Regeneration Part 4

by J. C. Ryle

To be born again is, as it were, to enter upon a new existence, to have a new mind and a new heart, new views, new principles, new tastes, new affections, new likings and new dislikings, new fears, new joys, new sorrows, new love to things once hated, new hatred to things once loved, new thoughts of God and ourselves and the world and the life to come, and the means whereby that life is attained. And it is indeed a true saying that he who has gone through it is a new man, a new creature, for old things are passed away—behold, he can say, all things are become new! It is not so much that our natural powers and faculties are taken away and destroyed; I would rather say that they receive an utterly new bias and direction. It is not that the old metal is cast aside—but it is melted down and refined and remolded, and has a new stamp impressed upon it, and thus, so to speak, becomes a new coin.

This is no external change, like that of Herod, who did many things and then stopped—or of Ahab, who humbled himself and went in sackcloth and walked softly; nor is it a change which can neither be seen nor felt. It is not merely a new name and a new notion—but the implanting of a new principle which will surely bear good fruit. It is opening the eyes of the blind and unstopping the ears of the deaf; it is loosing the tongue of the dumb, and giving hands and feet to the maimed and lame—for he who is born again no longer allows his members to be instruments and servants of unrighteousness—but he gives them unto God, and then only are they properly employed.

To be born again is to become a member of a new family by adoption, even the family of God; it is to feel that God is indeed our Father, and that we are made the very sons and daughters of the Almighty; it is to become the citizen of a new state, to cast aside the bondage of Satan and live as free men in the glorious liberty of Christ's kingdom, giving our King the tribute of our best affection, and believing that He will keep us from all evil. To be born again is a spiritual resurrection, a faint likeness indeed of the great change at last—but still a likeness; for the new birth of a man is a passage from death to life; it is a passage from ignorance of God to a full knowledge of Him, from slavish fear to childlike love, from sleepy carelessness about Him to fervent desire to please Him, from lazy indifference about salvation to burning, earnest zeal; it is a passage from strangeness towards God to heartfelt confidence, from a state of enmity to a state of peace, from worldliness to holiness, from an earthly, sensual, man-pleasing state of mind to the single-eyed mind that is in Christ Jesus. And this it is to be born of the Spirit.

Beloved, time will not allow me to go further with this subject today. I have endeavored to show you generally why we must all be born again, and what the new birth means; and next Sunday, if the Lord wills, I purpose to show you the manner and means by which this new birth usually comes.

It only remains for me now to commend this matter most solemnly to your consciences. Were it a doctrine of only second-rate importance—were it a point a man might leave uncertain and yet be saved, like Church government or election—I would not press it on you so strongly—but it is one of the two great pillars of the gospel. On the one hand stands salvation by free grace for Christ's sake—but on the other stands renewal of the carnal heart by the Spirit. We must be changed as well as forgiven; we must be renewed as well as redeemed.

And I commend this to you all the more because of the times you live in. Men swallow down sermons about Christ's willingness and Christ's power to save, and yet continue in their sins. They seem to forget there must be the Spirit's work within us, as well as Christ's work for us—there must be something written on the table of our hearts. The strong man, Satan, must be cast out of our house, and Jesus must take possession; and we must begin to know the saints' character experimentally on earth—or we shall never be numbered with them in heaven. Christ is indeed a full and sufficient title to heaven—but we must have about us some fitness for that blessed abode.

I will not shrink from telling you that this doctrine cuts every congregation in two; it is the line of separation between the good fish and the bad, the wheat and the tares. 

The Call For Service

On the 10 of January, 2013 I mentioned in my post that “we are living in a time where anyone can be a pastor or teacher, because they feel like it or they want to work for God.” This post will shed some lights on my comments. A short time after I entered the wilderness with God, I heard the call like Isaiah did. Strangely, God called me at a time where I was dealing with one of the biggest crisis in my life. It was also amazing to see how my crisis did not matter. This personal call from Him brought pure joy and ecstasy to the soul. When the vision and visitation stopped, I was back to myself, I not only had the joy of what I experienced, but I also had a burning and passionate desire and need to get involved in evangelism and saved souls.

Everyone around me interpreted my passion as a need to go "now"…. Act on it now… God has spoken, there is no need to wait, and you have your orders. I did not want to be disobedient to God, so I started doing the preparation to go. Something was terribly wrong inside of me as I started preparing to go. There was such a deep sense of sadness within and if I had talked to anyone else they would have told me that it was the work of Satan. I will spare you the details of what happened next. Suffice to say, the sadness I felt was my moving forward to complete the vision on my own, caused the Holy Spirit to grieve.

There were times I was so disappointed with the waiting process that I wanted to take matters into my hands. It turns out my interpretation of the call had nothing to do with God’s interpretation. If I did not wait for Him, I would have been a missionary overseas, thinking that I am doing something awesome for God. Yet, I would have been out of His will for me. God wanted me right here in North America to deal with lost souls right in the Church. At one point, I was disappointed that my calling was not for lack of a better word “a bigger deal”.  As I get to know God more and more I realize the smallest and the most menial tasks has great values in God’s eyes, if accomplished through Him.

In fact, to help me through the waiting process after years in the wilderness, God had to show me how someone working all his or her life on the mission field might not be as pleasing to Him as someone doing the most menial task. He told me point blank, “I would prefer that you work with me for three years than having you work for me for twenty years.” He showed me the impact of a lifetime spent working for Him is basically wasted away. The only nuggets that He can use, are when He uses the person like He uses Satan to reach His elects. –- Strangely, He showed me, even when He uses someone in this manner, this does not mean he or she is not saved and that was not up to me to interpret it in this manner. –- In this vision, He shared things that I could never share with any human beings, and He did not have to tell me, I knew they were meant for me alone. But keep in mind this vision did not happen until God called me a friend of His. Notice I did not say I called Him friend, because He let you know when you reach the friendship threshold. On a side note, when God really calls you a friend, it comes with that built in awareness that He is not really your “buddy” so His friendship will never cause you to lose your reverence for Him.

As I waited for Him to make me one with Him, I not only understood even though the call is not close to what I thought it would be, I delight in doing His will.  I also found out, a big chunk of the way He wants to use me is through prayer, so He trained me to become a prayer warrior. Prayer has no barriers when we walk in the Spirit and it has no borders.  I also learned, when we are set to do His will above all else, we do not have to worry about missing out on anything. If there is an emergency, if we have to go right away, on the spot, He will let us know. While we are rushing to complete what is really “just a stirring in our hearts” we rush ahead of Him with an attitude that it is our job to complete what He started, so we forge the path. In reality, in God sight, that is disobedience, lack of trust, lack of reverence and lack of walking in the Spirit.

Sadly, some of us have gone so far ahead of Him, we have spent so many years being in the wrong fields, and some have been so financially successful in a field that He really did not choose, i.e. those building their television and books empires, we cannot go back. So we lie to ourselves, and convinced ourselves that He will be happy with it…….Wrong! Just the fact that we say it is His mandate does not make it so.

I am leaving you with Oswald Chambers devotion for today which complement this post!

The Voice of the Nature of God

01

16

2013

I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: ’Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?’ —Isaiah 6:8

When we talk about the call of God, we often forget the most important thing, namely, the nature of Him who calls. There are many things calling each of us today. Some of these calls will be answered, and others will not even be heard. The call is the expression of the nature of the One who calls, and we can only recognize the call if that same nature is in us. The call of God is the expression of God’s nature, not ours. God providentially weaves the threads of His call through our lives, and only we can distinguish them. It is the threading of God’s voice directly to us over a certain concern, and it is useless to seek another person’s opinion of it. Our dealings over the call of God should be kept exclusively between ourselves and Him.

The call of God is not a reflection of my nature; my personal desires and temperament are of no consideration. As long as I dwell on my own qualities and traits and think about what I am suited for, I will never hear the call of God. But when God brings me into the right relationship with Himself, I will be in the same condition Isaiah was. Isaiah was so attuned to God, because of the great crisis he had just endured, that the call of God penetrated his soul. The majority of us cannot hear anything but ourselves. And we cannot hear anything God says. But to be brought to the place where we can hear the call of God is to be profoundly changed.

Courtesy of http://utmost.org/

Click the link here: because tomorrow's devotion is equally important to this post

Spiritual Plateau Part 2

On Tuesday December 11, 2012, I wrote a post title spiritual plateau. Today, as I was reading Oswald Chambers January 15, 2013, I knew all along one the main ingredients to avoid spiritual plateau is to know the meaning in the depth of your soul, what it means to have gone to your own funeral and learn to walk in white.

The reasons I did not want to elaborate on the post further is because it was already long enough and the second reason is that this very subject will be included in one of my upcoming books and the title will be a good indication to you. So, today I felt led by the Spirit to finish what I started.

The end result of not going to your own spiritual funeral will cause this spiritual plateau where the Holy Spirit cannot move an inch in us anymore because, the next step that is needed to continue the work has not been taken by us. God always brings us to places where, not choosing to embrace our own funeral causes us to be in our depth in disobedience. We do have the right to take other paths, but it remains exactly what it is in the eyes of God. We are forced to build on the religion of man or like the Israelites we live like those who never made it out of the wilderness because they never apprehended more of God according to His standards.

Sometimes we have refused the path He presented to us on so many occasions that we do not even realize anymore that we are not walking with Him and we have left Him behind to do our own things. As we live this life, we ought to examine ourselves and if we keep moving sideways, no matter how good it feels and look, know that something is wrong because true Christianity, and a true child of His keeps going forward. 

One of the ways to know you are moving sideways: the depth of spiritual things and intimacy with God evade you. They remain things you read through other people!

Do You Walk In White?

01

15

2013

We were buried with Him . . . that just as Christ was raised from the dead . . . even so we also should walk in newness of life —Romans 6:4

No one experiences complete sanctification without going through a “white funeral”-the burial of the old life. If there has never been this crucial moment of change through death, sanctification will never be more than an elusive dream. There must be a “white funeral,” a death with only one resurrection-a resurrection into the life of Jesus Christ. Nothing can defeat a life like this. It has oneness with God for only one purpose— to be a witness for Him.

Have you really come to your last days? You have often come to them in your mind, but have you really experienced them? You cannot die or go to your funeral in a mood of excitement. Death means you stop being. You must agree with God and stop being the intensely striving kind of Christian you have been. We avoid the cemetery and continually refuse our own death. It will not happen by striving, but by yielding to death. It is dying— being “baptized into His death” (Romans 6:3).

Have you had your “white funeral,” or are you piously deceiving your own soul? Has there been a point in your life which you now mark as your last day? Is there a place in your life to which you go back in memory with humility and overwhelming gratitude, so that you can honestly proclaim, “Yes, it was then, at my ’white funeral,’ that I made an agreement with God.”

“This is the will of God, your sanctification . . .” (1 Thessalonians 4:3). Once you truly realize this is God’s will, you will enter into the process of sanctification as a natural response. Are you willing to experience that “white funeral” now? Will you agree with Him that this is your last day on earth? The moment of agreement depends on you.

Courtesy of: http://utmost.org/

Regeneration—Part 3

by J. C. Ryle


They do not count it a privilege to draw near to God through Jesus Christ, to walk with Him, to seek close acquaintance with Him; and where would be the comfort to them of dwelling forever in the presence of the Lord God and the Lamb? They do not strive to walk in the steps of holy men of old, they do not take example from the faith and patience of the saints; and with what face then would they join the society of just men made perfect? With what salutation, after a life spent in pleasing the devil and the world, would they greet Abraham and David and the Apostles and all that blessed company who have fought the good fight?

Alas! beloved, an unregenerate man in heaven would be a miserable creature, there would be something in the air he could not breathe, the joys, the affections, the employments would be all wearisome to him, he would find himself as unfitted for the company of the saints, as a beast is unfitted on earth for the company of man. He would be carnally minded, they would be spiritually minded, there would be nothing in common. I know there are vain dreamers who imagine death will work an alteration, that they may die sinners and rise again saints—but it is all a delusion, there is no work nor device nor knowledge in the grave; if we die spiritual we shall rise spiritual, if we die carnal we shall rise carnal, and if we are to be made fit for heaven our natural hearts must be changed now on earth.

In short, beloved, the plain truth is, that by nature men are all dead in trespasses and sins, strangers to the covenant of promise, having no hope and without God in the world, prisoners in the hand of Satan, in a state of miserable condemnation, spiritually dark, blind, and dead; and, worst of all, they neither know nor feel it. The cold corpse in the grave does not feel the worms that crawl over it; the sleeping wretch who has drunk poison, does not know that he shall wake no more; and so also the unhappy man who is still unconverted cannot understand that he is in need of anything. But still, every natural man in the sight of God is dead while he lives; his body, soul, and mind are all turned aside from their proper use, which is to glorify God, and so he is looked upon as dead. And this either is the state of every single soul among us at this minute—or else it used to be. There is no middle state; we cannot be half-way, neither dead nor alive; we were dead and have been brought to life—or we are now dead, and the work is yet to be done.

Nor yet is this doctrine for publicans and harlots only: it is for all without exception; it touches high and low, rich and poor, learned and unlearned, old and young, gentle and simple; all are by nature sinful and corrupt, and because they are so, Jesus tells us solemnly not one shall enter into the heavenly rest without being born again.
Beloved, this sounds strong; it seems a hard saying, perhaps. That is not my concern. I am set to preach Christ's Gospel and not my own. Search the Scriptures, and you will see it is true.

II. The second thing for your consideration is the exact meaning and force of that peculiar expression "to be born again." It is a change by which we once more recover something of the divine nature, and are renewed after the image of God. It is a complete transforming and altering of all the inner man; and nothing can more fully show its completeness and importance than the strong figure under which Jesus describes it: He calls it a NEW BIRTH. We have all been born once as men—but we must see to it we are born again as true Christians. We have been born once of the seed of Adam—woe to us if we are not born the second time of the seed of God! We have been born of the flesh—we must also be born of the Spirit. We are born earthly—we must also be born heavenly. We are born corruptible—we must also be born incorruptible. Our natural birth is as necessary to the life of the body—as our spiritual birth is necessary to the life of the soul.

Regeneration Part 2

by J. C. Ryle

So long as they are in this natural state it is in vain they are told of God's holiness and God's unchangeable justice, His spiritual law and His judgment to come, their own enormous deficiencies, their own peril of destruction—it matters not; it all falls flat and dull upon their ears; they neither feel it nor care for it nor consider it, and in a few hours they are as though they had never heard it. It is to no purpose, while in this condition, that Christ crucified and His precious atonement are set before us; we can see no form nor beauty nor loveliness about Him; we cannot value what He has done, and, as far as we are concerned, the wisdom and the excellence of the Cross, which Apostles gloried in, seems all thrown away.

And why is this? Our hearts need changing! "The natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, for they are spiritually discerned." This is the true account of all that weariness and lifelessness and carelessness which we so often see in the worshipers of God's house; this is the secret of that awful indifference about spiritual things which prevails so widely both among rich and poor, and makes the Gospel appear a sealed book. It comes from the heart. Some always imagine they need learning, some they have no time, some they have very peculiar difficulties which no one else in the world has—but the truth lies far deeper. They all need new hearts! Once give them new natures, and you would hear no more about learning—or time—or difficulty. Every mountain would be leveled and every valley filled up, that the way of God might be prepared.

But again. By nature we do not love the laws of Christ's spiritual kingdom. We do not openly refuse to obey them, we would be angry with anyone who said we had thrown them aside—but we have no love to them and delight in them; it is not our food and drink to do our Father's will. Oh no! by nature we love our own way and our own inclinations—and that is our only law. We bring forth fruit unto ourselves—but not unto God. Our own pleasure and our own profit take up all our attention, and as for Him who made us and redeemed us, too many do not give Him the very scraps of their time. By nature we do not measure ourselves by God's standard: who ever takes the Sermon on the Mount as his rule of character? who ever admires the poor in spirit, the mourners, the meek, the hungerers and thirsters after righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, the men who are persecuted for righteousness' sake? These are all people whom the world despises, they are as nothing by the side of the jovial and light-hearted, the men who love strong drink and are held to sing good songs; and yet these are the people whom Jesus calls blessed.

What natural man judges of sin as Jesus teaches us to judge? How few look on drunkenness and fornication as damnable sins—yet the Bible says they are! How few consider anger without cause, as bad as murder, and lustful looks as bad as adultery—yet Jesus says they are! Where are the men who strive to love their enemies, who bless those who hate them, and pray for those who despitefully use them?—yet this is the rule that Jesus has laid down. And why is all this? You see there must be something radically wrong. By nature we do not lay ourselves out to glorify God with our bodies and spirits—we take no pleasure in speaking to each other about Him. The concerns of this world have a hundred times more of our thoughts; and few indeed are the gatherings where the mention of Christ and heaven would not stop many mouths, and make nearly all look as if the subject was very uncomfortable.

And why is all this? Some talk of bad example having done them harm, and some say they have had a bad education—but the evil is far more deeply seated; that which is born of the flesh is flesh, it comes from the carnal unrenewed mind, and the remedy needed is change of nature. A corrupt tree can only bring forth corrupt fruit; the root of the mischief is the sinfulness of the natural heart.

Once more. By nature we are altogether unfit for Christ's kingdom in glory. The lives which we are in the habit of leading, and the practices we are fond of indulging, and the tastes we are always seeking to please, and the opinions we hold, are all such as prove we have no natural fitness for the inheritance of the saints in light. They do not follow after holiness in all their walk and conversation. Then what place can they occupy in that blessed abode where there shall enter in nothing that defiles, nor whatever works abomination? How shall they stand in His presence, who charges even His angels with folly, and in whose sight the very heavens are not pure! They do not take pleasure in the exercise of prayer and praise on earth; and how could they enjoy the employments of that glorious habitation, where they rest not day nor night worshiping and crying "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come!"

Regeneration Part 1

I will be posting about regeneration in the next few days, because even though I come from a conservative Baptist Church who did not believe in regeneration as a second experience. Until I walked in the wilderness with God, I believed what I was told. Needless to say there was never a sermon on the matter, as such, I put it to rest, believing the proponent of regeneration or second blessings were wrong. I believed in my pastor so much, that I assumed he was right and regeneration or what some people call a second blessing was not needed. I will not talk about my experience here because I have already explained enough of it in my book “Apprehended & Apprehending.” But, suffice to say regeneration which is when you are born from above is needed, whether you believe in it or not, the Holy Spirit needs the freedom to move freely in our lives, to get us there.

by J. C. Ryle

"Truly, truly, I say to you—Unless a man is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." John 3:3

If the Bible is false, as some proud men have dared to say—then we are no better than the beasts which perish, and the best thing a man can do is to eat and drink and live as he pleases. If the Bible is only half true, as some unhappy people strive to make out, there is no certainty about our everlasting souls; Christianity is all doubt and dimness and guesswork, we can never know what we are to believe as necessary to salvation, we can never be sure that we have got hold of the words of eternal life. Give up your Bible, and you have not a square inch of certainty and confidence to stand on: you may think, and you may imagine, and you may have your own opinion—but you cannot show me any satisfactory proof or authority that you are right; you are building merely on your own judgment; you have put out your own eyes, as it were, and, like one in the dark, you do not really know where you are going.

But if, beloved, the Bible be indeed the Word of God Himself and altogether true, and that it is so, can be proved by witnesses without number; if the Bible be indeed true and our only guide to heaven, and this I trust you are all ready to allow; it surely must be the duty of every wise and thinking man to lay to heart each doctrine which it contains, and while he adds nothing to it, to be careful that he takes nothing from it.

Now, I say that on the face of the Bible, when fairly read, there stands out this grand doctrine, that each one of us must, between the cradle and grave—go through a spiritual change, a change of heart—or in other words be born again. And in the text you have heard, the Lord Jesus declares positively, without regeneration no man shall see the kingdom of God.

Sinner, man or woman, mark that! no salvation without this new birth! Christ has done everything for you; He paid the price of our redemption, lived for us, died for us, rose again for us—but all shall avail us nothing, if there be not this work in us: we must be born again!

Now, beloved, I desire to speak to you freely and plainly about this new birth—as a thing absolutely necessary to salvation. I shall try to show you from my text two things: first, the reason why we must all be born again, and secondly, what the expression to be born again means; and the Lord grant that the subject to which I am going to call your attention, may not be listened to and soon forgotten, as a light and indifferent matter—but carried home and thought over, and blessed to the conversion of many souls!

I. Why, then, is this new birth so necessary? The answer is short and simple. Because of the natural sinfulness of every man's disposition. We are not born into the world with spotless, innocent minds—but corrupt and wicked, and with a will to do that which is evil as soon as we have the power. The Scriptural account is true to the letter—we are all conceived in sin and shaped in iniquity. I need not stop now to tell you how all this came to pass; I need only remind you that in the beginning it was not so. 

Our first parents, Adam and Eve, were created holy, harmless, undefiled, without spot or stain or blemish about them; and when God rested from His labor on the seventh day, He pronounced them, like all His other works, to be very good. But, alas for us! Adam, by transgression, fell into sin, and lost his first estate. He forfeited the likeness of God in which he had been made. And hence all we, who are his children, come into being with a defiled and sinful nature. We are fallen, and we must needs be raised; we have about us the marks of the old Adam—Adam the first, earthly and carnal—and we must needs be marked with the marks of the Second Adam, the Lord Jesus, which are heavenly and spiritual. Do any of you feel a doubt of this? Consider only what we are by nature.

By nature we do not see Christ's spiritual kingdom upon earth; it is all hidden from our eyes. Men may be sharp and knowing in worldly matters, they may be wise in the things of time—but when they come to spiritual religion, their understandings seem blind, there is a thick veil over their hearts, and they see nothing as they ought to see.

Don't Worry About How You Mature……..Really?

There is a saying out there so unscriptural, that it gives me great concerns. If I have to sit one more time in front of a pastor who tells his congregation “ don’t worry about how you grow” or “everybody grow at their own pace” or when you worry whether you are growing or not it is because Satan is playing games with you, I am going to pull my hair out!

One leader of the Church I used to go to went as far as telling me that whatever needs to be done right before we die, Christ will put us right before presenting us to God.  For instance, if you die and you are not holy yet, it does not matter what post you occupied in the Church, you simply won’t see God. As I get to know God for myself, I found out there is only a partial truth to this interpretation. I found out the Holy Spirit wants us to worry about how we grow. The Holy Spirit taught me that my spiritual growth is not concerned with my pace but should be the Holy Spirit pace and it is my duty to keep up with Him. Guess what? The Holy Spirit’s interpretation is actually biblical. Our major problem is making God’s word fit our interpretation of Salvation.

As I explained in my book “Apprehended & Apprehending” God does not show us how far the spiritual road we have to travel. As you mature spiritually, you find out, you see as much road your spiritual knowledge of God and your maturity will allow you to see. You walk with Him so much and grow so much that it feels you have reached the end of the road and bang, all of the sudden, in the blink of an eye you realize there is so much more distance to travel. It is as if there was a wall there, now the wall disappears. I come to understand that God is putting us back to the way things used to be with Adam and Eve before the lost their spiritual sight. This work starts right here on earth. The wall that I used to see, I come to understand is the spiritual veil that was imposed on us after the fall.

God had to get me to the end of the wall at least on four occasions until I learned to give up and stop putting my own understanding of spiritual growth forth. Once I stopped doing that, amazingly I came to see the spiritual growth is like travelling on a highway where you can see as far as your eyes would take you. But, if I have let’s say 100 miles to travel, and I can only see a few miles ahead of me, this does not mean it is the end of my journey. I have come to understand as well, how much road is left is not up to me or anyone else to know it. 

Prior to the Holy Spirit teaching me all these things in the wilderness, I was so confident that what my spiritual blindness and ignorance allowed me to see was just that, because I did not know I was spiritually blind. I was ignorant of the fact that the amount of work that has to be done is nothing that our feeble human mind could grasp. Some of you might say well, Paul already compared this life to a race, so I should have known that. I venture to say that even though we repeat those words, the majority of the Church does not know what they truly mean from God’s point of view, unless He explains things to you.

I will go one step further, if indeed we already knew on a spiritual basis what Paul meant when he compared the Christian life to a race, then we would all stampede forward and stop using excuses. The Church would flourish because spiritual growth would be at an all time high. Christians would be truly walking as the light of the world. The truth is, when we don't see with our spiritual eyes, in our human mind, we see a somewhat short distance as if it was not a big deal. We see a journey of ten thousand steps when in reality, through growing with Him, after we travel ten million steps, we find, there is still an infinite amount of steps left to take. It’s not for nothing those who are going forward with Him spiritually see their lives as being apprehended by Him and we keep apprehending as we charge forward with Him.

Part of God helping us to preserve in this walk is to always examine ourselves to see if we are still walking in His will for us. You will find out the more you grow, the more God makes sure you understand that there is so much to be done that you can never measure up. This is to tell you that I am aware of the ugliness that is still in my heart, I am aware of my desperate need for Him and I am aware that I cannot do anything without Him. However, it seems as you walk with Him, you have some sort of regulator within that propels you to check to make sure you are where you need to be. This is the Holy Spirit’s work. I find that if I spend a few weeks without being aware that I am growing at all, I have a need to talk to the Holy Spirit about it.

Understand that I am not talking about outward growth like learning the Bible. It is a given if I you are in the Word all the time, you are going to learn it. However, I need to examine myself to make sure even if I do not feel I am growing spiritually, I am still in His will for me. I am still walking in accordance with His schedule for my life. My routine is that I examine myself to see how long ago I have experienced some sort of spiritual growth. If I find out it has been a while, then I pray to the Holy Spirit to guide me in a better understanding. Sometimes He takes a week or two before letting me know that I am fine and He always gives me a glimpse of things. It’s almost like an unspoken arrangement. Sometimes, I find out that I have sin in my heart that I was not aware of, for various reasons. And sometimes He shows me a full blown picture of how much I have grown.

The moral of the story, it is our job to keep up with Him, not the other way around. Our lack of spiritual growth could be because we are not walking in His will. We are not walking in the Spirit, not abiding and perhaps our hearts are plagued with sin that we have gotten comfortable with. The inward spiritual maturity takes us from the baby stage as we slowly become someone like the apostle Paul, or John, or maybe someone like Spurgeon, or Moody or John Edwards, or Oswald Chambers etc. We come to resemble these people in their knowledge of Him and His Word. I insist on saying inward spiritual maturity because there is a practice out there, as soon as we have some activities under our belts, we have been Christians for a few years and are able to understand few Bible verses whether through our own interpretation or through a little growth, we tend to put ourselves above others and all of the sudden we get ourselves an “apostle” title after our names where we are nowhere near one of them, inwardly.

Ironically, the more you grow spiritually, the more you know God, the more you understand spiritual things, the more you are not interested in those titles. Perhaps because I come from a family that is so vain, so shallow, so caught up in money and status where everything is about displaying the outside beauty, God, through His grace is watching me so closely. In fact, He made clear to me that I have to do His work in the shadows where the glory will be all His. I conquered with Him because I know I am a corrupted being with vanity in my heart. Even though I know Him so well it is easy for vanity to take over and before we know it, we steal His glory as we put the focus on us. 

2 Peter 3:17-18 Therefore, dear friends, since you have been forewarned, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of the lawless and fall from your secure position.¹⁸ But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen.

The Opened Sight by Oswald Chambers

Oswald Chambers devotion for today has a boat load of information, we need for the Christian life. In fact, it is not stretching it if I say we have a lifetime of true Christianity in these few words and could be subject to several posts. One of the reasons I am so excited about this devotion is because it is so close to home. As I have shared with you before, my ministry is directly associated with these people who are in the Church, professed that they are Christians but have never made it to received true Salvation. Hence, my gifts of discernment and wisdom as well as the ability to judge according to the knowledge and leadership of the Holy Spirit in my life. If God felt that I needed these things in order that He can use me, can you imagine what He is able to bestow on those He truly called to occupy leadership and teaching positions in His Church?

Whether you are a pastor, an elder or evangelist, any kind of teaching position that He calls you to, there is no doubt that you will be equipped to see what needs to be seen through wisdom, discernment and more. The job is to open up other people’s eyes to the truth they do not know, to help them walk the walk. Why would He not do it for you first before He sent you? Why would Oswald Chambers able to see all these things and through his writings you can tell they are like natural abilities to him. He was not exceptional, he was just walking the walk.

His devotion today contains some truths that cannot be mere word that comes out of our mouths i.e receiving forgiveness of sin… This brings you face to face with a Holy repentance that you have never known in your life. This repentance could happen the same day you receive Christ in your life, but it could also happened few months down the road. Either way, you have to have the capability to receive this holy gift from Him. Too many people say they have received Christ but go on never knowing what it means to repent. Yet, this repentance is needed to make a 360 degree turn. Failing that, we live as people who are saved in their sins and not from sins. As long as you do not know the difference of what I just said, in your heart and in the quality of your life with God, well, you are not saved yet. Christ did not come to save us in our sins. This is not the real Salvation that He died on the cross for. The irony is that we keep saying salvation is through grace but we do not understand that getting there to the point where we know and compute that we have been saved from sins and we can see the ugliness of it and how and why God is disgusted by it is a MAJOR work of His grace in our lives.

Another truth in this devotion that must be considered very carefully is the fact that Oswald said “when a person is born again, he knows that it is because he has received something as a gift from Almighty God…” Do not take the word knows lightly. This knowing happened with an encounter with the Holy One that brings you to a place where you own that truth. You do not just repeat like a parrot that salvation is by grace, but it is your truth that is in the depth of your identity in Him, so deep within, that no one can take it away from you.

Another major truth in this devotion is that Oswald also said: “their eyes are open, but they have received nothing” this simply put you in the category of the seed that falls where there are rocks, and not much soil.

Another major truth is that even though our job is to open people’s eyes, we cannot do it by ourselves unless the Holy Spirit is allowed to move freely in our lives, with no hindrances to impede His work in others through us. That is a big responsibility that we learn the sacredness of it through being prepared by Him for service. This is where service to God becomes an extension of who you are in Him.

I have to stop in order to keep the length of this post to a reasonable document, but another truth that is devastating the Church is the fact that today’s preachers are not able to recognize which is which and how to deal with the lack of conversion in the pews and the pulpits. Please understand that I know there are some awesome pastor and teachers out there who have been called by God, took His personal training and walk in the Spirit with Him. They are the elite that God referred to in Jeremiah 3:15 “Then I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will lead you with knowledge and understanding”. These shepherds after God’s own heart did not and will not become such just by taking a few courses in college or university. They are aware that after they are trained by man, they have to go through God’s university and curriculum before they are ready to lead His flock. This makes the difference between leading and leading.

The problem is that we are living in a time where anyone can be a pastor or teacher, because they feel like it or they want to work for God, notice the emphasis is for God not with God. We also have greed; the need for status, insecurities, resources at their disposal, being well connected which was the practice of the Pharisees (blind leading blind) etc. You can understand why they are not equipped to deal with dires strait situations in their congregations that require an abundance of God’s grace.

I can understand that you might be offended by my writings, but do not stop there. Do not make it about you or me. Know that if you stop there and make it about you and me, there is a major problem in your walk that Satan does not want you to know. Examine yourself, ask the Holy Spirit to help you, to get your pride and bondage out of the way so that you can see what needs to be seen and know for sure where you stand with Him. Ask Him to save you, not because you deserve it, but for His glory. Keep praying day in, day out until He answers you. If you truly ask Him with a sincere and open heart, you will be amazed at His response.  

Here is Oswald Chambers devotional

The Opened Sight

01

10

2013

I now send you, to open their eyes . . . that they may receive forgiveness of sins . . . —Acts 26:17-18

This verse is the greatest example of the true essence of the message of a disciple of Jesus Christ in all of the New Testament.

God’s first sovereign work of grace is summed up in the words, “. . . that they may receive forgiveness of sins . . . .” When a person fails in his personal Christian life, it is usually because he has never received anything. The only sign that a person is saved is that he has received something from Jesus Christ. Our job as workers for God is to open people’s eyes so that they may turn themselves from darkness to light. But that is not salvation; it is conversion-only the effort of an awakened human being. I do not think it is too broad a statement to say that the majority of so-called Christians are like this. Their eyes are open, but they have received nothing. Conversion is not regeneration. This is a neglected fact in our preaching today. When a person is born again, he knows that it is because he has received something as a gift from Almighty God and not because of his own decision. People may make vows and promises, and may be determined to follow through, but none of this is salvation. Salvation means that we are brought to the place where we are able to receive something from God on the authority of Jesus Christ, namely, forgiveness of sins.

This is followed by God’s second mighty work of grace: “. . . an inheritance among those who are sanctified . . . .” In sanctification, the one who has been born again deliberately gives up his right to himself to Jesus Christ, and identifies himself entirely with God’s ministry to others

This Oswald chamber devotion is the courtesy of http://utmost.org/

Salvation is a Gift from God….Not From Us!

There is a late Christian television show, I do not usually watch it, but once in a while I will check it out hoping it will be that day the host will have a nugget to share. It has not happened yet. A few weeks ago a young man called his show; he was upset with the direction of his life i.e., drugs, women, late parties, lots of personal problems etc. He mentioned he just came home where he is living alone, he was flipping channels and when he saw the show on television he decided to call in too. It is usually infomercials or his show if you do not have a good cable package.

While the caller was going on and on about his problems, the host mumbled something like Christ can take it all away. The caller continued talking, while wallowing in pity as if it was someone else’s fault. There was no awareness of his sinful nature. I have to give the host credit for saying something to the effect that we are all sinners but the caller did not hear him. In the meantime, the host not paying attention that the caller was talking his head off already started to say the sinner's prayer. The pause from the host came when he wanted the caller to repeat after him and the caller was still going on about his problems and loneliness. The host had to interject more than once with those words “I need you to repeat after me” Finally the caller realized the host wanted to say something. Before he even had time to breathe he was repeating the sinner's prayer so badly with a question mark and disappointment in his voice.

It was really bad to watch. The caller did not find what he was looking for, a sympathetic set of ears. So, to wrap it all up the host told the caller that he was now a Christian and he has been sealed with the Holy Spirit and he is now a child of God and can never lose his salvation. It was horrible! This host was satisfied with himself. You could tell he is totally blind to the fact that salvation is a gift from God but not from us. He was clueless to the fact that he jammed his salvation idea down the caller’s throat in less than 2 minutes. It was clear to anyone with an ounce of the Holy Spirit that the caller did not call because he was prepared to receive salvation from God.

The whole thing was sad. The Church is so corrupted with false doctrines and hollow rituals that it is painful to watch how we are destroying ourselves along with other people. We misunderstand the word grace and how it works from God’s viewpoint. We are spiritually ignorant and blind. We think just because the word of God says “call onto me and I will answer thee” this gives us the right to make a mockery out of the Gospel. When we are manipulating people (knowingly or not) to say the sinner's prayer, they are not calling upon God. Beside this verse has many implications that there is more than one sermon written about it. Even when we do not fully understand what we are dealing with, we can call on Him and He will answer. But, we call on Him because we have the desire to call and we are done with idolatry and worshiping false gods. We call on Him to deliver us because we are aware to some extend that He alone and no one else can help us. We call because He has given us some sort of light to see our spiritual need. Etc.

Some say well the Gospel say “believe and you will be saved” It is true the gospel says believe and you will be saved, I know it first hand. But, not when someone else is doing a bad job of believing for you. How convenient, when we quote this verse in Acts 16:31, we completely dismiss the unbelievable job that was done by Him to prepare the jailer for the Gospel. We missed out on the fact that the jailer had acquired a repentant heart because he could see his need for God, and we miss out on the fact that he became aware of his own depravity. This jailer had an encounter with God that was so powerful that he did not care what the Romans would do to Him if they found out he went with the prisoners. He did not even care that he left his post and did not bother about the state of the jail. – Because we miss the work of God in the process, we are not giving Him His glory back. But, then again, it makes sense we cannot see all these things if we are not walking with Him and never have an encounter with Him.

One can only believe when God gets involved and it does not take a genius to see in many cases God is nowhere to be found in our transactions. We are so deep into cheap grace we bestow on ourselves we are sharing it with others with no clue of the abomination of our acts. If we could learn to examine ourselves better, we would learn to deal with our need to bring people to Christ as if we don’t do it, Christ will not find them. Salvation is not a numbers game either. Our job is to make sure we are walking with God so closely and so unhindered that we are there for each one who is ready to accept Him. He alone prepares their hearts for us. How can we not see the difference between our shoddy jobs and the Spirit’s job is beyond me. Yes we do not know the heart, but where He is leading we do not have to worry about anything.

Some of our problems are the fact that we are not even aware that He is not leading. We are living fabricated lives with a man made understanding of righteous living and commitment to His truth. We are not aware that we are not living out His purpose for our lives. We are not aware that we are saturated with our sins, our disobedience and stubbornness and we are not aware of His life in us.  Yet while this life is completely elusive to us, we are happy in our assumptions that we must be okay. We have to get to know Christ a little bit better for ourselves first; we have to learn to walk with Him as our Master, not just as a savior before He can use us to save people through us. If you ever experienced God working unhindered through you to get to other people, you would never do anything in your own power anymore. Furthermore, you would repent for having done so in the past when you did not know Him well enough. The element we are missing out is “Him doing the work through us”

If the Holy Spirit ever showed you what the Word of God means by “being saved by the skin of your teeth” you would first of all shiver and remain speechless for a while. Instantly you would get out of your system, the idea that a shoddy salvation job is better than nothing. And you would make it your goal to stop working for Him and stop living out your own desires, goals and purposes. It is such an abomination to God when we are living out our own wishes and desired goals that we would never take our surrender to His will for our lives, lightly. This is more so for people who put themselves in teaching and leadership positions in the Church, this includes those who built their empires through television.  

If you believe that God called you to be in some sort of teachings or leadership position in the Church, yet, after years and years you are still spiritually blind, this should be an indication that you have moved forward with your own understanding without waiting for Him to make things clearer for you. Sadly, our pride won’t let us accept easily that we have messed up.

May God have mercy on us!

IF YOU HAVE THE TIME, CHECK OUT OSWALD CHAMBERS DEVOTION FOR TODAY

Claim The Christian Life Through His Grace!

Having been part of a Church where I was taught to learn to mimic godly behavior and I was also taught to pray for this Christian life, I could not reconcile what was going on in my life when God decided to move in and suddenly, inwardly, this life had become such a dynamic life. I was conscious of the fact that I had something alive in me; something was new inside of me. If it was not for the incomparable gentleness of the Holy Spirit, I would have been more apprehensive thinking that I was on my way of becoming schizophrenic. I simply could not understand why I was living literally with someone inside me.

It was only after I stumbled on A.W.Tozer book, “The Pursuit of God” that this Christian life made sense to me. Through it, I understood the realness of this life. I also understood, having surrendered my life completely, with no conditions and no reservations, few months back meant that I stopped praying for this life to happen to me. Instead I moved in to claim it through believing so that I could become part of it. Through reading Tozer’s book it felt as if my Christian life thus far was like I was holding onto half a dozen pieces of a puzzle, then someone came and said here is the box with all the other pieces. When I opened the box to put the half a dozen pieces I was holding onto, I found the puzzle was so big with millions of pieces. While the half a dozen pieces I was holding onto were important to complete the puzzle, but I would have never known what this puzzle was about with my few pieces.

You would make a mistake to think that this is no longer Salvation by grace. Because while I was sitting in the pews, learning to put into practice some sort of man made Christianity, I had never heard a sermon on surrendering to God, I had no idea that Christians could surrender to God either. I knew nothing of God, yet He stirred my heart. He provoked something in me that demanded an answer. In fact, I was so far from Him that even His stirring seemed unreal.  What God provoked in me was so faint I was still looking for help to understand, so, I talked to pastors and elders. In every case I was dismissed. Only one of the elder dared to say something and it would have been better not to have said anything at all because the answer I received was to make fun of me with my surrendering idea.

When I share with you how spiritually blinded people in my Church was and how stupid I was, I do not do it because I take pleasure in it. Not that I want to belittle people that I love dearly. I share because it is not about me or them. I top the cake when it comes to stupidity. In fact, when I examine myself and see how deep I was in my stupidity, and how deep the depth of my spiritual darkness was, I cannot help but being grateful that He got hold of me in spite of me. When God delivers us from certain situations, He intends for us to share the blessings. At the end of the day, it is not about me or the ego of the leaders of the Church I used to attend. It is about Him!

Through going with Him and living my life in Him, I have learned, each step I took in surrender, claiming the holy life to make it my own, claiming oneness with Him, learning to be a disciple, beholding the truth, grow in spiritual maturity etc, are all One Blessed  Continuous String of Grace. All the after effect of Salvation that I have received and continue to receive from Him, are the product of the work Christ has done on the cross. I was not aware of them, nor that I knew how to get anyone of these blessings to be inwardly mine. When we say “the old has passed away and behold everything new” this newness of life is deeper than we can possibly imagine and it continues daily throughout our earthly pilgrimage. 

Beloved, at one point, we have to stop praying this life in us, stop hiding behind excuses, stop blaming our leaders, and stop trying to corner God to make Salvation fit into our neat little boxes. I can tell you without a doubt that God will not hold our religions against us. But, He will certainly hold against us the fact that we have not found Him was not His fault but our sins of pride, stubbornness and laziness.  BELIEVE! This is the difference between the first “follow me” Christ said to Peter in Mathew 4:19 and the other “follow Me” in John 21:19. You cannot deny that Peter had become a new man to the point He was given to the Master completely and followed boldly His footsteps with no fear for his own life. He was not perfect, but work in progress.

It is all Salvation by grace through faith. We are saved! We are being saved! We will be saved! Oh! The beauty of it all. – I cannot wait to see Him!