Hear God's Plea With Your Heart,Through The Book of Hebrews

I have been somewhat bedridden with a sinus cold, fever and a cough that makes me feel like my bronchitis is coming back. To be able to spend time with God, I need to take two pills in the morning which allow me to feel better for a little while. I found myself stuck in Hebrews, unable to move on. Furthermore, I kept feeling overwhelmed by the revelation of His word in the Hebrews book. There are times I would read two or three verses and that’s enough for me for the day because it is too much to take all at once. So, I would close my Bible and meditate. But, in the back of my mind I am always rushing my mediation time to get to those people that I pray for on a daily basis, just because I am afraid the pills would wear off and I would be useless.

So, yesterday I was meditating after I closed the Bible, I decided not to rush myself and not to pray for anyone else. I felt the need to minister to God and I wanted the time to be about Him alone. Finally God got my attention. I realized that’s what He has been trying to do for the past few days. Then He asked me if I noticed the difference in the way I read the book of Hebrew now compare to a few years ago when He was using Hebrews to teach me about my walk with Him?  I answered yes I notice you are teaching me as if I am a pastor reading some verses to prepare a sermon. I have no idea why this comparison. It just felt like it.

The difference is when He was training me few years ago to prepare me for a walk of holiness and faith He focussed on this book with me and taught me why certain passages had to be imparted to me. He did that, to help me understand the pain I was going through. Through this kind of training with Him, I learned that when we are suffering, He uses our trials to impart this life in us. So, the frustration disappears or at least it becomes more bearable when we understand the process and all the benefits intended by God. We know the pain serve a purpose so we can focus on the goal instead of the pain.

God turned things around this time. The first time there was joy, I was learning, and the word was coming alive in my life. This time around is so painful and the only way I can describe the pain that I am feeling is that I feel like I am carrying the world on my shoulders. I am frustrated that God chose to show me these things. I am frustrated because I feel powerless. I am also frustrated because I do not know how to help people understand how important it is to heed to God’s words. As I was asking God what gives? He told me to blog about it. Honestly, that’s not what I wanted to hear for several reasons.

Right away, I thought about the last time I posted the Godly wife’s post; I lost over 500 people on Facebook. Secondly, I have a craving to be normal, even a little bit superficial so that I could attract more people. (Confession time) I hate the fact that my ministry resemble to the prophet of doom. There is a beauty in God and a beauty in being His heir that I would love to be able to talk about all the time. Yet, I know God’s plan for me is to help people understand how to get to the beauty we find in Him. That’s what we Christians tend to avoid. We want the beauty but not the pain we have to go through to get there.

Times like that, I find solace in knowing what God is asking of me is the size of a fly compare to Noah. Imagine, having to live more than hundred years warning people about something that was totally unreal to them. But, I supposed because he would have needed tons of strength to persevere in faith and to take on the ridicule that he must have been exposed to, God must have lavished His grace on him to help him keep the faith alive. I find solace in knowing that as ridiculous as I sound sometimes when I warn people of the danger of a shoddy Christianity, when it matters most, they will know that I was right. Sadly, it will be too late.

When you think about Noah, he preached every single day for over hundred years, warning people of the flood and calling them to make things right with God, yet he was not able to save a soul except the members of his family that God granted him. I would not have understood why if God did not explain it to me. You see, it is extremely important to God to use others to warn people. The funny thing is that God usually chooses people who do not like this task.  God already knows the majority of people you are warning do not care about your message. But, like He said to me before and gave me a glimpse of an image, when judgement time comes, He will have an answer for those who are planning on using “ I DID NOT KNOW” as their excuses. This is part of God being a just God.

You see, as Christians, we are so in love with what we understand with our intellect and in the flesh when in reality God’s word have to be grasped with the Spirit to understand the full scope. For instance, when we say something like, “NOTHING COULD SEPARATE US FROM THE LOVE OF GOD” people feel all warm and tingly, they get a buzz, they say amen with all the strength they have and if you post this on Facebook, you will have hundreds of “likes.” Then, they go on with their shoddy Christianity feeling really good. In reality, it is awesome to know that, but there is so much more to it that we cannot grasp with the flesh and with the intellect.

While we should be grateful for knowing this truth, we should know that God love for each of us is so wide, so deep and so humongous that it feels and look bigger than the world.  But, when He teaches you about His love, you realize there is an intensity to it that could cause you to suffocate within seconds of being closer to His love. The intensity you find in His love has a consuming passion, jealousy wrath etc. As you get to know Him intimately, through loving Him and walking with Him in the spirit, you realize none of these attributes are negative. In fact, the word negative does not even come to mind. You are not scared of His wrath either. His nature in you, teaches you how to accept them and see His beauty through it all. His love is as intense as His wrath and knowing the two, it brings some sort of balance in your walk with Him. But, this is not something you can grasp over night and neither in the flesh. Only as you live and walk in the spirit you learn these things at his feet. – You see, TALK IS CHEAP!

Another reason that I find it hard to have my ministry is because I know how hard it is to tell people they are in reality spiritually blind. They find so much satisfaction in “doing” Christianity. They have lots of activities in their lives, they attend church, bible study,   they feel passionate about things etc., and you cannot tell them they are spiritually blind. They simply do not understand what you are talking about. Yes, these things are good things to have in our lives, but if we remain spiritually blind throughout our Christian walk, well, a caterpillar that has not morphed into a butterfly is not a butterfly.  

Through the book of Hebrews the warning is about the Jews who remained on the side and did not want to have anything to do with Christianity. But most of the book, the writer dedicated to us Christians, to also warn us about how important to have true faith and go forward with Him for the inward transformation to take place so that we can all become butterflies. When it comes to blindness, we have an example of Job right in front of us. When I read job, I don’t care his problems stemmed from Satan having given permission by God to bring him down. What I take from the book is how we are to grow through our trials. It is how to worship God, live for Him in good or bad times and be all that He wants us to be. Even though I read the book over and over again, I cannot wait to get to chapter 42: 5-6 where Job said: “My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.” Job was referring to the eyes of his heart there. I find the book beautiful because I know without the shadow of a doubt, that we all need to go through some major trials in our lives to get the eyes of our hearts open, and only then we can say “oh I see” – Job had no idea he was spiritually blind, I had no idea I was spiritually blind either, until I was able to see. Another thing we find out is that as we can see with our spiritual eyes, we also realize we have no use for those ears we have on the side of our heads.  God wants us to hear with our hearts I remember saying “oh!” That’s why even deaf people have no excuses for not knowing you intimately.  

So, I have no intention of revealing all that God has revealed to me from the book of Hebrews. But, for the next few weeks, I will be using some of the puritan and those classic pastors like Spurgeon perhaps to blog about the book. I will make sure to include some of my own experiences and thoughts.  

I feel so lousy, I have to stop but I hope all that I said make sense and prepare some of you to learn to hear with your heart. I hope you crave intimacy with Him and that you learn to live just to know Him more.

I love you all,

MJ  

Evidence Of the Lack Of Love For God --- Part 5

"If you love me," says Christ, himself, "you will obey what I command." John 14:15.

"If anyone loves me—he will obey my teaching. He who does not love me—will not obey my teaching." John 14:23, 24.

"You are my friends—if you do whatever I command you." John 15:14.
"This is the love of God," says John, "that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous." 1 John 5:3. That is, keeping his commandments is not grievous—when love is the principle.

You see, my friends, that obedience, cheerful, unconstrained obedience, is the grand test of your love to God. There is more stress laid upon this, in the Word of God, than, perhaps, upon any other—and therefore you should regard it the more.

Now, recollect, is there not at least some favorite SIN—which you willfully and knowingly indulge yourselves in? And are there not some self-denying mortifying DUTIES—which you dare to omit? And yet do you pretend that you love God? You pretend that you love him, though your love is directly opposite to this grand test, which he himself has appointed to test your love. You may have your excuses and evasions: you may plead the goodness of your hearts, even when your practice is sinful; you may plead the strength of temptation, the frailty of your nature, and a thousand other things; but plead what you will, this is an eternal truth, that if you habitually and willfully live in disobedience to the commandments of God—then you are entirely destitute of his love! And does not this flash conviction on some of your minds? Does not conscience tell you just now, that your love does not stand this test?
And now, upon a review of the whole—what do you think of yourselves? Does the love of God dwell in you—or does it not? that is, Do those characters of the lack of love belong to you—or do they not? If they do, it is all absurdity and delusion for you to flatter yourselves that you love him; for it is all one as if you should say,

"Lord, I love you—though my native enmity against you still remains unsubdued.

I love you above all—though my thoughts and affections are scattered among other things, and never fix upon you.
I love you above all—though I prefer a thousand things to you and your interest.

I love you above all—though I have no pleasure in conversing with you.
I love you above all—though I am not careful to please you!
That is, I love you above all, though I have all the marks of an enemy upon me!

Can anything be more absurd? Make such a profession of friendship as this to your fellow creatures, and see how they will take it! Will they believe that you really love them? No! common sense will teach them better. And will God, do you think, accept that as supreme love to him—which will not pass current for common friendship among mortals? Is he capable of being imposed upon by such inconsistent pretensions? No! "Do not be deceived: God is not mocked!" Galatians 6:7. Draw the peremptory conclusion, without any hesitation, that the love of God does not dwell in you!

And if this is your case, what do you think of it?
What a monstrous soul you have within you—which cannot love God!
Which cannot love supreme excellence, and all perfect beauty;
which cannot love the origin and author of all the excellence and beauty that you see scattered among the works of His hands;
which cannot love your divine Parent, the Author of your mortal frame;
which cannot love your prime Benefactor and gracious Redeemer;
which cannot love Him, "in whom you live, and move, and have your being, in whose hand your breath is, and whose are all your ways," and who alone is the proper happiness for your immortal spirit;
which can love a parent, a child, a friend, with all their infirities about them—but cannot love God;

which can love the world; which can love sensual and even sinful enjoyments, pleasures, riches, and honors—and yet cannot love God;
which can love everything that is lovely—but God, who is infinitely lovely;
which can love wisdom, justice, veracity, goodness, clemency, in creatures, where they are attended with many imperfections; and yet cannot love God, where they all center and shine in the highest perfection!
What a monster of a soul is this! Must it not be a devil—to be capable of such unnatural horrendous wickedness? Can you be easy, while you have such a soul within you? What a load of guilt must lie upon you!

If love to God is the fulfilling of the whole law—then the lack of love must be the breach of the whole law. You break it all at one blow! Your life is but one continued, uniform, uninterrupted series of sinning!

"If anyone does not love the Lord—that person is cursed!" 1 Corinthians 16:22

Spiritual Blindness Is So Sad!

This series about our lack of love for God that I have been posting for the past four days is really important to me because of what I have learned from Him through my wilderness process.

I was sad to learn from Him how busy we are at feeling superior about our religions, our understanding in our own nature and our own explanations. Sad to see how we are too preoccupied with what is not that important at all, yet we are missing the marks because in our misplaced zeal, our doings and focuses are not coming from the right angle. 

Spiritual blindness is sad because it eats you up and ravages you inside like a cancer in your body that you are not aware of. I do not mean to be rude by using the word cancer but, being someone who lost friends and family to cancer, like my own father whom I lost through cancer I had to learn the different types and how the disease works on the inside. I had to learn how it mutates and how it contaminates other healthy cells.

When I was a child I used to hear my father saying all the time that he would rather have a fever rather than being ignorant. When asked what he meant he would say, you can take a pill and your fever goes away but ignorance is there to stay. As I get older, I heard him expand on the fact that ignorance is worst because often the ignorant person has no idea he or she is ignorant. It is true. The biggest problem we have when we are spiritually ignorant is that we cannot know we are blind unless we can see. So, it is a catch 22

In our spiritual blindness, we will always find followers. The reason being is that first of all it is the work of Satan and secondly even though we are wrong, there is always a component of truth in what is being said. Perhaps it is because I have learned from the Holy Spirit how good we could feel in our Christian walk when all the while our father is the devil. I am extremely careful in examining my walk with Him constantly.  

Think about it. Have you ever sat down and really think of how easy it was for the world to crucified Christ? If your eyes had a peak of Christ in His glory, you would understand the magnitude of what I am saying. What about Adam and Eve? To be given so much to enjoy, yet it was so easy for them to defy Him. I do not know about you but these two examples I keep them close to my heart to remind me how vile I am and to enable me to remain in Him because apart from Him I am nothing and can do nothing.

Most of us so called Christians we would never dare think we belong to the category of those that Christ called the devil children in John 8:44. But, our attitude, motives and actions are no different from the people in the Jewish community of Jerusalem. They loved bragging about the fact that Abraham was their father, they knew each written word, yet no spiritual understanding, no eyes to see and no ears to hear. While they knew the truth, but the truth was not in them. Yes Abraham was their father, but they did not have Abraham Spirit that propelled him forward with God, in faith. They did not have his willingness to learn from Him and his obedient heart.  We too Christians, we reject the very truth of the Bible in favor of what is palatable to us.

Some of you would say to me: well I confessed with my mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord, I believe in Him, I changed my life around, I am church goer, Bible reader, I pray, I work for Him etc. My answer to you is that the Pharisees were deeper in their religiosity than you and that still did not stop them from being the devil children.

The key words we need to understand from John 8:44 is that “Satan speaks from his own nature” and “not holding to the truth” – These are words that should get us think deeper about where we are with Him. It is too easy to cover our faulty walk with a few verses about His promises to us and move onto being busy for Him.

John 8:44 You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.