Mailing #74 Are You Serving God or satan? Chapter 2 Part 11 (Word to the Church)
B. ARE YOU SERVING GOD OR SATAN?
Every man on this earth serves either God or Satan. There are no exceptions, no “neutral people”. Every pagan serves Satan and every believer serves either God or Satan. If believers do not serve God in harmony with His revealed Word and do not live and walk in His Spirit, then they serve Satan in some way – whether they are conscious of it or not! Is this not a horrible statement? Of course, it is. The main point is that IT IS TRUE. God is not surprised but we are. We were all serving Satan all those years before our Redemption – and we were not aware of it! Is THAT true? There is a strong root and tendency in our natural soul to keep serving Satan after our Redemption and, again, not be aware of it! Because nobody tells us the full truth.
Try to tell any decent, educated, polite, compassionate pagan that he is linked with Satan and serves him! Try to tell the same thing to an educated but spiritually dead theologian or to any other carnal, soulish believer. If you dare to do it, you might not escape in good health. Yet, you spoke TRUTH. But for those people to believe such truth is totally and absolutely IMPOSSIBLE!
Do we dare to explore this issue? Do we dare to admit that this horrible fact just might be true? The full truth may be more shocking than we dare to imagine. But so is the full truth about our Salvation shocking. And it should be! We all need to be shocked from time to time.
UNLESS OUR FAT AND LAZY SPIRITUAL HEART UNDERGOES A TRUE “SHOCK TREATMENT”, IT WILL NOT START BEATING!
Before I give some practical examples from my own experience, I would like to make certain fundamental statements and lay a solid foundation from the Word of God for this extremely important and vital subject. For this purpose, we will go all the way to the beginning of mankind and see and understand in our heart what was happening.
1. Let us first see and comprehend the true depth and result of Satan’s deception upon Eve and Adam. Satan was following a very cunningly devised scheme whereby he would turn man’s attention and desire FROM GOD TO MAN’S OWN PERSONAL INTEREST. Man was offered an opening of his eyes, the status of a god and the knowledge of good and evil. When Eve looked at the tree of knowledge of good and evil, its fruit looked promising indeed, so she took it and ate and gave also to Adam, her husband, and he ate also. (Gen. 3:4-6)
The woman was deceived and not Adam (1Tim. 2:14) in that she would gain a PERSONAL BENEFIT by eating the forbidden fruit. That was the basic bait used by Satan and it produced SELFISHNESS in man, which is Satan’s character! It is the exact opposite of selflessness or meekness, which is Christ’s Character. (Mt. 11:29) Is this true? Do you truly believe this?
Before Adam fell to sin, he was entirely linked with God in his spirit and soul since God was in Adam’s spirit and soul and he thus had God’s Character and a living fellowship in the Presence of God. After his failure, Adam “died” – was separated from God’s Life – though he continued living his own natural, fleshly life on earth. The most important word is:
ADAM DISOBEYED GOD AND PREFERED TO FOLLOW HIS OWN WILL AND PERSONAL INTEREST!
Adam thus became separated from God by being thrown out of the Garden and losing his vital link, his living union with God, God’s Presence and thus God’s Character! This separation means his “spiritual death”, which was much later followed by his physical death.
2. When Adam DISOBEYED GOD, he OBEYED SATAN and became vitally linked with Satan in his human spirit and soul! Through that link, Adam obtained Satan’s “life” and presence in his spirit and soul and thus his character. If this were not so, we would have never, in all mankind’s existence, experienced and known pride, envy, arrogance, fears, jealousy, stubbornness, wickedness, falsehood, stealing, lying, bitterness, murders, and other Satanic “virtues”, all growing from SELFISHNESS AND PRIDE! Before his fall, Adam never knew such things since none of them were ever in God’s Character and Spirit! TRUE?
With this evil character in Adam, God had no desire to keep him in His Presence, to fellowship with him or let him eat of the Tree of Life and live forever. (Gen. 3:22-24)
3. When the Last Adam – Jesus Christ – came, HE NEVER FOLLOWED HIS PERSONAL INTERESTS, never did anything for Himself and of Himself (Jn. 5:19), was meek and lowly in heart (Mt. 11:29) and always did the things that pleased the Father. (Jn. 8:29) He humbled Himself and, most importantly, OBEYED GOD IN ALL POINTS including His death on the Cross. (Phil. 2:8)
“Though He were a Son (of God), yet LEARNED HE OBEDIENCE by the things which He suffered. And being made perfect, He became the Author of eternal Salvation unto all them that OBEY Him.” (Heb. 5:8,9)
The Lord has not become the Author of eternal Salvation unto those that believe that He is the Saviour and have knowledge about Him, yet DISOBEY HIM! This is to say, that they DISOBEY HIS WORD because the Lord is the Word = Logos. (Jn. 1:1+14) None of us is saved by our desire or wish but solely by our OBEDIENCE TO THE LORD AND TO HIS WORD.
DON’T YOU (BORN-AGAIN BELIEVERS) KNOW THAT YOU ARE SERVANTS TO HIM WHOM YOU OBEY? (Rom. 6:16)
What do these above facts show? The most important word associated with both the Fall of man and of his Salvation is the word, which is neither propagated, nor taught, nor preached, nor yet practiced in the Church in any acceptable way. That missing word is – OBEDIENCE.
Any man may begin his Salvation IF HE OBEYS THE WAY that God established for him. It basically contains three steps from the Word, which every man must do:
a) BELIEVE in his heart (not head) that God raised Jesus from the dead and confess it with his mouth (Rom. 10:9,10). Based on THIS ACT OF FAITH, the man is redeemed and sealed by the Spirit of God as a “new possession” of God. (Eph. 1:13,14// 2Cor. 1:22)
b) REPENT from his heart for the remission of his sins (Acts 2:38). Based on THIS ACT OF FAITH, he becomes born-again by the Holy Spirit. (Jn. 3:3-8) After his being born-again, he must…
c) BE BAPTIZED in water (by immersion, Rom. 6:4,5). Based on THIS ACT OF FAITH, he receives the gift of the Holy Spirit, His Power (Acts 2:38// Jn. 1:12) without which he cannot even start, let alone continue, his Salvation process of going on unto perfection. (Heb. 6:1)
If you have never done the above steps a) and b), you are not even redeemed, you are still pagans! If you have not done step c), you have not received the gift of the Holy Spirit and cannot start working out your own Salvation with fear and trembling. (Phil. 2:12) You may be attending any church or any fellowship you like, sing, pray, give offerings and do all as the others do, but you will never be able to:
d) take up your cross daily and deny yourself, deny your old, natural, sinful character and follow the Lord, follow the Word of God (Lk. 9:23),
e) add to your faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge (of the Lord, Phil. 3:8// 2Pet. 1:2; 3:18), and to knowledge temperance, and to temperance patience, and to patience godliness, and to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love (2Pet.1:5-9),
f) give diligence to make your calling and election sure (2Pet. 1:10 ),
g) fight the good fight of faith and lay hold on Eternal Life to which you are called. (1Tim. 6:12) If Timothy had already had the Eternal Life just by believing in Christ, Apostle Paul would have never told him to “lay hold on It” after his redemption! True?
To do the above and thus continue unto perfection (Heb. 6:1,2) without the Holy Spirit is absolutely impossible. If the believer OBEYS all the above steps, he (gradually) becomes a partaker of the Divine Character, Divine Nature according to the precious promises of God (2Pet. 1:4). His living link with God is being slowly established, his calling and election made sure and his entrance into the everlasting Kingdom of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ will be ministered unto him abundantly. (2Pet. 1:10,11)
THIS IS OUR FULL SALVATION!
To be sure, the above points d) to g) are just the basic examples taken out of the Scripture, which are showing to us that IF we are to obtain the Eternal Life and the entry into the everlasting Kingdom of Our Lord , then…
OUR OBEDIENCE TO AND COOPERATION WITH THE SPIRIT OF GOD MUST SURELY CONTINUE AFTER OUR REDEMPTION.
Otherwise, we will not obtain the precious promises of God. God will not give access to the Tree of Life (Christ Jesus) to those that disobey Him. He made it clear right from the Garden of Eden. (Gen. 3:22-24)
IF WE DO NOT OBEY GOD AND HIS WORD OR ARE UNWILLING TO OBEY, THEN WE DO NOT SERVE GOD. IF WE DO NOT SERVE GOD, THEN WE SERVE SATAN BECAUSE WE OBEY SATAN’S DESIRE THAT WE WOULD NOT DO WHAT GOD SAYS!
THAT PROVES THAT EVERY BELIEVER SERVES EITHER GOD OR SATAN DEPENDING ON HIS HEART AND ON THE DECISIONS OF HIS FREE WILL. MAN CANNOT SERVE TWO MASTERS AT THE SAME TIME, (Mt. 6:24) NOR CAN HE SERVE ANYONE ELSE EXCEPT EITHER GOD OR SATAN… BECAUSE THERE ARE NO OTHER MASTERS FOR MEN TO SERVE.
If you read the above Words of God, you can see that they are not my words or ideas but it is, indeed, the Word of God. If you re-read Mt. 6:24, the word “mammon” does not only mean money but anything, which is an idol or goal of our earthly life and can thus be our “master”. Our master may be any lust, which is powerful enough to lead us to sin. And all lusts are born in our SELFISHNESS.
Whenever we, therefore, serve our selfishness, own ideas, opinions, plans, desires, lusts or personal interests in the affaires of God, then we serve Satan. Brother Watchman Nee says:
“It requires a great power to be obedient! If God does not fill your heart first, you will not succeed, no matter how you try externally… I speak to you today in this manner because I have a deep sense within me that the return of the Lord is imminent and that the Kingdom is at hand. Henceforth, temptations will be greater, dangers will be multiplied, and deceptions will be deepened. Previously it was the matter of getting rid of sin; now it is the matter of getting rid of pleasure.”
Let me present to you at this point the very root and nature of selfishness as God sees it and as many, very many believers may be totally blind to it.
The LORD compares our SELFISHNESS along with its PRIDE, disobedience, arrogance, defiance and other ‘virtues’ to LEPROSY, which turns our skin white as snow. God first demonstrated this on Miriam, the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, the chief Priest. When she together with Aaron spoke against Moses and in the lust of their selfishness made accusations against Moses, the LORD allowed Miriam to become leprous, white as snow. She had to be separated from the people of Israel for seven days until she was healed. (Num. 12:1,2,10-15)
The white skin indicates the deeply devilish, deceitful nature of leprosy and thus of selfishness. It shows people as white (saintly, blessed, elevated and accepted by the LORD) while inside they are rotting, rejected, cursed! The LORD indicated the same fact to the Pharisees. (Mt. 23:27)
This devilish and deeply deceitful nature of selfishness can also be perceived in its lust to readily mix itself into the holy affairs of the Lord trying to “serve Him” in its own power, intelligence, understanding and desire. And then it is also ready to “personally receive” any blessings, favours or grace from the Lord and misuse them as proofs of its own sincerity, rightfulness and spirituality. We become “somebodies” in the Church and are puffed up more than when we “served the Lord” the first time. We thus become so self-deceived and blind that it is impossible for us to recover ourselves from it until the Lord gives us a glimpse of Himself. Only then we can see our own leprosy.
The Lord showed this deep truth and fact to His great prophet Isaiah. After being His prophet for some time, one day he exclaimed:
“Woe is me! For I am undone; because I am a man of unclean (leprous) lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.” (Is. 6:5)
Isaiah saw and proclaimed that HE SPOKE THE WORD OF GOD THROUGH LEPROUS LIPS and dwelt among the people of leprous lips. He needed a “live coal from off the altar” to take away his iniquity and sin! (Is. 6:6,7) And do not tell me that he became God’s prophet only after this cleansing of his lips. The first five chapters of his Book clearly show what significant Word of God came through him already before his lips were cleansed. This also shows that our heart may be open to the Lord, yet, our lips may at the same time still be leprous. This should also humble us!
What does this fact further signify to us? It shows us that the Word of God may flow from our lips while our lips are LEPROUS! We need these “live coals from off the altar” (our crosses) to cleanse us from our iniquity and sin. So, man may preach, teach or testify about the Truths of the Bible and in the sight of God he may be a LEPER LIVING IN SIN AND INIQUITY! In truth, I do not know how else or from where would God get the “workers of iniquity” that serve the Church and do wonderful works! (Mt. 7:22,23) Do you know?
Now, such a man may not be conscious of his state until he sees the King – the Lord of hosts! But the Lord shows Himself only to those that seek Him (Deut. 4:29// Jer. 29:13,14a) and that keep His Word, (Jn. 14:21// 1Jn. 2:3,4) and not to the workers of iniquity. But no one, absolutely no one could persuade such ministers that their lips may be leprous, proud, selfish! That they can preach or teach the Word with the spirit of pride and selfishness all over them. So they speak the Word with pride, self-assertiveness, self-success, disobedience to the very Word they preach (all lady preachers), with self-glorification, self-importance, and so on. They have to see the Lord to believe this!
May I add that this leprosy can also be equated with the “leaven”, which was also ascribed to the Pharisees for the same reason. (Mk. 8:15) Both leaven and leprosy start at a given point and grow… and grow… and keep growing, as it were, a spiritual cancer. But man who is a leper needs a “seven-fold” obedience, seven-fold death for this leprosy to depart from him (2Ki. 5:1-10,14)… or a “live coal from off the altar”, which is his cross, which is his “narrow road” where he is losing his leprosy step by step.
Now, speaking about pride, self-assertiveness, self-success, disobedience to the Word and leprosy, I desire to bring to the forefront the Word in Mk. 14:3. Here the Lord is in the house of Simon the leper and a woman came to Him with an alabaster box full of precious ointment. She broke the box and poured it on His head. Is there any meaning in this act for us today? The Lord said that what that woman had done shall be together with the Gospel spoken of for a memorial unto her. (Mk. 14:9) So, I do speak of it now.
The true and deeper meaning of this fact, which the Lord desires us to understand especially today, has come to my spirit as follows. I see the house of the leper representing the current House of God in the New Testament. All of us believers have sin – leprosy in the sight of God. (1Jn. 1:8) The woman represents the Bride of Christ who loved Him so much that she did not hesitate to brake the alabaster box with the precious ointment. The box represents our flesh, hard shell, outer man, “old man”, earthen vessel (2Cor. 4:7), which must be broken in order for the precious treasure of His Spirit to be released. This braking is done on our cross, on the narrow road, not instantaneously as the woman did it but slowly. It is only the Bride of Christ who is willing to do this in the House of God while the others murmur and criticize. (Mk. 14:4,5)
Hence, the most important comment that I would make to the above facts is that NO BELIEVER CAN OBEY THE WORD OF GOD IN HIS SELF-POWER OR SELF-ABILITY! All he needs to do is to BELIEVE, BE WILLING AND ASK THE LORD. This is the only part for the believer to do. The rest is the “work of God” and also the Lord’s part. The believer who asks Him will then be empowered by the Lord to both obey His Word and to break his “alabaster box”. If, therefore, any believer would desire to do this “work” for God, the Lord would answer him the following:
“This is the work of God THAT YOU BELIEVE on Him, Whom He (the Father) has sent.” (Jn. 6:29)
THAT YOU BELIEVE in your heart Who the Lord truly is, what is His power and what He can do, namely, that He “…is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power (His power) that works in us.” (Eph. 3:20)
BELIEVING IS OUR WORK! It takes spiritual energy and strength to believe in the face of adversity. And when there is no adversity, no problems, no troubles, no danger… there is no need for faith! True? When we ask Our Lord to enable us to OBEY His Word, it will be a true pleasure for Him to enable us to do it in our soul and that exceeding abundantly above all that we might think or imagine! His true pleasure, I say, because for His pleasure all things are and were created. (Rev. 4:11)
The way to Heaven and Eternal Life has been opened to every man on earth, and it is a simple way: We ask (according to His Will) and God will do it. (1Jn. 5:14,15) At that point, our will and His Will merge into one. But the door to this way was closed by the deceptive and evil work of the powers of darkness and evil. Satan stands at the straight gate (Mt. 7:14) and gives you the most idiotic ideas, beliefs, persuasions why you should not enter the narrow way. Then he leads you to a more appealing broad way and tells you that it leads to the same place, but is more comfortable. It is true that the broad way is far more comfortable, but it does not lead to the same place! When believers reach its end, there will be darkness, weeping and gnashing of teeth! (Mt. 8:12; 22:11-14; 24:44-51; 25:11,12,30) The Kingdom of Heaven with the Lord of Glory Personally Present will be the end of a different way, the narrow way.
IS THIS NOT A GRAND DECEPTION? It is like those credit card commercials: Buy now – pay later; live it up now – drop dead later; have a pleasant time now – suffer horribly later. And how many millions of believers are caught in it? How many born-again believers serve Satan without even being conscious of it? Only the Lord knows.
Satan will never lead you even close to the narrow gate and narrow way. And if you do find it by the help of the Spirit of God (Mt. 7:14 – we must find it) and keep walking on it, Satan will start pestering you all the way! This is another typical feature of hell – pestering. Have you ever noticed that? Every fly will keep pestering you until you kill it. So will Satan, with stupid thoughts, lies, temptations of all kinds, colours and shapes… until you “kill him” by your faith, which means, “separate yourself from him” or resist him by your faith until he flees from you. (Jam. 4:7) Do you believe this?
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To be continued next week in part 12
brother Hanola
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