So, one may be perfect and yet wicked; one may be perfect and a “piece of stone” in place of his heart. True believers are commanded by God to love because they are born of Him, Who is Love. But those created by God and not born of Him were never commanded to love God with all their heart and mind and soul and strength. So, Lucifer, as well as the First Adam, never truly and selflessly loved God and THAT ALONE made them prone to sin, able to sin and fall into sin even in their state of “outward perfection”.
· How could God legally, morally and righteously justify His way of the Salvation of man before Satan and his fallen angels? The Lord says that the “soul that sins, it shall die” (Ez. 18:4) But here, in Christ Jesus, was a SOUL THAT HAD NOT SINNED AND DIED! Therefore, the Father was not obliged legally, morally or righteously to leave Jesus in the hands of Satan and in his power of death, separation. He called Jesus back to Himself in raising Him from the dead and seating Him on His Throne in Heaven. That is how Our Lord had also destroyed the power of death by destroying him who had the power of death, the Devil. (Heb. 2:14b)
· Christ Jesus had made it POSSIBLE for us all to do likewise without being crucified physically… if we are IN Him truly, livingly, organically and not just doctrinally. It is our decision to live in Him or to be “in Him” only in our mental knowledge, conviction, wish or understanding. The Lord says that THIS DECISION of our heart, mind and will was NOT MADE ON HIS CROSS! Only the conditions for its outworking in us were provided there.
· The Lord says that TWO MEN are living in every born -again believer: the FIRST ADAM in his soul and body and the LAST ADAM in his spirit. They are not friends, they are enemies. Their names may also be considered as, respectively, Death and Life, Darkness and Light, Lie and Truth, Disobedience and Obedience, Hate and Love. They are opposites in every sense of the word. The First Adam found his death (and his new life) in the Last Adam.
Every believer is a divided personality and this division, this disunity, disharmony, disorder and independence is also brought into man’s relationships including his marriage; and then into his family where his children also become disobedient, independent, disunited, divided. And then it is brought into his community and then into “his church” and finally into the whole Christianity. The selfishness of the First Adam has not disappeared, but reigns in the soul of every believer. Some believers may be aware of it, but they have no power to do anything about it, if they do not seek the Last Adam in their spirit to bring them back to unity, harmony, order and interdependence.
As a true born-again believer, which Adam will you allow to live in you and through you? Which one will you love and which one will you hate? Which one will you be united with, married to, the First Adam or the Last Adam? Have you already made your final choice? You see, these are not trivial questions and your answers may only be your wishes, but not definite decisions of your soul. How can you know? Compare your answer with your living experiences, decisions and deeds in your everyday life. You will see which decision of your soul they correspond to. The Lord says that you are neither the First Adam, nor the Last Adam, but you are YOU! And YOU must make this definite choice one day which, hopefully, will not be too late.
If you have chosen the Last Adam, you have done well. Your choice was undoubtedly made because it is also common sense, it is logical, it answers to your personal desires, wishes and to your faith and convictions. Little do we realize that we might be confusing this choice with accepting Jesus Christ into our life as our Saviour. This latter choice resulted in our Redemption and in being born-again by His Spirit and maybe also in our water baptism by immersion. But by this choice we had not become His Bride and had not decided to do (and have not done) all that is necessary for us to spend our eternity with Him.
The Lord says that…
WE MAY BE REDEEMED BY HIS BLOOD AND RECEIVE HIS SPIRIT, HIS LIFE, INTO OUR SPIRIT AND YET CONTINUE LIVING IN OUR SOUL THE LIFE OF THE FIRST ADAM AND LOVE THE FIRST ADAM MORE THAN THE LAST ADAM(!) AND BE SATISFIED WITH THE LIFE OF THE FIRST ADAM AND NOT BE AWARE OF THIS TRUTH! CAN YOU BELIEVE THE LORD SAYING THIS FACT TO US?
How many believers desire to escape hell and death while they continue living their old earthly life? They have their own dreams, imaginations, desires, expectations and plans as to how they would like to live their “Christian life”. They would not allow anything and anybody to change their kind of life and would resist any attempt to interfere with it. In other words, they desire Jesus Christ to be their Saviour, but not their Lord! Oh, they all call Him Lord, Lord (Mt. 7:21// Lk. 6:46), but they do not allow Him to change their life, to ruin their natural dreams, imaginations, desires, expectations, plans and replace them with His Reality. Are you one of them? It must be a life of perpetual frustrations and misery.
We all know that OUR NATURE DESIRES to continue in its own life and refuses any changes and anything new! The Lord says that for such, old wine (old life) is better than the new wine (new life)! (Lk. 5:39) The question is: how long will it take us to even start tasting that new wine? WE ALL WILL LOSE THE OLD LIFE, both pagans and believers; it will just be a matter of time. (Mt. 16:25) So, another question is: what life shall they live then, when they lose their old life and not gain the new life from God? All such people will live a “third kind” of life, which will be a “life”, or rather an “existence” of unimaginable horror, misery, sufferings, pain and eternal hopelessness in the fire and brimstone. This will be incomparably worse than any miserable, old life that they might have lived here on earth. They would then gladly abandon their “old earthly life”, but it will be too late. Satan has far greater chances than we might believe.
r) PRAYER IS a true mystery and a deep spiritual issue though it may seem to be a rather simple thing. There are a number of passages in the Word where the Lord gives us either the way or manner in which to pray (Mt. 6:9-13// Eph. 1:15-18// Col. 1:9-12, etc.) or even “unbelievable” promises. (see Mt. 18:19// Jn. 14:13,14; 15:7,16b; 16:24, etc.) But many times we may pray according to those promises of God and receive nothing. Why? The Lord hears the prayers of the righteous (Pr. 15:29), those that had not departed from their righteousness and had not committed iniquity, (Ez. 3:20) and every prayer that He hears, He answers! But we may not hear His answer or comprehend it.
I see at least three basic reasons why our prayers may bring no results and they are the following:
1 – We may ask and not receive because we ASK AMISS, wrongly, inappropriately, for wrong, unrighteous or foolish reasons to satisfy our lusts (physical or mental), to satisfy our wrong or foolish desires, intentions or plans, or we may ask things that would damage our spirit rather than benefit it. (Jam. 4:3) We may also be proud, whom God resists (Jam. 4:6b) or we regard iniquity in our heart. (Ps. 66: 18) Such prayers the Lord does not even hear.
2 – We may ask WITHOUT FAITH, not believing in our heart and spirit. (Mt. 21:22// Jam. 1:6,7) We may hope or wish for the answer, but we have no faith, which is given to us by the Lord when we are looking at Him. (Heb. 12:2) When the Lord knows that we will ask Him an inappropriate prayer, a foolish thing, He will not give us the necessary faith for it. Therefore, “whatsoever” (in Jn. 14:14, etc.) is not “whatsoever we may desire in our soul”, but whatsoever is wise and needful and righteous and profitable to us or to others and thus within the Will of the Lord. We cannot easily distinguish faith from our mental beliefs or convictions. Hence, we often have to learn this lesson of our faith through seemingly unanswered prayers.
3 – We may ask and not realize that WHENEVER WE PRAY FOR WHATEVER IS GOOD, DESIRABLE, PROFITABLE AND IN THE WILL OF THE LORD, WE AUTOMATICALLY BECOME RESPONSIBLE PARTICIPANTS TO HIS ANSWER AND TO HIS SOLUTION TO OUR PRAYER.
The Lord’s answer is usually subjected to conditions involving the praying believer and any others that may be involved in the solution sought after. If I pray for something that I am not yet ready to receive in spirit, soul or body, then I must wait (whatever time it may take) and be willing to follow the Lord’s way and guidance to be changed sufficiently in my spirit or soul or body in order to receive His answer. Otherwise I will never have it. If I pray for others, the Lord may require from me certain necessary changes, certain responsibility or action to be taken. He requires my participation in His solution so that He could fulfill my request in those others. This is very important to see and understand!
If you are concerned, for example, about your marriage which may be heading for disaster and you decide to pray, the Lord will always require both parties to be willing to go His way, be guided by His Spirit and abandon their old ways. I do not believe that there is any case where only one spouse would be guilty, possibly excluding the case of fornication. (Mt. 19:9) It is always both spouses that are guilty one way or another not necessarily in their outward deeds, but always in their spirit! It is either the spirit of pride, stubbornness, lust, selfishness, disobedience to the Word, religious extremism, lack of love or faith or grace or meekness or compassion, etc. There is not one spouse that would not be guilty in the eyes of the Lord in any way. Abandon the idea that one spouse is an angel and the other one a devil.
Therefore, any prayer for the restoration of any marriage involves also the person that prays. He/she has to change also his/her old ways, old convictions, old beliefs and old spirits that may have easily caused this condition in their marriage in the first place. It may involve other persons like in-laws, friends, etc., who may have contributed to or started this condition. The Lord is the only One, Who knows what is involved, why it came to this state and what its only solution is.
THE LORD CAN RESTORE ANYTHING IF WE DESIRE to come to Him and ask Him and be obedient to His Word and ways and judgments. There are so many divorced Christian marriages and so much adultery that it is a true tragedy in His Church. And it is so solely because the Lord was not a living part of those marriages; hence, the devil had a large field of opportunities for his destructive activities in their souls which were open to him.
Ask the Lord which one of the above reasons may be the factor for you not receiving His answer to your prayer.
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To be continued next week in chapter 5 – part 14
brother Hanola
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