"...ye know
not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor,
that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. For that ye ought
to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that. .. Therefore
to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin." (James
4:13-17)
It is a good practice in all things to say "if the Lord will, we will do
this or that" as our life is a vapor. It is important to remember life is
short and to see if what you're choosing and doing counts in your eternal
record. One way of doing this is how Jesus said that He says nothing and
does nothing except what our Father has given Him to do, and He will & can
only do His will since He is the spotless lamb and the King of Righteousness
who cannot violate even one of His commands.
Many say they’re seeking to do God’s will. There is only one test as to what
His will is, which is His eternal law. The Holy Spirit can never lead
someone against God’s law. Only our own flesh and the world can lead us on a
destructive path outside of God’s will. His will is His WORD, AKA "the
Bible". If you want to know His will in your life, you’ll find it in the
pages of His word. The complete revealed will to His people is His
word or law.
In all
cases Jesus kept God's law perfectly, He lived the word better than any
other. For example, the Sabbath was made for healing and He did 7 healings
on the Sabbath days. Jesus spoke the truth saying the Pharisees
do REJECT
the law of Moses by their man-made traditions
(Mar 7:7-9) when He was accused of breaking their laws.
Many churches today also fall into this rejection of God's WORD through
keeping their own unbliblical man-made traditions. We know God had already
promised that
"..they who
reject knowledge, God will in return reject them..."and
as a result
"they who forget His law, He will forget their children".
(Hosea 4:6)
Our daily
prayer is to be that we and others do God's will in the earth, just as His
will is being perfectly done by the angels in heaven; for we have been told
to pray, that His Kingdom does come to earth:
Matt 6:10
"Thy
kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven."
Those that
teach we need to “abide in Christ†leave out this important truth:
"He that
saith I know Him and keepeth not His commandments, is a liar, and the truth
is not in Him. …
Hereby know we that we are in Him.."
(1Jhn 2 4:5 )
Since
Christ is called the word (John 1:1&14), how can anyone think we can violate
his word-law and still abide in Him? The way we know we have a relationship
with Christ is by how much we are doing His Word. Jesus is the eternal word
that spoke the heavens and earth into existence, not confined to the
so-called New Testament.
James 1:22 reiterates this requirement of keeping His commandments:
"be ye doers
of the word, and not hearers only..."
For those
who think faith (or faithing as Dr. Gene Scott put it) doesn't have to
include obedience are far off from His Grace and Freedom working in their
lives.
Jhn 15:10
“If
ye keep My commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my
Father's commandments, and abide in His love.â€
Romans 10:17 says
"Faith comes
by hearing the word".
“The word†being the law of Moses. So we know how faith comes. Hearing is
not the only part,
"Faith
without works is dead"
(James 2:17).
If you
believe a commandment, (or word of God), you would then show the outward
evidence of obeying that command.
We must return to biblical definitions of words, as we
"live by
every word". The
definition of sin is violation of God's law (1John 3:4). If the spirit sets
you free from sin, then the spirit will empower you to obey the law of God.
As Jesus said we must do it in love for God, not tradition. It has always
been the heart condition He is after, which is what God said, when referring
to the New Testament, that those same laws would be written on our hearts
(as per Heb 8:8 and Jer 31:31).
The Holy Spirit will never make you violate God's law. Only the wrong spirit
working on the lusts of the flesh will give us such thoughts.
We should grow daily in grace and knowledge, knowing
"a good
understanding have all they that keep His commandments".
(Psalms 111:10) In John 8:31-32 Christ said
"...they who
continue in His word will know the truth, and the truth ...will set you
free," not they who
disobey or reject it. He said
"if
you don't believe Moses' word ye CANNOT hear me or know me"
(John 5:46 & Luke 16:31).
Grace is the Greek word Charisma where we get the word Charismatic for a
very capable and gifted person. This word Charisma is also translated as
some of the manifestations of the Holy Spirit, such as when you through the
power of God lay hands on someone for healing. This is called the charisma
or gift of healing. Romans 1:15 says
"Grace(charisma)
is for obedience". A
good example of biblical grace is
"For it is
God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure."
(Philipians 2:13) This isn’t our own righteousness when He does it. The
Holy Spirit fills us with both the desire to do His will and the power to do
it.
Many like to quote
"we're saved
by grace" and not finish
the sentence which continues
"..through
faith unto GOOD WORKS".
When the last part is left out people are highly misled to move on with the
complete opposite idea the bible conveyed in that passage. The Blood of
Jesus Christ permanently saved us by His own dear grace, but for what? To do
His good works! It is not the good works that save but we're saved to do
them, people have just had it backwards because no amount of Good Works can
earn your permanent spiritual salvation. It is only gained by accepting
Jesus Christ's penalty paid through His blood.
When our King Jesus the Christ was asked what is the greatest commandment He
first said
"Hear O
Israel" quoted from Deuteronomy 6:4,
Mar
12:29 "And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O
Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord:"
That word HEAR in this passage is the word SHAMA (the word for responding &
obeying in Hebrew). Faith comes by "HEARING"; again we see we get faith by
obeying what we heard, as we continue doing His will which is His word law.
His will and His word are one and the same, so it is up to us to now choose.
Our old flesh nature will not want to do the law, only the spiritual nature
will.
"For I
delight in the law of God after the inward man: But I see another law in my
members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity
to the law of sin which is in my members."
(Romans 7:22-23 and
"the law is
spiritual" (Romans
7:14).
Now Choose
"As
ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him:"
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