The kingdom of religion

The “kingdom of religion” can  be roughly  divided into two halves:

a) Those with a guilty conscience.

b) Those with a seared conscience.

With the former, everything they say, do or think is the outworking or product of a guilty conscience. Religion is the Panadol for their guilt, they are on a treadmill chasing a carrot, and a clear conscience is always just out of reach.

With the latter, they have dealt with their guilty conscience simply by denying it exists, burying their heads in the sand until Judgment Day. Everything about them is the product of a seared, or dead conscience. As Jude described, they turn the grace of God into a license to sin. Of course, they don’t say they have a license to sin, they simply deny their sin is sin, which is the same thing in the sight of God.

However, a pure, washed-in-the-precious-blood-of-Christ conscience is the only source of anything pure. All that is pure and real flows from a pure conscience.

What a blessing!

Unto you first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.
(Acts 3:26)

He blessed us in turning us away from our sins.

Only a fellowship

It’s funny, that if you say you attend a “fellowship” then many take that to mean it’s not a real church.

All is well

Even in the most dreadful circumstances faith says, All is well. In Christ Jesus all is well. He said, Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.

The Holy Spirit knows everything

The Holy Spirit knows everything. If He lives in you then you would be very wise to glean what you need to know from He who knows everything, as He opens the truth in Jesus to you. True Christianity is mind-blowing, for all the resources of God are ours.

A people

Biblical church is a people, but the church system is a system, and there’s a huge difference between God’s people coming together as God’s people, and following a system. There is a pattern for church in the New Testament, a guideline, a plumb-line, a blueprint, and yet it’s by revelation of what the church is in the sight of God: when every member of the body of Christ is taught by the Holy Spirit what the church is, and what is its divine purpose – that it’s simply people – no more, no less – it’s people, nothing else: nothing more than flesh and blood people coming together in Jesus name. Now, it’s rare to find Christians who know or care what the church is, therefore it’s rare to find authentic expressions of the church. A denominational or traditional church may have a lot of born again children of God attending, and yet it still may not be an authentic expression of what the church is: the members may be ignorant to what church is. They may attend a service, and be unaware that in the early church there was not a “church service” as such, it was simply a meeting of saints together, and they did not follow an “an order of service”, they related to one another as one would tend to do in “real life”. When they attend the service then “real life” is temporarily suspended for an hour or two, and something else is acted out. In the early church, elders would facilitate and provide guidance, but the church belonged to the people, for the church IS the people, period, and Christ is her Head.

The same authority

With the same authority by which we resist satan’s temptations to sin we also cast demons out of people. If we cannot cast satan out of our own personal life then we can’t cast him out of others. It’s exactly the same spiritual authority in operation, in the name of Jesus.

More dying to do

As children of God, if our flesh manifests we know we have more dying to self to do. Death to self, and the resurrection life of Jesus ruling: dying and truly  living.

The Message

Whoever believes on Me shall not perish but have everlasting life.

~ Jesus Christ

Convenience

It’s funny how even liberals sometimes appeal to the authority of scripture when they want to make a point, yet they are very selective as to which parts of scripture have authority and which parts supposedly don’t – it’s simply by convenience,  when it suits them, and not by the fear of God.

Uncrucified “ME”

Since ordinary human friendships bond by common desire the conversion of desire to the will of Christ will mean much rejection; “your former friends are surprised when you no longer plunge into the flood of wild and destructive things they do. So they slander you.” (1 Pet 4:4). Anyone who lives comfortably in this world has corrupted the gifts of God in order to line up with the longings of the age (1 Cor 7:29-31; 2 Tim 3:12). This is a huge problem today. When evangelism looks like marketing, preaching like motivational speaking, church growth like franchising and pastoral care like therapy “popular Church” is built on uncrucified desire. Intimacy with Christ in his innermost struggles of soul comes only when “those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” (Gal 5:24; Phil 3:10). This involves not merely  death to obviously sinful desires for “gold, gals’ and glory” but the forsaking of our best intentions. As long as an under-crucified ‘ME’ craves for the renewal of the Church, success in ministry or deepening personal spirituality (as I see it) I can never share in the fully satisfied presence of Jesus seated at God’s right hand. Only Christ’s Spirit can lead me into realms of desire I would never desire for myself. Through leading me into submission to such utterly alien desires he alone fulfils my deepest heart desires and brings me to rest (Matt 11:28). Such a rest from self generated desire violates our egocentric God-defying culture and makes us undesirables in an activist Church.

~ John Yates

The inner man

…Though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.

(2 Corinthians 4:16b)

The outward man is merely a vessel to carry your inner man,  yet that is a very important role, so let’s maintain the perishing outward man with wisdom so he can bear the inner man, who will never die.

God renews our inner man every day, think about that. Our inner man needs daily renewing, and our inner man is growing into the fullness of Christ, into full maturity in Him. We are not to be passive in this.

Conscious of the Body of Christ

How conscious are we of the one body of Christ, our brothers and sisters, from every nation, tribe and language, and, do we pray for them?

Faith is greater

Our faith in Jesus needs to be greater than our fears, flesh, self, pride, ego etc.  …greater than the world. Then we can live in His victory over all these, by faith.

For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. (I John 5:4)

Prosperity

A comment i made on FB regarding the definition of prosperity:

We could also say, true divine prosperity is that abundance of which you didn’t have to beg, manipulate people or merchandise the gospel to obtain, or had to be covetous to attain, or to chase after wealth to obtain, or employ spiritual formulas to obtain, rather, a true stewardship given by God to faithful stewards.

Authentic prayer

We know we’ve had an authentic time of prayer and fellowship with the Father and the Son if, afterward, we are strengthened in our inner-man by the Spirit, and His peace and love rules in our hearts, and our faith and resolve has been revived and strengthened to walk in the holy light of the truth of His word. If this is not happening when you pray, press in by faith, and do whatever He says.

It’s in praying for others that we are blessed with all the above.

What does God think about your “god”?

If you create an imaginary god in your mind, let’s call him, her or it, Harry, what do you think the one, true and living God thinks about the imaginary Harry? The Bible says He hates idolatry. Or, if the “jesus” you call on speaks and acts differently than Jesus of Nazareth, and has lesser standards than Him, it’s the same, it’s an idol, not Jesus.

He will not withhold any good thing

The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger: but they that seek the Lord shall not lack any good thing. (Psalms 34:10)

 

For the Lord God is a sun and shield: the Lord will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly. (Psalms 84:11)

Revilers

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He never sleeps

When we go to sleep we rest in the fact that God will not go to sleep, He will be awake all night.