WE MAY READ THE BIBLE DAY AND NIGHT, TEACH IT, PREACH IT, MEMORIZE IT, WRITE ABOUT IT, ARGUE ABOUT IT, DISCUSS IT, EVEN BELIEVE IT; YET, ITS TRUTH IS NOT ESTABLISHED BY ANY SUCH ACTIVITIES! ITS TRUTH IS ESTABLISHED ONLY IF WE LIVE IT AND BECOME THE EMBODIMENT OF THAT TRUTH. THEN WE ARE THE PROOF OF THAT TRUTH AND NOT OUR INTELLECTUAL KNOWLEDGE OF IT!
AND WE CANNOT LIVE ANY TRUTH OF GOD WITHOUT OVERCOMING THE HELLISH POWERS IN OUR OWN SOUL, WITHOUT DENYING AND DYING TO OUR OWN NATURAL SINFUL LIFE IN OUR SOUL, IN OUR CHARACTER, WHICH IS CONTRARY TO THAT TRUTH, OPPOSING THAT TRUTH! (Mt. 16:24, 25)
Maybe you believe that you are already a “new man”, holy and righteous and the Holy Spirit leads you and guides you into all truth and teaches you all things. Do you TRULY believe such a thing? If so, may I ask you: When was the last time in your remembrance when you refused to defend yourself (your reasons, feelings, beliefs, convictions), rather you denied yourself and had taken up your cross? (Mt. 16:24, 25) Do you remember such a time? Do you really? May I ask you another question: How can you remember such a time when you may not even know what your cross is? And how can you take up your cross when you cannot possibly believe that it is the Holy Spirit – your Comforter – that is leading you to your own cross? Why? Your true and permanent prosperity is BEHIND your own cross, never before! The Holy Spirit – the Comforter – was sent to lead us into all truth (Jn. 16:13). What the Lord says in His Word IS TRUTH and that includes Rom. 8:29// Mt. 16:24,25// Gal. 5:24// 1Jn. 1:1 to 5:21, etc., and that Truth is both sweet and bitter.
IS CHRIST’S CROSS the central Truth of the Redemption-Salvation of mankind? IT IS. Is OUR CROSS the central Truth of our PERSONAL Salvation-Perfection by following Our Lord (Mt. 16:24,25// Jn. 12:26) and thus becoming Overcomers? IT IS. If so, then why would the Holy Spirit never guide us to THIS EQUALLY IMPORTANT TRUTH OF OUR CROSS? Or, is this Word of God not true? I can guarantee you that you will never guide yourself to this truth nor will you ever desire to take up OUR CROSS voluntarily! But if we don’t follow Christ, we can’t be turned into His Image (Rom. 8:29), we can’t be perfected in our person, we can’t become Overcomers! And if we do not overcome, we shall inherit NOTHING and GOD WILL NOT BE OUR GOD and we shall not be His sons and daughters! (Rev. 21:7) IS THIS TRUE?
Many ministers tell you that “you are under grace”. Do they mean that you can now cut the above Words of God out of your Bible and burn them because “you are under grace”? What they say is a half-truth – a foxy deception! How about Mt. 10:38? You might be “under grace” and not worthy of Christ! True? Satan also started his deceptions with half-truths (ex. Gen. 3:1,4,5)! These ministers are deceivers; they are also lazy to verify the truth in the Word of God hence they serve Satan and not God.
And when the Holy Spirit is leading you to your cross, are you following Him? NO! Why? Because you do not believe that He is leading you there… and nobody is telling you that! You believe that He is leading you to prosperity, peace, happiness and a successful earthly life! Really?
OUR TRUE PROSPERITY, PEACE, HAPPINESS AND A SUCCESSFUL LIFE ARE FOUND BEHIND OUR CROSS AND NEVER BEFORE IT! SO IS OUR ETERNAL LIFE AND DESTINY WITH GOD FOUND NOT ONLY BEHIND THE CROSS OF CHRIST, BUT ALSO BEHIND OUR CROSS AND NEVER BEFORE IT!
ON HIS CROSS, CHRIST DIED FOR US,
ON OUR CROSS, WE DIE FOR HIM!
Do you understand the line above? Only the Bride of Christ understands it (Rev. 12:11) because She also dies for Him!
The Lord is giving us here an example. A true servant of God tells you some “unpleasant truth”, some harsh words or unexpected statements, something that may either contradict or outrightly offend your beliefs, position or status, it may irritate your soul and pride and upset your understanding, produce negative reaction or even pain in your soul. What do you do? I believe, you never receive such a truth; you automatically reject it, disagree with it and defend yourself by all means; you may not answer, leave in a hurry or counterattack, whichever thought comes to your mind first. You never pause, never consider “that offensive stuff”, you never admit that it might be true either of you or of your situation, deeds, words or that you may just not see it or understand it immediately. And you certainly never ask the Lord to show you whether this is from Him or not.
It may not occur to you that the Lord may have given “that man” to His Church, and thus to you personally, for the perfecting of your soul and spirit and for your edification! (Eph. 4:11,12) The MOST IMPORTANT TASK for you in any such situation is to discern, perceive, find out (right there or later) whether “that man” is giving you his own words, harsh word, an unpleasant truth from his own self OR whether he is indeed giving you the word from the Lord, Who had sovereignly called Him as His servant, His instrument and given him to His Church and to you, personally, according to His above Word – for your perfection. Can you make THAT discernment? Never, if your heart is closed and unwilling to seek, search and ask (Mt. 7:7,8). If you ask Him, only then the Lord will answer and give you the necessary light.
The Lord never asks anyone in His Church to approve His servants chosen and called by Him and given to His Church. He has His own sovereign reasons for His calling and does not consult any man or any religious organization or denomination. He called those that He foreknew and predestinated as His servants since they were, in His eyes, sufficiently tested by fire, faithful to the Truth and conformed to the Image of His Son (Rom. 8:29). The Lord asks that His servants be recognized and followed so that the followers would in time also be conformed to the same Word of God. The Holy Spirit, by Whom believers were born-again, had through their new birth given to all believers the needed spiritual senses to recognize His servants and the faith to follow them. Thus, believers will have no excuses before the Judgment Seat of Christ.
WITHOUT HIS CHOSEN SERVANTS, THE CHURCH WOULD NOT EXIST! It could never be made perfect and come into the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a Perfect Man, unto the measure of the Stature of the Fullness of Christ (Eph. 4:13). Unfortunately, most believers do not use their spiritual senses given to them by the Holy Spirit and thus cannot recognize His chosen servants. They are missing not only their true spiritual education, but also their spiritual growth and progress toward their maturity and perfection. The fulfilment of the Will of God for them must be “postponed” for 10-20-30-40 years or even after their physical death.
The Word in Romans 8:28-39 is being used by many pastors, teachers and preachers to convince their sheep about the “unconditional love of God” and about their myth “once saved for ever saved”. They use all the verses in the above Word to justify their theories, except the most important verse in that passage, namely, verse 36! You see, that passage does not apply to the whole Church or to all believers without exception. It applies to the Overcomers only! It applies to those that “FOR HIS SAKE ARE KILLED ALL DAY LONG AND ARE ACCOUNTED AS SHEEP FOR THE SLAUGHTER… AND IN ALL THESE THINGS WE ARE MORE THAN CONQUERORS…” (verse 37)!
Are you being “killed daily” you preachers, teachers, pastors, theology doctors and congregations? You may not even understand what this verse really means, then how can you live it and experience it? And if you do not live this Word, how can you apply the other verses of that passage to yourselves? To be “killed daily” means “to die daily” (1Cor. 15: 31b), to be separated daily from our natural, sinful nature and entering into the Life IN Christ. Also, to be separated from all unwilling, unfaithful, proud, arrogant, fearful and wicked brethren (2Thes. 3:2,6,14, etc.). Are you truly doing this? Is Christ your Witness? Really?
And while the Word of God in Rom. 8:38,39 is absolutely true as written, yet it is alone incomplete! Why? That Word speaks only about outward truth! You should add to verse 39 this inward truth: “BUT OUR SELF IS ABLE TO SEPARATE US FROM THE LOVE OF GOD; OUR PRIDE AND STUBBORNNESS AND SELFISHNESS AND STUPIDITY ARE WELL ABLE TO BRING US TO OUR OWN CONDEMNATION”! Other passages of the Word of God speak about these facts clearly. We simply cannot misinterpret this Word of God so badly that “our own truth” would clearly contradict other passages of the Word of God though it would satisfy our own understanding and logic and flesh! In these verses the Spirit of God speaks through Paul about the “new creatures IN Christ Jesus” (2Cor. 5:17, see also pages 78 bottom to 82), who crucified their flesh and thus belong to God (Gal. 5:24). This is a typical error of doctors of theology who only use their logic, completely miss the truth of God and dangerously deceive the people of God.
IF WE TAKE THE SPIRITUAL FACTS AND TRUTH OUT FROM OUR (LOGICAL) EQUATIONS, ALL OUR RESULTS WILL ALWAYS BE FALSE AND MISLEADING!
I am constrained by the Spirit of the Living God to beseech the ministers of the Word of God to pause, ponder and stop preaching lies thus deceiving His people instead of perfecting them in the knowledge of the Truth. Your “good flesh”, your “religious humanity” and logic are leading you astray from the spiritual Truth of the Word of God and making you “glued” to other passages which are “comfortable and also logical to your flesh”. And thus, you give to the Word of God a false interpretation by separating the text of one passage from another passage of the same Word of God and then mixing it with your logical explanations!
True ministers were given to the Church by the Lord for the perfecting of the saints in spirit not in mental knowledge, not for satisfying the desires, expectations, hopes and dreams of their “good humanistic” soul (Eph. 4:11,12).
So, how do we conclude this chapter? What is its true significance? We will have to return to point 7) on page 59, see and realize, that we do not war with or against flesh and blood, but against spiritual powers (Eph. 6:12-18), who want to rob us of our true faith (Heb. 12:2), that is, of our redemption and salvation – perfection IN Christ and thus make us “lunatics and zombies” unable to even take a firm stand against them, who are our mortal enemies! But too many BELIEVERS PREFER to cooperate with them, believe them, fight one another, doubt one another, disobey one another, hate one another, be offended and irritated by one another, resist one another, ignore one another and thus serve Satan’s purposes rather than God’s! They are unwilling to seek and search the truth about any matter that may be controversial among such proud and carnal brethren.
How do you like this conclusion? Do you like it? Do you believe it? Well, I have no need to believe it because I have experienced it for a large part of my ministry! Ninety five percent (if not more) of those believers to whom I was ministering have not only shamefully abandoned me and disappeared behind the horizon, but many of them repaid evil for my good and even initiated diabolical and piggish campaigns against me on the internet. This may sound familiar to many true servants of Christ (Mt. 10:22).
Most of the born-again, baptized believers have never seen, and never desired to see, the depth of depravity of their human nature, their human old soul, their “old man”, his ability and willingness to fight for his sinful life and cooperate with the powers of evil and darkness, which have always been his allies, advisors and supporters. All their Christian life, they were willing to receive blessings and all good things from God while covering the evil and sins in their souls in secrecy playing hypocrites. Many such believers will not yield to the Lord’s hand until He brings them under a scalpel, to an emergency hospital, to a wheelchair, to a tragic situation, to bankruptcy, to a heartbreaking hopelessness, to jail, to a labor or boot camp, to unimaginable horrors – so the “armor” of their old nature would crack!
For many believers, their Christianity has been a religious show where they pretended to be what they were not and were deceiving everybody around them with their “good intentions and works” and other “virtues of their good flesh”. They have performed it either consciously or unconsciously. Be it one way or the other, their unwillingness to change and be delivered from the darkness and evil in their natural life and to grow up in spirit into Christ (Eph. 4:15) has been phenomenal! Their resistance to believe the truth has been even more phenomenal! It seems that each Christian has his own standard of righteousness, own truth, own chosen verse in the Bible upon which he hanged his life and destiny while happily ignoring the rest of the Scripture as if it did not exist! Many times these problems and reactions among various Christians cross the line of human sanity.
Now, it is quite possible that many of such Christians may not have been fully aware of their own heart and their miserable spiritual state, but they all were aware of their thoughts and intentions, their plans and desires and a constant pursuing of their self-satisfaction for which they were quite willing to fight and make a surprisingly great effort. Their war has been to satisfy themselves and not God. If they had to do something truly for God, they quite suddenly turned into lazy, phlegmatic, irresponsible, hypocritical, forgetful creatures with a drastically limited intelligence unwilling and unable to stand on their own feet, to think and make their own effort without tons of instructions. And then they produced long explanations why they could not do anything or resolve any problems (these are my own experiences).
The field of today’s Church is covered with millions of casualties of this spiritual war, which war these believers refused to fight and had done nothing to stand (Eph. 6:13)! And the responsibility falls mostly on their carnal leaders, who may have great zeal in their souls, preach with great emotions and intellectual fervor while in spirit they have been dead. This is a SPIRITUAL war and not emotional or intellectual war! Unfortunately, many Christians cannot tell soul from spirit and their own thoughts from true faith.
The Lord had not created us to satisfy us, but that we would satisfy Him! (Rev. 4:11) Once we satisfy Him, we will also become satisfied automatically. Nor has he planted us into a greenhouse to shield us from all possible dangers of hot sun, icy winds, earthquakes, blizzards, tornados, hurricanes, wild animals, sicknesses, plagues and adversities of all kinds and keep us in a perpetual peace, quietness and happiness. And if we try to build a “glass copula” over ourselves, He shatters it. Why? He is using exactly those adversities, storms and dangers to perfect us in our strength, resilience, willingness to fight, to stand for Him and thus show Him that He has not created us in vain! That is why He left us on earth and did not take us to Heaven, but keeps us from evil (Jn. 17:15// Col. 1:10-18). We were created to fight and to work. Heaven will wait. True?
Whenever we attend our church service, we sit in our pew or chair, sing few songs, wait for a sermon, listen to it even making some notes, give our gifts, tithes, offerings and go home. This is NOT the process of man’s salvation. We may return home with more intellectual information about God and His promises to us, about His Son Jesus Christ and His love for us, about the Holy Spirit, about what we must do or must not do in our future activities in order to achieve some of the requirements in the Bible. We may agree with all that was said, even believe it and even try to do it in the following days. We find out one way or another that we cannot do any of it, and so we slowly forget it.
This applies also to many honest and sincere preachers, who preach to others what they themselves cannot do. After some years, the congregation and the leadership have not changed in spirit or in their character or abilities to do what they could not do 10-20-30 or more years ago. They do not know the Lord better or more deeply than years ago, they may only know more ABOUT Him. They do not understand Him better, His ways, His thoughts or plans or purposes (Is. 55:8,9) because, with all their knowledge, they have remained on earth and have not ascended higher to the heavenlies where the Father had put them IN Christ Jesus (Eph. 2:6).
A thought is like a vehicle, a boat, an airplane or train that appears in your railway station (brain) and is on stand-by ready to be boarded. I have never met or known a man that would come to a railway station and board a train without knowing where it is going! Have you? It would be insane, would it not? Yet, in the spiritual life, we may do these insane things daily because we “board” almost any thought that comes to our “railway station” just because it appeals to us, is attractive, seems right, has a potential, we like it, etc. So we board it, or a whole series of trains, and look at the scenery as we travel along having no idea where we might end up. Then when we end up exactly where we had no intention to end up or where we hated to end up, it is a sheer misery to try to get back to our “railway station” healthy and without much damage.
Of course, in a real railway station we can consult the time and destination schedule of trains or ask the “train dispatcher”. In spirit, we apparently don’t have such a luxury and so we follow our own “wisdom” and take chances. We never seek and ask the “thought dispatcher” nor do we seek or search the table of destinations. Of course, the “thought dispatcher” and also “producer” is the spirit of our mind and thus the “quality” of our thoughts depends on whether the spirit of our mind has been renewed and to what degree, or not at all (Eph. 4:23).
How do we know whether the spirit of our mind has been renewed and to what degree? We do NOT know. We can only judge or assess it by its fruit. If we have stupid thoughts from the spirit of our flesh and we follow them, board them, sow them, they bring us to the destination of chaos, darkness, futility, stupidity, corruption and damages. If we have wise thoughts from the Spirit of God and we follow them, board them, sow them, they bring us to the destination of light, beauty, usefulness, blessings and life everlasting (Gal. 6:8) even though some suffering or pain may be their “side effect” while following them. This is even logical, is it not? In other words, we may find out things about our mind and soul using God’s principle of sowing and harvest. It is written: “for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” (Gal. 5:7b). By our harvest we may judge what “seed” we sowed, what “train” we boarded and traveled.
We thus learn the state of our mind, the degree of its renewal and thus the source of our thoughts from the kind of “destinations” which we reach by following (sowing and then reaping) the fruit of those thoughts. This principle also applies to the renewal of our heart and will, our emotions, imaginations, desires, lusts, decisions, etc. Even these are “trains” that can swiftly bring us to strange even dangerous destinations, if we “board them” without verifying them with the “Train Dispatcher”, the Holy Spirit, Who dwells in us and desires to guide us and stop some “trains” from leaving our Central station – our soul. If we do not live in Him (as He lives in us), then He is like unto a “train dispatcher” who is “locked in his office” and has no opportunity in our “railway station” to guide us or advise us. Sometimes some other “passengers” (brethren) who might have their own experiences with some of those “trains” could advise us. But shall we believe them? It seems that we must always learn on our own skin, but the lessons learnt on our own skin, we will never forget.
I have to include here the following important fact. We may have suffered even extensive damages due to sowing our foolishness, yet, IF our heart is open and honest toward God, those damages may become steps to our spiritual progress! Through them God is able to show us our foolishness and its roots and then deliver us from that spirit of foolishness, which always includes the spirit of pride, stubbornness, self-righteousness, bondage, fears, etc. We must realize that what is always involved is a total lack of communications (Heb. 13:16) as well as our inability to ask simple questions (see again pages 21,22 and 91-94) and get advice from people that know or have experiences. IF our heart is not open and not honest toward God, we will never get out of that merry-go-round of our own foolishness and ensuing damages.
The last fact that belongs here is that we learn ONLY through mistakes, our own mistakes or those of others. Therefore, the Lord grants us plentiful opportunities to make mistakes in every area of our life where we have to learn wisdom according to the Lord (Jam. 1:5-8). All believers start from spiritual foolishness, naivety and a zero spiritual intelligence. We will never admit such a shameful fact, but none of us begins from wisdom and perfection. The wise believers are those that LEARN from their mistakes. The stupid ones are those that do NOT LEARN being too proud, too stubborn, too lazy or due to other “virtues” of their flesh. But if our own Saviour and Lord Jesus Christ had to LEARN obedience by the things which He suffered, how much more do WE HAVE TO LEARN? Can you estimate it? Because, after He was thus perfected, He became the Author of Eternal Salvation unto all them that OBEY Him (Heb. 5:8,9), not unto them that just believed in Him, but do not care about His Will, His Commandments or His Word.
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To be continued next week in chapter 5
brother Hanola
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