Beloved Family… have you ever really considered how tremendously strong in our human nature the attraction of Sin actually is? How many times have you struggled, or have seen others struggle to overcome deeply-embedded, highly-developed sin patterns to which many of us actually become addicted? How many times throughout past history, have we seen the same weaknesses and lapses into Sin appear in generation after generation of the children of Adam?
“Then Adonai saw that the wickedness of humankind was great on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of their heart was only evil all the time. So Adonai regretted that He made humankind on the earth, and His heart was deeply pained. So Adonai said, “I will wipe out humankind, whom I have created, from the face of the ground, from humankind to livestock, crawling things and the flying creatures of the sky, because I regret that I made them.” (Genesis 6:5-7 TLV)
It is believed, by some researchers who study that pre-flood age mentioned in the Bible, that the wicked degenerate mentality and behavior of mankind during those days became so perverse, that even the genes and DNA of the human race were being so altered and contaminated, that the human race was degenerating to a point where it was no longer even human! And so God had to destroy it before it multiplied any further. And thus, God spared Noah and his family during the flood, and, through those eight people, the race was allowed to make a fresh start and begin again to populate the earth. But, they had the same Sin-loving, corrupt human nature to work with. so it wasn’t long before a deep level of human rebellion and sinfulness began to take over once again in the midst of men.
And God has revealed that as long as we’re stuck with the results we inherited through the original fall into Sin of our first parents, no matter how much we strive to educate and discipline and improve ourselves as a race, and as individuals, none of that will ever overcome the damage that Sin and mortality have done to us. Nor will the product of our efforts to be ‘religious’ and ‘spiritual’ ever equip and enable us to meet God’s Standards for what is truly human in His estimation. Therefore, when the course of each life has been completed, no one will be allowed into His Holy Presence UNLESS each of us allows God to do what is necessary to rescue, recreate, restore and transform us back to being His image and likeness. And this is what His Gospel of Salvation is about.
Scripture tells us that God originally designed and created us to be His personal image and likeness. But instead of maintaining that exalted ability and status, thanks to the malicious interference of the Serpent, Sin and Death were injected into our human nature by the unbelief and rebellion of our first parents. And because those totally unintended results took over within us, and continue to be at work within our fallen human nature, the human race has devolved instead, to be the image and likeness of the Serpent! So our unacceptable position in the sight of God is not about the wicked things we do… it’s about the wicked beings we are, by nature!
And that means that there’s nothing any of us will ever be able to do, to cleanse, purify, remake or improve ourselves, in order to meet God’s Righteous and Holy utterly Perfect Standards. The problem we’re stuck with is not about the terrible things we’ve done, or are doing, or will ever do. The problem goes far, far deeper than that. It is about what is in the DNA of our fallen nature! God did not create any of that! It is the product of the Sin of radical independence from our Creator and the Death that destroyed our eternal destiny with God, and that degenerated our first parents into a state of mortality and corruption! So God will never be able to accept us according to His Standards of Righteousness and Justice as long as we remain stuck in the original Sin-corrupted state of being we inherited at conception.
So, we’re helpless to do anything about our situation. The way to our Salvation, Redemption and Restoration can never depend on us or our own efforts to change ourselves. We can do nothing to redeem, save, improve, or alter ourselves. Corrupted agents can produce nothing but corrupt results. So we must realize and admit that our only hope for Redemption and Salvation lies in God, our Creator. Only He, the Creator of all things, has the Authority and Power and Wisdom necessary to recreate us and empower us to transform into brand new creations that will satisfy His requirements and meet His Perfect Standards. And this is what we must always keep in mind:
Only God Himself knows enough, and is authoritative and powerful enough, to know what His Nature requires in order for His Perfectly Perfect Standards to be satisfied!
The Serpent’s supreme Lie – that we could be as God through our own efforts – eminently qualifies him to bear the title of ‘The Father of Lies.’ Despite what he said, we’ll never be qualified to manufacture a righteousness of our own that would be anywhere near the equal of God’s! Only our Creator can know and meet His own Perfect Standards, Perfectly! So, obviously, just as He had to do everything to create each one of us in the first place, so also must He be the one who must:
- do everything to recreate or regenerate us, and
- cause us to be perfectly righteous and holy, and
- profoundly redeem and restore us,
- so that we would once again perfectly satisfy His original blueprint specifications for what is truly Human.
But in ourselves, we will always be utterly helpless and hopeless when it comes to saving us from ourselves.
“When Yeshua heard this, He said to him, “One thing you still lack. Sell all, as much as you have, and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow Me.” But upon hearing these things, he became deeply distressed, for he was very rich.
Gazing at him, Yeshua said, “How hard it is for the rich to enter into the Kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God.
“Then those who heard said, “Then who can be saved?”
But Yeshua said, “What is impossible with men is possible with God.” (Luke 18:22-27 TLV, Emphasis added.)
Yes, it’s true; for those of us who assume that created beings or things are all that we need in order to be completely fulfilled and satisfied beings, salvation is impossible. But for those who know how desperately they need God, it most certainly is possible and well within their ability to receive it from Him, since no one wants us to be saved and restored more than He does! But we must heed His Living and written Word, and submit to His Word’s Authority as He has revealed it, so that we can be in the proper position to receive from Him, what only He is able to give us.
“For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him. The one who believes in Him is not condemned; but whoever does not believe has been condemned already, because he has not put his trust in the Name of the one and only Ben-Elohim (Son of God).” (John 3:16-18 TLV, Amplification and emphasis added.)
Did you get that? The God of the Bible is telling us, point blank, that regardless of what this fallen world has to offer, nothing that is in it will be able to be or to do for us what God considers to be necessary. That fallen world is rife with myriads of false gods and false religions and vain philosophies and isms’ so it can never compare or replace what our God is or does as He reigns over all of His Creation.
Regardless of how right and esthetically appealing any false religion may appear to be, and no matter how many people they may succeed in beguiling and attracting and deluding, they are nothing more than demonic snares hidden in the Darkness that will entrap and drag men to their eternal doom. No matter what glorious fantasies or worldly honors, awards, positions and achievements they may offer to us, none of these created things can save us or give us the fulfillment that our fallen souls crave. The Truth is, that only our Creator can redeem, save and fully restore us to our God-intended human wholeness and everlasting consummation and contentment.
“For Jewish people ask for signs and Greek people seek after wisdom, but we proclaim Messiah crucified—a stumbling block to Jewish people and foolishness to Gentile people, but to those who are called (both Jewish and Greek people), Messiah, the Power of God and the Wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.” (1 Corinthians 1:22-25 TLV. Amplification and emphasis added.)
“For you see your calling, brothers and sisters, that not many are wise according to human standards, not many are powerful, and not many are born well. Yet God chose the foolish things of the world so He might put to shame the wise; and God chose the weak things of the world so He might put to shame the strong; and God chose the lowly and despised things of the world, the things that are as nothing, so He might bring to nothing the things that are— so that no human might boast before God. But because of Him you are in Messiah Yeshua, who became to us wisdom from God and righteousness and holiness and redemption— so that, just as it is written, “Let him who boasts, boast in Adonai.” (1 Corinthians 1:26-31 TLV, Emphasis added.)
“Thomas said to Him, “Master, we don’t know where You are going. How can we know the way?”
“Yeshua said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life! No one comes to the Father except through Me. If you have come to know Me, you will know My Father also. From now on, you do know Him and have seen Him.” (John 14:5-7, TLV, Emphasis added.)
Not All Will Have Ears To Hear Or Eyes To See
Now we know that the fallen humanistic, Self-adoring world can’t stand to hear this message. People who pride themselves on being radically independent agents, who strive to run their own lives, utterly despise those who proclaim this message. And they hold God and His Living Word in contempt. That’s why they strive to silence anyone that would dare to proclaim that Yeshua is the only Way to Salvation!
This is why we who are called to be His disciples see and feel that contempt being thrown at us from every direction. And the opposition will escalate and intensify the further we move into the climactic atmosphere of the Last Days Era, within which God has commissioned us to live and operate. Disciples of the Living Word of God made flesh are always the objects of worldly scorn, and ridicule and persecution. Our message is so jarring and convicting and upsetting to them that they cannot stand to hear it! So it should be no surprise to any of us that we have all been born into a War that always rages and will continue to intensify, right up until the end of this age.
“Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so be as wary as serpents, and as innocent as doves. But be on guard against people, for they will hand you over to the courts and flog you in their synagogues; and you will even be brought before governors and kings on My account, as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles. But when they hand you over, do not worry about how or what you are to say; for what you are to say will be given you in that hour. For it is not you who are speaking, but it is the Spirit of your Father who is speaking in you.
“Now brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death. And you will be hated by all because of My name, but it is the one who has endured to the end who will be saved.
“But whenever they persecute you in one city, flee to the next; for truly I say to you, you will not finish going through the cities of Israel until the Son of Man comes. A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a slave above his master. It is enough for the disciple that he may become like his teacher, and the slave like his master. If they have called the head of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they insult the members of his household!” (Matthew 10:16-25)
So, beloved friends, we have been warned: whenever the Holy Spirit leads us to advance into ‘enemy territory’ and moves us to confront and oppose error and wickedness by proclaiming God’s Truth, we will be speaking to hostile and biased audiences that will feel impelled to deny, contradict, belittle, or attack us, and whatever we stand for. That will be, as is commonly said, ‘par for the course.’ It is to be expected. And that is why it is so necessary for us to, so identify with our Messiah, that we will actually become one with Him in our spirit, mind, will and emotions.
“A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a slave above his master. It is enough for the disciple to become like his teacher, and the slave like his master. If they have called the head of the house Beelzebul, how much more the members of his household!
“So do not fear them, for there is nothing concealed that will not be revealed and nothing hidden that will not be made known. What I tell you in the darkness, speak in the light; and what you hear in your ear, proclaim from the housetops! And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Instead, fear the One who is able to destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.” (Matthew 10:24-28)
And there is wonderfully good news for those of us who will follow the Lord that not even the most traumatic of times on Earth can change or eliminate! The Lord has promised that God’s Holy Spirit will be abiding within us and He will be filling us with the Perfect Resurrected Presence and Fullness of our risen Lord! And the Lord said in the text above, that we are not to fret over what we will say when we’re being led to confront hostile unbelieving people. He said the Holy Spirit, (God Almighty Himself) will be speaking and acting through us!
“Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own, but the Father, as He remains in Me, does His works. Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me; otherwise believe because of the works themselves. Truly, truly I say to you, the one who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I am going to the Father. And whatever you ask in My Name, this I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything in My Name, I will (be the one that will actually) do it!” (John 14:10-14, Amplification and emphasis added)
Dear ones… I am convinced that the meaning of ‘doing or saying anything in our Master’s Name’ goes far, far deeper than merely using it as a sort of ‘mantra’ or empty religious slogan. We speak and act in His Name, not merely because we religiously say that we’re acting in His Name. No! It is when our risen Lord is actually being transmitted into us by the Holy Spirit… and we are allowing Him to live His Perfect Life… and say what Father is telling Him to say… and do what Father tells Him to do… THROUGH OUR YIELDED, CRUCIFIED FLESH! That is when we are equipped and commissioned to speak in His Name! If we’re operating by faith in the revelation that our risen Lord actually lives and works in us because we died with Him on the Cross, THEN… He is actually living and working from within us, and we are therefore qualified to speak and operate, not as separate individuals, but as ‘living branches’ that cleave to and abide in their Vine, and through whom the Vine is free to reveal Himself!
So, just as the Father was abiding and speaking and acting from within His beloved Son Yeshua in the Gospels, so will Father require His Son to abide, and speak and act from within His New Covenant Last Days disciples! And that means God requires us disciples to learn to be and do, what the original apostles had to learn to be and do:
“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me!” (Galatians 2:20 KJV, Emphasis added.)
So, how can we tell that it is the risen Lord who actually is free to live and act from within us? Well, here’s the Biblical revelation that would have to be fulfilled and seen to be coming out of us, if He is truly our Life:
“Therefore, Yeshua answered them, “Amen, amen I tell you, the Son cannot do anything by Himself. He can do only what He sees the Father doing. Whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise.” (John 5:19, Emphasis added)
So the Living Word of God made flesh, the Son, is the Perfect image and likeness of the Father; and the disciples of the Living Word, are being transformed into the image and likeness of the Son! Beloved, this is not a mere religious cliché. This is not a religious skit. This is the actual Resurrection Presence of the Lord, being revealed through human flesh on Earth once again. Only this time, He is being revealed through the yielded flesh of His disciples! It is this level of disciples who will have the right to say: “I am speaking and acting in the Name of my Lord Yeshua!”
“I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for apart from Me, you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away like a branch and is dried up. Such branches are picked up and thrown into the fire and burned.
“If you abide in Me and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it shall be done for you. In this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so PROVE to be My disciples.” (John 15:5-8 TLV, Emphasis added.)
Dear friends, are you tracking with this? The Warrior Class that will emerge from within the ranks of the Last Days disciples will actually have to believe so deeply that their risen Lord is actually living and acting from within them, that His Resurrection Reality will actually blot out and totally replace everything they used to be, and do, and believe, and aspire to in the past! And when they identify so deeply and totally with their indwelling Lord, and believe that only He is their New Life, and only He occupies First Place in everything that pertains to them, He will be ALL… in everything they are or have or think, or say or do! Not even angry crowds that are cursing and threatening and coming against us will be able to intimidate us or force us to back down or retreat.
When it’s all about our Glorious Risen Lord living and acting from within us, and flooding our inner consciousness, then not even what may happen to be swirling around us will be able to force our attention away from Him! And when He holds First Place in our minds and hearts, and His Resurrection Glory becomes our Shield… and His Word comes out of our mouths like a two edged sword that cuts and slices through whatever is before us… and we are no longer what we used to be in the past, apart from Him… THEN we have the privilege, and the right, and the commission to know, and to claim, that we are actually living and acting in His most Precious Name!
Beloved, when we have renewed our minds, and rewired our brains to that extent, we will also be equipped to rest and rejoice in Him. We will actually begin to experience all of the endless features and advantages and gifts that are contained in the New Covenant Inheritance of Christ… in which we rightfully bear the name of ‘co-heirs’. And we will thus have the right to comprehend and enjoy in our hearts, the actual experience of what it really means to be able to follow Him along the narrow path… and enjoy the reality of being able to afford – to actually experience – the REST that He shares with His Father, who is also ready and willing to share with those of us who are truly His. And we will see with our own eyes the Absolute Truth of this awesome statement that He made to His original first century disciples:
“Yeshua answered them, “Do you now believe? Look, the hour is coming—indeed has come—when you will be scattered, each to his own, and you will abandon Me. Yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me. These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have shalom. In the world you will have trouble, but take heart! I HAVE OVERCOME THE WORLD!”” (John 16:31-33 TLV, Emphasis added)
“At that time Yeshua said in response, “I praise You, Father, Lord of Heaven and of Earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and discerning and revealed them to infants. Yes, Father, for this way was pleasing to You.
“All things have been handed over to Me by My Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him. Come to Me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” (Matthew 11:25-30, Emphasis added)
So, even when we are required to deal with very difficult and trying issues and situations and circumstances that the powers of Darkness will be inflicting on us on the battlefields of the Last Days, we will be able to focus the attention of our conscious awareness on the Heavenly Eternal Resurrection Reality that is already ours:
“Therefore, if you have been raised up with Messiah, keep seeking the things above—where Messiah is, sitting at the right hand of God. Focus your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Messiah in God. When Messiah, who is your Life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him, in Glory!” (Colossians 3:1-4 TLV, Emphasis added)
And, just like Stephen was able to do in Acts 7, we too will be able to endure the buffeting of our earthly situations and circumstances, repeating to ourselves this awesome Truth that serves as a beacon in the Darkness… keeping us focused and straight and on course:
“Lord, you are living in, and acting in, and through my crucified flesh… and all the while… my soul is resting and rejoicing, IN YOU!”