Facebook on Monday, 18 April 2011 at 21:17
We Are Judged As Sons
"Beloved, now are we the sons
of God,
and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall
appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is"chilldren) (1 John
3:2).
We Are Judged As Sons
"Beloved, now are we the sons
of God,
and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall
appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is"chilldren) (1 John
3:2).
To judge yourself
simply means
to be transparent
When you look at me, I still reflect so much of my carnal nature. I am not even close to being
perfected, but it does not yet appear what I will be. God is doing a
work in me (and in you), and one day we shall be like Him. Because of His
judgments and corrections and because of His great and mighty love for us,
there will come a day when He shall appear, and when He appears, we shall be
like Him. That’s because when He appears, He is going to appear in us.
We are children of God
right now by position. We are children because God paid the price to redeem us.
Whether a person realizes it or not, the blood of the Lamb has redeemed them.
In position, we are the children of God, but we must not just settle for the
knowledge of our position, we must grow up to become sons in character and in
nature. That is one reason why we are judged.
"For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are
chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world" (1 Cor. 11:31-32).
To judge yourself means
simply to be transparent. Don’t try to hide and cover yourself up. I go to God
every day with things in my life that are still carnal and not fully dealt
with. We must be honest and transparent before God.
"And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son,
despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of
him: for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he
receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what
son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement,
whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. Furthermore we
have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence:
shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?
For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he
for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. Now no chastening
for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it
yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised
thereby" (Heb. 12:5-11).
You can see by these verses that God judges us as sons. If we really understood what judgment was for we would go to God daily for His correction. I want God to judge me now. I
do not want to pass from this life and then realize how far I have missed God.
It is much better to go to God every day and ask Him to deal with us now in
whatever way it takes to correct us.
Most Christians, because
they do not understand judgment, think that the devil is their problem. Nothing
could be further from the truth. I can boldly tell you that
the devil is not your problem. We have been so blinded by some of the religious teaching we
have had. We have a tremendous problem and it is right between our ears.
It is called the mind. Carnal nature and carnal thinking
is our problem.
The only power that the adversary has over you is in your unrenewed mind. Once your mind begins to be renewed in the things of God, and you go to God daily and seek Him for His correction and reproof, seek Him to have a nature transformation on the inside of you, you
will find that the devil is not the problem. Christians for years have blamed
their problems on the devil outside of them, instead of taking responsibility
for their actions.
I have been through some horrible chastisements in the past, thinking it was the devil trying to destroy me. There is the law of sowing and reaping that has nothing to do with the
devil fighting you.
"If you sow to the flesh, you will of the flesh
reap corruption" (Gal. 6:8).
Jesus said, "Narrow is the way that leads to life" (Matt. 7:14). I used to think that
meant that narrow is the way to go to heaven and few there be that find it.
That is the traditional concept. I thought if I did good all my life that when
I died I would go to heaven. However the narrow way that leads to life is
referring to God’s life. Jesus said,
"I am come that you might have
life" (John 10:10). The life that He refers to here is the life of
the Spirit, the abundant life of the Spirit of God flowing in us. The reason
that Jesus died was so that He could take away your stony heart and replace it
with a heart of flesh and cause you to walk in His statutes.<
"And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye
shall keep my judgments, and do them" (Ezek. 36:27).
This is why we are judged.
The narrow way
that leads to life
is referring
to God's Life
"Can the Ethiopian
change his skin, or the leopard his spots? Then may ye also do good, that are
accustomed to do evil" (Jer. 13:23). God doesn’t correct you, thinking that you’re going
to whip yourself into line with your carnal nature. The judgment is to get you
to turn to Him, and then from His Spirit within you, you will find the strength
to live for Him. When you learn to turn to Him instead of trying to get your
natural carnal life to live godly, His Spirit begins to operate in you and enables
the Spirit to infiltrate all the areas of your life that need transformation.
This judgment has nothing to do with the natural man learning obedience. Yes,
you must learn obedience, but your obedience must come from the new creation
man created in Christ Jesus.
"If you through the spirit put to death
the deeds of the body you shall live" (Rom. 8:13).
Turning Your Heart to Him
If you will just spend
time with God every day to get to know him, you will find yourself being
transformed into His desire for your life. Whenever the heart turns to
the Lord, the veil begins to be removed (2 Cor. 3:16).
We must learn to turn our hearts moment by moment to the Lord
. There is none of us who are so
carnal that we cannot turn our hearts to Him at least a little every day.
This is why we are judged as sons. We are judged so that we will turn to God for the supply of the Spirit, not to get us to try and make new resolutions to do better. I used to
say "Lord, today I will do this and I won’t do that." That
does not work. If you have been a Christian very long, you know it doesn’t
work. However, if you turn your heart to Him, in your seeking of Him, you will
realize that the debt has been paid. I may have some things in my life that
shouldn’t be there, that haven’t been overcome yet, but that is because I am
somewhat still living from the carnal mind.
I cannot save myself from the works of my
flesh. We need a savior. Just because we are Christians doesn’t mean that all
of a sudden we are super spiritual persons that will always be obedient to God.
There are times when our flesh gets the best of us. Wanting to do something
does not necessarily give you the power to do it. Only God can give you the
strength and power to overcome the dictates of the flesh and live according to
the Spirit. That is why we must seek God. Remember that every time you seek God
and contact Him in your spirit, something of His divine essence is added to
your being and a killing aspect is released to your flesh.
"God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth"
(John 4:24).
There is no other way to be an overcomer. We cannot be good enough in ourselves to please God and overcome the flesh. We must contact God in spirit. We must be
transformed by the power of the indwelling Spirit of God. Even if we do have a
strong natural will and can be obedient, it is to no avail. Of course, it is
better to be obedient than disobedient, but in God’s eyes, our obedience must
be by His Spirit in our spirit, flowing into and transforming our natural life
for God to be pleased.
"But we are all as an unclean thing, and all
our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our
iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away" (Isa. 64:6). Our
righteousness is anything we do from the natural man, or good man. The best we
can produce for God from our natural goodness is as filthy rags.
To be continued
change his skin, or the leopard his spots? Then may ye also do good, that are
accustomed to do evil" (Jer. 13:23). God doesn’t correct you, thinking that you’re going
to whip yourself into line with your carnal nature. The judgment is to get you
to turn to Him, and then from His Spirit within you, you will find the strength
to live for Him. When you learn to turn to Him instead of trying to get your
natural carnal life to live godly, His Spirit begins to operate in you and enables
the Spirit to infiltrate all the areas of your life that need transformation.
This judgment has nothing to do with the natural man learning obedience. Yes,
you must learn obedience, but your obedience must come from the new creation
man created in Christ Jesus.
"If you through the spirit put to death
the deeds of the body you shall live" (Rom. 8:13).
Turning Your Heart to Him
If you will just spend
time with God every day to get to know him, you will find yourself being
transformed into His desire for your life. Whenever the heart turns to
the Lord, the veil begins to be removed (2 Cor. 3:16).
We must learn to turn our hearts moment by moment to the Lord
. There is none of us who are so
carnal that we cannot turn our hearts to Him at least a little every day.
This is why we are judged as sons. We are judged so that we will turn to God for the supply of the Spirit, not to get us to try and make new resolutions to do better. I used to
say "Lord, today I will do this and I won’t do that." That
does not work. If you have been a Christian very long, you know it doesn’t
work. However, if you turn your heart to Him, in your seeking of Him, you will
realize that the debt has been paid. I may have some things in my life that
shouldn’t be there, that haven’t been overcome yet, but that is because I am
somewhat still living from the carnal mind.
I cannot save myself from the works of my
flesh. We need a savior. Just because we are Christians doesn’t mean that all
of a sudden we are super spiritual persons that will always be obedient to God.
There are times when our flesh gets the best of us. Wanting to do something
does not necessarily give you the power to do it. Only God can give you the
strength and power to overcome the dictates of the flesh and live according to
the Spirit. That is why we must seek God. Remember that every time you seek God
and contact Him in your spirit, something of His divine essence is added to
your being and a killing aspect is released to your flesh.
"God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth"
(John 4:24).
There is no other way to be an overcomer. We cannot be good enough in ourselves to please God and overcome the flesh. We must contact God in spirit. We must be
transformed by the power of the indwelling Spirit of God. Even if we do have a
strong natural will and can be obedient, it is to no avail. Of course, it is
better to be obedient than disobedient, but in God’s eyes, our obedience must
be by His Spirit in our spirit, flowing into and transforming our natural life
for God to be pleased.
"But we are all as an unclean thing, and all
our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our
iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away" (Isa. 64:6). Our
righteousness is anything we do from the natural man, or good man. The best we
can produce for God from our natural goodness is as filthy rags.
To be continued
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