Meta-more-foo-may-I
Declaring good news of real change out of, through, and into the Spirit of Jesus Christ Rom. 12:2, Rom. 11:36
Faith
(part 10)
Believe it or not
“Beware of thinking of our Lord as only a teacher. If Jesus Christ is only a teacher, then all He can do is frustrate me by setting a standard before me I cannot attain. What is the point of presenting me with such a lofty ideal if I cannot possibly come close to reaching it? I would be happier if I never knew it. What good is there in telling me to be what I can never be—to be ‘pure in heart’ (Matt. 5:8), to do more than my duty, or to be completely devoted to God? I must know Jesus Christ as my Savior before His teaching has any meaning for me other than that of a lofty ideal which only leads to despair. But when I am born again by the Spirit of God, I know that Jesus Christ did not come only to teach—He came to make me what He teaches I should be. The redemption means that Jesus Christ can place within anyone the same nature that ruled His own life, and all the standards God gives us are based on that nature.” The Doorway To The Kingdom by Oswald Chambers in My Utmost For His Highest. Bro. Chambers goes on to write: “The teaching of the Sermon of the Mount produces a sense of despair in the natural man—exactly what Jesus means for it to do. As long as we have some self-righteous idea that we can carry out our Lord’s teaching, God will allow us to continue until we expose our own ignorance by stumbling over some obstacle in our way. Only then are we willing to come to Him as paupers and receive from Him. (Lord I believe, help my unbelief—Mark 9:24—Author’s note.) ‘Blessed are the poor in Spirit…’ This is the first principle in the kingdom of God. The underlying foundation of Jesus Christ’s kingdom is poverty, not possessions; not making decisions for Jesus, but having such a sense of absolute futility that we finally admit, ‘Lord, I cannot even begin to do it.’ Then Jesus says, ‘Blessed are you…’ (Matt. 5:11). This is the doorway to the kingdom, and yet it takes us so long to BELIEVE that we are actually poor! The knowledge of our own poverty is what brings us to the proper place where Jesus Christ accomplishes His work.
Poor in Spirit
Luke 8:8, 15, “And other fell on good ground, and sprang up, and bare fruit an hundredfold…15. But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the (living expression, logos) word, keep it and bring forth fruit with patience.” What is good ground, an honest and good heart, right? What is the heart being honest about? Ah, now there’s a question for you. What IS the heart being honest about? Is the heart just honest, telling the truth all the time? We know that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks, so is this the honesty being discussed? I say, yes and no. We need to be and speak honestly (Let your yes be yes, and your no be no.); but I believe that that aspect of honesty falls under the good heart also mentioned above. So again, I ask, what is the heart being honest about? It is my belief that the heart is honest about its inability and weakness to believe. We must, in our heart of hearts, be honest enough and humble enough to admit that we are not rich in spirit; but rather, we are poor in spirit. We have no ability in ourselves to accomplish anything in our own strength. We have to be willing to come to Him as paupers and children and RECEIVE from Him. A heart open to receive is good ground. A heart without understanding; or with many cares; or with no depth to it; are all considered to be not good ground. None of these conditions of the heart/ground will be able to admit abject spiritual poverty. Blessed are the POOR IN SPIRIT, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. To enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, we must be willing to admit that we are poor like the pauper, in filthy rags of our own righteousness, poor in Spirit.
I am the weakest man I know. I don’t say that in pride, and it is nothing to boast about. Nor do I say it because I am writing about being poor in spirit. It is just the truth of the matter. I am weak physically. I am weak mentally, and I am weak spiritually. I am a poor man in all respects; yet, I know I am a citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven. (Probably, the village idiot, nevertheless, I belong in the Kingdom of Heaven.—If you do not know me, I prefer to poke fun at myself, rather than at others. I am doing that here.—Author’s note.) I am not waiting until I die to partake and experience the reality of God in heaven. Hear it! I have been raised and seated in Christ Jesus in heavenly places (Eph. 2:6). In some things, I see the earth beneath my feet, because they are beneath His feet; and I have received the vision, understanding and experience of it from Him. In those other things, I see Jesus the Author, and the Finisher of faith. But in all of this, I have no power of my own on which I can rely. I am indeed poor in spirit, how about you? Can we cry out, Lord I believe, help me in my unbelief (Mark 9:24). Or, are our hearts without understanding, by the wayside; or concerned with many cares, full of stones; or without depth of root because of the thistles and thorns of the curse of Adam? As for me, “My soul shall make her boast in the Lord…Psalm 34:2.” For more on being poor in spirit, check out all of Psalm 34. I would draw your attention to the relationship between verses 6, 8, 17, 18, and 22; and to the contrast between those who know the holy fear of the Lord, and those who do not. Then, when verse 14 tells us to “Seek peace, and pursue it” we must understand that it is the peace IN Christ Jesus and that He has set us at one again IN Himself, truly a peace that passes all understanding (Ph’p 4:7). “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid (John 14:27).” To be one with someone is to be at peace with that someone. Check out John 17:20-23.
God’s Plan or Man Can
I have covered in a previous writing a little bit about idols of our minds and the reality of that spirit of anti-(instead of)-christ. But how many know that our vain imaginations, the things that we think are real, but are not, can hinder our ability to believe that which truly is real, God and His Son (our redeemer) Jesus Christ, whom He has sent? Over and over again, God through Moses and the prophets warned the Children of Israel about the dangers of falling in with the nations around them and giving worship to their false gods. If we allow the cares and false realities of this world to overtake us, we end up with a heart that is unprepared to receive. I have said it before, and I will keep on saying it, it is about whether we receive unto life, or we take unto death. Eve, (the very picture of our souls), was beguiled by the serpent because she had no understanding. She was by the wayside. It was not hard for her to be deceived; she was without understanding. So she took of the fruit of the tree of knowledge. Good or evil, makes no difference, it is the taking, in her own strength, instead of (antichrist) allowing God to give that she might receive. In taking, she died. Adam died. We all died; because as in Adam ALL DIED, even so (in order that) in Christ shall ALL BE MADE ALIVE (1 Cor. 15:22). But hear this, God planned it this way. That’s right! God purposed that Adam should fall in order to conclude all things in Christ. Scripture tells us that the creation was made subject to vanity, NOT WILLINGLY, (not by our own planning) but BY REASON OF HIM WHO SUBJECTED THE SAME (CREATION) IN HOPE. Do you see it? Can you hear it? God purposed that all should die in Adam. He also purposed that all would be made alive in Christ. Jesus said, “If I be lifted up I will draw (drag) ALL men unto me (John 12:32). To quote a friend of mine, “All means All.” Remember that God is All Powerful, All Knowing, All Sufficient, God is Everywhere; God is Love! Was He able to do this? Yes, Yes, and Yes! Did He do this? It says He did, even in the King James Version, the question is, can we believe? Or, are we going to create for a season, a God, of our own imaginations and traditions, who wants all, but will lose most in the end to an eternal damnation because of the wiles of an enemy that appears to be too powerful even for God. These are strong words, and you will hear many arguments over them; but I believe that even this is part of the plan of God for the ages as He tests and refines the true believer.
God purposed that Adam should fall; the flesh man is dead, in trespasses and sin. The soul is unredeemed; but can be redeemed in child-bearing. Not just any child, the Christ child birthed in the manger (a place of poverty and seeming unimportance) of a heart believing into Jesus Christ, her new husband. Know ye not that ye must be born again, and that whosoever is born of spirit is spirit? Of course we know, or think we do. But we have all these imaginations of what that means. However, the reality and the truth will not line up with an imagination. Reality and truth are an experience brought about in the good soil/heart of someone believing in and relying on the relationship between their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and their soul. It is in a close intimate relationship with Him that we are indeed born again. The moment we receive Him into our lives, He begins the wooing of our souls. As the dawning of His life and love come over and upon us, we begin to understand that we (our souls are all female) are no longer married to Adam; Adam is dead. We are married to Jesus Christ. His Spirit begins to tear down, root out, pull down, and destroy all of our old understanding according to the knowledge of good and evil, and we begin to see and walk, as He plants and builds up, in the understanding of His life within us (Jer. 1:10, Rom. 12:2), for the purpose of reproducing His likeness within us. Now that is a mouthful of good news! The Spirit and the bride say (with one unified voice) come!
“You are actually changed—expanded, broadened, increased, intensified, amplified, made complete—when you enter into a relationship with the beloved one of the opposite sex. In that union you come to know yourself in a way you never could by any other means. It causes your true feminine or masculine potentials to be called forth, expressed, utilized, and fulfilled through that exchange.” J. Preston Eby- FROM THE CANDLESTICK TO THE THRONE Part 32 THE CHURCH IN EPHESUS- Brother Eby goes on to write, “It is just the same between Christ and His bride, between the spirit and the soul! The fullness of what He is and the fullness of what we are called to be are revealed in the union of love! When our soul bows low before the spirit, yields to the wooing of the spirit’s love, submits to the will and way of the spirit, to find itself in union with the spirit, that is when our true identity is discovered! As long as our soul is doing its own thing, walking in our own way, after our own desires, fulfilling only the promptings of our own mind, we know neither who we are nor why we are who we are. That is most of humanity! But as we, the first fruits of God, seek the Lord in our spirit and enter into union with Him, the eyes of our understanding are enlightened and we are granted the spirit of wisdom and revelation (unveiling-revealing-appearing,--Author’s note) in the knowledge of HIM.”—End Quote—
Know Knows
So the question remains, what is the heart being honest about? If any one thinks he knows anything, He knows nothing as he ought to know (1 Cor. 8:2). I don’t know about you, but I was a bit discombobulated to learn that there are three primary Greek words translated as our single English word know. The word Eido, I have gone over in another article. The word Ginosko got some mention then as well. But then, there is the word Epi-Ginosko. Each of these words carries with it a different connotation or level of experience in the way that we can know someone or something. Eido is most closely related to our English word perceive. I go to work every day, and I perceive, on a friendly level, a lot of people there, but I am merely acquainted with most of these people. I don’t really know them. My perceptions are based on the little I see, and the little bit that we talk about. I perceive them, but I barely know them. There are some though that I, Ginosko, know in a way that exceeds the politeness and formality of work. We have spent time together, gone fishing, or whatever. I feel comfortable enough with them to be open with them with more personal aspects of who I am. In some respect, I am in a relationship with that person, I, Ginosko, know them. Imagine then, knowing someone as well as you know your own self. This is the level of knowing depicted by the word Epi-Ginosko. Now, just allow your heart to receive that it is God Himself through the Spirit of Jesus Christ quickening your spirit to know Him as you are known of Him(1 Cor. 13:12). Can you receive it? Can you believe it? This is how we are called to know God. Not in heaven someday, not when we die, but in spirit, out of, through, and into the Spirit of Jesus Christ (Rom. 11:36).
Anything less, is an imagination of our own creation. Anything less is a false god, not good ground; and a hindrance to our ability to believe the truth of the good news declared to us by Jesus Christ, the Lamb slain from before the foundation of the earth. God knew we were going to fall in Adam. Thankfully, as He purposed it to begin with, He provided us a means of redemption in Christ before the foundation of the earth, which was made manifest in the person and Spirit of our Lord Jesus. How well does God know you? David understood that God knew him in his Mother’s womb, before he was even born. “But Thou art He that took me out of the womb: Thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother’s breasts, 10. I was cast upon thee from the womb…” Psalm 22:9-10. How well does God know us? Receive it; we can know Him just as well. Listen to the hope that David had. “As for me, I will behold Thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, WHEN I AWAKE, WITH THY LIKENESS.” Oh hear it dear saints, we can awaken in Him in His likeness. What a hope! Is this the cry of our hearts? Lord, I believe, help my unbelief!
Set Me Like A Seal On Your Heart
There is yet another aspect to the word Epi-Ginosko, and I would be remiss if I didn’t at least bring it to your attention. Epiginosko, Strong’s # 1921, to know upon some mark i.e. recognize; by implication to become fully acquainted with, or to acknowledge--Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance. Any guesses as to what that mark might be? I can think of two marks, which in truth are one, upon the elect of God as evidence of His presence in our lives. The first would be His Kingdom mark, a royal seal if you will. The second would be His Priestly mark. Are we not called to be kings and priests? It is my humble opinion that both of these marks are evidenced in Holiness. The ancient high priest after the order of Aaron used to wear on his forehead a medallion of gold engraved to say “Holiness to the Lord” held on with purple braided cord. There is much here, but briefly, the forehead speaks of the mind or the thoughts of the mind. The medallion is gold which speaks of the Nature of God, and the purple braid speaks of a binding because of royal authority, as purple is the color of royalty. Our minds are being transformed into His mind (Rom. 12:2), a mind of “Holiness to the Lord” which reflects upon and thinks thoughts according to the nature of God within us and is bound and held in place by the strength of royal decree. We are known by this mark of Himself that He has placed within us. We know Him, because of our identification with Jesus, who is the express image of “Holiness to the Lord (Heb. 1:3).” It is like the royal seal upon a decree from the king. Any one bearing this seal must be allowed to pass, given fresh supplies, or listened to and obeyed just because of the kingly mark or seal. This is why Paul said, “I press toward the mark/goal of the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus Ph’p 3:14.”
Do you remember the quote from Bro. Chambers above? “He came to make me what He teaches I should be. The redemption means that Jesus Christ can place within anyone the SAME NATURE that ruled His own life, and all the standards God gives us are BASED ON THAT NATURE.” But it is only a man poor in spirit who can receive. How poor are you? I don’t know about you, but I will not be satisfied until I awake in His likeness. To close, I would like to share a song the Lord gave me that speaks of this royal seal with which we are sealed. It comes from The Song of Solomon 8:6-7. I trust it will bless you.
Set me as a Seal
(Chorus) Set me as a seal on your heart, as a seal on your arm.
Set me as a seal on your heart, as a seal on your arm.
(Vs. 1) For my love is stronger than death, my jealousy unyielding as the grave.
A fire that cannot be quenched, many waters cannot drown it out.
(Vs. 2) The joy of the Lord is your strength, even quiet and confidence.
So press toward the mark of the prize, the high calling of God is His Christ.
(Vs. 3) That I may know as I am known, in union and oneness with Him.
I will go in the strength of the Lord; worthy, O worthy is the Lamb.
Joy and peace to all who read in Christ Jesus…Larry
References: Oswald Chambers My Utmost for His Highest/The Doorway to the Kingdom, The Companion Bible with The King James Version, J. Preston Eby From the Candlestick to the Throne—Part 32—The Church in Ephesus, and Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible.
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