-THE WRITTEN WORD-
“And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the Lord appeared to Abram and said unto him, I Am the Almighty God: walk before Me and be thou perfect”…GENESIS 17:1.
“And Joshua said unto the people, ye cannot serve the Lord, for He is a holy God: He is a jealous God: He will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins. If ye forsake the Lord, and serve strange gods, then He will turn and do you hurt, and consume you, after that He hath done you good” ..JOSHUA 24:19-20.
“I beseech you therefore brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable sacrifice. And be not conformed to this world; but be ye transformed by the renewing of your minds, that ye may proof what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God”…ROMANS 12:1-2.
-THE RECEIVED WORD-
-Introduction-
One of the often neglected but striking and profound characters of God is that He is very jealous – and when I say jealous I mean jealous, even to the uttermost. He is as jealous and He loves. He loves His own with heavenly passion, and with the same passion He is also determined that His own must remain His own even at all costs. We are His glory and He will never share His glory with any, whosoever!
If you must know how far our Creator can go in His jealousy, do take a look at the story of Job of the Bible. Job was a victim, and then a product of God’s jealousy. And so it is with whosoever commits his or her life to God. Just as satan presented Job before God, so he is daily presenting all that are truly committed to the ways of God.
You cannot claim to be truly serving God if satan has not presented your case to Him; not once, not even twice, but as many times as He considers expedient. And on all such times and occasions God, the ever faithful Father, would boast and brag about you.
But be quickly reminded that God will not boast and brag about you for nothing! He counts on you to face whatever satan may present, and yet to continue in Him and in Him alone. He counts on each and every one of us to pass every satanic test that awaits us on our way to heaven. And His grace is always more than sufficient.
Of Afflictions Of The Righteous-
Have you not read that many are the afflictions of the righteous, but that God delivers him from them all? Yes, the afflictions of the righteous, not by God or of God, but always permitted by God.
Why, some may ask? Because God will forever allow satan get at His own - if only to prove to satan that once His own always His own! Our relationship with the heaven is always a subject of satanic contention, and that contention continues until we go to be with the Lord.
If your case is not before satan now and then, then know it this very day that you are not living in the perfect will of God. No man or woman can continue in the perfect will of God, which is the straight way to heaven, without coming across satan now and then. He is forever there to stop us. And God is fully aware of that and allows it. And He expects us to overcome, because greater is He Who is in us than satan and all his forces put together!
Why do we think the Bible describes the road to heaven as narrow? What makes it narrow is satan. He is determined that as many as possible go down with Him at the end. And He lays as many snares as possible on our path to heaven, making the road, not only narrow, but also very very slippery.
But the greatest story of our times is that Jesus Christ, by His atonement, has provided us with enough grace to go through that road as if it the broadest road ever! That is if we have not received that grace in vain – using it for the wrong reasons!
Sadly, most of us tend to define the afflictions of the righteous only in terms of financial poverty, ill health, or even childlessness. But the afflictions of the truly righteous go far beyond those things. Indeed, if financial lack, ill health and childlessness are all that we must go through as afflictions of the righteous, then heaven at last would be sure to many. But that is not the case, for those afflictions do indeed cover all the trials and temptations we must go through on our journey to heaven.
Some of us may be afflicted by the nature of our marriages, some by motions and pressures of the flesh such as lusting for the opposite sex and also for the things of this life. Some of us are afflicted by our ungodly surroundings, such as Brother Lot of the Bible.
Some of us are afflicted by our inability to wait upon the Lord in prayer and in fasting. Some of us have also fallen victims of satanic traps of greed and covetousness. The whoredom spirit has taken hold of some, giving rise to satanic appetite to go naked in public and to seduce folks. All these are afflictions of the righteous.
Fortunately, God has also promised to deliver us from all manners of afflictions. First He has provided us with His grace sufficient for all afflictions. Secondly, He expects us pray, and fast when necessary; and to commit ourselves “to go and sin no more”. Self-discipline is a must if we must please God at all times.
Brethren, we must avoid those that teach us that God will seek us out in order to deliver us from such afflictions. It is not true, God has not sent them. We are the ones that must go to God for deliverance…..you will seek Me and find Me if you seek with all your hearts! And whenever we find Him we are sure to receive help.
-The Anacondas Comparison-
According to the Holy Ghost, the race to heaven is best caught in that film, The Anacondas. It is about a monstrous snake in hot and seemingly endless pursuit of its preys. It is a survival race – no waiting, no resting, no turning back to help those already caught up by the giant snake. It is a race for life, until one crosses the escape line!
In that race, the Anaconda is satan. And he is more concerned about those who are in front of him than those he has already overtaken. Those he has overtaken are settled meal for him. Those who are on the straight part with the Anacondas and running are those in the perfect will of God, and sadly many do not make it due to many factors.
Yet it is only the straight path that leads to the escape line! Those who run into other paths in order to escape the Anacondas are those in the permissive will of God. What those folks do not realize is that they are ready-made meal for the Anaconda, for satan, who is very much aware of their hiding positions and has cornered them! God forbid!
-God Gave Us His Will To Do His Will-
Men and brethren, God gave us a will. But the very will He put in us is also His will, and He put it in us that we may do His will, at all times in all situations and circumstances. He gave us His will is to enable us to serve His will, and that will is His perfect will. When we use the will of God in us to serve our own ends, we slip into His permissive will.
When we exercise the will of God in us contrary to His perfect will, we find ourselves walking, either in His permissive will, or out rightly in the will of satan.
When we refuse to exercise God’s will in us to serve His perfect will, we slip into our own will. Yes, our loving Father often allows us to pursue what we will, trusting that along the line we would realize our mistakes and return to His perfect will – for no man or woman can make heaven at last living in the permissive will of God.
Brethren, it would be impossible for one to tabulate all that constitutes the perfect will of God. Yet, the Holy Ghost has availed us of some vital matters that we must urgently pay attention to even as we daily make our way to heaven.
-Never Give God’s Glory To Another-
Men and brethren, to serve God is to serve Him with ALL – with all of our hearts, with our soul, with our strength, and with all our understanding. The summary of it is that we must serve Him as our life and our length of days. Anything short of this is unacceptable to God.
We cannot serve God and any other thing, person or even spirit, no we can’t. Do not even start to imagine it. All honor, all adoration, all worship: all praise, all reverence must be His and His alone – the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
As far as God is concerned, it is vile for His creation to bow, prostrate, or do obeisance to any other than Him. Not even His angel can afford to share this glory with Him, talk less of human persons!
I stand on the authority of the Holy Ghost to warn whosoever is willing to listen, that all forms of human worship, is vile before our God: whether it be for kings or parents or even Clergy. No matter who is involved, it is unacceptable to God for us to bow or prostrate before the living or dead or even angels. If you doubt me ask Him. Those of us that bow and prostrate before the living or dead, all in the name of humility, are challenging the authority of God without realizing it.
As far as God is concerned, we are His property, His workmanship, His tools – He created us solely for His pleasure and for His glory - and for His pleasure and glory we must remain. We are the sheep of His pasture – in Him we live and walk and have our being. It is only in God that our lives make meaning.
-Of Versions Of The Bible-
I have written it before, and I dare to write it again, that the King James Version of the Bible is the perfect will of God as far as biblical versions are concerned. I expressly received this of our Lord Jesus Christ. But at the same time, I have no mandate, either from God or from man, to contend with any concerning this matter. If you disagree with me, please feel free to follow your mind.
-Seeking The Mercy Of God Daily-
To be sure that we are always in right standing with the Lord, it is of utmost importance that we always ask for God’s mercy as often as we can in the course of the day. Please do. We must not take anything for granted. Yes, we that are saved are even the righteousness of God in Christ, yet we must also understand that spiritual things are very very slippery indeed!
We must also note this very point that it amounts to impunity, for us to go into deliberate and willful sin and then turn around to ask God for mercy. Yes, the mercies of our God endure forever; yet He is also God of only a second chance! It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
-Whatever We Start We Must Also Finish-
Brethren, it is futile for us to start something and then ask God to back it up, or as some would pray, “God breathe upon it”! No, He does not – that is not His perfect will. That is not how heaven works. He will not breathe on what He did not start. If He ever does, and He says that He sometimes does, it would only amount to His permissive will, and we shall give account.
The mind of God is this – that we finish whatever we started on our own! If He must finish anything, He also must of necessity start it. But He does permit us to start things, seeing the impatience in man in waiting for His perfect timing. Yet He will also expect us to finish what we started.
To those who man our pulpits. If God has not called you into any of the five-fold ministries, and you have reared up a pulpit by yourself, know it this very day that you and you alone must finish that which you have started. There is a particular grace that follows whoever is truly called. But if you call yourself, either by zeal or by conjecture, you will have to develop your own grace to see you through. And in so doing the souls of your followers are put in jeopardy.
By the grace of God, Part three follows in the next 72 hours, God willing. There are so many things that the Lord would want me to tell His people. I need to hasten things – for time has become of essence for all of us in our relationship with God. Be in expectation.
No comments:
Post a Comment