CAN YOU BELIEVE IT, EVEN MORE THINGS?
Friday – November 3, 2017
Today I will continue with even more things that accompany salvation. At the point of salvation and immediately after there is a change in the person that might not be readily detectable by a photograph but is detectable in the persons presence and speaking with them. That dead spirit is now alive, darkness and deadness in the spirit (soul man) is replaced with light and life. Suddenly the person who just made Christ Lord is acutely aware of how wicked their ways have been by the gentle conviction of the Holy Spirit. With that comes a knowledge of the need to change thoughts, words, and ways and a determination to do so. What has happened to us since dear saints? Did we harden our hearts and stiffen our necks in order to persist in unrighteousness and believe it is righteousness? This is the deceptions of the enemy and the traditions of men. We must regain and maintain a very tender heart toward God, the voice of the Holy Spirit. Now, let us review our primary text from the wonderful Book of Hebrews and then move to the secondary text in Galatians.
Hebrews 6:9-12 (KJV)
9 But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak.
10 For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have shewed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister.
11 And we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end:
12 That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
As you know well the writer, the Lord, is encouraging the people to move away from dead works, to solidly anchoring the principles of the doctrine of Christ (milk) and move into strong meat. The writer makes it clear that as they stay on milk they cannot discern between evil and good and therefore are at great risk of backsliding (becoming lukewarm or just plain cold) or even abandoning the faith all together. Then the Lord seeks to encourage the people (the Hebrews and us) telling them they are “beloved” and He is convinced better things await them IF they/we will follow His Word. He then spoke of things that accompany salvation. The dead works of the flesh are the antithesis of fruits of our born-again spirit. Let us review our secondary text once again. It would be worthwhile to review the dead works of the flesh which are enumerated just prior to the listing of the fruit of the spirit.
Galatians 5:22-23 (KJV)
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
Thus far I have discussed the fruits of love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, and faith. We will end the week with a discussion of meekness and temperance. We are born with this capacity, before salvation these “spiritual organs” were incapable of supernatural fruit but contributed to the dead works of the flesh. Upon salvation with life and light we can now function like our God producing good lasting fruit to further the Kingdom of God. As we use, exercise, each of these organs then a usable by others product is produced. The more that we operate in love (obedience of the Word) the more fruit is produced that pushes others and the Kingdom of God forward. This is true for all of the fruit.
What about this meekness thing, doesn’t sound like something a “real man” wants to be. On the contrary, meekness brings us into a very powerful position in the Kingdom of God. Jesus Himself invited us to be meek as He is meek.
Matthew 11:28-30 (KJV)
28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
The word “meek” in verse twenty-nine is the root of the word meekness in Galatians 5:23. Are we struggling in life? Why? Jesus said: “For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Perhaps we are struggling because we view ourselves as having a physical life and a spiritual life which are separate from one another when in fact they are to be one. Meekness is humility, it is not thinking more of ourselves than we should. Meekness is harnessed strength. We are as nothing without Him, but in Him there are no limits just as there are none for Him. We have authority in the earth and in our submission to the will of God the Power that created all things and raised Jesus from the dead can flow through us, but that is not us, we are the willing vessel. We do what He asks us to do in the natural, then we intercede and decree according to the leadership of the Holy Spirit and the Word and let Him do the heavy lifting. There is not one example of Jesus struggling in His ministry. There is great strength, great power available in recognizing our weakness and submitting to the Father. The joy of the Lord is our strength, His Grace is sufficient. Remember, Jesus said that He was obedient to the will and ways of the Father and the Father did the works and the same must be true of us.
Finally, what about temperance? Bible temperance has everything to do with self-control. The primary focus of self-control is of our thought life. When our mind says: “To the moon Alice” we quickly cast that down in the name of Jesus and say: “I love Alice and Jesus loves Alice, Lord how can I be more like you for Alice”. You may recall I wrote more extensively on this in the afternoon publication of the 20th of October, you can find that in the archives. We are in charge of our thoughts, we choose what to think about and what not to think about. We are not a captive to any thought no matter its content. We take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.
2 Corinthians 10:5 (KJV)
5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;
You may have heard me say: “Don’t feed the dog”. If a stray dog comes to your house or my house the one sure way for him to become a part of our life is to start feeding him on a regular basis. If we don’t feed the dog he will move on and perhaps disappear from our memories all together over time. The dog is the unholy memory, the one that does not belong in our thought life. Sometimes these are past experiences for which we have been forgiven and we ruminate over them and feel sorry and basically wallow in the past when God has blotted it out. The feeding is the rehearsing of the event, experience, over and over in our mind putting down deep roots that is destroying our mind, our physical brain and even our physical bodies. Don’t feed the dog!! On the other hand, God is not going to remove those thoughts. Begging Him to remove the wicked thoughts is a fool’s errand. We must quit feeding the dog and renew our minds to the thoughts, words, and ways of God.
Romans 12:2 (KJV)
2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
Until our next publication, I speak blessing into your life right now, receive it in the name of Jesus, confess it, and walk it out with thanksgiving.
Numbers 6:24-26 (KJV)
24 The LORD bless thee, and keep thee:
25 The LORD make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee:
26 The LORD lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.
By: Dr. David Wood, Author, Bible Teacher, and Prophetic Voice
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