Note for those that are not acquainted with my
writings these are quite long and are best read slow prayerfully,
and meditatively. Speed reading does not allow God to speak
and reveal.
Long ago, somewhere in my heart,
was born a question that no preacher living or dead could
answer. The question was carried in by heart through bible
school and remained unanswered.
I carried it in my heart when I, for a short time,
Pastored and would frequently pose the question to my hearers.
In truth, I was never able to offer them a substantive
answer, and then later when I was carried off into the wilderness
for 19 long years, the question would burn in my heart and
speak to me in the night.
What
was it about, Noah, Abram, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph - what was
it about Moses, David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel,
that caused God to take note of them. How were these men
different from the thousands and ten thousands of their
day?
I
have posed this question over and over again through the
years to the Lord, earnestly desiring to see into His grace
and workings. A few days ago as I awoke, the Lord spoke two
words to me - selfishness
and selflessness, and for 30-minutes to an hour the
Holy Spirit flooded my consciousness with scriptures and
verses from the New Testament (As has been His
way for the last four years) So as to bear witness
to the Word that Proceedeth out of the mouth of The Father So that He might prove all things (For out of the mouth
of two and three witnesses shall every word be established)
that I might indeed see that these things be so.
A
few days later the Lord again opened to me another matter,
a matter that I had frankly not given much thought to for
quite some time. I was directed late at night to look up the
word Charis
in the Greek Septuagint, and as I anticipated, the results
I found were extremely powerful, and greatly affect how
we are to view Paul’s use of the word “grace.” The Lord
then directed me to write about The Grace of God first.
This is actually a companion article to that so you might
well read “The Grace of God” first before continuing.
In
Abram, we see an extraordinary selflessness, not in word Alone as we see in the Pharisees that say
but do not, but in Abraham we see demonstration.
Genesis 12:1
“Get
thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that
I will shew thee: And I will make of thee a great nation,
and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou
shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee,
and curse him that curseth thee:
and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.
So Abram was called to forsake his country, his
kindred, thy father’s house and lands and
was to go to a land that I will shew thee. And I will make thee a great nation.
First I want you to consider that this is the same call that
is later given to Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, David,
the prophets, John the Baptist, Jesus, and the Apostles.
Matthew 10:37 He
that loveth father or mother more
than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth
son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.
Matthew 19:29 And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren,
or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children,
or lands, for my name's sake, shall receive an
hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life.
However, we find in this calling of Abram that he is an extraordinary
man in that he not only loves his barren wife, and does
not put her away or gather to himself other wives, but now
we see that Abram has told his father Terah
and his nephew Lot of God’s visitation in his life and what
God has spoken to him. And that he (Abram) is to become a great nation. So Abram convinces his Father
and his nephew Lot to give
up all their houses and lands as well, and to follow Abram
in his calling to this promised-land so that these also
might be partakers of this promised nation. And the three leave their name, and reputations
behind, to seek this land, which God will show Abram.
As I have already mentioned we see this same thing in the
lives of Moses, David and Christ, but I want to talk about
Christ. Jesus was the first-born in Joseph’s, his father’s
house. So Jesus was the inheritor of Joseph’s business and
the family name and whatever wealth Joseph had acquired.
Jesus leaves his houses and lands and brethren to answer
His calling and to seek a kingdom.
Philippians
2:7-8 But
made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form
of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being
found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became
obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
Consider now Christ’s own example. While it is not widely preached in this corrupt
day, we need to know that before
Jesus began His ministry, He forsook all. He left His earthly
father, mother, brothers, sisters, and brethren.
But we need to ask, wasn’t Christ also the first
born in his family? Yes indeed He was. And that had great significance as to Jesus’
standing in the house of Joseph of Nazareth.
Jesus was entitled not only
to the family name as the firstborn, but He was also entitled
to the full family inheritance as well. – And that would
have consisted of 1) The family carpentry business, 2) The
family home, 3) And whatever wealth and possessions Joseph
had accumulated over the last 30 or so years.
So we see that Christ not only
left His father, mother, brothers, sisters, and brethren
to follow God, but He left houses and lands and His entire
family inheritance as well. In other words, in Christ we see a demonstration
of what he taught. This is in direct contrast to the Pharisees
of whom Christ testified that there were those that: Taught
commandments but did not do them themselves.
Jesus walked in His own commandments
long before He issued them to His disciples. So we can say
with some certainty here that Jesus gave up everything He
owned or had rights to in this world. In actuality, according
to the Gospels, Jesus, during his entire ministry, possessed
only the sandals that He wore, the one garment that He wore,
and a cloak. ( I included a cloak because he let his disciples take a cloak)
Mark 6:3 Is not this (Jesus) the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother
of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon? and are not his
sisters here with us? And they were offended at him. I have read in Justin Martyr’s writings in 160 AD that Jesus
was a carpenter of farm implements – more particularly Justin
Martyr tells us that Jesus had made ox yokes, and plows.
It is an indisputable fact
that Christ made Himself of no reputation before He even
began His ministry in Capernaum. So if Christ lived and demonstrated
what He preached, when then did Jesus receive his hundred
fold of houses, lands, mothers, and fathers, sisters and
brothers and hundred fold of His earthly inheritance that
He gave up?. The answer is in the Gospels. Jesus said: Ye
are my brethren my mother and father if . . .
In the New Testament we see
that Jesus was given houses
and lands in only the most temporary sense, when He and
his disciples were fed and/or taken care of by others.
In fact, Christ did not own anything except the sandals
that He wore, the one garment that He wore every day for three and
one half years, and a cloak of some sort.
I want you to firmly see that
like Abram, Jesus willingly gave up all to become a sojourner
in the land of Israel, and like Abram of old, Christ too
was seeking a kingdom that was not made with hands.
With that said, we now need
to see more than that, for Christ gave up not only houses,
lands, and his family inheritance, but something far larger
and more powerful transpired during Christ’s ministry in
his seeking to make himself of no reputation, and continue
therein. After Jesus gave up houses and lands and was baptized
by John the Baptist, the Bible says Jesus went into the
wilderness to be tempted of the Devil. –The third temptation
was when the devil showed Christ, in a vision, all the kingdoms
of the earth and said: “It is mine to give to whom I will. If you will bow before me I will give you all
these kingdoms. –
To this Christ responded: Thou shalt only
worship the Lord your God. And then the Bible records that the devil left
him for a season.
We need to now see that during
Christ’s ministry as the Messiah, as the anointed heir apparent
to the throne of David, from the point that the devil left
him, the serpent then sent in his surrogates. In other words
from that day forth all those around Jesus continually offered
or asked Jesus to take the throne of David.
How so? It was in His being called and recognized
as the Messiah. It was in Christ being called the Son of
David. These names had implicit rights so that He could
have assumed all that would have been recognized as belonging
to King David. And
so all that gathered around Jesus Christ, beginning with
John, Peter, and Andrew, expected Jesus to at some time
assume those implicit rights that belonged to Him as the
Messiah and the Son of David.
It was even in the questions
that Pontius Pilot asked Jesus. It was in the rage of the
Pharisees, and Priests. Do not think for a minute that if
Christ would have assumed the throne that these men would
have not bowed to their Savior. Their rage was that Christ
was not the warrior king that was to free them from the
yolk of Rome
and put them in theocratic rule over all that had originally
been promised to Abram.
John 10:23-25 And Jesus walked in the
temple in Solomon's porch. Then came the Jews round about him, and said unto him, How long dost thou make us to doubt? If thou be the Christ,
tell us plainly. Jesus answered them, I told you, and ye believed not: the
works that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness of
me.
Further, it was on the lips
of all of Israel that Jesus was the Christ and the Messiah
so that when Jesus rode into Jerusalem
on the donkey, there was incredible pressure exerted on
Christ to take the throne that day.
And we can say by the testimony of the Gospels that
these same words were continually on the lips of Christ’s
blind and carnal disciples.
We see that question was continually on their lips
as they fought about their positions in Christ’s earthly
kingdom. And as what one might consider the Holiest point
of His ministry; during the last supper the disciples fought
among themselves again as to who would be on the left and
right hand sides of Christ literal earthly throne. Even
after the resurrection, the question came up once again
Wilt
thou at this time take your kingdom?
To which Christ said: No.
For over three decades, I have
heard, time and time again, preachers proclaim that Christ
at any time could have taken what was rightfully His. (And they mean His earthly kingdom.) They say that
Christ could have taken the throne of David at will. And
all will say a hearty Amen to this. And with this same earthly
sensual logic these same preachers tell us that it is not
Christ’s will that any of us should be poor. That it is
not Christ’s will that any of us should be sick, and that
Christ has given this world into the hands of the Church
so that we can rule and reign with Him here and now.
What I am going to say now
has been a mystery, and I cannot expect anyone to understand
it except that the Father has given it to them.
It is utterly false that Christ
could have taken the throne of David at anytime. As He had
forsaken His natural father, mother, sisters, brothers,
houses, and lands, and made Himself
of no reputation. So too did Christ forsake His inheritance
as the Messiah and Heir to David’s throne. He forsook Jerusalem,
He forsook the palace
of Herod,
He forsook the royal lands, and He forsook all those that
would have been His servants that at His word they would
have showered Him with riches. He forsook all that would have sworn instant
allegiance to Him. This
is the point on which the devil goaded and tempted Christ
almost daily to go ahead and seize upon it.
How could this have been sin?
How could this have been wrong if He was the Messiah? The
answer is simple; it was sin because it was NOT
the Will of the Father at that time.
If there ever was a person that we could say every
promise in the book was His, that would have been Jesus
Christ – and yet none of these things were His for the claiming,
for the confessing, or for the taking, as our friends who
teach the Word of Faith message insist that they were. Consider
alone the words “Physician heal thyself.” And realize that even after Jesus
rose from the dead and Christ was in no less than His glorified
body – which was indeed without spot or wrinkle that these
wounds remained.
Remember on the day that Simon
Peter rebuked Christ and said that He should not die, and
Christ turned around and rebuked Satan for speaking through
Peter’s mouth. What
I am trying to convey here is that Peter was not the only
one voicing the devil’s siren song for Christ to take matters
into His own hands and to seize that earthly natural kingdom
for Himself. The devil was using almost any mouth that could
speak to tempt, to trick or to divert, or to chide Christ
into sinning. He was tested on all points
– Hopefully now you can see this a little more clearly.
Thank God Christ was not taken in by any of this talk. Thank God Jesus refused to accept any of it,
or entertain these thoughts even for a minute. Even the
day when the rich young ruler came. Christ could have easily
accepted his gifts and offerings, but He steadfastly refused
any part of it for Himself from this man. And instead of having receiving the endless
offers of gifts and handouts of men, Jesus testified in
the last few days before he was crucified: “Foxes have
holes and birds have nests but the Son of man has nowhere
to lay his head.”
I have known believers and preachers
that have in my hearing said, “If Satan
would have offered them the all kingdoms of the world they
would have at least considered accepting them.” Some also
added that in accepting the kingdoms of this world from
Satan’s hand, they believed that somehow that they could do
the greater good of preaching the Gospel than without that
gift.
These were students in a Bible
school. These were students that wanted to be preachers,
pastors, and teachers. These came ready to deal – but Christ
did not.
It has long been brought to
my attention, and demonstrated time and again over the last
35 years that believers, preachers, churches, denominations,
and Christian organizations will accept money and donations
from any source, even when it comes from the most corrupt
and contemptible sources.
And then adding sin to sin, these “Christians” unflinchingly
declare the source of these corrupt offerings as the workings
of God
Genesis
12:1-3 Now the LORD had said
unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred,
and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew
thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will
bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt (Be blessed): And I will bless them
that bless thee, and curse him that curseth
thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.
So then God
begins to speak of blessings. While I read this passage,
I suddenly knew that I was looking at something that was
written in the New Testament.
I searched in concordance and no matter what key
words I used from this text I could not find a single passage
that linked up with the words of this blessing. I did however
find a number of passages that recounted the phrase “Bless
and curse not,” but not the whole verse. Still, I felt very
strongly in my spirit that this verse held great significance.
It then occurred
to me that the words in Genesis in the KJV were not correct
and by their having been altered by the translators, they
had obscured the one or more New Testament passages that
referred to this momentous group of blessings and promises.
So I went
to the Greek Septuagint and found that in this passage only
one Greek word was used for “Blessing” in every spot. As
I read this, I felt unsettled in my spirit and knew that
this was still not correct. So I opened my Hebrew interlinear
and as near as I could tell I saw at least four different
words in Hebrew. Since my Hebrew is not very good, I then went
to Strongs’ Concordance (Something that I normally speak against) and found in this case that of these four words that
Strong’s listed, only two of the words, and I noted that
the letters of these two words did not match up exactly
with any of the words for blessing in the passage. I looked
up the two words Strong’s had isolated in my Hebrew Lexicon
and found the first word was Barak to Kneel, and Bless. And the second word
was Berakah A
benediction for liberality, and prosperity, or increase.
The raw Hebrew of Genesis
12:3 seems to read as follows: “And the one despising you whom
you bless will I bless. I will make great your name. I will
make you a blessing. I will curse and bless all the families
of the earth in you.”
Christ in
two Gospels seems to be quoting the Hebrew in Genesis 12:3
Matthew 5:44 But I say unto you, Love
your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them
that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use
you, and persecute you;
Luke
6:28 Bless them
that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use
you.
Paul
the Apostle who seems to quote normally from the Greek Septuagint
instead quotes
From
the Hebrew in Genesis
12:3
Romans 12:14 Bless them which persecute you: bless, and curse
not.
And finally David
in Psalm 109:28 seems to be quoting the
Hebrew in Genesis 12:3
Psalm 109:28 Let them curse, but bless
thou:
Look again
now at what God Said to Abram:
Genesis 12:2-3 And I will make of thee a great nation, and I
will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt
(Be blessed): And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse
him that curseth thee: and in
thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.
The second
word in the Hebrew for bless is
Berakah which means a benediction
for liberality and prosperity or increase. But look when
I used a more basic word for bless – increase – lift up
– or to rise and
take the word curse on a more basic level
curse – decrease – put down – or to cause to fall. Suddenly this seemingly obscure promise
to Abram becomes a very familiar New Testament prophecy
I will (cause
to) curse (Fall) and
bless (Rise)
all the families of the earth in you.”
The second
word in the Hebrew for bless is
Berakah which means a benediction
for liberality and prosperity or increase. But look when
I used a more basic word This very
suddenly became a familiar New Testament prophecy
Luke 2:34 And Simeon blessed them,
and said unto Mary his mother, Behold,
this child is set for the fall (Curse) and rising (Bless) again of many in Israel; and for a sign which shall be spoken against; (Curse -- which Christ
shall bless)
See it? See that this is the blessing given to Abraham and
then spoken over Christ by Simeon – See also here the workings
of The Holy Spirit in leading me and guiding me to all truth
– that this was not a matter of my grey matter, this was
not my command of Hebrew, but the Holy Ghost carrying me
as we fellowship in the Spirit. He speaks things to me in
the night, and I pray and hold them before the Lord until
He begins to speak. See all of this is Him. It is relationship,
plus nothing,
Concerning
the blessing and cursing what God said to Abram’s should
read as follows:
And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee,
and make thy name great; and thou shalt be blessed: And those
that despise you bless them and whom you bless will I bless: I will cause the fall and the rise of all the families of the
earth in you.
So in what
God speaks over Abram we now can see that this is a prophecy
concerning Christ the coming one that was in Abram.
Concerning
the rise and fall or the curse and blessing let us look
at a few verses.
Psalm 37:23-24 The
steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD: and he delighteth
in his way. Though he fall,
he shall not be utterly cast down: for
the LORD upholdeth (shall raise) him with his
hand.
Psalm 72:10-12 The kings of Tarshish and of the
isles shall bring presents: the kings of Sheba and Seba
shall offer gifts. Yea, all kings shall fall down before him: all nations shall serve him.
For he shall deliver the needy (Blessed
are the meek) when he crieth; the poor (Blessed
are the poor in spirit) also, and him that hath
no helper.(Blessed are those who’s help is in the Lord) These shall He uphold, these shall He raise with his hand.
Psalm 145:13-15 Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,
and thy dominion endureth throughout
all generations. The LORD
upholdeth
all that fall,
and raiseth up
all those that be bowed down. The eyes of all wait upon thee; and thou givest them their meat in due season.
Matthew 21:43-45 Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God
shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing
forth the fruits thereof. And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever
it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.
Luke 8:46-48 And Jesus
said, Somebody hath touched me:
for I perceive that virtue is gone out of me. And when the
woman saw that she was not hid, she came trembling, and
falling down before him, she declared unto him before all the people
for what cause she had touched
him, and how she was healed immediately.
This is a demonstration
of a person falling upon the stone and the Lord raising
them in his hand. Note also her
falling upon the stone included her making confession not
only before God, but men. This confession is not boasting
of what her spiritual rights are but what her lack and needs
are
Luke 20:17-19 And he beheld them, and said, What is this then that is written,
The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become
the head of the corner? Whosoever shall fall upon that stone shall be broken; but on whomsoever
it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.
John 12:23-25 And Jesus answered
them, saying, The hour is come,
that the Son of man should be glorified. Verily, verily,
I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth
forth much fruit. He that loveth his life shall lose
it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep
it unto life eternal.
We understand that
we are called to fall on the stone, Christ. But Christ also
had to fall upon the stone of His Father, and unless He
did that, He would be a corn of wheat alone. He that seeks
to save his life, not willing to break on the stone or give
it for others, he will lose it, but he that will seek to
break upon the stone and give his life for others shall
be raised up by the hand of God. Think of this in terms of ministry, and ask
yourself what is the difference between Christ and the Apostles’
ministry and the powerless self-glorifying ministry of this
day?
(Hebrew) Genesis 12:3
“And the one despising you whom you bless
will I bless. I will make great your name. I will make you
a blessing. I will (cause to) fall and rise
all the families of the earth in you.”
Returning
now to the focus of our study Abram the father of faith,
we see that in this blessing God pronounced over Abram,
that God commands Abram that he is to bless those that despised
him and not curse them. That tells us that for receiving this heavenly gift that God expected
Abram to be a man of great humility, and a man of great
mercy. We might say that
Abram was given a ministry to dispense grace and gifts among
men. We will see this trait
in Abram throughout the rest of this narrative.
It
should be of some interest that these two qualities embody
the first and the great commandment and the second. Thou
shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart with all
thy soul with all thy mind and
all thy strength and thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
It should
be of further interest that Moses and David embodied these
two commands, and, it should be of paramount interest to
a believer that Christ embodied these two commands as well.
Genesis 13:5-7
And Lot also, which went with Abram, had flocks, and herds, and tents. And
the land was not able to bear them, that they might dwell
together: for their substance was great, so that they could
not dwell together. And there was a strife
between the herdmen of Abram's
cattle and the herdmen of Lot's cattle: and the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelled then in the land. We need to see clearly that Lot
was not to have been here, that Abram, the father of faith,
had not fully obeyed the Lord. Abram was moving in weakness
from grace to grace. Abram was operating out of weakness,
but in so doing, there are consequences that do not go away
upon forgiveness, which we shall see shortly.
Genesis 13:8-11 And Abram said
unto Lot, Let there be
no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and between
my herdsmen and thy herdsmen; for we be brethren. Is not
the whole land before thee? Separate thyself, I pray thee,
from me: if thou wilt take the left hand, then I will go
to the right; or if thou depart to the right hand, then
I will go to the left. And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld
all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered every
where, before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even
as the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt, as thou
comest unto Zoar. Then Lot chose
him all the plain of Jordan; and Lot
journeyed east: and they separated themselves the one from
the other.
I am sure that Abram felt a certain level of
betrayal. If for no other reason than after having discipled
Lot in the ways of the Lord for almost two decades, or since
the time that Abram told Lot of his visitations from God
and what God had spoken.
Abram probably experienced quite
a few other emotions that day as well, like shock, dismay,
and rejection.
Shock
because even though God had commanded this separation from
the start, Abram had created for almost two decades an entire
fantasy world of what the Kingdom of the Hebrew was going
to be like with him, Terah, and
Lot ruling together.
Dismay
because all of his plans in one puff of smoke disappeared
before his eyes leaving Abram to wonder what he was now
going to do, as he had counted on Lot to be such a big part of what God was going to do. What
do you do when your dream dies?
Rejection, because Abram, as a human, probably took this separation
very personally.
Many understand this all too well through the scourge of
divorce that has come over the land, both of churches and
of married couples, that once separated, no matter how well
intentioned, essentially death has come into a relationship,
and any visits are marred with the death and life of what
now is.
In
anger Abram could well have attacked Lot and driven Lot
from the land, but he did not.
Abram
could have read Lot the
riot act and told him, “Look, this is what God promised
me, and you are going to have to go and find your own blessing
somewhere else.”
Consider
instead what Abram did. He not only offered Lot a 50-50
split of his inherence from God, but he also offers Lot
the first rights to pick of all of the land and so Abram
leaves himself with the leftovers.
This
heroic act of selflessness on the part of Abram has seldom
been duplicated in the annals of Church history.
And most remarkable, Abram did this in the flesh,
without the preaching of Salvation or the commands of the
Gospel. Paul spoke of Abram as being a gentile and of uncircumcision
and being without the law, but by nature fulfilling the
law.
Certainly
the disciples, when they followed Christ with all of their
fleshly plans and schemes of who was to going to be first,
and how they were going to rule, would have never humbled
themselves to have handed their promised portion of the
kingdom to one another much less someone else. And yet,
after Calvary, they were
so changed that they now were able to walk in this same
grace that Abram had found without salvation and without
the preaching of the gospel. And I dare say that none of us have yet experienced
this thing that Christ called conversion. Instead we walk as mere men along the disciple
side of the cross very much taken with the things of the
world and how all of God’s promises will personally enrich
us.
Nor
have we yet experienced to Love God with all out hearts,
with all our soul, with all our minds, and all our strength
– that being overwhelming in flow of the Spirit. And from
this fullness of the flow of the Spirit comes then a flow
out to others to share and impart all that we have – that
is loving your neighbor as yourself.
And this is indeed what we see in Abram this day with Lot.
Now
on the other hand, we look upon Lot, a man who has received
so gracious a gift and without hardly a thought or a thank,
he picks out for himself the best of the land, the most
watered places of the land, and the land with the highest
commercial value for himself.
From this we can now see that Lot
was of a different spirit than Abram.
All these years, Lot was at Abram’s
side seeing the provision of God and hearing of God’s night-time
visitations and this did nothing to convert Lot’s
heart to God. And neither did it do anything for
the Children of Israel when Moses stood among them.
Now
Abram, upon hearing Lots choices did not say, “Now hold
on a minute Lot, I thought
we had us a deal here. I
thought we were going to split this land 50-50, fair and
square. Boy, I only offered you the right or left half,
and look now at what you’ve done, you’ve taken all the good
stuff and left me with nothing but dried out wilderness
land that nobody would ever want.
In
other words Abram allowed Lot
to defraud him, just as God had allowed Adam to do to Him
in the garden, and as Christ has
done with opening up salvation to us. We also see this with the Apostles when they
entrusted the care of the Gospel to others. Is that not
the essence of what Christ said?
Luke
6:29 And unto him that smiteth
thee on the one cheek offer also the other; and him that
taketh away thy cloak forbid not
to take thy coat also.
The
man of the flesh cannot reconcile this scripture because
it is contrary to the lust of the flesh and the lust of
the eyes.
Luke 17:33 Whosoever
shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever
shall lose his life shall preserve it.
Our
flesh finds it hard enough to justify losing our life or
our lifestyle for Christ, knowing that He is going to pay
us back. And if our flesh were forced to grudgingly lose
its life or lifestyle for someone we know, we would expect
that they would grovel a bit and show us some real gratitude.
But when God demands that we lose our life or our lifestyle
for a stranger, the ungodly, or the ungrateful, one in whom
we would receive no recognition, and no possible reward,
to our flesh, that is a pill enough
to gag an elephant.
So
without as much as a goodbye wave, Lot
left Abram and headed off to build in the flesh a name for
himself, a nation, and an empire.
And thus counterfeit for himself the call of God and the
promises of God that were in Abram. – This identical thing has occurred with
the natural Church over the spiritual church.
The word Church does not even exist in scripture.
The Greek word is Ek-Klesia which is two words Ek- “Out from, Away from” and Klesia
– “The called.” Together
Ekklesia means: “The out called of the called”. What we
call the carnal church is the Klesia, the called. And no
matter which denomination you speak to, they will tell you
they are the called of God.
But the spiritual church is the Ekklesia – the out
called of the called. And we do not want to confuse that
with the sent. The ecclesia can be seen in the Gospels -
there were the multitudes, there were the 120, there were
the 70, there were the twelve, there were the three, and
there was one that lay on Christ’s breast.
To
the multitudes they were the Ekklesia from all of Israel. – But they were really not
for the multitudes because after a short season they no
longer rejoiced in the light but turned back.
To
the 120 they were the Ekklesia from the multitudes. They
became disciples and forsook all, but they also, like the
multitudes after a short season, turned back
To
the twelve, they were the Ekklesia from the 120 for they
had become disciples, they had forsaken all and stayed with
Christ to the garden of Gethsemane,
but as we know, they forsook Christ and did not love him
unto death. Instead, they hid and denied him.
It
was not until after Christ rose
that He sought out his lost 11 sheep. They fasted and prayed
in Jerusalem
until they were endued from on high.
Their hearts were converted and they became the out
call of the called.
What
is that quality that was in Abram that the Lord saw – meekness,
selflessness, the fear of God rather than men,
What
was the quality God saw in David as opposed to King Saul?
Selflessness as opposed
to selfishness. One could not humble himself to wait for God
and one waited patiently, content
in whatsoever state he found himself in,
What
quality did God see in Joseph’s meekness, humility and selflessness
as he was made a servant of no reputation and was content
in the Lord in whatsoever state he found himself in.
What
does Christ say? Come unto me all yea that are weary and
heavy laden and I will give thee rest. Take my yoke upon
you and learn of me –FOR I AM MEEK AND LOWLY OF HEART –
See
it? See the answer right in plain sight? The Lord
delights to hide the answers to His mysteries in plain sight
to confound the wise and the learned, but babes, and even
a fool can plainly see and not err therein,
Praise the Lord! The Lord seeks selflessness in a generation
of selfishness. The
Lord seeks those that can willingly lay aside their earthly
riches, their inheritances, and follow Him into the wilderness
seeking a city that is not made with hands. The Lord seeks
those who do not seek Him for reward and self-interest.
The Lord seeks a people who can commit random acts of kindness,
and completely senseless acts of selflessness.
Release your self. Release your white knuckled hold on your desires,
your wishes, and your wants. Surrender your fight with Christ
on who is in control of your life. Surrender, submit yourself,
and learn to lean hard on Him and you will discover something
wonderful is beginning to take place in your life.
Amen!