Embracing Solitude!!!!

There is a time in our lives to embrace solitude to come closer to Christ.
As born-again believers, we are living in a world that is asleep while we are awake and aware. It's why we become so weary at times.

 
The hearts of people have grown dull and lifeless in these last days, while ours is growing more full of the life of Christ. The chasm between the unsaved and us is growing wider as we walk alone.

God wants us to see and understand what others don't. God wants us to intercede for others and warn those who may not understand.

Matthew 13:12-14 "…12 Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. 13 This is why I speak to them in parables: ‘Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand.’ 14 In them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled: ‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.…"

As we grow in Christ, our discernment will be hyper-sensitivity to the things of God and the mentalities of people. It protects us from falsehoods but will bring more trials because most people do not want wisdom; they only want the appearance of spirituality, without substance.

This is why God isolates those who follow hard after him. The wicked person wants to isolate us to control us, diminish our witness as they gossip, but God wants to isolate us to come closer to Him as we grow in wisdom without the noise of the continual blathering of foolish people who hate God and hate wisdom.
Those who isolate you do it to harm you, but God meant it for our good. God will not allow us to cling to what will hold us back from following hard after Him.
God knows who will hold you back or who will encourage you to keep chasing Christ. There are few left in this world who care about Spiritual growth; they only care about their own pleasures.

God is leading us out of the traditions we were raised with to help us grow Spiritually!!!! When our soul has awakened from illusions of religiosity to become a companion with Christ, then we are truly free and blessed!
Hallelujah!!!!

Corrupted: 4 Dangerous Doctrines That Entered the Church After Constantine

Strengthened or Weakened by the Company We Keep

We are strengthened or weakened by the company we keep. When we walk with Christ, He is our strength. Those who love Him are our companions who rejoice with us, weep with us, and carry our burdens with us, we are Spiritual siblings who care about one another deeply.

Philippians 2:2-4 … 2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being united in spirit and purpose. 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or empty pride, but in humility consider others more important than yourselves. 4 Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others."

There is no greater joy than to walk with those who are like-minded, enjoying the same blessing of Spiritual thinking that comes from the indwelling Holy Spirit.
Younger folks ought to revere those who have been in the faith much longer than themselves.

1 Peter 5:5 "Young men, in the same way, submit yourselves to your elders. And all of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”

Galatians 5:26
"Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying one another."

Ephesians 4:2
"with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love,"

Colossians 3:12-13
"Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with hearts of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. / Bear with one another and forgive any complaint you may have against someone else. Forgive as the Lord forgave you."

In recent years, I have come to grieve from time to time over the lack of respect demonstrated by the younger generation. We have two generations now who have been trained to think of themselves more highly than is warranted, while bullying their elders as though they are entitled to special treatment.

 
God said it would be this way at the end of days before Christ comes to take out the church. Church gatherings have become social well-being centers instead of disciples willing to obey Scripture. More Scripture is violated than obeyed. More cultic practices have infiltrated and more angst toward instruction is dominating the gatherings.

 
Matthew 23:12
"For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted."

God's instruction has been destroyed in the gatherings while myths and lies dominate.

Romans 12:16
"Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but associate with the lowly. Do not be conceited."

Proverbs 11:2
"When pride comes, disgrace follows, but with humility comes wisdom."

Micah 6:8
He has shown you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you but to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?"

2 Timothy 4:2-4 "…2 Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and encourage with every form of patient instruction. 3For the time will come when men will not tolerate sound doctrine, but with itching ears they will gather around themselves teachers to suit their own desires. 4 So they will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.…"

Notice God told us in this passage to keep preaching the word and telling the truth, but also know they will not listen. Our job is to obey even if they will not listen, moving on when they resist. The more they resist, the harder their hearts become. Hebrews 3

Myths within the Apostate Churches

John 15:18-20 "18 If the world hates you, understand that it hated Me first. 19 If you were of the world, it would love you as its own. Instead, the world hates you, because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. 20 Remember the word that I spoke to you: ‘No servant is greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will persecute you as well; if they kept My word, they will keep yours as well."

When we speak the truth, we will make enemies, even within church gatherings. We are living in the times of the great apostasy when those attending will hate the truth of the Bible.

2 Timothy 4:3-4 " 3 For the time will come when men will not tolerate sound doctrine, but with itching ears they will gather around themselves teachers to suit their own desires. 4 So they will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths."

Some of those myths:

 
(Myth) God doesn't hate divorce, but here is what God said;
Malachi 2:16."For I hate divorce," says the LORD, the God of Israel, "and the one who covers his garment with violence," says the LORD of hosts".

 
(Myth) It doesn't matter anymore if you sin after salvation.
1 John 3:9. "No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God 's seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God."

(Myth) Devils mated with humans.
Genesis 1:24 "…24 And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, land crawlers, and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was so. "

Devils have no gender, they do not procreate, and they are spiritual beings, but we are fleshly beings.

 
(Myth) Forgiveness should be extended to the unrepentant.
Luke 17:3-4 "…3 Watch yourselves. If your brother sins, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. 4 Even if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times returns to say, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.”

 
(Myth) If you do not forgive an unrepentant person you will be bitter.
James 5:16 " 16Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man has great power to prevail."

1 John 1:9
"If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

1 Peter 3:12
"For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and His ears are inclined to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”

Psalm 32:5
"Then I acknowledged my sin to You and did not hide my iniquity. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,” and You forgave the guilt of my sin. Selah"

(Myth) We cannot judge another person.
John 7:24, "Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment."

Matthew 7:15-20
You Will Know Them by Their Fruits
15 “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. 16 You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? 17 Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Therefore by their fruits you will know them."

Luke 6:43-44
"No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. For each tree is known by its own fruit. Indeed, figs are not gathered from thornbushes, nor grapes from brambles."

(Myth) Do not Judge
1 Corinthians 5:12-13 "For what business of mine is it to judge outsiders? Do you not judge those who are within the church?"

But those who are outside, God judges. Remove the evil person from among yourselves."

Proverbs 14:7-8 "7 Stay away from a foolish man; you will gain no knowledge from his speech. 8 The wisdom of the prudent is to discern his way, but the folly of fools deceives them.…"

(Myth) Only God knows the heart so we can never judge someone else. I notice something about those who say not to judge, they are frequently judging people as good but are angered when someone judges someone as evil. If judging is always wrong, then it would also be wrong to judge someone as good.

 
James 1:5
"Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him."

1 Corinthians 2:12-13
"We have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. And this is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom, but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words."

Discernment for truth is one of the wonderful gifts God gives born-again believers. They are able to interpret life according to the Holy Spirit Who lives in them. They will see life as Christ sees it, and it will be far different from pretenders who remain ignorant and at the mercy of their own fallen human thinking.

 
Those who use mantras they like and fight against the wisdom of God are showing their rebellion by their assertions. They love to feel superior but do not have the wisdom of the Holy Spirit to guide them.

 
God loves to enlighten and train His children who love Him. Pretenders do not know God so they can only feign knowing His ways and are always deceived.

 
Philippians 1:9-10
"And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to test and prove what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ,"

A Heart Changed by Christ is Full of Love

We can discern if someone is born-again or not; if they have not changed their attitude and still defend sin, they have never been changed by Christ. Those who remain comfortable with sin and even defend it remain unsaved.

1 Corinthians 2:14 "The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned."

1 John 3:8-10 "… 8 The one who practices sin is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the very start. This is why the Son of God was revealed, to destroy the works of the devil. 9Anyone born of God refuses to practice sin, because God’s seed abides in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God. 10 By this the children of God are distinguished from the children of the devil: Anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is anyone who does not love his brother."

Those who fight against the truth of the Word of God do not have a love of His Word. They have fashioned a "religion" based on their desired beliefs not on wisdom from Jesus Christ.

 
I have known many "Christians" who resist discussing the things of God as written in the Bible because they love their traditions and know they will be isolated from their group if they question anything that does not match pitch with what the group is saying.

 
Romans 6:1-2
"What then shall we say? Shall we continue in sin so that grace may increase? Certainly not! How can we who died to sin live in it any longer?"

2 Corinthians 5:17
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come!"

Romans 8:9-11
"You, however, are controlled not by the flesh, but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit, who lives in you."

The fruit of the Spirit of Christ is evident in anyone who walks with Christ.
Galatians 5:22-23 "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law."
Those who walk by the Spirit have no need of a human ruler over them because the Spirit of Christ in us compels us to live according to the commands and principles of Christ.

 
Love is what is required to fulfill the Law of Christ; everything else comes under that heading. When there is no love, there is no fruit of the Spirit.

 
1 John 4:7-8
"Beloved, let us love one another, because love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love."

Those who claim to be Christians but are imposters can only pretend a counterfeit love based on performance, not on character. In fact, often those who are counterfeits interpret many things falsely because they have no love and are highly competitive.

 
Those who are pretenders can only feign a superficial form of love that is not loyal, joyful, and self-reflective. These people base their opinions on guesses, not facts and on feelings not reality.

 
When we walk with Christ, we are not interested in evaluating everything others are doing, we are interested in edifying one another in the truth as we admonish, rebuke, and encourage in the Word that everyone may be growing in holiness. As we grow in holiness, we become more loving and less critical about the things that do not really matter.

 
James 1:5 "5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him."

1 Corinthians 13:4-8
"4 Love is patient, love is kind, it is not jealous; love does not brag, it is not arrogant.
5 It does not act disgracefully, it does not seek its own benefit; it is not provoked, does not keep an account of a wrong suffered,
6 it does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; 7 it keeps every confidence, it believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things."

When we walk in love, we communicate more; those who do not walk in love refuse to communicate because they love misunderstanding that affords them the freedom to judge things that are none of their business.

 
1 Thessalonians 4:10-12 "…10 And you are indeed showing this love to all the brothers throughout Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers, to excel more and more 11 and to aspire to live quietly, to attend to your own matters, and to work with your own hands, as we instructed you. 12 Then you will behave properly toward outsiders, without being dependent on anyone."