Category Archives: Bible Basics
Understanding How to Be Led By the Spirit of God! Being Led by the Written Word of God! Part 4
(ver 1.2) This is Part 4 in a series of basic Christian Bible lessons on the subject of Being Led by the Spirit of God. If you have not read this series from the beginning I would suggest that you go and start reading with “Part 1“. The spiritual importance of this series will be significantly greater than most other lessons that I have done if you can grasp them. Learning this series intimately will build a strong foundation for further spiritual growth. Why did Jesus constantly say, “Let him who has ears to hear, hear”? (Mat 11:15, Mat 13:9, Mat 13:43) Jesus understood that when anyone teaches spiritual things the human mind is so cluttered with natural thingsand that these natural things are used by Satan to block or blind the hearer so they do not understand the truth. I am currently going through a list in random order of the recorded methods in the Bible that God has used to communicate with the human race in an attempt to lead them into the paths that they should go. I have attempted to emphasize that whenever God leads an individual, it is always intended to cause them a positive outcome. God will never lead you into harm, hurt or the paths of destruction. I based this belief upon a scripture found in Jeremiah 29:11 that says God has thoughts of peace towards us and not evil and that God desires us to have a positive outcome. Therefore I have concluded that God speaks to people in order to cause an expected specific greater outcome than one that may have occurred without this divine impartation of information. I completely believe that the leading of the Lord will benefit all those who have selected to listen. There are many other types of people in the earth today that believe God is sitting in heaven just waiting for us to do wrong so that He can strike us down with His iron fist of judgment. However, that is not the loving God that I know who wants us to listen to His Word to have good success (Joshua 1:8). Let’s review my list of 12 methods that I gave you in the last three lessons:
- The Audible Voice of God
- The Finger of God
- Angels Sent by God
- Prophets, Teachers, Pastors, Evangelists, Apostles or other Men/Women (disciples) of God
- The inward Still Small Voice of God
- The Written Word of God
- External Visible Signs from God
- Visions from God
- Dreams from God
- Prayer of an Individual
- The Inward Witness of God / Moral Conscience / Intuition / Internal Knowledge / Spiritual Insight
- Patterns found within God’s Creation
These are the 12 methods that I have discovered while reading and studying the Bible. Some I have experienced personally and others I have learned about from people that have experienced them and all of them can be found in the Bible to establish their importance. From this list I have introduced you to methods 12, 9, 8, 3, 2 and 1 so far. I also briefly talked about number 7 in conjunction with other methods that God has used to lead people primarily in the Old Testament. For example, the burning bush that Moses encountered was clearly an external visible sign that was designed to get his attention. We also know that the children of Israel were led in the wilderness with a visible pillar of fire by night and the visible clouds by day and I taught you these were Old Testament typologies of how God will also lead the church today by His Spirit. I think today I’m going to teach on only number 6, the written word of God. The importance of the Word of God is so obvious to me yet to others it is the last place they look to find out what they should be doing in the present situations of their life. That is a dangerous attitude that will result in their eventual doomed failure. I’m going to start by talking about why the Bible is so important for us to know:
2Ti 3:16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
If “all scripture” (notice that it does not say some) was given to us by the inspiration of God why, is the Bible disrespected, treated as unimportant and even trivialized by so many on the earth today? Clearly the Bible is the most well-read book in the world. Clearly the Bible is the besting selling book in the world. Yet these facts are ignored by the media and the press and that attitude has even crept into the church. I have heard ministers of God (?) get up and speak and they never opened the Bible to teach from it and that is a grave mistake. This verse claims that all of the scriptures on the pages of the Bible have been God breathed.
The English word “inspiration” is built upon a fascinating concept. To “inspire” someone is to build them up in confidence and to cause them to potentially do something they would have or could have never done otherwise. A good sport’s coach will always give great inspiring words to the team to help motivate them to success and to build their confidence. The coach’s words are success seeds planted in the player’s minds and hearts. This is how the Word of God also works. The Greek word here translated as “inspiration” is a compound word meaning “divine breath”. It could literally be stated as the wind of God; thus Wind of God = Word of God! Meaning the Words written on the pages of the Bible came from the mouth of God and they were only given to a man to write down by the Spirit of God for everyone else to read. This is just like getting a personal letter or an email from God today. The Words were all carefully selected and designed by God to build us up in confidence, to educate us spiritually, then to give to us the knowledge, understanding and wisdom of God so that we would know what to do at the right times in our life.
DON’T LET THE TRUTH OF THE WORD OF GOD GET IN THE WAY OF YOUR BELIEFS!
I recently had a man tell me what I wrote about homosexuality offended him. He told me his life style was not his choice and God loved him just like he was. He went on to say that homosexuality was not a sin. This is a classic example of self-righteous blindness. To exalt yourself to a place or to a level beyond where you actually are is clearly an act of prideful ignorance. Satan failed in this same way first as the anointed cherub Lucifer and now he causes men to be deceived in the same way to cause them to fall into this same flattering trap of pride. Satan has said “I will be like the Most High” (Isa 14:14). You can see that Satan is attempting to exalt himself to a level that he was clearly not at. Can you see the parallels to my homosexual commenter? I do not isolate any sin to exclude all of the rest intentionally. I only have done this because they are ignoring the Bible to try to proclaim a new reality outside of the Bible. It is very obvious to me that the Bible teaches against homosexuality. To ignore the Bible and continue the way you are going is like ignoring the highway warning signs and going against the traffic the wrong way. Then there is this fact also that the Bible clearly says “ALL have sinned” (Rom 3:23). Another Bible verse says “if anyone says they have no sin, they have deceived themselves (1 John 1:8) Therefore my homosexual commenter has self-deceived himself into believing he has no sin. To not be humble enough to admit you have done wrong, is a dangerous cliff to stand on or even near. Ignorance of the Word of God is the same as ignoring the Word of God. Both will result in the same self-desructive end.
I AM THE LORD AND I CHANGE NOT!
What I am teaching you right now, is that God is not going to tell you anything on Judgment day that is not already written in His word today. You will have no excuse if you did not read His Word and try to find out what God has already said on the subject when you are standing to be judged. To ignore the Bible and to live the life you want to in full disregard of the God breathed words will cause the eventual judgment of God to fall. God does love sinners but He died for their sins in order to permit them to repent and come out of their sin. I’m trying to tell you that reading the Bible deserves the same level of respect and reverential treatment as if you were standing before God right now. If you go into reading the Bible with this attitude you will be approaching the throne of His knowledge, grace, mercy, wisdom and counsel with the right attitude. I’ll tell you this also, the Spirit of God will speak to you while you are reading His word if you ask Him to and if you ask the right questions and you are reading with this humble attitude. If you ask the Spirit of God to prove your doctrinal theology do not expect to hear from God. 
But, if you ask God to show you the truth this is a Biblical request that is founded on the Word of God and I’ll talk more about that in a bit. I have had the Spirit of God speak to me while I was studying the Bible so plainly that it opened up the verses so that I could understand them very clearly. It was like turning a spiritual light on and suddenly I could see what the words on the page said. People in the world read the Bible with their limited natural light and ignore the spiritual light and thus they never see the words on the page and they remain in their spiritual darkness.
A PERSONAL EXPERIENCE OF BEING LED BY THE WORD OF GOD!
When I was first filled with the Spirit of God I was a new born babe in Christ and I did not understand how God leads us. So I had a major problem in my life at that time and I was praying and seeking God for direction and help. I had recently lost my job because the software company that I was working for in California went bankrupt and we were all let go rather abruptly with no further income. The job market back then was not as bad as it is now, but it was also not great either. I needed God’s help desperately. One evening I asked the Lord to speak to me and I opened my Bible randomly and put my finger on a verse and read it and saw that God was speaking through what was written there and it said that He had a job for me. I do not recommend this approach unless you are a new born baby Christian like I was. This is technically like playing Russian roulette with the Word of God. I know it worked out for me and encouraged me, but what if I had landed on a verse that said something about someone’s death or destruction would that mean that is what will happen to me? I hope you see the problem with this approach of hearing God speak from His Word about a specific personal job problem. I do not know how to explain to you why it worked for me, but somehow the Spirit of God understood my situation and directed me to the right book, the right chapter and the right verse and there it was, God speaking to me. From this early Christian experience I have concluded that any verse in the Bible has the potential to be a right now Word from God that is applicable to the current situation in your life. If God’s words are inspired like the Bible teaches us, then these are the Words that He wrote thousands of years ago for you and I today. I will also say I do not do this anymore, nor did I do it again. I learned and grew in spiritual things over the years and now God uses other methods of communication that I will teach on later.
YOU CANNOT SEPARATE GOD FROM HIS WORD!
The Word of God is directly connected to the Spirit of God. According to the Bible, they are technically one in the same. John 1:1 says “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God”. Jesus said in John “The Words that I speak they are Spirit…” (John 6:63). The Bible also says that “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word will never pass away” (Mat 24:35). Therefore the Word of God is infinitely eternal like the Spirit of God is infinitely eternal. From these verses I have learned a lot about God and God’s Word. They have also brought new emphasis to me knowing the Word of God. Remember that the Bible contains the general knowledge of God and the historical account of God’s coming to the earth in the flesh, His covenants, His purpose and His prophesied plans for us. But also understand that it contains far greater advanced spiritual information of how He works, what He thinks, His character and many other hidden qualities of our God. The knowledge of this information should inspire you greatly to rise above the evils of this present world and to achieve the great plan that He has laid out for you to follow.
BEING A DISCIPLE OF THE WORD OF GOD!
To be a disciple is to be a student. Jesus was called a Rabbi and a teacher (John 3:2). As we read in 2 Timothy 3:16, the Bible was given to us for instruction and this means it can teach us spiritual things that we would never have learned from anywhere else. The Word of God is also a place to find correction. If you feel you do not need correction you are deceived in a state of self-righteousness. If you have ever steered a sailboat in the ocean or piloted an airplane on a trip, then you understand that course corrections are always necessary. When I learned to sail a boat in San Diego I quickly learned that you can never sail directly into the wind. Uh oh? I was talking about the Word of God being the Wind of God earlier. Did you know if the wind is coming out of the north and you want to go north that you have to zigzag between going northwest and northeast to eventually get north? I actually believe that this applies to Bible study. Constant course corrections are required to arrive at the true north of God’s word. Everyone needs correction, including me and especially me. So while we read the Bible we need to look to hear God speak in the areas that fit these descriptive terms of instruction and correction. While the Bible does not have any place written in it that tells you who to marry, where to work or where to live, you can learn character and establish basic moral standards that will help to guide you into making the right choices in these other areas of life. Later I will teach you that the Spirit of God will lead you in those other more personal areas also.
Joh 16:12 I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.
Joh 16:13 Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.
I want you to see one aspect of the guidance of the Holy Spirit that is absolutely essential to know and understand. Jesus is speaking to the His disciples and He tells them they have a problem. Wow, this is so amazing if you can see it. What can’t Jesus say now that He can wait and say later that will be understood at that time? I run across people like this on the internet constantly. They are not able to receive spiritual things so they become offended and never speak to me again. I had one commenter that I recently tried to help and they shut down the conversation and I never heard from the again. Spiritual things are tough to handle if you are a naturally dominated being. 
Paul calls this being a spiritual child trying to eat spiritual meat when they can only handle spiritual milk ( 1 Cor 3;2). Since I do not know people on the internet always at first, I find out very quickly and sometimes too late when they cannot handle spiritual meat. This is a major challenge to teaching on the internet an advanced Bible study that wants to focus on the deep meaty subjects and when children come in and try to read the lessons and they begin to spiritually choke and what do I do? This is probably the greatest challenge that I face. If I only teach milk lessons nobody will grow to learn to eat meat. If I only teach meat lessons the baby Christians are easily offended and never come back. Wow, it is tough to be me sometimes; that was just a joke!
What I want you to focus in on in John 16:13, is where Jesus says the Spirit of Truth is responsible to be our guide into us knowing the truth. A guide is someone who will lead you, yes? Being led is the main subject of this series so this verse is of central importance to knowing God’s responsibility and your responsibility. 
In every leader and follower relationship it is always important to not get the roles reversed in your mind. You need to remember who you are and who God is! Following a leader who knows where they are going is also essential for success. Since God is omniscient, He is the best qualified to be our guide to the truth. If the Spirit of God leads those that are His children, John 16:13 states Him to be our Spiritual Truth Guide. So technically being led by the Spirit of God is a multi-layered partnership between man and God with each holding equal responsibilities. Actually I’m going to modify that last statement somewhat. The responsibility of being led falls more on us than it does God. God leading us is a very easy task for Him to do, even if He is leading a billion people simultaneously. No, the majority of the effort of being led by the Spirit of God is placed directly upon our shoulders. We are responsible to know how God leads. We are responsible for hearing God lead us. We are then responsible to being willing and obedient to be led. Finally we are responsible to follow the instructions. That makes the life of following infinitely more complex than the Spirit of God leading us. I hope you understand that concept?
Knowing you do not know the truth is the first step to being led into the paths of truth. I’m not sure if you heard what I just said, but it was important. I meet people on the internet monthly who believe they already know everything and I can see that they know nothing of any spiritual value of how things work. I want you to remember a verse that Jesus taught us in the book of John:
Joh 8:32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
There are too many Christians who like to misquote this verse and take it out of context to say Jesus is the truth and He has set us free, but that is not what this verse says. That would be really great if that was true, but what is the rest of the truth? Did you know that truth is relative based upon your current level of knowledge of it? Doctors today are a prime example of an ever changing truth. Doctors are said to be “practicing” medicine and this is based only on the truth that they currently know today. Everyday new research, new studies and new information shines forth that changes the reality of the truth in the field of medicine. Knowing the truth is a moving target in the medical field and this is exactly how it is in the Bible world also. This is another example of constant course corrections. Since none of us are God and we do not know everything we must always be in a state of ever increasing truth. If you read the context of this verse you discover knowing the truth is conditional and dependent upon you continuing to be a disciple of the Word of God. This means you must continue learning everything that you can while you have the chance.
Rom 15:4 For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.
There is so much that I could say about the Word of God. It is designed to hide information from those who are perishing while simultaneously giving us the comfort of the knowledge of this hope being described to us in Romans 15:4. If you read the lessons that I did on Understanding Bible Faith you should have learned that Bible hope is different than hope found in the world. Bible hope is based upon our confidence in the Word of God coming to pass in our lives. The world’s hope is based upon “I wish it would happen” and this Bible hope is more like when you order a package off of the internet and you look daily out your window to see if it is being delivered. In other words you are in full expecting mode believing in or having faith in the place you purchased the package the delivery company bringing you the package.
Bible hope is like a pregnant woman awaiting the delivery of her child. This is the basis of Bible hope. Knowing that there is a set outcome before the outcome arrives is faith and hope in God’s Word. This verse in Romans 15:4 declares God Word to be for our place of learning. This is where I just stated that your knowledge is an ever increasing moving target. To learn means you don’t know it already. Just because you read the Bible from cover to cover does not mean you have arrived at knowing it all. Learning should never cease. It must be a continual process of information gathering from the Bible. That should describe you in detail especially if you are reading my Bible lessons.
IT’S TIME NOW TO LEARN THE WORD OF GOD!
When Jesus described the rich man and Lazarus after death in Luke 16 there is a realty that is presented that is very important to understand. 
The moral to the story is timing is everything! The rich man asks Abraham to send Lazarus back to the earth so neither the rich man nor Lazarus was on the earth at this time of the story. The rich man asks for Lazarus to warn his brothers not to come to this place of torment. The rich man obviously understands in his mind that the consequences of his past decisions have determined his current eternal situation. The rich man however was hoping to change the destiny of someone who had not died yet. Here is where we clearly learn that the choice has been made for the rich man and it is too late for him to be saved. But, what does Abraham tell the rich man about his five brother’s future choices?
Luk 16:29 Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.
Luk 16:30 And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent.
Abraham says the brothers have the written words of Moses and the Prophets and they need to listen to them. Of course this is another clear reference to the importance of the written Word of God given to all men and it indicates the effective timing factor for being accepted is a narrow window of life on this planet. There is a very clear emphasis given to us that if you want to be saved and not go to hell it is based upon you hearing and believing in the Word of God. This is why I teach so much on the importance of the Bible. Hearing the Bible and believing in the Bible is your only chance at a positive outcome spiritually, naturally, mentally and eternally. If you want to ignore the Bible and make your own path of salvation, you will find yourself in hell with the rich man who regretted his choice.
ARE YOU LIVING IN THE SPECTATOR WORLD?
I’m going to end this lesson with this last point. Reading the Word of God is not the complete answer to your every problem. We live in a modern spectator society. Those who sit and watch those who actually do. I hope I have have shocked some people with that statement, but I alluded to this fact earlier that it takes multiple steps of personal responsibility to be led by the Spirit of God and your participation is certainly one of the keys to your success. Watching a race is incredibly different than being in the race and we are told to run in the race of life in Hebrews 12:1. Now read this verse in James and see if you can determine which part you are fulfilling?
Jas 1:22 But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.
You should be able to see that there is a major difference between hearing the Word of God and doing the word of God. People hear the spirit of God many times and ignore Him and continue down their own paths. God gave us examples of this negative behavior in the Bible so we could learn from them. The man Balaam in Numbers 22 is a prime example of someone failing to be led by the Spirit of God. A king comes to Balaam and offers him things to curse the children of Israel so they do not defeat him and take his kingdom from him. Balaam is told by God not to do it repeatedly. However, Balaam still gets on his ass and goes to do what God said not to do. An angel of God stands in the path and is about to kill Balaam but the ass sees the angel and does not move forward. Balaam beats the ass and still refuses to be obedient to God. You can obviously see that Balaam was a hearer of the Word of God but not a Doer of the Word of God and he is not spoken of positively in the rest of the Bible. This is a key lesson for everyone today.
THEREFORE DOES IT MATTER WHAT YOU DO?
You bet it matters. If God says not to marry that man and you marry him anyway the evil that God had tried to help you avoid will now come upon you and then when you may cry out for God’s help later when you realize the mistake you have made and He might just tell you I tried to tell you and you wouldn’t listen to me. There are always major consequences to not being obedient to the Spirit of God. Frequently when something negative happens to a Christian, they can look back and determine a time that they knew they should not have done that and that was God trying to lead them. I’ll end this lesson with these verses:
Mat 7:24 Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock:
Mat 7:25 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.
Mat 7:26 And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand:
Mat 7:27 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.
Jesus is teaching us about spiritual houses and not about physical houses! Both of these houses are people who we call Christians. There are two types of Christians being contrasted; the hearers only versus the hearers and the doers. Which one are you? God is giving you an example that states the storms of life are inevitable to every Christian. We could call these storms types of symbolic physical troubles and the calamities of this world. But, Jesus tells us how to overcome these negatives by introducing a greater positive called the Word of God. However both houses heard the same Word of God so hearing was not the determining factor for the successful outlasting of the storm, was it? Only the house that understood what was said, believed what was written and finally did what was written overcame the storm and emerged victorious. This is very much like the children’s story of the three little pigs and their enemy the big bad wolf. The wise Christian is always the one that Satan cannot blow his house down, because it is founded on the Word of God. The other house fell and Jesus said great was the destruction of that house. I’ll ask you again, is it important to know the Word of God? Is it important to understand the Word of God? Is it important to believe the Word of God? Finally, is it important to actually do the Word of God? According to God Himself it is most certainly VERY IMPORTANT to be led by the Word of God! Thanks for reading and studying about being led by the Spirit of God and we will continue this lesson series soon. God Bless!
If you would like to continue learning in this series, you may continue with “Part 5“.
Understanding How to Be Led By the Spirit of God! Methods that God Uses to Lead His People! Part 3
(ver 1.2) This is Part 3 in a series of basic Christian Bible lessons on the subject of Being Led by the Spirit of God. The spiritual value contained within this series will be significantly greater than most other lessons that I have done if you can grasp them. I am currently going through a list in random order of the recorded methods in the Bible that God has used to communicate with the human race in order to lead them into the paths that they should go. I believe that by studying the past we can better understand the present and even possibly the future. I am convinced that God wrote these things in the Bible to teach us who He is and how He operates. While God is certainly not limited to these methods, He has set precedence for establishing their validity and importance for us knowing about them by recording them in His Word. God reveals His unique character and His personalities to us in many ways that are often missed. In the first lesson I showed you that God says the secret hidden qualities of God are clearly seen in the things that He has created. This of course confounds the wisdom of natural men who proclaim a self-creating world. These people deny the intelligent design patterns found in plain sight and believe they have occurred by random chance and an unexplained origination of order from a disordered big bang. Organization and structure from chaos is a popular imaginative theory of man used to explain away God’s involvement. However I have never seen an explosion bring anything but destruction. That is a scary approach to base your eternal destiny. I would suggest if you have not read this series from the beginning that you would go to “Part 1” and start there first. So today I will continue with the Spirit of God’s methods of speaking to us and hopefully someone out there will see and understand them to know how God can still communicate with them today. Let’s review my list of 12 methods that I gave you in the last lesson:
- The Audible Voice of God
- The Finger of God
- Angels Sent by God
- Prophets, Teachers, Pastors, Evangelists, Apostles or other Men/Women (disciples) of God
- The inward Still Small Voice of God
- The Written Word of God
- External Visible Signs from God
- Visions from God
- Dreams from God
- Prayer of an Individual
- The Inward Witness of God / Moral Conscience / Intuition / Internal Knowledge / Spiritual Insight
- Patterns found within God’s Creation
These are the 12 methods that I have discovered while reading and studying the Bible. Some I have experienced and others I have learned about from others who have experienced them and all of them can be found in the Bible to establish their importance. From this list I have introduced you to methods 12, 7, 2 and 1. We saw the Finger of God writing on the tablets of stone which contained the Words of God for the children of Israel. We saw the voice of God walking in the Garden in Genesis and speaking to Adam and Eve. We also reviewed some of the facts presented in creation that reveal God’s hidden characteristics. Let’s go to number 3 on the list now and see how God has used angels to communicate with man in the Bible.
ANGELS, GOD’S MESSENGERS!
I’ll start by saying that I have never seen an angel that I know of. But, I have spoken with people who have seen them so I believe that they exist by reading the Word of God and hearing the testimony of Christian witnesses. There are several verses in the Bible that indicate the angels can appear as men and look exactly like one of us and therefore we are not always able to know when we have encountered one. Read in Genesis 19 and see what God says about the angels visiting Lot in Sodom. They come walking up to the city just like any normal man would have done and they eat and sleep in Lot’s house like any normal man would also do. Finally, the next morning they take Lot and his family out of the city before it is supernaturally destroyed. It sounds more like the actions of men rather than it does of angels from reading the description of them in this chapter. However, this was the direct ministry of the angels of God in full demonstration. These angels were sent by God because of God’s conversation with Abram. Lot’s family was saved because of the covenant relationship that God had with Abram at this point in time and Abraham’s request to save the righteous Lot. Lot is a type of the church in the present evil world before the coming of Christ, if you did not know it? It is also important to know that Jesus taught about this in the Gospels as a direct patterned type of the end times that we are living within right now. Let’ me show you:
Luk 17:28 Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded;
Luk 17:29 But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all.
Understanding that angels will be involved in the last days exactly like they were in the days of Lot should cause you to rethink what to look for in the coming days before Christ’s return. If angels came to Lot and ate and drank with them and even slept in their houses we should really come up to a higher level of expectation to what they will be doing right now before the coming tribulation. It also says that the angels will be the ones to take us out of here before the destruction of the world comes to fruition. You can learn this by seeing the parable that Jesus taught on the wheat and the tares where the harvesters or the reapers we are told are the angels and the wheat are the children of God and the tares are the children of Satan (Mat 13:39). The story of Lot proves two things to me; we (the church) will know the day that the destruction will come because it will begin the day that we are taken out by God. I did not set any dates, so do not misunderstand what I just said. Let’s continue to study the subject of angels and see what else the Bible says about their work methods. The New Testament actually has a verse that will fit here very nicely on this subject of angels:
Heb 13:2 Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.
You can see that we are requested or even required to entertain strangers because we might be entertaining angels and even be unaware of the encounter. What would have happened to Lot’s family if they would have not hosted the men that came to them in Sodom? That is a very good question to consider. What you need to know about reading Hebrews 13:2 is that you may not always know what is happening when an angel shows up to help you. There are clearly instances when angels do not present themselves as humans in the Bible, but there are also those times when they do. This seems to be another demonstration of the sovereign will of God in determining how to manifest and how to communicate with people. This makes walking with God much more complicated doesn’t it? Or perhaps it makes it more simple depending upon your point of view. To be consistently kind and loving to everyone will result in a simpler Christian life rather than trying to be kind to some and then to ignore all of the others. This however can be misleading when you are good to evil men and they do nothing but hurt you. That is where wisdom comes in. One night I was walking in downtown Dallas TX late at night with my two young children. All of sudden I noticed two teenagers coming towards me rapidly and the situation looked grave. I then pleaded the blood of Jesus Christ for divine protection and turned to walk the other way when I saw 4 people out of nowhere come towards me who were very safe and peaceful feeling so I walked to them and then turned and walked with them. The two thugs came to the 7 of us in a group and started asking stupid questions and eventually ran off. One of the ladies in the group turned to me and said “thank you”. I had not said anything to them about me or what was happening to me. So why did she say “thank you”? I do not know other than me praying and asking God for help. That is all I did. Were these angels that came to answer my prayer from God? I honestly cannot say. I just know they came at the right time and then disappeared in the darkness and I never saw them or spoke to them again. Maybe it was just an amazing coincidence, but I believe otherwise. I believe Hebrews 13:2 is saying that we should be kind to everyone because it just might be an angel with a message from God that we are speaking with. I have heard the testimony of other people where a man suddenly appears and saves them or pulls them out of a burning car and the man disappears not to be known again. These could all be examples of modern angelic encounters and we will probably learn about them someday when the Bible says that we will Judge the angels (1 Cor 6:3).
Exo 3:2 And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.
Here are actually two methods of God communicating with humans combined into one. Understand that God can combine methods for greater emphasis when it is necessary. Exodus 3:2 says that God has sent an angel to Moses with a message and the angel appears to him in a visible form of a burning bush, but the bush is never consumed by the flame. Clearly this was an example of a supernatural fire and not a natural one. It is also not an angel in the form of a man with a message either. Reading the rest of the chapter we can see that the angel was given a very direct and specific message for Moses by God. It is actually very interesting to read this conversation. It is clearly as if God was present and speaking to Moses in the first hand. In each verse it says “The Lord said” and “God called unto him”. So was it the LORD or was it the angel present or was there a difference between the two? In other words did it matter? Here is where you should begin to understand if an angel shows up with a message, it is not the words of the angel, it is the Words of the Holy God sent through an angel. So when the words come out and are spoken by the angel, they are the direct Words from God. This makes the words as important as if you were standing before the throne of God and listening to God in person. This is a factor that is very important for you to grasp. Treat the Words spoken to you by an angel to be God’s Words with respect, awe and reverence. The Words of God have great significance, power and meaning no matter how they are delivered to you. If God has a message for you using any of the 12 methods in my list, you should treat it like you were hearing it directly from God. This is called faith and it demonstrates reverence, respect and humility. God is never required to speak to anyone, but He does this out of love by His grace.
We can clearly see that the angel got Moses’ attention using the external visible sign post of a burning bush. Sometimes on rare occasions God will do spectacular supernatural things to get people’s attention that are either stubborn, hard headed, spiritually deaf, dull of hearing, unaware of God’s leading or do not want to listen to God’s voice. This normally occurred more often in the Old Testament before people were saved and the Spirit of God becomes resident within them. Keep this in mind that the more dull or dense that you are spiritually speaking the more spectacular God may have to become to get your full attention. It is always much better to rise up and become receptive and aware of spiritual things than it may be to try to wait for God to come down to your level of carnal awareness. In other words you should be gravitating upwards towards spiritual things and away from the downward natural things of this world. This is called spiritual growth and it is a key factor in learning to be led by the Spirit of God.
Angels are common messengers sent by God to deliver messages to His people from Genesis to Revelation. If you look up the Greek or the Hebrew words translated as angel you will see that it means a literal “messenger”. I equate angels to be like our modern delivery services like UPS or FedEx. These companies do not generate packages, they just deliver them. You can see the activity of angels in almost every book of the Bible. Even today an angel can still appear to you with a message from God. I have heard several people tell me about how they saw angels and even heard a message from God from one of them. Do not discount or discourage angels and do not seek for their manifestations either. If God so chooses He can use an angel to deliver a personal message of direction to you, but it is up to God. You can see angels coming to Lot, Abraham and Jacob in Genesis. You can see angels coming to Moses and Daniel. You can even see God’s usage of angels in the books of Acts with Peter and Paul. Finally you can see that angels play a very key role in the book of Revelation. I did not attempt to mention every example, I just wanted you to see that angels are real and that they can be used by God to deliver a message at any time in several different forms. Let’s jump down to number 9 in the list and look at dreams next.
VISIONS OF THE NIGHT AKA DREAMS!
Gen 20:3 But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night, and said to him, Behold, thou art but a dead man, for the woman which thou hast taken; for she is a man’s wife.
Dreams from God are nothing but spiritual visions of the night when the body is at complete rest and the human mind is still enough to be able to hear the voice of God. Most of the time you have to realize that one reason why people do not think they ever hear from God is because their mind is constantly active thinking on something unrelated to God. God will not interrupt your thoughts to even give you an important message. The Holy Spirit is the ultimate Gentleman. He never interrupts and He is always courteous using the utmost gentlemanly manners. Dreams are mentioned in nearly 90 different verses of the Bible, but mostly in the Old Testament. Dreams are used by God many times in the Bible to get the attention of people to deliver them an important message. God used dreams in the life of Joseph in Genesis to help prepare him for the coming hard life that he was going to go through. God also used dreams to help the future husband of Mary who was also named Joseph in Matthew to marry her. God uses a dream here in Genesis 20:3 to tell the king that he was a dead man for taking another man’s wife. God is in effect directly warning the king that what he has done violates common decency and the plan of God for Abraham and Sarah. Abimelech could have ignored the dream as just a bad meal that he ate before he went to bed or it could be that he gave it the priority it deserved and changed what he was about to do. Sometimes dreams are more vivid and real than at other times. You might know what I am a talking about. I believe Abimelech must have had one of these dramatic vivid dreams to get his full attention. Dreams are mentioned by God even in the book of Acts so we know they are still an active method used by God to communicate with people today:
Act 2:17 And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams:
There are actually three methods of God used to communicate with people on the earth in this single verse. God clearly tells us that dreams will continue to be used even in the last days (final two thousand years). This means you should give dreams greater priority than you probably do today. A dream that you had last night might have been a direct message from God. Sometimes dreams need interpretation from God and other times they do not. The dream in Genesis 20:3 needed no interpretation. But, the dream of the pharaoh in Egypt when Joseph was in prison needed interpretation from Joseph in order to be understood. Not too long ago I had a dream about somebody I knew. I dreamed that they were killed and died a very young death. So I took it to be a message from God to pray for them and I did that. I do not discount or discourage dreams from occurring. I try to take them and use them as a message from God and I hope you will do this also. I probably could spend a lot more time on the subject of dreams, but I do not want to get into that level of detail in an overview lesson about how God speaks to people today. I’ll end the subject of dreams with this important verse:
Dan 2:19 Then was the secret revealed unto Daniel in a night vision. Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven.
God declares to us that Daniel was given secrets from God in a dream of the night. God called this a night vision into the spiritual dimension. What is a secret? Why is it sometimes good to know secrets? I guess it depends on who has the secret, but in this case if God gives you a secret it will be incredibly important new information. I believe that God leads His people by occasionally disclosing secrets. I hope you are grasping the concepts that I am giving you about why it is important to listen to even a dream. You can see that Daniel was called blessed because of this supernatural encounter. Awesome stuff to know! The other two methods in Acts 2:17 of divine communication are the Prophet prophesying and the use of visions by the Spirit of God. Since we are discussing night visions let’s talk about number 8 in my list, the subject of day visions briefly and we will do prophets later.
DAY VISIONS – WINDOWS INTO THE SPIRITUAL REALM
Gen 15:1 After these things the word of the LORD came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.
God comes to people with guidance in the Bible using spiritual visions many times. I’ve done other lessons on what visions are so I will not go into great detail about them again today. However, a spiritual vision is a temporary window into the unseen spiritual dimension seen or observed from someone within the natural realm. In other words you do not have visions in heaven, you can see the real first hand there, but here in the temporary natural realm we are occasionally given glimpse of the supernatural realm to help us or teach us something that is important for us to understand. Natural human vision is limited to the narrow natural light spectrum and I personally believe that the spiritual dimension is on a much higher frequency level that is way beyond this normal visual range. I believe that spiritual beings like angels and demons are moving at much higher frequencies than is necessary for humans to perceive them with their natural eyes. I certainly do believe that spiritual beings exist all around us at all times, but that we just do not perceive them with our physical senses. We however see that angels and spiritual beings can manifest in the Bible within the natural realm. How they do this is not given to us by God in the Bible that I know of right now. I speculate that the angels slow down their movement to allow their frequency of measure to become visible but that is just my opinion and probably not valid. God says in Genesis 15:1 that the Word of God came to Abraham in the form of a vision. This is clearly just another method that God uses to communicate with people on the earth. God is doing something supernatural to Abram in this verse to permit him to hear the voice of God and to see the things that he could have never seen otherwise. If you read this chapter we are told that Abram sees a smoking furnace and a burning lamp passing through the bloody covenant animal pieces on the ground. This is clearly symbolism for a greater spiritual truth that is being presented. Jesus when speaking to the Jewish leaders said “Abraham rejoiced to see my day and he saw it and was glad” (John 8:56). You see the vision that God gave to Abraham was a future display of Jesus Christ’s coming to the earth. That is another good lesson to learn, but I do not have the time to expand it fully. However know that many times when God speaks to people it is an attempt to point them to Jesus who is the only way to be saved.
John was given a major vision in order to write the book of Revelation. God showed Him many things that would not occur for nearly two thousand years. This is just another New Testament example that God still uses visions. Saul had a vision of Jesus on the road to Damascus. You can read about this vision in Acts 26 being described by Paul. In Acts 16 and 18 there are two other night visions described that happen to Paul. These are potentially dreams, but he may have been awake and just having a vision in the dark of night while praying. Visions can be open or closed and I do not have time to fully explain the difference. One occurs with your eyes wide open and the other is you with your eyes closed in a trance like state. In the Old Testament the servant of Elisha came to him while they were surrounded by an army that was about to wipe them out and Elisha said this to the servant:
2Ki 6:16 And he answered, Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them.
2Ki 6:17 And Elisha prayed, and said, LORD, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the LORD opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.
This is a great example of an open vision in the Bible. The natural eyes of the servant were opened to see that the mountains around them were full of spiritual chariots of fire. The servant was permitted by the prayer of Elisha the prophet and the grace of God to be able to see what he normally would not have been able to see. This is still how it can occur today also. Prayer can cause your eyes to be opened if God chooses to enlighten you with this privilege. It is still up to God. You are not going to make God do anything.
I know I have not covered every example that I wanted to today, but I have gone long enough for another lesson. We covered three more methods in this lesson so in all I have introduced you to half of the ways that God has recorded in the Bible to speak to us. If God has ever used one of these methods in my list to get your attention, I would like to hear about it. If you know of other methods that God used to communicate with you, I would like to hear about that also. You may share your personal experience with me and my readers to help us all grow in the knowledge of the Lord. If you have ever seen angels I would like to hear about them. If you have ever seen a vision or had a dream it would be great to hear about that also, but you do not have to tell me what they said. Please come back and we will cover more examples of how the Spirit of God communicates with the people on the earth in the next lesson. If you have comments or questions on anything that I have said or if you want to share your experience of how God has communicated with you, then please do that. God Bless you until next time.
If you would like to continue reading in this series you may go to “Part 4“.
Understanding How to Be Led By the Spirit of God! Methods that God Uses to Lead His People! Part 2
(ver 1.3) This is Part 2 in a series of basic Christian Bible lessons on the subject of Being Led by the Spirit of God. The spiritual value contained within this series will be significantly greater than most other lessons that I have done. While any and all of the knowledge of God found in the Bible is very important, knowing how to be led by the Spirit of God on a daily basis is also important for us in these last days. The Bible is general knowledge and instruction for every Christian. Reading and studying about the people in the Bible will teach us how they failed and how they succeeded, but the benefits of being led by the Spirit of God helps us more on an individual personal level. For example, who should you marry? Where should you live? Where do you work? Even what route do I take today from work to get back home to my family? What flight do I get on to see my friend in Paris? Do any of these daily personal decisions that you need to make matter? I believe that they matter more than you know, especially in light of the events happening in the world today. There are terrorist, bombers, rapists, murderers, thieves, robbers, airplane crashes, floods, earth quakes and other things happening every day that it would be wiser to avoid if you could. I personally believe that God can cause you to miss many evils, heartaches, accidents, injuries and mishaps simply by putting you in the right place at the right time with the right people to avoid them. So not only are there positives to be gained, there are also clearly negatives to be avoided by listening to the Spirit of God. Since God knows the end from the beginning, His knowledge far outweighs anything that I could say to you about what I think you should do. Therefore being led by the Spirit of God involves three prerequisite factors; hearing, obedience and timing. If you do not hear or recognize when God speaks you will always fail. If you do not obey God you will always fail. If you do not do it at the right time you will also fail. In order to be successful, you are going to have to hear the voice of God and then be where He says to be at the exact precise place and time.
The successful leading of the Spirit of God will result in the alignment of all of the dimensions found within the natural realm with all of the dimensions found within the spiritual realm to cause the plan of God to be fulfilled. I believe that this is the goal of being led by the Spirit of God. However it is more complicated than that and we have to also balance hearing and being led by God with the fact that God also requires us all to walk by faith. To walk by faith means that we do not ever know everything that will happen or what we should do in every situation and therefore we move forward doing what we were previously told before to do using our faith until God says to do something else or something new. For example, the children of Israel were told to march around the city of Jericho by faith for seven days and the walls would come down. That was God’s instruction working with their faith to bring the walls down. The people were required to believe that God would do His part if they did their part. Todays’ lesson will be the beginning of the primary methods that God has used to lead His people in the Bible. There are actually many recorded methods in the Bible and I do not profess to know them all, but I will teach on the ones that I do know about and I will try to eventually prioritize them to get you to see how God will potentially lead you.
In the first introductory lesson I focused on the fact that the Bible said that God would lead us by His Spirit. But, I also tried to say that being led by God was a conditional statement woven within the fabric of human dependence and cooperation and that God does not lead everyone just because He can. To try to say that He does this is built upon an extreme position of fatalism or predestination which attempts to teach a religious philosophy of ultimate divine sovereign control of the planet. If that was true, then there would be no need to be led by the Spirit of God. How does God lead His people? I tried to teach you that you that God uses a Shepherd approach to leading His sheep (people) and this conforms and balances with the freewill of humans being able to decide to follow Him or to walk away at any time and be lost. God told us very clearly that it was only the sons of God that were led by the Spirit of God (Rom 8:14). The implied information given to us from this verse is that those who are not being led by the Spirit of God are not the sons of God and have chosen to be independent from God. So being led by the Spirit of God may be dependent upon you becoming His child first. It also further implied that being led by the Spirit of God was a personal responsibility of the individual being led to follow. In other words God is not going to lead you around with a chain around your neck dragging you where you do not want to go. That is not the character or nature of a loving God. Jesus is our Great Shepherd and He will go before us and call our name to follow Him, but it is always up to us to hear and to do the following. If you have not read Part 1 I would suggest that you go back and start reading there and then continue with this lesson on how God leads His people.
Here is a list of some of the ways that God has used to communicate with the men and women on the earth to lead or direct them for their greater good and to help them to fulfill His divine purpose and plan of love. In studying the Bible I never read anywhere that God led someone to hurt, harm or to destroy them. If you know of any examples like that then tell me, because I did not see it. I have concluded that being led by God is a great benefit and never for evil. Let’s look at the recorded methods of God communicating with people:
- The Audible Voice of God
- The Finger of God
- Angels Sent by God
- Prophets, Teachers, Pastors, Evangelists, Apostles or other Men/Women (disciples) of God
- The inward Still Small Voice of God
- The Written Word of God
- External Visible Signs from God
- Visions from God
- Dreams from God
- Prayer of an Individual
- The Inward Witness of God / Moral Conscience / Intuition / Internal Knowledge / Spiritual Insight
- Patterns found within God’s Creation
These are some of the diverse methods that I have found in the Bible that God has used to communicate intelligently with the human race. Some of these methods are certainly very different from each other while others have some overlapping qualities and features. Some of these methods are more dominantly found in the Old Testament and others are more frequently used by God within the New Testament. But, I honestly do not discredit any of them as being potential ways that God can get His message across to someone on the earth who is honestly seeking to know Him, hear Him and follow His guidance. I do believe that some methods are more common than others and that God intends for every Christian to grow up spiritually so that we can better perceive what He says at any instance. I’m sorry but I did not list them in any particular order or even try to prioritize them into a list with organized structure. I only wrote them down as I remembered them in the Bible. In this series of lessons I will attempt to give you Biblical examples for every method that I just listed and hopefully explain them and how they work so that you will be able to recognize when God is speaking to you. Let’s start with number 12, the last one first, just for fun.
GOD REVEALED IN CREATION
Rom 1:20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:
Here in Romans 1:20 is the last method in my list that God has attempted to communicate with people on the earth. God declares that He can be known clearly through the things that were created all around us if people choose to see them. This is the exemplified intelligent design of an infinitely wise God. God has placed things within plain sight in the naturally created realm that will direct and point us all to the Creator if we make the effort to find them. God clearly says even if He never comes to you personally and speaks to you in an audible voice, that you are without excuse on judgment day if you did not find Him. All of the secrets of God are revealed in the things which were made around you. These created things are not God, but they reflect Him and make Him known. This is one of the primary methods used by God to try to reach humanity. This verse declares that all of creation was purposely designed with a pattern that will reveal hidden spiritual things that we have never seen before. Nothing has occurred around us by random chance or accident. Realize that God may not ever manifest Himself spiritually or physically to prove His existence to anyone. However, I believe that God will move heaven and earth to prove His existence to those that are actually seeking to know Him by faith in believing that He exists. You see there is a requirement given to us in Hebrews that declares that everyone who comes to God must first believe in His existence (Heb 11:6). Having faith is the only way to please God that I know of. Hebrews dictates a prerequisite that you must possess before you can ever know God personally.
This verse in Romans 1:20 declares to us that even the invisible things of God are clearly visible within creation. What are the invisible things of God that are being referred to in this verse? I believe these are the hidden qualities, attributes, features, characteristics, traits, personalities, perspectives and individualities of the Living God. People do not realize that the evidence for God’s existence is all around them being communicated in hidden ways. Satan has tried very hard to dilute the truth of God’s existence with the modern theories of evolution, the spontaneous creation fallacies and other naturalistic theories of an evolving creation. However every modern scientific truth has always pointed us back to a creator God that used intelligent design to create. The modern Laws of Thermodynamics state a decaying world around us and not an organizing system that would be required to evolve life. Just as cars are not assembled automatically from junk yard parts, the human body did not evolve into existence from unorganized plasma. Reading recently about what scientists have discovered about which came first the chicken or the egg, they concluded that the chicken had to have come first. Only a specific substance that is critical for producing an egg exists within the chicken and nowhere else. Therefore, they have concluded the chicken must have existed before the egg that hatches the chicken can exist. This new scientific discovery discounts evolution categorically. Therefore, there are no spontaneous new evolving species of anything occurring today and we will never solve the mystery of the missing link between man and the apes since they do not exist. The Bible clearly tells us everything produces after its own kind. The modern evidence for DNA also proves intelligent design. There is absolutely no possibility of the complex design of the human DNA strand to have formed in isolation. This would be like seeing the Space Shuttle lift off and saying it made itself. The complexity of the human DNA dictates the need for an intelligent Designer. So God has clearly communicated to every man by the things that He has designed and created for us to enjoy. Let’s skip back up to number 1 in the list and do another method of God found in the Bible of how God speaks to people.
HEARING THE VOICE OF GOD
Gen 3:8 And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden.
I really like the book of Genesis and I think it is very interesting how God wrote it. The information being given is very complex and sometimes missed by the casual reader. Did you see what God says in verse 8 of Genesis 3? Here in this chapter we have the fall of man occurring and God comes down to speak with His children. Did you notice that this verse does not say that God was physically present like when Jesus was here? To hear the voice of God walking is definitely not the same as hearing God walking physically on the earth. After all, the Bible says “God is a Spirit” (John 4:24) and if God did manifest physically it would have violated other information given to us in the Bible. For example, God teaches us in the N.T. that NO MAN has ever seen God at any time (John 1:18). This statement from Jesus certainly includes Adam, the first man. However, the Bible is more complex than this; because the voice of God is declared to actually be God according to John 1:1. You have to understand the difference between the written word of God and the spoken Words of God. One is God and the other is just words on a page that came from God. Do you understand this? One statement that Jesus made was “The words that I speak, they are Spirit…(John 6:63) If spoken words are spirit, then you cannot separate God’s voiced words from God’s Spirit! They must be one in the same according to Jesus. Think with me for a moment about the subject of sound. Sound is produced by vibration and this creates sound waves that are perceived by the natural human ear. An audible sound wave is not visible to the human eye so technically God has not violated His word by speaking to Adam in the form of sound waves. I personally believe that at the most rudimentary basic root level of every atom in existence within the known universe is a sound wave produced by the voice of the Spirit of God.
We know that God spoke the world into existence by reading chapter 1 of Genesis. So the spoken word of God was the initiating basis for all of physical creation. I believe that whatever Adam perceived in the garden was not a physical manifestation of God’s presence but that it was only the audible sound of the voice of God. What I want you to see from this verse is that God says His voice can be heard by a man and his wife and that this must still hold true even today since God does not ever change (Heb 13:8). If Adam heard God’s voice then you can also hear God’s voice. We can easily conclude that God speaks and people can hear as a universal spiritual law. If you continue to read in this chapter of Genesis you will also see God speaking to every participant in the fall. God speaks to Adam first, then to Eve and finally to the serpent in that order. God went down the spiritual food chain of command authority in order to communicate with each individual. God recognized the existence of spiritual authority and this will always be how He speaks to people even today. God will not tell people in the church how to run the church. God will come to the pastor and tell Him what to do first.
Joh 12:28 Father, glorify thy name. Then came there a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.
Joh 12:29 The people therefore, that stood by, and heard it, said that it thundered: others said, An angel spake to him.
The audible voice of God is clearly demonstrated again in these verses found in John. God is speaking from heaven and it must have been very loud to those present. People standing nearby said and thought that it had just thundered near them. Others thought an angel had spoken something. The other day we had a thunderstorm blow through our neighborhood. The power in the house blinked twice and one thunder clap was so loud and so close that it shook the house. I believe this is what people heard however the volume is not the main issue; it was clearly the message that was more important. Do not ever get hung up on the volume and always pay attention to what is said. I have only had the Spirit of God speak to me in an externally audible voice one time over 20 years ago. I was lying in bed attempting to wake up and all of sudden God spoke to me. I did not realize what just happened so I sat up in the bed and looked around the room to make sure no one was there with me. I thought I was going crazy at first and lay back down. Then it happened again. I could tell you what God said, but that is really not that important to you since it was a personal message to me. I want you to see that God is capable of speaking audibly so that our external ears can perceive it. But, also I want you to realize that this is not the normal way that God speaks to everyone. God only did this for me one time so far. There are clearly a few examples given to us in the Bible of God speaking to people this way, so if God desires to do this do not discount or discourage it from happening. However, also do not seek God for Him to speak audibly to you at any time. I never asked God to do this to me. You are not God and you cannot tell God what to do. God knows how to communicate with you and He will do it in His own way. Also realize that God is not the only spiritual voice in the earth that can manifest and produce audible sound waves. Satan and demons can also manifest in external voices. Understand that it is up to God to choose how He speaks and not up to you. I will briefly tell you that the method that God chooses to communicate with you will vary based upon two factors; His will and your ability to hear. Hearing God’s voice varies based upon spiritual maturity and your spiritual awareness. There are other factors also that I will get into later. New born Christian babies are not able to receive at the same level as a Christian who has grown for 30 years in prayer and Bible study. So how God speaks to you may require Him to speak audibly like He did for me at first, but now that I am able hear Him differently, He does not speak in audible voices. That is very important to know so I hope you understood it. We have looked at numbers 1 and 12 in my list and now let us continue with method number 2.
THE FINGER OF GOD
Exo 31:18 And he gave unto Moses, when he had made an end of communing with him upon mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God.
Here is an Old Testament example of a spiritual New Testament truth. God was meeting with Moses on the top of Mount Sinai and after the conversation ended, God sent him away with tablets of stone that were engraved by the “finger of God”. This was God’s message for man written on tablets of stone by the finger of God. God had a letter for the people of Israel and He gave it to them using an external sign with a visible message. This is clearly not God’s normal way of communicating with people on the earth, but God used it to make a point and an example for a New Testament spiritual way of communicating with the church. According to the Bible God would write His new law upon our hearts of flesh taking out the hearts of stone that were previously in us (Heb 10:16). God writing a message on a billboard or the side of a mountain for humans to see now is just not normally going to happen from my perspective. Just because God is able to do it is not a sign that it will happen again. You see I believe the Old Covenant was based upon external natural things and the New Covenant is based upon internal spiritual things. Do not ever seek for God to do what He has already done before in the Old Testament, for the sake of proving that He can do it again. This is called testing or tempting God and that is not a wise tactic for coming before a Holy God. Seek God and however He comes to you is how He will get across His message. You cannot choose the method; just understand how He has done it in the past to see how He might do it in the future. Then learn to see Old Testament types as being a foreshadowing of the New Testament spiritual realities. I once heard a minister say that we should not seek for the spectacular and totally miss the supernatural. In other words do not expect God to do the mighty miraculous external thing and miss the simple quite internal words of God that could have saved your life. I’m going to skip to number 7 next because I feel it fits in here.
EXTERNAL VISIBLE SIGNS FROM GOD
Exo 13:21 And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night:
The Bible in the New Testament says that those who are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God. God leading by His Spirit in the Old Covenant was much different than that found in the New Covenant. In the Old Covenant God used external signs to lead the people through the wilderness. These were clearly visible manifestations of the Spirit of God in the form of the clouds by day and the fire by night. This is again natural external signs of the coming internal spiritual realities that we possess. To be led by the Spirit of God is the goal of every true Christian. However, today do not look for an external cloud in order to know where to follow Him. You must understand that the children of Israel were not born again spirit-filled followers of God. They only possessed external senses that dominated and suppressed their internal spiritual awareness. We as New Testament Christians are much different than they were. We have the Spirit of God resident on the inside of us. So if God needs to lead you away from pending danger, He can do it spiritually and not with natural external signs and wonders. Do not expect God to part the Red Sea or lead you with a pillar of fire. Understand the types given to us from this information. God says He is our guide. Clouds represented a layer of protection form the extreme heat of the desert. The fire by night presented a source of heat from the cold of the desert night and provided light for them to see even in the darkness. These are all the types of the Holy Spirit’s work in Christians today. Protection, guidance, direction, enlightenment and comfort are some of the key benefits of the Spirit of God inside us today. I recently saw on TV people flocking to places that they say they saw an image of Jesus or Mary or some other external visible sign from God. While this might be comforting to some people it could also be deceiving them into a false sense of security. Do not ever look at external things and be led by them like an image of a man, or a weeping picture in a church, or a bleeding image on a wall or some other weirder thing that you may have heard about. People have paid a lot of money to buy an image of Jesus burnt into a piece of bread. People are clearly looking for the wrong things in the world. Just because God can do this, does not mean that He has done this. Note the N.T. never tells us to be led by external signs or wonders. When the antichrist shows up in the world he will deceive many people with supernatural miraculous signs. Do not fall for them.
I think this will be a good time to end this lesson today. I have gone very long and I have only discussed four methods so far out of 12. This means that it will probably take several more lessons to discuss all of the other methods that God has used to intelligently communicate with His people. I hope you are learning something new, but I know many of you already know everything that I am saying. This series is mostly for newer Christians and not for those that have been around a long time. So while it is important it might not be something new to you. However, you can share your experiences with me and I will pass them along so that others can learn from them. If God has ever spoken to you share it with me. I do not have to know what He said, just how He communicated to you might be the thing that will help someone else. Until next time, I pray that you will continue to hunger and thirst after the knowledge of His Good Word.
If you would like to continue reading in this series you may go to “Part 3“.
A Christian’s Responsibility vs. the Sovereign God’s Responsibility! Part 1
Responsibility: the ability or authority to act or decide on one’s own, without supervision
(Ver 1.4) This is Part 1 in a series of basic Bible studies about the Personal Responsibility of Every Christian versus the Divine Responsibility of the Sovereign God. Responsibility is a word that implies authority and ability to make independent decisions. This certainly applies to God, but what about men and women made in the image of God, how would this apply to humans? I personally believe that the word responsibility is potentially more complex than this definition. There are independent abilities of man and there are dependent abilities of man. So responsibilities can be independently assigned or they can be jointly assigned or they can also be corporately assigned to many. There is a popular Christian philosophy being taught in many churches that God is in complete and absolute control of everything that happens in the world. This philosophy relieves all Christians of any personal responsibility, accountability or judgment for doing the wrong things in the world. I truly believe that God in Heaven is sovereign meaning that He is all powerful and is perfectly capable of doing anything that He desires at any time. However, is this the character of God that you know and understand and base your faith upon? Does God force people to do what He desires them to always do? Is God overriding human freewill to manipulate the outcome or destiny of individuals? If a terrorist kills thousands of other people was that the perfect plan of God in action and full manifestation? Does God really control everything that happens to every Christian and non-Christian alike? Is God the Great Puppet Master in the Sky pulling all the strings? I personally do not believe that God is in control of every event in human history. If it was true, then God is the most evil God that I have heard described and that definition would contradict with a God who is named Love!
INTRODUCTION TO THE ERRONEOUS PHILOSOPHY
THAT GOD CONTROLS EVERYTHING THAT OCCURS!
I saw a very ignorant movie last night from Hollywood called The Adjustment Bureau. This movie portrayed a God who manipulated men and women to do what He wanted them to do. It dictated a master plan of a sovereign type of God. If a man or woman strayed from the sovereign plan, they were immediately sent a being to adjust them for change. These adjustment beings would have to manipulate the circumstances surrounding the individual and they would have to change the persons’ mind or thoughts to get them to conform to the good plan of the chairman upstairs. They would have to cause them to go down the right path that they were supposed to go into to be what God had planned for them to do on the earth. This is a very popular religious philosophy taught in many churches. However, any time Hollywood embraces a Christian philosophy it automatically causes me to suspect it is a fallacy of the grandest proportions. But, we still have to balance the fact that after all God is sovereign and you cannot do anything to ever lose your free gift of salvation. It is too bad that this is not what the Bible actually teaches us.
INTRODUCTION TO CHRISTIAN RESPONSIBILITY
I have already said that if God controls everything that it is completely unnecessary for humans to do anything for the perfect will of God to be accomplished in their life. If they wake up with cancer one morning then this was the plan of God for them to die an early painful death. The will of God must prevail so why even go to the doctor to prolong your life? Wouldn’t you be fighting against God by going to the doctor?
We should just blame God if you stay in bed all day and do nothing because this must be the will of God for you. Because it happened it had to be the plan and will of God. But is this what the Bible teaches? There is a very popular Christian extreme belief called predestination. In this belief some were predestined to be saved and others were created by God to go to hell by God’s sovereign choice. In this belief no one has any right to say which place they were made to go for an eternity. But this is a very popular lie from the devil that places no responsibility upon humans for determining the outcome for their lives. it also relieves all of the involvement of the spiritual enemy called Satan and reduces him to be a non-factor in our lives. This is exactly what Satan wants you to believe. This gives Satan free reign over your life and you will blame everything negative that happens to you on God. What a masterful deception this is.
We are about to explore verses in the Bible that teach us differently about the divinely delegated human responsibility that was given to us by a sovereign God. For example look at Hebrews:
Heb 6:4 For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost,
Heb 6:5 And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come,
Heb 6:6 If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.
There are literally many verses in the Bible that I could teach from today, but I will begin speaking about these for now. If a Christian can never be lost after being saved, then why did God write these verses of direct warning to all Christians? To be a partaker of the Holy Ghost is clearly a sign that these people being spoken of were once all Christians. But, by the time you get to verse 6 it says that they have “fallen away” (departed) from Christ and the Holy Spirit. Some Christians read the Bible without thinking about what is said by God. They will see a word like “if” and think that the word “if” means that it is not possible to fall away. But the Greek word translated as “If” (G102) in this verse could very easily have been translated as “When” so do not write it off and think that it cannot happen to you or to anyone else. Therefore, God says there is no further salvation available for them because they would have to crucify the Lord of Glory again and put Him to shame. If you do not understand these verses you better read, study and learn them very soon. These are very powerful words of warning written to ONLY the Church. They were not addressed to the lost unsaved world. If you believe you cannot fall away after you are saved or that it is impossible for this to occur, you may already be on the verge of being deceived. Because of ignorance, potential deception is more likely. This was the first and greatest responsibility given to us by God as a born again Christian believer and that is to remain or to stay a Christian. This means we don’t stray away and get lost from the goodness of God.
These verses list three specific things that you need to remain committed to. First, it says for you to partake of the Holy Ghost. Define the Word “Partake”! Is that God’s responsibility or your responsibility? If I sat a piece of chocolate cake in front of you and said “partake”. What am I asking you to do? To partake is clearly the freewill choice of every cake eater to choose to eat. This is the same for every Christian to receive the Spirit of Christ. Once you accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior the Holy Spirit comes inside and abides. To accept and receive the Holy Ghost implies the responsibility for keeping the Holy Ghost resident. I know that goes against what many people try to teach from other verses in the Bible. However, if I gave you $100 today, you could by our own choice throw it in the trash or you could put it in the bank to try to keep it safe. The choice would always be yours to do with whatever you have been given freely. Next it says to taste the word of God. This is not a onetime meal. This must be a continual everyday action of eating God’s Word to make your spirit strong.
When you eat your natural meals, who is it that is responsible for you eating and tasting? Does anyone force feed you or do you freely pick up the fork and do it yourself? How many physical meals do you eat a day? You better learn to eat the Word of God as much as you eat physical food. The physical food of this world is important, but the spiritual food of God is more eternally beneficial. Finally, these verses say to taste the powers of the world to come. This means that we can walk in the power of God right now and that this power is the same as that which we will possess then in that future world. Do you know you have this power right now? Perhaps you will recall what Romans 8:11 teaches us? In this verse God says the same power that raised Christ from the dead now dwells in us and that is a statement that should be believed.
There is an old saying that goes, “with great power comes great responsibility”. This saying goes along with the current state of many nations of the earth who are in possession of weapons of mass destruction that can cause many other people hurt or destruction. God’s power is greater than nuclear power. However, this is the kind of power and responsibility that God is relating to you that you have in the spiritual realm right now. Taste and see that the Lord is good (Ps 34:8) and that His mercy endures forever. These three verses were an introduction to basic Christian responsibilities for us to live by today right now. I’ll list these again later in the lesson for you to take note of them, but let’s move to another perspective to Christian Responsibility.
IS EVERYTHING GOD’S GOOD PLAN THAT HAPPENS TO YOU?
Rom 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
This is a very popular verse of scripture quoted in many churches today by many preachers. It is read at funerals, it is read for divorces, it is read in hospitals after car accidents, it is read at every negative event that occurs in the lives of any Christian believers to provide comfort and to try to justify a greater unknown sovereign plan and purpose of God for the evil that occurred. Because preachers in their ignorance cannot explain these negative and evil events, they attribute them to be for a higher purpose to explain them away. After all they have been taught in seminary that God is in ultimate control of everything that happens in the life of every believer and this is what they were brainwashed to think and believe. This belief gives them religious comfort, relief and solace and it relieves them from learning the truth or for any personal responsibility for what may have occurred that was negative. It is what I will call “A No Fault Religion” philosophy. In this philosophical view whatever happened in my life was certainly not my fault because God is sovereign and must have willed it to occur. What Christians are attempting to do is to take a portion of a verse in Romans and change it to say something that God does not say. This is a major mistake of Bible interpretation that many make. They take things out of context and they miss or ignore the conditions being given in order to qualify for God to cause everything to work out for their good.
Christians try to take a conditional promise of God and make it completely unconditional because of God’s sovereignty. However, this verse says that God will only cause all things to work together for your good if you 1). “love” God and if you are 2). “called” according to His purpose as two major conditions for receiving the promise. But, again people take this as personally including them automatically, but then if you ask them what they were called to do by God; most of them could not tell you. I am called to preach and teach the Word of God, and that is my calling and gifting. So I have a direct and personal answer to that question if you choose to ask me. Now the subject of “being called by God” is much broader than my simply example but this is still certainly a major part to the subject. Regardless of how your were called or what you are called to do, it is still a condition for God to cause all things to work together for your good. Do you understand this?
Also there is the fact that God says to those that “love” Him all things will work out for their good. Many will say I love God and then not understand what this means either. Love is much more than just saying some meaningless words. For example, remember in John 14:15 where Jesus said “If you love me you will keep my commandments”. so do you keep all of His commandment? If not then Jesus implied that you don’t love Him and therefore you don’t qualify for everything to be working together for your good. I hope and pray that you are examining yourself to see if you qualify.
These there is further conditions give to us by God. This verse is also in the context of the two previous verses that it goes along with. These verses are often ignored because they are not understood. The two previous verses are speaking about the personal prayer life of the believer. But this is just not any type of prayer, it is a very specific type of prayer being mentioned, and even though it does not tell you what that type of prayer is you need to figure it out in order to qualify for verse 28. If you do not understand what kind of prayer that is, I’m sorry I’m not going to teach it to you today in this lesson. Just realize if you do not understand it and cannot explain it to me, then you are not doing it and you do not qualify for verse 28 and I’ll leave it at that for now.
If Christians could automatically expect everything that happens to them to become a good thing from God, then why would there be so many other verses in the Bible that instruct us to do something else? It would seem to me that too many Christians are not using a balanced approach to understanding the Bible and that they are ignoring some very important verses in favor of other verses that they like better. I call those types of Christians to be “Trail Mix” Christians. They pick out the pieces of the trail mix they like and throw out the pieces of the trail mix they do not like. Let me give you a quick example of what God says for Christians to do that makes the Christian life conditional with personal responsibilities:
Jas 4:7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
My primary subject today is “Christian Responsibility vs. God’s Divine Responsibility”. Here is God speaking to every Christian with two important instructions. Where does it say that God will resist the devil for you? Where does it say that God will chase the devil away from you regardless of what you choose to do? Where does it say that God will force you to submit to Him? Can you read? Does this mean if you do not do these two things that God will still cause everything to work together for your good? I assume that this is exactly what many Christians want to believe. I personally do not believe that this is the case! I believe that all of God’s promises are always conditional and that you are required to follow His instructions in order to be successful in this life. Can you answer me this question; “Is obedience a factor in this life?” If obedience is a major factor, then doesn’t obedience denote human responsibility and even consequences for disobedience?
Isa 1:19 If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land:
Here is God giving us another clear conditional statement of promise. God says “IF” you do this and that you will get to eat the good of the land. Being obedient is one of the key determining factors to being successful in this life. The other is being “willing” to be obedient. In other words you can do what God says and be unwilling and God will tell you that you do not qualify because you failed in one key step. This is how the things of God work and if you do not believe it you can do without the good of the land. Here in James 4:7 God said first for you to submit your life totally and completely to Him. This is not that hard if you actually do it. I try to get up every morning and pray, “Not my will but yours be done today”. I tell God “I submit my will unto you this day”. I believe that praying and committing your ways to the Lord is the beginning of submitting to Him. Next, God says that you must resist the devil. Uh oh? That is a major problem for many Christians, isn’t it? How do you resist the devil if you do not ever see the devil? Have you ever seen the devil? What happens if you do not resist the devil? Are these words of warning with implied consequences? I think that will be a better series by itself so I will not get into how you resist the devil today. Just realize that these are two personal instructions that have attached responsibilities with them and implied consequences for not doing them. God is not going to do them for you, so you better learn how to do them for yourself. Also note that if you do not do them, then God cannot cause everything to work together for your good either. Since I’m in James, I’m going to stay here and give you another verse with personal responsibilities attached to it:
Jas 1:22 But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.
You see the Bible after telling you to submit to God and to resist the devil says for you to also be a doer of the Word of God. This implies that you must first read the Word of God, then that you study the Word of God, next you must understand the Word of God, and this is based upon the requirement that you remember the Word of God, then you must put the Word of God first place in your life and give it priority and then finally that you will actually do what the Word of God says to do. If you think you automatically do all of this, you are probably already deceived. There is nothing that I just mentioned to you that is automatic human behavior. These are all learned behavioral modifications that you must do to renew your mind to God’s new ways of doing things. God says you can deceive yourself simply by not being a doer of the Word, but you can see that being a doer of the Word requires a lot of effort on your part. Effort implies personal responsibility and again consequences for not participating. If you do not feel this way, then you are in trouble. There is also no way that you can do what you do not know personally. God says in Hosea 4:6, “My people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge”. This means your lack of knowing can cause many of the negative things to occur in your life that you could have avoided if you only knew how to avoid them. God is saying that all things do not work together to those of His people who do not know the Word of God and do it. Surely you can see why things have occurred in the lives of many people that were very negative and why. Do not think that something negative happening to you is the perfect plan of God. This is what Satan wants you to do. If you do not fight it or resist it and you simply roll over and accept it, you are easily defeated. Negative things can be caused by many things in this world. You might have forgotten to submit yourself unto God. You might have forgotten to resist the devil. You might have not been a doer of the Word of God in the area that you needed to know how to avoid that negative situation. There are really many more factors of Christian Responsibility but I have gone long enough for today. Here is a short list of a Christian’s responsibilities that I have covered today:
- Make an effort and commit to remain a Christian daily
- Partake of the Holy Spirit continually (Praying in the Spirit)
- Continually feed on the Word of God to strengthen your spirit
- Continually taste the Power of God
- Submit yourself unto God
- Resist the devil
- Read the Word of God
- Learn the Word of God
- Put the Word of God first place in your life
- Do the Word of God
- Be willing and obedient to God
These are some of the basic Christian Responsibilities for every one of us to do daily from today’s lesson to help us have positive outcomes in our life. If you do not understand them, then you need to learn them and find out what they mean. If you do not understand what these are, you are free to ask questions, because I at least believe that I understand enough to be a help to those who do not know them at all. What I am attempting to do is to teach Christians that they have a personal responsibility for what happens to them. It is not all up to God and God is not orchestrating everything that happens to you for His perfect plan. If God was doing that, there would be no need for Him to tell you to do anything. God gives us His word so that we can get to know Him personally, His ways, His character, His nature, His love, His grace, His Son Jesus Christ and His divine responsibility. Then God gives us His Word so that we can learn who we are in Christ, what He has given to us and what we are still required to do with His free gifts of grace. These are balanced Christian Responsibilities working with the Divine God Responsibilities in partnership. I will try to continue this series in the future. Thanks for taking the time to study the Bible with me today. God Bless!
Understanding How to Be Led By the Spirit of God! Your Introduction to the Good Shepherd! Part 1
(ver 1.4) This is Part 1 in a series of basic Bible lessons on the subject of Being Led by the Spirit of God. I have taught one introductory lesson to this series that you might want to start with and it is called “Recognizing the Voice of God“. There are many Christians in the world who do not understand spiritual things in the degree that is necessary to allow God to direct them into truth, peace, safety, prosperity and health. Of course because they do not understand how God speaks, they assume God is in control of everything that happens in their life. So when positive things do not happen to them, they often conclude that it must be the will of God for them to be experiencing these negatives. Or some think that it is just God’s way of teaching them, testing them or correcting them. There are more erroneous doctrines in some churches than there are Bible based doctrines. Jesus looked at the Pharisees and said “Your traditions have made the Word of God ineffectual and worthless”. That was my paraphrase of a verse in the N.T. that actually says:
Mar 7:13 Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye.
We can look up the Greek Word definition for the word translated as “none effect” and see that it means to invalidate. It was a common practice of religious people in Jesus’ day to take the Word of God and to add to it or to replace it with their own rules and manmade doctrines. Whenever you do this according to Jesus you invalidate God’s word. Do you understand how foolish that is? Yet people still do it today in almost every church denomination. Teaching things that are not found in the Bible gives people the wrong impression that what is happening to them right now is the will of God for them. They can pray about it and ask God to do something, but if it does not change things that they are facing, they simply think that it is up to them to stay humble and to accept it. After all you just never know what God has in mind? The ways of God are just so far above ours that we cannot comprehend them. That is what many churches teach. That is also a very poor reality to endure when it is not what God said in the Bible at all. I believe God says His Church will go out victorious and not defeated. So you have to decide very fast, what does “victory” mean to you? Does it mean poverty, sickness, depression, despair and sadness? I believe these are the signs of being defeated and not of victory. I never saw a victorious sports team fall down in agony and despair. They are always jubilant and shouting with great happiness. Yes, we will all have none of these negative things when we get to heaven, but who says we are to endure them now in the mean time? These are the doctrines of men that are taught in many churches that ignore God and the Bible. I call it a “Mother Theresa” Christian philosophy. I do not mean to criticize Mother Theresa, but people who look up to her as an example for Christianity; I have a major problem with them. Sure it looks good to many on the surface, a woman going around the world feeding the poor and the hungry and she does not own even a good pair of shoes herself. That is an extreme religious concept not found in the Bible, to do without so that others can have. If everyone would suddenly become Christians, we would all be homeless and shoeless people. She gives away all of the good shoes to others and takes only what others do not want. That is just not what Jesus did and Jesus was our example and not mother Theresa. I like what Jesus says to us:
Joh 13:15 For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you.
Jesus said to us that He has set before us an example to follow. Therefore we need to learn what Jesus did and did not do in order to learn what this example is that we are supposed to be following. People have tried to say that Jesus owned nothing and that He gave away everything and these are two erroneous doctrines of men that promote the poverty Mother Theresa mentality. Do you recall that Jesus had a man of His 12 disciples that carried the money purse? Judas was the treasurer and there was so much money in the bag that he could take some of it out and people would not notice it was missing. Then when Jesus was crucified, His robe that He was wearing was so valuable that the soldiers gambled over who would possess it. They refused to rip it up into pieces because it was a seamless fabric construction. These were the types of robes that were worn only by wealthy men and the rulers of the country. That is why they wanted it as a complete garment piece. Neither of these two stories fit the Mother Theresa philosophy of poverty. When Jesus saw that the crowd was hungry in the Gospels, what did Jesus do? Did Jesus give away all of His food to feed them? No that is not what Jesus did. Jesus sought for what the crowd had to give him to bless and then He multiplied that to feed everyone. Someone in the crowd had to give first or no one would have eaten. These are just some of the examples that Jesus gave us to follow. When was the last time you saw a Mother Theresa do any of these? If you say never, then she was NOT following Jesus’ examples.
What God do you serve? Are you serving the God of the Bible or the God of someone’s religion? I’m sorry if I’m offending anyone today that is not my intention. Today’s subject is being led by the Spirit of God and we need to learn how to do this if we are to understand that a Mother Theresa type of God is not the God of the Bible or the Jesus of the Bible. Let me give you another example of what Jesus said:
Mat 11:5 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.
Here is Jesus speaking to the people of Israel and proclaiming He is anointed to change their current circumstances and situations around. Jesus specifically names three diseases as being cured. Then Jesus says the dead are raised up to life and finally He ends the verse with the poor have the Gospel proclaimed to them. What is this Gospel? The Greek Word translated as “gospel” literally means “Good News”. What is good news to a poor man? This is really not that complicated, but people twist the word of God to say things that it does not say. First, look back at the context of what is said about the sicknesses and the diseases. Isn’t every diseased situation turned around 180 degrees to the opposite of what they had. The blind now see! The filthy lepers are now clean! The deaf can now hear. The dead are made to live. But, all of sudden we want to say the poor are not made rich. I will tell you very plainly that if every other situation is turned completely around, that means it applies to every situation named. If you do not do this you are being selective in your interpretation of the Bible. I believe that according to this verse God says that “you should not be living in poverty”. Uh oh? I’m sure I’m going to hear about that from somebody who disagrees with me. Maybe after you learn how to be led by the Spirit of God, you will see that He will lead you from where you are now to where you should be. I am also not preaching that you will become a millionaire or a billionaire. That is not what I am saying, I am just saying there is a great deal of room for improvement and God will help you turn around to get there if you learn to listen to Him. So much for my introduction, let’s get into being led by the Spirit of God:
Rom 8:14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
Here is my foundational scripture for this entire series of lessons. This verse is a conditional verse. In other words it is valid for only those who qualify for it. It clearly tells me that not everyone is a son of God; only those that have chosen to be led by God are His children. To be led by the Spirit of God, means many things to many people and few people actually understand the concept of being led. First let me say if you can be led, you can also choose not to be led. Uh oh? We have a major problem developing for people who teach predestination and fatalism. People who teach these erroneous doctrines obviously ignore or explain away verses like these in the Bible that are clearly conditional statements which convey human responsibility and accountability as being the determining factors to if they qualify to be called a son of God.
The concept of God leading His people brings to mind many other subjects that are related. The concept of a shepherd leading his sheep comes to my mind immediately. We should know that in the book of John the tenth chapter that Jesus calls himself the “Good Shepherd” or the “Shepherd” approximately four times. You need to read this chapter in its entirety if you have not done so recently. The shepherd concept is the concept of how God leads His people with His Spirit. A shepherd will always lead the sheep by going before them with his staff and calling to his sheep to follow him to the green pastures or to the still waters (Ps 23). This is a directly related subject to how the Holy Spirit will speak to you to ask you to follow Him. In order to know that God leads, you must first recognize the fact that God speaks and then that He speaks to you. Wow, that is a tough concept for many Christians. There are literally hundreds of times recorded in the Bible that God is said to speak directly to a man. You can see God speaking to Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Elijah and on and on I could go. I guess people are struggling to think that God still speaks today and that God will more specifically speak to them. I am here to tell you today that if you are a born again Christian, God will speak to you in order to fulfill His word. God promises to lead His people and He does this with His voice. But, do not jump to the wrong conclusions that this was or is with an audible voice. We will get to that later in this series.
Joh 10:4 And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice.
Here is a basic confirmation for what I just taught you. This verse tells you exactly how God will lead you. God will go before you and guide you into the path that you need to go by speaking directly to you. If you are His sheep, then Jesus says you will know His voice and be able to recognize it. So if you have never heard from God, I would check to make sure that you are one of His sheep first. How do you know you are one of His sheep? There is a specific requirement in the Bible and that is for you to follow. I have a webpage dedicated to knowing you are His so if you do not know for sure you can know for sure today by reading and following the instructions given. Then determine if you are listening to hear His voice. When you learn to recognize His voice you can begin to follow Him because you will associate God’s character and His ways to His voice. People will only follow Him if they want to follow Him. This is the major problem with why many Christians are not being led; they do not understand the character or ways of God. If God was not good, or was not loving, or was not feeding them and protecting them, then why would anyone want to follow Him? Many churches teach about a God of judgment and condemnation and thus people are reluctant to be led by someone who is out to cause them to have cancer or cause them to be poor or cause them to do without even the basics of life. Maybe I should have taught on the character of God first, but hopefully for most of my readers they already understand the goodness of God.
Today’s lesson is just the introduction to the subject of God still leads and how God leads His people. God leads by a Sheepfold principle of Shepherd management. God will speak and show the way, but God will never force you to follow. Wow, that is so important I want to say it again. You have a choice to make to whether you follow or do not follow Him and His voice. That further means that you have the choice to either hear, or not to hear His voice. That also means you have the responsibility to understand that He will lead you, then to learn to recognize your shepherd’s voice, to know His character, His ways, His intentions and His love for His sheep. It is only then that you will be trusting and willing to go blindly walking behind Him to where He wants to take you. Faith and trust are two key factors to being led by the Spirit of God. God may not tell you where you are going, He may just say follow me. If you trust Him you will listen, obey and follow. If you do not trust Him then you have a greater problem of not knowing Him.
Here is my Top 10 list of things to learn from the basics of today’s lesson:
- The Spirit of God always leads His people.
- God uses a Shepherd Guidance principle to lead His people.
- God will go before His people and show them the way calling them by name.
- People are responsible to listen for their Shepherd’s voice. In other words you do not know exactly what will be said or when it will be told to you until you hear the directions.
- People are responsible to know and to recognize His voice.
- People are required not to follow the other voices that do not come from the Shepherd.
- People are responsible to obey and to follow His voice.
- People will only follow a Shepherd when they trust that He will not hurt them.
- Thus we as Christians walk by faith and not by sight based upon our trust in His Word.
- God may not tell you where you are going so you must follow Him by using your faith and trust in only Him.
As you can see from my list, God places the majority of the responsibility of what people do to be led by the Spirit upon us, the sheep. You can always count on God’s faithfulness and His goodness to lead you, but after that it is all up to you if you choose to follow Him. God will not tie a rope around your neck and drag you behind Him. That is a manmade doctrine of predestination. Once saved always saved is another concept that does not fit with this shepherd and sheep analogy taught by Jesus. The responsibility of following the Shepherd is always placed on the sheep and not the Shepherd. God is not going to use sheep dog angels to keep anyone from straying away from the flock. Any sheep can walk away from the flock and follow the voice of any stranger at any time. Any sheep can be deceived and devoured by the wolves while they are not within the safety of the protecting Shepherd. These are God’s words and not mine, if you do not understand them you can pretend to stay in your man made doctrines and hope that you have not already been deceived into following a wolf in sheep’s clothing. I would suggest that you learn to listen for the voice of the “Good Shepherd” and begin to follow Him instead of your manmade doctrines.
I’ll end this lesson with a warning. You do not seek for voices to lead you. That is not what I am saying. There are many spiritual voices in the world that can lead you down many different wrong paths that end in destruction. Your number one goal is to get to know your Shepherd by reading in His word to find His character. When you see the moral fiber of God is goodness and love you begin to see that His ways are different than Satan’s ways. Jesus said that “Satan has come to kill, steal and to destroy you”, but then Jesus your shepherd said “I am come that you might have life and that life more abundantly”. One voice is death and the other is life. This is what God said in Deuteronomy “I have set before your life and death, blessing ad cursing, therefore choose life that you and your seed may live”. You are therefore not seeking for a voice, you are seeking for the giver of Life and He will speak to you. There is a major difference in what you seek and who you seek. If you seek first the Kingdom of heaven, Jesus said all these other things would be added to you. So you are only seeking to know the Good Shepherd, His love, His Mercy, His Compassion, His Grace and His Power. When you seek Him then He will speak to you and you will learn His voice. Spend time in the Bible and study to learn His Marvelous Ways. Spend time in prayer to know Him personally, then Be Still and know that He is God to listen for Him to speak. Until next time, God Bless You!
If you would like to continue reading in this series, you may go to “Part 2“.
Understanding Marriage, Can Our Marriage Continue Throughout Eternity?
(Ver 1.1) This will be an extremely advanced Bible study about a subject that many married Christians have thought on at one time or the other. Today, I want to focus in on a challenging question that I had presented to me from a reader. It was an excellent question and I appreciate getting stimulating questions form people. She wondered if her marriage between her and her husband would still be able to continue after this life ends. She told me that they loved each other greatly and did not want the marriage to ever end. She had read some of my other lessons where I taught some potentially troubling things that concerned her future marriage to her husband and thus the reason for the question. I do want to say up front that I admire this couple’s resolve and dedication to each other. It is a highly commendable attitude to take hold of and to keep. Anyone going into a marriage should be fully committed to that marriage for however long it might be and for whatever negative things that might occur. Recently on the national news a very prominent Christian TV personality was caught cheating on his wife. This couple after several years of counseling and help from God has decided to remain together and are attempting to rebuild the trust that was lost. While I do not admire the actions of the man to cheat, I do admire that he sees fit to change and get it right and for his wife’s ability to forgive. So this is a very hard question to answer without potentially offending someone or causing anyone to become discouraged, but I will try to do the best that I know how from my current level of knowledge of the Bible and then I’ll let you decide what you want to believe. Let’s first start talking about what marriage is.
Mal 2:14 Yet ye say, Wherefore? Because the LORD hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously: yet is she thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant.
Jer 31:32 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD:
You can surely see from these verses in Malachi and Jeremiah that God says a marriage is defined to be a covenant in His eyes. A Bible blood covenant is a legally binding contract between the husband and the wife based upon the Word of God. God told Israel, that I made a covenant with you when I took you out of Egypt and I was your husband. That would make Israel His wife in covenant with God. These are very clear definitions to what a covenant and a marriage are. A covenant and a marriage are clearly synonymous terms for the same thing. When a Christian couple unites in covenant marriage they become “one flesh” according to the Word of God and the law of marriage. You can read this fact in several places in the Bible, but the first time it is mentioned is when Adam and Eve are created in Genesis 2. The body of the wife was taken from the body of her husband and God says they are one flesh (Gen 2:24). This is God’s natural law of marriage covenant between a male and a female and this law is still in effect in the New Testament (Mat 19:5, Mark 10:8, Rom 7:2, Eph 5:31). You do understand that Adam and Eve were created before the Old Covenant. So anything that happens before the old covenant is still in effect after the old covenant has ended. In the eyes of God if you marry someone and consummate that marriage, you are now one flesh that cannot be legally separated for any reason except two Bible exceptions that are given to us by God. God gives us only one legitimate reason for divorce and this is infidelity (Mat 5:32, Mat 19:9). Divorce is the legal end to a marriage covenant contract and God says that this is only permissible if your spouse is unfaithful. If your spouse is adulterous and sleeps around, you are free to divorce them without fear of punishment, legal recourse or retribution from God. This is what the Bible says, so if you divorced for any other reasons you will have some future issues with God. I’m not going to go there anymore since divorce is not my primary subject. The only other legal end to a marriage covenant is when one spouse dies a physical death. According to God’s word that marriage is over.
Rom 7:2 For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband.
According to this verse it is very clear that God says the law of marriage is null and void when death occurs. As long as you both are alive and neither is unfaithful you are bound by the law of marriage and God. But, as soon as your spouse dies, then you are not bound to that legal covenant any more. We can recognize that death is a legal separating force for the termination of covenants. This is actually a very important Bible concept that I might not get into fully in this lesson. This concept is introduced when Ruth says to Naomi I will go where you go and your people will be my people. Then Ruth 1:17 says until death part thee from me. This is a popular wedding vow phrase that many have spoken when they were married. The bride and the groom were promising to be faithful until death do we part. You can read about this in some of my other lessons of why God did this and how He used it to terminate His covenant with Lucifer. I want you to see the Greek definition for the word translated as “loosed” found in Romans 7:2:
From G2596 and G691; to be (render) entirely idle (useless), literally or figuratively: – abolish, cease, cumber, deliver, destroy, do away, become (make) of no (none, without) effect, fail, loose, bring (come) to nought, put away (down), vanish away, make void.
It would seem to me that this word is a very strong definition for the termination of a marriage covenant. You can read in the definition “vanish away”, “make void”, “render idle”, “abolish”, “cease”, “destroy” and you can clearly see that there is really no other way to take these statements other than literally. A death when it occurs in a marriage covenant represents a separating force that renders your previous obligations ineffective, useless and vain. So while you would like to think that your marriage is eternal you must take the words of the most intelligent being (God) to be a greater witness to what actually occurs. If you choose to ignore God’s words for what you want to believe it does not cause God’s words to fail or not to come to pass.
I heard a minister say once that he and his wife had made a covenant to stay together in heaven. They enjoyed each other so much that they could not bear to part like my reader. While he did not give any scriptures to back this promise, I’m totally convinced that it might be a possibility for them in some degree. You see I do not know of any scripture that says you cannot speak to others in heaven and establish relationships or friendships. This would further mean if you can speak with someone then you can do other things with that person as well, like walk the streets of gold, eat, fellowship, or whatever. While Jesus was on the earth, He constantly said “According to your faith…” and “As you have believed…”. Jesus seemed to emphasize the faith and beliefs of the people to be a determining factor to what happened to them on the earth. Is faith still a determining factor in heaven? Is how you believe still a defining influence to what you get throughout eternity? That is an excellent question to consider. I personally believe that God would not have gone to such extensive efforts to produce a people of faith, if faith was not a future eternal gift to possess and use. Here is a Bible verse that tends to give that impression also:
1Co 13:13 And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.
God says that there “abides” faith, hope and love and God seems to indicate that these will continue forever. Faith is mentioned first, but God says Love is the greatest of these three. Since the Bible says that God is Love, we know that love is an eternal concept that will never end. If Love will be a dominant characteristic in heaven then faith will surely be there also. The Greek word translated as “abide” means “to continue”, “to be present”, “to endure” and “to stay in a given place”. This word seems to indicate that faith will be present in heaven and if it is like it was on the earth, what you believe is usually always what you get out of life, good, bad or indifferent.
So I have concluded that it might be entirely possible to remain in a relationship in heaven if that is what you both believed for. Now the complexity factor is increased because of this additional emphasis which you must place on the Bible. Bible faith or beliefs are always based upon what God tells us in the Bible. If God says anything is for you, then you can believe it is yours and possess it. Then there is inverse truth to that law which is that you cannot believe God for something that violates His Word and expect to get it. Therefore, if you believe for something that is sinful, hurtful, harmful, lustful, or a violation of the Word of God you will probably not get what you were expecting. Let’s say a man wants to live with a woman in eternity that was another man’s wife on the earth, would that be permissible or even remotely possible? You can begin to see the complexity that is involved in multiple personalities wanting the same thing and what is the resolution? I guess what we need to do is figure out what the Bible actually says on the subject and then believe for that. In our world, people marry and divorce like it is no big deal. There are many people in the world who have married multiple times. Some have done this because their spouses have all died, but others have done it because they thought the grass was greener on the other side of the hill. What happens when a person in our world is married multiple times and then they are saved and go to be with the Lord? Jesus actually was presented this hypothetical question in the Gospels and here is this story:
Mat 22:24 Saying, Master, Moses said, If a man die, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother.
It is very interesting to note that the Law of Moses does not tell a woman to remain unmarried if her husband has died and she has had no children. In fact the Law that God gave to Moses actually commands the opposite. It is interesting to note that God is not opposed to being married multiple times and you should think about that. It is more important to God why you have been married multiple times and not if you have been married multiple times. Here in this story the woman’s dead husband’s younger brother is supposed to marry her and raise up children for his dead brother. This means to have sex with her and give her children. So we can clearly see that God is saying something can’t we? Now the additional complexity comes in if they have already had children, then there is not a requirement to remarry and it is permissible for her children to take care of her in her old age. The law was intended to give a childless widow an option that would cause her to not stoop to prostitution to feed herself. I believe that God was looking out for the widow in this law and that it has spiritual meanings attached to it that I cannot get into today.
Mat 22:25 Now there were with us seven brethren: and the first, when he had married a wife, deceased, and, having no issue, left his wife unto his brother:
So in the hypothetical question being presented to Jesus there are said to be seven brothers and one woman. The first brother dies and leaves his wife to his brother, like the Law of Moses so states.
Mat 22:26 Likewise the second also, and the third, unto the seventh.
They continue to go through the list of brothers in ordered succession and each has had their turn to be married to the same woman in this world. This is one woman who had seven different husbands. Surely you have read this in the Bible before? But, did you understand it?
Mat 22:27 And last of all the woman died also.
Finally the woman dies and is buried and then what? This is where we are today in this lesson of what happens next after this life? The men that were standing with Jesus are about to ask him a question. Here is the question finally presented after the long background discourse:
Mat 22:28 Therefore in the resurrection whose wife shall she be of the seven? for they all had her.
Jesus was being questioned by a group of Jews who did not believe in the resurrection from the dead. The Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection, so they were trying to get Jesus to see their point of view by asking a hypothetical question about it as a trick. The Pharisees did believe in the resurrection based upon words, from something that they had read in the Old Testament it gave them the impression that death was not the end of the journey. So the Sadducees ask Jesus which husband will this woman belong to since she was “one flesh” with all of them. Wow, that is a tough, tough question to answer unless you are God who knows how to handle hard questions.
Mat 22:29 Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God.
So here we go with the response of the creator of the universe and this is a potentially explosive answer that can be interpreted many wrong ways. If you look at just the first part of the entire response you could say that these guys did not understand the scriptures and Jesus was saying there was no resurrection coming. But, that is not what Jesus said at all. Jesus literally said “You are in error not understanding the scriptures or the power of God”. This verse actually gives us some tremendous insight into two things. The answer to their question was clearly found in the Old Testament, if we can see it and understand it. The next item to consider is that the Power of God is involved in the solution to the mystery. Jesus was in effect saying if you understood how powerful God was, you would not be asking such a foolish natural question. Wow, that is tough right there to handle isn’t it? It almost sounds like my reader’s question of can I still be married to my husband in heaven? Would Jesus give the same answer to my reader’s question as He did to the one that these guys asked? I do not know for sure how to answer that. I just know that God says “With Him ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE”. So I’m not sure if I helped or hurt with that last statement. Let’s continue through the answer that Jesus gives us and see what else He has to say:
Mat 22:30 For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven.
Here we have a very interesting statement where Jesus continues His answer to the men’s question. Did you see what Jesus said? Jesus definitely said there is a resurrection coming, it has not occurred yet, so it is a future event within God’s calendar. Next, Jesus said after the resurrection that people will neither marry or be given in marriage. Let’s stop there and think about that part of the statement. The Greek word translated as “marry” means to wed and applies to either sex, male or female. God says males and females will not marry after they are raised in the resurrection. Then the Greek word “given in marriage” is a term only for females when a daughter is given to her future husband to become his bride. These are very familiar topics and subjects that we are all familiar with in this world. We see this happening all around us. But, Jesus clearly says that this is not what will happen after the resurrection occurs. The question then shifts to why? Does it mean it is not possible or just not permitted or could it be a third option that you have not considered? You see in the world today you see things from a very narrowly focused point of view. What will change after the resurrection occurs? Is it possible that you will not have the same desires and your focus will experience a transformation which will permit you to see things completely different? Read this verse very carefully:
1Co 13:12 For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.
There seems to be some clues in the Bible that we do not see things very clearly in this world. In other words our spiritual vision is clouded and our perspectives are skewed. I believe what God is saying to us is that what we hold as valuable in this world, when reflected on could become very minor to us when viewed correctly in the next world. Think about this statement very closely and consider the words written there for you. If you can only see a small part of this world and only know a minor slice of the greater truth that will be revealed later, how can you make a determination now what you will want in the next spiritual dimension? Your desire to stay married with your present spouse might just change dramatically once you see the awesome power of God. Your spouse might be the center of your world today, but in the presence of God they could fade and become much less important to you. I do not mean to say that you will not love them, but according to this verse in first Corinthians you will see them more clearly along with God.
I can almost feel the disappointment that my reader no doubt might be feeling right now. But, let’s continue with the answer that Jesus is speaking of in his response to marriage after the resurrection. After Jesus says we will not marry, Jesus says something else that is very profound; he says “we will be as the angels of God”. We can clearly understand from this statement that angels pre-existed man. Angels were not created to look like us; we were created to look like them. But, how are the angels of God? Jesus implies that angels do not marry each other either. The implication is that they could marry but that this is not the design of God for them to marry. You can take this to mean that there must be both male and female angels can’t you? If there were not any female angels then God would not be able to compare us to them. We could never be like them, if there were only males. Do you understand that? You see when I read in Genesis where the “sons of God” (angels) had sex with the daughters of Adam (women) on the earth and created a race of giants, I wondered if there were any female angels. It is clear that God says there are male angels. If God created male angels with male sexual organs and no female angels it would not make any logical sense to me. I guess I’m getting off of the subject somewhat, but it is a very fascinating concept to consider. I have to conclude that if people who are resurrected can become like the angels and female humans are included in this group there has to be female angels that exist or they would not really be like anyone else. The major thing to learn from this statement is that after the resurrection, we will be like the angels of God. Whatever they do, we can do, whatever they are we are very similar, however they live, we will live also. Please remember this and I will try to talk more about the angels later. However, Jesus is not through answering the question and we must see the rest of the answer and put it together correctly:
Mat 22:31 But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying,
Here is Jesus beginning to give us another very deep revelation of the spiritual realm. As you can clearly read, Jesus has not finished speaking about the resurrection. This next statement is a direct revelation that is very powerful to know:
Mat 22:32 I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.
Wow, this is a hard saying from God. It will go over your head if you are not careful to observe the words that are being communicated on the subject of the resurrection. What was Jesus saying with this statement? The words of the prophet were written many hundreds of years after the physical deaths of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. God is saying that at the time the prophet wrote these words, these three men were not dead. These words confounded the Sadducees who were listening and put them to silence. You see I have had several very ignorant commenters try to teach me about what happens after physical death occurs and they should have noticed what Jesus just said before they try to tell me what they think. Some have said the soul and spirit sleep and do not know anything until the time of resurrection. Some of them have tried to say that the human life is ended when a person dies and there is nothing else for them. But, God Himself says that they did not die and they are alive and the resurrection has not yet occurred. Here is one of the most important things you should learn from today’s lesson about spiritual things. If you are a Christian and your body dies in this world, the Bible says your spirit departs and is present with the Lord (Php 1:23). Jesus is saying that physical death is not the end; it is only a change of address. Death is a departure from the physical realm and an entrance into the spiritual realm. Did you understand what I just said? If you did not you should go and read it until you do understand it or just ask me some questions about the parts that you do not understand. What you need to see is that Jesus when speaking to these men on the earth said God is the God of the living and not the dead. God said Abraham, Isaac and Jacob who had died physically hundreds of years earlier, were not spiritually dead but were called alive. Let me give you a verse that I alluded to earlier about changing your of perspective after you die:
1Co 2:9 But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.
What I see from studying the Bible are people’s desires, viewpoints and perspectives are purely based upon what they know and have experienced up until this point in time. In other words your favorite food might be apple pie on the earth, but who knows what it will be when you get to heaven since God could have things there that you have never experienced. People think that because the love found in their current family has been so special and real to them, that it cannot get any better so I will be happy if I just have this throughout eternity. However, God says in 1 Corinthians 2:9 that we have no idea or clue to the great and awesome things that He has planned for those who love Him. I tried to tell you this before, but when you are standing on the streets of gold surrounded by mansions and an innumerable company of angels with the awesome light coming from the throne of God, if you still think and feel the same way that you do today, then God has failed in you knowing Him.
I heard a minister teach about a vision of heaven that he had once where he appeared there and saw things that were so amazing that they are difficult to describe in human terms. He saw spiritual things and even people he knew and talked to them. One of his relatives a sister was there and he got to speak to her. She had died a number of years earlier and she asked him questions about her family that she left there was doing and I think these questions shocked him. You see she did not know what was happening on the earth in the physical realm so she had to ask questions about it to her brother who had just came from there to visit. Her brother did not tell her that her husband had remarried but, said that they were all doing fine. You see people in heaven do not see things the same way and they do not care about the natural realm in what you ate today and what we are wearing or even who you are married to. People in heaven do not care what kind of car you are driving or what kind of house you are living in. Things in the natural realm are very unimportant to people in the spiritual realm. It is a complete opposite perspective to what people on the earth are focused in on. Those in heaven only care if you know Jesus and are saved and that you are growing up spiritually. The eternal things are so much more important than the natural things of this world, that our perspectives are totally different after we leave here. Here is a verse that certainly applies to what I am trying to say to you today:
1Co 7:34 There is difference also between a wife and a virgin. The unmarried woman careth for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit: but she that is married careth for the things of the world, how she may please her husband.
God is comparing two women in this verse and it clearly says there is a major difference between them. But, do not take it out of context or try to say that God is saying you should not get married. You see if people did not get married and have children, there would be no harvest for God to come back to get. God is simply showing us how a perspective changes when you are married. You see things differently than someone who is not married. You can also take this into the spiritual realm comparison between someone who is spiritual versus someone who is naturally minded. If you are focused on Jesus, then you want to please Him and if you are married your focus is shifted to your spouse. When you get to heaven, who do you want your focus to be on? What do you think God wants your focus to be on?
So I am not saying today that you will not love your spouse when you get to heaven. I’m not saying you cannot spend a lot of time with your former spouse in heaven. I am just saying that in heaven you will see things more clearly than you do today. You will be able to see God for the first time there and you will know Him better than you have ever known Him. I personally believe that the experience of heaven will truly be overwhelming. I believe God has some awesome things prepared for us and when we begin to see them, the past will become just what it was, a spec of inconsequential meaning that pales to the definition of an eternity with God. The human mind cannot fully comprehend infinite and eternal concepts of time. No doubt we will be able to do things in eternity that we never imagined in our short life span on the earth. So I have much more to say on this subject, but I have gone long enough today. I’ll give you a list of key points from today’s lesson about marriage before and after the resurrection.
- Marriage is a blood covenant union between a man and a woman.
- Divorce is not permitted except for infidelity.
- There is a physical resurrection coming where we get a new glorified body.
- Just because you die physically does not mean you are not alive spiritually. You exist just not here in the physical realm.
- After you die physically, your marriage in the natural realm is over.
- This does not mean Christians will not know each other in the spiritual realm in fact you will definitely carry over your memories and experiences in this life into the next.
- We will see things clearly then and not be limited in our perspective as we are now.
- Jesus said in the next realm we will:
- Not marry
- Not be given in marriage
- Be as the angels in heaven
I see marriage, children and families as natural things that God has created for us to teach us about spiritual things. If we did not have these things we would not be able to understand the future spiritual reality that we will soon all experience with Him. So my reader asked me if her marriage could continue and this is a difficult question to attempt to answer today. I hope I have not disappointed anyone in my answer with what the Bible says. I do not believe that you will be disappointed after you get to heaven in any degree. There are many things that you do not know yet, so keep learning them and you will see things more and more clearly as we approach Him who is calling us to a greater and higher ability to see.
Understanding the Brotherly Love of the Lord in the Family of God!
(Ver 1.1) Today is a lesson to me because I am challenged at times with turning the other cheek when people write me hateful self-righteous comments on my website, my flesh wants to strike back, but my spirit feels compassion and love for them. This is a very constant internal struggle that we are all faced with over the course of our lives. This is a battle of our wills, between what our flesh wants and what our spirit wants to do and as long as we live on the earth this is a never ending cycle. Satan is bent upon getting real Christians to come out of the spiritual dimension and to get them back into the physical fight with our brothers and sisters but, we must learn that there is a higher path and ground to stand on. So when a commenter left me a message yesterday telling me I’m not a Christian, my flesh wanted to write them back and tell them they were a self-righteous idiot to stand in the seat of judgment against a fellow Christian. They didn’t know me, so they had no idea what I was or was not. They obviously just read some words on a web-site and I guess I didn’t believe like they did so they have concluded I don’t know God. Wow, I find that attitude very humorous. People can act so foolishly and not even know it. The Bible says in Isaiah 5:20 “Woe to you who call evil good and good evil”. In the very next verse in Isaiah God says “Woe to you that are wise in your own eyes”. In other words God calls someone who judges incorrectly and raises their own self higher than others, a person who is in jeopardy of being judged by God.
So rather than doing what my flesh wants to do today, I will teach on love towards your brother. In doing this I will feed my spirit on the right things to do and build up myself to become stronger in this area. You see I technically do not know if my commenter was my brother or not, but I will give them the benefit of a doubt since they were reading a Christian’s blog about Advanced Spiritual Bible study.
Rom 12:10 Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another;
To be kind means that you have the opportunity to not be kind at times. It would seem that this occurs more often than you might think. People can be easily misunderstood; their words can be taken incorrectly very easily. Reading someone’s writing is not like hearing a person’s voice where you can pick up on voice changes, inflections, sarcasm, humor and emphasized or deemphasized expressions or whatever. I have found that writing online is probably harder than just talking to someone in person because of these challenges. So while I do not intend to offend anyone, I know sometimes I do. The term translated as “kind affection” is a Greek word that is interesting to note in this verse. The word means an “emotional cherishing or fondness of a family member”. Did you know I was in your family that is if you are a Christian? Obviously if you are not a Christian you are not in my family which is the family of the Most High God. I am in the family of Jesus Christ and I know this for a fact whether you do or not. Did you know that God has a spiritual family? Christians need to learn this first and then learn how to treat their fellow family members with kindness.
Here in this verse we have another word that is translated as love, but is a different type of love. The Greek word “philadelphia” is the word that is translated as “brotherly love”. Brotherly love is a “fraternal love” of your family again. If you did not know that there are different types of love in the Bible you should do a study on that subject. Most intelligent people understand that you love your wife differently than you love your sister. Unless your sister happens to be your wife, like Abraham’s wife was. In John 3:16 it says “God so loved the world that He gave…”. In John 3:16 the Greek word for love is “agape”. This word in John 3:16 is the God kind of love where God loved us while we were even sinners and died for us when we did not deserve it, earn it, or ever could. The Bible tells us that God is “Agape” in 1 John 4:8. It does not say that God has Agape, it says He is Agape. Then if you are a Christian this Agape is now a part of your spirit. Agape is an unconditional God kind of love that every Christian possesses in their spirits. However, getting “Agape” out to the external is a different subject entirely. Philadelphia is similar but yet different. It is kind of like the saying you can choose your friends but you cannot choose your relatives. Well sometimes your natural relatives can be the most challenging to love, so it is in the spiritual family of God also. In the real world you can walk away from someone being hateful, but if this is your brother doing this at the family dinner, then you have an opportunity to overcome the same internal challenge that I have been going through today. Do you retaliate or do you try to smile and say something kind. Wow, that is a bigger challenge than you can imagine.
Next, in this verse it says “in honor”. This is an interesting concept. This word in the Greek means “something valuable” or “a great price paid”. This word in 1 Peter 2:7 is used to describe Jesus Christ as being the “precious” stone that the builders rejected. This is the exact same Greek word used in Romans 12:10 as “honor”. Anything that is “precious” in the eyes of God should be precious to you also. I believe that God is saying to treat others as being precious as you are. Wouldn’t it be a nicer church if people would just do what God said? I hope and pray that someday they will become a doer of the word of God and not just a hearer only. The last phrase in this verse Romans 12:10 says to “prefer one another”. This is another amazing truth that is very profound. This Greek word translated as “preferring” means to “lead the way for others”. Wow, is that a strong statement. So obviously when someone hits you verbally and you want to hit them back, God instructs us to become an example to them so that they can be directed into the right path. I use to have a sign in my office that said “He who leads when no one follows, only takes a walk”. So today I am attempting to take a few people on the internet down a path of brotherly love and I am hoping someone will learn to follow.
1Co 11:1 Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.
I’m not Paul and I’m certainly not Jesus, but I’m trying to follow their examples. The Christian way is a complex life style that can be simplified if you approach your existence using God’s words to guide you into the right things to do. Because people do not know the Bible they do not follow the Bible. God says in Hosea 4:6, “My people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge”. Instead of getting the right knowledge from God, a lot of the time people are deceived into a distracted priority for a lesser way of learning and doing. I am attempting to come up to a higher spiritual dimension today and to set an example of what to do when someone calls you names unjustly. This will probably not be the last time that someone does this to me, so this will probably not be the last time that I write about love on this website. I trust that those of you, who can see the difference, you have some understanding in what kind of spiritual battle I have been going through today. Now that I read the Bible about love and looked up the definitions, reminding myself of the truth, I have a better and stronger resolve to do the words of God towards others. So if you have been a faithful reader of this website, I apologize for writing a Bible lesson directly and mostly at myself. I hope that you will display some grace towards the things that we probably all face at one time or the other and to my brother who left me this hateful comment, I will tell you that I love you anyway and I will pray that you will do the same in the future. God Bless!
Understanding How To Be Thankful in a Thankless World!
(Ver 1.1) We are living in a day when many are not thankful for anything. Teaching children when they are young to be thankful is a difficult assignment which too many parents ignore. When I was a child being raised in the south, many parents taught their kids to have manners. They would say Yes ma’am, No ma’am, Yes sir, No sir, please and thank you and if they didn’t their parents would correct it swiftly. This seems to be a lost skillset in the world today. Not only do many children grow up without manners, they grow up without any regard to being thankful to the ones that even brought them into the world. I know not everyone had a rosy childhood and a great set of parents and that life is much tougher on the outside than it could be or should be. But, there is what appears to me to be an over emphasis for people on their current situations in life that ignores the fact that these are always a relative set of temporary circumstances. In other words ALL problems are always relative and they do not last forever. If you look arond you closely you can always find someone that is much worst off than you are. So many look at their temporary problems and are consumed by what they don’t have and miss out on being thankful for what they do have. I have learned one thing in life that is of most importance for me and my relationship to God and that is I need to stop worrying about what could happen or what I don’t have and only focus on what God has already done in my life and given to me and give Him thanks for that. This is the Thanksgiving season and this is my message today for you, begin to be thankful for something. Look for something to be thankful for and start with that.
So I usually do not get personal, because this blog is not about me. But, I am going to relate to you something that my family went through over 20 years ago. My wife and I were expecting our second child and it was a great time for us, we thought. Everything progressed in the normal way and when it was time to have the baby, we went to the hospital like we had done before. However, this night our world was going to be shaken and change dramatically.
Our new son was born and the doctors started checking him over and then started calling in specialists and things happened very fast from there. The doctors did tests and x-rays and determined my new son was born with a major heart defect and deformity. The heart surgeon did immediate open heart surgery to save my new son’s life while I called my mother to help me pray to God. My wife was in another hospital recovering and I went to the children’s hospital where the surgery was taking place. After several hours of wondering, what was happening, the doctor came out and told me that he was alive and that we were very lucky. I knew that my wife was going through a very tough time being alone without her new son in her arms in another hospital. But we were doing the best that we knew how to do at the time. We all made it home eventually and we lived the best that we could a couple of more years before he needed another heart operation. So we went to the hospital and went through the pain again and the outcome was good again. You see the hand of God was with me and my family when I did not even know it sometimes.
My son continued to grow and he turned 4 years old. All during this time we went to church and prayed and kept hoping for a miraculous outcome. We would strive to look for little victories whenever we could. A couple of weeks after his fourth birthday my son and I were getting ready to go to church like we always did. My wife had to be at choir early so she went on first ahead of us. My son and I stopped in at McDonald’s and had pancakes for breakfast and were about to head to church when all of a sudden he collapsed in my arms and his eyes rolled back in his head. I knew something was not right immediately and I yelled for someone to call an ambulance. I then waited until I could not wait any longer and put him in my car and drove him to the closest emergency room Hospital about a mile away. They started working on him as fast as they could and I could hear him scream as I filled out paper work for the hospital. They worked for over an hour and I tried to call the church to leave a message for my wife where we were, but she was on stage singing in the choir and the church services was on TV so they could not go and get her until she came off of the stage. My other son was away at a church camp retreat this weekend so God was watching over us in many ways that I cannot tell you. While my wife sang in the choir praising God, my son died at the hospital. We were probably 15 to 20 miles from the church. I cried very hard when the doctors told me the news. I sat outside on the curb of the hospital waiting and finally my wife drove up and I had to tell her that our son was with Jesus now.
I wish things could have been different, I wish things could have been better, but yet I was thankful for the four years that I had with my son. He taught me many things that I would have not known otherwise. There were times in the car when he sat in the back seat in his car seat praising God and raising his hands in praise. Oh, to have a son with the heart of a child that was thankful for what he had and was not missing what he didn’t have, that is what changed my life forever.
I will see my son again, so I know he is not gone forever. I will talk to him in eternity and we will run together and play like he never could on the earth. Now learn the lesson of a child’s heart today and become thankful for everything that you have even if that is only a very little. I believe that God honors a thankful heart and blesses them that give Him thanks. So if you would only concentrate on what you have and be thankful, I believe that God will bless you and cause you to have more eventually.
This is the season of Thanksgiving here in the U.S. I pray that you become highly focused on everything that truly matters in your life and less focused on the things that you do not have. Problems I believe are only temporary and they are always relative. No matter how bad you think you have it, you can always find someone who has less or a worse situation and you can do something to be a blessing to them in whatever way you can. Being a blessing is why I do what I do on this website. If you could see my heart right now you would understand my tears while I wrote this blog. I hope you have a blessed Thanksgiving wherever you are while you give thanks to God for all that He has already accomplished in your lives. God Bless!
Understanding Symbolic Sheep in the Bible! Are You Once Saved and Always Saved?
(Ver 1.2) This is Part 3 in the series of lesson on the subject Once Saved Always Saved and what others have called unconditional eternal security. If you have not read all of the lessons from the beginning I would recommend that you go back and start reading with “Part 1“. Today is a response to a reader’s comment, who thinks that I know nothing about sheep in the Bible among other topics that I may get into later. However, this man wanted to chastise me for not following his steps of hermeneutical Bible study. He claimed that I clearly did not know what I was talking about when I taught on Predestination and Once Saved Always Saved, because He had figured out the magic formula for Bible interpretation. However, this man failed in one minor detail, he gave me no Bible verses for his method of interpretation so therefore I categorically reject his methods completely. You can read from my other Bible lessons how I interpret scriptures based on other scriptures found in the Bible. This is called letting the Bible interpret itself. There are many basic laws of interpretation given to us in the Bible and I am totally guilty of following these the best that I know how to do. So you can find many blogs on my methods of Bible interpretations so go and read them and learn. Any man can invent rules for Bible interpretation and that is the problem with most of them that you find on the internet. The Bible says that no scripture is of any private interpretation and this is what most people are guilty of. Today’s lesson will be an obvious example of how two people can read the same scriptures and get two opposite interpretations and why. You see all you have to do is ignore certain key words in these next verses and you can get the exact same interpretation that he gave me. However, if you try to do it correctly and pay attention to every word you come up with a major difference in perspectives. Here are some of the Bible verses that this man said I do not understand:
Joh 10:27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:
Joh 10:28 And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.
Joh 10:29 My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.
Joh 10:30 I and my Father are one.
In this chapter of John and John is one of my favorite books of the Bible which I have studied more than any other except maybe Genesis, I find a very interesting set of statements being made. This man said that these verses prove that people are “once saved and always saved” by God and can never lose their salvation because that is just what it says. However, if you look very closely and examine the wording and context that is not what it says at all. Sheep are of course symbolic of people in this chapter. The sheepfold is the symbolic world that we live in. Jesus is of course the Chief Shepherd that is in charge of all of us sheep. These verses start with the statement that “My sheep hear my voice”. So right there we learn the first lesson. Not everyone is “His” sheep. You do not have to qualify the noun “sheep” with the adjective “My” if all sheep can hear His voice. Do you get it? So let me ask you a simple question, are you one of His sheep? How can you tell if you are one of His sheep? Is it just because you say you are? I believe our current President proves that is a lie in his actions every day. Saying you are a Christian does not make you a Christian ever. You might recall in the book of Acts that some men came up to a demon possessed man and said “In the name of Jesus that Paul preaches come out of him”. However, the demons said to them “Paul we know and Jesus we know but who are you” and they made them sorry that they confronted a being more powerful than they were (Act 19:13-15). These were examples of men who were not His sheep, but tried to act like it anyway. So you either are one of His sheep or you are not one of His sheep! What is it that determines this fact? It really is not that complicated, if you can hear His voice then you are, if you do not hear His voice then you are not. So let me ask you this, do you hear His voice? I know for certain that I hear His voice on a daily basis, what can you say about this? So the first thing that you learn is not everyone is His sheep and then only His sheep can hear His voice. So let me ask you this, if someone speaks and you are not paying attention do you ever miss what is said? My wife accuses me of this every now and then. She says something and I am sometimes distracted or not paying attention like I should and I miss what was said. Has this ever happened to you? Just because you can hear does not mean that you heard. This is proved every day in church. People sit in the congregation listening to the preacher and I would guess that only a small handful actually hear what is being said and understand it. So hearing is not the complete answer given here, I believe it takes more than just hearing. You can learn this from the Parable of the Sower when Jesus taught on the 6 types of soil, 3 types of soil produced some fruit and 3 types did not produce any fruit. But, they all heard the same words of the sower who was planting the seeds. So obviously there is much more involved than just hearing. Do you get it?
So the next statement that Jesus makes is “I know them and they follow me”. So if you hear His voice Jesus says “He knows you”. However, then He says “They follow me”. Uh oh? Is that another potential problem? What if they don’t follow Him or His voice? Do sheep ever have a “freewill” choice of whether they follow the Shepherd or ignore the Shepherd’s voice? I mean come on, do people ever lose the right to choose? You see you clearly do still have a choice to make even after becoming one of His sheep. There is a clear implied meaning given to us here in this verse that sheep still have choices to make even after being saved out of this crazy world. I mean come on and think a little bit with your brain! If they choose to follow Jesus they can choose not to follow Jesus also. The only way that this would not be possible is if God tied a rope around the neck of every one of His sheep and then dragged them wherever He went whether they wanted to go or not. That would be forced “predestination” and forced “eternal salvation”. Does God forcibly enforce His will upon all Christians and all people in the world? There are many confused Christians who think that He does. If this is the type of God that you serve then you are highly deceived and very ignorant. God is not forcing any of His sheep to follow Him. If you know anything about being a good shepherd, they always walk ahead of their sheep calling to them and the sheep normally follow them. The sheep are therefore highly trustworthy of their master that He is not going to lead them to the wolves. However, sheep do still have a choice not to follow. Once Jesus told this story found in the Bible that is very relevant to our current subject today about sheep:
Luk 15:4 What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it?
Is Jesus talking about sheep in this parable? I don’t think so! Jesus is again using sheep as an example of people. However, it is very clear and self-evident that sheep can wander off and away from the voice of the shepherd that was guiding them. This tells me that Jesus the Great Shepherd is not in complete control of everyone on this planet and what they do. Any sheep at any time has the choice or chance to walk away. Do you get this concept? This is called “FREEWILL”. These are saved people who have walked away from Jesus’ voice and no longer are able to hear it. Do you GET IT? Of course Jesus says any good shepherd will leave the 99 and go and look for the 1 that is LOST! So here we go again. Does this mean the shepherd when He finds this lost sheep drags him kicking and screaming back to the flock by force? If you think it does then you again do not know the loving compassionate merciful God who allows His sheep to do as they will. Sure a sheep could wander off accidently and be totally glad to get back to the safety of the flock and the shepherd. But, still people are not sheep, they are people and they can do what they want, when they want, to who they want at any time. If a sheep wanders off and commits suicide there is no getting that sheep back even if the shepherd wants it back really bad. If while away from the safety of the shepherd a wolf comes and eats that sheep, it is also gone forever. These are basic sheep principles of shepherds and their flocks. People want to think that God is in control of everything, but if this was true and God is the omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient Almighty, He would have never let one of His sheep get lost in the first place. In this parable, it is clear that a sheep got away and the shepherd did not know about it until He stopped and counted and said I only have 99 and I started with 100 so one got lost. Wow, what do you do with people who ignore what the Bible says for their version of reality? It sure makes it difficult if you can’t see the words that written on the pages, doesn’t it?
Let’s further examine the emphasized subject in verses 28 and 29 of John 10 that we were looking at first. If you can see, then you can understand that both of these verses are about the Power of God vs. the power of Satan. Both of these verses say that God is able to keep those that have chosen to follow Him. Remember that choosing to follow was an important prerequisite to the next two verses. So the next two verses are only applicable if you continue to follow by your freewill choices. As long as you are with the shepherd you are clearly SAFE and no one including Satan can come and force you away. This would be the opposite of forcible salvation; it would be called forcible damnation. If it is illegal for Satan to force you to hell, guess what it would be illegal for God to force you to go to heaven. This MUST be a two way street that goes both ways and the only determining factor which way you go is by your own choice of continuing to follow your faithful Shepherd.
So did we learn anything today? I bet my commenter didn’t hear a thing that I said and that is really a sad state of the world that we live in. My Bible says “Whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them that believe not”. It is almost impossible to get a blind man to see. What you must determine is a basic question; do sheep still have any freewill choices to make in the real world after being saved? Can they do what they want rather than do what God says? Before you answer this question you should go and read your Bible and see if there are any people in there who God said not to do this and they ignored it and went and did it anyway. There is Balaam, there is all of natural Israel, there is even Moses who God said speak to the rock and he hit it instead. There are too many examples in the Bible of people disobeying God’s voice. Why did God pick sheep as a type or symbol of people in the world? You should study more about sheep and learn how they are a picture of people. For example, sheep are pretty dumb animals, I have to admit that and that speaks a lot for God’s opinion on what people think in the world. You should be smart enough to first see that God’s intelligence is so far above your intelligence that it is barely comparable to a man vs. a sheep. So having said that your opinion is worthless! What you think about the Bible is totally irrelevant! There is no significance to your thoughts unless they become God’s thoughts. So what have we learned about sheep today?
- People like Sheep are DUMB!
- Sheep still have a free will!
- Not ALL Sheep belong to God!
- Sheep still have to pay attention and understand the words of the Shepherd.
- A Sheep can Get LOST accidently or on purpose!
- God will try to go and find the lost sheep!
- Not every sheep has to follow the Shepherd!
- No one can force a sheep away from His Shepherd as long as it hears and follows.
These are the basics found in these verses about sheep in the Bible. You of course can disagree with what I just said and ignore the facts if you want to. But, please do not write me any more ignorant comments about my lack of understanding of the Bible and go pull the plank out of your own eye before you try to take the speck out of mine. God Bless!
If you want to continue reading about Once Saved Always Saved and the Eternal Security subjects you may go to “Part 4“.
Understanding the Difference Between Being the House of God and Being In the House of God!
(Ver 2.2) Today I will teach on a Bible basic truth that every Christian should know. There is an interesting difference between being in the house of God and being the House of God that many preachers that I have heard must not clearly understand. I have been in numerous church services where either the pastor or the worship leader gets up behind the pulpit and says “It’s good to be in the house of the Lord”. I guess I know what they are trying to say, but technically speaking that is a very false statement and directly contradicts what the Bible says in so many aspects. That statement also portrays a false reality to unsaved people that is easily taken wrong or misunderstood. Those types of statements leave people with the impression that if they come to church, they have satisfied their religious obligation to God. However, the Bible says that the church building that you are meeting in is not the house of God! You see the Bible clearly says that God does not dwell in the buildings made by the hands of men anymore. We know this is what God use to do in the Old Testament when God told Moses to build Him a temple and the Ark of the Covenant. Jesus in Matthew taught that David entered into the house of God to eat the show bread. But, these were all natural symbolic representations for a much different spiritual reality that was to come. Here is one of my key verses for today’s lesson and I hope you can see what it says:
Act 7:48 Howbeit the most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands; as saith the prophet,
So here we have a major problem with the statement that too many preachers make. God clearly tells us in the Bible that it is impossible for man to build or make anything that is worthy of God’s dwelling place. If you read the next verse and the context you will see what I am talking about. God does not dwell in your man made church building; so when you say He does you leave a very false image in the minds of your listeners. However, there is another reality that God may show up at your church service if you invite Him in and then choose to let Him come in. I’ve heard ministers describe the presence of God at their meetings appearing like a cloud that would roll in over the people and then amazing things would happen. However, some people saw the cloud and others did not see the cloud. There are many examples of this type of cloud in the Bible if you look for them (Exo 16:10, Exo 19:9, Exo 24:15). I gave you 3 instances found in Exodus but God appears as a spiritual cloud several other times in the Bible as well. Then there are also literally many church buildings around the world that God does not ever show up in, because He is not welcome. Oh, sure they pretend that they are doing the right things and singing the right songs and acting out the parts pretty well. However, they neither know God nor are known by God so they worship with their lips, but Jesus said their hearts are far, far away. Jesus warned some religious people like this in Matthew 23:27 calling them “whited sepulchers that are beautiful on the outside but inwardly were unclean and full of dead men’s bones”. So God is not interested in your external religion or your outward religious ideas of being righteous. Just as God did not show up in the Jewish temple anymore, God will not show up at your church if your heart is not right before Him. These are examples of how important it is to be precise in exactly what you believe and to know what the Bible says. So where is the house of the Lord now? Or maybe I should have asked who is the house of the Lord now? If you study your Bible you will find that it says the people in the church are now this house of God:
1Ti 3:15 But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.
As you search the Bible you find verses that read much differently than what some men preach and teach. Here is one of those examples. You of course can take this verse literally or figuratively. I believe that this temple is symbolic based upon the scriptures that I will show you in a minute. First, let me ask you what is the church of God or again I should say who is the church of God? Let me give you a few quick scriptures that hopefully will make my point that you can see for yourself:
Rom 16:5 Likewise greet the church that is in their house. Salute my wellbeloved Epaenetus, who is the firstfruits of Achaia unto Christ.
Here is God calling the people that meet in the house the church and not the building where they meet. This can get more complex than this, but this is the basics of the lesson today. You see the people that meet together in a building can be holding church services, but technically this is not the church. God clearly calls the people in the building the church and never is there any physical building called by this name or title in the Bible. This is really a very important difference to recognize.
1Co 1:2 Unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours:
Again we have the people living in the city of Corinth being called the church of God and not a building. It further qualifies that not everyone in the city is the church, but only those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus. So it is much more important to be in Christ than it is to be in a building with a name on the outside. This is the mistake that pastors are leaving people with when they tell them they are in the house of the Lord today. They should be saying it is good to be in Christ Jesus and be the house of God.
1Co 15:9 For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.
This is the last verse that I will show you today that says the church are the people that Paul persecuted and Paul did not burn down buildings or deface a building. When Jesus appeared to Saul on the road and said “Saul why do you persecute me?” Jesus was telling him He took it personally because these people that he persecuted were the church and the body of Christ where God lives today:
1Co 3:16 Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
Here is the main reason that I wanted to get to today that clearly tells us where the Spirit of God is today. You can clearly see that God is not living in the buildings that are made by the hands of men anymore. God has designed and created our bodies to be His temple and dwelling place. So wherever we go God goes. Where ever we are the church is, if you are a true Christian. You see when you become a Christian the Spirit of God comes inside of your body to live and to bear witness with your spirit that you are now a child of God (Romans 8:16). This is exactly why when you tell people they are in the house of God a building made by man’s hands that it contributes to a lie. You can hold church in a hotel and God will be there if He is inside of you. You can hold church in a tent and God will be there if God is inside of you. God is not interested in your building projects, however God will help you build one if that is what you like. I have to say that it is much nicer meeting in nice churches with climate controlled environments than sweating or freezing outdoors. Just build your church building and don’t call it the house of God. I am the house of God and you are the house of God we are a spiritual building made of living stones being built up into an eternal spiritual city of the Most High God. Here is a Bible verse that says what I just tried to say:
1Pe 2:5 Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.
The term “lively stones” literally means stones with life in them. This makes us complexly a very unique chosen building material for God’s house. You can clearly see that we are being “built up” to become a spiritual house for God. This is one of the key accomplished works of Jesus Christ. Why was it necessary for God to build a new spiritual house? I have taught on this before, but I’ll say it again for those who do not understand it yet. You see you only build a new house if you have something wrong with your old house. Heaven was the previous spiritual house of God where there were an enumerable number of angels dwelling. So what do you do when some of your angels have been found with sin in them? You should really think about that before you try to answer it. God is a just God and God is God who does not lie and break promises with those in His family. So God’s old spiritual house and family has a major problem occurring internally within it and this causes God to decide to build/create a new House through His Son Jesus Christ. I’ll talk and teach more on this subject soon, so please keep a look out for it, the Bible says some very important things on this subject for Christians who desire to understand.
Let’s get back to God’s new spiritual building project where you can clearly find in the Bible that Jesus is building this new house for God using us the church. We know in 1 Peter 2:5 that it says we are being “built up” a spiritual house. This implies a foundation and then subsequent building layers. Who is the spiritual foundation for this new spiritual house? Of course it is God Himself to some degree who is our foundation as well as a few other chosen individuals that are mentioned in this verse:
Eph 2:20 And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone;
Again we can clearly see that we the people of God in the church building are being built upon a foundation that consists of three spiritual entities. Jesus Christ is clearly called the most important stone in the new building and He is described as the “chief corner”. This was usually in ancient building projects the first stone that was laid and one that all other stones are aligned from. So the first thing that you should grasp is that Jesus Christ is also a stone in this new spiritual house. God became one of us so that we could be made again like one of Him. The next thing that you should observe in this verse is that the Apostles of Jesus and the prophets of God from the O.T. are also living stones that makeup the foundation for this new building. Do you understand this? This is very important that you see. Here is another verse that gives us an additional perspective on the subject:
Rev 21:14 And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.
In this chapter of Revelation God describes another place or actually the same place that we have been discussing but in different terms. In this chapter God describes a spiritual city called “New Jerusalem” and “Holy Jerusalem”. Both of these are the names given to the new spiritual dwelling place of God. If you noticed in this verse that this city contains a foundation of the 12 apostles of Jesus Christ. That sounds very similar to what we just read in Ephesians 2:20. What we can see are some amazing parallels that are certainly not found here by chance or accident. Both Ephesians and 1 Peter spoke of a building project that is being created by God. We are called the temple of God in the letters written to the church, however in Revelation God speaks of us in terms of being a city. Both are structures with walls and foundations and are built with stones. Here is another verse that certainly applies to our subject today concerning this city found in Revelation 21:
Rev 21:3 And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.
This verse is pretty amazing. It speaks of us as being the tabernacle of God. Tabernacle is a term meaning God’s tent. Isn’t this what Moses built God in the Old Testament? Moses built a tent which clearly meant a temporary dwelling place. What Moses made was a temporary dwelling because it was made by men. Anything that a man makes will be temporary. However, we are now found to be an eternal dwelling place for our God made not with the hands of men. When we leave this planet we will be given eternal glorified bodies like the one that Jesus possessed after His resurrection. This will be a body that will never fail or fade. Therefore it will be a permanent dwelling place for the Spirit of God. God is saying in Revelation 21:3 that God’s new house will be “with” men. The term “with” in this verse means to be joined to Him in marriage and become one flesh with Him. What we see today is a small taste of what we will see in eternity. The Spirit of God being in us today is a pattern for what we will experience forever in eternity. Therefore, God’s New Jerusalem is a spiritual city of People in covenant with Him where He lives and dwells throughout eternity. We will be His people and He will be our God and according to the Bible no eye has seen nor have we even begun to imagine the great things that He has planned for us (1 Cor 2:9). I hope and pray that you enjoyed my short and basic Bible lesson on God’s spiritual building project and have learned that we are that project here today and right now. So the next time when you go to church remember you are not going to the house of God, YOU ARE THE HOUSE OF GOD who is going to a building to meet with the rest of God’s house for fellowship, praise and worship of Him who is In US! God Bless!
Understanding Spiritual Laws Found in the Bible! Part 2 The Law of Marriage!
(Ver 2.0) This is now Part 2 of a series of studies about the reality of spiritual laws found in the Bible. We have covered a lot of information that is not going to be repeated, so if you have not read these lessons from the beginning, I would recommend that you go back and start with “Part 1”. In the first lesson that I did on this series I gave you 3 basic spiritual laws that I discovered in the Bible. These were first the spiritual law of faith, the second was the law of the Spirit of Life vs. law of sin and death and third the spiritual law of sowing and reaping. I know I did not fully cover any of these subjects extensively, but I believe I gave you enough information for you to go further and explore them in your Bible. I will say upfront that this is an advanced lesson series that is intended only for spiritually mature Christians that have studied the Bible extensively. If this is not you I would recommend that you go and read a more basic subject to learn things that will help you mature. It is very much like Paul told the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 3:2 that he was unable to teach them meat because they were still in need of the basic milk from the Word of God. Please be the judge of yourself before you continue. I do not want to offend anyone with an advanced Bible subject that they are unable to spiritually chew.
I would like to warn you at the beginning of this lesson that I will primarily be addressing spiritual subject truths as the primary focus. But in order to understand these advanced spiritual truths we really first need to understand some basic natural truths also. Therefore, I will be jumping between the subjects of natural marriage and spiritual marriage. It might appear confusing at first but this is the way Jesus taught using parables. Jesus would teach very advanced spiritual subject using only simple farming tools and concepts. So I thank you for your understanding in advance.
Today I want to readdress a Bible subject that I have blogged about before, but it bears repeating for those who have never studied the subject of the law of marriage. Marriage is a spiritual law found in the Bible from cover to cover. Often times Bible students only look at the Law of Moses and think that is the only law that God has established in the Bible. However, when God created man, Adam and Eve, He established a multitude of spiritual laws which have only been revealed after Jesus was resurrected from the dead. Why do you think that Jesus could not reveal and teach everything that He knew? It was primarily the fact that God could not let the secrets of the Kingdom of God out of the bag until God had first died and established a Kingdom. All Satan would have had to do was to not crucify Jesus Christ on the cross and that would have ended God’s plan of salvation and redemption for the human race. Satan would have had a future and we would have had no hope for any type of future. You must understand that even though God prophesied the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus hundreds of years before it occurred; Satan did not understand it or he would have not done it. Here is a verse of scripture that I think is very relevant to this point of my conversation:
Gal 3:23 But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed.
You see the Law of faith that I talked about in the first lesson was a spiritual law that existed when God created Adam. But, God never revealed this law until after Jesus was raised from the dead. Faith was not a new concept; in fact the law of faith is recorded in every part of the Bible. If you read Hebrews 11 this chapter is often times called the “Faith Hall of Fame”. It goes through instance after instance, example after example, of men and women found in the Bible that had faith and used it. So you can clearly see that just because faith was not revealed like Galatians 3:23 says, faith still played a key role in the life of every Old Testament saint. They either believed God or they did not and the results that they got were demonstrated for us to learn by. So the Law of Faith is not a new concept for the New Testament church, it is just one that we are better understanding.
Marriage was also a hidden spiritual Law of God. However, I have discovered that God has placed great priority on this subject. Why does God place such emphasis on a subject that modern men and women seem to take so casually today? Why is the devil trying to pervert the God established institute of marriage between one male and one female into a same sex union? Why do people get married today and divorced tomorrow like it was normal way of life? It seems that way over half of the marriages in our world today end in divorce and this is happening even in the church. I do not feel that these are things that please God. How many have been married multiple times in our society? Why is it that when a couple gets divorced that it appears to become the easy way out for the next time something is not going their way in their next marriage? Do you realize that there are no perfect people in the world? I think people get married to someone they do not know and eventually find out what they are really like and then realize that they shouldn’t have done that. So they leave their spouse and go looking for mister wonderful or misses trophy but they will never satisfied because these people do not exist. Divorce typically breeds more divorces. Children learn divorce from their parents and the parents pass the curse of divorce down to their children. Divorce becomes a repeated cycle because some think that just because their parents got divorced so that means it’s OK for me also. So that was part of my non-popular introduction to a natural problem that I recognize in our society. We simply do not understand the significance of a Godly marriage covenant contract.
Many times I find that people do things out of ignorance and they think that ignorance is a valid excuse for why they did what they did. You will find that this rarely works when you are standing before the judge in a natural court of law. A judge sees the law, knows the law and sees the actions you took to break the law and then assigns the penalty for your transgressions of that law. If you disregard the law and do what you want to you will eventually get caught and have to pay the price. This is the way it is with spiritual laws in the Bible also. In Hosea 4:6 God says “My people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge”. Knowledge is the opposite of ignorance that God says destroys people. So therefore, knowledge is the power and ability to do the right thing. If you know speeding in a school zone will get you a huge fine, it is best to slow down and avoid that penalty. Every law has benefits and every law has punishments or consequences. This is true whether you are talking about the law of gravity or the law that says thou shalt NOT steal. The attitude of many people is that they like to push the envelope of how far they can go and get away with violating the laws of nature. They like the thrill of jumping out of airplanes and free-falling and they do it over and over until their parachute fails to open and then they do not do it anymore. I wonder why?
So we talked all around a lot of the basics that surround laws. I hope you can understand the importance of learning about spiritual laws in the Bible from my simple three or four paragraph introduction to today’s subject of the Law of Marriage. God says many things about the covenant bond of marriage in the Bible and it is inadequate to take just one verse to try to think we understand the whole entire subject. But I will need to start somewhere so I will look at a verse in Romans 7 first:
Rom 7:2 For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband.
This is a very easily misunderstood Bible verse? A spiritual law is a designed principle of God that conveys a cause and effect observable and repeatable reality for all of those that are affected by the law. In other words God says something and if you follow it you gain the benefits from it and if you ignore or abuse it you suffer the consequences from it if you abide under the jurisdiction of that law. I do not know if you understood what I just said, but it was important. In Romans 7:2 God teaches us that when two people are married according to the law of Moses that they were intended to be joined for life. This verse was actually a two way street and it was not just applicable to only women.
This verse was written to a covenant woman so that is why the male covenant husband is not directly mentioned. You may not understand my last statement either, but you should read some of my other blogs and you could be closer to knowing these more advanced truths. I will briefly try to explain. You see the nation of Israel was designated to be God’s covenant wife in the Old Testament (Jer 31:32) and this verse here in Romans was written to those who were previously married to God the Father. If you look at verse 1 of Romans 7 you will find Paul’s target audience to be those that “know” the law. To “know” the law is a covenant relationship term written to only the Nation of Israel. Gentiles did not “know” the law and were never in covenant with the Mosaic law or with the living God. So these next verses in Romans 7 after verse 1 do not apply to ANY Gentile believer. But yet these verses can still teach us all and we all can learn from them.
God is always faithful to His covenants but God will break the marriage covenant if His covenant partner does not keep their part of the marriage agreement. Like any natural marriage a spiritual marriage covenant takes two willing committed partners. If only one is willingly committed and the other is not, then what is the other faithful partner supposed to do? That is a new complicated twist to the equation, isn’t it? This is what God was faced with in the Old Testament repeatedly. The nation of Israel left God’s covenant so many times that it is difficult to count them all.
If you look in Isaiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, Jeremiah and other places you will soon discover language that called God’s wife Israel a “harlot”, “whore”, “adulteress” and many other very unflattering words. Many people do not realize that a covenant is a marriage and that a marriage is a covenant. Learning God’s definitions for words is a vital part of knowing about spiritual laws and we must do this by discovering God’s definitions of the subject. We will begin with a verse in Malachi:
Mal 2:14 Yet ye say, Wherefore? Because the LORD hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously: yet is she thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant.
As you read the Bible you discover that God has placed very important and significant clues in some of the most unlikely spots like this minor prophet book of Malachi. God says that your wife is the one that you are in covenant with. Perhaps the problem is that you do not understand what a covenant is? A covenant is a legally binding eternal contract that is legally divisible by death of one of the covenant partners. When God makes a covenant with Abraham in Genesis 15 there are animals that are killed and split down the spine in two bloody pieces. Then the two covenant parties are supposed to walk between the pieces and this signifies a blood covenant bond and union. Now if one party breaks the covenant they are saying to the other party that it should be done to me what was done to these animals laying on the ground. Wow, that gives each covenant partner a very strong motivation to keep the covenant. If only marriages were done this way today.
God was married and in a blood covenant relationship with the natural nation of Israel in the O.T. but His wife Israel did not take this covenant relationship seriously and this resulted in Israel’s divorce (Isa 50:1 and Jer 3:8). God ended the covenant marriage with Israel and this is also a pattern for natural divorce. Anytime a spouse leaves their spouse I believe this is a legal pattern for when divorce is permissible. Leaving your spouse shows your lack of commitment to the promises made. God has done all of this however as a pattern to another coming covenant that would be established as an eternal spiritual contract between us the church and Jesus Christ and we’ll talk more about that in a bit.
Mal 2:15 And did not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the spirit. And wherefore one? That he might seek a godly seed. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth.
This next verse in Malachi alludes to a principle that is very important to understand. It says “Did He not make one?” Within the context we can surely see that God is speaking to us of the law of marriage found in Genesis 2 when God created Adam and Eve and Adam looked at his wife and said this is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh because she was taken from his body. So reading and understanding Genesis God says that a woman is one with her husband. You can also say that a man is one with his wife; it is definitely a two way street being referred to. This was God’s original design and this was God’s original plan. God took one body and made two and this was the physical and spiritual laws of marriage being defined. When people get married, God declares that they have become one flesh:
Gen 2:24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.
When we started reading this lesson we began with a verse found in Romans that said a woman was joined to her husband as long as he was alive. This verse in Genesis 2 is the reason why God could say this. This is the law of marriage covenants, the two will be one. This is why God is writing to the Hebrews in Romans to tell them about this law. Since Israel was married to God the Father in the O.T. we can therefore conclude that God had become one flesh with his wife Israel. Do you understand that statement and the importance of understanding the implications behind that statement? God was joined to a natural nation of people under the law. Whenever you are one with someone whatever happens to you also happens to your spouse and vice versa. Whatever you have they also have. This is just the basis of a sound Biblical marriage. I can see why Israel would want to join in this relationship, but why would God want to join in this relationship? God was not under the law, but obviously He chose to join Himself to a woman who was. That is an amazing question to ponder. You might recall what Jesus said about this subject, he said “I did not come to do away with the law but to fulfill it”. You see you probably do not understand the purpose of the law. I wrote a lesson on this subject called “Understanding the Purpose of the Law of Moses”. You might want to go read that and it might help you to understand what I’m going to say next. In order for God to cast Satan into hell, God must first convict Satan of a punishable crime under the law. Did you know that our courts cannot make up laws to throw you into jail? Back in our history child pornography use to not be a crime, therefore no one went to jail for that obscene behavior until they passed a law making it a crime. Did you know that applies to Satan also? Just because he sinned, there is no punishment for sin until he is in a state that says that he committed a crime. Even though child pornography has always been sinful and wrong, it was not a crime until the law was passed and you were convicted of it. I just do not know if you understand what I’m saying or not? But, it is so important that you try to get what I am teaching to you.
Rom 7:4 Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.
The Bible has many difficult and hard sayings in it and this is surely one of them. The direct implication is being given to us that God died in Jesus Christ. We obviously understand that it is impossible for God to die and cease to exist. This is certainly not what this verse is saying to us. What this verse is saying is that because the Spirit of God was in Christ on the cross, these Hebrew people who this is directed at are now free from their Old Testament covenant marriage with God, so that they can now be legally “married to another”. To be married to another is a clear reference to becoming the bride of Christ who was raised from the dead, the firstborn from the dead. This allows Jewish believers to become legally married to our Savior Jesus Christ without becoming an adulteress like this chapter speaks of. You see you cannot divorce someone and legally marry another because God says you are one flesh. This is a complex puzzle and a riddle of Biblical proportions being given to us. God, who is one God, tells us He died to implement a new covenant through Jesus Christ and one of the reasons He died was for the Hebrews sake. Because of His death on the cross, it is now legal for any Old Testament Hebrew to enter into a new eternal spiritual union with Jesus Christ. If Jesus hadn’t died then they would have been joined to God the Father and God the Son simultaneously and that would have been adultery according to the law. Go through this chapter in Romans and read every verse very carefully, it says some things that are very powerful and they do apply to you regardless of who you are. These verses apply to natural Israel and they apply to us the church. These verses also apply to natural people being married to other natural people. All of these are marriage covenant relationships.
From what I can read in the Bible, there are only two legal reasons for getting out of a marriage to marry another, and these are 1) infidelity or 2) death. If your spouse is unfaithfully sleeping around on you, you should not be married to them. Then God clearly tells us that marriage is a covenant contract “till death do us part”. We can of course see our world is more complex than those two simple rules. There are certainly cases where one spouse can be abusive physically or mentally and that is not a healthy environment for a safe peaceful family. Recently in the news here a man shot his wife and then killed himself. Clearly that was a tragedy that should never have happened. If people knew more about God and the Bible, I believe these things would not ever happen. People are guilty of making emotional illogical and irrational snap decisions out of anger or other emotions that do not convey the life and love of God. So we live in a world that contains both good and evil and this is our greatest challenge. Trying to determine what is right and good vs. what is wrong and evil and this is what we do every day of our life. We can learn from God how to deal with every situation in life and this gives us hope of a positive outcome for our decisions. I hope that you can at least begin to see that marriage is something that you should not enter into on a casual whim. God says that once you are married, in the eyes of God you become one flesh with that person for the rest of your life. Obviously today in our loose immoral society there are people like rock stars who are joined to hundreds of others and do not know it.
1Co 6:16 What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh.
Marriage in the eyes of God is simply having sex with someone whether we believe it or not. That statement really goes over big in our modern world of casual sex today, doesn’t it? Please read this verse very carefully. God only refers to the law of marriage found in Genesis 2:24, four times in the entire New Testament. These can be found in Matthew Why is this verse the only reference that is ignored by pastors, teachers and Christians today. According to God’s Word, He says very plainly that if you go and have sex with a prostitute that you are now one flesh with her and in marriage covenant. What if a man has had casual sex with 1000 prostitutes, is this still true? I believe that it is. Wow, how many times some people have been married in the eyes of God is probably unbelievable! God is using a natural truth of sex to teach a spiritual truth that is greater. God does this over and over and over in the Bible and this is just another example of that.
We can use the context of this verse to prove the last statement. We should be able to learn that God is speaking about a spiritual marriage covenant relationships between Christ and the church. Back up in verse 15 directly before this verse. You should find that God is telling the church not to be joined to a harlot. God teaches us directly in this chapter that we are members of His body and that we are one spirit with Him in verse 17. Yet according to verse 16 we still have the choice to go make the members of His body to be one with a devil. These verses are spiritual warnings from God. But yet since men have been given a freewill by God, they are still capable of making wrong choices.
Natural things were created by God to provide views into unseen spiritual realities. These natural and spiritual things and laws of God were intended by God to be parallel truths with the greater truth always being the spiritual. I believe that natural sex is equivalent to what the Bible says is spiritual knowledge of God. Having simultaneous multiple natural sex partners in this world I believe is the equivalent to worshiping God and idols at the same time.
There is a basic law of Bible interpretation called the “Law of First Mention”. Using this law we can learn many facts about God’s Law of Marriage. Adam and Eve were God’s established pattern for marriage and this was between one man and one woman. God’s design of marriage was for it to last eternally. If Adam had chosen not to sin and rebel against God, they could have been alive today to demonstrate the plan of God. But since Adam failed in the natural realm, Jesus came to the natural realm to restore God’s law and plan for marriage in the spiritual realm. The way it was in the beginning is how it will be in the end. It should be the goal of every marriage to be patterned after the design of God’s purpose. However, it still takes two that are committed to each other to fulfill this law. A marriage with only one covenant member being committed like God to uncommitted natural Israel will always fail.
Please understand that I do not want to sound like I’m being self-righteous or condemning anyone that has been married more than once or that has had sex with multiple partners in this lesson. The Bible says that to those who are “in-Christ” and walk after the Spirit, there is therefore no condemnation extended towards them (Romans 8:1). There are many spiritual laws in the Bible and you cannot just teach one and omit all of the others. In my first lesson on this subject I gave you a key verse that said “The law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus has freed us from the Law of Sin and Death” (Romans 8:2). The Blood of Jesus covers all of our sins that we have committed and we all have sinned (Romans 3:22). So just because someone has been married to one woman for over 50 years does not make them better than you, even if you have been married 6 times. The mercy, compassion and love of God are very strong spiritual forces. The faithfulness of God to forgive us of our past transgressions is one divine trait of God that we should all possess. God said “I will not remember your sin, as far as the east is from the west I have put it away from me” (Psalm 103:12, Isa 43:15). If even God does not remember our sin that you have already asked Him for forgiveness for, then the only part left is for you to not condemn yourself for your past. God only expects us to learn and grow and to use our past mistakes so that we do not fall into them again. So I do not know if I helped you today or said anything that was truly beneficial to your situation, but I pray that I did so that you will continue to follow after God and to keep trying to know Him better. God Bless!
Where DO BABIES Come From? Dealing With A Religious Spirit! Part 3
(Ver 1.1) This is Part 3 and followup to a previous lesson on the subject of “Salvation” and “Where do Spiritual Babies Come From?” If you have not read the series from the beginning I would recommend that you go back and start your reading from “Part 1“. Some people are more interested in arguing with you than they are about learning and seeing the truth in the Bible. These are people used by the devil to distract you and take your time from you. I recently had a commenter that clearly knows more than God Himself come to me to give me his opinions on everything. In his mind he has exalted himself to be the only authority of the truth in the Bible. He never says anything positive, and only criticizes and tells you all of the places where you are wrong. What a prideful arrogant attitude of mindless boastings. These are EMPTY WORDS from EMPTY HEADS. I tried to be nice just to get him to see another perspective. But obviously his vast knowledge must not allow him to be a blessing to others. He acts as the Judge Jury and Executioner and makes Himself God! His knowledge must go way beyond the capacity for any simple minded men like me to understand. So I guess I’m just going to have to be a little more direct today in my final response to his religious arrogance. Hopefully if he doesn’t want to know the truth, he will go away and read somebody else’s blog that will agrees with what he wants to see in the Bible. I am not changing to fit the ideas of a fool. God has taught me too much in the Bible for me to go away and follow the leadings of false teachers. I have learned from Jesus that He only confronted one type of person in the Bible when he was here personally on the earth and that was a religious person who thought they knew it all. If you do not understand this you should go and read the gospels again and see what Jesus said and did. You might think that I have been too confrontational with this man for a web site devoted to spreading the Love of God (Agape). However, Jesus looked at the Pharisees and called them a “generation of vipers” (Mat 23:33). Jesus said “You are of your father the Devil!” (John 8:44) Jesus did not mix words up and I will follow His example today of loving those who want to be loved and those who think too highly of themselves, well you can already see what I think of them.
In my first lesson on this subject I discussed the “New Birth” process as being a parallel to the “Physical Birth” process. If you know when the physical birth takes place, you can also know when the spiritual birth takes place by God’s design. What you must realize is that this is a “limited knowing” being described to us and that is what I will discuss today. None of this that I wrote obviously helped the man that wants to argue because he says that I did not address his scripture of John 3:7-8 which he claims is the answer to Nicodemus’ question of how a man is born again. I left this verse out because it had nothing to do with how a man is born again but he thinks that I am just being ignorant and wrong. For some reason this man wants to ignore everything that I have just said in the last lesson for something that he thinks is so important that this verse in John 3:8 says. He just could not understand why I intentionally left it out of my discussion. Oh well? I guess that I have just not learned how to teach everything found in the Bible in ONE LESSON! I guess some people want you to teach everything you know in a single sessioon and there is just no way that anyone can do that. I bet you this guy would criticize Jesus for the way He taught. I do not recall Jesus ever trying to teach everything He knew in any one lesson. I left John 3:8 out because it was really not that important to the subject being discussed about the New Birth. But, I will spend some time today to explain it and why I left it out. I doubt very seriously if any of this will help him, but there will be someone out there that will be able to use it. Most of the times religious people are too closed minded to see the truth, they are just too narrowly focused in on what they want to see as being important and you cannot help them no matter what you try to say. This is why this is my last response to this commenter about the subject of salvation. So here we go with the verses he thinks are so critical for us to understand:
Joh 3:7 Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.
If you recall in verse 6, Jesus taught us that those who are born of flesh are flesh but those who are born of the spirit are spirit. Meaning there is a major distinction between these two types of births. One is totally natural and one is completely spiritual. One you can see and one you cannot see. However both are still called “births”. Get it? This is just not that hard to understand. Now in verse 7 Jesus says to Nicodemus not to be shocked that He said that you must be born again in order to enter into the Kingdom of God. Jesus is saying to Nicodemus don’t try to wrap your natural mind around this spiritual birth truth, you are not going to be able to grasp it right now! The Bible says the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God! (1 Cor 2:14) So how can I discuss spiritual things with a man who does not even understand natural things. It is probably just impossible!
Joh 3:8 The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.
So I do not see this verse to be that highly controversial, but yet my commenter obviously changes it to say something that it clearly does not say. Isn’t that interesting how the Bible is written that way. God always allows you to be wrong. So what exactly is Jesus talking about here in this verse? What is the intended purpose for this statement? 
We can clearly see that Jesus is talking about the natural “wind” in the first part of this verse. What does the natural wind have to do with spiritual things? What is the point that Jesus is attempting to make? What I can see in this verse is the fact that here in the natural, no man can explain the wind. They do not know where it comes from, they do not know where it is going and they do not know how it got started in the first place. It could have been a butterfly in Africa flapping his wings that causes the breezes in Australia for all we know. There are jet streams in the upper atmosphere, wind patterns, pressures zones and vairous factors that determine our weather. I mean the weather man on TV gives you his best guess at what he thinks will happen tomorrow but this is not always very dependable. I assume that this is what my commenter is so focused in on. He thinks that because Jesus is comparing the wind to the spiritual birth birth process and since we do not understand the wind, we cannot understand the spiritual birth either. I assume this is where his natural mind is at? This would be a typical wrong interpretation for this verse by a carnally thinking man. Since I try to think spiritually this is not the way that I interpret this verse. All you have to do is use your brain just a little bit to see a new and different perspective on the subject. Quit trying to interpret the Bible in the dark! Stop ignoring the rest of the Bible by focusing in on just one verse in complete isolation. The Bible will always interpret itself, so God gives us the meaning of this verse in the other parts of the Bible if you want to look for them. You must change your perspective to see things spiritually. What Jesus is talking about here in John 3:8 is that to the outside natural observer, they cannot see an internal spiritual birth take place with their physical eyes. Just like you cannot see the wind blow, you cannot observe when someone is actually saved from a natural point of view. Jesus is linking the natural wind process to the spiritual birth process of a man as both being unseen events. The wind is a natural thing that we cannot see, like the spiritual birth is something that we cannot see. We are always required by God to take spiritual events by faith only. Here are the Words of Jesus again on the exact same subject in a different book of the Bible, but notice what He says here:
Luk 17:20 And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation:
Here the religious Pharisees ask Jesus a direct question about the when is the Kingdom of God coming to the earth? They said “When will this happen?” Didn’t they? Isn’t this what my religious commenter was trying to ask me? This is a clear example of naturally minded men thinking only of physical things and asking Jesus a purely spiritual question. Is Jesus going to answer their question naturally or is Jesus going to answer their question with a right spiritual answer in His mind from His point of view? Jesus takes a natural question from natural men and gives them a spiritual answer. However, notice that instead of telling you that you can’t understand the new birth, Jesus says you can’t see when this New Birth happens. We are still talking about the coming into the Kingdom of God? Yes? Jesus clearly answer that the Kingdom of God comes without observation of any man! No natural man will ever be able to see the Kingdom of God. But, yet it is still here inside of me right now. They do not observe it coming into the life of any man, they do not perceive when it occurs and they do not understand why they have changed. Only the spiritual realm can see it when it happens, God sees it when it happens, the angels can see it happen, Satan can see when it happens, but us in this world live in the natural realm and we are dominated by our 5 physical senses. So I assume that because my commenter cannot observe this spiritual birth act of God taking place he does not believe that it has taken place? That is pretty ignorant! If you want to observe something in the natural to prove it has happened in the spiritual realm you will never experience it. The Bible says that the JUST shall live by FAITH and NOT by what they SEE, TOUCH, TASTE, HEAR, SMELL!
Luk 17:21 Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.
Jesus continues His explanation of the Spiritual NEW Birth by saying no one will be able to say here is the Kingdom of God or there goes the Kingdom of God, because the Kingdom of God is WITHIN YOU! This is an internal SPIRITUAL KINGDOM, a SPIRITUAL BIRTH from the Spirit of God that only occurs on the inside of a person within the unseen spirit realm. That is why you cannot see it come or go. You have never seen your spirit! You have never seen God’s Spirit. You probably have never seen a spiritual angel. You have never seen Satan. However, all of these spiritual beings exist in the unseen spiritual realm. You cannot observe the spiritual birth outwardly no matter how you try to do it. If you want to observe something before you believe it Heaven help you to see the truth. This is the reason that Jesus compared the Spiritual Birth process to the natural wind on our planet. It wasn’t because we can’t understand it, it was simply because an outside observer can’t see it happening. Just because I cannot see you being born again, does not mean that you after being born again cannot know when it happened. This is also true of you not being able to see me being born again and that does not prove that I will not know that I am born again. People cannot mix scriptures up to make them say what they do not say. There is a major difference in me seeing you get saved verses you knowing that you are saved. Just because YOU cannot observe the fact that I was saved does not discount the fact that I KNOW that I am saved! Do you understand this? Can’t you see that this was Jesus’ main point in His statement of John 3:8? The verse in John 3:8 has nothing to do with how people are Born Again but has everything to do with whether anyone else in the natural realm can see it happen. Obviously you will see what you want to see so that is all I can do to help you. God can’t make you see the truth and I can’t make you see it either.
God wants to help people and that is the only reason that I responded to this man’s ignorant comments. However, neither God nor I can help anyone who does not want any help. He is the one that is trying to get me to change. But, ignorance becomes way too obvious once you have been exposed to the truth. I have not named any names to who this individual is, so as to protect his identity. I have also deleted his comments from my site so that you cannot find him either. This will give him an opportunity to do the right thing and remain anonymous. I have found that religious people just want to challenge your faith with there erroneous ways and for you to buy into their wrong beliefs, because only they see themselves to be so right. They neither know God or have the love of God in them so they do not know how to be nice to others. What this man needs to do is to get saved, born again and he will then be able to understand spiritual things. God says that the “carnal mind” is an enemy to the Spirit of God (Rom 8:7). So no matter how much I would like to help this man, only his mind is responsible for what he lets into his heart. My Bible says that the god of this world has blinded the minds of them that believe wrong so that they cannot perceive the truth of God! (2 Cor 4:4) So to all of those out there who read my blogs and can see spiritual things, please forgive me for trying to help someone who hasn’t seen. To my ignorant commenter, I will not respond to any more of your critical comments so DO NOT LEAVE THEM! I will not accept any more of your comments either. Perhaps you can unsubscribe to my blog so that you are not bothered with the truth any more. This will allow you to walk in your ignorance and be happy. So if I haven’t offended you enough by now I’m going to leave my response with this cartoon lesson because it seems to be more at your current spiritual level of understanding. Learn the lesson of Thumper in the Disney Movie Bambi, whose mother told him “If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all!” If I wasn’t having to deal with such a religious spirited person I would not have had to be so blunt! I pray that you see the truth before Jesus comes back very soon.
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If you want to know how to get saved and know that you are with confidence you can go to: How do I get saved?
Where DO BABIES Come From? A Bible Review of the Salvation Process!
(Ver 1.6) This is Part 2 in an essential basic Bible study series on the subject of Savlation and the Spiritual New Birth of God. What is it and how it occurs will be what I teach on today. If you have not read the first lesson I would suggest that you go and start reading with “Part 1” first. I had a Reader(?) try to tell me that being saved is not tied to any certain or specific observable process or stated steps found in the Bible. He told me that “Salvation” was not a formula! He implied that you just can’t ever be assured of your eternal destiny here in this life. He clearly said that there was just no single point event that you could observe of when you were saved. By stating that he implied that there are no given steps, instructions or ways in the Bible to be saved. He implied you can just never know if you are really saved. Call me different, call me unique, call me stupid I don’t care, that is just not what I see that the Bible says. My question to this guy is, “Where do Babies Come From?” Do you know how natural babies are made? Can you ever know if you will have a baby or your wife will have a baby? Does the mother ever know when she is pregnant? Does the mother of a baby know when it is time to deliver a baby? Is there a single point of time reference that goes on the birth certificate of when a natural baby was born? Is not the birth of the natural baby the entry of the child into our natural present world? This may not be a good set of questions to ask a male, but I bet you any mature female could answer these questions correctly. This is what Jesus taught us in John 3:3.
Joh 3:3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
So have you ever thought about what Jesus said here? Jesus says that a man must be “born again” in order to see the Kingdom of God. To be “born again”, implies they were born once naturally already. Doesn’t it, isn’t this what this verse says? However, being born ONCE in the natural is not enough to get you into the Kingdom of God according to the words of Jesus. If I said, I’m going to drive to Detroit again tonight. Doesn’t that tell you that I have already driven to Detroit before? If we are required to be born again, how was the first birth accomplished? What you must realize is that Jesus is speaking of a first birth that is a completely NATURAL process. Was there a formula for making natural babies in the world? This is not a trick question! Is it a difficult or unknown process to create natural babies in the world? Come on and think with me for a moment! God is comparing a natural process to a spiritual process. Or are you spiritually blind enough to believe that THE spiritual things of God are somehow completely different than the natural things that God has created. I believe that many people think that God created natural things to be totally separate and independent from spiritual things and this is just NOT the truth (Rom 1:20). The natural process of things clearly point us to the unseen spiritual process and FORMULA! Naturally created things are clearly patterns of spiritual things that existed prior to God creating our world. God created natural sex as a pattern to spiritual things that you cannot see. Maybe you just don’t know or understand what it means and that is the root of your problem right now. But you should search your Bible and find the truth and then you will see that what I am trying to say is right. Let’s look at some more verses in John 3. When Jesus was speaking about being “born again” He was talking to a man named Nicodemus. This was his response to Jesus’ statement of being born again:
Joh 3:4 Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?
Because Nicodemus was a carnally minded man, he was thinking only in natural physical terms. He asks Jesus how can a grown man enter back into his mother’s womb to be born again? Nicodemus obviously was smarter than a lot of men today, at least he knew where babies come from. However, Jesus was speaking of spiritual things and Nicodemus was focused on the natural process of birth only. This is the repeated problem with most Christian in the world today. They think like Nicodemus and not like Jesus when they read the Bible. Do you understand the difference and why it is important to see things from God’s point of view?
Joh 3:5 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
So Jesus starts giving us the spiritual answer to Nicodemus’ carnal question. Jesus in this verse speaks of both kinds of births, the first and the second in a contrasting comparison. To be born of water is the natural process of you coming into the world when your mother’s water breaks and she gave birth to you physically. This is the “First Birth” of all humans and it is only natural. However, this natural birth is contrasted with the spiritual birth process of being born of the Spirit. Being born of the Spirit is the “Second Birth” process that a man can experience. Jesus clearly tells us that if you are not born naturally first and then spiritually second you will never see the kingdom of God. Also note that Jesus did not say that you will be born again and again. In other words spiritual brith is a onetime event, just like being born into the natural world is a one time event. Your natural mother does not birth you over and over and like this process when you are born again spiritually it happens only once. Always keep that in mind, that a man is never born again, again. Let’s look at the next verse in John 3:
Joh 3:6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
Jesus confirms what I have been saying in this next verse. You can clearly see that only natural mothers give birth to natural babies. You can see that only spiritual mothers give birth to spiritual babies. A natural mother does not birth a spiritual baby and a spiritual mother does not give birth to a natural baby. This is by God’s design and God’s laws of reproduction and procreation. Is this too complicated for you so far? Did you know that there were spiritual women who could give birth to spiritual babies? So I’m going to stop and ask you again, where do natural babies come from? Is there a formula for making natural babies? If there is a known formula for making natural babies then there is also a known formula for making spiritual babies. I am not spiritually blind to this truth like so many in the church! Are you understanding this new spiritual principle that I am attempting to teach you today? All you have to do is to open up your spiritual eyes, stop to look and study your Bible to find out the truth.
Let’ me now teach you that if you were “born again” to become a Christian right now that you had a spiritual birth mother. Did you know that you had a spiritual mother? Do you know that you had a physical natural mother? If you are here in this world reading this article posted on the internet you must have had a natural mother. It is just a biological fact of God’s designed creation. Again I will say if you had a natural mother to be born here in the flesh the first time into the world, then you must have a spiritual mother to be born into the spiritual Kingdom of God. So is there a corresponding spiritual mother for being “born again” into the salvation of the Lord? Of course there has to be a spiritual birth mother. You either never searched your Bible to find her or you must have just ignored her in the Bible and read right over the information. Here is your spiritual birth mother if you are born again:
Gal 4:26 But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the MOTHER of us all.
Who was this letter and this verse written to? You should be smart enough to see that it was written to us in the church of Jesus Christ. If you are “born again”, here is your “spiritual mother” who gave birth to you to be in the new spiritual family of God. God tells us very clearly in a statement written to the church that the “Jerusalem Above” is our spiritual birth mother. Do you understand this? Is this complicated? So where do Spiritual babies come from? Do spiritual babies come into existence the same way that natural babies are conceived? Obviously NOT! Spirits do not have sex with each other, but that does not mean that the spiritual process is not very similar to the natural process symbolically. Natural things are most often used to symbolize spiritual truth that you cannot see. It also does not mean there is not a process to be saved or to be born again. If a natural woman gives birth to a baby and she knows when it occurs then a spiritual mother who gives birth to a spiritual baby would also know when she gave birth to a new child. Before we go there, let’s establish who this woman “Jerusalem Above” is and where this spiritual mother lives using the Bible.
Heb 12:22 But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels,
So we now have an established point of reference for the identity of the woman who gives spiritual birth to the church. In this verse in Hebrews God says that this is the “Heavenly Jerusalem”, the city of the Most High God. The location of which contains the throne of God and where the angels of the Lord reside and surround and praise God’s throne. Did you know that a city can be a spiritual woman? Did you even know that this spiritual woman Heavenly Jerusalem existed? You should go back and study the Old Testament and see how many times the Earthly Jerusalem is called a woman, the wife of God, the whore, the harlot. Read, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Hosea to name a few great places to start. See how many times God describes Israel as His wife in covenant. See how many times she is described as being unfaithful and sleeping with other gods. See how many times you can find where God says “I divorce” you for your unfaithfulness to me. What we begin to see is a pattern that a woman to God is a nation of people in covenant with Him. You can clearly see that if Jerusalem Above or Heavenly Jerusalem exists from the verses that I just gave you that this is a pattern of another woman called Jerusalem Below or Earthly Jerusalem. What we have established is that we have a city on the earth called a woman and a city in heaven called a woman, both with the name Jerusalem. You can clearly read about both of these women in more depth by exploring Galatians 4. The Jerusalem Below is said to be a type of Hagar in the O.T. The Jerusalem Above is said to be a type of Sarah. Sarah births the child of promise and Hagar and her son are cast out. Sarah was the older of the two women in the Bible and existed before Hagar. Hagar had a child before Sarah had her child. These are all physical patterns of the spirit realm and the woman that gave birth to the church. So I probably just taught you a bunch of new things that you did not know. Yet they are there in the Bible and you can choose to see them or go ahead and reject them like a spiritually blind man. So let’s get back to the fact does a woman know when she has a baby? A natural woman certainly does, but how about a spiritual woman? Here is what Jesus taught us about this birth process:
Luk 15:10 Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.
As you can see the angels of God rejoice when just one sinner repents. What happens when one sinner repents? They are born again! Isn’t that what we are talking about? Are we talking about a single point in time when a sinner is saved and born again? If the angels rejoice when this occurs, they obviously have observed the second spiritual birth of the man. Where are these angels? You may recall that we read in Hebrew 12:22 that there were an innumerable company of angels in the Heavenly Jerusalem. Are these the angels of God that rejoice over the new birth of one spirit on the earth? You can try to explain it away if you want to, but I am convinced that these are the angels who rejoice. After all it is that city which is said to be our mother and every mother knows exactly when she gives birth to any new baby. People need to be smart enough to learn to put the pieces of the puzzle together correctly. I can see it very clearly, I guess you can too if you choose to believe what you read.
Did you know that only people who want to be saved, will be saved? No one repents if they do not want to repent. God does not force salvation upon anyone. Jesus says in Revelation 3:20 “Behold I stand at the door and knock, if any many will hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him and I will sup with him and him with me”. 
That was the basic formula for salvation and being born again in a nutshell. Jesus first Knocks! The man either ignores the knock or listens for who it is that is knocking. Let’ me stop there and tell you that Jesus is speaking figuratively or symbolically in this verse in Revelation. Jesus is not going to come to knock on your physical house or apartment personally. No, your house where your spirit lives is your physical body. God’s Spirit is the Spirit of Christ that comes to knock on your heart’s door. The door that Jesus knocks on is your ears when a man like me comes and preaches the salvation Gospel. Yes, the Spirit of God is the Key partner to any salvation. No man comes to God unless the Spirit of God draws him. But, God doesn’t come in person, physically anymore to save anyone. Jesus Christ was God in the flesh and He came for a short time to fulfill the plan of God for our Salvation and Redemption. But, He went back to heaven and has now turned over the responsibility of teaching and preaching to people like me and you. So when a man comes to you and tells you the good news of salvation, that is Jesus working through that man to help you see the truth. Then the individual who hears the words of God, now stands at a crossroad and at a time of decision; to either accept it or reject it. If they accept it, they believe what was said and can ask Jesus to come and be their Lord with a repentant heart. This invites Jesus to come in to sup. Jesus them comes in at that exact point in time. That is when you are saved, that is when you are born again. If that person refuse to hear the Gospel, then Jesus has no choice but to walk away from the door. Jesus is not going to kick the door down, just because He wants to save someone.
Any new born physical baby when first entering our world is sometimes smacked on the bottom and they take their first breaths of air and begin to cry. This is a joyous sound for the mother who has gone through 9 months of pregnancy and then labor. She now knows that all of the discomfort and pain was worth it. So also then the baby knows when he or she is born into the world because they can cry and the mother knows when she has given birth to the baby because she can hear their cry, something that they never did before. Is it any different in the spiritual realm? No I do not believe it is. Once a person believes in their heart that God raised Jesus from the dead and they accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior like Romans 10:9-10 says they are “born again”. The Spirit of Christ comes into their spirit and they are saved. The angels see the birth and rejoice. The mighty cloud of witnesses in heaven also see the birth and they now rejoice (Heb 12:1). This is just how it works by God’s design, if you do not believe it, that is your problem and not mine and it does not change the facts. I know that I am saved and I know how I got saved. Salvation was not a long process, it was not a complicated proces, it was just following the formula that God gave us in His Word that worked for me. So I’ll ask you one more time “Where do Spiritual Babies Come From”? I believe that you can see that we still have a lot to learn about how God does things in the unseen spiritual realm. If you are not a “born again” Christian and have had the pleasure of this new spiritual birth it is not difficult to make happen in your heart. If you want to read about how to be saved, you can go to “Salavation and How to Know if You are Going to Heaven” and follow the instructions. God Bless!
If you would like to continue reading in this series you may proceed to “Part 3“.
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If you want to know how to get saved and know that you are with confidence you can go to: How to know that I am saved?
Understanding God’s Design of a Man! Man Made In the Image of God!
(Ver 1.2) There is a vast amount of confusion surrounding the makeup of the human design of man. Natural and carnal people think they are just a physical body much like every other mammal on the planet. Certain intellectual people in the world think and believe that they are just a mind in the universal consciousness of Nirvana, or some C.R.A.P. (Christian Reasoning Applied Poorly) like that. Please forgive my bluntness, but God is not an intellect or a mind over matter concept of a religion. There are only a certain number of Christians that realize the truth and of course not all of them really know very much about the details of the design of man and they mix up the components when speaking about them. There is just too many differing man made opinions on the subject and the definitions given to us in the Bible are being ignored. So today I will attempt to explore and to explain the 3 separate parts that make up the human design and teach you how they are related, what they are and where they exist using only the Bible to explain them. This will probably be a very long lesson on the subject, so I apologize for not breaking it down into a series of shorter lessons. We should start with the basics from Genesis, because this was the beginning of man and it states God’s initial design concepts and purpose for a man. Why is it important to study this subject? Primarily because how you see yourself reflects whether you came from a monkey or from a created design of God. Based upon the correct interpretation of Human design found in the Bible alone proves that the evolution theory of man is a myth. In Genesis, God gives us His stated purpose for creating a man and what we will quickly discover in Genesis is that God designed man after a divine pattern of Himself:
Gen 1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the…
So here is the stated beginning of man. Man is a created being. Man had a specific stated point of origin. You could call it a point of origination, but God calls it a beginning. Genesis means a book of beginnings. However we can see that humans are uniquely designed after a pre-existing pattern of God. Uh Oh? That probably bugs natural thinking people who believe only in evolution. God who is a Spirit (John 4:24) existed before time and space existed. God is an eternal spiritual being. This of course is not the complete verse and I left out the ending to simply concentrate on the subject at hand of where did man come from? The rest of the verse speaks about man’s responsibilities and purpose for being here. However, I want to focus in on two specific words in this verse, one is “image” and the other is “likeness”.
Image
From an unused root meaning to shade; a phantom, that is, (figuratively) illusion, resemblance; hence a representative figure, especially an idol: – image, vain shew.
This is an interesting Hebrew word from the Strong’s definition. It overall means a resemblance. In other words you could have looked at Adam and seen his family resemblance to his father God. I know there are many religious people who do not like me to call Adam a son of God, but yet that is what the Bible says so I’ll stick with it. I did not say that Adam was the Son of God, so put down your stones. Now let’s look at the word “likeness” and see the Strong’s definition for this word:
Likeness
From H1819; resemblance; concretely model, shape; adverbially like: – fashion, like (-ness, as), manner, similitude.
While this is a very similar word to the first, it is also a completely different word. So either God is trying to teach us something, or He is just repeating Himself and confused and I do not think that God gets confused. The key meaning of this word is “resemblance” as in the “family resemblance” was with Adam resembling his father God again. Similitude is another definition of this word. One definition of the word “similitude” is “One closely resembling another”. Adam when created closely resembled his Creator. What we can clearly see is that if Adam closely resembled God, then whatever God was, man was a very closely designed pattern of this God. You cannot look at one and not recognize the other. Adam possessed the traits of the family resemblance of God. When my son was born and grew up, everyone looked at him and said “He looks just like his father” and he did. What I want you to see is this same family resemblance is handed down from generation to generation. Here is a verse in the Bible that says something about Adam’s son resembling Adam:
Gen 5:3 And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth:
As you can clearly see the same two Hebrew words are presented for another father and son combination. Adam’s son Seth bore the resemblance of his father Adam. Do you recognize a pattern? It is the same pattern between God and Adam, just being perpetuated down the line. Every generation of Adam contained the same resemblance to God. Man has never lost the family resemblance to the Most High. What I want you to realize is that whatever God is, that is also what man is on a smaller limited scale. If God is a Spirit, then man is a spirit. If God is a triune being, then man is a triune being. If God is a speaking spirit, then man is a speaking spirit. There are just too many qualities of God to list them all in this lesson. If you do not understand the trinity of God, I have written a blog on “Understanding the Trinity of God”. So go and read about God the Father, God the Word and God the Holy Spirit being One God in that blog. Now, what I want to do is introduce you to the concepts about the triune makeup of man. Man if created to look like God, must precisely follow the pattern of the makeup of God’s design.
What are the three parts that make up a man? Also, I use the term man generically as “mankind” and I’m not leaving women out, so please understand this. According to the scriptures that I have read and studied, the human makeup of man is that primarily of a spirit being. After all God is a Spirit. If a man had no spirit we would be purely just like a monkey. Animals do not have spirits. No animal was ever made in the image and likeness of God Almighty. Therefore, man did not evolve from animals. There are many idiots in the world that disagree and think God used evolution to bring us into the world, but they do err and make themselves to be fools.
Jas 2:26 For as the body without the Spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.
Those who want to see what the Bible says clearly will accept verses like this one. However, those who do not want to accept the truth will be deceived into believing the lies of Satan very easily. Many times you just have to read the Bible and accept it for what it literally says and this is one of those times. Man’s body we are told is dead without his spirit being inside of his body. You can also read into this a complimentary implied truth that is given to us, if the body is dead, then the spirit has departed and is no longer in the body. People who do not want to believe this fact try to say this word “spirit” means breath, to respire, to inspire, to take in oxygen physically. After all God when He created Adam “breathed” the breath of life into his nostrils, Genesis 2 says. When you think naturally you think wrong and this is most people’s problem with their interpretations of the Bible. They forget who the author is; God is a Spirit and not a physical being. Because God wrote the Bible in a manner to give man a choice to be wrong, many think they are right and do not understand they are completely wrong. The Bible says that the “carnal” mind of man is enmity to God. Natural thinking is an enemy to the thoughts and ways of God. If you think that God came down to the earth and did mouth to mouth resuscitation on Adam to get him breathing and to live, you are clearly deceived. God breathed His Spirit into the body of the man Adam and Adam became a living soul. If you go back and look up the references in the Bible using the Greek word translated as “spirit” in James 2:6; you will find that it is used in context with every type of spiritual being. God’s Spirit or the Spirit of God, who is also called the Holy Spirit are examples found with this same word. The spirits of demons, unclean spirits and evil spirits are also defined using this word. Does God breathe oxygen? Does Satan breathe oxygen? Do Angels breathe Oxygen? If you said No!; you are correct. So then do not think that man only breathes oxygen and that is what makes us human. So man’s spiritual makeup is no different than God’s spiritual makeup, the makeup of angels, Satan or demons. The only difference is that we exist physically here on this planet and that means, we eat, drink, sleep and breathe to be here. Do not confuse natural things with spiritual things or you will be totally confused. I guess I still need to discuss the triune nature of man so I will introduce you to this using the Bible:
1Th 5:23 And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
To declare something to be whole is to declare it to be complete, missing no parts. Man is clearly described as a “triune” being in this verse. Man has three distinct and separate parts that make up our “whole” existence. These are listed in order of priority from most important to that of least importance. The first part of man and the most essential component to man is the spirit of a man. The spirit of man is the part that God breathed into Adam from His Spirit. God is called the “Father” of spirits in Hebrews 12:9. So if God is called the Father of spirits then God is only the Father of Adam’s spirit and not the father of Adam’s body. Do you understand the difference? When Jesus was born into the world as the Son of God, He is called the “Only Begotten”. That means only Jesus was God’s naturally born physical Son. God became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14). You can clearly see the difference between Adam and Jesus. Jesus was born here and Adam’s body came from the dust of the ground. These are two radically different creative works of God. So getting back to our verse in 1 Thessalonians 5:25; we can see that Adam when created had to possess all three of these qualities in order to live on this planet. The Bible says that when God breathed the Spirit of Life into Adam; Adam became a living soul so we can see that the soul of Adam is different that the spirit of Adam. God did not put His soul into Adam, it says that Adam only “became” a living soul after God breathed into his nostrils and that is completely different. We have not discussed what a soul is, so that is probably the point of confusion for many people right now. The final component of man listed in this verse in 1 Thessalonians 5:25 is the physical body of the man. This is the part that we all can see and touch, but yet it is not the man, just the house that the man lives in. These are the three components that make up the human design. We are a triune being, consisting of three distinct parts. We exist in three different dimensions or realms of existence. These realms are the spiritual realm, the mental realm and the physical realm.
I have been in many churches and they sometimes use the words spirit and soul interchangeably. They seem to think that they are one in the same things. They will say after a church service that God saved 15 souls today in church. Or they will pray for the soul of Brother John, because he is going through a hard time right now. Or they will say God bless the soul of our dear sister. So what is the difference between a soul and a spirit? I guess we should first determine there is a difference. So let’s start with this verse:
1Co 15:45 And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.
So here we have a verse with the two key words used in contrasting styles and references. God calls the first man Adam a Living Soul; but then He calls the last man Adam a quickening Spirit. If the spirit of man was the same as the soul of the man, it would not be necessary to use different Greek words, would it? Jesus Christ is called the Last Adam and He causes spirits to live. The inferred reference or opposite truth to this is the clear association that the first Adam has caused spirits to die. Since it is impossible for spirits to die, then we have to figure out another explanation of what this means. I believe that it means that unrighteous people who are alive in the world are soul dominated or controlled. In direct contrast to this, true Christians in the world should be Spirit aware and controlled. If a person dies without knowing Jesus Christ and accepting Him as their personal Lord and Savior, they are now separated from God. So any way let me give you another verse that declares the reality that the spirit and the soul are not the same thing.
Heb 4:12 For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
If God can divide the soul from the spirit, they are not one in the same things. What God is revealing to us is that these two things are clearly closely related or even work in conjunction with each other in a joint function or purpose, but that they are clearly and distinctly different components of the human design. God actually gives us a clue in the very last statement to the definition of these two words. The Word of God is said to be a “discerner” of the thoughts of a man’s heart. This word translated as “discerner” comes from a Greek word meaning a “Judge”. The Word of God is able to judge your thoughts. Where are your thoughts? Your thoughts exist within the realm of your mind and intellect. However, God declares that the thoughts are associated with your heart. Your heart is your spirit. So we can conclude that your mind is how you get through to your internal spirit. I think this is a good time to introduce you to the Greek Word translated as “soul”. Here is Strong’s definition:
psuchē
From G5594; breath, that is, (by implication) spirit, abstractly or concretely (the animal sentient principle only; thus distinguished on the one hand from G4151, which is the rational and immortal soul; and on the other from G2222, which is mere vitality, even of plants: these terms thus exactly correspond respectively to the Hebrew [H5315], [H7307] and [H2416]: – heart (+ -ily), life, mind, soul, + us, + you.
No wonder people are so confused. Using this definition is very confusing. It would seem to apply to everything from people down to plants and did you know that in a way this is correct. You see every animal on our planet has a soul. The predominate thing that I take out of this definition is the usage of the reference to the word concerning your “MIND”. Maybe you can clearly see that the Greek word “psuche” is where we get our words like “psyche” or words like “psychology” or “psychiatrist” come from this word. These are all Mind related curriculums and references. These are the study of your mental health and the human mind. This is the predominate realm of the soul of man. To have the ability to think, rationalize, process, calculate, make decisions, among other mental functions are all related actions of the soul of man. Your mind is of course a very complex part of your being, the ability to reason and to create come from God’s nature being imparted into man at creation. This is part of the makeup of man that makes him different than animals. All animals have limited soulish realms, but they do not create nor are they self-aware of their own existence! Sure animals have limited feelings but not like those of a human. Sure in very limited forms animals build themselves houses or things like that. But, I’ve never seen an animal write a song or even try to play the piano on their own without the prompting or training of a man. Animals are not wondering “Why am I here?” and “Who am I?”. Creativity is a part of the soul of man that is unique to us. We learned this trait from our creator God. But, your mind is more complex than just that. How about your memory? The ability to learn information and to recall facts and material on a subject in an organized fashion is definitely a mental function of the human mind. Many naturally thinking people in the world associate or attribute this to the physical human brain. However, this is not what the Bible teaches. Your mind, your reasoning, your memory have nothing to do with your physical brain and I can prove that to you using the Bible.
Luk 16:22 And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried;
Jesus, God in the flesh tells us a real story about two men who both died. One man was a beggar on the earth and the other a rich man. The bodies of both the beggar and of the rich man are buried. The Angels of God come and take the beggar. Did you understand this? The spiritual angels of God came and took the spirit of the beggar to the bosom of Abraham. Now we are immediately told what happened to the rich man:
Luk 16:23 And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.
The rich man now suddenly appears in hell. We are not told if the angels carried him there or if this is just where you go by default after you die. I find this story to be fascinatingly informative about the afterlife experience. Before Jesus was resurrected, a human could not die and go to heaven, so the righteous ones who died were transported to a place called “Abraham’s bosom” and this is a place different than hell. It is also interesting to note that the rich man could still “see”. Spirits have eyes. Interesting isn’t it? The rich man tries to ask Abraham who was a far off from where he was in hell, to send Lazarus to give him a drink of water because he was being tormented in the flames. Then the rich man asks Abraham to send Lazarus back to the earth so that he could tell his brothers not to come to this place of torment called hell. Are you seeing anything here? The rich man had all of his memory, his mental reasoning abilities; his entire soul realm was with him in hell. Jesus told us that his body was buried in the ground so that means your soul works outside of your body. Abraham was also physically dead and his body was buried and they were holding a conversation and using their minds to do it.
Luk 16:25 But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented.
Here is one of Abraham’s responses to the rich man in hell. He told the rich man to remember and this is clearly a mental function of the soul realm. People in hell even without their bodies can remember, think and process things using their minds. Many try to say this story that Jesus told is a parable and not a real story, but they make Jesus a liar then. Is Abraham a real man? Then if Abraham is real, the beggar is also a real man named Lazarus and finally the rich man must be a real man but one who is not identified by name. I don’t think Jesus wanted to name the rich man or you could see that he didn’t make it to heaven and feel very sad if you knew him personally or he was one of your family members.
This story of Lazarus in the Bible, clearly describes all three components that make up the human design. Every component is clearly identified and separated in one story. It starts in the physical realm and ends in the spiritual realm. The mental or soulish realm transfers wherever the spirit resides. There are just many other Bible verses that speak about the triune nature and the design of man to resemble God, but I guess I have gone too long for one lesson. I have certainly introduced you to some new concepts about the spiritual, mental and physical parts of the human design by God and I hope and pray that you can see them clearly. God Bless!
Changing Spiritual Diapers! Feeding Spiritual Babies with Spiritual Bottles!
(Ver 1.1) Except when natural babies sleep, they are in constant dependency upon their parents for all of their physical needs. If you have had children, you know this is true. Babies would never survive without the care and nurturing of a parental figure. Mothers of course play a central role in this care, but this does not alleviate responsibility of the father. Natural food is not automatically provided to a child without the mother’s cooperation, at first children are not even able to feed themselves, they cannot walk, they cannot talk, they are only able to cry if they need something and then the parent has to figure out what that need is. Normally, this is not a difficult process, if you haven’t fed them in a while, then you feed them. If you have fed them recently, then you check their diapers and see if they need changing. The process of raising children is not overly complicated, yet we sometimes forget that these natural things are repeated in the spiritual realm. Just like we have physical babies in the world, we also have many spiritual babies in the world.
Gal 4:19 My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you,
Many times we get people born again and immediately expect them to walk and talk the spiritual language and know what to do in every situation. This is not how it works in the physical world and it is not how it should work in the spiritual world either. As I read the internet Blogs from people who call themselves Christians, I can tell who is a little mature and those that just think they are mature but are just crying out loud and making a noise to be heard. It would appear that the baby Christians are the ones that make the most noise and the ones that cry for the most attention. The Baby Christians are sometimes the ones that need their spiritual diapers changed and those that need to drink more milk to learn more of the truth.
1Pe 2:2 As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:
God is giving you some amazing spiritual information in this verse. This verse says that we are not born again in a spiritual full grown, mature state of existence. It means there is a spiritual growth process that should be followed for new Christians. You should not make a new Christian and expect them to work like one that has been around 30 years in the church. It means you should have structure established to feed them and to help them in order to teach them in the ways that they should go. God tells us in Proverbs 22:6 to train up a child in the way that they should go and when they are older they will not depart from it. If you have any wisdom at all, you can apply that verse to both the physical and spiritual realms to know how to treat physical and spiritual new babies. New baby Christians are going to need structure, a planned growth cycle, a parental growth partner, and a time to grow spiritually. Baby Christians do not automatically know what to do in every situation. If you leave them alone they will just normally go back to their own old ways and life situations that they already know. If they were alcoholics before being saved, Satan will try to get them back in the bars. If they were thieves and robbers before being saved, Satan will attempt to try to revert them back to what they already know how to do.
Mat 12:43 When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none.
Jesus speaking here is not talking about a physical house. If you think he is you are very ignorant of spiritual symbolism. Jesus is speaking of the heart of man. Jesus is also speaking of evil spirits who live in the hearts, minds and bodies of people. You see if you save someone in the world, you might get the evil spirit out of a person temporarily, but Jesus says they will try to return.
Mat 12:44 Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished.
Evil spirits always try to return to the house they exited from. It is a familiar place that they know and they like. People who are born again and new baby Christians do not know what to do when these spirits return.
Mat 12:45 Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation.
If you are a mature Christian that witnesses to someone and gets them born again, you should understand what Jesus prophesied that will happen to people who become new Christians. Just because you are a Christian does not mean, Satan is through with you. He is still in the business of deception and he wants to trick you into going back to your ways that you previously knew. Jesus tells us about a house, that has been swept clean and is now empty. You do understand that Jesus is speaking of a person without any understanding of spiritual things. This clean house is said to be vulnerable to a stronger attack of the spiritual forces of darkness. This spirit will bring back seven other spirits to try to get back into the house that the one lived in. Jesus says if they are successful, the condition of that man will be worse than the beginning. Keep this in mind when dealing with new converts. They may be under attack and not realize it. If you read in Ephesians 4:14, it tells us how spiritual children are very vulnerable to false doctrines and the deception of the enemy. These are important things to know. Spiritual babies are very open to deception, simply because of naivety and ignorance. It is a spiritual situation of not knowing what you do not know that makes them extremely vulnerable.
1Co 3:2 I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.
We are told to desire the sincere milk of the Word of God in 1 Peter 2:2. In this verse found in 1 Corinthians 3:2, God is again using a symbolic analogy of natural substances in relationship to spiritual truths. The Milk of God’s Word are the representative types of the basic foundational truths found in the Bible. The basics are the foundation to building a strong understanding of more advanced topics found in the Bible. Truth always builds upon truth. Advanced topics are totally dependent upon a full understanding of basic topics. These advanced Topics of God are called the meat of the Word. Just as natural babies are unable to eat natural meat, spiritual babies struggle with eating the strong subjects of God’s word. I believe that is why many people spiritually choke on some of my blogs, but that is my opinion. Advanced subjects in the Bible are not understandable to baby Christians. So what are the Basic subjects that you should already know fully? Some of them are listed in Hebrews:
Heb 6:1 Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God,
As you can read this verse is talking about spiritual growth. The term translated as “perfection” does not mean that we will become perfect and not make any mistakes. No, the term “perfection” means “maturity”. God is expecting Christians to grow spiritually, and to become mature Christians. This is only possible, if they continue drinking the Milk of God’s Words and learning to understand the basics therein. The term “Principle Doctrines” is referring to the initial or first teachings of Christ. These first teachings are the basics. Every church with new converts should have a basic class for new born Christians. These classes should include subjects that cause them to learn Christian fundamentals. The identity of Jesus Christ, the Blood of Christ, the Word of God, Salvation, Redemption, and the Holy Spirit. That was some of my list of items, but here are some more that God gives us in the Bible:
Heb 6:2 Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.
God says these are also basic doctrines that we should be intimately aware of. I rarely see anybody speaking on any of these subjects. Maybe they do, but it is just not where I notice it. Bible basics are the most important things to get to new Christians. If they can understand the basics, then they are better able to grasp the tougher stuff that they also need to learn about.
1Co 13:11 When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
Caring for spiritual babies is a lot like, caring for natural babies. They need a lot of attention to get to where they can do things right for themselves. They will need you to feed them spiritual milk until they can eat solid food on their own. Many times you will have to also change their spiritual diapers and that involves putting up with some of the smelly stuff that they produce. There are many rewards with doing this right, you can see in the Bible that Paul and the disciples spent a lot of time with people, feeding them and caring for them to get them to grow up.
1Co 14:20 Brethren, be not children in understanding: howbeit in malice be ye children, but in understanding be men.
I hope that you enjoyed my spiritual lesson on babies in the church and I pray it will help you to deal with people more closely. God Bless!
Getting The People Out of Egypt is Easier than Getting Egypt Out of the People!
(Ver 1.1) God gives us some very valuable information from the Children of Israel in the Old Testament. They spent nearly 400 years living in the foreign land called Egypt, governed by a Godless people who became their masters. Of course the picture is given to us from the New Testament that these things were written to give us patterns of things to come as examples to those in the last days on the earth (1 Cor 10:11). What lessons can we, the church learn from the information given to us concerning the natural nation of Israel? Let’s look at some scriptures in Acts 7 and see a sermon given by the man Stephen.
Act 7:36 He brought them out, after that he had shewed wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, and in the Red sea, and in the wilderness forty years.
God delivered Israel from the bondage of the world slave system of Egypt. God did this by demonstrating a series of great signs and wonders through the faithful service of His servant Moses. So far we have a story with many major spiritual patterns being revealed to us. Egypt is a type of the Word System controlled by Satan. Moses is a type of Jesus Christ our deliverer. Just as Moses was sent to Israel after 400 years of Israel’s captivity, Jesus Christ was sent to the earth after 4000 years of human bondage to the captivity of sin. The people of Israel are representative of the those who are saved who are now members of the church of Jesus Christ. As you read this sermon found in Acts, you can see some of these things being revealed to us. This story tells of Moses being given the Law of God on Mt Sinai and how the children of Israel ignored it.
Act 7:39 To whom our fathers would not obey, but thrust him from them, and in their hearts turned back again into Egypt,
Here in Acts 7:39, is the beginning of the key part of this lesson. The children of Israel after spending time in the wilderness, thought it was better to go back into their life of slavery and return to Egypt. All because things got a little tough. This is the title of this lesson, you can get the people out of Egypt, but getting Egypt out of the people is a much more difficult job. What was it that made Israel want to return? Had they forgotten already how much they asked God for a deliverer to free them from their task masters?
Act 7:40 Saying unto Aaron, Make us gods to go before us: for as for this Moses, which brought us out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him.
It’s funny how people see things, isn’t it? These people thought that because Moses had gone up on the Mountain to meet with God and it was such a long time that God did not care about them anymore or maybe God did not really exist. It would appear that they no longer even believed there was a real God. The people all told Aaron to make them gods that they could see. You have to assume that meant they did not have any faith in a God that they could not see. Seems like we still hear that compliant today. You can see that the culture of Egypt was so prevalent within them, they were more comfortable with that old life style and the Old Egyptian ways of worship. They totally ignored all of the great signs and wonders that they had seen God do and wanted to fall back into a system that they had seen was defeated. All they could remember is how they had seen the people of Egypt worship gods that they made with their hands and this was all that they focused on during this uncertain time of trouble. It would seem that their long term memory took over and their short term memory vanished. Maybe they forgot that God killed most of the Egyptians in the Red Sea and there was really not that much to go back to. How do you know what they were thinking, all you can see is what they did. They reverted back to their old lifestyle and this is a major problem found in the church today.
Act 7:41 And they made a calf in those days, and offered sacrifice unto the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands.
So the children of Israel, got their way and they made gods that they could see with their physical eyes. They sacrificed offerings to these gods and they worship them. This verse ends with the statement that they rejoiced in the works of their hands. Isn’t that a great way to put what we see in the world today? People make things today and still worship them with their money and their time. Hollywood movies are a great example of this. Oh well, I guess I won’t go there.
Jud 1:5 I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not.
I often wonder, why save a people if you know you are going to have to destroy most of them. Thankfully, God is not like people on the earth. People on the earth would not go through that much trouble to bring anyone out of Egypt, if only a small number of them were going to make it into the promised land. However, God would come to the earth and still die for you, even if you were the only one that was going to be saved. You have more value to God than anything. God gave everyone the same opportunity to believe and go into the promise land, because the people did not believe, was not God’s fault. The people of Israel can only blame themselves for not believing God.
Rev 11:8 And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.
To show you things from God’s point of view, God tells us a secret here in Revelation 11:8. The spiritual name for Israel and Jerusalem, is still Egypt. This just goes to show you how difficult it is to shed your past. God took the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt, but God never really succeeded in getting Egypt out of the children of Israel. You can read this chapter in Revelation 11 and see that this is speaking about a coming prophetic event during the time of the tribulation. So you can pretty much still see that even then, God calls Israel the spiritual Egypt.
We all have pasts and things we use to do. We all have had experiences that we would have rather not gone through. These are the patterns of the Egypt in our lives. What the church should learn from this lesson, is that new converts into the body of Christ will always be drawn back to what they know in their natural past. Until a new Christian grows up spiritually and matures, they are extremely vulnerable to the deception of the enemy. There will always be times in every Christian experience where it will appear that you are going through a wilderness type journey. When in these spiritual wildernesses, you will find yourself, many times asking where is this God that saved me? It is during these times that strong church leadership and mentoring will be required. Just as you should not give birth to a natural new baby and expect them to feed themselves, new Christians need special attention also. In order to continue to grow in spiritual things, people need to continue in the Bible and their personal relationship with God is essential. The encouragement from a Christian mentor, will go a long way in helping new Christians make it into the promise land. When times of adversary come, and you are tempted to go back to your old familiar ways, spend time with God and God’s Word to find direction and purpose. Seek the face of God, like Moses did on the Mountain Top. Renew your mind with the Word of God and eventually, the old ways will not be desirable. Keep walking and do not give up, the wilderness does not last forever. Pretty soon the wilderness will appear as only a distant memory that helped to make you stronger. Only you can make the choice to not try to return to Egypt and die in the wilderness. What’s on the inside of you?
The Spiritual New Birth! The Importance of Learning Spiritual Things in the Bible!
(Ver 1.3) This is Part 1 in an essential basic Bible study series on the subject of Savlation and the Spiritual New Birth of God.. So many bloggers on the internet want to ignore the real important eternal spiritual things of God and want to only focus on the temporary natural things that mean very little. Because they think carnally they have been blinded spiritually to the things that God wants to teach them. I hope that I am not talking about you. Today I want to discuss a Bible Basic Truth that every Christian should already know a little bit about. This is the subject of the New Birth, a subject that totally revolves around spiritual actions of God and not the natural thoughts of men. What you should see when you study the Bible is that God gives us natural things as patterns for us to understand the hidden spiritual things. Of course if you do not understand these natural things, you will not understand the spiritual things either. Here is the challenge that God throws down to us in 1 Corinthians:
1Co 2:14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
How natural are you? We are all a little bit natural and many are more natural than they are spiritual. God is very clear when He states the problem we are faced with in the church today. We have many people teaching spiritual things and many people that are just not able to grasp it because they are not able to understand it without getting the knowledge past their flesh and minds and into their spirits. People want to figure out God using only their natural human minds and reasoning and God says your mind is incapable of understanding anything about His spiritual things. The more natural thinking you are the more difficulty you will have with understanding anything that is spiritual.
1Co 3:1 And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.
Every new Christian starts as a spiritual baby in Christ. Just as natural babies cannot eat steak and the food that grownups eat, baby Christians have trouble digesting anything that has great substance and meaning to it. Have you ever noticed that kids and children often times think they know more than they do? They like to pretend that they are highly intelligent, even teenagers tend to think they know more than their parents.
Joh 3:3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
This is why many people even in churches today are unable to understand anything about the spiritual things that other people teach. Jesus made a definite requirement to enter into the Kingdom of God. What does it mean to be born again?
Joh 3:4 Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?
This is a classic example of a spiritual teacher trying to teach something to a natural thinking man. Jesus is attempting to discuss spiritual things and this man in John 3 wants to ask a natural question. Nicodemus asks Jesus how a man when he is old can enter back into the stomach of his mother. To Nicodemus it was a good question, but to Jesus it was just a clear indication that this man did not understand what he said.
Joh 3:5 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
Jesus tries with another statement to explain the process. I would doubt that you fully understand this scripture either. Jesus is not speaking of Water Baptism in this verse and I would bet that most people think that is what He is talking about. Jesus is comparing two different births, one natural and one spiritual. When you are in your mother’s womb, you are surrounded by water. When her water breaks, she knows it is time to deliver. Jesus is comparing this natural event to the spiritual birth process. Again Jesus tells us that unless a man is born naturally and spiritually you will never make it into the Kingdom of God.
Joh 3:6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
We can again see the comparison being confirmed in this next verse in John. Jesus tells us very clearly that being born again has nothing to do with the flesh. To be born again is a spiritual birth process and something that happens inside of you. No one can observe it when it happens, but they can observe the changes that it makes in you externally. This verse represents a spiritual law being revealed to us. Whoever is born of the flesh is just that, flesh! But, whoever is born of the Spirit, they are now a new spirit.
1Pe 1:23 Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.
You see the spiritual birth process dramatically resembles the natural birth process, but yet it is completely different at the same time. Both birth processes were initiated by planting seed. The natural seed of a man is called sperm and it impregnates a woman and a natural child is born. This natural seed is called corruptible seed and this is directly compared to the incorruptible seed of the Word of God. Everyone that becomes a Christian does so as a result of hearing God’s Word.
1Co 3:6 I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.
You see these people in Corinth were disputing among themselves, again thinking naturally and carnally and missing the spiritual things of God that Paul was trying to get them to see. This is the same chapter that Paul said earlier that he could not talk to them about spiritual things because they were still baby Christians. Paul reveals a part of the spiritual birth process in this verse. Paul planted the incorruptible seed of the Word of God into the hearts of the people and Apollos came along and watered it to get it to grow. If the people understood any of it, it would eventually begin to grow and produce fruit unto God.
Rom 10:14 How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?
You may not fully understand the process of being born again, but yet you can still participate in it and learn about the process later. God designed a specific plan and a specific process for getting men and women born again. This process is actually outlined in this verse in Romans. It seems to start with a preacher being sent to the people. The preacher tells the people about Jesus, what He has done for them and the people can choose to believe it and to accept Jesus as their Savior. It is not a long or complicated process, but yet it is also very profound. Salvation is a system based upon Words and Faith. If you have ever read any of my other blogs you know that I say some pretty new things about these two subjects from the verses found in Bible. God’s Word System of Salvation is vastly criticized and ridiculed by those who think naturally and do not understand it.
2Co 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
This verse found in 2 Corinthians speaks about the new birth. God informs us that we have become a new creation. This of course is a creation within the spiritual realm of God. The term “new creation”, means we are now something that has never existed before. We are something “fresh” and “brand new”. Being born again spiritually, gives us a new start, a new beginning as this verse says. The old things, the old ways, the old behavior and the things we use to do have now passed away or vanished. You could say the old you was buried and the new you has been raised to life. The Old Man was natural and carnal with a self centered focus. The New Man is a person that sees things differently and has a new spiritual perspective on life and others around them.
When God says “All” things have become new, you have to understand what the term “All” means in this context. It does not mean everything as in an all inclusive new you. While the inside spirit part of you is new, the outside physical parts of you are still the same. The body still wants the same foods you ate before you were born again. The flesh still wants to do the same things that it has always done. Then there is the mind and you have the same mind that you always had. You still have the same memories, the same experiences, the same way of thinking and all of these things are part of a spiritual growth process that begins when you are “Born Again”. God tells us in Romans 12:2 that “we should not conform to this world’s ways”. He then tells us “to be transformed by the renewing of our minds”. To renew your mind is a lengthy process that involves you learning spiritual things that will allow you to grow and mature in Christ. Just as children take many years to mature physically, so it is with spiritual babies. They need time to learn and understand the new spiritual things that God wants them to learn.
1Pe 2:2 As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:
What we learn by reading the Bible is that there is a growth process. It starts with the Word of God and will end with the Word of God. The milk of the Word represents the basic concepts, ideas, facts and information that provide you with the foundation for your spiritual beliefs. Most of the time, these concepts are not as simple as you would like them to be, however you keep drinking them in until you grow enough to mature. As you mature you will be able to grasp more complex and advanced topics in the Bible. These are not always easy to digest either, but yet if God gave them to us, then they have a purpose for us to know and to understand.
This has been a comprehensive overview of the New Birth process. This is a spiritual reality that occurs when you accept Jesus as your Savior. What God has done in the natural is a direct pattern for what God has done in the spiritual realm. If you can learn and understand this process, it might help you to share it with others.
If you would like to contiue reading in this series of lessons you may go directly to “Part 2“.
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If you want to know how to get saved and know that you are with confidence you can go to: How to know that I am saved?
Many Will Be Called, But Few Chosen! Predestination Debunked!
(Ver 1.3) This is Part 2 in an important series of Bible lessons addressing the erroneous belief of extreme “Predestination”. If you did not read “Part 1” I would highly recommend that you start there and come back to this lesson. Today I will address the erroneous philosophy of “predestination” again using the Bible. In my last blog I talked about how some believe that God intentionally hardened Pharaoh’s heart so that God could work great signs and wonders in Egypt. I guess some people think that God was just wanting to show-off! I do not know how people can get such mixed up ideas, but I guess it takes all kinds. In this blog I want to talk about another “hard saying” found in the Bible that appears on the surface to indicate that God has preselected some people and others He has purposely rejected. It appears to me that some even take it and twist this message to say that God has predestined some for salvation and others for damnation. This of course to me is clearly in error and it violates the character of God and it turns Him into something that He is not. If this was true, it would make God the Great Nazi Deity in the sky, who kills the inferior races and only selects those who are worthy or superior enought to be saved. Isn’t this what Hitler did? Is God the same as Adolf Hitler? I do not think so! What we have is a classic example of what I call “taking ‘a’ truth and trying to make it ‘the’ truth”. This is a widely popular error found throughout the church body where men choose to wrongly divide the Word of Truth in order to believe in their incorrect interpretation of the Bible. People need to realize that there is more than one truth found in the Bible and in order to correctly interpret any verse you have to take into account all of the other related verses. This of course is a very challenging problem we all face, because none of us knows every related Bible verse. Bible study is like building a house or a building. You must start with a basic firm foundation of Biblical truths to begin. If you try to build on anything else your house of interpretations will fall down too easily. So what we do is learn everything that we can about the basics and then start to build upon what we know and correctly apply these things to the new things that we learn. That is the best that any of us can do. Truth always builds upon truth yielding a sound and tight fitting construction, which will result in a structure that is not easily blown down. True Bible Interpretation is not a house of cards that can be toppled easily. So let’s look at one of these Bible verses that seem to indicate “predestination” on the surface.
Mat 20:16 So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen.
Here we have Jesus, God in the flesh speaking to us directly and you can very easily take it the wrong way. You can use your limited human mind to conclude that God is omnipresent, omnipotent and omniscient and therefore, whatever God wants is what happens to everyone. You can take this statement by Jesus to mean that God has chosen some and others He has rejected. I mean on the surface it really looks like this is what it could be saying. However, if you think about it more closely you will see that interpretation is a house of cards. You see why would God call “Many” and only choose a “Few”? If God was only going to select a very few, you would think that God would already know who was going to be selected and not bother calling those that would not be selected! Don’t you think that makes logical sense? Why even call them if they are not being selected? That would make God a teaser and a tempter. Hang some bait out in front of someone and then yanking it away right before they get to it. Sorry, you were not selected! Is that your God? That is not my God, so either we have different Gods or one of us is deceived! However, there are other hard sayings found in the Bible that are equally hard to accept on the surface and here is one of them:
Rom 9:13 As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.
This is a difficult verse on the surface. How can God choose one son over another? You could take this as a predestination act of God, if you wanted to. The verse before this one says that while the children were still innocent and were even still in the womb, that God said the “elder shall serve the younger”. What people do not realize is there is a major difference between “predestination” and “foreknowledge”. There is a major difference between causing something to happen and knowing what will happen. God clearly tells us that He makes known the end from the beginning. Is this because God has predestined the end, or is this because God lives outside of the dimension of time and can forsee the end results. I personally believe that God can see the end and this is what He reports, especially when it comes to the knowledge of what people will do like Jacob and Esau. God already knew the character traits of each child and what they would do and what they would not do. However, “predestination” would dictate that God predetermined what each child was purposed for and preselected one and rejected the other. In other words in the “predestination” theology man plays no role in who God selects. I talked about God being the great puppet master in the sky, pulling everyone’s strings making them do this or that depending on what God wants done at that time. This is a common religious philosophy that is widely taught in some churches. These people subscribe to a “no fault” religion. They believe whatever happens to them in life, it is just not their fault! They did not do anything to cause it and they could do nothing to stop it! That is very ignorant to believe like that, but many people do it any way! After all it relieves them of any responsibility or accountability for what they do.
So why would God choose Jacob and not Esau? If you recall Esau ended up selling his birthright. Jacob probably did some unethical tricks to get his father’s blessing but nonetheless Jacob has became the rightful heir to his father’s name and fortune. You also have to realize that Jacob and Esau and this story is a spiritual foreshadowing of events to come. This story has parallels in the natural that are patterns and types of what God was going to do in the spiritual realm. Jacob is a type of Jesus Christ. I believe Esau is a type of Adam, Jesus Christ’s older brother. But, I know I do not have time to teach this and I probably already opened a can of worms that is causing some readers to draw back, so I’ll stop there for now. What we must realize is that Jacob was selected by God, because of what Esau had decided and the actions that he had chosen. People play a role in what God does through people more than most people realize. What people want and desire, what people think, what people say and do all play a key role in whether God is able to use them. If you want to live in sin and be mightily used by God, guess what, God is not going to hesitate to look for someone else. You are the determining factor to whether God is able to use you!
So why would God hate one son and love another? What does God hate? Let’s look in the Bible for the answer to that important question:
Deu 16:22 Neither shalt thou set thee up any image; which the LORD thy God hateth.
It would appear that God hates it when people serve false gods and idols. Hate is a very strong word. If God hates something it must be very bad. Do you think that Esau could have been involved with another god or idol? Do you know that it is exactly possible, here is another verse that speaks about Esau found in the New Testament:
Heb 12:16 Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright.
This verse in Hebrews is interesting, isn’t it? The verse is talking about “fornicators”. In the Greek this word means “male prostitutes”. Because Esau compramised his integrity and sold his birth right God selected Jacob. You should use your Bible search program and go through and study the verses you can find out about “Esau” for there are many references in the Bible to him. He is a natural type of something in the spiritual realm that God hates. But, also look for verses that refer to “Edom” for this is the nation of children that came from Esau and see what God says about them. It is a fascinating study. Maybe after you read all of these verses you can begin to see why I believe that Esau represents Adam and Satan.
So let’s move on to some verses found in the Bible that directly challenges the theory of “predestination”. These verses will cause a conflict that must be resolved in order to correctly interpret the Bible. I’ll start with one in Proverbs:
Pro 24:23 These things also belong to the wise. It is not good to have respect of persons in judgment.
You see on the surface you ask, why is this verse related to our subject and that is why the Bible is so difficult to understand for many. They just don’t put the pieces of the puzzle together correctly so they end up confused and wrong. This verse ends in a statement that a judge should be fair to everyone. If a judge gave one man a 10 year sentence and let another man off for no time for the exact same crime, would that be fair to the one that got 10 years? Does God have mercy on some people like this and others He does not let off the hook and throws them into hell? Isn’t God the Supreme Judge of the Universe? So does God judge differently than you should? Why do you think that God came to the earth in the flesh in the first place? I believe it was to set an example that we should follow. So we should be attempting to become just like God? I believe that we are. So if God tells us to judge without respect to persons, God is already this way! Do you get it?
Act 10:34 Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons:
So God tells us what Peter the Apostle discovered. Peter says that God shows no “respect of person”. This Greek word has the following definition from the Strong’s:
From G4381; to favor an individual, that is, show partiality: – have respect to persons.
This Greek word is pretty clear in its definition. To be partial to someone means you look favorably towards them. It means you place a higher preference or priority upon one than the other. It means you esteem some and look down upon others. This is the Bible definition to having “respect of persons”. It is clear that this is not an attitude that we should possess towards anyone. But, that doesn’t mean we should accept everyone as they are either. If you do, you will have to let your pedophile teachers, teach your Sunday school classes and that would be crazy wouldn’t it?
Rom 2:11 For there is no respect of persons with God.
Unless you are spiritually blind you cannot read a verse like this and still believe in the philosophy of “predestination”. This verse clearly says that God does not show favoritism towards anyone. God does not play favorites. God does not grant favors to anyone. God is fair and treats everyone the same or God is being unfair. You of course can ask a lot of questions and refuse to believe that this applies to God, but you would be failing to see what God is saying in the Bible and that is a huge mistake. So God has said for us to be fair towards everyone, because I am fair to everyone. So what is the determining factor of why God chooses one and not the other? As we saw with Jacob and Esau, it had more to do with what they did and not so much with God forcing the decision. Here is another interesting verse that is certainly relevant to our subject of “predestination”.
Luk 10:42 But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.
Jesus is at Mary and Martha’s house teaching and Martha comes to Jesus and complains that her sister is not helping fix the food for everyone. What was God’s response to this question? Did God say, “Mary I have chosen her and not you, I have done all of this for a purpose and a plan that you do not understand”? You see that would be a true “predestination” theologian’s viewpoint. Fortunately for us God did not say this. But, God says “Mary has chosen to hear the good things and I will not take it from her”. It appears that Martha could have chosen the same thing that Mary chose and asked Jesus to feed them when they all got hungry, but she didn’t do that. Jesus seemed to think that Mary’s choice was better than Martha’s choice, can’t you see the difference? Did what Mary choose to do affect her personally and the results that she got? Did what Martha choose to do affect her personally and the results that she got? The answer to both of these quesdtions is, YES! The decisions people make are directly involved in God’s ability to use them and that determines what they get. People have more to do with what God does, than they can possibly imagine.
Rev 3:20 Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.
Apparently God wants to come in and have dinner with you! If God wants in the door, do you think that God is not powerful enough to come in? Why would the omnipotent God be standing on the outside knocking if He really just wanted to come in to eat with you? The answer to that question is because God is a Divince Gentleman. God will not force anyone into anything. They must choose to open the door to let Him in. Do you see how ignorant people can get with their invented religious ideas that God is in control of everything that happens to a man, to his house and him opening the door to let God in? If God was in complete control He wouldn’t be knocking and waiting for someone to let Him in would He? God is God and He is all powerful, but He does not violate your freewill choice. God will not force you to open the door to your heart and let Him in. You have the responsibility to open the door and invite Him in. If you do not do this, God is a perfect gentleman and will not kick the door down like a thief or a robber.
Let me end this blog with this new and different perspective to the subject of predestination. Many times people do not think when they read the Bible so here is something new to consider. If God only chooses some why does this Bible verse say what it says?
Psa 69:28 Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and not be written with the righteous.
You see you can very easily read a verse like this and completely miss what it says and think that it does not apply to anyone or anything. However, Jesus thought it was important enough and says this about it:
Rev 3:5 He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.
So what does this have to do with predestination? It is because you do not see, that you do not understand. This verse says everyone’s name was written down in the “Lambs book of Life“, but that some of these names have now been blotted out. In other words, God expected everyone to be saved, but obviously there are many who did not accept the free gift. You see God did not write your name in the “book of life” after you got saved. The Lamb’s book of life had every name of every human that was supposed to be here on this planet already enter into it. We can therefore conclude that God wanted everyone to be saved and those that overcame are the only ones that their names now remain in the book. So if God predestined anything or anyone, God predestined everyone to succeed and to be saved, but some chose to reject God’s plan and do their own thing. The word “Blot Out” means that the name was already there and removed or covered over using “God’s Whiteout”. People who are young do not understand the concept of “whiteout”, but those who are older do, before computers were around people would type pages manually and have to cover mistakes up with a white liquid paper product. I think you can still buy this product, but I doubt if it is very widely used for anything. This is however, the concept given to us in Word of God. God writes every name in the Lamb’s book of life and then depending upon their actions and decisions, God is forced to remove their name, if they so choose. It is truly amazing what the Bible says when you can see it! God Bless you and may you be blessed with the knowledge of Him that freely gives us all things!
If you would like to continue to read about this subject you can go to “Part 3“.
Does God Cause Some People’s Hearts to Be Hard? What About Pharaoh?
(Ver 1.4) This is the Part 1 in an important series of Bible lessons addressing the primary subject of Extreme Predestination. Many times people read things into the Bible missing what God actually says to make their own independent wrong assumptions. Ignoring all of the words written on one subject they simultaneously jump to the wrong conclusions based upon selective reading. Today’s Bible lesson will be a prime example of this type of error in wrong Bible interpreation. Reading the Bible in isolation and not allowing God to interpret the Bible is one of the most dangerous approaches to take in Bible interpretation. The Bible will always explain the Bible, but we are required to search the Bible in order to find these explanations. The explations are not going to come to you and fall into your lap. I once talked to a man who had graduated from an unnamed theological seminary, who claimed that God causes some people to be saved while choosing for other people not to be saved. This belief is very much the classic manmade “predestination” mentality or philosophy. His reasoning was based upon a combination of the known omnipotence of God, the sovereignty of God and several other beliefs that he attempted to use to explain why things appear to be as if God controls what occurs in the world. Because God is omnipotent and sovereign, his claim was nothing happened unless God authorizes it or commited it. He was very pleased to show me scriptures in Exodus that appear to say that God purposely hardened Pharaoh’s heart so that God could do some spectacular plagues and signs to demonstrate His great power. It is funny how religious minds work and think sometimes. They think they are right, but when you actually study it out you can find something completely different in the Bible. Many times the simple basic things written on the surface of the Bible give way to more elaborate complex spiritual meanings, that can be taken completely different than the surface reading. So this seminary graduate chose to believe something on the surface and did not look any deeper to find out if that was really what the Bible actually said. We as Christians, must weigh every scripture using other scriptures that are relevant to the subject. We must use the Bible to interpret the Bible correctly, because only God knows what it all means and not us! Today I will attempt to give you the rest of the story and help you to see the difference. Here are a couple of the scriptures that my confused seminary brother in Christ used to say that God had hardened Pharaoh’s heart:
Exo 4:21 And the LORD said unto Moses, When thou goest to return into Egypt, see that thou do all those wonders before Pharaoh, which I have put in thine hand: but I will harden his heart, that he shall not let the people go.
Exo 10:1 And the LORD said unto Moses, Go in unto Pharaoh: for I have hardened his heart, and the heart of his servants, that I might shew these my signs before him:
The Bible is written in a style that it can literally be interpreted in many different ways simultaneously depending upon the readers point of view or perspective. From a single verse, 12 different people can read it and get 12 different individual interpretations. This however, does not prove that any of them are right. God purposely selected this method and style of writing the Bible so that mankind would have a choice in what they believe. However, this does not mean every interpretation is correct, just because God allows you to jump to these wrong conclusions. You see in Exodus 4:21 and Exodus 10:1, that God is speaking to Moses directly and God tells him what to do and then tells Moses what will happen as a result of what Moses does. Religious people like to think that God’s will is the only will that is ever accomplished on the earth. If God wants something done a certain way, then God’s will automatically overrides everyone else’s will and God gets His way. That reasoning does not make any sense to me and I haven’t been able to find any Bible verses that directly back that theory. You see that theory would make God the giant puppet master in the sky who pulls everyone’s strings to make them do exactly what He wants, when He wants it done. That does not match the character or nature of God revealed to us in the Bible. This does not match other scriptures that say God has given man choices and decisions to make. If God was calling all of the shots, why would God say “Today I have set before you life and death, therefore choose life”. Bible verses like these tell me that man has a choice and God makes a recommendation which one we should choose, but is not forcing you or I into making this right decision. Therefore, we have a conflict presented to us in the Word of God. Is God a good God, like the Bible says or is He an evil God to some and to others He treats differently. Has God given mankind a choice in the result of their lives and their destiny or has God predestined some to hell and others to heaven? Were angels given the ability to make right or wrong choices? Does God really control everything that happens in the world, good, bad or indifferent? Does it matter what I do today? Can my choices change the results that I get? Will what I do affect anyone else’s results? What is the character of God like? Does God require man to do something that He can do differently and God calls it OK for Him, but sin for man? You have to ask yourself these important questions. These are hard questions and I cannot attempt to answer all of these in this one blog.
I have to admit, that reading just those two verses that I gave you in Exodus, that it really appears that God purposely caused Pharaoh’s heart to become hard, so that He could do some great signs. I mean you can very easily take it this way if you want to, by ignoring the rest of the Bible. However, the Bible is One Book by One Author, who has intentionally revealed Himself in a very tricky way by spreading out little clues about himself from cover to cover. We are required to find these clues first and then to use these clues to interpret the other verses in the Bible using this information. Our interpretation of a single part of the Bible needs to be in harmony with all of the other verses found in the Bible on the subject. One verse cannot contradict or conflict with another. If you think it does, then you are wrong and do not understand what it says correctly! God is always consistent and constant in His character, and His treatment of all people.
Often times people confuse foreknowledge with predestination. Just because God knows your reaction to some event that happens in your life, does not mean that God caused it to happen that way. So when God tells Moses of Pharaoh’s reaction to what Moses was going to do, why didn’t Moses stop and ask God what else can we do that will actually work and let the people go? Don’t you think that Moses could have changed God’s mind and His approach to something that would have actually worked, if there was anything that was going to work? Well the problem is still the question did God intentionally harden the heart of Pharaoh in order to accomplish His greater plan for Israel? I think we need to start this study by defining what it means to be “hard hearted”. Isn’t that what we are talking about? If God made Pharaoh’s heart hard, how did God do this and what transpired or changed in Pharaoh when this occurred? Did God do something in Pharaoh that caused him to react how he did? Was there a specific something that changed within Pharaoh that forced this reaction? Instead of trying to get a definition of “hard hearted” from the dictionary, let’s see if God gives us a definition in the Bible:
Mar 8:17 And when Jesus knew it, he saith unto them, Why reason ye, because ye have no bread? perceive ye not yet, neither understand? have ye your heart yet hardened?
Here is a classic definition of being hard hearted directly from God. Jesus is speaking to the disciples about them having no bread. He ends the verse with a four part question that ends with “did you harden your heart”? So why did God ask this question, if God was hardening their hearts? Didn’t God already know if He was intentionally hardening their hearts for some purpose? Isn’t Jesus Christ God in the flesh? I hope you can begin to see how foolish people can be by believing in “predestination”. Here we have God in the flesh asking if “they” had hardened their own hearts by doing what? Part 1 of the question was by “reasoning”. This is a mental operation of an advanced feature of the human capability. You can train a monkey to do something that gives you a specified result, like play a song on a piano, but they will never be able to reason for themselves in order to come up with the notes to a song! If you think differently, you are wrong! Humans have the capability to “think”, to “reason”, to “consider”, to “dispute”, and to “muse”. These are all logical methods of coming to a conclusion and then they also have the ability to discuss their thought process of why they came to this answer. A monkey can do this only in an extremely limited capacity. Keep in mind that “reasoning” ability is based upon knowledge. People are only able to come to conclusions based upon what they know about the subject. The more they know, usually a better decision can result.
So apparently “being hard hearted” involves your mind, your thoughts and your reasoning capability, based upon your previous knowledge. Then Jesus asks parts 2 and 3 of the question, “didn’t you perceive what I said?”, “and didn’t you understand it?” The first word to “perceive” is a very interesting word. It means “to exercise the mind”. It means to “think”. It also means to “observe”. All of these things are mental operations of the human mind. Now the next word translated as “understand” means “to put together”. It also means “to become wise”. It also means “to comprehend”. These are also all mental operations of the human mind. So what was one of the determining factors to why the disciples hearts were hardened according to Jesus and God? It was because they did not understand or see what was being said. They used their minds to reason the wrong things and come to the wrong conclusions based upon the knowledge that they had up to this point. So was this God’s fault or the disciple’s fault? Who caused their hearts to be harden? Was it the words that Jesus spoke or the their own lack of sufficient knowledge and inability to understand what he said that caused their hardness of heart? This is a very important lesson to learn, because it applies to most Christians in the world today. Jesus could ask the same question to most people who write blogs on the internet and even to many who sit in the pews of our churches. I’ll go even further and say Jesus could ask most preachers who graduated from seminary, what are you thinking?
Mar 16:14 Afterward he appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat, and upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen.
Here is another determining factor in the definition of “hardness of heart” given to us by God. Jesus met with the 11 disciples after He was risen from the dead and He more or less rebuked them for their “unbelief”. Jesus appeared to some and not others and some went and then told the others, but at least some of the others did not believe what was told to them. Jesus called this being “hard hearted”. This is also a key factor to what we find wrong in our churches today, and it speaks to why people do what they do. They either believe what is being taught or they do not! Those who believe are said to be “tender hearted” and those who do not believe are said to be “hard hearted”. Of course we do not believe anything just because someone says it, we have to be smart enough to verify it in the Bible, but that is a different lesson. So what we have learned is that people have a choice in what they believe, don’t they? By making right choices in what we believe we become more “tender hearted”, by making wrong choices in what we believe we become more “hard hearted”. I hope you are grasping these concepts, they do apply to you right now.
Heb 3:13 But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
So this is now factor three in the definition of becoming “hard hearted”. In, this verse in Hebrews God says to us, that the deceitfulness of “sin” is a key factor to becoming hard hearted. Sin involves missing the intended mark of righteousness and holiness. We are all guilty of this and some more than others. However, it is a determining factor of who is said to be “hard hearted”. Now I do not think that I covered this subject completely, but I have given you several key factors to the definition of becoming “hard hearted”. So let’s review what we have learned as to what causes people to be hard hearted:
- The Ignorance of People Who Do Not Know Any Better!
- Inability to Perceive, Hear, Observe, See Spiritually
- Inability to Comprehend, Understand Mentally
- Distractions of Temptation and Sin Physically
The result of these factors will culminate into:
- Wrong Thinking
- Wrong Reasoning
- Wrong Believing
- Wrong Conclusions
- Wrong Assumptions
- Wrong Actions
So do any of these factors play a role in the life of Pharaoh? If you do not think so, you would be wrong again! God gives us basic clues and definitions throughout the Bible and we must apply them correctly, so here I go. Did what Pharaoh learn as a child make any determination how he would react as an adult? Would being the leader of one the most advanced nations on earth with untold power and riches factor into how Pharaoh would react? Does the fact that Pharaoh and his people worshipped false idols and imaginary gods play any factor into how Pharaoh would react? You know there are just so many different factors to consider that go into this decision process that Pharaoh had, that I cannot come up with them all. But, when Moses appeared to Pharaoh and said “The Jehovah God” has sent me! What would have been your reaction if you were Pharaoh? This was not one of Pharaoh’s gods? Who is this God? That is what I would have thought! What was Pharaoh thinking while Moses asked for the children of Israel to be freed? Here the ruler of Egypt who possessed around 2 million slaves, was being asked to let them go for free and what do you think he thought about a request like that? Do you see how these factors that we just learned of becoming hard hearted from the New Testament apply to what happened in Pharaoh’s heart? Pharaoh did not believe Moses! Moses did not come in the name of any of Pharaoh’s gods! So when the true God says something to someone who doesn’t believe He exists, what is their reaction suppose to be? I hope that you are beginning to see how complex the world and the Bible is.
Let’s continue through the Bible in Exodus and see what else God says about Pharaoh’s heart being hardened:
Exo 8:15 But when Pharaoh saw that there was respite, he hardened his heart, and hearkened not unto them; as the LORD had said.
This verse is a little different than the first two that I gave you from Exodus. This time it says Pharaoh was the one that hardened his own heart. Moses had been commanded by God what to do and say before Pharaoh. During this time, Pharaoh’s magicians would counter the acts of God with their own similar tricks. Pharaoh saw these great signs of God as just being a magic potion of a sorcerer, which he could also cause to be produced using his own magicians. Whatever, God did, the magicians of Pharaoh countermanded them with their own spectacular results. So far God hasn’t done anything that was spectacular enough for Pharaoh to be impressed with. Pharaoh did not believe in the God of Israel, so there lies the root of Pharaoh’s greatest failure in judgment.
Exo 8:32 And Pharaoh hardened his heart at this time also, neither would he let the people go.
Here we have another verse that clearly says Pharaoh was responsible for hardening his own heart. Do we have a contradiction in scriptures or just a simple misunderstanding of what it all means? Can God harden people’s hearts simply by them not believing in Him? Will what people think about what is said to them, affect what they choose to believe? Did God harden his heart or did Pharaoh harden his own heart? Can you see how both of these statements are true at the same time? God hardened the heart of Pharaoh and Pharaoh hardened his own heart are two perspectives of the same event. What if Moses had come in the name of the god “Apollo”? Would the reaction of Pharaoh had been different? I do not think so. So you cannot say that it was God’s fault for hardening Pharaoh’s heart. Pharaoh didn’t believe in “Apollo” any more than He did “Jehovah”. All Pharaoh knew was this was not his god so he was closing his mind to what else was being told to him. Christians do this in churches every day. A new teacher comes to town and says something that doesn’t fit what they think and they shut down and do not hear the rest. It didn’t matter if it was directly from God and the truth, it was just not what they wanted to hear so they ignored it. I know this happens with the things that I write on my blogs. Many read it, but do not believe it, understand it or accept it so they shut their minds down and ignore it all.
1Sa 6:6 Wherefore then do ye harden your hearts, as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? when he had wrought wonderfully among them, did they not let the people go, and they departed?
In this verse we again see a comparison being made between the people of Israel and the people of Egypt ruled by Pharaoh. We can see very clearly that each of these people are responsible personally for hardening their own hearts. There is no contradiction to the scriptures and there is no predestination reality with God. God knows the decisions you will make, but you are still responsible for them, not God.
Eze 36:26 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.
Do you know this scripture is talking about you? If you are a Christian, you have this new heart available to you right now! Did you notice that God said I will take out your “Stony” heart? Isn’t a “stony” heart a formerly hard hearted person? This again can be taken incorrectly, as something that God is solely responsible for making happen. Some people still think like God is the spiritual surgeon who does a spiritual heart transplant surgical procedure in every believer! But, that would not be a good interpretation of this verse based upon what we have learned. God says I will replace your stony heart with a soft tender heart of flesh. Are these symbolic references? Yes they are! Is God responsible for this happening in you? Yes and No! You still have a part to play in the procedure. God never overrides your will and makes you do anything. God never takes anything away from you that you do not want taken away. God never gives you anything that you do not want to have. This is the character and nature of the God and Man relationship. However, without God doing anything we would all be hopelessly hard hearted. So it is a partnership between us receiving what God has freely given to us by faith. Here is an analogy that helped me tremendously when I studied this subject about the hearts of mankind. I heard a preacher teach this so I cannot take credit for it, but, I will share it with you, so that I can help you to see it also.
Jesus Christ is called Light. Jesus Christ is called the Sun of Righteousness. Jesus Christ is compared symbolically to the natural sun in our sky. The church is said to be in the “Day” and not in the “Night” or the darkness anymore. Darkness represents the domain of Satan and evil. So the church walks in the Light of God and Jesus Christ has risen in our hearts to give us this new glorious light. So what can we learn from this symbolic representation? Does the sun shine on everyone equally? Or does the natural sun in our sky shine only on the righteous and good people in the world? Of course the sun shines on everyone the same. What causes the same light to shine on everyone equally the same with no bias or prejudice towards anyone? Is this the nature and character of God exemplified in a natural part of creation? Are the hidden qualities of God being clearly shown to us by looking at the sun in our sky? Does God treat everyone the same? My Bible says God shows no respect of persons, so God must be fairly treating everyone the same. God has given the same Bible to everyone that contains His words of hope! Yet some believe it and some do not, is this God’s fault? Did God make one person hard towards the Gospel and another He made receptive and tender? Why does the same natural sun in the sky, both melts wax and hardens clay simultaneously? Is it the sun’s fault that these two objects react differently? It is the same heat and light source upon both objects isn’t it? But, the reaction to this light ray is completely different based upon the type of object absorbing or being bombarded by the light. Can people choose to be hard or tender to the Light of the Word of God in the same way? Do people have a choice in what they do, what they hear, is what they think important, what about what they say and how they react? Of course people have these choice everyday and that is exactly why some people harden their own hearts and refuse to hear the truth and others are receptive and open and learn the truth. The same Sun shines on everyone, but not everyone chooses to react the same to this constant light source. You must choose to be wax and refuse to be the clay or you will become harden in your heart toward God also.
This is precisely the situation of Pharaoh in Exodus. God said something that Pharaoh did not want to hear. God said something that Pharaoh did not consider important. God said something that Pharaoh did not think was relevant to him or his situation. God said something that Pharaoh did not believe. So, God knew that no matter what he said, Pharaoh was not going to let the Israel people go. Pharaoh wanted them for their labor and their lives of service for his own good. Pharaoh let power and influence determine his outcome and the result ended very bad for them. If you did not know it, Egypt is a type of the world. Pharaoh is a type of Satan. Moses is a type of Jesus, the deliverer and the children of Israel a type of the Church. These are all types that represents patterns of things that were to come in the spiritual realm in the New Covenant of God. Our spiritual Deliver is Christ Jesus who has freed us from the captivity of sin and Satan. You have to decide right now are you a child of Egypt or a child of Israel and choose to become hard or tender toward what God is telling you right now.
There are many other things to learn from these lessons of Pharaoh, but I have gone too long in this blog. I pray that you received something that was a positive benefit in your spiritual walk with God. God Bless!
If you would like to continue reading in this series about the subject of “Predestination” you may go now to “Part 2“.
Introduction to the Trinity of God, God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost!
(Ver 1.4) Today’s lesson is “Part 1” in an essential Bible series of truth concerning the revealed triune nature of the Godhead. This lesson will be focused upon an essential introduction of the subject. Because there are new Christians all the time, I realized people are like me and do not know everything. There are new people choosing to come into God’s family every day that need to learn the fundamentals of Christianity. Furthermore, this seemingly simple subject can become immensely technical and deep. So I will occasionally teach on basic Bible concepts that everyone should become intimately familiar with. By building a strong foundation on the Word of God, you are better able to defend your faith to others who may raise questions to why you have chosen to place your hope in and believe in the Bible (1 Peter 3:15). If you do not know anything the Bible says you are not able to share with others to help them enter into His truth. So today I want to introduce another basic foundational Bible concept. How can one God be viewed in three different ways? It is really not too difficult to understand these three personalities of God, if you research them in your Bible. They are easily seen, frequently named and usually only ignored by people who do not want to accept them. God is called first and foremost a Spirit (John 4:24). Therefore every other manifestation of God must originate from His Spirit. You see one manifestation of God is accomplished by Him giving Himself a new titled description for His Spirit. God the Father is a title or a name for the Spirit of God who procreates and has covenants, a family and children. God is the Father of all spiritual beings (Heb 12:9). If you have a spirit (and you do), it came from only God’s Spirit given to you in your mother’s womb at conception. This truth delegates the responsibility of all human spirits to acknowledge God to be the original Father of their spirit.
Then there is God the Son. This manifestation of God occurred when the Spirit of God came upon Mary the virgin and she conceived a male child named Jesus (Luke 1:35). The body of Jesus came about as a union of the Seed(Word) of the Father God and the egg in Mary’s womb. The combination of these two (physical egg and Spoken Spirit Word) produced a child that was not God, but yet had the Spirit of God in Him. It might seem rather confusing at first, if you have never been taught this way. You see the Bible says that “No Man” has ever seen God (1 Jn 4:12). But we know many men and women saw physical Jesus Christ when He was here on earth. But they all technically just saw the body that contained the Spirit of God and they never actually saw God who is a Spirit as we learned from John 4:24.
The plot thickens however, because Jesus did say “when you have seen me, you have seen the Father” (Jn 14:7). So Jesus did not separate Himself from the Father at any time. Jesus repeatedly said that He and His Father were One (Jn 10:30, Jn 17:11). So when Jesus walked the face of the earth and spoke to the people, whatever He said was God speaking, because Jesus was God in the flesh (Mat 1:23). Or we could also say that the Spirit of God was in the flesh of Jesus.
BIBLE FACT 1: ONLY ONE GOD
I think I will begin this lesson by establishing Bible verses that clearly declares that there is only one true God who created everything. There can be a potential problem when studying the trinity because of these three titles, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. These three titled manifestations of the God can easily lead some to believe we have 3 different Gods. But this not true. Only One God created everything we see and God gives credit to the operation of all three divine descriptions to have participated in creating us. Let us start with a basic law from God in the Old Testament:
Deu 6:4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:
This is a classic verse written in the Law of Moses. God declares that He is One Lord! The children of Israel widely accepted this verse and believe in this One True Lord! However, when He visited them personally in the flesh, they put Him to death on a cross. Why didn’t they recognize their God? That is an obviously good question to consider and answer. It seems the Nation of Israel is still stumbling over the same things as they did back then. I have talked to Jews and they hate Christians and put them down as a false religion. Little do they know that they are the ones now in the false religion of works that will not save them.
Mar 12:29 And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord:
Jesus, who was God in the flesh did not contradict the Old Testament law, but further confirmed that there was only one Lord God. Many times people have a tendency to limit what God can do and put God in their very small and limited religious box. God can do something so very radically different that the things we can think of with our simple natural minds.
In fact God has already done some very radical things that we are just now discovering in the Bible. But, these people in Jesus’ day did not recognize their God, because they did not expect Him to be standing in front of them in this humble form. Perhaps they had read about God in the burning bush speaking to Moses, or in the cloud on top of the mountain meeting again with Moses and they think that this is the way God always talks to men. So heaven forbid if God does something so new or radically different to come in person in the flesh and stand before them and speak! That just doesn’t make any natural sense for an omnipotent God to do, does it? Of course the Jews were not privy to all of the facts either. They did not know that the angel Gabriel had visited Mary when she was a virgin and said she would conceive a child by the Spirit of God. They were not privileged to know that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, the city of David and the prophesied birth place of their Messiah.
The Jews only knew that Jesus was a man from Samaria and a city of Nazareth. They understood how, He had grown up like every other child in the region and nothing appeared to be different or unique about him. They assumed Jesus was just like the other children in the family of Joseph and Mary and no different than His natural half-brothers or His natural half-sisters. The Jews made wrong assumptions and never attempted to find out the truth by asking relevant questions. They were deceived by Satan and they killed the God who came to save them. Thank God, they did because we now are saved because of it. Obviously, God foreknew how they would react and what they would do, since He purposely chose this specific time in human history to be born into the world.
Mar 12:32 And the scribe said unto him, Well, Master, thou hast said the truth: for there is one God; and there is none other but he:
Here is a verse of scripture that confirms what the Jews believed. They knew that the Bible said there was only One True God! This scribe declares that there are no other true gods except Him. But, yet he was talking to Him personally and never realized it either. That to me is a very sad story.
Jas 2:19 Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.
The devils and Satan know there is only one True God! They are extremely fearful of Him. In fact they are doing everything they can legally and illegally do to try to keep the plan of God against them from coming to pass. It is interesting to see how many men and women in the world are so passive toward God. So many could care less if there is a God, they are consumed with their own agendas. People’s priorities sure need to change, don’t you think?
Mal 2:10 Have we not all one father? hath not one God created us? why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother, by profaning the covenant of our fathers?
Here is an interesting verse of scripture. It tells us that there is one true Father God. Then it also says there is only One True God who created us! The Bible is a very complex book and tells us many things that are difficult to wrap our human thinking minds around. The trinity of God is one of these concepts that is difficult to fully grasp for human thinkers not thinking in a higher spiritual God kind of way. How can one God be manifested in various ways using different names and titles? You see this verse calls God the One Father, but yet Jesus in John 8, in talking to the Jews said “ye are of your father the devil”. So obviously Jesus did not see them as his true spiritual brothers. Jesus clearly said that He had a different spiritual Father than they did. This partly demonstrates an ongoing problem of many religions in the world today. The Jews thought that God was their father, but Jesus declared something that was completely different than what they thought. So they were wrong and Jesus was right. Many people today want to be all inclusive and say every religion is just another path to the same god. But, they are also wrong. Let us look at another verse from 1 Timothy:
1Ti 2:5 For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;
You see the Bible declares something very different than what people think. That is why Christians are many times accused of being hateful and narrow minded. Those who see the truth, know that there are not many paths that lead us to the True God. For example, this verse in 1 Timothy declares the opposite. God says there is only one path way to God and that is only through the man Christ Jesus. The Messiah Jesus was God in the flesh! God came to the earth personally to accomplish everything that He needed to accomplish and He did it personally to insure that it was done correctly at the right time in the precise way. The term “mediator” is an interesting Greek word so let’s look up the definition and see what it reveals:
From G3319; a go between, that is, (simply) an internunciator, or (by implication) a reconciler (intercessor): – mediator.
The word “internunciator” carries a meaning of someone who speaks on the behalf of someone else. “Inter” can mean between and “nunciator” is someone who speaks. So Jesus became the one in between man and God who is authorized to legally speak to each opposing party. So a “mediator” is someone who is also a go between of the two parties often times in a legal battle. Both of these titles fit the situation the human race was in. We needed someone to be our legal attorney to plead our case for us, because we did not have a legitimate case without this help. God provided Himself an intercessor, a spokesman for the human race when we had no chance of salvation. Because God became a man, every man and woman now has a chance to talk with God personally. Humans were incapable of saving themselves and we were in dire straits without a hope of any future. God provided the way out of our dilemma, before we ever understood what a dilemma we were in.
You cannot be narrow minded when you read the Bible, if you are you will not be able to accept some of the radical concepts that God introduces you to. God is One God, but comes to us in different ways for different purposes.
Remember that the Bible says that “No Man” has ever seen God, but that doesn’t mean we cannot come to know Him. God being a Spirit, makes it difficult for natural men and women to grasp all of the hidden qualities of His nature and personalities. What we must do is become spiritually open to what God wants to do and realize that whatever He does will probably be different than anything we could have imagined. Learn the lesson of the Jews who did not recognize their God when He chose to walk in their presence in the flesh. You see the Bible says God is not a Man (Num 23:19)! That was a completely factual truth when these words were recorded in the Old Testament. But that does not mean that God could not become a man if He choses to do so. Jesus Christ was the Word (God) made to be a flesh body (Jn 1:14) and it was this human body that contained the Holy Spirit of God. But I do not believe that this manifested physical body containing God limited God in His spiritually manifested form to only be in the body of Jesus. In fact the Bible clearly tells us that every Believer who has accepted Jesus as their Lord now has the Spirit of God living on the inside of them. So obviously God’s Spirit is bigger than the individual body of Jesus Christ alone. Part of the Spirit of God is in me right now! If you are a real believer, then a part of the Spirit of God is also in you! Because the Jews put limits upon God and would not let Him out of their small mental box, they were unable to see Him clearly. Do not be guilty of putting God in your small box and miss Him either!
1Co 8:6 But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.
There are so many verses that declare and name God as being One! This verse speaks of two parts of the trinity as both being this One God that we are learning about today. God the Father, is the original spiritual father. But, Jesus Christ, the Son of God is also this same One Lord God! Notice that this One Lord Jesus Christ created all things. So you cannot separate the two manifestations of God and say they are two different Gods or Creators, they are just two personalities of the same One True God. Now let us shift focus from seeing God as being just Two to see how God claims to actually be Three in One.
TRIUNE = THREE IN ONE
1Jn 5:7 For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.
This is one of the greatest scriptures in the Bible directly naming all “three” members of the unified trinity and calling each of them all One! However, notice that the Son of God is called the Word of God in this verse and that is a revelation that you need to get a hold of. In John the 1st chapter verse 1, God tells us very Clearly that God and the Word are One in the same. Then in verse 14, God tells us that the “Word became flesh and dwelt among us”. So we can now begin to understand how God could become a man called His Son in the flesh and still be God Almighty. I guess I should address the fact that this verse is widely reported to be false because it is not found in every manuscript. However, this is the ploy of Satan to attempt to delete these words to cause doubts in the minds of people. You see you can find this basic information in several other verses in the Bible and therefore I am confident in all of these verses of truth. Check in John 5:37 and see where God the Father is being a witness of God the Son. Read about Jesus being called the Word of God in Revelation 19:13. Look at 1 John 4:14 where it speaks of God the Father and God the Son. Look at John 15:26 where Jesus the Son of God describes the Spirit of God coming forth from the Father God to “testify” of the truth of Jesus. A witness in the Bible is always someone who can testify in a court of law under an oath, so again we see the trinity in very revealed self-evident terms. There are many verses in the Bible like this but I’m not going to do all of your Bible study for you today in this introductory lesson, so please make the effort and go and search to find more of them.
CONCLUSION
So this has just been a quick and simple introduction to the subject of the trinity of God. I concentrated mostly on scriptures that declare that God is One True God. But, I also introduced you to the fact that God can do things differently than we expect, if He wants to. It is interesting that God always worked in the Old Testament through a mediator, a go between. Either Moses, or another prophet would go to God and get the message that He wanted them to hear. God used this principle and pattern of a go between for literally hundreds of years. But, when God became the “go between” in the form of the man Jesus Christ, the majority wanted nothing to do with Him. God did something the same way that He had always done it, but implemented it in a different way and they automatically rejected Him because He was so different than what they thought. Jesus Christ became the Moses mediator of His day on earth and God’s own people refused to listen to Him. I guess being “narrow minded” applies to many people in the world. Everyone thinks they know what they need to know and when God does something different, we like to criticize it and brand it as a false teaching. What the Jews should have done was to search the scriptures and find out what God was going to do and then verify if what Jesus said went along with it. Instead of thinking they knew what was right and what was wrong, they should have been open to some new viewpoints of truth. We as Christians also need to search our Bibles and see what God is going to do and remain open to Him potentially doing something that we did not expect Him to do.
Finally, the Bible says that Satan will do everything that he can to deny the deity of Christ. The antichrist we are told in 1 John 2:22 will deny that Jesus is the Christ and claim that God had no Son. God says very specifically that this antichrist will deny the existence of both the Father and the Son. There is a major reason for this denial of truth, which I cannot get into today in this lesson. If it were not important God would not have warned you about this. I will say briefly two major religions of the world deny God had a Son and these are the Jewish and Islamic religions. That is very important for you to know if you miss the rapture. It is clear to me that Satan will do everything in his power to deny the trinity of God and will cause many people to fall into deception to believe this lie that there is not a trinity. You need to understand that this is why it is important to know and study this subject so that even you will not be deceived when this occurs. Thank you for reading and studying the Bible with us at Agapegeek.com. God bless you and please share this lesson with everyone you know. Press “Like” also and all of this will help others find us. God Bless you until next time.
If you would like to continue reading in this series, please proceed to “Part 2” now.
The Sin Unto Death! Part 2 The Unpardonable Sin!
(Ver 1.3) Today is Part 2 on the subject of “Once Saved, Aleays Saved”, “Eternal Security”, or “Unconditional Security” of the believer after salvation. I will continue to talk about this subject today in greater detail giving you a new perspective on the subject that I call the introduction of the unpardonable sin. Does an unpardonable sin exist? Can a Christian commit this sin and even lose their salvation? In the first lesson on this subject I contrasted the teaching of some churches that is often called the doctrine of “once saved, always saved”, to a new but clear reference found in the Bible of what God calls the “Sin Unto Death”. In that lesson I taught that God instructs us not to even pray for a person that has commited this type of Sin Unto Death. If you did not read this first lesson, I would strongly suggest that you go back and start your reading with “Part 1” and then continue forward to today’s lesson.
So what is the “Sin Unto Death”? As you recall from Part 1 of this series I determined that man still possessed a free will choice and that they could decide at any point in time not to be saved. This action would result in their rejection of the saving grace of God. That which God has given to them for free can be freely given back to God at any time. People will never lose the right to choose between good and evil, God and Satan, light and darkness even if it is an extremely stupid choice to make the wrong decision. I do not think that the people who teach “once saved, always saved” have taken this reality into account. They simply want to rely on the divine omnipotence of God to make all of their choices and decisions for them but God just does not do this. There are several references in the Bible that indicate people must strive and contend for the faith (Jude 1:3). That there is a struggle and an armed conflict raging in the spiritual realm (2 Tim 4:7). We have a spiritual enemy doing all that he can to deceive us and cause us to turn back to our previous ways. There are numerous scriptures that clearly inform us that people are not once saved and then can never make the choice to go back to their old life styles. For example:
Heb 10:26 For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins,
This verse in Hebrews is another prime example of someone who was saved by the shed blood of Christ and who has now wilfully chosen to go back to sin. Wilfully displays a choice of their freewill. This verse describes a Christian that has learned the truth of God’s Word, but now decided to ignore it. I gave you another verse in the last lesson and it was interesting to see that this person was described as someone who has trodden or walked on the Son of God in verse 29. This is a common Bible term that is used for when someone defeats an enemy. So to this person, Christ is no longer their savior, but has become their enemy. When a person turns back to this old way, you can read here in vese 26 that there is no more sacrifices that can save them. This verse says that they had accepted the one true way to God but have now turned away from the truth and as a result have lost their salvation without any hope for salvation. That is a clear definition to what an unpardonable sin is. God clearly tells us that there is only one sacrifice for our sin, not two, three or more. Christ died one time on the cross, so do not take it lightly, thinking that it is OK to walk away from Christ and that you can come back whenever you like. This is the sin unto death that God is speaking of.
Here is a new problem that I was recently introduced to. One persons tried to explain away all of these verses in Hebrews 10 as not applying to Christians because they said this book was only written to the natural Jews or the Hebrews. Wow, people can become so deceived, can’t they? How ignorant do you have to be to not see this book was written to church? That means it was written to me! That means the scriptures apply to me. If you used their logic then the book of Timothy only applies to Timothy and we should it ignore it also. Using their logic the book of Romans was only written to the people in Rome so we should iginore that one also. I could go on and on like this through every epistle in the N.T. and explain each of them away using some ignorant human reasoning. I’ve seen this type of behavior by Christians and even seminary graduates repeatedly. Whenever they do not want to embrace a truth as being applicable to them, they say it was written to someone else. Heaven help them to see the truth!
THE UNPARDONABLE SIN
Now is the time to get into my new main subject verse that is very important for you to understand. Here is another key verse of scripture that has great significance to our subject of eternal security and to what I have been teaching on subject of the sin unto death. The Eternal Security Extreme Grace message is based solely upon the theory that there are no sins that are possible for a Christian to commit that will cause them to lose their salvation. I mean that would be a radical message, if that is what Jesus believed. However since Jesus didn’t even believe that I think I will not write off His words to believe in a false eternal security. Look here in this verse in Matthew, and see that Jesus is speaking and that He says some things that are very hard to accept for my Grace teachers so they have to ignore them or explain them away:
Mat 12:31 Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men.
Apparently, according to what Jesus just said there is at the least one sin that will not be forgiven of anyone that commits it. If you did not understand that this was an all-inclusive statement that leaves no one out, then you are not reading it correctly. This verse would have to apply to all Christians as well as to all non-Christians equally since Jesus did not qualify the target audience. Jesus informs us that there are a whole bunch of different kinds of sins and blasphemies that will be forgiven a man or a woman on this planet. But, Jesus then says that there is one that will not be forgiven any man or any woman at any time and that is when they blaspheme the Holy Ghost. Therefore, if there is just ONE SIN that is unforgiveable, then salvation is no longer unconditionally secured, but has been transformed by definition to a conditional salvation. Remaining saved would then be totally dependent upon you not commiting the blasphemy of the Holy Ghost. That clearly changes salvation to an unsecured CONDITIONAL event! So let’s define this word blaspheme, using the Strong’s:
G987
From G989; to vilify; specifically to speak impiously: – (speak) blaspheme (-er, -mously, -my), defame, rail on, revile, speak evil.
Obviously, according to this definition, blasphemy is the spoken words of a person, that are directed against the character of God. As you can see it implies that God’s character and nature is good and yet I hear men constantly speaking of Him in terms of being an evil being. I would be very careful with what you say about God, after reading this verse. If you walk about speaking of God as being evil or being the reason for evil you do not understand the Bible and are in jeopardy of being guilty of blaspheming the Holy Spirit of God. I heard people speak of God being responsible for the 9/11 attacks of the terrorists and that to me is blasphemy. I have heard people claim God is responsible for the earth quake in Haiti, and that to me is also blasphemy.
Satan uses whatever he can to try to deceive you. I have been guilty of this in the past. Because of my ignorance of the Bible, Satan used my ignorance against me to his advantage when I was young. I remember when I was a kid growing up in church, a traveling minster came into the church and spoke. I do not recall everything he was talking about, but I do know that he spoke about the “unforgiveable sin”. Later in my life, as I was getting close to 21 years old, I was faced with a very hard set of circumstances. I was recently married and my father fell unconscious in his living room. It appears later that we found out that he had a stroke. They rushed him to the hospital and he lay there for a few days still unconscious. Now my father was a preacher a big part of my life. He went to Bible school and had a church that he was the pastor of and seemed to me to be doing the right things. One day as I drove by the hospital I was very discouraged and down about the situation and I said out loud “if this is the kind of God you are, I don’t want anything to do with you”. You see we had many Christians praying and God was not appearing to answer. What I did not know was all of the things that God had tried to do months earlier to get my father to change and fix the problem that was causing these results. My father either out of pride or rebellion did not heed the warning given to him by a great man of God that tried to help him. My father was sitting in a Bible class with this man one day and God showed the teacher that my father was going to die. God told the teacher what to say to him and asked my father to come see him privately to talk about it. This man prayed for my father in public, but did not tell anyone what he saw or what God said. Months later this same man spoke at my father’s funeral service. God put the responsibility of what happened to my father in my father’s hands and my father chose to ignore it as being unimportant. You do realize that God leaves your destiny up to you and you alone?
So now the years went by and Satan used the fact of what I said to God to convince me that I had committed the unpardonable sin against God. Satan used the words of a minster from my childhood to convince me that I could no longer by saved. Ministers need to learn to be careful what they say to who. If they are not careful they can affect someone just as easily negatively as they can positively. There were times that I thought of suicide and had a desire to just end it all. But, thank God for His mercy and His grace! You see later in my life I had another situation come up that I had no other place to turn, but to God. In crying out to God for help I started to seek Him to know Him better and to see if I could still be saved. I learned from my mother that God had tried to help my father months before he died in that Bible class. So it was not God’s fault that my father died. So even though I blamed God for it, it was because of my ignorance of the situation that caused me to say what I did to God. God as a result did not hold it against me and God could still and did forgive me. One night with my wife, after I had been seeking for more of God, God came upon me and then filled me with His Spirit on the inside. This was a manifestation of His Spiritual divine power like I had never experienced before or since. God solved Satan’s plan of deception with an experience that left no doubt in my mind that God was real and that He was on the inside of me and I belonged to Him. I now knew for sure beginning that night that I had not committed the unpardonable sin and that God cared about me personally enough to prove it. So I cannot guarantee you that God will do for you what He did for me in the exact same way. Rarely have I ever seen God do the same exact thing twice in the precise same way. However, God knows how to reach you if you are interested in being reached. If you believe in God, like I did you have half the battle won. If you want more of God and are truly hungry and thirsty for more of His Spirit, you are on the right path to allowing God to work in you, however He sees fit to make Himself real to you. God is sovereign and God is omnipotent. But, God will not override your will or your choices. God will remain hidden, until you make the choice to seek Him diligently.
So I gave you a mini version of my testimony and I usually do not talk about me in my blogs. My blogs are not about me! However, I think my experience might be able to help someone so I included it in hope that the right people would find it.
1Jn 5:16 If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it.
If you are concerned that you have already committed the unpardonable sin, but are questioning it and reading this blog, you probably have not. Satan is very tricky, he definitely uses what you do not know to hurt you and deceive you any way that he can. Satan uses your thoughts against you. He puts doubts and thoughts in your mind to mislead you into destruction. Be hungry for the truth! Seek God with all of your heart! God will not let you down, He actually wants to show you how real He is.
Rom 6:16 Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?
There will always be a choice set before you as long as you are on this earth in the flesh. God will never take your ability to choose away from you. You can choose to obey Him and His Word or select to go your own independent way. This verse in Romans clearly says that you still have responsibility and the choice to make and this verse was specifically written to Christians. There is still a “sin unto death” and this is also called by the synonymous title of the “unpardonable sin” that Jesus spoke of in Matthew. If you still do not understand what these are you should go back and reread these lessons and look up every scripture in your own Bible and study them more until you get them on the inside of you. I’m not through with this subject because God says many more things in His Word that we need to know about it. So I will continue “Once Saved Always Saved” in the future. God Bless!
If you would like to continue reading on the subject of Once Saved Always Saved you may continue with “Part 3“.
Biblical Significance of Water on our Planet
(Ver 1.1) One of the primary reasons that we have the capability of life on our planet is because of the created existence of a vast amount of a water supply that makes available this life. Without water there is no possiblity of life on our planet. There are also many other complex factors that position our planet as an ideal place for life to thrive. The sun and the distance of our planet from the sun are additional key factors for the existence of life on this planet. If we were any closer to the sun, it would be too hot, if we were any further from the sun, it would be too cold. It is what I sometimes call the Goldilocks creation principle, God created a place that was exactly just right for us to exist in. I am a firm believer that God created things in our world in a manner that demonstrates God’s hidden qualities. God is called light in the Bible (1 Jn 1:5). God is called the Sun in the Bible (Mal 4:2). God’s word is called seed (Luke 8:11). God’s words is called water (Eph 5:26). All of these are essential ingredients for natural life on our planet. I believe these are parallels to spiritual truths that reveal that spiritual life is essentially tied to God also. Let’s explore some scriptures that speak about water. Let’s start at the end of the book and go backwards to some extent:
Rev 22:17 And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.
We can understand that water quenches people’s thirst. Water is essential for our physical well being. The human body is approximately 2/3 water. Without water we would not be here. God calls water an essential ingredient to life. If God calls it “the water of life”. Do you think God is only talking about physical, natural H2O? I do not think that is all that God is talking about.
Rev 22:1 And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.
Did you know that water can be undrinkable? It can be contaminated, poisoned or have elements that make it harmful for us. A key quality of good water is pure water. The vast majority of water on our planet is undrinkable. The oceans contain over 98 per cent of the earth’s water supply and they are deadly to drink. That leaves less than 2 percent of the earth’s water as clean enough to drink. What do you think that God is saying to us about water in the way that He created this planet? God declares in Revelation that pure water comes from God’s throne, but what is this pure water that He is referring to? I do not think God is speaking of natural water, but I believe He is referring to spiritual water. After all God is a Spirit. If God, a spiritual being is the source of pure spiritual water, what is this water? How does this water differ from other implied waters that are not pure? You do understand that God is saying there are other waters that are not pure, don’t you?
Rev 14:2 And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder: and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps:
Rev 1:15 And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters.
Apparently God is giving us a key to the puzzle in these two verses. If the throne of God has a river of pure water flowing from it, what does that water represent symbolically? According to these verses, it is representative of the voice of God. We have one verse that says a voice from heaven sounds like “many waters”. Then in Revelation 1:15 it says Jesus has a voice of “many waters”. Apparently spoken words are waters. Here is a lesson of what Jesus told a woman at a well that came for some natural water to drink:
Joh 4:10 Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have askedof him, and he would have given thee living water.
Jesus clearly informs the woman at the well that if she knew who she was speaking to, she would ask Him for a drink of living water. What was it that Jesus had, that He could offer her to drink? Jesus had no pitcher, had not draw down in the well to get any natural water, but yet He still offerred her a drink. We know that Jesus was God in the flesh, so we know that whatever he said were the key words of life (John 6:63). These are the pure waters that Jesus was offering the lady at the well. The words of God are the pure water and everyone else’s words are the words that are mixed with other potentially harmful things. You see God is not the only person that speaks in the world or in heaven, is He?
Rev 12:15 And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood.
The symbolic serpent is Satan and he has opened his mouth and a flood has proceeded from his mouth to destroy the woman. You do understand these are words from the enemy of God and the church. These words are intended to harm and to deceive. These words are the only offensive weapon your enemy has against you. If he can get you to say what he says, he has you. The words from Satan’s mouth are not pure waters. They are corrupted and poisoned with hurtful and harmful things designed to bring you down. So who else has a mouth and speaks words?
Jas 3:11 Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter?
You do realize that you have a mouth also? You speak words, how do your words differ from God’s words or Satan’s words? Who does your words resemble or sound like? Are your words a model of the pure water from God or from the corruptible poisoned water from Satan? If you study James 3 very carefully you will see that God is talking about the words that come from your mouth. Your mouth is referred to as a fountain that can either put out fresh water or bitter water. God is saying that your mouth can produce both of these, but not at the same time. You are either speaking God’s word or you are confused with some other perverted thing coming out of your mouth.
Joh 7:38 He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.
People in the world who do not know God, cannot do anything, but speak evil things. But, to the people who know God and His word, Jesus Christ, we are told something should be different from what we speak and others speak. Jesus informs us that out of our bellies shall flow rivers of living water. If you recall that Satan spewed out a flood of water designed to destroy the woman in Revelation 12. But, we are informed that our mouths should be different than his. The living water is the same waters of life referred to in Revelation, isn’t it? If God’s words are pure life, we should be speaking and saying what He says. Only by learning what He has spoken can we can become these fountains that produce the pure water. Pure water is what spiritually dead people are thirsty for to quench their spiritual thirst and the draught they have experienced. This is speaking the truth in love so that they can tell there is a difference.
Water is a very powerful analogy of a spiritual truth that God is trying to get us to see and understand. God’s words are the pure waters of life and all other religions and words of philosophy or human reasoning are words designed to corrupt you, deceive you, to bring you down to a level of defeat. Like the earth’s water supply only a very small percentage is drinkable. If we compare all of the available books of the world to the oceans and waters of the world we can see that there are only a very few that contain the actual words of God. The Bible is the only word of God we have. Then there are a few good books that have been written about the Bible. But, the percentage of undrinkable water far outweighs God’s words. We are inundated with books, magazines, TV, movies, the internet and other words that are an overwhelming distraction for most people. This ocen of words are designed to distract you and eventually kill you. These words are designed to keep your attention and your focus off of the pure waters of truth. Wide is the path to destruction and many go that way. Narrow is the path to true life and it seems to me today that there are few that have actually found this path to life. What are you looking for? Are you thirsty for life yet? It is time to speak the pure words for others to drink and that is what I try to do. God Bless and thanks for reading my Bible study. I pray that it was a blessing to you. If you enjoyed it share it with someone else and help me spread the Good News of a better way to live.
Are You Pretty In Your Prison?
(Ver 1.2) Did you know that a prisoner will never escape a prison when they do not know they are in one? If you grew up a free child and were wrongfully convicted of a crime and sentenced to a life behind bars after becoming an adult, would you want to try to be free again or escape? I believe that you would think about it every day. However, let’s say you were a baby born in a prison, raised in a prison, never saw the outside and the free world and did not know anything but prison. Would you still want out and try to escape? I don’t think so! You see this is the case that most of the world is in today. They have been born and raised within a spiritual prison system that has captured them, held them and they do not even know it. Because these people do not know any better, they are not looking to escape it. They exist in a state of unawareness of the spiritual reality of freedom that is available all around them. These people are consumed with the natural things that they see and can touch. They dress up in fine clothes and go out to clubs and party like there are never any consequences. These people do not understand they are in a prison, being held captive and controlled by an unseen spiritual force. They go about their lives living like today and right now is all that counts. People in the world are captives to a spiritual system that they do not see and are the servants of that system. To be a servant is the same as to be a slave and they certainly do not know it. When Jesus walked the face of the planet in the flesh, He gave us some insight into why He had to come in person. This is one statement where He quotes an Old Testament prophet and informs us of what He was doing here:
Luk 4:18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,
This verse says many things, but I want to focus on the part that I underlined for us to see. Jesus said “I came to preach deliverance to the captives”. What is Jesus talking about? Who are these captives that He is declaring freedom for? Did you know this Greek word translated as “captives” means “prisoner of war”? You do understand what a prisoner of war is, yes? Jesus is speaking in spiritual terms about a spiritual war, which has spiritual prisoners. There is a spiritual warfare being waged even today as we observe the events happening around us in our natural world. Jesus came to free us from our flesh, sin, Satan and death. However, Satan is still the ruler of the darkness of this world (Eph 6:12). Satan no longer rules those who are saved and who are true Christians. But the others are still his prisoners. Those that have not been saved live within this domain and in the confines of darkness as slaves to sin and are held captive by Satan. So why did Jesus say He was here to preach in Luke 4:18? I thought He was here to save us? If we understand the Bible we also understand that no one gets saved unless someone preaches. This is God’s selected method for salvation. Someone goes to the world, tells them the good news of freedom from prison and they have the right to believe it and get saved or reject it and stay in their spiritual dungeon and prison of darkness. This verse in Luke is of course a quote from Isaiah, where Jesus opened the scroll and found the words to read. Here is what the original verse actually says:
Isa 61:1 The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent1 me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;
We can again see that Jesus is quoting a prophetic verse that He was here to “proclaim liberty to the captives”. It then speaks about these same people in another statement that is definitely related, “to open the prison of those who are bound”. You see Jesus has opened the doors to let people out of their prisons, but because these people do not know they are in a prison, they do not make any effort to come out of this open door. People live in a state of blissful ignorance and contentment . They are satisfied with what they have, because they don’t know there is anything better. This is true of many natural people in the world today who are raised in a specific set of circumstances and are content with their current state of being. But, even as it is true in the natural, so it is also true in the spiritual realm. Ignorance of the open door and the way out of their prison keeps people bound. Here is another prophecy from Isaiah that speaks to us on this subject:
Isa 42:7 To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house.
Jesus was anointed to fulfill the plan of God and this included setting those in the chains of darkness free from Satan’s kingdom. This verse also speaks of people being blinded by Satan. Blindness is the inability to see the light. We know from the Bible that Jesus said He was the Light of the World, so those who are sitting in the darkness are unable to comprehend and see Jesus. The prison house is a place of darkness where Satan holds his captives hostage by their ignorance. If you do not understand Spiritual darkness and light I would suggest you read the lessons on “Understanding Night and Day”. Here are just a few New Testament verses that speak of this bondage and slavery to sin:
Gal 4:3 Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world:
Gal 4:9 But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?
Gal 5:1 Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.
2Pe 2:19 While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he( brought in bondage.
2Ti 2:26 And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.
People in the world are being held captive against their will, but yet do not even know it. They have been deceived into believing that their prison of sin is normal and good. They are attracted to the darkness by the lusts and desires that keep them prisoners in their hearts. Even though they dress up and party to have a good time in their minds, the fun is all limited within the confines of the four grey spiritual walls of their hearts. They do what their warden Satan wants them to do, when he wants them to and they do not even understand the process. So we can dress up and look pretty and be the best looking man or woman in our spiritual prison cell. Or we can make Jesus our Lord and walk out of that dead end through the open door that Jesus Christ has given us for a new life of freedom. I would recommend that we choose this Life of Freedom!
Understanding Spiritual Laws in the Bible
(Ver 1.3) This is Part 1 in a lesson series about Bible Spiritual Laws created by God. I use to like to study natural and physical laws found in science when I went to school. We are surrounded by these natural laws, dominated by these laws and are completely dependent upon them for our continuing existence on this planet. After studying the Bible for many years, I have realized that God created natural things as patterns for things that are found in the spiritual realm. Every day we get up and get out of bed and never think about most of these natural laws that rule our lives. Yet they are affecting what we do and the results that we have regardless of whether we are thinking of them or not. The laws of motion, the laws of gravity, the laws of thermodynamics and the laws of aerodynamics are just a few of these scientific systems that we depend upon. God created these natural systems so that we could depend upon and have confidence in them every day by faith. You may or may not understand how these laws that I just gave you work, but yet you can believe in them and use them to your advantage or your harm depending on what you desire to happen. For example, if you want to go to California from New York, the law of aerodynamics can help your pilot override the laws of gravity and help you to get you there in a matter of a couple of hours or so by plane. This is just a small example of how natural laws help us in our everyday lives.
Introduction to Spiritual Laws
Just as there are natural and physical laws that rule and control our outcomes, there are also spiritual laws that control our eternal destiny. God is a highly organized being of supreme intelligence. Any organization in order to be organized requires structure and laws and so it is in God’s spiritual Kingdom. God operates under a set of strict spiritual laws that I would say most Christians do not understand. Religious minded people like to think that God is omnipotent and that means He can do whatever He wants to, whenever He wants to, to whoever He wants to. I have no doubt that God is powerful enough and has the capability to do exactly that, however, by reading God’s Word we can discover that God has imposed limitations and constraints upon himself by His own design. God has transferred spiritual ability, freewill, decision making capabilities, reasoning, thought processes and even authority to the human race.
Spiritual Law 1: The Law of Faith
In order to understand spiritual laws, you must first start by recognizing that there are spiritual laws. You cannot start to learn about what you do not know, until you learn that these laws exist and then how these spiritual laws govern the things that occur in our world. Here is a Bible verse that gives us just one spiritual law found in the Bible:
Rom 3:27 Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith.
God informs us of many of the spiritual laws found in the Bible, but you have to look for them. This verse tells us that “faith” is a spiritual law. We can understand that faith is the ability of man to believe something that cannot be confirmed with our natural senses. For example, to have “faith” in an unseen God. You have never seen God, but yet believe that He exists. That is Bible faith! Faith is the belief of something that cannot be proven in the natural realm. If you could prove this thing existed, it wouldn’t be faith. The world likes to say “seeing is believing” but that is not Bible faith and that is not a true statement. If you can see something you know it exists and you do not have to believe anything. To know something is true is much different than to believe something is true. If someone came to me and told me that they saw a man walk on the lake barefooted. I would have to either choose to believe what they said or you would have to reject what they said, since I did not see it with my own two eyes. If I chose to believe it, that is putting faith in that person and what they said.
So faith is a spiritual law designed by God to teach us a principle that God thought was very important for us to know. When Jesus walked the face of the earth, if you were one of those that knew Him, you could see that He appeared to be no different than any other man. He ate, he slept and he did all of the things that you and I do. So how did Peter when asked by Jesus “who am I”, know that He was the Son of God? It had to be by faith. Sure Peter could see everything that He did and how that Jesus healed the sick and even raised the dead, but that still did not prove that He was God. Did you ever think about the fact that Judas saw the same things that Peter did and yet turned Jesus into the soldiers to be killed. How could both men see things so differently, who had witnessed everything that they did? One chose to believe and the other did not! Therefore, the law of faith worked for Peter but, Judas chose not to use it.
Spiritual Law 2: Sin and Death vs. Spirit and Life
Rom 8:2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
Here is another verse found in the Bible that speaks of two spiritual laws that are diametrically opposed to each other. You might think of these like the laws of aerodynamics vs. the laws of gravity. The laws of aerodynamics overrule the laws of gravity and thus allows men to fly in airplanes. Well according to this verse, the spiritual law of Life in Christ Jesus has super ceded the law of sin and death. These are two scientific principles based upon the natural law of cause and effect. The result of natural sin is natural death. We can see this from Genesis 2 where God told Adam don’t eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for in the day you do you will surely die. The Bible tells us that death entered into the world through the sin of one man, Adam (Rom 5:12). But, it also tells us that by the obedience of one man, Jesus Christ all those who received it, would be made alive again. These are two spiritual laws that have different results. By embracing the law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus we have overcome the law of sin and death that was passed upon us by our father Adam. Our spiritual father Jesus took upon Himself death that we might be a partaker of His life. That is an awesome trade for us.
Spiritual Law 3: Plant a Seed and Get a Harvest
There are many spiritual laws in the Bible and I cannot go into all of them. For the sake of understanding I will give you one more example of a spiritual law found in the Bible. This law governs men and women and their physical destiny almost more than any other that I can think of. Because, people do not understand spiritual laws, they do not know how they have arrived at and are faced with all of the predicaments that they are presently confronted with. People tend to believe in luck, either good luck or bad luck has dealt them what they have in their lives. Other people believe, in the Doris Day religious philosophy “Ka Sa Ra, Whatever will be Will Be!. Meaning no matter what happens to them it was not caused by anything that they did. However, God has revealed something else in the Bible that is much more relevant to know than to think that everything that happens to us hass just been our bad luck.
Gal 6:7 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
You see God gives us some very specific instructions in this verse. Because, He does not want us to be deceived by what happens to us, He tells us clearly a spiritual law that governs our lives. Sowing and Reaping is a spiritual law found in the Bible from cover to cover. Just as the Law of Faith occurs in the Bible as a predominate theme and pattern, you can find every spiritual law revealed in every story of the Bible, if you look closely to discover them. Sowing and reaping is a spiritual law implemented by God and it affects everyone equally, whether they realize it or not. If you do not understand this spiritual law you need to study about farming concepts. Farmers understand the law of sowing and reaping. They plant specific seeds to get specific crops and harvests. They do not plant corn seed to get cabbage. They understand that whatever they sow, is exactly what they reap. This is a spiritual law as well as a natural physical law.
Gen 8:22 While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.
Written in the Law of God, in this verse in Genesis God is giving us some valuable information. Many times, God speaks both in natural and spiritual terms in a verse and gives us a law found in creation. God informs us as long as the earth is here, we will see a cycle of continuous nights and days and repeated seasons of warmth and cold. But, along with this information is another repeated cycle of planting seeds and reaping harvests. You can understand that God is speaking of how people will physically eat on this planet, but you can also apply this principle to the spiritual life of people. God is informing us how things work and we need to understand it, to be successful. If you walk around planting seeds of discontent, seeds of discouragement, seeds of gloom, seeds of despair, seeds of evil, hurt, harm, guess what you will reap? God said he would not be mocked, that a man or a woman would reap exactly what they have sown. There are just as many ways to sow seed in the spiritual realm, as there are in the natural realm. So every day you are planting seeds for your tomorrows. Today you are reaping the harvests of your seeds of yesterdays and the cycle goes on and on. If you don’t like what you are getting today in life, change what you are planting for your tomorrows.
So I talked about a small number of spiritual laws found in the Bible. These laws govern and control what you get out of life. God gives us great information about these laws in the Bible so that we can learn to use them to help us to live life to the fullest. God gives us a number of great examples in the Bible of people utilizing these laws to achieve great things. God also gives us examples of people who did not follow these spiritual laws and how they came to a less than admirable ending. By cooperating with the spiritual laws we are far less likely to fall into something that someone could call just your random bad luck! God Bless!
If you would like to continue readin about spiritual laws found in the Bible you can continue with “Part 2“.
Understanding the Bible is the Word of God!
(Ver 1.3) If you are reading the Bible like it was just a book of fiction or a history book or a text book, or even a reference book or an encyclopedia, you are probably missing the most important thing that you need to know about the Bible. Hopefully, you are already a Christian and already know God and understand that this book called the Bible was God’s handbook and personal letter written for you and to you. The Bible is by far the most unique book that you will every encounter. It is written in a complex and unique style like no other book that you can imagine. This book written over a vast amount of time by numerous men who were given the task of recording it, is unique in quality and content. One of the most important things to remember when reading the book, is who the author is. If you are not a Christian, this will not matter, but if you are God is the author of the entire book. Just because God is not here physically, does not mean God is not here spiritually and that He has chosen to use people to give us His message of hope.
2Ti 3:16 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
You can clearly see that this scripture in 2 Timothy claims that the Bible comes directly from God. This verse informs us that God inspired the writers what to write. The Greek word for inspiration actually means “divinely breathed or spoken”. That means the words came out of God’s mouth before they went recorded into the book. If you do not understand the significance of that statement you should read it a couple of hundred times until you do get it on the inside of you.
Jer 30:2 Thus speaketh the LORD God of Israel, saying, Write thee all the words that I have spoken unto thee in a book.
Here in this verse in Jeremiah we can again see a verse of scripture that claims the words that Jeremiah wrote were the sayings of the Lord God. God tells Jeremiah directly what to say and then Jeremiah takes God’s words and writes them down for the nation of Israel to read and hear. This is a spiritual message delivery system that God created and utilized extensively. It is a mediator concept where a man is selected by God to be His messenger. God anoints this man for the job and then speaks to him to give him the message that He wants spoken to the people. We can clearly see that these words came out of the mouth of God before they ever were written down. God spoke them, men heard them and then finally wrote them down for us to read. God is a Spirit (John 4:24)! God is invisible to the natural eyes of man! God’s face has never been seen by any man in His spiritual form. So how would a spirit being talk with natural beings? I suppose he could just talk to men from the clouds like a giant loud speaker. It seems that when God did this when Jesus was baptized that some men heard it and others thought it thundered (John 12:29). So this does not seem to be the most effective way of communication. God could go around to everyone individually and give each one a dream and then everyone would have to figure out if it was the pizza they ate last night or if God was trying to talk to them. God could do any number of things, including writing on the side of a mountain using giant letters like a God sized bill board. However, whatever God does to try to get your attention, it would have be something that could possibly be interpreted as being something else also. If God did not do this He would violate your right of choice, if He presented you with any overwhelming evidence to His existence. So God gave His Words to a single man at a time. They were each given specific message pieces and specific words to write down. These words were then supposed to be distributed to the rest of the human race. This was God’s divine system of delivery. Hire a messenger, give them the message and we are supposed to do the rest.
While the Bible has multiple scribes or men that were given the task to record the words of God in book form, we must realize that all of the words were given and inspired by God. This book says nothing that God would not want you to know and to understand right here and right now. It doesn’t say anything that God wouldn’t say to you if you could stand before His throne in heaven and ask Him questions directly. This book contains the commandments, laws, thoughts, warnings, feelings, ideas, knowledge, understanding and wisdom of God in word form. It is a direct and personal letter full of valuable spiritual information that is designed to help you to know the author and to know who you are and your importance to the author. You should approach the Bible with this attitude of reverence and read it with the expectation that you will be hearing something directly from the mouth of God. When you approach the Bible in the right way with humility, God will not let you down and He will speak to you. I know this for a fact and you can also! God Bless!
Universal Salvation, Is Everybody Going to Be Saved? Pt 2
(Ver 1.2) Today is Part 2 in the lesson series about the subject of Unieveral Salvation. I really just introduced this subject in my last lesson. If you did not read this series from the beginning, I would recommend that you go back and start with “Part 1“. In the first lesson, I alluded to the fact that I have heard several people try to teach this and they have attempted to convince me repeatedly that they were absolutely correct and that I was the one that was absolutely wrong. They would give me Bible verses and I would just have to say Yes, I know that, but…” DId you know that no deceived person knows they are deceived? The greatest danger of being deceived is the individual’s acceptance of the lies to be the truth. Rather than reviewing all of the Bible verses they were giving to me, let’s talk about some other Bible verses that they have obviously ignored or refused to look at and study. Whenever one group of people preach something that is wrong, it is usually a result of not knowing what else the Bible says on the subject. Selective theology is a predominate fallacy of deception that people fall into sometimes way too easily. But, it is also very difficult to get these types of people to see the truth, since they do not want to know what is truth. In fact it is almost impossible to get anyone to see what they do not want to look at. You could be attempting to show them one of the greatest revelations of all time from God’s Word that God himself has taught you personally and just because it is something new or different, people automatically reject it and refuse to see it. Believe me I know this for a personal fact, it can be very discouraging if you let it get to you. I guess it is just a basic human characteristic to not accept something new that is presented to you, after all we are bombarded by false teachings every day.
Most proponents of Universal Salvation ignore Bible verses about the existence of hell. I guess they read them and because they do not want to see them they just ignore them or attempt to explain them away like people usually like to do. Do you understand how easy it is to explain away God’s Word using human reasoning, people do it every day. Instead of talking about hell first let me start with a couple of things that Jesus said about the end of the world:
Mat 13:49 So shall it be at the end of the world: the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just,
In this verse from Matthew, Jesus is clearly talking about the end of the world. A time that we are living very near to and within our sight, right now. Jesus clearly says that the angels will be given the task and assignment to separate the wicked from the just. The Greek word for “sever” in this verse is a word that means to divide. To divide literally means to make two separate groups. If you recall from my last blog I told you about these two groups. Those of the Day and those of the Night. God will send His angels to separate those who live in the Light from those who live in the darkness. There will be a division of those who have accepted His salvation from those who have rejected His salvation. Those who are said to be wicked from those who are called the righteous. You know I did not write the Bible, God did and people easily just discount these words as being not important or that they simply think that they do not apply to them. Nevertheless that does not change what God said.
Mat 25:32 And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats:
Here is another very clear verse that speaks about a prophetic event soon to occur. Again we can clearly see another reference to a “division” that is occurring. This verse says that God will gather every nation to stand before Him. It then does not say that everyone will be saved, does it? No it actually says the complete opposite. Let’s start by acknowledging that this verse is referring to every possible group of people on the earth that currently exists, every people that existed in the past and every group that could possibly exist in the future. In other words Jesus did not leave out any nation of people on the earth, it is an all-inclusive statement Why would you divide your sheep from your goats? Who do the sheep represent and who do the goats represent? These are clearly symbolic references to something that will soon occur in the spiritual realm, whether you choose to believe it or not. Did you realize that it doesn’t matter if you believe something will happen, for it to actually happen to you. Things happen to you every day that you did not believe would happen. I wonder how many people in the World Trade Center would have believed that an airplane would intentionally fly into them on 9/11/01? Even though I am not a gambling man, I would be willing to bet you that none of them expected that to happen and yet it did. I know I was at home watching it live on TV and I know I still couldn’t believe what was going on. These terrorist certainly pulled off a major unexpected attack on American soil. I would be shocked if it doesn’t happen again. But that is my opinion and I normally don’t give you my opinion on anything.
Mat 25:33 And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.
Again continuing in this chapter you can see that the nations are being divided into two separate and distinctive groups of people that are completely different from each other. One group is placed upon His right hand and the other His left hand. If you understand this is a Biblical principle and a law given to us in the Old Testament. A son would receive the right hand of blessing from their father and this would be a sign of their inheritance. Once this blessing was imparted it could not be reversed. You can read about it in the story of Jacob and Esau in Genesis. Now see what the chapter continues to inform us of these words from Jesus:
Mat 25:34 Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:
Jesus Christ is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords so we easily know who is doing the talking in this verse 34. Those sheep on the right of God are said to be blessed of the Father like I just mentioned about the story of Jacob and Esau in the book of Genesis. We are clearly told that these people on God’s right hand are the ones that will inherit the Kingdom of God that was prepared for them since the foundation of the world. Meaning that there is somewhere else prepared for the other people on the left hand of the King. This is so strong that it is obviously just ignored by those who do not want to see it. Continuing down the chapter we finally see what happens to the other people Jesus is speaking of:
Mat 25:41 Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:
Finally, in this verse we can see that to the goats on His left hand He clearly says for them to “depart from me”. Where did these goats come from? They came from the same nations of people that were divided on the right hand of God. That does not sound like Universal Salvation to me, does it to you? Did you also notice that God is not talking to Satan and his demons? If you carefully read this verse correctly, you will see that there is a place that was called “an everlasting fire” that was prepared or created originally for Satan and his angels. But, yet God is not talking to Satan when he tells these goats to depart from him. We can clearly see that hell exists in this verse and it describes it as a place of eternal torment and punishment. No you are right it does not call it “hell”, but what else would you call it from this clear description. A place that is not good, a place that will not be an eternal party or a place to have fun. Have you ever been near a raging fire on the earth, now imagine having to be in that fire and not just standing near it.
So, why do people go to hell, if hell was created for Satan and his angels as this verse in Matthew says? In order to answer that question you have to understand Bible covenants. 
You have to understand how God operates using covenants and laws. You have to understand the Bible and how it was written and why it was written. If Satan committed the first sin, why didn’t God just solve the sin problem and throw Satan into hell? Why if God was God and Satan was not, why did God not just get rid of the source of all evil so that none of us would ever have to see it or to understand what it was. Did you know that God could not legally throw Satan into hell. Now God can, after the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ when the end of the world comes, but I’m talking about before Adam and Eve came along. Before, the Old Covenant came into existence, God had no legal grounds to stand on. God’s law in the Old Testament gives God the legal right to throw Satan into hell, if God can get Satan under the law. Did Satan ever get under the law? I guess I’ll need to leave that to another blog.
If you did not realize it, God created a perfect world without any sin with Lucifer in charge of all of the angels in the beginning. Maybe you have never studied the Bible and have not seen how that the Bible says that there was a world that existed prior to our world. In this world, Lucifer ruled it and walked among the other angelic beings. In this world existed the Garden of God, a place called Eden. In this world Satan rebelled and this world fell into ruin and was destroyed. There are many people and good Bible teachers who refuse to buy into these Bible verses, but yet they have a hard time of explaining them away. Why was the world covered with water in state of destruction in Genesis 1:2? Why does God describe the world as formless and void in Genesis and then in Isaiah 45:18 tells us that He never created anything that was formless? In Isaiah 45:18 it clearly says that God when He created the earth, it was created to be inhabitable. God uses the same Hebrew word to inform us that the world became formless and void and that was not this way when it was originally created. Scientist through astronomical calculations of light refraction and phase shifts have measured the duration of time for light to reach the earth in terms of billions of years. When we look at stars shinning in our night sky we are looking at light that took billions of years to reach us. Yet we have numerous Bible teachers who want to try to convince you that the world is only few thousand years old. Any intelligent person can simply see that the earth is not that young. If you believe that it is you are promoting a lie and a deception to the people of God and to those who are in the world that are obviously more informed than you are. God is not the deceiver nor is He a party to deception. I guess I got off of the main subject, I’m sorry about that. Maybe I’ll blog on the age of the earth from a Bible perspective later on.
There are many complex reasons for the existence of Satan and evil. But, most of these reasons boil down to God giving us a choice. If you see that God is good, that God is Love and still choose not to follow Him and His Word, then you by default belong in the group of goats on God’s left hand. Why is this? It goes back to covenants again. Because people do not understand Bible covenants and what they are and how important they are to God and what He does, people lose sight of why God had to allow evil in our world and could not throw Satan directly into hell.
In the Bible a covenant is a marriage contract between two parties. We who have been saved called His sheep are in a brand New Covenant that never existed before to a risen Savior that was never in a covenant with anyone else before. Therefore we are in a spiritual marriage contract with the raised from the dead Jesus Christ (Rom 7:4). If you do not understand Bible covenants, please read my series on “Understanding Bible Covenants“. This new covenant relationship puts us into the category of the sheep and the spiritual realm of the Day and Light. Those who have not accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and savior remain in the night and the spiritual realm of darkness controlled and ruled by Satan. There are many reasons for this and I have alluded to Night and Day multiple times. If you need more understanding about these spiritual states or dimensions please refer to my blogs on “Night and Day, Understanding the Spiritual Heart of Man“.
Isa 28:15 Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:
Here is a verse of scripture that speaks about a marriage covenant contract that contains grave consequences. In a Bible marriage covenant contract, what one party possesses the other party also possesses. This law of marriage works for the positive aspects of marriage as well as for all of the negative possessions that each party owns. For example, if you marry someone in the world today who is on the verge of bankruptcy with in massive amounts of financial debt, after you are married their debt becomes your debt. This is just a basic Bible law. Hopefully, you understand this and can see the cause and effect that this verse in Isaiah 28 contains. Clearly these people in this verse are in a covenant that a God to get them out of.
If you go into this chapter and check the context of this verse, you can see who God is speaking to directly in verse 14 of Isaiah 28. This verse is written directly to the rulers of Jerusalem. To be in agreement with and to be in covenant with are synonymous terms for someone who is married to the realms of “death” and “hell”. In this marriage covenant contract, these people now possess a destiny that is very dark and gloomy. They actually have no good future or optimistic outcome or anything to look forward to. Furthermore, there is actually nothing they can do to get out of this contract. It can only be broken or disannulled by God himself. A Bible covenant cannot be easily broken, unlike people’s marriages in our world today. You cannot just go to court and get a divorce from “death” and “hell”. Do you understand what I just said? There are many songs, movies and books that relate to stories of people making a deal with the devil. They usually sell their soul for a few years of pleasurable wealth, fame or other natural earthly gain. These fictional stories mask, mock and make fun of a spiritual reality and most Christian do not even know it is actually a real reality.
Isa 28:18 And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it.
So God declares that our previous agreement with “hell” will not stand and our previous covenant with “death” will be disannulled. So how did God accomplish this great task? There are actually several verses in the New Testament that give us insight into how God did this for us. You may be familiar with some of these so I’ll just give you one to think about:
Heb 2:14 Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;
This is an outstanding verse of scripture that has a vast amount of very important and relevant information for us to understand. It is speaking of how God became a human in the body of a male child named Jesus of Nazareth. We are now informed how God broke the covenant with death that had previously dominated every human on the planet. This verse informs us that God used death to undo the consequences of death. Because God died in the body of Jesus our covenant with death was broken. That of course is not the complete story or results of what happened, but it is an important part of what happened. This verse actually speaks about Satan, the devil directly as the one that God targeted with His death on the cross. You see this verse actually tells us directly that Satan controlled the “power” of death, but that God came to “destroy” him. The Greek word for “Power” means dominion over, strength or might. However, the Greek word translated as “destroyed” does not mean the same thing in the spiritual realm as what we think of when we say it in the natural realm. Most of the time we think of something that is destroyed as something that has been obliterated or reduced to a pile of ashes or something like that. But, obviously Satan is still alive and doing everything he can to kill, steal and destroy from everybody that will let him today. It is important to realize that you cannot destroy a spiritual being! A spiritual being is an eternal being. So to destroy Satan in the spiritual realm means that God came to undo the consequences of Satan’s deception and our sin. By God experiencing death and participating in it, there are many things that transpired that were of severe consequences to Satan. If you remember in Genesis, God told Adam not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and if he did, he would die! So we can see how death entered into the world and we can now understand who controlled or held the power of death and this was Satan. So therefore, we can conclude that Adam entered into a covenant relationship with Satan. This covenant allowed Satan to live on this planet as long as Adam time to rule the planet was in effect. In fact Adam’s rulership was transferred to Satan after Adam died. Now Satan was given complete dominion over the earth (Luke 4:6). In a covenant relationship we know that what each party possesses the other also owns jointly. So now Satan was free to rule our planet and Adam and all of his children were now destined for hell. Thank God for giving us a way out.
So how was man’s covenant with death and hell rendered harmless? It was through Jesus dying on the cross that loosed us from the consequences of our sins. We know the Bible says that the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life (Rom 6:23). That verse is another one that the Universal Salvation teachers like to quote. It implies that everyone is saved according to their interpretation of what a gift is. But, they do err in their conclusion that a gift is automatically accepted by everyone that it was given to. Most people today do not know how to receive a spiritual gift from God? Do you know that it requires you doing something to open a present that has been given to you? How would you open a present that you cannot even see, cannot hold on to, or cannot even verify exists? That is a very tricky question and one that you should figure out the answer to if you haven’t already. Some think that it is just a matter of joining a church. Some think that it is just a matter of saying you are a Christian. Some think that you can be baptized as an adult or as a baby and that saves you. Some think that it is just doing good works and good deeds for others. Some think that it is an automatic free gift to everyone and they have it magically. But, none of these are the correct answer. There are not many ways to God. There are not many ways to be saved. There are not many religions that will work for you. There is only one Absolute Way to God and Salvation and His name is Jesus Christ. He died for your sins and was raised from the dead and now waits for those who will believe in Him. I would be a fool not to tell you the truth. You would be a bigger fool not to believe it. If you haven’t figured it out by now, not everything that you think is always 100% correct and guess what that includes me. I do not know everything and I am still learning new stuff about God and the Bible almost every day. The things that I do know I will tell you boldly with confidence. So you have now read this entire lesson and if you still want to place all of your hopes on the possibility of an universal salvation theory thinking that you have no responsibility or saying in the matter, I guess you have the right to be wrong and go to hell. I know if I just read this and still believed in universal salvation, I would do some more research to make sure I was right. How can you place all of your eggs in one basket and know with the same confidence that I have, that you have not made a fatal mistake? Thanks for taking the time to study the Bible with me and if you have any questions or comments please feel free to leave them for me. God Bless.
Universal Salvation, Is Everybody Going to Be Saved?
(Ver 1.3) The is Part 1 of a series of important Bible lessons countering the lies of the enemy being taught in churches called the doctrine of “Universal Salvation”. I know it takes all kinds of different people to come up with some of the stuff that I have heard being taught from the Bible. They probably have a lot of help from Satan to invent these concepts, but that is just how Satan works. One of the most obscure and ridiculous things that I have heard being taught from certain nameless individuals is that everyone on the earth will be saved eventually. This would include mass murders, terrorists, rapists, and everybody else that you can think of. People base their beliefs upon a limited number of scriptures that seem to indicate the possibility of this occurring, but they also ignore many other scriptures that directly contradict and conflict with their beliefs. This is a classic example of how some people read the Bible and have taken “A TRUTH” and have exalted it to become “THE TRUTH”. People make this mistake all the time in many Christian denominations. It is a very dangerous practice, but yet one that is found widespread in almost every church. This type of teaching is what I call extremism. They will take a truth to an extreme while excluding all conflicting verses they do not agree with. However, the only correct way to interpret the Bible is to review all truths and all scriptures on a subject and then balance them all together.
People who teach this philosophy of Universal Salvation, start with believing in the complete saving power of the shed blood of Jesus, the stated love and mercy of God and the divine sovereignty of God and these are actually all very good truths to believe in. They claim that the Bible says Jesus has paid for everybody’s sin by His death on the cross and by His shed blood He has purchased or redeemed us all from any future eternal torment. They are at least partially right in those beliefs, but yet still mostly wrong misapplying them that everyone is now saved. They embrace sover very basic Bible truths and then jump to some incorrect outrageous conclusions. You see there is more than “One Truth” in the Bible! If you only take a few of the truths and ignore all of the other truths in the Bible you are only partially right, meaning you are mostly wrong. No lie from Satan is based upon completely false teachings no found in the Bible. Every very good lie is based upon a lot of Bible truths with mixed in human reasoning and lies making them much more difficult to see. Here is another popular verse that these teachers like to use to promote their idea of Universal Salvation:
2Pe 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
God being an omnipotent God says that He is not willing that any should perish. Omnipotent means of course “all powerful”. Since God holds all power, whatever He desires is what happens, according to these religious people. These types of teachers have concluded that God’s will, will prevail over all others. They can even claim that everything that happens in the world is always the will of God and therefore they justify all of the evil in the world as being something from God also. So in their minds that have determined or reasoned that if a man like an Adolf Hitler has killed over a million Jews it was the direct will of God that this occurred. So the universal salvation peddler says that Adolf Hitler will eventually be saved like all the rest of us. It is really a crazy belief system and one that makes no logical sense to me. However, I do understand how they logically arrived at their state of deception. I believe many people have wanted to believe this teaching because of their close relatives or friends that they knew who have died without knowing Jesus and they do not know what happened to them and they do not want to think of them being tormented eternally. Therefore, they embrace a false sense of hope in order to believe this person made it into God’s family.
People who believe things like this usually do not believe in an enemy or an unseen opposing evil spiritual force like demons. They purposefully close their eyes so that they do not understand that there are two different spiritual forces at work in our world today. These two spiritual forces are in direct competition and opposition to each other for the souls of the people in the world. One spiritual group is called those of the “Day” and the other spiritual group is called those of the “Night”. The Bible says that those who are in or of the “Day” have the light of Jesus Christ shinning in their hearts or spirits (2 Peter 1:19). Then those in the “Night” are those without the light of Jesus and are they that dwell in the darkness controlled by Satan. Two separate spiritual divisions. one of Light and the other of Darkness (Acts 26:18)! Here is a scripture that has great significance to our subject:
Rev 12:9 And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.
Universal Salvation teachers like to think that God is an all loving God and a God who is full of mercy to everyone. After all, what loving, all powerful God would allow any of his innocent creation to go to a place of eternal punishment? It is so amazing that the Bible tells us that Satan has deceived the whole world in Rev 12:9. That is a pretty broad statement and an all inclusive term. However, Christians we know are in the world, but not of the world so we can see that Christians have not generally been deceived. What we must discover and get others to see is the fact that Satan has deceived a lot of people into not believing the truth. Then people need to understand how Satan has accomplished this deception.
What is Satan’s motivation to deceive people if everyone is going to be saved? Have you ever asked your self that question? I mean come on and think with me for a change using your brain for change. If you continue to read in Revelation 12 you see that Satan is very angry and has great wrath towards the human race and those that are in the church, because it says that he knows his time is short. Satan can clearly see that things in the spiritual realm is winding down to a final conclusive point of time. He can see what is happening in heaven the spiritual realm, the church and the physical world. He is trying to cause what God said in the Bible that is soon to occur, not to occur. This is the key motivational factor for why Satan is trying to deceive you right now. Satan’s only hope is to destroy the nation of Israel and to eliminate the Church or at least keep the church divided. If Satan can do either of these, he thinks he can change his eternal fate and destiny. At the very least he thinks he can put it off a little longer and delay it from happening so fast.
There are many who struggle with the fact that there are many religions in the world today. Why would a loving God create or allow so many possible ways for man to better themselves and to achieve a higher state of being, they were not all legitamate paths to travel? Many people have concluded that God loves people so much that he made many ways to achieve salvation. However, I believe, that the primary reason God has allowed this to occur is for many compolex purposes, but it all goes back to the fact that God gave every man the right to choose. 
Giving man a freewill is God’s right of giving the man the right to be wrong! When God created the first man and woman on the earth, He presented them with a simple binary choice. He even told them which one to choose and which one to avoid and yet they made the wrong decision. Any choice presented to us by God dictates that we have the responsibility of things to choose from and a direct decision to make. But, it does not mean that every way that we have chosen to go in is the right way or the correct way for us to go in. That is what Universal Salvationists would like you to believe. It does not matter what you choose the everntual outcome will be the same becasue of God’s Grace. However, let’s get back to why Satan is deceiving people today? Those in the far east and the rest of world that have chosen to believe in Buddha as their choice or option when it was presented to them have actually fallen into this trap of the enemy’s deception. Satan causes religions to spring forth as instruments of depction. What makes you think that it does not matter what you do here on the earth and what path you select to travel on? What makes you believe that choosing Christianity is no different than choosing Islam? Just because you select an Islamic path, it does not mean that this was the correct way to God. It is kind of like the old saying, if you don’t know where you are going, any road will take you there. That is the dilemma that people are faced with today everywhere in the world. Because, they do not know this True unseen God they usually end up looking for Him in the wrong places. After all any religion is better than no religion, or is it? Could it be that Satan has put all of these other religions in the world in order to deceive people from choosing the right one and to keep people from selecting the only way that will let them into the Kingdom of God? Why can’t there be One Absolute Truth against many lies? If I was the enemy that is what I would do. I would put out so many options, so much propaganda, distractions and smokescreens that nobody could see or have time to find the truth. It is an amazingly useful strategy in war time, isn’t it? Keep your enemy distracted with little things here and there and then strike with a big thing when they are not looking. This is a common ploy of the Taliban in Afghanistan. You of course have to understand that there is a spiritual war going on. If you refuse to read and believe the whole Bible and only take a few verses out of context to justify your beliefs you can be wrong like the other religions in the world.
God wrote the Bible in a fashion using techniques that purposely allowed men the right of choice. They can read the Bible and get out whatever they want to see from the Bible and to ignore what they do not want to see. God tells us to specifically to “rightly divide the Word of Truth” (2 Tim 2:15). This verse implies there are many ways to wrongly divide the Bible. Just as there are many false religions God wrote the Bible to allow many false teachings. So how do you know when you are right or not? That is a really good question. It starts with knowing the author personally, and then He opens the book up for you to see what it really means, if you are interested of course.
If you would like to continue reading this series, you can go to “Part 2“.
The Bible Definition of Apostasy and the Apostate Church!
(Ver 1.4) In reading wall posts on Facebook and Christian blogs on the internet I have discovered a popular common theme on many of them. It appears that there are a tremendous number of self-righteous people who think they are the only true church and everyone else is just promoting or following a false god. That sounds like a very smug and an arrogant attitude that proves to me that they do not know Christ or have the love of God in them. My Bible tells me that if you do not have the love of God for your brother that you can see, how then can you possibly have any love for your God that you have never seen (1 John 4:20)? My Bible also says that if you have the Spirit of God in you then He is the one that teaches you to love your brother (1 Thes 4:9). Therefore, loving your brother is more than a suggestion; it actually appears to be a requirement for your salvation based upon the words of Jesus in John 13:34. These verses imply that if NO Love is present then NO God is present either. If no God is present then you are just walking in darkness and Satan controls your life and your destiny. Love is a predominate subject found in the New Testament and people want to treat it with disdain to ignore it like it is not important or relevant to me. Many of these blogs like to take the woman in Revelation 17 called the whore of Babylon and call her the “apostate church”. So far I have not heard ANY of them give us any scriptural backing for their statement of beliefs. Without scriptural backing it is obviously just some man’s opinion and what is commonly called a private interpretation of the scriptures (2 Peter 1:20) which is not allowed. That is a very shaky foundation to build your house of religious theology cards upon, if you ask me. What we need to do is to look to the Bible and seek the answers from God’s word and see what God thinks about the subject of apostasy. That is what I will do today. Jesus gives us a clear example and it exemplifies God’s definition of what an apostate Christian is in the book of Luke.
Luk 18:11 The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican.
We can see Jesus talking about a Pharisee in this verse who obviously thinks very highly of himself. Also notice that according to Jesus this proud man is praying to hiimself and not to God. God does not even acknowledge his words at all. Did you see that? This Pharisee claims that he is not like other men. He is thankful that he is not an extortioner, or an unjust man who cheats others, or even an adulterer who cheats on his marriage covenant. This man looks at others and judges his own state of righteousness by what is observed in the visible lives of the others around him. This man is beginning to sound like a lot of the internet bloggers that I have read recently. One of the key words in this verse is the Greek word translated as “adulterer” and it has the following Greek definition from the Strong’s:
G3432
Perhaps a primary word; a (male) paramour; figuratively apostate: – adulterer.
If you understand this word it means someone who is married, but who commits adultery on their spouse. It is a word for a man who is unfaithful to his wife or for a wife that is unfaithful to her husband. We have all seen a lot of examples of this type of behavior in the media in the past few months. Really famous people with beautiful and famous wives and they choose to sleep around and be unfaithful not being satisified with what they have. That is the meaning of this word. But, it also says it is a figurative definition for someone who is called an “apostate”. Does that sound familiar?
This Pharisee man was calling someone else an apostate man just like those on the internet are doing today. Isn’t that interesting? Here is the Pharisee praying loudly so that everyone can hear him and telling us how great he was and how he was so much better than the publican who was standing nearby. You can clearly see that this Pharisee was exalting himself above all others. He thought himself to be better than the others, smarter than the others, the one that had all knowledge of the truth and everyone else was just ignorant fools. Jesus continued in his discourse in this chapter 18 of Luke and told us about the publican and how that he humbled himself and asked God to be merciful to him a sinner. Clearly there is a major difference between these two contrasted attitudes. One man was very proud and one man was very humble. Which one of these two men got the attention of God and was justfied? Let’s read and find out, here is the conclusion that Jesus derives from these two men’s words of prayer:
Luk 18:14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.
So Jesus claims that the publican went away being justified by God, because he had humbled himself before God. The implication is clear that the Pharisee was put down and called an idiot by God. The Pharisee man that thought he was righteous and so much better than the others around him was deemed by God to be the lowly one. The man that actually humbled himself was the ONLY one that God raised up. So who was right? Obviously it was not the Pharisee! Therefore, who is Jesus calling the “apostate”? Obviously it was not the Publican that was called an apostate by the Pharisee! Did you notice that Jesus did not agree with anything that the Pharisee said? The Pharisee called the Publican the apostate and Jesus reverses this decision. This lesson from Jesus teaches me that just because someone believes something is right or even true that does not necessarily make it right or true in the eyes of God. I do not believe that the Pharissee thought he was wrong. I beleive the Pharisee honestly believed he was better than the Pulican. However that was not the correct attitude to take, was it? This is a very clear Biblical example of what is occurring on Facebook and many of the blogs that I have found all over the internet. They exalt themselves and their religious faith, church or denomination to be the ultimate true church that is far wiser, knowledgeable or better than everyone else. Everyone else in their eyes are labeled as the false religious deceived ones. Everyone of these websites call themselves the “true church” and all the others the “apostate church” simply because they teach something different than they believe is the truth. Who exactly died and made them God? Do they know everything just because they think they know everything? If they are NOT God then they actually know very little of the whole truth like everyone else in the church. Even Paul said that he saw through a glass darkly (1 Cor 13:12). Therefore, no one sees everything in the Bible clearly and no one today is greater than Paul who wrote 2/3 of the N.T. These types of Christians teach the Bible from their ignorance of the Bible just like I do, but yet they still feel like they are superior to everyone. That is exactly a Pharisee type of attitude and God’s response to it would be the exact same today as Jesus gave us in this example in Luke 18.
The dictionary gives us some definitions of the word Apostate. I guess it would not hurt to review this information and see if it matches the Bible definition.
- deserter: a disloyal person who betrays or deserts his cause or religion or political party or friend etc.
- not faithful to religion or party or cause
So we can see a lot of similarities between these words and the Bible definition of an “adulterer”. An adulterer is someone who is unfaithful to their spouse. An apostate is someone that is unfaithful to their religion. They are quite similar definitions. So what is the problem? We have a large group of people on the internet that call themselves Christians but sound like “Pharisees” while doing it and I do not think they have all the answers either. I do not think they they are God that knows everything. Who are they to judge another ignorant Christian believer? That is an example of an idiotic foolish Pharisee type of behavior and it is clearly a very dangerous attitude to exhibit, if you ask me. You see Saul went around and persecuted the early church of Jesus Christ as one of these religious Pharisees that thought he was so right and what happened to him? Jesus appeared to him and personally asked him, “Saul why are you persecuting me!”. Jesus took the persecution of the Pharisee Saul very personally, didn’t He? So who are these Pharisees on the internet that are persecuting Christianity, thinking they are the true church and no one else is saved? I’ll tell you who they are, they are fools in the grasp of Satan’s control like Saul. Pawns of darkness that are soon to be sacrificed in their dangerous religious chess game. They walk after their own religious mindsets and exalt themselves much too highly. Their end will not be a good one!
Here are two more Hebrew words found in the Old Testament that give us further light on the definition of “apostate”. We can learn a lot by studying the Bible, if you want the truth you should be looking for it in the Bible.
H7726
From H7725; apostate, that is, idolatrous: – backsliding, frowardly, turn away
H7728
From H7725; apostate, that is, heathenish or (actually) heathen: – backsliding.
We can see a clear pattern from both of these words. They imply someone that was right with God, but has now become unfaithful. The term “backsliding” is even used. This term speaks about someone that has fallen into sin. Someone who is dominated by old habits that they were delivered from. They clearly speak of someone who does wrong after knowing right. So how is this the “apostate” church that is portrayed on the internet? From what I can tell the “apostate” church to these Pharisees are just the people who do not believe exactly like they do. If they find someone that believes anything differently than they do they claim them to be in error, rather than studying the Bible with humility to see if it could be possibly them that is in error. That is an example of a Pharisee attitude. You see there are no perfect men or women in the world today. There are no men or women who know everything or can do everything without committing a sin or even keep from making a little simple mistake sometimes. Your attitude will either make you a Pharisee or a Publican. What I believe is that we need more “Publican” Christians and a lot less “Pharisee” Christians in the world today. Of course calling a Christian a Pharisee Christian is an oxymoronic term that really does not exist. What I did was to contrast two groups and put symbolic titles upon them for you to see and understand where you are today. Can you choose to change? Will you judge yourself and make the determination which kind of Christian you are today?
Rom 14:13 Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumblingblock or an occasion to fall in his brother’s way.
The Greek word translated in this verse as “stumbling block” is G4348. According to Strong’s, it can be defined as “an occasion for apostasy”. This word has a Greek root word that is G4350. This Greek root word means to strike at or to surge against as water. Both of those are describing precisely what the Pharisee was doing to the Publican. The pharisee was striking down the Publican with his harsh erroneous words causing an occasion for apostasy. So we can see how judging others is a factor in causing others to stumble and fall away. The body of Christ should be attempting to help others and not to put them down or pull them apart from the body. In this verse in Romans, God is speaking directly to the church and telling them not to stand in judgment of fellow Christians. We can see that becoming a stumbling block will only cause the one who is causing the other to fall to be judged by God. Read these words of Jesus found in Matthew very carefully:
Mat 18:6 But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.
To offend a believer in Christ and call them the apostate church in error is an act of grave consequences in the eyes of Jesus. Jesus clearly told us that it would be better for that man to have been cast into the sea with a mill stone around his neck than what is about to happen to them for what they have done to another. That sounds very serious to me. God is taking note of who you offend and who you call an apostate today. If you are wrong, the consequences will be extremely severe, is that really worth it to call anyone an apostate when you are not God and do not know their heart?
Wake up and realize that only God is God, you do not know everything and you do not understand most of what is in the Bible. If you think you do you make yourself out to be God and exalt yourself beyond your own ability. The Publican was humble enough to just call himself a sinner and to cry out to God for His mercy. If you learn to do this, you can change from a Pharisee and become a Publican who was justified in the eyes of God. Paul did it and you can too. Learn from Paul’s example, and you will be very glad that you did. Thanks so much for studying the Bible with me and share this message with a friend on Facebook that is saying someone is an Apostate to possibly help them turn into a true Publican. God Bless!
Once Saved, Always Saved vs. The Sin Unto Death!
(Ver 1.4) This is “Part 1” in a series of very important Bible study lessons on a very controversial subject taught by many churches called Once Saved Always Saved. It is also called eternal security, unconditional security and goes by several other names. Can a Christian after being saved ever do anything that will cause them not be saved? There are certainly so many in the church today that say this is impossible. This is certainly a difficult subject found in the Bible and one that has caused much debate for many Christians. As you can tell I do not intentionally avoid controversial subjects in my Bible lessons. I try to talk about the important subjects and the relevant God kind of things that are on everyone’s mind at one time or the other. But, I want to make sure that when I talk about a subject, I try to do it from a balanced Bible perspective and that I do not ignore any related subjects or scriptures in order to embrace a part of the truth that I like more. I like to confront religion and religious minded people directly with the Word of God. I do not intentionally ignore the hard sayings that the Bible contains. I obviously am still learning new things everyday, so I might be able to add more to a topic later, but I just talk about the things that I’ve learned up until this point in time and that is the best that I can do. I have heard this philosophy of “Once Saved, Always Saved” being taught in many Christian circles and denominations. I often wondered about it, why it seemed to me not to be totally accurate truth being taught. I heard the argument for eternal security and it seemed like a very legitimate good one on the surface. The Bible tells us that the payment of sin was an all inclusive one-time act of Jesus (Heb 9:26). Therefore, what sin could I possibly commit that was not already covered under the blood of Jesus for me to lose my salvation and I could at first not think of any. Until one day I read a verse in the Bible that talked about a new kind of sin that I had never seen before. This sin was called the “Sin Unto Death” so I started studying the scriptures for a clearer understanding of this topic and this lesson was the beginning of what I found.
Today’s topic is Once Saved Always Saved vs. the Sin Unto Death! It is a modern Bible debate of the scriptures. What does it all mean? Is there a Sin that a Christian can commit to cause them not be saved anymore? What we must realize is that if there is just one sin that you can commit to lose your salvation then we need to know about it and how to avoid it. You see in some Christian denominations it is taught as “Once Saved, Always Saved!” Meaning that there is not any sin of any kind or any human action that a man or women can commit to go to hell after being saved. After studying the Bible, I would not want to be in that person’s shoes on judgment day if that is really what they believe. Too many Christian use the Bible and certain verses as a justified license to commit sin and that is not a good interpretation of what God said. I believe in the eternal power of the blood of Jesus and I believe that Jesus died on the cross once for all people and for all sins, past, present and future. I believe that there are no more sacrifices for sin that is required to pay for any past or future sin. However, to say once saved and always saved means that man no longer has any free will rights or future choices or decisions to ever make to stay saved and that forces us to ignore a vast portion of the New Testament that teaches us that we have responsible actions to follow. This type of thinking causes man to have no future accountability and no further responsibilities after becoming a Christian. Where in the Bible does it ever say that man loses his right to choose or make decisions? Where in the Bible does it say that a man will never be judged for what he has done on the earth? That type of thinking does not fit the complete image of God or the Bible in any form or fashion. God never makes our decisions for us. God never chooses or forces your destiny. God will never control your thoughts. God will never stop you from doing anything either right or wrong.
If you closely read and study the Bible, it speaks of an ongoing and a continual process of salvation. Salvation is spoken of in the terms of something that clearly has a beginning or starting point. For example, Jesus said in John 3:3 that “you must be born again”. This spiritual birth described by Jesus was exactly like a natural birth and it represents a starting point for your new spiritual life and growth process. If something like being born again has an observable beginning, then it must also have an observable ending termination point with a specific process of stuff in the middle. Is this too complicated for you? Do you understand processes?
Let’s talk briefly about the imedded process of being a Christian from inception to termination. You see in the Bible we are told to “work out our salvation with fear and trembling” (Php 2:12). Does that not sound like a process to you? We are also commanded “to run the race” (Heb 12:1, 1 Cor 9:24). 
Isn’t every race a process with a stated ending after a beginning? We are told to “fight the good fight” (1 Tim 6:12). Have you ever watched a boxing match? Do they not start every match with a bell and then go through to the number of predetermined rounds if each boxer survives that long? That sure sounds like a process to me. Then we are told to “Hold Fast to what you have been given until Jesus comes back” (Rev 2:25). If it is necessary to “Hold on” to what Jesus has given to us, then that is also a stated process that can be lost. All of these verses imply an ongoing process and a continuing effort to contend for a good and a positive outcome. They also imply the possibility of someone losing, quitting, or giving up. Any race will always have a winner and a loser, Any race will always have people who finish and some that quit. A fight also has a winner and a loser. A fight can also have a person who throws up his hands and says “no mas” or “I give up”. To work out your salvation implies a job with an expected outcome attached to it, like a paycheck. If at any time you give up and do not finish the job or work are you still entitled to the pay? Then that verse in Revelation 2:25 that Jesus is speaking to the church and telling them to “hold fast on to their salvation until I come back”. You see salvation is a gift that we have been freely given, yes? If I gave you a Rolex watch, couldn’t you throw it away? You see any gift given is dependent upon the receiver holding on to it and taking care of it in order for the gift to be kept safe. If you have to hold on to your salvation then you can lose your salvation, you can throw it away intentionally, you can treat it casually and even accidently lose it. Any gift from God a man or a woman has the right to reject it or walk away from it at any point in time. People never lose their right to choose and they will always have the ability and power to reject salvation. The Bible is a very tricky book to understand. You see it says so many things in so many different ways that you have to be very careful on what you base your theology. You cannot take just a small part of the Bible and make that the complete truth. It might be only a small part of the truth and you have exalted it to be the complete truth. That is what I believe people who teach “Once Save, Always Save” have done. So what is this “Sin Unto Death”? In 1 John 5:16 God gives us some information that is difficult to understand. Let’s go through what this verse says and talk about it:
1Jn 5:16 If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto dath: I do not say that he shall pray for it.
God is obviously talking about the subject of sin. Sin is usually defined as “missing the mark” and the mark is doing the right thing no matter what it costs. But, in this verse there seems to be two different types of sin being discussed. One is a normal sin and the other is called a “sin unto death”. What is the Bible definition of death? I think that most Christian people think naturally and define death to be when someone’s body just ceases to function. But, you also have to keep in mind that the Bible says that the wages of sin is death (Rom 6:23). In that verse God is talking about two kinds of death using a single reference. One type of death is physical or natural and the other type of death is a spiritual death. You see there is a spiritual death that is simply defined as the separation from God. The human spirit will never cease to exist but it may not exist within God’s family unit. Let’s continue reading in 1 John so we can see the definition of sin:
1Jn 5:17 All unrighteousness is sin: and there is a sin not unto death.
This verse starts with the definition for sin, saying it is anything that you do that is unrighteous. That includes a tremendous number of possible things, doesn’t it? This verse ends in a contradictory statement to what I just quoted in Romans 6:12 that the wages of all sin was death. In Romans it clearly teaches us that the “wages of sin is death”. Wages are what you normally receive for doing good works at a job. However God is using this concept to teach the consequences of sin as an inverse negative. We have a paradox given to us in 1 John 5:17 that is truly a mystery. God clearly teaches that there are sins that are not unto death. What we have is a major interpretation problem brewing or we could also view it as a misunderstanding based upon our ignorance of the subject. The only logical way to resolve the conflict is to understand that one verse is talking about both physical and spiritual death and the other verse is just talking about spiritual death. The “sin unto death” is a referenced spiritual death that separates that individual from God spiritually speaking. We are told in 1 John 5:16 to only pray for those that are committing the sins that are not unto death, but for those that have committed the sin unto death, it does not do any good to pray for them God says. I also want to emphasize that John was writing about Christians in this verse context calling them spiritual brothers. This sin unto death is not used in relation to non-Christians even though they are technically already spiritually dead not having been born again. I do hope that you are beginning to understand the difference between these two types of sins being contrasted. If not let’s review an example of the types of sin not unto spiritual death:
1Co 5:1 It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father’s wife.
We are looking at a Bible example of a sin not unto death and trying to see what God says about it. In this verse found in 1 Corinthians 5 you can read about a man that is committing fornication and sin by taking his father’s wife and sleeping with her. God tells us very clearly that this action is a sin, but yet He does not say that it is a sin unto to spiritual death, yet the man is still handed over to Satan to be killed a physical death as we can read in the next verse:
1Co 5:5 To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
The man was handed over to Satan by Paul for the destruction of his flesh. Did you know that Satan had that kind of power and access if you sin? This is certainly an example of death, but it is only a natural physical death and not a spiritual eternal separation from God. God still says that the man’s spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. What we can see is that the man’s sin resulted in him going to heaven early and he didn’t have a long extended life here on the earth. That is what sin does to you, it opens the door to Satan and it shortens your life here on the earth. But, notice the difference, he was still potentially saved so this was not the sin that was mentioned earlier called the sin unto spiritual death. Are you seeing it? Let’s examine some other New Testmanet scriptural examples concerning those who have comitted this sin unto death:
Heb 10:29 Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?
In this verse in Hebrews we can see an example of the “sin unto death”. It speaks of someone who was once saved, but now they have changed their directions and speak against God. They appear to disdain the shed blood of Jesus in the new covenant, and God says that they have actually trample on or walked over the Son of God like He was their defeated enemy. The blood that they once thought was holy they now call unholy and what they use to esteem they now despise. This verse speaks of someone who was clearly once saved and now has turned back to what they use to be. This is extremely sad to me, but people will always have the freewill right to go back into the darkness and leave the light of God. Here is another verse that reveals men on the earth can castaway what God has given to them:
Heb 10:35 Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward.
You can see fairly clearly reading throughout this chapter in context and this verse in particular that it says that people can purposefully “cast away” whatever has been given to them. I tried to talk about this concept earlier, when I said if I came and gave you a Rolex watch, you could choose to not keep it and even throw it in the garbage. It really depends upon how much you value what is given to you. If someone has no confidence in God or the blood of Jesus saving them then that could also result in that person losing their salvation. Look back up in this chapter at another verse in context on the subject of drawing back:
Heb 10:39 But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.
Finally, in this verse God talks about some people who were once saved but now they have “drawn back” into perdition. To “draw back” means to quit or stop running or to not finish or complete the process that I talked about earlier. It speaks of them entering back into the state of “perdition” which means a state of “loss” or “ruin”. All of these terms are speaking about someone who was once saved, but chose to depart God and go another foolish way. It is impossible to draw back into perdition if you were not saved free from perdition. This is not rocket science you just have to see what the Bible says on the subject. Can a believer draw back from their salvation? According to God they can!
So what is this “sin unto death”? I believe that the only sin that will result in you not making it, is the one where you willfully and intentionally say “I do not want you God anymore”, “I do not want to be saved and you are not my Lord, Jesus”. If you do this and say this guess what, God will not make you go to heaven and He will let you go to hell. God will always allow you to choose your destiny right up until your very last breath that you breathe here on this planet. After you leave this planet your choice has been made and there are no more chances to change. There is a lot more in the Bible on this subject and I could give you personal testimonies of people, but I am running very long so for now I think I will end this lesson with a restatement of the Christian process that you are in right now:
What are we Christians suppose to be doing right now? Here are 4 things:
- Fight the Good Fight of Faith…
- Run the Race that is Set Before Us…
- Work Out Our Salvation with Fear and Trembling….
- Hold Fast to What God Has Given You…
Perhaps you know something I do not on this subject of why you are saved eternally without the possiblity of being lost again, if you have scriptures that I did not talk about today, I would be happy to hear about them. I will do a followup lesson in this series and go into more scriptures about the subject of the sin unto death in the future:
God Bless!
If you would like to continue reading this series, please go to “Part 2“.
The Key to Grace and the Key to Greatness!
It takes humility to admit that you are wrong. I know I’ve been wrong a lot in my life and I’m still learning. Pride will shut you off to receiving anything from God. The Bible says God gives grace to the humble. So evidently there is a qualification that is required in order to receive His grace. This is a spiritual law that goes to everything that God does and everything that God gives. If you want to learn the truth, be willing to admit you were wrong and change what you were thinking. This is an amazingly simple but critically important point. Why are there so many division within the church? I think part of it is because nobody wants to admit we were wrong. I don’t believe that there are any Christian denominations that are 100% correct and I don’t believe there are any preachers that are 100% correct about anything either. So what is our attitude towards one another to be? We should be much more tolerant and patient towards each other. We should try to be more helpful and loving. We should all certainly remain open. Even listening to preachers that I know are saying something that is wrong that doesn’t mean that they won’t say something that is right that you need to hear. I always try to say to myself, they just haven’t seen that truth yet on that subject and move on past their remarks. Will Rogers use to say, “We are all ignorant, just about different things.” If you didn’t know that, you could have just learned a whole bunch by listening to that one statement.
1Pe 5:5 Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humulity: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.
Do you need the grace of God in your life today? This verse informs us of one of the key elements to obtaining the grace of God. In order to receive God’s grace you must become humble. Of course, your definition of humble must be God’s definition of humble and not what your preacher may think it means. To be humble is the opposite to being proud. You can see this in this verse in 1 Peter. The Bible definition of proud is someone who appears or thinks they are above someone else. They look at others with disdain or arrogance. They think more highly of themselves than others. Proud people have great difficulty in submitting to others. They think they know everything and have a better solution to every problem. The Jewish leaders in Jesus’ day were prime example of men who thought they were better than everyone else. But, God gives us another picture of humility:
Mat 18:4 Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
God reverses the thinking of men and tells us how to become great in God’s eyes. Men and women like to think that to become the greatest singer or entertainer or sports figure it just takes good looks, or talent or ability or some other human quality. Maybe in the world that is the way it works. But God purposely choose a different system to define greatest in heaven. The key to greatest in God’s world is to become humble like a little child. Have you ever watched a small child and observed their behavior? Most of the time it is a great example of humility. Jesus used this example and said this is what it takes to be great in the eyes of God. You see I have never seen a normal child who thought he or she was better than anyone else. Children can develop pride and rich kids can become snobs and arrogant towards others they view as being inferior, this is a learned behavior from their parents mostly. But I am talking about little kids like 3 or 4 years old. The innocence and the behavior of a child should be your example for your Christian life. We all need God’s grace and this is one of the key elements to obtaining it.
Mat 23:11 But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant.
Greatness and grace are extended to the humble and in this verse to those who become servants to other. Jesus set us an example that even astounds me still today. Jesus who was God in the flesh, the creator of everything we can see, the one that knows all and sees all, the one that has all power and ability and He stops and washes the feet of His followers before He returns to heaven. That is a very difficult thing to imagine happening. How can the omnipotent God become a servant to others? To wash people’s feet was the task of slaves and servants in those days. Jesus set some very high standards and definitions for greatness and I hope I can live up to them.
So what is your definition of being humble? What is humility to you? I know there are many other verses in the Bible on the subject that I did not talk about. Do you have a favorite story in the Bible about humility? Can you see how in those stories that God’s grace was extended towards them because of their humility? I like stories like Moses and David where God demonstrated His greatness because of the humble hearts of his servants. I would be very glad to hear your thoughts on this subject.
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