{"id":1204,"date":"2012-01-09T05:34:13","date_gmt":"2012-01-09T10:34:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.churchofthebeyond.com\/?p=1204"},"modified":"2012-01-27T02:10:43","modified_gmt":"2012-01-27T07:10:43","slug":"the-gospel-i-preach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ChurchOfTheBeyond.com\/index.php\/2012\/01\/09\/the-gospel-i-preach\/","title":{"rendered":"The Gospel I Preach"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>[The following is a letter I wrote to a friend, with a few edits for privacy]<\/p>\n

Let me say this: \u00a0I appreciate your position, and I am not\u00a0particularly\u00a0in most of the camps that you might expect.<\/p>\n

Summing it up, I hear about four main statements in your email.<\/p>\n

First, there have been many different positions and view regarding holiness.. \u00a0Which you cataloged quite well.<\/p>\n

Second, you really don’t care which one is most\u00a0doctrinally\u00a0correct, but are sick of the compromise in your own heart and unless it can help with that, you’re not satisfied. \u00a0 You said, “All I know right now is that I’m bound to sin and I don’t know how to get out”.<\/p>\n

Third, You’re sick of the crap (scripturally, “dung”). \u00a0You want to know the experiential love, experiential forgiveness, and experiential cleanness of heart. \u00a0No more hypocrisy from yourself or others. \u00a0You want the real deal.<\/p>\n

And, finally, the question of how to know anything\u00a0arises. \u00a0“The only way I will know or anyone on this earth will know is if God shows us personally.”<\/p>\n

I think some of these questions are proper place of a heart for your condition. \u00a0Let me remind you, however, truth is a person.<\/p>\n

Let me present my Gospel, if you will…<\/p>\n

I have been writing a bit in the past little while on what I might term “My Gospel”, which I believe is growing understanding of the Gospel of the Kingdom. \u00a0I don’t rely on my own efforts, but as the “Word of the Kingdom” of Matthew 13 speaks, it is a seed that grows. \u00a0His words are spirit and they are life.<\/p>\n

My gospel I believe is harder than the one you presented to me when you were first cutting your teeth on Finney. \u00a0My gospel includes on the EASY end, Luke 14:26, unless you hate your life you cannot be His disciple, and as I am studying, the more solid position of “if you save your life, you will lose it, and if you lose it, you will find it”. \u00a0Most of these verses are interpreted into oblivion by modern commentary, and yet, as I like to put it, since Jesus is the Truth. \u00a0He therefore never lies nor\u00a0exaggerates, so “hate” is the word He chose, so it is the absolutely, 100% correct word. \u00a0While most people then try to interpret it away and say you should use a different word, Jesus purposely CHOSE this word ‘hate’, and so I embrace it.. \u00a0 You will love one and hate the other, if you hate your life in this world, you will save it (John 12:25)….<\/p>\n

The issue here is exactly what you have been pining away about. \u00a0The issue are sin and a transformed heart. \u00a0The Sermon on the Mount cannot be looked at as a new law, because if law could have done it, it would have. \u00a0Instead, I see it more of a picture of the life lived on the rock, Matthew 7:24. \u00a0If you are on the rock, you don’t fall, where all of the failures were morally described in the preceding\u00a03 chapters! \u00a0If you are living by the Spirit, you are not fulfilling the lusts of the flesh. \u00a0Going all the way to the beginning of the Sermon, to the Beatitudes.. \u00a0Again, not laws, but as I call it, the picture of the man in perfect faith. \u00a0The man in perfect faith in God is most happy all the time, not because of circumstances, but because God is his Father… \u00a0Keeping in mind that “most happy” sometimes looks like sweating blood in a garden alone, abandoned, and about to die… \u00a0Yet, why happy? \u00a0Because He knows that the Kingdom is His!<\/p>\n

Why are we happy, according to the beatitudes? \u00a0If we’re poor in spirit, we’re happy right then because ours is the Kingdom. God’s power and provision are fully ours right then, even if we fail to recognize it. \u00a0We’re talking deliverance, salvation, miracles, subtle or grand, they are right there. \u00a0If we mourn, we will be comforted. \u00a0Future\u00a0tense, but knowing that He said comfort will come, and the nature of the comfort will be greater than our mourning, we are actually happy in our mourning, because we know comfort will come and help us. \u00a0Onward with the rest of them, even with\u00a0persecution\u00a0for righteousness. \u00a0How do we get more Kingdom? \u00a0Do His righteousness enough, and we will get persecuted for it. \u00a0Once you realize\u00a0that\u00a0God’s power and Kingdom are there right then in the\u00a0persecution, and that this is His will, all fear and intimidation will cease, because you know, whether it’s discreet and direct or a great power demonstration, His Kingdom is right there and is yours<\/span>. \u00a0 \u00a0But, this only works in the place of living on the Rock, not in lawlessness.<\/p>\n

So, flash\u00a0forward\u00a0today. \u00a0Jesus said to watch out for the leaven (yeast) of the pharisees and of Herod. \u00a0People say that this is legalism and lawlessness, but re-read Luke 12:1, and you see the first is NOT<\/em> legalism, but hypocrisy, which is literally “below critique” (breaking it up into its roots, hypo and critic), hiding who you really are, or wearing a mask. \u00a0This is the essence of the work of us in the Gospel. \u00a0John 3:19-21 is all about living in the light, and why we choose not to. \u00a0The hypocrite is not just one who says one thing and does another, but presents a person who they are not, for whatever reason, because they believe the person who they really are cannot be shown. \u00a0For all carnal people, a person in legalism, unless they are weeping at the altar for their sin, is by definition a hypocrite, which almost makes the conventional interpretation correct. In order to be a legalist, you generally are a hypocrite. \u00a0But, consider this. We have today in the body vast swaths of people in either of these two ditches: \u00a0One says holiness is no longer necessary, the yeast of Herod, iniquity, lawlessness, etc. \u00a0The other says, “I am holy”, but denies the fact that they overlook their brother. \u00a0They deny the truth that they are, in actuality, depraved. They live like kings, they exercise their authority over each other, and so on and so forth… \u00a0We have today these two camps demonstrated almost exactly…<\/p>\n

So what is the answer?? \u00a0This is precisely the point, and is precisely what Jesus drives at…. \u00a0Did you know that there are some universals? \u00a0After drawing for us the man of faith in the beatitudes, most happy all the time, we see them. \u00a0Are you angry? \u00a0Are you calling people names? \u00a0Are you in scorn and contempt for your brother without cause? \u00a0Yes, this is a New Covenant scripture. \u00a0Those Pauline-only people are what I call the thieves and robbers who deny the words of Jesus, and therefore try to enter the sheepfold another way. \u00a0Why call Him Lord if you’re not going to do what He says?<\/p>\n

Have you ever found something in God, even if an idea, or a dream, or a vision, or a possibility, that made you want to lose everything and sell it? \u00a0Have you ever touched a realm in God, a part of who Jesus is, that was wonderful, you wanted to lose everything if you could have it all the time? \u00a0This is what I call Kingdom (Matthew 13:44, treasure in a field). \u00a0I have spent most of my time doing this for me, finding my own truth, rather than pointing at others mind you here. \u00a0 I know that Jesus said the Kingdom is worth it all, He is. If you find it, you’ll know…. \u00a0Yet, I’m quite sure you’ve touched things like this. But, the enemy does try to snatch it away, or at least confuse us with other things. \u00a0But, if it’s not worth everything, if it’s not better than\u00a0everything\u00a0in this Earth, it’s probably not His Kingdom, see? \u00a0I’m bringing this full circle.<\/p>\n

If you are living the Kingdom, you are living Matthew 5-7, guaranteed. \u00a0What is this bedrock? \u00a0It is living by His Spirit within you, which is to say, Jesus Himself. \u00a0We’re talking about a person living in you, and you living in a person, in a realm of the Spirit. \u00a0I have loved worship because it takes me places. I didn’t usually have the language, but I have learned through various channels that heaven is a place I can live in now (John 3:13). \u00a0I feel it more than I see it in the senses right now, but I do get the glimpses. \u00a0That flutter you feel in an atmosphere or church that is active is the presence and activity of angels. The heaviness you feel in places is the demonic. It’s called discerning of spirits. \u00a0Just that alone requires you to leave most of the western mindset. There is a spirit-world, a 2nd heaven of conflict and a 3rd heaven above that that is wow. \u00a0We touch them sometimes in worship, but we\u00a0don’t’ always understand–it takes some level of faith.<\/p>\n

So, finally, the hate. \u00a0My Gospel says hate your fleshly life, and your soulish gratifications. \u00a0It says to live by the Spirit (Galatians 5:16). \u00a0I really grew a lot hearing the Banov’s talk about the finished work of the cross, and yet, I see such errors growing rapidly in that camp that I find it hard to even go there lately. \u00a0But, what I heard originally, that Georgian didn’t say but I saw that he LIVED, was that the whole thing hinged on ONE THING, and that’s the one word you wont ever really hear preached except in\u00a0Pentecostal\u00a0circles, and that is True Gospel FAITH.<\/p>\n

People call their general religious bent “faith”, but that is not what I’m talking about. \u00a0I’m talking about a specific, tangible (to the spiritual and sometimes natural senses), and real commodity, that is the proof in the spirit of the thing…. \u00a0I had an extremely hard season the past couple years in terms of warfare, but I came away with one thing in particular, and that is “faith”. \u00a0You said you would not be convinced unless you were before the throne and He explained it. \u00a0Allow me to prove another way. \u00a0Faith *IS* the evidence of things not seen. \u00a0I’m not talking about an intellectual agreement with something. \u00a0They say “unbelief” is the belief in the senses. It is “apistis”. \u00a0Faith, Belief, Trust, are all “pistis” in the Greek. \u00a0Unbelief is a greater belief in the seen and the touched, the carnal and material, than the unseen. \u00a0But FAITH! is the substance of the thing only hoped for. \u00a0To have something by FAITH, true gospel Jesus faith, is to have the thing for real, even if it is not held in the natural. \u00a0It is not supposition or\u00a0supplanting, but it is actually MORE real than the body you dwell in. \u00a0FAITH is of such a character, that to have FAITH in something, is to have the real. \u00a0“hypostasis” in the Greek, hypo being under, stasis being “structure”, it is said to be the underlying spiritual structure or foundation of a thing. \u00a0To have it *IS* proof. \u00a0This isn’t intellectual conjecture. \u00a0When you have TRUE faith, it stands.. \u00a0How do you know it is TRUE faith? \u00a0It stands, and produces results. Faith without works is dead and Faith that doesn’t work isn’t faith.<\/p>\n

Simply put, you cannot have the true spiritual substance of a thing that isn’t really there. \u00a0You can hope in a lie, but you cannot have faith in it. \u00a0Faith *IS* the substance of the thing hoped for! \u00a0Faith *IS* the thing in the spiritual dimension. \u00a0How can I be assured in this life, without seeing the throne of heaven (or believe me, even if I have?)?? \u00a0BECAUSE of the Faith. \u00a0Faith IS<\/strong><\/em>. \u00a0If it is real faith, it stands up to anything. \u00a0And, according to Jesus, all you need is “any” (read, mustard seed), and do not be weakened by doubt and unbelief, and you will see mountains move.<\/p>\n

But, the gospel I preach is this. Unless you hate the soulish carnal life of everyone you know and even yourself (which it sounds like you’re working at in yourself, but I say you need to hate it in everyone you meet just as much), you cannot be His disciple. \u00a0This leaves you bereft and alone in this world. \u00a0So, Jesus says He does not leave us as orphans, but gives the Holy Spirit. \u00a0You have now only one friend and one helper. \u00a0Your eye is single. \u00a0You can fellowship, but not as the world does. \u00a0Know no man after the flesh, but after the Spirit. \u00a0Fellowship in the Spirit. \u00a0Be one in the Spirit. \u00a0Live in and of the Spirit and in no way else.<\/p>\n

Let me describe. \u00a0If I am in bondage to jelly-beans, what is the feeling that jelly beans give me? \u00a0What is the emotional boost that I receive from them? \u00a0Hate that. \u00a0Hate the false relief, false comfort, and flesh-propping up effect of it. \u00a0Hate everything to do with it, that feeling, that delight. \u00a0It is not God’s comfort, it is a substance. \u00a0Hate this life. \u00a0Even if you still eat some, hate the benefit, and only be consoled by heaven. \u00a0Set your belief to what we know is true. \u00a0Roll the truth of scripture around until, well, I usually feel faith. often in my belly.. a substance. \u00a0FEEL the life of the Spirit. \u00a0Even if you don’t get free, hate it. \u00a0If you have trouble fasting, HATE the relief from food. \u00a0If you’re playing cards and find yourself enjoying it, hate that soulish enjoyment. And then what? \u00a0What a miserable life is that? \u00a0Exactly.. It’s called the world is crucified to me and I to it. \u00a0I am the stench of death to the world. \u00a0In Jesus’ name. \u00a0I will live no other way. \u00a0But isn’t that miserable? \u00a0No. Because I have the Holy Ghost. \u00a0To do so without would be absolute orphan-hood. \u00a0To do so is to live by the Spirit, and let this world fall away. \u00a0And, it *IS* the treasure to do so. \u00a0Worth selling all for.<\/p>\n

It is not to get super anointed and then have a breakthrough to enjoy life. \u00a0No, the only thing I will rejoice in is righteousness and hate wickedness, and therefore I will have joy above my companions. \u00a0I know that I am MOST HAPPY in the consideration of His Kingdom, and that it shows up when I run out an when I am persecuted (Matthew 5:3,10). \u00a0I will live in these places and be most happy all the time, all 8 of them, and the others throughout the Gospels. \u00a0It’s how Jesus lived, died, and why the Father raised Him back up. \u00a0 The very things He preached. \u00a0I am dead to this world, and the thing that keeps me going in the right direction is to hate this world.<\/p>\n

Come down to not being more loving. \u00a0Even anger. \u00a0Come right back to the beginning. God said to Cain, Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? \u00a0If you do well, will not\u00a0your countenance\u00a0be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it\u00a0(Genesis 4:6-7).<\/p>\n

Did you know that you know the answer to your question. Why aren’t you more loving? \u00a0Because of the things in your own heart. \u00a0Fears, pains, wounds. \u00a0I have found that some of the inner healing stuff has helped, as well as deliverance, but I am not sure I would fully trust most of those camps as they are today. \u00a0Things like Theophostic have some awesome tools, but I haven’t seen it do all that I want either. \u00a0Especially without real faith.<\/p>\n

But, the question comes back to the one God asked Cain. \u00a0What is the need to be angry? \u00a0Anger is always secondary to something else, it is a self-defense mechanism. \u00a0It usually covers a fear or an unfulfilled need. \u00a0But, what are those but places we have not trusted in Him?<\/p>\n

If you try to live this life and get “your best life now”, you will never get there. \u00a0It is what you\u00a0might\u00a0call a “crucified life”, for it is, but it is also the treasure that is worth more than the other. \u00a0If we can see it enough with our Spirit, and believe it enough, it is better than the earthly life…<\/p>\n

Ultimately, I don’t care if Finney or Mike B is right. \u00a0I want the gospel, and I want it by Faith. \u00a0The Kingdom is a person named Jesus Christ. \u00a0I do know that He loves me in my weakness, even when i don’t have a clue. \u00a0I call it “Grace to learn and discipline when we know better.” \u00a0Even punishment…<\/p>\n

But even Mike B says\u00a0that\u00a0much of what is called prophetic today is really pathetic. \u00a0I have met many people in many camps, and while i have seen many fulfilled\u00a0prophecies, I have seen many that were very messy, even if they were seeing something. \u00a0Someone’s interpretation of my emotional condition is not prophecy. \u00a0And a soulish, earth-based counsel, even if it seems to solve the problem, will only recreate the original problem at a higher level, one hundred fold as bad. \u00a0That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is of the Spirit is Spirit..<\/p>\n

What is the solution I see in the Sermon on the Mount? \u00a0Don’t be satisfied with anything less than 100% obedience. \u00a0Even if you fall, get back up, but keep going. If it is the flesh, it wont last, and as you continue to cry out, refusing hypocrisy and lawlessness, He will SHOW you how to live by His Spirit, and by true Gospel faith perfectly…<\/p>\n

The message I originally heard Georgian preach is absolutely right. \u00a0You are righteous only because of Christ in you. \u00a0Yet, the difference between him and most people is Georgian believes it by faith, and is preaching it to bring faith to the hearers. \u00a0Yet, it is the only way to be righteous. \u00a0By faith. \u00a0But, if you’re really in faith, you will not continue in it. \u00a0He was right in how I heard him first preach it, but only by the element he never mentioned, the substance of faith, the way in which we have access to this grace!<\/p>\n

Why did it work for Finney? \u00a0Because his preaching brought faith to the hearers. \u00a0One of the reasons it doesn’t work as well today is because of the lack of repentance and the lack of preaching against sin. \u00a0Hebrews 6:1, and the whole mission of John the Baptist, repentance leads to faith! \u00a0If you don’t repent, chances are, you will miss true faith. \u00a0Even then, it took a while even for some of the twelve to get faith. \u00a0He knew which ones did not believe. \u00a0Phillip apparently got it right at the end. \u00a0“At last you believe”. \u00a0When you have faith, it is more real than the vapor you interact with in your life. \u00a0THIS is Gospel faith. \u00a0THIS is worth losing an earthly life for. \u00a0THIS is TRUTH. \u00a0So, we have the way, repentance and cleansing (brazen altar and bronze sea). \u00a0The truth, the Spirit’s illumination (candlestick) and the\u00a0fellowship\u00a0of the Spirit (loaves of shewbread), along with intercession (golden altar)…. \u00a0And, finally, the life… \u00a0The final chamber, the holiest place, the kodesh kodesh, with the mercy seat and the ark and the cherubim.. \u00a0This is eternal life, to know Him, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he has sent John 17:3. \u00a0This is…\u00a0This\u00a0life…. \u00a0There is no other! \u00a0Beyond this, there is no service, other than the one already performed. \u00a0I sometimes call it God’s easy chair. \u00a0He wanted to share the living room, but after sin, had to put up a curtain in front of his favorite seat.<\/p>\n

What is the difference maker in the ages? \u00a0Some call it this, some call it that? \u00a0What makes theophostic work? \u00a0What made Finney’s preaching work? \u00a0What makes any of this work for us?<\/p>\n

It is impossible to please God without one thing, and only this…. \u00a0This is what made Abraham–not better, not this or that–it made him RIGHTEOUS before God… His FAITH. \u00a0Abraham believed, and it was credited to him as righteousness. \u00a0That belief in Him lets Him come in (thoughts are powerful, eh? \u00a0one good thought and Jesus comes right into the throne of your heart), and as we let Him, He rules our heart and life and produces his character in us…. \u00a0Or brings it…<\/p>\n

Again, deliverance has helped. \u00a0Inner healing has helped. Forgiveness has helped. But, if nothing else, continually crying out until God has showed me, piece by piece, bit by bit. \u00a0How do I know I’m right? \u00a0What’s my proof? \u00a0In the spirit realm, and for Eternity.. \u00a0My Faith is proof.<\/p>\n

Faith was my key. \u00a0Listening to people with demonstrated faith has helped. \u00a0Yet, through it all, it brought me back to one salient point upon which the whole thing turns around. \u00a0That faith at the beginning, when I heard and believed when I was very young. \u00a0That faith was sufficient. \u00a0I didn’t know or understand much then, but I believed, and it was counted as righteousness. It’s been many turns and mistakes later. \u00a0And, it’s been hard to get here. \u00a0And, I have had to fight doubt and unbelief and discouragement and fear. \u00a0But, it is that original faith, alive still now, that makes the difference. \u00a0It is the simple belief, and simple trust, not its perfection that brought me to Him. \u00a0And, I wish I was taught the truth and how to stand, but suffice to say, I’m here now. \u00a0Thank-you for His faithfulness. \u00a0And, as I’ve seen in my own personal struggles. \u00a0With strong demonic torments from hell. \u00a0Where spikes and needles and all sorts of arrays are set against you… \u00a0FAITH…. \u00a0simple believing in Jesus with no doubt, stops every dart of the wicked. \u00a0Simple faith. \u00a0Faith is proof. \u00a0How do you stop a demon from charging? \u00a0Faith. \u00a0They try to twist and rip the brain to pieces to get you off that. But, the moment you drop into bare bones faith in the blood covenant of the Lord Jesus, every devil from hell breaks. And, sometimes, just to hold onto that, I have to do alots of things…. like fast… pray alot… \u00a0Stay very focused in my life… \u00a0Because the moment my heart is drawn into fellowship with something, it can begin to have access to me… whether they are people or things or even ideas… ideas are very powerful… You meet someone into communism these days and you know it’s a devil. \u00a0Thoughts are powerful.<\/p>\n

But, the deeper and truer I get into it, while that simple faith is sufficient, and this is the testing of it that proves it genuine, it is that mask thing. That hypocrite thing. That liar thing. That coward thing that I run into the most, and that is the deepening of it. \u00a0Why is it so hard? \u00a0Because of what’s in my heart. \u00a0The desires for other things. The want for this life. All borne, ultimately out of a place where I don’t trust the Father enough for what He’s able to give. \u00a0If I knew He was my provider, sufficient, I would not worry about 2012. If I really saw that life as more, I would be content to die this moment. If I really sought the Kingdom first, I would not try to be the most up and coming minister on the planet, or be overly concerned with my latest book (which I have one, by the way). \u00a0The only thing a gift, which is temporary, does is to advance the Kingdom, and that is the only reason I want it. The moment I use the anointing to promote or elevate myself, I am in sin. \u00a0Marketing and\u00a0trafficking. \u00a0I would promote a good revival campaign, and I would use and demonstrate whatever signs the Lord gives me, as a city on a hill, but the heart, the only one thing, is to please Him. \u00a0And, by His Grace, I’ll do it that.<\/p>\n

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten son, that whosoever believes on Him shall not perish, but shall have everlasting life.<\/p>\n

That is a living reality in the Spirit realm. \u00a0Each of those phrases. \u00a0Each of those parts. \u00a0Those words are a divine address, as are all the words of God, to a reality greater than ours. \u00a0As heaven is real, so are the places addressed by this little part. \u00a0His Only Begotten Son. That man. That Divine. Perfect.. \u00a0As I look to those words, I can see words, or I can see Him. \u00a0Who Is. \u00a0The perfect one. \u00a0Spotless Lamb. \u00a0*I SHALL NOT PERISH* \u00a0For, as I looked upon Him as that snake on the pole, so I am healed. \u00a0*I SHALL NOT PERISH* is the address of salvation. \u00a0The salvation that is a real place. \u00a0*that whosover believes*, This is the eternal location of the requirement of this promise. \u00a0These are not words, but these are realities as real as God Himself. \u00a0They are divine majestics, assigned a place in glory, as Eternal as the cross. \u00a0These were penned before the world began by God Himself, to be our portal to their divine destiny. \u00a0It is not the words themselves, although it is, but it is the Eternal Radiance, the heavenly city to which they point to. \u00a0They are bigger than time itself, and as undeniable as the Almighty. \u00a0Heaven and earth will pass away, but His words will NEVER pass away.<\/p>\n

This is the essence of faith, at least by one expression. \u00a0What is the unifying glory of all of these camps? \u00a0Those who became holy did so by true faith in the Eternal reality of blood of the Lamb, my savior, the person Jesus Christ, crucified and buried for me, which I can know, as I know my own soul, by FAITH. \u00a0They saw the true light, and believed. \u00a0Why did one million Israelites leave Egypt but only TWO make the promise? \u00a0Because of their unbelief.. \u00a0What is the light and easy yoke? \u00a0HATE this flesh, this\u00a0life, and everythign of it. The things of this world distract, and deceive. \u00a0Live by the Spirit, and you will be free.<\/p>\n

As for those on the journey.. It is not mine to judge by my own measure, but only to say, keep on going through faith. \u00a0Faith to faith, glory to glory. \u00a0Faith brought you in, faith brought you Him, so keep on going, until you’re glowing, and you’ll be His, completely. \u00a0Baptised into the sea and the cloud. Now let’s go beyond the Jordan, and see what is to be seen. \u00a0Take the Land!<\/p>\n

And, do you want to know what the right measure of whether we are in God is? \u00a01 John 4:16. if we abide in love, we abide in God. \u00a0And, you are right. So much as you are not loving, you are instructed to put a knife to whatever is in you life that would make you so. \u00a0But, I would caution you with this. \u00a0The religious spirit is intense and persecutes greatly, even in the thoughts. \u00a0What seems like love may not be, and what does not seem like love may actually be. \u00a0Would you help an adulteress and then still have the courage to warn her of worse consequences if continued? \u00a0Would you stop the dsiciples from calling down fire, but then decry woe seven times on the pharisees? \u00a0Would you instruct not to judge, and then proclaim coming judgements for sins?<\/p>\n

You see, His judgements weren’t His own, and his\u00a0proclamations\u00a0weren’t His own. \u00a0He only spoke exactly what He heard His Father, and did only that. \u00a0Finney is right. \u00a0This is the call of every Christian, to give up everything. \u00a0 \u00a0This is life. And yet, even in my weakness, He still called me “son”. \u00a0And, in that, I will always be His.<\/p>\n

I can’t bring you that faith, but the Word does, even as I have spoken it. \u00a0It has been, and will continue to do so. \u00a0Lights will “come on”, as they say. \u00a0Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.<\/p>\n

I can offer you this ray of hope though… \u00a0Even John the Baptist looked forward in faith to a Messiah he himself would baptize, but whose death he would would not live to see. \u00a0He had to die in the Old Covenant, not the new. \u00a0Yet, as great a man as he was, the greatest born of woman, he was used of God amidst his own sin. \u00a0He had this to his credit, above the Pharisees. \u00a0He cried out to Jesus saying, in effect, baptize me! \u00a0For I am unworthy. \u00a0The Pharisees, the hypocrites, stood as leaders despite their own depravity, and denied it. \u00a0The stood on the banks of the river, claiming no need for repentance, and were not baptized of John.<\/p>\n

So long as you live as one cut off, saying you are blind, you are not guilty of your sin, according to Jesus. \u00a0And, as you seek HIm, you will find Him, as you seek for Him with all your heart. \u00a0You’ll find Him. \u00a0He’ll show you your own heart. \u00a0And, He will cleanse you.<\/p>\n

And, one day, if you do not relent, you will stand only in the strength of His Spirit within. \u00a0We call this “bedrock”. \u00a0Flesh is sand, and the spirit, well, is the substance we live on. \u00a0If you stand in your own strength against any army, you will lose. \u00a0But, you plus Jesus wins every time. \u00a0We don’t get angry because anger is not our god. \u00a0We do not get bitter or hold offense or grudge because we do not worship them.. \u00a0Get the picture?<\/p>\n

Get free; Be free; Set Others Free… \u00a0Win the world for Jesus!<\/p>\n

There is more in this life than meets the eye….<\/p>\n

His.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[The following is a letter I wrote to a friend, with a few edits for privacy] Let me say this: \u00a0I appreciate your position, and I am not\u00a0particularly\u00a0in most of the camps that you might expect. Summing it up, I hear about four main statements in your email. First, there have been many different positions […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1461,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[264,533],"tags":[8,29,42,11,102,117,14,1301,519,122,101,20,19],"class_list":["post-1204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-church-of-the-beyond","category-revolution","tag-beatitudes","tag-faith","tag-gospel","tag-happy","tag-house-on-the-rock","tag-hypocrisy","tag-jesus","tag-kingdom","tag-legalism","tag-light","tag-rock","tag-single","tag-yeast"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2MdeJ-jq","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ChurchOfTheBeyond.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/How-To-Be-Saved-And-Know-It.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ChurchOfTheBeyond.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ChurchOfTheBeyond.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ChurchOfTheBeyond.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ChurchOfTheBeyond.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ChurchOfTheBeyond.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1204"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/www.ChurchOfTheBeyond.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1204\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1899,"href":"https:\/\/www.ChurchOfTheBeyond.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1204\/revisions\/1899"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ChurchOfTheBeyond.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ChurchOfTheBeyond.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ChurchOfTheBeyond.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ChurchOfTheBeyond.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}