DOES GOD EXPECT US TO REPENT, RATHER THAN SACRIFICE❓

CHARACTER IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING TO GOD, THAT IS WHY HE EXPECTS OBEDIENCE RATHER THAN SACRIFICE?

PLEASE DON'T FORGET THE E ((i.e) Epstein) - FILES, CLEAR your name from IT, AND THEN DEDICATE USA TO THE GOD OF THE BIBLE, WHO REJECTED CAIN AND HIS WORKS BECAUSE THEY WERE EVIL.

Genesis 4

4: Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat. And THE LORD RESPECTED ABEL AND HIS OFFERING,

5: but HE DID NOT RESPECT CAIN AND HIS OFFERING. And Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell.

6: So the LORD said to Cain, "WHY ARE YOU ANGRY? And why has your countenance fallen?

7: "IF YOU DO WELL (THROUGH REPENTANCE FOR SINS), WILL YOU NOT BE ACCEPTED? And if you do not do well, SIN LIES AT THE DOOR. And its desire is for you, but YOU SHOULD RULE OVER IT."

8: Now Cain talked with Abel his brother; and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him.

9: Then the LORD said to Cain, "Where is Abel your brother?" He said, "I do not know. Am I my brother's keeper?"

10: And He said, "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE? The voice of YOUR BROTHER'S BLOOD CRIES out to Me from the ground.

11: "So now YOU ARE CURSED FROM THE EARTH, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand.

12: "When you till the ground, it shall no longer yield its strength to you. A fugitive and a vagabond you shall be on the earth."

13: And Cain said to the LORD, "MY PUNISHMENT is greater than I can bear!

14: "Surely You have driven me out this day from the face of the ground; I SHALL BE HIDDEN FROM YOUR FACE; I shall be a FUGITIVE and a VAGABOND ON the EARTH, and it will happen that ANYONE WHO FINDS ME WILL KILL ME."

15: And the LORD said to him, "Therefore, whoever kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold." And the LORD SET a MARK ON CAIN, LEST ANYONE finding him SHOULD KILL HIM.

16: Then CAIN WENT OUT FROM THE PRESENCE OF THE LORD and DWELT IN THE LAND OF NOD on THE EAST OF EDEN (NOW TRUMP GAZA).

THE FIRST MURDER AGAINST SAINT OF GOD ABEL HAPPENED WHEN CAIN's OFFERING WAS REJECTED BY GOD, THE LAST MURDERS OF 666 ENFORCEMENT AGAINST THE SAINTS BEFORE THE SECOND COMING OF JESUS CHRIST TO JUDGE THE WORLD WILL HAPPEN, WHEN THE OFFERING OF DEDICATION OF USA WILL BE REJECTED BY GOD, WHICH WILL MAKE ANTICHRIST 🎺 ANGRY AGAINST GOD!

Traci Coston: I am disturbed at the amount of people who claim to be born again Christians who are not happy about President Trump wanting to rededicate America as one nation under God. You could say, “Well, we don’t know which god he’s talking about,” except he has repeatedly referred to Jesus—even as “our Lord and Savior.”

Do we realize we could have a president who wants to dedicate our nation to Allah? To Baal? To Oshun? Who lifts up all kinds of ungodly concepts like “pride” and all that comes with it? Instead we have a president who strongly advocates for Christians and Christian organizations.

People are saying things like: “Just another wolf in sheep clothing. Better judge the tree by the fruit it produces, not by mere appearance.”

Calling for your nation to be dedicated to God IS good fruit! BAD fruit looks like rejecting Jesus and Biblical principles, choosing false gods, and persecuting Christians.

Even if you believe President Trump isn’t truly born again or fully understands the gospel, the Apostle Paul said:

“Those others do not have pure motives as they preach about Christ. They preach with selfish ambition, not sincerely, intending to make my chains more painful to me. But that doesn’t matter. Whether their motives are false or genuine, the message about Christ is being preached either way, so I rejoice. And I will continue to rejoice.”-Philippians 1:18

This should be our attitude as well.

----------++++++-------++++++-------+++++++++-----+++

GOD IS INTERESTED IN OUR HEART TRANSFORMATION THROUGH FAITH, REPENTANCE AND OBEDIENCE, THAN IN OUR SACRIFICE!

1 Samuel 15

22: Then Samuel said: "Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, As in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, And to heed than the fat of rams.

23: For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, And stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, He also has rejected you from being king."

24: Then Saul said to Samuel, "I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment of the LORD and your words, because I feared the people and obeyed their voice.

25: "Now therefore, please pardon my sin, and return with me, that I may worship the LORD."

26: But Samuel said to Saul, "I will not return with you, for you have rejected the word of the LORD, and the LORD has rejected you from being king over Israel."

27: And as Samuel turned around to go away, Saul seized the edge of his robe, and it tore.

28: So Samuel said to him, "The LORD has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today, and has given it to a neighbor of yours, who is better than you.

GOD PUT HIS FIRST MARK OF MERCY UPON CAIN SO AS NOT TO BE KILLED PHYSICALLY, IN RETURN, THE MARK OF THE BEAST TO IDENTIFY THE UNSAVED TO BE PROTECTED FROM GOD'S WRATH WILL BE PUT UPON BY THE LEADER OF THE UNSAVED WHO CONFIRMED HIMSELF AS NOT GOING TO HEAVEN, HE IS THE SON OF PERDITION AND LAWLESSNESS, WHO HAS ARRIVED AT THE END OF THE AGE TO FIGHT AGAINST GOD'S PURGING OF THE WORLD OF UNSAVED WHICH HE HAS PROMISED AT ARMAGEDDON, SO AS TO RULE THIS PRESENT EARTH FOR A THOUSAND YEARS TIME IN RIGHTEOUSNESS AND JUSTICE BECAUSE OF SIN ⚖️!

THE KINGDOM OF ISRAEL WILL BE TAKEN AWAY FROM THE DON DADDY 🎺, OF THE SON OF JOSEPH, AND WILL BE GIVEN TO THE SON OF DAVID, JESUS CHRIST!


God bless you!



https://apostolicrevelation.blogspot.com/

Share:

Overcoming Lust, How?

Be Graced To Reign!

By Abraham Israel

Jesus is the first person in the entire world to raise the moral standard sky high by saying, whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already commited spiritual adultery in his heart, whoever is angry with his brother without a just cause has already commited murder in God's eyes and therefore is ready for judgment, whoever says to his brother that he is a empty headed person is already ready for judgment and punishment of the council of godly elders and whoever says to another human being to be a fool is in danger of hell fire because all humans are created in God's image. Even by reading this expectancy of God's moral requirement, some who are used to living a good life under ten commandments or on their own standard of good and evil become very discouraged to say that no man is able to keep such a law.

The very reason Jesus raised the moral standard to internal purity of heart rather than external actions is because many people started to think that they can please God by keeping the law. The purpose Jesus gave these 'Beatitudes' is to make all humans realize that it is impossible to please God by keeping the law, and that faith in Jesus is the only means to live a life of purity.

All the religions of the world say, do good and live a good life to please God, as a result of it you will go to heaven. Only Christianity says, all men are utterly evil in their heart and no one has the ability to save them from sin and take them to heaven except through their faith in Jesus Christ, through which God saves and then justifies them who believe as though they have never sinned at all by imputing righteousness of Jesus to their spiritual account (Rom 4:6). God seals a believer with the Holy Spirit guranteeing that they belong to Him forevermore (Eph 1:13-14; 2 Cor 1:22). Once they are saved by grace through faith, they can continue to live by faith in the promises of God which makes them grow in God's divine nature which will release its power and give them victory over sin, sickness and death (2 Peter 1:2-4; 2 Cor 1:20).

Once we are saved by faith, we should receive the gift of the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues to live a powerful life of witness for Jesus (Acts 1:4-5, 8; 2:2-4). Then as we continue to pray in tongues (1 Cor 14:18), our spirit-man will grow in such a way that we will know that we are no more sinners saved just by faith initially and strive by our strength to get in to heaven (Gal 3:2-3), but we are saints in Jesus Christ who are called to serve God and His people by our faith and faith only, nothing more or nothing less (Heb 10:38), and then rule and reign over sin, sickness and death by faith in the power of God (Rev 5:10; 1 Cor 2:5; Rom 6:14; John 11:25-26).

In the Jewish traditional religion, there were a sect of zealous law followers who were called as the "bleeding" Pharisees who lived during the first century AD. In Judaism, there are a total of 613 laws in the Torah [Ref : http://www.jewfaq.org/613.htm]. These Pharisees in their zeal and eagerness to keep these law of Biblical commandments, they would avoid looking on a woman who passes before them by shutting their eyes and as a result of it would bump in to a wall and get bruised in their head in such a way that they would manytimes start to bleed. Then they would boast about their righteous life by showing to people the scar on their head that had come because of their so-called holy life. Such religious life are extremely pathetic because the Pharisees were very careful to filter and avoid the gnat of external influence to get tempted, but swallow the camel of religious pride which is the biggest sin of all that God hates. Satan fell from heaven because of pride and these Pharisees religiously followed Satan by exhibiting pride openly to all about their so-called religious works which was done by their carnal strength rather than by the Holy Spirit's strength. They were completely under the influence of Satan's evil in their pride rather than by God and his humility.

There is a story of a man in a village who wanted to live a holy life. So he thought that because of the external influence only, he was not able to walk holy in his life. One fine day he decided to leave the environment of all sinful men in their village and go to a cave in the forest to meditate upon God alone and thus live a holy life pleasing to Him. The he took some food for the journey and started walking towards the jungle. His friends and well wishers who met him on the way asked him where he was going? This man who wanted to live holy, told them about his plan. They all wished him well and another godly man told him, if ever he came back to the village, he should come and tell to him whether it was possible for him to acheive holiness in isolation. This man agreed and smiled as he went towards the deep jungle cave.

Then when he reached that place in the jungle, intially he felt hard to adjust with all the unusual way of life. But then as he came to lead a holy life of asceticism, he disciplined himself to live just with whatever was naturally available in nature.

Then as he started meditating upon God, day after day, month after month, he was feeling more sinful than ever because internally in his heart thoughts of sexual fantasies started to haunt him. Then anger started to rise up against himself as he failed to think holy in his mind. Still a month after this, he began to long for things that he never had. Then all of the evil thoughts started to still increase torturously more than ever he had in his entire life.

On a fine morning, he cried and cried about his evil heart within until he could cry no more. Then he honestly decided to return back to his village accepting his failure to lead a life of holiness. As he went back to his village, he remembered what the godly man said and went to see him in his house. The godly man was not surprised to see him while all others were surprised to see him back. Then as he told him his sincere desire and failure to live a holy life, the godly man said that it is not the external exposure to various circumstances that taints us with sin, but the nature of sin that lives within us is what makes us unholy, then he shared the good news of the gospel of salvation through faith in Jesus. The sincere man accepted the gospel immediately and became a great testimony of Jesus in the same village, in which many people accepted Jesus seeing a changes and tranformed life of this saved man.

What a truth! Our inner heart needs a transformation and that we cannot really be holy by disciplining ourselves to act holy externally. Jesus gives a internal holiness through His blood that cleanses us (Heb 9:14).

The next time you see a woman, and a strong lust tries to take control of you, just tell to Jesus and remind Him that it is not your own righteousness that can give you victory over this lust, but His imparted righteousness that can only help you overcome this temptation (Php 3:9). When I say to men, who are sight activated by God's design, it also applies equally to women who are also tempted to lust through emotional activity (2 Cor 11:3; 2 Tim 3:6). The moment you say this to Jesus, he will release His grace to come upon you, seeing your humility (James 4:6). It is by grace we are saved and it is by the same grace we overcome sin. Only once we are saved from sin, but we need to be saved by grace from the power of sin many times continiously.

Only once the righteousness of Christ is imputed forever in to our spiritual account in heaven, but we need to be imparted daily with the righteousness which comes from God by faith in Christ. Spiritual life is a journey and not a destination! Now as we freely and daily receive the abundance of grace to reign in this life through Christ's gift of righteousness through impartation (Rom 5:17, 21), we must cotinually offer the sacrifice of praise through our lips and give thanks to His name which is the only acceptable sacrifice of God that we will be able to give to God. Also then do good by God's guidance and share with others what you have been given by God financially, physically and spiritually, by which God will be well pleased (Rom 12:1-2; Heb 13:15-16).

May God help us to live a overcoming abundant life of grace which always without fail makes us to reign on earth over sin, sickness and death!

"The only way to master all lust is not by our self effort or discipline, but it is by trusting the Divine Master of all things to work within us through His mighty power to overcome its evil." — Abraham Israel

Share:

The Blessed Husband

Learning The Way Of A Godly Husband

By Abraham Israel

Acronym means a word formed from the initial letters of the several words in the name. By taking the first letters of several words, a word is formed to drive forth a message to remember and understand the concept behind the acronym thoroughly. Some times it can be done in vice-versa too, which mean we take a word and for each letter we assign a related sounding word to drive the concept behind the word to be remembered and understood thoroughly by many.

Here is a word HUSBAND which I would like to be used as a acronym to drive forth a important message of the Bible for building a wonderful blessed family.

H — Honor her

The Bible says, "... In lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself." (Php 2:3). To honor our wife is to have great respect towards her and to think her as someone better than ourselves. Once we speak about respecting our wife, suddenly a male ego comes to many men and makes them think twice to say, "Why should I?" It is not whether we should or should not that matters at the end, what really matters is whether we are living a blessed family life or a unsatisfied miserable one? When it comes to blessing, we should always obey what God says in order to experience it first hand. Always understand that a man with an argument cannot stand against someone with a experience. In my humble experience, I have come to know that the right thinking towards one's spouse will always bring the blessing of the Lord in to the household. If we hold on to past grudges or the faulty mistakes done by them, the mindset to esteem our wife better than ourselves get spoiled. So let go and let God take control of your mind to help you think your wife better than yourself.

U — Understand her

The Apostle Peter said, "Husbands, likewise, dwell with them with understanding, giving honor to the wife, as to the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life, that your prayers may not be hindered." (1 Peter 3:7). To dwell with our wife in understanding means, once we think of her as better person than ourselves, then we should realise that they are weaker physically and spiritually without our support. To think our wife as someone better than ourselves doesn't mean that they are better in strength, but it is a intentional thought upon which we dwell intentionally to keeps us humble enough to live in the excellence of God's grace working within us. When both the husband and wife work together, they are working as God's son and daughter who will inherit the great blessing of their Father in heaven, who would love to bless those families which are conducive for His Presence to dwell. Once the Presence of God stays strong in a house, there will always be a great prosperity in thought, unity in mind, oneness in fellowship and love among one another. We honor our wife, when we forgive her, pray for her, love her unconditionally and see her as a person who is in need of us beyond her mistakes. If the husband continues to think himself as better than his wife and starts to dominate her in everything without God's unconditional love behind his words and actions, soon God will close his ear to hear the prayer of the husband because of his wrong attitude towards his wife. Correct your bad attitude by asking sorry to both your wife and God inorder to return back in to the blessing zone of God. Never forget, both the husband and wife can be effective and blessed to live in God's excellence only when both of them work together as heir of the grace of life. In other words, when both are in equal footing and oneness, God would love to bless them more and more.

S — Sex is not about self

God says in His word, "3 Let the husband render to his wife the affection due her, and likewise also the wife to her husband. 4 The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. And likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does." (1 Cor 7:3-4). Pleasing oneself leads to divisiveness inside the family. Rather than 'what can I give?' attitude, 'what can I get?' attitude starts to influence the home when sexual life is focussed on oneself. Mutually the husband and wife should try to please the other sexually and not look for pleasing themselves. When we try to please our spouse physically, automatiacally our sexual needs and pleasure get met. When we do family the opposite way, we make our home to become more devilish. Lucifer the light bearer of God tried to please himself rather than God and thus he became as Satan the opposer of God's purpose. God purpose is for you to have a happy and a God glorifying home on earth as it in heaven (Matt 6:10). If the purpose of God for your life needs to be fulfilled, live to please your wife with in the family and not yourself (1 Cor 7:33). Not all our touch needs to lead to intercourse, we need to touch our wives to express our sincere love of God in our heart towards them. Our wives need to know that there are times when we are holding them because we love them and not because we are looking forward to our own pleasure. Self pleasure leads to isolation, fear and destruction of a family life, but selfless pleasure and unconditional love leads to a life filled with the joy of heaven. Sexual pleasure is a sure way to express the love of God towards your wife, when you do focus on giving it rather than getting it for yourself. We worship God when we are living like Him selflessly.

B — Bond with her

Bonding takes a period of time. Even when we apply a paste to join a stick or something material, it takes time to get stuck strongly to the other. This shows that bonding is a process within marriage that we must strive to acheive in our homes. In our modern materialistic and hectic lifestyle, I see that many husbands and wives do not get bonded with one another because they have not striven to work towards acheving it even after nearly four or five years in to marriage. When you learn to listen to your wife just to let her know that you are with her in the problem she is facing, it will make your bonding to get stronger day by day. Do not despise the things that your wife thinks as a problem, instead express your concern to let her know that you are with her by helping her solve the problem if it is possible. Always giver her a surprise gift of things she likes, to let her know that she is in your thoughts even though you were apart physically. Bonding naturally takes place when we start to express our unconditional love towards our wives as Christ expressed it towards us by dying for our sins even when we were still sinners (Eph 5:25; Rom 5:8). Do not express your words or actions which will make her wrongly understand that you will love her only after she corrects herself. That kind of attitude will loosen the bond rather than strengthen it. God is the one who bonds the marriage ultimately stronger and stronger day by day, as the adage says, 'A family that prays together will stay together,' so have a regular prayer time where you come together and seek God together.

A — Always be faithful

Faithfulness is hard to find these days because more people are sold out to trust their own feelings rather than the word of God. Faithfulness can be only cultivated in a family life through the fear of God and through living a life of integrity learned over a period of time. Every decision we make must make us think that we are going to give an account to God one day for all the decisions we have made in our lives. Faithfulness is the fruit of the Spirit, so if we are in relationship to God, His faithfulness will get rubbed over our familial life too (Gal 5:22-23). When we are faithful to God, we will also be faithful to our wife. Our thinking will make us faithful or will break us from being faithful. All the unfaithfulness of men in general happens over a period of time. When a person starts to give in to the lust of the eyes (Prov 6:25), he will slowly start to fantasize something unreal and adulterous rather than be filled with the loving embrace of the God given beautiful wife (Prov 5:18-21). A man who is conscious that God is watching his thoughts always, will be very careful to avoid spiritual adultery in his mind (Matt 5:27-30). Even if he fall in it, he will immediately repent to God and will reject its evil influence in his life which has the potential to break the blessed family life in the long run (Prov 24:16; 1 John 1:7, 9). Pronography becomes a stronghold of the devil only when a person continues to choose to please himself and be faithless spiritually in his mind toward God and his wife. Throw away such evil away from you and develop faithfulness which is the foundation on which a man can live a blessed life of heaven on earth all the days of his family life. Ask God's help you to overcome sinful tendencies and he will bless you with His faithfulness.

N — Never fail to love

The Bible says, "If a man would give for love all the wealth of his house, it would be utterly despised." (Sos 8:7) and also it says, "1 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. 2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing." (1 Cor 13:1-3). Firstly, just providing all the needs of a wife is not love in completeness but is only a part of it, love is beyond that, a longing and a desire towards the other person to enjoy her presence. Secondly, if we do not unconditionally love our wife as Christ has loved us by giving himself for our sins (Eph 5:25), all our so called spirituality will not profit us a dime for eterntiy ahead. We are deceiving ourself if we have not learned to forgive them of their mistakes and as a result of it love our wives unconditionally. God never fails in one thing, he never fails to love us. He loves us in such a way, that he is willing to unconditionally forgive us infinitely as much time as we are willing to come back to him. God restores our broken fellowship when we ask forgiveness (1 John 1:7, 9), but once we have accepted Jesus as our Savior and Lord, that time itself He has saved us from sin by forgiving our past, present and future sins all at once (Eph 4:32). What does it teaches us? It teaches us to give ourself completely to our wives in total commitment to forgive once we have got covenanted with them for life. Then when some diagreements happen and disputes come, make sure to love them even before they ask for forgiveness. In other words, align your heart attitude in such a way that no matter what may happen or have happened, say to yourself, 'My love towards my wife will be a unconditional one like my God who loves me the way I am.' Once God convicts them and they come to ask for forgiveness, make sure to love them as if a dispute or a wrong doing has never happened at all.

D — Delight in her always

Last but not the least, delight in the wife that God has given you to dwell with all the days of your life (Prov 5:18). Have great delight, pleasure and enjoyment in who she is. Never forget, though there are millions and billions of women in the world, God has chosen and custom designed this one person to be your wife for life (Eph 1:4). God only knew the exact need you have in your life and has brought you the exact person to be your wife (Gen 2:20-25), though many men may not feel like that if they are not grounded in the word of God. Believe what God says and turst in God and not in your feelings which may change now and then. Encourage her time with other women, who understand what it means to be a woman, and can affirm her femininity in ways that only women can. Delight not just in her outward beauty which fades away by age, but learn to appreciate the timeless inner beauty of her always. The woman who fears the Lord and is not proud of her external beauty will always cause great delight to a godly man (Prov 31:30). Be a godly man to build a godly home and your wife will automaticaly become a godly woman as she is the reflection of you in reality. If she is trying to improve herself, take note and encourage her, but never make the mistake of saying that you will love only after she alters or attains anything. That is a foolish thing to do. Let pleasing her be enough to please you. Be content in seeing your wife as some one who has been exactly made for you by God. God never makes mistakes but we do a lot, so learn to correct yourself when you think wrongly about your God given wife and always renew your mind reaffiming that she is the one who was thought to be your wife in the mind of God even before the foundation of the world. By doing so you will always learn to delight in who she is rather than what you want her to be.

May God help us to apply these things truthfully. Be a good husband to the wife that God has given you. When you have the help of God with you, expect the home to be a heaven on earth, because God always delights in seeing a family prosper more and more.

Much Blessings....

Share:

Desiring For God To Use Our Children

Raising The Next Generation!

By Abraham Israel

I know every godly man and woman of God will desire for their children to walk with God and be used greatly of Him. But there are some parents who will want the world and also some spirituality for their children. They say to their children to not to get too spiritual because they fear that their children might go penniless by taking the path of the Cross. But hear what the king David have experientially seen through His God devoted sold out life for God, "25 I have been young, and now am old; Yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his descendants begging bread. 26 He is ever merciful, and lends; And his descendants are blessed." (Psa 37:25-26). In other words, a righteous person who had lived a sold out devoted life for God and His kingdom have been so blessed by God that not even in one instance there has ever been a time where their children have ever been found begging for daily sustenance or have been found without the special blessings and favor of God over their lives.

But I have found consistently the children who grow in worldliness because of a pull towards it in their parents life, they have completely lost their life in sorrow and despair in their later period of life. All I think at those times are, "How foolish these parents have been in thinking that their children should not get too spiritual?"

Jesus hit the nail in the coffin of those who think that they can have the best of both the worlds by saying, “No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” (Luke 16:13). Either we are devoted to God wholly and teach our children to do the same, or else we accept that we are devoted to money as there is no inbetween category who can have the both. If we are devoted to money, our time given to bear fruit for the Lord will be lost for eterntiy ahead. And also we will pierce ourselves with many sorrows after we have destroyed the life of ourselves and the generation after us (1 Tim 6:9-10). Some people who think that they can feed their children some wordly wisdom to go after money and also for security reasons have reverance for God in a religious way. God is looking to have relationship with His people and is not looking for the so called reverence and pious outward actions of religious nuts (Mat 23:28).

When Jesus was on the earth doing His ministry, he did not rebuke the sinners for breaking God's law as they already were seeking Jesus to receive the mercy of God for relief from their sinful bondages, but he rebuked the Pharisees who were the religious nuts who always tried to act as though they were spiritual and need no instruction from God Himself (Matt 21:31-32). Their hearts were filled with love of money and so they turned up their nose to deride Jesus when He spoke about hating money to love God whole heartedly (Luke 16:14-15). These same Pharisees not only destroyed their own lives but also of the lives of their children who became completely lost in spiritual darkness (Matt 23:29-32). Never forget that the recurrence of all the wrong attitudes with which you walk and humble not before God will end up destroying your children in the next generation (Prov 20:7; Psa 37:28).

These same wordly wise parents have cried and confessed at the time of reaping fleshly fruit from the next generation, that they have failed in their God given duty to raise their children in a godly way for the Lord's use. But it was too late. Anything that is not wholly given to the Lord will become of no use to anyone as time passes by. If we choose to train our children in the way of the Lord, when they become old they will not depart from it (Prov 22:6). So as much as we the parents of the children desire to commit our life wholly to God, that much God will begin to use our children when they grow up (Psa 37:5). The children will be the reflection of their parents attitude. If the parents cleanses themselves for the Lord and the give themselves wholeheartedly for extention of His kingdom on earth, the children will also grow up to love the Lord in their lives and serve the Lord in a more glorious manner (2 Tim 2:21; 2 Cor 7:1).

So what are you valuing in your life as a parent of a child. Ask yourself these hard question for yours and your children's benefit, "Is the Kingdom of God and walking in His righteous way the prime priority in my life (Matt 6:33)? Am I wrongly thinking that my children can have the best of the both worlds which God hates (Rev 3:16)? Have I been loving my children above my Lord Jesus and fail to take up the cross of Jesus and follow His self-denying footsteps (Matt 10:37-38)? Have I been a godly example to my children who are seeing me as their prime example to follow? Am I taking the time to encourage them to walk in the Lord, spending the money to promote godliness, helping my children to meditate on the word through training them, conducting daily family prayers and making them accountable to walk in the way of the Lord?"

If you have failed in any of these things, now humble yourself before the Lord and say, "Dear Lord Jesus, I want to live for you and love you with all my heart. I understand that I am the only example that my childrens will see in understanding your love and righteousness towards them. So help me walk in your way and also train my children in your way of righteousness. May my heart desire be cleansed once again to seek your kingdom and your righteousness alone, and help me be an ambassador in the extension of your kingdom. May I be serving you and not money all the days of my life. All my childrens are yours and I believe that you will teach them personally and because of it they shall have great peace in their lives (Isa 54:13). Use them for your glory, in JESUS name I pray. Amen and Amen."

Praise the Lord!

"The true success of a ministry or a godly legacy is how successfully they have raised the next generation to walk in the way of the Lord." — Abraham Israel

Share:

Learning to Love the Lord All the Time

What about our Love-Hate relationship with our Lord?

By Abraham Israel

Many a times we want to please the Lord with our whole heart and at other times we hate to walk in His ways, not because we want to but because of the weakness of the flesh that shows up in our soul now and then like a friendly-thief who steals the blessings we have from the Lord by his deceit. At one time we say and feel like falling in to the sin which entices us and after we give in to the desire of sin, we feel like we were used by some dirty person and being thrown away on the way side after our lust has got its fullfillment in and through us (James 1:13-15). Then we say to ourselves why did I ever give in to this temptation to sin (1 John 3:21). Then we say to the Lord, sorry for being unfaithful to you at the heat of the moment of temptation. Lust is a evil spirit and a person who entices us, inorder to get fullfilment for itself through us (1 John 2:16). The spirit of lust will always release a thought of lust [i.e. intense craving for things like food, sex and comfort] in us and will slowly entice us to dwell in the thought, after which it slowly takes control of us when we become addicted to its whims and fancies (James 1:14-15). But, the Lord always with an open arms welcomes us back and is faithful to forgive us all our sins when we confess our fault to Him (1 John 1:9).

At certain times we feel like, will I ever be able to over come this particular sin that is taking me captive over and over again. We become hopeless and desperate. At that point of time the Lord speaks to us through the Holy Spirit and always affirms us, "For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law [to feel sad and guilty for failing and breaking the law] but [you are] under [My] grace [which always makes you more than a conqueror, whether you are faithful or unfaithful. I am faithful to you eternally (Rom 8:37-39; 2 Tim 2:13).]." (Rom 6:14). This is what finally drives us to pursue the Lord more and more (Rom 2:4; Nah 1:7). And finally we come to a point where we say to the Lord like David the man after God's own heart, "I have gone astray like a lost sheep; Seek Your servant, For I do not forget Your commandments." (Psa 119:176). Then we also say to the Lord to keep us from falling in to the same sin again by saying, "Keep back Your servant also from presumptuous sins; Let them not have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless, And I shall be innocent of great transgression." (Psa 19:13). The Lord always agrees to keep us and tells us to praise His ability through the confession of our mouth, then we say our faith-confession by saying to Him, "Now to my God who is able to keep me from stumbling, and to present me faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to God my Savior, who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen." (Jud 1:24-25, Personalized). In this previous verse we do nothing but confess our inability to overcome sin because of our fleshly weaknesses, and are praising Him for His ability to keep us from falling in to sin and save us when we fall in to sin (Psa 119:92). 

Once we do it, we will be able to see and feel the mighty deliverance of the Lord from all our past sinful condition that we were in due to our sin nature that is always inclined to sin (Gal 5:17; Rom 7:15). Our mind which might have been fearful of falling again in to the same sin will now feel confident because of being filled full of faith and moving from independence to be in God-dependence (Ps 22:3; Heb 13:6).  The joy of a conqueror comes back to us and we know with in ourselves that we will over come the sin that affects us by the power of God (Rom 10:10, 13, 17; Rom 8:37). When God forgives, He removes the sin and restores the soul (Ps 23:3). It is like pressing a erase history button or a delete button in a computer that erases all the unwanted files. After these unwanted files in the Recycle Bin or history has been deleted, even we ourself cannot find those unwanted bad stuffs that were sitting in our computer memory which we have previously browsed or ventured in to. Actually inside the computer memory [i.e. the chip that stores all information] will be refreshed electronically and kept clean for using it productively. This is what forgive and forget means to God. He flushes out and refreshes the recorded memory of the bad things we have ventured in to, when we confess to Him our failings, weaknesses, sinfulnesses and shortcomings and helps us to use the same memory space in our mind to be used productively and positively (Heb 9:14; 1 John 1:7, 9; Phil 4:8-9).

The Fight to Inherit His Glory 

The first century Church which was on fire for the Lord went in to a state of religiosity even before John the last of all apostles who was the only one left alive died in the prison. When the love for the Lord and people grows cold, all we will have is a dead religious duty of devotion which initself become a burden for us to carry on (Rev 2:3, 4; Matt 24:12). Jesus has clearly warned the end time generation of such a period of dead religious life which will become dominant around the world to fill the empty void in the hearts of men. God hates religion but loves relationship with His chosen people. To God obedience based on the Love that His people have for Him is the only requirement which is mandotary. He does not require any other service or sacrifice that people do it out of their own fleshly strength (1 Sam 15:22). But whatever service that we do as unto the Lord with hearty cheerfulness and joy, he rewards us now and for eternity (Col 3:23-24; Mark 10:29-30). The Lord is not unjust to forget all the work we do and the "labor of love" that we do to the saints especially in the household of faith and even to others who are in desperate need in the world (Heb 6:10; Gal 6:10). Always the reward for us comes in due appointed season that God has already appointed in our life to be blessed. Until that exact season arrives, we should encourage ourself in the Lord and walk in faith with patience (1 Sam 30:6; Heb 6:11-12).  

  

The time before the season of God's favour and blessings comes, we will go through a refining process of trials, tribulation and constant attack of the evil one, all alone with nobody else to help us but the Lord (Gal 1:17-18; Gen 39:21; Ps 105:18-19). These are the training period in the very school of the Lord to make us apostolically fit for all our future battles with Satan and his cohorts, as an apostolic warrior in the kingdom of God. Some people who are very much afraid of persecution, loneliness and hardship are the people who have not passed this training school of the Lord (Matt 10:33-34). Persecution-phobia affects them to be mentally unstable and double minded, it also will fill them with unbelief as time goes by (Ps 119:113; James 1:6-8). These are the times in which the Lord's presence will make our double mindedness and fickle mindedness to be noticed by ourself and will help us not only to humble ourselves before the Lord but also realise who we are in the natural without the Lord's tangible strength in us (1 Peter 5:6). These are the times of repentance in which we will lose confidence in our own ability and with a broken heart will truly say to the Lord, "I've been out of step with you for a long time, in the wrong since before I was born. What you're after is truth from the inside out. Enter me, then; conceive a new, true life." (Psa 51:6, MSG). In such times of God's revelation of our true self, we will come to know of the deceitfulness of our sinful nature which we have have inside us in the natural fleshly state (Jer 17:9; 11:8). It will cause us to weep for our judgemental attitude  towards others when we ourselves have the same potential to do the same sin as others who fall before us. We will come to know God personally and will start to call him as "My God of mercy" (Psa 59:10). Not only we will cry to God for mercies to be shown for our sinfullness but also for the people around us who are going through such similar problems in their life. This is when God seeing the groaning cry of His people for being in sin and bondage will be moved with compassion and will begin to unveil the glory of God's awesomeness over sin, sickness and death (Exod 3:7; Ps 102:19-20; 2 Cor 5:2; Rom 8:23). C. H. Spurgeon beautifully says, "These very eyes which have wept for sin shall see the King in his beauty."

From this point of time the beauty of the kingly splendor of God will be revealed to us from one level of "glory to [another level of] glory" by the Spirit of the Lord (2 Cor 3:18). This is the greatest place in God where a man can constantly draw God to live in himself (Isaiah 66:2b; James 4:8a). David called this protected place in God as the "shelter...[and] a strong tower" (Ps 61:3) and the "secret place of [God's] presence" (Ps 31:20). We will not just know about the king of glory in our head, but will know Him heart to heart, the very king of glory upclose and personal. It is not just us knowing Him that matters, it is the king of glory and the Lord fo Hosts knowing us personally that really matters (2 Tim 2:19). Once we know Him or rather be know by Him, we will be empowered supernaturally to command the gates of bondage to open up for the king of glory to come in and dwell in us more and more (Ps 24:7-10). When we command the gates, the Lord himself will come and break the gates of iron in to pieces (Ps 107:16). Once He enter in His glory he puts a gate around us in those areas where we have been weak and then strengthens the gates and then blesses our children within us (Ps 147:13; Heb 7:9-10; Malachi 2:15). O what a blessing for a righteous man's children. No wonder this is the reason I believe the Bible says, "The righteous man walks in his integrity; His children are blessed after him." (Pro 20:7). Praise the Lord!

The Ambiguity of Love Hate   

There is a ambiguity that always exists when I try to explain our Love-Hate realtionship with the Lord. This is because we have two exactly opposite nature that exists in all the true born again Christians. Apostle Paul called this as old man and new man (Eph 4:22, 24). The new man is guided by the Holy Spirit who lives inside us and the old man is driven by the fleshly nature which is controlled by self, sensual gratification of the physical and especially the sexual appetites, and then finally the demonic realm of Satan and his minions (Gal 5:25, 16; James 3:13, 15). These two natures cannot co-exist. As the Bible clearly describes the paradox of living with the two. The Bible says, "The sinful nature does not want what the Spirit delights in. And the Spirit does not want what the sinful nature delights in. The two are at war with each other. That's what makes you do what you don't want to do." (Gal 5:17, NIrV). It is like Abraham living with both Sarah and Issac the son of promise on one side, along with Hagar and Ishmael the son of flesh together in one home. Sarah is represented by the godly desires of the Holy Spirit who has brought the new spirit-man Issac in to existence by God's will (John 1:12-13). The new spirit-man in us is "born of the Spirit" (John 3:6). 

Hagar is not Satan, but Hagar is the fleshly selfish desire of the old soul-man apart from God which has been brought in to existence by Abraham's own fleshly will of buying her as a slave maid when he stayed in Egypt outside of God's will (Gen 12:10, 19-20; Gen 16:1). This Hagar was born in Egypt, in other words our fleshly self came in to existence when Adam our forefather sinned in the garden of Eden and fell short of the glory of God (Gen 3:6-7; Rom 3:23). As a result of it all humanity in the natural became the progeny of Hagar the bondwoman because of Adam's sin (Rom 5:12; Ps 51:5; Rom 7:17-18). From that point of time Hagar started to operate by the law of sin and death (Rom 7:23). The Law of Sin and Death clearly refers to the self-willed soul operation in every man which functions with out God (Rom 8:2). The soul-man in the Jew operates by Ten Commandments (Matt 19:16-20), and in the Gentiles their conscience acted as the law (Rom 2:14-15, 12). In other words, Hagar is the selfdesire of sin and lawlessness which is instigated  by Satan and his demonic cohorts making man to be independent of God, which has come from Egypt "the house of slavery [of Satan]" and is outside of God's will for a believer (1 John 3:4; Exod 20:2; Deut 5:6). Hagar conceived Ishmael who is the son of the fleshly self. And that son of the fleshly self is the old soul-man in us who is hellbent to fullfill his own will apart from God. This old man is attached to Hagar the fleshly self because he is her babyboy (Gen 16:15). As a result of it, once we give in to Hagar's impulse of fleshly self of I, Me and Myself attitude consistently in our life, we will only see the works of Ishmael's donkey nature manifested through our life (Gen 16:11-12; Eph 4:22). Ishmael's fleshly nature only produces the works of the flesh which are "19...adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, 21 envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like..." (Gal 5:19-21). This old man Ishmael is also called as the carnal mind (Rom 8:6-7). All those unbelievers who live by this fleshly nature, will consistently practice these things freely without restraint and will not feel guilty about doing it. These will not inherit the kingdom of God unless they are born again by the Spirit (Gal 5:21; John 3:5; Rom 8:9).

For a believer who is born in to the kingdom of God by God's will, his spirit-man Issac will be a baby inside him intially. But Sarah fed Issac with milk intially for him to grow (Gen 21:7-8). Just like Sarah, the Holy Spirit's godly desires in us feeds us with the pure milk of the word of God intially as we start to hunger for it (1 Peter 2:2-3). Once the new spirit-man gets weaned and continue to grow strong, literally like Ishmael the old soul-man will start to laugh, scoff and mock against the growing influence of the new son of promise (Gen 21:9). The Holy Spirit's godly instruction and voice will come clearly to all maturing believers to throw away the flesh induced Ishmael's life out of the body system just like Sarah instructed Abraham (Gen 21:10). This will be greatly displeasing and a time of great turmoil for the believer, who will find it hard at this point of time in one's life just like Abraham (Gen 21:11). Because Ishmael was also the son from the physical seed of Abraham's own body, he had an attachment to him in the natural. The believers will find it hard to let go of the soul life at this point of time in their life because it has actually been grown by them apart from God's promise and will naturally. In the natural realm, this Ishmael may be a job, place of stay, friendship with an unbeliever, wrong relationship, sex, power, money, fiancee or anything that takes the first place in your life and keeps you away from God's plan and purpose to be fullfilled in your life. It is very hard feeling that comes to a believer when Sarah the godly desire of the Holy Spirit within us instructs us to throw away all these Ishmael's which outrightly mock our friendship with God and his purity of character in our spirit-man inside us (Gal 5:22-23). This situation of predicament to extricate onself from our fleshly soul-life is what Jesus described when He said, "If your first concern is to look after yourself, you'll never find yourself. But if you forget about yourself and look to me, you'll find both yourself and me." (Mat 10:39, MSG). In other words, when a believer fails to cast away his own soul-life which is one's own thinking, emotion and will apart from God's will for him, he will lose the joyous and exciting life of satisfaction that God had planned for him to enjoy and live on earth, and also the cumulative rewards for walking in it for eternity ahead (Jer 29:11; Col 3:23-24; Gal 6:8-9; Rev 22:12). 

After this God spoke to Abraham to obey the voice of Sarah and cast out the son of the bondwoman (Gen 21:12). In the believers life too, our Father God from heaven will bring tough and tiring trials to prune us of all our Ishmael's out of our body system, season after season as long as we are present in this earth, so that we can really be fruitful and glorify our Father in Heaven (John 15:1-2; 1 Cor 10:13; ; 1 Peter 4:1-3; Matt 5:16). Here Abraham as a man of God chose to do what God instructed, because he loved God more than he loved Ishmael. Ishmael was a product of Abraham's lust for progeny when he could no more wait for God's promise to be fullfilled in His time. C.S. Lewis have beautifully said, "Love is the great conqueror of lust." The believer also goes through this difficult time of love-hate relationship with the Lord, where God clearly says, "17So, come out from among [unbelievers lifestyle], and separate (sever) yourselves from them, says the Lord, and touch not [any] unclean thing [willingly and consistently as a way of life]; then I will receive you kindly and treat you with favor, 18And I will be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty. 1THEREFORE, SINCE these [great] promises are ours, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from everything that contaminates and defiles body and spirit, and bring [our] consecration to completeness in the [reverential] fear of God." (2 Cor 6:17-7:1, AMP). These above verses do not threaten us to live a holy life or else die in our sins, but it is a compassionate command of the Father God to the believers to reciprocate a life of thankfullness for all the things He has already done through Jesus Christ our Lord (Ps 103:13; 130:3-4). Because we are already God's children through all the great promises we have believed, God says to us, by the power that works with in you cleanse your body system from getting mocked and defiled by the consistent working's of Ishmael's [i.e. soul-life] (1 Peter 1:22-23). At this point of time, if we choose to let the love of God control us, it will restrain us from all the lust of the eyes, flesh and pride of life which are not of the Father but of the world (1 John 2:16), and will help us live more than a conqueror in Christ Jesus (Rom 8:37). Because "... Christ's love controls us now.” (2 Cor. 5:14, LB), we as a child of God can now wisely choose to walk in the newness of the Spirit and serve God in a pleasing way (Rom 7:6; Gal 5:16). When we walk in the Spirit, automatically we are not walking by our own strength against the flesh, but in the strength of the Lord whom we have put on over our mind (Eph 6:10). When we walk in the Spirit we are closing the provision given to Ishmael whom we had made to grow up in our lives to mock the Issac instead of supporting and rejoicing with him. When we are walking in the Spirit, we are actually casting out the son of the bondwoman out of our body system which is the temple and the house of God (John 2:19, 21; 1 Cor 6:19) and are giving it wholly for Issac to inherit it for eternity (Rom 13:14). When we are walking in the Spirit, we are loving the Lord more than we love ourselves and our temporal comfort.

So what are you waiting for?

It is time to wake ourselves from our slumber and ask God to fill us with His Spirit again and again. The apostles were all baptised and filled with the Spririt on the day of pentecost (Acts 2:4). But they did not stay put over there in their spiritual lives and become useless to God. But they obeyed God and were filled with the Spirit again and again by casting out Ishmael consistently and feeding Issac to inherit the glory of God increasingly day after day till the end of their lives on earth (Eph 5:18; Acts 5:32; 4:8, 31; 9:17; 13:9; 2 Cor 3:18). The LORD is near to whose who are broken in heart because of facing the reality of Ishmael's soul-life head on to cast them off regularly and He will look on them who will walk the Issac's spirit-life and will strengthen them to succeed in this earthly life (Ps 34:18; Is 66:2; 2 Chronicles 16:9). So praise God for this life which he has given for you to enjoy the Spirit's life on earth as it is in heaven, inherit the blessed Spirit's life in this present earth and also in the new earth and heaven forever in eternity ahead as a result of walking in our daily walk in this present earth (Matt 6:10; Mark 10:29-30; Acts 26:18). Praise the Lord!

   

Share: