Showing posts with label Truth. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Truth. Show all posts

Thursday, April 6, 2023

A Crucified Life - - Walks In The Power of The Holy

 

2 Corinthians 6:7
By the Word of Truth, by the power of God, by the armor of Righteousness on the right hand and on the left. 

*Strong's Ex. Conc. No. 3696
Armor: tools, implements, weapons
From the Greek word 'hoplon' (pronounced hop'-lon): God always gives all the resources we need to engage in spiritual warfare.

    The Word of Truth is the gospel, the Full Gospel, the Whole Complete WORD of GOD, in all its fullness. 
    Having His WORD living in us and us living in His WORD makes us bold and should make us fearless while we serve God in this life. 2 Timothy 2:15 tells us to study diligently that we may be able to 'righty divide the Word of Truth', in other words that we might clearly understand and know the Word in order to explain and share it with others.
    Ephesians 1:13 "In Whom you also trusted, after you heard the Word of Truth, the gospel of your salvation: in Whom also after you believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise."
As the song declares, "Living He loved me, Dying He saved me, Rising He justified freely forever. One day He's coming, O glorious day!"
    Galatians 3:14
He redeemed us in order that the blessing promised to Abraham would come to the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.    
    This Holy Spirit of Promise is the Power of God in us who have received this Promise. God promises the believer many precious and wonderful gifts; the Holy Spirit is by far the best gift God could gift to us after Christ ascended into heaven.
    It is impossible to live in the Power of God if we don't have the Power of God living in us. The workings of the Holy Spirit are essential to a confident, overcoming life in Christ. He is God's seal of Authority on us. 
    Lastly, we are shown that we have been given weapons for both of our hands to grasp. Ephesians 6:16,17 show us that in our dominant hand is the Sword of The Spirit, the Word of God. In our other hand is the Shield of Faith, which has the power to extinguish all of the flaming arrows/darts which the enemy of our souls throws in our direction. This is why we bring our hands together when we pray; for one must work with the other to succeed in the endeavor. 
    Being fully clothed in His Righteousness (Romans 13:14), and in our right minds (Titus 1:8), we are now prepared -- on a daily basis -- to face that which is coming against us as we take our stand in the Word of God.
    We are not alone. We have God's angels battling hell's demons (Daniel 10:13), we have God's Son interceding on our behalf (Romans 8:34), and we have God's Holy Spirit, who not only aids us in our work, but utters the deepest prayers of our hearts to God (Romans 8:26). 
    Prayer is an absolute necessity in our lives. It is our base of communication with our God and Savior. Faith, believing God, activates our prayers. Why pray if we are not going to believe that our prayers will be answered as long as we pray according to God's will? 
>James 5:16
>1 Timothy 2:1
>Ephesians 6:18
>Philippians 4:6
    Wake up! Wash the sleep out of your eyes and Rise up! Now is the time to awaken out of the slumber into which we have fallen. Now is the time to let our lamps burn brightly that the Light of the Word of Truth would shine into the outer darkness, revealing the bright and wonderful Light of God's Love to a dying world.

The Gospel - Ryan Stevenson
Jesus Said It - Eddie James
Word of God Speak - Mercy Me
Holy Water - We The Kingdom, Tasha Cobbs
Come Holy Spirit - Steve Kuban
Fire of Your Spirit - Sarah Lieberman
Sound The Alarm - Instrumental
Whom Shall I Fear - Chris Tomlin
House of Prayer - Eddie James
Rise Up - Cain

    



Monday, October 31, 2022

Arming The Spiritual Warrior -- Properly Clothed

 Ephesians 6:14
Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness arrayed.

Our garments of spiritual warfare are compared to the armaments of soldiers, who prepare themselves before going to into war.
Each piece of armor is absolutely necessary to enable the Properly Clothed Spiritual Warrior to succeed in his or her designated field of warfare wherein God, the High Commander, has placed us. An unarmed soldier will always fail, for each item of armor is connected to another. 

*Strong's Ex. Conc. No. 225
Truth: Reality, Moral Truth, Truth revealed to mankind by God; truth of idea, reality, sincerity, truth in the moral sphere, divine truth revealed to man, straightforwardness

*Strong's Ex. Conc. No. 1343
Righteousness:  righteousness of which God is the source or author, but practically: a divine righteousness

If any of these are not in alignment with God's Word before we go into prayer, then we are not ready to pray to God.
We must know the Truth of God's Word, we must know Jesus Christ.

The Belt Conforms & Transforms The Body
John 14:6
Jesus said unto him, I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life: no man comes unto the Father, but by Me.

The Breastplate Covers The Heart of The Body
We must receive God's Righteousness before God can hear our prayer.

Romans 3:14
Instead, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the desires of the flesh.
Romans 3:22
And this righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no distinction.
Colossians 3:12
Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with hearts of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. 







Monday, September 19, 2022

In Spirit and In Truth

 If our hearts aren't right with God, our worship isn't right either; He won't receive it.



John 4: 23, 24
"But a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father is seeking such as these to worship Him.
God is Spirit, and His worshipers must worship Him in spirit and in truth.”


In spirit: breath
In truth: Divine Reality, Verity, the opposite of illusion

Therefore, with every breath we worship and praise and thank God in Truth, in certainty that He Is GOD and there is none other. Thanking Him for our salvation through the blood of His Lamb, His Son Jesus Christ.
Praising Him for His tender, endless mercies.
Worshiping Him for the grace He has extended to us, for the Love He bestows on us.

If our hearts are not right with God, we must repent of our disobedience to His Word that we might receive His pardon on our sins. We must come to the throne of Grace with all humility and humbleness of heart.
Neither pride, nor arrogance will enter God's court. We must surrender our hearts to His. We must choose to submit our will to His will. We must or we will die. Twice.

If our hearts are not right with God, we must come to the realization that we cannot fix our hearts on our own: only God can do that. It is beyond our reach to make ourselves clean enough to live in His presence forever. His Word tells us that our righteousness is like filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6).

We need to be true worshipers.





Saturday, September 5, 2020

Spider Webs vs Cobwebs

     



    Spider webs are built by spiders. Spider webs are sticky traps meant to trap unaware travelers to be eaten at a later date. Cobwebs are built by dust mites in areas that are unused on a regular basis. For instance, empty houses and basement ceilings get cobwebs built in them quite often.

    But what if cobwebs were built in less familiar places, places the eye never sees? Cobwebs not built by living dust mites, but lack of use. Take our hearts, for example.



    When the heart fails to perform in The Way that it should, it becomes less useful and more hardened. As if the arteries of life were clogged by bitterness and pain. Secretive, dark places of the heart, where Love and Light barely, if ever, make a dent.

    But Truth Light and Truth Love will surely persevere when a person is seeking to know God's will for their life. When they're looking for a way out of the darkness, pushing past the cobwebs that drape across the entrance to the heart.


As the Truth Love and Truth Light work Its Way across the heart, the heart expands, the cobwebs disappear and darkness fades into nothingness.






Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Inside The Nucleus-Redemption Is Curricular


God is THE GOD OF EVERYTHING.

God is The God of science. He is Jehovah-Bara, Creator God.
He created the universe and everything in it in 3 days: Genesis 1:1-8, 14-19. In between those 3 days He took the time to create land and seas, separating the seas below from the waters above. Check Genesis 1:9-13 for verification. On that day God also spoke into existence grasses, herbs, fruit trees and gave them all the ability to reproduce themselves.
He created in the seas upon the earth and called into existence life within them. He created skies and called the birds of the air to take flight into the skies. Each of these was also given the ability to reproduce its own kind. In one day this was done.
God created all species of land animals: the beasts, the cattle, the creepers. And each of these was called to multiply and reproduce itself.

Then God created man and set him in this beautiful place which He had created with the help of His Son and The Holy Spirit (Genesis 1:1-2, 26; 2:1). After this, God rested, for He had done much work in such a short period of time. And, also, to show us that after we have worked we need to rest in Him. We are given an example by Him to rest in His presence, that our energies may be restored. How sweet our God is!
Science is a simple word that covers a multitude of categories, some of which are: astronomy, biology, radiology, chemistry, agriculture, animal husbandry, pharmacology, botany, and mathematics. Which brings us to the next statement: GOD is The God of Mathematics. He created the atom and all the subatomic particles, which are protons, electrons and neutrons. God tells us what things are and shows us what things are made of. But does He get the glory for this? Seldom, if ever, is the right answer. Many times men and women of science and mathematics and any category we could name, take credit for the knowledge they have received through their perseverance and endurance to determine what is and what is not. But God Is Omniscient. He knows EVERYTHING. And He shares what He knows with us, especially if said knowledge serves His purpose.

God is God. His heart is to see all mankind saved. His will is to see all mankind saved. Once saved, we undergo a sanctification process via The Holy Spirit. While we undergo this refining and purification, we begin to change into the person God sees us as. It is the holiness process. For God has said to us, “Be holy for I am holy”; knowing that without holiness no one can see The Lord God. So begins the change in us, transforming us from unrighteousness to righteousness. No longer are we the servants of sin, but now we are the servants of God. His purpose is being fulfilled in us, as it could be in you.

You see us and wonder why we don't behave like you do. You question our habits and our faithfulness to the things of God. What God has cleansed us of, we no longer have a desire for. It is not that we can't do the things we used to do, we just don't want to do them any more. The stronger our desire is for God and the ways of God, the less we want to be like the world around us. We do not wish to conform to the norm: we stand out from the crowds because we are Christians. We are Christ-like because this holiness process is also making us more like Jesus: more loving, more forgiving, more bold, more gentle, more pure and self-sacrificing.

What makes a Christian tick is the unconditional love of God through Jesus Christ into this world. We are called by God to be different but not alone, to be strange but not creepy, to be humble but not weak, to be bold but not aggressive. God calls us to holiness but not self-righteousness. For it is the selfishness of the heart that separates a person from God. It is self-centeredness thinking that ignores God's voice calling a person to repentance and salvation. Selfishness and self-centeredness is what turned Lucifer, God's beautiful musical angel, against God, thereby causing war in heaven.  

The result of that was that God threw him out of heaven down to earth, where he became the prince of the air, the ruler of the darkness of night, spiritual wickedness in high places. What he could not accomplish in heaven he is trying to succeed in here. He still has the abilities he was created with. He can make music and use it to lure people away from God's Word. He knows the Scriptures better than many of us and attempts to use them against us. He twists God's Word for his own purpose: to capture more souls and take them into hell with him for eternity.

Satan is a master of deception: what you see is not what you get. Not everything is as it appears to be. It is not what it is, but it is what it is not. Though this angel was created beautiful, his beauty is marred by his evil. He is a caricature of the creature God created him to be. His light is dark, but by manipulating what God has created he is able to draw people to him, where he captures them and binds them with sinful activities, which could be anything from gaming to murder; from lying to robbery; from casual sex to a whoring heart. Satan knows how to please people and entertain them long enough to get them hooked on the bait, before he reveals his true self when it is nearly too late. Alas, for some it has already been too late.

But Jesus death and resurrection breaks the bonds of sin which the devil, Satan/Lucifer, ties people down with. Jesus died to save a wretch like me. Grace is amazing, isn't it? God's plan of salvation began in Genesis 1:1 and ended in John 19:30 when Jesus said, “It is finished”. While the plan of salvation is finished, the purpose of salvation is not. You and you and you and you and yes, you, need Jesus as The Lord and Savior of your life and your soul.

The phrase “You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free” is not from Hollywood; it is God's Word to us, as written in John 8:32. Jesus is Truth: John 14:6. He makes us free: Isaiah 61:1 revealed in Luke 4:18-21; 2 Corinthians 3:17.

We do not make ourselves free of the desires to sin. We can try self-help programs to get away from the sinful activities, but only Jesus Christ can remove the desire to sin from the heart of the sinner.
The first step is to admit you are a sinner, that you have sinned against God and God's Word.
The second is to repent of your sins against God to God. Repent means to confess and to turn away from.
The third step is to receive Jesus Christ, God's only begotten Son, into your heart.
--These steps are done together, sometimes simultaneously depending on the person's decision to believe--
The fourth step, after surrendering your heart to Christ, is to submit yourself to God and make yourself available to His service, which of course begins with the holiness process, as stated above.
The fifth step is to continue and not give up; to endure without complaint; to go through and not turn back to the sinful nature you left behind.
The sixth step is to cross the finish line.

Perhaps there are other steps in-between the 4th and the 6th, but I just simplified it somewhat. God's plan of salvation is a success. God's purposes, however, are still being revealed, still being fulfilled. There is much more to this than we know, or even could presume to know. However, I will still believe that God is on the throne, that He is Supreme over all others, that He knows what He is doing and that He will succeed in His purposes for this world. I trust Him to know what is best for me. Do you trust Him with your heart? With your life? I do.

Friday, December 7, 2012

Veritas





One of the things I look forward to in Heaven is weightlessness, for I will be spirit.



But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. John 4:23(KJV Bible)





Gravity is not an issue in the Kingdom of God, so it should not be an issue now.



Come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and you shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. Matthew 11:28-30



While the verse in John is a call to worship and the verses in Matthew are a call to rest, both sections signify a call to Christ. That Jesus Christ is the only way to God. That only the rest which Jesus Christ offers is available through Him. All we have to do is believe that Jesus Christ is Who He says He is.



Truth in John 4:23 is from the Greek word 'veritas', meaning reality. The Word of God is real and current. It is not stale nor has it outlived its usefulness. For The Word of God is Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. The Old Testament is the history of the old covenants from and through God under which men and women of those times were brought into the family of God.

The New Testament has not ended, but is still in its growing stage, for true believers are being added to the family of God even yet. While the Book of Revelation is written out for us in our Bibles, it has yet to happen in our lifetimes. But it is real and it is true.



The New Testament is The New Covenant of Grace. Christ is this covenant. No longer are we bound by laws and rituals. We are not free of The Law, The Ten Commandments, so to speak, for The Law has been fulfilled in Christ: He is The Law. The Ten Commandments defines the character of God. The first five are a call to worship and serve Him. The second five are a call to serve His people honorably. Jesus Christ is The Law of The Old Testament made flesh in The New Testament. How cool is that?



The New Testament is where the new believer is referred to as a Christian, a Christ-follower; not just a Truth-sayer, but a Truth-doer. Their actions backed up their words. As in the beginning of the church's plantings, to say “I am a Christian” was to place a death sentence upon yourself. For many hated Christ, and as such, hate also anything that reminds them of Christ. Even us. Especially, us.



It is not supposed to be easy for you and I to be Christians. But it will be worth it.




Saturday, July 21, 2012

Spiritually Deaf-Mute




     This verse is one of God's many warnings to everyone. Whether you believe God or not, you should read the Bible for yourself, that you may know what God has to say to you. Do not take someone else's word for it what the Bible has to say. You and you alone are responsible for your actions and inactions. It will be noone else's fault if you choose to ignore God's message to you. Or if you should choose to disregard His calls on your life.
     You who have chosen to not answer God's calls on your life have set yourself up to receive God's wrath on your life instead of God's delight in you. You may think that what you have chosen to do with your life has gone unnoticed by God. You are wrong. God knows. God sees. The first part of this first says that GOD HAS CHOSEN YOUR DELUSIONS. You may think you are doing The Lord's work, but if you are not listening to God's direction, you are only fooling yourselves.
     Remember, God first calls us to salvation. And there are many verses, including these two, that will tell you this, if you will only listen and obey:
  • "There is no other name under heaven by which men can be saved." Acts 4:12
  • "Believe on the name of Jesus Christ" 1 John 3:23
  • "Whoever calls on the name of The Lord shall be saved" Romans 10:12
  • "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God" John 3:3
     I have heard it said that God only calls some people to salvation and not others. THIS IS NOT TRUE. God calls everybody to salvation. Some refuse to hear the call; some hear and refuse to answer. Romans 12:28 often gets misquoted or misinterpreted: "And we know that all things wotk together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose." Many people omit the words 'to them that love God' with the intent to misinform you and distract you from hearing God's proper Word. I have heard people quote only the first few words 'all things work together for good' and leave the rest off because they don't want to acknowledge that this is a Bible verse. 
     God is calling you to salvation. The next verse Romans 12:29 uses the word "predestinate", which throws people off and causes them to think or say that God knows who will be saved and who will not, using this as an excuse to not believe God's Word or receive God's salvation. THIS IS NOT TRUE. Everyone is predestined by God. John 3:16 "For God so loved THE WORLD (everyone and this includes you), that He gave His only Begotten Son, that WHOSOEVER (you) believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life."
      All the Word of God is for everyone to read, to hear, to obey. Your choice. I can't make you do anything you don't want to do. And while God does not force anyone to salvation, it is your disobedience for not believing and not receiving that will bring about your downfall. Disobedience always has consequences in life. For instance:

  •  Driving over the speed limit gets you a ticket, which has to be paid or you will suffer even more.   
  • Cheating on your spouse (adultery) will ruin your marriage, your family and your reputation.
  • Cheating on you income tax returns will get you a penalty of a fine or fine + jail.
  • Driving without paying attention will get you a ticket for Inattentive Driving. Sometimes this causes accidents, which may result in injuries to yourself and others. This causes your insurance rates to increase or drop you. Medical bills and household finances could suffer if you are unable to work due to your inability to pay attention while driving.
  • Not eating right or eating sufficiently can cause a person to get sick. Not just stomach aches from eating the wrong foods, but diabetes, gout, plaque in your arteries, heart attack, osteoporosis, to name a few.
  • Buying without paying cash = debt. And too much debt could cause a person to lose any assets.
     So why assume that disobeying God will not have any unpleasant consequences on you? It is foolishness to believe that your goodness is enough. It is foolishness to believe that God does not exist. It is the pot telling the potter, "I have made myself and I can do what I please." Foolishness. Psalm 14:1 "The fool says in his heart there is no God..." To say it aloud will only make know to those within hearing that you are a fool. It does not declare God's nonexistence, for GOD IS and always will be.