When we mentioned Nicodemus, it is necessary to mention that he, in fact, represented certain “fullness” of a man and of his status in the religious category. He had fullness of knowledge, a high governmental status over Jews, authority, he was a very influential person and highly respected among Pharisees. Thus, he did not need anything more except the Kingdom, which according to the Messiah was supposed to come. In my belief, this was also the main reason why Nicodemus came to see the Messiah. And this Messiah tells him: “All this you must abandon and begin anew as a newborn baby! If, therefore, you are worried about the Kingdom then know, that nothing from what you have and who you are can you bring into the Kingdom.” For Nicodemus that must have been a total shock. And it must be for us as well, if we had no knowledge about it thus far. Because we also, every one of us, had to, or must now begin from ZERO! Even in this earthly creation, we all started from zero at our birthday. The Kingdom is not the question of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, piece and joy in the Holy Spirit (Rom. 14:17). It is the question of the measure, or the fullness of our spirituality… and we, at our born-again experience were starting with a very small measure of spirituality. Our position, status in the Kingdom depends absolutely on our KNOWLEDGE OF THE LORD, which at our redemption was ZERO. And if our knowledge of the Lord is not increasing THROUGH OUR HEART, then we remain at that ZERO even to the end of our earthly life. Therefore, we must repeat that a closed heart is a doomed heart.
Finally, we have to be circumcised in our will that stands in the way to many Christians. They are clenched as to a trap and are unable to free themselves. But they are always ready to support their positions by passages from the Scripture, which suit them and defend themselves by the Word of God (which is sin against Christ, Who is the WORD and thus they use Christ to cover and defend their sinfulness and stupidity). They do this to preserve their “image” and that their self-will would prevail. In all their decisions they focus on self-defense and self-preservation and are not interested in the purposes of the Lord. Their ministry is a ministry of death and not of the Life of Christ.
Our will has another important function which can be compared to a sentry at the gate to a castle, which decides what can enter the castle and what cannot. Similarly, what can get out of the castle and what cannot (we can receive truth or we cannot, we can speak truth or we cannot). Our will received from God has such an important position and authority and power that even God will not oppose the decisions of our will, but will accept them. That’s why in the book “Life out of Death” I write that our destiny and the way to it is not determined by God, but by our own will, our own decisions; also by the deeds of our faith, which we received from its Author and Finisher – Jesus (Heb. 12:2) and not by the “faith”, which we ourselves “fabricated” in our head. The Lord requires that we should be free people always ready to receive and rightly react to a new Light from Him. If His Light requires new adjustments, steps, sometimes revolutionary steps, we must be so free in the Lord as to readily receive and do them. Our spiritual progress may be suddenly interrupted, even stopped, we may come to the end behind which there is no continuation if there would exist an issue between the Holy Spirit and us, where He has something against us which is unresolved or we may be unwilling to continue with Him.
From the above facts it should be clear to us that our Salvation is something much more than just forgiveness of our sins and an escape from hell; that the Salvation is the basis of something far greater, monumental, majestic, enormously priceless, in fact, absolutely unimaginable to any man. That’s why to obtain this Salvation is not just a question of our desires and prayers but of something far more important – of our willingness to give for our Salvation everything old what we hold onto and what will have no value in our future life anyway. Though what I write in the above paragraph is truth and it is also very nice, it is almost impossible to practice it mainly at the beginning of our spiritual walk. Our practice and life experiences may be totally opposite especially touching the bolded sentence above. Whenever someone tells us “truth to our eyes” and thereby he “accuses us” from something, at least according to our impression, we may be shocked and begin to defend ourselves vehemently! We thus practice our old, mental, carnal and, in the eyes of the Lord, unacceptable approach to the progress of our Salvation and perfection, we walk exactly AGAINST the Word of God (Mt. 16:24). Instead of pausing and starting to see and perceive from what source the whole thing comes forth, is it from God or is it not, what is its purpose… we immediately begin to defend ourselves ignoring our cross that it stands at our side and “smiles at us”.
Not every Christian is the same, many are inclined to accept things, to agree, give consent, take a passive attitude even where they disagree inside of their soul, or where it is necessary or desirable to declare, to vindicate truth, to stand on own feet, etc. They try desperately to avoid conflicts, problems, difficulties just to retain peace, to look good and remain in the favor of every believer. Others are engaging with vigor in endless debates, questioning, doubting, arguing and discussing going around things in endless circles analyzing other human beings and their deeds. They are able to speak without any pause, heckle and interrupt others and not register what others are telling them. As well, they often begin to answer before the others stopped talking. For all such creatures, the Word in Proverbs 29:20 or 26:12 applies. As soon as the devil finds out that he can keep us in this circle, he will support us and rush us around like those horses in a circus so that we would keep running and never get further that the line from which we started. In this case the Lord will not seal our mouth with tape, rather, He will wait when and whether at all we will notice, that our “radio keeps playing”?
If these two above mentioned ways are our “Christianity”, then we can revel in it even 50 years of our Christian life and achieve nothing valuable either for the Lord or for us or yet for anyone else.
The principles and comparisons of the physical and spiritual circumcision in the New Testament can be found in the following passages of the Word of God: Rom. 2:28,29/ Rom. 4:9-11/ 1Cor. 7:19/ Gal. 5:6/ Gal. 6:15/ Col. 2:11,12.
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To be continued next week
brother Hanola
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