A Spiritual House

2005-05-02T14:22:00.000-04:00

My wife and I had about three hours to spend together riding to Augusta, Georgia for a visit to the surgeon who had removed an ingrown toenail from my left big toe two weeks ago. As we began to talk in the early stages of that travel—we were discussing a couple that we had been counseling with—I made this general remark, “When we pray are we praying or are murmuring and complaining?” My wife reached for pen and notebook and asked me to repeat what I had said, so as I drove, I began to dictate from the heart what follows which I believe to be utterance inspired by the Holy Spirit.
Murmuring and complaining consists of whining to God that life is not at the moment like I want it. Prayer consists of seeking what God wants. David suddenly discovered everything good in his life had been taken from him when he was camped at Ziklag. (1st Samuel chapter 30) All his possessions, his wives, his children, were taken from him suddenly. He mourned and wept bitterly over their loss and that is not murmuring and complaining. That is grieving which is an emotional response to tragedy. Murmuring and complaining is a volitional decision to blame God for your circumstances either directly or impliedly.
When David’s emotional response was over—understand that we have no direct control over our emotions and a sudden change in circumstances can produce involuntary grief or fear or both—his rational response was to seek the will of God. Scripture says he “encouraged himself in the Lord.” In the Psalms that he wrote we repeatedly see this process of a statement of the circumstances, a grief or fear over them, and then an encouragement in the Lord found in the form of remembering God’s word followed by a statement of victory coming from his faith in God’s word that he has brought to the situation.
David after encouraging himself in the Lord, had the Ephod brought to him. The Ephod had sewn into it a breastplate into which was sewn the Urim that in some way indicated the will of God to the High Priest when His will was sought. David’s question to the Lord while singular was two fold: do I accept the situation for what it is and live with it as it is or do I pursue a solution as you direct? All that is embodied in the question, “Do I pursue?” In this situation David was told to pursue. He did and regained all that was lost. In other situations in scripture when David went through this process he was told not to pursue.
The issue is how does one look upon God? Do we look upon Him as a servant of our happiness or is He God of the Universe whom we serve? God knows our attitudes for scripture says that he looks after the heart and not the outward appearance. Attend church meetings, dance before the Lord, swoon, kneel, lift your hands, but from what heart is this being done? What is the real attitude?
Our real attitude will be found when the Moses in our life goes missing! When we can’t find food or water for our wants and needs and when circumstances suddenly change such that something in my life isn’t as I think it should be. The attitudes of the heart from which we make decisions and from which we pray are optional. We construct and shape our own hearts. We are held accountable and responsible for the character and shape of our heart. The condition of our heart will be based upon how we shape it. Is the architecture of our heart drawn from principles of scripture or is drawn from principles of personal preference—my wants, likes and dislikes?
With God’s help, and not without it, we can reconstruct our hearts such that our hearts are shaped like God’s heart. God loved David, not because he was a perfect man, but because he sought God’s heart. He wanted his heart to be like God’s heart. All of us in the way we are created have the decisional capacity to decide that our goal in life is to have a heart like God’s. After making that decision the quest for God’s heart will begin and continue and end with a prayer that says, “O’ Lord teach me to do your will, help me, unite my divided heart to fear Your name” like David prayed in Psalm 86.

A FEW THINGS AGAINST YOU

2005-03-18T11:53:00.000-05:00

For I brought you up out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed you out of the house of servants; and I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. O my people, remember now what Balak king of Moab consulted, and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him from Shittim unto Gilgal; that you may know the righteousness of the Lord. Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the high God? shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:4-8)

Which have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness; (2nd Peter 2:15)

But I have a few things against you, because you have there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, . . . (Revelation 2:14)

In Numbers beginning in chapter 22 and concluding in chapter 24 we have introduced to us the soothsayer Balaam. We are not told of the origin of Balaam’s relationship with God. However, Balaam apparently at various times had sought God and obtained information from God and direction for others. This is implied in the fact that Balak, king of Moab, sent messengers to Balaam requesting of Balaam that he curse the children of Israel because Balak feared that they would destroy his kingdom. King Balak was of the opinion from some source that whatever Balaam cursed was cursed and whatever he blessed was blessed. He was of the opinion that Balaam could make contact with the one true God and motivate and move and invoke Him to curse the great multitude of people that were Israel who outnumbered his nation. The Moabites worshipped Bael. Apparently Balak had no faith that his false God, Bael, had the power they sought, but understood that Balaam’s God did.

Balaam, in the eyes of the Moabites, was what scripture would call the House of God. That is, he was someone who in their eyes was God’s representative on the earth. They viewed Balaam as someone that they could contact who had relationship with God and could contact God in their behalf. He was to them the point of contact and a person through whom God conducted His activities and a person with whom and through whom God communicated. They were of the opinion God resided with Balaam. He was the temple or House of God. You will recall that when Jacob saw the angels or messengers from Heaven coming down to the earth and going back up on the ladder, he said God is here and said the place he had chosen to lay down to sleep was the House of God because the angels, God’s messengers, were going from there to Heaven and back. He named the place Bethel which means “house.” It was this impression that Balaam was the House of God that gave King Balak the opinion that whoever Balaam blessed would be blessed by God and whoever Balaam cursed would be cursed by God. (Numbers 22:6)

In effect, Balaam, in his day, held the same position in the eyes of the world around him that the church holds today. The world looks to the individuals that make up the church to be representative of God on the earth and to be the people through whom God conducts His activities, if He is active at all, and the source of information and direction from God, the people through whom God communicates with the other people of the earth. That was the position Balaam held and it is the position the church, meaning you and I hold. That is an awesome posture. It is awesome to be given that position, and it is awesome to fulfill it. As grave and solemn and awesome and frightening as that responsibility is, it nevertheless is the position God has given you and I individually as the church. Balaam did not fulfill that position although he was placed in it. It was his calling and his responsibility and he walked in that position selfishly with a heart independent and separate from the heart of God.

The scriptures cited above warn the church, that is, you and I, about walking in the nature of Balaam and in the book of Revelation the church at Pergamum is told that one of the things that the Lord had against the church was that among its members were those who held to the doctrines of Balaam. In the light of those scriptures it behooves us to come to an understanding of Balaam’s failure. Unfortunately the church appears to be 99.9% of the nature of Balaam. On the whole the Lord is no more pleased with the church today than He was with Balaam who was a type of the church. As we examine Balaam bear in mind throughout that Balaam stood in the same position in this world that God has placed us individually and collectively. His appearance in scripture is not an idle aimless statement of an historical episode in the trek of Israel toward the Promised Land. He is a type of the church. We know this because when God speaks through the prophet Micah to inform His people then and now of what is required the comparison is to Balaam. When Peter speaks out not many years after Jesus’ ascension and tells the church that it has gone astray, he stresses that the path the church has taken is the path of Balaam. When Jesus approximately sixty years after His ascension gives the Apostle John, The Revelation, His concerns with the gathering and organization of the believers at Pergamum is that many of their members hold the position of Balaam.

A casual reading of the account of Balaam in the book of Numbers leaves you wondering what the problem was. Balaam never did anything but speak the word and will of God. In fact, he prophesied of the coming of Jesus. (Numbers 24: 17) If you take a casual reading of the church today you will likewise despair at my remarks. People are being saved, miracles are being worked, great and inspiring books are written, great and inspiring sermons are preached and that is one approach to the church to look at those things and say all is wonderful. However, God looks at the heart. It was the heart of Balaam that displeased God. The church, which is not an organization, but you and I individually and collectively, has in many respects the heart of Balaam. Let’s examine Balaam’s heart as revealed in scripture not his works.

As we begin in chapter 22 one of the first things we see is that King Balak is the son of Zippor and that Balaam is the son of Beor. You will not find anything else in the Bible about Zippor and Beor except that they fathered Balak and Balaam. Fathering Balak and Balaam does not speak good of them. Throughout scripture you will see this description of people in terms of who their father was. Being a father is a very important role. God is very concerned with fatherhood. In Psalm 127 in the same breath that it is spoken “except the Lord build the house they labor in vain that build it,” it is written that children are like arrows in the hand of a mighty man. Our children are to be brought up as the House of the Lord, in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, and shot into the next generation to continue the work of the Lord.
Except a father have relationship with the Holy Ghost and build his children under the direction and government of God, his children will never become the House of God or Temple of the Holy Ghost as desired by God; although they may be positive members of society. Zippor and Beor failed to recognize this truth. Zippor fathered a worthless, worldly child in Balak and Beor fathered a selfish pretender. What is the issue?

The issue is that the church, that is you and I, are to sire and father children unto God. Through our connection to the vine we are to have the direction and communication of God flowing into and out of us into fruit, the fruit of the vine. Fruit is the natural consequence of being connected to the nourishing vine, of being connected to Jesus in a real and living way. Jesus said in John chapter 15 that He was the true vine and that God was the husbandman who insisted that the branches bear fruit. Jesus said that if we abide in Him, the vine, we will bring forth much fruit. He does not want wild grapes or errant, mangled, deformed fruit. (Isaiah 4:4; 5:2, 5) He wants fruit that is the result of the Father’s management of the branches which is a process of purging the branches of bad stems and uncleanliness. The goal of God in causing our union with Jesus is Godly seed or offspring. (Malachi 2:15) We see the anger of Jesus at spiritual fatherhood that does not produce godly offspring in Matthew 23:15. He chastises the scribes and Pharisees for turning their converts into a child of hell rather than a child of God. Well, they were very moral children and very adept at keeping the order of the church and doing the work the organization requested. Yet Jesus says they are the child of hell and says that the moral, church abiding, order keeping scribes and Pharisees have as their father the devil (John 8:43-44) and are passing that nature along in double portion to their offspring. Bear that in mind as we examine Balaam’s heart. His father, Beor, shaped his heart. Beor will be held accountable as will Balaam. We, individually and collectively, as the church will be held accountable not only for our own hearts, but also for the hearts of the children we bring into the family of God. The issue is not only are we of Balaam’s heart ourselves, but are we reproducing Balaam’s heart with our doctrines and traditions and our witness? The Scriptures are not honoring some ancient custom of how people are referenced when it describes someone as the son of someone else. Scripture is making a point to us of the role of fatherhood in God’s eyes for us to take serious heed of.

The prophet Micah tells us not only to consider Balaam, but to also consider Balak and his counsel. Balak is a type of the world that wants to use religion for its own purposes. The false religions bind people and manipulate them into being a society of people that please the goals and whim of the power behind the religion. The spirit of the world would like to rule God rather than be ruled by Him and when it recognizes that it cannot it produces a shadow or shade of God to be worshipped—a sound alike, look alike God with a very different voice and a very different image. The spirit of the world wants magic instead of God’s power. Magic can be worked without being under authority and government. Magic can be worked for your own purposes instead of for the purpose of carrying out the purpose of God. The spirit of the world wants to be able to go beyond its limitations of sight, smell, touch, taste, and hearing and what it can reason from what those senses tell it without consecration to God. The spirit of the world wants supernatural power, but the spirit of the world is selfish; it wants its own way and will proceed with all available power, including God’s if it has access to it, to achieve its own way. The spirit of the world wants to have available to it for its own use the power of God. The spirit of the world will attempt to manipulate God to make His power available to it with cleverly devised outward appearances and endeavors, including superficial, empty worship, sacrifice, and words. God is not mocked and God will not give His Glory to another. Working the works of God is a matter of faith in the Lord Jesus and faith will not operate out of an impure conscience.

A well known Bible teacher told me of an episode in his ministry where he was asked to go to the home of a man whose wife was dying of cancer and pray for her healing. When he entered the woman’s bedroom the anger of the Lord was kindled in him. He asked the husband to step into another room with him. There he asked the husband if he worshipped God in his house. The man began to say, “No, let me tell you what I believe about that.” My friend cut him off and asked, “Do you give your money to God, do you give tithes and offerings?” The man began again, “No, let me tell you what I believe about that.” My friend cut him off again and told him that he would not pray for his wife, that God would not let him and that she would die during the night which is what happened. Many Christians hide a desire to be people pleasers behind the word “love.” Many would criticize this Bible teacher. I applaud him for honoring the specific will of God for that situation that was revealed to him. I applaud him for the decisions he had made in his life long before that situation arose that built him into the House of God, one who could talk to God and be heard and who could hear God when God talked to him.

I went on an evangelical mission trip to a foreign country. Before I left I was told of this preacher/politician that I was supposed to get to know when we arrived. Anger arose in me and I knew instantly that God had no purpose in me having anything to do with him. There was a spirit of the world working amongst us that was creating a desire to be pleasing to the people of this nation that we would be ministering to, to ingratiate ourselves to them. After we arrived, during a meeting with a hundred or more of the local pastors, I was suddenly called on to pray out loud for this pastor who was running for public office. A tremendous grief and anger arose in me. It was known that I was a judge, an elected official myself, by this man. Judges are held in very high esteem in this country. I was being used to placate him, appease him, and make him feel important. Unlike my friend, the Bible teacher, I proceeded to try to accommodate our leader who had called on me. I had never nor have I since been under a prayer anointing like I was on this trip; however, I have never in my life spoken more foolishly and more ineptly publicly or privately as when I tried to pray for this man. The more I tried to measure up to the task the harder it was to find words. I should have excused myself from the task regardless of the appearance it might have given. We were not there to appease, placate and gain favor with the locals. That attitude feeds our pride. We were there to serve God as He directed.

I have a friend who is a missionary evangelist in a particular foreign country. I have been in that country with him and have heard him in pastor’s conferences speak to pastors who are under the influence of the spirit of the world. He makes no attempt to ingratiate himself to or placate or humor them, but speaks forcefully and directly. His ministry is blessed. The Lord meets all of the financial requirements and then some and the invitations to bring the Spirit of the Lord to the people of the country are far more than what he can accept. His ministry would be struggling if he struggled with a desire to appease and be held in esteem by important people or the masses rather than please the Lord and be held in high esteem by the Lord for his allegiance to the principals of God and his willingness and obedience.

One of my favorite scriptures is found in II Kings chapter 3 beginning in verse 11. Jehoshaphat the king of Judah and Ahab the wicked king of Israel approach Elisha for instruction from the Lord and Elisha says to Ahab, "What have I to do with you? Go to the prophets of your father and the prophets of your mother," and when Ahab insists he says, “As the Lord of hosts lives, whom I serve, were it not that I have regard for Jehoshaphat the king of Judah, I would neither look at you, nor see you.” Can you imagine speaking to a king like that? Elisha walked in a double portion of the anointing that was on Elijah, his mentor. Many want a double portion so they can appear great to the world around them. Elisha wanted to be able to be a great servant of the Lord and didn’t care what other prophets, people or kings thought of him or desired. Therefore he received the double portion.

The church cannot save a person or a nation when it itself is flirting with the same spirit of the world that rules the people they are trying to minister God to. If you are placating and appeasing and catering to people you are forsaking the will of the God you say you represent in the process and in actuality the people you are saying you want to bring into God’s kingdom will have no respect for you; although they may respect your God and His power. They will try to use you for their own purposes and evangelize you further to the spirit of the world. The world may persecute you if you stand with God, but I would rather have the persecution of the world than the punishment of God which is a withdrawal of His blessing, protection and presence in my life while I am still on earth and who knows the detail of what would be in store for me when I leave this earth because of my heart. Make no mistake: The world will not listen to you about a God that your own actions show you don’t respect. Make no mistake: If you don’t show respect for God, but are instead a respecter of persons, God will withdraw from you His presence, His protection and His blessing.

Sadly, especially in this country, we have the means to provide our own blessing and protection to a large degree and are adept at providing a false sense of the presence of God in our worship services which seems to satisfy the people’s miniscule need for the sense of the presence of God because the level of their self-satisfaction is so high . . . that is until cancer or some other threat appears on the horizon like the people of Israel appeared on Balak’s and Moab’s horizon; then there is a clamor for someone who can get God to remove the threat. It is also true that the unfortunate history of many church organizations is that they see their position among the people threatened by the truth of God and they look far and wide for a Bible teacher or Bishop or such to curse any group that appears on their horizon that represents the truth of God. They have the same spirit as the Pharisees and Sadducees in Jesus’ day. Our churches have formed idols. Just as the Jewish people in Jesus’ day, they have formed a God using scripture that does not represent the one true God of the scriptures. It represents the whims and fancies of people and is based on the doctrines and traditions of men fashioned from the Bible. The Jewish people of Jesus’ day believed in God, but they limited Him and rendered His word of no effect by their traditions. This is true of the church organizations of today with their competing and variant doctrines. The prophet Micah told the Jewish people and tells us to take heed of the counsel of Balak and to know in comparison the righteousness of God.

As we proceed in chapter 22 we see that Balaam enjoys his position in the eyes of the world around him. He is a people pleaser. While he has respect for the wrath of God, He has no respect for the will of God. In verse 5 and 7 of chapter 22 Balak sends important people in his kingdom to contact Balaam with “the rewards of divination in their hand.” Note that no one has to tell Balak about Balaam. Balak knows him and knows where he lives. He knows also what motivates Balaam. He sends important people with reward. Implied in that is Balaam’s reputation with Balak. Balaam has built that reputation. He has built it by pleasing people, by using the matters of God to establish himself. He has accepted the rewards of divination in the past. Bear in mind that reward is whatever you value. It does not have to be monetary. Being held in high esteem and catered to by the important people was a part of the reward Balaam coveted. The second time Balak sends messengers to Balaam in verses 15-17, he is again moved by Balaam’s reputation and sends to him “princes” with promises of promotion to position of honor.

The Lord appears to Balaam and Balaam tells God that Balak wants the people to be cursed. God’s response to Balaam was very clear: “Thou shall not curse the people for they are blessed” (Numbers 22:12). Throughout the scriptures that follow it appears that Balaam does not violate, in any direct way, the word of the Lord. However, it is very obvious that Balaam wants to get permission from God to curse Israel. Isaiah chapter 1 verse 19 states, “If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land.” We can be obedient for all kinds of selfish, personal motives not the least of which is a motive to not incur the anger of God. However, in Isaiah we see that God is not just looking for obedience, He is looking for a willing heart, one that has adopted the heart of God on the issue in question. The moment that Balaam saw that God had blessed these people his heart should have become one with God’s. He should himself have desired to bless Israel. He should have found any further attempt from Balak a huge affront. He should have spoken to this carnal, Bael worshipping, worldly king as Elisha spoke to Ahab. Great anger should have arisen in Balaam. “How dare you ask me to curse these people.” Great alarm should have risen in him as it did in the witch of Endor when Samuel appeared to her and she realized she was messing with God’s business. But no, all Balaam has his mind on is the rewards of divination. The second time the pot is enriched. It is princes, not just important people, that are sent to him and there is the promise of a promotion to a place honor among the Moabites. Furthermore, he is told that the great Balak will grant any wish he has. Balaam’s behavior is as one who is afraid of God, but not one who fears God. He won’t directly cross the will of God, but he continues to try to maneuver God to his position so he can get the rewards of divination. He keeps hoping God will change His mind because of his many petitions and the religious manner in which they are conducted with sacrifices and a sacred number of alters. (The number 7 is recognized as a sacred number with special significance to God in scripture.) When we fear God we have respect for who He is and voluntarily follow Him without special motivation. We immediately divorce ourselves from a false position. Of course, if the truth be fully known, I suspect that Balaam knew before he ever approached God what God’s response would be.

You see, Balaam’s heart will not let him accept God’s position and he continues to seek God in hopes of winning God to the position of Balak. God appears to Balaam and tells him that if the men ask him to go with them that Balaam is to go. The next morning Balaam leaves with the princes of Moab and God’s anger is kindled because he went. (Numbers 22:19-22) At first reading you may want to question the righteousness of God in telling Balaam he could go and then being angry when he did. Perhaps God’s anger can be explained with this analogy. A man and a woman are married. It is known to the man that his wife’s heart is not with him and that she desires an adulterous affair with another man. She seeks his permission to leave the house and he knows that when she goes her heart will leave with her and her heart and body be given to a stranger to their marriage. Does the man have his wife’s heart if he demands she stay? When he tells her to go, is he condoning the adultery? Or is he merely acknowledging the state and position of her heart? When she follows her sinful desire and leaves, is he not justified in his jealousy in spite of the fact that he told her she could go? Balaam’s lover is Balak, and he desires the rewards of his bed that he offers to Balaam. God does not have Balaam’s heart, yet as prophet of God they are in a marital relationship. The church, that is, You and I, is in a marital relationship with the Lord Jesus. He permits much that He does not condone. He is as displeased with us today as He was with the church at Pergamum.

As Balaam proceeds along his way, an angel of the Lord stands in the path of Balaam. Balaam cannot see the angel; however, the donkey upon which he is riding has her eyes opened by the Lord and she sees the angel withstanding them. The donkey turns aside into a field and Balaam beats his donkey. The angel of the Lord stands in the path that is in the vineyards. This path has a wall on either side of it and the donkey when she sees the angel crushes Balaam’s foot against the wall and Balaam beats her again. The angel stands in a narrow place where the donkey cannot get by and the donkey falls to the ground and Balaam beats his donkey some more. This is the case with rebellious people: they cannot see the matters of God because they are blind and they beat the donkeys in their life, those who have carried them, who have helped them along life’s path, who can see the matters of God whose counsel they have trusted who are trying to get them to see. Those with the heart of Balaam see the prophets in their life as dumb donkeys who are hindering them in their pursuits, and they verbally beat them in their carnal ignorance until the people who have helped them along life’s way are no longer willing to carry them. At this desperate point in life the Lord hopefully will open the ears of those with the heart of Balaam where they can hear their spiritual counselors just as He opened up the ears of Balaam so he could hear his donkey speak to him. Balaam’s donkey says to him, “What have I done unto you?” Balaam’s response is, “You have ridiculed and provoked me,” to which the donkey replies, “Am I not your donkey? Upon which you have ridden all your life long until this day? Was I ever accustomed to do so to you?” Balaam’s response is an honest “No.” Then the Lord opens Balaam’s eyes so that he can see the angel and the angel says to Balaam, “I went out to withstand you because your way is perverse before me.” There is a partial repentance on Balaam’s part. He acknowledges that he didn’t know that he was being withstood and says, “If it displeases you, I will return.” Had not the angel just told him that his way was perverse? What is this question “If it displeases you . . . ?” Again, Balaam is in hopes that he will be permitted to continue because he is motivated by the rewards of divination he has been offered. Although his way is perverse the angel again permits him to continue with the instruction that he is to speak only what the Lord tells him to speak. So Balaam continues with the princes of Balak. (Numbers 22:21-33)

In a nutshell the principal is that when we are blind because of stubborn pursuit of causes not sanctioned by the wisdom of the Holy Spirit we verbally beat those in our life close to us who can see the wisdom of God and are trying to warn us about the path we are on. My wife and I have discovered over the course of our marriage that it was God who gave us each to the other because neither of us would always have the wisdom we needed. When I find that my ears are shut to my wife and I consider her stupid and someone who just doesn’t understand as she is trying to tell me something about what I am doing, I ultimately discover, often after I have been injured in some way, that the problem was not my wife’s stupidity because she had the wisdom of God. My problem was that I had the heart of Balaam.

In chapter 23, knowing that his way is perverse and knowing that the Lord does not desire to curse Israel, Balaam tells Balak to build seven altars and prepare seven oxen and seven rams for sacrifice. Balaam then leaves Balak and goes to a high place to seek the Lord. Balaam is in hopes that if he follows an accepted religious practice with the seven altars and his ascent to a high place to seek the Lord that the Lord will change His mind and curse Israel and Balaam will be able to obtain his rewards. Balaam is attempting to manipulate the Lord God Almighty with a very insulting routine. Instead of discovering a capitulating Lord, Balaam discovers that he is given a word of prophecy and instead of cursing Israel, he opens his mouth to Balak and blesses Israel. Balak is very distraught so he takes Balaam up to the top of the mountain Peor.

There Balaam once again attempts to manipulate the Lord with altars and sacrifices. However, he again meets the opposite mind of the Lord and finally accepts the fact that is the Lord’s will to bless Israel. It is written that at this time he doesn’t seek enchantments, but instead he sets his face toward the wilderness and lifts up his eyes at which time the Lord gives him a vision of Israel and the spirit of the Lord comes upon him and he describes himself as a man “whose eyes are open” and who “heard the words of God” and who “saw the vision of the Almighty, falling into a trance, but having his eyes open.” At this moment in time he gives up any hope of the rewards of divination and prophecies the future of Israel and the coming of the Lord Jesus. (Chapter 24)

When Balaam sought the rewards of divination he gave up the rewards of the Lord. His desire was to use the gift and calling of God upon his life to obtain earthly treasures. One might wonder at the fact that the Lord worked with him and utilized him to prophecy success to Israel and the coming of His Son to the world. Scripture tells us that the gifts and callings of God are without repentance. Balaam was called to be a prophet of God and because of that received the gifts of God necessary to fulfill that calling. However, Balaam prostituted what God had given him. He offered it to the world for reward.
While Balaam feared the power and punishment of God, he had no respect for the heart of God nor was his heart with God. His treasure was not to please God, it was to please himself and obtain in this lifetime rewards for divination from the world.

In the New Testament, Jesus tells us that where our treasures are that is where our heart is. (Matthew 6:21) Jesus’ instruction for us is for us to store up treasures in Heaven by following Him. (Luke 18:22) In Luke 12:21 we are told to be rich toward God rather than lay up treasures for ourselves on the earth. James, in chapter 5 verses 2 and 3, warns us, “Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have rusted, and their rust will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure for the last days.”

No doubt Balaam will come before God seeking reward on the day of judgment because of the quality and depth and wealth of his prophecy over Israel found in chapter 24 of Numbers. He will have none. He will find himself among that number to whom Jesus says, “I never knew you; depart from me, you evildoers.” This is because we are judged according to the heart with which we do things. Had Balaam immediately told Balak when he understood the will of the Lord, “Depart from me. I will not curse Israel,” he would have found himself in the same trance that he found himself in chapter 24 and he would have blessed Israel and prophesied of Jesus out of a heart that was one with God instead of blessing Israel out of a heart that wanted to curse Israel and obtain the rewards of this world. On the day of judgment he would be in line to receive Heavenly reward and blessing for having done the will of God out of a willing heart and he would have during his lifetime eaten the good of the land. (Isaiah 1:19)

The Lord speaks to us through the prophet Jeremiah in Jeremiah 17:9-10, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately corrupt; who can understand it? I the Lord search the mind and try the heart, to give to every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.” We cannot hide the nature of our heart from God. In Psalm 44:21 it is written, “Would not God discover this? For he knows the secrets of the heart.” David understood that his heart was deceitful and wicked and that God knew the secrets of his heart. David desired to have a heart that was one with God. Therefore, he prayed in Psalms 139:23-24, “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting,” and in Psalms 86:11, “Teach me thy way, O Lord, that I may walk in thy truth; unite my heart to fear thy name.” We as individuals who are called to be a part of the church of the firstborn (Hebrews 12:23) must earnestly pray as David did in Psalms 139 and Psalms 86 and make the decision to forsake the rewards of this world, especially reputation, and be pleasers of the Lord rather than pleasers of people.

Bob Highsmith
aspiritualhouse@yahoo.com

FELLOWSHIP WITH JESUS

2005-02-11T11:40:00.000-05:00

God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. 1st Corinthians 1:9

Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion; for lo, I come, and I will dwell in the midst of you, says the LORD. Zachariah 2:10

He who has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me; and he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him." John 14:21

I am a companion of all those who fear You, of those who keep Your precepts. Psalm 119:63

In the first scripture set forth above the statement is made that God is faithful. That characterization of the Father should never be forgotten. The one and only thing that we can be absolutely assured of in life is that God is faithful. The Bible says that He watches over His word to perform it. (Jeremiah 1:12 RSV) God is faithful to Himself (2nd Timothy 2:13), and cannot deny what He has caused to be written in the Bible. Jesus relied upon His Father’s faithfulness to His word in resisting the temptations presented to Him in the wilderness. His response to the devil was, “It is written.” (Matthew 4:4, 7, 10) There is no shadow of turning in Him. (James 1:17) He is the same yesterday, today and forever. (Hebrews 13:8) We can rely upon anything He has said and place our trust in it.

God said in 1st Corinthians 1:9 that we are called into the fellowship of His Son by Him. There is a definite, distinct, positive fellowship that is a part of Jesus Christ, our Lord. It is a fellowship that is offered to us. That is why it is described as the fellowship “of” His Son. It is something that is of Him that the Father wants us to have. Fellowship is an attribute of Jesus. It is a part of His nature. It is something that we can partake of. You see His disciples in the four Gospels and in the book of Acts living under and in that fellowship. That Fellowship was the chosen atmosphere of the disciples. They did not socialize with anyone outside of that fellowship. We are all called by the Father into a social atmosphere with Jesus.

The prophet Zachariah foresaw this opportunity for living in an atmosphere of fellowship with the Lord. Zachariah said for us to sing and rejoice because he heard Jesus proclaiming, “I come and I will dwell in the midst of you.”

However, it isn’t everyone who makes the choices necessary to be able to socialize with the Lord and live in His fellowship. There are hard and fast choices that have to be made. Jesus said in John 14:21 that we must, one, have His commandments, and, two, keep them. When Jesus used the phrase “has My commandments” He was speaking words of possession. We can experience a very shallow, insincere, casual acquaintance with His commandments that falls far short of possessing them. In a country like the United States where churches abound it is hard to find anyone who isn’t at least familiar with most of what is called The Ten Commandments, but it is also hard to find anyone who takes them very seriously. A person who “has” the commandments of the Lord is a person who has seriously considered them and made himself quite aware of the content, import and requirement of those commandments. Also what we refer to as The Ten Commandments is only a small portion of “My commandments.” The Ten Commandments take up a column in the book of Deuteronomy. The entire Bible constitutes “My commandments.” When Jesus speaks of he who has My commandments He is speaking of someone who has undertaken to have a command of the scriptures. This first step takes some effort on our part. It requires setting aside time to be with the Bible. It requires not just reading, but meditating. It requires inquiring with an honest heart as to the meaning, import and intent of scripture.

Having come into possession of scripture in this manner does not in and of itself insure fellowship with the Lord. There are people who know scripture quite well who are not born again. There are people who are born again but who interpret the scriptures to suit themselves. In other words, rather than permitting themselves to be altered to where they are compatible with scripture, they alter scripture to make it compatible with them. The Pharisees and the Sadducees are examples of the latter. Jesus said to them, “You search the scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness to me; yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life. (John 5:39) What they saw in scripture they altered to suit themselves. Jesus further said to them, “Why do you also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?” (Matthew 15:3)
Having fellowship with the Lord is a matter of fellowshipping with the Lord that is found in scripture. Fellowshipping with any other Jesus is idol worship. Unfortunately there are a multitude of Jesus’. There may be a common element in all of these Jesus’ found in salvation. However, even with salvation there is the Jesus that saves forever and then there is the Jesus that casts you aside when you sin requiring that you be resaved. There is the Jesus that heals today and there is the Jesus that doesn’t heal today. There is the Jesus that anoints individuals to enable them to cast our devils and lay hands on the sick for healing and there is the Jesus that doesn’t do that. There is the Jesus who prospers His followers and the Jesus that requires His followers to live impoverished.

The dilemma for us is not found in the fact that there are various Jesus’ being promoted and worshipped. The dilemma is in our own heart. We are caught between two. We are caught between a desire to know and have fellowship with the Lord and a desire to maintain our own identity and preserve our own ways. The Jesus of scripture is a potter who alters the vessel to make it a vessel of his own choosing. We must give up our own will in every respect in order to truly know the will of the Father and the Lord Jesus who are one. Jesus was able to have fellowship with the Father because He directed His own will to follow the will of His Heavenly Father. (John 6:38; 9:31) It is only in the knowledge of and obedience to the true will of God that we find the fellowship with Jesus that we are called to. Scriptures states that if you search for Jesus with your whole heart you will find Him. (Jeremiah 29:13-14) It is written that if you draw near to God, He will draw near to you. (James 4:8) Obviously, if we are drawing near to a false Jesus, we are distancing ourselves from the true Lord, and also He will not draw near to us because he cannot fellowship with an idolatrous heart.

It behooves us then to examine our hearts and without any reservation search for Him. Scripture says that David was a man after the heart of God. In the Psalms David wrote, “Search me, O God and know my heart: try me and know my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way of everlasting.” (Psalms 139:23-24) If we will take the time to come privately and quietly before the Lord and ask Him to search our hearts, the spirit of God will bring to our consciences those areas where we are not searching for the Lord with our entire heart. It may be that we are reserving for our selves the right to not forgive someone. Or we may be reserving for ourselves the right to think lustful thoughts. Or there may be recurrent situations in our life that we know that are not pleasing to the Lord, but we don’t deal with them for some reason such as being concerned with how others will afterward relate to us which is a form of having a respect for persons when we are commanded to have no respect for persons, but to fear the Lord. We can have confidence that the Lord knows us and can search our hearts for us because scripture says so. One of many references is Psalms 139:3 which says, “You comprehend my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways.”

We can be confident that we can enter the fellowship of the Lord and live in a social relationship with Him. He said that if we have His commandments and keep them that we will be loved by the Father as well as by Jesus and that Jesus will manifest Himself to us. In John 14:23 He says that He and the Father will come and make their abode with us. David wrote prophetically about the Lord in Psalms 119:63 when he said, “I am a companion of those who fear you, of those who keep your precepts.” Jesus will be our constant companion when we demonstrate a fear and respect of His Father and keep His Father’s precepts and commandments. Listed below are scriptures that give us the depth and quality of the fellowship of the Lord that God the Father is calling us to. Living in the society of that fellowship is a place of blessing, and it is only out of that fellowship that any true ministry comes forth.

THE QUALITY OF THE FELLOWSHIP OF JESUS

For the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you, and my covenant of peace shall not be removed, says the Lord, who has compassion on you. Isaiah 54:10

When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up. Psalm 27:10

I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. John 14:18

You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you . . . John 15:16

When you pass through the waters I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.
For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior . . . Because you are precious in my eyes, and honored, and I love you . . . Fear not, for I am with you . . . Isaiah 43:2-5

The Lord is faithful; he will strengthen you and guard you from evil.
2nd Thessalonians 3:3

The Lord, your God, is in your midst, a warrior who gives victory; he will rejoice over you with gladness, he will renew you in his love; he will exult over you with loud singing as on a day of festival. Zephaniah 3:17-18

You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God, who has dealt wondrously with you. And my people shall never again be put to shame. Joel 2:26

For he satisfies the longing soul, and fills the hungry soul with goodness. Psalm 107:9

He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, will he not with him also freely give us all things? Romans 8:32

Bob Highsmith
aspiritualhouse@yahoo.com

FELLOWSHIP WITH THE FATHER

2005-01-26T14:42:00.000-05:00

1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life -
2 the life was made manifest, and we saw it, and testify to it, and proclaim to you the eternal life which was with the Father and was made manifest to us -
3 that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you may have fellowship with us; and our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.
4 And we are writing this that our joy may be complete.
5 This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him is no darkness at all.
6 If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not live according to the truth;
7 but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.
8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
10 If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. (1st John 1-10)

The Spirit that God has placed in us in addition to providing us with personality has provided us with something that the English language gives the name intuition. Intuition is defined as “immediate knowing or learning of something without the conscience use of reasoning.” (Webster’s New World Dictionary of the American Language) We are told in Proverbs that the spirit of man is the candle of the Lord. (Proverbs 20:27) Intuitively in our spirits we perceive what is the light of the Lord. Our minds may accept religion, which I will define as intellectual perceptions of God, that is a perception of God formulated out of our reasonings, but the spirit of man will continually look for the true light, the essence of God, the reality of God.

The quest of the spirit of man to know God is as present in the unborn again Christian as the born again. Unfortunately the unborn again spirit is offered, for the most part, religion which it intuitively rejects as not being true. Anything that is false that purports to be God is religion. Granted, people’s minds may accept religion temporarily because they have no other alternative. I met an Indian man one time who was a bishop in the Anglican church and had translated the Bible into seven different Indian dialects. He began as a Hindu, became a Muslim in his search for the true God. He stated that within himself as an unborn again man, he knew he had not found God. (The details of his life that brought him to the one true God are not pertinent here.) It appears also that some, when they sense the power of control that religion gives them, will rise in leadership and never come into the light because the light requires of them humility and submission to the distribution of leadership set by the Holy Ghost. We see this in the scribes and the Pharisees in the New Testament and with the kings in the Old Testament. We see in Jeremiah 5:30-31 the Lord saying that the prophets prophesy falsely and the kings rule by this means of false prophesy and that numerous members of the public desired to have it that way. No where will you find religion more succinctly defined and its horror more vivid than in Jeremiah 5:30-31. The persecution that light suffers comes from religion not wanting to give up its control and rule.

The scriptures above provide guidelines for any of us who are putting forth effort to share the light of Heaven and the Lord Jesus Christ and for any of us who are pursuing light. The first point is found in the first three verses. Those who are putting forth effort to share the light should limit themselves to sharing what they themselves have personally heard and seen out of their own fellowship with our Heavenly Father. Those pursuing light are looking for people who can share out of their own actual experience of God. It just doesn’t ring true to the spirit of man when someone is sharing light that comes from a third party’s fellowship with the Father. Second-hand, hearsay light can never be presented authoritatively. Nor does it ring true to the spirit of man when the presentation is out of the reasoning of the mind. John says that what he and his fellow disciples were sharing is what they had seen with their own eyes and that which they had heard with their own ears. Their sharing seemed an invitation and created a desire to have fellowship with John and those who were with him because “our fellowship is with the Father and with the Son Jesus Christ.” Teaching, preaching, prophesying, etc. should always come forth from the teacher, preacher or prophet’s personal fellowship with the Father and send forth to the intuition of their listeners an invitation to enter into the same fellowship. People are hungry deep within themselves to know God. They are not interested in intellectual doctrines and mental reasonings about God. They want to know Him.

The second point in these scriptures is that if we are walking in any way in the darkness of the world, then we are not in the requisite fellowship with the Father that is necessary to qualify us to be teachers, preachers and prophets. The Scripture says that if we put forth the idea that we are fellowshipping with the Father when we are walking in darkness we are putting forth a lie. Although our listeners may not intuitively know that we are in darkness, our words will not intuitively be received as being the light of Heaven when we are walking in darkness. The Spirit of man is a sensitive instrument of Heaven and perceives that something is not right.

These scriptures recognize that we all are going to have our moments when we cease fellowship with the Father and invoke fellowship with darkness. We are pointed to the truth that if we confess our sin that He is faithful and just to forgive our sins and cleanse us. The Father wants us sharing light and pursuing light. One of the most dangerous and deceptive aspects of sin is that it takes us out of fellowship with the Father and removes from us the desire to share light and receive light. If we train ourselves to be aware of the intuition of our spirits we will be quick to seek forgiveness and slow to enter into sin.

The authority and power of Jesus’ words did not come from knowledge of Scripture although knowledge of Scripture was essential and foundational and He did possess when on earth perfect knowledge of Scripture. The authority and power of Jesus’ words came from His continuous, honest, humble fellowship with His Heavenly Father. In Matthew 7:28-29 it is said that the “people were astonished at His doctrine: for He taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes.” Jesus revealed the secret of that authority in John 8:26 when He said, “He that sent Me is true; and I speak to the world those things which I have heard of Him” (not what someone else had heard), and in verse 38 where He says, “I speak that which I have seen with My Father.”

In light of these Scriptures it would behoove us to spend large amounts of quality time in fellowship with our Heavenly Father in order that our words and our life might bear the authority of true light. Paul prayed that the church would have the spirit of wisdom and the spirit of revelation. (Ephesians 1:17) (That spirit does not manifest itself during prime time television, during parties, during reading secular books, magazines, newspapers etc., during country and western, pop, or rock concerts, or radio broadcasts.) It manifests during Bible reading and meditation and prayer. It also would behoove us in light of these Scriptures to seek out and listen to those who our intuition tell us are spending large amounts of quality time in fellowship with our Heavenly Father in order that we might receive preaching, teaching and prophesy that is from the heart of God and not the mind of man.

Bob Highsmith
www.aspiritualhouse.blogspot.com
www.jeremiah419.blogspot.com

THE MIND OF CHRIST

2004-12-21T15:55:00.000-05:00

Our mind and our emotions are very important to us. With our emotions we experience love, anger, hurt. Our minds register everything that the physical senses receive. We gather information by sight and by hearing and we make decisions based upon the information we gather. Our life consists of the operation and utilization of our minds and emotions. Our existence is found in them. You might say that we live in our emotions and our thoughts. For some that life is better than for others. Some have minds and emotions that are better able to cope with the physical world around them than others. Some are better able to use their minds and emotions to carve out for themselves a better place amongst humanity than others. However the issue with the mind and emotions is not in comparison or competitiveness with other human beings. The issue with the mind and emotions is spiritual.

In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve had the mind and emotions of God Almighty. Their feelings were identical with their Heavenly Father because their thoughts were identical with their Heavenly Father and the emotions are produced from thought. However, they were free, as we are, at any point in time to reason for themselves. When Satan appeared in the Garden they made the choice to reason for themselves, a cataclysmic mistake. God says that His thoughts are higher than our thoughts and ever since the experience in the Garden of Eden individuals have been thinking for themselves and living an existence far below that which is in the thought of God for them. The Bible is much easier to understand if approached from the standpoint that the Old Testament demonstrates the conflict between man’s thoughts and God’s thoughts with real life episodes. The Bible is a continuum from Adam and Eve to the birth of Jesus of God moving mankind toward His thoughts and bringing judgment to stubbornness and rebellion. This continuum concludes with God becoming incarnate in the person of Jesus to demonstrate the power of being of one mind with God and to provide mankind with a supernatural means of becoming of one mind with God. Man does not in himself have that ability as the Old Testament demonstrates.

The obstacle in our lives to relationship with God is our mind. We want to have our own mind. We want to reason things out and solve problems and obtain the glory that accompanies successful solution. The introduction of the supernatural power of God into a problem meets with fierce opposition from the mind of man. Man would rather search for years for a cure for cancer that the ultimate glory for cancer’s eradication might be in him than humble himself to the word of God and receive supernatural healing. Man would rather plot and scheme and plan for the key to financial success than to pray and be led by God into the Father’s prosperity.

Scripture says for us to renew our minds to the word of God. It is obvious that the purpose of this directive is so we will think like God. Scripture says to let the same mind be in us that was in Christ Jesus—that mind was obedient to every word spoken by the Heavenly Father; that mind gave up the right to think for itself with the decision to live by every word that proceeded out of the mouth of God. Scripture tells us that we have the mind of Christ. And we do; the mind of Christ has been given to us and is waiting to be acquired by us. To receive the mind of Christ we must give up our own mind. The mind of Christ is not an attached option that we consider among our many other options. The mind of Christ is to be our only mind. Otherwise we are in the same predicament Adam and Eve placed themselves in and mankind has been in ever since where we exalt ourselves above God and consider Him as simply an alternative that might work or that we might want to employ, but where we remain enthroned on the seat of decision. To have the mind of Christ is to be like Him. It is the only way to be a follower of God. Jesus said of Himself He could do nothing and He said that what satisfied Him was to do the will of His Father. His statement was, “Not My will but Yours be done.” He could have exercised His mind, if He wanted, to merely consider God and conclude for himself whether He wanted to follow God or not in every situation He faced, just as we do. However, Jesus chose to adopt a mind that ruled that option out. Jesus chose to not have a mind of His own except for the single decision to adopt the mind of God. To have the mind of Christ is to do the same thing. To have the mind of Christ is to proceed only on the basis that “God has said” and on no other basis. That is the glory of man to make that decision. Jesus confronts us. He confronts our minds. He stands there as a stumbling block and a rock of offense. Religion tries to devise some type of mixed mind where we adhere to Jesus in some aspects but not in all. In scripture we see that God despises that kind of thing. Can you imagine what the world would be like if everything had the mind of Christ. A baker would still bake, but he would bake as God told him. Everything he did would be right. The banker would still bank, but he would bank as God told him and everything he did would be right. None of the problems which we have on the earth today would exist. There would be no poverty, there would be no disease, there would be no war. There would be no haves and have-nots and no competitiveness among people for all would be receiving from the Lord an ample portion and everything would be in order for the good of the universe and the good of mankind and the good of Heaven. The existence of evil in the world is because man insists upon providing for his existence through his own logic and thoughts that are selfish and glory seeking and lower than God’s thoughts.

The history of the world since Adam is a history of the conflict of man with God. All of scripture can be analyzed in the light of God seeking to have man conform to His thought and man refusing to conform to God’s thought. For instance, God had said plainly and simply you shall not make for yourself any graven image. Joshua and company, for the most part, had followed the mind of God and entered into a land flowing with milk and honey and God had given them the land as their own. Not many generations thereafter, in Judges chapter 17, we find a man named Micah who had a mother who had saved for him silver for him to make graven images. He took the silver to a founder and had the silver made into graven images, his imagined concept of God. He made an ephod and a teraphim and consecrated one of his sons to be the priest of his graven images. Scripture makes the simple statement in verse 6, “In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes.” A Levite comes wandering through and Micah becomes elated that he might have a Levite to be a priest to him of his graven images. The Levite decides to dwell with Micah and be a priest of his images of God. Micah, who is perceiving God according to his own thoughts and not according to the word of God, says in verse 13, “Now know I that the Lord will do me good seeing I have a Levite to be my priest.” It isn’t long before a wandering band of the tribe of Dan comes by and sees the images and the Levite priest. They are greater in number than Micah and offer the priest a new job to be their priest using Micah’s images. The Levite, seeing his own selfish interest in being a priest to a larger number, consents and the images and the priest go with the Danites. This situation is very similar to the denominations we have today which represent various images people have formed of God, and of pulpit committees and pastors leaving flocks for the highest bidder, all in the name of the Lord, of course. Our churches do not have actual physical images of who they want God to be and to look like, however, they do have the images in their mind and these images bear little resemblance to the one and only true God. The congregations seek pastors to be priests to them of their image of God. Like Micah, in their minds they know and believe that the Lord does them good because of their special doctrines and the special image they have of God. The word “image” comes from the word “imagination.” The mind has imagined what it wants to believe because of what suits it and serves its own selfish interest.

The church has become a mixture of truth and man’s imagination. In the book of Ezra, a book concerning the rebuilding of the Temple of God, when Ezra discovered that the children of Israel, including the priests, while in captivity, had married strange wives of the people of their captors, he commanded a great divorce. The strange wives were cast out of the congregation.

The church is and has been in captivity for a considerable length of time because they have not regarded the work of the Lord nor considered the operation of His hands and have no true knowledge of God (Isaiah 5:12-13). The church has married many erroneous thoughts. By church I am not speaking of the organizations themselves, although it is true of the organizations because the organizations reflect the people who have formed them, but I am speaking of the individuals who make up the church whether they are flock or clergy. In order for us to be built into the temple of the Holy Ghost there must first be a purging and casting away of all thought which is not identical to the mind of Christ. We must divorce ourselves from our own wills and not have a mind of our own. Stubbornness is as idolatry and rebellion as the sin of witchcraft (1st Samuel 15:23). When we choose to have our own mind in a matter we are practicing idolatry and witchcraft in the eyes of the Lord.

I don’t know of anything that closes our ears to the Lord and causes us to counterfeit His mind than the desire for having something in ourselves where everything is not of the Lord. There is inherent in the natural soul of man the desire for glory. It manifested in Adam and Eve when they saw that they could be as God judging for themselves what was good and evil. There is quite a difference between being subservient to the mind of God and counterfeiting a god that has a mind that suits us. The gods that we counterfeit are truly gods of judgment because they are born out of our judgment of God Himself. How often have I heard people declare what God would or wouldn’t do based upon their own concepts of good and evil. Jesus said that “"I CAN DO NOTHING ON MY OWN AUTHORITY; as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just because I SEEK NOT MINE OWN WILL, but the will of the Father.” (John 5:30) The precondition to hearing and understanding and rightly interpreting the word of God, whether the written word of God or the witness within, is the irreversible, permanent decision to do the will of God and divorce one’s self from an independent will.

In Jeremiah chapter 42 the people came to the prophet Jeremiah from the least to the greatest and asked Jeremiah to go before the Lord for them that the Lord might show them the way that they should go. They made the statement in verses 5-6 that the Lord be witness between them that they would do exactly as the Lord had said, and would not judge it whether it was good or evil for them, but would obey the voice of the Lord. The Lord gave them ample opportunity to consider this position of theirs by waiting ten days to give Jeremiah an answer. After the ten days had passed when Jeremiah returned to them he knew, by the word of knowledge, that they had “dissembled in your hearts” or as the Amplified Bible states it, “You have dealt deceitfully against your own lives.” Jeremiah then goes on to tell them that they had decided to ignore what the Lord would tell them and had already made up their own minds that it was good for them to go down into Egypt. Unfortunately, this is the manner in which people deal with God and this is why man does not have the fruit of intimate relationship with the Lord and few, very few are actually guided by the Lord.

Recently I was reading in Numbers Chapters 13 and 14 where Moses sent the spies into the Promised Land (I won’t go there, but there is spiritual significance to the fact that at this time the River Jordan was not swollen and could be crossed). The men that went in with Joshua and Caleb could see that it was a wonderful land, but they also saw the people of the land. Many of the people of the land were giants and were seen as an obstacle to being able to enter in without the mind of the Lord. Their response was “We be not able to go up against the people for they are stronger than we . . . we were in our own sight as grasshoppers . . . Let us make a captain and let us return into Egypt.” There are two points to be made here. One is that if the glory could not be in them, if they were not able to do it of themselves, they wanted no part of it. Two, their response was a desire to appoint a captain and return into a place, regardless of how unpleasant in some respects, where they decided for themselves and the glory was in them. The world resembles this posture: Living in sin, dying of diseases, poverty everywhere, unhappiness regardless of station in life, as Esau preferring the temporary pleasures of the world and independence of mind to the birthright they have in God through the Lord Jesus Christ and the inheritance of the blessings of God provided through Jesus. However, they are the captain of their own lives.

Caleb and Moses and Aaron and Joshua were different. Their response was “We are well able to overcome it . . . He will bring us into the land and give it us . . . Rebel not against the Lord (or against the requirement of faith which is to have the mind of the Lord) neither fear the people of the land for they are bread for us: their defense (our fear of faith which is a fear of giving up the glory in ourselves, of giving up independent thought) is departed from them and the Lord is with us.”

After Moses’ intercession, which by tremendous implication says that the Lord is able, the Lord says, “I will pardon these people, but as truly as I live all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord. (Not filled with the glory of man)” The Lord clearly puts the whole issue on the basis of glory when He makes this statement. He would not let any over 20 years old enter the Promised Land. They died in the wilderness. This whole episode is an allegory for us. The death of that generation is a metaphor or is symbolic of what has to occur in us before we can truly follow the Lord and enter into the Promised Land of the New Testament. The Promised Land of the New Testament is a soul (mind and emotions) that is in complete agreement with, identical to, and one with the mind of Christ. It is a mind that orders matters according to faith in what God has said and not according to logic based on what is seen. Faith is a matter of thinking like the Lord and doing what those thoughts direct regardless of obstacle or human inability. Jesus said for us to deny ourselves and follow Him. We must deny any desire for glory, we must deny any desire to have any result that comes from our own innate abilities—that is our cross which we must pick up. It is the cross Jesus picked up embodied in His statement “In My own self I can do nothing” and in His statement “Without Me you can do nothing.” This cross is foolishness to most.

In Isaiah 4:4-6 the Lord says, “when the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and cleansed the bloodstains of Jerusalem from its midst by a spirit of judgment and by a spirit of burning. Then the Lord will create over the whole site of Mount Zion and over her assemblies a cloud by day, and smoke (the glory of the Lord) and the shining of a flaming fire by night; for over all the glory there will be a canopy and a pavilion. It will be for a shade by day from the heat, and for a refuge and a shelter from the storm and rain.” As has been seen in Isaiah chapter 5 which begins “I will sing to my beloved a song” people go into captivity when they do not have the true knowledge of the Lord and Isaiah further says in chapter 5 that the concern of the Lord is with wild grapes or fruit that is not designed by Him. In the scriptures in chapter 4 it is in the intent of the Lord to wash away the filth (the desire for glory) and cleanse them by judgment and burning. What He desires is to cover His Body with His guidance and to have all glory be under His covering or canopy as the scripture says. Having the glory in the Lord protects us from the heat of the day and provides us with refuge from the storms. However, if we are, as chapter 5 describes, without knowledge of the Lord, Hell enlarges itself (verse 14) and opens her mouth without measure and the glory and pomp of the individual descends into it and the mighty are humbled and the eyes of the lofty humbled. Verse 20 says, “Woe unto them that call evil good and good evil” (we do not know what is good and what is evil and often in the name of the Lord proceed thinking something is good when in the Lord’s eyes it is evil because it is not the Lord’s will) and in verse 21 it says, “Woe unto them who are wise in their own eyes and prudent in their own sight.”

Faith is a good thing. Faith is the union of belief with activity. We are quite capable of believing, but not acting on what we believe. Many believe that Jesus is in fact the Son of God, but never act by declaring Him to be their Lord. Faith says that God is able. Let us receive and follow the direction of the Lord. Let us go beyond ourselves into the land of promise where we live according to what God has said and not according to the limitation of our abilities and not according to the limitation of the obstacles of this earth. Heaven’s truth overrides our abilities and any obstacles in the path of the Lord’s will. The Lord is able to take us into faith. Hebrews chapter 12 tells us that Jesus is the author and finisher of our faith. He is able to take us into the position where we have His mind. Let us say that the Lord is able to destroy everything in our souls that rises up against Him. He is able to destroy the walls that we have erected that keep Him out of our mind and emotions.

Note it was Rahab the harlot who invited the presence of God behind the walls. The part of us that must invite God in to give us the mind of Christ is the sinful part of us. It is that part of us that we know and recognize is a harlot and goes whoring with Satan’s offerings of glory and independence of God that must come to conclusion to receive God in peace. Rahab, too, is an allegory of that old nature in us that must receive God behind the walls and let God destroy the old life. We cannot destroy that old life, if we could the glory would be in us. We can, however, come before the Lord and say “I have played the harlot, but it is you I want. Come into the deep recesses of me where I have walled you off before and have Your own will be done in me as it is in Heaven.”

Below is a list of New Testament scriptures that are well worth pondering and spending time in meditation before the Lord concerning this matter of the conflict of our minds with the mind of God.

I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work which you gave me to do; And now I am no more in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. I do not pray for these only, but also for those who believe in me through their word, that they may all be one; even as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory which you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. (John 17:4; 11; 20-23)

Therefore does my Father love me, because I lay down my life, . . . (John 10:17)

He that has my commandments, and keeps them, he it is that loves me: and he that loves me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. Judas said unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself unto us, and not unto the world? Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. He that loves me not keeps not my sayings: and the word which you hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent me. (John 14:21-24)

If you keep my commandments, you shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love. (John 15:10)

Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends, if you do whatsoever I command you. (John 15:13-14)
And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. (Matthew 22:37)

So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inmost self, but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin which dwells in my members. (Romans 7:21-23)

Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I of myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin. (Romans 7:24-25)

To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God's law, indeed it cannot; (Romans 8:6-7)

Among these we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, following the desires of body and mind, and so we were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. (Ephesians 2:3)

Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you stand firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, (Philippians 1:27)

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped (equality—the right to be like God and judge what is good and evil and have all the decisions concerning any issue of life within yourself), but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, (Philippians 2:5-9)

And you, who once were estranged and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, He has now reconciled in His body of flesh by His death, in order to present you holy and blameless and irreproachable before Him, provided that you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which has been preached to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister. (Colossians 1:21-23)

Let no one disqualify you, . . . puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind, and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God. (Colossians 2:18-19)

This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. (Hebrews 8:10)

For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself, unless you be wearied and faint in your minds. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And have you forgotten the exhortation which addresses you as sons? - "My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor lose courage when you are punished by Him. For the Lord disciplines him whom He loves, and chastises every son whom He receives." It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers to discipline us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time at their pleasure, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant; later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. Strive for peace with all men, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. (Hebrews 12:3-14)

Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. (2nd Peter 1:4)

Bob Highsmith
aspiritualhouse@yahoo.com

AM I AN IMITATOR OR BEING MADE AN IMITATION?

2004-11-22T15:00:00.000-05:00

AM I AN IMITATOR OR BEING MADE AN IMITATION?

“One cannot make a study of the New Testament without experiencing something of the nature of a shock, in view of the glaring difference between the Christian life as we customary live it and the ideal set forth by the Master . . . Why does not the Savior, so tender and so understanding, so loving and so wise, make requirements more in keeping of human nature? Why does He seem to be so unreasonable? Why does He not demand of us what we might reasonably attain? He bids us soar, yet we have no wings. Why does the Savior go so far beyond the merely natural and put Christian living on the basis of the supernatural? . . . Have we honestly faced this dilemma? Have we had the courage to face the implication of Christ’s word? If no satisfactory answer can be given . . . we must face the grave charge of overemphasis—exaggeration—fanaticism or whatever we may call this lack of harmony between Christ and the human nature . . . We do well to face squarely all the shocking aspects of this dilemma. Paul did. He candidly acknowledges that he delights in God’s law, loves it, but finds it something to which human nature cannot attain. . . . It was not that Paul, when he wrote Romans 7 was willfully disobedient . . . it was only that he was now seeing himself in a new light—the blinding light of the cross of Christ! . . . innocent little things, attitudes comparatively harmless, little sins . . . now break his heart . . . Paul wants to be like Jesus . . . is there a way out? Yes, there is. Paul found it—we can all find it.

We have been proceeding upon a false basis. We have conceived of the Christian life as an ‘imitation of Christ.’ It is not an imitation of Christ. It is a participation in Christ. ‘For we have become partakers of Christ.’ (Hebrews 3:14) ‘There are exceeding great and precious promises that through these we may be partakers of the divine nature.’ (2nd Peter 1:4) . . . The basic idea (the idea of imitation) is false to the principals that underlie the Christian life. To proceed on the basis of imitation will plunge us into just the sort of ‘slew of despond’ Paul found himself in when he wrote Romans 7. We are not what Christ would have us to be. The Sermon on the Mount does not find expression (in our lives) . . . We agonize and bleed and struggle—failure dogs our footsteps. What is the matter? We are proceeding on a false basis. We are attempting to do what the Savior Himself never expected us to do. The Christian life is not a life of imitation.

. . . What is impossible for me as an imitator of Christ becomes perfectly natural as a participant of Christ. Only when Christ nullifies the force of my inherent . . . (selfishness, the old nature) . . . and (implants in) me a divine life does Christian living in its true sense become at all possible for me. ‘The flesh profits nothing’ (John 6:63). Without Jesus I can do nothing. I must live in Him, and, renouncing my own life, find in Him a new life. . . . The trouble is we have not listened to Jesus. He tells us that we must abide in Him as a branch in the vine. . . . We must bear in mind that it is the office of the Holy Spirit to graft the believer into Christ, even as a gardener would graft the branch of a tree into the trunk of another.”
F. J. Huegel, Bone of His Bone

Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.
And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
But fornication and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is fitting among saints.
Let there be no filthiness, nor silly talk, nor levity, which are not fitting; but instead let there be thanksgiving.
. . . for once you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light
(for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true),
and try to learn what is pleasing to the Lord.
Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.
Ephesians 5:1-4, 8-11

For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.
To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.
For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God's law, indeed it cannot;
and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
Romans 8:5-8

“He that loves a tree, hates the worm that consumes it; he that loves a garment, hates the moth that eats it; he that loves life, abhors death; and he that loves the Lord hates everything that offends Him.”
William Couper (1566-1619)

Blessed is the man that endures temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempts He any man.
But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it brings forth sin and sin
when it is finished, brings forth death.
Do not err, my beloved brethren.
James 1:12-16
Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you.
James 4:7-8

At casual glance Ephesians 5:1 seems to be contradictory of what Huegel has written. However, Paul’s use of the Greek word which is translated both “follower” and “imitator” is not contradictory because Paul is not suggesting that we in our flesh attempt to imitate God. Instead Paul tells us how we are able to be followers or imitators in Ephesians and elsewhere and that is by being “in the Lord.” Jesus also told us to imitate or follow Him and He told us how by prefacing His command with two other commands, “deny yourself” and “pick up your cross” (Matthew 16:24). These two acts of cooperation enable the Spirit of God to make us imitations of the Lord.

All of my problems with sin lie at the doorstep of my soul as do all problems of anyone else’s sin lie at the doorstep of their soul. The problems will start being dealt with when the soul activates to come to a conclusion that it wants to reside in Jesus and let Jesus reside in it. You see the soul does not belong to God; it belongs to us. Our Heavenly Father gave us control over our minds (and therefore our emotions because the emotions tract the thoughts of the mind) when He gave us a free will. The Soul consists of those three, the will, the mind and the emotions. Our spirits belong to God; He can take them back to Himself born again or un-born again whenever He wishes. The born again spirit has been perfected, but unfortunately it is connected to the unredeemed soul in an unredeemed body that have appetites and lusts that do not want to be controlled. There is an old nature, a nature quite different from the holy nature of God the Father and His Son and His Spirit, living in our soul. It wants to yield to the body and all the perverse and contrary ideas that are housed in and pass through the mind without thought of any eternal consequence and often without thought of contemporary consequence.

The answer to sin is cooperation with the triune God Head. Being born again gives our spirits that perfection that desires deep within to escape sin and walk in unison and tandem with The God Head. How do I begin this cooperation? It lies in a foundational decision to let the Spirit of God lead us through the mystical and supernatural cross that Jesus instigated in the life of God’s people that superceded the alter and animal sacrifice. We see the spiritual principle of the cross in operation even before Jesus was slain. It manifested in the hearts of men like the prophets, David, Abraham, Jacob, Isaac, Joshua, Joseph, Gideon, and John the Baptist. These men were not perfect, but they had a heart attitude that placed God and Holiness in the supreme place of preeminence in what they chose to do in life which meant that they had to deny their natural desires that were contrary to God. The Spirit of God aided these men in that regard. It is written that John had the Spirit of God with him before his birth.

However we see in expression found in the Psalms what a struggle it was not being born again and we observe the grave sin in David and Gideon’s lives that they committed. But the understanding of the need and the desire to give God’s mind authority over their mind was irreversibly formed within them and adhered to as best they could. John the Baptist said it rather simply when he said that he must decrease in order that Jesus might increase. Likewise, we must decrease. We must come to the conclusion that our personality must find expression only in Jesus and loose any expression that brings sinful pleasure or glory and honor to ourselves.

The spirit of man is not the problem. Jesus said that the spirit was willing. However, He pointed out that the flesh was weak—that is that our flesh, our strengths of mind and personality, our talents, our aptitudes cannot take us into the realm of life in the Lord Jesus or perform for us what is necessary. Our attitude can. It is a matter or attitude not aptitude. Anyone can form an attitude. (Matthew 26:41)

It is easy to see, isn’t it, that our problem lies in our soul. For this is where we are volitional or where we reach conclusion and makes decisions. The answer to sin is that we must make a foundational decision to give our souls—voluntarily give our souls—back to God, our Father. What is meant by “give our souls back” to God, our Father?

Scripture tells us that Jesus came to save that which was lost. Our Spirits are saved, but what is still lost to God is our wills, our emotions, and our minds. Jesus, it is said in Hebrews, is constantly interceding for us. His intercession is for the salvation of our souls. For our souls to be saved we must voluntarily conclude irreversibly that we are offering or giving our mind to Him as if placing it on an altar for sacrificial burning. Renewing our mind to the word of God as commanded in scripture is in and of itself insufficient. Knowledge of the word of God is essential, but the beginning of that knowledge is fear of the Lord. Fear of the Lord consists of a practiced humility that yields to and gives supreme preeminence to what God has said.
It is permanently subordinating our will to the will of God, in regard to any present or future activity. This is all that we can do. In that process, a process that is impossible to describe, it is not a mechanical thing, it is a thing of the heart, an attitude, the Lord will, in His time and in His manner, change us and take us into Himself through and by the activity of His Holy Spirit. I venture to guess that over 95% of all born again people have never done this.

In the scripture cited above from the book of James, the Bible gives us a wonderful promise that if we will resist Satan who brings us temptation to sin that He will flee from us. However my problem is that I try to resist in the flesh. What is wrong with this scenario? The same scriptures that tell me if I will resist the Devil he will flee from me first tells me that my flesh contains the lust that Satan seeks to join with him so that I will take action and sin. I am trying to resist sin with the instrument of sin. Would I ask a bank robber to protect my bank from robbery? What a foolish exercise to try to resist the devil with our flesh. Our flesh is the devil’s friend. Note further that the Scripture also tells us that God cannot tempt or be tempted. It is very logical and scriptural then that if I will come into God that I won’t be tempted nor will I tempt others to sin because I am merged into a triune God Head that neither sins nor tempts others to sin. Stated simply if I can find the way that the spirit of God utilizes to take me into my Heavenly Father and Jesus His Son, I won’t find myself in sin. The emphasis in my life then should be to become one with them. It should not be to struggle by myself with sin.

The other wonderful promise of these Scriptures tells me how to find my way into God. My role is to draw near to God. If I do, the promise is that He will draw near to me. Two spiritual objects moving toward one another ultimately merge into one another and become one. I am a spirit. I may live in a human body, but I am a spirit, and as a spirit I have been perfected by being born again. As a born again spirit I desire that merger. It is my way of escape from sin and the lusts of my flesh. However I must override my mind and take control of my will and with a foundational decision begin the process of returning my soul to God. In this process I will start becoming one with the God, my Father, Jesus, His Son and my Savior and His Holy Spirit. I am undergirded in this process by the intercession of Jesus. Jesus said that He and the Father were one and prayed in the seventeenth chapter of the gospel of John that we be one as they are. When we start moving toward God we can have the assurance that Jesus is going to have his prayer answered, we are going to become a part of God and He a part of us.

What can I do other than exercising my volition to express a choice that I prefer God to my sin and to the offerings of the world? I can make an effort to cooperate along the way knowing that it will be the Lord who supernaturally implements this decision. I have personally found it of great benefit to pray the instance that sin appears and tell my Heavenly Father this: I don’t want that Father, I want you. I want you Father, I don’t want that.” I can say that with any offering that comes my way that wants to enter my mind, be it something simple like a movie I shouldn’t watch or a book I shouldn’t read or a conversation I shouldn’t partake of—anything that I know is not pleasing to God which presents itself to me for participation. I have resolved that my mind is God’s and I do not have the luxury of letting it participate with anything that I know is outside of the realm of holiness. It is very simple: I cannot fellowship or participate with things that don’t please God and be one with Him. Paul wrote that we cannot be partakers of God’s table and the devil’s table (1st Corinthians 10:21). That is my way of resisting and I find it works. I have found when I don’t do that that I have made a grave mistake and am soon praying for forgiveness.

All I can do is make the decision to know God regardless of cost and cooperate with the implementation of that decision by expressing It, reasserting it every time sin appears. Holiness is not a natural state. To move into it requires me to make the decision to seek the Lord and not let go of Him on the matter of making me a participator in Christ regardless of what it costs me, understanding that it will cost me not only what I have knowingly decided I am willing to give up, but most assuredly all that I have not considered, knowing that what I have not considered will be brought to my attention from time to time by the Holy Spirit letting me know I am holding onto something and must let it go as He and not me molds me into a vessel fit for the habitation of God, the Father, His Son and His Spirit. My role is that of choosing. As Joshua told the children of Israel, choose this day whom you will follow. This is the process of denying ourselves and picking up our cross through the power of the Holy Spirit.

To imitate means “to try to be the same as.” If I take that approach I am doomed to failure. If instead I take the approach of faith and pray as follows: “I will be as Jesus is because Father You have commanded me to be holy as You are holy. Come with Your spirit and make me an imitation of Your Son. I give to You my soul that I might think as You think, that I might will as You will, that I might feel as You feel. I want You, Lord. I want to be in You, and I want You to be in me so that I walk this earth as You by Your spirit and not as me by my flesh.” I will take on the divine nature and leave my worldly nature. AMEN!!!!! I might add that this requires faith’s expectation and the great deal of patience that faith provides us.

Bob Highsmith
aspiritualhouse@yahoo.com

KNOWING THE LORD

2004-11-22T14:44:00.000-05:00

That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; (Philippians 3:10)

Jesus said unto him, have I been with you so long, and yet you do not know me . . . (John 14:9)

“Our minds are so often occupied with service and work; we think that doing things for the Lord is the chief object of life. We are concerned about our life work, our ministry. We think of equipment for it in terms of study and knowledge of things. Soul winning, or teaching believers, or setting people to work, are so much in the foreground. Bible study and knowledge of the scriptures, with efficiency in the matter of leading in Christian service as the end, are matters of pressing importance with all. All well and good, for these are important matters; but back of everything the Lord is more concerned about our knowing Him than about anything else. It is very possible to have a wonderful grasp of the scriptures, a comprehensive and intimate familiarity with doctrine; to stand for cardinal verities of the faith; to be an unceasing worker in Christian service; to have a great devotion to the salvation of men, and yet, alas, to have a very inadequate and limited personal knowledge of God within. The ultimate value of everything is . . . just the fact that we know the Lord in a deep and mighty way.

The greatest of the problems of the Christian life is the problem of guidance. . . . We are strongly of the conviction that it is one thing to get direction for the events, incidents, and contingencies of life, and quite another thing to have an abiding, personal, inward knowledge of the Lord. . . . We want instructions and commands; the Lord wants us to have a ‘mind’. ‘Let this mind be in you’ (Philippians 2:5), ‘We have the mind of Christ’ (1st Corinthians 2:16). Christ has a consciousness, and by the Holy Spirit He will give and develop in us that consciousness. The inspired statement is that ‘the anointing teaches you all things.’ (1st John 2:27) We are not servants, we are sons. Commands—as such—are for servants, a mind is for sons.

There is an appalling state of things amongst the Lord’s people today. So many of them have their life almost entirely in that which is external to themselves; in their counsel and guidance, their sustenance and support, their knowledge, their means of grace. Personal, inward, spiritual intelligence is a very rare thing. Immediately it is things that we reach out for: experiences, sensations, proofs, evidences, manifestations, and so on . . .

To know the Lord in a real way means steadfastness when others are being carried away, steadfastness through times of fiery trial. Those who know the Lord do not put forth their own hand and try to bring things about. Such are full of love and patience, and do not loose their poise when everything seems to be going to pieces. Confidence is an essential and inevitable fruit . . . in those who know Him there is a quiet, restful strength which speaks of a great depth of life. . . . In Christ are ‘all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden’ and the Lord’s will for us is to come to an ever growing realization and personal appreciation of Him in whom ‘all the fullness dwells.’ The absence of this real knowledge of the Lord has proved to be the most tragic factor in the church’s history.”

T. Austin-Sparks, On Knowing the Lord

We will never know the Lord from scripture alone. We will never come to know of the Lord from hearing testimony of the experience of others. We will never know the Lord from mere participation in church services even if we do experience a sense the presence of the Lord. The Lord will only reveal Himself to those who are (1) devoted to scripture because they want to become scripture, be what scripture is, rather than have an extemporaneous knowledge of it in their heads where it is knowledge only, something separate and apart from their own essence, and (2) who are devoted to communion with their Heavenly Father in prayer.

The devotion to scripture that gives to us the reality of the Lord within entails participation in the sense of working the scripture into our hearts to where we respond to life from scripture and not from our own thoughts—our devotion has made scripture a living thing in us and has become such a part of us, woven into our fiber, that we are living the scriptures. When asked by his disciples to show them the Father, Jesus responded that if you had seen Him you had seen the Father. In any respect can it be said of any of us that if you have seen me in that regard than you have seen scripture in life, you have seen the Father, you have seen Jesus. That is not an ideal; it is the purpose of our Creator, our Father in heaven.

Yet we are on a false basis, fooling ourselves, and will do nothing but frustrate ourselves if we delve into scripture without developing a devotion to prayer because the Holy Spirit will not open up the scriptures to an individual seeking intellectual knowledge. There must be a desire to seek the author of the scriptures, the person of the scriptures. A person who does not have within his heart a keen desire to fellowship with his Heavenly Father and His Son, our Lord Jesus, will find that the Father does not reveal His Son to him through the scriptures. We can only come to know Jesus in a real personal way through the Father revealing Him to us in the scriptures by His Spirit. To try to come to know Jesus in any real way while avoiding the Father in prayer is a futile effort. Jesus said that “no man knows the Son but the Father.” (Matthew 11:27) We cannot learn of Jesus by ourselves no matter how we ponder scripture. Paul said that it was when it pleased God that His Son was revealed and that not “to him” but “in him." (Galatians 1:16)

The spirit of God within us is there to teach us all things, to testify of what is the Lord, to guide us into truth, to receive of Jesus and makes it known unto us. (John 14:26; 15:26; 16:7) It is in prayer that we develop relationship with the Father and commune with His spirit so that these promises can become a reality. Prayer is far more a matter of communion of our spirits with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit than it is in making requests for various things. A person who does not set aside a considerable amount of time before he or she begins their day to spend in fellowship with the Father, His Spirit and His Son will never know the Lord. We can learn a few things about the Lord from scripture, books, other people’s testimonies, experiences, and worship services. Some of these things will be accurate; some of them will be inaccurate and misleading. We can never really know the Lord and have His mind in us outside of a highly developed and extensive time of prayer in the early morning or late evening, when the rest of the world is playing or sleeping. I am not talking about a few minutes, I am talking about hours. I agree that is not natural. How to pray or commune with our Father, His Son and His Spirit cannot be taught. However if we do not step up on the side of the nest and let the Holy Spirit push us off into prayer we will never be guided by the wind, and we will live out our lives in a cold nest, abandoned for the most part by the Holy Spirit, unnourished and anemic. God says draw near, and He will draw near. His hearts desire is to reveal his Son, but there must be the necessary attitude, there must be the cooperation, there must be the setting aside of time. Open your life to provide him time, then open your heart, open your mind, open your Bible, open your mouth and talk to Him, and open your ears and listen to Him.

Bob Highsmith
aspiritualhouse@yahoo.com

CHARACTERISTICS OF A PRAYER OF INTERCESSION

2004-11-22T14:43:00.000-05:00

“When I heard these words I sat down and wept, and mourned for days; and I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven.
And I said, ‘O Lord God of heaven, the great and terrible God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments; let your ear be attentive, and your eyes open, to hear the prayer of your servant which I now pray before you day and night for the people of Israel your servants, confessing the sins of the people of Israel, which we have sinned against you. Yes, I and my father's house have sinned. We have acted very corruptly against you, and have not kept the commandments, the statutes, and the ordinances which you did command your servant Moses. Remember the word which you did command your servant Moses, saying, 'If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples; but if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though you are dispersed be under the farthest skies, I will gather them then and bring them to the place which I have chosen, to make my name dwell there.’ They are your servants and your people, whom you have redeemed by thy great power and by your strong hand. O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant, and to the prayer of your servants who delight to fear your name; and give success to your servant today, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.’ Now I was cupbearer to the king.” (Nehemiah 1:4-11)

“. . . This prayer can be gathered up in six different features or characteristics . . .
1. TRAVAIL: Wept; mourned; fasted. That is certainly anguish, passion, travail; but it is the first feature of intercessory prayer. That is where all intercessory prayer begins, in a state of heart like that . . . ask ourselves first of all, ‘Does the spiritual state amongst the Lord’s people give us deep heart sorrow? Have we ever wept for the testimony? Have we ever mourned over spiritual conditions of the Lord’s people?’
2. KNOWING THE LORD: . . . a very important law operating in true intercessory prayer; a knowledge of the Lord; that is, knowing the Lord; knowing what kind of God we are dealing with. You will find that as this prayer (Nehemiah’s) develops, that knowledge of the Lord comes out much more fully, for Nehemiah takes the Lord back to His own word . . . and shows that what the Lord has said . . . has come to pass here, and he bases his prayer upon that . . . you see he knows the Lord. There is passion, anguish, travail, but he knows the Lord; that is the background.
3. PERSISTENCE: ‘Which I pray before thee . . . day and night.’ That is persistence in prayer, perseverance; if you like—importunity. It represents the unwillingness to let this matter pass lightly, to let it be taken without seriousness; it means that he is holding on to God about this thing . . . intercessory prayer is not a thing which is fulfilled by rushing into the presence of God, saying something, and rushing out again. Intercessory prayer which brings in the Lord’s purpose is something which is a continuous burden day and night . . . I don’t know how many will be able to stand up to this challenge. That is for us to decide before the Lord, as to whether, in waking moments in the night, spontaneously our heart goes out to the Lord; it may be only a sentence, only a cry, but it represents the fact that that is our ever present burden, that that thing is there all the time. There is persistence, continuation. That is a feature of true intercessory prayer, that we have travail, and we have understanding or knowledge of the Lord, and then we have persistence or importunity.
4. VICARIOUS REPENTANCE: . . . when a man is found confessing what is not wholly his responsibility, something for which many others are responsible as well as himself; when he is confessing it as though it is his sin; that is identification; and when it is confession of this kind, it is acknowledgment, and it is repentance . . . we have tried to tell ourselves in this message that we must not regard ourselves as something apart from the rest . . . but being members of one body if one member suffers all the members suffer with it . . . with Christ I am quite sure that is true, that He suffers in the measure in which any part of His body comes short, because He needs the whole body, in fullness, for the fullness of His expression and realization . . . If the body is in any part coming short we are suffering in the suffering of Christ. Is not that what the apostle meant when he said he was filling up that which was lacking of the sufferings of Christ? That is real intercession; prayer of confession and identification. (Colossians 1:24)
5. FAITH IN GOD’S WORD: ‘Remember I beseech thee the word that thou commandest . . . yet will I gather … them bring them unto the place that I have chosen.’ What I saw in this word was faith, because it is bringing God’s word as the basis, taken up a position in God’s word and saying: ‘I believe that, I stand on that.’ . . . God and His word are alike, they are immutable; they are unchangeable; they are established and faithful, and if we can come with the word of God under our feet, we have a ground of confidence; the ground of a sure faith, . . . the Lord honors that, and when we come to Him we should have a ground of confidence. Now Nehemiah is simply bringing the Lord to His own word, . . . Now Isaiah lived long before Nehemiah’s day (the arrangement of books, of course, may throw you out in that, but it was long before Nehemiah’s time) and Isaiah spoke this word: ‘If thou take away from the midst of me the yoke, the putting forth of the finger . . . if thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my Holy day’, etc. then what? ‘Thou shalt be called, the repairer of the breach, the restorer of paths to dwell in.’ Well Nehemiah brought the Lord to His word, and the Lord actually fulfilled Isaiah 58 through Nehemiah. You see that is the ground, pleading the word in faith.
6. UTTER SURRENDER: . . . Be attentive to the prayer . . . of Thy servants . . . who delight to fear Thy name . . . The fear of the Lord, when you study it in the light of the whole word of God, simply means that you utterly yield yourself to God’s will; that God’s will takes pre-eminence; and when the Lord Jesus said ‘Father . . . remove this cup . . . nevertheless not my will, but Thine be done.’ (Luke 22:42), He ‘was heard in that he feared’ (Hebrews 5:7). That was utter and absolute surrender to the will of God whatever the cost; that is the fear of the Lord, the beginning of wisdom . . . Hear the prayer of Thy servants ‘who delight to fear Thy name’. That is abandonment to the Lord, consecration to the Lord; and we know quite well that in intercessory prayer we never get through until we come to that place where everything that is personal, our own delight and satisfaction, is set aside and the Lord’s interest alone governs our hearts . . . For true intercessory prayer we must come to that place. You have prayed, you have been importunate, persistent, passionate, travailing, and you have stood upon God’s word, and yet withal there may be some little fragment of your own desire . . . however right your position may be as to the word, the Lord has to wait until every bit of personal interest has been ruled out, and then when we come down to the place where it is true that it is only the Lord’s good pleasure that is in view and that the Lord can do what He wills, . . . our delight is in Him, to fear His name, to be utterly abandoned to His will, then we have a clear way with the Lord, we are then through in the spirit of prayer. You see we get so far and the last thing the Lord has to say to us is . . . ‘Have you some personal interest in this matter?’ Then our hearts have to be searched as to whether it is our own desire or whether it is only the Lord’s personal pleasure and delight, and if the thing we ask is not for the Lord’s pleasure we do not want it. When we come there . . . the prayer is complete. In order for those sudden prayers that come later to be effectual there must be this deeper background of prayer . . . you construct all other prayer upon this foundation . . . everything has been sifted out beforehand.”

T. Austin-Sparks, Nehemiah

This is the best analysis of intercessory prayer I have ever read. I have found it extremely convicting and helpful. It has revealed to me my shortcomings particularly in persistence, in searching for a ground in faith for my prayer instead of simply relying upon the anguish of my soul, and also in coming to a place where I fear the Lord and have divorced myself from my own interests.

Bob Highsmith
aspiritualhouse@yahoo.com

TAKING ACTION

2004-11-22T14:41:00.000-05:00

“Then there is the matter of taking action; the action which Nehemiah took . . . There are many people who have burdens and concerns, but who never do anymore than bemoan the situation as it is; who never get beyond deploring things . . . Nehemiah was very keenly alive to the situation and took it very much to heart, . . . We must not fall into a way of criticizing the Lord’s people who are not where we think they ought to be; who do not know what we think they ought to know; . . . denounce them for their backwardness; denounce them because they do not have the light. It is easy to get in the way of condemning . . . all that does not cost anything. The real question is ‘What are we going to do about it?’ . . . He (Nehemiah) got down by the side of them as though he were where they were, and he was going to help them up to where he saw they ought to be, and to the place where he himself in spirit, already, was . . . You see here one of those laws of what is called the church, the body, and the physical body is taken into word as an illustration of the church which is Christ’s body . . . You cannot separate two or three of your limbs from your body and put them in one place and the rest in another and still have a complete body. The very fact of the organism means you are one body, and if one member suffers all the members suffer with it. Being an organism, and not an organization, every member—although its condition may not be as bad as some other member—is involved by its very life in the state of the other . . . That principal is here—‘we’—and the law of the body is this, that if there are those who are out of the way, who have not light, truth, life, as we think they ought to have, being a body, beloved, we cannot live in detachment from them. We are by the very fact of being an organism spiritually bound to them, a part of them; and the Lord is not going to cleave this body down the center and cut off that half which is more backward than the other.

That is not the Lord’s way. The Lord does not divide the body, the body is a whole; and you will notice all the way through the Lord’s word, that the Lord brings some members into real concern for the others, in order to bring the others to a place where He would have them. And Nehemiah, although spiritually far above these people in his state, far beyond them, comes down there and says: ‘we’. . .

. . . what the Lord wants is that there shall never be the sign of that division which is the fruit and outworking of any kind of superiority of light and knowledge and truth, that puts others who have not that light and truth in an inferior place; relegates them to another quarter, and regards them as something apart from the Lord’s people. That must not be, and our attitude, the attitude of any who may have been given more light for ministry purposes—not only for themselves—to the whole body, the attitude of such to others must be that being in the place where they are, to help them on, and not to judge, to criticize, to condemn.

The Lord will not reward us because we have more light, but according to what we have done with the light He gave us . . . responsibility is according to light. Our attitude toward all whom we may feel—and have good reason to feel—are far short of what the Lord would have them be, must be one of earnest, humble, yearning over them, and getting down helpfully along side of them, not detaching ourselves and living apart, and regarding them as those who do not have the light . . . Our responsibility for the light involves us, and we must take responsibility for the state of things, and work with God against it, in love, in fellowship. Thus did Nehemiah.”

(Prayer) Lord, make us see that there is something that You need, something that must be, if You are to be fully satisfied; things with Your people are not as You would have them; the fully testimony of Your Son is not represented as You would have it represented. I understand that You must have an instrument, a vessel, that exercises energy against all compromise and mixture in the things of God; that has a great heart burden for Your testimony and the testimony of Your Son; that takes personal responsibility for the bad state of affairs; that will stay in deep and continuous touch with You, our Heavenly Father, by prayer; and that will take action in fellowship with You for recovery and not merely bemoan the state of things. Lord, create me such a vessel. (This prayer is a prayer of T. Austin-Sparks that was edited by me.)

T. Austin-Sparks, Nehemiah

Bob Highsmith
aspiritualhouse@yahoo.com

TWO SIDES OF PRAYER LIFE

2004-11-22T09:40:00.000-05:00

“. . . Nehemiah’s prayer life. How basic this prayer life was to everything. . . Nehemiah’s prayer life was a very real thing and a very persistent thing; you might almost say a continuous thing, but it was not always of the same kind. In the first chapter you have the deep secret outpouring of his heart to God. He is away with the Lord, alone, and in a strong heart emptying prayer, he pours himself out . . . that is a phase of his prayer life; he can do it and he does. But as you read on you find that it is not always like that. His prayer is frequently sudden ‘So I prayed to the God of Heaven.’ It is like a sudden lifting up of the heart. There is no time for the outpouring of the heart. Here is a situation, an emergency, a difficult situation, something arising which allows of no getting away to God and pouring out the heart, but only permits of a lifting of it to the Lord on the spot in a moment, a touch with Heaven; but he is in touch with Heaven. Those two forms of prayer must go together . . . I do not believe that we can have an emergency touch with Heaven if we have not a deep background life with Heaven. Nehemiah’s prayer life brings these two things together; that because he had that prayer life in secret with God where as he could he did pour himself out to God, then in the time of emergency he was already in touch with Heaven, and Heaven responded. It is important to see that . . . It is essential that there be a background of prayer ministry. It seems to me that Nehemiah did nothing without prayer. It seems that in every turn of the way he lifted his heart to the Lord; in every situation, question, difficulty, he was in touch with the Lord about it. He was a man who made prayer his ground of action, on every point, in every direction.

Now whether this interests you or not is the question. The question is, are we going to be an instrument for the Lord for His deepest heart purpose? If so there must be a life of prayer. There has to be the place with the Lord apart and alone in heart outpouring, and there has to be, from that, a constant touch with the Lord as we move in His interest from point to point. The prayer life of Nehemiah is something to study.”
T. Austin-Sparks, Nehemiah

I have never read of anyone who accomplished anything in their lives in the way of being an instrument of use by the Lord who did not have a prayer life demonstrated by an early rising nor do I know of anyone personally. I spent twenty plus years as a Christian without a prayer life as described. One day I made the simple choice to get up at 4 o’clock in the morning the next day and every day thereafter to pray. How awkward it was in the beginning. I discovered how abstract my relationship with my Heavenly Father had been. I discovered how far away I had placed myself from Him. I discovered how timid I was about talking with Him. However, something within me would not let me quit. In the first ensuing months I learned a few things: I learned to come into the presence of God and listen rather than start speaking, I learned that my prayer life was not mine it was His, I learned that the things on my mind were not necessarily the things on His mind and that He longed for someone who would take whatever steps were necessary to discover His heart. Many mornings it was like being on a fishing trip. I would visit the familiar drops such as praying for the lost and find nothing biting, and so I would move on and pace softly praying in tongues or praising His name in English until I landed upon His heart. Although the Lord would end these sessions, I found that I never was satisfied leaving the place of prayer. I sought more and more time throughout the day to go and pray. One night at the church when I was on one of my fishing expeditions—I had learned to have quite some confidence in those expeditions and not to become nervous or dissatisfied when things took a while—after some time I began to realize that my eyes kept wandering over to the American flag which was on a stand in the church sanctuary where I was. A curiosity entered my spirit concerning that flag. I wandered towards it softly praying in tongues and touched it with my right hand. When I did I was immediately and suddenly empowered from On High to travail as I never had for the Church in America. Whatever was accomplished that night and has been at other times since, when I have found myself in deep travail for the American people and the Church in America, would never, ever had been accomplished, at least through this vessel, had I not chosen to believe that God wanted a personal relationship born during the early morning hours when the rest of the world was asleep.

Bob Highsmith
aspiritualhouse@yahoo.com

NOT A PROFESSION BUT A PASSION

2004-11-16T10:14:00.000-05:00

“. . . what kind of vessel the Lord must have to do things. He does not want ‘workers’ to take up His work; He wants travailers to travail with Him for His spiritual interest. He does not want employees, He wants Sons. He does not want experts, He wants those who have a passion . . . It is no mere mental apprehension of teaching and of truth; it is a heart burden, a desperate concern for the Lord . . . Are we exercised like that? Are we moved like that? Are we in things like that? Have we taken up work for the Lord, associated ourselves with some cause; or have we come with God’s own burden and travail in our souls—this thing to us is a thing which saps our life; for which we are pouring out our very blood, the thing which cost everything, and yet we can do no other; there is no question of resigning, giving up, the thing is ourselves? God must have something like that at the end for His purpose . . . that is a challenging word to our hearts.

Let us wipe the slate of all these other ideas of organizing something, running something, getting a movement going. Let us see that God brings this into being out of travail. He baptizes a soul into an anguish; He throws upon some one man, or some little company, the mantle of His own terrible disappointment, dissatisfaction and grief because of things as He sees them spiritually among His people. That is how God brings things into being. Men do it in other ways, but that has always been God’s way. It has cost the instrument its life every time. That does not necessarily mean that the instrument has died a sudden death, or even laid down its life in martyrdom; but it has cost the instrument its life. Are we in things like that?

Such is Nehemiah. We are seeing into the inner secret history of this thing; it is before God not before men. May the Lord save us from having the preponderance before men, and the lesser measure before Himself. May all that is before men come out of what we are before God. If the balance is on the side of what is public, and toward men, there will be weakness and failure. Strength and effectiveness will be according to the measure of our secret history with God. Then out from the secret place Nehemiah carried his heart burden before men . . .

The manifestation of the burden has a right place when it comes that way; when outwardly others are able to take account of us and say: ‘There is nothing put on in this matter; this is no mere professional thing; this is not some habit, something they are interested in; this is something which to them is a matter of life and death; this is a matter which goes right to the heart with them.’ And men are able to discern whether it is like that or not. People know better than perhaps we think they do, whether we are real or whether things are put on; whether we are speaking out of a book, or whether we are speaking out of our hearts; whether the thing is something we have collected or whether it is something born of anguish . . . What is true as to public ministry will be true in relation to any instrument that the Lord will use for any special purpose; the thing must be wrought into it, and not be something that it has adopted. The Lord keep us from adopting things, but work the thing right into us.”
T. Austin-Sparks, Nehemiah

It is amazing to me that T. Austin-Sparks penned this work on Nehemiah out of his heart in the 1950s. I was born in the 1940s and grew up in the 1950s. I remember church then. At various times I attended the Episcopal church, the Baptist church, the Presbyterian church, and the Methodist church. When I was approximately 8 years old watching my mother die of cancer (my father was already deceased) I was sent to a nearby Episcopal church. I was taught the content of the Bible. Jesus used that as a foundation for a dream in which He stood at the top of a set of stairs and beckoned me to come to Him. I would not go. I had learned the content of the Bible well and all I could see as an 8 year old boy was persecution if I went to the top of those stairs. I was 33 when I finally ascended those stairs so to speak and went to Him in the month of October in the year 1976. I became involved in what is called the Charismatic movement. In the context of the Charismatic movement Biblical knowledge was transferred into a revealed Jesus. There were and are still many teachers in the Charismatic community of Christians and I cannot say that I did not learn valuable things from them. However, I was never able to become a groupie of any of them and have had to rely upon the anointing within that John wrote about to bring me to what little true revelation of Jesus I have. I saw the work of men’s hands in the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s and see the work of men currently. It is not very often that I see the true work of God. The Charismatic community of believers bear close resemblance unknown to them to their brothers and sisters in what is referred to as denominations. The Charismatic community is nothing more than an addition to that community. The programs differ, the names of the churches differ, but basically church is a matter of convenience—human beings defining for themselves a God that pleases them using the Bible as a basic blueprint from which to draw their own plans. T. Austin-Sparks is refreshing in that he challenges men and women to let God and His Son into their hearts in a manner that does not compete or coexist with the selfish nature but rather removes it. For instance, in today’s installment of his work on Nehemiah he draws a sharp contrast between the programs and plans of men and women and the individual who chooses to have no programs or plans other than the inhabitation of the Lord God Almighty and His Son our Lord Jesus within themselves with the understanding that out of that something will arise that works without any personal effort other than the internal labor required to cooperate as They make Their abode which I don’t suggest is easy labor or painless, but I do suggest it is the only course and choice with any spiritual merit.

Bob Highsmith
www.aspiritualhouse.blogspot.com
www.jeremiah419.blogspot.com

A HEART BURDEN

2004-11-15T11:26:00.000-05:00

And they said to me, "The survivors there in the province who escaped exile are in great trouble and shame; the wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates are destroyed by fire." When I heard these words I sat down and wept, and mourned for days; and I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven. (Nehemiah 1:3-4)

“As we look more deeply into Nehemiah’s heart we find that he was a man who had a great heart-burden. He carried on in his heart very heavily the interest of the Lord and His testimony. His brother, Hanani, had come to him in his far off exile and reported the state of things at Jerusalem. That is how the book opens and Nehemiah tells us how that report affected him. ‘And it came to pass when I heard these words that I sat down and wept ad mourned certain days; and I fasted and prayed before the God of Heaven.’ . . . That burden is first of all born in the presence of God alone . . .

The condition of a vessel to be used by the Lord . . . must be one upon whose heart a condition of things so clearly contrary to the thought of God genuinely lies with very great pressure . . . it is one thing, beloved, for us to get a kind of public concern about things and then begin to make a great noise about it among men; to advertise, to demonstrate, to give it a public form in utterance and effort and organization; to join ourselves to some cause, or to join some cause to ourselves, and then in that cause to make a great big affair of it: that is one thing. And that may have all manner of elements which just fall short of that which is essential and necessary from the Lord’s standpoint. It is one thing to come to a situation from the outside, and link ourselves on with it, and take it up, and make it our life work, our life interest; it is quite another thing for the Lord to put it into our hearts, in secret, and almost unbearable, intolerable burden which is His own heart burden, and for us first of all to bear that thing secretly in the presence of God upon our hearts in a deep outpouring of travailing prayer; quite another thing to come to the Lord’s interest in that way.

There are plenty of people whom you could get interested in a cause; whom you could get to take up a piece of work requiring work, but it is another thing to have that spiritual fellowship with God which results in God putting His travail into your own soul. The difference is that in the one instance the thing is something objective; we come along and interest ourselves in it, take it up; but it is apart from us. It has our interest, it has our energy, it has our resources, but it is something subjective to ourselves.

. . . The other thing is this: before the Lord we take responsibility. Do you notice that ‘we’ in chapter 1 verse 6? Nehemiah is a part of this and this is a part of him. You notice how all the way through in dealing with this matter he uses the word ‘we’ . . . he has not accepted the conditions; he is not responsible for the state of things; he certainly repudiates the whole thing, and does not for one moment agree with it, and yet he is in this thing as though he were responsible for it; as though God could lay it all at his own door. The thing has come so near to his own heart that he does not stand here and the situation there, but he finds himself as one with it. It is his own burden, and he takes the thing and responsibility upon his own shoulders before God in prayer, and prays vicarious prayers over this situation. That is being on the inside . . . He is like a man who is convicted of being responsible for it all.”
T. Austin-Sparks, Nehemiah

T. Austin-Sparks has described as best human words can what it is to have the Lord come to you as a vessel and require of you that you bear His heart for a situation, that you weep His tears and in the process mourn before Him as if you are responsible for the sadness in God’s heart. Only the Lord can by His supernatural power enable a human being to pray in this manner. However, be assured that this type of travail always precedes birth. I live with a burden deep inside of me for the church as I know it in America. Unlike Nehemiah I have failed the Lord in that I have not yielded myself to that burden with the frequency and consistency asked of me. It is my hope for myself that those months of stubbornness and rebellion which have now turned into years are over. It seems just recently, very recently, that I have been able to come out of the grave and begin to sense again the light and life of my Lord inside of me and slowly reach out and touch within me that burden. It is my hope for myself that I might fulfill the calling of the Lord. At this present time when these e-mails on Nehemiah are finished, it may be that I will take a sabbatical to be with the Lord, that I might develop with Him that relationship necessary for empowerment to fulfill His will for me to be a vessel for travail and so it is that I may not be heard from by anyone for a while.

Bob Highsmith
www.aspiritualhouse.blogspot.com
www.jeremiah419.blogspot.com

OFFICIAL OBSTRUCTION

2004-11-11T10:50:00.000-05:00

Then I contended with the nobles of Judah, and said unto them, What evil thing is this that ye do, and profane the sabbath day? (Nehemiah 13:17)

“In all these things which we have mentioned as being the wrongs, the evils which Nehemiah encountered; which existed but which no notice was taken until he came on the scene, all these things were supported by an important, influential and official class, priests and nobles, and even the high priest himself was a party to them . . . Well it is quite true that when we determine to go right on with the Lord it is the official element that obstructs. We meet an influential force, we come right up against those who have place and position and we find too often that, like the high priests, even those who officially represent, and are accepted as the representatives of God’s highest interest are not favorable toward the whole counsel of God, the whole purpose of God, but condone things that are altogether contrary to His full testimony . . .

Nehemiah met it all, and he met it with courage. ‘Then I contended with the nobles’, he said. He did not grovel before the influential class, he did not bow to the official elements; he contended with the nobles. He knew that he was a man with a divine mandate, and that gave him spiritual, not merely natural, dignity among men, because as he stood upon his divinely-given ground, to fulfill his divinely-given ministry, he knew that God would stand by him . . . that was his attitude. It is a great thing to know you are in the purpose of God. You have great confidence when you know you are in a divine activity; that the thing you are in was not initiated by you, but came from Heaven, and you came into it from Heaven, spiritually; the thing is of God. It puts you in a position of moral and spiritual ascendancy, and gives you a dignity above that of men whose dignity is merely official, and not spiritual . . .

I do trust that the Lord will enable you to see that we are in an end-time, related to the coming of the Lord, and that an end-time activity is the raising of a testimony of distinctiveness, that is, that which is in resurrection life and power, a thing all of God, with nothing of man in it. And that testimony demands that a very great deal that is contrary to it shall be dealt with and put away.”
T. Austin-Sparks, Nehemiah

I have run up against the official obstruction and perhaps some of you have too. It is an awesome thing. It is something that works hard to not let you get around it. What gets you around it is your willingness to be distinctive as T. Austin-Sparks puts it, your willingness to be contrary to the order and system of things which are not wholly of God, your willingness to deal with and put away a great deal of things in yourself so that you stand before the official obstruction as something quite different from them. You stand as a human being who has willed within himself to walk in faith, a person who has consecrated themselves so totally to God that officialdom does not intimidate, a person who has so acquainted themselves with the word of God and spent so much time in prayer before God that he or she with full confidence knows that they represent God and the officialdom does not.

Bob Highsmith
aspiritualhouse@yahoo.com

SUBURBAN CHRISTIANS

2004-11-10T10:43:00.000-05:00

Continuing today with T. Austin-Sparks revelation of the book of Nehemiah we pick up with another condition of his day that is very definitely a condition of our day.

“The majority of the people we find here were living outside Jerusalem in the suburbs, and Nehemiah had not enough people in Jerusalem for the work in hand and had to appeal to them (the people inside Jerusalem), encourage them, exhort them to go out to bring others in. That is very simple thing in its spiritual interpretation, and yet a very important thing. There are a good many of the Lord’s people living in the spiritual suburbs; who are not right inside His testimony. They may be only a little way out, but they are out; they may be a long way out. There may be all manner of –shall we say—reasons which they would give. Some would say they did not want to be singular, they did not want to seem unbalanced . . . Yes, all kinds of reasons (?) would be advanced. It may be prejudice, it may be suspicion, it may be keeping on the safe side of the road, it may be fear of the cost, unwillingness to pay the price. It may be Sanballat and Tobiah will look unfavorably on them if they come inside and cooperate with Nehemiah. It may be that they are not quite sure about this thing; they want to see how it’s going to fair, if it is going to succeed, and if the thing is solid ground they will take the risk! (There is no risk if the thing is solid, and therefore no heroism and no honor) . . . The Lord is seeking to have His utter testimony to what is altogether of Himself and of Heaven, where man, in the flesh, in nature, has no place, a thing which is wholly of the Lord. It involves cost, loss of favor, loss of friends; it involves misunderstanding, misrepresentation; it involves in criticism, in the judgments of being extreme and singular and different from everyone else; all that! . . . Well, what of it? The issue is, are you going to be wholly in with God, or are you going to remain in the suburbs? . . . It remains for us to decide in our own hearts whether we are on the fringe of things, on the outskirts, on the rim, or whether we are right in, and taking the consequences of such a position . . . Certainly we must not view things merely upon that low level—gain and loss—but after all it is the question of what we are here for—for the Lord or for ourselves? For the Lord, or for others? The whole question is, what does the Lord want? Then, it may be costly, it may mean much, . . . but what can we do? We must go on with God. That is bringing things very close to our hearts, is it not?”

T. Austin-Sparks, Nehemiah

T. Austin-Sparks brings us to direct confrontation within ourselves as to whether we are in Jesus or outside of Jesus. Most in the United States are outside of Jesus living comfortably not only in American suburbs but in spiritual suburbs. Sparks’ revelation is not for our intellects to savor and enjoy as revelation. It is confrontational; it is the spirit of the Lord squarely putting the issue to us, “Where are you in relationship to the Lord and His purposes? Are you in or are you out? Are you going to seek the Lord on the matter of anointing you to participate or are you going to just observe from the outside?”

Bob Highsmith
aspiritualhouse@yahoo.com

NO MIXTURE

2004-11-09T16:45:00.000-05:00

Continuing with T. Austin-Sparks’ revelation of the book of Nehemiah I relate here another condition of the people of God in Nehemiah’s day that typifies the people of God in our day.

“We find here that many of the Lord’s people had married foreign wives and thus their distinctiveness was lost. Nehemiah destroyed those unions, and compelled such as had thus transgressed to send back their wives to their own homes and countries, thus upholding a divine principle . . . Women, as we know, throughout the Bible are types of principles, and what is here typified is alliance, and relationship, and association with principles which are foreign to what is wholly of God; and any voluntary association with those principles destroys that spiritual distinctiveness which must ever characterize the Lord’s people. That covers a very wide area and includes innumerable things . . . Here is an element, a feature, a principle, a law that is contrary to the revealed will of God, which is foreign and alien to the mind of the Lord, to the word of God, to the way of the spirit . . . As the result of such a course, there will be an offspring which is a mixture, which has a mixture of things of God and things of the enemy; and if there is one paramount abomination to God as revealed in the word of God it is mixture. Everywhere God is against mixture. God will have things utter, complete, absolute, clearly defined, wholly of Himself; and this wall of Nehemiah represents the mark which divides between what is wholly of God, and what is not of God; it is not just a matter of the different shades and degrees of what is not of God, but what is not of God to the finest degree. What is inside is to be of God to the very last measure, and everything that is not of God has no place there. And so these wives must be expelled from the area and sent away. It is a spiritual principle . . . God is against mixture. There is a terrible amount of mixture among the Lord’s people.”

Bob Highsmith
aspiritualhouse@yahoo.com

THE SABBATH VIOLATED

2004-11-08T13:30:00.000-05:00

T. Austin-Sparks lists the conditions of the day of Nehemiah. Among them is the following: “Then again the Sabbath was neglected. This is an extra-ordinary thing after Ezra, is it not, that the Sabbath should have fallen out of its place, be neglected, set aside, overlooked, ignored. Let us hasten at once to say that we are thinking now of the spiritual and New Testament counterpart of this; not of a day. While we do still thank God for the Sabbath day as a point of time here, and while we would cling to it and not let it go easily, we have been lifted in our understanding of this to a much higher level, and we have come to see that the Sabbath is the historical type of the end of God’s works when He enters into His rest in the Lord Jesus; that the Sabbath speaks of a full accomplishment of all of God’s work in the person of His Son. Set aside, overlook, ignore the finality of divine activity in Christ, and you have lost your rest, you have lost your peace; you are still wondering in a circle in a wilderness; you are still in the realm of the imperfect and unaccomplished; you have not yet come to settle down on that ground which proclaims ‘it is finished’.

The soul that really apprehends spiritually the finished work of Christ, is a soul at rest; it has entered into God’s rest. It is delivered from the tyranny of the devil who is always seeking to bring accusation and condemnation . . . for the Sabbath is a person and not a day, and therefore every day should be to us a Sabbath . . . ‘the joy of the Lord is your strength’ . . . the finality of God’s satisfaction is in Christ. Overlook that, miss that, and you have lost your Sabbath rest . . . that is how it was here. But Nehemiah brought that back, and an end-time movement represents the recovery of the finality of Christ’s work, the fullness of the satisfaction to the Father, and the people of God being brought into that . . . against that the adversary is dead set . . . the enemy is trying to rob the people of God of their rest . . . God would bring back the fullness and finality of His work in Christ . . . saying ‘this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased’ you are accepted in Him, I am satisfied . . . ‘Nehemiah’ . . . instrument for recovery at the end time, must have as a part, an important part of his ministry the establishing of the Sabbath in this sense.”

My own observation of myself and others is that the huge problem in our lives is that we have not entered into faith that everything is bound up in Jesus and found our place of rest in Him as our Provider, Healer, Savior, etc. Certainly the army of God that will bring about harvest in the end-time must have as the central focus of their life the Lord Jesus Christ and must have faith in Him for all guidance and direction and assistance.

Bob Highsmith
aspiritualhouse@yahoo.com

INTRODUCTION TO NEHEMIAH

2004-11-04T10:36:00.000-05:00

T. Austin-Sparks, in his work on Nehemiah, brings out that the book represents an end-time activity in that it was the last book written at the end of the dispensation before the birth of Jesus. Because it “represents what God did at the end of that dispensation” it gives us insight into what is going to happen in these last days that humanity has been living in since the ascension of Jesus into Heaven. Sparks begins with the book of Ezra as a prelude to his work on Nehemiah and directs us to the fact that Ezra built the temple and reestablished the divine order and the altar. “And they sat the altar in its place.” (Ezra 3:3) “Then after the altar was put in its place, the house of God was built; then when the house was built, at a subsequent time under the anointing of Nehemiah the wall was rebuilt. This is the three-fold order. First, we have the altar, which typifies the cross as being basic to the whole divine activity, and then the house, which typifies the church as resultant to the cross being in its place.” Finally, there is the wall. As Sparks points out, the cross and the house are presented in a Godward direction, but the wall is directed towards the world.

Sparks begins his revelation of Nehemiah with the observation that in Nehemiah’s time which was after the establishment of the altar (cross) and the house (the church individually and collectively) there is “presented a very deplorable state of affairs . . . the clear testimony of the house of God is broken down . . . the things resisted by Ezra have recurred and revived. That beautiful movement which is presented in Ezra’s account, that recovery of truth as to the house of God; that putting away of things which were contrary to that testimony and that house, has all collapsed and the old evils have raised their heads again; the testimony is in a state of weakness and ineffectiveness.”

To me this clearly describes the church today and therefore the lives of most of its members. Over the next few days I will be e-mailing excerpts from Spark’s work on Nehemiah as a prelude to a final e-mail that addresses each of us as individuals in the light of the revelation of the book of Nehemiah. It is so easy for us to read about the church and not realize that we are the church and that whatever applies to the church collectively applies to us individually. So that the revelation of the book of Nehemiah about what God is doing with the church in the end time is a revelation of what He is doing with us individually, and we should not let that pass over us or through us as simply an intellectual observation about something abstract.

Bob Highsmith
aspiritualhouse@yahoo.com

NEHEMIAH ON LOVE

2004-11-03T10:15:00.000-05:00

And one of the sons of Joiada, the son of Eliashib the high priest, was son in law to Sanballat the Horonite: therefore I chased him from me. Remember them, O my God, because they have defiled the priesthood, and the covenant of the priesthood, and of the Levites. (Nehemiah 13:28-29)

T. Austin-Sparks in his work on the book of Nehemiah speaks about the character of the Lord’s vessel of recovery, where the Lord is using a vessel to recover God’s people to a full and complete residence inside the true and pure nature of His Son, the Lord Jesus. The following is a quote which I think we all should contemplate.

“There is a mildness, which passes by the name of love, which may do a very great deal of harm to the testimony. It allows many things to abide in secret, undercover; things which are working positively against the Lord’s testimony, and smothers them over with what we call love and forbearance, when a Nehemiah is needed to chase them away.”

Bob Highsmith
aspiritualhouse@yahoo.com

CHOICE IN PERILOUS TIMES

2004-10-19T12:14:00.000-04:00

Fight the good fight of faith; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. (1st Timothy 6:12)

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 10, 12)

“There is a wicked war raging between Heaven and Hell. The battleground is the mind of man. The spoil of war is your soul. No one is exempt from this conflict.

WARNING SIGNS: . . . the Lord sends His messengers to warn you.

ATTACK: From the time we are born there are at least three things against us at all times. The world, with temptation all around; the flesh, full of our own selfish cravings; and the devil . . . some have not heeded the warning signs and have ended up in the midst of a full fledged attack.

REFUGE: A refuge is a shelter or protection from danger. Jesus is our shelter. He is our rock, our mighty fortress.” Steve Hill, Daily Awakenings.

Steve Hill has spoken very succinctly on a subject that I have spoken of and counseled people concerning throughout my Christian life. It seems that no matter how you warn people, they don’t listen. Why they are willing to let Satan renew and secure their minds to the evil of this world, I don’t know, unless the answer is found in Timothy concerning these last days that Paul calls “perilous times.” The men of these perilous times are described as being lovers of their own selves, lovers of money, proud, without self restraint especially in regard to sexual activity, unthankful, highminded, and lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God, among other things. The women of this day are described as being loaded with the burden of their own sins, easily swayed, and having various evil desires and seductive impulses are led away by men that they let creep into their lives because of their evil desires and lusts. Paul says that the evil men shall wax worse and worse.

All around me I have friends who are professed Christians, in fact I know them to be born again, who don’t heed the warnings and seem to have an attitude that there is no need to practice godliness. They do not protect their souls from Satan. They let him into their minds through television, movies, the internet, conversation, all the various means through which Satan can communicate. It seems as if they are totally unaware of what is happening to their minds or perhaps they like it and don’t care at the present time. Most of what Satan offers initially is offered to appeal to some aspect of the flesh and therefore is found pleasurable. Over time he builds an insensitivity to the Word of God, creates a lust for the nature of what is being offered, and the allegiance of the mind and emotions becomes attached to the ways and content of Satan’s world. One instance that currently surrounds us is Halloween which emphasizes and worships the demonic and instills and teaches fear to children. It receives far more attention in the lives of many Christians than the Day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came to this earth to empower man to wage war with Satan.

We are told in no uncertain terms in Romans 12 to renew our mind to the word of God. The word of God is what gives us faith in God. The word of God in which we have faith is the weapon with which we wage our individual war with Satan and his princes and principalities that operate in the heavens ruling the world order. If we were willing we would put ourselves in remembrance that “by the word of the Lord were the heavens made and by all the host of them by the breath of His mouth.” I don’t care what the strengths of our personality and nature may be, scripture tells us “a mighty man is not delivered by much strength.” We are delivered by our humility to the word of God and our fear of the Lord. “The eye of the Lord is upon them that fear Him and upon them that hope in His mercy to keep their soul from death . . . Let your mercy O Lord be upon us according as we hope in You.” (The quotations in this paragraph are from Psalm 33:6, 16, 18, 19, and 22.)

We have no control over the temptations of the world except as the testimony of our lives may assist to change the world. We have no control over the existence within ourselves of selfish cravings and lusts or the appeal of the world to those selfish cravings and lusts. However, we do have a choice mechanism within ourselves. It is by choice that we accept the declaration of scripture that Jesus is the Son of God and it is by choice that we choose to declare Him to be our Lord. From that point in time choice continues to rule us as it did before we made the choice to become sons of God. While we were saved from eternal damnation by choosing Jesus, we were not saved from future temptation or the lusts of our flesh. Faith must continue to make our choices for us as opposed to the lusts of our flesh. James writes to us Christians that when we are tempted we are tempted out of the lust of our own flesh. (James 1:14) When the lusts of our flesh are raging because of temptation, it is time to flee into the refuge of our God. John tells us that the word was made flesh and dwelt among us full of truth and grace. (John 1:14) When scripture tells us that Jesus is our refuge it is telling us that the word of God is our refuge. We must train ourselves to look to the word of God and choose it over the appeal of temptation and the lusts of our flesh. Scripture in Ecclesiastes 10:8, 11 tells us that he who digs a pit shall fall into it and whosoever breaks through a hedge a serpent will bite him. It also tells us that Satan, the serpent, doesn’t need enchantments in order to bite. All across the body of Christ I see people digging pits with their behavior in deed and in conversation that I know they are going to fall in at some point in time. With their behavior in deed and in conversation they are breaking through the hedge of the word of God and Satan will bite them, make no mistake about it. Also, make no mistake about it, it is their choice. We live and we die by our choices. We live to God by our choices and our relationship with God dies by our choices. Godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come. (1st Timothy 4:8) The wages of sin is death. (Romans 6:23) I can only hope that this warning does not apply to the behavior or conversation of any of you and that you will forward it to your friends and relatives for their consideration.

Bob Highsmith
www.aspiritualhouse.blogspot.com
www.jeremiah419.blogspot.com

PRAYER OF PSALM 17

2004-09-16T10:35:00.000-04:00

Father, give ear to my prayer that comes to you from unfeigned lips.
Concerning the works of men Father,
I have kept myself from the paths of the destroyer.
I have not followed the spiritual beings of evil.
I am forever indebted to you Father for your word,
For the words of your lips,
For it is by them that I have been able to avoid the paths of evil.
When my feet have slipped
I have cleansed myself in the laver of your forgiveness.
I ask you now Father to hold my feet to your paths that my feet slip not.
I call upon you and you will hear me.
Incline your ear to me and hear the words of my prayer.
My prayer is this Father:
Keep me as the apple of your eye,
Hide me under the shadow of your wings.
Help me and show me how to draw near to you.
Let me nestle as a chick under the security of your provisions.
The oppressor, the destroyer, like a lion that is greedy for his prey,
Like a young lion that is lurking in secret places where I am unaware,
Waits for me and longs to gain access to me.
Father I confess that I fall asleep on the watch.
Foolishly, in the comfort of Your blessings, I forget my enemies.
Arise, Father, arise! Disappoint him, cast him down:
Deliver my soul from the wicked by your sword.
Yes Father, arise in me with Your word. Put Your word in my mouth. Deliver me from wicked men
Who do not consider You and have their portion in this life
And from the wicked spirits.
As for me Father, I will behold Your face in righteousness.
I shall be satisfied with Your likeness.
By the exercise of Your word I will awake from my sleep.
I will walk in the likeness of You.
Bob Highsmith
aspiritualhouse@yahoo.com

HIS MERCY ENDURES FOREVER

2004-08-24T15:56:00.000-04:00

Who can say, I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin? (Proverbs 20:9)

Scripture asks us a question in the above verse from Proverbs. The answer to the question of who can truthfully say they have made their heart clean and that they are pure from sin is no one. Proverbs 20:28 says that "mercy and truth preserve the king and his throne is upheld by mercy." Jesus told the Pharisees to go and learn what was meant when Hosea in Hosea 6:6 said that the Lord would have mercy, and not sacrifice (Mathew 9:13). Mercy comes from God’s understanding that we cannot make our own hearts clean and purify ourselves. No amount of good works or sacrifice or religious activity can purify us. Only through God’s mercy can we be purified. Initially, when we are born again, we receive forgiveness of sins. In the book of Acts the ministry of the church that was given to Paul was to open the eyes of people and turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God that they might receive forgiveness of sins. One of the things that people are blind to is mercy. The darkness that many live in is a concept that somehow through their good works, sacrifice, and religious activity they become clean in the eyes of God. Nothing could be further from the truth.

In response to the question, what does the Lord require of us, Micah 6:8 says that we are to love mercy. If we love mercy, we do not arrogantly assume that we are pleasing to God because of who we are or what we have done for Him. We do not try to justify or excuse ourselves. Instead, like disobedient children who know they have done wrong, those who love mercy willingly go before their Heavenly Father and confess their wrongdoing exercising faith in God’s mercy. Faith in God’s mercy is at the very core or foundation of relationship with our Heavenly Father. Loving mercy is an aspect of humility.

However, mercy is not, as some would think, a license to sin. God in His mercy saved us when we were living in sin. God in His mercy continues to forgive us although we return to sin. His mercy is never taken away from us. Scripture says that His mercy "endures forever." Forty-three times the Lord repeats Himself in scripture saying that His mercy endures forever. Psalm 118 is based entirely upon this truth and tells us to say, "His mercy endures forever." We cannot lose our salvation that Jesus died and provided for us through sin because His mercy endures forever. However, we can live in sin if we so choose, but we will be judged on the Day of Judgment for every deed that we did in our bodies while on earth as well as the things we omitted to do that God required of us. Also, we will find, if we live in sin, that there is a fruit of our ways that we will eat during this lifetime. But God does not take away His mercy of which salvation is a part as a punishment because His mercy endures forever.

When God’s mercy endures forever, why forsake mercy and live in sin? Sin is conquered through Jesus (Romans 7:22-25) provided that we follow the advice in Colossians chapter 3. Paul in Colossians chapter 3 instructs us that those of us who are risen in Christ by our salvation should "seek those things which are above where Christ sits on the right hand of God." Our affection, according to Colossians, should be on things above, not on things on the earth. Colossians tells us that we are dead, that is the old life we had is dead, and that our new life is "hid with Christ in God." Our old personality was taken to the cross by Jesus giving opportunity to us to believe in the Lord Jesus and be born again, that is receive a new spirit. Those who have been born again are able through Jesus, if they so choose, to mortify or deprive of power the evil desires that lurk in them. According to Colossians these evil desires are animal impulses and all that is earthly in us that is employed in sin: sexual vice, impurity, sensual appetites, unholy desires, greed, covetousness, the deifying of ourselves or anything else instead of God, etc.. Paul writes in Colossians that we are to put off these and other things such as anger, malice, filthy communication and lying and put on the new man that we have received. The new man can be renewed and remolded in knowledge after the image or likeness of Jesus who created the new man in us. Paul tells us that "though our outward man (that part of us that houses the evil desires) perish, yet the inward man (that born again spirit we received when we believed on Jesus) is renewed day by day (by our fellowship with and following of the word of God)" (2nd Corinthians 4:16). It is in the mind of God that sin will decrease and holiness will increase as we, with a willing and voluntary heart, cooperate with the Lord and seek the change that is available through Jesus, living our new lives under mercy for those sins we do commit. We are told that if we submit ourselves to God first and then resist Satan’s appeal to these desires (temptation) that Satan will flee from us. When Satan leaves, the temptation goes with him (James 4:7).

God’s answer to His children who won’t put on the new man and who choose to live in sin is Satan. Throughout scripture God speaks of turning people over to their own lusts. Most, after a season of eating the fruit of their ways, repent and return to the Lord. The life of sin ultimately is not a pleasant life. Paul told the church in Corinth to turn a man out of the church and thereby deliver him to Satan "for the destruction of the flesh" (1st Corinthians 5:1-5). What Paul knew was that this individual in time would no longer be able to endure the consequences of his union with Satan. The result would be that he would mortify or put to death his desire for the sin that he was committing and seek the mercy of God. It is in this manner that Satan is used to assist in the bringing to death the desires of the flesh. In Isaiah 54:16 God says that He created the smith that blows the coals or in other words, He created Satan who brings the heat to bear on us. It wasn’t long before the individual was forsaking his fleshly desires seeking the umbrella of mercy. Paul told the church to forgive and accept him back into their midst (2nd Corinthians 2: 6-7). All the time the man remained a child of God who was undergoing the process of having to eat the fruit of his ways in this lifetime. He did not have to be born again the second time to come under mercy. Mercy was there all the time. He could have exercised faith and received mercy at any time. Instead he chose to live in his sin and suffer the consequences of sin. The consequences turned him to mercy, which endures forever.

Bob Highsmith
aspiritualhouse@yahoo.com

THE PLANTING OF THE LORD

2004-08-24T09:35:00.000-04:00

Blessed is the man that walks not in the counsel of the ungodly,
Nor stands in the way of sinners,
Nor sits in the seat of the scornful.
But his delight is in the law of the Lord;
And in His law does he meditate day and night.
And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water,
That brings forth his fruit in his season;
His leaf also shall not wither;
And whatsoever he does shall prosper.
Psalm 1:1-3

Thus say the Lord;
Cursed be the man that trusts in man,
And makes flesh his arm,
And whose heart departs from the LORD.
For he shall be like the heath in the desert,
And shall not see when good comes;
But shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness,
In a salt land and not inhabited.
Blessed is the man that trusts in the Lord,
And whose hope the Lord is.
For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters,
And that spreads out her roots by the river,
And shall not see when heat comes,
But her leaf shall be green;
And shall not be careful in the year of drought,
Neither shall cease from yielding fruit.
Jeremiah 17:5-8

Delight yourself also in the Lord:
And He shall give thee the desires of your heart.
Commit your way unto the Lord;
Trust also in Him;
And He shall bring it to pass.
Psalm 37: 4-5

The Hebrew word translated "delight" means to be soft and pliable as a woman. Note that Jeremiah shifts to the feminine gender when he begins to describe the man who trusts in the Lord instead of the flesh or natural attributes of man. "He" shall become as a tree that is thereafter spoken of as "she." To Eve’s credit she was seduced and not a rebel like Adam. Also note that Psalm 1 and Jeremiah 17 both speak of the trusting individual as a tree, that is something planted in one spot that has roots going down into what it is planted in. We need to stay in the word of God and not drift off from its instruction. We need to put our roots down in it and become planted in the word of God. Jeremiah says we won’t even know when the heat comes if we do that. This is saying what Psalm 112 says that we will not fear bad news if we fear the Lord and delight in his commands.

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me . . .
To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion,
To give unto them beauty for ashes,
the oil of joy for mourning,
the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness;
that they might be called trees of righteousness,
the planting of the Lord,
that he might be glorified.
And they shall build the old wastes,
they shall raise up the former desolations,
and they shall repair the waste cities,
the desolations of many generations.
And strangers shall stand and feed your flocks,
and the sons of the alien shall be your plowmen and your vinedressers.
But you shall be named the Priests of the Lord:
men shall call you the Ministers of our God:
you shall eat the riches of the Gentiles,
and in their glory shall you boast yourselves.
For your shame you shall have double;
and for confusion they shall rejoice in their portion:
therefore in their land they shall possess the double:
everlasting joy shall be unto them.
For I the Lord love judgment,
I hate robbery for burnt offering;
and I will direct their work in truth,
and I will make an everlasting covenant with them.
And their seed shall be known among the Gentiles,
and their offspring among the people:
all that see them shall acknowledge them,
that they are the seed which the Lord has blessed.
Isaiah 61:1-9

Bob Highsmith
aspiritualhouse@yahoo.com

THE SONG OF ISAIAH ABOUT THE LORD'S VINEYARD

2004-08-18T10:14:00.000-04:00

Now will I sing to my well beloved a song of my beloved touching His vineyard. My well beloved has a vineyard in a very fruitful hill:
And He fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the middle of it, and also made a winepress therein: and He looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes. (Isaiah 5:1-2)

These scriptures speak literally to Judah and Israel. However, these scriptures also foretell of and speak to the Body of Christ today. The planted Vine is the Lord Jesus Christ, the choicest of vines. However, it is not the vine that bears fruit, it is the branches coming off of the vine. Reference to the vineyard is a reference to the branches. The branches consist of the individual members of the Body of Christ. The branches are bearing fruit, but the fruit is not the fruit ordained by the Lord of the vineyard—the fruit is wild grapes. The fruit is wild in most every sense of the word. The fruit is wild primarily because it is from a natural stock not a cultivated spiritual stock. The fruit is wild because it is not easily restrained or regulated—it comes from self-willed branches. The fruit is wild because it is in a state of disorder. It is wild because it is missing the target. It is wild because it is dissipated, licentious, promiscuous, etc.. It is wild because it is confused. And there is a reason.

And now . . . judge, I pray you, between me and my vineyard. (Isaiah 5:3)

Our Heavenly Father directs us to judge between Him and us. Is the reason that the vineyard is bearing wild grapes the fault of God or the vine? Isaiah’s song begins with the statement that our Father planted the vineyard in a very fruitful hill (where it should bear His desired fruit), that He provided the vineyard with a fence to protect it (His written word), that He removed the stones (delivered the vineyard from its enemies), built a watch within it (our conscious), and prepared a winepress for the harvest (the anointing of the Holy Ghost). Why then is it bearing wild grapes?

What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes? . . .
And the harp, and the viol, the tabret, and pipe, and wine, are in their feasts: but they regard not the work of the Lord, neither consider the operation of His hands. (Isaiah 5:4, 12)

This is our Father’s answer to the question. He says the problem is that the branches are holding feasts (worship sessions rejoicing in themselves and over their works which may be for God, but He has not ordained them) and giving no regard to His works (what He would ordain them to do) nor are they giving regard to the direction and guidance God provides to accomplish His works that He refers to as the "operation of His hands" that He would supply by His Holy Spirit who indwells the branches.

Therefore my people are gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge: . . . (Isaiah 5:13)

Our Father says that the Body of Christ is in captivity because we rejoice in our own works and ourselves in our worship services and do not take our direction from the Vine and the Holy Spirit—we have no knowledge of His will for us. The Body of Christ is held captive by its own sin. Psalm 10 describes the sin of the Body of Christ. Verse 3 says the wicked man boasts of his own heart’s desire. The Amplified Bible refers to this boasting as singing the praises of his own heart’s desire. Verse 4 says, "The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts." The sin of the Body of Christ is not what may be referred to as moral sin. It is sin in relationship to God. It is the sin Don Potter sings about in the song, "Born Again, Again," on his CD, Since the Fall, ". . . my service was to everyone, but You . . . In my efforts to start a fire I only exalted me. I was closer to the body than I was to You and that should never be . . ." It is the sin of Job, who was morally perfect but did not know God. It is the sin of the rich, young ruler who had kept the moral commandments, but exalted the things he coveted above God and would not follow the Lord. In this regard what we covet may be abstract possessions such as reputation, human relationships, etc.. It is the sin of the disciples who argued among themselves who was the greatest and could not hear the Lord on the subject of His death and resurrection and their intended destiny. It is the sin of the disciples who rejected and abandoned the Lord when their flesh was in danger. It is the sin of the disciples who gathered around the Lord when He was in manifestation prior to His ascension, but ignored the purposes of God and went about their worldly affairs when He was not in manifestation. It is the sin of being service oriented in the sense of meetings and not service oriented in the sense of obedience to the commands, intentions, and purposes of God regarding the work scheduled for the Body of Christ. It is the sin of Simon the sorcerer who wanted the power of God without giving to God the spiritual medium of exchange required by Heaven, our flesh.

Therefore hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure: and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that rejoices, shall descend into it. (The wide open mouth of hell.) (Isaiah 5:14)
Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! (Isaiah 5:20)
Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight! (Isaiah 5:21)
Therefore as the fire devours the stubble, and the flame consumes the chaff, so their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust: because they have cast away the law of the Lord of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel. (Isaiah 5:24)

Has hell enlarged itself? Yes it has. We know from simple observation of the entertainment world alone that it has. Has hell opened its mouth wide swallowing up clergy, children, leaders, etc.? Yes it has. We know it has from the frequent and numerous news headlines. If hell has enlarged itself and if it’s mouth is open wide, then according to scripture the reason is that the Body of Christ is in the captivity of sin and has no knowledge of the will of God. Therefore, the blame for the large increases in teen pregnancy and prostitution, homosexuality among both males and females, the divorce rate, corruption in government, crimes such as murder and child molestation, drug addiction and alcoholism, public nudity, explicit sexual content in entertainment, people foregoing marriage to live together in illegal union, and abortion lies at the feet of the Body of Christ. This is the message of Isaiah. Isaiah says it is because God’s people are in the captivity of sin, have no knowledge of the will of their Heavenly Father, and are bearing wild fruit that hell has enlarged itself and opened its mouth wide.

The answer to the problem is to not walk as the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their minds, having their understanding darkened and being alienated from the life of God. (Ephesians 4:17-18) The answer to the problem is to remain conscious at all times that we have been raised with Jesus and therefore seek those things which are above where He is, to set our minds on the things which are above and not on the things of the earth. The answer to the problem is to let the peace of God guide our hearts. The answer to the problem is to hold fast to the head of the church and to grow with the increase that is from God. The answer to the problem is to proceed, in faith, to do what we do in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. The answer to the problem is to continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in prayer with thanksgiving. (Colossians 3:1-2, 15, 17; Colossians 2:19; 4:2) The answer is to gravitate toward God. (James 4:8) The answer is to meditate continuously on the word of God. (Joshua 1:8) The answer is to forsake everything which is not of Him. (Luke 5:11) The answer is to consecrate our lives to Him. (Matthew 26:39) The answer is to grant Him the use of our bodies so the Holy Spirit can, through us, accomplish the works of God, and we can produce spiritual fruit instead of wild grapes. (Romans 12:4) The answer is to develop within yourself the heart of David who wrote, "O God, You are my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsts for You, my flesh longs for You in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is; To see Your power and Your glory (David did not just desire the power of God, he wanted to see God glorified as well), so as I have seen You in the sanctuary. Because Your lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise You. Thus will I bless You while I live: I will lift up my hands in Your name. My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness; and my mouth shall praise You with joyful lips: When I remember You upon my bed, and meditate on You in the night watches. Because You have been my help, therefore in the shadow of Your wings will I rejoice. My soul follows hard after You: Your right hand upholds me." (Psalm 63:1-8) The answer is to let the Holy Ghost create in us the answer to Jesus’ prayer that we become one with God. (John 17) The answer is to pray for our brothers and sisters in the Body of Christ that they "be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding that they might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing being fruitful in good works (not wild grapes), increasing in the knowledge of God" while we are letting the Holy Spirit do the same work in us. (Colossians 1:9-10)

Bob Highsmith
aspiritualhouse@yahoo.com

BECOMING BORN AGAIN

2004-08-12T17:42:00.000-04:00

Romans chapter 10 in part.

2. I bear them witness that they have a certain zeal and enthusiasm for God, but it is not enlightened and according to correct and vital knowledge.
8. But what does it say? The Word, God’s message in Christ, is near you, on your lips and in your heart; that is, the Word, the message, the basis and object of faith which we preach, [Deut. 30:14.] ( This word, the object of faith that Paul and the other disciples preached, and through the Bible they are still preaching, is that Jesus is the Son of God, alive in heaven, and Lord of everything. They preach that He was crucified for sin; that although He had never sinned He took all sin upon himself, as our substitue, burying it in his death on the cross. He was afterward raised from the dead by God and seated at the right hand of God as Lord of everything in heaven except God, everything on the earth without exception and everything under the earth without exception. Since that moment, anyone who will bow before God and ask for the forgiveness that Jesus bought with His blood, while in their heart forsaking the world and declaring Jesus to be their lord, shall (1) receive the forgiveness for all their sin that Jesus obtained for them, (2) receive a new spirit (be born again) and (3) be saved from the wrath of God that is to come on the day of judgment upon those who don't believe.) Because if you acknowledge and confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and in your heart believe, adhere to, trust in, and rely on the truth, that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
10. For with the heart a person believes adheres to, trusts in, and relies on Christ and so is justified declared righteous, acceptable to God, and with the mouth he confesses his salvation.
11. The Scripture says, No man who believes in Him who adheres to, relies on, and trusts in Him will ever be put to shame or be disappointed. [Ps. 34:22; Isa. 28:16; 49:23; Jer. 17:7.]
12. The same Lord is Lord over all of us and He generously bestows His riches upon all who call upon Him in faith.
13. For everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord invoking Him as Lord will be saved. [Joel 2:32.]
16. But they have not all heeded the Gospel; for Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed, had faith in, what he has heard from us? [Isa. 53:1.]
17. So faith comes by hearing what is told, . . .
21. But . . . he says, All day long I have stretched out My hands to a people unyielding and disobedient and self-willed . . . [Isa. 65:2.]

WHERE IS OUR FAITH?

2004-08-05T15:10:00.000-04:00

And he said unto them, Why are you fearful, O you of little faith? Mathew 8:26
And he said unto them, Where is your faith? Luke 8:25
And he said unto them, Why are you so fearful? how is it that you have no faith? Mark 4:40

Luke, Matthew, and Mark each record the episode of Jesus falling asleep in a boat while He and His disciples were crossing the Sea of Galilee. After Jesus fell asleep a powerful storm or tempest arose. No doubt the winds were forty to sixty miles per hour and the swells six to ten feet in height. The scripture tells us that the ship was being covered by waves. The disciples were very obviously terrified. In each rendition the disciples wake Jesus up. In each rendition Jesus rebukes the storm and calm comes upon the sea. The scriptures quoted above tell us the response of Jesus to His disciples after He was waked up. Matthew tells us what the disciples said to Him when they were waking Him up and how He replied before He rebuked the storm and calmed the sea. Luke and Mark tell us what He said to them after He rebuked the storm. In each instance His response is to ask His disciples a question about their faith. The words spoken to Jesus by His disciples when they waked Him and the questions Jesus asked them in response reveal much about the subject of faith that will benefit us.

In the midst of the storm that threatened their lives the disciples cried out to Jesus as they waked Him, "Lord, save us. We perish." Within the heart of the disciples was a belief which they acted upon that Jesus could save them. Why is it then that Jesus said to them before He ever rebuked the storm, "Why are you fearful?" and referred to them as men of "little faith?" Are we not supposed to call upon the Lord when we are in trouble? The answer to the first question is that they were fearful and Jesus wanted them to examine their fear. The answer to the second question is a qualified yes. Initially, when we are saved we are taught to call upon the name of the Lord. It, therefore, becomes our habit to pray and ask God for all types of things with varying degrees of hope of our prayers being answered. This is a correct beginning. It is where faith starts. However, it is to be noted that Jesus did not pray and ask the Father to rebuke the storm for Him and calm the sea, He rebuked it Himself and the sea was calmed. The ultimate destiny of faith is that we speak into existence the will of God. Most of the praying that Jesus did was not to petition God for anything; it was prayer in which He consecrated Himself to His Heavenly Father, communed with Him and sought revelation of His will to be performed by Him on earth. It is the thought of Heaven for us that as the word and will of God becomes known to us that we will step forth and exercise faith as Jesus did in speaking to the storms and removing them. Jesus said in Mark 11:23 that, "Whosoever shall say unto this mountain be removed and be cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he says shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he says." Also, in Romans 4:17 Paul describes for us the faith of God. The faith of God is defined as "calling those things that be not as though they were." Our faith is small and little and not growing when we always go to the Lord and ask Him to do what He expects us to do by faith. Therefore Jesus tells them their faith is small—they are of "little faith."

Before He ever rebukes the storm Jesus asks His disciples, "Why are you fearful?" It would seem that the natural response would be, "I am fearful because eight to ten foot swells are breaking over the boat; the wind is blowing at 40-60 miles an hour causing us to loose total control of the boat; the boat is filling up with water; lightening is everywhere; thunder is bursting our eardrums; and you ask us why we are fearful?" That response is exactly why Jesus asked the question. He wants them to consider what their faith is really in. Faith in circumstances produces fear. If I have been diagnosed as having cancer and all the knowledge I have about cancer and the diagnosis and prognosis are where I direct my faith concerning my future, then I become full of fear and speak the future the circumstances indicate—"I am dying." I pray as the disciples did, "I am dying, save me." In essence I am praying to God to save me from my own faith because my faith is in my dying. If I believe instead the word and will of God, I do not fear the cancer. I direct my faith to the word and will of God and speak the future set for me by His will—"Thank you Father you have sent Your word and I am healed." The situation the disciples found themselves in is common to all who have not learned faith. Their faith is in the circumstances, but there is a belief that God could help; although, whether He will or not is in doubt, and so the cry to Him is a terrified statement of the nature of our circumstances and a plea to "save me from what I believe and have activated my faith in." Had the disciples believed that Jesus would as opposed to could save them, they would not in the same breath have said, "We perish." To cry out to God, "I am dying. Save me" is at best an acknowledgment in the power to save. It is not faith in the will to save. The disciples’ faith is in the power of the storm and their anticipated death coupled with knowledge that Jesus could save them if He would. They wake Him up in hope that He will. Jesus did save them, but it was not because of their petition or any faith on their part. He saved them by His faith because He knew it was the sovereign will of God to do so. We have the sensation when trauma or calamity or bad news comes our way that God is asleep and we try to wake Him in similar fashion with a panic prayer, "Save me. I am perishing." Jesus tells His disciples they are of little faith and this episode recorded in scripture tells us that we, likewise, are of little faith when our actions are similar. The whole experience is presented as part of the teaching process for us.

After Jesus rebukes the storm and the seas are calm He asks them again why they are so fearful and another question, "How is it that you have no faith?" The answer to both questions is that their eyes were upon the circumstances and not upon Heaven. The fact was that they were in the midst of a terrible storm. The fact was that they were experiencing gale force winds. The fact was that it was pouring down rain and lightening with no end in sight. The fact was that the waves were crashing over the boat filling it with water and the boat was in danger of sinking or capsizing. However, fact and truth are two different things. Heaven’s truth overrides earth’s fact. The truth was that they had the Son of God in the boat with them. The truth was that they had been told that if they believed they too could say to the storm, "Be thou removed" and it would have left them. The truth was that they were chosen of God and had a destiny that required they not die. The truth was that Jesus had been teaching them about faith and they knew how to respond to the word of God rather than to the circumstances they faced. However, they were fearful because they were looking at earth’s fact and not acting in faith upon Heaven’s truth. The reason why they had no faith is likewise that they were concentrating upon earth’s fact and not Heaven’s truth. Faith comes, according to Paul in Romans 10:17, from hearing the word of God. There is no question that if they had turned their eyes toward Heaven and left the facts of the storm that they would have heard the Holy Spirit tell them to rebuke the storm as He did Jesus. We know that Jesus heard the Holy Ghost tell Him that because Jesus said that He did not speak things that He did not hear from Heaven. (John 8:28; 12:49-50; 14:10)

The last question that Jesus asked them is, "Where is your faith?" Faith is something that we all have. We live life by faith. Faith is not something that is placed in us after we become saved. We were created to live by faith. To illustrate, assume that it has been a beautiful day all day. The day is now over and the weather report is being watched on television. As far as the facts are concerned, there is nothing known that would lead anyone to believe that they should cancel a golf game scheduled for the following morning. However, the weather report says that there is a one hundred percent chance of rain the following morning. Most watching that weather report will believe the weather report and, in faith, act accordingly by canceling the golf game. Faith is a way of life for human beings. We hear, we believe, we act. Belief in action is faith. The issue isn’t whether we have faith, the issue is where is our faith. The disciples believed in the storm. They acted upon that belief and panicked. Their action was a demonstration of faith. Jesus’ action was a demonstration of His faith. Both the disciples and Jesus were aware of the storm. Jesus chose to believe in the word and will of God in the face of the storm. The alternative to act in faith upon the word and will of God was as available to the disciples as it was to Jesus.

It is the expressed will of God in scripture that we ultimately reach a place of faith where we alter the circumstances of life with our mouths. The tongue is both an instrument of war and an instrument of creation. It is with the tongue that we defeat Satan by speaking the word of God. It is with the tongue that we create health, financial prosperity and other aspects of life. It is with our tongue that we entered into salvation—"with the mouth confession is made unto salvation" (Romans 10:10)—and it is with the tongue that we activate all faith for it is written, "As I believe therefore have I spoken." (2nd Corinthians 4:13)

As the Gospels are concluded, Jesus ascends, and the disciples enter the era of the Book of Acts, there is a progression in faith. The disciples, who at one point in time were in a boat in the sea of Galilee facing a terrible storm with only the faith to cry out, "We are perishing, save us" are brought in the discipling process to a point where in the Book of Acts they healed cripples and raised the dead with their mouths. Peter and John without prayer spoke to the cripple seated at the gate to the temple and said, "rise up and walk" and he did. (Acts 3:4) Peter prayed and upon learning the will of God, spoke to Tabitha who was dead and said, "Tabitha arise" and she did. (Acts 9:40) Ananias, knowing the will of God, laid his hands on Paul who was blind and said, "Brother Saul, receive your sight" and he did. (Acts 9:17; 22:13) Peter without prayer said to Aeneas, who had been bedfast eight years with palsy, "arise and make your bed" and immediately he did. Paul said to Elymas, the sorcerer, "you shall be blind" and immediately he was. (Acts 13:11) Paul without prayer said to the man at Lydda who had been crippled since birth and never walked, "stand upright on your feet" and he did, he leaped and walked. (Acts 14:10) Paul without prayer spoke to a spirit in a woman and said, "I command you to come out of her," and the spirit did. Paul fell on a dead man and said, "his life is in him" and the man lived. (Acts 20:10)

It is in the word of God and it is the will of God for the Christians of our generation to go through a discipling process whereby we likewise in faith, "Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely you have received, freely give." (Matthew 10:8) Unfortunately, the Christians of this generation appear to be floundering around in their boats attempting to wake God to their situations by crying out to God, "Save us from the storms of life." The questions that Jesus asked His disciples, scripture asks us. Why are we fearful? How is it that we have no faith? Where is our faith?

The issue for the body of Christ at this moment in time is—are we going to participate in the discipling process and permit ourselves to be brought through what the apostles were brought through to the place where we can perform the will of God on earth as Jesus did? There is no question about that being the will of God for us. The great commission, as it is called, tells us to preach the gospel. The gospel is that it is the will of God for individuals to become one with God and cast out devils, heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, and preach this gospel to the poor and needy. Those who have no need of God in their lives will not receive this gospel any more than their counterparts in Jesus’ day did. And while their voice may be loud and ferocious and persecuting, their number is few compared with the poor and needy.

When John the Baptist was in prison he sent his followers to ask Jesus if He was the One that John had been preparing the way for. Jesus’ response was to tell John that, "The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them." (Matthew 11:5) The presence of the Kingdom of God is known by the operation and demonstration of the power of God. (Luke 11:20) In John 14:12 Jesus said to His disciples, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believes on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father." Jesus did not limit this statement to those that we refer to as the apostles. He said "he that believes on me." Therefore, His statement applies to any believer in all generations following His death and ascension. Those who want to say that the power of God ceased when the last apostle died are simply wrong.

In John chapter 17 Jesus prayed not only for His disciples but also for those who believe on Jesus through the words of the disciples. (verse 20) We of this generation believe because of the words of the disciples that are printed in scripture. It is through them that we believe, therefore, the prayer in the seventeenth chapter of John is for us as well. That prayer expresses the will of God that we be one in the Father and the Son. Jesus’ oneness with the Father enabled Jesus to produce miracles on the earth. The disciples’ oneness with the Father and Son enabled the disciples to produce miracles on the earth. Believers’ oneness with the Father and Son has enabled believers of every generation to produce miracles. If you are one with someone you think like they do and you behave like they do, you are of the same will. Jesus thought that it was the will of God for Him to perform miracles on the earth and He did. If this had not been the exact thought of God for Jesus, the miraculous works of God would never have been performed by Him. The disciples thought that it was the will of God and of Jesus that they continue Jesus’ ministry on the earth casting out devils, healing the sick, raising the dead, preaching salvation in God and cleansing the diseased and they did. It was obviously the thought of God and Jesus for them to continue His ministry or they would never have cast out devils, healed the sick and raised the dead. Believers in subsequent generations likewise have thought that it was the will of God for them to continue to work the works of God on earth as Jesus did. They have been confirmed in that thought by the anointing to do those works. An individuals’ oneness with Jesus and the Father is seen in the works that they do.

The sign of the presence of oneness with Jesus and God is the presence of the power of God. On the whole, among the body of Christ of this generation, you do not find the presence of the power of God. You find amongst this body a great deal of rhetoric about who God is and what He is supposedly saying. You find numerous buildings housing people who call themselves "the church" and go by various denominational names or independent names. The independent names vary in creativity. You sense that their faith is in what they have named themselves. Worship is defined as a songfest during which the attendants work themselves into some type of soulish experience on specified days. (I do not wish to distract from what is a true ministry of the church which is to minister to the Lord Jesus Christ and no doubt there are services held where the body is in song ministering to the Lord and not themselves.) Worship isn’t conceived as acceptance of the intended anointing for the body and service under that anointing. Prayer consists almost entirely of petitions for wants coupled with efforts to direct God on how He should manage this universe and manage the sin that is present in the world that is increasing daily. On that note scripture says in Isaiah that hell does enlarge itself and open its mouth without measure because God’s people have no knowledge. (Isaiah 5:14) The prevailing and increasing sin alone indict the body of Christ and confirm what is being said here. The body takes up causes like Ten Commandment monuments and abortion utilizing natural and political means and believes that they are serving God. Yet Ten Commandment monuments have been historically in place at various government locations and churches and those monuments have accomplished nothing. Scripture says nothing about writing the word of God on monuments, it speaks of writing the word of God on the hearts of men and women. If it is not written there, it will not accomplish its purpose. The weapons of God to be used against something like abortion are not legislative wars and civil disobedience. We have had Christians lying down in front of abortion clinics who will not lay down their lives for God. Many are trying to hide from God by appointing themselves to projects conducted in the name of God. In essence they are burying their heads in the sands of religious busyness. The whole Christian walk is self-conceived and self-defined to suit themselves. Few are willing to let God touch them to change them from fearful people being slapped around in homemade boats by the circumstances of life into Sons of God performing the works of God. Instead of concentrating on themselves and dead works, the body of Christ needs to consecrate themselves to the Lord. In that process of consecration, adverse circumstances and dead works will disappear in the body of Christ and the works of God reappear.

The reason for the absence of the power of God is the absence of oneness with the Father and the Son. The body of Christ thinks differently than the Father and Son think. The body of Christ believes differently than the Father and Son believe. The body of Christ of this generation believes in pleasure. It believes in persecution and fears it. It believes in the deceitfulness of riches. It believes in the opinion of men. It believes in the traditions of men. It is slothful in its study of the word of God. It does not want to lose the life that it has and take up the life that the Father and Son have for it. If there is any prayer that needs to go forth today it is the prayer Jesus prayed for the body of Christ to become one with the Father and the Son.

Understand that the statements made concerning the body as a whole apply equally to its parts. We should read this in a personal way to say, "I believe in persecution and fear it. I believe in the deceitfulness of riches. I believe in the opinion of men and fear men which scriptures says is a snare. I believe in the traditions of men rather than the word of God. I am slothful in my study of the word of God. I do not want to lose my life, I like it, and take up the life that God has for me. I believe in and like my pleasures." We cannot divorce ourselves from the application of this truth to ourselves when we know that the power of God does not flow through us to the poor and needy of this generation. May we each turn our eyes towards Heaven and sincerely say to the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, "Forgive me and begin Your work in me that I might lose the life I have and obtain the life You have prepared for me. Take from me all the things that hinder me placing my faith in the word of God. Help me submit myself to Your rule. Perform in me the change that You performed in Your disciples. I want to be Your disciple and fulfill Your will for me as a servant while I still have Your breath keeping me alive. I do not want to die and come before You and hear Your judgment that I buried the anointing You gave me in scripture to perform the works of God on the earth and returned You nothing." (Matthew 25:24-30)

Bob Highsmith
aspiritualhouse@yahoo.com

HELP!

2004-08-03T16:08:00.000-04:00

For I the Lord your God will hold your right hand, saying unto you, Fear not; I will help you. (Isaiah 41:13)

At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the middle of them, and said, Verily I say unto you, Except you be converted, and become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven . . . (Matthew 18:1-5)

I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence comes my help. My help comes from the Lord, which made heaven and earth. (Psalm 121:1-2)

"For I the Lord your God will hold your right hand, saying unto you, Fear not; I will help you." (Isaiah 41:13) What a wonderful, amazing scripture this is! It needs to be read again. "For I the Lord your God will hold your right hand, saying unto you, Fear not; I will help you." And again, "For I the Lord your God will hold your right hand, saying unto you, Fear not; I will help you." And again, "For I the Lord your God will hold your right hand, saying unto you, Fear not; I will help you." And again, "For I the Lord your God will hold your right hand, saying unto you, Fear not; I will help you." And again . . . and again . . . and again.

Have you incurred a problem that seems insurmountable? Or has life ever seemed this way to you, as it has to me and a few of my friends?—Your world is a flat surface of mirrored glass that is so lubricated that you can't walk. You have these visions and goals and causes and dreams and thoughts and all you do is slip and fall and slide around, falling and slipping and sliding in one spot, struggling to walk. All you can see is your awkwardness because it is constantly in the reflection on the surface of where you are. Yet . . . God seems close in some indefinable way. You know you are not forsaken and that somehow you are going to make it—the Lord is going to see to it that you do—but you can’t get a grasp on how or when. That is your world, you are without any revelation as to what? when? where? how? things are going to change. Is this familiar to you at all? Perhaps you have been very successful in the past or perhaps you have not. It makes no difference for this is where you are now. Or it may be that you are just facing a current problem and life is otherwise fine. If you can get past the fact that no one of any special repute wrote this—that it was penned by ole Bob—and receive what is written, then life will change for you because the Holy Spirit is instructing us on the truth that will enable us to obtain help from God, our Father.

It is proven by scripture and by the experience of everyone who has ever had anything to do with God, that God is unapproachable by the proud. Not one single person has ever received help from God being proud. The Lord says in Proverbs 15:33 that humility comes first. No one has ever received salvation who thought they deserved salvation and it was theirs because of their merit and good deeds. Salvation is achieved by the humble whether it is the initial salvation of our spirit or some part of the continuing salvation of our souls or salvation from a pending problem. Those who see themselves as needy and want the Lord’s help and pray simply saying "Lord save me" or "Lord help me" will quickly be led to the way of salvation—they will be led into humility. The Lord says in Isaiah 41:13 unequivocally, "I will help you." However, there is the condition of humility we must meet before we can receive His help. It is ironic that among all the strengths of which the proud boast you will not find the strength for faith in time of need. Isaiah in chapter 41 provides us the reason why.

1. ". . . thy God will hold thy right hand . . ."
Throughout scripture the right hand is utilized as a symbol for strength. For instance, in verse 10 of Isaiah 41 God says that He will uphold us with His right hand. In Psalm 17:7 God says He saves with His right hand. In verse 13 He tells us that He will say to us, "I will help you," when He has our right hand in His. It is our perceived strengths that hinder us in receiving help from God. The Lord is telling us that He will help us when we are willing to take those strengths out from under our wills and give them to Him for Him to hold and control. As long as I am applying my perceived strengths to my situation I will not receive the help of the Lord. The most difficult thing for us to do is to roll the care of our situation over upon the Lord and rely upon Him to help us. Peter instructs us to cast, ". . . all your care upon him; for he cares for you." (1 Peter 5:7) We can release our strengths and, in confidence, cast our cares upon Him for two reasons: One, we know from this verse that He has concern for us, and two, this verse tells us He will literally take the care from us and bring the matter to a successful conclusion without help from us except as He might direct. Casting our cares upon Him assumes that we humble ourselves and withdraw the application of our perceived strengths allowing Him to help us as He has said He would in Isaiah 41:13.

2. " . . . except you be converted (change) you cannot enter . . ."
The way of entering into help, or anything else in the Kingdom of God such as some new phase of ministry, is the way of a child. The disciples of Jesus were busy arguing between themselves who was the greatest among them. Jesus took a small child and exhibited the child to the disciples and told them "you shall not enter" unless . . . The condition for them to enter was to have their perspective of themselves changed from proud men arguing who was the greatest among them to seeing themselves as a small child before God. The chief characteristic of a child is dependence, helplessness. A small child lifts his hand up and places it in the hand of his parent so that he or she might be guided and directed and protected. Jesus had anointed these men to minister healing and to preach the good news that He had been preaching. The anointing did not humble them it made them proud. Their perception of the anointing was that it glorified them. Ultimately, all of these men disserted Jesus. Desertion is the unavoidable byproduct of pride—desertion of Heaven and our Heavenly Father and Jesus to follow a course we set for ourselves. This path leads us into problems. Humility leads us back to God and help for the problems we have gotten ourselves into. The only permissible perception of our self is that of a child with our right hand, the emblem of our strength, in the hand of God being led by Him, submitting ourselves in total dependence.

3. "Produce your cause, says the Lord; bring forth your strong reasons, says the King of Jacob. Let them bring them forth, and show us what shall happen: let them show the former things, what they be, that we may consider them, and know the latter end of them; or declare us things for to come. Show the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that you are gods: yea, do good, or do evil, that we may be dismayed, and behold it together. Behold, you are of nothing, and your work of naught: an abomination is he that chooses you." (Isaiah 41:21-24)
The Lord challenges us to try to prove that we have some strength to rely upon, some causes that are good, some reasoning that should be applied. He challenges us to bring the future to pass as we would have it be. He says to bring our causes to Him. This is a very good idea to go before the Lord and work through all of our thoughts and our proposed solutions and plans that will make the future as we want it. We need to express our reasons, our logic, bring our extensive knowledge of the situation and the past, etc. However, in this process we are going to come to understand that the former things we show the Lord mean nothing, that what we think will happen won’t happen, that our knowledge is useless and incomplete, our reasoning faulty, and that in honesty and truth we have no idea what the future holds and our plans and schemes doomed for failure. We who think of ourselves as gods will discover that we are no gods. Our gracious Heavenly Father will ultimately bring us to the conclusion as we pray and talk to Him that we are trying to show Him that we are gods and know more than He does. He will show us that our prayer life has been an effort to get Him to subsidize us, underwrite us, and lend us His strength so that we can be gods on the earth. When we accept that position that God has exposed we will repent, lift our self-perceived strengths to Him for Him to take from us, place our right hand in his as a small child so to speak and in renewed humility pray, "Father, help me. I cannot help myself."

4. "Fear not, thou worm Jacob, and you men of Israel: I will help you, says the Lord, and our redeemer, the Holy One of Israel." (Isaiah 41:14)
Thank God that everyone is included in the universe of people that our gracious Heavenly Father will help! Our Father will help the wormiest of us. Our Father will help the most successful. He does not respect what we are or what we have been or who we are or what we have done. He respects humility and the faith that arises out of humility. He tells the wormy, the lowest of us, to "fear not, I will help you." He tells the successful and independent, represented by the men of Israel, to "fear not, I will help you." All that is required is that we humbly lift the strength of our right hand to Him which most often is done by simply bringing to Him in our prayers all of our causes, reasons, logic, knowledge, opinions, etc. and accept His judgment of them as worthless. When we have done that we will hear His voice telling us, "I will help you." We cannot hear those words or see Him telling us that as long as we are hearing our own plans and seeing our own strengths that we can apply. When we have humbled ourselves those words, "fear not I will help you" will be the substance of our faith. Regardless of how dire the situation is, the humble hear these words reverberating throughout their being, "fear not, I will help you." It is a wonderful thing to know the will of God. When we know the will of God, faith directs our lives. John instructs us in his first letter in chapter 5 verses 14-15 that if we ask anything according to His will He hears us, and we can know that if He hears us that we have the answer to our prayer. It is God’s will to help us. He says, "I will help you."

Bob Highsmith
aspiritualhouse@yahoo.com

RAHAB THE HARLOT

2004-08-02T10:37:00.000-04:00

And Joshua the son of Nun sent out of Shittim two men to spy secretly, saying, Go view the land, even Jericho. And they went, and came into a harlot's house, named Rahab, and lodged there. And it was told the king of Jericho, saying, Behold, there came men in hither to night of the children of Israel to search out the country. And the king of Jericho sent unto Rahab, saying, Bring forth the men that are come to thee, which are entered into your house: for they be come to search out all the country. And the woman took the two men, and hid them, and said thus, There came men unto me, but I know not whence they were: And it came to pass about the time of shutting of the gate, when it was dark, that the men went out: where the men went I know not: pursue after them quickly; for you shall overtake them. But she had brought them up to the roof of the house, and hid them with the stalks of flax, which she had laid in order upon the roof. And the men pursued after them the way to Jordan unto the fords: and as soon as they which pursued after them were gone out, they shut the gate . . .

And Joshua saved Rahab the harlot alive, and her father's household, and all that she had; and she dwells in Israel even unto this day; because she hid the messengers, which Joshua sent to spy out Jericho . . .

By faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not (A better rendition here would be to say "with them who refused faith" because it is clear that her fellow citizens of Jericho had also heard of the Hebrews and their God and believed what they had heard just as thousands in fact millions in this country have heard of Jesus and believe he is the son of God, but won’t act on that belief and confess Him as their Lord.), when she had received the spies with peace . . .

Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? See you how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect? And the scripture was fulfilled which says, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God. You see then how that by works a person is justified, and not by faith only. Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way? For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.
Joshua 2:1-7, 6:25; Hebrews 11:31; James 2: 21-26

Rahab, who was a harlot, is placed along side Abraham, the friend of God, because she believed and she activated her will to act on her belief. Belief became faith. God is not impressed with mere belief. James, in chapter 2 verse 19, brings the distinction between mere belief and active faith home to us when mockingly he tells us we do well to believe that there is one God then minimizes such belief to the belief of devils— " the devils also believe, and tremble." In the last scripture quoted above James points out that mere belief is lifeless, dead, fruitless, useless, producing nothing— as useless as devils’ faith. Although the words "belief" and "faith" are used interchangeably in translating scripture, spiritually "belief" and "faith" are different. We can believe, but not act. Faith is belief in action. Faith is belief acted upon. Faith can be activated by anyone who believes. Belief, however, can be held dormant for a variety of reasons such as rebellion or fear or stubbornness and never transformed into faith.
It is faith and not belief that pleases God. In chapter 11 of Hebrews a wide variety of people are listed as having activated faith. There is no distinction made between them. They all pleased God. In Romans chapter 4 verses 2-5 and 16 Paul states in no uncertain terms that the promises of God come to us by faith that we might receive by the grace of God and not according to varying human abilities or particular efforts or endeavors. In other words, we do not receive from God as a reward for our ability or efforts. We receive from God because we believe God and activate that belief into faith. Paul also makes it clear in verse 16 that the end or purpose of faith is that the promises of God might be made available and sure to everyone. Anyone can believe and exercise faith regardless of any circumstance in life, who they are, or what they have accomplished. The lowest individual can rise to the prominent place of pleasing God. It is wonderful to know that all who exercise faith are seen as equal to each other in the eyes of Heaven. Abraham and the Harlot are made one by faith in God’s eyes—identical twins—both equally pleasing to God because both believed they knew the will of God and then acted upon their belief in faith. Faith became their righteousness and their sins were not counted against them. Our sins are easily erased from the mind of God and we become pleasing to Him by the exercise of faith.

Bob Highsmith
www.aspiritualhouse@yahoo.com

HEZEKIAH vs. SENNACHERIB/ ME vs. SATAN

2004-07-09T14:28:00.000-04:00

HEZEKIAH vs. SENNACHERIB/ ME vs. SATAN
2nd Kings Chapters Eighteen and Nineteen
Chapter 18
IN THE third year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, Hezekiah son of Ahaz king of Judah began to reign.
2 He was twenty-five years old when he began his twenty-nine-year reign in Jerusalem. His mother was Abi daughter of Zechariah.
3 Hezekiah did right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that David his [forefather] had done.
4 He removed the high places, broke the images, cut down the Asherim, and broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until then the Israelites had burned incense to it; but he called it Nehushtan [a bronze trifle].
5 Hezekiah trusted in, leaned on, and was confident in the Lord, the God of Israel; so that neither after him nor before him was any one of all the kings of Judah like him.
6 For he clung and held fast to the Lord and ceased not to follow Him, but kept His commandments, as the Lord commanded Moses.
7 And the Lord was with Hezekiah; he prospered wherever he went. And he rebelled against the king of Assyria and refused to serve him.
8 He smote the Philistines, even to Gaza [the most distant city] and its borders, from the [isolated] watchtower to the [populous] fortified city.
(Verses 1-8)God says there was no king like Hezekiah. There are lessons to be learned in what he did that pleased the Lord and lessons also to be learned from the recorded mistakes he made that will assist me in my own relationship with God and in my defense against Satan and sin. In the first eight verses of Chapter 18 scripture records why Hezekiah pleased the Lord.
Our first defense against sin is to do these things that Hezekiah did that pleased the Lord.
1. (Verse 3) Study the great saints of the Lord of yesterday who held a testimony of holiness before the Lord and resolve to follow their footsteps that the Holy Spirit reveals to you. When the Bride of Christ in Song of Solomon asked her beloved, the Lord Jesus, where he fed His flocks, that is where his blessings and protection were to be found, He told her to follow the footsteps of the sheep that had gone before her. Song of Solomon 1:8
2. (Verse 4) Destroy and remove from your life the worship status of all the things that you place above God, those things that in reality are idols and are worshipped and given preference over God. These things can be natural, normal, healthy things or they can be sinful things. These things can be the opposite sex; alcohol; drugs; friends; family; money; spouse; children; business; your own strengths and abilities; possessions; hobbies; church; pleasures such as books, movies, flirting, food, telling and listening to off-color stories and jokes, music, sports, fantasy lusts, pornography; anything that, when you think about that thing and the Lord, there is something that says in you the thing has the upper hand, it rules over the wishes of the Lord. Obvious sinful matters need to be removed altogether, but you will also find that some of those sinful things have acquired a status beyond casual sin, they are ruling your life. Likewise the good can take on a status to where the good things interfere with relationship with God, they have preference in your life over God. When the rich young ruler came to Jesus and asked him what he must do to gain eternal life (Jesus defined eternal life in John 17: as knowing the son and the father; so the question is what must I do to know God and His son, Jesus.) Jesus directed him to the Ten Commandments beginning with the ones after the first three. The latter commandments relate to moral sin. Then by telling him to go and sell all he had and follow Him, He directed him to the first three that tell us to love the Lord our God with all our heart and strength and to have no other gods before Him and to make no graven images. To know God and His Son, Jesus, we must (1) separate sin out of our lives and stop fellowshipping with sin, (2) remove the sin stigma from the normal, natural, wholesome things in our lives by prioritizing them, that is give them a status and role below God, your Father and Jesus, His son, your Lord, and (3) direct our hearts with all our strength toward loving the Father and the Son. The way we love is by following the Lord which is to keep His commandments and word.
3. (Verse 4) Religion is also something that has to be removed. The Israelites had taken something spiritual and turned it into an idol, something worshipped in the place of true relationship with God. The serpent Moses erected on the pole was a foreshadowing of Jesus being erected on the cross representing the sins of the world. Many have substituted religious paraphernalia for God. They worship a lifeless manufactured cross or a past spiritual experience where God’s Spirit moved which no longer has any life. They worship the life of a person who was a stellar evangelist who formed their denomination or they worship a special verse of scripture requiring hairdos and particular style of dress. They worship overemphasis on some doctrine such as what day the Sabbath is or when Jesus is returning and the world ending. Their worship is in preference to focusing on and worshipping the Lord Jesus Christ. If we are to know God the Father and Jesus His Son, we must separate ourselves from dead, lifeless religion. Jesus, in John chapter 4 verse 23, said that the time had arrived for people to worship God in spirit and in truth and that God was seeking such to worship Him. He is not seeking religious services and ritual. He is not seeking people who want to form idols from His word—their own concept of God that is compatible with their natural nature and convenient.
4. (Verses 5,6 &7)
A. We must choose as Hezekiah did to place our trust in the Lord rather than in ourselves or our tools, machines, equipment, discoveries and systems. We must learn to cling to the Lord. This is a matter of forcing spiritual experience upon ourselves in real life situations and learning the goodness of God. Hezekiah did this and scripture says he "prospered wherever he went." James said in James 1:22 for us to be doers of the word of God instead of hearers only deceiving ourselves.
B. We must digest the word of God and have it be the philosophy and ruling thought in our life. We must follow and obey the word of God. Jesus said, if (1) we abided in Him, which is to say we live in His mind, in His thoughts, in what He has and is saying, and not in our own mind and thoughts (Ephesians 4:17-18 tells us to not live in the futility of our mind because it darkens our understanding and alienates us from God), and (2) His words abide in us, which is to say that His thoughts, what He has said, live in us in that they have become such a part of us that they are what guide and direct us, and all of our thoughts are toward Him and obeying what He says, then we could ask what we would and it would be done just as we asked. (John 15:7) This is the secret of Hezekiah’s success with prayer—he abided in God’s word and let God’s word abide in him.
C. We must fight against darkness in our own lives. We must be prepared to drive out of our lives what we know is the enemy of God. Repeatedly in the history of the Kings of Israel it is said that they did this and that that pleased the Lord, but they did not destroy and rid the land of those things that were the enemy of God, the places of worship. Without exception the worship of the false Gods and the sin recommenced because the place of worship was not driven out. If you think you can live in a place of peaceful coexistence with those things that caused you to sin, you are greatly deceived. The sin will come back. You must get out of your life the people and objects and places that are in disagreement with God and concentrate on developing relationship and experience with the Lord. Go and sell, "get rid of," then follow were the words of Jesus. This means for us that we must take a stance against fashion trends or our own choice of dress that promotes sensuality. We must take a stance against dirty jokes, telling or listening. We must take a stance against violent movies and sexual movies. We must take a stance against flirtation in the work place and at social gatherings, either flirting or allowing ourselves to be flirted with. We must take a stance against telling lies, big or small. We must take a stance against tale bearing. We must take a stance against deception. We must take a stance against all selfishness in any form it takes. We must take a stance against all immoral behavior and standards that offend God’s standards. We must represent God and His values and run out of our lives anything that is contrary. This is what is meant when it says that Hezekiah rebelled against the Assyrian King and refused to serve him and smote the Philistines even in the far corners of his life. We must rebel against Satan and smite every object of sin in our life even to the far corners. There is joy and spiritual pleasure and prosperity wherever we go waiting for us if we will follow this footstep of Hezekiah’s of rebelling, refusing, and removing.
Hezekiah revolted. We gain the kingdom of God by revolt. We rid our lives of Satan and sin by revolt. Jesus said that the Kingdom of God was taken by violence. What is needed is an inward and outward revolution. A revolution that is ordained by us, sustained by us, and maintained by us in a cooperation with and under the direction of the Holy Spirit. Nothing short of a violent, inward upheaval within our souls will accomplish the establishment of the Kingdom God. If that violent revolution is taking place inside of us it will manifest outside of us. It will manifest in changed standards. It will manifest in changed behavior. It will manifest in changed conversation. It will manifest in changed activities. It will manifest in changed relationships. It will manifest in the death of friendships, family relations, church relations, work relations, death to hobbies, and other leisure pursuits such as certain television programs, certain types of movies—death will be everywhere as sin is conquered and the Kingdom of God established within. Jesus spoke words of revolution. He said He came to divide. The holy and profane will be separated within and without through the submission of our will to Him. (Matthew 10:34-39; Luke 14:26-27; Ezekiel 22:26,44:23; 1st Peter 1:16)
9 In the fourth year of King Hezekiah, which was the seventh of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up against Samaria and besieged it.
10 After three years it was taken; in the sixth year of Hezekiah, which was the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel, Samaria was taken.
11 The king of Assyria carried Israel away to Assyria, and put them in Halah, and on the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes,
12 Because they did not obey the voice of the Lord their God, but transgressed His covenant, even all that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded, and would not hear it or do it.
(Verses 9-12) Psalm 81 says that Israel would have none of the Lord so He turned them over to their own hearts’ lust. The fate of Israel as opposed to Judah, described in the above verses is where our own heart’s lust will take us. Our lust will take us into the service of sin. Paul wrote in the book of Romans in chapter 6 verse 16 that we are the servant of what we obey. Sin as personified in the Assyrian King came and got Israel to be its slave. Israel was defenseless because Israel acknowledged God but did not serve and worship Him. James wrote that we are tempted out of the lusts of our own flesh. (James 1:14-15) James uses the phrase, "when sin has conceived." Conception comes after union. It is not the presence of thought or temptation; it is the voluntary union or joining with Satan in the thought or temptation which lets him plant his seed in us that gives birth to the child, sin. When the sought union is not refused there is conception and death is born, death of happiness, death of self-respect, death of union with God, death of self-control, death of standards, death of anything of value. Satan comes to rob, steal, and destroy. Israel preferred its lusts for things other than God, its lust for independence from God, its lust for the pleasures offered by the world, its lust for money, for bodily pleasure, etc., and was led away captive into slavery to serve the Assyrian King. Independence is a lie. We choose sin because it serves some desire in us, but in so doing we become the servant of sin. There is no such thing as independence. At any point in time we are either serving God or serving Satan. Satan will come and lead into the slavery of sin to do his will as a servant of sin those who do not submit themselves to God and reject the world.
13 In the fourteenth year of Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them.
14 Then Hezekiah king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria at Lachish, saying, I have done wrong. Depart from me; what you put on me I will bear. And the king of Assyria exacted of Hezekiah king of Judah 300 talents of silver and thirty talents of gold.
15 And Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found in the house of the Lord and in the treasuries of the king’s house.
16 Then Hezekiah stripped off the gold from the doors of the temple of the Lord and from the doorposts which he as king of Judah had overlaid, and gave it to the king of Assyria.
17 And the king of Assyria sent the Tartan, the Rabsaris, and the Rabshakeh [the high officials] from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem with a great army. They went up to Jerusalem, and when they arrived, they came and stood by the canal of the Upper Pool, which is on the highway to the Fuller’s Field. [II Chron. 32:9-19; Isa. 36:1-22.]
(Verses 13-17) Hezekiah stepped outside of God and took his own counsel. He didn’t see verse 17 looming ahead. He didn’t see Jerusalem surrounded by an army he could never defeat. He didn’t see his faith and the faith of his people in God under such heavy attack. We should never let our standards down. We should always resist. The first line of resistance is always the easiest. Nothing outside of bringing God to bear on the situation will work. We are God’s people. We refuse sin. We resist sin. We stand up to sin and don’t toy around with sin and don’t participate in sin. If we do will be carried away in servitude to sin. Sin is not a game. It is a sinister trap of a spiritual despot who we are no match for in the natural, who has only one design and that is to rob us of faith, steal from us the strength of our God so that we are helpless, and he can destroy us. We must not do as Hezekiah did and scheme some solution. We must raise for the world to see, including all of our friends and family, the standard of God. In every situation we are involved in or our participation is sought where God is not being honored, we must unashamedly use His name and call upon Him, no matter what the consequence.
(A) Hezekiah could have called upon the Lord when the Assyrian king first appeared against him in verse 13 and obtained the result he got when he finally prayed and called upon God, but he did not. Instead he handled the matter with his own reasoning. The lie of independence seemed a good idea. He reasoned without the counsel of God that he could give in a little and thereafter be left alone by the Assyrian king. No thought could be a bigger lie. There has been many a young girl that rather than fight off an advance has reasoned if I give in a little he will be satisfied and quit. To their dismay that was not the case and he took all. Satan does not play games. Sin always has as its goal additional deeper sin. Why do people not instantly raise up God’s standard and say no to sin? One reason may be the reasoning of Hezekiah and the naive young women of the world. They do not believe that sin will progress. It may be that initially the sin seems harmless. It may be the environment in which the sin is taking place seems protective or a combination of these. "Its just harmless flirtation and what can happen in the work place?" "I know its sexual and I shouldn’t be letting sex be a topic of conversation with this person, but the jokes and stories are funny or the comments enticingly racy." The environment safe, however, sexual interest is being stirred in one or both and then the unexpected advance suddenly occurs or the mutual moving toward one another. Sin progresses. It always does. Watch violent movies and you will find the desire for more realistic violence and more blood appears, and the mind and emotional system become numb to violence and subtle changes occur in philosophy toward issues of torture to prisoners, police brutality, etc.. Watch movies that present sexual behavior for viewing, and you will find the desire to view more involved, realistic sex in movies. You will find that the marriage bed changes from love to lust and then lust begins to wander and adultery emerges because where love has as its object a spouse based on appreciation of value, lust has no object except self-gratification. It may be that what Satan wants initially—cooperation—seems a small thing to give him, when we compare it with the cost of refusal. Refusal may cost a friend or get me a reputation for not going along or being a party spoiler or strange or religious or different, etc.. So I listen and join in and let Satan have the cooperation he wants from me not thinking that I am establishing a pattern and next time he will want more cooperation. Things will progress and it will harder to refuse because the first time I obeyed sin. Satan observes that weakness. Sin progresses. Soon sin will more distasteful, but as I grow accustomed to behavior and numb to God’s standards I become familiar with and accustomed to serving sin. It may be that I give him what he wants initially because I like it, not knowing where I am being led. Most people who do crack would never have thought they would have when they were smoking their first marijuana joint. Most people who drank that first beer didn’t see themselves drinking every night 10 plus beers or quarts of wine or bottles of hard liquor. Most people who had that first gambling experience with video poker or a slot machine or a poker game with friends never thought they would end up with a habit that robbed their families of thousands of dollars annually. Most people who joked and talked about sex didn’t realize that they were building lust and were shocked at that act of sudden, unwanted, embarrassing sexual contact they experienced. Most people who enjoyed the initial flirtations and teasing at work or at frequent social gatherings didn’t see themselves slowly bonding and in adultery a year or two later. Initial resistance usually amounts to nothing more than a polite "no" or a polite removal of yourself from the situation or some facial expression or remark that shows displeasure at what is being said or a request to change the subject and not talk about it any more around you. Participation encourages and produces a proliferation of additional temptation. Sin progresses.
(B) Sennacherib did not go to Hezekiah. He sent messengers. Satan rarely approaches anyone directly. He sends messengers. His messengers may be social friends, friends at the work place, employers, relatives, spouses, children, strangers or you. (1) That’s right, you can be used as a messenger of Satan also. You are sending a message from Satan if you are offering to people gossip, alcohol, dirty stories and jokes, flirtations, condemnation, lifeless religion, lifeless advice from such sources as psychology or your own schemes instead of the gospel, horoscopes or asking them to play evil board games or to gamble, etc.. You are his messenger when you make non-verbal statements with sensual body language, or dress, or both. You are also his messenger when you go along with or participate in anything that is not righteous. We must refuse to be the Devil’s ambassador of even what we rationalize to be a small or not very harmful matter. (2) We also must be willing to see who is being a messenger of Satan in our lives and be willing to deal with the situation and stop the offerings without exception regardless of who the messenger is, be it favorite relative, casual acquaintance or stranger.
(C) Hezekiah had a desire to be free from fear. Being free from fear was a pleasure to him. Because he engaged in a worldly pursuit to avoid fear, we can define what he did as the pursuit of worldly pleasure. His solution was not Heaven’s. The solution he sought did not come from God. God was not consulted. The freedom from fear he sought was worldly because it was sought from a worldly source—the pledge of Sennacherib. Any type of pleasure that comes from the world has a high price, a price none should ever pay. Hezekiah gave Sennacherib the treasures of the temple. All the gold inlay, all the gold and silver vessels, every treasure of the temple he gave away to seek a worldly provided pleasure that ultimately failed him as all worldly pleasures do. We are the temples of God. (1st Corinthians 6:19) Jesus said that the kingdom of God was a treasure. He said if a man found it He would go and sell all he had to buy the field. He said that the kingdom was like a great pearl, that if a man found it he would go and sell all he had to buy the pearl. ( Matthew 13:44-46) The kingdom of God, that treasure, that pearl of great price, is in us. (Luke 17:21; 2nd Corinthians 4:7) Yet every day people exchange their spiritual treasure for pleasure of the world. Treasure for pleasure—that is the medium of exchange for the world’s pleasure. Think of the things you do. They may be all small, insignificant things, but you know they are contrary to God. You also know that if Jesus were present you wouldn’t say or do those things or listen to or view or read those things, and if Jesus was present you would not make the non-verbal comments you do with sensual body language and dress. You know if He was present you would raise His standard and you would express refusal or rejection of the temptations. Those acts and omissions all cost you the treasure of the Kingdom of God. Your heart is not with Jesus. It is with the pleasure of this world. Do not think of pleasure as only those things that bring excitement or temporal satisfaction of some bodily desire? The definition is much broader than that. A worldly pleasure can be the desire to avoid persecution or rejection. It can be a desire to acquiesce to something to avoid the fear of man. It can be a desire to maintain the opinion of man toward you that you are one of them or like them, such as being a good ole boy or sexy or fun to be with. Basically, a worldly pleasure is anything you personally seek or won’t give up of the world. You want it or insist on retaining it because in some way it satisfies and brings you pleasure whether it is something normally thought of as pleasurable or not. Whenever you choose worldly pleasure over the way of the Kingdom of God you give away the treasure of the Kingdom of God for the pleasure. This is sin and the reason why the church today, God’s people, collectively and individually, on the whole have no power. You cannot tell them from the rest of the world.
18 And when they had called to the king, there came out to them Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, which was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph the recorder.
19 The Rabshakeh told them, Say to Hezekiah, Thus says the great king of Assyria: What justifies this confidence of yours?
20 You say, "but they are empty words." There is counsel and strength for war. Now on whom do you rely, that you rebel against me?
21 Behold, you are relying on Egypt, that broken reed of a staff; if a man leans on it, it will pierce his hand. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust and rely on him.
22 But if you tell me, We trust in and rely on the Lord our God, is it not He Whose high places and altars Hezekiah has removed, saying to Judah and Jerusalem, You shall worship before this altar in Jerusalem?
23 So now, make a wager and give pledges to my lord the king of Assyria: I will deliver you 2,000 horses, if you can on your part put riders on them.
24 How then can you beat back one captain among the least of my master’s servants, when your trust is put in Egypt for chariots and horsemen?
25 Have I come up without the Lord against this place to destroy it? The Lord said to me, Go up against this land and destroy it.
26 Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah and Shebna and Joah said to the Rabshakeh, We pray you, speak to your servants in the Aramaic (Syrian) language, for we understand it; and do not speak to us in the Jews’ language in the hearing of the people on the wall.
27 But the Rabshakeh said to them, Has my master sent me to your master and you only to say these things? Has he not sent me to the men who sit on the wall [whom Hezekiah has doomed to be forced] to eat their own dung and drink their own urine along with you?
28 Then the Rabshakeh stood and cried with a loud voice in the Jews’ language, Hear the word of the great king of Assyria!
29 Thus says the king: Let not Hezekiah deceive you. For he will not be able to deliver you out of my hand.
30 Nor let Hezekiah make you trust in and rely on the Lord, saying, The Lord will surely deliver us, and this city will not be given into the hand of Assyria’s king.
31 Hearken not to Hezekiah, for thus says the king of Assyria: Make your peace with me and come out to me, and eat every man from his own vine and fig tree and drink every man the waters of his own cistern,
32 Until I come and take you away to a land like your own, a land of grain and vintage fruit, of bread and vineyards, of olive trees and honey, that you may live and not die. Do not listen to Hezekiah when he urges you, saying, The Lord will deliver us.
(Verses 29-32) Satan always makes the future of sin appear palatable and equal to life with God. It is a lie, a horrendous lie. You’ll have it as good with me as you do with God. Don’t believe God. Don’t believe God’s agents. It’ll be good and there will be no adverse consequences. Sin and enjoy it. You can have a life just as good in my camp and be able to sin as well. That is the message of Satan. It is just as good over here without God. (Genesis 3:4-5) That is a lie, an abominable lie. The testimonies proving that it is a lie abound in the world. For some reason people think it will be different with them.
33 Has any one of the gods of the nations ever delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria?
34 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad [in Syria]? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah [in the Euphrates Valley]? Have they delivered Samaria [Israel’s capital] out of my hand?
35 Who of all the gods of the countries has delivered his country out of my hand, that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?
36 But the people were silent and answered him not a word, for Hezekiah had commanded, Do not answer him.
(Verse 36) Don’t ever talk to the devil. Do not discuss sin with yourself; you are actually talking to the devil and he will talk you into it. This is the legacy of Adam and Eve. All Adam and Eve had to do was say as Jesus did in the wilderness, we live by the word of God and will not talk to you. (Matthew 3:3-4) There is nothing to discuss. God has ruled on the matter and that settles it. We follow whatever God says and will not listen to another thing you say. There is no reasons or logic that I will listen to—the matter of life is simple, I follow Jesus, I stand where He stands. Depart from me Satan. Had that been the attitude of Adam and Eve we would all be in the garden today. You can’t stop Satan from approaching, but you can shut him up. James said in chapter 4 verse 7 that if we would first submit ourselves to God when Satan approached and then resist him that he would flee from us. If we try to resist Satan by ourselves, we will fail as Adam and Eve did and every one since who has tried it has. It is imperative that we submit ourselves to God first and then resist Satan. This verse is an excellent verse to put into practice to begin to experience the truth of the word of God. If the attitude of our heart is that we always submit and resist we will walk in the prosperity of God wherever we go. When Hezekiah walked in submission to God he prospered everywhere he went.
37 Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was over the royal household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah son of Asaph the recorder came to Hezekiah with their clothes rent, and told him what the Rabshakeh had said.
Chapter 19
WHEN KING Hezekiah heard it, he rent his clothes and covered himself with sackcloth and went into the house of the Lord. [Isa. 37:1-13.]
2 And he sent Eliakim, who was over his household, Shebna the scribe, and the older priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz.
3 They said to him, Hezekiah says: This is a day of [extreme danger and] distress, of rebuke and chastisement, and blasphemous and insolent insult; for children have come to the birth, and there is no strength to bring them forth.
(Verse 3) This is where we find ourselves when we sin by taking matters into our own hands and do not seek the Lord. We become weak in faith and cannot bring forth the offspring of faith. We cannot give birth in prayer to the answer of the Lord. It seems that our tongues and our spirits are paralyzed! We cannot bring into existence the promises of God. We come to that point where we see only God can help us, where our independent nature finally recognizes that point, but we are weak, drained of spiritual vitality by our independent course, and we cannot pray. As Hezekiah did we call on others to pray and seek the answer of God for us; so Hezekiah sends ones he trusts to Isaiah the prophet. The answer coming back from Isaiah renews Hezekiah’s strength and he is able to pray in verses 15-19. How often it is that our brothers and sisters in the Lord are able to intercede for us and bring us words of encouragement that give us strength to give birth to solution by our own prayers.
4 It may be that the Lord your God will hear all the words of the Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria has sent to mock, reproach, insult, and defy the living God, and will rebuke the words which the Lord your God has heard. So raise your prayer for the remnant [of His people] that is left.
5 So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah.
6 Isaiah said to them, Say to your master, Thus says the Lord: Do not be afraid because of the words you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have reviled and blasphemed Me.
7 Behold, I will put a spirit in him so that he will hear a rumor and return to his own land, and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own country.
8 So the Rabshakeh returned and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah [a fortified city of Judah]; for he had heard that the king had left Lachish.
9 And Sennacherib king of Assyria heard concerning Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, He has come to make war against you. And when he heard it, he sent messengers again to Hezekiah, saying,
10 Say this to Hezekiah king of Judah: Let not your God on Whom you rely deceive you by saying, Jerusalem shall not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria.
11 Behold, you have heard what the Assyrian kings have done to all lands, destroying them utterly. And shall you be delivered?
12 Have the gods of the nations delivered those whom my ancestors have destroyed, as Gozan, Haran [of Mesopotamia], Rezeph, and the people of Eden who were in Telassar?
13 Where are the kings of Hamath, of Arpad [of northern Syria], of the city of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Ivvah?
14 Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it. And he went up into the house of the Lord and spread it before the Lord. [Isa. 37:14-20.]
15 And Hezekiah prayed: O Lord, the God of Israel, Who [in symbol] is enthroned above the cherubim [of the ark in the temple], You are the God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made the heavens and the earth.
16 Lord, bow down Your ear and hear; Lord, open Your eyes and see; hear the words of Sennacherib which he has sent to mock, reproach, insult, and defy the living God.
17 It is true, Lord, that the Assyrian kings have laid waste the nations and their lands
18 And have cast the gods of those peoples into the fire, for they were not gods but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone. So they [could destroy and] have destroyed them.
19 Now therefore, O Lord our God, I beseech You, save us out of his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know and understand that You, O Lord, are God alone.
(Verses 15-19) Notice the pattern to Hezekiah’s prayer. (1) It begins with adoration and exaltation of God and is a statement that he believes God and doesn’t believe the Assyrian king who is denouncing God as powerless. It does not begin with moaning and groaning and complaining and statements of disbelief. Hebrews says that he who comes to God must believe that He is and is a rewarder of those that seek Him. (Hebrews 11:16) (2) He admits the truth of the situation he faces. (3) Then he simply asks God to save. A. The answer to his prayer will be his reward for turning to God and seeking Him for solution. B. Hezekiah has prepared his heart to seek the Lord. His preparation manifests in his express desire that God create a testimony of the greatness of God’s name. Often you will see in scripture God saying that He will do something for His name’s sake or for His glory. We should keep in mind at all times in prayer that God moves for His glory and for His name’s sake. C. At the threshold of all prayer is the belief that Heaven’s truth overrules earth’s fact. Repeat: Heaven’s truth overrules earth’s fact. It doesn’t make any difference what earth’s facts are; prayer will invoke Heaven’s truth to change the facts. In the next chapter Hezekiah was sick unto death. His sickness was earth’s fact. However, the truth of Heaven is that it is God’s will to heal. Hezekiah turned his face to the wall; he shut out all except God and prayed, and God added 15 years to his life plus added a few items that Hezekiah had not mentioned in prayer but that God knew were in his heart.
20 Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Your prayer to Me about Sennacherib king of Assyria I have heard. [Isa. 37:21-38.]
(Verse 20) A. The key word in verse twenty is "then." That is, after Hezekiah prayed, the Lord said and sent the answer to Hezekiah’s problem. God’s will was made known to Hezekiah in verse seven of this chapter and it was on the basis of faith in God’s word to him that he prayed. Had Hezekiah not called on the name of the Lord in prayer he would have not been saved and served out his days a slave to the Assyrian king; although, that was not God’s stated will. Acts 2:21 says that whosoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. That scripture is not limited to spiritual salvation. The emphasis is on calling on the name. Certainly prayer is indispensable to salvation of the spirit of man. It is also indispensable to the salvation of the soul and it is indispensable to being saved from any problem. Salvation is of the Lord and all aspects of it’s broadest scriptural use and can only be obtained by calling on His name. B. There is a pattern throughout scripture. First, there is the awareness of God and what He will do if called upon, then there is the calling upon Him in prayer to do His will, and then there is the performance of His will—pronouncement (of His will), prayer (according to His will), performance (of His will on earth). For instance, Elijah heard the sound of rain, which was the pronouncement to Elijah by God that it was His will for the drought to end. Elijah, without hesitation, prayed for it to rain. He did not cease from prayer until a cloud was seen in the sky—the beginning of the manifestation of the answer to his prayers—because he had the confidence that comes to one with a clean conscience and knowledge of God’s will. God, because of Elijah’s prayer, performed His will on the earth, He caused a mighty rain. God’s will would have remained in Heaven had Elijah not prayed. (1st Kings 18:41-46) Jesus pronounced God’s will for Pentecost and the arrival on the earth of the Holy Spirit. Had the disciples not gone to the upper room and prayed in one accord for the Spirit of God we would not have had the day of Pentecost and mankind would not have the Holy Spirit as promised. (Acts 1:4-14) Likewise, Hezekiah’s deliverance pronounced by Isaiah would have remained in Heaven had he not prayed. And likewise, God’s will for us pronounced in the Bible will exist only in print if we do not pray.
21 This is the word that the Lord has spoken concerning him: The Virgin Daughter of Zion has despised you and laughed you to scorn; the Daughter of Jerusalem has wagged her head behind you.
22 Whom have you mocked and reviled and insulted and blasphemed? Against Whom have you raised your voice and haughtily lifted your eyes? Against the Holy One of Israel!
23 By your messengers you have mocked, reproached, insulted, and defied the Lord, and have said, With my many chariots I have gone up to the heights of the mountains, to the far recesses of Lebanon. I cut down its tall cedar trees and its choicest cypress trees. I entered its most distant retreat, its densest forest.
24 I dug wells and drank foreign waters, and with the sole of my feet have I dried up all [the defense and] the streams of Egypt.
25 [But, says the God of Israel] Have you not heard how I ordained long ago what now I have brought to pass? I planned it in olden times, that you [king of Assyria] should [be My instrument to] lay waste fortified cities, making them ruinous heaps.
26 That is why their inhabitants had little power, they were dismayed and confounded; they were like plants of the field, the green herb, the grass on the housetops, blasted before it is grown up.
27 But [O Sennacherib] I [the Lord] know your sitting down, your going out, your coming in, and your raging against Me.
28 Because your raging against Me and your arrogance and careless ease have come to My ears, therefore I will put My hook in your nose and My bridle in your lips, and I will turn you back by the way you came, O king of Assyria.
29 And [Hezekiah, says the Lord] this shall be the sign [of these things] to you: you shall eat this year what grows of itself, also in the second year what springs up voluntarily. But in the third year sow and reap, plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
30 And the remnant that has survived of the house of Judah shall again take root downward and bear fruit upward.
31 For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and a band of survivors out of Mount Zion. The zeal of the Lord of hosts shall perform this.
32 Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the king of Assyria: He shall not come into this city or shoot an arrow here or come before it with shield or cast up a siege mound against it.
33 By the way that he came, by that way shall he return, and he shall not come into this city, says the Lord.
34 For I will defend this city to save it, for My own sake and for My servant David’s sake.
35 And it all came to pass, for that night the Angel of the Lord went forth and slew 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians; and when [the living] arose early in the morning, behold, all these were dead bodies.
36 So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and returned and dwelt at Nineveh.
37 And as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons killed him with the sword, and they escaped to the land of Armenia or Ararat. Esarhaddon his son reigned in his stead. (AMEN)

Bob Highsmith
aspiritualhouse@yahoo.com

COMMUNICATIONS OUT OF THE HEART

2004-07-04T23:01:00.000-04:00

For with the heart man believes . . .
Romans 10:10

. . . those things that proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart;
Matthew 15:18

I believed, therefore have I spoken:
Psalm 116:10

That there exists unbreakable connective tissue between belief and the heart and tongue is a principle found throughout both the old and new testaments and as a theme in a great deal of Bible teaching. The Bible teaching usually presents the connection in the context of how to acquire something God has promised such as healing of the body. This teaching is very valid. However that narrow concentration produces a focus that excludes from our eyes the depth of what scripture is saying to us. The correlation between belief, the heart and the tongue rules all of our being and pervades every aspect of our relationship with the world and every aspect of our relationship with heaven.

Basic to every volitional act of any human being is communication from the heart. No human proceeds without having heard the heart speak. The heart speaks from its beliefs. The beliefs of the heart come from what the heart hears. The mind stores what is heard and the heart draws upon what has been heard to voluntarily form its beliefs. When belief has been chosen the heart orders the tongue to direct our activity and speech. Thus in Romans
Chapter ten and verse ten we find it said that with the heart ones believes and with the mouth confession is made.

God tells us that faith in Him comes from hearing what He has said. This is found in Romans 10:14,16-17 where it is written “. . . how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias (Isaiah) says, Lord, who hath believed our report? So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” It is clear in these verses that the heart can choose not to believe anything it hears for this scripture says, “they have not all obeyed the gospel.” The scripture quoted also ties obedience and belief together when it questions “Lord, who has believed our report.?” Obedience is merely the result of the heart choosing to believe something heard and disobedience the result of the heart choosing not to believe something heard. Belief and unbelief are thus nothing more than the heart directing the will where to apply faith among the variety of things heard.

Adam and Eve in Genesis chapters 1,2, and 3 demonstrate the leading example. Adam and Eve heard God. Their hearts chose to believe Him and consequently their hearts spoke to their wills that the body was not to be permitted to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. No one deputes that they heard God. When Satan entered the garden they quoted God’s words back to Satan. “Yes”, they told Satan. God has said we are not to eat of the fruit of that tree or we will surely die. Satan offered them an alternative to believe. “Surely you will not die,” he told Adam and Eve. Then came the clincher. If you choose to believe me you will be just like God. You can run your own life. Adam and Eve in their heart liked the idea of running their own lives so their hearts chose to believe Satan and they spoke to their will to let the body eat of the forbidden fruit. Their belief was based solely on what they heard. They had no empirical evidence of who was telling the truth. The biblical saga of Adam and Eve clearly establishes that faith is not based on empirical evidence. Faith is the heart directing the will where faith will be applied based on what it hears without experience or experiment. Hebrews thus says that faith itself is the evidence of things not seen. Experience proves the truth or the lie of faith. Look around your life and your world where you have applied faith. Are you believing a lie? Everywhere faith has been applied to something inconsistent with the word of God there is sin and a lie. The lie will ultimately be established by the experiment and experience or by judgment on the day of judgment.

Adam and Eve saw themselves as Gods because that is what their hearts spoke to their wills to apply their faith. Adam and Eve called God a liar by the exercise of that choice—“he that believes not God has made him a liar . . .” (John 5:10). God immediately after they ate of the forbidden fruit exposed their faith as a lie and Satan, the author of it, a liar when he judged the three of them and placed Adam and Eve outside of the Garden of Eden in a time frame that would conclude in death. Jesus (the word of God made flesh)h is the author and finisher of faith in God (Hebrews 12:2). Likewise Satan is the author and finisher of the faith of those who prefer to believe a lie. Jesus said in John 8:44, “You are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father you will do . . . there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. And because I tell you the truth, you believe me not . . . And if I say the truth, why do you not believe me?” The experiment and experience of belief in Satan’s words may not at first blush prove them to be a lie. The pleasures and riches of this world may be experienced making belief in Jesus seem foolish and belief in the world wise; however, the day of judgment will bring forth the lie, if the experience of this lifetime does not.

In biblical days for the most part thought was transferred to the heart by the ears—by word of mouth. Today the means of communication is broad and many faceted. A great deal of thought is transferred to the heart by the eyes. We must apply the scriptures to newspapers, books, television, movies, authors, the internet, education, conversation, letters, emails, body language, whatever speaks or makes a comment whether verbal or non verbal—all forms of communication out of us and into us—and guard our hearts, and control our tongues. We should never be the instrument for the transfer of immoral, lewd, sensual, deceitful, violent, etc. information, flirtations, stories, jokes etc. nor let ourselves be the victim of people who do. We should never permit our eyes and ears and minds to be used by anyone who chooses to remain worldly as a commode to evacuate their bladders swollen with the urine of a sinful nature—whether they be friend or family, or casual acquaintance or comedian or move star, etc. It is a very, very weak Believer who does not rid their life of such. We are to have the mind of Christ and fill our minds with the word of God. (Philippians 2:5; Romans 12:2) Shifting metaphors, we cannot feed at the table of devils and feed at God’s table. With our mind and mouth we are to glorify God, the father of our Lord Jesus Christ. (Romans 15:6) We do not glorify God in being a conduit of immoral, lewd, sensual, deceitful, violent, etc. information, stories, jokes, etc. and we do not glorify God when we permit our minds to be fed such. We sin whether telling or listening or watching.

The key lies in keeping our hearts. Proverbs 4:23 tells us to “keep your heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.” Proverbs 2:2 tells us to “incline your ear unto wisdom, and apply your heart to understanding;” The ears, eyes and the mouth are the keys to keeping our hearts. The ears and eyes gather information. Job, to protect himself from lust, said that he made a covenant with his eyes not to look upon a maid (Job 31:1). That is a very easy discipline. What keeps a man from exercising it? The heart does. In the heart is a preference for lust that causes the heart to chose to not believe the word of God. Lustful pleasure is chosen over having a clean heart. The consequence is a heart that can’t believe. It is a very easy thing to ask someone not to tell you dirty jokes or to walk away when one is being told or to refuse to laugh or to stop telling them. What keeps a person from doing that. The heart does. In the heart is a preference for receiving honor from people that will be obtained from some by laughing and fellowshipping around the lewd jokes. (They will dishonor you if you don’t. It is usually a requirement that you appear to be as they are.) What is the consequence? It is a heart that can’t believe. Jesus said in John 5:44 How can you believe, who receive honor one of another, and seek not the honor that comes from God only?” Keeping our hearts is for the most part a matter of using our tongues to tell our eyes not to look and our ears not to hear and our bodies to stay away and telling the eyes instead to read the word of God, our ears to be open to it and our bodies to present themselves to God to be used as an instrument of His work as He directs.

Proverbs 6:2 tells us that “you are snared with the words of your mouth, you are taken with the words of your mouth.” A shallow contemplation of this scripture leads us to only think of the things we speak to others or say out loud. The primary damage done by our mouth, however, is in the things it speaks to us. Before the hand can so much as wiggle its little finger, it must be told to do so by the mouth. Often we just think the words, but it is the same inward voice that would come out of our mouth if we spoke out loud.
The voice of the mouth is generally referred to as the mouth and is the instrument of power used by the heart to rule. It is this mouth that the heart uses to conduct all activity of the brain and body. Proverbs 13:3 tells us that “He that keeps his mouth keeps his life:” Proverbs 16:23 tells us that “The heart of the wise teaches his mouth, and adds learning to his lips.” Ecclesiastes 5:6 tells us to “Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin;” Ecclesiastes is saying that it is the mouth that tells us what we are going to do or not do. The heart can use the mouth to tell us to sin or tell us to follow God.

What our mouths are saying to us is the most important speech of the mouth. It is wisdom to learn to listen to what the mouth is saying. The mouth like the brain and the will is a whore. It will sleep with any voice. The old man is often quicker than the new man who is forever learning God’s ways. Often before the new, born again spirit or heart, can act, the old man will respond to what the ears or eyes or body feed the brain and will tell the will have the mouth directing us contrary to the will of God. The born again heart must be willing to override the old man at any point. It may often be after the experience of fleshly, corrupt pleasure has commenced which we are enjoying. Those pleasures can be anger, lust, greed, subtle sensual excitement, back biting, gossip, etc. and may seem insignificant enough to enable us to have argument within ourselves that no harm is really being done. However it is the little foxes that spoil the vine—that rob us of our union to the true vine, our Lord Jesus (Song of Solomon 2:15). A little gossip paves the way for major tale bearing in the future; a little playful lust prepares the way for major lust in the future. Furthermore God does not separate sin into minor and major. Disobedience is disobedience. Jesus said if you have day dreamed about it you have done it.

Many Christians have tried to obtain the promises of God with a superficial confession of God’s word. They do not understand and are disappointed when their confession does not produce the result they wanted. The answer lies in the condition of the heart. The word of God says that it is impossible to please God without faith (Hebrews 11:6) and that the mystery of faith is in a pure conscience (1st Timothy 3:9). They are physically able to repeat or confess the promise and claim the result ritualistically, but they are unable to apply faith to their confession because their hearts condemn them (John 3:21-22). Remember out of the heart come the issues of life. David searched his heart and prayed for God to create in him a clean heart (Psalm 52). He understood that his dirty heart was a complete hindrance to applying faith toward God. Do not forget that it is with the heart that we believe (Romans 10:9-10). Confession that does not come from a clean heart does not produce. One of the goals of sin is to stop faith. If we know we have offended God we find it impossible to believe for anything other than forgiveness. Forgiveness comes first. It would be wise of all of us to search and try our ways and turn to the Lord (Lamentations 3:40) confessing our sins and belief in his forgiveness before we embark on a journey to believe God for anything else. Following are additional scriptures related to what has been discussed which are provided for meditation.

. . . to him that orders his conversation aright will I show the salvation of God.
Psalm 50:23

. . . the opening of my lips shall be right things.
Proverbs 8:6

Yea, My (God’s) reins shall rejoice, when your lips speak right things.
Proverbs 23:16

Righteous lips are the delight of kings; and they love him that speaks right.
Proverbs 16:13

For our conversation is in heaven;
Philippians 3:20

Whoso keeps his mouth and his tongue keeps his soul from troubles. Proverbs 21:23

If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridles not his tongue, but deceives his own heart, this man's religion is vain.
James 1:26

For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil,
1st Peter 3:10

For from within, out of the heart of men (or women) proceed base and wicked thoughts, sexual immorality, stealing, murder, adultery, coveting, a greedy desire to have more wealth, wickedness, deceit, unrestrained indecent conduct, an evil eye, blasphemy, slander, pride, foolishness; all of these evil things come from within . . .
Mark 7:21

And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked:
2nd Peter 2:7

Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind;
Ephesians 2:3

. . . moving his lips he brings evil to pass.
Proverbs 16:30

You give your mouth to evil,
Psalm 50:19

A fool's mouth is his destruction, and his lips are the snare of his soul.
Proverbs 18:17

Who have said, With our tongue will we prevail; our lips are our own: who is lord over us?
Psalm 12:4

In the multitude of words there wants not sin: but he that refrains his lips is wise.
Proverbs 10:19

Keep your tongue from evil,
Psalm 34:13

That you put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;
Ephesians 4:22

. . . let your conversation be as it becomes the gospel of Christ:
Philippians 1:27

Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him show out of a good conversation his works . . .
James 3:13

A wholesome tongue is a tree of life: but perverseness therein is a breach in the spirit.
Proverbs 15:4

Death and life are in the power of the tongue:
Proverbs 18:21

But as he that has called you is holy, so you be holy in all manner of conversation;
1st Peter 1:15

Hear; for I will speak of excellent things; and the opening of my lips shall be right things . . .
Proverbs 8:6

I said, I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue: I will keep my mouth with a bridle,
Psalm 39:1

. . . wickedness is an abomination to my lips.
Proverbs 8:7

Bob Highsmith
aspiritualhouse@yahoo.com

THE WORD OF GOD, CONFESSION AND ETERNAL LIFE

2004-06-28T09:16:00.000-04:00

My son, if you will receive my words,
And hide my commandments with you;
So that you incline your ear unto wisdom,
And apply your heart to understanding;
Yea, if you cry after knowledge,
And lift up your voice for understanding;
If you seek her as silver,
And search for her as for hid treasures;
Then shall you understand the fear of the LORD,
And find the knowledge of God. Proverbs 2:1-5

When wisdom enters into your heart,
And knowledge is pleasant unto your soul;
Discretion shall preserve you,
Understanding shall keep you:
To deliver you from the way of the evil man,
From the man that speaks contrary things; (Opposing and
different things, things we don’t believe. Our discernment and ability to separate the true word of God from man’s false interpretation and applications comes from when we love the truth—which is demonstrated by our hearts being open to the truth
and closed to perversion—when we find truth pleasant and have an aversion to false
slants and manipulative uses of God’s word.) Proverbs 2:10-12

Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling,
Consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus;Hebrews 3:1
(Consider his life revealed to us in the scriptures. Consider Him and how He responded, what He spoke and what He did. Ponder him with the eye toward learning Him and becoming like him through the power of the indwelling spirit that dwelt in Him and dwells in us.)

Seeing then that we have a great high priest,
That is passed into the heavens,
Jesus the Son of God,Let us hold fast our profession.Hebrews 4:14
(Our confession of what we believe that Jesus has taught us.)

Let us hold fast the profession of our faith
without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;)Hebrews 10:23
(Let us make decision that we will not deviate according to situation or circumstance from the word of God, but will be constant and consistent in all situations and in face of all circumstances always speaking the word of God.)

Fight the good fight of faith,
(Do not let any pleasure of this world or any trial or any persecution or any person take from us our belief and speaking forth of what we believe the word of God says.)

Lay hold on eternal life,
(Eternal life is knowing the Father in Heaven and His Son, Jesus, who sits at His right side and who is our Lord and our savior. Let us take hold of them and loose our selves from the entanglements of this world by our faith.)

Whereunto you are also called,
(This is our calling to lay hold of the Father and Jesus—to love them by
receiving their word into us and letting that word become our life, by letting it become our activity and our speech.)

And have professed a good profession
Before many witnesses.
(This is heaven’s expectation of us that we will become the spoken word on the earth and amidst the world. The people of the world should witness the difference in our actions and our speech.) 1st
Timothy 6:12

Bob Highsmith
aspiritualhouse@yahoo.com

TAKING WORDS TO THE LORD

2004-06-25T14:49:00.000-04:00

Take with you words, and turn to the LORD: say unto him . . . (Hosea 14:2)

The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from the Lord. (Proverbs 16:1)

. . . out of his mouth went a sharp twoedged sword . . . (Revelation 1:16)

For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword . . . (Hebrews 4:12)

I believed, therefore have I spoken . . . (Psalm 116:10)

For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he says shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he says. Therefore I say unto you, What things soever you desire, when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you shall have them. (Mark 11:23-24)

If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, you shall ask what you will, and it shall be done unto you. (John 15:7)

So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. (Romans 10:17

For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things. Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God. And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight. (1ST John 3:20-22)

And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he hears us: And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him. (1st John 5:14-15)

Holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience. (1st Timothy 3:9)

Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. (Hebrews 11:3)

But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that comes to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. (Hebrews 11:6)

Behold also the ships, which though they be so great, and are driven of fierce winds, yet are they turned about with a very small helm, where the governor lists. Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasts great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindles! And the tongue is a fire . . . (James 3:4-6)

One of the hardest things for humans to understand is that God does not want us talking to Him out of the old man or our natural nature or our carnal mind. In God’s eyes, Jesus did away with the old man on the cross. Our problem is that we continually resurrect our old nature and proceed before God with our old nature rather than with our newborn spirits. We complain to God, we whine, we cry human tears, we take to Him unscriptural requests, etc.. We also will presume that we know how to manage and offer prayers to God asking Him to endorse our management plans where we think we know the solution for anything from our own personal problems to world problems.

In the Hosea 14:2 cited above, Hosea tells the people of Israel to take words to God. He then proceeds to give them the words that they need to speak. One of the purposes of the Bible is to teach us the words that God wants to hear and will listen to. Prayer in the understanding, as opposed to praying in the spirit, is a matter of showing to God our acquiescence to His thoughts. The people of Israel needed to repent. Therefore, Hosea gave to them God’s thoughts as to what they needed to believe in their hearts and say in order for God to accept their repentance and forgive.

The kingdom of God operates entirely on the basis of the members of the kingdom of God having faith in God’s expressed thoughts and speaking those thoughts—the word of God—in prayer to produce in the world what God has spoken. For instance, when we sin it is the thought of God to forgive us,but only by prayer will forgiveness happen. His willingness to forgive is far beyond our ability to comprehend forgiveness. By faith we must accept and believe His expressed thoughts on forgiveness that we find in the word of God. Once we discover those thoughts then we take them back to God in the form of words and prayer. In faith we pray, “Father, forgive me. You have said that you are good, and ready to forgive; and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee. (Psalm 86:5) Father, I believe that You are good and that your mercy is available to me because I am calling on you. You have said in Your word to believe that I receive when I pray. Therefore, Father, I accept and receive Your mercy and forgiveness at this moment. Amen.”

This principle or truth applies to all prayer in our understanding, that is, prayer uttered to God in our native tongue. The example of forgiveness was used for a very specific reason. Scripture tell us that the mystery of faith is a pure conscience. John tells us in 1st John cited above that we have confidence in God only when our heart does not condemn us. Often people will pray to God as to a matter when there is unforgiven sin in their life. Pray as they will, they will not be able to locate faith in their prayer because of that sin. Before the priests would enter into the presence of God in the temple they would cleanse themselves. Before we enter into the presence of God we need to cleanse ourselves by bathing in the forgiveness of God.

There has been much teaching about bridling the tongue. Most of this teaching relates to what we speak in the world we live in. This teaching is very valid. However, there is little teaching, if any, on bridling the tongue in prayer. Prayer is our means of communication with God and it is our means of invoking God’s supernatural solution into life. If we would learn to discipline and bridle our tongue in prayer, we would find it much easier to communicate with God. Furthermore, when we align our conversation with God with His word, we will find that our conversation in life is also aligned with God with God's word. It is important to have our conversation in life aligned with God so that we do not nullify our prayers by speaking unbelief.

Hebrews tell us that it is impossible to please God without faith. Faith is not the difficult thing that many people make it. The human being was created to operate on the basis of faith. The issue is not that we don’t have faith, the issue is: what do we have faith in? For instance, when a person hears a weather report that says it is going to rain, they believe the forecast and have faith that it will rain. From the moment that they hear the forecast actions and conversation become consistent with the belief that it will rain. People conduct their lives on the basis of what they hear and believe. It is rare that anyone will proceed voluntarily against their belief. However, the choice of whether to believe the forecast that is heard is totally within the power of the individual. All that God is requesting of us is that we exercise that power of choice to believe when we hear what He has said and base our actions and conversation upon what He has said. For instance, He has said that Jesus is His Son and that no one can come to Him except through His Son. He further says that to come to Him through His Son we must believe that Jesus is His Son and declare Him as our Lord. If we choose to believe what God has said about Jesus and act upon it by declaring Jesus to be our Lord, then we are born again and have complete access to God the Father. You can see in these two examples the roles that words play. In the first, we take the words of the weather forecaster, adopt them as or own thought and repeat them. We say, “I am canceling my trip tomorrow to the beach because it is going to rain.” That statement is an act of faith. In the second spiritual example, we adopt the thought of God as our own and say, “Jesus, You are my Lord.” That statement is an act of faith. So we see that words become the act of faith in furtherance of what we believe. This is why Hosea said, “Take words to God.” We are to approach God full of faith, ready to receive, knowing that all we have to do is ask using words that confirm that we believe what God has told us He will do.

It is God himself who provides us with the words that we are to take to Him. Proverbs 16:1 says that, “The preparation of the heart of man and the answer of the tongue is from the Lord.” Hebrews tell us that, “The word of God is quick and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword.” When Jesus appeared to John in the beginning of the Book of Revelation it is said that, “Out of his mouth went a sharp twoedged sword.” Psalm 116:10 says, “I believe, therefore have I spoken.” Jesus lived life in exact accordance with the word of God. Hebrews 11:3 tells us that, “By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God.” In other words, God said, “Let there be light and there was light.” The light was not made from something that existed, it came into existence because God spoke the words, “Let there be light.” James tells us in James 3:4-6 that the tongue is a little member, but that the tongue is a fire and great matters can be created by a little fire. James further uses the example of great ships being driven by fierce winds which are turned about with a very small helm to point out to us that the tongue, a seemingly little thing, is capable of changing even the most far reaching and critical matters when God is at the helm of the tongue.

The process by which such change can be produced first begins with prayer. Jesus tells us in Mark 11:23-24 that if we will say to any mountain opposing us to be removed and believe that when we say for it to be removed that it will be, that we can have what we say. This principle applies to any change that needs to be made in the circumstances of life. Note after this awesome statement that Jesus moves to prayer and says if we will believe that we receive when we pray, we shall have the answer to our prayer. Prayer is the reason Jesus gives for why we can say and create change in circumstance by saying. It is because we have prayed and already received by faith the answer to our pray that we are able to speak the answer to our prayer into existence. As the Psalmist wrote, “I have believed, therefore have I spoken.” However, it is impossible to believe that we receive when we pray if we do not know when we pray that it is the will of God to grant us our petition. Therefore the initial stages of prayer should be spent in fellowship with the word of God whereby we let God prepare our hearts with the words He has spoken that let us know He will grant our prayer. Somewhere in the written word of God we must find His confirmation. All prayer with our understanding is based upon knowing the will of God and if we will begin the communication process by emptying our minds of our own thoughts and then proceed to seek the thought of God until we find it, we will have success in prayer. We will know when we have found the words God wants us to take to Him by the inward witness of the Holy Ghost. It is the Holy Ghost who guides us to all truth. He will signal us with His witness, and He will not agree with any thoughts or words that are not God’s preparation of our heart to come before Him.

1st John 5:14-15 tells us that we can have the confidence that God hears our prayer if we know we are praying according to His will. He further says if we know we are praying according to His will regarding anything we ask, we know we have the answer to what we are petitioning Him for. Jesus in John 15:7 told His disciples that they could ask whatever they wanted and it would be granted them. You might say, “What a wonderful promise! I will use that to pray that my uncle give me his farm.” Perhaps you pray over and over for your uncle to give you his farm and he doesn’t and therefore you are angry with Jesus, the Bible, and God and want to point your finger toward Heaven and say the Bible isn’t true and prayer doesn’t work. Your mistake lies in the fact that you did not read or didn’t understand that Jesus conditioned His promise upon two things. First, you must abide in Jesus. Jesus is described in the gospel of John as the word of God. There is no way provided to abide in Him outside of abiding in the word of God, that is, living it. Second, the word of God must abide in you. It is easy to just read the word of God and never let it change your thinking, or your lifestyle, or your habits, or your speech, or your friends, or how you relate to friends and family, or what you entertain, or permit yourself to listen to, etc, etc. However, if you abide in the word and the word abides in you then you are familiar with the thoughts of God and His statements and your prayers will consist of you taking to God his words and saying to Him I believe and receive.

The discussion so far deals only with praying with our understanding. Paul says, “For if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prays, but my understanding is unfruitful. What is it then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also . . .” (1st Corinthians 14:14-15) There are times we might find ourselves seemingly unable to discover the words that God wants us to take to Him. This is an ideal time to pray in the spirit, or pray in tongues, and let the Holy Ghost speak for us to God using our tongue. However, since we do not understand what it is that we are saying to God, we will not be able to proceed in faith in any direction based upon that prayer unless as a result of having prayed in the spirit, we are led to an understanding of the words that God wants us to take to Him. We must remember that, “Faith comes by hearing and by hearing the word of God.” (Romans 10:17) Once we have heard the word of God for the situation then we can proceed to communicate with God with our understanding. After praying in the spirit for a length of time, we will find that understanding comes to us, and we are led to the necessary scriptures that provide us with our faith.

We should never take prayer lightly or proceed to God in a casual manner unprepared with knowledge of His will. We should never rush into prayer unless faced with an emergency where time to seek Him isn't provided. Where we have time to do more than quickly cry for help, we should enter into meditation on God's word and let Him prepare our heart with His truth on the matter. Hosea is a capable of preparing our heart and telling us what to say today as he was centuries ago as well as all the other books of the Bible. Let us prayerfully take the right words to God which will produce result when we pray.

Bob Highsmith
aspiritualhouse@yahoo.com

SIMEON, A FORERUNNER

2004-06-24T16:38:00.000-04:00

For the earnest expectation of the creature waits for the manifestation of the sons of God. (Romans 8:19)

But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. (John 1:12)

So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. (Romans 8:8)

For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. (Romans 8:14)

. . . that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. (Romans 8:29)

But you shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and you shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. (Acts 1:8)

And, behold, there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon; and the same man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel: and the Holy Ghost was upon him. And it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost, that he should not see death, before he had seen the Lord's Christ.
And he came by the Spirit into the temple: and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him after the custom of the law, then took he him up in his arms, and blessed God, and said, Lord, now let your servant depart in peace, according to your word: For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, which you have prepared before the face of all people; a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel. And Joseph and his mother marveled at those things that were spoken of him. And Simeon blessed them, and said unto Mary his mother, Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel; and for a sign which shall be spoken against; (yea, a sword shall pierce through your own soul also,) that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed. (Luke 2:25-35)

Simeon’s appearance at the time of the dedication of Jesus to God as the firstborn of Joseph and Mary is highly significant. There were other points of time in Jesus’ life that Simeon could have appeared. For instance, the angels told the shepherds where Jesus was born and they appeared at the manger. The wise men saw a star and followed it and appeared at the house where Jesus and his parents were residing. However, Simeon appears at the temple in Jerusalem at the precise moment that Jesus is brought there by Joseph and Mary to be presented to the Lord as their firstborn.

Simeon has the outward appearance of an ordinary man. He is not special in the eyes of anyone except God. He has no special education. He isn’t strikingly handsome. He holds no authoritative position in government or religion. He is not a man of reputation and probably had only a small circle of friends. He is not called to a ministry vocation. He is not the son of any important person. He is a common man. Yet scripture chooses to bring him before our eyes at this select moment in time for us to see. Why? The answer is that Simeon is the forerunner of something awesome. He is the forerunner of the sons of God—the brethren of the firstborn foretold in Romans 8:29. Therefore God brings him forward into our view at the moment when Jesus is being presented to our Heavenly Father in ritual and ceremony as the firstborn.

What does the Holy Ghost have us see when we look at Simeon? First, we see that he is declared to be just and devout. These are not casually applied adjectives. They are not adjectives sought after by many people nor are they adjectives easily added to reputation. It is not natural to be just and devout. The true nature of man lies opposite to just and devout. When these adjectives are used in scripture to introduce us to Simeon it becomes obvious that scripture is revealing to us that Simeon has been communing with God; that Simeon has let God touch him.

The Greek word translated “just” is “dikaios” which means fair or equitable. “Dikaios” comes from the Greek word “dike” which means justice either as to principle or in an act or decision. Man’s nature is selfish. Any act or decision that can be labeled just or said to produce justice can ultimately be traced to selfish motive. Although the act standing alone may be just it is rare for the perpetrator to be just. It becomes obvious when scripture uses this adjective that scripture is pointing out to us that when Simeon,in his pursuit of God, read the prophet Micah that Simeon took the prophet Micah seriously when he read, “With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the High God? . . . He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you, to do justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with you God?” (Micah 6:6,8)

The Hebrew word that Simeon read that is translated “justly” is “mishpat.” It is a judicial term and it means to reach a verdict that is to come to a decision without wavering as a jury would. Think about that. Think about the responsibility placed on a jury to come to a decision and publish a verdict. A verdict is a solemn thing; once rendered it is rarely changed. Think about "doing justly" as coming to a conclusion in your inner most being,as a jury would. Think about declaring a verdict that will govern your life in light of the other two requirements of loving mercy and walking humbly with God. When Micah wrote that it was a requirement to do justly that was what he was saying. He was saying that if you did justly you would, every day of your life, be reaching verdicts deciding in God’s favor against the world. To do justly is to always reach the verdict in God’s favor. In fact,to do justly is to reach an initial verdict that all future verdicts will be in God’s favor and not the world’s. The world includes family, friends, Satan—any influence on behavior or thought that isn’t God. What decision have you come to O man? How have you ruled? Have you decided? Have you ruled and announced to yourself and to God your verdict? Have you decided to side with mercy and with God on the issues of life you currently face and will face? Have you decided to consecrate yourself to God and walk humbly with him? As Jesus stated it, have you decided to enter into the things of God as a child relinquishing all independence? Apparently, Micah got through to Simeon. Apparently when Simeon read further where the prophet Micah said, “The faithful man has perished from the earth and there is no one upright among men” (Micah 7:2), he repented and reached a verdict within himself to love mercy and walk humbly with his God. Apparently, as the prophet spoke he “put a guard over his mouth” (Micah 7:5), and said, “I will look to the Lord, I will wait for the God of my salvation, My God will hear me.” (Micah 7:7) Apparently, Simeon was willing to receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, and judgment and equity. (Proverbs 1:3) Apparently, when God called, Simeon answered, and when God stretched out His hand to him, Simeon regarded it. (Proverbs 1:24) We can assume this because scripture calls Simeon "just" and he therefore was not a man filled with his own devices, but filled with instruction of wisdom, justice, judgement and equity. (Proverbs 1:31)

It is only on this basis that scripture would ever describe him as a just man. It is only on this basis that Simeon would have had placed in his heart by the Holy Ghost a desire to see the consolation of Israel. It is only on this basis that the Holy Ghost would reside upon him. It is only on this basis that the Holy Ghost would or even could lead him. It is only on this basis that the Holy Ghost would trust him to lift the son of God from the arms of Mary and prophesy His identity which would be confirmed by the recognized prophetess, Anna. And it was only on this basis that the Holy Ghost would trust him with words of prophecy to speak--confirming, encouraging, enlightening words of prophecy--to Joseph and Mary. Yet that is what scripture says took place. Simeon was a just man by decision not by creation. He was born selfish, fallen man before his decision. After his decision the Holy Ghost molded him into a just and devout man.

Devout? Yes, Simeon was a devout man. The Holy Ghost brought him into a devout state through instruction in the word and experience of the word. When Simeon reached a decision to do justly, love mercy and walk humbly with his God, he necessarily began to speak differently. He began to be trained with the word and experience by the Holy Ghost to speak the word only—to believe and speak what he believed (Psalm 116:10; 2nd Corinthians 4:13) He began to act consistently with what he believed and said. Simeon was changing. Simeon was becoming just and devoted to God. The Greek word translated “devout” is “eulabes” which in the Greek means to walk circumspectly as Exodus 23:13 and Ephesians 5:15 direct. “Walk circumspectly” means to walk and speak with careful attention to the instruction of God, to stay within the circle of instruction. To be devout requires speaking and doing as the word and Holy Ghost together direct. That is the means of showing devotion. Both the Old and New Testaments teach that we show God our love by keeping instruction. (Deuteronomy 26: 16-19; 28:1-2; 29:9, 29; 30:6, 11-14; John 14:15; 23) And how did he become devout? He was led by the Holy Ghost to experience the God of Micah as he lived out his decision, that verdict he reached that he would “look to the Lord” because he was only “like a briar” even if he was the best of man. (Micah 7:2-4) When he fell, God caused him to arise. When he found himself in darkness, God brought him light (Micah 7:8) He found himself in awe of the mercy of God, asking, “Who is a God like you, pardoning [my] iniquity and passing over [my] transgressions” who “does not retain your anger forever” against me, who “delights in [giving me] mercy”, who again [and again] has compassion [on me],” who subdues [my] iniquity and who “casts all [my] sins into the depths of the sea and “give(s) [me] truth.” (Micah 7:18-20) When the Holy Ghost leads you to know God that experiential knowledge breeds devotion.

It becomes obvious with the use of these adjectives that scripture is telling us that Simeon had made it his life’s pursuit to seek God. It becomes obvious that scripture is saying to us that Simeon made decisions about his attitudes, his motives, his goals, his purposes and aligned himself with the Lord God Almighty who was revealed to him. The use of these adjectives makes it apparent that Simeon learned from the Holy Ghost how to possess his soul and to keep his body under subjection in order that he might consistently render faithful obedience to God. (Luke 21:19; 1st Thessalonians 4:4; 1st Corinthians 9:27)

Secondly, the scripture lets us see that the Holy Ghost was upon Simeon. In the context in which it is said here “the Holy Ghost was upon him,” it is apparent that this was not a momentary thing, but that scripture is telling us that the Holy Ghost was upon him in an on-going, residing manner. When the Holy Ghost is upon anything change occurs to bring things in line with the thought of God. When the Holy Ghost was upon the face of the deep, the deep was transformed. (Genesis 1:2) When the Holy Ghost comes upon a person because the Lord desires to use that person as a vessel to accomplish a purpose, change is wrought to enable the vessel to become an instrument of the work of God.

Jesus told his disciples that they would have power when the Holy Ghost was upon them. (Acts 1:8) This has been the history of the Holy Ghost coming upon the earth and upon man in both the Old and New Testaments. It is a history of matters being changed, of transformation, for the purpose of the work of God, for the purpose of the fulfillment of and completion of God’s thoughts. People have never been able to serve God without the enabling power of the anointing of the Holy Ghost upon them. The ultimate proof of that statement is found in Jesus’ statement that of Himself He could do nothing, that it was the Father in Him who did the works. (John 5:30; 14:10; Acts 10:38)

However, the Holy Ghost does not come upon everyone. The answer to why the Holy Ghost came upon Simeon is found in what has been said about the decision Simeon made. Also, the Holy Ghost did not come upon Jesus’ disciples because they were chosen or called. He came upon them because they decided to go to Jerusalem as instructed. These men had accomplished little before the ascension. In their training the Spirit of God had worked a few miracles through them, but all had forsaken Jesus at the point of the cross and gone back into their natural lives. None had begun any ministry. Oh, they were devout and enthusiastic when He would appear to them after the resurrection before His ascension, but when He would leave their midst it was back to family and life as usual. However, on the day of ascension they were instructed to go to Jerusalem and wait on the Holy Ghost. After watching Him ascend into the cloud of glory and be seated at the Father’s right hand decision came upon them. Each within himself concluded that his life was with God and not with fishing, family, etc.. Each by independent decision decided to go to Jerusalem and live out their destiny with God and forsake all else. The foundation for Pentecost was laid in that decision. No longer were they arguing as they had on the night of Jesus’ consecration to His Father in the garden about which of them was the greatest as if they had contributed to the minor works the Holy Ghost had done through them in their training. Each now had his own prayer and decision of consecration. Their prayer and decision isn’t detailed for us, but it is forcefully implied in their individual action after Jesus ascended. (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Acts) The Holy Spirit came upon Simeon for the same reason. The facts related in Luke 2:25-35 likewise imply that Simeon had prayed and reached a decision to consecrate himself to God and consecrate himself to the destiny he would discover God had for him as it unfolded, regardless of what it was.

Third, the scripture lets us see that Simeon was living the revelation that the Holy Ghost had given Him. The scripture says that the Holy Ghost had revealed to him that he would not die until he had seen the Messiah. What a nut! Can you imagine the thoughts of his friends and family if he were to tell them, as he grew old, “I cannot die until the Messiah comes and I have seen Him.” What faith! What astonishing faith! Such faith only comes from intense communion, serious consecration, multiple experience, dedicated study of God’s word and reaching for Him through His word. Simeon is not a casual believer. Casual believers don’t become just and devout; the Holy Ghost does not set up residence upon casual believers; casual believers do not live in revelation; casual believers do not direct their lives by belief in revelation.

Simeon understood that he was in some undefined way connected to the Messiah, the consolation, the comfort of Israel. Yet nothing in his generation would have circumstantially led him to believe that the Messiah would come in his generation. His belief did not come from adopting the belief of some movement. He was not a part of a believing sect, a community of people with similar views who discussed their view and worshipped around their views. His belief was based totally upon revelation without the aid of circumstance or spiritual movement. Simeon was on his own, living out a personally received revelation as had Abraham and Gideon and Ester and Nehemiah and the Prophets and others in scripture.

The fourth matter that scripture would have us see and the conclusion of the whole issue of Simeon’s life is that he was led by the Spirit of God—“he came by the Spirit into the temple.” Simeon had no reason to be there. Unlike Anna, the recognized prophetess who “departed not from the temple, but served God day and night with fasting and praying,” he did not abide there nor was there any natural occasion for him to go there. Simeon was not led by a host of angels. Simeon was not led by a strange new star. Simeon was not led by a cloud or a fire or by prophets. Simeon was not led by a dream or a vision or an audible voice. Simeon was led by the Spirit of God, and he followed so precisely his inward leading that He arrived at the exact time that Mary and Joseph entered the temple to follow the custom, according to the law, of dedication of the first born to the Lord. Without hesitation, having the revelation by word of knowledge of who the baby was, he picked Him up, blessed God, and spoke words of prophesy that He was the Messiah—the Salvation, the Light of the Gentiles, the Glory of Israel.

Simeon was a common man doing uncommon things. Simeon was a Jew. The Jews were the chosen people of God. However being a Jew did not empower Simeon. Power came to Simeon because of the exercise of his will to desire God rather than the world. He had through decision become just and devout, a residence of the Holy Ghost, a keeper of revelation and led by the spirit in his activities. He is a forerunner of the Sons of God. His example does not lie in the work he did for God, it lies in the choice he made that underlies the work and that is implied in the work.

Just as being a Jew and among God’s chosen did not enable Simeon to have the Holy Ghost live with Him, and anoint him, and give him revelation and lead him, neither does being born again enable the Holy Ghost to live with us or anoint us or give us revelation or lead us. Scripture says that to all that receive Jesus, that is receive Him by declaring Him to be their Lord, also receive power to become the sons of God. It does not say that all that receive are sons of God. Note also that being a Son of God is not a matter of gender; it is a place of position, of posture within the Kingdom of God, available to all male and female alike. Scripture tells us that in every household there are vessels of honor and vessels of dishonor, and vessels of wood and vessels of earth and vessels of gold and silver. (2nd Timothy 2:20) Scripture defines the sons of God as those led by the Spirit of God. (Romans 8:14) Those who choose to be led by the spirit of God are the vessels of honor and of gold and silver. To be led by the Spirit of God requires us to follow the example of Simeon, to make those decisions of consecration and obedience. Scripture says that only those who choose to love Jesus by keeping his words (implied here is study to know His word) will the Father and Jesus love and come and make their abode. (Love here is that particular love a father has for a son—God loves all as His creatures and gave his son that they might become children of God, but not all treat Him as a father nor does He love all as Sons as demonstrated by that scriptural fact that He only abides with those who love and keep His word) The Holy Ghost is sent to teach and bring us to Jesus in knowledge and experience. (John 14:15-16; 21; 23-26) He will not come uninvited. (Luke 11:9-13)

It is the Sons of God who will sow the seeds and reap the harvest. It is the sons of God who are those who overcome in the Book of Revelation to whom so much is promised. It is the sons of God to whom has been given the destiny to work the works of Jesus and greater works. Heaven and all of creation earnestly expect and wait upon the manifestation of you and I as one of the sons of God on this earth.

Bob Highsmith
aspiritualhouse@yahoo.com

THE PATH OF LIFE

2004-06-18T09:25:00.000-04:00

You will show me the path of life:
In Your presence is fullness of joy;
At Your right hand there are pleasures for evermore.
Psalm 16:11

The path of God always leads to God’s presence and not just to His presence but ultimately to the power and grace of His right hand which grants to us spiritual pleasure like joy. The path that God sets before us is ever upward out of the world into His Son who sits at His right hand. The Path is always toward joy and Godly, spiritual pleasure. True, we may have to pass through the valley of the shadow of death. True, we have to let our desires for sin and self-government enter into death and that may seem like death to us, but on the other side of the valley of the shadow of death are the green pastures where we feed in the presence of God where we are filled with joy unspeakable where spiritual pleasure is experienced without measure. On the other side of the death of the cross is the resurrection into Jesus where we find joy and spiritual pleasure without measure.

Let all those that put their trust in You rejoice:
Let them ever shout for joy, because You defend them:
Let them also that love Your name be joyful in You.
For You, Lord, will bless the righteous;
With favor will You compass them as with a shield.
Psalm 5:11-12

As we in obedience walk the path set before us in trust that it is God who can best direct us in this life, our trust causes us to shout for joy, because we know that we are being defended by our loving father. We find we were at times depressed, at times disgruntled, at times dismayed, at times disappointed, at times dysfunctional, at times disoriented, at times displeased, when we were disconnected from God, but let us chose to love His name and place our trust in Him and immediately we discover joy in Him, an emotional experience not previously known. We shout for joy (actually when we find we have lost our joy we can shout unto God, literally shout, Father I love you, I want you Lord, and shouting will bring back to us our joy) because we know we have favor with Him because we have chosen Him, and we know he surrounds us with Himself everywhere we go and in every experience.

Also that day they offered great sacrifices, and rejoiced:
For God had made them rejoice with great joy:
The wives also and the children rejoiced:
So that the joy of Jerusalem was heard even afar off.
Nehemiah 12:43

We are the temple of the Spirit of God. We are that temple not made with hands that scripture tells us God has made for Himself to dwell in and walk in. We come to Him broken down, burned to rubble by sin and life’s experiences, whether we realized that as our position or not. (Some individuals who in their own eyes had not done much wrong before entering the Kingdom of God are blind to their state because they see themselves in comparison to others and not as they actually are.) God brings all to the point of seeing the need to rebuild what we were because it is unsuitable as a temple for the Living God. We are to put off the old man. We are to mortify our members. When we come out of the captivity of the world, God sends us all to rebuild the temple and the city that houses it, which we are, that we might make it a suitable habitation. The first step is to begin to rebuild the walls and to rebuild the gates to keep the forces of darkness out of us who house the temple. The temple is way down inside of us where our spirits are. The soul might be likened to the City of Jerusalem that surrounded the physical Temple in the Old Testament. The entrances of evil are through the mind and emotions and will and body. We find as we make progress in rebuilding these to lock out the old way and secure the new in Jesus that God actually makes us to rejoice with great joy as did those who rebuilt the walls and entrance gates to Jerusalem. This process is the path of life that God will show us that leads to his presence and his right hand. May we all find each other along it.

Bob Highsmith
www.aspiritualhouse.blogspot.com
www.jeremiah419.blogspot.com

SIN AND THE CHRISTIAN

2004-06-15T15:11:00.000-04:00

Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever lives to make intercession for them. (Hebrews 7:25)

Wherefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which works in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. (Philippians 2:12-13)

I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as you have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness. (Romans 6:19)

It is a fact that many Christians suffer from habitual sin. Sin is a spiritual crime. It’s punishment is imprisonment in guilt (James 2:10) or if sin has become a way of life, the conscience becomes seared and guilt is not felt. (1st Timothy 4:2) The punishment then is banishment from the presence of God and imprisonment in worldliness. (1st Corinthians 5:5) Both punishments are designed to bring us to a point where we do not want to any longer will the union of the desires of our flesh with temptation and will repent in order that we might be restored to the Lord.

The scripture, Hebrews 7:25, tells us that Jesus is habitually interceding for us. Jesus wants to break the yoke of sin over our lives and is forever before the Father in our behalf. This scripture states unequivocally that Jesus is able to save us to the uttermost. What we call salvation, which is the new birth, is just the beginning of salvation. Uttermost salvation means just what it says, salvation from everything that would harm us or cause us to not be Holy as God is Holy.

The fact that Jesus is able doesn’t mean that it will take place. Jesus is able to heal, but everyone isn’t healed. We have a role in our salvation. Just as our initial salvation in the new birth came to us because we believed, so will all other aspects of salvation come to us because we believe. Belief has a corresponding faith that produces a response to what we believe in the form of some action taken on our part. The leper believed Jesus, was cleansed, and as an act of faith, he went to see the priest as scripture required. The woman with the issue of blood touched Jesus' garment. If we are to be free from sin, we must believe that Jesus is able to save us from sin. If we really believe this, we will respond with a cooperative will.

In Philippians 2:13 set forth above, we are told that God works in us to will and to act according to His good purposes. We are not left alone to try to avoid sin by ourselves; God’s spirit and His word are present in us to work to accomplish His will that we be Holy as He is Holy.

Holiness is not optional for a Christian, it is commanded. (1st Peter 1:15-16) Many don’t understand why they do not have a sense of the presence of God in their lives on a continual basis and can only find that sense of presence during isolated church services or other gatherings of Christians. The reason is that they are not pursuing Holiness in their lives. Hebrews 12:14 tells us that we are to follow Holiness for we will not see God without Holiness. Christianity is a living experience of daily union with God. Christianity is not an abstract creed with a weekly meeting. We are the temple or House of God and our union with Him is meant to be continual and always manifest. Satan fights against our union with God and will always be present in this lifetime tempting us to have union with sin rather than union with God. We are provided a means of escape. (1st Corinthians 10:13) The means is Jesus whose spirit and word is within us. (Hebrews 2:18; 4:15) He was tempted in every way in which we are tempted but without sin. He did not commit sin because He chose to dedicate His will to God. It was through the exercise of His will that He walked in Holiness. He quoted Deuteronomy 8:3 to Satan in the wilderness and in effect said to him, “I live off of the word of God.” In describing Himself Jesus said, “My will is to do the will of Him who sent me.”

Jerry Bridges, in his book The Pursuit of Holiness, says, “It is the will that chooses to yield to temptation or to say no. Our wills, then, ultimately determine our moral destiny, whether we will be holy or unholy in our character or conduct . . . While the will is the ultimate determiner of our choices, it is influenced in its choices by the strongest forces brought to bear upon it.” Whether we realize it or not, our wills are the object and spoil of a spiritual war. God owns the cattle on a thousand hills, the earth and the fullness thereof is His. There is one thing and one thing only that God does not own, and that is our wills. We can offer our wills to Satan or we can offer our wills to God. We can become a slave to sin or a slave to righteousness. However, there is no in-between. We are either serving Satan in sin or we are serving God in righteousness. God asks us to declare His Son to be our Lord. If we do so, God gives us a new spirit. It takes an act of our will to make that declaration. God asks us to give Him our bodies as a Holy, living sacrifice for Him to inhabit. To offer our bodies requires an act of our will. We choose to let our bodies be either a habitation for the will of Satan or the will of God. God asks us to renew our minds to His word in order that we might think as He thinks. It takes an act of our will to renew our minds to the word of God. We choose to either think the thoughts of Satan or think the thoughts of God. (See Deuteronomy chapters 28 and 29 and Joshua 24:15.)

Christianity is a choice. It is an act of our will. It is not a religion or a creed. If we ignore the presence of the spirit and word of God in us and repeatedly exercise our will to choose temptation, then we reinforce the habit of that temptation until it becomes an addiction or way of life. If we solicit the help of the Spirit of God within us and join with Him in agreement with the word of God repeatedly exercising our will to renounce temptation and choose instead the will of God, then we reinforce the habit of Holiness until it becomes an addiction or way of life. We are told if we first submit ourselves to God and then resist Satan, he will flee from us. (James 4:7) Sin can be and usually is presented to us as very pleasurable. Every temptation is pleasing to some aspect of our being. Anger, for instance, pleases a desire to be mad. Emulation pleases a desire to be like someone else rather than yourself. (See Galatians 5:16-26 for other areas subject to temptation found in the flesh.)

The first step toward Holiness is the exercise of our wills to choose to will the will of God. That choice establishes the pattern of our behavior. Many Christians have never reached that conclusion. They do not live their Christian existence in accordance with any inner resolve. Therefore, they are tossed to and fro. A Christian who waits until temptation is present to conclude how they will respond will lose the battle with temptation one hundred percent of the time. Although they may say no to the first temptation, Satan will in time seduce them.

If, however, we have resolved within us to always do the will of God, when temptation appears it is easy to submit to God by speaking to the temptation and saying, “No, I am submitted to God – I resist you Satan. I won’t do that. It is not God’s will for me.” The temptation can be something as simple as going to see someone when you know in your spirit God doesn’t want you to.

Jesus resolved inside of Himself to do the will of God. He concluded within Himself that His purpose on earth was to fulfill God’s will. He taught His disciples to pray that God’s will be done on earth as it was being done in Heaven. It is hypocrisy in its highest form for an individual to pray that prayer who has not concluded within themselves that it is their will to be the will of God. Once that decision is made then all decision thereafter yields to that original decision. The decision to be the will of God is the decision that Jesus asks of us that we lay down our lives and follow Him.

We live in what Jerry Bridges referred to as a godless environment. Most people are like chameleons, they blend into whatever environment they find themselves. Christians are not to change their color, but they will if they have not reached a very strong resolve inside of themselves that they are aware of every minute. Furthermore, that resolve cannot be related to particular sins. It must be a resolve to know the Lord in His fullness and respond to the inner witness of the spirit of God in every situation as He would. Sin is not relegated to violation of the Ten Commandments. Sin is behaving outside of the will of God. We can actually be ministering for God and be sinning because we are outside of His will.

When we have made the resolve to divorce ourselves from our own wills and from any influence upon our wills other than the influence of God, when we have resolved to have our will be identical to the will of God, then we have provided the Holy Spirit and Jesus and the Father with a foundation upon which they can build Holiness. I cannot be Holy in myself. I cannot discipline myself to be Holy. Holiness is not a matter of the worship of my own will. Holiness is a matter of giving up my will to God to where my will is His will. God, then, perfects Holiness by directing my will. My role is simple: give back to God what Satan took from Him in the Garden of Eden, give back to God my will. God lost the will of man in the Garden. Man took his will and said, “I will do as I will.” Jesus came to save that which was lost. Jesus is able to restore our wills to God to the uttermost if we will just resolve to give our wills to Him. This exercise of choice is the means by which we lose our lives, pick up our cross, and leave our slavery to sin to become a slave to righteousness.

In my own life I have found that offering my will to Jesus is taking time. I am very sincere in the desire to give Him my will. However, I find my flesh is deceptive and treacherous. I am continually finding strings attached to what I thought was a final offering of my will. Years ago I took a course at Emory Law School in estate and gift tax. Gift taxes were less than inheritance taxes and a game was played by wealthy people with the IRS. Enormous sums were spent paying enterprising attorneys and accountants to devise schemes whereby it would appear that they had given their wealth away to their children or wife or charities while strings of control were kept. I remember my tax professor looking at us and saying, “The only thing I can tell you is this. When you give something away, it’s gone. You haven’t given it away if you retain any form of control.” The night that I declared Jesus as Lord I was asked a simple question, “Have you ever made Jesus your personal Lord?” The moment I heard that question, the Holy Spirit vividly brought to my remembrance my professor standing before me making that statement. I knew then that if I prayed and said, “Jesus, You are my Lord” that it was understood between the two of us that I was giving myself to Him without strings attached. Intent is one thing, accomplishment another. I will spend my lifetime, as will any serious Christian, being led by the Holy Ghost to accomplish my intent to give myself wholly to the Lord. I will not fully accomplish my intent in this lifetime. However, without the intent, without the resolve within, there will be little effort put forth toward Holiness.

Bob Highsmith
aspiritualhouse@yahoo.com
www.aspiritualhouse.blogspot.com
www.jeremiah419.blogspot.com

UNDER THE MIGHTY HAND OF GOD

2004-06-14T14:45:00.000-04:00

Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time: casting all your care upon Him for He cares for you.
1st Peter 5:67

If anybody should be curious where I have been over the last two years—it is June 2004—I have been standing in front of 1st Peter 5:6-7. Stalled right in front of this scripture, while being daily confronted with several matters that arouse great concern in me (whether some of them should or should not is another question), that will not of themselves ever go away. The matters involve my personal life and matters outside of my personal life. Everywhere I have turned to deal with these matters myself, this Scripture has blocked me. No matter what path I choose, I immediately can go no further because of this scripture. No matter what plan I devise the minute I start to implement it, I can’t because of this scripture. Each time I know that what I want to do isn’t a solution. I know I shouldn’t be proceeding as I am and I know God alone can bring solution.

You see my heart, my spirit deep within me, longs to walk with God. But my flesh doesn’t want to be under government. It wants to work things out for itself and have God in the background as an insurance policy in case I should make a mistake or, if you can imagine such, be wrong in my solutions. My flesh has that character as to both matters pertaining to what we know to be the purposes and work of God on this earth and as to other matters, assuming there are some that don’t pertain to the purpose of God. (selah)

Why confrontation with this scripture at this moment in time? About September 2002, I began to pray in earnest and have prayed since then almost every day that I walk with the Lord, that He teach me how. I confess and give recognition to the fact that in fifty-five years I have not done very well managing things myself. (I omit the first six years of life as years of innocence and total dependence upon parents.) Of special concern to me is the fact that I have been unable to manage to acquire the relationship with God that I long for in the deep inner recesses of myself. I either haven’t known how to acquire that relationship or there are obstacles present I have been unwilling to deal with or both. I have been very sincere in my prayers that began in 2002, and I have had faith that somehow—I knew not how nor have I speculated—God would answer my prayer. I could see myself in my spirit as a changed man walking in union with God, living a life where He was making the decisions and I was carrying them out in my life and in regard to His work. That hope has been the fuel that has been keeping the fire for God lit inside of me.

As I initialized continued prayer and effort to hear and follow, some change was taking place, but to me the pace was slow. In the fall of 2003, over a year after I began to pray to be taught to walk with God, I ordered a book on prayer. I had read one book by the author on relationship with God that had been illuminated to me by the Holy Spirit when I was in a Christian book store, and it had been inspiring and helpful. As I began to read the book on prayer, the author emphatically proposed that the first prayer that we needed to learn to pray was the prayer of casting our cares upon the Lord. The author cited the above scripture and said that if you could not pray and cast your cares upon the Lord there was not much point in learning anything else about prayer as that was the beginning point. I put the book down. I was under house arrest by the Holy Spirit. You know what I mean by that: I mean I was now under limitation within. Until released, which would only be after I had adopted the revelation the Holy Spirit was offering I would not be permitted to expand in any other direction. This matter of 1st Peter 5:6-7 would be where the Holy Spirit and I dealt with each other. We would not deal or commune on any other matter until we dealt and communed on this matter. I might want to deal on other fronts more palatable, but we would sit at stalemate the rest of my life or until I was willing to let Him write this scripture on my heart, program me if you will, so that I operated on its truth.

Revelation is a wonderful thing. Not only had I had myself revealed to me, but I also had scripture revealed to me that if acted upon solved the problem of “me.” However, revelation is never given just for information. When revelation is given all else is held in suspension until the revelation is incorporated into behavior, until we initialize the response the revelation requires. You will no doubt note that nine months has transpired since I put down the book. During the past nine months I have been able to do little except write about a few things. Worship experience became impossible. Relationship with the Lord became stagnant. Some ministry took place, but that from basic anointing and for the needs of those ministered to and not what would have taken place in those situations had I been cooperative with the Holy Spirit over this matter of 1st Peter 5: 6-7.

When I lay down the book I immediately saw several areas where I had been unwilling to involve the Lord that were tormenting me. I saw—I don’t mean I intellectually saw, I mean I clearly saw, as if having a vision—that here lay the major problem, and that all the torment would leave if I would just do what the scripture said and cast the care of certain matters on Jesus. I had to let Him take care of them as He saw fit and accept what He did as the will of Heaven, and therefore what was best for me, best for Heaven, best for everyone else, best for the entire universe, regardless of my feelings and thoughts. I had to get out of the management business entirely.

To further explain, I see a great deal in life that others don’t see. I see into situations and into people. I know when things aren’t right and people aren’t right. I see ministers and churches off track, etc. even when they look good. It’s very hard for me to understand that others don’t have these spiritual eyes. My wife has to remind me of that all the time. She questions me often herself with, “How do you know you are right?” I just look at her and say, “I know what I know.” My problem has been to react in the flesh, to deal with it internally and not take it on as a prayer project. Instead I have carried the concern and care in a fleshy manner myself, that is, I have entered into fleshy judgments and let myself experience anger, jealously, and other works of the flesh. When the Lord opens my eyes and lets me see things, my job is to pray—to intercede for those situations and cast the care of them upon Jesus—and do nothing else unless asked by the Lord. I have had a hard time doing that. For one thing, if I pray and nothing ever manifests to validate what I said I was seeing, then who will know I was right. My wife will say, “See you were wrong.” That attitude is flesh at its worse.

1st Peter 5:6-7 contains the inference of human rebellion and autonomy. It begins with the imperative that we first “humble” our self “under the Mighty Hand of God.” This Scripture also contains the inference that we are weak in the statement that we are to be under “God’s mighty hand.” We can’t produce a solution to our care and concern, but He can. Pride—trying to find some place within us where we are strong enough for the situation, some place where we don’t sense we need God except maybe as an endorser of our solution: a place where we tell Him what we are doing and ask Him to bless our plan with success; some place where solution is with us and not with Him; some elevated place of self-worth—keeps us from relying on God. The practical outworking of the verb “humble” is that we lower ourselves in our own estimation to a place where we see we can’t do, but see that God can. We lower our opinion of ourselves to a level where we see ourselves voluntarily under Him and His authority, where we view ourselves as subservient and obedient to Him because He is superior to us. It is not just a matter of reducing ourselves in our own eyes, but it is also a matter of consecrating our wills to do His will. People who have humbled themselves see that their Heavenly Father’s will is always good, because it is always the will of love and they see that their own will is always evil, because it is always the will of selfishness. The humble person wants no part of His own will and always seeks the will of God in prayer. The humble person also sees that when Peter said, “For He cares for you” that those words have a twofold meaning: (1) That the Lord cares for and is concerned for us and out of his care and love for us wants to lift us out of our torment and incompetence, and (2) that He is to care in our stead; we are not to carry the burden or concern.

The practical expression in our behavior of this Scripture is stated in the portion of the Scripture that tells us we are to cast our care upon Him and stop trying to manage them ourselves. What will Almighty God do if we do cast the cares we have upon Him? He will in due time, that is in His timing, exalt us or lift us up out of our concerns and cares. He will lift us up by our faith to the exalted, elevated position where He is above the problems of this world, to a place of trusting where there will be a Godly solution as defined in the heart of God not our flesh. We will be exalted or lifted up onto faith and spiritual confidence, onto our treasure, the Rock our Lord, and off of the treacherous, shifting sands of selfishness.

How do I know this? I know it because I finally acted on 1st Peter 5:6-7. I know it because I stepped through 1st Peter 5:6-7 and entered into Jesus. The word of God is the Lord and 1st Peter 5:6-7 was at the same time both my stumbling block and my door, depending upon my attitude. What did I do? I got up out of bed at three thirty a.m. threw on some clothes and went to a place that related to a matter that had been of continuous concern. When I arrived there I got out of my truck and said, “Lord no more will I labor with this. You know my concerns and my torments. You know what I see. What You do is Your business. I am going to talk with You, lift the matter up to You, and get it permanently off of me. From this moment on I will assume You are dealing with it and whatever happens is Your will. You are the governor of this universe not me. I believe You will direct things and what transpires from hereon will be the will of love. I will not even pray about it again unless You direct me to. I will assume it is taken care of and being managed according with Your desires. You are love and vastly superior to me. Forgive me, not for my concern, because I truly believe You have given me my eyes and what I see that concerns me is spiritually discerned, but forgive me for my interference and for my unwillingness to pray and give the situation to You. I have been like Jonah. I have been afraid that You would not do what I would do—that You would do otherwise. I have feared the otherwise. Forgive me and give me a heart of faith that trusts You to do what is in my best interest, the interest of others, and the interest of You and this universe. Give me a heart, unlike Jonah’s, that accepts Your solutions as good.” I then left off praying in English and spent a wonderful time under the anointing of the Spirit of God interceding in tongues and moanings and groanings until I was released from that work. It is amazing to me that over the last two days as Satan has approached and told me things that were now going to happen, I have had no torment, but honestly and sincerely I have spoken back to him and said, “Fine! If that happens it is the will of God because I have interceded according to the will of the Spirit of God and cast the care upon Him and I rejoice in whatever happens from now on.” Heretofore those whispered inserts into my conscience mind would have sent me into torment and caused me to spend numerous, unprofitable hours trying to come up with some solution so that what was whispered either couldn’t happen or I would have a plan of dealing with it if it did.

It is not a new truth to me, but it is one worth repeating here: Grace is found on the other side of acceptance of, acquiescence to, and performance of Scripture. A verse of Scripture becomes the Lord standing in front of you beckoning you to come stand with Him on the truth of what is said. It becomes alive in that way. It is Him, and we can at that point in time, when we are presented Scripture as the answer to prayer and problem, be as many of His followers were when He was here before His crucifixion and walk away, or we can be as Peter and say, “Where would we go? You have the words to eternal life.” Eternal life is not living forever. We will all live forever. There is another life after death for all. Jesus defines eternal life as knowing the Father and His Son whom He sent. (John 17:3) We know Jesus by becoming who He is in a living way. He is the personification of Scripture. The word became flesh Scripture says and dwelt among us full of truth and grace. We do not know Him by knowing what Scripture says. We cannot know Him in the abstract like that. No one ever received the new birth by just reading and memorizing John 3:16 and Roman 10 verses 9 and 10. Those verses of Scripture will produce nothing but a dead religion that talks about salvation until such time as they are believed and the individual does what the Scriptures say to do in belief of the result they promise. To know Scripture in experiment and experience is the only way to know Him and be in Him. When I chose to experience 1st Peter 5:6-7, I entered into death. The desire to manage matters myself was crucified with Jesus and I was resurrected into Him. I entered into death weak; I was resurrected into power not of my own making. I entered into death through humility having forsaken self-confidence; I was lifted up into faith—trust and confidence in my Lord. The Lord and I are now walking together in the matter I cast upon Him and for which I interceded. This experience provides a framework and foundation for faith to walk with Him in similar manner regarding other situations. My role has been merely to initialize choice—to choose to be scripture rather than be myself.

May God bless the readers of this Testimony and inspire them to continue with the Lord.

Bob Highsmith
aspiritualhouse@yahoo.com

SERVANTS OF THE LORD

2004-06-10T09:15:00.000-04:00

But take diligent heed to do the commandment and the law,
Which Moses the servant of the Lord charged you,
To love the Lord your God,
And to walk in all his ways,
And to keep his commandments,
And to cleave unto him,
And to serve him with all your heart
And with all your soul.
Joshua 22:5

No servant can serve two masters:
Luke 16:13

Jesus stated the truth that governs the natural, then applied it to the spiritual relationship between a person and God. What governs the natural often governs the spiritual too. You have experienced for yourself this truth in the natural. It applies to the spiritual also. A choice has to be made. You cannot have two opposing governing factors. Instead of being consistent you will in different situations you love,yield to one governing factor and for the moment hate the other because it opposes you. You cannot love to serve your body and serve God. You cannot love to serve your emotions and serve God. You cannot love to serve every thought that comes into your mind that seems good at the moment and serve God. We cannot serve God and serve our feelings or desires or thoughts. We cannot serve God and serve the feelings or desires or thoughts of others. God may not want us laughing at what someone says or being for them what they want at the moment. Every single action you can take, every single option presented to you, every opportunity to respond to any situation, has along side it the will of God. Serving God is not a matter of works, of tithing, going to church, etc. Serving God is living life in this world as God would live it as demonstrated by Jesus. It is a matter of letting God guide you to take the actions He would take, to guide you to choose the options He would choose, to guide you to respond as He would respond without regard to any other governing factor. All of which begins with a resolve and a determination to not be like other people who serve their bodies, minds and emotions and the people and rudiments of the world around them, but to serve God by being a habitation for Him and an expression of Him. Tremendous reward and blessing waits for those who so choose.

Bob Highsmith
aspiritualhouse@yahoo.com

PRAYER AND OUR NATURAL NATURE

2004-06-09T10:35:00.000-04:00

I will therefore that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting. (1Timothy 2:8)

E. M. Bounds had the following to say in his book Prayer and Praying Men:

“If prayer is put first, then God is put first . . . (people) are to be affected by prayer. Their good, their character, conduct and destiny are all involved in prayer. People through the whole sweep and range of their conditions are to be held in the mighty grasp of prayer. Paul’s teaching is to the effect that prayer is essentially a thing of the inner nature. The spirit within us prays so note Paul’s directions, ‘I will therefore that men pray everywhere without wrath.’ . . . Guard against and suppress them (natural feelings). People cannot pray with these natural feelings rising in them, cultivated, cherished and continued there. Prayer is to be without these . . . (these) depress prayer, hinder it, and suppress it. The word “without” means making no use of, having no association with, apart from, aloof from. The natural unrenewed heart has no part in praying . . . the nature of prayer is deeper than our nature. We cannot pray by nature.”

Among my few friends I have a reputation of being one who prays. I really resent that. Prayer should be a common thing that would not arouse reputation. I suppose I have it because I am seen exercising myself to pray privately. I avoid praying publicly at all costs. In fact, when asked to pray publicly, I can rarely think of anything to say and when I do, I rarely have any sensitivity that I am speaking to my God. Anything spiritual is begun by the natural. I am not in the spirit when I commence to speak in tongues, I am in the natural. But by the exercise of my will, I direct myself toward the spiritual. The same is true with praying in English. I have never been able to pray for long or very effectively in this natural state whether praying in English or in tongues. If I do not encounter the Holy Ghost and come under an anointing from Him to continue praying, the experience of prayer is very, very hard to maintain. Therefore, any glory or honor for prayer coming out of this vessel is due the Holy Ghost and the Lord Jesus and the Father. My sole role is making myself available to be an instrument. I agree wholeheartedly with E. M. Bounds that prayer cannot come from the natural man, it must come from the union of man’s spirit with the Holy Ghost, and that will only happen when the individual has an honest heart turned toward God by the exercise of his will. I have learned during the time I spend in prayer with the Lord how to search for where His interests are. If His interests are not known to me before I commence to pray, I usually commence my time with Him seeking His interests. It is when I discover His interests and begin to pray in line with those interests that the anointing arrives to enable me to pray as God wants me to. Of course, there are those times when I need to pray about my own interests and needs, but I never leave His presence without endeavoring to be His servant in prayer. Those who never go before God except to present to Him their own interests and needs are on the whole proceeding from the selfish, natural self. They usually find faith hard to come by.

Now she that is a widow indeed, and desolate, trusts in God, and continues in supplications and prayers night and day. But she that lives in pleasure is dead while she lives. (1 Timothy 5:5-6)

Although Paul is referring to widows in the above scripture, the scripture is applicable to all of us. It has been demonstrated in my own life and I know the experiment of it. You will note that Paul says that the individual is a widow indeed and desolate. There is a widowhood that comes to all of us if we are going to enter into relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. Once married to the world, the world is now dead to us and we are dead to the world. Paul said that, “The world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.” and posed a question with its thesis that we should “be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world.” (Galatians 6:14; Colossians 2:20) The individual who trusts in God and continues in supplications and in prayers day and night will be a widow or widower. In contrast the individual that lives in the pleasures of the world and does not pray will find that they are widows also. Their husband, the Holy One of Israel (Isaiah 54:5), will seem dead to them. Note that the pleasures of this world do not have to be evil as the world would define them by the world’s morality. The pleasures can be fine eating, Christian get-togethers, church services, church outings, trips to the beach, boat rides, movies, television, reading, etc.. However, those pleasures are being sought rather than relationship with God through supplication and prayer. The pleasures of Heaven far exceed these pleasures but that will never be known to people who do not enter into widowhood and experiment with supplications and prayer.

Perhaps the best decision I ever made, other than the decision to declare Jesus as my Lord, was the decision I made several years ago to set my alarm clock to get up at 4:00 a.m. and commence prayer by 4:30 a.m.. The first thing I discovered was what a stranger I was to God and what a stranger He was to me. Very awkwardly I began to enter into relationship with God. Through this experiment I began to experience. The experiences have been numerous and private. As I began to experience the presence of God, I began to yearn for Him more and more. I found that when I had free time I would leave work to go and pray. I have wet the carpet with gallons of tears and I have shaken the walls with laughter from the joy I was receiving from my God. I learned and I am learning and I will be learning for the God who has let me taste of Him is too vast to ever know in His entirety.

Bob Highsmith
www.aspiritualhouse.blogspot.com
www.jeremiah419.blogspot.com

REFUSING EVIL AND CHOOSING GOOD

2004-06-06T17:45:00.000-04:00

For God does know that in the day you eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil . . . And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: (Genesis 3:5, 22)

When Satan and God speak here of knowing good and evil they speak of hearing or receiving information and thought, some of which is good and some of which is evil. They do not speak of an ability to determine which is which. Therein lies the horror—knowledge without discernment, knowledge without a label. Heretofore Adam and Eve received information from God only. He was the sole source of information and thought. Without competing information and thought there was no reason not to trust and believe in the goodness of God. Before the entrance of Satan into the Garden, Adam and Eve did not engage in the process of judging for themselves information and thought as to whether it was good or evil.

However, when they permitted Satan to inject other information and thought into their lives, then the issue became, “What is good of this information we are receiving and these thoughts we are thinking and what is evil?” Upon receiving the thoughts of Satan, Eve immediately analyzed the situation and came to the independent conclusion that it was good for her and Adam to eat of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil which God had said was evil for them to eat. Ever since mankind has been placed in the predicament of having information and thought that does not come from God. The question which is good? and, which is evil? is always confronted and answered in the process of making a decision about how to proceed. But is it answered correctly? Is mankind’s definition of good accurate? It is never accurate because man’s definition is erroneous and shifting. It is erroneous because Jesus said that there is none good except the Father. Thus the sole definition of good is, “Is the information or thought from the Father?” By definition any information or thought coming from another source is evil. This is unfortunate for those who do not have the desire for the government of God in their lives or in a particular decision. Nevertheless God and God alone is able to separate good from evil. We do not possess that ability in ourselves. Man’s definition is shifting because it changes from situation to situation to satisfy an inward selfishness. Rarely does mankind’s definition of good in any situation randomly coincide with God’s. What has been said to this point is scary when you pause to consider it and hopefully what is written here will cause significant consideration.

The history of mankind proves the thesis that knowledge comes to us that is, according to the Father’s thought, evil, and we discern it as good; and knowledge comes to us that, according to the Father’s thought, is good, and we discern it as evil. For instance, in the Old Testament during the exodus and often thereafter the Jews cried out, “For it would have been better for us to have served the Egyptians . . .” The Lord gives a clear example of the truth that we cannot determine good when He says in John 16: 2 that some will kill the good servants of God believing they are doing God a favor. Furthermore, Timothy was told by Paul in 2nd Timothy 2:15 to “rightly divide the word of God.” Implied in Paul’s instruction is that our thoughts about the word of God can be wrong and thus evil. It is also implied that we can misapply it in a manner not intended by God, and thus produce evil with the word of God. Underlying the letter to Timothy is the assumption that we walk in the spirit, otherwise the instruction to rightly divide would be futile for we innately lack the ability to right divide the word of God. The message of Isaiah to the people of his generation and all generations to come including ours, given to him directly from the mouth of the Lord is, “Tell this people, hear you indeed, but understand not; and see you indeed, but perceive not.” (Isaiah 6:8)

The deception imparted by Satan to Adam and Eve was the thought that if they ate of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil that they would have the same ability to discern as God and would therefore be able to tell what was good for them and what was evil thus dispensing with the need for God—that is what they read into the statement, “you shall be as gods.” That has been the false assumption of humanity ever since. The generations immediately following Adam and Eve to Noah’s generation, with the exception of a few individuals, chose to be independent of Heaven, to not live life by faith in God. They received evil knowledge and discerned it as good for them and vice versa. By Noah’s time every thought was evil continually. (Genesis 6:5) Motivated by selfishness, mankind was discerning evil as what was good for them without exception. God destroyed Noah’s generation except for Noah and his family. That generation could not be brought to repentance.

When we examine Job’s plight we see that Job, although morally perfect, is falling into the same trap of sifting information and thought with the belief that he has the ability and insight to determine what is good and what is evil. Elihu points out to him that this is his problem and that he sees no need for God having set himself up as a god unto himself to judge for himself what he hears. Elihu tells Job, “Hear my words, you wise men; and give ear unto me, you that have so much knowledge. For the ear tries words, as the palate tastes meat. Let us choose for ourselves that which is right; let us know among ourselves what is good. For Job has said I am righteous . . . What man is like Job, who drinks up scoffing and scorning like water? . . . For he has said, It profits a man nothing that he should delight himself with God and consent to Him.” (Job 34:2-9)

Job’s problem is common to that of all mankind. His ears tried words with the arrogant thought that he could know what is good without God. The truth is that, “Job has spoken without knowledge, and his words are without wisdom and insight . . . he adds rebellion, in his unsubmissive, defiant attitude toward God, to his unacknowledged sin.” (Job 34:35,37) (Compare Solomon who was wise in that he knew he was unable to discern good from evil. When the Lord asked him what he would have the Lord do for him he replied, “So give your servant an understanding mind and a hearing heart to judge your people, that I may discern between good and evil.” (1st Kings 3:9) 1st Kings 3:10 tell us that, “It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this.”)

This is our dilemma—we can know good and evil, possess both at the same time, possess the information, the knowledge, the thought, but we cannot tell which is which without Heaven. Therefore life without God is subtly self-destructive. Although people will and do look for Heaven’s label they do so without a sense of commitment to the label given by Heaven. They seek without humility and from the intellect, and not from the heart. If Heaven’s guidance is abstractly sought and received from scripture or prophecy or teaching or preaching as so much more information to be given some consideration in making a decision, if it is received without regard to the Holy Ghost to show its application, if it is received without reverent respect that it came from God Almighty to be obeyed, not analyzed, then the guidance falls into the barrel of information already received as just another item to be appraised by one who lacks the ability to appraise it.

A striking example of this is found in Jeremiah chapter 42. The greatest to the least approached Jeremiah seeking how God would label their undisclosed choice to go down into Egypt. They told Jeremiah to seek direction from God for them. Although knowing in their heart what they wanted to do regardless of what God said, they hypocritically told Jeremiah that they would not judge what God told him as to whether it was good or evil in their eyes; they would just obey. Jeremiah sought the Lord for them and the Lord took ten days to respond. When Jeremiah returned they had already judged their choice as good for them and made up their minds and God’s voice was just so much information which was judged as evil since it did not conform to what they had decided for themselves. In fact, they said to Jeremiah that he spoke falsely. Reserving the right to judge knowledge as whether it is good or evil is idolatry and rebellion and is a futile exercise. We must as individuals turn out hearts to God and say, “Lord I live by you daily, give me this day my daily bread, show me the way and I will walk as you direct and make my decisions in accordance with your word revealed to me.” In 2nd Corinthians 3:15 we are told in no uncertain terms that there is veil upon the heart that keeps it from seeing. However, we are told just as certainly in verse 16 that if the heart will turn to the Lord that the veil will be taken away. Verse 17 tells us that we will be able to behold the Lord, behold what is good as clearly as if looking into a mirror and we will see ourselves doing what is revealed as good. The obedience that follows changes us into the image of the Lord so that we always know the good in similar situations and are able to follow it. We are told that it is the Spirit of the Lord who takes away the veil. It is the Spirit of the Lord who enables us to see the good path. It is the Spirit of the Lord who enables us to follow the path and it is the Spirit of the Lord who in some supernatural manner changes us by our experiment of the good.

I am the LORD thy God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt: open your mouth wide, and I will fill it. But my people would not hearken to my voice; and Israel would have none of me. So I gave them up unto their own hearts' lust: and they walked in their own counsels. Oh that my people had hearkened unto me, and Israel had walked in my ways! I would have fed them also with the finest of the wheat: and with honey out of the rock would I have satisfied thee. (Psalm 81: 10-13,16)

Independence from God insures mistakes. It is not God’s will for us. God doesn’t change. He is willing, as He has always been, to fill us today with discernment so that our footing is sure. The requirement is that we hearken to the voice of God. To “hearken” means to be humble toward and attentive to the voice of God and to diligently regard it as the sole governing factor in our lives, to listen for it and receive it with a heart to obey. God leaves those who won’t hearken to Him to follow their lusts and own counsels without any discernment as to what information and thoughts are good.

Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good. (Isaiah 7:15)

Isaiah foretold the character of the Lord Jesus. He would eat of the food of God, that spiritual food that gives life that Isaiah describes as “butter and honey.” He would not eat the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. For Jesus eating and hearkening were synonymous. Jesus told His heart to hearken. Jesus chose not to exercise His freewill right as a human being to judge for Himself what was good and what was evil. Jesus did not hearken to His own perceptions or to those of Satan or other people. Jesus was resolved to hearken to God’s voice. Discernment, knowledge of the correct label to be placed on information and thought, comes to those who in their resolve (1) are attentive to feed on the word of God, (2) diligently seek and listen for the word of God as the one factor that will govern their behavior, and (3) obey the word when they hear it. It doesn’t come to anyone else. The following scriptures are worthy of our meditation. There is a pattern here that marks a course to follow.

And it came to pass, that after three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them, and asking them questions. (Luke 2:46)

Visualize what is happening here. This is not a young boy impudently challenging the wisdom of his elders. This is a learning experience guided by the Holy Ghost. He is learning from them scripture, He is learning their interpretation, asking questions to see the witness of the Holy Ghost as to where their doctrines are true and where they have altered the scripture and their traditions have nullified it. The Sermon on the Mount is being formed here. His authority is being framed as He comes to various Holy Ghost provided labels upon what He hears. This is a healthy learning discourse that is taking place in a non-threatening manner. As He hears and as He questions, He is governed by His decision and resolve to know the pure will of God and to obey it without regard to human definition as to good or evil. We would be well advised to proceed in this manner, to question “does the Holy Ghost label this for me as good?” and to be governed solely by a desire to know the pure will of God and to obey it instantly and exactly without our false concepts of good and evil being applied.

But he said unto them, I have meat to eat that you know not of. Therefore said the disciples one to another, has any man brought Him ought to eat? Jesus said unto them, My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me, and to finish His work. (John 4:32-34)

Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he sees the Father do: for what things soever He does, these also does the Son likewise. For the Father loves the Son, and shows him all things that himself does: and he will show him greater works than these; (John 5:19-20)

I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father who has sent me. (John 5:30)

Can we see the subtle truth expressed here in John 5:30? Discernment, the ability to judge what is good and what is evil, arises solely in the context of not having a personal will. It arises in the context of a determination and resolve to substitute the will of God for personal will. Discernment of truth of good and evil cannot be found in any other context. It is not just a matter of being willing to do the will of God; we must not have a competing will lingering in the background. If we do, we are reserving the right to follow it, and God, except to get us off that position, will not waste His time on us. Our energy, our effort as Christians, must be to dissolve all separate will and say as a way of life, as what governs and motivates us, “Your will be done through me on earth as Your will is done in Heaven. I am a conduit of the will of God and no other will—not my will, the will of my children, my mother or father, my spouse, my pastor, my friends etc., only Your will. By Your Spirit enable me be to be a perpetrator of Your will on earth—let me be divorced from any will of my own and be Your will.” Be not deceived. Our will cannot intervene with a motive to do the will of God that is self-serving—many are willing to do the will of God if it in some way serves them—satisfies personal ambition, etc.. Lets go back to that statement that we must resolve to be the will of God—that’s right be His will one hundred percent of the time. Will we fail? Yes, but we don’t go into our relationship with God with failure programmed into it. Our attitude, our decision, our choice, our determination, our resolve is to be the will of God. The Spirit of God now has something to work with. When that is the state of my soul then I will always receive discernment and know the good, which is the will of God, because the Lord who searches the heart sees that His will is sought and will be followed. I may, in situations, get off that resolve, but if I am serious, the Spirit of God can bring me back to repentance and to the point of my resolve, and we can proceed forward again.

George Muller was a man of prayer who lived his life as best he could in accordance with the will of God. During his lifetime he received over eight and a half million dollars to build orphanages throughout England. He never asked for orphans. He prayed and God sent orphans to him. He never asked for employees or servants. He prayed and God sent employees and servants to him. He never sent out a brochure. He never asked a single individual or church for a dime. He prayed. He said in his autobiography, “I seek at the beginning to get my heart into such a state that it has no will of its own in regard to a given matter. Nine tenths of the trouble with people generally is just here. Nine tenths of the difficulties are overcome when our hearts are ready to do the Lord’s will whatever it may be. When one is truly in this state, it is usually but a little way to the knowledge of what His will is. I seek the Lord of the spirit of God through or in connection with the word of God . . . I take into account providential circumstances . . . I ask God in prayer to reveal His will to me. Thus through prayer to God, the study of the word, and reflection, I come to a deliberate judgment . . . and if my mind is thus at peace and continues so after two or three more petitions I proceed accordingly. In trivial matters and in transactions involving most important issues I have found this method always effective. I do not leave the result to feeling or simple impression. If so, I make myself liable to great delusions.”

In John 5:30 quoted above Jesus says that He is able to judge everything He hears audible or in His mind correctly because His will is to do the will of God. It will be no different for us. Hearing and perceiving correctly is dependent upon having come to the resolve that my will is to do the will of God. For an example of the operation of this scripture in Jesus’ life look at John 8:3-11 and observe Jesus doodling in the sand judging all the responses coming to His mind that He might reply to those self-righteous condemning people who brought to him the young women caught in the act of adultery. He doodles instead of responding because He is waiting before He speaks on which of all the responses He is hearing the Holy Ghost within Him will label as good—the thought of God. Let us receive His example. Jesus is in no hurry, under no pressure, waiting in faith, waiting in belief that the Holy Ghost will provide discernment to all He is hearing in His mind. The judgment of what He is hearing comes, but not from Himself, it comes from the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God makes known to Him the will of God as to how He is to respond. The Holy Ghost has provided the label, has given His witness, to the responses coming to His mind so Jesus now speaks, “Let him who is without sin cast the first stone.” The thought of God emerges from Jesus’ lips. In hearing Jesus you are hearing God.

Remember, Jesus is the “first born of many brethren.” Remember, we are the Church of the First Born. Remember, we are the House of God. When people hear us they should be hearing the voice of God, not our thoughts or the acquired thoughts of others. Are we, like Jesus, going to become one who hearkens? Are we, like Jesus, going to not move or speak until we have the sure witness of the Holy Ghost labeling our speech or action as the speech or action of God? If not, then we are not brethren. If not, then we are not the Church of the First Born. If not, then we are not the House of God. Instead, we are the ones to whom Jesus will speak on the day of judgment and say depart from Me (there is no reward for you), I never knew you. Instead, we will be the one judged for having buried our talent because we did not listen to the Holy Ghost whom God deposited inside us that we might produce for Him the fruit He willed. (The talent Jesus spoke of in the parable is the Holy Ghost and the anointing the Holy Ghost provides to enable us to do the will of God.)

And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus' feet, and heard his word . . . But one thing is needful: and Mary has chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her. (It was that Mary which anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped his feet with her hair.) (Luke 10:39, 42; John 11:2)

Not the same Mary that once was. A new Mary who, because she fed on the “butter and honey” that she might know the will of God and perform it, was able to reject the other voices and obey the one that said for her to pour the expensive oil on Jesus and wipe his feet with her hair. The disciples didn’t like that. Judas thought it evil. On what appears to be another occasion a woman who had obviously also fed on the butter and honey did the same thing and Simon, the Pharisee who was feeding Jesus in his home, thought it evil. (Luke 7:36.)

But strong meat belongs to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. (Hebrews 5:14)

Christianity is not an intellectual exercise. It is not informational. It is a daily experience with the Word of God and His Holy Spirit. It is in the experiment of the Word of God under the guidance of the revelation of the Holy Ghost as to what the Word of God means and how it is to be applied that maturity is found. In the experiment is acquired a spiritual sense, a spiritual discernment of what is the good and what is the evil that our natural nature doesn’t have and cannot give us.

For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwells no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would do, I do not: but the evil which I would not do, that I do. (Romans 7:18-19)

Jesus said the spirit was willing but the flesh was weak. The flesh, our natural nature, our selfishness, cannot take us where our spirits want to go which is to a place of union with the will of God. The born again spirit is Holy, it is pure, it desires to be as God is, to think His thoughts, to do His acts, to speak His voice. The flesh wants to decide for itself whether God is best, it wants to judge God. Thus, we see Paul saying that in the living of his life he was constantly seeing that he was missing it because he was not setting his mind on the things of the Spirit, but on the things of the Flesh. (Romans 8:7)

O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 7:24-25)

Paul’s solution is to get off of a foundation of yourself and let the Holy Spirit put under you the foundation of the Lord. Tear down the old and build the new. The downfall of Christians is their attempt to build a spiritual house on a foundation of themselves. Selfishness cannot support love. Selfishness cannot even comprehend love. Selfishness will not commit suicide. No one has ever “died to self.” What is expected and required of us is that we yield our wills to the Lord. When Paul says that he dies daily, he is saying that he yields his will daily to the Lord. Daily he consecrates himself and says as Jesus did in the Garden, “not My will, but yours be done.” That is not a platitude that is an experiment, an experience.

There is a suffering in that. Scripture says that Jesus learned the power of obedience “by the things that He suffered.” There is always a suffering to be experienced when we lay down our will and pick up the will of the Lord. The body may suffer because it is denied, or tortured or beaten. The emotions may suffer because something has to be done or not done that the flesh opposes. Rejection or persecution may be expected and experienced causing mental and emotional suffering. The mind may think another course other than the will of God would be more profitable for some reason it has conjured up and suffer because of its objections. But the spirit flourishes in spite of these objections when God is obeyed and resurrection is experienced upward into the grace, power, love, and further knowledge of the will of God.

The power of God is never found in abstract theory. It is always found on the other side of choice. Choose to lay down your will and pick up God’s and you will find the power of God. The power of God is always present to enable obedience. The choice is exercised by our own power over our own wills. This is the process of learning obedience by the things suffered. “Learning obedience” means to learn the power of obedience and the resurrection in this lifetime from the death of sin into the life of God. (Philippians chapter 3) It is the path to resurrection into knowledge, anointing, power, glory and grace. It is a process that never ends. Thus, Paul, in the twilight of his ministry, cries out in his letter to the Philippians in chapter 3 that I may know You and be conformed unto Your death and experience Your sufferings. The death of Jesus that Paul was referring to was not His death on the cross, but the death He experienced of His own will and the sufferings Paul was referring to were not the sufferings Jesus experienced on the cross, but the sufferings He experienced because of His denied soul and body as He, like us, was tempted yet without sin because He, without exception, substituted the Will of God for His own human will. How did He do this? Choice. He did it by choice. He chose a deep inner consecration to the will of God and all Heaven represents. He chose a constant continual communion with the Holy Ghost. He chose prayer and communion with the Father. He chose to eat the butter and honey supplied to Him by God. He made those choices from all the other choices available for self-satisfaction, whether fame, fortune, bodily pleasure, acceptance by people, emotional pleasure, etc.. Choice brought the supernatural. Choice brought the anointing. Choice brought the power of God. Choice brought discernment as to what was the good of God and what was evil. Choice is within everyone’s ability, from the poor to the rich, from the ugly to the handsome and beautiful, from the feeble minded to the intelligent, from the unlearned to the educated, from the failed to the successful, from the obscure to the prominent and famous, from the down-trodden to the up-lifted. All have a will and all can exercise choice. The Father says to every generation, I set before you choice. Our wills either propel us into grace or trap us in sin. The foundation of God that leads to discernment and escape from the dilemma of the knowledge of good and evil rests in the pouring out from our souls a decision to choose Jesus over our own will—not my will, but Yours be done, in and through me as it is in Heaven. In God we have just one decision and that is to make no more decisions. The Kingdom of God is based on hearing and doing. It’s foundation in our hearts is a decision to follow the Lord Jesus at any cost. It doesn’t get any simpler.

I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)

Romans 7:24-25 quoted elsewhere herein tells us that the conquering of the flesh is through the Lord Jesus Christ not by Him. Jesus will not conquer our flesh for us. Living our life by faith in Him will. It is faith in the Shepherd’s voice as a choice over our own will that conquers. That voice leads away from evil and into good. That voice leads away from temptation into obedience. The Bible has three terms for what we are to do as our part each of which requires our wills to exercise our right of choice in favor of obedience to God: (1) sacrifice, (2) circumcision, and (3) crucifixion. We offer our body in sacrifice as a vehicle and venue for God on the earth. (Romans 12:1) We circumcise the heart by consecrating it to Him with an inward resolve to know and abide in Him so that we can without hypocrisy say, “We are the circumcision, we worship God in the Spirit and have no confidence in the flesh.” (Philippians 3:3) We crucify our flesh, that is, bring it to death by withholding our will, the lifeblood of the flesh, from all desire except the desires of God imparted to us. (Galatians quoted above and Psalm 37:4.)

The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost . . . shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. (John 14: 26)

But when the Comforter is come, . . . He shall testify of me. (John 15:26)

Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth: (what is good) for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak: and He will show you things to come (the path of the just we are to follow which shines more and more each day with each new revealing, the course that shows us evil and guides us away from it, that shows us what is temptation and guides us away from it so that we do not do by mistake the will of Satan in the name of God.) He shall glorify Me: for He shall receive of Mine, and shall show it unto you. (John 16: 13-14)

The role of the Holy Ghost is to bring us to a point where He can give us discernment of what, if any, of our knowledge is good, that is, in the will of God, to bring us to a point where He can reveal more and more of Jesus. He brings revelation or discernment of what is good, what is Jesus, to those people who choose to bury their own will that they may be resurrected into the will of God.

Bob Highsmith
aspiritualhouse@yahoo.com

SETTING OUR HEART

2004-06-02T13:43:00.000-04:00

"Now set your heart and your soul
To seek the Lord your God;
Arise therefore, and build ye the sanctuary of the Lord God,
To bring the ark of the covenant of the Lord,
And the holy vessels of God,
Into the house that is to be built to the name of the Lord."
1st Chronicles 22:19
(Is not this the call of the Lord to us—to take His Word and His Spirit within us and by Them have built a temple of habitation?)

"With my soul have I desired thee in the night;
Yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early:"
Isaiah 26:9
(Is not this our part of the building process? Far too often
I find that I have reverted to a life style of pass and re-pass with the Lord—a few words and an amen much like the “love ya’s”
we give our natural spouses as we dash to somewhere more important than intimacy.)

THE FOUNDATION OF CHRIST

2004-05-27T09:49:00.000-04:00

“And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (John 8:32)

“But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that comes to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” (Hebrews 11:6)

“Therefore take no thought . . . But seek you first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself . . .” (Matthew 6:31-34)

"Will you accept it when I say that there is no truth in us? This is one of the things we are going to find out under the Holy Spirit’s dealing with us that there is no truth in our minds naturally. We may be the most strongly convinced, and we may be prepared to lay down our lives for our convictions . . . and in that very thing we may be utterly wrong. (John 16:2) . . . We may think our desire is a perfectly pure and right one, and it may be utterly false."

"I am going to get right down inside this thing. What is a Christian? . . . Where is the truth? If the truth about my salvation lies in the realm in my feelings, my digestive system, my nervous organism, I am going to be a poor Christian; because that will be changing from day to day according to the weather or to something else. Where is the truth? Not what I am, but thou art. That is where the truth is, 'You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.' Free from what? Bondage! What bondage? Satan clapping his chains of condemnation upon you because today you are not feeling up to scratch . . . The only answer for deliverance and emancipation is, it is not what I am, it is what He is; Christ abides the same. He is not as I am, varying here in this human life from hour to hour and day to day . . . Jesus you see says, 'I am the truth' . . . It is that which delivers us from this false self which we are; and we are a false self. We are a bundle of contradictions. We can never be sure that we are going to be of the same mind for long . . . What is true? It is not found in us. We are not true in any part of our being. Christ alone is true, and you and I have to learn how to live on Christ, . . . until you and I have learned to hold on to Christ by faith, and Holy Spirit has not the ground upon which to work to bring us into conformity to Christ. If we are going to live upon the false basis of ourselves, the Holy Spirit leaves us alone. When we come to live by faith on Christ, then the Holy Spirit can come in and can make Christ good in us and teach us victory and teach us mastery and teach us by deliverance how not to become a prey to good or bad feelings in ourselves but to live on another level altogether . . . But do not forget that if we mean business with the Holy Spirit, He is not going to allow us to be deceived. I mean that the Holy Spirit is going to expose our true selves. He is going to uncover us and show us thoroughly there is nothing sound in us, nothing to be relied upon in us, in order that he may make it equally clear that it is only in Christ, God’s Son, that there is security and safety and life . . . So many people think that the spiritual life, the life of a child of God, is a matter of things. It is a thing called 'The Message of the Cross.' It is a thing called 'sanctification.' It is a thing called 'deliverance.' . . . It does not work. 'Its' do not work! It is all a matter of the person, the Lord Jesus, and the Holy Spirit will never save us by an 'it'. He will always bring us to a person and make Christ the basis of our life, of our deliverance, of our everything."

"The work of the Holy Spirit is to conform us to Christ, to cause us to take the form of Christ, to form Christ in us; but Christ will always remain other (someone different) than we are, so that there will never cease to be a call for faith. Do you expect to reach a point in this earthly pilgrimage when faith can be dispensed with? It is a false hope. Faith will be required as much as ever in your last moments in this life . . . Faith is an abiding thing for the duration of this life. If that is true, that in itself dismisses any hope whatever of our having anything in ourselves. That was the first sin of Adam, that choice of his, not to have everything in God, but to have it in himself in independence, to get rid of the idea of faith. So he sinned by unbelief, and all the sin that has come in since it traceable to that one thing, unbelief. Faith is the great factor of redemption, of salvation, of sanctification, of glorification; everything is through faith. It undoes the work of the devil. And faith simply means that we are put into the position where we have not got it in ourselves, we only have it in another, and we can only know it and enjoy it by faith in that other. Thus Galatians 2:20 always comes with renewed force, 'I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.' I live the life in the flesh by faith in the Son of God."

T. Austin Sparks
The School of Christ

Bob Highsmith
aspiritualhouse@yahoo.com

RETURNING TO THE FOUNDATION

2004-05-25T09:15:00.000-04:00

And the king commanded, and they brought great stones,
Costly stones,
And hewed stones,
To lay the foundation of the house.
1st Kings 5:17

All these were of costly stones,
According to the measures of hewed stones,
Sawed with saws, within and without,
Even from the foundation unto the coping,
And so on the outside toward the great court.
And the foundation was of costly stones,
Even great stones, stones of ten cubits, and stones of eight cubits.
1st Kings 7:9-10
(No greater price has ever been paid than Jesus paid to be the corner stone of the temple that God chose to live in, the temple made without hands, the body of human flesh.)

Now all the work of Solomon was prepared
Unto the day of the foundation of the house of the LORD,
And until it was finished.
So the house of the LORD was perfected.
2nd Chronicles 8:16
(Solomon was a wise man. We would do well to follow his wisdom and lay the foundation, to learn Jesus, to let all our conscious effort be to prepare the way of the Lord until it is finished and this House of the Lord is perfected.)

Therefore thus says the Lord GOD,
Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone,
A tried stone, a precious corner stone,
A sure foundation:
He that believes shall not make haste.
Isaiah 28:16

Thus says the LORD of hosts; Let your hands be strong,
You that hear in these days these words by the mouth of the prophets, Which were in the day that the foundation
Of the house of the LORD of hosts was laid,
That the temple might be built.
Zechariah 8:9
(Let us listen . . . let us heed . . .let us return to the building of the foundation and retreat from the superficial, from self-imposed religion, from false words, from selfish pursuits, from false works, yea let us perfect the House of God . . . let us return that the temple might be built for the eternal residence of The Father.)

He is like a man that built a house,
And dug deep,
And laid the foundation on a rock:
And when the flood arose,
The stream beat vehemently upon that house,
And could not shake it: For it was founded upon a rock.
Luke 6:48
(Dig and when having dug dig some more. Find that rock. Dig and discover its breadth and length and depth and remove all that hides it, all that covers it, and attach to it and rest upon it.)

According to the grace of God which is given unto me,
As a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation,
And another builds thereon.
But let every man take heed how he builds thereupon.
For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid,
Which is Jesus Christ.
1st Corinthians 3:10
(Accept nothing less than Jesus. Shun religion, depart from the shallow, let us take heed of how and what we hear that man would add to the foundation, let it be none other than Jesus, let us search the scripture and the witness of the Spirit.)

Nevertheless the foundation of God stands sure, Having this seal,
The Lord knows them that are his.
And, Let every one that names the name of Christ
Depart from iniquity.
2nd Timothy 2:19

Father, I come to you in the name of your Son, my Lord Jesus, upon whom my life rests and finds its substance and being. Help me Lord to finish building the temple for You which I began the moment I said that your Son was my Lord. Help me to be governed only by Your Word and Spirit and divorce myself from the habits and lifestyle that were acquired in my old life and linger on. Help me to develop new habits and new lifestyle that rests upon the foundation of your Son and my Lord. Help me to dig deep and continue building the foundation. I want You to dwell in me and I want to spend the rest of my days ministering to You within this temple and serving You however You command. I have nothing to offer You, Father. I have no attributes that compare to You. You did not create me to add to the value of heaven or increase Your worth. You created me for a Holy habitation and in that I have not previously served You well. I have defiled the House of the Lord and entertained the profane and shunned the Holy, but the cry of my heart in this hour is for You to forgive and let us build together this vessel into Your house. Let me serve You, let me become through Jesus, a son that honors You and that serves You and that is what You envisioned when You created me. Father, mold me and make me into that which You saw and desired when You spoke me into existence. I confess if left to my own devises, I would remain corruption. However, I see in You and in my Lord Jesus a spiritual death of my corruption and a spiritual resurrection into the image of Jesus, into incorruption. I can see but I cannot perform. I cannot perform, but I can choose. I choose death and resurrection Father. Take me there. Take me into Your death and into Your resurrection. My faith lies there. Answer this my prayer. Amen.

Bob Highsmith
aspiritualhouse@yahoo.com

Government by the Anointing

2004-05-24T09:02:00.000-04:00

As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord,
So walk you in him:
Rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith,
As you have been taught,
(We are taught to walk in faith,
Which requires having the will of God communicated to us.
Faith is never a matter of us deciding for ourselves
Even if our decision has its basis in the word of God.
There can never be faith abstractly derived from God’s word.
Faith is based on having heard. We must know it is God speaking.)
Abounding therein (In the faith we have.)with thanksgiving.
Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit,
(Human thought.)
After the tradition of men,
After the rudiments of the world,
(The works of the flesh and the gentile way.)
And not after Christ.
(The following of the voice of the shepherd by faith.)
For in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.
And you are complete in him,
(No need for human thought and ways.)
Which is the head of all principality and power:
Colossians 2:6-10,20-23; 3: 1-3, 5-9.

Wherefore if you be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, Why, as though living in the world,
Are you subject to ordinances,
(Touch not; taste not; handle not;
Which all are to perish with the using;)
After the commandments and doctrines of men?
Which things have indeed a show of wisdom
In will worship (self imposed religion),
And humility, and neglecting of the body:
Not in any honor to the satisfying of the flesh.
(“Rudiments of the world” would include also
Any of the works of the flesh
And what Jesus called the Gentile way—
Ambition, positioning one over another,
Competition among one another,
Glory seeking in the eyes of men, etc.
The old man wants to govern and
Incorporate these into the Christian life.)

If you then be risen with Christ,
Seek those things that are above,
Where Christ sits on the right hand of God.
(Seek to be governed by the Spirit of God.)
Set your affection on things above,
(On the direction and will of God alone.)
Not on things on the earth.
For you are dead,
And your life is hid with Christ in God . . .
(Paul in Galatians said it was not he
But Christ that lived in him that was the life in him.)

Mortify therefore your members that are upon the earth;
Fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:
For which things' sake the wrath of God
Comes on the children of disobedience:
In the which you also walked some time,
When you lived in them.
But now you also put off all these;
Anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy,
Filthy communication out of your mouth.
Lie not one to another,
Seeing that you have put off the old man with his deeds . . .
(We cannot without the Spirit of God mortify our members,
Our role is to chose to not govern ourselves, but instead to choose
To be governed by God. The anointing then breaks the
Yoke of the flesh and supplies the power. We must choose to
Resist before the power of God enables us to resist.)

And let the peace of God rule in your hearts . . .
(These are words of government. In Job 34:17 the Spirit of God
poses the question, “Shall the unjust govern?”
The old man by nature is selfish and unjust
And incapable of governing our lives righteously.
It is imperative that we accept its death by the cross
And humble ourselves to the
Authority of the Spirit of God—not an easy task.
We have to learn to hear, to commune; we have to
Set time to be just with the Spirit of God;
We have to be willing to let Him not only reveal Jesus
But reveal or expose to us where our flesh is ruling.)

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly (Again words of government)
And whatsoever you do in word or deed,
Do all in the name of the Lord Jesus,
(All aspects of life, not just ministry, are to be governed by the anointing.)
Giving thanks to God and the Father by him.
(Amen. Thank you for your directing me,
For your anointing of Your Spirit upon my entire life.)

Bob Highsmith
aspiritualhouse@yahoo.com

The Barren Church

2004-05-10T16:08:00.000-04:00

Leah was tender eyed; but Rachel was beautiful and well favored. And Jacob loved Rachel . . . Genesis 29:17-18.

And he went in also unto Rachel, and he loved also Rachel more than Leah, Genesis 29:30.

And when the LORD saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb: Genesis: 29:31.

And when Rachel saw that she bare Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister; and said unto Jacob, Give me children, or else I die. And Jacob's anger was kindled against Rachel: and he said, Am I in God's stead, who hath withheld from thee the fruit of the womb? Genesis 30: 1-2

And God remembered Rachel, and God hearkened to her, and opened her womb. Genesis 30:1-2

And she (Leah) said unto her, Is it a small matter that thou hast taken my husband? and wouldest thou take away my son's mandrakes also? And Rachel said, Therefore he shall lie with thee to night for thy son's mandrakes. And Jacob came out of the field in the evening, and Leah went out to meet him, and said, Thou must come in unto me; for surely I have hired thee with my son's mandrakes. And he lay with her that night. And God hearkened unto Leah, and she conceived, and bare Jacob the fifth son. Genesis 30:15-17

For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: that God hath chosen . . . the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty . . . and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: That no flesh should glory in his presence. 1st Corinthians 1:26-29.

All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him. Matthew 11:27

I wonder how many are added to the Body of Christ each year? Church growth in the comparatively few places where it occurs can often be from existing Christians congregating as opposed to new births taking place. Evangelical meetings can be heavily attended by the sheep rather than by the lost. Rachel unlike the church knew she was barren and demanded children. "Give me children or else I die." The church on the other hand for the most part seems to either be unaware of the situation or not care. New births, tending to them . . . that is messy hard work. The attitude of the church seems to be that it would be better to see to ourselves and do work for God of our own choosing in social areas than to be concerned with new birth evangelism or better to occasionally seek some surrogate mother in the form of a itinerant evangelist.

Admittedly, a few in the Church do seem troubled by the lack of new birth. However, they, like Rachael, do not perceive the remedy. Rachael, disturbed by her barrenness, attacked her husband. The Church attacks it programs as being insufficient and its Pastors as being inept. Jacob sent Rachael in the right direction: "Who hath withheld from thee the fruit of the womb?"

Rachael initially could not accept the responsibility for her barrenness and did what so many Christians do - she turned the issue of her need for children over to someone else to have for her. The individual members of the church do that -supporting others to bear their children. Quite willing they are to have others bear the children, to let them receive the depth of relationship with the Lord Jesus that is necessary for conception of new life in the womb of the heart.

Why was Rachael barren? Perhaps it was the idols she worshiped. They were so important to her that she stole the images from her father when Jacob took his family from under Laban, his father in law, and headed back toward the Promised Land. Perhaps it was conceit and concern over her outer, physical beauty which left her inward heart abandoned by her. Perhaps it was because she had decided to have a shallow spiritual life, a life before God that did not mean business with God. A life that would opt for a surrogate mother to bear her husband's children when child bearing did not come as and when she wanted. Perhaps it was because the only motivation she had for bearing children was envy of her sister. Perhaps it was because her heart was one that would place her faith in her sister's son's mandrakes rather than God (mandrakes are a root thought to be an aphrodisiac).

Perhaps the Church is barren for the same reasons. Perhaps the Church is worshiping idols, personal images drawn in the heart of the Church of who they want God to be, false images of a God who says He is unsearchable and therefore indescribable, a God that can only be known by Revelation given the Church by His Son. Perhaps it is because the Church is enamored with itself and its music, its programs, its membership, and all the other forms of outward exterior and has abandoned the Holy Spirit God gave its members in favor of a superficial church of the flesh wrapped up itself. Perhaps on the whole the individual members of the Church each would prefer someone else to do the child bearing rather than persist in prayer before God for children. Perhaps it is because the only motivation in the heart of separate gatherings within the church is envy of each other's membership. Perhaps it is because the Church believes it has to have aphrodisiacs to help the Holy Ghost bring forth children in the form of a famous football player or movie star proclaiming His name or a family life center or big name singing group and their faith lies in these things rather than in God and His single means: Revelation and Prayer.

At some point Rachel must have stopped thinking she was so beautiful. At some point in time she must have quit blaming others and looked within herself and let God make some adjustments. At some point having children of her own must have caused her to leave her idols and seek the only true God in prayer without limiting Him with her own concepts of Him. At some point in time she must have started to desire children for themselves rather than for envy of her sister. At some point she must have quit her faith in other things and cried out to Him, the One who should have been cried out to in the first place, "Give me children or else I die." We know she prayed because scripture says God hearkened to her and opened her womb. Her first child was Joseph, not a bad response to prayer by her Heavenly Father.

God gave Leah an open womb and there are reasons why. (Her one mistake was to adopt her sister's surrogate mother approach to children for a season.) What was the difference in Leah and Rachael? (1) Leah was tender eyed. Words like that do not appear in the Bible for idle purposes. Her eyes tell us of her heart. Leah had a tender heart that could be seen in her eyes. The word tender has far reaching meaning. A tender heart is easily broken. God could work with and break Leah to conform to His ways and wishes. A tender heart is weak. A weak heart is not self-supporting and will readily let the Lord be its strength. A tender heart is affectionate. An affectionate heart will receive and be a conduit of God's Love. A tender heart is sensitive. A sensitive heart is sensitive to the plight and pain of others and will receive and be a conduit for God's Compassion and Power. (2) Leah was despised or hated. God chooses the one hated and despised by the arrogant of this world and the arrogant of the Church, to confound the arrogant and bring them to naught. The church despises the child bearers. Some denominations will not even recognize or support Evangelists. People who witness are frowned upon on the whole. Yet the duty of motherhood hovers over all members of the Church as the Bride of Christ, the Holy One of Israel, our Husband. Each and every member of the Church wants to come into the presence of the Lord and have Him love them and bless them and adore them, but there are few tender eyed Leah's to bear His children.

This may read harsh and condemning to many. It is not intended that way. It is intended to provoke a discourse between the reader and the Lord as it is between the writer and the Lord. I want to be stripped down naked before him. I want the garments of self-reliance, the garments of passing the responsibility, the garments of seeking worldly help for spiritual accomplishment, the garments of human organization, human thought, human doctrine, human cleverness, the garments of positive self-appraisal, and all the other filthy garments, many of which are unknown to me, torn from me and burned in the fire in this lifetime not as I pass over into eternity. I want to have him re-clothe me with His garments in this lifetime--the garments of a tender heart.

I want to have my heart re-made by yielding in confrontation with true revelation so I will no longer trifle with God about His purposes, but I will cry out to him out of His love and compassion for the lost, "Give me children or else let me die."

Bob Highsmith
www.aspiritualhouse.blogspot.com
www.jeremiah419.blogspot.com

I believe the Church has become a self-worshiping God unto itself. We don't need another group with another name. We don't need a new building, or a new program. We don't need another teacher, or prophet, or evangelist, or pastor to appear on the horizon. We don't need a new doctrinal statement or creed. We don't need a new revelation. In fact, most of what is put forth today as revelation is nothing more that the thought of a clever human mind. We need individuals to take stock of themselves. We need individuals to admit my God is a self-described God, I don't really know the Father, but I want to. We need individuals to empty themselves of their wants, their preconceived ideas, their bias, etc. and seek God with a whole heart so they can find Him. No one can know the father except that the Lord Jesus, who is the only one who knows Him, chooses to reveal Him. He won't reveal Him to idol worshipers who merely want to trifle with God. He won't reveal him to shallow seekers who are wrapped up in their own sense of position and self-importance. He won't reveal Him to self-willed people who want revelation simply as information. Jesus will reveal the Father to any individual who is willing to divorce himself from the society of people he or she lives amongst, including the Christian society, and with conviction and a heart determined to walk with Him seek His face. The way the Father is revealed is through relationship with Jesus.

PREPARING OUR HEART TO SEEK GOD – PART THREE

2004-05-06T11:33:00.000-04:00

Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? who shall dwell in thy holy hill?
He that walks uprightly, and works righteousness, and speaks the truth in his heart. He that backbites not with his tongue, nor does evil to his neighbor, nor takes up a reproach against his neighbor. In whose eyes a vile person is contemned; but he honors them that fear the Lord. He that swears to his own hurt, and changes not. He that puts not out his money to usury, nor takes reward against the innocent. (Psalm 15:1-5)

Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in his holy place?
He that has clean hands, and a pure heart; who has not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. He shall receive the blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation. This is the generation of them that seek him, that seek thy face, O Jacob. Selah. (Psalm 24:3-6)

Unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul. Shew me thy ways, O Lord; teach me thy paths. Lead me in thy truth, and teach me: for thou art the God of my salvation; on thee do I wait all the day. (Psalms 25:1, 4-5)

The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him; and he will shew them his covenant. (Psalms 25:14)

I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. (Psalm 121:1)

All things are delivered to me of my Father: and no man knoweth who the Son is, but the Father; and who the Father is, but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him. (Luke 10:22)

But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. (John 4:23-24)

In continuing the discussion of preparing our hearts to seek the Lord, let’s examine next our concept of worship. Most Christians, when they think of the word “worship” bring to their mind praising the Lord in song. I have been in “worship services” where the body of Christ was singing praise to the Lord that were spiritually magnificent. It would seem as if I had left this world and the limitations of this body that I live in and entered some place spiritually that was beyond my understanding. That is certainly a wonderful experience. I have had the Lord visit me in various ways in such worship services from speaking to me in an audible voice to inducing volumes of tears. However, it has become abundantly clear to me that such worship is neither preparing the heart to seek the Lord nor is it seeking the Lord. It is a temporary moment of service to the Lord.

In the scriptures cited above where the Holy Spirit poses the questions to the Lord, “Who shall abide in my tabernacle?” “Who shall dwell in thy holy hill?” “Who shall ascend to the hill of the Lord?” and “Who shall stand in is holy place?”, the Lord is dealing with entrance where He Himself dwells. Worship, as described in the first paragraph, as wonderful as it is, is not the entrance. However, many in the Body of Christ believe they are entering into the presence of the Lord in such worship services, but they are not. We can enter through God’s gates into God’s courts, but not His presence with praise. Although we are to come before him with singing when we do come into His presence(Psalm 100) The courts were the outer courts and not the Holy of Holies where the Lord was. It is true that the Lord inhabits the praises of His people (Psalm 22:3), but that is Him coming to us where we are in the outer courts, that is exterior, nor interior. Perhaps the best way of illustrating is to say this: Miriam played her tambourine at the foot of the mountain, but she didn’t glow like Moses who had ascended God’s holy hill. She also participated in and promoted grave sin, whereas Moses bore the commandments of the Lord to the people.

In Psalm 15 above where the Lord asks, “Who shall abide in thy tabernacle?” and “Who shall dwell, that is live, in thy holy hill in the presence of the Lord.” We see that it is those who are bearing the fruit of having a heart that is prepared always to seek the Lord who abide in the tabernacle in the presence of the Lord. They walk uprightly, they work righteousness in their lives, they speak nothing but the truth in their hearts, they don’t backbite or otherwise use their tongue for evil against their neighbor, they have contempt for vile people but honor them that fear the Lord, and like the Lord, they swear to their own hurt and change not. They don’t take advantage of the poor by lending money at high rates and they don’t take bribes against the innocent. These characteristics are the natural manifestation and consequence of an individual who has resolved in himself that he is going to lose his selfish nature, find the Lord, and reside with Him. When that decision is made he knows that he cannot reside with the Lord in his current state. Therefore, he takes deliberate measures within himself and concludes that he will divorce himself from all that he discovers within himself that is contra to what he learns of God, as he progresses towards him.

In answer to the questions posed in Psalm 24 of “Who shall ascend unto the hill of the Lord?” or “Who shall stand in His holy place?” as Moses did, the Holy Spirit tells us how to ascend and how to stand. We must have clean hands. We cannot ascend God’s holy hill dirty with sin and impure motives and thoughts. Just as the priest had to cleanse himself in the lever and don new garments prepared for him by the Lord before he could enter the Holy of Holies, so we must clean ourselves. Our hands are symbolic of the instruments of achievement in our life. We must cleanse these of selfishness and redirect them towards service to the Lord. We must have a pure heart. A pure heart is one that has purged itself of selfishness. We must have ceased to lift up our soul to other things besides the Lord. A person who is lifting his soul to sexual lust, greed, personal ambition, covetousness, etc. must deal with those things before he can ascend the holy hill of the Lord and come into the Lord’s presence. Certainly he cannot ascend to the Lord’s presence or dwell there while lifting up his soul to and entertaining the offerings of darkness. There must be no subtle guile or hidden decisions within the individual such as was found in Judas and King Amaziah. It was said of Amaziah that he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, but not with a perfect heart. (2nd Chronicles 25:2) We can outwardly perform for God while having sworn deceitfully within ourselves to selfishly obtain some personal interest from our performance.

Jesus said that the time had come and now is that God be worshipped in spirit and in truth. He was not speaking of a song service, no matter how powerful. The word “worship” means to kiss like a dog licking his master’s hand. When Jesus chose that word which we translate worship, His emphasis was on the aspect of “master” in the definition. We can sing to a Lord that is not our master. We can experience temporary encounters with Him, although He is not our master. We can do things for the Lord, although He is not our master. I did it for years. But I’ve grown tired of moving from meeting to meeting, act of service to act of service, and encounter to encounter while living life outside of His presence in between. If someone were to ask me today what the Lord is doing, I would respond that He is separating the Body of Christ. There are various terms we could use to describe this separation. I will use the one found in Psalm 24, “This is the generation of them that seek Him and seek thy face.” Jesus is separating a generation of people who have prepared their hearts to seek the Lord from those whose relationship is superficial and outward instead of inward. This generation is a generation of people who have purposed within themselves to come under the government of the Holy Ghost, whose hearts honestly kiss the hand of the Lord and call Him truthfully Master, or you who govern me in every aspect of my being from my daily habits to my major decisions. This generation is a generation of people who say deep within themselves the words of Psalm 25:1-2, “Unto thee O Lord do I lift up my soul. O my God I trust in thee.” This generation is a generation of people who have learned to enter into the sufferings of the Lord by denying themselves of all selfish interests and can truthfully say as Paul did, “I have been crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20) This generation is a generation of people that are, “Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.” (2nd Corinthians 4:10-11)

Bob Highsmith
aspiritualhouse@yahoo.com

PREPARING YOUR HEART TO SEEK THE LORD – PART TWO

2004-05-03T12:25:00.000-04:00

And he did evil because he prepared not his heart to seek the Lord. 2nd Chronicles 12: 14. KJV

And Samuel spake unto all the house of Israel, saying, “If ye do return unto the Lord with all your hearts, and put away the gods, and prepare your hearts unto the Lord, he will deliver you.” 1st Samuel 7:3. KJV

Hezekieh prayed for them, saying, “The good Lord pardon everyone that prepareth his heart to seek God.” 2nd Chronicles 30: 18-19. KJV

And Jehoshaphat, the king of Juda, returned to his house in peace to Jerusalem. And Jehu the son of Hanani, the seer, went out to meet him, and said to king Jehoshaphat, “Shouldest thou help the ungodly, and love them that hate the Lord? Therefore is the wrath upon thee from before the Lord. Nevertheless there are good things found in thee, in that thou hast . . . prepared thine heart to seek God.” 2nd Chronicles 19:1-3. KJV

. . . The good hand of his God upon him. For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord, and to do it, and to teach . . . Ezra 7:9-10. KJV

So Jotham became mighty because he prepared his ways before the Lord, his God. 2nd Chronicles 27:6. KJV

O Lord God of Abraham, Isaac and of Israel, our fathers, keep this (day) for ever in the imagination of the thoughts of the heart of thy people, and prepare their heart unto thee. 1st Chronicles 29:18. KJV

Lord, thou hast heard the desire of the humble: thou wilt prepare their heart, thou wilt cause thine ear to hear. Psalm 10:17. KJV

Then all the captains of the forces, and Johanan the son of Kareah, and Jezaniah the son of Hoshaiah, and all the people from the least even unto the greatest, came near, and said unto Jeremiah the prophet, Let, we beseech thee, our supplication be accepted before thee, and pray for us unto the Lord thy God, even for all this remnant; (for we are left but a few of many, as thine eyes do behold us:) That the Lord thy God may shew us the way wherein we may walk, and the thing that we may do. . . . Then they said to Jeremiah, The Lord be a true and faithful witness between us, if we do not even according to all things for the which the Lord thy God shall send thee to us. Whether it be good, or whether it be evil, we will obey the voice of the Lord our God, to whom we send thee; that it may be well with us, when we obey the voice of the Lord our God. . . . For ye dissembled (to conceal one’s motives by pretense, Webster’s New World Dictionary) in your hearts, when ye sent me unto the Lord your God, saying, Pray for us unto the Lord our God; and according unto all that the Lord our God shall say, so declare unto us, and we will do it. And now I have this day declared it to you; but ye have not obeyed the voice of the Lord your God, nor any thing for the which he hath sent me unto you. Jeremiah 42:1-3, 5-6, 20-21

We are continuing the thought of God that we must prepare our hearts before we seek Him. Jeremiah 17:9 says, “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked: who can know it?” The answer is given in verse 10, “I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways and according to the fruit of his doings.” The born again spirit of man is pure, however it is surrounded by the nature of the old man. If we do not take time to prepare our hearts to seek God, we will come before God with all kinds of impure motives and ideas. Preparing the heart consists of examining ourselves and emptying ourselves of impurities. What we should want and what God is looking for is a desire to replace our wills with the will of God.

There are catalysts that can help us in the chemistry of heart preparation. A catalyst is something that will cause or speed up a chemical reaction by the addition of the catalyst. However, the catalyst is merely an agent to help produce change. I had an aunt who would light a candle every time she would begin to pray. She was of the opinion it helped her come before the Lord. Music is a well-known catalyst. Altars are well known catalysts. A particular physical location, may be a location where someone finds necessary solitude. For this reason, churches will have specific prayer rooms for people to enter to pray that are designed to provide an atmosphere of prayer. Unfortunately, many people place the emphasis upon the catalyst and never place anything of themselves into the process. They approach God with a beaker that only contains the catalyst. They will light candles without preparing their hearts. They will listen to the music and let the music bring a peace to them, but never prepare their hearts. They will go to altars without preparing their hearts. They will enter the prayer room and enjoy the solitude and begin to pray without preparing their hearts.

Preparation of the heart is not going before God in prayer or enjoying a catalyst. Preparation of the heart is an introspective process of self-examination where we search for all that is not of God, all that we can find that we know is offensive to God. In preparing the heart we ferret out, that is force out of hiding, all of our ulterior motives, all of our worldly designs, all of our preconceived ideas, all of our thoughts for what and how we would like for God to do things, and as best we can dump them out of ourselves like trash.

Furthermore we need the aid of the Holy Ghost to spiritually prepare our hearts. As the scripture in Jeremiah chapter 17 tells us, only the spirit of God can fully search out the heart. We see in 1st Chronicles 29:18 and Psalm 10:17 that if we pray, God will prepare our hearts. However, He cannot without the cooperation that has just been described. After demonstrating an honest desire to deny ourselves self-government and all of the unholy ideas, motives, etc. that accompany self-government, the Holy Spirit will expose to us anything we have missed after making our honest search. We need to tell the Holy Spirit when we are preparing our hearts that we want to come before God humble and empty because He is God and we want Him and desire Him to govern us and show us His way and His means.

We are now prepared to thank Him for all that He has done for us beginning with the great Salvation that He has provided us. There is a verse of scripture in Hebrews that tells us that we are not to neglect so great a Salvation. Jesus told His disciples not to rejoice in the fact that spirits were subject to them in His name, but to rejoice that our names were written in the Lambs Book of Life. We also give Him our gratitude for all the ways in which He has blessed us since our salvation. The Holy Spirit will bring to our remembrance matters for which we need to thank God. Jesus tells us that we are hallow or set apart the name of the Father in our hearts. As a part of the preparation of our hearts, we bestow honor upon Him by declaring to Him in faith what scripture says about Him, that He is the Lord God Almighty, the Maker of Heaven and Earth and that He alone do we worship. It is at this moment that we begin to seek Him and commune with Him.

In our first attempts to learn how to prepare our hearts in this manner, we will feel awkward and mechanical and it will take a considerable amount of time to reach our destination of a prepared heart. However, the more we pursue God by preparing our heart, the more we begin to live with a prepared heart. Coming before God ceases to be mechanical and awkward. It becomes flowing and honest and a way of life. We learn to value having a prepared heart and protect our hearts from the things that come in and pollute it. We begin as Enoch did to walk with God. (Genesis 5:24)

In contrast, we see in the scripture from Jeremiah set forth above in chapter 42 how a people from the least to the greatest sought God with an unprepared heart. By the time Jeremiah had returned to them with the word of the Lord, they had already made up their own minds what they were going to do regardless of what God said. This is all too often the case today where we pray with unprepared hearts.

Bob Highsmith
aspiritualhouse@yahoo.com

PREPARING THE HEART TO SEEK THE LORD

2004-04-30T11:59:00.000-04:00

MEDITATIONS ON THE MIND

2004-04-15T10:44:00.000-04:00

The mind is carnal. The carnal mind is the only variety of mind natural man has and it is God’s enemy. (Romans 8:7) To be spiritually minded is to do away with your mind altogether and replace it with the mind of God as revealed in His word. Whether we have an IQ of 60 or an IQ of 180 makes no spiritual difference. We were not given a mind to analyze God as if He were some frog on the table in the biology lab. For us to analyze God is much like a frog putting us on a table and dissecting us to see what we are made of. In other words, the creature does not analyze the creator. God is unsearchable. We cannot approach Him that way. We must perceive God by our spirit. Jesus said God is a spirit and the time has come and now is that we must worship Him in spirit and in truth. (John 4:23) We cannot fulfill this requirement with the carnal mind yet man persists in pursuing God through analysis instead of receiving God into his spirit by revelation. Man also persists in pursuing life through analysis rather than being led by the Holy Spirit. Jesus, scripture says, thought it not robbery to be equal with God as the Son of God. (Philipians 2:6) Yet Jesus, who was equal to God as His Son, made Himself of no reputation (or emptied Himself) and submitted Himself to the will of God. (John 4:34) We, as creatures of God who are not equal to God, don’t think it robbery to think of ourselves as His equal and do not empty ourselves and submit ourselves to His will. Throughout our life most of our time each day is spent making decisions independent of and without any regard to God. We live our lives in arrogance before God. Our behavior testifies that we think we are as capable as God to determine what is good and what is evil for us, our family, our friends, our government, etc.. God never created man to make determinations with his carnal mind or his emotions as to what is good and what is evil. God created man to follow God by being led by God’s spirit. Is it surprising God says that the carnal mind is His enemy? It is with the carnal mind that man claims equality with God and determines his own course. It is with the spirit that man falls upon his knees in recognition of an all-powerful, unsearchable God and seeks fellowship and guidance.

Bob Highsmith
aspiritualhouse@yahoo.com

BEING POURED OUT

2004-04-12T10:50:00.000-04:00

Philippians 2:17 Even if [my lifeblood] must be poured out as a libation on the sacrificial offering of your faith [to God], still I am glad [to do it] and congratulate you all on [your share in] it. AMP

Do I say, “I am not willing to be poured out right now, and I don’t want God to tell me how to serve him, I want to choose the place of my own sacrifice, and I want to have certain people watching me and saying, ‘well done’?”

It is one thing to follow God’s way of service if you are regarded as a hero, but are you willing to be less than a mere drop in the bucket – to be so totally insignificant that no one remembers you? Are you willing to give of yourself as an instrument of God and be poured out as God desires?

Bob Highsmith
aspiritualhouse@yahoo.com

THE DAYS THAT LIE AHEAD

2004-04-10T12:19:00.000-04:00

“In the days that lie ahead the one in authority shall be the one who knows and follows the voice of the Holy Ghost and not the one in the office. It shall be the one whose neck like the oxen is in the yoke and not the one in the office. And the wind shall blow here and the wind shall blow there and the people of the wind shall do the work.” 1/10/04

When the Lord Jesus Christ was on earth one of his ministries was the creation of disciples who later become apostles or sent ones. Sent ones are going to be individuals whose neck is in the yoke of the Lord Jesus Christ and whose ear can hear the wind. The wind directs. It is the voice of the Holy Ghost. The yoke restrains us, after hearing, from proceeding independently.

The anointings on the Old Testament saints such as Moses and Gideon were but partials of the total anointing given Jesus. Gideon was anointed to liberate the people of God with a handful of soldiers separated from the rest. We see this same anointing to separate in a mighty way upon the Lord Jesus. Jesus reduced his followers to about 120 by the day of Pentecost.

In the years preceding 2004, and in particular the year 2003, there has been a shaking and a separation of the people of God. Jesus has not only been training or discipling, but He has also been separating and reducing the number in preparation for what Paul described in Romans as the emergence of the Sons of God, something Paul said all of creation was earnestly expecting and waiting for. (Being a Son of God does not relate to gender, but to a place of trust and elevation in the ministry of the Body of Christ)

The Sons of God are described in Romans as those who shall be led by the Spirit of God. Those who are being separated to be the Sons of God have been in a discipling process whereby they are being led into situations where they have to learn cooperation with their Heavenly Father, a place where the soul and body suffer through denial of their desires and wants and the individual is moved into holiness which is the character of the obedient. Those who will emerge as one of the Sons of God will do so only after they have been brought very low to a place where they realize that their flesh is truly weak. Jesus said that, “The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.” (Matthew 26:41) He also said in John 6:63, “The flesh profits nothing.” We cannot, by any strength that is of ourselves, go where the spirit is sending or do what the spirit is directing.

Peter cried out that he would lay down is life for Jesus. Jesus in effect said try, but you shall not succeed. You will deny me three times before the cock crows. Peter failed to lay down his life and wept bitterly after he heard the cock crow, but he came to the place the year 2003 and the years before have been taking us to: That place where we despise ourselves for our inability to pursue the desires of our spirit. In that place comes the strong voice of the Lord, “I, not you, but I, the I am of Moses, will give you the desire of your spirit.” It is there in that place that we really see Him high and lifted up, a human like us seated beside the right side of the Father proclaimed by our creator as Lord of All. It is in this place that we hear His voice, “Go and wait on the spirit, not many days hence it will begin.” Those who witness in their hearts the ascension of Jesus to this place of Lordship with the understanding of why He is seated there by the Father and who are willing to wait on the spirit are those whose necks are now in the yoke and who will respond to the voice of the wind.

There were phases in the discipling process of Jesus’ disciples. There was initially intense association with the Lord and during that period there was the two by two sending out. That is where all of us in the charismatic movement have been. We bragged and envied and were jealous of another’s anointings and each sought to be the greatest. But there were limitations-- diseases that we couldn’t pray and heal, devils that wouldn’t leave, etc. A limitation was felt, and we wondered why? What is wrong here? But none dared suggest that we weren’t really full of power.

The answer is in relationship. Relationship brought on by a seeking of the Father in prayer and fasting. Anyone who draws close to the Father will find himself being consumed. It is fear of being consumed that keeps us from drawing near. How we want to have some of the glory be in us. How our flesh despises the reality that it must pass away, its life must be lost in order to acquire the life of the Spirit. How demeaning to our quest for personal glory is the truth that we add out of ourselves nothing. The work is totally by the spirit and by anything of ourselves.

Then there was in the descipling process the removal of Jesus by the crucifixion and sporadic reappearance of Him during the days between the resurrection and the ascension. Those sporadic encounters were great, but after the encounter it was back to the natural. For most of those men it meant back to their boats. That is where we all are now, living from encounter to encounter, going from flesh to spirit and back to flesh, from meeting to meeting wanting to find the Lord. It is now during this period of time in our development into Sons of God that we must see Him seated beside the Father as a man, not as a spirit, but as a man who was here on earth as we are. A man who through study of the word, prayer and fasting came into relationship with the Father by learning obedience through letting His flesh suffer and who also came to the realization in that process that of mine own self I can do nothing, the Father in me doeth the works. He lived and ministered as a human without mistake and there He sits beside the Father, Lord of All. Worthy to be my Lord because He was tempted as I am, but without sin. One who was in my shoes and walked perfectly with the Father and the Holy Ghost. It is now I must also concede of mine own self I can do nothing, the spirit of the Father in me doeth the works. It is now that we must also in one accord wait on the spirit, worshipping and praying, “Come Lord Jesus, come and lead us – we want to don your yoke, and we want to be led by your Spirit into the harvest.” (Song of Solomon 7: 11-12)

Psalm 115:16 tells us that the earth has been given to man. We need only look around us to see what man has done with it operating in his flesh. Psalm 65:9 tell us that the Lord visits the earth and waters it and greatly enriches it with the river of God that is full of water. This river that the earth so desperately needs is bound up in the heart of man by the flesh of man. The river is waiting on the demise of the flesh and release by the Spirit. Of course there are many who are have gone through this process and are in the harvest fields, but their number does not compare to the great number that is today being prepared by the Lord.

Bob Highsmith
aspiritualhouse@yahoo.com