Call of the Spirit Publications

“Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and in His law he meditates day and night. He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; And whatever he does shall prosper” (Psalm 1:1-3).

I believe every person on planet earth, saved and unsaved alike, has a desire to succeed in their lives. Nobody purposely sets out to fail in anything they put their hands to. But, multitudes have no clue how to truly succeed in life. They flounder around accepting whatever comes their way as their ‘lot in life’, or their ‘karma’, or whatever term they use—it’s all the same; they deal with life as it comes, instead of living purposely. We’ve all heard it said “I believe things happen for a reason.” – Which implies things just come around for some mystical reason that we have no control over. Yet the same folk will go into their backyard with a tomato seed, plant it in the ground, and expect a tomato plant to grow. Why should we expect the law of sowing and reaping to work in one area, but not in any other?

THE WORLD AROUND US—OUR MISSION FIELD

So, what does this have to do with ‘where we are rooted’? I’m glad you asked! Jesus said He was the vine and we are the branches (John 15:5). Let’s say it like this: Jesus is the ‘plant’, He’s the ‘tree’ (or, as He said ‘vine’); those of us who are born-again are in Him, that makes us the branches—the extension of Him to the world around us. Our lives are to be bearing fruit for them (the world) to partake of; like we do when we eat the grapes that are produced from the grapevine. The difference is our ‘fruit’ is spiritual – “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23). Yet, I have to say that, beyond the character of God these fruit exhibit, additional ‘fruit’ we should be displaying are the manifestations of the Spirit as well:

• “But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all: for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings by the same Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills. For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit” (1Corinthians 12:7-13, underline mine for emphasis).

The point I’m making here is we are the Body of Christ (the anointed One, and His anointing); Jesus “went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him” (Acts 10:38); and He’s “the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). So, since He hasn’t changed – at all – we should be daily doing His same works, for “as He is, so are we in this world” (1John 4:17). Since He cast out devils, we should be casting out devils; since He healed the sick, we should present His healing power to those who are sick around us, and so on. The Power of God is a sign to the world that we serve the One true God Who truly loves them! This is our Great Commission.

ROOTS CONNECT US

Psalm One depicts an individual who does not conduct their lives by ungodly counsel; they do not hang out with sinful people (“Bad companions make a good person bad”—1Corinthians 15:33, NIrV); “nor sits in the seat of the scornful” – synonyms for ‘scornful’ are: disrespectful, mocking, contemptuous, disdainful, and sneering. A Mike Leach rendering would be this person does not sit in a seat of judging others with disrespect, or sneering (since love believes the best of every person—1Corinthians 13:7, AMP).

Now, let’s get to the good stuff; the things that make this person a success in life: “But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and in His law he meditates day and night.” The law of the Lord is the Word of God. So, we could say it like this—this individual meditates (thinks about, ponders by talking to themselves) God’s Word every day – all day! That’s what Jehovah told Joshua to do when he was about to take over for Moses, who had just passed the baton to him and departed this planet to be with God:

• “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go” (Joshua 1:8-9).

Jeremiah says much the same thing as Psalm One:

• “Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, and whose hope is the LORD. For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, which spreads out its roots by the river, and will not fear when heat comes; but its leaf will be green, and will not be anxious in the year of drought, nor will cease from yielding fruit” (Jeremiah 17:7-8).

I like that! This trusting individual will not be anxious about anything! They will be productive (another way of saying successful) their entire life! Did you notice the term ‘roots’? This is the same as saying ‘planted’. There is a lot that can be said about this ‘planting’ (or, the ‘root-system’ of an individual); because, where someone is planted, or rooted, determines the quality of life they have, or the type of fruit they bear. The roots are the avenue that nourishment comes into an individual – and that ‘nourishment’ determines what ‘fruit’ they will bear. There is a saying “garbage in – garbage out”. The cool thing is we can determine the fruit in our lives – we can be the masters of the quality of life we are living!

THE GOSPEL

This is the good news (gospel) we have been entrusted to proclaim to “all nations” – everybody we come in contact with! Man messed-up and fell away from God; God (Jesus) became a man to pay the penalty for that sin; now reconciliation is available for everybody (“whosoever will”), and we’ve become ambassadors of God to proclaim (tell) this great truth!

• “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned” (Romans 5:12, KJV, underline mine for emphasis).
• “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous” (Romans 5:19).
• “Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God” (2Corinthians 5:18-20, underline mine for emphasis).
• “And He Himself (Jesus) is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world” (1John 2:2, parenthesis mine, underline mine for emphasis).

These Scriptures spell-out the Gospel progression. Meditating on these things will produce the productive life we’ve been talking about. Let’s not be over-zealous, though, and turn people off! This is where sensitivity to our Lord comes in. This sensitivity comes through prayer – fellowship with Jesus and the Father, through communion with the Holy Spirit.

LIFE AND DEATH

I mentioned earlier the saying “garbage in – garbage out”; this speaks of what we ‘feed on’, or give our attention to. What we ‘feed on’ will establish our ‘fruit’. That’s right, just because we have called on the Name of the Lord to be saved, and now we are born-again doesn’t mean we will automatically live the successful—supernatural—life Jesus purchased for us to live. I’ll go a step further: just because we have been baptized in the Holy Spirit and have experienced speaking in other tongues, doesn’t mean we automatically flow in the gifts of the Spirit. We all have choices to make every day to operate in these things.

• “I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live” (Deuteronomy 30:19).

Life and death; blessing and cursing, these are choices we all have to make – every day. Let’s say it like this: success or failure is ours to choose every day. The ‘fruit’ we enjoy will be determined by where our roots lie, and the nourishment we receive through them. If we sit in front of the television and feed on soap-operas, then the ‘life-portrayal’ on and in them will become the lives we live (experience). The same goes with social media – if we get on the Internet and feed on junk being ‘preached’ through these avenues, then their junk will be our life-style. Oh yea, what one sees gets down in their heart, and out of the abundance of the heart one brings forth their life. That’s why Proverbs says to guard our heart with all diligence, “for out of it flow the springs of life” (Proverbs 4:23, AMP); other versions say “issues of life”. In other words, the very life we live comes from what’s inside us. This is why it’s so important to be rooted in the Word of God; and to be careful of our close associations, because we’ll imitate each other.

Good roots will be found in 1) the church one goes to (that’s extremely important!); 2) the people we hang-out with; and 3) the things we ‘feed on’ – television/movies we watch, Internet sites we frequently visit [I hope you all come here often! – that’s why I write and publish these things!], books we read – the Bible should be number one! We could go on, but I think you get the picture.

Here’s a prayer, recorded in Ephesians (I’ve also included in the “Praying Scripture” section), that was written by inspiration of the Holy Spirit:

• “For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of my Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant me, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in my heart through faith; that I, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height—to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that I may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that I ask or think, according to the power that works in me, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen” (Eph 3:14-21, personalized).

Did you catch that: “rooted and grounded in love” – “filled with all the fullness of God”? That’s the greatest ‘root-system’ any of us can have! Talk about successful! – Love never fails!!

We have talked much lately about all the ‘voices’ in the world that are proclaiming their messages as being the ‘truth’ everyone is to follow after. One of the greatest blessings of our time is also one of the greatest curses we all partake of: the Internet. By the Internet we can partake of information of any kind from any part of the planet – which can be a good thing, and it can be a bad thing. The same instrument that avails inspirational teachings, like this one, also allows one to access pornography by just a few clicks and using a search engine.

I’m going to make an extremely important statement here: everything we can partake of is a sort of food we ingest into our spirits (the inner man), and those seeds will grow into what they were designed to produce. When I say ‘partake of’ I’m talking about things we give our attention to and even those things going on around us that we unintentionally allow in: conversations, television programming (break that one down: tell – a – vision programming; or, being programmed by the vision we are being told!), billboards alongside the road we travel (if you look at it the image on it and the message it portrays gets in there and lodges itself in our hearts like a seed). Now, don’t get all frustrated and fearful thinking you can’t even walk out the door of your home; seeds will only produce and grow to maturity when they are watered and nurtured.

Jesus gave us this illustration in the parable of the sower (Matthew 13:3-9, Mark 4:3-20, Luke 8:4-10), click this link to read my combined rendition of that parable. The point I wanted to bring out regarding that parable is the Word of God is the Superior Seed, yet Satan can steal it out of our hearts by just a few tactics we all are acquainted with: cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, desires for other things, tribulation, and persecution. This is a pretty fair description of each and every one of our daily lives! These ‘Seed stealers’ surround each and every one of us! – And that’s talking about the Superior Seed! Keep reading! If the Superior Seed can be aborted from producing and growing in our hearts, then the ‘seeds’ that come from the other camp can be prevented from growing in our lives as well!

ATTENTION!

One might disparagingly say “Brother Mike, how can I prevent the wrong ‘seeds’ from growing in my life?” I alluded to it earlier when I said “things we give our attention to.” These are the kinds of things we give ourselves to, on purpose: books we read, movies we watch, T. V. shows we watch, meetings we attend, and the like. I know there are certain situations we simply cannot avoid, like if our job requires us to attend a certain meeting; the content of that meeting, and the people we are sitting around – the conversations they have – this stuff has the potential to get into us and produce attitudes and mind-sets. You and I still have the choice to take in those things, or reject them (I’m talking about thought patterns and views of life being projected from those around us).

So, how do we safeguard against such attributes getting into our hearts and minds that they won’t produce a harvest we really do not want in our lives? God has placed within the human psyche the ability to partake of what we truly want produced in our lives: Life or Death; Good or Bad; Blessing or Curses – then He even gives us the cheat: “choose life, so that you and your children may live” (Deuteronomy 30:19). Fast forwarding to the present day Paul, writing to the church at Corinth, wrote “while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal” (2Corinthians 4:18).

The choice is ours; we can dwell on the circumstances around us (the things that are temporary – subject to change), or we can continue in His Word (which is eternal) and partake of His precious promises, which will result in participating in His divine nature (the answer to our troubles). It’s what we give our attention to that will grow into the harvest those implanted seeds will produce! The ‘bad seeds’ of life can be purged with “the washing of the water of the Word” (Ephesians 5:26) – the Superior Seed.

FALSE TEACHINGS

I said all that about seeds and the harvest they will produce to get our thinking to go along the lines of the direction our lives will take, and the ‘fruit’ we will partake of. The Lord has been dealing with me regarding the conditions our hearts are in, and the needed cooperation for this Last Day Harvest He so desires to reap. Scripture teaches “Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rain. You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand” (James 5:7-8). There are a few things I’d like to bring out regarding these verses:

• The coming of the Lord (which is so very near!)
• The Farmer waiting for the precious fruit of the earth (souls)
• The former and latter rain (outpourings of God’s Spirit to reap those souls!)

I have it ringing in my heart – louder than ever! – that the return of the Lord is so close it could be any day now (read my Encouraging Word “Last Week” by clicking this link). This is the reason I write so many of these teachings, stirring the Body of Christ unto this work of working together with the Lord. God has designed it that we work together with Him; He has limited Himself to relying on our cooperation with Him to get the job done! And, He’s the Farmer Who is waiting for the precious fruit of the earth—souls! The former and latter rain that enables this harvest of souls has begun, and we need to ‘put our hands to the plow’ to get this job done so the Lord can receive us to Himself (rapture!!).

The devil is fully aware that his time is extremely short, so he’s pulling out every stop he can imagine to thwart the work of God. How does he accomplish this? False doctrines (teachings). He knows the laws of God and how they work. The two ‘laws’ in particular that pertain to this teaching are: the words we truly believe in our heart, and say with our mouth will come to pass; plus, the image we have of ourselves will manifest (be evidenced) in our lives! This is why the Bible talks about renewing our minds with the Word of God so we can be transformed from the conforming images of the world!

• “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God” (Romans 12:1-2).
• “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2Corinthians 3:18).

Satan knows that if he can propagate his imagery enough he can cause anyone to be conformed to it – ultimately imitating it, thereby ‘choosing death’, which is what he wants. Jesus said of him (Satan) that he is a thief who only comes to steal, kill and destroy, but He (Jesus) came that we might have life, and have it more abundantly (John 10:10)! This deadly ‘conforming’ comes to those who give their attention to these ‘false teachings’ – which comes through the spirit of antichrist. The Apostle John wrote extensively of this:

• “Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour” (1John 2:18).
• “Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist who denies the Father and the Son” (1John 2:22).
• “and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world” (1John 4:3).
• “For many deceivers have gone out into the world who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist” (2John 1:7).

Paul also addressed this issue in his letter to the Corinthian church when he wrote about the gifts of the Spirit and their manifestations. He said, “no one speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed, and no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit” (1Corinthians 12:3). These Scriptures are plain; a Mike Leach paraphrase could say ‘unless the message someone is speaking points to the Lordship of Jesus and talks about the things He accomplished by going to the cross, they are NOT speaking by inspiration of God, and are false _______ (prophets, teachers, or whatever type of ‘ministry-gift’ they say they are)’. “Of such, turn away” (the Holy Ghost just said that in me).

ALIGNMENT

I know it seems like I’m beating a dead horse (I apologize to our readers who aren’t from the U. S. – that is an American colloquialism that means to keep repeating something over and over in seeming redundancy), but I strongly feel the Holy Spirit wants to get these ideas across to the Body of Christ, so we can rise up strong in Him and defeat the giants of falsehood trying to wipe-out the Churche’s effectiveness against the devil and his crowd! In order to arise in this hour, we have to awaken to these things (tactics) and purposefully wield our Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God – spoken from a heart fully persuaded of God’s mightiness! To do so we have to align our thinking with God’s thinking – exchanging our thoughts for His; “‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,’ says the LORD” (Isaiah 55:8). This is what renewing the mind will do – exchange our way of thinking to align (line-up) with God’s thinking. We could go on and on about that. This entire website is designed to help us along these lines.

Getting back to false teachings; I’m not going to name names, or spell-out any groups that are to be blamed for such propagation. I’m simply going to present the truth – God’s Word is truth – and anything that does not line up with it is false!

WHAT IS TRUTH?

There are far too many references to list here (when I typed ‘truth’ in the search section of my Bible program I use I found there are 100 verses in the New Testament alone!), but for the purpose of this teaching I will mention a few:

• “For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (John 1:17). Truth came through Jesus!
• “But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him” (John 4:23). – You want God the Father to seek you out? Worship Him in the Spirit and Truth!
• “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me’” (John 14:6). Jesus said He is the Truth!
• “But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me” (John 15:26). Here Jesus calls the Holy Spirit “the Spirit of Truth.”

Did you notice Jesus said “He (the Spirit of Truth) will testify of Me”? That corresponds with what we said earlier – and what this teaching is all about – testing the spirits. In brief, are the messages coming into your life testifying of Jesus, or are they trying to present ‘another gospel’? Paul addressed this in his letter to the church at Galatia by saying “I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ” (Galatians 1:6-7). The next verse is the key here, “But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed” (Galatians 1:8). God used Paul mightily to establish the foundation for the Church to be build upon, Christ, the Chief cornerstone (see Psalm 118:22, Isaiah 28:16, Matthew 21:42, Acts 4:11, and 1Peter 2:6-7).

SPIRITUAL DISCERNMENT

Spiritual discernment is the practical purpose of this, and all of my teachings! This ‘discernment’ is acquired by feeding on (and exposure to) the Word of God – which Jesus Himself testified “Thy Word is Truth” (John 17:17, KJV) when He was praying to the Father just before going to the cross. We are not to simply gobble up everything that comes along just because someone says it’s coming from God! We are to ‘test the spirits, whether they are from God.’ “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world” (1John 4:1).

Even when there is a spiritual manifestation, Paul admonishes “Test all things; hold fast what is good” (1Thessalonians 5:21). Why did he write such a thing?; because, not every ‘spiritual manifestation’ comes by the Spirit of God. Here’s the plain truth: is the experience (manifestation) promoting the Lordship of Jesus, or some fleshly (carnal) thing? One will know by the inward-witness. There will be a ‘scratching’ – like “this just doesn’t feel right”; or, there will be a peace and comfort about it. Isn’t one of the descriptive terms for the Holy Spirit “Comforter”? Isn’t one of the ‘fruits’ of the Spirit “peace”? Jesus said we would know…by the fruit. Spiritual discernment will come by ‘fruit inspection’.

The Holy Spirit within each of us will bear witness if something is from God the Father: “The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God” (Romans 8:16). The Apostle John wrote about this witness in his first epistle:

• “it is the Spirit who bears witness, because the Spirit is truth” (5:6).
• “there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit” (5:7).
• “there are three that bear witness on earth: the Spirit, the water, and the blood” (5:8).
• “If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater; for this is the witness of God which He has testified of His Son” (5:9).
• “He who believes in the Son of God has the witness in himself; he who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed the testimony that God has given of His Son” (5:10).

That last one sums up the entirety of this teaching! If anyone believes in the Son of God (has asked Jesus into their heart – been born again), they have the witness of the Spirit in themselves! John also wrote, “Now he who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And by this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us” (1John 3:24). That’s as plain as it gets! We can know if anything is coming to us by God because of the Spirit Whom He has given us! The two primary ways we can test the spirits trying to influence our lives is by 1) the Word of God, and 2) the witness of the Spirit of God that every believer has!

The message that’s to follow began in my heart nearly twenty years ago when The Lord said to me “Have You Imprisoned the Spirit of God?” The title “The Dark Side of Faith” rose up inside me during my time of fellowship with Him Wednesday morning, August 2, 2023 (which is the same way the first question came to me early in 2004).

The Bible teaches that “Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall” (Pro 16:18). Then two chapters later Solomon wrote: “Before destruction the heart of a man is haughty, And before honor is humility” (Pro 18:12). I said that because some of the things I’m about to write are very humbling for me to unveil. [I’m not going to go into great detail, but enough will be said for the Holy Spirit to help the readers’ mind to travel their own road of revelation and come to know what He and I are saying.]

God, the Father of lights, the Lord Jehovah, is such a patient Father! I’m about to complete my fortieth year of walking with Him – I’ve come to realize length of time doesn’t mean anything in the Kingdom of God. In other words one might say ‘Well, he should have had the victory over that by now’ and the like. I say that because I grew up with that thought-pattern, thinking certain levels of life somehow just happen automatically because one had reached a certain age while making no effort to develop in an area (things like financial status, marriage, child rearing). I somehow thought these things simply happened because I had reached a certain age.

I remember, as a youngster, walking along the sidewalk and thinking to myself ‘I know everything I need to know. I don’t have to go to college, or gain any further teaching of _______.’ So I never applied myself to learn. I’m not sure what my grade average was, but the C’s and D’s were enough to skate me into the next grade. Around the third grade the bullying was thrust into high gear. Then to make matters worse, my third grade teacher called me a “stupid idiot” in front of the entire class! My home-life didn’t give me any backbone. My mother always used to say “That’s alright, if you don’t want to ______, then you don’t have to.” Which made me a world-class quitter. When that teacher said that to me, and the whole class laughed at me, I closed-up and became a ‘wall-flower’ (someone who didn’t interact at all with anybody else).

This is when the imagery of complete failure began within my inner-man. It’s just now dawning on me (as I’m writing this) that that is why it has taken almost 40 years for the Lord to be able to bring about deliverance in many areas of my life. I would read the Scripture that says “He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love” (Col 1:13). The Amplified Bible classic edition says it like this: “…has delivered and drawn us to Himself out of the control and the dominion of darkness and has transferred us …” There were bondages that controlled my life that I couldn’t break free of, no matter how much I quoted/confessed the Word regarding them. We’ve heard it said the Lord got Israel out of Egypt, but He needed to get Egypt out of them. That’s what was going on with me.

Within the first two weeks in my walk with the Lord my mother gave me a set of teaching tapes by Kenneth Copeland called “The Authority of the Believer.” Hearing him talk about Kenneth E. Hagin and RHEMA Bible Training Center I ended up going to RHEMA in the mid-eighties. One would think after such saturation and training that I would have become a completely new man. In many ways I did, but there was still a lot of work to be done. Here’s a little side-note: just because one attends a premiere ‘faith-school’ like RHEMA doesn’t make them a faith giant. Sure, a lot of foundation was laid, but knowledge only “puffs up” [or inflates, or exaggerates] (1Cor. 8:1). In my case I was deceived to believe that the knowledge I had was enough. But, year after year I found myself dealing with the same garbage that I grew up with.

I started gaining insight into the missing pieces of the life of faith I suffered from after reading Dr. David (Paul) Yonggi Cho’s book called “The Fourth Dimension.” I had heard many of the ministers I feed off of mention that book and how it affected their lives. I finally got hold of a copy and read it. WOW! I found out what they were talking about, and it began the journey I’m writing about now. The devil knows how the laws that govern this life work, and he’s been robbing from mankind since the Garden getting us to function in them with his influence – which is to steal, kill and destroy! Here’s an example: “The generous soul will be made rich, and he who waters will also be watered himself” (Prov. 11:25). Expound better.

So, what does he get man to do? Hoard and only take care of ‘us four, and no more.’ [On a side-note the book of Proverbs is full of revelation regarding the laws that govern life.] I’ll not belabor this thought because I want to get to the crux of revelation that has dawned on me regarding the life of faith. From Dr. Cho’s book we learn that faith requires an inner-imagery to bring to pass what we desire. [Put your stones down, I know Brother Copeland has taught that for years. I simply didn’t ‘hear’ it, which tells me I just wasn’t ready.] Where I got the idea of “The Dark Side of Faith” from is in the understanding that all of mankind operates in faith (bringing forth the image inside them). Leave those stones where they are, I know the Scripture says that not all have faith (2Thes.3:2) – Paul was talking about God’s faith which we all receive at the new birth. Notice, Jesus said “A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things” (Matt. 12:35). This ‘bringing forth’ could be rendered: ‘bring about,’ or ‘cause to be.’

Mankind was created in the image and likeness of God (Gen.1:26). God is a faith God, and man has always been a ‘faith-being.’ We started out with God’s faith, but it became corrupted when Adam bowed his knee to the devil – and that decision passed on to all of mankind: “for that all have sinned” (Rom. 5:12, KJV). Not that we have sinned after the similitude of Adam, but because he was our parent his disobedience passed on to us all. Jesus reversed that ungodly decision and freely gives God’s life (which includes His faith) to everyone who receives Him! Now, that’s Good News!

I said all that to say that mankind (male and female alike) are all faith-beings, and the devil knows it. [Now listen carefully; this is the primary reason for this teaching. I learned these things the hard way! – But, I’ve also learned that we can live a life of victory ON PURPOSE!!] The two primary ingredients that function in the life of faith are the imagination (inner-imagery) and the words of our mouth. We could say it this way: our imagination is the canvas of our heart (inner-man, spirit), which the Scripture calls “hope.” “Now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love” (1Cor.13:13). Couple that with Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

Bible faith is filled with and energized by the Life of God and has God as its Source. Natural human faith is limited to only what the flesh can produce, and God calls that environment “cursed.” “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart departs from the LORD” (Jer. 17:5). Notice, this latter ‘trust’ is in what man can do apart from the Lord being influenced by the devil. All of mankind has been created to be influenced (energized, swayed) by the unseen realm – which is the Fourth Dimension (or, the realm of the spirit). Christianity (Body of Christ) has the upper-hand because we can learn these things and operate in them for our own good; the world has the influence of the devil who fills their mouth (and heart) with death. He uses media, social media and so forth to ‘program’ people to live in the flow of death and destruction. I’m convinced that COVID-19 would not have spread like it did without the ‘help’ of newscasters and social media. We were hearing – from ‘voices’ we were supposed to trust – that it was necessary to get vaccinated and practice social distancing. Notice I said it came from ‘voices we were supposed to trust’? Part of the faith-mechanism is believing a thing. That opens our heart to have instruction written on it, which will affect our future; especially if we say it! The Word of God teaches us that we have what we say. I can hear the ‘light-switches’ flipping in many of you. You’re starting to realize that you have been paving your life by believing in your heart and saying with your mouth certain things!

I’m going to paraphrase Mark 11:23 here in a way that will bring home what we have been talking about. ‘Whosoever (that’s anybody) shall say…and believe in his (or her) heart (spirit-man, inner-man, hidden man of the heart) what they say shall come to pass, they shall have whatsoever they say.’ – Did you catch that? The part that got me was ‘believing what you (I) say shall come to pass.’ Having been bullied in school I developed a defense mechanism – I became a ‘class-clown’ which resulted in the practice of, what the Bible calls, foolish-jesting. I would say things to get people to laugh (which, I thought it would deflect what I perceived as their hatred for me); things that weren’t true. This developed a mistrust in my spirit (heart) to not believe most of what I said. [See how crafty the devil is?] So, what was the result? I began to believe I was always going to be a nobody; a misfit, a reject – unimportant! You can envision how this image hindered my spiritual walk unto victory.

These death-filled attitudes kept me bound so badly that I had no vision – at all! No aspirations for any kind of success in life! I’m not trying to be a bummer here. I told you this writing would be a humbling of myself. But, my hope is that somebody will read this, grab their life by the horns (so-to-speak) and get a spring in their step to press forward and forsake the imagery of defeat that has dogged them their entire life and manifest the Glory of God! Allow the Word of God – who you are IN CHRIST – to paint what cost Jesus His Blood to purchase for you and me and shove it in the devil’s face!!

Can you see how this ‘dark side of faith’ has propagated the agenda of hell throughout the history of the human race? The darkness has so blinded our hearts and minds to the point of hopelessness in many cases. Suicide is at an all-time high because people cannot see themselves as being in the image of God. The devil has convinced many to be confused about their sexuality when a simple – honest – examination of their body will tell them whether they are male or female. I’m not trying to be disparaging here, I know the mental attacks of the enemy are real and hurtful! I believe the Body of Christ needs to rise up and shine the Light of Love into this darkened world and show that there is hope for all who come to Jesus!

God’s Word is full of words that create imagery, which results in faith – the God kind of faith. God’s faith will heal your body – OF ANYTHING! God’s faith will cause peace to unite a family, a village, a nation and obliterate war. The dark side of faith will keep people bound to sickness and disease, and every other disaster imaginable. Isaiah prophesied “Arise, shine; For your light has come! And the glory of the LORD is risen upon you. For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, And deep darkness the people; But the LORD will arise over you, And His glory will be seen upon you. The Gentiles shall come to your light, And kings to the brightness of your rising” (Isa 60:1-3). [For a pick-me-up writing about that read my article called Arise to a New Life.]

Once, I was complaining to the Lord about the hideous activity going on in the world and He said to me “What did you think the ‘gross darkness’ [KJV] was going to look like?” So, come on Body of Christ, Jesus said that we are the light of the world (Matt. 5:14). Let’s get busy shining forth God’s glory and dispel the darkness! [I just heard this: “Make way, for the King is coming!”]

Discussing these things with a friend, who I trust, via text messages I had an image go off in my heart. I saw Jesus reaching His hand through the muck that’s clouding this planet (overwhelming circumstances) to pull up through it those who would take hold of Him. I wrote: “He’s reaching into the waters of despair the devil thought he was drowning us in, and we’re coming out stronger than ever!” The darkness is covering the planet, without a doubt. But, we are not without help! The Word of God – you know, that Book that’s collecting dust, that we drag with us on a Sunday morning (if we can find it) – is full of exceeding great and precious promises which will enable us to be a partaker of God’s divine nature (see 2Peter 1:2-4). His Word is a shield about us (Psalm 3:3, 5:12, 18:2). And, faith in it will quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one! Jesus is the Word that became flesh (John 1:14). John 3:34 tells us Jesus has the Spirit without measure. The revelation came to me that The Word of God has the same measure (which is immeasurable). Romans 10:17 says that (God’s) faith comes by hearing His Word.

I further wrote: “The whole election-integrity thing; the trans stuff. What our enemy meant for our destruction (communism), God is using for our Awakening! We need to remain sharp in the Spirit and soar above these things! The Body of Christ MUST shake off everything of the flesh: carnality, prejudice (which is not simply black vs. white. It’s division of religious camps – ‘word of faith’ vs. Baptist, etc.).”

In conclusion: all of mankind has a belief-system – we call it ‘faith’. It’s designed to shape our world. The infusion of death (darkness) into the heart (spirit) of man corrupted this system which resulted in the propagation of hell’s agenda. Jesus paid the awesome price for our redemption by shedding His Blood and destroying that darkened system. However, it’s not automatic. It requires a purposeful study of the Word of God and intentional application of it (being a doer of the Word and not a hearer only [James 1:22])! I’ve called this teaching ‘The Dark Side of Faith’ for the purpose of exposing the devil’s devices, which we are not ignorant of (2Cor. 2:11) and illuminating God’s path of life for whosoever will!

“Many are the afflictions of the righteous, But the LORD delivers him out of them all” (Psa 34:19).

King David wrote those words in the Psalm the Lord gave him to provide comfort, no doubt, while he faced upheaval to his throne – from his own son! God is like that; He’ll speak to our hearts words of comfort that lets us know He’s still with us – He’ll never leave us, nor forsake us! Sometimes it will rise up within us as a still small voice; sometimes a friend will call and say “Hey, the Lord has placed you on my heart and I just wanted to encourage you.” Other times He’ll speak through a servant of His in a sermon or a broadcast (like a show on The Victory Channel^™ or a podcast, or something a radio announcer may say – He does that for me a lot!). In-a-nutshell: we have available to us all we need to succeed in life, regardless of what the enemy throws at us!

I’m writing this because the Lord has been speaking to me about persecution for some time now. He’ll do that to prepare me (and others who’ll listen to what He says through me) before we actually need to access it. My Pastor says it like this: “To be forewarned is to be forearmed.” In other words, if you or I have been made aware of possible danger, or trouble before it comes along, then we can prepare for it and be ready to overcome it in advance. This “danger” could range from simple ‘verbal-slander’ to martyrdom when it comes to being persecuted for our faith. Jesus said in John’s gospel: “A servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you” (15:20).

Without delving into a lot of detail; mankind was created to give expression physically to the spirit-world. Spirits are eternal beings – all spirits, good and evil. God placed a limit on all spirit-beings that they require a physical body to be given expression in this natural world. That’s why Satan had to use a serpent’s body to talk with Eve and deceive her into disobeying God’s command regarding the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. He was after the authority God gave Man to this planet (which, ultimately, was to get back at God for expelling him and his bunch from Heaven).

Entire cities of people (and sometimes animals) had to be wiped-out because they were giving themselves over to evil spirit influences. Sacrificing their children, practicing sexual-immorality, and all manner of unholy activities. God would raise up godly ministers (usually prophets) to speak His words to them to get them to stop. But, a lot of times they simply wouldn’t listen and make the necessary changes, so He had to pass judgment on them, getting rid of the ‘in-rode’ those evil spirits had. I know it sounds harsh, but from God’s perspective, He did NOT create man to follow after the devil and his rebellious ways! He ALWAYS made a way of escape for mankind to return to Him. Then came Jesus! – Let me get on a mini-soapbox here! – God creates Man, Man rebels against God; God becomes a Man to pay the penalty for the rebellion! – Who does that?? Who gets offended, then pays the penalty of the offence so the offender can go free?? – JEHOVAH GOD, WHO SO LOVED US – THAT’S WHO!

Okay, now that I’ve gotten that out, let’s get back to persecutions. Both John and Paul spoke of these ‘spiritual influences.’ John wrote in 1John 5:19 “We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.” The AMPC says: “under the power of the evil one.” The NIrV puts it this way: “under the control of the evil one.” Notice it’s the “whole world” – not the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ (although, one could fall prey to such influence if they allow themselves to – that’s why it’s so important to renew our minds, go to church, and fellowship with godly people to remain strong against evil influences!).

Paul addressed these unseen influences like this, writing to the Ephesian church: “And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience” (Eph 2:1-2, underline mine). “The course of this world,” Mike Leach paraphrase: ‘the direction this world is traveling in.’ Then he tells them (and us) that we do not wrestle against flesh and blood (our battle isn’t with people – it may seem that way, but it’s the unseen forces they are yielding to); “but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Eph. 6:12).

Now, why all this talk about unseen influences? There are only two camps: Light and darkness; good and evil; love and hate. The spirits that be, exist in one or the other of these two camps. God The Father is over the Light camp. In that camp we’ll find The Lord Jesus Christ, The Holy Spirit, holy angels and the Church (the Body of Christ). Satan (once known as Lucifer) is over the camp of darkness where demons (devils), fallen angels, and unredeemed mankind exist. – I feel I have to state a side-note here: unredeemed mankind is not demon-possessed; they’re just influenced by them in their thinking and actions. A child who is brought-up in a household with morals and even godliness will exercise a greater restraint against evil influences than one who is subjected to an unholy atmosphere in their upbringing. But, God loves all mankind equally, and the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is available to all who will receive it. The choice is ours.

As you can imagine, the evil camp of unseen influences HATE the camp of holy individuals. So, they ‘move-on’ (influence) those who they can to persecute (make life miserable for) those who are in the Light camp. Remember what Jesus said in John 15:20 “If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you.” Why? Because He’s IN us. It’s not because we are anything special, it’s because He’s so special, and we carry His anointing and message to the world. Satan cannot steal our anointing; he didn’t give it to us. But, if in some way he can prevent us from operating in it….the result is the same! It’s that anointing that destroys the yolk of bondage he puts on people.

So, the next time a co-worker, family member, or neighbor is irritating you—pray for them. Why do you think Peter wrote: “Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you; but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy. If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. On their part He is blasphemed, but on your part He is glorified” (1Pe 4:12-14, underline mine)?

Paul spoke of the things he suffered for the Gospel’s sake. Listen to his ‘speech’ to the church at Corinth: “We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed—always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body” (2Co 4:8-10). Notice his attitude toward what the devil was doing (I’ll show you in a moment that it was the devil):

• We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed – yet NOT crushed!
• Perplexed, but not in despair – but NOT in despair!
• Persecuted, but not forsaken – but NOT forsaken!
• Struck down, but not destroyed – but NOT destroyed!

His focus wasn’t on the negative activity going on to get him to stop doing the will of God in his life. [I trust I’m talking to somebody – I know God is talking to me!]

Now, here’s how I know it was demonic activity working through these circum-stances. Later, in the same Epistle (2Corinthians), Paul gives greater detail of the things happening to him (I’ll only enumerate a few of them): stripes (whippings), imprisonment, deaths, stoned once, beaten with rods, shipwrecked, perils, weariness, toil, sleeplessness, hunger (chapter 11:23-27). He winds up the list by saying: “besides the other things, what comes upon me daily: my deep concern for all the churches” (2Co 11:28). Men were coming in behind him and teaching what had to be done to ‘really be saved’ (my words).

This is why Paul wrote his Epistles (letters) to these churches, so they could have evidence of what he taught while he was with them, and ‘weed-out’ the error that was becoming so popular. We have error today that is trying to change the Word of God (or, weaken our understanding of it) – if we take a stand against the error and side with the Truth of God’s Word, we’re going to face persecution! Let me help strengthen your resolve: God is not obligated to anybody’s opinion! He meant what He said, and He said what He meant – period!

To continue proving the things Paul went through were demonic, we’ll continue reading in 2Corinthians. “And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure” (2Co 12:7, underline mine). This messenger was stirring up trouble everywhere Paul went! It got so bad he asked the Lord three times to remove it from him. Now, religion has taught that Jesus told Paul ‘NO.’ But, that’s not what the Lord said to him at all! He said: “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness” (2Co 12:9). Mike Leach paraphrase: ‘Paul, I have equipped you thoroughly for everything I’ve called you to accomplish. You have what it takes – provided by Me – to completely succeed in life. I already whipped the devil and his crew. Now you enforce that defeat!’

A little side-note here, I believe Paul was starting to pick up on these things when he wrote his first letter to the Corinthian church, he wrote: “No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it” (1Co 10:13). Oh, glory to God!! Somebody shout AMEN!!

To finish-up; there’s so much more we could talk about here. I truly believe we are in the last of the last days. God is pouring out His Spirit on all flesh in this one last Great Awakening before He calls us home. Of course the devil is going to do his best to try and stop this move of God. He knows his time is short. Maybe the lake of fire has licked at his heels a little. He’s frustrated; confused; annoyed, and upset. He hates God and all of mankind (sinner and saint alike). He wants to take those, who God so loved, into the pit with him. Don’t let him distract you from the things of God. Use the weapons of warfare God has given us to overcome his schemes against us – including “casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ” (2Co 10:5). And remember, persecutions are the devil’s way of letting off steam to try and distract you and I from “the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:14). Just keep pressing forward!

Remember this: “‘No weapon formed against you shall prosper, And every tongue which rises against you in judgment You shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, And their righteousness is from Me,’ Says the LORD” (Isa 54:17). I particularly like the New International Readers Version of this verse: “‘But no weapon that is used against you will succeed. People might bring charges against you. But you will prove that they are wrong. Those are the things I do for my servants. I make everything right for them,’ announces the LORD” (Isa 54:17, NIrV).

HALLELUJAH!

Having grown up during a time when space travel and such were prevalent – in the news, TV shows like Lost in Space and Star Trek – my thinking was shaped with those scientifically oriented programs. I watched as Apollo 11 landed on the moon, and I heard Neil Armstrong utter the words: “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” The world was abuzz with this new development and venture. I mention this to portray the reasons for why my thoughts many times are expressed using science-fiction terms, such as ‘portals’. A portal is a point where something or someone may travel through to get from one place to another. Sometimes the term is shortened to the word ‘port’.

I have always messed around with electronic equipment. As a youngster that equipment was primarily the family stereo, then my own record playing 8-track recording machinery. I can’t tell you why I’ve always known and understood the flow of electrical things, like input and output and what plugs into where. I remember one time we had gone to Radio Shack and purchased a UHF converter for our television. I had it up and running while my dad was still reading the instructions. I suppose that’s simply part of my ‘bent’ (something that interests an individual). So, that’s why I easily see us (people) as portals – spiritually speaking.

A spiritual portal is a position where a spirit-being can access both the natural (physical) realm and the realm of the spirit where the unseen populace exists – like God, angels, and demons. Human beings are first and foremost spirit beings that live in a body. These physical bodies give us the right (license) to operate here on the earth since they were made from the earth: “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being” (Gen 2:7). Mike Leach rendering: God made a body from the earth then placed of His spirit in it to give that body life. James Two says: “For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also” (Jas 2:26). Another way to say it is our physical body is our ‘earth-suit’.

God’s original intention for man was for mankind to give expression to the realm of the spirit in the earth. In other words, man was never intended to live life apart from the influence of God in their lives. Since God is a Spirit (John 4:24), man is also a spirit. Jehovah said in Genesis: “Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’ So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them” (Gen 1:26-27, underline mine for emphasis). Did you notice God said “according to Our likeness”? So, we not only look like God, but our substance (being) is like Him as well – we are spirit beings.

It is apparent that spirit beings cannot express in the earth without the cooperation of a physical body. This explains why Satan sought a serpent to be granted expression in the earth. He was already cast down from Heaven to the earth realm, but needed a body to contact (be given expression to) Eve in the Garden. Notice the dialog in Genesis Three: “So the LORD God said to the serpent: ‘Because you have done this’” (Gen. 3:14a). Apparently the serpent had granted Satan permission to manifest through their body to contact Eve, and God was upset with it. Ultimately it was Adam’s responsibility to kick the devil out – God’s intention was for the man: “to tend and keep” the Garden of Eden. It was Adam’s job to maintain the Garden.

Let’s take a little side-note here. When God instructs something, He expects it to be the Standard to conduct life by. In other words, when He says something (which, when He speaks His Words are not only instructional, but operational) and there arises a situation, or circumstance that appears contradictory to it, then it’s our responsibility to make things align with what He has instructed (the Bible calls them commandments). Jesus said: “And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven” (Mat 16:19). I like how the Amplified Bible Classic Edition puts it: “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind (declare to be improper and unlawful) on earth must be what is already bound in heaven; and whatever you loose (declare lawful) on earth must be what is already loosed in heaven.”

Did you get that? We, mankind, have the authority – right here on this planet – to enforce the directives that take place on Earth. Why? Because Man was given the mandate from God to do so. When Adam committed high treason by handing over to Satan his authority the earth became flooded with darkness; humans had been transferred to the influence of Lucifer and his demon cohorts. You’ll see this in Ephesians Two: “And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience” (Eph 2:1-2, underline mine). ‘According to the course of this world.’ One could put it this way: ‘according to the influence (or, flow) of this world.’ Did you notice it was ‘by the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience’? That’s because of the portal that we are. We were ordained to allow the spirit world to be given expression on this planet. The Apostle John wrote it this way in his first epistle: “We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one” (1Jn 5:19).

This explains why so many ungodly circumstances are happening all around the world. Darkness is being allowed to express its ugly, hateful, hurtful nature seemingly unbridled all over the place. The Good News is Jesus has stripped the devil and all his ungodly purposes of their power and authority! He has given His authority to His Body – the church – to conduct the business of Heaven. Because we are those ‘portals’ that give the realm of the spirit expression it’s up to us to enforce what ‘camp’ gets to manifest – Light, or darkness.

PAUL’S THORN IN THE FLESH

 I’ll give you my understanding of what the Lord said to Paul regarding his ‘thorn in the flesh’. In Second Corinthians he tells of the difficulties he faced daily: “in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often; From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one…besides the other things, what comes upon me daily: my deep concern for all the churches” (11:23-28 mostly). These trials (which, by the way), he referred to as “light afflictions” earlier in this same letter (4:17).

Then, as recorded in the Twelfth chapter: “lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure. Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me” (2Co 12:7-9). Paul was a portal that was used by God to establish His Kingdom in the earth, calling himself a “worker together with God” (2Co 6:1). Two things I want to mention here: 1) the thorn in the flesh Paul spoke of. The phrase ‘thorn in the flesh’ was a colloquial expression of his time. He said it was a “messenger of Satan,” so we know it was a demon spirit dogging his life with trouble (the trouble he just enumerated in the previous chapter). I’m mentioning Paul’s ‘thorn’ because the devil uses difficulties to distract us from moving forward in the work of God. He can’t stop the work, but if he can somehow prevent us from cooperating with God then the work comes to a halt.

2) The next thing I’d like to bring out is that religion has taught that Jesus told Paul ‘No’ (implying there would be no help from Heaven in his situation). That theory was spawned from hell! Read what Jesus said to him: “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Here’s the Mike Leach rendering: ‘I’ve given you everything you could ever need to whip the tactics of the devil and put him in his place!’ [Now, we’ve gone back to the Garden – which is what Jesus accomplished for us through His death-burial-and Resurrection! – That’s what the ‘keys of the Kingdom’ are for!]

So, Jesus has opened the way for the influence of Heaven to affect the activities on the earth – through us, His church – His Portals! The activity we’re seeing going on around the world – especially the anti-Semitism – is to be addressed by the church! This planet and the precious people on it do not belong to the devil! God has issued His Great Commission to the Body of Christ to take care of business.

I can almost hear your thoughts: ‘Why doesn’t God do something about what’s happening?’ – He just did; He had me write this, He had you read it. We have what it takes! It’s a sobering thought, but we are going to be held responsible for the Last day revival and Great Awakening! Let’s get after it, family!

In our prior discussion regarding ‘tongues’ we mentioned:

• “Speaking in tongues is a Kingdom benefit, not a Salvation requirement”
• “Speaking in tongues makes our physical tongue available to the Holy Spirit to pray/speak to God about something we don’t have knowledge of”
• “Speaking in tongues brings one into a place of rest, and causes a refreshing in their lives”
• “Like everything in the Kingdom of God – you only have to ask to be filled with the Spirit” (which will result in/with speaking in tongues)
• [Speaking in tongues] “is certainly one of the greatest tools God has given to His Body to excel over darkness these Last Days”
• “Speaking in other tongues will enhance your worship experience – the urge for intimacy with God can (begin to) be satisfied through this benefit”
• “Paul declared ‘I wish you all spoke with tongues; do not forbid to speak with tongues’” (1Cor.14:a, 39b)

For the exposition of each of these points please read the prior article “About Tongues.” I only mentioned them to get the ball rolling to bring further clarification regarding tongues and the benefit(s) of their practice.

I’d like to point out when this Kingdom benefit is spoken of it’s not referred to as a ‘language’ [religious tradition has called speaking in tongues a Heavenly language – but it’s not a ‘language’ as we know languages: Italian, French, Chinese and so forth – it’s a ‘tongue,’ utterance given by the Holy Spirit through our inner-man]. Natural, human, languages typically have a direct translation from the one language to another (maybe not word for word, but overall communication can be made through translation). Speaking in a spiritual ‘tongue’ the understanding of what is said comes through interpretation – and that by the Holy Spirit. I know I’m ruffling some feathers here, but stay with me. By the anointing of the Holy Ghost I’ll be able to adequately expound on this statement, and you (the reader) will gain illumination – which will empower one to march boldly in these Last Days!

Let me explain: when the Holy Spirit is giving someone utterance to speak/pray about something, for us to understand what is being said/prayed for we need for Him to interpret for us. It’s not a word for word translation. This explains why our ‘tongues’ can ‘sound’ exactly the same from one time to another, yet something completely different is being prayed for/spoken. It’s a spiritual activity. This activity can accomplish any one, or more, of the following:

• Simple spirit-exercise: this can be initiated by the believer at any time, which will build-up the spirit-man (like going to the gym builds-up our muscles).
• Praying to God about something one doesn’t know how to pray for. We know we need to pray about a thing, but don’t seem to know how/what to pray for it – The Holy Spirit will give us the utterance needed to get the job done.
• Communing with God out of a heart of love by the inspiration of the Spirit.
• Public manifestation of speaking in tongues is as the Spirit wills and requires (the gift of) the interpretation of tongues to profit the assembly.

These all will ‘sound’ the same to our natural ear, but the Holy Spirit will cause them to be uttered according to their needed purpose. As time goes on and we develop these things of the Spirit, we’ll become more accurate and skillful in their operations. Each instance builds-up the believer exercising them, which helps one to grow-up in the things of God.

JESUS HAD TO BE FILLED

Jesus didn’t begin His earthly ministry until He was filled with the Holy Spirit (see Matthew 3:16, Mark 1:10, Luke 3:22). The terms ‘baptized with,’ ‘poured out on,’ and ‘filled with’ are all different ways to talk about the same experience with the Holy Spirit. At the New Birth it is the Holy Spirit Who makes one a ‘New Creature’ (2Cor.5:17) by “the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5); however, subsequent to that experience, The Master has commanded us to be “endued with Power from on High” (Luke 24:49). This ‘endowment’ is what makes available the Supernatural ‘tools’ necessary to demonstrate the involvement of Heaven here on earth: “But the manifestation of the Spirit (the ‘tools’) is given to each one for the profit of all: for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings by the same Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues” (1Co 12:7-10). I made mention of each ‘tool’ to show what is available to every Believer who has been ‘endued’ with the Power of God through being filled (baptized) with the Holy Spirit. For this teaching we’ll only be discussing in detail ‘speaking in tongues.’

Remember Acts 2:4 tells us the disciples spoke in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance (other references in the Book of Acts that mention speaking in tongues once filled with the Holy Spirit include 10:46 and 19:6). How does the Spirit do that? Does He tell our inner-man what to say (like ‘tell so-and-so this,’ or ‘say such-and-such’), then our inner-man tells our minds what to say? No. The utterance comes as a divine influence. We’ll call this influence the individual’s personal ‘tongue/utterance.’

PERSONAL TONGUE [UTTERANCE]

Once one is ‘filled with’, or ‘baptized in’ the Holy Spirit each ‘variety’ of tongues becomes available. This is the initial evidence, or sign, that one has received the infilling of the Holy Spirit (has been Baptized in the Holy Spirit). We could say the Spirits’ initial involvement ‘flavors’ the individual’s speech. Like when one adds sugar to tea making it ‘sweet tea’; it’s still tea, but now the influence of sugar has made it ‘sweet tea.’ When speaking in a tongue by the Spirit, we’re still doing the speaking, but it’s ‘influenced’ (or inspired) by the Holy Spirit giving the utterance.

This is why we don’t hear anybody from a religious denomination that talks against being baptized with the Holy Spirit ever speak in other tongues! The enemy has convinced many that speaking in tongues is of the devil. But, my friend, I’m giving many adequate – Scriptural – instances of the importance this blessing from God brings into our lives! This action is one of the greatest ‘tools’ God has given us [this discussion can be difficult to understand; one must read this with their heart (inner-man) and not with their head (natural understanding). This is portrayed in 1Corinthians chapter 2 in detail.]

SPEAKING OUT MYSTERIES [ONE VARIETY]

Let’s go on. We’ve already talked about ‘speaking mysteries’ when we speak in tongues: “For he who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God, for no one understands him; however, in the spirit he speaks mysteries” (1Co 14:2). Paul doesn’t leave us there though, he further instructs: “Therefore let him who speaks in a tongue pray that he may interpret” (1Co 14:13). That correlates with the instruction found in Romans 8: “Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God” (Rom 8:26-27).

There’s much that needs to be unpacked in this passage:

1. The word ‘weaknesses’ here means (our) inability to produce results.
2. ‘groanings which cannot be uttered’ is further depicted in the Greek ‘in articulate speech.’ In other words, natural human language cannot express it, that’s why a Spiritual ‘tongue’ is necessary.
3. Intercession for the saints is made according to the will of God: mysteries spoken in prayer – one is enabled to pray for someone else without prior knowledge of their need (the Spirit knows “the end from the beginning”!).

Another ‘sacred-cow’ I’d like to topple here is what comes next: “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose” (Rom 8:28). The religious concept that I want to defy here is the blanket statement people make: “Well, you know, God works all things together for our good” (which often leaves one disgruntled with God and/or confused). The Law of Doctrine commands us to never take things out of context to make Scripture say something it actually does not. Paul, writing to Timothy, said: “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2Ti 2:15, italics mine for emphasis). If Scripture can be ‘rightly divided’ then it can be wrongly divided as well. This is why there are so many different religious interpretations (doctrines) that result in dividing the Body of Christ, instead of unifying us.

The context in Romans 8 where Paul said that in verse 28 is talking about being led by the Spirit, and praying out mysteries in tongues. The person who practices such spiritual activity in their daily lives can expect the leading of God, Who will in turn cause all things to work together for our good when we cooperate with His directive (as a doer of His Word). Paul wrote to the Ephesian church: “For we are God’s [own] handiwork (His workmanship), recreated in Christ Jesus, [born anew] that we may do those good works which God predestined (planned beforehand) for us [taking paths which He prepared ahead of time], that we should walk in them [living the good life which He prearranged and made ready for us to live]” (Eph 2:10, AMPC). However these blessed paths are not discovered by anyone who spends no time communing with God, and aligning their lives with His Plan for them! – Praying in the Spirit (which is another way of saying praying in tongues) is the ‘tool’ we all have at our disposal to align our lives with the Plan of God. The Plan of God is a mystery hidden in God for us, not from us!

When one receives revelation of the Word, faith is the result. Speaking in tongues is like ‘fanning the flames’ of those revelations we have deposited in our hearts; the result? We ‘feel’ supercharged. [I put ‘feel’ like that because it’s a spiritual ‘feeling’ that results in the strength of the Lord. This strength empowers us to charge through our daily lives like a bull chasing a red-flag!]

I’ve been calling these activities ‘tools’ because they are given to the Body of Christ to accomplish the Will of God in various situations. They are available for ministering to others. The Lord once spoke to me regarding these ‘manifestations (gifts)’ in this way: “The gifts of the Spirit are for ministering to others Kingdom Benefits; the Promises of God will manifest the same result(s) for anyone who believes and receives them.” In other words, the gifts are ministered from one individual to another, as the Spirit wills; the Promises make available the same benefits for every believer to obtain on their own (see 2Pe 1:2-4).

DISCERNING BETWEEN SOUL AND SPIRIT

One of the greatest benefits speaking in tongues makes available (besides building-up our inner-man) is distinguishing between our soul and spirit. Mankind is a triune being, we are a spirit, we have a soul (mind-will-emotions), and we live in a body. Our ‘soulish-man’ is so closely related to our ‘spirit-man’ that the Bible says it can only be divided by the Word of God: “For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” (Heb 4:12).

From the time we are born into this world we are programmed with the thoughts of the world – through our parental upbringing, social influence (news media, television shows and movies) and so forth. Through the prophet Isaiah God said: “‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,’ says the LORD” (Isa 55:8). Once we become a believer in Christ we have the necessary job of transforming our thoughts be be like His. This process will result in producing faith in our hearts, and speaking in tongues will enhance it! While we are being built-up on our ‘most holy faith’ we are also becoming aware of the difference between what is of our spirit-man and what is of our soulish-man. The more one exercises their spirit-man through speaking in tongues, the more aware they become of the difference between soul and spirit.

THE ‘WRAP-UP’

Let’s wrap-up this discussion with these bullet points:

• Speaking in tongues is a spiritual exercise made available to any Believer who has been baptized in/with the Holy Spirit.
• Speaking in tongues will build-up (strengthen) the individual on their “most holy faith” (revelations they’ve received through study of the Word).
• Praying in tongues enables one to ‘pray-out’ mysteries and to pray for others for something they have not become aware of.
• Speaking in tongues helps one differentiate between what is of their soul and spirit (which is where communications from God occur).  
• Speaking in tongues is an utterance influenced by the Spirit of God and not a language. A language can have a word for word translation, tongues is a direct communication to/from God. To understand what has been said one must receive an interpretation (which explains why speaking in tongues can ‘sound’ like one is saying the same thing as before, yet something different is being ‘said’ in the Spirit).

The Gospel message is the most important message ever to grace this planet! It is the message of the true love Almighty God has for every man, woman, and child—regardless of race, or social status! It is by this one message that all of mankind can become children of God and share in His Kingdom. It is the only message of hope that can render an answer for any trouble anyone could ever encounter! The message that God was in Christ Jesus to reconcile the world to Himself; to completely reverse the treasonous act that took place in the beginning, resulting in mankind suffering the curse of death (separation from God), and poverty (spirit-soul-and body—every form of lack). This separation from God resulted in mankind becoming—in nature—just like the enemy of God: Satan—who is darkness personified. This gospel message is freely given to all who will hear and receive it.

UPSIDE DOWN

The Book of Acts records the first years the gospel message was preached (proclaimed) by those who had encountered its effects themselves. Originally the messengers were those who had been personally instructed by Jesus Himself (those who walked with Jesus; who heard His teaching, and experienced His healing power). After He rose from the dead He instructed them “that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem” (Luke 24:47). [Click here to read the combined Commission He gave.]

He further said, “Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high” (Luke 24:49). The empowerment that came from “on high” enabled the disciples to declare the gospel message with great boldness and demonstrations, so that it was said of them “These who have turned the world upside down have come here too” (Acts 17:6); upside down from the condition that tyrannical darkness had enslaved them to, that is! That’s what the gospel message will do – restore people to the condition of ‘life’ mankind was intended to live! This ‘life’ is what we will be looking into.

THE NEW BIRTH

Adam and Eve were the original parent-set of all mankind; “And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth” (Acts 17:26a). When they disobeyed God and ate the fruit He had told them not to eat, ‘dying, they had died’ (the original Hebrew of God’s warning “for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” [Genesis 2:17])—man became ‘born again’. They were ‘alive’ once with the Life of God, but ‘death’ had taken over inside them, and they became ‘born again’ from life unto death. The state of spiritual death was then passed on to all mankind: “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned” (Romans 5:12, KJV, bold mine for emphasis).

The good news is Jesus paid the price for that treasonous act so we could be born again, from death to life! This is the gospel message we have been talking about. The life we now are to live is alive unto God—the choice is ours to make. And that decision is the purpose of this teaching, so we can live in the fullness of life God gave us when we made Jesus the Lord of our lives, and we became “new creatures” in Him. That’s what we’re talking about when we use the term ‘born again’, we’re talking about this ‘new creature’ we have become when the Holy Spirit regenerated us: “not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5).

IT’S NOT AUTOMATIC

Someone might ask “If so-n-so is a ‘new creature’ then why do they still act like everyone else (those who are not)?” The new birth of the human spirit is instantaneous, but the life-style of godliness is a process. The reason for this is because mankind is a triune being: we are a spirit, we have a soul, and we live in a body. Let me break it down. Jesus said, talking to the Samaritan woman, that God is a Spirit: “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24, KJV). We were created by God to be in His image and likeness: “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness” (Genesis 1:26a, KJV). So, that means we are spirit beings as well. The Bible is progressive revelation; meaning, to understand some things we have to find out what is said about them in the Scriptures that were written later in time.

Paul wrote to the church at Thessalonica “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1Thessalonians 5:23); spirit, soul, and body—three parts, one person. The Book of Hebrews records that it’s only the Word of God that can separate (or, discern between) the soul from the spirit: “For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12, underline mine for emphasis). [As a side-note, have you noticed that God is a triune Being: Father – Son – and Holy Ghost?]

THE WORD MADE FLESH

Now we have come to the bulk of this teaching! The Word of God—the Standard of our progression; the means by which we become sanctified completely: act like, talk like, and walk like Jesus; from the inside out! Everything concerning the Kingdom of God revolves around the Word of God; is centered on the Word of God; is an extension of the Word of God—is an expression of the Word of God! The Word of God is powerful; He upholds all of creation BY it, “who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Hebrews 1:3, underline mine for emphasis). Who is this talking about? Jesus, the Son of God!

• “God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Hebrews 1:1-3).

Did you catch that? God has spoken to us by His Son. What did He say? That He so loved us, He gave Jesus for us—that’s the gospel message!

• “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

The Amplified Bible says it like this, “For God so greatly loved and dearly prized the world that He [even] gave up His only begotten (unique) Son, so that whoever believes in (trusts in, clings to, relies on) Him shall not perish (come to destruction, be lost) but have eternal (everlasting) life” (John 3:16, AMP). You and I are “greatly loved, and dearly prized” by Almighty God, my beloved! The Holy Spirit is the “eternal life” we’ve been given. That’s how we were made ‘new creatures’, by that Life of God that recreated us.

This same Jesus IS the Word of God that became flesh: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:1, 14a). The Word became flesh—that’s Jesus. But, it doesn’t end there; the Word takes on flesh every time someone is born again—that’s you and me! That’s what being a Christian is – we are His Body: He’s the Head, we’re the Body. His Life and nature is inside us now. Our job is to give it expression—living from the inside out.

THE PUT ON

This is what Paul meant when he wrote to the church at Philippi, “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure” (Philippians 2:12-13). “Work out”—we could say it like this: ‘allow what God has done (and is doing) inside you to become apparent on the outside’ – His work of grace in evidence to others. Here’s another way he said much the same thing in other letters he wrote:

• “that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:24).
• “and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him” (Colossians 3:10).
• “But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts” (Romans 13:14).
• “Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection” (Colossians 3:12-14).

I listed this one last because it shows us the pattern by which we ‘put on’ Christ. Did you notice that it lists the “fruit of the Spirit” as the things of Christ we are to put on? “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23a). These are the attributes we are to ‘put on’ – or, as this teaching would say “live inside out”. Let that which is inside come out; or, be manifested on the outside – don’t let the “hidden man of the heart” remain hidden, put ‘em on! Paul wrote “Let your gentleness be known to all men” (Philippians 4:5a).

It has nothing to do with ‘feelings’ – “Well, I just don’t feel like being gentle to so-n-so.” Walking by the fruit of the Spirit has nothing to do with how someone makes us ‘feel’ about them. Feelings are of the emotions and can change moment by moment. We are told to ‘put on’ that which is on the inside of us. We can do it on purpose; it’s a choice we have to make. It’s in there (if you’ve been born again) and is available to be shown on the outside; love, joy, peace, and so on are spiritual forces that enable us to live this life inside out; this is how true Christianity is expressed.

SEEK FIRST

Alright; so, how do we do these things on purpose? In the sermon we call “The Beatitudes”, Jesus instructed us to “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you” (Matthew 6:33). It should be obvious what He meant by “seek first the Kingdom of God” – before we seek anything else we should seek the Kingdom of God! Proverbs Three says “Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths” (vv. 5-6). That sounds pretty plain; if we put God first by acknowledging Him in all our ways, we’ll be trusting Him; and He will direct our paths (daily lives—all manner of direction we need). Seeking first the Kingdom speaks of prioritizing – making His instructions (from His Word, and what He speaks to us in our quiet-time with Him—these are the assignments He has for us).

Now that we have sought Him and received our instructions for life, we have His righteousness to pursue. Righteousness is another way of saying ‘being right’, or doing right. God is right, you know – about everything! So, doing something His way is to do it the right way. I think you get the picture: to conduct our life the way God instructs, either in His Word, or by the conviction of our heart (that’s been saturated in His Word!) is to live life as a disciple of Christ – to put Him on, like a garment; only, it’s a spiritual thing. We live our lives from the inside out! All of these attributes are already in there, but we have to let them come out and dominate our lives.

RENEWING THE MIND

Renewing our mind is the number one way we are enabled to choose to live like Jesus. Paul wrote “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God” (Romans 12:1-2). Who is to present their bodies? The real person (spirit man, hidden man of the heart); the one who is to be in control! Paul said in another place “I discipline my body and bring it into subjection” (1Corinthians 9:27a). Did you notice that? He talked about his body like it was a possession of his; “I bring it into subjection.” He called his body an ‘it’.

In his second letter to the Corinthian church, Paul gives us another clue on how to do these things:

• “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2Corinthians 3:18).

Notice he used the word ‘mirror’. James says something similar in the first chapter of his epistle:

• “For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does” (James 1:23-25).

Here the Word of God is called a ‘mirror’. This is the same mirror Paul was talking about—the Word of God! So we can paraphrase the combined message of these two portions of Scripture like this: the Word of God is the mirror we look into for transformation. It will reflect the man we have become by God’s grace, and enable us to express him, by putting him on – living inside out – as long as we don’t forget the image we saw when we looked. It takes practice; it takes choosing to live this way; it takes putting our bodies under submission to the new man who is on the inside. That’s living the life of Christ – from the inside out!

If we miss it – and we will! – run to the Father (not from Him!) and confess it. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us” (1John 1:9-10). Don’t worry, we’ll make mistakes; but, He’ll be right there to pick us up, brush us off, and set us back on course with our walk. “If God is for us, who can be against us” (Romans 8:31b)? Don’t allow condemnation to weigh you down! That’s from the devil, and he’s not your Lord! So, tell him to shut up! It’s a daily thing we all have to practice! So, keep working on living inside out!

I want to ask you a question; what does the verse “For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance” (Romans 11:29) mean to you? That’s the Authorized King James version. Here it is from the New King James: “For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.” That one brings a little bit more clarity, but I like the NIrV best “God does not take back his gifts. He does not change his mind about those he has chosen.” What does that mean? We could really take off right here about how that God never changes. He’s the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8); “For I am the LORD, I do not change” (Malachi 3:6). James 1:17 tells us that with God “there is no variation or shadow of turning.”

As wonderful as these truths are, they’re not the focus of this study. The point I want to bring out about Romans 11:29 is the gifts and calling of God being a sure, stable, unchangeable ordinance from the Almighty God. Ordinance meaning what God has ordained for our lives – the roles we play individually, and collectively. First Corinthians twelve tells us:

• “For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. For in fact the body is not one member but many. If the foot should say, ‘Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body,’ is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear should say, ‘Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body,’ is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling? But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased” (1Co 12:12-18).

I highlighted verse 25 to make the point that no matter what position in the Body one may be in does not matter—all members of the Body of Christ are just as important as the others! It’s the Head—Christ—Who is exalted above all, and in all, and through all!

In the book of Ephesians Paul talks further of the Body in a manner that depicts our need for each other and these ‘gifts’ we have been made for (to) each other:

• “from whom [Christ] 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” (Eph 4:16 brackets mine).

Earlier in this chapter, verses 7 and 8, Paul said “But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Therefore He says: ‘When He ascended on High, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts to men.’” According to these verses ‘Christ’s gift’ then is considered a grace from God. And, this ‘grace’ knits the Body together according to what it supplies. Let’s compare this with Colossians 2:19 “…holding fast to the Head, from whom all the body, nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, grows with the increase that is from God.” What is the progression here?

1. “holding fast to the Head” – this is a vital, unbroken connection to (with) Christ Jesus, Who is the Head of the Body (see also Ephesians 1:22, 4:15, 5:23; Colossians 1:18).
2. “from Whom all the Body” – every single person who has called upon the Name of the Lord to be saved (see Romans 10:13).
3. “nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments” – this nourishment and knitting together is where the gifting and graces from God come in. One way we could put it is ‘the anointing of God, supplied to an individual member of the Body of Christ, to accomplish their specific task in the Body provides nourishment.’
4. “grows with the increase that is from God” – growth, increase, development; these are all depictions of spiritual progression in God.

This “knitting together” we’re speaking of is the unseen element that ‘binds’ us all together as one Body in Christ. That’s why I mentioned “that there should be no schism in the body.” Jesus Himself warned that a house divided against itself cannot stand (Mark 3:25). This is why the enemy works so hard to establish division between us.

Before Jesus went to the cross to pay the penalty for our sins He prayed to the Father: “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me” (John 17:20-21, underline mine).

[A couple more ‘seeds’ to throw out there at this point: “By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35) – “He who does not love does not know God, for God is love” (1Jn 4:8). Since God is love and we are His children, it stands to reason that we are ‘love’ too: “the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us” (Romans 5:5b). This is the very action of God that made us new creatures in Christ (2Corin.5:17). So, love is the very foundation of this unseen binding influence – the very thread that runs through the entire Body of Christ!]

Having established that we are ‘love-creatures’ let us continue beyond the whole of the Body unto our individuality. The person that each of us is that makes us unique from each other. Paul said it like this writing to the church at Rome: “For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another” (Rom 12:4-5). As mentioned earlier, in his first letter to the Corinthian church Paul wrote: “For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body. For in fact the body is not one member but many. But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased” (1Cor.12:13a, 14, 18). This last part speaks of God’s ordinance we mentioned – the roles we play individually. We could call this our Heavenly assignment (what we are to accomplish, that we will stand in judgment before Him for).

Paul does a little analogy in this twelfth chapter of First Corinthians, talking about the eye comparing itself to the nose or ear; or, the foot comparing itself to a hand—almost in a pouty sense (‘Oh, I’m just useless sense I’m not…’). Now, let me do some Mike Leach paraphrasing, breaking this all down. “If the usher were to say ‘Because I’m not the Pastor, I’m not important’ would they not be important?” “If the Pastor were to say ‘I’m not a Prophet, so I don’t have anything to say to the Body’ would they not have anything to say to the Body?” I think you catch my meaning.

Paul further writes in his Roman epistle: “Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us” (12:6a). The ‘grace that is given to us’ is the anointing of God that each and every one of us received from God when we made Jesus the Lord of our lives! That’s why I called this exhortation “He Has Anointed Me!” We all have an anointing from God to do our part in the Body of Christ. Love is the overwhelming characteristic that runs common through us all, but the gifting(s) that we have, individually, is the portion we’ve been given a stewardship over.

Allow me to give a brief testimony along these lines. I’ve known my entire life I was to be some sort of teacher. When I was eight I had an experience with the Lord at the altar of the church we were attending. [That was probably when I initially got Born Again, but my ‘surrender’ to the Lord came much later in my life. Because of the lack of spirituality (maturity) in my home, and the only Truth that that church knew was the New Birth, I fell away from the Lord and plunged deeply into sin!] Immediately after that ‘experience’ I attempted to conduct Bible studies with my dad and sister. The point is I knew there was a gift to teach in (on) me.

I’m sure everyone reading this can relate in some way to that knowing that there is something within – almost a driving something – that compels you to do something in the Kingdom. May I say this to you? We (the Body of Christ collectively) are deficient without YOU, and you operating in your grace (gifting, calling, assignment from God).

Let’s all stop ignoring what we deem as ‘insignificant’ and put our hand to the plow—from preaching Christ to the nations, to taking that cup of cold water to some thirsty soul in the name of a disciple! I would rather err on the side of pressing toward God with a loyal heart, than to miss out on the glory that is to be revealed in our obedience to Him. Pray. Ask the Father what He would have you do. Ask “that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God” (Colo. 1:9b-10). Let’s imitate Jesus Who said “I must be about My Father’s business” (Luke 2:49b). FEAR NOT! [I just heard that!]

“I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live” (Deut. 30:19).

“The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly” (John 10:10).

As I was meditating on the things of God I pictured a dividing line – a fence, like one that would divide between two properties, or in our case two kingdoms. The Word of God is our Standard that divides between good and evil, life and death. I call it our Standard because the line it establishes has been under attack. The enemy has been working diligently to erase the lines God gives us, and they have begun to be blurred for many people who allow for them to be blurred. The Apostle Paul said it like this: “For of this sort are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts, always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth” (2Ti 3:6-7). Now, don’t get tripped up with the phrase “gullible women” thinking men are superior so this couldn’t happen to them. [I’m hearing this in my heart so strongly right now!] We are at a time of deception like never before and it is vital to be alert, taking heed to these things lest we become deceived ourselves and drift away from them! Paul wrote to the Corinthian church: “Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall” (1Co 10:12). I read that as a warning that if we’re not careful (watchful) we can fall into the very same deceptions everybody around us are falling prey to.

We have precious people who are questioning their sex identification because of the darkness that’s getting shoved down their throats! Isaiah prophesied about this day, saying: “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, And prudent in their own sight!” (Isa 5:20-21). That’s pretty plain! SELAH! Do you see why I call The Word of God our Standard? Paul said: “I would not have known sin except through the law [the Word]. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, ‘You shall not covet’” (Romans 7:7). In other words, we truly do not have any way of knowing what is evil or good, what is darkness (of the realm of darkness) and light without The Word of God spelling it out for us. So, it’s our Standard for understanding everything about life.

What does the devil do? He mingles his ‘interpretation’ of Scripture to blur the lines so that we become confused to the meaning of Scripture and start embracing compromise. Our church services reflect nightclub atmospheres so they’ll be more ‘inviting’ to the world. The biggest problem with that is the Holy Spirit doesn’t find that inviting to Him – and without His Presence nobody receives healing for their bodies, for their marriages, for their finances, the list could go on. While we’re in this vein, I’ll mention: The Holy Spirit is the ONLY individual qualified to interpret Scripture! He’s the Author of it, and He’s been given to us to teach it to us!

I called this teaching “God’s Side” because, according to the Word of God, there are only two sides to life (existence) – Light / darkness, Good / evil, God / Satan. Colossians 1:13 tells us: “He [God, the Father] has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love.” The Word of God provides a line for us that indicates which ‘kingdom’ has what activities (or, properties) going on in them. Jesus said the devil “steals kills and destroys” but He came “to give us life and that more abundantly” (John 10:10). That’s a line – an indicator that points out which kingdom has what activity going on in it. The book of James says: “Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning” (Jas 1:16-17). We could say it this way: if it’s a good and perfect gift, if it ministers (imparts) life, it came from God.

Let me ask you this question: is Cancer a good gift? How about the loss of a job, the death of a child, or even divorce? Then one could conclude they didn’t come from God. Now, don’t get into the debate of God teaching you something, etc. Scripture (which is our Standard by which we come to know the activity of God, or the devil) teaches: “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man (or woman) of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2Ti 3:16-17, parenthesis and underline mine for emphasis). The Word of God, The Holy Scriptures, The Bible is our ONLY Standard by which we come to understand and know the things (and ways) of God – PERIOD!

The Kingdom of God looks and feels the way God depicts it in His Word – that’s God’s side. Death, destruction, confusion, hatred, hurting (the list could go on, but I think you get the picture), that’s all the kingdom of Satan (which steals kills and destroys)! Once we get on God’s side of things then we need to stay on His side. We had an instructor at RHEMA once tell us to “Stay on God’s side.” In other words when you read a Scripture you don’t quite understand, don’t judge God as being evil and unmerciful. The Bible doesn’t always give us all sides of the scenario. For instance, sometimes something happened and the Word doesn’t tell us why right off. We might not see the reason for something that happens until many chapters later (perhaps books later). The Scripture repeatedly tells us God is abundant in mercy – it endures FOREVER! Stick with that (stay on that side).

Deuteronomy 29:29 says: “The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.” Meaning, there are some things that simply aren’t our business to know (it’s between them and God). Remember this: everything in life has a reaction to it – sowing and reaping for instance. We set laws in motion every day by the activity we allow (whether words we speak, or the way we treat others). Something happening in someone’s life could be the result of something they did before. Another Scripture in Numbers says: “be sure your sin will find you out” (32:23b). None of us (mankind) ever ‘gets away’ with anything! It might not come in this lifetime, but it will come – UNLESS we repent and receive forgiveness and cleansing of our sin (1John 1:9)! Thank You God for Jesus and His shed Blood!

Another illustration we could use to drive this point home is that of two tables. One table is adorned (filled) with good things that come from God – bodily healing, soundness of mind, answers to perplexing questions, peace; these come to us through the promises of God (which allows for us to partake of His Divine Nature [2Peter 1: 2-4]). David speaks of this table in his 23^rd Psalm. The other table is set with destruction, disease, hatred, wars, confusion – all things that steal, kill and destroy. Because we have free-will we can approach and partake of the contents of either table. One is on (in) the devil’s side; the other is God’s side. Colossians 3:1-2 says: “If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth” (underline mine). Romans 8:5 contrasts it this way: “For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.” Do you see the two ‘sides’ here? God’s side is seated above the circumstances of life; the devil’s side is to wallow through the muck and mire of this life – sick, broke, busted and disgusted! Living life ‘in the flesh’ is to constantly ‘feed off’ of what’s going on in the world (the junk the devil is orchestrating and propagating), allowing it to affect ones thinking and activity (lifestyle). Living life “after the Spirit” is to feed on the Scripture (primarily the New Testament), allowing for it to guide our thoughts and actions.

Don’t get me wrong, the choices others around us make can affect our quality of life – just ask Joshua and Caleb. They had to wander around in the wilderness because of the choices those around them made. But, they were the only two from that original group of people that came out of Egypt that made it into the Promised Land. Why? Because they stayed on God’s side! The Lord spoke this word to my heart the summer of 1995: “Tell my people they live in Goshen.” I knew exactly what He meant [usually when the Lord speaks a word to me like that, its initial interpretation comes with it as a ‘knowing’ (something we just know without literal words spoken)]. The Children of Israel dwelt in the land of Goshen during the time all sorts of bad stuff was going on all around them in Egypt (which is a type of the world) – yet, they were shielded from it (read the account in the book of Exodus chapters 8 and 9). Jehovah made a distinction between His covenant people and those who were not.  

The Promises of God are given to us to live – in this life! – like the days of Heaven on the earth. They are a Shield about us! When everybody else is getting sick, we can live in health; when others are losing their jobs, we have our needs met according to God’s riches in glory! If a tornado threatens to form, we can talk to it and it dissipates (no weapon…)! These examples are all living life on God’s side. The choice is ours to partake, or to do without! Just because they are available doesn’t mean they just fall on us – NO! We have to: 1) make a decision – choose to renew our minds to it; 2) act on what we learn: “But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work (Word), this one will be blessed in what he does” (Jas 1:25). 3) “[For] we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end, that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises” (Heb 6:11-12 brackets and underline mine). For: “without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him” (Heb 11:6).

What is the ‘reward’? God shows everyone around us that He makes a difference between us and them! “But thanks be to God, Who in Christ always leads us in triumph [as trophies of Christ’s victory] and through us spreads and makes evident the fragrance of the knowledge of God everywhere” (2Co 2:14, AMPC). Do you see it? When we live our lives on God’s side we proclaim His goodness everywhere we go; our lives being evidence of God’s existence and involvement in them!! Scripture teaches that the goodness of God leads men (mankind) to repentance (see Romans 2:4). The Father is waiting for the precious fruit of the earth; for He is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Peter indicates we can hasten (speed-up) the coming of the Lord. I believe the substance of this teaching will enable that ‘hastening’ and we will see our Lord face to face! Let’s get on – and stay on! – God’s side (of everything)!

“There is no wisdom or understanding or counsel against the LORD” (Proverbs 21:30).

As my custom is I like to read a chapter in Proverbs every day – usually the one that corresponds to the date of the month it is. There are 31 chapters in the book of Proverbs, and most of the months have 31 days, so that reading method usually works out pretty good. Sometimes I’ll mix it up and read from different Bible versions, like the Amplified Bible, or some other one. The 21^st of this month was just a few days ago and when I came across our opening verse I had that special knowing that I would be writing about it. That’s how all of my writings come about; I’ll be reading or praying along a certain line of thought and before I know it the Lord is leading me to write about it.

STANDARDS

It seems the idea of ‘standards’ has been in the forefront a lot lately in my writings. Perhaps it’s because there are so many of them trying to be elevated to the top. This group has an agenda, and their set of ‘proofs’ or thoughts to support it – thus they will have information to support their argument and present it as their standard. Another has something completely different and will be (or try to be) convincing in speech to prove that they hold the standard for what they believe. The emphasis is on how convincing they are in their speech. Anybody can proclaim something in such a manner to convince someone else – ask any used car salesman (no offence!).  

I wrote about ‘standards’ somewhat in CHRIST: OUR SUBSTANCE; but, I’m compelled to take it a bit further right now. One could define the word ‘standard’ as a measure by which something could be compared to identify its compliance, or validity. I’ll illustrate by using the distance of an inch. The distance of an inch is exactly the same on a ruler, tape measure, or whatever other implements; regardless of store purchased from – anywhere in the world – if the unit of measure is to be an inch it will be exactly the same distance anywhere on the planet.

Can you imagine the confusion if two or more building contractors got together to build a house, or something else, and their measuring instruments differed? One’s ‘inch’ was larger in distance than another’s? They wouldn’t be able to work together; what they build wouldn’t fit properly. I know this analogy sounds crazy. Why would anyone attempt to argue that their ‘inch’ was correct over someone else’s? So, why should we believe the Bible and make it our ‘standard’ of understanding God and His involvement in the Earth and our lives individually? When it comes to God and believing in Him and what He’s done for us through His Son Jesus, we have to be rock-solid in the integrity of His Word and its infallibility, inerrancy, and unchangeableness! After all, our eternity depends on it! So, let’s dive in. Shall we?

NO COUNSEL AGAINST GOD

What does that mean there is no counsel against God? Well, first-of-all it means nobody can teach Him something He doesn’t already know. He’s omniscient, which means He’s all-knowing, or He knows everything. Another angle to look at it is nobody can come up with a better idea than Him; like a father would counsel his son about how to do something. You cannot counsel God. His ‘ideas’ (ways) are perfect. Paul wrote, “Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! ‘Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?’” (Romans 11:33-34, NIV). That last part, verse 34, Paul was quoting Isaiah 40:13. The Psalmist King David wrote, “The counsel of the LORD stands forever, the plans of His heart to all generations” (Psalm 33:11).

A brief history lesson would prove out the certainty of God’s inerrancy. Did what He say come to pass? Ask Pharaoh! “By this you shall know that I am the LORD” (Exodus 7:17) is one instance of what Jehovah said to Pharaoh (and everybody else who heard). Let’s ask the priest Zacharias about his encounter with the Lord when He told him, through the angel Gabriel, that his wife would become pregnant:

• “And Zacharias said to the angel, ‘How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is well advanced in years.’ And the angel answered and said to him, ‘I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God, and was sent to speak to you and bring you these glad tidings. But behold, you will be mute and not able to speak until the day these things take place, because you did not believe my words which will be fulfilled in their own time.’” (Luke 1:18-20).

Did it come to pass? Yes, his wife did become pregnant, and he was unable to speak the whole time: “And the people waited for Zacharias, and marveled that he lingered so long in the temple. But when he came out, he could not speak to them; and they perceived that he had seen a vision in the temple, for he beckoned to them and remained speechless” (Luke 1:21-22, underline mine for emphasis). Sure enough, Zacharias couldn’t talk until after his wife delivered their baby (v. 64). These are just a couple examples of when God says something, it’s the truth!

GOD CANNOT LIE

“God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?” (Numbers 23:19). I like the way the New International readers Version puts it, “God isn’t a mere man. He can’t lie. He isn’t a human being. He doesn’t change his mind. He speaks, and then he acts. He makes a promise, and then he keeps it” (Numbers 23:19, NIrV). Fast forwarding to the New Testament, Paul wrote to his son in the faith:

• “Paul, a bondservant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God’s elect and the acknowledgment of the truth which accords with godliness, in hope of eternal life which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began” (Titus 1:1-2).

Here’s something to consider, if you listen with your heart your faith will skyrocket: when God says (speaks) something, it contains His power to create it and/or bring it to pass! [That’s why He’s so picky about words – everything He says comes to pass!!] Now we can understand what Jesus meant when He said “The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life” (John 6:63). The spirit world is actually the real world – what we see, touch, hear, smell and taste are simply physical manifestations of the spirit world. Words create; good or bad.

Hebrews One tells us that God upholds all things by the word of His power (verse 3), or we could say the power of His Word. Then it goes on to identify that “the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12). There’s so much in that verse alone:

• The Word of God is alive (living)
• It is full of power (powerful)
• Sharper that any two-edged sword (we could say that it is more powerful than any known weapon!)
• The Word can divide between soul and spirit, and joints and marrow
• It (the Word) can discern (know) the thoughts and intents of our heart (nothing is hidden from the Lord! He knows our thoughts – and – intentions!) – Now that’s all-knowing!

IT’S NOT BLIND FAITH!

Many have accused Christianity of being a religion of ‘blind-faith’. In other words, they say we read the Bible, claiming it to be the writings of some Supreme Being, and just obey what we read because God said so. They say He can’t be seen, and that we cannot prove His existence. Yet, Romans tells us “For since the creation of the world His (God’s) invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened” (Romans 1:20-21, parentheses added for clarity). Notice that these “became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.” They did not want to glorify God, after all, if they acknowledged Him as Supreme, then they would have to listen to and obey what He said! Selah. The result was their hearts became blinded (darkened).

Jesus quoted Isaiah’s prophecy as a commentary against the unbelieving crowd, who heard His voice, but did not ‘hear’ His message: “In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: ‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving’” (Matthew 13:14, NIV). Jesus – God in the flesh – stood in their midst and spoke using simple illustrations, but there were people who simply would not hear (listen to) His message! Did you catch that? Would not – they willed to not listen or hear what Almighty God had to say (that included the religious leaders)! This is true today!

The Bible is the only Book on the planet that God Himself watches over to perform (make good)! It’s the only Book that is alive and active! Other religions have their books that make demands to do works for their deity – our God has recorded in His Book the wonderful things He has done for us! The others change their teachings to accommodate the current political atmosphere – the Book Christians adhere to (the Bible) is forever settled in Heaven (Psalm 119:89)! It says the same thing today as it did hundreds of years ago! It’s so sure, anyone can stake their life on it and not be disappointed – for our God will see to it (He’s Jehovah-jirah: the God who provides)! The Word of God (Bible) is the standard to govern our lives by, and will be used for us to be judged by when everything is said and done. We are without excuse. But, who wants to be? He’s got a proven track record of success! Remember: there is no one who can instruct the Lord! Nobody will ever be God’s counselor!