|
Chapter 15
eeeee
Letting Go
I don’t think there is anyone that doesn’t want to know why certain things are happening to them and how long are they going to last. The Lord began talking to me this morning about this very thing.
The rich man in Hell that asked Abraham to send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water to cool his parched tongue -- was asking to be comforted in the misery that he had chosen to live in.
He of course -- didn’t believe that he had chosen to go to that place of torment. He believed that he was sent there unjustly. That is why he had not requested to send someone to get him out of that place.
He believed that he was there unjustly and so -- he thought that he should at least be comforted while he was there since what was happening to him was no fault of his own. He saw himself as a victim of an unrighteous God. He was refusing to admit that his lordship over himself put him there.
It is an easy thing for the human thinking to place the blame for their bad choices onto someone else rather than take the responsibility themselves. That is because -- if I take the responsibility myself for the choice -- I then have the responsibility to admit I’m wrong and to change my mind and my ways.
If that foolish choice is pursued long enough it invites the demon spirit of Leviathan. He is the strongman who rules over all people that give themselves to pride and self-rule.
(Job 41:34 KJV) He beholdeth all high things: he is a king over all the children of pride.
Leviathan is a sea monster and his scales are the symbol of his pride. The scales are tight and won’t allow the water of the word into them and so -- we are locked in our pride through our stubbornness.
(Lev 26:14 KJV) But if ye will not hearken unto me, and will not do all these commandments;
(Lev 26:15 KJV) And if ye shall despise my statutes, or if your soul abhor my judgments, so that ye will not do all my commandments, but that ye break my covenant:
From this we can see that it isn’t the doing of sins that are the root of the problem. It’s the breaking of the Covenant that is the root cause of the Lord fighting against us. Remember what the Covenant says.
God said to Abraham: Walk before me and be thou perfect. And how do we become perfect? We give up self-rule and trying to bless ourselves and we only receive things by inheritance or gifts from the Lord.
He is the source of our blessings because He is our Lord. We do not work to bless ourselves; We work to believe God and His promises. That is the work of God in our lives: to believe that He is our supply and He will meet all our needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.
(John 6:28 KJV) Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?
(John 6:29 KJV) Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.
Listen to the words of the Lord to Lucifer because of his pride over his beauty and the things that he claimed as his own:
(Ezek 28:14 KJV) Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.
(Ezek 28:15 KJV) Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee.
What was the iniquity that was found in Lucifer’s heart? He believed that he could be god and bless himself by his great strength and wisdom.
(Ezek 28:16 KJV) By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned: therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire
(Ezek 28:17 KJV) Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness: I will cast thee to the ground, I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee.
Lucifer forgot that it was the Lord that had given him all of his strength and beauty and placed him in the exalted position he held. I believe that the Ark of the Covenant would have had three angles on it -- if Lucifer hadn’t believed The Lie.
Because of his rebellion against the Lordship of Christ over him he was removed from that covering position over the Earth and it was given to Adam and subsequently to Jesus as Lord over all of Creation.
1
Jesus’ comforting hand will not comfort me to the point that His comfort allows me to live in the world that He has cursed. There comes a time when the pain of the cursed world drives me out of it into the waiting arms of the blessed world where Jesus is Lord.
Admitting I’m wrong -- especially when I’m afraid to do what needs to be done -- is a very hard thing. The Scriptures say that it’s imperative for me to admit it when I’m wrong in order to keep the enemy from getting power over me. When I won’t admit I’m wrong -- I enter the kingdom of the liar and so -- become overpowered by his kingdom rules and authority.
(Mat 5:25 KJV) Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison.
My first question to myself should be: What am I doing walking in the way of the adversary? When I answer that -- I need to get out of that place and admit what I am guilty of so that he doesn’t get any power over me.
(Mat 5:26 KJV) Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing.
This is saying -- if I find myself in the place of trial by compromise and I want to get out -- I have to admit my lie of not being responsible for what I have chosen to do and take the responsibility -- then -- I will get out of that place. If I won’t admit my bad choice and continue to pretend I’m right -- there is no way to get out of that prison on my own because I can’t pay the debt for Sin because I’m not righteous of myself. I have to come to Jesus and bow to His Lordship over me and ask Him to forgive me for my deception at pretending to be right. When I stop living The Lie that I can be my own lord and be blessed -- then -- because He has paid the last farthing for me -- I can be released from that prison.
Is this saying a person can get out of Hell? I have never heard in the Scriptures of anyone doing that -- but I do believe that there is no place in Creation where the redemption of the Lord can’t reach. If there were such a place like that -- then there is some sin that Jesus’ blood can’t cover and is greater than the saving power of the Cross; Then Sin would be greater than the Cross and I know that isn’t true. But I would hasten to say that there is no forgiveness without repentance. The Lord still loves the sinner -- but He will not forgive them of their rebellion until they repent and turn from it. If He could forgive without repentance -- then the Cross would not have been necessary and Hell would be empty.
However -- the rest of the deception of that Lie that Satan tells (that says I can bless myself) is The Lie that says that I won’t die if I try to do that.
Satan has adopted another twist to The Lie when the first part doesn’t work. He says -- it’s true the blood of Jesus covers all Sin -- but then he says -- that message can’t get to the people of the world unless we use the satanic system of buying and selling to make the Gospel of the Kingdom known.
It also says -- you can’t get increase unless you buy and sell in the world of commerce for the purpose of getting gain to store up for the future.
Do you see the subtleness of that deception? Satan is forced to acknowledge that the blood of Jesus will save to the uttermost all who will make Jesus Lord -- but then he adds -- to get that message out to the world -- we must use Satan’s system of distribution to do it.
Satan is saying -- we can’t give the message away -- we must sell it for increase to finance the spreading of The Truth. Most churches and ministries have fallen into that Lie.
I don’t see anyplace in Jesus’ life the selling of anything for profit or buying anything to sell for profit. I know He was a carpenter and so -- must have made furniture to sell but that really isn’t selling anything to make a profit. It is trading furniture for food or whatever else they needed for everyday use.
I don’t believe that going to work to earn money to get wealth to buy and sell and then store up is a Kingdom concept. I believe that going to work in the Lord’s vineyard to learn to believe God is a Kingdom concept.
In the parable of the vineyard the men that went to work in the Lord’s vineyard were made up of two groups: Those that bartered with God for a certain amount of pay for the days work -- and those that left the amount of pay to the Lord and just worked to help the Lord with His vineyard.
The people that worked for a wage only got what they worked for and it wasn’t nearly enough to pay their bills and feed them. The others also got paid a penny but it wasn’t a penny’s worth of money -- it was a penny’s worth the faith in the Lord of the vineyard.
That penny’s worth of faith bought them infinitely more than they needed. We are not supposed to go to work for money. We are supposed to work to believe God for the promises He has made to us. Mammon is the wealth of the world we have to work to get. Manna is the inheritance of the Kingdom of God that comes to us every morning as a gift.
2
Even though the Manna is laying on the ground each morning -- if we try to earn the Manna by working to store it up it turns rotten before the next day. All I have to do to turn inheritance (Manna) to Mammon is try to earn it.
If Satan’s Lie were true that says we can’t get the message of the blessings of God’s Kingdom out without using Satan’s system of working for increase -- then the message of The Truth must be built on the message of The Lie to stand.
No! No! No! The message of The Lie is: “Blessings by Buying and Selling” -- and that kingdom is dead to all those that are citizens of the Kingdom of God. The message of The Truth is: “Blessings by Inheritance.”
We must realize that The Truth will produce increase by inheritance and -- it is by that increase -- we will be able to proclaim the Gospel of the Kingdom of God.
Now -- “Blessing by Inheritance” doesn’t mean I don’t do anything but sit and wait -- unless that is what God is telling me to do. It does mean that -- when the Lord is telling me to do a certain thing to further the Kingdom and increase comes because of my obedience to the Lord’s directive -- that is: Blessings by Inheritance. The understanding lies in the reason that I work -- and not in the doing of work.
(Mat 9:28 KJV) And when he was come into the house, the blind men came to him: and Jesus saith unto them, Believe ye that I am able to do this? They said unto him, Yea, Lord.
(Mat 9:29 KJV) Then touched he their eyes, saying, According to your faith be it unto you.
The Scriptures also tell a story where ten lepers came to Jesus and asked Him to heal them. He heals all ten of them -- but nine of them return to the life that made them sick in the first place. Only one of them returns to the Lord and bows before Him and submits his entire life to following Jesus as Lord. That man is made whole because of his forsaking the life that made him sick in the first place.
I have met many people that only want to be healed so they can go back to what made them sick. Most of them are Christians. They come for healing to the Church meetings and that is right to do -- but they won’t exercise the discipline they need in their lives to be healed by means other than an instant miracle. They won’t change their way of living.
If they are confronted with the necessity to change some things to be well by a changed lifestyle -- they say -- I believe Jesus will heal me by a healing miracle. That way they are saying -- I’m not responsible for what I’m going through and Jesus will heal me because I’m just a victim of circumstances. That is the same attitude the man in Hell had: He claimed he wasn’t responsible for what put him in that prison.
Our prison can be poverty -- sickness -- pain -- and perhaps an earthly prison and then even Hell -- if I let that attitude -- of not being responsible for what happens to me -- go far enough.
At some point in my life I have to accept responsibility for my choices. If I really don’t understand these Truths then I believe that God will show me -- if I will truly submit to what He says to me. But -- if He sends understanding and I still won’t obey -- some sort of prison awaits me. The prison of pain -- sickness -- poverty or many others.
I believe that the Lord answers every single cry for help. He sends help -- but too many times -- because we don’t want to hear His reply -- we say -- No; I don’t want to be healed that way -- I want a miracle.
I personally know people that have asked God for the answers to their being in pain and suffering -- but yet -- avoid the very source of the information that would set them free.
That reveals a love for The Lie. You see -- The Lie says you can run your own life and still be blessed and you won’t die. These people want to run their own lives as lord so much -- they won’t surrender that lordship over themselves to Jesus and listen to the voice that God has put in their lives to heal them.
God is moving forward to bring the first Creation to its final end and complete the foundation for the Omega Kingdom. The Alpha Kingdom is coming to its complete end and that will happen at a predestined time that God has set.
As the Alpha Kingdom -- the Grace Kingdom -- comes to its final end -- grace from God to continue in my rebellious ways will stop. The troubles in the world as we know it are increasing every day. Yet -- at the same time -- the message of the Omega Kingdom of God -- which is: “Blessings by Inheritance” -- becomes plainer and plainer. Grace to choose to remain in the Alpha Kingdom will still be ours -- but grace to be my own lord and live in the Omega Kingdom has been removed.
|
