The Lord may be often asked in our prayers to help us in our efforts and bless our religious projects, but He does not do such things nor is He a part of them. He only blesses HIS PROJECTS, which we may not understand and desire and which may be unappealing to us because they all are contrary to our natural ways. I believe that the religion that is organized by man can never understand anything that is NOT organized, not advertised, not run or governed by man! In the eyes of many religious leaders of today, you must be organized, you must advertise, do fundraising, have the necessary publicity and run all things in worldly ways.
So the Lord is “unable” to build or run His Church in this modern world without the help of this world, without governments even without today’s technology (which would be totally illogical to the natural mind), without any organization because THEY CANNOT SEE IT, imagine it, understand it and thus they cannot believe it! But let them reread the passages about the Early Church and see how well they were “organized” and how effective in changing the world without worldly ways and without being run by any man or organization. They had no radio, no television, no newspapers, no computers, no books… “just” the Spirit of God.
When God organizes something, it reflects its absolute unity, order, harmony, beauty, interdependence, interaction, intercommunication and thus it fulfills its true purposes. When man (or the devil through man) started to create “religion” with its “churches”, nothing of the above materialized. There is no unity, no harmony, no order, no beauty, no love, no interdependence, no interaction, no intercommunication in it; therefore, its life, usefulness and true purpose are not there as God had them in the Early Church and as He clearly has them in His physical creation. Until God cleans this mess and disorder that man (or the devil through man) created, He cannot obtain from His Church what He purposed and what He desires. We may also state that the devil is the “king” of disorder, disunity, disharmony, ugliness, hatred, independence, isolationism, divisiveness, disruption, carelessness, chaos, etc.
Let us return for a while to Saul of Tarsus. Nobody doubts or argues that he was totally blind toward Jesus and His Truth. Also, nobody doubts his extreme zeal for God, for the sacred traditions, for all those things that were well accepted and established within Judaism. Hence, nobody should doubt his fears of anything “new and quite dangerous” which seemed very able to destroy all that he believed in and cherished and tried to preserve with his own life! Can we blame him for his blindness? NO!
Can we blame the like ministers in the Church for their blindness? NO! They may have equal zeal as Saul had, equal desire to protect what they believe in, equal fear of anything “new and quite dangerous”! Yet, some one has to declare these spiritual facts and realities as the Lord sees them and as He desires us to see them!
The Lord will not judge us as unworthy because we are blind – He will judge us IF WE REFUSE TO SEE WHAT HE SHOWS, IF WE REFUSE TO RECEIVE OUR SPIRITUAL EYESIGHT, IF WE REFUSE TO SEEK TRUTH AND THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD. But THIS is the only way to recognize and believe that what appears to our natural soul as a “new and dangerous way” IS the way of Our Lord! And that the way we have been faithfully walking on for years is NOT the true way of the Lord. That is exactly what happened to Saul of Tarsus! Can we SEE that? For Saul YES, for ourselves NO!
WE DO NOT HAVE ALL THE WISDOM OR ALL THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD AND WE DO NOT SEE EVERYTHING AS WE OUGHT TO SEE. THEREFORE, THE WORD IN EPH. 1:17,18 SHOULD NEVER CEASE TO BE A VITAL PART OF OUR CHRISTIAN LIFE AS LONG AS WE LIVE ON THIS EARTH. IF YOU DO NOT NEED THIS WORD, YOU DO NOT NEED THE LORD. AND IF WE REFUSE TO RECEIVE FROM HIM WHAT THIS PRAYER ASKS, NAMELY, NEW AND MUCH DEEPER WISDOM, NEW AND MUCH DEEPER KNOWLEDGE OF HIM AND NEW AND MUCH DEEPER SPIRITUAL INSIGHT, DISCERNMENT, ETC., THEN MAY HIS MERCY BE WITH US WHEN WE STAND BEFORE HIS JUDGMENT SEAT! (2Cor. 5:10)
The Lord desires to show us also Peter that we may SEE him as a typical and even transparent example of a man, who, despite his zeal and love for the Lord, WAS BLIND IN SPIRIT. HE HAD NOT EVEN STARTED TO SEE those spiritual realities until after the Pentecost. Also, he did not see his own blindness until the Lord started showing him this fact on “his own skin”. The typical and well known incident is found in Mt. 26:33-35 where Peter was “ready to die for the Lord” and where the Lord plainly told Peter that he was “dreaming in color”. Later on, Peter found that out on his own skin and wept bitterly. (Mt. 26:69-75) This is the case with many soulish believers, who have never seen and understood themselves in their own soul and spirit.
A truly important picture concerning our SPIRIT and SOUL, their respective power, spiritual status and differences is found in Mt. 16:16,17,22,23. In verse 16, the Father revealed to Peter’s SPIRIT (to his conscience) the truth about His Son, and the Lord acknowledged it. In verse 22, Satan gave to Peter’s SOUL (mind) his thoughts concerning the death and resurrection of Jesus. While the Father could “speak” to the spirit (conscience) of Peter, Satan could “speak” to his soul (mind). Had Peter had any spiritual discernment, vision, an eye to SEE, he would have never rebuked the Lord. To “rebuke the Lord” is in itself a contradiction and contempt by any man.
In Mt. 16:23 the Lord clearly declares that PETER’S NATURAL AND BLIND SOUL WAS AN OFFENCE TO HIM AS IT SERVED SATAN AND HIS PURPOSES. LET US CLEARLY UNDERSTAND THAT THE NATURAL AND BLIND SOUL IS ALWAYS AN OFFENCE TO THE LORD NO MATTER IN WHAT PAGAN OR BELIEVER IT LIVES! That is also the reason why in the very next verses (24 and 25), the Lord continues declaring the vitally important truth about the life of our natural soul and what happens, if we would keep it or lose it for His sake.
Finally, Peter’s infamous answer to the Lord in Acts 10:13,14: “Not so, Lord.” It shows us clearly the power of traditions and beliefs of our natural soul which CANNOT be changed or replaced by new beliefs in any way except when WE SEE the “new” truth. In our natural and honest soul, we are able to say even to Our God Almighty: “Not so, God.” Was the Lord upset? NO! He understood Peter clearly so He repeated His vision to Peter three times.
The fact which the Lord desires us to SEE and understand at this point is this. There are millions of believers including leaders in the Church, who are exactly like Peter. They are “stuck” with their traditional beliefs based on the traditional education, the understanding and feelings of their natural soul even though they have the Light in their spirit about the Son of God revealed to them by the Father! Despite this fact, their NATURAL SOUL is still an OFFENCE TO THE LORD because it may ignorantly serve Satan! Furthermore, they are quite able to oppose the Almighty God, Who may show to them Truth in a “new”, deeper way and that, either directly or through His servants. But their natural soul says: “Not so, Lord”. The Lord may reply: “What Truth has God shown to you that call not thou untrue… just because you do not agree with it”. (see Acts 10:15)
The Lord also says to us “He that trusts in his OWN HEART is a fool.” (Pr. 28:26)
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To be continued next week in chapter 3 – part 18
brother Hanola
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