Sunday, May 22, 2022

Two Dangers to the fellowship with God

 

1 John 2:15-28 NKJV 15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world----the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life----is not of the Father but is of the world. 17 And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever. 18 Little children, it is the last hour and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour.

1.       2 dangers to fellowship with God, loving the world/loving the things in the world; The world’s foundation is flesh: seen in the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes,/the pride of life ;The world is passing away. It is “dead”.

2.       Antichrists: they are anti-Jesus! 1 John 2:19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us. 20 But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things. 21 I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and that no lie is of the truth. 22 Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist who denies the Father and the Son. 23 Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father either; he who acknowledges the Son has the Father also.

                                                                                                               

Made manifest are those who are anti- Jesus: Deuteronomy 13:13 Corrupt men have gone out from among you and enticed the inhabitants of their city, saying, “Let us go and serve other gods”---which you have not known.”

Reminded of Matthew 24:24 For false-christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.

2 Thessalonians 2:9 the coming of the lawless one is according to the working of satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, 10 and with all unrighteous deceptions among those who perish because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved.

Can you imagine those who will not receive the love of Christ?

From verse 9 of 2 Thessalonians 2….people are giving the announcements of aliens from other planets….God did not create other beings from other planets. He would given it in His word! No, liars are growing in multitudes to renounce Christ! There are those who just make up stories to rally unbelievers into something so out there, they fail to see, fail to know Jesus and die in the lie!

Scriptures given to us is that those who will perish is those of have not received the love and the truth, they have put no faith in Jesus Christ: they did not receive the love of the truth! Be discerning: understand Satan can imitate signs and wonders. Through the Holy Spirit, you and I discern what is truth in God and what is the lie in Satan!         

                                                                              

1 John 2: 24 Therefore let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father. 25 And this is the promise that He has promised us----eternal life. 26 These things I have written concerning those who try to deceive you. 27 But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, & you do not need that anyone teach you, but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him. 28 And now, little children, abide in Him that when He appears, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before Him at His coming.

1.       From V. 24-27 it is 2 things that will keep and protect the readers from falling victim to the seductive teachings of heretics. Constantly abiding in the truth concerning Christ, which they had received from the apostles, Gospel truth given to keep hearing to abide in the Father and the Son! And point two, the anointing of the Holy Spirit, whose illuminating power will enable us to distinguish truth from error! To receive spiritual knowledge under the guidance of the Holy Spirit is to know truth in a way that human instruction cannot provide. Holy Spirit in our lives moves us into the empowering life God intended for us to live.

2.       This text is not an argument against the ministry of teaching; Romans 12:7…… let us use it in our ministering; he who teaches, in teaching. Teaching as to the revealed truth of God’s words regardless of any public office. If you are not living in the gift God granted you as to a teacher, you sin. If you do not live in the gifting as to being a giver you sin. Remember Jesus cursed the fig tree: He cursed that which had beautiful leaves and no fruit. If we do not live in obedience to what He has for us, it is sin! If you living just to sing and God called you as a prophet, you sin against Him! ( it is like your mom giving you a toothbrush to brush your teeth, but you only wet the brush and never put the paste on to go inside your mouth to clean the teeth.)

From 1 John 2:15-17 the word world is given: The world does not refer to the physical creation but only to that sphere under the control of evil operating due to the dominion of satan.  1 John 4:4 You are of God, little children and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. 5 They are of the world, and the world hears them. 6 We are of God. he who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. He who Knows God hears us…to understand God!                                                                              

Growth is always seen in the presence of love. Loves is as a test of the Christian life we read in 1 John 2:7-11. The love source in God should be revealed in us as we move from salvation at the Cross to reach our neighbor. That love will always manifest as sacrificial in attitude and in action like it did in Jesus! Our lifestyle must represent Jesus in that attitude that is of sacrifice for another. Holy Spirit has come to enable us to love others!  We are to remain steadfast to the gospel through faith and the love of God.                                                                                                      

From 1 John 2:10-11 NKJV 10 He who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him. 11 But he who hates his brother is in darkness and walks in darkness and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

1.       Walks in darkness: John 12:35 Then Jesus said to them, “a little while longer the light is with you. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you; he who walks in darkness does not know where he is going. 36 While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become the sons of light. John 8:12 “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.”

2.       Has blinded his eyes: John 12:40 He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, lest they should see with their eyes, lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, so that I should heal them.  ; 2 Corinthians 3:14 …but their minds were blinded. For until this day the same veil remain had remained un-lifted in the reading of the Old Testament, but now the veil is taken away in Christ. ;  2 Corinthians 4:4 ;  …whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, let the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.

                      

As to Growth in the Lord: Little children will always find out that there is more to salvation, as to growth in the Lord. Romans 8:1 there is therefore now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus……who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit for the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made us free from the law of sin and death.  From a young one in infancy with God, one becomes the young adult; they encounter that challenge, their faith is tested and they can know victory :For we walk by faith, not by sight.  “Fatherhood” is that place designated and is given to saints who have come to know God as friend.

 

Jesus spoke this in Matthew 18:2-5 NKJV Then Jesus called a little child to Him, set him in the midst of them, 3 and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 5 Whoever receives one little child like this in My name receives Me.

Only the humble is devoid of arrogance and self-exaltation; Humility is one willingly submitted to God and His will. Child likeness is character Jesus pointed to: as to being a servant at heart. As the child depends on his or her Father , so too we are to depend as a child does ; In the kingdom of God there is no dominance over others. The dominion or authority of the kingdom of God is for victorious, fruitful living and for the overthrow of hellish powers by those who want to dominate by a single  rule of hate!                                                         

Those of the fatherhood in Christ, grow in joy and peace daily. They encourage others in the faith. They reside in that peaceful state with joy in their heart and willingly reach out to others to make the Gospel love known! 1 Thessalonians 3:11 Now may our God and Father Himself and our Lord Jesus Christ, direct our way to you. 12 And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love to one another and to all, just as we do to you, 13 so that He may establish your hearts  blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

 Paul the apostle wrote in a letter to the Philippians that he was thanking God for the remembrance of the believers always in every prayer of his making request for them with joy.  Philippians 1:4……Paul saw his fatherhood in the Father and how it related back to the church by having a joy to pray for others of the faith! As the “fatherhood” begins to disciple spiritual offspring through the loving progress of reproducing that walk they have had there are always new levels in the spiritual growth. Spiritual growth is not speaking the culture of their day, but of the truth in Jesus Christ where character is the image of God Himself!

In the relationship with God our Father, we walk by faith with Him. We speak words that He has given us to speak. We live as we saw Jesus walk His life out on earth. It will always come back to if we have a walk with the Lord. For living godly, the personal growth is seen both to the spiritual life and the sensitivity to the social relationships around us. Anything without these two function is dead because if you are inclined to talk your way to heaven instead of walk your way there, then you will be noted as never leaving earth to see the glory of Him Who created you in your mother’s womb. Have a heart of the Lord, and have a heart for those God sees and to whom He defends. Amen.


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Anointing: The Abiding and The Empowering

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Saturday, May 7, 2022

Between the Moral and the Immoral Alternatives

 Was reflecting on a couple of passages in the Old Testament and I thought of Eve and son Cain. Like mother, like son in that they both added something not given by God, but their own choice in will and speaking. And what is the choice when these are facing a person: remembering a sinner to choose godliness or sinful indulgence? Yet, we have been given salvation by faith through Jesus. This grace whereby we have been saved, it is the gift of God to us found in Ephesians 2:8. In this undeserved kindness, we see in action, a love so wonderful and to be realized with great things coming in our future with God and His Son!

But like I mentioned in the beginning I was thinking of Eve and Cain. It those who keep talking when they should be listening!

Genesis 3: 1 Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden?” 2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden: 3 but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’”

 Now God did not say “touch it” but He did say not eat that fruit! So Eve had a thought process already in movement. If you are intent on that fruit, you most certainly will have to touch it to eat it!

 Genesis 3:4 Then the serpent said to the woman, “You shall not surely die.” 5 For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.

These two were made in God’s image! Still we have a woman set on self-rule and not on God dependency. Proverbs 1:7 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

 Genesis 3:6….so when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, & a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit & ate. She also gave to her husband with her, & he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, & they knew that they were naked; & they sewed fig leaves together & made themselves coverings.

Adam knew she had eaten and was in the process of learning death and decay. So he ate with her so as to not allow her to go alone into that pitiful place! Man is to resemble God his maker: Genesis 5:1 This is the book of the genealogy of Adam. In the day that God created man, He made him in the likeness of God. 2 He created them male & female, & blessed them & called them Mankind in the day they were created. ( Did not make them Adam and Steve, but Adam and Eve!)

And then in Revelation 1:8 Jesus tells us that He has the keys to death and hell…the very thing the devil caused in the first man & woman. Jeremiah 17:9 says, his heart is desperately wicked. Jesus reinforces this in Matthew 15:19-20: "For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things which defile a man. . . ."

 

If one were to present a truly converted person with the same options, he would choose the life of virtue, peace and love. He would know he is righteous in God, born again into the kingdom of God where there is much light and life!

Eve plunged into a deep spiral toward death and decay.

Then we find Cain in Genesis 4. In Genesis 4:1 Now Adam knew Eve his wife and she conceived and bore Cain and said, “I have acquired a man from the LORD.” 2 Then she bore again, this time his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. 3 And in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the LORD. 4 Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat.

And the LORD respected Abel and his offering, 5 but He did not respect Cain and his offering. And Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell. 6 So the LORD said to Cain, “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen?” 7 “If you do well, will you not be accepted?” And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.

( Just adding a note here: Cain is trying to do what his parents were to do in the beginning. But they failed to do what God instructed. And the garden of Eden was closed to them. Now Cain pushes the envelope, but man sinned and required a sacrifice.)

 8 Now Cain talked with Abel his brother and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him. 9 Then the LORD said to Cain, : Where is Abel your brother? He said, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?” 10 And He said, “What have you done?  The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground. 11 So now you are cursed from the earth, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. 12 When you till the ground, it shall no longer yield its strength to you. A fugitive and a vagabond you shall be on the earth.” 13 And Cain said to the LORD, “My punishment is greater than I can bear!” 14 Surely You have driven me out this day from the face of the ground; I shall be hidden from Your face; I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond on the earth and it will happen that anyone who finds me will kill me. 15 And the LORD said to him, “Therefore, whoever kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him seven-fold. And the LORD set a mark on Cain, lest anyone finding him should kill him.

Cain slew his brother Able in the field. He did not like what God spoke to him!

Cain’s heart was one of attitude and revenge. He was not a “happy camper” with God.  From verse 9 of Genesis 4, Cain tells God this: “ Am I my brother’s keeper? Evil shows itself most often in verbal violence. In fact, the Apostle Paul quotes Psalm 10:7 to show that everyone, Jews and Gentiles alike, are under the power of sin (Romans 3:14). And James says  " And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell. "(James 3:6)

 And from a violent heart comes violent actions.

So he speaks out, probably yelling verse 14 : “ Surely You have driven me out this day from the face of the ground; I shall be hidden from Your face; I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond on the earth and it will happen that anyone who finds me will kill me.”

Cain put a bounty on his head! All he had to do was repent. He added to what God had spoken and was determined to get revenge. But God protected Cain with this symbol, the ‘mark on Cain’. Anyone who tried to kill Cain would know they would be responsible to payback seven fold the wrath.

 Why did God spare the life of the world's first murderer instead of taking it? One reason is that he had not yet given man a command not to murder another human. Such a command will be given, however, right after Noah leaves the ark after the floodwaters subside (Genesis 9:6). An additional (and likely more important) reason he was allowed to live is so that other humans would be warned of God's view and judgment on sin. God would not allow it!

Seen in Genesis 4:15, God gives warning: “whoever kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him seven-fold.”  Wow, what a warning! Anyone attempting to further punish Cain by death would contradict his purpose of allowing him to be a living witness of his judgment.  It was God Himself who reserved punishment for the crime of murder on Abel. No one would override God’s wisdom and authority on this rebellion done.

The “mark of Cain” had nothing to do with changing his skin color or anything like that.  Man is made in God’s image. We are all one blood in the lineage from Adam and Eve. The mark of Cain revealed he did not worship God but worshiped himself instead.

Psalm 10: 3-11 NKJV For the wicked boasts of the desires of his heart’s desire,

He blesses the greedy and renounces the LORD. 4 The wicked in his proud countenance does not seek God; God is in none of his thoughts. 5 His ways are always prospering; Your judgments are far above, out of his sight; As for all his enemies, he sneers at them. 6 He has said in his heart, “ I shall not be moved; I shall never be in adversity.” 7 His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and oppression; under his tongue is trouble and iniquity. 8 He sits in the lurking places of the villages; in the secret places he murders the innocent; His eyes are secretly fixed on the helpless. 9 He lies in wait secretly, as a lion in his den; He lies in wait to catches the poor; He catches the poor when he draws him into his net. 10 So he crouches, he lies low, that the helpless may fall by his strength. 11 He has said in his heart, God has forgotten; He hides His face; He will never see.”

 We are told in verse 3 of Psalm 10 that the wicked pursue the poor. They turn on them because they first turned against God. And this is what Cain did. These wicked boast and are proud in their desires. They desired and pursued even though it is the wrong thing in God’s eyes.

 Like Cain, he had a greed and it got him into some trouble.  The heart determines one's preferences and inclinations, and thus it determines one's choices, subjecting the will to it. Murder came in the package from Satan and his demons. They communicated that to man through the course of this world. YOU can see that in the Flood in Genesis 6. The world has shaped our pre-conversion heart, and thus it affects our relationship with God.

Yes, Cain was marked for he was a man of cursing and deceit. He had desires to hurt others like he did his brother Abel. God marked the man of murder. But God would not allow him to die in that way. He would live as a vagabond.

Between the moral and the immoral alternatives, outside of God is death and destruction. Within His boundaries is life and much light guiding us the way home! Eve could have had any tree in the garden, but the one God said “NO” to! Before her was the bounty of many trees with much fruit to be had for two people. But that lust of the eyes is deadly indeed! And Cain did not give the sacrifice that God delighted in, nor  had the respect for, so what Cain had done had not met the requirement needed to worship God.

 Lawlessness takes us out of the plan of God.  Lawlessness brings a haphazard kind of life, if you can call it that. OUR Confidence should be in God and the promises He has given us. His promises were given to be planted within our hearts and rely on the truth so that we shall see them come to pass in our lives. God has abundance. He has no lack in anything: He is GOD!

 We must submit to God and resist the devil. In that we set the standard of God in our lives. Without His standard and the haphazard lawless way of living, other catastrophes might occur to end’s one life. It will mark places like Sodom and Gomorrah. It will be something that is seen decades later or thousands of years later, a place where no man lives.

Cain would be a vagabond, not living long enough to really settle anywhere for his heart could not allow him to do that. Land was cursed so that any seed he put there would not produce for him. Repentance was the required antidote to hell. Surely we should desire to see God and His goodness and not turn away.

It is the testimony of faith that we speak of every good thing we have through Him: abundance not in things, but in God who desires to give us His kingdom. It is a life totally occupied with the kingdom of God that is free from attitudes, freedom in His love and mercy where a grateful heart and a joy in the heart abound in the grace of God!

God is not forgetful nor is He negligent. Instead God is patient and kind with sinners, giving them every opportunity to turn away from their sin and repent. The Scriptures warn us not to draw the wrong conclusion when God is patient with our sin.

And what is the choice when these are facing a person: remembering a sinner to choose godliness or sinful indulgence? What will we choose?


                                            New teaching at: Voice of Prayer 

To Guard the Anointing

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