Wednesday, October 16, 2013

When you combine all the various aspects of both spiritual fruit and the fruits of the Spirit found in lifestyle fruit, service fruit, doctrinal fruit and trait fruit what emerges is three overwhelming passions characteristic of the hardcore spiritually uncompromising Devoted Follower of Jesus. These individual have found the Center of what, all of life is truly about. The merging of all aspects of spiritual fruit collides in one spiritually passionate child of God.

Those three overwhelming passions, also a form of spiritual fruit, are as follows. 1 – A quest to make Truth known, understood, and accepted. 2 – A desire to know and do the Will of God. 3 – A willingness to expose sin.

Ephesians 5:8–13 (NKJV)

Walk in Light

⁸ For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light ⁹ (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), ¹⁰ finding out what is acceptable to the Lord. ¹¹ And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. ¹² For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret. ¹³ But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light, for whatever makes manifest is light.

The fruit of Truth is found within the deeply committed Follower of Christ. They wish the Truth of God’s Word to be known and properly understood. That Truth is the primary guiding force of their life for within that Truth is all the answers to life and all godly wisdom. These individual have come to realize that Truth is the final authority on all matters and the only real spiritual power. You can be in a group of people ranging from the youngest person in the Lord to the godliest spiritual leader who has served Christ for years and within that group, the individual who holds the spiritual authority is the individual who is speaking spiritual Truth because Spiritual Truth is the ultimate authority. Spiritual Truth makes Christ known, Truth is Christ – Truth is not just a principle, concept, or thing it is a person, Jesus the Christ. – – John 14:6 (NKJV) – ^“ Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”

When a person has truly surrendered to Christ, and His lordship over their lives they exhibit the fruit of desiring to both know and do His Will. A deep transformation has taken place in the individual where a level of spiritual understanding and trust has conquered all personal resistance. Individuals who bear this fruit know that God’s Will far surpasses in goodness and satisfaction anything they can dream of or conceive on their own. They trust that their Lord, their God, knows them better than they know themselves and what He directs them to do or not do is in their very best interest in life. Beyond the person, these people burn with a yearning for others to know and desire to do God’s Will above their own. For some individuals it is even hard to imagine why people would want their own will over God’s Will. The Will of God brings true life, hope, rest, purpose, fulfillment, and so much more to life – desiring it cannot and will never fail you.

A spiritual fruit, which seems in short supply these days, is the distain for and abhorring of sin, both personal sin and sin on other peoples part. To abhor sin is not to condemn or judge a person; it is however, using spiritual discernment to recognize sin as sin. We are required as a people of God to have no fellowship with darkness partaking in its sin[s], we are rather to expose it for what it is – sin. Our mere presence in the environment of sin and darkness puts our stamps of approval on what is taking place. The sold-out type of individuals I referred to earlier are not going to endure the environment of sin for long. If they have personal sin in their lives, they will loath themselves to some degree until that sin is dealt with and removed. If they are around sin being committed by others, they are very uncomfortable and usually feel intensely compelled to speak out against the sin, which is exactly what the Scripture above tells us to do. Vanilla Christians and/or religious people often call these Dedicated Spiritual Remnant intolerant – well, they are to some degree, intolerant of sin, sin not people. People have greatly misappropriated the Scripture about ‘love covering a multitude of sin’ [1 Peter 4:8], which has more to with not becoming easily offended by your brothers and sisters in Christ and less to do with actually overlooking, covering up, or not addressing sin in your or another person’s life. We do not lavish or reward “sin” with misappropriated spiritual fruit we instead expose it thus bearing true spiritual fruit.

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.

Saturday, October 12, 2013

In this part of the series, we will primarily focus on trait fruit, such as the fruit of the Spirit.

We will start by introducing the fruit of the Spirit – those traits which can be found in the CURRENT Spiritual Remnant of God but that might not be found in religious individuals. In this part of the series, we will not cover the fruit of the Spirit in detail, as we will at a later date; this will be a mere overview. In future pieces we will cover the individual traits found within the fruit of the Spirit in detail.

An import aspect of studying the fruit of the Spirit is to realize and process spiritually the fact that it is “the fruit of the Spirit” and not the fruits of the Spirit, in the plural sense. Most commonly, it is referred to as the fruits of the Spirit but it is not several aspects or traits it is one spiritual trait. It is the evidence of the, singular, Spirit of God within a person’s life, character, heart, and spirit.

No one individual possesses one hundred percent of God’s Spiritual Character, we by His grace manifest portions of that character to certain degrees. One Spiritual Remnant might manifest ten percent “peace” and eighty percent “goodness”. Nevertheless, they manifest both to some degree because they belong to, and are dedicated to, the Almighty. The point being, at different times in life people will manifest different degrees of the fruit of the Spirit. What serves as proof one is walking in the Spirit – being led by the Spirit – is the fact that there is a greater evidence of “the fruit of the Spirit” than there is evidence of the “works of the flesh” in their lives. If an individual after spiritual conversion for an extended period of time continues to manifest more of the works of the flesh than they do the fruit of the Spirit, said individual might need to reexamine the sincerity of their commitment to Jesus the Christ.

Please note the actual spiritual fruit traits are underlined.

Galatians 5:16–26 (NKJV)

Walking in the Spirit

¹⁶ I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. ¹⁷ For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. ¹⁸ But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

¹⁹ Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness[KJV – lasciviousness], ²⁰ idolatry, sorcery [KJV – witchcraft], hatred, contentions [KJV – variance], jealousies [KJV – emulations], outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, [KJV – strife] [KJV – seditions]²¹ envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

²² But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness [KJV – gentleness], goodness, faithfulness [KJV – faith], ²³ gentleness [KJV – Meekness], self-control [KJV – temperance]. Against such there is no law. ²⁴ And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. ²⁵ If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. ²⁶ Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

What are your percentages? Is there more evidence of the fruit of Spirit or more evidence of the works of the flesh? Scripture warns us to ‘examine ourselves and see if we are in the faith’ [2 Corinthians 13:5].

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.

Thursday, October 10, 2013

In the series introduction, we explored examples of misappropriation of something in order to create an inaccurate understanding, example, belief, façade, etc. To ones horror, this happens with the Holy Scriptures of God as well. People misuse or take Scripture passages out of context distorting their meaning, changing their meaning, or adding to [stretching] their meaning beyond original intent.

Now that said let me explain something about Scripture and the meanings of words or phrases in Scripture. Read this careful and do not take my comments here out of context.

Scripture, the Holy Bible, is the LITERAL Word of God. Within it, we find literal events with a spiritually figurative meaning. Meaning, it has spiritual application for us today even though the principles, guidelines, and events one is reading about happened and/or were written down so many years ago. Very often when you look up a word or phrase from the Bible in the Hebrew [OT] or even more often in the Greek [NT] Language, within the definition will be a notation that the word or phrase has both “literal” and “figurative” meaning, literal and figurative, not or figurative – this equals literal and spiritual application/meaning.

Keeping that in mind, we shall proceed.

“Fruit”- spiritual fruit and the fruit of the Holy Spirit involve the entirety of a person not a single aspect of their life, lifestyle, character, demeanor, etc. Therefore, when reading and study on the subject of “fruit” in the Scriptures one must examine the overall context of what is being taught.

The following two teachings Jesus taught about bearing fruit is a good example of how Scripture has been stretched by individuals in order to put too much or all the focus on one type of fruit. These particular Scriptures have more to do with lifestyle, service, and doctrinal fruit than they do trait fruit, as found in Galatians chapter five.

Please note underlining.

Matthew 7:15–21 (NKJV) Jesus speaking

False and True Teaching

Luke 6:43–45 [Gospels harmony]

¹⁵ “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. ¹⁶ You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? ¹⁷ Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. ¹⁸ A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. ¹⁹ Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. ²⁰ Therefore by their fruits you will know them.

Luke 6:39–45 (NKJV) Jesus speaking

Parable of the Blind Leading the Blind

Matt. 7:3–5, 16–18 [Gospels Harmony]

³⁹ And He spoke a parable to them: “Can the blind lead the blind? Will they not both fall into the ditch? ⁴⁰ A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone who is perfectly trained will be like his teacher. ⁴¹ And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not perceive the plank in your own eye? ⁴² Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me remove the speck that is in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the plank that is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck that is in your brother’s eye.

⁴³ “For a good tree does not bear bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. ⁴⁴ For every tree is known by its own fruit. For men do not gather figs from thorns, nor do they gather grapes from a bramble bush. ⁴⁵ A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.

Though many individuals attempt to apply these two teaching of Jesus primarily to trait fruit which is listed in Galatians, these particular passages have more to do with lifestyle, service, and doctrinal fruit than they do trait fruit, as change in life direction, not simply change in character, is the primary focus of surrounding teachings.

Therefore, Jesus is instructing them to look at the “fruit” of those who will come in His Name claiming to be His Followers. They are false prophets if they are teaching another Jesus, strange doctrine or distorted doctrine that does not line up with the overall Truth of Scripture. Their fruit, their teaching, will be bad – a distortion of Scripture. This is ramped in the religious community today. Between the inclusion teaching, the motivational/positive thinking teaching, extremely distorted word of faith teaching, prosperity teaching, God manipulation teaching, etc. many, once true Believers have been lead into the spiritual ditch where spiritually they are starving to death and dying. People are starving because they are living off low-grade morsels of food instead of real spiritually nutritious food.

That said, a side note here. People are getting what they wanted. They had/have itching ears – as Scripture said they would – and they no longer desired the Truth of the Word of God they want/wanted to feel good so greedy religious leaders out of a love for money – as Scripture warned against a leader becoming – greedy religious leaders gave the people what they wanted. False teaching is a product of bad doctrinal fruit. Whereas, lack of a specific fruit of the Spirit does not disqualify a person for service or ministry the manifestation of the wrong fruit/works doctrinally in the form of false teaching can and should. We are to flee false teachers and teachings.

When people say they know Christ, yet they continue in their same pre-Christ lifestyle year after year and with no desire to serve the Lord Jesus in any capacity whatsoever they are displaying bad lifestyle and service fruit. In Acts 19:11-20 we see the people of Ephesus steeped in occultism, black magic, witchcraft, etc. turn to Jesus and immediately burn all their books [v.19] and begin to service the Lord.

A progressive change in lifestyle and priorities is evidence of good fruit and a true commitment to Christ. That said, please note some people will cling to one particular area of sin or selfish behavior for years before they completely release it to the Lord Jesus but if someone is clinging to all their past behavior and progressing spiritually almost none at all then there is a problem.

In the area of service, spiritual leaders should be warned against over investing in the above-described type of person. There responsibility before God is to see to it they invest their time wisely, in those who want to and show evidence of spiritual growth and change. Moreover, service is another area where all Believers should be bearing good fruit. Paul certainly desired to bear fruit.

Romans 1:13 (NKJV)

Now I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that I often planned to come to you (but was hindered until now), that I might have some fruit among you also, just as among the other Gentiles.

Both spiritual leaders and Believers should exhibit some form of good fruit. If a Believer claims to be a Believer but has zero interest in seeing the Kingdom of God grow in some manner, in some form, to some degree, then, again, something is wrong because they are exhibiting bad fruit.

This should bring a more balanced view to lifestyle, service, and doctrinal fruit versus trait fruit, which we will cover in future parts of this series.

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, October 01, 2013

In part one we determined that outward manners are no indicator of true spiritual fruit or the fruits of the Spirit being manifest in someone’s life via the Holy Spirit. The lack thereof of good manners is no clear indicator either. I have known men and women of God who were very much lead by the Spirit of God, serving God, and love God dearly but lacked in some area of manners, spiritual fruit, or had what one might call an Achilles Heel. In later segments, we will explore how lack of a specific fruit of the Spirit does not disqualify a person but manifestation of the wrong fruit/works can. In this part, we will examine the difference between fruit and vegetables, thus giving us a clue to how we can spot each within the spiritual and religious communities of our day.

The Bible directs us to be individual who bear fruit, not be spiritual vegetables. Spiritually speaking what would be fruit and what would be a vegetable. We will start by actually looking at the definitions of both words.

fruit =

noun = 2 : OFFSPRING, PROGENY
progeny = 2 : OUTCOME, PRODUCT
3 : a body of followers, disciples, or successors

Fruit, spiritually speaking, is a manifestation of what is left behind in other people that was passed on or poured into said people by the fruit bearer/individual. This type of fruit is not always found in the process but instead in the result, the outcome, the end product. Did the person have something that they passed on to others, which was spiritually sound and beneficial.

vegetable =

adj. = 3 : resembling or suggesting a plant (as in inertness or passivity)

inertness = lack of action or activity see INACTION

noun = 3 : a person whose mental and physical functioning is severely impaired and especially one who requires supportive measures (as mechanical ventilation) to survive

A spiritual vegetable can be spotted by their passivity and apathy toward the things of God. They often lack any spiritual activities beyond maybe church attendance, which does not make anyone spiritual or even a true Believer. Spiritually there seems to be no pulse in these individuals, they cannot see God in the world, in their lives, or in their communities. If they were ever truly spiritually regenerated in Christ Jesus they are now simply on spiritual life-support barely spiritually alive.

Our desire should be to surround ourselves with those individuals given to being spiritually fruitful versus hanging out with a bunch of 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.

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.