The Word of life
This work is copyrighted to Happy Riches © 2014. All rights reserved. Individual use is permitted.
The need to be born again is essential if we are to overcome the Devil and the world he rules. When we speak of the world, we mean the biological and material world of the soul in which we live. This world is permeated by sin and death. Nobody needs to really tell us about this fact; it becomes evident, as we grow older—although, many people who rail against religion and hate the word “sin” do not realize sin is simply the disregard for morality and the rights of other humans.
The need to be born again is essential if we are to overcome the Devil and the world he rules. When we speak of the world, we mean the biological and material world of the soul in which we live. This world is permeated by sin and death. Nobody needs to really tell us about this fact; it becomes evident, as we grow older—although, many people who rail against religion and hate the word “sin” do not realize sin is simply the disregard for morality and the rights of other humans.
Death
entered my life when I was fourteen years of age. Prior to this, death was
something that I had heard about, wondered about, but was not anything I had
experienced or had been affected by. This is the case, even though I had killed
insects, birds and the odd rabbit and possum, rat and mouse myself. None of
these deaths affected me. I was just like another animal on the planet killing
another creature.[i]
However, that changed one morning when milking cows in the cowshed, as one does
when living and working on a dairy farm. The radio broadcaster announced that
Warren, an eighteen-year-old acquaintance of mine, whom I had been with until
around midnight the previous evening, was driving a car that hit a power-pole
outside the city’s police station at 1am that morning and was killed instantly,
the other passengers suffered injuries but survived.
Warren
had drunk too much alcohol. Warren also loved to show off and speed in his car.
We had been at a Christmas break-up for the boxing club of which I was a
member. Warren was not a member; he just came along for the party. People drank
and danced. I personally did not drink any alcohol because I was too young and,
besides, I would only get a few hours sleep before I would be up mustering the
cows to bring them into the cowshed.
When
I heard Warren’s name mentioned over the radio, my stomach began to churn. I
was immediately ill. My head started
spinning. Eventually, I went around the back of the cowshed, vomited and dry
reached for about half an hour. Milking the herd took much longer than usual
that morning. Life was no longer the same. Death became something that I began
to think about more often. Eventually, I got over it. With bravado, a few years
later, I used to say things like, when you done and gone, who really sheds
tears and cares? The Devil’s not real; besides nothing happens when you are six
foot under, except the daisies grow faster.
Death
affects us all in different ways, but it is something we all know we need to
face. Death is always knocking at our door. How we deal with it is up to us.
Only sometimes we never get the opportunity to take death by the horns, so to
speak, and demonstrate we are in control of our lives. The message of the
gospel helps us encounter death before it is too late. This is something
Nicodemus had the privilege of encountering when he met the One over Whom death
had no hold.
Nicodemus
was a ruler of the Jews. He approached Jesus by night because he did not want
to be seen by the Pharisees, of which he himself was one. Jesus intrigued
Nicodemus because nobody performed the miracles that He did. Giving sight to
people born blind was unheard of, especially by rubbing some mud in their eyes
(John 9:1-41) or by telling people, who are lying on a bed paralyzed, to get up
and walk because their sins have been forgiven (Matthew 9:2-5). These are the
type of miracles Jesus did, and Nicodemus felt he had to find out who Jesus
was.
Jesus
told Nicodemus that he needed to be born from above, meaning that he needed a
spiritual rebirth. Nicodemus had difficulty in understanding how a person could
be born a second time. Had Nicodemus understood what Jesus meant,. he would
have simply asked, “How can this be?” Instead, Nicodemus retorts in the form of
a question, with what is a ludicrous response that implies sarcasm, suggesting
that a man could somehow re-enter his mother’s womb. Jesus obviously overlooks Nicodemus’
attempt at ridicule and makes the point of telling him that there is a
distinction between the flesh and the Spirit, and a person needed to be born of
water and the Spirit, if one were to enter the Kingdom of God.
Here
is the account from the Bible:
Now there was a man of
the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. The same came to him by night,
and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no
one can do these signs that you do, unless God is with him.” Jesus answered
him, “Most certainly, I tell you, unless one is born anew[ii],
he can’t see God’s Kingdom.”Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when
he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?”
Jesus answered, “Most certainly I tell you, unless one is born of water and
spirit, he can’t enter into God’s Kingdom! That which is born of the flesh is
flesh. That which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Don’t marvel that I said to
you, ‘You must be born anew”’[iii]
(John 3:1-7)
This
passage is interpreted variously because it contains significant truths about
being born into the Kingdom of God. Being born from above enables us to see the
Kingdom of God, but does not necessarily qualify us to enter the Kingdom of
God. One needs to be born of the flesh and Spirit of God to enter the Kingdom
of God—this is not something that an angel can do. We need to be born of water
and the Spirit and not just the Spirit or the water alone.
Nevertheless, there is still more to be understood than just this distinction
alone between water and spirit.
Understanding
these truths comes when they are experienced. Experience is essential to the
Christian walk. Nobody can be saved by reading the Bible. Nobody is a Christian
because they are born into a family on this Earth. The only way a person can
become a Christian is to be born from above, and this requires an individual
decision. Every one of us needs to be like Nicodemus and seek out Jesus, if we
are to become a member of the family of God and overcome the ruler of this
world. Reading the Bible is insufficient as the scriptures themselves say:
You search the Scriptures, because you
think that in them you have eternal life; and these are they which testify
about me. Yet you will not come to me, that you may have life (John 5:39-40).
D.M.
Murdock is a woman who believes Jesus to be a fictitious character and has written
about a dozen books stating her beliefs. She felt she had cause to write to me
because I had said her scholarship is shoddy (which it is) and made the
statement that no genuine Christian could ever become an atheist, because to
become a Christian, one had to first of all believe that God raises the dead.
The woman wrote back and among other things made this claim: “I was raised a
Christian and know the scriptures very well, reading them also on a regular
basis in the original languages of Hebrew and Greek”[iv]
This woman, who rejects
God, is not unlike so many people who claim they are Christians because they
read the scriptures. One church deacon I know believes the Bible is the LIVING
WORD OF GOD. In other words, contrary to the words of Jesus, this man believes
the Bible has the power to impart eternal life of itself. He told me how proud
he was of his son, for defending the faith—that is, his belief—when his son (a
school teacher) disagreed that the above scripture from the Gospel of John
meant what it states: that reading the scriptures is insufficient for
salvation.
The deacon’s son had just
gotten baptized in water earlier that morning along with another nineteen year
old girl who had actually had an encounter with the risen Lord Jesus Christ. The
difference in how each person presented themselves for baptism was rather
telling. The denomination of the congregation in which these two individuals
were being baptized holds to the tradition that baptism is the outward witness to an inward
working of the Holy Spirit that has occurred because a decision has been made
to receive Jesus Christ as Lord.
The girl shared how Jesus
had changed her life and how she had encountered persecution when she shared
with other people that she had discovered the reality of the Living God in the
face of Lord Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit. The deacon’s
twenty-two year old son, read from a sheet of paper, was very uptight, and gave
the impression that he had been coerced into being baptized. You see, he had
gotten baptized because he thought it was the right thing to do, as he was
getting involved in too much sin. Even
though he did not know Jesus Christ as Lord, and did not believe a person could
have a personal relationship with Him, baptism was something he decided to do,
because he was washing away his sins.
Many people do not
understand that when we are born of the flesh, we are born into sin and we need
to be born of the Spirit to enter the Kingdom of God. They think that
acknowledging God is sufficient and water baptism is all that it required
afterwards as a demonstration of a person’s intention. From that point on, they
are saved for eternity, whether they sin or not. Many babies are baptized and
christened with this idea in mind. Later they are confirmed around the age of
twelve, under the belief that they were saved when baptized as a baby.
For many of us it may seem
surprisingly odd that we can be born from above and not acknowledge our sin. To
be born from above, all we need to do is genuinely believe that God exists and
we want to acknowledge Him and confess that we believe that He raises the dead.
However, sin is the
breaking of God’s commandments. Even though we may be born from above, and see
the kingdom of God, the sin issue will still need addressing; this is because
we cannot walk with God and sin at the same time. The reason we can be born
from above and not acknowledge our sin is that we need to be born from above to
see the Kingdom of God in the first place. It is impossible to see the Kingdom
of God without being born from above. However, seeing the Kingdom of God is not
the same as entering it, just the same as seeing a house from a distance is not
the same as entering the house through the front door.
Many people do not understand
this truth about seeing and entering the Kingdom of God. Because of this, there
are many misinterpretations of Scripture. This is partly because many versions
of the Bible use the term “born again” rather than “born from above”. Unfortunately,
most people tend to think that when everyone says they are born again, they are
referring to the same thing, when in fact they are not because each one may be
using the same terminology to refer to a different experience. Some people say
they are born again because they have been baptized in water. Some people say
they are born again because they have had a revelation of the spiritual realm (such
as those who meditate their navel). Some people say they are born again because
they believe they have come to understand something they did not understand
before. Many people believe they are born again because someone told them that
they were born again when they repeated what the other person
said—unfortunately, this is not case; for this is the same as reading the Bible
and saying you have eternal life. The question is then: How are we born from
above?
When Jesus was talking to
the Jews, John records He said:
As he spoke these things, many believed
in him. Jesus therefore said to those Jews who had believed him, “If you remain
in my word, then you are truly my disciples. You will know the truth, and the
truth will make you free.” They answered him, “We are Abraham’s offspring, and
have never been in bondage to anyone. How do you say, ‘You will be made free’?”
Jesus answered them, “Most certainly I tell you, everyone who commits sin is
the bondservant of sin. A bondservant doesn’t live in the house forever. A son
remains forever. If therefore the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.
(John 8:30-36)
When
we read this passage, we see that Jesus does not talk about the sin issue
initially. All people need to do is keep the word of Jesus in their heart and
begin putting into practice what it says; eventually, they will know the truth,
and this will make them free. The truth is knowledge. Knowledge is what sets us
free from ignorance, and effectively, this is what Jesus is saying. If we begin
to look to him and meditate on the words of Jesus, we will eventually know the
truth. If we are genuine and seek Jesus out, there will come a time when He
will set us free from sin indeed. However, we need to understand there is more
than one kind of freedom being mentioned by Jesus here. One is being made free
because we have knowledge of what sin
does and seek not to partake of it.
The other is being made free because we have been delivered from sin. Not understanding this distinction is one of
the reasons there are different interpretations of what needs to be done in
order to be saved from sin and death and possess eternal life.
Even
when it comes to being able to see the Kingdom of God from afar, this is
experiential. This is because, when we acknowledge God a heart response is required. When we see something of the Kingdom
of God, we have to let the word of God somehow enter our heart. If we do not acknowledge
the truth about God, this means the Devil has blinded the spiritual eyes of our
heart. Without our eyes being opened, we cannot acknowledge the very first
truth that we need to admit in order to begin to receive the word of God into
our lives. For unless we acknowledge that the Creator exists, we cannot receive
the word of God.
In
the parable of The Sower and The Seed, Jesus speaks of a man throwing seed on
the ground. Now some of the seed fell on the footpath that ran past the ground
he was sowing. The birds of the air immediately swooped down and grabbed the
seed. When explaining this, Jesus said that seed was the word of God and the
birds represented the Devil. The pathway represented the spiritual condition of
the person.
Before
I became a Christian, people used to approach me in the street and attempt to
tell me about Jesus. I would reject what they had to say. In some ways, I was
representative of hard ground. Whenever someone approached me with the seed of
life; as soon as it hit my heart, the Devil would flick it away. The reason my
heart was hard towards the seed of life was in large part because of my
sinfulness. Sin was hardening my heart. But there is more to the story than
just the Devil flicking away seed from a hard heart. Jesus said that unbelief
was the issue. In my case, I believed
God existed, even though I did not believe in the existence of the Devil. One
of my reasons for rejecting the gospel seed was I did not believe the people
who were attempting to sow it. There is major difference between believing the
people who claim they have the truth and believing the truth about God when
seeing for oneself.
The
one essential criterion to being born from above is believing that God exists.
If we do not believe God exists then we cannot be born from above. When we are
talking about God, we mean the Creator of the Universe and all that exists. Not
all people believe that the Creator exists. The Theory of Evolution is evidence
of this. Many use this theory to justify their unbelief in the existence of the
Creator. However, as we have noted in the first chapter, the idea of evolution
is not a recent concept in the history of humankind. This concept of evolution
was central to Buddhism long before Charles Darwin was born. Besides this,
atheists have existed even among the Greeks and Romans, as well as the other
ancient cultures.
One
of the reasons for atheism in ancient cultures was those who formed part of the
ruling class had more knowledge about many matters than the less educated. For
instance, in Athens at the time it had become a democracy, apparently there
were some two hundred thousand slaves Among many of the freemen, who could read
and had the right to vote, philosophy was more important that man-made Gods. They
considered slaves as nothing more than chattel that were to be bought and sold.
While the illiterate believed that there were gods in the temples eating the
food, the literate classes knew the truth. Consequently, many of them were
atheists and did not believe the Creator existed because they had fostered the
delusion of the masses who were worshipping man-made Gods.
This
is exemplified in the reaction of Pharaoh after having freed the Hebrews from
being his slaves. While Pharaoh was considered to be a god; he knew he was not
the God of the Universe, but he did not believe in Him either. When Moses
confronted Pharaoh and asked him to let the Hebrew slaves go, Pharaoh laughed.
Moses then told him that God would demonstrate that he was with Moses and show
His power. When Moses turned his rod into a serpent, turned the waters into
blood and brought a plague of frogs upon the land, the Egyptian sorcerers could
do the same. Just like many of the god-men in India, the Egyptian sorcerers
plied their magic to deceive the people into thinking they had supernatural
powers, when in fact they were merely the tricks of magicians who had access to
the knowledge of (what was known as) the secret arts. Pharaoh’s sorcerers were
found out when it came to reproducing a plague of insects, for we read in the
Bible:
The magicians tried
with their enchantments to produce lice, but they couldn’t. There were lice on
man, and on animal. Then the magicians said to Pharaoh, “This is God’s finger:”
and Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he didn’t listen to them (Ex 8:18-19).
When
people are in the business of deceiving other people they do not believe that
they will be found out otherwise they would not deceive anyone. Knowledge
liberates us from ignorance. Little children tell lies because they think that
no one will find them out. Those who discover that by telling lies they are
able to escape trouble, make a practice of it. Those who get caught begin to
think that telling lies has its drawbacks. Then there are those who learn that
certain types of lies do not bring the same kind of shame as other forms of
false witness. There appears to be a universal law among humans that white lies
are acceptable but if a person gets caught telling lies that fleece people of
their money in an unacceptable way then, if caught, this is anathema.
Politicians seem to know what is acceptable, and what is not, when it comes to
fleecing people of their money; not to mention lawyers and those who practice
their craft. Using crafty strategies and getting away with it tends to give
people the impression that they are above the law. When people think they are
above the law, they begin to think God does not exist, because if God exists He
would intervene. In fact, we read in the Bible that God is questioned over this
fact as well. In the book of Malachi (3:15), it is noted that those who are
arrogant and perpetuate the works of evil succeed, and even though they tempt
God, they appear to escape punishment. Job, Jeremiah and Solomon observe that
the wicked seem to go unpunished as if there were no God, for we read:
The tents of robbers
prosper. Those who provoke God are secure, who carry their God in their hands
(Job 12:6).
Why do the wicked live,
become old, yes, and grow mighty in power? (Job 21:7).
There is a vanity which
is done on the earth, that there are righteous men to whom it happens according
to the work of the wicked. Again, there are wicked men to whom it happens
according to the work of the righteous. I said that this also is vanity.
(Ecclesiastes 8:14).
You are righteous,
Yahweh, when I contend with you; yet I would reason the cause with you: why
does the way of the wicked prosper? why are all they at ease who deal very
treacherously? (Jeremiah 12:1)
But I desire to speak
to the Almighty and to argue my case with God. (Job 13:3).
Abraham,
on the other hand, acknowledged that the Judge of the Earth, the Lord God,
would do right (Genesis 18:12). Within the Bible, we indeed see that God
promises to judge the wicked. When we read the Psalms and Isaiah, we learn:
Arise, God, judge the
earth, for you inherit all of the nations (Psalm 82:8).
Rise up, you judge of
the earth. Pay back the proud what they deserve (Psalm 94:2).
He will judge among the nations. He will heap
up dead bodies. He will crush the ruler of the whole earth (Psalm 110:6)
But with righteousness
he will judge the poor, and decide with equity for the humble of the earth. He
will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth; and with the breath of his
lips he will kill the wicked (Isaiah 11:4)
Those
that practice evil and think that God does not see and that there will be no
judgment after death do not seek God. Not only do they not acknowledge God as the
Creator, but neither do they acknowledge Him as Judge.
This deceit comes from telling lies, and believing the lies that one tells will
work magic, while leaving us immune from their effects as they deceive others.
As
we do unto others, we do unto ourselves. This may not seem true when we see
somebody bully another person and then walk away with a smile on his face,
while the victim is in tears. Yet Jesus said that what we do to other people,
we do to Him. Jesus did not say this in exactly those words, for He was talking
about people who did kind acts and were generous to those in need. Actually, this is what Matthew recorded:
Then the King will tell
those on his right hand, ‘Come, blessed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom
prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry, and you
gave me food to eat. I was thirsty, and you gave me drink. I was a stranger,
and you took me in. I was naked, and you clothed me. I was sick, and you
visited me. I was in prison, and you came to me.’
“Then the righteous
will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry, and feed you; or
thirsty, and give you a drink? When did we see you as a stranger, and take you
in; or naked, and clothe you? When did we see you sick, or in prison, and come
to you?’
“The King will answer
them, ‘Most certainly I tell you, because you did it to one of the least of
these my brothers[c] , you did it to me.’ Then he will say also to those on the
left hand, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire which is prepared
for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry, and you didn’t give me food to
eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me no drink; I was a stranger, and you didn’t
take me in; naked, and you didn’t clothe me; sick, and in prison, and you
didn’t visit me.’
“Then they will also
answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger,
or naked, or sick, or in prison, and didn’t help you?’
“Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Most
certainly I tell you, because you didn’t do it to one of the least of these,
you didn’t do it to me.’ These will go away into eternal punishment, but the
righteous into eternal life.” (Matthew
25:34-46)
If
what we do others, we do to Jesus, then what we do to others, we must also do to
ourselves. Apart from what Jesus had said in the abovementioned scripture from
the book of Matthew, the reason we can say that what we do to each is the same
as if having done it to our Lord and Savior has to do with the fact that the
Kingdom of God exists in each of us and, even though we are only humans, as a
race of beings, we had been created originally in the image of God. Therefore:
if we deceive others, we deceive ourselves; only we cannot deceive God because
he watches everything that we do. (Jer. 32:19)
If
we think that we can obtain eternal salvation based on merit because we go
around seeking people to help, we are deceived. For we cannot be saved from the
flames of hell that are reserved for the Devil and his angels, or the outer
darkness where people weep and gnash their teeth with anguish and shame, based on good works alone. While we are
called to do good works, these are not the means by which we are able to obtain
salvation. If we were to rely on our own charitable deeds for salvation, we
would be self-righteous. Self-righteous people are not righteous. Righteous
people do good, because they are expressing the love of God that is
transforming their nature after having received the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
The aim of the righteous is to glorify God and not themselves.
Self-righteous
people boast about what they perceive to be their own inherent goodness and the
good deeds they do. They see themselves as better than others. In fact,
self-righteous people believe they are superior to other people, whether this
is due to the color of their skin, the nation in which they were born, the
status of their family within a nation, or who they are in regard to other
members of their own family and individual achievements they may have
accomplished. The self-righteous person always points to another person in his
heart and says, “I am not like that person over there.”
In
reality, we all are born to die. We are in need of salvation from the futility
of our existence. There is not one born of man who is righteous. For we have
all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God by the mere fact that we are
born into a world governed by disobedience. (Ephesians 2:1-3)
Each
one of us sins as soon as we disobey one of God’s Ten Commandments which He
wrote with His Own Finger. The Finger of God fingers us all as soon as we
commit sin by not obeying His voice and heeding His directions. The first
commandment we all break as children, regardless of who we may be. This is the
commandment not to covet anything that belongs to somebody else. The next
commandment we break as children is usually the first we do knowingly, and this
is the ninth of the Ten Commandments. This occurs when we bear false witness
against another person by attempting to avoid punishment for something that we
did, by casting blame away from ourselves when we deny our guilt.
We
may not be like Pharaoh and rule over the lives of others with such power that
we are deluded into thinking of ourselves as God. Still we have the power to
rule ourselves and make decisions about what we will or will not do, or what we
are prepared to believe or not believe. This can occur simply by believing lies
about ourselves. This is often demonstrated by the difference between seeing
ourselves in a mirror and then seeing ourselves in a photo. While we may have
liked what we saw in the mirror, the photo did not meet our approval. This is
because when we look at ourselves in the mirror we are able to see what we want
to see, whereas when we see ourselves in a photo, we cannot look into our eyes
and see the reflection of our projected approval at the time. The mirror is a
interactive expression, whereas the photo is but a fleeting moment of time
caught on camera for all to see.
One
surprising truth about photos and real life concerns a woman I know. When a
photo is taken of her with a camera, she looks like her mother. Yet in person,
she does not look anything like her mother.
Photos
have a habit of reminding us that we are not who we think we might be. However,
if we are celebrities, this tends to change and photos are a dime a dozen and
like a snake handler, once we have gotten over the fear of non-poisonous
snakes, we learn they are pretty much the same. On the other hand, the
paparazzi have to be handled with the respect deserving of a poisonous snake,
otherwise they could catch us in an unintentional compromising situation, and that
could be the death of our celebrity status.
Death
has a habit of having the last say. The Bible tells us that after death comes
judgment (Hebrews 9:27). Jesus said that those who do evil, hate the truth and
do not come to the light lest their deeds are exposed (John 3:19). The recognition that death reigns and we have
to give account of our lives here on Earth is essential before we can be born
from above. This recognition does not have to be an academic treatise on the
subject, merely a wakeup call that alerts us to HELL, or the futility of
existence on the blue planet. Let’s be honest, there has to be something better
than being born to die.
Once
we have realized that God exists as our Heavenly Father, if we know have not
been doing good works, or even if we think we have been doing good works, and
we call upon Him, we find that He is not far away at all. The reason why we
call on our Heavenly Father is we see our only hope being founded in God’s plan
and purpose for the Universe and Creation. Initially, in order to be born from
above, this does not have to be anything more than acknowledging that God
exists and expressing our desire to know Him, by calling out to Him.
Jesus
said that unless we become like little children, we would not be able to enter
the Kingdom of God (Matthew 16:3). We could even say that when we receive the
word of God or respond to the call of God, it is as if the seed of our
salvation has entered the egg cell of our person, similar to how a male
fertilizing gamete enters a female gamete. When the spark of life enters our
spirits, then it begins to take effect. Only it is difficult for seed that is
cast on a crusty hardened surface to penetrate immediately or find some cover
from the searching eyes of the voracious birds flying above, unless it finds a
crack in the surface to lodge itself, whereupon it needs to wait for the water
of the word to soften the hardened heart, before it can begin to take root and
sprout.
Once we
have been born anew, that is, born from above, we are able to see the Kingdom
of God and all that it promises. We can respond with joy. Many often do. Life
appears to have a new purpose, for being born into this existence only to die
does not seem futile anymore. However, we do find ourselves, suddenly challenged,
because there is now a conflict that occurs which was not present before. Our
conscience quickens in a new way. Whereas before we did not give a second thought to many of
the little things that we did, and which everybody did, we now find we do. Things
like stealing from our employer, or telling untruths whenever it suits,
suddenly become major internal issues once our conscience has been made alive. We
may not be aware of our sharpening conscience while we are in our honeymoon
period of having discovered the truth, because of the feeling of happiness we
experience. In some people, the initial feeling of happiness is like the
euphoria that comes from taking drugs. However, once these feelings have left,
there is a need to address the issues of conscience. While we might think it a
simple matter to understand right from wrong, putting this into practice can be
like trying to walk through a maze within a jungle full of all sorts of
creepers, vines and parasitic plants that are quick to take root on a potential
hosts. The transformation required to go from the kingdom of darkness into the
kingdom of light is a twilight experience of gradual realization of our heart’s
true desire now that we have been born from above by receiving the pearl of
great price; that is, the Word of God that is able to save our souls (James
1:21). As time progresses and we seek the Lord, the more our conscience becomes
enlightened, and the quicker we discern what is right to do over what is wrong.
If we do not seek the Lord, then we encounter unnecessary difficulties in our
walk towards being a light for the Lord in the Kingdom of God.
These
internal promptings of the Word of God within are like a seed that is lying
dormant at times, but can grow over the years, as long as it is not completely
killed off. But if we are going to be Christians who bring forth straw or hay
or wood, then our lives on Earth are meaningless, even though we might find
ourselves in the Kingdom of God on the day of judgment. If we are saved, we are
all to be judged and receive a reward. The Bible tells us that there are three
types of rewards and six types of works for those who are saved from eternal
damnation. Each one’s efforts as a Christian to conform to the will of God will
be tested by fire, and if anything remains, each one will receive the
appropriate award. The Apostle Paul says:
For we are God’s fellow workers. You are
God’s farming, God’s building. According to the grace of God which was given to
me, as a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another builds on it. But
let each man be careful how he builds on it. For no one can lay any other
foundation than that which has been laid, which is Jesus Christ. But if anyone
builds on the foundation with gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, or stubble;
each man’s work will be revealed. For the Day will declare it, because it is
revealed in fire; and the fire itself will test what sort of work each man’s
work is. If any man’s work remains which he built on it, he will receive a
reward. If any man’s work is burned, he will suffer loss, but he himself will
be saved, but as through fire
(1 Corinthian 3:9-15).
As
we can see gold, silver and costly stones will survive fire, but not wood, hay
or stubble (straw). These are burned into non-existence and those who build
with the materials that these represent, find themselves missing out on what
they could have had if they had walked with God according to His will.
To
provide an example of how people think they are working for God but are not,
just yesterday, I heard eight young women talking, who were involved in
overseas mission activities. The young woman who was dominating the
conversation was talking about all the places she had been as a missionary with
the organization she was with and how good it will be to go home before she
jets off to another place for a few months. Basically, as an observer, I got
the impression she enjoyed being a jetsetter and the life of the party. Naturally,
I hope I am wrong, but ff this is the case, I am sure that this young woman
will get a shock when she sees her resume is not sparkling like the diamonds
she thinks it possesses after having been tested by fire for its everlasting
quality. For what might sound exciting to us, may be nothing but a sparkler the
Devil lights on Halloween to give the impression of life and light.
One
man I met told me about all the committees he had been on in his ten years in
the government. This was a sign of success. When asked what he had done on the
committees, he claimed he had voted on many resolutions and was considered as a
committed member of every committee he had been on. As for myself, the few
committees I have been on look good on a resume, but as for achievements other
than being elected on to the committee, this is another matter.
I
myself am guilty of producing stubble in my own life (and not just on my chin).
Many things I have said and done as a Christian are not worth repeating.
However, I have repented from them and returned to seeking the perfect will of
God. Being a Christian is not without its tests and trials. For God uses our
trials to test us. The Devil, on the other hand, delights in tripping us up,
leading us astray, and attempting to bamboozle us, so that we might give up
seeking to walk in the footsteps of Jesus as He walks before us. This is not to
say that Jesus Himself personally walks before each, and every one of us;
rather, that as the angel of the Lord assigned to each one of us paves our way,
the Devil or one of his agents is always on the prowl attempting to derail us.
Learning how to overcome the wiles of the Devil on a daily basis is how we
continue to enjoy the blessings bestowed upon us by our Heavenly Father in the
light of our Lord Jesus Christ and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.
When
we receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit, many of us will experience a joy that
erupts into our lives. We may become so excited that there is an urge to tell
the whole world and let everybody know what they are missing out on. Naturally, because of our excitement, we
believe not a soul must be left to perish by walking in the ways that lead to
Hell. This is often the case, but over time, person by person, bit by bit, the
rejection, the ridicule and the scoffing that we encounter starts to cause our
fire to lose its flame. The flame begins
to smolder and our thinking becomes clouded. Our initial glow begins to lose its
intensity and we feel like we are stuck between a rock and a hard place. The
rock of revelation is not enabling us to get out of the hard place in which we
find ourselves. We feel trapped between the world of wonderful revelatory
experience and a pressing firmness around us that seems like being strangled by
the world in which we live. Initially, we cannot understand why people do not grasp
what it is we think we have understood. For us at the time, it seems so clear.
The people around us, unless they repent, are destined to hell and eternal
punishment. Maybe we are not persecuted to the extent that our torturous
feelings seem to suggest. Nevertheless this is what we feel people are trying
to do us. Psychologically, we feel pressured to explode. The temptation to
throw it all in often seems strong. In the end, we temper our enthusiasm and
start participating in worldly activities such as watching television with all
its perversions. While we believe in God, not realizing what is happening, our
thinking is gravitating to pursuing worldly goals of success, and the prosperity
gospel known as “blab and grab”, or “name and claim”. Sidetracked, we come to
believe that the pursuit of worldly goods is how God really did want us to
prosper, and lose sight of our true purpose for remaining on Earth.
Not
everyone is lulled by the ease of sleaze. There are those people who seem to
thrive on persecution. Instead of growing in the grace and knowledge of the
Lord Jesus Christ and learning how to take the speck out of a person’s eye;
they feel they have to focus on evils within the teachings and practices of a
particular church or denomination. These individuals claim they are not
fault-finders, but they provide no genuine alternative. (This writer might be
accused of being a fault-finder, but then there are many devious devils that
will attempt to take our eyes of Lord Jesus Christ.) If we were to ask any of
them if they were fault-finders, they would immediately deny this in their
first breath, but in their second breath, they would be scorching us with
fault-finding fire. The Dragon of Revelation loves these people because they
are cheap laborers indeed. With the fault-finders doing the Devil’s work of
criticizing everybody because they do not possess the doctrinal purity of
aggressive hatred against false doctrine, like they do, he and his agents are
freed up to keep more people in bondage and guide them to self-destruction.
Somehow, Jesus must look down upon these people who adopt a scorched-earth
policy, as He looked down upon the church at Ephesus, and say:
You have perseverance and have endured
for my name’s sake, and have not grown weary. But I have this against you, that
you left your first love. Remember therefore from where you have fallen, and
repent and do the first works; or else I am coming to you swiftly, and will
move your lamp stand out of its place, unless you repent (Revelation 2:3-4).
What
about the new converts who know that they need to grow in the knowledge of Lord
Jesus Christ and head off to Bible College to obtain a few certificates so they
can say they have studied the Bible and have the pieces of paper to prove it.
Moreover, if these ones have learnt how to read Greek and Hebrew characters,
they believe they are thereby equipped to better understand the scriptures.
To
help us gain a better understanding of the need to attend Bible College, let us
consider a man known as Suddha, Sundar Singh. Sundar Singh was a Sikh who
converted to Christianity. The seriousness of Sundar’s conviction of the
reality of Lord Jesus Christ is evidenced in the fact that twice his father
attempted to kill him for dishonoring his Sikh heritage.
Sundar
Singh dedicated his life to Jesus Christ and lived like a Hindu holy man and
was known as Sadhu Sundar Singh as he travelled around the Indian subcontinent
and up into the Himalayas. As well as the many miracles that accompanied Sundar
Singh’s life, he was known for the many visions he claimed to have had. In one
of his visions, he claimed a minister brought to Heaven, looked upon himself as
an exceedingly learned and religious man who was basically a good living man who
had lived to a good age. Not long after he had arrived in Heaven, the minister
saw one of his parishioners come through the pearly gates. The parishioner was
awarded a higher status than the minister. The minister was indignant about
this, and complained that he had taught people how to get into heaven all his
life and had studied so much that there was nothing more he needed to learn.
The angel agreed that what the minister said was true—only the parishioner did
what he taught.
Sundar
Singh himself went to Bible College for a short period, but moved on because,
as he himself said:
We do not need knowledge of Hebrew or
Greek, but we do need to be united with the Spirit. This Spirit guided the
prophets and followers who recorded his words, and this spirit alone can reveal
their true meaning to us. The language of the Master is spiritual, and we can
only understand its meaning if we are awake in spirit. We do not need to know
or understand anything about theological questions or criticisms. Indeed, a
child can most readily grasp the Master’s teaching, for the child is still
united with the spiritual world from which it came. But those who possess
wisdom that is only of this world can never understand, for the Master’s spirit
is not in them.[v]
Great
are the works of religion. Organized religion builds edifices and provides
institutions that overall appear to help society remain stable but are more
often used as a means to suppress the aspirations of the poor and to cultivate
a spirit of obedience to the state or the king. Many people have taken pride in
their achievements and the praise that has been bestowed on them for their
accomplishments, which more often than not are for organizing a works committee
and overseeing the completion of a building (or group of buildings) under their
leadership. In many respects, the numerous denominations that exist within
Christendom are like vendors gathered together outside an Olympic stadium.
While these denominations are hawking their wares and promoting their own
projects, instead of doing what their founder probably originally did, they are
distracting people from entering the Kingdom of God. As Sundar Singh
discovered, rather than standing outside, it is far better to enter the
Kingdom of God. For there we can learn
the secrets of being child-like, and
growing in stature, as the Holy Spirit teaches the truths of the Kingdom of God
within, as part of our daily experience. Because of Sadhu Sundar Singh’s
uniqueness compared to westerners and their Christian traditions, Friedrick
Heiler made a study of this Christian man and, in doing so, found cause to
write:
Buchman, of the Hartford Theological
Seminary, sums up his impression of the Sadhu in these words:
He is more like Christ than anyone we have
ever seen.[vi]
For
many who have struggled to find that true spiritual experience wherein their
lives are enriched beyond measure, only when they come across saints like
Sundar Singh do they begin to realize that what they need to know only occurs
once they have been face to face with the Only One Whom they need to know.
In
the Hindu religion, the concept of karma, where people are punished or rewarded
for their works in the next life produces a self-righteous form of religious
expression. Likewise this occurs when people spend too much time in ivory
towers attempting to find the truth about God in the many commentaries on the
Bible, rather than seeking to walk with Jesus. The Apostle Paul was guilty of
this prior to becoming a Christian, for he excelled in his knowledge of
Judaism, but to quote the Apostle Paul:
When the kindness of God our Savior and
his love toward mankind appeared, not by works of righteousness, which we did
ourselves, but according to his mercy, he saved us, through the washing of
regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly,
through Jesus Christ our Savior (Titus 3:4-6).
The
washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit is actually the Word of
God working within our spirits. Jesus informed His disciples that they had been
made clean by the word He has spoken to them. The Amplified Bible expresses
this thought thus:
Any branch in Me that does not bear
fruit [that stops bearing] He cuts away (trims off, takes away); and He
cleanses and repeatedly prunes every branch that continues to bear fruit, to
make it bear more and richer and more excellent fruit.
You are cleansed and pruned already,
because of the word which I have given you [the teachings I have discussed with
you]
Dwell in Me, and I will dwell in you.
[Live in Me, and I will live in you.] Just as no branch can bear fruit of
itself without abiding in (being vitally united to) the vine, neither can you
bear fruit unless you abide in Me (John 15:2-4 AMP).
The
idea is that if we continue to abide in the word of God, and put into practice
what the Holy Spirit shows us, as we look to our Heavenly Father, we will truly
become known as Jesus disciples. Jesus, who searches the hearts of men to see
who qualifies for entrance into the Kingdom will set us free from sin, so that
we might be able to bear fruit for eternal life and build with materials that
survive fire.
There
is some confusion as to how we can be washed by the Word of God and pruned in
the process. However, as we learn from the book of Titus, washing and
regeneration seem to be taking place at the same time as being renewed in the
Holy Spirit. We know that when we prune old woody branches on a vine, this
causes regeneration—the same as it does for fruit trees. If these branches are
not pruned, they could become diseased, and if left to remain on a vine, kill the
whole plant. The Word of God within us
also has this same ability to prune and regenerate. Moreover, it has a
cleansing action as well. We might say that we are cleaning up a vine by
pruning it, but the action of the Word of God, seeded within our spirits,
renews by the process of washing and regeneration in the Holy Spirit.
Evidently,
the Holy Spirit is resident within the anointed Word of God. While the Bible
qualifies as the written word of God it is not the living Word of God and
therefore not able to give life of itself. The Scriptures (the written word of
God) bear witness to Jesus, they are unable to save us of themselves, although
many people mistakenly think this is the case. The Apostle Paul wrote to
Timothy and clearly stated that the Bible was only able to point to how we
could be saved, but are not able to save of itself. Many people distort the
truth and overlook this text in their endeavor to be zealous and inadvertently do
the work of the Devil and exalt the scriptures above Lord Jesus Christ. This is
what Paul wrote to Timothy concerning the scriptures:
From infancy, you have
known the holy Scriptures which are able to make you wise for salvation through
faith, which is in Christ Jesus. Every Scripture is God-breathed and profitable
for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness,
that the man of God may be complete,
thoroughly equipped for every good work. (2 Tim. 3;15-17)
Another
way of saying this is Every God-breathed scripture instructs us for salvation
through faith in Lord Jesus Christ and points to God’s purpose so that we can
know we are living in accordance to His will.
Like
a road map the Scriptures provide directions. Only we need to receive the word
of Life, which is a seed that is implanted within us, if we are to possess
eternal life. We can probably best understand this as the Holy Spirit being the
enlivening agency within the spoken Word of God that is delivered by any person
that speaks in the anointing of the Spirit of God. We know the Holy Spirit
anointed Jesus at His baptism. From that time, we have to agree, there is no
doubt Jesus spoke in the power and authority of the Holy Spirit. While Jesus
said the Bible could not provide life, the words He spoke could. Here is what
Jesus said regarding the Bible and the words He spoke:
You search the
Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and these are
they which testify about me. Yet you will not come to me, that you may have
life. (John 5:39-40)
It is the spirit who
gives life. The flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are
spirit, and are life. (John 6:63)
The
Holy Spirit is what makes the difference. While people may begin to think about
God and look to Jesus as a consequence of reading the Bible, it is not until
they reach out to Him and receive the implanted word that is delivered by the
Holy Spirit, that they receive the pearl of eternal life that is able to save
their souls. This can be done on one’s own or in the presence of others in
response to an anointed invitation.
Without
the Holy Spirit, we are powerless to do anything that is of God. Our very words
are merely the words of humans. For this reason, Jesus told His disciples that
when the Holy Spirit came upon them they would receive power to be His
witnesses (Acts 1:8). Without the anointing of the Holy Spirit, the words
Jesus’ disciples spoke would have lacked their cogency; likewise preachers
today who do not possess the Holy Spirit do not have the same power as those
who do speak in the anointing. Jesus was anointed by the Holy Spirit. We too,
have to be anointed by the Holy Spirit. Now if Jesus did not say to His
disciples to wait for the Baptism of the Holy Spirit to anoint them, then we
would not need to consider this. Since Jesus did make this a major condition in
being a witness for Him, we need to consider this. For without the Baptism of the Holy Spirit we
cannot overcome the Devil and his agents.
The
importance of the anointed word being delivered to hearers needs to be the
prime concern for anyone of us to have an effective witness when it comes to
sharing the gospel. The essential requirement of a life lived in truth outranks
spoken words, but the anointing is a natural consequence of a life devoted to
God; which is, abiding in His perfect will. Many preachers do not have the
anointing, and they speak a dry word. People claim to be witnesses to God by
telling others how to be saved, but they themselves do not have the anointing
because they do not abide in the will of God. If they abided in the vine, they
would bear fruit because there would be a constant washing of regeneration and
renewal in the Holy Spirit. Abiding in the vine is equivalent to abiding in the
Word of God and proving to be Jesus’ disciples.
This
is one of the keys to overcoming the Devil and entering into the blessings of
God. The anointing is critical because the anointing of the Holy Spirit is what
breaks the yoke of sin. The Expanded Bible[vii]
captures this truth in Isaiah:
Then [In that day] the
troubles that Assyria puts on you [their burden on your shoulders] will be
removed, and the load they make you carry [yoke from your neck] will be taken
away [destroyed because of the fat/oil; because of Israel’s new strength, or
because of the Lord’s blessings, or because of an Anointed One]. (Is. 10:27)
Only
the Anointed One is able to break the yoke of bondage and bring the Lord’s
blessings. In fact, when we start to grasp this concept of the Lord’s blessings
coming through the anointed one, we are able to gain a better appreciation of
what the Apostle Paul was saying about preachers bringing about faith in God
within those who have ears to hear what the Spirit of God is saying. In the
book of Romans we read:
For, “Whoever will call on the name of
the Lord will be saved.” How then will they call on him in whom they have not
believed? How will they believe in him whom they have not heard? How will they
hear without a preacher? And how will they preach unless they are sent? As it
is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the Good News of
peace, who bring glad tidings of good things!”
But they didn’t all listen to the glad
news. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our report?” So faith comes by
hearing, and hearing by the word of God (Romans 10:13-17)
Where
we read that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God, in the more
recent translations based on different Greek Texts, instead of “word of God”
(as per the KJV) we have “Christ”, which means “anointed one’. When we read
faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the anointed one, then this begins to
conform to the general tenor of truth that runs through the Old and New
Testaments, that only the Holy Spirit is able to break the yoke of sin and
activate the word of God within the heart of the individual. Nevertheless, we
also can be assured that a true word of God is an anointed word.
In
saying that only the Holy Spirit is able to activate the word of God, this does
not mean that we are robots and only a few people have been chosen to be saved
while the rest were condemned to eternal punishment before the foundation of
the world. This teaching of double predestination and the election of those who
are to be saved, and those who are to be damned unto eternal punishment, before
the foundation of the world is unscriptural, and anyone who preaches any such
doctrine is doing the Devil’s work.
We
make our decision whether we are going to acknowledge God because we are
dissatisfied with the reality of existence here on Earth. We have to forgive
others before our Heavenly Father will forgive us; this is the truth of the
Lord’s prayer. This is why Jesus taught us that we are to ask our Heavenly
Father to forgive us as we have forgiven others. Jesus did not teach us to do
this because it was unnecessary for us to forgive other people, since we had
been forgiven and chosen before the foundation of the world—as many are fond of
teaching. This is an absolute falsehood, and those that teach this skate on
thin ice. They build with straw. The
truth is “unless we forgive, we are not forgiven”. If we are not forgiven; we
cannot be saved. Forgiving other people so that we can be saved is not working
for salvation and trying to establish one’s own self-righteousness. Forgiving
others is simply an attitude of heart; in that we would like to do to others,
what we would hope they would do for us.
The
faith that enables us to forgive other people and believe that God will forgive
us, comes from the preaching of the anointed one. This does not mean preaching
about the anointed one; rather, this is anointed ones doing the preaching
because they speak in the power and conviction of the Holy Spirit. This is what
the Apostle Paul said about the good news he preached:
Our Good News came to you not in word
only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit, and with much assurance. You
know what kind of men we showed ourselves to be among you for your sake (1 Thessalonians 1:5).
The
reason the Apostle and his co-workers were able to preach the gospel with power
and conviction in the Holy Spirit is they lived what they taught. They were not
like those who thread a maze of riddles but do not truly believe what they say,
because they teach only what they had read. The Apostle Paul and his co-workers
spoke from the heart of how they lived. Because of this, they were honored of
God. We too can be honored of God, if we have ears to hear, and meditate the
truth and apply it in our own lives.
THE WORD OF GOD
The
Word of God is the Word of Life to all who believe, whether this is in its
written form or spoken form. As we have noted the Bible of itself cannot save. It
only bears witness to the Son of God (Proverbs 30:.4). Whoever reads the Bible
needs to call out to the Son of God to be saved. However, we need to understand
some important truths about the Word of God if we are to be clear in our
thinking and possess a sound understanding of what is required of us when overcoming
the Evil One.
In
the Bible the Word of God is a person, and the seed that saves (Pearl of Great
Price). The word of God is also the directives of God in both written and oral
form. The word of God is also the message of salvation: the Eternal Gospel
(Revelation 14:6). The following scriptures are just some that indicate these
differences. Understanding these differences helps us to rightly handle the
word of truth (2 Timothy 2:15).
The LIVING WORD OF GOD
He
is clothed in a garment sprinkled with blood. His name is called “The Word of
God” (Revelation 19:13). For the Word of
God is living and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing
even to the dividing of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and is able
to discern the thoughts and intentions of the heart. There is no creature that
is hidden from HIS sight, but all
things are naked and laid open before the eyes
of Him to whom we must give an account (Hebrews 4:12-13).
Pearl of Great Price
[A
Merchant] who having found one pearl of great price, he went and sold all that
he had, and bought it (Matthew 13:46). Now the parable is this: The seed is the
word of God (Luke 8:11). I
have written to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I
have written to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God
remains in you, and you have overcome the evil one (John 2:14), having been born again, not of
corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, through the word of God, which lives
and remains forever (1 Peter 1:23). Of
his own will he gave birth to us by the word of truth, that we should be a kind
of first fruits of his creatures. Therefore, putting away all filthiness and
overflowing of wickedness, receive with humility the implanted word, which is
able to save your souls. James 1:18, 21)
Written Word of God
He
who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” He said,
“Write, for these words of God are faithful and true.” He said to me, “These words are faithful and
true. The Lord God of the spirits of the prophets sent his angel to show to his
bondservants the things which must happen soon”(Revelation 22:5-6). I am a
fellow bondservant with you and with your brothers, the prophets, and with
those who keep the words of this book. Worship God.” I testify to everyone who
hears the words of the prophecy of this book, if anyone adds to them, may God
add to him the plagues which are written in this book. If anyone takes away
from the words of the book of this prophecy, may God take away his part from
the tree of life, and out of the holy city, which are written in this book.
(Revelation 22:9, 18-19).
Spoken Word of God
And
that most of the brothers in the Lord, being confident through my bonds, are
more abundantly bold to speak the word of God without fear (Philippians 1:14). Remember
your leaders, men who spoke to you the word of God, and considering the results
of their conduct, imitate their faith (Hebrews
13:7). For it is sanctified through the word of God and prayer. (1 Timothy 4:5)
The Message
He
called them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the Scripture can’t be
broken)(John 10:35). But as many as
received him, to them he gave the right to become God’s children, to those who
believe in his name: who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh,
nor of the will of man, but of God (John 1:12-13). But he answered them, “My
mother and my brothers are these who hear the word of God, and do it” (Luke
8:21). When they were at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the Jewish
synagogues. They had also John as their attendant (Acts 13:5). He lived there a
year and six months, teaching the word of God among them (Acts 18:11). For we
are not as so many, peddling the word of God. But as of sincerity, but as of
God, in the sight of God, we speak in Christ (2
Corinthians 2:17). For this cause we also thank God without ceasing, that, when
you received from us the word of the message of God, you accepted it not as the
word of men, but, as it is in truth, the word of God, which also works in you
who believe (1 Thessalonians 2:13). When he opened the fifth seal, I saw
underneath the altar the souls of those who had been killed for the Word of
God, and for the testimony of the Lamb which they had (Revelation 6:9).
Without
prayer, nothing is possible. But with God all things are possible. All things
are possible to those who believe.
[i] Some say that animals only kill other animals
for food. However, this is not true. Animals often kill their own kind. Cats
kill birds and do not always eat them. When I was a child, we had two cats that
on different occasions had killed a couple of rats and stoats or weasels and
brought them to the back door—without eating them.
[iii] ibid
[iv] Email received from
D.M. Murdock, September 9, 2014.
[v] Wisdom of the Sadhu Teachings Of Sundar Singh compiled and edited
by Kim Comer Copyright 2007 by Plough Publishing House. Used with permission
[vi] Heiler Friedreich. The Gospel of Sadhu Sundar Singh. p4.
Pdf. www.akademijavjecnogproljeca.org.
[vii] The Expanded Bible,
Copyright © 2011 Thomas Nelson Inc. All rights reserved.
