Bible Blog

The Aramaic Bible Web Log is a forum for discussing the origins of the Bible and the value of translating the Scriptures from the Ancient Aramaic Texts of the Ancient Church of the East directly into English. I believe that the Ancient Aramaic language is the true scribal language of Scriptures. My translations are posted at http://www.v-a.com/bible/. If you send me appropriate questions or comments, I will post them on this Web Log and attempt to answer or respond to them as best as I can. I will only post what I consider proper. I will not include e-mail addresses, but only your name as you wish it to appear on this blog. Click here to submit your questions or comments via e-mail. Or you may use the FORM MAIL at the bottom of this blog.

Tue, 11 Dec 2007

It ever intrigues me that when a scripture is (oft) misquoted, that the answer to its misuse is actually attached to, or juxtaposed to it. Such is the case with “Purposing to know only Christ Jesus and Him crucified”. Paul was referring to the method and mode of message he adopted to reach and teach a carnal bunch of intellectuals, who were rife with contention and strife.
The thing I particularly like about Vic’s translation is that it untangles and demystifies much of the misrepresentations found in Greek sourced texts, and this is why preachers avoid using it or cross referencing with it – in that it bursts the bubbles on many an oft vaunted and misapprehended text, or worse still, scripture which has been deliberately twisted by twisted minds to establish dogma which is contrary to Meshiach.
1. And I, my brethren, come to you neither with great speeches, nor with wisdom do I preach to you the sermon of God. (God’s words)
2. And I do not judge myself among you like I know something, except for Jesus Christ, also [Jesus] as he was on the cross. (In other words, it is not about WHAT I know, or by MY wisdom, but rather WHO I know, by HIS wisdom – His mind – speaking the Mind of Christ – the Oracles of God.)
3. And I come to you with much fear and trembling. (I have experienced this while preaching (and writing), a trembling and quaking at the Power of and upon the Word, my flesh barely able to operate and those in the congregation slain by the presence.)
4. And my manifestation and preaching are not through deliverance by words of wisdom, except through the revelation of the Spirit and power.
5. So as your faith may not be in the service of humanity, except through the power of God.
6. Wisdom, however, we speak of among those who are mature, neither the wisdom of this world, nor of the authorities of this world which shall come to naught,
7. Except we speak the wisdom of God through the sermon that was hidden and which God had chosen from before [the foundations of] the universe, for our glorification. Compare Ephesians 1:9-10 http://www.v-a.com/bible/letters/ephesians.html
8. That which not one of the authorities of this world know about, for if they know it, they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory.
9. Except as it is written in Scriptures,
No eye has seen and no ear has heard, and the human heart has not perceived,
that which God has consecrated for those who have mercy on him.*
10. To us, however, God revealed it through His Spirit, for the Spirit can fathom anything, even the depths of God.
11. For which human being knows what it is to be human, if it were not for the human spirit within them. Likewise no human being knows about God, except for the Spirit of God.
12. We, however, did not receive the spirit of the world, except [we received] the Spirit from God, in order that we may know the endowment we received from God.

13. Even these things that we speak, are not through the knowledge of words, by human wisdom, except through the enlightenment of the Spirit, and regarding spirits we have contemplated spiritually.
14. For the human being is a lone soul and [human beings] cannot receive that which is spiritual*, for that causes contention* in them, and they cannot comprehend how to judge the spiritual.
15. The holy Spirit, however, judges everything, and He cannot be judged by any human being.
16. For who understands the Lord's perception, so as to teach Him? We, however, have Christ's perception (Mind).
Footnotes
*1 Cor 2:9 Lit. Ar. idiomatic construction: "Eye does not see and ear does not hear, and over the heart does not rise the thing God graced to those who mercy Him."
*1 Cor 2:14.1 Lit. Ar. id.: "Spiritualism."
*1 Cor 2:14.2 Lit. Ar. idiom retained: "Redundancy."
Jesus referred to His preaching in parables to withhold the mysteries from people – if I have been guilty of anything at times it is of sharing that which is Holy with dogs, of sharing the deep things of God with some who seek to know God by their own natural senses and to comprehend Him with their own mind. These people are darkened and in rebellion, and often are seeking understanding from an oblique or intellectual perspective, but as they are inherently dishonest and of their father, the devil, who is the father of lies, they come seeking wisdom but not the Way. Jesus said that if they were to see with THEIR eyes and to hear with THEIR ears, He would be constrained to heal them – that they would be licensed to place demands on them which would not be proper, as their hearts would still be darkened and their motives wrong. This is why we must come to Him with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, lest we be proud and lifted up and it be about us. He is not a “hold-out” for His own good, but for ours.
God said to me about 6-7 years ago, that He wanted me to ask of Him the “HARD QUESTIONS” – and the first that came to mind was, “What about the devil, what is with him?” I was told, “If I had not created him, you would have become your own devil.” I was given to see a vision/image of an old western type rail spur, with a buffer at the end of the line, and I was given to understand that this represented the devil. If you can receive it, he is there so that when you are coming to the end of yourself, his defining presence and sense of evil will stop you totally going off the rails. I can even sense him screaming NOOOOO at the thought that despite all that he tries to do to undo the work of God, that he is the unwilling servant of God – a vessel to dishonor.
The hindering factor is PRIDE and its accompanying UNFORGIVENESS – this is what keeps us from the LOVE of God and the fulfillment of ALL IN ALL – the more you realise that all your provision and equipping it is all for the kingdom and all about HIS GREAT LOVE, with which He first loved us, then the more you will gain an access to the kingdom and the more peace and assurance and knowledge will be yours to share, but not knowledge as the world brings, with attachments and strings, but the full and certain knowledge of Jesus Christ, and Him crucified for us. This is the gateway to ALL TRUTH – if you KNOW THIS, then you KNOW ALL, for HE IS ALL and ALL were crucified together in HIM!
Do you feel that anointing? – That is the POWER of the Resurrection.

Tue, 07 Aug 2007

Joining the Dots (Ian's response to Vincent)

19. Hence we have been given this entry into the holy sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, with uncovered faces, (The Holy of Holies – where we get in touch with God on a personal level – if you have to go to a church to do that, you have a problem)
20. And the road for life eternal that has been renewed by the entry through the two-sided door, which is His flesh.
21. And we have a King Priest who is Lord of His House of God. (We have a house in the heavens, a body in the heavens, not made with hands, the temple of the living God, New Jerusalem; don’t you know that YOUR BODY is THE TEMPLE OF GOD – that THE TEMPLE OF GOD is YOUR BODY?)
22. Let us, therefore, accept the offering with a sincere heart and through the testament of faith, as our hearts are sprinkled [with His blood] and our consciences are cleansed of evil and our bodies are washed by the cleansing Waters.
23. And let us become leavened by the celebration of our Hope without fail. For Faithful is He who sent us this Message of Hope.
24. And let us look at one another with the enthusiasm of love and the performance of good deeds.
25. And let us not leave our community, as is becoming the habit with certain people, except love one another from within,
OK, so what is OUR COMMUNITY? Is it talking about church, or our gathering together unto HIM – our entering into and maintaining the holy sanctuary hope and experience? It is about a 24/7 state of being, whereby we are cleansed – we walk in the Spirit – we do not have to “go to church” to be church, it is our ongoing experience and reality – our life condition – because we realise who we are and who others are and we are not fooled by the flesh.
Let us not depart from our community in Christ. When Paul said to come out from among them and be separate, he was talking about apostate, reprobate believers who corrupt the faith and who are enemies of the cross. By understanding our “community” and being the SALT, we preserve what is around us – we bring hope and meaning and clarity and purpose. We attract the lost, we bring a sense of salvation to the situation, because we are immersed in a different culture, even though we may labor in the flesh we are not of the flesh. We are of a different culture, we are of heaven – we can walk into any situation where God leads us and possess it without fear – we are well able to take the land! We are not affronted by nor afeared of the world, the flesh or the devil – we are more than conquerors through Him that loves us, not just conquerors but MORE THAN CONQUERORS – Jesus was the conqueror, he destroyed the devil and his works, he made a show of him openly, he led captivity captive, and then said, YOU GO IN MY NAME! The works that I do and even greater works shall you do! We are MORE THAN CONQUERORS through Him who loves us!
25. And let us not leave our community, as is becoming the habit with certain people, except love one another from within,
Our community is CHRIST – it is the body of Christ – BUT, it is not the fractionated, dispersed and variable organized gatherings which have a pretense or show of righteousness but deny the power. Sure, you may get a semblance of anointing, of presence etc, but it is the spontaneous moment which has the real eventfulness. I think that God works in spite of us, rather than because of us. If and when we come together in a group setting, it ought to be celebration of the life which sustains us 24/7, and not an end in itself.
Words fail me in this respect, but I have found that the real times of deep intimacy tend to happen in the secret place. Church is so often something of an public orgy or pretentious praise, hence it can be and is typified as a whore. We wonder why we cannot carry that grace, that presence with us where ever we go – the answer is simple – religion! How come Peter went from healing people with his shadow, to running away from the Pharisees and having Paul withstand him to his face for his partiality? He lost sight of the BODY. If we do not DISCERN THE BODY, then we are in danger of dis-ease. The next time you look at a pretty girl and find your mind wandering, ask Jesus to show you what her inner man looks like. The next time you look at a retard or Downs or spastic, ask Jesus to show you there inner man – ask Him to show you their spirit.
God is so right, we are often too sensual, too ruled by our senses and not enough by our spirits – hence, as Paul said to the Corinthians, “I could not converse with you as spirits, but as men, because you were of the flesh.” The Word of God is SPIRITUALLY DISCERNED.

posted at: 11:40 | path: | permanent link to this entry

Sat, 28 Apr 2007

The Distraction/Inaction Principle.

And I celebrate the sorrows I endured on your behalf and complement what I lack in the flesh with respect to Christ's suffering on behalf of his body which is the Church. Colossians 1:24

Have you ever noticed how it is that we can be asked to do something and in the mere act of agreeing or complying trick our own minds into thinking that we have done it?; Such is the nature of the self-delusion of good intentions – we all know how it is, “Oh yeah, I meant to do that, but I got distracted and forgot.” Well, we did not really forget, we actually tricked ourselves by believing that assent or consent was somehow as valid or valuable as action.

In this is a valuable insight into why we are so easily distracted from the good we might do into instead pursuing that which seems pressing, preferable or pleasurable rather than fulfilling that which is important. This extends to thinking that we ought to say something to someone and then later believing that we have actually done it – it is a form of self-hypnotism and we can, through these vagaries of self belief, even fool ourselves into thinking that simply by feeling bad about something that we have done something constructive about that which is bad. The mawkish sentimentality and the crocodile tears of pseudo-compassion are soon dried from our eyes as we innately seek distractions to deter us from any real and lasting commitment to serve God by helping one another in doing good.

The pop culture of personality and the mass media’s persistent promotion of iconic idolatry has resulted in a climate of self-interest where people fill their lives vicariously with the adventures, passions, trials and tribulations of others, or assuage their sense of guilt by projecting their issues onto the array of scape goats we are provided with. The media has all too often replaced the stocks by publicising the misdeeds of miscreants against whom we may measure ourselves and rate or rank their sin as being so reprehensible as to make ourselves feel justified, and it has contributed to the cult of personality to the extent that empty lives devoid of any real meaning are filled up with the fast food of fatuous foolishness and fickle fashions.

The voices of conscientious commentators crying in the wilderness of human despair are soon drowned out by the cacophony of audio-visual stimuli with which we are encouraged to surround ourselves so that our consciences will not be pricked by the inconvenience of deep introspection as to what we are really doing to help our neighbour while this ever burgeoning sophistication of self-interest that surrounds us affords a smoke screen for our own selfishness. We may see images of the poor and starving who beg for food while our bellies are full, or of the indigent wage slaves of globalisation who make the fashions with which we adorn ourselves, and feel a pang of their enduring pain, but the overwhelming weight of imagery is designed to appeal to selfishness rather than selflessness so we kid ourselves that momentarily feeling bad is somehow equivalent to doing something good.

We held our little flickering flames (courtesy of a factory worker in Indonesia) of false hopes high, and sang we are the world without really realising that we were and indeed still are the problem.

The world’s best golfer gets paid more to promote a brand of sports clothes than the entire Indonesian workforce of indigent labourers who produce it. We buy the image of a self-approving tick when really our personal ledger of social accountability bears the myriad crosses that mark the graves of the victims of our rapacious greed.

Jesus said that the sons of the kingdom – those who had it in their power to do good – would be cast into outer darkness where there would be weeping and gnashing of teeth. He personalised the process of charity to the extent that He said whatever we do, or do not do, to or for the least, we do to Him. For many, the enormity of their own lovelessness will not be encountered this side of the veil, and the bitter tears we should have wept for those in need and for our own complicity in the evils of the love of money which contributed to their need, will lay up for us wrath for the day of wrath, instead of the treasures in heaven stored up through active obedience to a heart of compassion and a willingness to lay down our own lives so that others may live.

The bottom line is that we are either part of the solution or part of the problem. No amount of nonsense posturing and postulating about personal choices and how the poor are responsible for their poverty will prevent the accountability of those of us in whose power it is to do good, but who withhold for ourselves that which God provides us ample opportunity to relinquish in order that we might have an eternal reward. It is not just simply that we do not trust God, but it is also that we are insufferably and increasingly selfish, occasionally and momentarily assuaging our burning consciences by agreeing that something should be done, shedding the occasional tear for the poor.

Faith without corresponding works is dead faith. Do you believe that God wants to bless you? Of course you do. But do you believe that God wants to bless you so that you might be a blessing to others and that it is greater to give than to receive?

The cult of personality and culture of entertainment is no new thing, it has always been an integral part of the human psyche, being perpetuated, exploited and employed by the ruling elites to keep the hoi polloi distracted while they are plundered. It is no small irony that we pay for the very entertainment which helps to keep us distracted and disempowered, while we admire and respect, or reject and vilify the media whores – for without our complicity and involvement they would have neither credence nor craft.

The answer is not to retreat to a cloistered self-righteous rejection of the world, nor is it to play the blame game, but rather to search out that secret serpent self which lurks in the branches and leaves of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, whispering in our inner ears, telling us that there is something more to be had than the all which God has already given us in Christ, and with which we are to enrich and bless the world around us. Curse the tree from the root; give no hiding place to the devil, consign him to the dust of your dead flesh – reckoning yourself dead to sin and alive to righteousness – knowing that you died together with Christ and rose again with Him from the grave, no longer a slave to sin but the prisoner of Christ and the servant of righteousness. But don’t just read this and say “Amen”, and fool yourself that you have done something good – seek God as to what to do to help – in prayer, in giving, in helping, in loving.

It is good that we respond when needs arise – when storms and famines and pestilence come – but even more important is the internal auditing of our accounts, of what we are doing to be a part of the problem or a part of the solution – of how we stand in respect of our societal obsession with celebrity, personality and the associated products of the consumerist society which has allowed the rampant monster that is the Globalisation of Mammon to cause the greater part of Mankind to be enslaved to its demands. It is the corporation of Chaos, the carnal corpse of covetousness that is kept alive by the greed of Man, and we are either part of the problem, or part of the solution – YOU, ME, WE, all of us. We can be in the world yet not be of it, but if we are too much in the world and it is too much in us, if it is preoccupying our attention and our imagination, if it is possessing us by its possessions, then our religion is in vain and our faith is simply Pharisaical hypocrisy pretending piety – and like the Pharisees of old, our real love is money.

This is why the economy of the world will fail, for every abomination and idol will be cast down and everything that offends will be cast out. If you are one of those who has been seduced by Babylon and the deception of Dominionism, then I hope that these words might even stir you to anger if just to shake your vain imagination to consider that perhaps you have been duped by the world, the flesh and the devil, and that just as you brought nothing into this world, neither can you take anything with you that you have earned or learned from it.

The other aspect to dominionism and religious tradition is the obsession with saving/proselytizing the world – I won’t delve into this here but suffice it to say that this is in and of itself just another distraction from the real mission we are charged with, and that is to preach the hope – the express, unfaltering, unchanging, unwavering, perfect and established image – of the kingdom. Jesus has already saved the whole world, God has reconciled all men to Himself in Christ; what the world needs is the keys to get in to what has been won for them in Christ, and we have been given the keys of the kingdom – but we cannot help others to enter in if we will not do so ourselves, all we will do is make a bunch of religious rules that exclude others because we do not want to get naked before God and in entering in, receive the kingdom as a little child.

Sensitivity to the real needs of others is so often the preserve of those who have been wounded, simply because scar tissue is more sensitive than callouses. Those who even through their own naivety and foolishness have been wounded by the world, often have the sensitivity to feel even the warning waft of the ill-wind which wounded them. Those who are exposed continually to prideful sin and who suffer the incremental hardening of heart that it causes become callous and do not feel the same for others. Perhaps this is why Jesus still has the scars in His brow, hands, feet and side, and doubtless the stripes upon His back, to remind us that while perfect wholeness and healing is desirable, that the awareness that is the legacy of the sensitivity of scarring remains to remind us of where we have come from and what occasioned those scars, and not to become high minded nor lifted up by reason of conceit because we have been blessed. It is indeed more blessed to give than to receive, and God, who is the ultimate giver, wants most to bless and to use our hands to grant, not to graft, and to complete in ourselves what remains of the sufferings of Christ, for the sake of the body.

Shalom.

posted at: 14:13 | path: | permanent link to this entry

Mon, 26 Feb 2007

The Temple Of God

For we know that our earthly dwelling place in this body may be unraveled, except we have a building from God -- a house not built by hands -- in heaven forever.
http://www.v-a.com/bible/letters/1corinthians.html
I have attached a link to Vic Alexander’s translation of 1st Corinthians, as much of what I am bound to reveal here is found in these scriptures.  I say bound because when I get certain revelations I am compelled to share them by unction of the Holy Spirit.  I am assured from experience that when I get that prompting and clear mandate, that I only see a very little of what will be revealed, and it is like pursuing a seam of gold in that I think that perhaps I learn more than anyone, and this is my reward for being obedient.
Many years ago, I was indoctrinated into the Word of Faith movement.  A substantial part of this was the promotion of the “no condemnation” message, yet the preachers and proclaimers would just as quickly tell you that you were under a curse if you did not tithe.  I have come to understand, as a part of the process my being set free from the insidious curse of religious tradition, that tithing is nothing more than an institutionalised protection racket, and that those who promote it are seemingly tools of the God Father, rather than the Father God.  It sometimes suits us to overlook such things because we still desire the sweet meats of their pretty preaching and hope to somehow gain thereby, but you cannot eat the leavened loaf and separate out the leavening – IT CANNOT BE DONE!  You will become, or you will remain, as one leavened.
“Oh, but brother, I learned so much more from them that you would know.”  
Yes, but for every “truth” you or I learned, we accumulated and accommodated a pack of lies.  If all you desire is to be wooed by winning words and taken in by having your ears tickled, to be pampered by pillow prophets who promise prosperity and peace, to be impressed by anointing wielding magicians and their Pentecostal parlour tricks, then this is not for you.  If, however, you want to understand how it is that God can and does harden the hearts of the Pharaohs of Egypt (the Leaders of the World System) and the Pharisees (the Leaders of the Babble-on “Bible-based” Culture) and to understand how it is that God has committed EVERYONE to disobedience so that He may have mercy on ALL, then read on!
There comes a time that you have to grow up and forsake the ways of childhood.  I think about how at various times in my life when I have been developing in a profoundly spiritual way, but almost invariably I have been waylaid and found myself in yet another fish experience.  I think about the washed up lives of former promise that bought into the lies of their traditions and my heart cries “enough!”  
The way of the Pharisee is to burden and limit, to shackle the unwary by the Law and to keep them powering the system – they promise you power and influence and favour, but the truth is that it is only within the auspices of their Old Ways.
Paul strenuously warned against this and Jesus implored that we should beware the leavening of the Pharisees.  Hypocrisy is more than just saying one thing and doing another, it is the denying or contradicting of Christ.  It is the accepting of and agreeing with what He says but then doing something which is in opposition to or denial of the Truth – it is living a lie in contradiction and detriment to the Truth.  For example, one may extol the virtues of the freedom of the Spirit and of there being no condemnation for those in Christ, and then turn right around and hold others in bondage to condemnation and accountable for their sin.  This is the very nature of religious hypocrisy, and it is a stench in the nostrils of Jesus; He who died once for ALL, not just those of whom you, me or we approve.
Everything on this earth is a shadow or reflection of the reality which is in Christ. There is much to say in 1 Corinthians 15 about the earthly body being sown in corruption and raised in incorruption, and the relationship of the Last Adam to the First Adam.  Much of the truth of this is lost if one does not understand that the Last Adam, which is a life giving Spirit, was active and operating in man from the beginning.  If you do not believe me, simply go back over your Old Testament and do a search of who is recorded as having been filled with the Spirit. It is an eye-opener.  And of course we have 1 Peter 1:11 telling us that it was the Spirit of Christ “in them” which was working in and through the prophets to bring itself to Manifestation.  I do not seek to diminish the relevance of the cross, as this was the watershed event which made the reconciliation of Man to God available to all who would believe.
You were created in Christ before time began – you always were.  Before you got “Old” you were “New” and then afterward you were renewed and restored to your original estate of righteousness.  The First Adam cost you your righteousness, the Last Adam restored it. For if in (the first) Adam all died, so in Christ, all shall live.  Death entered by one, and by The One, death was swallowed up in victory.  But you were always anchored in Christ!  Ask Him to show you how we are attached to the vine.  This too is why I can sense or feel the antipathy of those I anger with my words, so before you go to calling fire down from heaven, remember what Spirit you are of and instead love and join with in praying that the will of the Father is done in all our lives, as in heaven, so on earth.
Now here is the central truth of this particular message – that which I am charged to convey.  By now the people who are not ready for it will have signed off and hit the delete button – there may be some who are hanging in just to see what I will say next, to see if I hang myself, but I can live with that, as long as you eventually weigh what I say by the Spirit and not by your own understanding.
Part of my indoctrination concerned the human body as being the Temple of God, and that if we messed with it, that God would obliterate us.  I always knew that there was something missing from my/our understanding of this and that also the message of 1 Corinthians 6 and the connecting of the temple to a harlot were allegorical of the condition of both the then Corinthian and also the modern westernised (Greek-type) church.  
Whether connection with a prostitute is figurative or literal, it forbids or prevents the glorification of God in the soul and body, which are the Lords. For you were bought with tears of blood, therefore, glorify God with your body and soul, these that are of God.  We glorify God by putting on Christ – our (true) life is not our own, it has been purchased for us on our behalf.  Therein is the core issue of identification, whether we identify with the life that is not our own, that has been provided for us by the Faith of God in Christ, or whether we cling to the old life – he who keeps his life will lose it, he who lays it down for My sake will find it.
“Except we have a building from God -- a house not built by hands -- in heaven forever.”  You are no longer your own, a New Life has been bought for you with a price, and His Life, His righteousness, has been IMPUTED (credited) to you, therefore glorify God in YOUR BODY AND SOUL which is THE LORDS.  You are now part of the BODY OF CHRIST, you are no longer your own.  Get it?  It becomes you by acceptance, in that you have been accepted in the beloved, so in accepting that, you become as being holy and acceptable, and you can accept others, but if you do not rightly comprehend your acceptance by grace then you (or I) will marginalise others and make their acceptability conditional on their works.  “God freely accepts you, but don’t forget to tithe, otherwise you will be cursed!”  Now do you see how unacceptably stupid that is?  His favour is according to grace, and the more you accept others, the more you will FIND favour and it will seek you out, as your eyes will be opened to it.

16. Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwells in you?
17. And whoever shatters God's temple, God will shatter them. For holy is God's temple that is you.

18. Let no human being deceive themselves. Whoever among you hopes to be wise in this world, they must become a fool in order to be wise.
19. For the wisdom of this world is dumb according to (with) God. (To Him it has no voice, cognisance or relevance) For it is written in Scriptures,
"He traps them in their own point of view."  (Compare Romans 11:32)
20. And again, the Lord knows their pretensions, that they are wise in [the knowledge] of the trivial.
21. Because of this let no human being exult in themselves, for everything is of your own,
22. Whether Paul or Apollo or Keepa [Peter] or the world, or life everlasting or Death, and whether they arise or are destined -- everything is yours.
23. Yet, you belong to Christ, and Christ is God.
The point is that it is not your earth body per se which is the eternal temple of God, though it is after a temporal fashion.  There is a body which comes from the earth and there is a heavenly body, and they co-exist.  It is the separating of the two which is so vital to the process of the transformation of our vision from being earthly, sensual and devilish, to being heavenly.  The heavenly body (Christ) must consume or swallow up the earthly body, this corruption puts on incorruption, which happens when we put on Christ and walk in the Power of the resurrection, which is Christ, which is the kingdom of God.  The earthly body is simply the vehicle for transporting the heavenly body while in the earth, and it will return to the dust from whence it came.
To better explain – simply turn around the statement “Do you not know that you are the temple of God” to “Do you not know that the temple of God is you”.
Jesus said to Nicodemus, “Don’t you know that YOU MUST BE BORN FROM ABOVE!”   
Don’t you know that YOU ARE THE TEMPLE (dwelling place) OF GOD, and that THE TEMPLE OF GOD IS YOU!  When the light comes on, when we are RECONNECTED with the POWER SOURCE of ETERNAL TRUTH, we become “SAVED” FROM THE POWER OF SIN!  When we prefer the darkness, we become cut off and we “lose” our salvation experience, though our true identity remains sacrosanct.
The key to being freed from the enforced condemnation of the misapprehension and misappropriation of 1 Corinthians 3 is in the very text itself.
1.  And I, brethren, do not find it advisable that we should converse as spirits, except as people in the flesh and as children in Christ.
2. You were given milk to drink, and you were not given food to eat. For neither were you ready then, nor are you now.
3. For you are still in the flesh, wherefore there is strife, destructive practices and divisions among you, are you not bodies walking in the flesh?
4. For why is it that some of you say to the other, "I am Paul's," and another says, "I am Apollo’s," are you not in the flesh?
(Earthly affiliations and affections are often anti-Christ)
5. For who is Paul, or who is Apollo, except servants through whose hands you have believed, and every human being as the Lord has given them the ministry?
6. I plant and Apollo irrigates, except it is God who nurtures.
7. Thus, neither that which is planted amounts to anything, nor that which is irrigated, except that which God nurtures.
8. However, the one who plants and the one who irrigates are one, and a human being receives compensation according to his (His?) rate.
9. For we are working with God, and you are God's labor and His laborers:  (We are His workmanship, created in Christ)
10. And according to the grace of God, given to me, I consecrated a foundation like a wise architect, upon which others would build. Every human being then should see where upon to build.
11. For no other foundation can be derived from that which is already set, no human being can erect it, that which is [already set by] Jesus Christ.
 (Lit Aramaic idiomatic construction retained: Christianity's foundation is a spiritual edifice.)
12. And if a human being builds upon this foundation in gold, silver or precious stones, or wood, brick or bamboo,
13. Every human being's deeds shall be revealed. (Judged) For daylight shall reveal it, because by the fire it will be revealed, (Whose enemies He will destroy by the brightness of His appearing) and the deeds of each human being shall be separated by the fire.
14. And the one whose deeds remain shall receive his wages (Just recompense of reward).
15. And the one whose deeds burn off, shall lose out. They (the deeds or wicked workings) shall be consumed like the fire itself.
16. Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwells in you?
17. And whoever shatters (works against) God's temple, God will shatter (work against) them. For holy is God's temple that is you.
Again I draw your attention to 2 Timothy 2:11-13 – in that God works against us, He shatters us and our pretensions, by continuing to SPEAK THE TRUTH IN LOVE!  For, HE CANNOT DENY HIMSELF, and if YOU ARE THE TEMPLE OF GOD, then how can, or why would He destroy His own temple?  
If you deny ME before men, I will deny you before God – Jesus, as the High Priest of your confession, is not going to say or agree with what you say in contradiction to Him and to the will of the Father.  You are looking for a breakthrough?  Can you see why you are not getting it already?  Do you see why you are bound by your own words, by your own sin, instead of being freed by the Truth?  Because you are not speaking the TRUTH IN LOVE!  You are TRAPPED IN YOUR OWN POINT OF VIEW – your own perspective – your own judgment!  No matter how pretty or horrific your prison is, IT IS STILL A PRISON.  You are captured by your own pretensions, and in order to walk in the Spirit, you must forsake the flesh and all its judgments.
We are HIS WORKMANSIP, He will not destroy His own handy work, but He will destroy your works.  The works of faith/righteousness are what we do, having already seen the Father first do them – it is what we do in obedience to the head and in conformity to the foundation – it is how we show our faith by our corresponding works.  We respond to Him as His co-labourers – we collaborate with Him.
There is only ONE FOUNDATION given whereby men may build.  This foundation is deep within you, it is your Christ Consciousness – it is the very foundation stone, and the chief cornerstone of your existence.  But we have this contradiction of construction called antichrist, which the Lord shall destroy by the brightness of His appearing.  He will cast out all that offends from His kingdom, for He is not only the foundation but He is also the HEAD (source and determinator) of ALL PRINCIPALITY AND POWER, both in this world and that which is to come, both in the present Good and Evil, Old Testament paradigm, which is the kingdom of darkness, and in the Kingdom of Light.  The veil of the flesh, which is the human consciousness, bars us from the kingdom as long as we prefer and promote it – you cannot enter in while still bound to and carrying your burden of judgment, but the veil has been rent in two.  It is we who deny it by choosing the darkness lest we turn and face the light.
We are so used to being ourselves that we are not really aware of it anymore.  Such should it be when we put on Christ – which is our True identity.  We become whatever we focus upon; we are conformed to the image(s) we behold.  What fellowship has light with darkness, and a believer with an unbeliever?  As we are developed in our growth as the Mustard Trees of the Lord, we become a host of His community – we can support more and more of what God is doing through us.  If we are still journeymen on a journey, then are we not prodigal and still in search of the Truth?  If we are planted by rivers of Living Water which flow from beneath the throne of God, then we are at rest within ourselves as to our purpose and our election.  He who is at rest looks out from the throne, he sees from the perspective the Truth and not from his own darkened perspective – He sees through God’s eyes and he shall speak, as it were, the Oracles of God.
So now do you see that YOU ARE THE TEMPLE OF GOD, and that THE TEMPLE OF GOD IS YOU!  He builds His own temple, which is the resurrection Life of Christ while Man still labours in futility to build a home of stone as a supposedly free mason, which is but the prison of his own disobedience.  We may labour and beaver to build a life which is failing and fading, a home which will eventually return to the dust from which it came, while He diligently and purposefully fashions a house in the heavens, not made with hands, so that where He is, we nay be also, and that He and His Father may come to dwell with(in) us.  Hallelujah!
Broad is the way that leads to the destruction of all human pretensions and presumptions, of all futile labouring, and many there are that ENTER IN BY IT, but narrow is the way that leads to life, and few there be which find it.  They still get to enter in, but it is by the destruction of the flesh and whatever is sown in the flesh is reaped in the flesh, whereas they who serve their God in all diligence will have eternal rewards that we know not of, nor should we seek them as they are assured already if we are willing and obedient.  It is not about seeking blessing or favour, that which is already ours in Christ if we but knew it, it is rather about seeking to be obedient to Love, the higher and more perfect Way.  
We do not have to negotiate with God over the pay scale, the dental and medical, or get tetchy when we see someone come in at the end of the day and be treated as if they have worked just as long and diligently as we.  There is the commonality of reward which is to all, and that is redemption, for God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their sins to them; but there is also the glory that is accumulated, the treasures laid up in heaven for those who become co-workers, ambassadors for God – but we do not do it for the reward – the blessing of touching the lives of others with the gospel of the kingdom is reward enough.
And I heard a great voice from heaven, saying,
"Behold, the home of God...with human beings,
And his dwelling ...with them!
They shall be his people,...and The God with them,
Shall be their God.
4. "And he shall wipe every tear...from their eyes,
And death will no longer exist,...no mourning or crying.
And there will no longer be...any wounds,
For the first [order of things]...will have passed."
Your friend in Christ, Ian.


posted at: 13:43 | path: | permanent link to this entry

Fri, 08 Dec 2006

Praise and Woe-ship.

I used to sit in church and wonder why it was that I could not get with what was being commonly presented as Praise and Worship. On a few occasions, there would be a different Spirit evident and things would take off, but by and large, I had not felt the unction, urging or necessity to join in with what was be perpetuated in the pretence of praise. There have been times in my life where I have entered into a realm of praise and worship which is truly transcendent, and where I have been utterly taken over by the Holy Spirit for God’s purposes, and yet more and more I find that Christian music and efforts to offer some kind of sacrificial praise are all too much like monetary offerings – an attempt to schmooze God into compliance with our will or to placate Him with our offering.

To understand why this is so, I simply asked that he should teach me what is lacking, both in me and in the corporate setting. The answers I got (and am still getting) were an eye-opener but are precisely fitting, and as always, it all comes down to our attitudes and motivations and just who is really leading.

First and foremost, it is necessary to understand just what praise and worship are. Praise is primarily the currency of Christ, and intrinsic part of the value system of God and of His Kingdom. Praise is valuable, powerful and precise. It is delivered in words charged with power. Like a scalpel, it can be surgical in its ability to heal and to cut away that which offends when it is ministered by the Life Giving Spirit, or it can be cutting and debilitating when we tries to operate on the flesh life of another as we see fit to, because we have chosen to be the judge of what is beautiful and or desirable. In a society fixated upon physical attributes, it is so easy to be given over to judging others according to the flesh and so we go about trying to be plastic surgeons, using our sharp tongues like knives, trying to “help” others but instead eviscerating and wounding, leaving them with the scarring of our “corrective” surgery.

We misapprehend the power of our words, failing to comprehend what Jesus said “I do nothing except that I see My Father do it first.” How often have we been “inspired” to say something which seems cutting and cogent, and overriding the check in our heart not to do it, we unleash our tongue and whammo, we sow the wind of our mouth and rap the whirlwind of another’s indignation. There is a saying in Glasgow, referring to someone who looks like someone has given the a punch in the face, “That man was speaking when he should have been listening” and “Many a man’s nose has been broken by his tongue.”

Praise is Life!

Instead of “What would Jesus” do it is “Do as Jesus does”, and He never acts unless it is consistent with the nature of the Father, and the Power of Praise is central to who and what God is. He was raised upon the example of His Father and looks to the Father as the source of Life. The Father is the repository of praise, He is heaven’s banker, as it were, and in Him is the beginning and end of all praise. Praise is Life! When we minister Life by our tongue submitted to the Holy Spirit, our Word is His Word, it as if God Himself is talking, and believe me, when God talks, people listen. The Sword of His mouth is sharper than any two edged sword – it divides. We are not responsible for what we say WHEN IT IS BY THE HOLY SPIRIT, but when we discern by the gift within us and assume the right to use this God given Power according to our will, then there is the very real danger that we will do it destructively, regardless of how witty, clever or observant we may (see ourselves to) be.

Where we come unstuck, is that we spend our weeks giving in to the temptation of judging others, using our tongues like machetes to cut our way through the jungle of the cares of the world, blinded by the deceitfulness of this world’s riches, and then we go along to church on Sunday hoping to somehow right our wrongs by idolizing Jesus. I know that this is a sweeping statement, but it is for the most part true of many Christians. Jesus showed me an image by the Spirit of a man falling down before Him and so-called worshipping Him, and then another of one who was walking with Jesus – and He said to me, “If you truly love Me, you will do just what I say, but if you idolize Me, you will just get in the way.” Unfortunately this is what has so often been presented as praise and worship – Christianized idolatry, and the most blasphemous and horrible idolatry of all is when we turn God Himself into an idol.

Think about it, can you really imagine something more silly than “Oh Jesus, you are so worthy of OUR praise?”

Jesus wants us to follow Him more than to worship Him.

When the women came to the tomb and found the resurrected Jesus Christ standing there, they fell down before Him and worshipped Him. He said to them, “Fear not!” Obviously, their initial response was one motivated by fear and much of what masquerades as worship is in fact a fear of God, not found in a sense of reverence for His Power and Persona, but because we have not dealt with the sense of our sin by the knowledge of our righteousness in Christ. If we involuntarily slip with our tongue, we should quickly repent, but if we deliberately and knowingly use out tongue like a knife, then this is the blaspheming (contradicting) of the Holy Spirit and of which, the consequences are unremittable. If we walk in the Spirit, however, even the impossibility of the minefield of our own judgment can be negotiated.

In another instance, a demoniac seeing Jesus coming, fell down and worshipped Him, and the demons cried out, “Have you come to torment us before the time?” It was the demons which caused the man to fall down in a feigned show of obeisance, questioning Jesus accusingly as to His motives and actions. Have you ever found yourself on your knees before God asking Him why He is seemingly treating you or someone else a particular way which is actually inconsistent with His Love nature? Pleading with God to deal with something for you, or to do according to your wishes and wants?

To worship means to bow down, to recognize attributes and power in another to which we submit. This can happen on a level which is essentially animal, like a dog cowering before the Alpha male, or it can be heart recognition of the actual presence and person of God and of His Goodness, and the submission to that as a reciprocal response to Love by love, in Love. We cannot submit willingly and enter in if we are burdened by the sin of unforgiveness which is what predicates our judgment in contradiction to God, ergo we cannot walk in the Spirit and so we will continue to stumble in darkness and to stand on the landmines of our self sabotage judgments.

Praise can be the EXPRESSION of Love and mercy, or it can be the expression of wrath and of judgment. When we express wrath, we store up wrath for the day of wrath. Like I said, God the Father is the repository of our praise, but He is also the repository of our wrath. When we repent, He literally transmutes that wrath into praise, as they are in essence the same thing. Whatever comes out the DEPOSIT of our heart is what goes up to heaven as the offering of our mouth – is it praise to God or judgment which shall be visited back upon as wrath?

This is why the day is coming when the wrath of God will overflow and God will not put up with it forever – when the bowls of His wrath are filled to overflowing and the are pored out upon the earth, man will reap in the flesh what he has sown in the flesh, and there will be no respect of persons. Everything is God’s to begin with, all the Power, all the Praise, all the Glory – everything. He has entrusted us with a deposit, and we either lay up treasures in heaven (our praise) or we store up wrath. The more we store up wrath, the more wrath is all we have to “minister” and so we get worse and worse in judgment and criticism, and the evil deposit of our heart is enlarged. The more we lay up praise, the more praise is what we have to minister and the Good deposit is enlarged, so that even though we are in the world (the paradigm of Good and Evil) we are not of the world, for our Commandment and mandate is of the kingdom of heaven.

Jesus gave us a New Commandment, which was the original Commandment which was from the beginning, that is, “That you should love one another as I have first loved you” and “By this shall all men know that you are My disciples (followers), IF you have love, one for another.”

Jesus did not come to undo the Law, and what is more in the Sermon on the Mount, He tightened the requirements of it to the extent that no one could possible be justified by works. He alone would be the Way to the Father, and become the Life Giving Spirit, the connection or conduit between God and Man, our High Priest to minister our praise, which is the deposit of God, the earnest of our inheritance, WHICH IS THE YERY SPIRIT OF GRACE. This is why the words which we use are so powerful and so vital. Whether they come out of the Good deposit and are in the service of God by the Spirit of Grace to build people up, or whether they come from the evil deposit and are used to cut people down, they are essentially empowered by the same energy, but in the latter context they become perverted into an antichrist power for evil purposes.

If we continue to operate in the Good & Evil paradigm as a judge of good and evil instead of as an Ambassador of Christ, we will be subject to the Law of sin and death – it is inevitable. The Law brings us to Christ, but to imagine that it ceased to exist at Calvary is nonsense. Jesus said that it would never cease and that anyone who undid the least of His Commandments would be known as the least in the kingdom, but He also said that whatever we do or don’t do to the least, we do to Him.

Where the Law ceases to be a force is when one is in the Spirit, then we are essentially above the Law, but to be in this exalted state of being, we must remain in Love. Here is the catch – our Spirit is in Love because our Spirit is Christ, in which the fullness of God (who is Love) resides. Our soul (the spirit of our mind) is being renewed to this truth and we are being converted from what is old to what is New (that which was from the beginning). This is a process, and God has provided for the fact that at times we miss it and we fall from the grace position to the Law position, hence why it is so vital to quickly repent and be restored.

Jesus is preparing a mansion for us so that we may dwell together with He and the Father – we are all His workmanship. This work is being done in us and for us.

So in Spirit we are perfect, but in the spirit of our mind, we are being perfected (brought to maturity) and God has deposited in us ALL THAT IS NECESSARY FOR THIS PROCESS, and He did it in “mustard seed” form, having given us all things that pertain to life and Godliness in the full and perfect knowledge of Him, for His service. The SEED, which is CHRIST, remains in us, and He that is born of God cannot sin, hence why we should and indeed must identify with our sinless core nature of Christ in us, which is God in us, which is the mystery of the Ages. As long or as much as we identify with the flesh, we will judge ourselves and others according to the flesh in contradiction to the Spirit of Grace.

My little children, I write these things to you that you do not sin, but if we sin we have an advocate with the Father, even the righteous Jesus.

God perfected praise in the mouths of little children, and we must become as little children in order for this to be perfected in us. This is why we must be born from above, born anew of the purity and innocence of the anointed Christ child who died and gave His Life, a ransom for us all. Let us not be Bonsai believers, our roots bound by our traditions of unbelief and enclosed in our habits of self-righteousness, embittered by unforgiveness. Let us who are of the light come in to the light so that our dead works may be shown for what they are, the vain attempts to cover for our own sin which ensures our separation from God. He that comes to God must believe that he is, and that He is the rewarder of those that diligently seek Him, and His reward is in His mouth, and if we do well then we shall have praise of God, for what God has called clean, let no man call unclean, and we are cleansed by the Word which He has spoken over us. It’s all in our words, folks, it’s all in our words.

Ian W.

Fri, 18 Aug 2006

Acceptable, Accepted, Accepting.
Comprehend your triple “A” rating with God.

1. I beseech you, therefore, brethren,* by the mercies of God, that you submit your bodies a living, holy and acceptable sacrifice to God, through wholesome ministry.
2. And do not resemble this world,* except become transformed through the renewal of your vision, and be discerning as to what is good, acceptable and mature according to God's will.
3. I say then through the blessings that are given me for all of you, do not look for anything outside of what you are supposed to look for, except look inside yourselves, every human being according to the measure of faith that which God doled out to them.
4. For just as in one body we have many members, and all members do not have one function,
5. Thus we also who are many, are one body in Christ, each one of us then are members of each other.

*12:1 Lit. Ar. id. construction: "Want or pray I thus from you, my brothers..."
*12:2 Lit. Ar. id. expression retained: "These people here."

This is one of those fascinating Pauline scriptures which are so redolent of the savour of the Saviour, that is as if Jesus Himself were speaking the words, which is of course so. It is a great example of what he is talking about and so it reinforces itself. It is also a scripture whereby the order of the words can be changed around but the meaning remains essentially the same, while showing differing facets of meaning. It is like looking at a beautifully cut diamond of Ideal proportions. If it is viewed from differing aspects, the diamond does not change but the light dispersed by it does, however, if we look at a diamond upside down, the essential effectiveness of it is lost as it is only designed to be viewed the right way up.

In my meditations upon my own life’s experiences and circumstances, and those of others, it has become an inescapable conclusion that most, if not all Christian and human failings come from a distorted perception of reality engendered by a failure to comprehend our acceptability in Christ by God and by God in Christ, and that this has been perpetrated by the workings of systemic religion in its capacity to bind those who seek the truth that has for so long been obscured by the lie of dead works. The reason why this dysfunctional dichotomy of sweet and sour has been enabled is because Man does not want to submit to the Lordship of Jesus, but rather is content to manifest a form of Godliness which denies the power thereof, or to submit to a religion of rules and regulations – touch not, taste not – which have a show of humility.

20. If you are dead to the principles of the world, together with Christ, why are you, since you live like Him, judge everybody according to the world?
21. Do not go near this, do not taste that and do not hold on to the other,
22. These that are recommendations that come to nothing,* and that are commandments and the learning of humanity.
23. And they appear to possess the manifestation of wisdom, a gentle outlook and submission to God, and they do not relate to the body or any form of reverence, except to what appears appropriate in the flesh.*

*2:22 Lit. Ar. idiomatic expression: "The worth that spoils."
*2:23 A reference to the appeal of ritual.

I recently attended the funeral of a pastor whose church I went to many years ago. He had been poorly for some time and had suffered from a horrible necrotising of half of his face which resulted in him eventually dying. A few days prior to, and on the night that he died, I had a vivid dream in which I saw him restored to his prime and completely healed (he was 81yrs old). The thing which struck me about his appearance was that he did not look happy or joyful, but rather like someone who had just found out that most of what he had believed and taught had been wrong – which is what I was told was the case when I asked the Holy Spirit why it was that he appeared that way. I was fully aware in the dream state that he was in fact with the Lord just as I was aware of a distinct absence of any joy, yet the set of his jaw was as of one who had been corrected – “And the sons of the kingdom shall go out looking at darkness, and there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

(Do not be fooled by the cherubic external countenance nor the pearly gloss of a smile – anyone who has had experience of a “good” salesmen who can put on a smiley face knows that we humans can have another face of stubborn obduracy which hides beneath the external smiley visage which we have cultivated and which we present to the world. This is the comedy/tragedy “two-face” of the leavening of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. If you have a W E Vines – look up hypocrisy.)

The next morning, I got given a revelation that the only thing that we take with us is the faith, hope and love – the gold, silver and precious stones that is built upon the foundation of Christ, and that the knowledge that we possess down here is for here. Knowledge will pass, prophecy will be fulfilled, but faith hope and love abide forever – these are the eternal values. I do not have time to explain it here, but the Seven Spirits of God (for-as-much as I have been given to understand) are – Father, Son, Spirit, Faith Hope, Love and God. God – the Ancient of Days, is the centrality of His own being, and the other six facets are His character attributes and enabling. Think of it in this way – you have a body, a mind, a spirit, as well as the faculties or gifts of faith hope and love and you are created in the image and likeness of God – but who are you – who is the real you? Are you the sum of the parts, or are you the possessor of the same? It is “your” body, “your” mind, “your” spirit – it is “your” faith, “your” hope and “your love”, but who indeed are you? Only God can and ought answer this question to you as to who the hidden man of the heart really is and just who the real you is. In beginning to grasp the centrality of your very own being, you take the first steps to becoming truly mature and One with God in the Spirit. Hear O Israel, the Lord your God is one.

Paul understood this, as have many others, but the truth is so mind-numbing and system shattering that when it begins to dawn, the light is so intense that most will run back to the darkness of the Law. The awesomeness of God and of our Oneness with Him is death to the life of the flesh and it will resist at every turn to keep you looking at the backside of the diamond, lest you see the light and be healed and released. Oddly enough, the devil knows and that is why he is able to sell his spin on the truth to the New Agers and to get them grasping covetously at their God-likeness and to keep the “believers” from grasping (apprehending) the Truth.

Back to Romans 12, Paul is beseeching his brethren by the mercies of God, to submit themselves. This could also be read that the submission is by the mercies of God, and both are equally true. Where the real catch is and where many have gotten this upside down, and so have been brought into bondage to dead works, is that if you do not understand that your bodies are a living, holy and acceptable sacrifice to God, and that He has already accepted us in the beloved, and that Jesus is able to present us as being spotless before the Father. If you do not understand this, then you will keep trying to do something to please God which you are neither designed nor equipped for. Jesus was and is the One Sacifice for sin, and we are acceptable to God thereby. For in Christ – all died! Not some, not a chosen few, but ALL, and all Mankind was reconciled to God who is not imputing their sins to them. Now, before you spit the dummy and start talking about judgment and damnation, I will get to that, but you are not even remotely equipped to understand such issues without first getting the foundation set in your heart and having some of the absolutes of God worked out.

We may only truly submit our bodies as an act of faith (as opposed to dead works) if we in fact comprehend that we are already acceptable to God in Christ. Any attempt to please God by sacrificing yourself is a denial of the finished work of the tree of Calvary. You were and already are sacrificed in Christ, you died together with Him, and in realising this, you may come into alignment with the Truth and be set free from bondage to dead works of trying to please God by your sacrifices! He does not want your sacrifices, He wants your obedience and that you be transformed by the renewal of your vision – so that you become conformed to the image (hope) of Christ and cease from conformity to this world.

Why is it that so many Christians and their institutions look like the world when we are enjoined to be in the world but not of it? It is because they are conformed to its image, and the life of God which is in them manifests as death as God answers them according to the idols of their hearts. Get it? If God does not give us the image to apply our God given faith faculty to, we will take another image and apply our faith to it – but it is an image of death and therefore only death can result. If that part of us which needs to be occupied by and for God in order for us to rightly discern what is the will of God is in fact given over to an idol, then until the idol is revealed for what is and cast down by us in concert with Christ, it will remain and be manifest in our lives, and there is no respect of persons with God.

Learning to discern what the will of God is and so avoiding this death dealing idolatry comes as a result of a process.

That by the mercies of God and through wholesome ministry (sound doctrine, teaching and guidance) that you comprehend your acceptability to God and so yield yourself to His service that you yourself may impart the same Truth to others, through wholesome ministry, and this in the knowledge and assurance that God has not only accepted you but that He has called you to carry this message of acceptance and reconciliation to the world, so that the end of all this vanity which many call life, but which is in fact death, may come.

That through this freeing you will recognize the trap of conformity to the world and will fix your gaze upon Him, Christ, the Hope of your salvation, and to be freed from the Law of Sin and Death which was given for transgressions and to imprison the whole world in its own disobedience that God may have mercy on everyone.

That you may realize that the blessing which God has given to you are for service to others, and thereby serving Him – for as surely as you have done it to the least, you have done it to Him – and that He alone is to be your source, provider and provision, so that we may cease from any semblance of covetousness toward others and by extension, God Himself.

That we all of us have One Hope of our calling, that we may realise and actualise the part which we have to play in the Body of Christ, which is our reasonable service to God and to His creation.

I encourage you to meditate on this scripture and to seek God if you feel that you have been misled into trying to sacrifice your life. There is much to say of the other scriptures which seem to support this false doctrine of dead works, but suffice it to simply say that the reason why they appear that way is that we do not have our foundational basics worked out, that we are already accepted in Christ, and that by the One Sacrifice, all may be made One. It is only by conformity to His image, and through obedience to His calling and election, that we will walk in the power of the resurrection life of Jesus Christ.

I was thinking this morning about how tender young souls get to church and hear the beauty of the gospel and behold their redemption and redeemer, and then promptly get proselytised and burdened by a bunch of rules and regulations, and then go about working to infect others with their own yeasty “Trojan”. Just as children are hamstrung by their parents during their formative years, so too spiritual children are hobbled by conformity to regulations which cause them to live dysfunctional lives of burdened conditionality masquerading as Christianity, and we may indeed do this our whole life only to find that the eternal values of faith hope and love have been swept aside by a zeal for dead works and vain attempts at trying to please God.

It is said that without faith it is impossible to please God – but if you truly understood what pleased God, then you would not allow such kingdom denying burdens to be put on you. What pleases God is for us to comprehend His Goodness and for this to worked out in and of us, for His fulfillment in our lives and of our lives in Him. “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am fulfilled.” God is pleased alone by being fulfilled in you and to overflow to touch the lives of others and is satisfied already by One Sacrifice and has One High Priest - Jesus. When you realize that you are (to be) a functioning member of the One, then you will stop trying to please God and let Him be pleased in you! Get it?

Once we really start to get this, we will begin to see the extent to which we tend to judge others and hold them through unforgiveness and false accountability and responsibility to their own actions, instead of releasing them and ourselves from the bondage of judgment. And we will also be freed from the curse of churchianity – which is COVETOUSNESS, which is as the sin of idolatry. If we do not awake to righteousness then we may well die in our sins and suffer judgment and loss, but if we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us! If we persist in judgment, or to the extent that we do, we judge ourselves and we will suffer the consequences thereof, yet ourselves will be saved so as through fire, for our God is an all consuming Light.

Amen, Ian.

posted at: 21:21 | path: | permanent link to this entry

Fri, 07 Jul 2006

The Ultimate weapon of America against Islamic terrorists is accepting the True Scriptures.

Rather than translate from the falsified Bibles, I decided to find the Original Scriptures and make a fresh translation, without regard for religious prejudices that had crept into the Bibles of various denominations of Christianity.

At first, I was not aware how badly the Western Bibles were falsified; however, gradually, as I translated Book after Book, I realized that the roots of the problem were the religious ambitions of the Western churches and the 20th Century atheist take-over of the US educational system and their trashing of the Bible.

The first and biggest problem was the desire of the American translators to dominate the preaching of the Bible. To do that the American churches had to standardize the Bible Texts, so they began choosing the 1611 King James Version (KJV), on which they based the American Standard Version (ASV) of 1901. Just as the KJV had broken away from the Latin Vulgate of the Catholic Church (based on the Greek version), the ASV opened the floodgates to other denominational versions of the Bible. Today we have over 450 English language versions of the Bible.

The second problem was that, while this was going on, the atheists in the US educational system began their painstaking work of removing the name of Jesus from the textbooks and curriculum, until today we have not only a secular educational system but one in which the exercise of the student's individual right to recognize God in general is denied. This denial is imposed with failing grades and ouster from the universities. People's lives are ruined and proper education is denied to generations of Americans.

Thus, Western Christianity is based on falsified versions of the Scriptures, widely refered to as the Bible. This is the biggest problem, and it cannot be solved by negotiation, compromise or even goodwill -- unfortunately.

As I write this, the American Presbyterian Church is voting on replacing "the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit" with other more popular, more "inspiring" designations for the Trinity.

While the knowledge that the Ancient Aramaic is the original language of Jesus and the Scriptures is gaining acceptance over the Internet, the American churches are blindly denying this fact. As a result the return to the Original Scriptures has been ignored by the mainline churches in the US and the rest of the world, and the other denominations are even more oblivious to this fact.

The truth about the origin of the Scriptures is only a mirage for the great majority of people. There is no church or institution trying to face up to this malady regarding the Christian Faith.

posted at: 14:22 | path: | permanent link to this entry

Sat, 24 Jun 2006

Under Pressure!

Mon, 29 May 2006

God is not a “No” God to those who know God.

Christ is our YES and our AMEN, and in Him we are made holy and entire, lacking nothing – we are made perfect in HIM. You or I or anyone cannot get any more holy than we already are – don’t confuse what you are with what you do – our holiness is imputed to us along with every other manifestation of grace – not by works lest any should boast. The only reason why people act as if they are unrighteous is that they do not comprehend the truth, for if they KNEW THE TRUTH, then the TRUTH would set them free from the lies they have bought into of attaining or achieving perfection and holiness through dead works. 

Jesus said, “Be perfect then, just as your Father in heaven is perfect”. We must conclude that to be such is a present and an available potential of grace in us, that we might so manifest the greater works and declare THE REVELATION OF THE CHILDREN OF GOD, by which shall all the world be set free – PHEW! He loves us as His own dear children – the more you and I get that, the more we will manifest it before others and they will see the Power and the Glory shining in and on us like a light in the darkness.

17. This that I have thus planned, why, did I do this so as to vacillate? Or, why, did I plan these things according to the flesh? Because it is our duty to have our yes be yes and our no be no.
18. Faithful is that God whose Manifestation to you is not our yes and no.
19. For the Son of God is Jesus Christ, who preaches to you by our hand, through me and Silvanus and Timothy; there is no yes and no with him, except there is just yes in him.
20. For all the kingdoms of God are in him, He whose affirmation (yes) is the Christ. Because of this, by His hand we are given Amen to God's glory.
21. He is God then that has sent us among you through Christ. He who anointed us,
22. And perfected (sealed) us and gave us the prize of the Spirit in our hearts.
23. I, however, testify concerning God on my own behalf, it is because I did not wish to rebuke you that I did not come to Corinth.
24. It is not as if we are the masters of faith, except we are supporters of your joy. For it is through faith that you stand.

"Be therefore mature people, like your Father in heaven is Mature. Matthew 5:48 VA Aramaic

Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect. NKJV

For that Hope, then, shall represent wholesome works, so that you will be devoted and lacking in nothing. James 1:4 VA Aramaic

But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. NKJV

But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you. 1 Peter 5:10 NKJV

For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified. Hebrews 10:12 NKJV

It is in the getting over of that which keeps us from comprehending the Truth where suffering is found – it is in and against all that arrays itself, assailing our minds and hearts to keep us from the Truth – to keep us from realising so great and complete a salvation and from appropriating this grace and extending it to others. Most (western) ‘believers’ live a dualistic life of maintaining external appearances contrived to belie the inner conflict between opposing desires. This is why God has access to us from the inner man as well as externally, so from His searching gaze there is no place left to hide. It is no use trying to maintain and project an external visage of propriety hiding that which lurks beneath, as eventually all will be revealed. There is no use crying out for breakthrough when what we really want is salvation on our terms – everything would be OK if we could just win the lottery once – but faith without corresponding works is dead.

It is funny how that we are much more attuned to the concept of God graciously working out His plan of redemption in us and in seeing ourselves as being worthy recipients of grace while still retaining a measure of contempt, resentment or ridicule for others, all the while not realising that God is as much in them and working toward bringing them into the kingdom of His Son as He is in us – same God, same measure, but to each is given grace according to their APPRECIATION OF CHRIST. 

This is why we must never measure ourselves by others or compare ourselves – as the only constant is Christ and the value of our lives is found in the appreciation of Christ. This may translate or relate to actual manifestation of wealth or influence where we are concerned and accrue to our earthly benefit and spill over to benefit others, but even in this we dare not boast, lest we thwart the blessings by claiming some measure of the attendant glory.

There is a denial which is common to most that are sick, in that they do not want to confront or deal with their own sickness. Similarly, we often do not want to confront our sick attitudes but instead paint a pretty picture of how we perceive ourselves and we artfully airbrush out the blemishes and imperfections as a parody of how Jesus Christ presents us spotless before the Father. One is a form of denial, the other is the truth. It is often more comfortable to feign a form of godliness and pretend to love others than to first deal with our own sickness and bring it before Jesus and ask for His grace to heal us so that we may be more effective servants of grace. 

The continuing contention between our inner desire to serve God in conflict with the desire of the flesh to serve itself means that we will be compelled to confront these issues as and until they are resolved and peace is established through the Victory which is in Christ. When we look at others and see the evidence of denial, deception and hypocrisy it is the mixture of Christ and antichrist in us which recognises the same in others. The more that we accord, align and identify with our true inner nature of Christ in us, the more we both see and project that onto others – and of course the opposite is true, in that we can and do project antichrist onto others. 

Much of this behaviour among Christians is rationalized through identification with Jesus of Nazareth – with following the example of the “earth walk” Jesus instead of the risen Christ. If you do not understand the difference then you will continue to judge others as if you were He instead of realising that even though He had the right to judge, He gave up that right and instead bore the judgment of all. You will think, as I used to, that it is some kind of right to pillory the Pharisees and condemn the religious as if you have something that they do not. The only thing that we all have is Christ, and the only thing that we all need is His peace reigning in our hearts in righteousness.

Self-serving denial is perhaps the most exquisite of religious mimicry of Christ, impersonating and therefore counterfeiting Christ instead of imitating Christ, which is to be conformed to His image. It is the most subtle of all deceptions, so as to deceive, if possible, even the elect. 

God is not a NO God, He is a KNOW God. 

In Christ the kingdoms of God are yes and amen – Christ is God’s GREAT BIG YES. Out of Christ is the realm of no, maybe, possibly, probably but inside Christ there is just yes – and you will ask what you will and it shall be done for you of My Father that your joy may be made full. 

No is a human condition – this is why He said that if someone were to demand from us, that we ought no to go about establishing our rightness, but walk in the assurance of our righteousness in Him. This is not to say that you just let people asset strip you like a hoard of locusts – it is about maintaining an in-Christ walk so that He will walk us through the minefields of our own unremittable wrong judgments which you or I have established in the spirit in contradicting the Holy Spirit and speaking into existence functional realities which contradict Christ. These are unremittable, either in this world or the next, because we have used our God given creative mandate and power to speak in place of the Holy Spirit. They that are lead of the Spirit will not fulfill the desires of the flesh – they will be guided through any existing self-destructive behaviour patterns and also be prevented from establishing any new ones.

30. "Whoever is not with me, is against me. And whoever does not congregate with me, will be utterly scattered.
31. "Because of this I am telling you, that all sins and blasphemies may be forgiven to mankind; however, blasphemies against the Spirit shall not be forgiven (remitted) to mankind.
32. "And whoever says a word against the Son of Man, may be forgiven. However, whoever speaks against the Spirit, shall never be forgiven (remitted), neither in this realm, nor in the realm that is destined [to come.]
33. "Either you are (Functionally comprehending and identifying with and therefore manifestly) a beautiful tree and produce good fruit (The Tree of Life which is Christ), or you are a bad tree and produce bad fruit (The tree of knowledge of Good and Evil which is antichrist). For a tree is known by its fruits. (Compare the sheep and the goats)
34. "O, offspring of vipers, how can you speak of blessings when you are evil? For the mouth utters what the heart exudes.
35. "The good man produces blessings from a foundation of blessings, and the evil man produces evil from an evil foundation.
36. "For I am telling you, that for every idle word spoken by human beings, they will be answerable on the Day of Judgment.
37. "For according to your words you shall be blessed and according to your words you shall be held responsible."

The desires of our hearts come out of our mouths and shape our lives. If our desire is Christ and He is our Hope and our express image of righteousness then that is what we will speak out and it will be empowered to come to pass and there shall be no respect of persons. If we are instead given to eating of the wrong tree, then that too will be our governing reality – we step out of the “God’s will is yes realm of the Spirit, which is the kingdom” into the realm where we function by the sweat of our brow and the works of our wills – where there are an abundance of “gods” to say yes or no at their whim and want. Some people are very successful at this, largely because they are single-minded and focused, but what does it profit a man to gain all at the expense of his own soul?

Shalom, Ian.

To you it was shown; that you might know that the Lord Himself is God; that there is none other besides Him. Deut 4:35.

Thu, 25 May 2006

Unlocking Ephesians.


"You shall know the Truth and the Truth shall set you free."

One of the most compelling things to touch my heart is to see others bound by their circumstances in denial and contradiction of the Truth. It also gives me pause to consider where I too lack in the manifestation of freedom and how that when we function in the vanity of our own minds, we are like a ram caught in a thicket, which is what the crown of thorns was all about, being the antithesis of the crown of glory which is the Mind of Christ. In trying to figure things out – in trying to work our own salvation instead of working it out – we become snared in the thorns of our own thinking which rise up and choke the manifestation and make it unfruitful. It is the fruit which feeds and sustains, but we have been so conditioned to works as opposed to grace that we often fail to see that the very thing which will bring us freedom is well within our grasp if we will but let go of that which constrains us – our own wrong thinking.

Such was or is the wrong thinking which contributed to the distortions which may be found in every translation of the Bible, as despite the best and most earnest efforts of Bible translators, the stain of subjectivity still marks their work to some degree – it is an inevitable consequence of the human condition. This is why I prefer above all others, the translation from the original language by Victor Alexander – in that as it is a literal translation directly into English from the oldest existing texts written in the original scribal language, and it conveys beautifully the Manifestation of God’s grace in Christ Jesus.

While the Kings James and New King James are anointed alternatives, there are some subtle and not so subtle errors to be found in them which contribute toward an imprisonment which is hard to break free from. Conversely, some of the more scholarly and accurate works have become as clinical as to exclude the anointing of righteousness in their striving for rightness. 

One of the most glaring and damaging convolutions is found in Ephesians. God is supremely logical, so when we find something which seems contradictory, it is fitting for us to wait upon Him to provide the key to with which to unlock the scriptures. Only in our becoming conformed to His Mind and by relinquishing our own failing mind-sets and presuppositions may we receive clarity of insight. Pulling scriptures out of context creates a pretext and is the source of much misery as we inadvertently substantiate our own wrong thinking and create a works prison of our own imagination.

There is a theme running through Ephesians which becomes incongruous and contradictory in most translations, but which I find is clarified in the VA translation. The following information is so powerful that I can assure you that those who continue in the deceit and indeed the devil himself do not want you to get this. It is no mere coincidence that Luther was illuminated from the lines of Ephesians as to salvation being by grace and not by works, and that this brought him into a headlong confrontation with the darkened minds of men who preferred the unfruitful works of darkness. It is also a matter of record that Luther was a consummate scholar of the Ancient Aramaic language. 

Ephesians is so rich in revelation that to exclude any is difficult, and I encourage you all to study it in depth by contacting Victor at www.v-a.com, but for now I will try and stick to giving you the keys to unlock this mystery.

3. Blessed is the God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who blessed us (past tense) with every heavenly benediction through Christ, 
4. As He chose us through him before the foundations of the universe, so as to be sanctified through him and not by our own oaths. 
5. And with love, He assigned us to him. And He consecrated us as children through Jesus Christ, according to his will, 
6. So as He may exalt the glory of his mercy, He that poured it over us through His beloved. 
7. Through whom we have salvation, and through his blood the forgiveness of sins, according to his abundant grace, 
8. That which he magnified through us, in every act of wisdom and edification of spirit. 
9. And He declared to us the sermon of His will, that which from the beginning He had consecrated through him, 

Now catch this –THIS IS THE WILL OF GOD HIMSELF!

10. The supreme reign over the fulfillment of all the Ages, so that everything that is in heaven and on earth is renewed through Christ all over again (from the head). (Read that again and again and again…)
11. And we are chosen by him, according to how we were consecrated at the beginning, and according to how He wished everyone to be deployed by the intentions of his will. 
12. That we may be the ones who proffered the hope of Christ in preparation for his imminent glory. 
13. So as you may also hear through him the earnest manifestation, that which is the Hope of your eternal life, and through him you have Faith and have been sealed by the holy Spirit that was announced by the angels, 
14. That which is the bounty of the inheritance, the salvation of those who shall live [everlasting lives] and the glory of his His honor.

15. Because of this I too, behold, since I heard of your faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, and your love for all the saints, 
16. I never cease from confessing on your behalf and in remembering you in my prayers, 
17. That the Godhead of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of Glory, should give you the spirit of wisdom and the revelation of his knowledge, 
18. And that he may brighten the eye of your hearts, that you may know what is the Hope of his calling and the wealth of the glory that is the inheritance of saints, 
19. And so that great power is magnified through us by our faith in him, according to His all consuming power. 
20. That He performed through Christ and raised him from the dead and placed him from His right in heaven, 
21. Higher than all the thrones, authorities, powers and lordships, and higher than all the names that are ever praised, not only in this universe alone, except also in the future. 
22. And everything under his feet shall be worshipped and to him, as he is above everything, He has given the leadership of the Church. 
23. Which is his body and the embodiment of the One who embodies all. 

Chapter one sets the scene and the theme – the all encompassing supremacy and primacy of Christ Jesus, of our election in Him and of the will of the Father. This is scuppered in most people’s imaginations by the next two lines as they are translated by most, but compare this translation with your favorite and see the difference. If we get diverted at this point into exalting the prince of the power of the air, we will miss the whole point and continue to live in defeat.

1. Also to you who were dead in your sins and foolishness, 
2. As you walked in the ways of old, according to the worldliness of this universe, and according to the leaders of the earth's governments, in the spirit that compels Children to be heedless, (Lit. Ar. idiomatic figure of speech retained: Secular leaderships that do not accept Jesus Christ as Lord and God.) 
3. According to the same practices that we also followed in the past through the lust of our flesh, and according to the flesh we did what we considered justifiable (according to conscience) and ended up being children of wrath like everybody else. 
4. God, however, who is rich in mercy, loved us because of His great love, 
5. Whereas we were dead in our sins, He gave us life with Christ and saved us by his grace, 
6. And He raised us with him and placed us in heaven through Jesus Christ, 
7. That He may show the universes that are coming the great riches of his grace and His fulfillment through Jesus Christ that descended upon us. 
8. For it was by Grace that he saved us through faith, and this was not of your doing, except the gift of God. 
9. Not through the performance [of deeds,] so that no human should be proud. 
10. For we are his creation, whereas we are born through Jesus Christ as works of grace, those by which from olden times God favored us. 

Paul goes on to say how that the Law and grace were reconciled in Christ, in that He took it out of the way on the cross. The law and grace cannot be reconciled in us – this was done in Christ as a finished work on Calvary. It is received as grace, not conceived as works. The reconciliation is in Him, if we cannot comprehend this, it will cause a continuing double-minded works based attempt to reconcile the Law and grace within us – in effect we deny so great a salvation and try to crucify Christ anew to ourselves – we deny or contradict the finished work of grace. Paul wrote compellingly of this in 2 Timothy, but again, sin consciousness causes many to misconstrue this text also.

1. Because of that I, Paul, am bound on behalf of the nations through Jesus Christ, 
2. If you heed God's plan of grace that is given to me through you, 
3. That the revelation has been made known to me in the sermon, as I have written to you in detail, 
4. According to what you can read in learning my knowledge of Christ's sermon, 
5. He that was not known to humanity in other centuries, as He is now revealed for the Apostleship of the saints and the inspiration for the spirit. 
6. So as the nations may become partakers of the inheritance, and a part of his body and the Kingdom that is proffered by him through the revelation of God, 
7. He whom I serve, according to the gift of God's grace, that was given to me as an expression of his awesome Power. 
8. To me, the smallest of all the saints, was given the grace of preaching [the Kingdom,] Christ's riches among the nations, the Infallible [Christ,]
9. And that I may enlighten all people as to who is the administrator of that sermon, He who was hidden from the universe by the God of all creation, 
10. So that the church would come to know the wisdom of God, full of diversity with respect to the thrones and powers of heaven, 
11. That which was destined from the foundation of the universe and its fulfillment through Jesus Christ, our Lord, 
12. Through Whom we have the opportunity and kingship in the advocacy of Faith, 
13. Because of that I ask that my tribulations shall not cease on your behalf, that through this you may be praised. 
14. And that I may kneel down on my knees to my Father, our Lord Jesus Christ, 
15. From Whom is celebrated every parenthood in heaven and on earth, 
16. That He may grant you according to the richness of his glory, so as you may be confirmed through His Spirit with power, 
17. So as Christ may develop your inner person with Faith, and in your hearts with love, as your root and foundation is made true, 
18. So as you may learn with all the saints, what are the heights, depths, lengths and breaths, 
19. And that you may know the supremacy of the knowledge and love of Christ, and that you may be filled with all of God's abundance.
20. To Him who is able with greater power than anyone to do for us, more than we can ever ask for or imagine, according to His power that is pledged through us, 
21. To Him [we offer] glory in His church through Jesus Christ, throughout the centuries of the universe to the end of all the universes, amen. 

The problem is that many believers spend too much time talking up the devil and seeing him as the prince of the power of the air instead of realising that Ephesians is about the real Prince – the Prince of Peace. Do we dare to believe what Paul is saying here, or will we continue to believe what our circumstances, senses and traditions tell us? By now you should be seeing that it is in fact Jesus Christ who is the supreme ruler of the ages, not satan.

1. I beg you thus, I who am bound to our Lord, that you proceed according to the calling by which you were called, 
2. In complete sympathy, peacefulness and generosity of spirit, and preach [the Kingdom] to each other in love, 
3. And you should endeavor to guard the Triune essence of the Spirit, dovetailed in peace, 
4. So you may be with one body and one spirit, as you are called by the one Hope of your Calling. 
5. For One is the Lord and one is the Faith and one is the Baptism, 
6. And One is God, Father of everyone and Supreme over all, and Omnipotent in everything and Omniscient in all of us.
7. To each one of us, however, He gave us grace according to their measure in appreciating Christ.

There is only One Body which is Christ and the only reason why we see division is because we ourselves are internally divided and unreconciled.

Paul goes on with a series of admonitions as to the conduct that befits a true believer, predicated upon a revelation of God’s for and in us. In chapter six he tells us how to overcome the devil, but this for many has been successfully twisted into how to be overcome by the devil.

10. Therefore, brethren, be strengthened in our Lord and in the instrument (the weapon) of His power. 
11. And take on all the armaments of God, so as you may be able to stand against the craftiness of the devil. 
12. Because you wrestle not with flesh and blood, except with the thrones and powers and the subjugation of this world of darkness, and with evil spirits (which are) under the sky. 
13. That is why you should take on all the armaments (weaponry) of God, so that you can fight against evil, and as you are destined for everything, you shall rise again.

Now verse 12 has to be seen in context with the rest of the letter, or we will miss it entirely. 

We wrestle not WITH flesh and blood – the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh – we do not wrestle WITH flesh and blood. That is “WITH”, not against, but WITH. We wrestle WITH THE THRONES AND POWERS AND THE SUBJUGATION OF THIS WORLD OF DARKNESS. The weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh BUT THEY ARE MIGHTY THOUGH GOD! Good God, can we get this? Do we even dare to believe and to perceive that the very weapon we have been given we have seen as pertaining to our enemy? 

The basic principle of martial arts is to turn an opponent’s strength against him. If you choose the arm of the flesh, then the flesh will be your defeat. 

We were granted a mandate in Christ to rule and reign in righteousness through Him who has all the thrones and powers of heaven at His command – therefore He told us “YOU GO AND MAKE DISCIPLES OF ALL NATIONS”. 

Whatsoever we bind on earth is bound, having already been bound in heaven! The enemy and the system that sucks your soul do not want you to know this! As long as you see yourself struggling you empower your own struggle! It is for us to realise, to release, to submit to the already ordained Power of God in Christ Jesus and being reconciled to God in Christ, sit together with Him in the heavenlies, far above every name that is named.

This world of darkness is in subjugation to Christ! It is not the other way around! Christ is the King of Kings. God’s will is done in Earth as it is in heaven. The evil spirits are under the sky, they are under the authority of Christ with whom we have dominion.

9. Because of that, from the day that we heard, we did not cease praying over you, and to ask that you be filled with the knowledge of God's will, in all wisdom and all edification of the Spirit,
10. So that you may proceed according to His blessings and that you may praise God for all the good deeds, and bear fruit, and be nurtured in the knowledge of God.
11. And by all the power that you are endowed according to the magnificence of His glory, through all Hope and endowment of the Spirit, with joy,
12. Confess God the Father, who considered us worthy enough of the inheritance of the saints by enlightening us,
13. And He saved us from the powers of darkness and brought us to the Kingdom of His beloved Son,
14. Through Whom we have salvation and the forgiveness of sins,
15. He Who was in the likeness of the invisible God and the heir of all creation,
16. And by Him are nurtured all there is in heaven and on earth, all that can be seen and all that cannot be seen, whether domains or lordships, whether thrones or authorities, everything was created by His hand and by Him.
17. And He was before all and everything is supported by Him,
18. And He is the head of the Church, Who became the head and first born from the house of the dead, so as He may be before all of them.
19. So that all rule is willed by Him.
20. And by His hand He shepherds everything, and He marked us with the blood of His hands, whether on earth or in heaven.

Colossians 1
To you it was shown; that you might know that the Lord Himself is God; that there is none other besides Him. Deut 4:35.

Wed, 17 May 2006

Proclaiming Jesus.

For it was not about ourselves that we preach, except about the Christ Jesus our Lord, ourselves then, we are your servants because of Jesus. 2 Cor 4:5.

How often have we found that in listening to someone talking about others that they are in fact talking about themselves? How often have we found that the same pertains to us? So often when I hear people preach I realise that they are actually talking about themselves, which after all, is most people’s favorite topic of conversation. All too often when I listen to myself, the same applies. Hence this is why a person may, and does become addicted to the sound of their own voice and to their own opinions, as from these self-assertions they derive a sense of comfort and reassurance. 

In contentiously striving to assert our own wisdom, we become as foolishness to God. 1 Cor 1:17-31.

Addictive compulsive behavior is common to all Mankind, and arguably ithe most subtle addiction of all is to our own opinions and the proclamation thereof. People become dependent upon whatever brings them comfort – a heroin addict does not become one because he likes to be a human pin cushion or because he enjoys destroying himself – he does so because initially it takes away the pain of the living death which has been his ‘life’ and affords a form of convenient comfort but which also comes at a cruel price. 

So often we fall into the trap of preaching our struggle and or our blossoming awareness of revelation instead of waiting upon the Lord until the buds develop into fully fleshed fruit that we may be fed and led from within and that others may learn thereby. We are enjoined to minister peace and reconciliation, not strife and condemnation, and all too often condemnation masquerades as illumination. 

There are a lot of believers out there who both suffer and promote spiritual indigestion in that they offer up and feed upon blossoms and buds. People grow into spiritual maturity as and when they learn to be fed from within, to draw upon the springs of living water which well up from the inner resource of Christ in us and which overflow to the benefit of others. This is contrasted with the preaching of compulsion and condemnation which masquerades as Christ and which simply averts the attention away from our own issues. 

How many times have we found or received something on the internet or elsewhere and thought, “Hey this would be just right for so-and-so?” When in reality we recognise its seeming wisdom because it reflects our dysfunction, but the compulsion to avoid our own inner issues which have resulted in our failure to manifest Christ-likeness compels us to pass the parcel of condemnation on to someone else? Sooner or later we have to begin to grow up spiritually and realise that for each of us, the buck stops here and that we may quench these thinly disguised and religiously contrived fiery darts by faith in Jesus Christ in realising that there is therefore now no condemnation to they who are in Christ. Further to this is the realisation that all things are in Christ and that he is the saviour of all mankind, but it is difficult enough for most to even comprehend their own salvation, let alone the ability of God to save all to the uttermost.

With man it is impossible, but with God, all things are possible.

Herein is the conundrum of this human existence, that in talking about ourselves or others, we are in fact talking about Jesus – if you have not as yet gotten a revelation of that let me assure you that you need to. The unfolding of the revelation of “All in all” enables us to learn to submit thereby and to manifest the Love of God in Christ Jesus in us and to bring God’s peace and good will toward all men. 

This also is the difference between the sheep and the goats. You cannot make a sheep out of a goat nor vice versa – they are essentially genetically very similar and they can interbreed to make a sterile hybrid. The truth is that the sheep and the goats are not different peoples but a metaphor for those who are spirit-led and those who are a slave to the flesh. The propensity for both is inherent in all Mankind and whose minds and souls are dominated by their flesh will be “The sons of the kingdom who will go out looking at darkness where there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth.”

As preachers or proclaimers of Christ Jesus, we either proclaim Him Lord, or we preach ourselves – we either manifestly show forth the Spirit of Grace in the face of Christ Jesus or we manifest ourselves in the name of Jesus. To proclaim the gospel, to show forth Jesus, is not just talking ABOUT Him, and bragging on the manifestation of His gracious gifts in us as if we had anything to do with it, it is as manifesting His grace as an expression of His Divine Person in an earthen vessel. 

In attempting to marry together or reconcile within us the behaviour of the sheep and the goat, we will simply derive a sterile hybrid which has a form of godliness but which denies the power thereof. This does not mean that there will not be any manifestation of power at all, but that we DENY the power its rightful headship and instead make the power a tool of our own selfish ambitions and carnal motivations. Shudder!

16. For I am not embarrassed by Him, as He is revealed through the Gospel, because He is the Power of God, [proffering] Life to whoever believes in Him, whether from the Jews first or from the Aramaic speaking people (Aramaeans) first.* 
17. For the righteousness of God is revealed through Him, from faith to faith, as is written in Scriptures, "By faith you shall Live."

(*In the Greek translations this was changed to read “Greeks”)

Now here is the rub – if we try to proclaim Jesus but instead preach ourselves and others, this is in reality indicative of our perception of Jesus and so we are preaching the Jesus we perceive – get it? We either perceive Jesus and Him crucified for us, and the totality of His finished work and so in humble submission do as He asks us to as His servants, or we still judge others according to the flesh, thankful that Jesus dealt with our sin yet blithely ignorant of how far that extends to others. This is why the religious mind draws barriers of acceptability and defines people into two broad camps, Christian and non-Christian, saved and unsaved, whereas in truth the demarcation is between Christ and antichrist, and that is internal, not external.

Thomas a Kempis wrote prophetically by the Holy Spirit in the “Of The Imitation of the Christ”:

“My son, let not the sayings of men move thee, however fair and ingenious they may be. ‘For the kingdom of God consisteth not in word, but in power.’”

“I teach without noise of words, without confusion of opinions, without desire of honour, without bandying of arguments.” 

Chapter 43

“MY son, in many ways it is they duty to be ignorant, and to esteem thyself as dead upon the earth, and as one to whom the whole world is crucified.” 

“Thou must also pass by many things with a deaf ear, and rather think upon those things which belong unto peace.”

“It is more useful to turn away one’s own eyes from unpleasing things, and to leave everyone to his own opinions, than to be a slave to contentious discourses.

“If all stand well between thee and God, and if thou hast this judgment in thy mind, thou shalt the more easily endure to be oversome.”

Chapter 44.

And Paul wrote by the Holy Spirit in the Epistle to the Ephesians, chapter 4:

1. I beg you thus, I who am bound to our Lord, that you proceed according to the calling by which you were called, 
2. In complete sympathy (gentleness of outlook), peacefulness and generosity (enlarging) of spirit, and preach [the Kingdom] to each other in love, 
3. And you should endeavor to guard the Triune essence of the Spirit (Oneness in the Spirit), dovetailed in peace, 
4. So you may be with one body and one spirit, as you are called by the one Hope of your Calling. 
5. For One is the Lord and one is the Faith and one is the Baptism, 
6. And One is God, Father of everyone and Supreme over all, and Omnipotent in everything and Omniscient in all of us. 
7. To each one of us, however, He gave us grace according to their measure in appreciating Christ. 
8. Because of that it is said [in Scriptures,] 
"He ascends to the highest, 
He furnishes a resting place 
and He grants rewards to humanity." 
9. That He ascends, however, is what, except for also that He beforehand would descend to the lower depths of the earth. 
10. He who descends, was the One who ascended higher than all, so as all heaven should be in submission to Him. 
11. And it is He who grants that some should be apostles, prophets, preachers, sheppards and some to be teachers, 
12. To nurture the saints, to perform ministry, to build the body of Christ, 
13. Until we all become one in faith and knowledge of the Son of God, and [we become] one person according to the measure of Christ's all encompassing stature. 
14. And that we should not be like the boys who are shaken and tossed asunder by every revolutionary spirit of human knowledge, those ideas that are designed to mislead through stupidity. 
15. Except [your ideas] should be confirmed by our love, so as that everything that belongs to us is nurtured through Christ who is our head, 
16. And from Him is everybody mustered and assembled, whoever He embodies, according to the measure of the endowment granted to every member for the discipline of his or her body, so as the entire structure is established in love.

Jesus died as the second Adam for everyone born from the first Adam – He was crucified for all and in Him all men and women were crucified.

Romans 5:18. In similar manner thus, because of the foolishness of one person, all humanity was under obligation (to the Law), likewise because of the righteousness of one person, there will be victory with respect to eternal life for all humanity.

To you it was shown; that you might know that the Lord Himself is God; that there is none other besides Him. Deut 4:35.

Fri, 12 May 2006

Perhaps the most profound of God’s workman who contributed toward the Bible is Paul.

After his extraction from his former life as a Pharisee, he was converted into the divinely appointed and anointed replacement for Judas. The irony of this is not lost when considering that he who betrayed Jesus to the Sanhedrin was replaced by one who also betrayed and persecuted Jesus and was of the Sanhedrin. As Saul he consented to the martyring of Stephen and Jesus let Him know just how personally He took it when He confronted him. 

4. And he fell on the ground, and he heard a voice that told him, "Saul, Saul, why do you reject me? You have been harsh in your treatment (oppression)."
5. He replied and said, "Who are you, my Lord?" And the Lord said, "I am the victorious Jesus the Nazarene, whom you are persecuting. Acts 9

Saul was so radically converted from the prime example of one who was of the Old Covenant into the Apostle of the New such that virtually everything he wrote focused upon this key transition and exchange from self righteousness to the righteousness which is of the faith of Jesus.

There is a controversy concerning the establishment of Bible canon being popularized through The Da Vinci Code and the so-called scholarly works it was derived from, which is engendering a misapprehension as to just how the Bible was compiled, and the erroneous belief that prior to the council of Nicea that the Bible only existed as a scattering of disparate writings. Added to this mixed up mysticism is the concept of Gnosticism, Kabala and the plethora of New Age philosophies which borrow from the truth but like the moon, they seem to light the dark night of the soul until they eclipse the Sun and are seen for what they really are, lifeless darkness itself. On the other side of this is the equally erroneous concept of Solus Scriptura whereby the Bible is conferred with the status of the fourth person of the Godhead and by which assumption many egregious misdeeds have been engineered. Navigating a course between the blind guides who champion these causes is only managed by keeping our eyes firmly fixed on Jesus, the author and finisher of out faith, and so that we may pray accurately according the will of God and restore such in the Spirit of Meekness, considering ourselves. I will write more about this concept in an essay on “The least in the kingdom.” 

1. Because of that also, we have all these witnesses around us, like clouds circling us above, that we are relieved of our burdens, also of those sins that we are guilty of in every season, as we preach the hope [of the Kingdom] and run the course of the struggle that has been vouchsafed us,
2. We gaze upon Jesus who was the beginning and the fulfillment of faith, who instead of the joy that He possessed, He proffered the Crucifix, conquered its humiliation and sat at the right of the throne of God.
3. Look to what extent He proffered Himself on behalf of sinners, those who were their own stumbling block, that you may not stop and give up.
Hebrews 12

There is truly only One Way to rightly comprehend scripture, and that is by the Mind which first gave it. I have received revelation from virtually every translation of the Bible I have encountered but some are clearly much more touched with the stain humanism than others. Most deception comes from referring to the book instead of conferring with the author. 

To comprehend any scripture generally requires at least a chapter of context, and harmonizing within the framework of the whole counsel offered by the Bible, but most importantly the quickening of the Spirit as to its God breathed intention. If you ever find yourself grasping for understanding simply do as Mary did, and sit at the feet of Jesus so He might instruct you in Peace – ask and you shall receive, that your joy may be made full. 

A while back, I was grappling with Romans 8 when I was reminded of this principle, so I just gave it up to Jesus and this is what came to me while I was focused on helping a friend who had somewhat misapprehended the famous “All things work together for good…” text. It is interesting that in seeking to help yourself there is confusion but in ministering to others there comes clarity. When we minister to others in the assurance that our needs are already met, IN THEIR ENTIRETY, then we will make the way open to receive what we need when we honestly seek to give to others what they need to strengthen and confirm them in the faith of Jesus Christ.

Romans 8. VA Aramaic Translation (with commentary via me.)

1. Therefore, there is no obligation (need to fulfill the requirements of the Law) for those who do not walk according to the flesh, with Jesus Christ.* (In other words, you do not have nor need to be circumcised in your flesh as you already have been in your heart – you are of Israel of the Spirit, not Israel of the flesh)
2. For the Law that [leads to eternal] Life, that which is through Jesus Christ, shall free you from the Law of sin and death. (Shall free you from the entanglements of the flesh and from the Law which governs the flesh and which is given for transgressions)
3. Because the Law was bolstered through the sickness of the flesh, God sent his Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, because of sin, so as he may subjugate sin through his flesh,
4. So that the righteousness of the Law may be fulfilled in us, that it was not by flesh that we walked, (not being governed or justified by the commandments which are given to govern the flesh) except by the Spirit. (By being in subjection and subjugation to the Spirit)
5. For those who are of the flesh, see Him in the flesh. And those who are in the Spirit, see Him in Spirit. (This is an incredibly important key to freedom – and determines how we see Christ in each other, thus how we see Christ at all. If we judge others according to the flesh, we judge Christ who is a