"Abiding" means absolute dependence.
John 15:4
"4 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me."
Notice God said in this passage that we CANNOT bear fruit by ourselves, we must be abiding in Jesus Christ. We must be absolutely dependent on Christ!!!!!
Monday, May 13, 2019
Cultural Christianity Does Not Operate According to the Guidance of the Holy Spirit!
I have seen this here in the United States. There is a cultural Christianity that barely resembles the Christianity of the Bible.
This false religion of "evangelicalism" is based on living a better life not on loving Christ so much we seek His heart to know His will. Much of evangelicalism in our day is based on seminary training rather than on hearing from the Holy Spirit.
It is my belief that many people coming out of seminary are not born again, but rather are those who want to elevate self above others. They are the modern day pharisees, full of knowledge and self they attempt to appear superior to those they rule over.
1 Peter 5:2-4 "…2 Be shepherds of God’s flock that is among you, watching over them not out of compulsion, but because it is God’s will; not out of greed, but out of eagerness; 3 not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock. 4 And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away.…"
Most of the people I know who are Christians pridefully negate the principles of God's Word that they don't like and camp on those things that they do like, but usually out of context.
There is more scripture violated than followed and anger emerges when they are challenged with scripture.
Leaders should never be allowed to "have power over" anyone. No one should have power over anyone except the Holy Spirit.
Everyone should be humbly seeking the face of God to discover truth while imparting and sharing with those in the flock. They have no power over the people only the Holy Spirit has that.
Luke 24:45-49
45 Then He (Jesus Christ) opened their minds to understand the Scriptures,
46 and He said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day,
47 and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.
48 You are witnesses of these things.
49 And behold, I am sending forth the promise of My Father upon you; but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high (power of the Holy Spirit).”
Luke 4:1 "4 And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness."
Romans 8:11 "11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you."
Far too little attention is given to the Holy Spirit in our day. He is even mocked when mentioned in conversation. If anyone is not led by the Holy Spirit then they are led by the flesh or the devil neither of which is good.
1 Thessalonians 1:5
"5 for our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction; just as you know what kind of men we [c]proved to be among you for your sake."
We do not operate in the flesh when we are born again believers. We operate according to the Holy Spirit. If we are not operating according to the Holy Spirit then we are operating from the fallen flesh with much error and false emotion.
Final word: stop trusting your own intellect to decide how to respond or act and begin seeking the Holy Spirit for every word and every action.
This false religion of "evangelicalism" is based on living a better life not on loving Christ so much we seek His heart to know His will. Much of evangelicalism in our day is based on seminary training rather than on hearing from the Holy Spirit.
It is my belief that many people coming out of seminary are not born again, but rather are those who want to elevate self above others. They are the modern day pharisees, full of knowledge and self they attempt to appear superior to those they rule over.
1 Peter 5:2-4 "…2 Be shepherds of God’s flock that is among you, watching over them not out of compulsion, but because it is God’s will; not out of greed, but out of eagerness; 3 not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock. 4 And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away.…"
Most of the people I know who are Christians pridefully negate the principles of God's Word that they don't like and camp on those things that they do like, but usually out of context.
There is more scripture violated than followed and anger emerges when they are challenged with scripture.
Leaders should never be allowed to "have power over" anyone. No one should have power over anyone except the Holy Spirit.
Everyone should be humbly seeking the face of God to discover truth while imparting and sharing with those in the flock. They have no power over the people only the Holy Spirit has that.
Luke 24:45-49
45 Then He (Jesus Christ) opened their minds to understand the Scriptures,
46 and He said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day,
47 and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.
48 You are witnesses of these things.
49 And behold, I am sending forth the promise of My Father upon you; but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high (power of the Holy Spirit).”
Luke 4:1 "4 And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness."
Romans 8:11 "11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you."
Far too little attention is given to the Holy Spirit in our day. He is even mocked when mentioned in conversation. If anyone is not led by the Holy Spirit then they are led by the flesh or the devil neither of which is good.
1 Thessalonians 1:5
"5 for our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction; just as you know what kind of men we [c]proved to be among you for your sake."
We do not operate in the flesh when we are born again believers. We operate according to the Holy Spirit. If we are not operating according to the Holy Spirit then we are operating from the fallen flesh with much error and false emotion.
Final word: stop trusting your own intellect to decide how to respond or act and begin seeking the Holy Spirit for every word and every action.
No Excuses for Sin in the Believer
1 Peter 1:16 "1 Peter 1:16
"16 because it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”
John 14:15 "John 14:15
"15 “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments."
John 16:7-13
7 But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you.
8 And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment;
9 concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me;
10 and concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you no longer see Me;
11 and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.
12 “I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.
13 But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come."
Those who use "under grace" as an excuse to sin are denying the presence of the Holy Spirit in every born again believer. Most likely because they are not born again they do not think in terms of the Holy Spirit. They only operate in terms of actions that appear to be holy without the leading of the Holy Spirit.
When we make up our own form of "righteousness" without the Holy Spirit it is nothing more than self righteousness. Self righteousness is what the Pharisees had, a form of religion but no power of Christ in them.
2 Timothy 3:5 "5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. Turn away from such as these! "
If a believer sins there is only one solution to keep growing in grace. That solution is to confess to be cleansed. Without confession of sin there is no spiritual growth.
"16 because it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”
John 14:15 "John 14:15
"15 “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments."
John 16:7-13
7 But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you.
8 And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment;
9 concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me;
10 and concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you no longer see Me;
11 and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.
12 “I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.
13 But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come."
Those who use "under grace" as an excuse to sin are denying the presence of the Holy Spirit in every born again believer. Most likely because they are not born again they do not think in terms of the Holy Spirit. They only operate in terms of actions that appear to be holy without the leading of the Holy Spirit.
When we make up our own form of "righteousness" without the Holy Spirit it is nothing more than self righteousness. Self righteousness is what the Pharisees had, a form of religion but no power of Christ in them.
2 Timothy 3:5 "5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. Turn away from such as these! "
If a believer sins there is only one solution to keep growing in grace. That solution is to confess to be cleansed. Without confession of sin there is no spiritual growth.
Any Questions?
Look Up Brothers and Sisters, That's Where Christ will be!
Strong people can face all truth without it affecting their emotional state. Weak people cannot face truth it frightens them.
John 16:13-14 "13 However, when the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth. For He will not speak on His own, but He will speak what He hears, and He will declare to you what is to come. 14 He will glorify Me by taking from what is Mine and disclosing it to you.…"
God made it clear that He would lead us into ALL truth, not just what feels good or that we prefer, but open, honest and authentic truth. And, believe me in these last days the truth is mostly ugly, here's why!
Our culture is full of fantasy, most people live in a pretend world full of their own ideas that give them adulation. What does God say about this:
In these last days you will find more opposition to truth than in times past in this country. Everyone decides for themselves what they like to believe while negating and mocking the truth God has written in His Word.
2 Timothy 3:1-9
"1 But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come.
2 For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy,
3 unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good,
4 treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,
5 holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these.
6 For among them are those who enter into households and captivate weak women weighed down with sins, led on by various impulses,
7 always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
8 Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men of depraved mind, rejected in regard to the faith.
9 But they will not make further progress; for their folly will be obvious to all, just as Jannes’s and Jambres’s folly was also."
"1 But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come.
2 For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy,
3 unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good,
4 treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,
5 holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these.
6 For among them are those who enter into households and captivate weak women weighed down with sins, led on by various impulses,
7 always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
8 Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men of depraved mind, rejected in regard to the faith.
9 But they will not make further progress; for their folly will be obvious to all, just as Jannes’s and Jambres’s folly was also."
We are living in times when more people will be against truth than for it. We are living in times when there will be very few left who will listen to the gospel for salvation. We are living in times when those who claim to be Christian will fight against truth to defend their sin.
We are also living in times when God said; "when you see all these things, look up for your redemption draws nigh."
Yes, God is not telling believers in our day to get involved in politics or even massive revival efforts. There are so few people left who will listen that He will bring along someone to individuals who are open to truth in His timing and to whom He wishes.
There was one man preaching in Noah's time, yes that's right only one. He preached for 120 years without one convert, then God closed the door of the ark and there was no more possibility of anyone on the ground to be saved.
When I speak of God to "Christians" I am often met with embarrassed looks, heads hanging down as if to hide from the dialogue and total dismissiveness. Sometimes I am met with rage to intimidate me into silence. Sound strange that a born again believer would be angry at a principle of God? It strange because these people are not seeking truth, but only a form of religion to hang on to in case they have a difficulty they can't solve, then they will pray. They don't want God, they only want His protection but despise Him secretly. Its not so secretly as they think when they rage they have just revealed their own heart of rebellion.
God told believers in our time to lookup when we see these things happening. He did not tell us to run around looking for someone to speak to about Christ, there will be no one left in our sphere of influence who will listen.
We have "Christians" who come against us when we speak the truth of God, why on earth would we expect non-believers to listen. We go where God tells us to go and do what God tells us to do and no more or no less.
When we see the mentality of these last days of rebellion looming over us all the time we do not fear, we do not become frustrated and we do not agonize over our lack of influence. Why is this so? Its because God told us it would be this way and the next big event will be our home going.
We lived what we believed, we prayed for family members, we desired for others to be saved, and now we are looking to go home. Our job is nearly over except to encourage the authentic born again believers to hang on tightly to Christ until He takes us home.
Luke 21:27-28 "…27 At that time they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. 28 When these things begin to happen, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”
Do not look around you, do not look down, but look up, that's where Christ will be!!!!!
Facing the Truth with Courage
I read the about the story in the news that a six year old child or an old lady in a wheel chair can be groped and searched by tsa agents at the airport but a Muslim woman can only be searched from the neck up. Talk about showing prejudice toward someone based on their religion, this is it.
It is irrational that this country is bending over backward to honor Islam while demeaning Christianity.
Its like the spoiled child who is told not to do something that is bad for him, running toward it to do it because he was told not to.
The devil has whispered irrationality into the minds of people. They are so afraid of offending a rebellious and wicked religion that they end up promoting it.
Its also like the people who voted for Obama because he was black just to prove they were not racists. They had no concern whatever about his character, only the color of his skin. These same people would be angry at a white person who voted for someone because they were white. But are not concerned about a white person voting for a black man because he is black.
Now if this is not irrational I don't know what is!!!!! Even Martin Luther King said that we should choose a man on the basis of his character not the color of his skin. But few people seem to remember that quote.
Martin Luther King, Jr. Quotes. "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
The irrational non-thinkers of our country quote Martin Luther King and completely miss the part about the character of a man.
This is how many people read the Bible, they cherry pick the part of the verse they like and completely ignore the other part. A good example of this is when God told us not to judge. In the same passage He told us to judge righteously but that part of the verse is ignored.
Then there is the part of the verse on forgiveness, when they say we should forgive and ignore the part that says when there is confession of sin, 1 John 1:9.
Cherry picking quotes and verses has been around a long time. People love to twist and ignore that which they do not like. Pridefully quoting incorrectly what God says to justify their sin.
Did you know this cherry picking of verses and quotes is lying! YES, its lying to appear righteous sounding without actually being righteous. Its false righteousness based on personal desire.
Lying is common in our country, common as the day is long. Perhaps it would be good for us to practice telling the truth all the time. One way to do that is to pay close attention to our words as we begin to speak, stop ourselves to make sure what we are about to say is not a guess, not gossip and not our desires, but the plain and simple truth.
1 John 3:18-19 "18 Little children, let us love not in word and speech, but in action and truth. 19 And by this we will know that we belong to the truth, and will assure our hearts in His presence:…"
Did you know it is lying to pretend things are wonderful to feel good. It is lying to pretend things are bad when they are good.
Rather than judging truth by our desires, we need to see the truth and call it what it is. There are no solutions for problems or comfort for victims if the truth is ignored.
The Christian life is not about feelings or desires its all about God's truth. When we face truth we can resolve many things. Those who can only pretend things are wonderful are of no help at all to others.
If we cannot face hard things without feeling threatened or deeply sad, then our focus is not Christ but rather personal happiness over truth.
When we love Christ we don't have to pretend or fear truth. We can face it head on in confidence with God's answers and solutions.
Isaiah 41:10
"Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand."
When we view the world and its trials from God's perspective we are not afraid to face anything.
It is irrational that this country is bending over backward to honor Islam while demeaning Christianity.
Its like the spoiled child who is told not to do something that is bad for him, running toward it to do it because he was told not to.
The devil has whispered irrationality into the minds of people. They are so afraid of offending a rebellious and wicked religion that they end up promoting it.
Its also like the people who voted for Obama because he was black just to prove they were not racists. They had no concern whatever about his character, only the color of his skin. These same people would be angry at a white person who voted for someone because they were white. But are not concerned about a white person voting for a black man because he is black.
Now if this is not irrational I don't know what is!!!!! Even Martin Luther King said that we should choose a man on the basis of his character not the color of his skin. But few people seem to remember that quote.
Martin Luther King, Jr. Quotes. "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
The irrational non-thinkers of our country quote Martin Luther King and completely miss the part about the character of a man.
This is how many people read the Bible, they cherry pick the part of the verse they like and completely ignore the other part. A good example of this is when God told us not to judge. In the same passage He told us to judge righteously but that part of the verse is ignored.
Then there is the part of the verse on forgiveness, when they say we should forgive and ignore the part that says when there is confession of sin, 1 John 1:9.
Cherry picking quotes and verses has been around a long time. People love to twist and ignore that which they do not like. Pridefully quoting incorrectly what God says to justify their sin.
Did you know this cherry picking of verses and quotes is lying! YES, its lying to appear righteous sounding without actually being righteous. Its false righteousness based on personal desire.
Lying is common in our country, common as the day is long. Perhaps it would be good for us to practice telling the truth all the time. One way to do that is to pay close attention to our words as we begin to speak, stop ourselves to make sure what we are about to say is not a guess, not gossip and not our desires, but the plain and simple truth.
1 John 3:18-19 "18 Little children, let us love not in word and speech, but in action and truth. 19 And by this we will know that we belong to the truth, and will assure our hearts in His presence:…"
Did you know it is lying to pretend things are wonderful to feel good. It is lying to pretend things are bad when they are good.
Rather than judging truth by our desires, we need to see the truth and call it what it is. There are no solutions for problems or comfort for victims if the truth is ignored.
The Christian life is not about feelings or desires its all about God's truth. When we face truth we can resolve many things. Those who can only pretend things are wonderful are of no help at all to others.
If we cannot face hard things without feeling threatened or deeply sad, then our focus is not Christ but rather personal happiness over truth.
When we love Christ we don't have to pretend or fear truth. We can face it head on in confidence with God's answers and solutions.
Isaiah 41:10
"Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand."
When we view the world and its trials from God's perspective we are not afraid to face anything.
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