Until your natural life is destroyed and your fruit shows this fact, you remain carnal and repugnant to God, totally unacceptable to Him, unworthy of His Kingdom (2Thes. 1:5), and even unworthy of God, Who has called you unto His Kingdom and Glory (1Thes. 2:12).
Our natural earthly life is spiritual DEATH. It has nothing to do with the LIFE of the resurrected Christ. All pagans and all carnal believers keep living their natural earthly life. Spiritual believers – the Overcomers – live the resurrected Life of Christ and NOT their natural earthly life. They died to their natural earthly life soaked in pride, arrogance, fears, unbelief, unwillingness, laziness, selfishness, self-righteousness, self assurance, foolishness, darkness, irresponsibility, etc. They died to it and are thus eternally separated from it. When the Son of Man died, our sinful natural earthly man, who was put into His soul (He was made sin for us – 2Cor. 5:21), died with Him. After He was resurrected, He lives the Life Eternal and is not subjected to death any more (Rev. 1:18). His Father performed a true miracle not only for His Son, Our Saviour, but also for all of us, who believed and are redeemed in Him.
LIFE CAME OUT OF HIS DEATH. When we “die” to our natural life, out of our DEATH the LIFE of Christ comes forth. The Lord “kills” us, brings us to our grave and then He makes us alive and brings us up! (1Sam. 2:6). This is a true mystery, which we must experience in our earthly existence so that our fruit of the Spirit may grow out of our death (Jn. 12:24-26). This fact is for here and now, not after our physical death or translation from the earth. The law of God, which most Christians do not consider in their earthly lives, but that ultimately determines their destiny, is the following:
HE, WHO WILL NOT DIE, CANNOT BE RESURRECTED! This law, furthermore, means this:
HE, WHO KEEPS AND LIVES HIS NATURAL LIFE CANNOT, AT THE SAME TIME, RECEIVE AND LIVE THE LIFE ETERNAL.
The Lord framed this fact into His following Word: “For whosoever will save his (natural) life(refuse to die to it) shall lose it; and whosoever will lose his (natural) life(die to it, be separated from it) for My sake shall find it(My Life Eternal).” (Mt. 16:25)
THIS WORD OF GOD EXPRESSES THE TRUE SALVATION OF MAN AS FOLLOWS: THE LIFE OF OUR NEW CREATION COMES FROM THE DEATH OF OUR OLD CREATION.
THOSE THAT WERE SONS OF THE DEVIL, BECOME SONS OF GOD THROUGH THE DEATH AND RESURRECTION OF OUR SAVIOUR AND LORD JESUS CHRIST AND THROUGH OUR OWN DEATH AND RESURRECTION. FORGIVENESS OF SINS, REPENTANCES, PRAYERS, GOOD WORKS AND EVERYTHING ELSE THAT BELIEVERS TRY TO DO IN THEIR EARTHLY LIFE ARE ONLY AS IT WERE “SIDE EFFECTS” OF OUR TRUE SALVATION.
BELIEVERS HAVE BEEN DECEIVED THAT FORGIVENESS OF SINS IS THE SALVATION OF MAN. NO! THOUGH THE LORD DIED FOR OUR SINS (1COR. 15:3), OUR SALVATION IS NOT ONLY THAT! OUR SALVATION IS THE DESTRUCTION OF OUR OLD CREATION – THE SOURCE OF OUR SINS –THROUGH OUR OVERCOMING-PERFECTION (Rev. 3:5// Heb. 6:1-6, etc.).
OUR LORD HAD THE POWER TO FORGIVE OUR SINS EVEN BEFORE HE DIED AND HE DEMONSTRATED IT CLEARLY (Mt. 9:1-7// Mk. 4:11,12// Lk. 7:44-48). THE MEN, WHO WERE HEALED OR WHOSE SINS WERE FORGIVEN THEM – REMAINED SINFUL!
THEY WERE NOT PERFECTED OR TURNED TO THE IMAGE OF CHRIST. THE TRUE WILL AND PURPOSE OF GOD IN THEM, THEIR TRUE SALVATION, WAS NOT DONE, NOT CONCLUDED, NOT COMPLETED… POSSIBLY, NOT EVEN STARTED! (Rom. 8:29)
What is in the frame above is probably the most important spiritual fact that very few Christians have realized and seen and understood in spirit. This also shows the most important + of the Devil for all believers. Therefore, this is also the most important spiritual fact of our Christianity which, to my knowledge, has NOT been preached and explained to the believers in any church. Why?
If Satan can deceive the whole world, as he did and still does today (Rev. 12:9// 2Cor. 4:4) and the church is friendly with the world, connected to the world, employs worldly methods, even depends on the world for its very existence, then Satan can deceive the church also. Such churches and believers have been then taken captive by the Devil at his will (2Tim. 2:24-26)! This also means that when “he moves his finger” the church jumps and follows his finger without thinking or asking questions. Believers can’t recover themselves out of his snare by their own means. But God may peradventure lead them to repentance and to the acknowledging of the Truth.
We do realize that forgiveness of sins is a blessing and we must never belittle the forgiveness of sins by the Grace of Our Saviour and Lord in any way (Rom. 4:7,8). But nowhere in the Scripture will you find that forgiveness of sins actually IS OUR SALVATION. Why is it not? It is one thing to confess our sins and be forgiven and cleansed from all unrighteousness (pertaining to that confessed sin – 1Jn. 1:9). It is an entirely different thing to “walk in the light, as He is in the light and have fellowship with one another” (1Jn. 1:7). This presupposes that we follow the Lord, which is far more than confessing our sins and be forgiven. Here…
WE HAVE TO DENY OURSELVES AND TAKE UP OUR CROSS AND FOLLOW HIM (Mt. 16:24).
THIS IS OVERCOMING OF OUR SELVES AND NOT JUST CONFESSING OF OUR SINS. THIS IS DYING TO OUR OLD NATURE AND NOT JUST ASKING THE LORD TO FORGIVE US OUR SINS… WHILE OUR OLD NATURE KEEPS LIVING AND PRODUCING THE SAME OR EVEN MUCH WORSE SINS “FOR EVER”!
After 44 years of my ministry to the Lord Jesus Christ and His Church, and after 44 years of experiencing the life, or rather death, in the Church, His Spirit is permitting me to state the truth, which, in my belief, will shock the whole Church of Jesus Christ. It is the following:
MULTITUDES OF BELIEVERS IN THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST DO NOT KNOW WHAT TRUE SALVATION REALLY IS! WHAT THEY WERE SAVED FROM, WHAT THEY WERE SAVED INTO AND HOW, AND WHAT, IN THE EYES OF GOD, THEY ARE CALLED TO BE AND TO DO DURING THEIR LIFE ON EARTH AND THEN IN THE COMING KINGDOM OF GOD AND IN ETERNITY!
I now desire to substantiate this shocking statement from the Scripture and show that we are doing exactly what is not for our true Salvation and we are NOT doing exactly what we are supposed to do for our true Salvation!
Let us first consider THE TRUE WILL OF GOD clearly expressed in His Word as follows:
WE ALL, FOREKNOWN BY OUR FATHER, ARE TO BE CONFORMED TO THE “IMAGE OF HIS SON” (Rom. 8:29)… CHANGED, TRANSFORMED, INTO THE SAME IMAGE! (2Cor. 3:18) JESUS CHRIST IS TO BE REPRODUCED IN OUR OWN LIVES! WE ARE TO LIVE HIS ETERNAL LIFE HERE AND NOW AND NOT OUR NATURAL SOULISH LIFE.
You say: “Of course, we know that!” I am not asking whether you KNOW that, but do you LIVE that? The reality and tragedy of the Church is that, in general…
CHRISTIANS ARE NOT DOING THIS WILL OF GOD!
This simple answer also explains the miserable state of the Church described by the Lord Himself (Rev. 3:14-22). Are we being changed from our earthly human creature into a heavenly human creature? NO! It is not a change in our body or from a pagan into a Christian. It is the change from a carnal Christian ruled by his natural sinful soul into a spiritual Christian ruled by the Spirit of God!
Have you been changed in your personality, in your character, in your very constitution? Have you become a new, different person from who you were at your baptism? Really? Your baptism has not changed you one bit! If you were baptized, you went into the water a dry old man and you came out a wet old man… your old man did not die in that water! It was only your public proclamation that you were willing to die and be resurrected. But your willingness to die may have never come during your entire Christian life! To this day you may not even know why you were baptized, why nothing changed in your character. In fact, you may be baptized and not be born-again by God’s Spirit! If you consider these things as unrealistic, even impossible, then you have no idea what deceitful forces are influencing your mind and beliefs blocking the way to your own salvation.
You may be living your Christian life and walking by the rule of your reasoning, personal convictions or beliefs based on what others were telling you or how you feel in yourself. You may be trusting yourself or a second-hand knowledge or reasoning of men who themselves may have never known the Lord. You may be too lazy to verify the facts from the Word of God and from your own fruit. If you think, believe and are also satisfied that by attending a “reputable” church, giving generous offerings and enjoying the services, you are acceptable to the Lord, think again. What you will read next is not my personal opinion; it is my personal living experience which the Lord granted to me and can show to any believer with eyes to see and a heart to understand and who truly seeks the truth.
The Lord is now guiding me to describe my personal experiences and my understanding of this entity, which men call “the church”, WHY IT FAILED the Will and Purposes of God in a similar manner that carnal Israel failed His Will and Purposes. Therefore, I will show some general examples of how and why even in the “best” churches or other groups of believers, this WILL OF GOD IS NOT BEING DONE!
1) Firstly – The Pentecostal church which I attended for about 7 years. There I became a Deacon and had some close fellowship with the leadership and many members of the congregation. I was also baptized in that church and received the gifts of the Holy Spirit including tongues, interpretation of tongues, discerning of spirits, wisdom, faith and prophecy (1Cor. 12:8-11). I used all of them except prophesy, which came later on. Pentecostal churches were considered the churches on the “cutting edge of Christianity”, which the Lord later showed me to be a myth. My position, activities and experiences in that church until my departure are all described in our book “Open Letter to His Majesty and Excellency Christ Jesus, the King of kings and Lord of lords, the only true God[10]”, so I will not repeat them here.
The Lord took about two years to begin showing me the congregation and the leadership in their true spiritual conditions. Being 4 years on the Board of Deacons, I also gained the knowledge of how such churches were run by men. I was on a first-name basis with the pastor and all was going quite well… until the Lord began to show pride, self-righteousness, vanity and other “virtues” of flesh first in the leadership and later on also in many other members of the congregation. These things I did not see before.
Finally, and this is probably the most important fact, I began to SEE and understand that all the preaching and ministry were on an intellectual level and thus spiritually dead. No one was “putting on the new man” and changing in spirit, NO ONE! It was an organization run by men, not by the Lord, so no wonder that some years after the Lord took me out, the church “on the cutting edge of Christianity” was sold to Seventh Day Adventists – another “church” run by men. And I have plenty of personal experiences with that “church” also and with some members of it. Nobody knows why that Pentecostal church went “belly up” and why the same happened to another Pentecostal church, which I also attended sporadically since it was close to my home. It was also sold and disappeared. My question is: How can any true church of Jesus Christ go bankrupt and disappear?
2) Secondly – The churches at large which I personally never attended. During my ministry I visited and preached in numerous churches, also home churches, but I was never their member. Also, I viewed many churches on television, remember many congregations, their preachers, pastors, hundreds of services and also many sermons. Many of these “churches” do not exist any more, they also went bankrupt! They brought nothing but shame to the Lord Jesus Christ. They were spiritually dead and none of them could be called “the Body of Christ”. The major reasons are described below.
2a) Sometime in the history, probably nobody knows when, the “church” had evolved into an organizational form and became like unto a “National Theater”. It became a “one man show” with spectators sitting around a stage witnessing what was happening on the stage and listening to that one man (and today even to that one woman) speaking what he prepared for the listeners. I say “spectators and listeners” because that’s what the congregations are doing. They don’t “look at Jesus” (Heb. 12:2), don’t “drink His Word” and don’t have an “ear to hear”; they just look around and listen. They participate in the “service” in occasional singing, common prayer and offering, or laughing at jokes.
2b) No one knows who believes what. How many believed the sermon, how many did not and how many did not care or were confused. No one has a chance to ask any questions or say anything. When the preacher leaves, he may shake hands at the exit door and people may tell him how they enjoyed the sermon. The Lord, of course, doesn’t care whether we enjoyed the sermon or not, but He cares very much whether we had an ear to hear His Truth (Rev. 2:7,11, 17,29 + 3:6,13,22) which alone can transform and liberate our spirit and nothing else (Jn. 8:31,32).
2c) The principles of man’s true salvation are never even mentioned! Everybody assumes that everybody else is already a saint, holy, righteous, prepared for Heaven and for the coming of the Lord. Both speakers and listeners are acting as if they were already saved and so, all that they have to do is “praise the Lord” and wait for their “rapture”. The numerous passages of the Word dealing with OUR sinful and filthy nature, which are so totally devastating to our proud, arrogant, selfish, self-righteous, stubborn, fearful, stupid, religiously educated SELF, are NEVER preached! Why? Because both speakers and listeners in these National Theaters believe that they are already “new creatures in Christ Jesus”! Yet, many of them act much worse than pagans! All you need to do is to insert into their sinful flesh a “needle of truth”… and puss comes out.
2d) Since God’s truth about man’s salvation is almost never preached, the National Theaters become merry-go-rounds of ever increasing intellectual lecturing “how Great is God, how Merciful, how Loving, doing everything what we ask for, healing us, showering us with finances and delivering us from all evil”. And the OLD MAN in the listeners is then “singing to the Lord” accepting everything what was said… because “the preacher knows” and it sounds wonderful. Apparently, the Lord is obliged to do everything what preachers are saying, asking or praying for never mind His Whole Word and not just the one verse preached! Whether the listener is already a NEW MAN or not, nobody knows or cares for. Whether he has the necessary proofs of being a New Man (what fruit of the Spirit he lives and displays, how ripe, how perfected – 1Jn. 4:18) nobody knows or cares for. Whether he is righteous or not (Pr. 15:29 // Ps. 34:17 etc.) nobody knows or cares for. Believers may be very unrighteous while (a unique) righteousness was counted unto them just for believing in the Saviour (Rom. 4:3). Whether they cleaned the filth of their flesh and spirit (2Cor. 7:1) nobody knows or cares for. Whether any believer truly loves the Lord nobody knows or cares for (1Cor. 16:23), etc., etc.
2e) After 10-20-30 years, the congregation spiritually is the same and speakers are the same, if they were not transferred to another National Theater where their lectures will be like new. But no one will be changed in spirit, that is, in his character; the old man will not be put off and the new man put on (Eph. 4:22-24), but otherwise, everybody will be “fine” and waiting for the Lord whether they have any oil in their vessels or not (Mt. 25:1-12). After all, who cares for some oil? Even in the Pentecostal churches nobody knew what it really was, who had it and how much, if any.
3) Thirdly – House churches where I ministered. They are no better than the organized National Theaters. They do not have paid speakers or stages, but have the same sinful human nature that nobody wants to crucify! People do come and listen, they were “fed-up” with their former pastor and his church, but have nothing better to replace it with, so they speculate and seek self-satisfaction elsewhere. They think and believe that because they now gather at a home, they must be spiritual and fully acceptable to the Lord. I weep over them for they are no less proud, arrogant, self-righteous, fearful and foolish than any other similar believers in the National Theaters, but now they are perfect preys for wolfs. Any believer may be deeply deceived whether he sits in a mega-church of 10,000 or at home with 3-4 others. Until 2013, I had not found even one home church anywhere in North America or Europe where I ministered, which would be a true Body of Christ possessing and expressing His Life, or willing to reach that level IN Christ Jesus. But in the Fall of 2013, the Lord granted to me a special joy to minister to one young family with children and their grandparents. They were the first group of 4 adult believers that were actually “drinking the Word” and happy over the Grace and Love of the Lord. I baptized two of their children. There are also few individuals in Canada, USA, Africa and Europe to whom I have been ministering and whose hearts are open and obedient to the Word.
The above testimony shows the tragic picture of the Church of Jesus Christ and the Lord prophesied about it.
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To be continued next week in chapter 1 – part 3
brother Hanola
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