophecy about the church.
I would love to point out just a few things for consideration that perhaps even most Christians we know have never rightly understood. Then, as the Bereans did, let’s check the scriptures to see if what I am saying is so.
There are 7 parables. Jesus says that he is speaking in mysteries because He wants to conceal the meaning to those around who are the ones Isaiah prophesied about. They would be ever seeing and never perceiving, ever hearing but never understanding. But to the disciples, they were revealed. So Jesus’ whole purpose in speaking so mysteriously here is to conceal truth from those whom He knew in eternity past would never come to believe anyway. God learns nothing, therefore He has always known who would receive Him and who would reject Him. He is concealing from those who reject Him and will never have a heart to know Him.
Here are the 7:
Notice that they are each speaking of wickedness that comes into the Kingdom. That is a consistent theme. They all go together.
The first is the sower of seed. Jesus explains this one to us so we can establish that indeed He is speaking of wickedness that sneaks in to the church unawares. Remember that the Kingdom is a very hard thing to articulate. It is multi dimentional in that it refers to the very presence and dominion of God, the ultimate Kingdom that is coming, the Kingdom that resides in the believer’s heart and so on. It is past, present and future. It is within the heart AND without. It is mystical and actual…all at the same time.
So the Kingdom Jesus is speaking of here is referring to the presence of God and all that He is doing in and through His people here on earth right now but looking ultimately Heavenward.
In this first parable, God sows the Word in the heart of a man, for some, depending upon the state of that heart, the wicked one comes and steals the word and it never takes root. The fowls of the air come and devour it also. Jesus establishes in this series that the fowls are wicked ones, demons, workers of wickedness that distort and steal.
The 2nd parable is the wheat and tares. God sows good seed, wheat, and satan sneaks in and sows tares, weeds, among the wheat. Again, satan sneaks in wickedness just where God sowed goodness (wheat refers to a believer). Both parables emphasize UNDERSTANDING the word of God. This one also emphasizes that God says just let it all play out. Don’t rip up the weeds among the wheat. That’ll be exposed on judgement day. It might harm the true wheat so just leave it alone for now.
The mustard parable is the third and belongs to the first two. A man sows a little seed in the field. Jesus emphasizes that it is little and that it is sown in a field. It is a crop, a bush. That is undisputed. It is not a tree and it should not become a tree. The sower is sowing a small bush. He says very briefly that it grows into a tree, something He did not sow. And birds lodge in it. Now these birds are the same as the birds that ate the seed sown in the first parable. It refers to wickedness, wicked ones disguised and hiding in the shelter of the church. So now, all three parables speak of the church of God sown by Him and satan coming in to deceive.
The fourth parable is the the one about the woman working three measures of leaven into the lump. The whole lump was leavened. There is not one instance in the entire Bible where leaven is ever a growing agent for good. It is always sin and deception that corrupts by puffing up. Always.
In the feast of weeks we see that leavened bread is offered as a wave offering to God. This refers to the act of removing all self will, pride, sin (leaven) from the heart and sacrificing that to God as an offering. Noticed that it is not placed on the altar. No leaven is ever allowed upon God’s altar, only a pure, spotless sacrifice. Still, the meaning of the leavened bread here is sin purged from the heart and given to God…giving Him our whole hearts and dying to sin and self. I surrender all…
The fifth parable is the treasure hid in a field. I believe this refers to searching for a treasure in the Kingdom once we enter…the Mind of Christ.
The sixth parable is the pearl of great price. I believe this is the same meaning. Maturing in Christ as we should.
The seventh is the one that wraps it all up. A man casts a net into the sea and gathers EVERYTHING. He then sits down to sort the good from the bad. Jesus says this refers to the angels in the end sorting the wicked from the just.
Jesus concludes by saying: now, do you understand these things?
So an undeniable and undistortable theme in these 7 Kingdom parables is the fact that the church will grow but while it does the enemy sneaks in and deceives. And we wont necessarily know who is who til the end when God gathers His own and casts out the wicked.
We have a church today that is preaching a Kingdom now doctrine. Beware of it. It distorts these parables and attaches skewed meanings to them and results in skewed doctrine, and deception. Just what is here prophesied.
These parables tie in very closely with the seven letters of Jesus to the 7 churches of Revelation. It is interesting to me that two letters only have no rebuke but only commendation in Revelation. Two of the Kingdom parables seem to be encouraging the wholly given over believers ( hidden treasure, pearl of great price) and no rebuke is present. The letters in Revelation describe a historical church as well as a future and current state of the church. So do the parables.
Is the spirit of Jezebel mentioned in Revelation, a parallel to the woman working leaven into the lump, the church?
The two churches commended and not rebuked at all are very small. The mustard tree is very large, unnaturally large.
There is a universal salvation doctrine that is going around and has always existed. Universal salvation ignores the fact of sin and the need for the blood of Christ to be shed in order to redeem mankind. It assumes that the problem with mankind is that he just hasn’t been loved enough. But the word of God does not say that. The word of God says man’s heart by nature is desperately wicked and incurable, and that without Jesus shed blood, salvation is impossible. Jesus warned that the true church is very small. Not large. He said that few will believe not everyone. The churches who ascribe to the wrong teaching of these parables believe that the church will convert the world. Jesus said to go tell the world, He did not say all would believe. Jesus speaks of ETERNAL damnation, not temporary. The very same churches I have found consistently, without fail blatantly disobey the word of God in many ways. They are deceived. They for the most part minister to the flesh and do not know how to do the spiritual work of the Kingdom, preaching repentance for the remission of sins. They have forgotten their first love.
Satan doesn’t care if he has to deceive with even sweet thoughts like, man is really not so bad after all. Just cozy him up, make him feel cuddly and he will eventually come around. No he won’t. He will remain comfortable in his sin, lost, that’s all. Satan is succeeding in his deception.
There is no greater love than the love of Holy God slain for the sins of the world. Praise Him.
I sure hope you find this informative and thought provoking. If you are led…pass it on.
Love in Him,
Cheryl
Paul continues on with his instruction to the church at Galatia concerning the contrast between the law and grace. The main theme can be seen in one verse where Paul says, “WHAT!, who has bewitched you! Why, after you began so well in the Spirit, are you now trying to be perfected in the flesh!?” This book is astounding. It is also the deliverer of extremely complicated doctrine that I wanted to just brush, because it is so critical to understand to seal up our knowledge of this contrast between the law and grace, between the old Testament and the new, between the old covenant and the new. Then the rest of the epistles will confirm it.
The Galatians began so well. This was a gentile group that was never under the law of Judaism (even if they were under the law of God in the heart, that all humans are under at birth, proving so by the fact that they without the law, keep it, and are therefore a law unto themselves and prove the truth of God written on their hearts; Romans). But some of the Jewish brethren were trying to inflict the law (the letter, not the heart) upon these new believers. Paul is flabbergasted that they have so soon and so easily been bewitched, and have so accommodatingly been brought back under the law. Paul had to rebuke Peter for doing this.
He goes back to the simplicity of the faith of Abraham in order to explain better their own faith. This is wonderful.
Paul explains that the covenant of the law is not what saves. He explains that the promise (this refers to salvation by grace through faith) was given to Abraham, 430 years before the law was formally given to Israel!(the gospel was preached to Abraham). We see well here but again, all through the Word (it is even present in Genesis chapter one, but that is another topic for another day) that salvation was NEVER plan B. It was never dreamed up because the first plan failed (though Paul and others used that language to press a point, simply because there was no better language to use). Paul always says, excuse my speech, it is foolish and as a man but please hang with me and get my point.
Paul explains that Israel was formed simply because God needed a nation to bring forth Messiah and to introduce God to the WORLD. So the concept of salvation, which was in the mind of God before creation, in eternity past, was ALWAYS focused upon the whole world…all mankind.
Now he shows that Abraham was an uncircumcised heathen, from pagan people, when he received the promise (the promise that Jesus would come and save, replacing the old man with the new, the first Adam with the Last…Jesus). That is, GOD made flesh, to indwell the sinner’s heart, making him holy. Remember that Ishmael came first but was a son of the flesh (the law) and Isaac came next and was a son of the Spirit, of the promise, supernatural and not of the will of man or the works of man, but of God; that is why God let it happen in the impossible old age of Abr. and Sarah. One is a work of the flesh, the other is a work of the Spirit. Paul explained earlier that the natural comes first, then the spiritual!
He explains that the law officially came 430 years later in order to preserve mankind from himself (He needed a nation to use to reveal Christ, so He had to protect and preserve and make useful) until it was time for Jesus to arrive on the scene. So the law was the mercy of God to rein the people in, protecting them from sin, preserving
them until the DAY. We know that God was preparing all things and when the time was perfect, Jesus came to us, and the gospel that has always existed and was always preached, though hidden, was revealed in Christ. Galatians 3:8 says the gospel was preached to Abraham. But it was also preached to Adam and Eve!
Now to just disguard the heart of the law of God and say, I am free, is not right. We will see if we look hard, that Abraham believed and it was accounted to him for righteousness. But James shows us that Abraham’s faith, however, was exhibited in his doing (which is the heart of the Lord). Paul says it too. He uses the near sacrifice of Isaac (the incident) to illustrate the point, as did God. Abraham’s belief was seen by his actions…faith does. In other words, we see faith visibly in the actions of a believer. Their actions don’t save, but the actions of obedience, prove that faith is there. Disobedience proves that either there is no faith yet, and I am still a slave to sin and the law. Or it proves that I may have faith but am rebellious to come up under His yolk and my faith is not being perfected as God desires it to be. Now disobedience can be invisible in attitudes and secret thoughts of hate and resentment, self rule, asserting my rights, etc, but they always emerge as something visible. With deep study we can see that deliberate sin in a believer for a longer than allowed by God time, can result in the sin unto death. Not damnation, but a removal from the world sooner than He planned because we have refused to obey and die. I am absolutely NOT saying that early death in a believer means this has happened. The word does not teach that and that is a prefect example of adhering to the letter and not discerning the heart of the Word.
James said this in two ways: He said faith without works is dead…it is non existent. He said faith is PROVED to exist by doing the will of God. This does not mean by doing good deeds or rituals or sacraments, that I am saved. Rather, I must be saved then, if I walk the Word. If a man is baptized, it is a God given sacrament that needs doing. BUT…it does not save nor does it have a part in salvation! This is just the same as the foolish Galatians who were brought back under the law of ritual and rites, etc.
Baptism, rather, is a public statement that I believe. The proof comes when the walk is seen in a person through obedience to the Spirit of life, the Word made flesh.
James says that works make faith perfect! There it is again, the word perfect. Remember that it means sanctified fully, or single-minded or one with God, or hidden with Christ in God, and so on. So Abraham, by his work of doing the will of God with Isaac (though God stopped him) proved his faith and made it perfect. NOW I know that you fear God! He proved it by his walk. So, by the doing of the word, not keeping the letter of the law, I prove that faith has been perfected in me. Works make faith perfect. By obeying God I am sanctified. It is in the doing, not the saying, that my faith grows and is perfected and proved. “You honor Me with your lips, but your hearts are far from me.”
After faith has come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster (the law given 430 years after the promise was a schoolmaster), Gal. 3:25. The schoolmaster brings us to Christ, and He is received not by any doing but by believing. And believing is perfected by obeying what faith has placed IN me.
Jeremiah said the old cov. was written on stone, but the new covenant will be written on hearts of flesh. Here is the difference between the two. The Old Testament was “hold on now, Jesus is coming”. The New Testament is, “Glory hallelujah, He is here, God is here, at last!” The promise (Jesus Christ, the sweet Lord of salvation, Lover of my soul, ruler of all nations and God of all creation) is “today, in your hearing, fulfilled”.
So we know that first the gospel was preached, then the law came to prepare and preserve, then the promise arrived in Christ when God put on flesh so by His Spirit He could indwell the believer. The promise was given in the account of the fall, in Abraham to form a people to deliver that promise, and at last it was fulfilled in Jesus. True old Test. believers were the same as us. They looked forward to the promise, we look back to it…to Him. The faith is the same.
It is interesting that Paul says here, after he mentions it in Corinthian letters, that a little leaven (sin and unrighteousness, deception) leavens the whole lump. To the Corinthians he wrote that the church is to be UNLEAVENED…that the true church IS unleavened. Jesus warned in the Kingdom parables that there would be a woman working leaven into the lump, sin and deception into the church in the last days. Paul says, “You ran well, who made you stop obeying the truth??? (Gal. 5:7). Whoever is persuading you is NOT the Spirit of truth! “Him who called you”. vs 8. He says, you have been called to liberty, but make sure you don’t abuse your liberty to make room for the flesh (license). He says that whoever is leading them in this lie stands in judgement. I would say that so do all who do the same today…first satan, then all deceivers.
He says to simply walk in the spirit and we won’t serve the flesh. Believers who are teaching deception, will not face judgement in terms of paying for that sin…it has been paid for. But all believers WILL stand at the judgement seat of the righteous and will account for all things done while in the body of Christ, whether good or bad. Rewards will be lost, in other words, for deception of the sheep, and for other things. The things some thought were fruit, will combust before their eyes, and rewards lost because they misled the brethren, or went their own way. But He will even wipe away those tears, tears of regret.
Paul ends by saying that proof of salvation and the perfection of faith is seen in the fruit of the Spirit…NOT fruits! Fruit, singular. “But the FRUIT of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance…against which there is no law!
Now Paul closes by saying that he, and he is a pattern for us, walks in the spirit (the sanctified spirit which is ruled by the Spirit) and bears in his body the marks of the Lord Jesus. He is crucified with Christ. Now the marks of the Lord should be borne in our body as well if we will be crucified with Him. There are many things, too lengthy to mention all. But one beautiful one here is this: after His death, remember that the Roman soldier pierced Jesus’ side to make sure He was dead. When he did it what happened? Water and blood gushed forth. Oh my. If we will be crucified, and bear the marks of the Lord, being pierced after death to self rule. What will flow from us? LIFE!!! Blood is life, the source of life. Water is the Spirit of life, Him who sustains life. Therefore I am saved and sustained by the water and the blood!
Now if I will not bear the marks of the Lord yet, how can rivers of living water flow from me and fruit be produced through me? It can’t yet. If I won’t be stricken and pierced, then all that the Lord has placed within me cannot escape and give life to others. If I am busy saving my life, preserving myself and my ways and protecting my feelings and safety from all hurt and danger, then I hold it unto myself alone, taking ,taking, taking, never pouring out…preserving my “self”. But if I will be pierced. If I will let go and dispossess my ways that come against God (and it hurts to die) then all of a sudden, I am a glorious vessel of honor, sanctified and available for the Master’s use!
2 Timothy 2:21 says, “If a man will purge himself (notice the man is doing it, God won’t) of all these things (listed above in a few verses before this one; all iniquity), he will be a vessel of honor, sanctified, meet for the Master’s use, and prepared unto every good work.” There are in God’s house both vessels of honor and vessels of dishonor.
So, the pierced and crucified are vessels of honor who do not wake up every day saving their own lives continually…protecting themselves in a myriad of ways. But the pierced are vessels of honor through whom the Spirit of life can flow, bringing many with them to glory!!!!
Praised be God!
Love in Christ,
Cheryl
In Romans 8 Paul really begins to focus on the work of the Spirit in the life of the believer after salvation. He has explained the gospel well (that is an understatement), or perfectly, really, and now focuses on the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit within the believer. The rest of the epistle is incredibly fascinating and worth intense study in order to comprehend things like election, God’s sovereign will in forming vessels of honor and vessels of wrath, and the importance of remaining in the apostles’ doctrine.
Paul ends Romans with an admonition to his brethren to avoid doctrine that is contrary to what has been taught. He describes who he is talking about, the ones to avoid. He says they are those who deviate from the original simple doctrine, they serve their bellies and not Christ (that is what tickles the ear rather than what is right and good and true). Paul says they deceive the simple with good words and fair speeches. Not that God doesn’t always speak good and fair things, He does, but Paul was referring to gravitating towards the pleasing light things and leaving the harder, meatier things.
Well, Paul spills this teaching over into 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians. The timing of the two letters are very close, maybe in the same year, during Paul’s 2 and 3 missionary journeys. We can clearly see the Spirit of God building truth upon truth, (here a little, there a little) edifying them that believe.
The church at Corinth was smack dab in the center of the worldliest of cities and that fact was causing some trouble in the church. Paul was sending encouragement and strong exhortation to the church in order to first address some waywardness that had slipped in and then to lift them up higher in Spiritual things.
We see that some of the things that needed correction in this particular church were serious immaturity, misuse of spiritual gifts, sexual immorality not even seen among the heathen and a general rebellion towards the authority of the word of God, world likeness and the lack of true Godly love toward the brethren.
Paul is severe with the church here and he foretells of that at the end of Romans when he says, behold therefore the goodness and severity of God. Paul gives them a choice: he says that they can either submit and hear what he has to say or they can resist and he will come with a rod to correct. Paul was generally not well liked. He laments this truth through out both letters. He states that he and the rest of the apostles are treated as refuse…this is their lot. They are despised and rejected and considered the least of all because of the task given to them by God. Paul later expresses this when he expresses what it means to take up in his flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ. Waywardness in a believer afflicts Christ. So this affliction, we are told by the Holy Spirit, presents itself not only in them that don’t believe but them that do and are resistant to the word of truth AND to all them that bring it. The afflictions of Christ then fall on them that are addressing those who are afflicting Him. Jesus warned that if we preach Him then we will receive the hate of the world because the world hates Him…it continues to afflict Him. This is what is meant by taking up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ.
The remedy then to the waywardness Paul was facing was to explain to these very brethren whom he deeply loved, that they needed to grow in Christ and then they would stop all the sinful behavior. But this growth is done by allowing the Spirit of God to form in us the Mind of Christ.
Romans 12 began the thought that we need a mind transformation in order to please God. NOT to be saved. We come AS WE ARE into the Gate…with filth and all self will. It is here now in the first 3 chapters of 1 Corinthians that Paul unloads a bombshell. I would love to point out just a few critical concepts that he leaves here for us if I may.
Like Romans 7, these three chapters concerning the carnal Christian and the mature Christian are terribly mistaught today. The way it is taught is so contrary to the rest of the Word that almost every teacher glazes over it and does not delve into it because they don’t undertand it. They drop it as a big matzo ball and then run away! hahaha!
But it is very easily understood, and reconciles many seeming contradictions, if we will just pause and ask the Holy Spirit to come in and esplain…
We see that Paul is addressing this letter to the mature. He says he is speaking wisdom to”them that are perfect”. This is a critical word to understand because in the word for word translation of oldest agreeing texts, it is used through out the entire Word and means exactly the same thing in every case. It is not referring to human ideas of perfection. It is referring to single minded (which is the Mind of Christ) submission to the perfect will of God. Self rule has been dethroned; also, entire sanctification expressed in 2 Thess. and elsewhere.
He is also speaking to the immature who are the cause for the letter in the first place. But he says that even though he is speaking to them, they cannot understand him. He says they can only ingest milk and not meat. But the rebuke is to them. They are the ones involved in all the sinfulness. So Paul is speaking to the mature in this church about the immature. He is also speaking to the immature who he is speaking about and to, but in a later sense (because they will only understand what he is writing after they have received through obedience the spiritual capacity to understand).
When Paul says the natural man cannot receive the things of the Spirit of God he is not talking about the lost. He is talking about the carnal believer (of course the lost can’t either, but that is beside the point, he is addressing all believers here). If we really read through ch 3 we will see this. If we look to the Greek word used here for natural it renders “soulish”. Look up the meaning in the Greek for that and we get this: the one who is ruled by the soul…the emotions, the intellect, the will. This is also a believer and not just an unbeliever.
The babe in Christ, and even the growing and nearly mature in Christ are still to differing degrees ruled by the soul until the Spirit gets through to the soul and then to the body…and he is then a spiritual man. The soul determines what the body does. The body is simply a vehicle to do the soul’s bidding…whether that be godly or ungodly things. For the believer, the indwelt spirit only rules the body when the soul has bowed down to the spirit and walks in the spirit. John 17 remember shows us that Jesus longs for believers to be one (spirit, soul and body) in Him…sanctified. This means that the believer is no longer ruled by what he thinks or feels or wills contrary to God. His spirit rules him completely and always…self has been dethroned; the Holy Spirit sits on the throne in the heart and no one can dethrone God. Double mindedness is gone. But this is only accomplished (in the believer) by an act of my will. I determine to dethrone myself and come up under the yolk of Christ, of God. It is very painful. The more resistant we are the more painful it can be. God is pulling something base up into holiness…tedious work. Jesus pleads with us to come up under His yolk. He says it is easy and light. Dwelling in the freedom of being under this yolk is easy and very light but getting there can be very hard. This is the echo of His voice to the Israelites in the dessert when He says to them in a longing voice that His word is easy to keep; it is in us and very near us to both will it and to do it.
Now the natural man, the soulsih man Paul speaks of, has the Holy Spirit in full. He is fully indwelt and may have been Spirit baptized even, but, he has not the fullness of the Spirit in the form of the Mind of Christ yet. This is why we see that these believers were even using the gifts of the Spirit, but wrongly. We see it today. Paul explains that only the Spirit knows what is in the Mind of God (same as the Mind of Christ). And only those who have received the full Mind of Christ, know fully what is in His Mind (all that He reveals to man here, anyway).
Remember that obedience lights the Mind of Christ, and continued obedience lights more of the Mind of Christ, and then the scripture which says that the one who obeys will know doctrine, if it is of God, makes sense. The problem with the Corinthians who were still immature in Christ is that they were disobedient, like the world and therefore could not discern doctrine, the word of God.
Now I’ll end this thought with this wonderful picture of eating that Paul uses. We know that we are to ingest the Word…Jesus is the Word, and Paul shows us as does the rest of the Word that He is also the Spirit! “and Christ is that Spirit”. God is Three yet remains One. A fascinating topic. This is why Paul uses consumption analogies. He begins the letter saying that it is addressed to the perfect (the mature), and in ch 3 says that these, the perfect, have the Mind of Christ. He is not saying that the babes do yet. In fact he clarifies that by saying…the spiritual man, the perfect, has the Mind of Christ, but the babes in Christ are still on milk and cannot yet comprehend what is in the Mind of Christ. They choke on meat…they don’t know how to chew and savor; they gulp. He says, even now you are stuck on milk and cannot bear (understand ) what I am saying. Become spiritual (sanctified) and you can bear it! They will later, because God sanctifies every believer…”He will do it” (2 Thess.) Even as he addresses them they do not understand but the Spirit will reveal it in time.
It is critical to note here that the perfect are not those who have “attained” or “apprehended” yet. Paul says it. By apprehended, he means reached full glory that only comes in Heaven. This perfection refers to the very beginnings of usefulness to God. Remember that only those who abide (these are the perfect, or mature, or fully submitted) in Christ can produce fruit for the Kingdom. It is a beginning point.
Think of the Lamb of Passover. One of the instructions to the Israelites was that the Lamb had to be consumed by daylight! What a visceral picture. Jesus is to be consumed completely for us to walk in that light fully. Remember that the believer who follows false things because he hasn’t discerned God’s mind, thinks that darkness is light. “How great is that darkness!” So the Corinthians, a lot of them, were in a darkness of sorts; meaning unrevealed light and not damnation.
“Unless you eat My flesh and drink My blood you have no part in Me!” Now remember that Jesus completes the good work He begins, so every believer will eventually consume Christ. For some however, it will be at death…when God forcibly frees him from his flesh. But it doesn’t have to be this way, having sent nothing ahead of us. We can resist sin to the point of bloodshed here (and actually be crucified with Him now) and mortify the flesh here (dying to sin, receiving the stripes on my back and body) or become the wheat that dies and falls to the ground here (producing many more seeds, bringing others with us, fruit) if we so desire.
One of the glaring and saddest pictures of the church as the day for His return draws near, we learn in Paul’s letters to Timothy, is that many won’t stand for sound doctrine. They only want their ears tickled. This is what the Corinthians were guilty of Paul says. It takes discipline and time and effort and longing to know God more, to sit still and hear the Spirit of God speak. Jesus warned that some will be too busy with life to do that. We see it today. God is speaking today like crazy, but how many are sitting still to listen? When we are obedient to His will, dying to our own that comes against Him, we hear very easily and very clearly. And there is nothing more glorious than that.
There is a beautiful picture of the Mind of Christ depicted in the tabernacle and all it’s instruments and furniture that we can talk about next time. We’ll look at how the lamp represents the Mind of Christ and how it is placed just outside of the Holy of Holies, perpetually lit, unable to be quenched, shining the only light there is into the Holy of Holies, revealing what is there!!!
Thanks for listening and have a blessed day in Him!
Love,
C
There is a major principle that God set in motion and it remains in motion, no matter what, and applies to all people and not just to believers…as some of God’s principles do apply only to believers.
We reap what we sow. Period. This is first a glorious promise and then a fearsome one. It’s glorious if we sow godliness and fearsome if we sow ungodliness.
I have observed something. The most important thing a matriarch or patriarch can do for their family, after leading them to Christ and then moment by moment looking and living like Him, is to never sow discord within the family.
Families who are divided, are for one reason… the leader gossips about everyone to everyone else. It may seem innocent to some, but it’s not. It is an ungodly thing to do and it sets up an inevitable reaping within the family.
Now trouble comes and trials come. But we can still know peace through them if we do not sow discord.
The leader who talks in any way behind the backs of any other family member, is sowing discord and will reap division and resentment within the family…discord.
Now there are situations where something needs to be said to intervene or to help but never to “vent”. How do you know which is which? God will help you discern. How about this: is your family at peace? Then all is well. Discord? Examine your ways and correct. Do you want peace? Pursue righteousness. Look: “ Righteousness and peace have kissed” (Psalm 85:10). The righteous know peace.
The leader who lives godly and keeps his or her mouth shut unless he or she has something godly and productive to say, will reap unity and a very strong and fulfilling family life. Period.
It really is that simple and it is a spiritual thing. If any family has discord running through it and division, look to the mother of father. If they gossip then they divide the family. If they don’t, then there will be peace and unity. There are no exceptions and no variations.
We reap what we sow, more than we sow and later than we sow (Charles Stanley, but this is in the word everywhere).
So take a look at your family as a leader and see how well you’ve done in your immediate family. How do your members get along? It’ll be directly proportionate to what comes out of the mother’s and father’s mouth. Test it to see. Stop gossiping. It is an abominable trait for anyone. God hates it. Give it a try and see if your family doesn’t start loving each other more and getting along better.
Look at what love does: love, among so many other wonderful things is long-suffering, thinks no evil. So this is the true meaning of this curious scripture that is also another principle that God has set in motion for all people, not just believers. Love covers a multitude of sins. So instead of gossiping, we need to suffer long, and let love cover a multitude of sins. Peace.
Make it a habit and then a lifestyle and then a personality trait. Imagine no evil, speak no evil. Reap peace and unity.
If we have any issue to discuss that berates another then take it to God. Speak freely with Him. But He has little tolerance for the gossip thing. He will tell you He’s heard enough.
There is never a need to talk about another behind their backs. Never. It is a very carnal and wicked thing to do yet our society relishes it. Maybe that’s why we are all in such a state.
Let’s clean up our thoughts. If there is an issue then have grace and patience. If you have an issue with a member then pray and at the very last, go to them. Don’t go to their brother. Go to them. If you have gone to them because it was absolutely necessary to, and they did not listen, then it’s time to go to another believer, but only to take that other believer to the person. Speak honestly and graciously to the “offender” and help them resolve it. Maybe you are the offender!! This is what God says to do.
The beauty of the sowing and reaping principle is that it is immediate in cases like this. It is so powerful that you will notice peace and healing immediately within the family.
Mother, father, I’m sorry, if there is division in your family, it’s your fault. Change your ways today because God is all about redeeming and restoring that which was lost. People are uniquely resilient and heal fast in christ, and if they are saved, then are so willing to forgive.
At all costs, stop sowing discord among the brethren. Toughen up and go to the person privately or keep your mouth shut. These are your choices.
Have you done well here? Good for you! Now, go do better. We can always do better.
Richness and rewards await the obedient in Christ!
Bless His holy name!
So the Feast of Unleavened Bread is a 7 day feast where all the leaven (sin) is swept out of the house (our spirit, now indwelt by the Holy Spirit). This is a picture of the believer, after salvation, dying to sin day by day, and being formed into the “measure of the stature of the fullness in Christ”. On the 8th day we see unleavened bread baked and offered to the Lord. This is a picture of the sanctifying work that He does in the heart AFTER salvation.
The next Feast is the Feast of Weeks, Shavout or Pentecost…goes by all names. Israel was to count off 7 weeks after the last Feast, which would be 49 days (7×7=49), then on the morrow after that, on the 50th day (pentecost=50), they were to hold another feast…the Feast of weeks, or Pentecost.
Jesus stayed with the disciples and taught for 40 days after He was resurrected, then on the 50th day, on the very Feast of Pentecost, He sent the Helper to all who had believed. That Helper being the Holy Spirit, to now indwell anyone who had come to Christ and received forgiveness of sin.
Now all of these Spring Feasts have been fulfilled at Jesus’ first coming, on the very day with the precise spiritual meaning. The last 3 will also be fulfilled at His second coming. Fascinating.
The next Feast on the Jewish calendar (how God reckons time) is The Feast of Trumpets. Fascinatingly, the particulars could describe the catching up of believers described in 1 Thessalonians 4:17 and 1 Corinthians 15:52. At the trumpet blast… This trumpet has nothing to do with the 7 trumpets in Revelation…totally different.
I looked at the particulars given by Paul of this event and two aspects popped out to me, so I looked back to the original events in the Bible of trumpets to see if anything jumped out at me and it did. Here it is and take it for what it is. Interesting stuff but nothing to be dogmatic about…yet.
My first thought is this: the first 4 feasts were spiritually fulfilled at Jesus’ first coming, so how could it not continue that the remaining feasts would also be fulfilled at the second coming and on the very day of the feasts? God is very consistent and the feasts are clearly historical events with prophetic fulfillments. Chuck Missler at KHOUSE.org is the best commentator on this topic and the link is on the home page of this blog.
My second thought was “let’s not get complicated, but look for patterns in wording”. This is how God works. Revelation, for example, is just a culmination of all prophecy already revealed in the Old Testament (Missler). If you want to understand Revelation, first study and know your whole Bible very, very well. This is why so few know Revelation. They are too lazy (I’m sorry, but it’s true) to make themselves KNOW what God has said. They basically don’t care…not really. He reveals truth to the honest and fervent searcher.
So, this Feast of Trumpets involves the blowing of a trumpet. The main thrust of this feast for Israel was to announce the wheat harvest. Of course, believers (both Jew and Gentile) are considered to be wheat. Its a time of gathering up the wheat. So I am hearing, “gathering up of believers for something”.
The next thought is that there is a shout along with the blast of the trumpet. So where do we see this in the Old Testament and to what is it related. Are there any patterns here. Everything mentioned in the New Testament was already mentioned in the Old…even though it might have been hidden…no, was hidden. Paul calls this a mystery.
In Joshua 6:1-27 we see the account of the last trump being blown at Jericho, and the shout of all the people, then the walls fell down, giving them the city …part of the promised Land. They entered in. And listen to this last little treasure: “and the people shall ascend up…” I do believe this is a reference to, and parallel with, “we shall be caught up in the air with Him”.
Also, we know that Elijah being taken up to Heaven by God’s chariot, is a parallel or picture of the rapture of the church. Guess where he was taken up? Right near Jericho. Interesting.
So I am thinking of the truth that it is God’s pleasure to give you the Kingdom. Remember God’s patterns. Israel is a microcosm of what it is like to be God’s people and they are a picture of our path. The church, made up of both believing Jew and Gentile, are God’s people. We ultimately, after the refining of Israel during the 7 last years of Jacob’s trouble, take the same path; when it’s all said and done. God’s people are God’s people. They are two flocks at first, then in the very end, one flock.
The Feast of Trumpets, also called Rosh Hashana, is a two day event. They never knew on which day it began until they saw the moon. Today we have the technology to know that in advance, but Israel did not. They had to watch and be ready. They knew the nearness however.
The church knows not the day nor the hour we will be caught up so we are to be ready (Matthew 25)…watching, because we know the nearness. Revelation 3:3 says this and is overlooked: Those who aren’t watching, won’t know the hour. This strongly implies that those who are watching (they are ready in Spirit) WILL know. Jesus’ statement is clear. Only those who aren’t watching, or ready, won’t know.
This two day window allows what Jesus said to be true with no contradiction: No one knows the day nor hour. It’s a two day Feast. We don’t know on which day at which hour in those two days. A lot of this revelation came from a terrific book by a messianic Jew, Rosenthal, called The Feasts of the LORD. I highly recommend it. Here is the link: https://www.christianbook.com/the-feasts-of-the-lord/kevin-howard/9780785275183/pd/71007
Now we know Jesus said to watch and be ready. We also know He said that its an hour we think not, to not be surprised as we are by a thief. That if we are watching, we won’t be surprised. He told us prophetic signs to look for so we can have a heads up, so to speak, as to anticipate.
Could it be? Very, very intriguing to me.
The last 2 feasts are Atonement and Tabernacles. I won’t go much into these Feasts for this reason: They pertain strictly to the nation Israel who will be unblinded during God’s wrath after the church is gone.
The Day of Atonement is the day Israel would confess sin, receive forgiveness. The event on the gospel calendar after the church is raptured is a day of Atonement for Nation Israel. She will see her Messiah at last and repent and be saved…sin atoned for by the only one who ever could…Jesus Christ. It’ll happen as she is tried by fire through the tribulation which is the last 3.5 years of the last 7 years of Jacob’s trouble mentioned by Daniel. The first half is marked by a false peace made with anti- christ, who only reveals himself at the 3.5 year mark. He is in disguise until then.
The last Feast is Tabernacles which pictures the completion of all things and the ushering in of the earthly reign of Jesus Christ on this earth for 1000 years. This Feast pictures God dwelling among His people in bodily form…Jesus Christ ruling and reigning.
Only after the 1000 reign where Satan is thrown into the lake of fire for eternity does the eternal state come in with the New Heaven and the New Earth.
Glory to God in the highest! At last, peace on earth for whom it was intended (that is, anyone at all who will CHOOSE to believe and be saved)! Praise His holy name forever!
When God freed Captive Israel from bondage in Egypt, He gave them 7 yearly Feasts to follow. These would picture for Israel, God’s deliverance from bondage into freedom.
Let’s look at each Feast and the particulars of that Feast to see what spiritual meaning lies within it, and how Jesus Christ was the fulfillment of 4 to date, and will also fulfill the 3 remaining Feasts that are yet unfulfilled.
God’s calendar is based on a 360 day year and is therefore different than the calendar we use today. His dates remain unchanged and it is how He reckons time.
Leading up to the beginning of the first Feast, on the 10th of Nisan, every Israelite family would select a sacrificial lamb for the Passover meal. It would have to be a spotless lamb.
***On the 10 of Nisan, Jesus rode into Jerusalem and allowed the people to select Him as their King. He didn’t allow it when it was tried before but on this day it was allowed because it was a fulfillment of prophecy. They didn’t realize that they were selecting THE Passover Lamb of God which the Feast has been foreshadowing for thousands of years.
This was a fulfillment of Daniel 9 to the very day.
Passover:
This is a 7 day Feast according to the scriptures. Israel has many added traditions today which are a distortion of the scriptures. The church, most of the church, has done the same thing. As a result, the original meaning and patterns have been lost. We are strictly looking at God’s instruction found in the scriptures.
I highly recommend this site for a more detailed explanation of that issue: www.preparetheway.com
The Passover Feast is celebrated on the 14th of Nisan, not the 15th. This year, 2018, the first night of Passover is on March 30th at sundown (which is actually 14th of Nisan). This is the end of the day for the rest of the world but it begins the 14th of Nisan on God’s schedule. God’s days are sunset to sunset, one day…not morning to evening, one day.
So on this day, the Passover lamb is to be slain and served at the Passover meal, which is to be held that night at sundown. God is adamant about that.
***Jesus will not only celebrate the Passover meal with His disciples at sundown on the 14th of Nisan when all of Israel would also have slain their lambs and gathered to eat their Passover meal, but He will BE the slain Lamb on the following day at 3:00 pm, still the 14th of Nisan.
Now Israel was instructed in Exodus and we see again in Deauteronomy 16:6, to slay the lamb on the 14th of Nisan at evening, at the going down of the sun.
***This is fulfilled and still allows Jesus to both celebrate the Passover and to BE the Passover Lamb. When He was crucified, the sun went dark for 3 hours while He hung on the cross. All of this to fulfill prophecy. So He was the Lamb slain at the setting of the sun on the 14th of Nisan.
***Jesus would be dead for 3 days and 3 nights because the Bible prophesies it and Jesus Himself states it (Matthew 12:40). It wasn’t 2 days or 2.5 days but 3 days and 3 nights. This would ensure that He would be resurrected on the 3rd day, the Feast of Firstfruits…presenting Himself to the Father, being our High Priest, as the Firstfruits of THE harvest of all mankind. He could not have been crucified on that Friday, therefore Good Friday is a tradition of man. It had to have been the day before on the 14th of Nisan, then 3 days and 3 nights would have fallen on Sunday, the Feast of Firstfruits.
The Firstfruits offering was the very first and best of a great harvest to come. He was the first and best resurrected, with a promise of the great resurrection to come.
Now before He was raised on the 3rd day, on the Feast of Firstfruits, the 17th of Nisan, which is April 2nd this year, another Feast began on the day after the Passover meal. So on the 15th of Nisan, the Feast of Unleavened Bread was to begin. Israel, today, has confused the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. They skip the 14th of Nisan and celebrate on the 15th. This is because they did not recognize that Jesus was the Messiah who was the Passover Lamb and therefore they have no Lamb. Their righteousness is works based, which the scriptures say is no righteousness at all. This was clarified to me as I read the terrific article at preparetheway.com concerning the confusion of the two days. I agree whole heartedly.
The Feast of Unleavened Bread represents the sin-paid-for-life of a believer who now lives as an unleavened lump before God (1 Corinthians 5:7). It is not done by works but by the power of the Holy Spirit who now indwells all those who have received Jesus Christ as their Savior. He has paid for our sin, is our Passover Lamb.
This is a 7 day Feast where all the leaven (sin, leaven is always sin in the Bible) is swept out of the house.
***This represents first of all the sinless body of Christ and that His death paid our sin debt and will remove sin from the world ultimately. Oh death where is your sting? It also pictures the believers walk after salvation, purifying his heart by dying to sin day to day.
We see that when Jesus celebrated the Passover meal with His disciples, He never called it a last supper. That is nowhere in the word. Rather, He said He would not celebrate it again until we all meet again in the Kingdom of God when He returns. But that we as a church are to celebrate it in remembrance of Him until He does (Luke 22:19).
He said that with the Passover meal we are to proclaim His DEATH till He returns (1 Corinthians 11:26).
While the church is to rejoice and live daily in both the death and resurrection of Jesus, we are instructed only to celebrate with the Passover meal, the DEATH of Jesus Christ, until He returns.
There is no life (resurrection) without His death. This is why His death is to be celebrated. It was a victory, an accomplishment.
Isn’t it amazing that as the church has failed to celebrate His death, to proclaim His death, we see the crucifixion being forsaken. The problem of sin and repentance for the remission of sins is unpalatable today. Few are being saved, just like He said of life: “straight is the gate and narrow is the way and few find it” (Matthew 7:14).
In no way am I saying that if we don’t celebrate Passover that we aren’t saved. I am saying that the fact that the church has gotten lost in traditions of men, which have neglected or negated the word of God, is symptomatic of the fact that few there are that will be saved. Jesus said that.
We are not saved by anything we do but by Who we have received by faith…Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, Who is coming again as the King of Kings and the Lord of lords.
To the whole world, who will believe:
“…for even Christ, our Passover, is sacrificed for us: therefore let us keep the Feast, not with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened “ness”of sincerity and truth” (1 Corinthians 5:7-8).
Do we have to keep any feast? No. For the born again believer, Jesus is celebrated in the heart every day and not on any particular day. But why not? As it stands now, the actual day of His crucifixion goes by unnoticed by almost everyone.
More next time…
Before we begin, let’s establish first what the Gospel of Jesus Christ is because so few even know today.
After we do that, we will then examine the 7 Feasts of the LORD, and we will see how they actually tell the Gospel perfectly. And curiously, the fulfillment of the the Gospel happens on the very day it should, with that particular Feast, describing the Gospel.
THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST
1 Corinthians 15:3-4
“…Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures: and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the scriptures…”
ALSO:
Jesus said this is the Gospel:
“ This is what is written and so it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: and that repentance and the remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem…”
Luke 24-46-47
God gives Israel 7 Feasts to follow every year and these feasts are meant to foreshadow the redemption of mankind, and the means by which God will accomplish that.
The Feasts:
1-Passover
2-The Feast of Unleavened Bread
3-The Feast of Firstfruits
4-Feast of Weeks (Pentecost)
5-Feast of Trumpets (Rosh Hashana)
6-Day of Atonement
7-Feast of Tabernacles
There are 4 Spring feasts and 3 Fall feasts, all surrounding the harvest.
While Israel was an agrarian society and the feasts involved their way of life, there is eternally more meant by the HARVEST. These feasts are really about the harvest of mankind. Let’s take closer look next time…
Here is a pattern in the word that the Lord showed me one morning many years ago as I was reading about Moses and wondering why he could not go into the promised land. It is an excerpt from Crucified, Getting the Mind of Christ.
Let’s look at Moses when he was about to leave this world…just before Israel was about to cross over into the Promised Land. There is so much here that it is overwhelming; so much symbolism is here. I want to just illustrate some symbolism that is here for the church. Ok, first we see that Moses was told by God that he could not enter the Promised Land because he had disobeyed God in Numbers 20:12. Moses, representing the law, almost a personification of the law, is unduly harsh with the people when they ask for water.
Moses gets angry with them when God was not angry with them and therefore misrepresents the heart of God. He strikes the rock. Now there is so much here that I am going to try to be organized about it. I hope that works. Now the next thing we see is that the striking of the rock represents the necessity of the crucifixion of Christ (the New Testament is hidden in the Old Testament, and the Old revealed in the New…they are one, Augustine). The water that comes out of it is the life of Christ poured out for us because He was stricken.
Even though Moses is disobedient here, there is an intentional pattern to see that foretells of the crucifixion. This whole pattern that I am going to lay out tells us that the law is good in that it brings us to the realization of sin. But it cannot save (Galatians 3). The law then, Moses, misrepresents God’s heart. The law condemns, but the heart of the Lord is mercy. Oh, how beautiful this picture is!
Look how Moses asks God if he can PLEASE go into the Promised Land. God gets angry with Moses and says, in essence, I said no, Moses, don’t ask Me again. Oh my, this is so great that I am holding back the tears.
While Moses actually did these things, and it is not exclusively symbolism, because it actually happened, the symbolism that I am about to discuss is heart wrenching. Let’s for a moment view Moses strictly as the Law. Remove his personhood just for a minute so we can see something hidden.
Moses, in Deuteronomy 3:25 says to God: I pray Thee, let me go over.
This is the law asking God if it can have a part in salvation. Notice that God gets very angry with the law at this point and essentially says, I said no, Moses, don’t bring it up again. God explains how Moses can go up to the mount and look at the Land but only Joshua could take them in.
Now Joshua represents Jesus. The names are the same. Yeshua, is Jesus in Hebrew, which is also Joshua. God is showing how the law brings all the way up to salvation, but only Jesus can bring us in.
The pattern continues. The law is not abolished, it can only have no part whatsoever in salvation. Jesus said don’t think I came to abolish the law, but to fulfill it!
Now look at what happens next. Before Moses leaves Israel in Joshua’s hands who will be the one to lead them into the PL, he says this to them as a warning, an admonition: “After you have entered into the land (salvation) keep the statutes and the commandments I have taught you that you may live. Do not add to or take away from the Word of God. If you will do His Word, you will have wisdom and understanding. Keep your soul diligently, (Deuteronomy 4:1-9). We see that wisdom and understanding come as we obey. “If you will obey, you will know doctrine, if it is from God”.
What a pattern. Moses, the law, brings us all the way up to salvation, then Joshua, Jesus, takes us by the hand and leads us in. Moses cannot come. He must stay behind. (Paul said if it were not for the law, he would not know he was a sinner). But look, Moses’ voice is echoing after them as they march in…”Be sure to cling to God and keep His Word as you go in, that you may know wisdom and understanding. Keep your soul diligently.”
The law brings us up to salvation, Grace takes us in. By marriage to Him, we do not violate the law. ” Righteousness and peace have kissed!”
Wherefore my brethren, you have also become dead to the law by the body of Christ, that you should be married to another, even to Him who is raised from the dead.”
Notice that God buried Moses. Dead to the law means I have a new Husband and am married to Christ. This means that the law has no power over me because I keep it in Christ. The law IS master over the sinner in sin. If he breaks it, it is his slavemaster, if he keeps it, he is a slave to righteousness…free. The law is GOOD. It is not bad. It just can have no part whatsoever in salvation. Can the law EVER form Christ in me? NO! It is impotent to do it.
I disagree with a lot of teachers who think Moses messed up here. I think it happened exactly as God wanted. The Holy Spirit loves to use pictures and patterns to teach truth…they are so much better than mere words sometimes.
If Moses did not hit the rock (this is Christ, the rock), then it would have been Moses who lead the people into the promised land. This would mean that the law saves and not grace…which is not possible. The law would have marched them in, Christ would not have been stricken and bruised, but there would never be salvation.
The law put sin to death. It crucified the Lord (and rightly so…Jesus died as that sin). The law declared a death sentence upon sin. Jesus came in and saved by becoming that sin. The law is angry with sin and rightly so. If Jesus would not have come and been sin for us, the law would continually condemn mankind. Moses would have led them in and mankind would have a continual struggle with sin and the law that rightly condemns it, with no remedy.
We see this continue through the whole New testament, in the Lord’s teachings and all the apostles. Look at Matthew 5. Jesus is telling us that the one who breaks the commandments (this means the heart of the word and not the 10 commandments…the word shows us that) and teaches others to do so, will be what? not lost, but least in the Kingdom. The one who keeps the word and teaches others to do so will be what? greatest in the Kingdom.
James explains how we should be doers of the word and not hearers only.
So the one who LOVES God, truly loves God, is not the one who is soft on sin and filled with compliance with the things God hates. This is a man centered gospel that elevates man above God and seeks to please man and not God. No, Jesus tells us Himself that the one who really loves God (and this is higher than knowing that God loves me) , keeps His Word. This is how it is seen.
We must love God with heart soul and mind before we can love our neighbors as ourselves. One comes before the other and the other is not possible without the former.
True Godly love leads others in the ways of God, not in the ways of man.
A believer who still fights the Word of God is a slave to sin. He is miserable. He is not free. “He has not yet received a love for the Word”. One who is free, IS the Word of God. He is one with Christ, hidden with Him in God. Remember that Jesus Christ is the Word made flesh. When we become one in Him, we will be a sweet walking gospel as well. But some things Jesus has to say are hard and many will walk away when he gets to hard things, John 6:66.
But Jesus said, look, if you cannot hear (believe, understand) earthly things, how then can you receive or understand heavenly things? We cannot.
“Behold, therefore, both the goodness AND severity of God.”
Love in Him,
Cheryl
The Bible is packed with the truth that one MUST repent of sin to receive Jesus Christ as Savior, hence being born again, or born of the Spirit. It is not possible otherwise.
The Bible is so filled with patterns that speak truth, in order for that truth to transcend time, language and culture; making it impossible for false doctrine to prevail. Patterns make it impossible to twist a word or its meaning. The pattern is there and can’t be removed…the brilliance of God!
I was in conversation with someone some time ago, who disagreed with me as I was stating this truth. She was adhering to the teaching that says we do not need to repent to be saved.
In response to this disagreement, as He supernaturally does, in His supernatural way, He dropped into my head this pattern that only He taught me and I have never read anywhere:
In the same way John the Baptist came as the personification of repentance, preparing the way for Jesus to enter the scene, so does repentance of the heart prepare the heart for Jesus to enter it. He cannot enter unless repentance has prepared the way.
I think people believe this because they have not repented and therefore may just have been converted in mind about salvation. If they had repented, they would know the elation of it and would long for others to know it. The reason they haven’t repented is because they are rebellious and want to hop in to the Kingdom another way and not through the gate of repentance.
True repentance is very joyful. I remember a day when seeing, in my soul, the crucifixion of Jesus, falling down onto my face and weeping with a deep well of agony over what He was handing to me…His broken, bloody, body which would give me life. I have never felt anything apart from that, that matches that, but can go back there every time I ponder His sacrifice. It was really something that can’t rightly be put into words. There was zero guilt or sadness, only pure agony of some surreal kind. I think maybe it was a glimpse of His glory and I couldn’t breathe. I never uttered a “sinner’s prayer” though I know some do and that’s great. I was flooded with thankfulness and I think I felt a birth. It must’ve been life for the first time entering my soul and it was rapturous; the death of death, through His death for my sin, and the life of His shed blood, all at the same time, and that’s the key, all at the same time. And this is what repentance is…it is not a series of scripted words that follows a prescribed method. It is a place in the heart that agrees with God over my lost nature and longs for forgiveness, redemption.
To tell someone that repentance is not necessary for salvation robs them of this. How can one push away repentance when it is so joyful. What a thief the devil is. Repentance is the most exquisite thing a human can know and multitudes are turning away from it because they have rebellious souls. Oh how I pray this message today is read and heard and considered. Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand.
God bless you today!
Jesus Christ. He is the initiator and designer of my faith but also the closer, the finisher; the one who has obligated Himself to bring to completion that which He began in my heart.
I rest greatly in that. Really I am along for the ride once I have agreed with His verdict upon my soul, which is that I can choose life or death, or, that is, to remain in the death into which I was once born.
My goal then has been to do all I can to not resist the Spirit, who is transforming me, line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little, there a little, into the one He created me to be…second born, born of the Spirit now and not just born in the flesh.
Though My servant fall 7 Times, He will stand. For I will make him stand.
I rest in that, but something else is at work in me because of that word from God. I want to be an easy subject. I want God to smile when He thinks of me and not groan because I am so rebellious and difficult…slow to see and slow to just run hard after Him.
I wonder sometimes if part of His agony over fallen creation, might be that which He couldn’t give because we were just so resistant to Him.
In the end when the flesh has perished and we are complete and perfectly remade, living with Him in eternity, I want to make sure that nothing I did to resist Him affected anything He wanted to give to me but couldn’t.
The good thing is that this is not based on my performance or skill or special ability or talent. It is only dependent upon my heart. Will I submit to Him or constantly go my own way, causing God to have to constant put a bridle in my mouth and tighten up the reins. How exhausting that must be for Him.
How do we do this? It’s so simple: Here’s what Jesus said: “Love God with all your heart and your neighbor as yourself, this is fulfilling all the law and the prophets”. Ha! How awesome is God! What a teacher He is!
My word to anyone who says to that “But how do I do that? Is this: Read the Word and do it. That’s it. Then let Him cleanse me, transform me and use me according to His glorious will. That’s when I can know perfect fellowship with Jesus Christ, the Creator of the universe and the very author and finisher of my faith.
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