Ministry

Matt. 7:21-23. The Lord says, "Not every one who says to Me, "Lord, Lord, will enter into the kingdom of the heavens, but he who does the will of My Father who is in the heavens. Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, was it not in Your name that we prophesied, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name did may works of Power? And then I will declare to them: I never knew you. Depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness." (Knew here means approved. The same word in Rom. 7:15 is translated acknowledge.)

There are so many "ministries" in the Christian world today but how many of them does the Lore approve of? Unless we live in Him, in spirit, and allow Him to live out through us then no matter what we do for Him is not approved by Him. Because the Spirit has been poured out at Pentecost and at the house of Cornelius, whether or not we live in him men can work miracles, etc.

But our Father only works through His Son. He created the universe through the Son. He holds it together through the Son, He redeemed us through the work of the Son on the cross and through that work of His we are justified and have all the riches of the Triune God. Our Father's desire is that we would be related to everything through Christ. We relate to sin through Christ, we relate to others through Christ, we relate to our Father through Christ and even our relationship to ourselves is through our wonderful dear Lord Jesus. So even we also relate to any ministry through Christ. The ministry is not initiated by us nor if He does initiate the ministry through us is it carried out by us but by our continual abiding in Him and allowing Him to bear the fruit through us as a branch in the Him as the true vine.

The Walk in Spirit in Galatians Five and Six

Gal. 5:25-6:1

^25If we are living with what is spirit, let us keep in line (stoikew) by what is spirit. ^26Let us not become vainglorious, provoking one another, envying one another, brothers. ^6:1 Even if a man be overtaken in any trespass, ye who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of meekness, looking to yourself, lest you also be tempted. (Greek translation by R.C.H. Lenski)

One of the first principals of Bible interpretation is to consider the context of the verse or passage you are studying. Concerning the above verses, it is important to see that when the translators of the Bible divided verse 26 from the next verse, chapter 6, verse 1, they implied that a new thought was beginning in chapter 6, however, this is not true.

Paul's thought is as follows: Since our general walk is by our spirit, then it follows that the specific going along, following along just like an army marching along rank on rank should also be by our spirit. No one should think himself or herself higher or better so as to become vainglorious. We are all brothers of one another, nothing more. When pride created vainglory in a brother, it causes others who are not in spirit to be envious or to be provoked. This situation should never be allowed. So the ones who actually do live in spirit should go to the one who has stepped aside out of the line (the Greek word for trespass means to step aside) and with a spirit of meekness, which is in contrast to the pride and envy and wrath exhibited in 5:26, and help that vainglorious one. But in helping you have to beware that you too won't fall into vainglory for we are all subject to being tempted with pride.

Paul concludes the last chapter with the words, "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ is with the spirit of you all, brothers. (Greek word order) Paul looks at us all as having one spirit and that we are all simply brothers. We must have revelation to see that the other brother's spirit is my spirit and my spirit is his spirit. The reality is that we are in such an organic oneness.

None is higher or better. It is true that the functions of all differ, but there is no rank among us. Pride always wants to assume a higher, better, or more knowledgeable position. Since humanity is so fallen we all should look to ourselves lest we be so tempted.

Our Calling

1 Cor. 1:9 God is faithful, through whom you were called into the fellowship of His son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

We are not called to follow any man, to join any denomination, mission society or even to associate with those who are spiritual. We are called into the fellowship of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The Greek work translated "fellowship" comes from two Greek words: "common" and "being." So we have been called into the common-being of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have all been called into His Person, to be a member of His body.

We are not called to be individual spiritual giants, missionaries, pastors, church members, or to follow a powerful speaker. We are called into this Person. Since this is the case, then we are to abide in Him. Forget everything else. Remain in Him. loving Him and being filled with Him and He will cause the reality of the church to emerge.

Loving Jesus

1 Cor. 2:9 Things which Eye has not seen and ear has not heard and which have not come up in man's heart; things which God has prepared for those who love Him.

The first thing, the main thing and the primary thing is to love the Lord. We can serve God, study the word, pray, preach the gospel, know the doctrines even give our bodies to be burned, yet without love to the Lord all these count for nothing.

To love Him is to love Him for Himself alone, not for what He has or will do for you. We appreciate to the uttermost what He has done for us but we love Him simply for Himself.
The church in Ephesus in Revelation two had one great lack. She had left her first love. No matter what they had done to serve the Lord Jesus, He still said, "I have against you because you have left your first love.

If we would examine American Christianity don't you also feel that this is one of the key failures? How many Christains do you meet who talk about loving Jesus, seeking Him and longing to be together with those who also want only Him? With the Lord in Deuteronomy 6:29 we also would say, "Oh, that we all would have such a heart..."

WHO HE IS:

Jesus is altogether lovely; He saves us; and He keeps us by His power from sin and death.

He has given to us His robe of righteousness. He extends His mercy, longsuffering, lovingkindness, tenderness, healing, and compassion.

He is our Shield, our Defender, our Rock, and our Hiding Place.

He is our Provider, Counselor, Great Shepherd, our Friend, who is closer than a brother, and He is our Love. He is the Husbandman, the Keeper of the vineyard. He is the Source of all blessing.

He restores, rescues, forgives and redeems.

He is our Victor, the Captain of Hosts, Mighty in battle. He is our Banner, and our Standard, and He is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

Jesus is crowned with glory and honor; He is our Savior, Sanctifier, Redeemer, and the merciful and faithful High Priest.

He is the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End. He was dead, but now He is ALIVE forevermore, and He is seated at the right hand of God--it is finished!

He destroyed death and He led captivity captive.

He is the Great Apostle of our faith; He is the Supreme Sacrifice; and the spotless and blameless Lamb.

He is our Anchor and our Strong Tower, and He was the Ancient of Days before the first day began.

He is the Forerunner, the Firstborn among many brethren. He is the surety of a better testament; He comes from the unchangeable priesthood; and He is able to save to the uttermost.

His Presence doesn't cast any shadow because He is the Light that lights the Heavenly City. He is the Light of the world and the Giver of life.

He is the Door, the Way, and the Truth.

He is the Treasure, the Pearl of great price, and more precious than the finest gold.

He was the Rock of Ages before any mountain peaks were formed.

He was the Bread of life before there was any grain. He was the Lily of the Valley before there were any flowers on the earth.

He is the Eternal Intercessor. He is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, higher than the Heavens; He makes His enemies His footstool, and laughs at His adversaries.

He is the Tree of life; He is consecrated forever, and makes us sanctified forever by His precious blood.

He is the Minister of the Sanctuary, and He is the Mediator of the New covenant.

He is the High Priest of GOOD THINGS to come; He's the Lion of Judah; and the Lamb that was slain. He is the New and living way.

He was born contrary to the laws of birth. He lived contrary to the laws of life. He healed contrary to the laws of medicine.

He was tried and condemned contrary to the laws of justice, and He arose contrary to the laws of death and the grave.

He ascended contrary to the laws of gravity, and He is coming back again contrary to the expectation of the world!

He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He is the Great Shepherd of ALL THE SHEEP.

HE IS THE HOLDER OF THE KEYS; HE IS THE AMEN; AND HE IS THE FINAL WORD...

He is qualified to open the Book, and He is the expression of the Heart of the Father.

His love has no limits; His grace has no measure; His power has no boundaries known unto men; and out of His infinite riches, He gives and gives and gives again.

He is our nearest Kinsman, and is qualified to redeem us.

He is THE WORD MADE FLESH and the Honey in the rock.

He is high and lifted up; He is the bright and morning star, and the fairest of 10,000.

He is more precious than gold, and He's the glory and lifter of our heads.

He is the righteous Judge; He is a refuge for the oppressed; and He doesn't forget the cry of the humble.

He bore our sicknesses and our pains; He was despised and rejected of men; and now He controls the destiny of the nations--the kingdoms of this world are going to become the Kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and forever.

He is our portion and our inheritance; His garments smell of sweet myrrh; and His breath is as sweet apples. He is a very present help in trouble.

He hides us under the shadow His Wings and keeps us as the apple of His eye.

He is our High Tower, and He makes the hills shake, the mountains melt, and the Heavens bow.

He pulled back the curtain of eternity and stepped out on the stage of time for one brief moment, and then stepped back again into eternity, but in that one brief moment of time, He sealed the fate of every man and woman and fixed their destiny.

He is the bright Lamp in the darkness because He is the Light of life.

He is the Branch and the Root of Jesse.

HE IS THE GREAT WAVE MAKER FROM GALILEE.

He makes the crooked paths straight and the rough places plain.

He split history and divided the ages.

He is the greatest Teacher the world has ever known, and He is the Baptizer in the Holy Ghost.

He preserves the faithful, and He is the resurrection and the life.

He spoke and framed the world; He makes our way perfect and makes our feet like hinds feet; and He causes us to walk in high places. He is able to comfort, guide, and bless.

He spoke, and the Heavens unrolled themselves, and the galaxies were born. He spoke, and the streams and the rivers wound their way across the earth. The rose began to blush, and the violets cast their fragrance, and the birds began to sing. Colors wove themselves into a rainbow. He spoke, and a handful of dust became a living soul.

He turns our mourning into dancing and girds us with gladness.

Let me tell you about His voice--His voice is powerful upon the waters, full of majesty, like thunder, it breaks the cedars, divides the flames, shakes the wilderness, makes the hinds to calve, discovers the forests, and sets the mountains in their place.

His voice stilled the seas and shook the earth and melted the hills.

His voice is as the sound of many waters; He spoke and calmed the storm; He spoke and gave life to the dead, brought healing to the sick, strength to the weak, and forgiveness to the sinner.

Herod could not kill Him. The Pharisees could not confound Him, and Satan could not trick Him. Sickness could not withstand Him; devils could not stay near Him; and the waves could not drown Him.

The rabble could not disturb Him; death could not corrupt Him; hell could not keep Him; and the grave could not contain Him!

Gravitation could not restrain Him, and God has highly exalted Him and given Him a Name above every name, and at His Name every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall confess that He is Lord of all.

He gave gifts to men; He brought a stream out of a rock, and fed the people in the wilderness; He fed 5000 with two loaves and a few fishes.

He is Savior to the lost, healing to the sick; He is hearing to the deaf, and sight to the blind. He is cleansing to the leper and strength to the weak. He is comfort to the oppressed, hope to the hopeless, and help to the helpless. He is a brother to the friendless, and a friend to the brotherless, and He is LIFE to the dead.

He is infinite, eternal, glorious and full of majesty.

One day in His courts is better than a thousand; wouldn't you rather be a doorkeeper in His house than dwell in the tents of the world...?

He is the covenant Keeper--keeping covenant with covenant breakers.

He is sweeter than all the flowers; He is the lover of our soul; and the keeper of our hearts.

He is music to the poet, and a song to the worshiper. His Name has been whispered by thousands upon thousands of dying soldiers on the battlefields of the ages.

His Name has been the battle cry of those who fought for righteousness and truth.

HE IS THE KING OF ALL KINGS AND EVERY NATION WILL BOW TO HIM....

HIS NAME IS JESUS.

By:

Kathie and David Walters
Good News Ministries
http://www.goodnews.netministries.org/

The Valleys and the Mountains of the Good Land

"For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of waterbrooks, of springs and of fountains, flowing forth in valleys and in mountains. . .(Deut. 8:7;)

This picture of the good land is the type of Christ who is the one who is everything to His people in this age. All the items of this good land represent experiences that we, His people, may have of Him.

The valleys and mountains are pictures that show our experience of the ascending and descending Christ. (Eph 4:9-11) The valleys and the mountains always go together. The Lord will cycle us through these kinds of up and down experiences continually over our Christian life-time. How many times have we experienced being down? And then somehow we were then brought up? This happens over and over again in the seeking Christian.

Why? To produce us into the gift that we are for the sake of the body of Christ. Don't despise the valleys. They are part of the process. You will notice that the valleys are first, followed by the mountains. But don't despair. The springs and fountains flow forth in the valleys and mountains.

Whether we are down in the valley or up on the mountain there is always the supply of the life-giving Spirit to comfort and nourish us while conforming us to the image of the Son.

Excerpt from Casper Schwenkfeld

Among all the reformers of the sixteenth century who worked at the immense task of recovering, purifying, and restating the Christian faith, no one was nobler in life and personality, and no one was more uncompromisingly dedicated to the mission of bringing into the life of the people a type of Christianity winnowed clean from the husks of superstition and tradition, and grounded in ethical and spiritual reality than was Casper Schwenkfeld the Salesian noble.

“. . . They saw with their inner spirits that the real healing of the human soul and the eternal destiny of man were indissolubly bound up with the person of Christ. He emphasizes the inwardness of true religion and the importance of the personal experience of the living, creative, and divine word. He called attention to the superficiality of the change which was taking place in men’s lives as the result of the Reformation. He pleads for a faith in Christ and an appreciation of Him that shall, ‘. . . reach the deep regions of the spirit, renew the heart, and produce a new man in the believer.’

‘Christ is the first born of this new creation. He is the first new Adam, who, by His triumphant life and victorious resurrection, has become forever a life-giving Spirit––the creative principle of a new humanity in Christ. The Word of God, the actual divine seed of God, became flesh, entered into our human nature, and penetrated it with Spirit and Life, conquered its stubborn bent towards sin, and transfigured and transformed this human flesh into a divine and heavenly substance. Christ glorified human flesh and exalted it from flesh to Spirit and in His resurrected, heavenly life He is able to unite Himself inwardly with the souls of believers, so that His spiritual, resurrected flesh and blood can be their food and drink, and He can become the life-giving source of a new order of humanity, the spiritual head of a new race. The process, for it is a vital process, it is from beginning to end in the realm of experience. By the exercise of faith in the crucified, risen, and glorified God-man as the life-giving Spirit, real power from a higher world streams into the soul. Something pneumatic, something which belongs pathologically to a higher spiritual world order comes into the person as a divinely bestowed germ plasm with living, renewing and organizing power. The recreative energy which pours in transforms both soul and body. The inner, internal Word of God, Who became flesh, acts upon the inner nature of man, so the believing man is changed into something spiritual, divine and heavenly, and like Christ, the incarnated Word of God. Thus this Word, which is the same life-giving Spirit that became flesh in Christ and that produces the new creation in man, becomes a perpetual, inward teacher in those who are reborn.

It is, in fact, God Himself, operating as life and spirit and light upon the spiritual substance of the human soul, first, as the life-seed which forms the new creation in man and afterwards as the permanent, nourishing and tutoring spirit who leads the obedient soul on into all the truth and perfects it into the likeness stature of Christ. Schwenkfeld always insists that written words, however inspired, are still external to the soul. The Bible leads to Christ and it bears witness of Him as no other book does, But it is not Christ. If these spiritual realities are to become real and effective to us, it must be through the direct relation of the human spirit with the divine Spirit, the inward spiritual Word of God.’

Schwenkfeld’s views of the process of salvation and the permanent illumination of the reborn soul by a real incoming divine substance, whether called word or seed, is the dynamic feature of his Christianity. It was a necessity, he felt to discover some way by which man could be actually renewed, transformed, recreated, and made righteous. “Justification,” he once wrote, “is not only forgiveness of sins, but it is more. It is the actual healing and renewing of inward man. It must involve a real and radical transformation of man’s nature.” The passion for goodness, in Schwenkfeld’s view, is created through the vision of the God-man who suffered and died on the cross for us and has been glorified in absolute newness of life; and the power of more holiness is supplied to the soul by the direct inflowing of divine-life-streams from this new Adam, who is hence forth the head of the spiritual order of humanity, the life-giving Spirit, who renews all who receive him in faith.

“Faith,” he says, “is the penetrating stream of light flowing out from the central, divine light and fire, which is God himself, into our hearts, by which we are inflamed with love for God and for our neighbor, and which we see what we lack in ourselves and what can abundantly supply our lack, so that we may be ready for the Kingdom of God, and be prepared to become children of God. Real faith is the gracious and gratuitous gift of God through the Holy Spirit. It is an emanation from the eternal life of God, and it is the same essence and substance as God Himself. It is, in fact, the eternal Word of God become vocal and vital within the inner region of our own selves. Each soul that enters the kingdom of experience through the work of the life-giving Spirit is builded into this invisible, expanding Church of the ages, and is endowed with some gift to become an organ of the divine Head. Christian baptism is therefore not with water but with Christ. It is the immersion of the soul in the life-giving streams of Christ’s spiritual presence. Through the exercise of faith in the person of the crucified, risen, and glorified Christ, the created Adam, incorruptible life-giving substance comes into the soul and transfigures it. Something from the divine and heavenly world, something from the spiritualized and glorified nature of Christ becomes the actual food of man’s spirit, so that through it he partakes of the same nature as that of the God-man. Not once or twice, but as a continuous experience, the soul may share this glorious meal of spiritual renewal, the eating and drinking of Christ.

Make No Provision for the Flesh

Rom. 13:8. Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. 9 For this, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; love therefore is the fulfillment of the law.

11 And this do, knowing the time, that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep; for now salvation is nearer to us than when we believed. 12 The night is almost gone, and the day is at hand. Let us therefore lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. 13 Let us behave properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy. 14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.

(The New American Standard Bible, (La Habra, California: The Lockman Foundation) 1977.)

Paul is not urging the Roman saints to keep the law in verse nine but to realize that the whole law is summed up in the saying, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” This is the only debt that we should have toward any other. This is not a matter of trying to love others but one of remaining in Christ all the time.

And he says that we should wake up for the time is short, that salvation is nearer than when we first believed. So we should put on the armor of light which is the same as putting on the Lord Jesus Christ. He encourages us to walk properly as one who walks in the day and not as those who walk in sinful things in the dark. And, “put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh.”

What is the provision for the flesh? I was taught that we should make sure that there is no provision for the flesh in our homes. For example, if I was a drunkard before I was saved, I should make sure that there was no alcoholic beverage in my home so that I wouldn’t be tempted. No doubt if that were my case it would be wise not to have those kind of things in my home.

But Paul is not talking about that kind of outward arrangement in our lives. The provision for the flesh here is its desire to keep the law. The flesh, which is our entire human being, loves the law of God and wants to live up to it. But whenever we try, the law of sin captures us and brings us into spiritual death. (See Romans Chapter Seven)
By putting on the armor of light, we live in God as light. This light kills the desire to attempt to please God, for in His light we see that our fallen human being cannot keep the law and never will be able to. At the same time we see that Christ on the cross has accomplished everything for us. He shines on us and we stay in fellowship with Him as we confess out sins. Then we exercise our spirit to contact the Lord and put Him on. By this “putting on” of the Lord the desire of the flesh to keep the law is cancelled out in us. It remains cancelled as long as we live in spirit. This is to make the body of this death unemployed as Paul mentions in Rom. Seven.

The minute we get out of spirit, the desire of the flesh to be good, to keep some law to please God will crop up again. The only solution is to remain in Him.

For those who have known and experienced the mingled spirit, that is the divine Spirit mingled with our human spirit, can I believe relate to this.

The Mind-Set of the Spirit

Read: Rom. 5:12-8:39

Romans 5:12 through Romans 7:8 tells us the facts concerning how the Lord dealt with sin on the cross and the results of that dealing. Romans 7:9 to the end of chapter 8 tells us the experiences of the saints who seek to live to the Lord based on those facts.

I want to concentrate on the experience and show why so many do not attain to the living described in Romans 8 and show the way into that experience.

The reason I want to discuss experience is that many of us who have been saved for many years are able to talk about these spiritual things, but nevertheless are lacking the true experience of them. I am not only talking about others but about myself. For years I myself have spoken about these thing and given messages on Romans seven and eight, but still lived an up and down life. I would react to my wife and be upset with little things that she said, instead of experiencing the love of Christ for her. So I confessed this kind of sin any number of times. Many times I would wind up in condemnation and death. Although I sought the Lord to live Him, I still fell into myself to live me! Even though I was able to teach about these things I felt myself to be most miserable and cried out to the Lord as Paul did, “Who shall deliver me from this body of death?” What a wretched man I was!

Although I knew the answer Paul gave to this question, I still didn’t see and still felt frustrated and unable to enter in.

Being a person who wanted perfection and wanted to please the Lord, I lived in Romans seven and didn’t even know that that was my problem. I said to myself, “I know the spirit. I pray daily in the Word. Often, I would I experience the Lord and be filled with Him, but, also, many times I didn’t and would live a life out of the self which is so ugly. Why, I asked myself? I thought that the reason was that I just did not live in my spirit. I desired that, but it seemed as though that I often always failed.

I could not see the answer. Even though I knew the answer was Christ, I did not see. Without seeing I was just in the knowledge of the truth not in enjoyment of the reality of it. I could teach it, but still remained in the striving of the flesh. So I would, for years, cry out to the Lord for deliverance but deliverance seemed to avoid me.

Over the last two years, in our Bible study group, we have been going over Romans. As I got into the first eight verses of Romans eight I noticed something about the word translated “mind.” It is the Greek word fronhma. It means mind-set or viewpoint or the way your mind is disposed to think. You can check it out in Strongs, number 5427.

I realized that just to exercise the spirit is inadequate. We also must have the mind-set of the Spirit. But just what does that mean?

Romans 1:1 says, “There is now therefore no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus, who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit.” (NKJV) Most modern translations do not include the clause, “who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.” This is because it is not included in the Critical Text. However, it is included in the Textus Receptus from which the King James Version and the New King James Version are translated. It is also included in the Majority Text.

Since we are talking about the experience of condemnation, the last clause should be included. Here is why. If the verse only says that there is no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus, then why are so many born again Christians condemned? Are they in Christ Jesus? Yes. Since they are in Christ Jesus, and since many experience condemnation, there is either a problem with the verse or a problem with their experience.

But if you add the last clause, the problem is solved. If a Christian walks in the Spirit he or she would not be condemned. It seems very simple, yet even the Christians who seek and experience the filling of the Spirit still fall into condemnation. If this is true there must be another problem. That problem is thoroughly discussed by Paul in Romans seven and eight. What is the problem? It is the law.

Paul used a long section to expose the problem of the law. He, being a faithful Jew, attempted to keep the law and discovered that the more he strove to keep it, the more he failed. The failure was sin and sin brought death. In 1 Cor. 15:56 Paul says that the sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the law. So the more someone attempts to keep the law, the more sin will be strengthened and that strengthened sin will inject, by its sting, death into the law-keeper. There is no way the Lord can deliver anyone if that one continues to try to please God by keeping the law.

Therefore, since the Word says that those who walk according to the flesh are brought into condemnation, it must be that the flesh in Romans eight is the flesh that wants to do good by keeping the law. Paul is not talking about the works of the flesh that are sinful in this portion but the mind-set of the flesh that wants to perfect itself. (Gal. 3:1-3)

The self is so subtle and so prone to being deceived. We may think we are okay with the Lord but not be able to realize that we are law keepers. We may even be strong against anything legal. Not being legal may actually be an excuse to be loose and worldly. At the same time we may have many little self-invented or preacher-inflicted laws that we subconsciously attempt to keep and so are captured by the law of sin and death.

This is why in Rom. 8:6 Paul says that, “the mind-set of the flesh is death and the mind-set of the Spirit is life and peace.” (my translation) Here the word again for mind-set is fronhma. To live in the Spirit depends upon which mind-set you have.

The mind-set is our operating system. Just like in your computer there is an operating system. How the computer functions depends on the operating system. Equally true is the fact that our human being also operates based on our operating system. Our operating system is our vision. The vision we have governs our living. Prov. 29:18 says that where the people cast off vision they run wild. So each one of us needs the vision that is of God and not our own opinion of what is the vision of God’s way.

In many cases there is the need of a change in vision or realization. Although we may not know it, we may be still in a deep corner of our mind have the thought that we need to fix ourselves up, that we need to improve, that we need help to learn how to live a good life, have a good marriage, to stop our besetting sin, or become better in some way. This is the mind-set of the flesh. Any thought of improving self is a fleshly thought. We need a change in vision, a change in mind-set which will change our operation system.

In Gal. 4:19 Paul says, “My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you.” The word “formed” is not in the present tense but in the aorist. So he is not talking about something that is going on in a continuous was way but in this case something that happens in a point of time. The present tense in Greek looks at things that are happening over a continuous period of time. The aorist, in some cases, is the tense that indicates a point of time. Paul is talking here of a paradigm shift in a point of time.

The Galatians saw the Christian life as one in which they should believe in Jesus and then keep the Old Testament law. Paul was writing them to attempt to change their paradigm so that they would see that instead of living by the law they should live by Christ who was the life within them. His testimony was that he was crucified with Christ and it was no longer he that lived but that Christ lived in him. (Gal. 2:20) They needed a paradigm shift from having the mind-set of the flesh to having the mind-set of the Spirit.

What then is the mind-set of the Spirit? If we go back to Romans eight you’ll notice that Paul never tells us how to get into the Spirit. Romans eight is a description of a man in the spirit and the results and practices of one already in spirit. What has caused him to change from a man attempting to keep the law, a man whose mind-set was the flesh to one who experiences the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus overcoming the law of sin and death?

I would suggest that his paradigm shift came in Romans 7:25 when he answered his own question about who would deliver him from the body of death. He said, “Thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” The veil came off his eyes and He saw that it was Christ Himself who was his answer. That Jesus had accomplished everything that was needed to be done on the cross. There was nothing left to do. Now this Jesus would be the reality of his living and he, Paul, could rest in that.

When he realized that everything was done on the cross by and in Christ and that He was everything Paul needed to approach God, to be with God and to please God, all self effort spontaneously stopped and this Christ practically and in reality became his life.

Do you see it? The Lord does not expect us nor want us to be good or better, or to try not to do certain things or fight against sin. He wants us to look away from all that and look at Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. He can and will do everything we cannot do and even everything we can do. And He wants to. The problem is that we remain in the way.

May the Lord open our eyes to see the many little foxes in us that spoil the vine? That is all the little rules and regulations that we are attempting to keep which lead to sin and death. Then may He grant light and revelation to see that He is the answer to everything.

How will I know that I see this mighty revelation? When you see the Christ who is all you will be at rest. You will not work at being a Christian any longer, but will enter the joy of the Lord’s rest from your labors. You will cease living an up and down Christian life. Christ will be, as He was for Paul, your life and living. As long as you experience an up and down life you still are without adequate revelation of Christ. Seek Him. Look to Him. Tell Him how much you love Him and want to see all that He has accomplished on the cross and fully realize that now He is the Spirit to transmit that life to you.

Ransford Ackah

Just received shocking news that Ransford Achah was killed in an auto accident. He was being driven to his hometown by another brother when a truck blew a tire and crashed into their car. The driving brother was killed instantly but Ransford apparently was okay. But after he had been taken to a hospital to check him out, he suddenly began to gasp for breath and expired.

This is a great shock to us. He was such a fine brother and faithful to the Lord. I met him in LA when Howard Higashi and Ken Unger and I picked him up at LAX in the summer of 1970. He was a young evangelist who was visiting the church in LA to see what the Lord was doing there. He stayed for about three years and then returned to Ghana. He was used greatly by the Lord to raise up many churches throughout central Africa. We will miss him greatly!

God’s Purpose in the Lord’s Model Prayer for the Kingdom

Matt. 6:9 “Pray, then, in this way:

‘Our Father who art in heaven,

Hallowed be Thy name.

10 ‘Thy kingdom come.

Thy will be done,

On earth as it is in heaven.

11 ‘Give us this day our daily bread.

12 ‘And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

13 ‘And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

For yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.’

14“For if you forgive men for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.

15 “But if you do not forgive men, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions.

This prayer has to be seen in the context of the entire “sermon on the mount.” After many exhortations the Lord Jesus says that we must be perfect as our Father is in heaven. Perfection here refers to being perfected in the Father’s love. (Matt. 5:48, “Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect) This love is not possible to the natural man. Anyone who has attempted to live the life that is described in these three chapters knows this. But the Lord Jesus has shown us the way in this prayer for the kingdom of the heavens.

The goal of the prayer is the to have the Father’s name made holy, that is to be separated from everything common, the kingdom of the heavens and God’s will realized on earth as it is in the heavens. This goal is based on the Father’s love which is expressed in His life in the Son and supplied to us as food by the Spirit. His name, Father, indicates that He is the source and supply of all life. It is His life that comes into us when we believe in the Lord Jesus. It is His life through Christ that enables us the live the Christian life.

Because we are fallen and have a natural life that always misses the mark of expressing God, (Rom. 3:23) we must be supplied with His life every day. Unless we receive that supply, we will not be a person who sanctifies the Father’s name, lives in the kingdom nor will we be in the Father’s will. We will be one who lives in the self, which always insists on it’s rights and expects others to honor it and conform to it. It is the self-centered life which looks only at itself and wants others to care for its little desires. If others do not oblige it, self is offended and tends not to forgive offences and is divided from others.

Forgiveness in this prayer is based on the Father’s life that has been imparted to when we were born again. The expression of the Father’s life is love. God so loves us that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes into Him has eternal life. (John 3:16)

This life of God is a forgiving life. He forgave us all our sins. Therefore the kingdom life is also one of forgiveness. However, many times we fallen human beings are tempted to remain in the right and wrong of things and refuse to forgive. The devil has always tempted mankind to remain in the knowledge of good and evil and of right and wrong which always issues in death. He was desperate to seduce Eve to eat the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in Genesis chapter three. The moment we appraise others by the standard of right and wrong we fall into death. In this death there is no forgiveness. The longer we remain there, the more we will hold on to our right and be divided from our brother. We see this condition all around us in the Christian world.

Satan hates us to remain in the life of God, for his goal is to always divide us from God and from one another. God’s desire for us is to depend on Him, enjoy Him and let His life constantly renew us. By the daily supply of His life we are being transformed into His image. Out of this divine life we spontaneously love our brothers and forgive all the differences that will always be among us. The issue will be oneness with God and with one another..

On the other hand, Satan wants to make us independent from God. His goal in Genesis three was to cause man to be independent from God. The devil knew that this would bring in death and ruin man. It would cause man to live independently, divided from God and make him have the life of Satan, which is sin and which always misses the mark of glorifying or expressing God.(Rom.3:23) Only the life that is lived out of God Himself can express and glorify God.. Since this missing-the-mark-life would be in man, no matter what he did would not please God, whether good or evil.

The model prayer that the Lord Jesus gave us in Matt. 6 gives us the goal, the way, the issue and the result of a person who lives a life according to God’s dispensation in the New Testament age.

A. Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name.

The Lord says in this pattern prayer, “Father, hallowed or separated be your name.” Our Father is the source of life. Anything that causes us to be separated from His life means that His name is not separated in us. His name is to be separated from everything common that causes His life to be frustrated from growing into His purpose. That life always wants to be increasing and flowing between Christians in love and forgiveness so that the body of Christ remains in oneness and expresses Him. (John 17)

The Lord Jesus prayed in John 17 that we all would be one as He is one with the Father. His oneness with the Father is by Him being in the Father and the Father being in Him. Our oneness must be the same. That is because we are in Him and He in us is our oneness That oneness is simply Himself. It is not by our trying to be one or by our keeping the same teachings or methods or experiences that we are one. It is because His life is operating in us and that life is oneness. The more I am in that life, the more I am in the reality of oneness. Any other kind of oneness is not the real oneness. It is just political.

B. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, On earth as it is in heaven.

Our Father desires that the kingdom of the heavens will be realized by us in this age. The kingdom of the heavens today is among those who remain in His life, abide in Him, so that no offence, doctrine or method or anything else causes them to be divided from one another and therefore they remain in His love.

How can we fallen people with sin natures live like this? There always seem to be those offenses that are unforgivable. Someone does something to us that is wrong and we feel justified in not forgiving. Or others believe strongly in a particular teaching, method or experience that differs from our teaching, method or experience, and so we divide from them or they divide from us. Look at all the various kinds of denomination, churches, groups, etc. of Christians in the world today. How much oneness are we practicing today? Are we offended with anyone? Are we meeting in any way that divides from others? There are churches who are so strong to stand for oneness that they divide from anyone who does not agree with this standing.

C. Give us this day our daily bread

The Lord provides the answer: “Give us this day our daily bread.” We surely need our physical bread. But the Lord is not talking about that in this prayer. A few verses later he says that we are not to be anxious over food and clothing. I believe that in this prayer He is talking about the fact that we are to receive Him as the bread of life every day so that His life will flow out of our inner most being in forgiveness. (John 6:56; 7:37-39) He has already forgiven and taken away all our sins. Now we participate in that forgiveness by experiencing His life. His life is forgiveness.

Every morning I ask the Lord to give me my daily bread. When I find that particular word which is the r{nma for that day, that word becomes the joy and rejoicing of my heart. (Jer. 15:16) When I am in that state, I am in the reality of oneness with all my brothers. I mourn and grieve that so many of our dear brothers whom we love will not fellowship any longer with us due to this one thing: they will not forgive because they no longer experience the life of Christ which is forgiveness.

D. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil

Then He says, “Lead us not into temptation.” What is the temptation here? The devil would like to tempt us to hold our offence and not forgive. When we are offended, the person who offends us becomes our debtor. He or she owes us. They owe us repentance and apology and maybe other things. But the Lord says we must forgive our debtors or our Father will not forgive us.

In Matt. 18 Peter was shocked by this. He asked the Lord, “How many times should we forgive. Up to seven times?” But the Lord answered, “No, up to seventy times seven.” This seemed impossible to Peter as it does to us. This high requirement can only be met by participating in the life of Christ. At no time does God ever places a requirement on us that He Himself does not supply the ability in us to fulfill. Then we are kept from the devil’s snare of holding on to our right and not forgiving our brother or sister.

E. For yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.’

The Lord then says that we end our prayer by praising Him since this life gained and experienced through prayer will issue in His kingdom, power and glory.

You’ll notice that the next two verses explain the prayer’s thrust. Matt. 6: 14 “For if you forgive men for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive men, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions.”

The little word “for” introduces this sentence as an explanation of the key to the prayer. This is not a prayer to repeat in a religious ceremony. It is a model of the prayer that gives us the “prayer-key” that unlocks the life of the kingdom of the heavens that the Lord preached when He said in Matt. 3, “Repent for the kingdom of the heavens.” This kingdom is a life lived under the rule of the heavens and that rule is a rule of life, love and forgiveness.

Although the focus of the prayer is forgiveness, the way of the prayer is to eat the daily bread. This means that we must participate in the words of our Lord. Jesus said, “My words (rJhma) are spirit and they are life. (John 6:63) This is daily bread. Like the manna in the wilderness, we need daily supply from the heavens. This supply of daily bread is in the Word of God as we pray it into our being. By participating in the Word day by day we will live in the reality of the kingdom of the heavens, and all the differences will be swallowed up in His life. No matter how we may be offended or how different our brothers are from us, we will forgive and love them all. Praise the Lord!

(The writer of the following book explains this kind of spiritual eating in a helpful and more detailed way. It is one of the great Christian classics and ought to be read by every serious Christian.)

Experiencing the Depths of Jesus Christ by Madam Jeanne Guyon

(Available from Amazon.com)

The Church

I'm praying these days for the church. That the Lord will have his heart's desire, a church without spot and wrinkle. A church which is His counterpart. One where the riches of Christ are expressed by the saints. Where the saints function as the genuine priesthood offering up sacrafices of the Lord's riches and victory in their lives.

Our God is yearning for churches throughout the earth where Christ is experienced by the saints and where the saints offer these riches to God and to one another. Where each one has a hymn, a song, a teaching and a word of prophesy, speaking out something of God and for God.

In other words, the church becomes the enlargement of Christ. According to Eph. 5, Eve is a type of the church. And she was 100% out of Adam. Therefore the church is only that which comes out of Christ. Nothing natural does the church life allow. Everything natural must go to the cross and only that which is out of Christ passed through.

This can only come into being by and through saints who learn to experience Christ in their spirits. Every Christian brother and sister must learn to know their human spirit and recieve the divine supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ throught the Word of God. Jesus said, "He who masticates me shall live because of me." And, "My words are spirit and they are life." Learn to take Him in by praying the Word into your spirit.

Paul said the same thing in Eph. 6:17-18. "Take the word of God...by means of all prayer and petition." Only thought the Spirit can life produce the church.

The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus

The Law of the Spirit of life is like the law of gravity or the law of aerodynamics. It simply is. It operates spontaneously. When we are in our spirit, the law operates to keep us out of or above the law of sin and death. It depends on our seeing as Paul did that the Lord Jesus Christ has accomplished all in His life, death and resurrection and He lives in us to be our righteousness and everything wee need. The key is in Rom. 7:25.

Paul tried to keep the law and failed. He discovered another law in his flesh that whenever he tried to keep the law evil rose up and defeated him. Eventually he received revelation that the answer was in Christ. He had a paradigm shift in His view of things. That's why he said, "Thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord." Watchman Nee once said that the Christian life is altogether a matter of seeing.

In Rom.8:7 Paul uses the Greek word "phronema" (Strong's number 5427). It means to think, to have a mind set. The tendency or inclination of the mind, its bent. If a Christian has the mind-set to be good, improve himself, to fix himself or herself up, this is to have a law keeping mind-set and will eventually bring defeat. No matter how much you pray and beseech the Lord or even obey the Spirit you will still experience failure because your mind-set is to keep the law.

So everyone needs revelation to see that Jesus did it all and will live the life in you if your mind-set is one that rests in Him and His complete and finished work. He has achieved all and accomplished all that we need. We simply look at Him and He by the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus life will live the life in us. What a wonderful Person He is. Praise Him. I am freed from all effort. Now I live in Another life in which is this marvelous law in my spirit which is one with the Spirit (1 Cor. 6:17).

Freed from the Law

Paul, in Galatians 5 says that we are freed from the the yoke of bondage which is the law. We are to stand firmly in this freedom which is Christ Himself. We are not free to indulge in the license of the flesh but we are free in Christ to live a joyous life full of Him.

When we remember how full of joy we were when we first found Christ or rather when we were found by Him, we should realize that the Lord intends that we would live in that joy throughout our entire Christian life.

Be careful that you are not persuaded to keep the law. No one will say to you, "Keep the law." But they may encourage you to do something to improve your self. Don't fall for it. No one can possibly improve themselves to come up to the standard of the righteousness of God. It is impossible. Just read about Paul's experience in Romans 7. Paul said that the answer to his dilemma was to see that it is Christ Jesus who has accomplished everything on the cross and now is our life.

Our only requirement is to stay in that life. His life is now in the depths of our being, our spirit. Remain there. You might ask, "How do I get there, and how do I remain there?"

In the first place, if you are a believer in Jesus Christ, you are already there. Read 1 Corinthians 1:30. It says of God are you in Christ Jesus. To remain there is also so simple. Just receive the supply of the divine life through prayer. Pray with the Word of God. Paul said in Ephesians 6:17-18, "Take the sword of the Spirit, which Spirit is the Word of God by means of all prayer and petition, praying at every time in spirit." Simply take the Word of God as your prayer, turning you heart to Him who is in the depths of your being, in your spirit.

For example take the twenty third Psalm and pray, "O Lord you are my shepherd. I shall not want. Amen. O Lord, I thank you that you are my sheherd. Amen. Praise You. My shepherd. O Lord I love you. Hallelujah! You are my shepherd." And so forth. You will touch the Lord. He will fill you with the Spirit.

Day by day as we take Him in this way in the morning He becomes our life. We don't need to strive to become better or to overcome any failure. We simply need to live in Him. He became a man, lived a perfect human life, died on the cross to terminate everything of the natural humanity and then rose from the dead bringing in a new humanity. He then ascended to the throne of God and poured out the Spirit so that we might enjoy Him and all He went through. It is so wonderful that we fallen people can live in His life and all that He is becomes ours.

A footnote in the Recover Version of the New Testament reads referring to Rev. 2:7:

"Religion always teaches, but the Lord feeds (John 6:35). The apostle Paul did the same thing; that is, he fed the believers (1 Cor. 3:2). For the proper church life and the recovery of the church life, that is, for the proper growth in the Christian life, what we need is not merely the mental apprehension of teachings but the eating of the Lord as our bread of life in our spirit (John 6:57). Even the words of the Scripture should not be considered merely as doctrines to teach our mind but as food to nourish our spirit (Matt. 4:4; Heb. 5:12-14). Here in this epistle the Lord promised to give the overcomer to eat of the tree of life. This points back to Gen. 2:8-9, 16, which concerns the matter of eating ordained by God. In the epistle to the church in Pergamos, the Lord promised the overcomer that he would eat of the hidden manna (v. 17), which refers to the eating of manna by the children of Israel in the wilderness (Exo. 16:14-16, 31). And in the epistle to the church in Laodicea, the Lord promised to dine with the one who opens the door to Him. To dine is to eat not merely one kind of food but the riches of a feast. This may refer to the eating of the rich produce of the good land of Canaan by the children of Israel (Josh. 5:10-12). This indicates that the Lord desires to recover the eating of the proper food by God's people, the food ordained by God and typified by the tree of life, the manna, and the produce of the good land, all of which are types of the various aspects of Christ as food to us. The degradation of the church distracts God's people from the eating of Christ as their food and turns them to the teaching of doctrines for knowledge. In the church's degradation there are the teaching of Balaam (v. 14), the teaching of the Nicolaitans (v. 15), the teaching by Jezebel (v. 20), and the teaching of the deep things of Satan (v. 24). Now in these epistles the Lord came to recover the proper eating of Himself as our food supply. We must eat Him not only as the tree of life and the hidden manna but also as a feast full of His riches."

The Cross in Our Experience

The Lord Jesus said we must all bear the cross. In our experience it is borne both inwardly and outwardly. Inwardly we experience the putting to death of Jesus in our spirit. This works to kill our self-life. Outwardly the cross is the will of God realized in our circumstances. Everything in the circumstances of the believer's life is arranged by God to produce him into the image of Christ. Because what we need is a termination of the self and a bringing in of the life of Christ.

On the one hand we experience Christ inwardly as the Spirit which has the element of the death of Christ to operate in us putting to death the deeds of the body. On the other all the varied circumstances are aspects of the cross and, if we embrace them, work on us to allow the Lord to cross us out and gain us more completely.

Praise Him for the cross!

Thanks

I haven't posted for quite awhile due to my being very sick. But through the prayers of the saints and the Lord's mercy I am mostly recovered. Thank you all for the love, concern and your prayers.

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of the heavens. (Matt. 5:3)

The Lord starts His speaking on the mount to the disciples describing the nature of the people who are possessors of the Kingdom of the Heavens. First these people are poor in spirit.

The word for poor in Greek means to be a beggar with utterly no hope of improvement. It is a person who in the depths of his being, his spirit, he realizes that he is nothing, he has nothing and he can do nothing. It is not simply a matter of mentally acknowledging this, but through many sufferings and failures comes to the point where he is so convinced that he is such a person that he could never go to his own resources to accomplish anything, even things that are commanded by the Lord.

In every situation you spontaneously go to the Lord to receive the supply of His life for only in that life are you able. Without that life you can’t even say a proper word. You are completely dependent upon Him.

The ones who have been brought to this point in their Christian lives by the Lord are in the reality of the kingdom of the heavens. They don’t have to get in. They are already in. May the Lord so work in all of us that we might arrive there.

“What can be done in the modern church that could help curb the current drop out and go someplace else where its peaceful mentality?”

The answer is simply that the saints do not see what the church is. The Christian life is a matter of seeing. If you see that Jesus is the living savior you will be saved. In the same way, every Christian must also see the church. They must receive a vision of the church. “Without vision the people run wild” (Prov. 29:18)

The church is constituted of the universal God, but it exists on earth in many towns and cities. In nature the church is universal in God, but in practice the church is local in a definite place. Therefore, the church has two aspects, the universal and the local. Without the universal aspect, the church is void of content; without the local aspect, it is impossible for the church to have any expression and practice. Hence, the New Testament stresses the local aspect of the church also. (Recovery Version, footnote 2 of verse 1:2)

The church in each locality is simply the expression of the universal church. Anything in addition to that is not the church. Since there is only one universal church on earth and all born again believers belong to it, there can only be one expression of that one church in every locality and all believers are born into it, whether they meet in it or not. Once the saints see that and the church drops every other affiliation that is not the church and takes the standing that it is the expression of the universal church, the saints will not leave it to go to some place that is not the church.

So it is a matter of the churches standing as the one church in a city and the vision that is imparted thru the ministry that will save the saints from wandering and give them the opportunity to be built up together in the reality of the church. This is confirmed by all the epistles of Paul.

Abide in Me

When the Lord said, "Abide in Me," what did He mean? This is a big question. Did He mean to abide in His word? Did He mean to abide in the Spirit? Did He mean to abide in the church? Did He mean to keep our mind set on Him? Or did He mean to pray without ceasing? What did He mean?

In John 15 Jesus said to keep His commandments. The first commandment in this chapter is to abide in Him. The next is to love our brothers. If we keep the first we will be able to keep the second. Yet what is the way to keep the first?

"The just shall live by faith," Paul said in Romans chapter one. This not only refers to our initial salvation experience but to our entire lives with the Lord. Therefore to abide in Him is to continually believe that you are abiding in Him. The fact is that we have been placed in Christ by God. (1 Cor. 1:30) This is our place and it never changes. Our feelings change but God does not and our position is Christ does not.

Of course we should rise early and spend time with the Lord enjoying Him and feeding on His word to receive the divine supply of life. But the fact that we are in Christ should be our constant belief.

When I was first saved I asked myself and others how do I get into Christ that I may abide in Him. I think that many young Christians may have this kind of thought. But the fact is that we are all in Christ, placed there by our Father. We do not have to get in we already are in.

By harboring the thought or the feeling that you are not in Christ and not abiding you cut yourself off from the supply of life and will experience failure. Don't let the devil cheat you. Of God you are in Christ Jesus who has been made to you wisdom, both righteousness, sanctification and redemption. (1 Cor. 1:30)

Fishing for Men

In John 21 Peter decided to go fishing and the others said that they would go with him. After they had fished all night they had caught nothing. When the morning came and they looked over at the shore they saw that Jesus was there. This is the first indication that they were not in God’s will. Jesus was not in the boat with them!

Even worse, they didn’t even know that it was Jesus on the shore! They were so out of the spirit that they couldn’t tell that it was the very one that had been with them for three and a half years. John was the first one to realize that it was the Lord.

They had gone off on their own fishing for men that they thought would be good and had utterly failed. Why? They never asked the Lord if He were doing it. Obviously He was not. Without Him in the boat how could they succeed in the Lord’s work?

This story is a picture of our service to the Lord in fishing for men. Whatever we do without the Lord will be a failure. Only He can say to cast the net on the right side of the boat. When He leads He not only told them when to through the net but even on which side of the boat to through it. He will give the when and the where and all the details if we will spend the time with Him. We not only need Him to give the direction but we need Him in the boat with us. Then there will be success.

The disciples had not yet learned the lesson that the way to success in any venture that is for the benefit of the Kingdom of God is by the cross. All the self, the opinions and all the natural means and energy must go to the cross. Before there is life there must be death to self. Everything of self must be brought to the cross, pass through death into resurrection life. Then out of our innermost being will flow rivers of living water to supply people with what they need so badly: Christ who is our salvation.

If we would begin to do a work for God and we discover that there is no blessing and we don’t even realize that the Lord is not in what we are doing, we should stop, trace back our steps until we are with the Lord again. Then find out what He is doing and proceed remaining in Him We all make these kinds of errors and we learn more of our Lord. Then by His mercy begin to know more and more the way we should go on with Him.