CHAPTER 4
BEYOND JUSTIFICATION OF WEAKNESSES
In my introduction to
this book I had asked a question concerning weakness being a justification for
habits of our flesh. I will now go into
greater depth of things I learned and experienced that brings this out
more. Without going into just what those
habits were, take what I learned and relate it to those areas of weakness you,
the reader, find in your life. Let what
I learned in my weakness; lead you to overcome these habits that have hindered
you so long.
At one point in my
life, after years of self attempts to remove things that held me back, I
surrendered and allowed His strength to come to me. How this occurred, as strange as it may
sound, came from God frustrating my human efforts to conquer them. This was the first step, what followed was
the answer and deliverance from these habits.
The second step got me to accept who I was as I was; the way that I came
to know the Lord, a man of the flesh born through the fall of Adam &
Eve. Over a period of time the Lord
slowly took me to the root of all habits and our true condition of helplessness
and hopelessness. I can’t say that I
enjoyed this exposure. I was good at
quoting scripture verses yet found that the experience of these verses was
something quite different. For an
example, Paul the Apostles text in Galatians, “in me, that is in my flesh,
dwells no good thing.” I have quoted
this verse along with many other well meaning Christians yet never truly came
to its experience. I was as it says,
“forever learning but not coming to the experience of the truth.” For us to be conformed to the image of
Christ, an old image had to begin to die.
Its death would be as it is written, “and you shall know the truth, and
the truth will set you free; if I set you free, you shall be free indeed.” Little did I know what it would take to
bring about this freedom mentioned in this verse.
For the longest time,
in spite of my weaknesses, God through this grace of giving me that which I
didn’t deserve, and His mercy of holding back what I did deserve, worked
through me. I came to where I didn’t
focus on my weaknesses, though others did; He still used me to minister to
others. Later in life, He desired to
remove these weaknesses from me, yet not in a way that I had thought and
attempted in the past. His deliverance
came through weakness, not any strength on my part. The burdens of these habits were lifted in an
easy way as Jesus told us, “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, my burden
is light and you will find rest for your soul.”
The burden in the past was the struggle through human effort to conquer
the flesh. It took my learning that the
flesh will always be the flesh and that God wasn’t messing with changing it,
but rather through a process of time, brought about a renewing of my mind, thus
giving me this rest that was promised.
When these habits left me it was easy; so easy that one day I realized
that they no longer plagued me as they once did. Something in me grew in strength and their
strength dwindled to where they became none existent. This process told place once I realized that
though God used my weaknesses to bring me to His strength, He did not intend
that I stay in these weaknesses. I at
another turn in my travels with the Lord had asked from a Biblical illustration
of this process. He pointed to what
occurred in the life of Paul the Apostle and two of his traveling companions,
Titus and Timothy. Titus was a gentile
convert early in Paul’s ministry who he used to bring out the fact that God
didn’t focus on the outward act but on an inward act of the heart. In Jewish tradition on the eight day after a
male child was born, he would be circumcised; an outward symbol of what would
later be in the life of that child an inward act of separation to God and not
the ways of this world. Paul was lead of
God to never circumcise Titus, using this to get his fellow Jewish brothers to
understand the need of the inward circumcise of the heart rather then just the
outward act. What happens later appears
as a contradiction of Paul’s teaching; Paul has Timothy circumcised. The reasoning behind this seeming
contradiction was to avoid argument that the Holy Spirit knew would come about
when Paul and Timothy attempted to minister to Jewish people of that
persuasion. Now you may be asking, “how
does this apply to what you’re saying?’ Jump to Galatians 6:15-16 and you will
see Paul addressing circumcision there.
He does what appears to be a direct attack on the word of God the Jews
were given through Moses on this matter of circumcision. Listen to what he says, “For in Christ Jesus
neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but a NEW CREATURE.
And as many as walk according to this
rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.” Earlier in Chapter 5:6 he says, “For in Jesus
Christ neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision; but FAITH
which worketh by love.” Here are a few more
verses to consider making my point: Phil. 3:3 “For we are the circumcision which
worship God in the Spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have NO CONFIDENCE
IN THE FLESH.” Col. 2:11 “In whom also
we are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the
body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ. Rom. 2:29 “But he is a Jew, which is one
inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the
letter; whose praise is not of men but of God.”
Gal. 5:2 “Behold, I
Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing.”
Rom. 2:25 “For
circumcision verily profiteth, “IF” you keep the law; but if you be a breaker
of the law, your circumcision is made uncircumcision. Therefore if the uncircumcision keeps the
righteousness of the law, shall not his uncircumcision be counted for
circumcision? And shall not
uncircumcision which is by nature, if it fulfill the law, judge you, who by
letter and circumcision does transgress the law? For he is not a Jew, which is
one outwardly’ neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the
flesh. But he is a Jew, which is one
inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the
letter, whose praise is not of men, but of God.”
To make my point of
what the Lord wants to share with us, read all the text on this list in their
context of scriptures. What I am doing
is not “proof texting” and coming up with something to support some farfetched
ideas I have come up with. You will
discover what I am sharing with you is supported in the context of scriptures. I trust you will do this. After you do this, then read what I do in the
following paragraphs of transposing what Paul was given, into the context of
today and the religious world, verses the secular world; the religious minded
person verses the non-religious.
First the religious minded individual of
today; he or she is known not to smoke, drink, swear, go to bars, hang with the
non-religious crowd, watch R rated movies, doesn’t desire to be rich, tithes
his income, dresses in modest apparel, not divorced, given to a male/female
idea of marriage, reads and studies only the Bible, has no unsaved friends,
listens to mostly religious worded music, believes in a heaven and a hell,
believes his or her attendance in church makes them better than those that do
not, views others as not saved according to their particular creed,…etc.
etc. This list could go on and on, with
some variations and compromises to it.
That is the makeup of the religious minded individual as perceived by
the world, who would be just the opposite of the religious minded individual,
again with some variations and compromises.
Then there is a third
group which would not fit in either category yet would be judged of both who
would have variations and compromising aspects of both the religious world and
secular world.
Now remember my
question and God’s reply: My question, “What did you mean when you said that
“weakness is not license to justify my habits of the flesh?”
His reply, “You have had many habits which you in the
power of your flesh have not been able to conquer. I intended that you not conquer them in this
way and have frustrated all your efforts to do so. Yet, where you are now has lead you to think
that I intended that you have these weaknesses, and in spite of them I would
work through you. I have done just that
in the name of grace and mercy. Yet now,
I will take you to the depths of weakness where you will gain the power of my
Son to do away with these weaknesses; you are ready for this and the flesh will
not be involved this time.
The latter part of
God’s reply is where I am at this moment and in this study….”I will take you to the depths of weakness where you will gain the
power of my Son to do away with your weaknesses. I can’t say that the experience is enjoyable. I have never experienced this feeling of
shear helplessness and weakness as I have felt in the last few weeks while
putting this book together. I am
presently still in its descent. Yet in
the same light, I haven’t ever seen God’s power in some of the strangest ways
manifested in my life and with those He has drawn my way, as I have lately. If it takes this depth of weakness to see His
power manifested, I agree with the Apostle Paul, I will now BOAST in my
weakness to see His strength. AMEN!!
In the chapters that
follow all that I have just said will be brought out. Let’s now continue on into this descent.
CHAPTER 5
OUR GREATEST WEAKNESS IS OUR
STRENGTH
When it comes to God,
our greatest weakness is our strength, (our thinking we have strength). This
doesn’t fit with what the world around you believes; it may not fit with what
you believe. Let me reveal how this is
the way that it is, using Paul the Apostle as a character witness. Paul had reached the peak of attainment for a
Jewish individual of his day. He was
born and raised in Tarsus, considered the upper crust of his society; raised by
wealthy parents attending the best university of his time. In religious matters he was a Pharisee among Pharisees
which meant he was extremely religious and devoted to Judaism. Those around him would have considered him a
very successful individual. He had it
all going for him using his position to persecute the rising sect known as “The
Way,” later mocked with the title “Christians.”
It took God’s knocking him off his high horse, literally, and getting
him to see that Jesus Christ was their promised Messiah whom they had
crucified. Upon conversion Paul set out
to proclaim this message of Christ in his own strength. His fellow Jews wanted to kill him and almost
did until he was delivered and lowered out the window in a basket over the wall
of the city. It was after this that
Paul, then known as Saul, was lead into the wilderness, some say for at least
14 years. It is there that he comes to
discover that what he is called to do cannot be done in nature strengths and
skills; he is brought to weakness. Note
this; it taking 14 years, reveals a process.
The duration of this process depends on the degree of natural strength
one develops prior to coming to know the Lord.
Paul had much to lose, and does, later calling it dung, waste, in that
it is not the way God does things.
Upon his return Saul is
no longer; now he is called by his Greek name, Paul. Paul’s desire is to “come to know Him and the
power of His resurrection.” He at that
moment could not have known what it would take for him to gain this power that
he desired. Paul is humbled beyond
recognition of his formal self. Once a
self made man, now God’s bond servant by choice.
That was Paul the
Apostle; now we consider us; me and you the reader. Many of us would not endure the process which
Paul had gone through to gain this POWER of Christ’s resurrection. We may have a form of it as Paul himself
said, yet in this form we are denying the power. How are we denying it? It is simple; we are in our nature strength
and have not yet come to great weakness.
Now understand, what I am sharing here may not be a matter of salvation
but rather one of service to the one who has saved us. We cannot save our selves, which most of us
have come to understand, but when it comes to serving the One who saved us we
falter and think that it is with our strengths we serve him. We may hear, “apart from Him we can do
nothing,” yet it doesn’t sink in or we have it spiritualized to mean something
other then what it says. This is where
the struggle begins; our trying to do what is said we cannot do. I have for years attempted this thing of
trying to serve Him only to end in frustration after frustration. I would blame the Devil and evil forces for
blocking my attempts; this only caused me to struggle more. It was when I came to realize that many times
this frustration wasn’t an evil but the Holy Spirit attempting to meet my
request, “to know Him and the power of His resurrection.” When I saw this at first it made me mad. I couldn’t understand why He would do
this. What I am sharing with you in this
book gave me the answer as to why He would frustrate my human efforts, well
intentioned, to serve Him.
In those moments when
the Holy Spirit was attempting to give me my heart’s desire using frustration,
I would turn to others and their areas of strength; even when I knew I once had
these strengths, which now I know why these strengths were not working for
me. I got this word in light of this, “Don’t let your weakness have you turn to
those with strengths which I have called you to lose.” Once my strengths were frustrated, I would
turn to those with whom the Holy Spirit was not dealing with. These were in their carnal natural strength;
for example, those with witty minds, and a high level of retention. I found myself angry because I once also had
this witty mind and could rattle off Biblical text and memorized facts thus
impressing those who listened; now that was gone! So, since I couldn’t do this, I would promote
these other “super fine apostles” as the Apostle Paul called them. Paul encountered this with the church of
Corinth; he had been brought to weakness and total dependence upon the Holy
Spirit giving him strength, moment by moment.
Those in this church saw only Paul’s weakness forgetting those moments
that the Holy Spirit in POWER would work through Paul. At one point he complains to the Lord about
this and the Lord more or less says to him, “Go
ahead, and boast of your strengths as these are doing.” Well Paul pulls out both guns, so to
speak, and rattles off all his past credentials; yet when he does he gets a
sudden check, a feeling of embarrassment
which he learns is a thorn in his flesh to buffet him lest he be puffed up of
much revelation. Paul knew what he knew,
and he knew as he expressed to those of that church, “what do we have that we
haven’t received from the Holy Spirit, and if we received this from the true
source of gaining knowledge and wisdom, how can we boast as if we in our own
strength obtained this? Beyond this
point in Paul’s life he claims that “he had no righteousness of his own” and
that he was what he was by the shear grace of God; though he was weak and could
do nothing, yet in Christ, through his weakness, found strength. It was then that he discovered, “when I am
weak, I am strong.” It is then that Paul
dies a spiritual death and Christ lives in and through him manifesting the
resurrection power he had so long for.
If we think for one
moment that this process of the Holy Spirit’s preparation to fit us for God’s
service is pleasant, it isn’t! The flesh
will wrestle against the Spirit; set in its egocentric ways and performance orientation;
it doesn’t die easy. Just when “you”
think you have arrived, you discover another layer of this “self” and must peal
if away like an onion in tears. It is
amazing and a wonder that God can use us at all. It is said that there is a length, height, breadth
and depth of the love of God that transcend human knowledge; the reason for
this is because there is the same in measurement of this matter of our flesh
and its weakness. May we all come to
understand that the flesh is weak, yet the Spirit is strong and that His power
through Christ in us comes to us moment by moment, faith to faith, to one
degree of glory to another.
CHAPTER 6
POWER AND FORMS:
Energy, power taking
forms, working through form then out of form; like decaying bodies losing one
form takes on another form. No magic to
it as we think. It is just the way God
has things established and they will be...sown corruptible, raise
incorruptible; condensed matter, to matter energy, to greater forms. The spaces in matter, regenerating matter
corruptible to matter incorruptible; changing the molecular structure for an
eternal experience beyond this temporal.
Christ knew he could
lay his live down and take it up again.
How did he know this? He knew
what I am now sharing; again, no magic to it.
He knew the way the Father has set things up beyond what others may have
seen or believed. He would not even
speak the word death till forced by the limited minds that surrounded him that
knew of nothing else but death. He had
taken other forms before this “body” form.
Paul saw that the Rock that followed Israel in the desert was as he
said, CHRIST. I Cor. 10:4 The burning bush was none other than
Christ. The so-called angels that
visited Abraham, one of which was Christ, the others were two angels. And there were others forms. But even these are thought by some to be
anything but Christ, not believing in such a Being, being able to do such magic
as it would be called. Confused with
what has been called shape shifting. It
is just the nature of the beast as it’s been said. The Nature of a Higher Being that Paul came
to see, looking for Him beyond the flesh, no longer seeing Him in a limited
bios body, “liken unto our bodies.” Paul
then saw that though he had knew men after this limited view of life and death,
he no longer saw them as such. He saw
the potential of a NEW CREATION. New in
the sense that it would be new to us who have not given it such a thought
living in our limited experience and subject unto this belief of death all our
lives. Jesus clearly demonstrated this New
Zoe body.
POWER
AND THE GLORY
Adam’s body housed his
soul by the power of that which is spiritual.
Through this spirit it held together and consisted. Removing this sustaining power, spirit, and
material begins to progressively decay, break-up, returning to it original
form, DUST, yet still energy.
What’s called nakedness
is what I’ve just described. Naked we
came into this world, naked we leave.
This nakedness would not have occurred had humanity chose to be
sustained by the spirit. You see what
Adam meant when he said he was naked.
Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit. The focus is not on the might or power but
its source, its originator.
Might: human effort acquired through
accumulated knowledge.
Power:
human efforts simply using God’s power apart from Him to work there purposes,
and will; a will eventually over rode by the Higher Will. Whether or not we chose the Higher Will,
anything we will, any energy expelled by us, works to this Higher Will, whether
we call it good or evil, the Higher Will uses it and brings about His
will. What is lost is the individual
alignment with this Eternal expression and Expansion of God. Any other “will” not expanding because it
does not express the Higher Will, it expands into its own place, yet remains
eternal. Expanding further and further
until it appears none existent. Thus the
reason He can say, I never knew you.
Little did we know what this power available to us could do under OUR
will of things. Thus the erroneous idea
of some that we will be eliminated thus no longer existing is wrong. Nothing is destroyed as we thought destroyed,
nor is it being created as we think created.
It always will exist yet in another form or place of its choosing.
that place and form you have desired and believed. A place and form without Me. This place is not the
temporal abode referred to as Hell, Sheol, Hades, Death, the grave, pit, lower parts of the earth, the
underworld. This other place is beyond this realm. It is said, “Though I make my bed in hell, you are there.”
Psa. 139:8 This other place is beyond hell; this place is a place where he is NOT. To ever come to
understand or define this place one would have to experience this. Thank God this is one thing I will never
know nor be able to describe it to you, knowing I will never experience it
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