The Natural Human Condition Natural people are born of the flesh (see John 3:6).They are separated from God (see 2 Thessalonians 1:9).Natural people cannot experience God (see 1 Corinthians 2:14).They do not know Him (see John 8:19 & Galatians 4:8).He does not know them (see Matthew 7:23).They cannot relate to Him.They are held in bondage…
One thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on…
We all know that the Lord Jesus atoned for our sins, right? Actually, He did far more than that.
We do not work to get this power. We merely allow it to flow by flipping the switch as it were from off (living in fleshly ways that quench His guidance) to on (living in dependence on Him by faith).
This isn’t anger directed particularly at people. Rather it is indignation at that which seeks to harm His children. The wrath of judgment is the necessary first step in the eradication of wickedness and evil in all its forms.
Religious zealots would like us to elevate pastors and teachers. They love to call themselves “apostle”, “prophet”, “bishop”, and so on. Then they berate the flock into submission, often demanding that people treat them with deference and respect due only to God.
A good friend recently asked, “Can we completely subvert the working of the Spirit in our lives totally?” I think this is an insightful question and one that many believers find themselves asking at one time or another.
Then Father says something very interesting. “The LORD is his inheritance.” This tribe of priests have as their inheritance the Lord God Himself.
This is a shadow. The reality is found in Christ Jesus.
Way back in the olden days, God told the Hebrew nation, “you are a holy people to the LORD your God; the LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for His personal possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.”
The Greek word translated “hidden” is krypto. You might recognize the sound of that. We have crypto-currency, cryptography, encryption, etc.
It was the Law of God. But its purpose was not to produce righteous people. It was to make it clear that no amount of effort could possibly make them righteous and acceptable to God.
Jesus is awesome, and that is the biggest understatement in the history of the world.
Life can be bios, our physical temporal mortal life, or zoe’, immortal, eternal, spiritual Life, God’s Life in us.
When we believe in Jesus, we are not just declared righteous in a legal sense, but we are also made new at the core of our being. We are given a new heart and a new spirit (Ezekiel 36:26-27), and we become partakers of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4). This transformation means that we are truly righteous, not just in theory but in reality. We are no longer slaves to sin but have become slaves of righteousness (Romans 6:18).
That unsettled feeling is definitely Holy Spirit. I bet you’ve noticed Him speaking to you in a way not unlike intuition. That strangely unsettled feeling over a poor choice, or joyful peace over a good one. I sure have.
A recent questioner asked, “Can our words and deeds make God not loving to us? Can our words make God’s blessings not for us? What does the Lord speak unto the saints who have become defiled?”
We know the difference by testing things against Father’s character. We are helped by the descriptions of His character we find in the Scriptures.
Jesus claimed to do nothing but what the Father told Him, and this passage tells us there is something He did not know. How is it then that we can say that the three Persons of the Trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) are co-equal
First, we don’t know whether every prayer recorded in the Scriptures was spoken audibly or not. Some of Paul’s prayers, for example, are written down. We may presume that he spoke them aloud, but we simply do not know.
If you want to tell Father you’re sorry or express regret over things you wish you had not said or done, go right ahead. But do so knowing with certainty that no further forgiveness will be forthcoming. No more forgiveness can be provided because…
It’s all about encryption securely keeping our valuable assets away from would-be enemies. That’s why I love this verse so much. It tells me that my life is now hidden with Christ in God. The Greek word we translate to English as “hidden” is κρύπτω krypto. It means to keep from being seen, to hide in a safe place.
Everyone Has a Choice. If you had no choice, love for God would be impossible. You would be a slave, a puppet, an automaton, doing the will of a domineering puppet master. For there to be a choice, there must be at least two options.
Many have wrongly taught that we are only positionally or judicially righteous. They say that God sees us as righteous and that when we leave this temporal life we will be made completely righteous in heaven. Or they teach that righteousness has been written down to our account, or we have been judged righteous but again, this will only be received by us in heaven.
The problem is that this isn’t what the Scriptures teach.
I understand very well that our upbringing and certain physiological traits, such as a tendency toward addiction for example, have a great effect on us as we mature. Many people find themselves unable to move past these things or to overcome the physiological proclivities they find troubling.
Behaving rightly does not save us. Nor does good behavior earn us greater blessing from Father. However, since we are His kids, it does reflect on Him. We are His ambassadors, and poor behavior makes us ineffective in that role.
