When Jesus was in the wilderness tempted by Satan, He used only the Word of God as His protection and answer to Satan. The answer He gave to the temptation of the body's craving was from Deuteronomy 8. The words of Moses to Israel of admonition before he was to depart from them are very important for us today. Moses had cried out to God to teach him His ways. While Israel saw God's acts, Moses had God's ways revealed to him. (Psalm 103:7) We need to understand God's ways in this day of increased deception. Satan uses God's Word to deceive, politicians quote it to impress, people use it to strengthen an opinion and some to justify their ways. But Jesus taught us to let His Word abide in us and for us to find our abiding place in Him.
We see a revelation of God's ways in Deuteronomy 8:2-5(NLT) 2 Remember how the Lord your God led you through the wilderness for these forty years, humbling you and testing you to prove your character, and to find out whether or not you would obey his commands. 3 Yes, he humbled you by letting you go hungry and then feeding you with manna, a food previously unknown to you and your ancestors. He did it to teach you that people do not live by bread alone; rather, we live by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. 4 For all these forty years your clothes didn’t wear out, and your feet didn’t blister or swell. 5 Think about it: Just as a parent disciplines a child, the Lord your God disciplines you for your own good.
In the Amplified Bible, it says He "humbled you to know what was in your mind and heart". In a testing we find out what our reactions are and so realize what is still within us that we need to overcome. In the Revelation, we find that we overcome by the Blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony. The act of repentance and the process of identifying with God's Word is the way we overcome our adamic nature.
We live by EVERY word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. I appreciate translations that try to stay as accurately as possible to the language in which the Word came to men of old. I know this becomes something people become obsessed with and usually I don't even think of it when I am feeding on the Word for I know the Spirit will reveal. But when I am doing this blog, I try to be very careful how I use the Word and so often use several translations to compare a verse and rely on the Holy Spirit to direct me. To me it is vital that we listen carefully to what God is saying to us. Everything pertaining to our lives is included in His Word. Past, present and future are covered.
God did not leave us with just a recorded Word, but sent us a living manifestation in Jesus. For God is making us in His image. Not the image of God we form in our imagination or from doctrine or man's opinion of Who He is. God wanted us to know to What we are being conformed. He sent to us Jesus, the exact representation of the Father, to walk out the Law so we can understand the heart of God in giving us the Law. He fulfilled the Law so we are not left to our own ability to keep the Law. In Him, we keep the Law. In Him, we are the righteousness of God. In Him we are able to be pleasing to God. In Him, we are enabled and we do the works He did.
God gave to us the ministry of the Holy Spirit to live in us. His grace enables us to understand, feed on and become His Word. When we are commanded to love, the Spirit works love within us until we come to that perfect representation of His love and we love as we are loved. When we see the covenant expectation that we forgive even our enemies, the Spirit works forgiveness in us until we can forgive as we are forgiven, completely without reservation. This carefulness is "taking heed" and it is our own responsibility and a covenant response.
Monday, November 8, 2010
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Learning Response
One thing I have learned very well and that is that every action has consequence. Covenant requires action. There must be response to a covenant expectation. God created covenant for the very purpose that mankind would be partners with Him in the creating of man in God's image. So every covenant requires response or action on both sides. This creates a flow or a circle. God gives us His expectation or commandment and we respond with an action that God can respond with His action, that we can respond with our action, and so on and on until we reach God's goal.
The Spirit spoke something to me that was startling to me. Every person does God's will one way or another! The Sanhedrin of Jesus' day fulfilled God's will by crucifying Jesus. That action came out of their Adamic nature that they had not allowed to be subdued by the Law. They had carried out the letter of the Law, but they had not responded to God to be led by the Law to understand Him. Instead, they used the Law. Religious action does not change the human nature. So the very ones who stood in the office of teaching the Law did not know God. There is an action of refusal to respond to God's expectation. Keeping the control in yourself to make judgments, to have your own way, and react out of your human nature are actions that will result in judgment for this keeps one in darkness. Paul addressed this in his letter to the Galatians. Galatians 6:7-8 NLT 7 Don’t be misled—you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant. 8 Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature. But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit.
To "work out your salvation with fear and trembling", you pay attention to your actions and reactions. Do they come from your adamic nature or are they the response trained by the Spirit as you feed on God's Word? The difference in your own nature and the nature of Jesus that is produced in you by the Holy Spirit is outlined by Paul. Galatians 5:19-26 NLT 19 When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, 21 envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God. 22 But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things! 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. 25 Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives. 26 Let us not become conceited, or provoke one another, or be jealous of one another.
Actions for either nature will have consequence. You are either building or tearing down. Speaking is an action. Even feeling or thinking is an action. Paul exhorts us to meditate on God's Word. Jesus spoke to us of eating or feeding on it. The Psalmist said, "Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in Thy sight, O God, my strength and my Redeemer." We are warned to "guard your heart, for out of it are the issues of life." Listen carefully to your own words and measure your actions. For we are becoming slowly and step by step into the being that will live in eternity -- somewhere.
The Spirit spoke something to me that was startling to me. Every person does God's will one way or another! The Sanhedrin of Jesus' day fulfilled God's will by crucifying Jesus. That action came out of their Adamic nature that they had not allowed to be subdued by the Law. They had carried out the letter of the Law, but they had not responded to God to be led by the Law to understand Him. Instead, they used the Law. Religious action does not change the human nature. So the very ones who stood in the office of teaching the Law did not know God. There is an action of refusal to respond to God's expectation. Keeping the control in yourself to make judgments, to have your own way, and react out of your human nature are actions that will result in judgment for this keeps one in darkness. Paul addressed this in his letter to the Galatians. Galatians 6:7-8 NLT 7 Don’t be misled—you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant. 8 Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature. But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit.
To "work out your salvation with fear and trembling", you pay attention to your actions and reactions. Do they come from your adamic nature or are they the response trained by the Spirit as you feed on God's Word? The difference in your own nature and the nature of Jesus that is produced in you by the Holy Spirit is outlined by Paul. Galatians 5:19-26 NLT 19 When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, 21 envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God. 22 But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things! 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. 25 Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives. 26 Let us not become conceited, or provoke one another, or be jealous of one another.
Actions for either nature will have consequence. You are either building or tearing down. Speaking is an action. Even feeling or thinking is an action. Paul exhorts us to meditate on God's Word. Jesus spoke to us of eating or feeding on it. The Psalmist said, "Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in Thy sight, O God, my strength and my Redeemer." We are warned to "guard your heart, for out of it are the issues of life." Listen carefully to your own words and measure your actions. For we are becoming slowly and step by step into the being that will live in eternity -- somewhere.
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