God Will Perfect His Will In Your Life
"This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye
henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, having
the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the
ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart" (Eph.
4:17-18).I believe that we are beginning to enter into an exciting time in our Christian experience, but right now there is so much darkness prevailing over our minds that it is very, very difficult to see what God is revealing to the Church. Some of what I am about to share with you may therefore seem to be contrary to the Word of God, but it only seems Contrary. I believe God has us now in a position where we are so fed up with what we know has not worked for us, that maybe we are ready to receive some truth and some understanding which goes beyond what we have perceived in the past.
When Paul wrote this passage in Ephesians 4:17-18, he had already given the Ephesians an almost entire view of God’s plan, His will, and His purposes for them, and that is why he used the word "therefore." "Because of all of this that I have shown you, therefore don’t be like the gentiles. Don’t be like the unbelievers." And most of us do not realize that we can be a believer for many years, and still in our mind and in our understanding be like an unbeliever! We can know everything there is to know, we think, about the Word of God. We have walked and sought after God for
years, and because of that we do not realize that we are in this condition of being like a gentile, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God that is in us.
What does Paul mean by being "alienated from the life of God"? We need to have an understanding that there are only two sources of life in the universe. You receive your life source from Adam, which is separated from the life of God, or from Christ who is one with God. Most Christians still are receiving their life source unknowingly from the natural or carnal man. They have never learned how to contact and live by the Spirit of Christ within them. Being "alienated from the life" simply means that I do not have an understanding that my Father and I are One. I have been alienated; my mind is darkened to the understanding that God and man are One. Having their understanding darkened, being alienated . . . there is still much teaching prevailing in the Church today about "the great falling away". I hear it on TV; I hear it wherever I go. I hear about the "great falling away" and "the man of sin who is soon to be revealed." That teaching is part of the darkness, because there is no possible way that the Church of the Living God could be in any more darkness than it has been in for the last two thousand years—it is impossible. The "falling away" that the Apostle talked about began even in Paul’s lifetime, but it took root in the second century and has gone deeper and deeper into darkness for the last two thousand years.
One of the first rays of light that God used to recover His Church back to its original design, intent and purpose after the dark ages of Catholic rule was a man named Martin Luther. That is when the recovery began to take place to bring the Church out of darkness, and most of us do not realize how dark the Church was in those days. At that time, what was known as the Church was persecuting and killing everyone who was a genuine Christian. They forbid the reading of scriptures except by the priests who they said only the priest could properly understand the scriptures to tell you what to do.
In the beginning this was not so. If you go back to chapter 1 of Ephesians and read up to this point of the Word in chapter 4, "Therefore," you will see that Paul had revealed to them first of all that they were chosen in God. We still do not realize that we are chosen in God. The religious Gospel has made that not God’s choice, but man’s choice, because the religious Gospel says, "You were chosen in Him before the foundation of the world, because He knew there would come a day when you would choose Him; therefore, because He foreknew that you were going to do that, He chose you." Well then, whose choice is it?
If God chose you before the foundation of the world, that you should be holy and without blame before Him in love, that will happen! Oh, we must get the Church to see this! It is going to happen. You are going to come to a point in your experience where you will fully reveal and manifest to the world the glory of God. It is guaranteed, because
God chose it to be so.
The reason that most do not experience it is because of the darkness, the alienation from the life of God that is in us because of the blindness of the heart. We are all in darkness to an extent. We have been taught ignorance in the Church for two thousand years. The Gospel that Paul preached when he was alive has been almost totally
annihilated from the Christian’s mind, and we have been taught things exactly opposite from what he taught and believed. We have been in so much darkness. We are one with God. In the very essence of our being is the God of the Universe, but yet in our minds we are alienated from that life that is in us, because of the blindness that is on our eyes and on our heart.
The good news is that we are in the dawning of a new day. God is beginning to lift the veil and to bring His Church out of darkness. And that is the thing that is upon my heart more than anything else. When I thought about this this morning, I just had to weep in intercession, because the blindness is so heavy over the people of God. How we need intercessors, because some of the things we have to share in these days are going to seem contrary to the Word.
But believe me, it is only seemingly, because every question that you might have regarding what I have to share with you can be answered, even though these are not simple questions which can be answered in a quickly. Sometimes a
question will take a message to answer. However if you stay with me in these messages that are coming forth, most of your questions will be answered.
Understanding God’s Omnipresence
God has a plan for us. If only we would understand some of the theological expressions that the Church has, doctrines like omnipresence and omnipotence and omniscience. Do you know what "omnipresence" means? I am sure you do, but let us look at it. Omnipresence means that God is everywhere and there is nowhere that God is not. That is literally what the word means. If God is truly omnipresent, there is no space in the universe where God is not, because His presence is all-pervading. Now if that is true, what about that man on his death-bed who has never acknowledged Christ? If God is not in that man who is not acknowledging Him, then God is not omnipresent—there is at least one place in this universe where He is not, and that is in that man. The Church needs to examine some of the things they themselves have taught in the past. What that man needs is not someone trying to convince him that he needs God; he needs someone with the authority and the power of the spoken Word to speak to the seed of God that is in that man to cause it to rise up! You can pray to God for a hundred years for something, and you may never see it happen; but you can learn to speak the Word and see it happen in a few seconds!
Jesus said it: If you have faith as a grain of mustard seed—not if you fast for a hundred years, if you pray for twenty years, if you read ten chapters of the Bible a day—but if you have the faith of a grain of mustard seed, you can say to that mountain, "Be removed!" And yet we pray to Him continuously, "O God, do this, and O God, do that!" Because of the blindness that is on our hearts, we are alienated from the life of God that is in us, and we are all the time praying to Him to do something. But He said to the very first disciples He had, "All authority and power is given unto Me; go ye therefore and make disciples." You don’t have to try to get people saved; you don’t have to try to get God into someone; you need to speak to the core of their being, and you will stir the Spirit of the Living God that is dormant in most of creation.
Experiencing Heavenly Places
Paul said that we have been blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places. He said you have been seated with Christ in heavenly places. Why do we not experience that? Do you think if I was experiencing all of the blessings of God, if I experienced being seated in heavenly places with Christ, that I could be in the condition I am in today? Why don’t we experience that? It is because of the blindness. We have become alienated from the life of God that is within us. We don’t even know where "heavenly places" are. We think there is a planet up there somewhere where our spirit might be connected somehow. But do you know what heavenly places are? Heavenly places means a conscious awareness of that reality of being one with God.
There are three levels of consciousness: one is body-conscious, one is soul-conscious, and one is spirit-conscious. Many people are merely body-conscious; many people are just soul-conscious; and a few of us are beginning to become spirit-conscious. That means that when our mind is unveiled, and when our eyes become unveiled to the reality of the revelation that Paul gave to the Church in its very beginning, we will walk in a conscious awareness of everything that the Word of God speaks of. And we won’t have to try to do it, either. But for that to happen we have to begin to have our concepts changed, because the God that has been presented to us in Christianity has been presented in a way that has given us a false concept of Him. And that is nothing new, because Jesus had to fight that same battle when He was here. He said, "It has been written in your very own law, but I say to you . . ." Some may say, "Brother, I go by the Word; if the Word says it, that’s it. And the law says ‘an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,’ so if you kill someone, I am going to kill you." Jesus said, "It has been written. It is in your very own Word." There is something wrong with some of the concepts that we pick up from the scriptures. He said, "It has been
written, but I say to you, love your enemies; do good to them who despitefully use you." Our concepts have to be changed.
To be continued
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