Before we conclude this important chapter and the spiritual facts discussed therein, let us see what the Lord desires to show us concerning the passages of His Word which we “hate to read, teach, preach, see, understand and do” in order that we may live. These passages include the nine examples described above and also any other parts of His Word where our death, crucifixion of our flesh, putting off the old man, putting on the new man, self-denial and other sufferings are described.
There may be many sincere and honest believers, who have desired to please God and may have tried for many years to do the Word of God also in those “painful and bloody” parts. And so, they tried to “battle their old man, battle the world, battle the hell, battle evil and everything that seemed bad or against God inside or outside of them”. They tried “their best” believing that this was the narrow way and what the Lord desired from them. Well, not quite so. The true and effective way is quite different.
The Lord desires to show us the following:
1) Our own efforts according to our own imagination, reasoning, feeling, assumption or understanding of our soul to do His Word will not end in any success (this is painful to learn).
2) No man can do anything what he cannot see (this applies in both physical and spiritual world).
3) Since we all started as spiritually blind, the first thing we need is to start SEEING IN SPIRIT... seeing, who we are, what we do, where we are going, what we are supposed to do in His eyes.
4) In order for us to see, we need LIGHT to replace the darkness in our soul. This LIGHT is FAITH through which we can see the substance, the basis of things we hope for, the clear evidence of things not seen by our physical eyes. (Heb. 11:1) It is very, very easy to mistake the beliefs of our natural soul for faith! Let us be aware of this danger.
5) We cannot produce FAITH in our soul nor can we receive it from the Lord whenever or wherever we want or in whatever way we might desire it. We receive FAITH by “having an ear to hear” the Word of God (Rom. 10:17) and by running the race (or walking the narrow way) set before us by God. (Heb. 12:1) When we do the latter, then we go through conflicts, problems, difficulties, pain, suffering, adversities of all kinds, all “designed” by the Lord just for us… because we all need them and they all work together for the good of them that love God. (Rom. 8:28) Why do we need them?
Well, reading or hearing truth brings to us its “theory”, mental knowledge, comprehension. Seeing, experiencing truth in our conflicts, problems, suffering, difficulties, pain or adversities brings to us the “living reality” of the truth and faith. How? By “looking unto Jesus (Who is Truth) the Author (Provider) and Finisher of our faith;” (Heb. 12:2).
If we are looking at the problems, conflicts, troubles, we get no faith and no light from Him! When we “look at Him” we receive HIS understanding, HIS answer for those problems, conflicts, troubles, etc. His answer comes as faith, light, truth. That truth, if we receive it and believe it, has the power to set us free. (Jn. 8:32) That also means, free from the effects of those particular problems, conflicts, difficulties, etc. It further means that we may now overcome them by reaching their solutions… through HIS FAITH.
6) When we receive HIS FAITH from Him, we receive LIGHT to SEE ourselves and our situation as He sees it. We SEE the problem or conflict or adversity and the true cause of it; we SEE what must be done that we may “come over” the difficulty and be “over-comers”. We SEE our flesh and the roots of the problems that may be in us or also in others. FAITH also contains the POWER to do the things that we SEE and the FREEDOM to say things that are necessary to be said to resolve the problems and the situation at hand.
7) Hence, we do not fight our old man, our sinful nature, the world, the hell or anything that appears evil, but…
WE FIGHT THE GOOD FIGHT OF FAITH, FIRST TO RECEIVE IT, THEN TO KEEP IT AND THEN TO DO IT. THEREBY WE LAY HOLD ON ETERNAL LIFE WHEREUNTO WE ARE CALLED! (1TIM. 6:12// 2TIM. 4:7)
WITH FAITH WE CAN DO ALL THINGS (MK. 9:23) BECAUSE WE SEE WHAT SHOULD BE DONE, HOW IT SHOULD BE DONE AND WHO SHOULD DO WHAT AND WHEN. IF WE DO NOT LIVE IN THE SPIRIT, WE DO NOT LIVE BY FAITH. THEN WE LIVE IN OUR SOUL BY OUR OWN SENSES AS THERE IS NO OTHER WAY TO LIVE. IF WE DO NOT LIVE BY FAITH, WE ARE NOT JUST AND RIGHTEOUS IN THE EYES OF OUR LORD. (ROM. 1:17) WE ALL MUST LEARN TO LIVE BY FAITH AS IT IS NOT NATURAL FOR US TO LIVE SO.
WITHOUT FAITH WE CAN DO NOTHING, WE CAN’T PLEASE GOD, (HEB. 11:6) WE CAN’T BE REDEEMED. OUR HEART MUST SEE THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD BEFORE IT CAN BELIEVE IT AND BEFORE OUR MOUTH CAN CONFESS IT. (ROM. 10:10)
We may conclude this Light from the Lord as follows:
WE DO NOT DENY OURSELVES AND TAKE UP OUR CROSS, (MT. 16:24) CRUCIFY OUR FLESH, (GAL. 5:24) CLEANSE OURSELVES FROM ALL FILTHINESS OF SPIRIT AND FLESH, (2COR. 7:1) PUT OFF OUR OLD MAN, RENEW THE SPIRIT OF OUR MIND AND PUT ON OUR NEW MAN, (EPH. 4:22-24) MORTIFY OUR MEMBERS WHICH ARE UPON THE EARTH, (COL. 3:5) AND SO ON, AND SO ON… ACCORDING TO OUR IMAGINATIONS, BELIEFS, UNDERSTANDING OR EFFORTS! NO!
FIRST, WE MUST BE WILLING TO SEE OUR OLD MAN, HIS FILTHINESS, DARKNESS, LUSTS, SINFULNESS, WICKEDNESS, HIS TRUE NATURE. WE THEN MUST REPENT AND ASK THE LORD TO REMOVE WHAT WE NOW SEE AND ABHOR AND HATE JUST AS HE HATES IT. THIS IS WHAT WE DON’T WANT TO DO OR WE ARE UNABLE TO DO BEING HELD BY THE POWERS OF EVIL.
OUR TRUE CONFESSION AND REPENTANCE IS OVERCOMING – IT IS DENYING OUR SELF, IT IS TAKING UP OUR CROSS, IT IS CRUCIFYING OUR FLESH, IT IS CLEANSING OURSELVES FROM ALL THE FILTHINESS OF SPIRIT AND FLESH, IT IS APPREHENDING THE LIFE ETERNAL, IT IS THE TRUE PROCESS OF OUR SALVATION.
We cannot abhor or hate and thus repent of anything that we do not SEE. Hence, we need faith to see, which faith is the spiritual evidence of the true nature of our old man not seen by our natural eyes! But we must see what it is to be able to hate it, abhor it and repent and turn from it. (Heb. 11:1) This is our deliverance, our crucifixion, the denial of our old man, our transformation to the Image of Jesus Christ, the true Salvation of our SOUL.
So, let us see and understand that…
THE TRUE SALVATION OF OUR SOUL IS ALL DONE BY OUR SEEING (OUR FAITH), OUR CONFESSION AND THEN REPENTANCE (OUR WORK OF FAITH) WHICH IS OUR PART TO DO, AND BY THE GRACE AND POWER OF THE LORD WORKING IN US MIGHTILY WHICH IS GOD’S PART TO DO IN OUR SALVATION!
Four times has Our Lord commanded us in His Word saying: “the just SHALL (not SHOULD) live by faith”. (Hab. 2:4//Rom. 1:17// Gal. 3:11// Heb. 10:38). Why? Is it sin for us not to live by faith? YES, it is sin for us! (Rom. 14:23b) And so, we may be sinning daily.
To LIVE BY FAITH means TO LIVE BY THE SUBSTANCE THAT ORIGINATES IN HIS SPIRIT AND DOES NOT ORIGINATE IN MAN’S NATURAL SOUL! Faith is not a part of our soul, it is not produced by our soul, but it comes to our heart from our conscience which is in our spirit. We are to live through our spirit as Christ lived all His earthly life and ministry. Our thoughts, and logical or intellectual beliefs and convictions based on our thoughts, are not faith! Hence, he who lives by faith is a spiritual believer; he who lives by everything else is a soulish believer. There is a world of difference between the faith provided or authored by the Lord (Heb. 12:2) and our own soulish beliefs and convictions. We repeat that it is very easy to confuse true faith with our soulish beliefs. We can know true faith and distinguish it from soulish beliefs by their fruit and consequences. So, we usually learn the difference between the true faith and our own convictions by our living experiences.
OUR PAIN AND SUFFERING WILL BE IN OUR WILLINGNESS TO SEE THE TRUTH ABOUT OURSELVES AND NOT KEEP OUR EYES, EARS AND HEART CLOSED TO IT. (MT. 13:15// ACTS 28:27) OUR WILLINGNESS TO CONFESS AND REPENT AND THEN COOPERATE WITH THE SPIRIT ON THE ESSENCE OF OUR REPENTANCE TO PUT IT INTO OUR PRACTICAL LIFE, WILL BE OUR TRUE CROSS AND PAIN AND SUFFERING AND OVERCOMING AND TRANSLATION FROM THE SOULISH TO THE SPIRITUAL.
Yet, who received the Light and confessed it? When we see the Light-Grace and reject it, we are judged guilty and condemned. That is why any man, who believes not on the Son of God is condemned already! (Jn. 3:18-21)… because that Light-Grace was shown to all men! (Tit. 2:11// Ps. 98:3b) And he that believes in his heart and confesses it with his mouth is redeemed already and he shall be saved. (Rom. 10:9,10) That is also why the “heart of unbelief” is called evil by God Himself. Such a heart may either keep us away from our own Redemption or cause us to depart from the Living God after our Redemption! (Heb. 3:12) It has the power to reject what God desires or what He offers to us.
Our Lord Jesus Christ desires that we would consider this Chapter very diligently and with all seriousness as it is THE CORE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT ISSUE presented in this book.
If we reject this clear Light and Grace of the Scripture concerning the two crosses, we reject the Main Purpose of the Will of God in transforming us into the Image of His Son. If we pause, ponder and start believing the clear Word of God, then we may go to the next Chapter and start pondering other and also deeper spiritual issues which we may have never pondered, never seen to any depth, never understood in any desirable way.
May Our Lord grant us the spirit of ability and wisdom to do so, to acquire the things that HE desires us to have and which we may have even secretly desired in our heart to have, see, understand and live in our earthly life.
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To be continued next week in chapter 5 – part 1
brother Hanola
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