The Mystery of Sharing in God’s Power
Beloved Family… if you ponder the tremendous depths of meaning in chapter 11 of John’s Gospel, about what took place between Lazarus, who was dead in his tomb, and the Lord of Glory, it will help you understand what I’d like to convey to you through this message. In that text, God reveals that His Living Word made flesh is here to bring all of us to Life. We, as a race, have been dead since the Serpent murdered our first parents (in Genesis 3) by luring them into Sin… which always inflicts Death.
So dead Lazarus depicts all of us. His condition in the tomb represents our universal ‘human condition.’ And John shows us how desperately spiritually bankrupt we are and how utterly dependent we are, in all things, on God’s Living Word made flesh. He is the only Source of Life in existence, whether it be our temporary earthly life, or our Eternal Life in God! And unless He imparts His Life into our living death, and continues to sustain and guide and provide for us, we remain trapped in our own tombs of separation from God, forever. If you keep this in mind, it will help you track with what is in this message.
God Never Changes
God will not leave His Eternal dimension in order to subject Himself to the limitations of our time and space dimension. He never changes! He will always be operating from His Eternal Fullness, according to His Infinitely Perfect Nature. And He always views us, and everything about us, from His Eternal Reality and Perspective! So our only hope for real help, relief and exaltation lies in whether or not God will be legally free to lift us up to the level of His Eternal Dimension so that we may partake of Him and all that is in Him! In that case, we can receive whatever we’ll need from the Treasury of His Perfect Finished Works of Creation and Redemption! He needs nothing from this dismal fallen world. But this dismal fallen world must receive EVERYTHING from Him and His Eternal Fullness.
“Heaven is My throne and the earth is My footstool. Where then is a house you could build for Me? And where is a place that I may rest? For My hand made all these things, thus all these things came into being,” declares the Lord. But to this one I will look, to him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at My WORD!” (Isaiah 66:1-2)
Perfect Standards
How many people in the world realize that Yeshua, our beloved resurrected Messiah, is the only Human capable of passing God’s awesome Judgment?
How many of us have truly come to grips with the fact that in ourselves we will never have what it will take for us to meet God’s infinitely perfect Standards of Righteousness, Justice and Truth?
Who among us has truly comprehended what God’s written Word has revealed to this fallen world?
“You meet him who rejoices in doing righteousness, who remembers You in Your ways. Behold, You were angry, for we sinned, we continued in them a long time; and shall we be saved? ‘For all of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; and all of us wither like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.
There is no one who calls on Your Name, who arouses himself to take hold of You; for You have hidden Your face from us and have delivered us into the power of our iniquities.” (Isaiah 64:5-7)
“But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the Righteousness of God, what shall we say? The God who inflicts wrath is not unrighteous, is He? (I am speaking in human terms.) May it never be! For otherwise, how will God judge the world? But if through my lie the Truth of God abounded to His Glory, why am I also still being judged as a sinner? And why not say (as we are slanderously reported and as some claim that we say), “Let us do evil that good may come”? Their condemnation is just.
“What then? Are we better than they? Not at all; for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin; as it is written,
“There is none righteous, not even one; there is none who understands, there is none who seeks for God; All have turned aside, together they have become useless; there is none who does good, there is not even one.”
“Their throat is an open grave, with their tongues they keep deceiving,” “The poison of asps is under their lips”; “Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness”; “Their feet are swift to shed blood, destruction and misery are in their paths, and the path of peace they have not known.” “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” (Romans 3:5-18 Emphasis added.)
Our Eternal Covenant Representative
This is why our Heavenly Father commissioned His beloved Son, His Perfectly Righteous Living Word, to serve as our Eternal Covenant Representative and Champion. And, because He alone is the only human that is Righteous in the sight of God, God commissioned Him to serve as the Perfect Covering, in a spiritual and moral sense, for all the rest of us. In this sense, He is our Covenant Head and we are the living members of His Covenant Body. The Covenant makes Him and all those who believe, repent, and accept God’s Gift of Redemption and Forgiveness to become one with Him in this Covenant. It is like ‘marrying’ into God and all He is and has. This is how He is able to impart to us all of the Perfection that is in Him, and attribute all of His Righteousness… to all of us who will believe and repent. On the other hand, if we remain ‘single’ and apart from Him, we remain spiritually naked and devoid of any Righteousness. And we will surely be condemned at the Final Judgment.
So it is because only our Messiah is Sin-less, that only He can satisfy God’s Perfect Standards perfectly. And it is our Covenant union with Him that makes it possible for those of us who were born in our inherited Sin and who have personally added to it, to have the opportunity to be redeemed, forgiven, saved, and fully restored. We can do it by partaking in what God gives to us through His beloved Son, His Living Word made flesh. This is why He had to sacrifice Himself for us and make Perfect Atonement to God in our name! Thus He can fulfill in us, to Perfection, the requirements that God’s infinitely Perfect Standards of Righteousness, Truth and Justice require of everyone! And… If we submit to God’s terms and allow this to happen… it will!
Eternal Life
So, the Perfect Finished Work of Redemption that God’s Living Incarnate Word has already completed, is all that our Heavenly Father will accept. So we must receive from God, the Gift of that new, perfect Eternal Life. That is what He requires for us to be able to pass His Judgment! And that is how we can be set free from our infinite debt to God. Thanks to His Mercy, we no longer have to languish with that eternal death penalty and endless condemnation hanging over our heads! Once we truly repent of our Sin against God, the guilt and condemnation that we so justly have coming is exchanged completely for the Eternal Resurrection Life and Perfect Righteousness of the Living Word He sent to be our Covering. And what He has already done in our name, can be transmitted into us, by God’s Holy Spirit. There is no other way beloved, by which we can endure and pass through the awesome fiery Judgement of Almighty God!
“And you know the way where I am going.” Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, how do we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life; NO ONE COMES TO THE FATHER BUT THROUGH ME!” (John 14:4-6 Emphasis added.)
God’s Power, through the Cross
Beloved, note this well: This wonderful Salvation is only possible for any of us who will allow the cross to empty us of our inherent slavery to our radically independent Self-life. If we truly repent of what we are and the fallen state into which we are conceived… then, thanks to the deliverance work of the cross, God is thus free to fill us with His own Eternal Life and its Fullness and Righteous Perfection! And what He is… fulfills God’s will to Perfection… in our name!
“But we have this Treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing Greatness of the Power will be of God AND NOT FROM OURSELVES; we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the (Spirit-transmitted Resurrection) Life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body…” (2 Corinthians 4:7-10.)
“Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil. So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be (continually) filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; always giving thanks for all things (that God Himself provides for you from His Word’s Perfect Finished Work) in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father…” (Ephesians 5:15-20 Amplification and emphasis added.)
God’s Perfect Selfless Love is the only Power and Resource and Covering in existence that can satisfy the demands of His Perfect Standards of Judgment… to Perfection. Only God has this Perfectly Flawless Nature. Only He is able to operate in such perfectly Self-less Love, that is utterly impossible to us.
And that is why our fallen flesh, and its products, must be crucified even while we’re learning, as Stephen had to do, to look past the hatred, contempt and abuse of our enemies. Just as God looked past Stephen’s Sinfulness, and ours, so must we look past that of our enemies. Our Messiah, living in us by the Power of the Holy Spirit, is the one who makes all of this possible. He is the Love of God in Person. He is here not only for us, but for our enemies also! He is the only Way by which any of us can be equipped and empowered to fulfill the impossible commandments of Almighty God. So we are not to block God’s Grace from doing its work in any way. No one is to be excluded from His ongoing invitation to receive, and to fully share God’s astounding Mercy and Grace!
God’s Grace
This is exactly what our Messiah, who is our Head, has done for us. Now He intends to do the same for our still unbelieving enemies… through us. Yes, it is necessary for them to receive justice for their crimes and transgressions in this life, but only God can be their Perfect Righteous Judge. Judgment must be left up to Him, but He commissions us to be sharers and transmitters of His Grace and Mercy and Forgiveness. God will do what is impossible to us, from within us, if we will become His ‘Stephen Generation’. Saints like Stephen abide in and with God, and they receive what is impossible to them, from God’s indwelling Presence. They allow their Lord to do what only He can and must do, through their yielded flesh, on their behalf. His Grace can reach out to whoever we encounter… and in this way, if we will allow Him to do it, God can continue to save more and more still unrepentant people, while time still remains for this wonderful Salvation to take place. This is done through the obedience of our faith in Him:
“But I say to you who hear (obey) Me, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. Whoever hits you on the cheek, offer him the other also; and whoever takes away your coat, do not withhold your shirt from him either. Give to everyone who asks of you, and whoever takes away what is yours, do not demand it back. Treat others the same way you want them to treat you.” (Luke 6:27-31 Amplification and emphasis added.)
Beloved, ponder these commandments in light of the selfishness that you know naturally lurks within every one of our hearts! Any offspring of the Serpent can love what is self-serving. But only the true, Almighty, Living God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob can love and do good to even His enemies! This is how you can tell what comes from the True God, and what comes from the lying counterfeits placed before us by the death-imparting, vengeful religious spirit of the Serpent! So how could we possibly meet such high standards in our own strength? No, beloved, it must be God Himself who is able to do what is necessary, as soon as we repent of trying to run our own lives and defer to the Life of God’s Living Word, who abides within our regenerated spirits!
Exposing the Dark
Yeshua is here to expose the Dark Destruction that the Serpent and his lies create. Yeshua is God’s living Word. He is the Light of Truth and Reality that comes into this demon-possessed world to teach and demonstrate the following, to His disciples:
“If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. If you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners in order to receive back the same amount. BUT LOVE YOUR ENEMIES, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful!
“Do not judge, and you will not be judged; and do not condemn, and you will not be condemned; pardon, and you will be pardoned. Give, and it will be given to you. They will pour into your lap a good measure—pressed down, shaken together, and running over. For by your standard of measure it will be measured to you in return!” (Luke 6:32-38 Amplification and emphasis added.)
Do we grasp what our Master said? “Be merciful, JUST AS YOUR FATHER IS MERCIFUL!” Beloved, this is the clue, the clear revelation that God’s commandments are impossible for us to obey in our own strength and by our own fallen, Sin-corrupted devices! Which false god and false religion can even come close to equaling the Selfless Love and Perfect Righteousness of our Heavenly Father? Any devil can love what pleases and gratifies him! Any demon-inspired being can hate and do harm to his enemies! Any Sin-filled offspring of the Serpent can spew hatred, contempt and vengeful malice against what he or she fears and judges to be not good enough! But which of us can love our contemptible undeserving enemies the way Almighty God loves them? Did He not love us in that awesome gracious way? This Perfect level of Selfless Love reveals God… and it exposes those who still rest in and rely upon their own radically independent Self-life, and that proves that spiritually, these people remain spiritually cut off from the Life of our Messiah! Only the cross gets our flesh out of the way and then God’s Presence equips us to embody His Precious and Irreplaceable Love… who is Messiah Himself!
Yeshua, God’s living Word made flesh, is the only way by which we become able to dispense such Love into our situations and human interactions. His Presence (or His absence) is what separates the True from the False. God’s living Word separates the ‘Wheat’ from the ‘Tares’. He shows us what comes from Almighty God and separates it from the outright lies and deceptions that ooze out of the Serpent and through our unyielded, non-crucified flesh. When Yeshua, Israel’s Messiah, commands His disciples to manifest and embody a level of Mercy that is equal to the level of Almighty God’s Mercy, He’s requiring Himself to be present and active from within us. This is the way He is able to replace our demon-induced self-life, with all that pertains to, and can only come from, the living Word of God. Only He can produce God’s supernatural Fruit within us and, for us!
“You yourselves are my witnesses that I said, ‘I am not the Christ,’ but, ‘I have been sent ahead of Him.’ He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. So this joy of mine has been made full. He must increase, but I must decrease.” (John 3:28-30 Emphasis added.)
Are not even disciples of Yeshua, mere men? Have we not all been mortally wounded by the Sin-Venom of the Serpent? Isn’t it true that Death is also at work within our flesh continually, from the moment of our conception? Is the chronic inability of the various factions of mankind to agree and get along with each other (including the so-called ‘world religions’ actually due to some kind of supreme God-like perfection that is in each of us? No, of course not! Rather, our inabilities are due to the lethal effects of Sin that infest our fallen flesh and the fact that each one of us has been grotesquely disfigured and deceived by the Serpent! Yes, the Serpent has bitten us too, not just those we despise. And his venom murdered us spiritually and physically and it dragged us all into decay and has alienated us from our Creator! But, through the marvelous work of the cross… it is possible for our Creator to reunite us to Himself… and to live in us, so that all of His Fullness of Perfection can also be seen to be doing its work, in us and through us!
Divided by the Serpent
The people of this fallen world have been deceived into serving the Serpent’s selfish, self-serving, Death-inflicting existence! All the children of fallen Adam were conceived in his image and likeness! The patterns of selfishness, self-centeredness, rebellion, manipulative and predatory and self-destructive behaviors have lurked within our DNA from the beginning! We don’t have to be taught to be selfish and self-destructive – we must be disciplined, trained and forced to learn how to be good and kind and devoted to the good of others! And without that discipline and training, we all remain intent on pursuing our natural, inherited radically independent and self-adoring dog-eat-dog ways!
This is why the Serpent can so easily divide, conquer and destroy us! As long as we remain separated from our Creator, Satan has the legal right to stir up the selfishness that is in all of us. That selfishness is his legacy and property! It belongs to him! And, if the cross does not deliver us of it, and we continue to cling to it, the Serpent can still maintain a legal hold over anyone who is clinging to his property! And he can continue to use our natural desires, urges, passions and tactics of greed, hatred, revenge, suspicion, strife, mistrust and endless Death-inflicting conflict… to insure our own mutual self-destruction!
It is utterly natural for all of us to embody the Serpent! And that is why we all need the Cross to empty us of ourselves! We must be emptied out of what is unworthy of God and saved from what is natural to us – so that our risen Lord may be free to become our New Life and our abiding Righteousness – living and operating from within our crucified flesh! And this is why any false god will accept, condone and promote our fallen flesh just the way it is. But only the true Living God requires us to repent of what is natural to us. And this is why the one true living God always condemns it and demands that we repent of it and allow it to be crucified so that we can exchange it for the Righteousness that we can only receive from His Living Word! Please don’t miss this beloved! It is the difference between eternal Life and eternal Death! It can’t come from us. It is purely a Gift from Almighty God.
“Like God”
The Serpent injected Death into the first two humans in Genesis by getting them to believe they could be ‘like God!’ But beloved, how can a created, temporal race (that began as a pile of helpless dust and that fell into Sin and all of its corruption and mortality) have within itself the ability to replace and equal its Uncreated, Eternal Creator? How could we equal or replace what only His Perfect Nature can do? Isn’t it true that even the elite ‘Perfect 10’s’ of this fallen world can’t escape the ravages of the common cold? Isn’t it true that none of us can truly and effectively overcome disease, strife and warfare, no matter how much we rely on human devices and created resources to try to do it? No matter how hard humans strive to train, educate, improve, justify, gratify and prolong their earthly existences, no one can escape the Sin curses of disease, disintegration and Death! No one can control the violent weather that afflicts this tiny little planet that is hidden amid countless galaxies and solar systems.
And who can pick a mate that will always prove to be perfectly compatible and agreeable to him or her? Can anyone ensure that their marital union will persevere and that their family will be permanently content, happy and prosperous, according to their fond wishes, and best-laid intentions and plans? Do not suffering and frustration hound us all, no matter how much we try to control everything and everyone around us in order to escape the unwanted results? Do our self-devised control tactics really work? Do they truly enable us to ‘manage’ ourselves wisely, intelligently, harmoniously and prosperously, and protect ourselves and our interests in perfect peace and security?
What about our neighborhoods and cities and nations? How are fallen controlling, vengeful men and women, religious or otherwise, able to maintain peaceful relations and prosperity creating cooperation among the continents and regions and nations and neighborhoods of this world? Isn’t it true that even the so-called ‘world religions’ that claim to be the epitome of wisdom, grace and love can’t stop tearing into each other? Do they not fight among themselves and even murder their own! Thanks to such hypocrisy, their efforts to show the rest of the world how to live properly have proven to be a macabre joke throughout history!
Fallen, Living Dead…
The fallen flesh of man is filled with rage, hatred, contempt, discrimination, injustice, brutality, revenge and unspeakably cruel greedy and self-destructive selfishness! Despite all the laws we enact, we cannot even control ourselves! Despite our resolutions and good intentions and religious striving to attain the spiritual heights of God, the fact remains… we are a fallen, selfish, self-destructive, dying race. And no false god or false prophet or false religion or philosophy will ever be able to change these inescapable facts! Only the one and only resurrected Man, the Son of God, has the Authority and standing before God that enables Him to impart the eternal resurrection Life that is in Him, to those of us who will submit to His Authority and become His very own possession.
So, beloved, how are we living-dead descendants of Adam (that helpless pile of mortal dust with which God began the human race) to understand and interpret what the written Word of God commands us to be and do in the Torah and other Biblical passages… such as loving our neighbor… as ourselves?
“You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the Lord.” (Leviticus 19:18)
“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And He said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments depend the whole Law (Torah) and the Prophets (the Tanach).” (Matthew 22:36-40)
Are we capable of fulfilling these commands? Or, even on our best day, are we able to fulfill them at the level that would equal and satisfy God’s eternal, infinitely perfect and changeless Standards of Righteousness, Justice and Truth? No, of course we can’t reach such an exalted level in our own strength! We’re defeated and lost even before we begin to try!
So why do we keep ignoring the Serpent and the enormous evil that he inflicted upon us all? How can anyone insist on denying that he and his evil exist? Can’t we see that he sets us at each other’s throats, for our mutual destruction and his malevolent entertainment and satisfaction? Shall we continue to allow the Father of Lies to blind us to the Greatness of God and His Goodness toward us? Shall we remain oblivious to the fact that through His living Word and Holy Spirit, our Creator has poured Himself out for us so that He could deliver us from the Serpent… and from the Sin… and the living-death and mutual destruction that his lies have injected into our DNA? Will we dare to enter Eternity in such a state?
Dust
Who knows better and cares for us more than God? Who better understands our true wretched condition? Who is more aware of our bankruptcy and Sin-corruption and wound-inflicted disabilities than our own Designer, Creator and Redeemer? So, would He really be expecting living dead people, who are nothing more than Sin-contaminated dust, to strive to meet His Perfect Standards of Righteousness to the best of their non-existent ability? Or is He showing us our impossible condition and situation by exposing the absurdity of the Serpent’s lie that makes us believe that we have it in ourselves to strive to be ‘like God?’
Can you see how our Heavenly Father keeps saying the same thing in a variety of ways throughout Scripture?
- Can fallen, Sin-contaminated ‘dust’ ever be, or have, or do anything by and of itself?
- Can any branch take the place of its Vine?
- Can a created thing do anything apart from its Creator?
No, of course not! Dust is dead and helpless without the One who animates it and empowers it to exist and to act. The moment any branch is separated from its Vine, it dies! And that is what happened to us all. Through Adam and Eve, we were separated from our one and only True Source for everything! And at that moment, we all died! Branches can only live and bear the Vine’s fruit as long as they abide in the Vine and continue to draw absolutely everything from the Vine. And so only God’s Perfect Vine, through His Perfect Atonement that was done in our name, has the Authority and Power to cut right through the coils of the Serpent that entrap us… to set us free from his Death-dealing Darkness and insane world of Untruth!
Human history demonstrates clearly that the best our fallen flesh can do is to fail and die! The best of our best continue to rise… but they always inevitably diminish and fall and perish. So much for our decapitated pompous pharaohs, emperors, kings, czars, presidents, governments and self-righteous religious gurus! So much for all the armies and religious and political blocs and cultural and educational groupings that our so-called, assorted ‘superstar’ human beings keep trying to contrive! How pathetically short of everyone’s hopes, dreams and fondest aspirations that is! Why have we not learned this by now?
“The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the Lord blows upon it; surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever!
Get yourself up on a high mountain, O Zion, bearer of good news, lift up your voice mightily, O Jerusalem, bearer of good news; lift it up, do not fear. Say to the cities of Judah, “HERE IS YOUR GOD!” (Isaiah 40:7-9)
Abide in God’s Word and Receive Everything You Need
No, beloved… the True Vine… God’s living creative Word must do everything at all times and in all things. In ourselves, we supposedly radically independent ‘branches’ are more than just helpless – God has revealed to us that we are dead!
“And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.” (Ephesians 2:1-3)
So, beloved, I urge you to consider these questions honestly before God:
- How could we possibly have it in ourselves to love and do good to those we personally find to be repulsive, unlovable, hateful, guilty and worthy of condemnation and punishment… when we are no better than they are?
- How can we overlook the sins and obvious guilt and culpability of those who hate, undermine, attack and persecute us when the Sin that is in them also permeates us?
- And how could we ever overlook and forgive in our heart of hearts… what they have done, or are doing, to us when we do not even have the ability to forgive and redeem and save ourselves?
So, what is the true underlying meaning of what God’s living Word continually is saying to His disciples? What was He actually saying when He first began to teach and train them in chapter 5 of Matthew’s Gospel? He’s telling us that only God is able to satisfy His Standards… by living and working from within us!
“When Jesus saw the crowds, He went up on the mountain; and after He sat down, HIS DISCIPLES came to Him. He opened His mouth and began to teach THEM, saying:
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.”
(This explanation from God’s living Word of what He had previously given to Israel in the Torah directly contradicts the ways and thrust of the fallen world’s self-glorifying, man-initiated priorities, goals and systems! The Lord is saying in effect: ‘Blessed are those who believe and obey Me as a result of what I revealed in Genesis about their helpless fallen flesh and their need to draw exclusively from My Perfect Finished Works of Creation and Redemption. They have only one God, and by that, they prove that they truly are My People Israel!’)
“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”
(Blessed are they who know what the lies of the Serpent and Sin and Death have done to My Father’s beloved human creation! They acknowledge their bankruptcy and neediness and come to Me for everything they and their households will ever need. They never assume they can be or have or do anything apart from Me. They know that no matter what they do, even when they have to deal with their deadly enemies, I have already covered them and have provided whatever they will need to deal with every circumstance… even those that concern their enemies! So they do not give in to natural feelings of vengeful rage or the violent urges of Sin-corrupted flesh. They crucify those things that arise within them and look to Me to live and work from within them. I wipe their tears and supply all of the Perfect provision and remedy that My Father foresaw and has already provided for them from the very beginning. Instead of pursuing their own self-centered aims, they allow Me to fulfill My Father’s Plan, even in the case of those who try to do them harm!)
“Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth.”
(The meek and gentle have the supernatural courage to rest in Me and in what I have provided for every past, present and future care, concern and need they will experience. So because they dare to trust Me and draw everything from Me, and have the discipline it takes to allow the cross to empty them of their former slavery to the self-serving urges of their fallen nature, I am here to fill them with the Fullness of Almighty God that I contain within Me.)
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”
(They know they have no righteousness in themselves. So they do not try to be religious and trust and hope in their own efforts to save themselves. They acknowledge their bankruptcy and look to Me to be their Righteousness at all times. They also know that every other human they encounter is in the exact same state. So they learn to be understanding, forbearing, compassionate and considerate of all other people… for our Heavenly Father’s sake… so that all of His Creation, including their enemies, can be restored fully… to His eternal Glory!)
“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.”
(The merciful know that My Father has already created and provided and given everything that every creature will ever need to fulfill the Plan and Purpose He gave them. They know that all creatures, even their personal rivals and enemies, are included in Father’s Plan. So they know that the best that can happen is that God be free to work out what He has planned and destined for each one… even their personal enemies and rivals. So they do not impede the grace and love of God from reaching everything and everyone around them… not even their enemies. They do not save their enemies. Their enemies’ salvation doesn’t cost them anything. God has paid the entire bill! So, because they love and trust in the Perfection of Almighty God, they allow Him to work through them so He can apply His Salvation to their enemies… through their yielded flesh!)
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”
(They see God and what He is here to do for us all… in all things and at all times. And, therefore, they expedite the fulfillment of God’s Redemptive Restoration Plan for all that He has created. They make no exceptions for themselves, nor do they exclude their enemies. They know that all created things and beings belong to God alone, and they wait upon Him to see to the disposition of all, as God desires. If He can have what He desires… all Creation will be blessed beyond belief. To serve God instead of self is the wisest, most rewarding thing any creature can do! God wants to bless us all. If He can do that, all of Creation will thrive to the maximum extent!)
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.”
(I am the Prince of Peace. I have done everything necessary to make all things right once again. So My disciples embrace and welcome Me into their innermost being. Thus I can enter this world through their obedient faith and apply the benefits of My redemptive finished work, from within them. They are My ‘points of entry’ and ‘bases of operation on Earth.’ I can obey My Father and do what He sent Me to do… to them… in them… and through them… to Father’s Eternal Glory, and the best and highest good of all Creation.)
“Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.”
(Because of their patient, persevering Covenant loyalty and faithfulness to God… they endure the hatred and contempt of this fallen world and its systems. Thus My True Israel is expediting the entry of the cascading rivers of God’s Grace and Redeeming, Renewing Love. And for God’s sake, they do not reflect back to this world and the people in it, anything that is alien and not from their Heavenly Father. So My Father can reveal Me to all… through their obedient supernaturally courageous and faithful service.)
“Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in Heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” (Matthew 5:1-12 Emphasis added.)
(My true disciples are the True, New Covenant Remnant of Israel. For the time being, they sow their seeds of faith with tears and suffering. And they persevere in obedience, even though the deceived victims of the powers of Darkness are being manipulated to afflict and assail and oppose their efforts. But My disciples are already citizens of God’s Kingdom. And they are His emissaries and vice regents here on Earth. And they know this time of conflict and persecution will only last for a short time. And when God completes His Plan and this temporary space and time dimension runs its course, My disciples will reap the inconceivably wonderful, eternal Reward that My Father gives to Me. I will share My Inheritance with those who allow Me to save as many of their enemies as possible. The Fullness of what God wants Mankind to have will be bestowed upon, and through, these disciples. They serve to expedite the Fulfillment of what God promised to His own, from the very beginning.)
“… I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed!” (Genesis 12:3 Emphasis added.)
“Heaven is My Throne and the earth (created universe) is My Footstool. Where then is a house you (children of Adam) could build for Me? And where is a place that I may rest? For My hand made all these things, thus all these things came into being,’ declares the Lord. But to this one I will look, to him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at MY WORD!” (Isaiah 66:1-2 Amplification and emphasis added.)
God’s Power – Supernatural Transition, by the Power of the Holy Spirit
God is in the process of transforming and restoring us into the image and likeness of His Living Word made flesh. And what was once in us that was formerly radically independent of Him, is being relentlessly eliminated by the cross. Thus God is restoring us to His perfect image and likeness! This is the ultimate Exodus that God truly has in mind!
But we can’t transform into His true image and likeness unless His Word first becomes our indwelling, transforming Life! Grape branches are not independent agents with lives and agendas of their own! They can do nothing of and for themselves. Their only function is to be living extensions and expressions of the life and fruit-producing activity of their vine!
Disciples of God’s living Word are commissioned to expedite the revelation and demonstration of the working out and Perfect Fulfillment of God’s Perfect Plan of Salvation and Restoration. But only God’s living creative Word is able to obey God and fulfill His Plans to Perfection! God’s creatures must repent of trying to imitate or take His place. We must make way for the True God to take over and begin to live and work from within us! We must submit ourselves to His Holy Spirit, so that He can use the cross to fully empty us of ourselves!
“Seek the Lord while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his (radically independent, self-serving) way and the unrighteous man his (God-contradicting) thoughts and let him return to the Lord, and He will have compassion on him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon, ‘for My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,’ declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts!
“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there without watering the earth and making it bear and sprout, and furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater; so will My Word be which goes forth from My mouth; It will not return to Me empty, without accomplishing what I desire, and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it!” (Isaiah 55:6-11 Amplification and emphasis added.)
“So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; FOR IT IS GOD who (by His indwelling Word and Holy Spirit) is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure!” (Philippians 2:12-13 Amplification and emphasis added.)
God’s Plan contains all past, present and future provision for all of His creatures… including our persecutors and deadly enemies! We are not to interact with anyone out of the natural impulses, desires and urges of our self-adoring fallen flesh. We must allow God to interact with all men in ways that allow His Word and Spirit to fulfill His plan for them. Thus we must learn to draw continually from the Perfection and Fulfillment of what our indwelling God is as He abides in us to provide for every situation and event in our time and space. He will transmit into our situations what He has for us in His Treasury… that original Perfect Creation and all-encompassing Blessing that He bestowed on Adam, Eve and their offspring, from the beginning.
Indwelled by the Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit must dwell within us so that He can transmit all of that awesome Perfect Provision into us… step-by-step, and moment-by-moment. The supernatural Fruit that only God can produce begins to be seen coming out through us! This is how we give testimony to God’s Truth and Reality! He equips us to demonstrate and prove with supernatural Power, that He is working in us and freely, lavishly putting all that we need to deal with each situation, care, concern, person and need that we encounter. So the cross empties us of every disobedient urge and reaction that would naturally come out of our own radically independent, God-less fallen flesh, apart from that cross. The cross empties our Sin-residue continually… in a way that is similar to the way kidney dialysis works on those who need it. God must be legally free to fill us with His unique, Eternal Supernatural Perfection:
“You shall not hate your fellow countryman in your heart; you may surely reprove your neighbor, but shall not incur sin because of him. You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the Lord.” (Leviticus 19:17-18)
“You are to keep My statutes. You shall not breed together (mix) two kinds of your cattle; you shall not sow your field with two kinds of seed, nor wear a garment upon you of two kinds of material mixed together.” (Leviticus 19:19 Amplification added.)
(Note: Wool was commonly used for regular everyday garments and linen was used primarily to make the priestly garments set apart for use in service before the Lord. Thus weaving together linen and woolen threads was forbidden for garments because it represented a mixture of the holy and the common.)
“Now some have become arrogant, as though I were not coming to you. But I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills, and I shall find out, not the words of those who are arrogant but their power. For the kingdom of God does not consist in words BUT IN POWER!” (1 Corinthians 4:18-20)
So Israelites who heed God’s Word and rely on His All-Sufficient provision and protection are not to indulge in syncretism. They are not to mix Spirit with Flesh, Light with Darkness, Self with God, and Truth with Falsehood. No human is allowed to mix what is Uncreated with what is created. The way in which God’s people respond to people and situations and circumstances in their daily experiences must reveal and share what God Almighty has provided for His Creation, which abides in the Eternal Treasury of His Perfect, Finished, Spirit-transmitted Work. His Righteousness, Perfection and Self-less Love must be free to come through into this temporal world, without any contamination from our Sin-corrupted soulish flesh.
“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:36-40)
This changeless consistency of God manifests His Eternal Perfection at work in us. His Finished Works of Creation and Redemption are flawless. They contain His infinite Fullness. Nothing is lacking, nothing needs to be done to finish, add to, or correct what our awesome God has already done. So He requires Israel, and anyone who will be grafted into Israel’s New Covenant with God, to celebrate and demonstrate God’s Perfect, Sabbath Rest. That is what we are privileged to enjoy, with Him, and from Him. And this is what our Messiah’s disciples are commissioned to proclaim and demonstrate with their own thoughts, imaginations, decisions, actions, reactions and interactions
“And He has said to me, ‘My Grace is sufficient for you, for Power is perfected in weakness.’ Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the POWER OF CHRIST may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak (in myself), then (because My risen Lord lives and works from within me) I am strong!” (2 Corinthians 12:9-10 Amplification and emphasis added.)