Friday, September 27, 2013

I am known for telling, writing and teaching people to connect the dots in their lives. Our lives are not a random set of coincidences, happenstance, or lucky chance it is a progression through all the days God has given us on this earth. Therefore, I am about to connect the dots in and around my life.

Whereas, this posting and the godly principles found therein will be applicable for anyone, there have been four specific people in my life, which God has used to prompt me to obey Him in writing this piece. None of those four people have anything that connects them expect me and they do not know each other but this will speak to each of them as if God intended it just for them. God works that way you see. He is the One Who Sees and meets all our needs. With that, I will launch out into the deep and I pray your spirit receives God’s message.

In the introduction to this series, I talked about misappropriation for a wrong purpose. However, is misappropriation always wrong or with a wrong motive? I say, no, not consciously. It is because I believe that I wish to make this my first piece in the series. I wish to preserve the heart of the blind, the spiritually ignorant, and/or the innocent.

You see there is a group of True Believers, the Remnant, out there who are functioning in manners and manipulation and calling it the fruit and power of the Holy Spirit. This group is what I refer to as the Walking Wounded. They are Believers who have come to Christ and sincerely given Him their heart but they have been so wounded, twisted, and distorted by the world and the Enemy that they are so desperate to be better they embark on a mission of self-reform, which leads them to works of the flesh that manifest in good manners as a replacement for fruit and manipulation as a replacement for spiritual power and godly trust.

Now clearly manipulation is not of God and completely wrong in God’s eyes, He sees it as a form of witchcraft steeped in rebellion. Good manners on the other hand are something most parents aspire to teach their children. I was heavily groomed in good manners myself. There is a different between having sincerely good manner and displaying good manners in order to appear good, look okay, feel acceptable or superior, and/or compensate for feeling of unworthiness or low self-esteem. You can display all the good manners you would like it will not change what is going on inside of you, all the nasty dirty thoughts about other people’s behavior, actions, spiritual fruit, and/or manners. One must remember, contrary to the world’s claims, just because you look good does not make you good. I would like to state once again, people act this way, feel this way, have these thoughts, etc. because they are wounded. They have been wounded by life, people, their family, the church, their friends, spiritual leaders, Satan, and even God in their own minds, though absolutely not true.

These wounded people keep running in circles, never getting better, trying on all the world’s ideas for building and repairing their fragile self-esteem to no avail. Why?

If you cannot submit to the very core, the very basics of your existence…

God’s providence in your life, meaning the family where He set you in the world. In God’s design and creations of you. In the fact that you are male or female. In the fact that you look a certain way. In the fact that you have a particular temperament with strengths and weaknesses.

If you cannot submit to the core aspects of God’s reign and rule over your life and your existence you cannot have healthy self-esteem. Good self-esteem, godly self-esteem, is not possible because you are continually at war with who God created you to be. If you are continually at war with whom God created you to be, you are continually at war with yourself. You are continually destroying yourself and your own self-esteem.

By being at war with God through lack of submission, by being at war with self by lack of acceptance, you find yourself at war with the world and your spiritual enemy, Satan. He is readily available to tear your self-esteem down even further. It is a vicious never-ending circle.

Satan is able to gain access to a person’s life this way because you cannot walk outside of obedience to God’s Will for you and be able to walk with God’s hedge of protection around you, which protects you from the Enemy.

An 18^th century philosopher, Thomas Hobbes, said, “Hell is the truth learned/seen too late.” Whereas, I am not given to philosophy, nor do I read it or recommend reading it, this particular saying has truth within it. We often make our own lives a form of hell on earth because we refuse to accept and walk in truth, Truth based in the Truth of God’s Word and the Principles found therein.

In conclusion, remember…

God’s grace does not override our freewill. God gave us a will and it is only through giving that will back to Him we can find freedom in Him. We give that will back to Him through moment-by-moment obedience, which is prompted by and empowered by His grace. Whereas, He prompts us to do, He will not force us to do, because that would violate His own spiritual law – our right to choose – freewill.

The giving over of our ideas of who we are or should be, for God’s design of who He created us to be and who He wants us to be it a vital moment in a person’s existence. It is called, godly surrender. Many people know Christ who have never surrendered their lives to Christ. The giving over of our will is the beginning of truly living, the beginning of being alive, the beginning of true purpose, the beginning of godly self-esteem – – it is the beginning of EVERYTHING.

“surrender” per Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary

transitive verb
1 a : to yield to the power, control, or possession of another upon compulsion or demand <surrendered the fort> b : to give up completely or agree to forgo especially in favor of another
2 a : to give (oneself) up into the power of another especially as a prisoner b : to give (oneself) over to something (as an influence)
intransitive verb : to give oneself up into the power of another : YIELD
synonyms see RELINQUISH

Spiritual/Political Disclaimer:

This blog will not be for the faint of heart or the easily offended. It will not be in any way politically correct. It will make every effort to share the truth in love, [Ephesians 4:11-16], to a decaying and dying society and church. I share what I share not to hurt, harm, or offend any person[s] or group; I do it because Christ’s Standard and Truth is not being represented by enough of His Followers and I do it out of love. I love enough to tell His Truth.

Ephesians 4:11-16 NKJV

¹¹And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, ¹²for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, ¹³till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; ¹⁴that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, ¹⁵but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— ¹⁶from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.

Friday, September 27, 2013

Re-posting in advance of Part 1

Sunday, September 15, 2013

As of late, there has been a topic, which has reemerged many different times in several different ways and is now something about which God has given me a mandate to write. That topic is spiritual fruit. Through discussions about sanctification this issue of a Believer’s part in fruit bearing has arouse. Over a meal at a restaurant with several young women and one very slow as well as inattentive server, the matter of applying spiritual fruit to our daily situations became our topic and quest. Then finally, through a simple statement from a protégé, ‘I would like to know the actual definitions for the fruit of the Spirit.’ This individual was referring to the spiritual fruit characteristic listed in the Book of Galatians.

Spiritual fruit. What it is and what it is not. Seems like a simple question right? Well, it is not that simple, as we will explore. Why? Because spiritual fruit and the fruits of the Spirit are another Bible principle that has been very misunderstood because it has been misappropriated.

Let us explore the idea of misappropriation for moment. Here are a few examples of misappropriation to ponder for which the use of will seem much clearer as we progress through this series.

Gun Violence:

There is a “Gun Violence List” which opponents to gun ownership use in order to show us the horrors of gun violence. Not too long ago one of the names on this list was the name of a young man who was labeled a ‘terrorist’ by our government. His name showed up on that list as a victim of gun violence. The discovery of this young man’s name on this list is how the truth about the names and numbers of people on the list surfaced. This young man had, from all evidence, set off a bomb in Boston and was later shot and killed by the police while they tried to apprehend him. This person, labeled a terrorist, was later labeled a victim of gun violence and placed on a list that government officials use to try to justify their case for gun control and gun ownership restriction. Come to find out there were many, many, names on that list of people who had been shot by law enforcement during a criminal act, the number was outstanding. Victims of gun violence? Really? No, there was a misappropriation of information in order to support a desired end.

Intelligence:

There is intelligence, book learning, and paper intelligence. Two out of three are a misappropriation of true intelligence. Paper intelligence is a person who holds a degree in higher education and therefore is presumed to be intelligent even though the individual did little on their own to obtain that degree, having primarily bought their way through the process. Yes, it happens. Book learning is someone who has acquired a great deal of information in his or her mind but has no idea how to use that information in life. Intelligence is the ability to acquire knowledge, apply knowledge, to reason, use common sense, problem solve, navigate situations successfully and possession of some degree of wisdom. True intelligence is not easily recognized today or understood properly. Why? A misappropriation of the fundamentals of what true intelligence looks like.

Fruit, Manners, Manipulation:

The final example would be trying to determine if something is fruit, manners, or manipulation. Spiritual fruit and the fruits of the Spirit come from a heart that loves Jesus and is given over to the leading of the Holy Spirit. Good manners are the world’s misappropriation of spiritual fruit and/or the fruits of the Sprit. A person can exemplify kindness, gentleness, self-control, most if not all of the fruits of the Spirit listed in the Bible and be rotten to core on the inside. Outward manners are no indicator of true spiritual fruit or the fruits of the Spirit manifest in someone’s life via the Holy Spirit. A more sinister form of misappropriation, or more to the point a counterfeit of spiritual fruit, is the exhibition of what appears to be the fruits of the Spirit for the purpose of manipulation. This manipulation is intended strictly for getting what one wants, for using people in some manner. I realize it sounds horrible and some people even look at subtle forms of manipulation as politeness or tact, but nevertheless, it is an indirect attempt to get from another person information or action one wants. Not everyone intends to manipulate by the way they act and handle other people. Some do it without thinking, some are more sinister and others think as I already stated that they are being polite. I want bother to address the flat out manipulators who are attempting to use people but I will address briefly the more innocent manipulators. All manipulation is not of God but of Satan and with that said both God and Satan know people have needs. Satan preys on those needs to motive people to manipulate others to get those needs met. People need to be more open, honest, and straightforward about getting their need for love, significance, stability control, appreciation, security, care, attention, companionship, etc. met so they can live with people without playing games, something more accurately defined as manipulation.

I leave you with two thoughts to ponder leading up to the next piece, which will be “Fruit or Vegetable” Series, part one.

1. Both, true spiritual fruit and the fruits of the Spirit should manifest in the CURRENT Spiritual Remnants life via the Holy Spirit.

2. The Bible directs us to be individual who bear fruit, not be spiritual vegetables.

Spiritual/Political Disclaimer:

This blog will not be for the faint of heart or the easily offended. It will not be in any way politically correct. It will make every effort to share the truth in love, [Ephesians 4:11-16], to a decaying and dying society and church. I share what I share not to hurt, harm, or offend any person[s] or group; I do it because Christ’s Standard and Truth is not being represented by enough of His Followers and I do it out of love. I love enough to tell His Truth.

Ephesians 4:11-16 NKJV

¹¹And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, ¹²for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, ¹³till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; ¹⁴that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, ¹⁵but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— ¹⁶from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Clearly, there is something that has changed in Israel currently and God seems to be moving and working among us. I shall explain.

Israel is a place on which I always keep my spiritual eyes.

About every thirty days, the site managers for the blog provide me with a breakdown of the stats detailing the readership for the month. These stats include the country and the number of readers in that country. Within the last thirty days, we have gone from a state where I cannot ever remember seeing the name “Israel” to having as many readers in Israel as we do in the United States. This tells me clearly, that basically overnight, God is working and doing something in this spiritual area.

Therefore, I would like to extend this invitation.

If you are an individual in Israel who is a brother or sister in Christ Jesus, I welcome hearing from you. If you are a person in Israel who has come to believe that Jesus was the promised Messiah of the Jewish people, I welcome hearing from you. I would like to know what Jesus has put in your heart, what Jesus is doing in your land, and how you see the current moving of God in Israel.

Please feel free to use the “comment” link below as a source of making contact with me. I assure you all your private information within any correspondence will be kept confidential. I only use general descriptions of events, individual, or circumstances where God is moving and working in my writings and teachings. 

We always look to Israel as a source and sign of prophetic happenings within the world. I look forward to a greater understanding of what God is doing among His people. I also look forward to passing along anything God allows to be passed along via this blog.

May God be with you, Shalom?

Spiritual/Political Disclaimer:

This blog will not be for the faint of heart or the easily offended. It will not be in any way politically correct. It will make every effort to share the truth in love, [Ephesians 4:11-16], to a decaying and dying society and church. I share what I share not to hurt, harm, or offend any person[s] or group; I do it because Christ Standard and Truth is not being represented by enough of His Followers and I do it out of love. I love enough to tell His Truth.

Ephesians 4:11-16 NKJV

¹¹And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, ¹²for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, ¹³till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; ¹⁴that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, ¹⁵but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— ¹⁶from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.