Mar 20
The Absolutes of God
Absolutes certainly are a touchy issue aren’t they? Before we can understand that there are absolutes we need to live by, we need to understand that there is a God who is absolute and not confused by issues of right or wrong, precious or vile, clean or unclean, Holy or profane. He alone is absolute and all that proceeds from Him, His ways, are absolute and perfect.
It is what He believes is absolute that we are to be concerned about. Those absolutes determine the well being of all of Creation, not just mankind. Absolutes hold the creation together in a state of well-being. Without absolutes the atom has no structure, molecules do not form, and cells disintegrate. The One God has made absolutes to permeate the essential nature of creation including how mankind relates to each other and to Him. The reality is that the choices mankind makes, as stewards or overseers of this Earth, has impact on this Earth, and the Earth has impact on all of Creation. Thus the ripple effect of not keeping the absolutes of God means we lose that which God created us to have – a vibrant life in Him.
WIPING OUT ABSOLUTES
Once we wipe absolutes off of our moral or True, Pure, Spiritual grid it will not be long until the path we have chosen removes any possibility there is a God who is absolute and perfect. We are then left to our own devices, which has always proven to be degenerative to society or mankind. God’s perfection as the only Uncreated, Self-existent One, and therefore the only Deity makes Him more than just a “higher life form.” If He were simply a higher life form, we eventually could evolve to His level and become like Him. This lie has been propagated from the beginning of man and has always resulted in a loss of life and True, Pure, Spirituality – communion/connection with God.
ABSOLUTES OF GOD
In light of this, it is not the absolutes of humans, but the absolutes of God we must be concerned with. Like God, those absolutes do not change. They exist to aid mankind in living an abundant life free from darkness and to advance the Kingdom of God here on Earth as it is in Heaven. They reveal the ways of God and help us know Him.
When I hear individuals express their concerns with absolutes, it is usually because they do not want to adhere to them. When their objections are boiled down to the core essentials, their objections are usually for one or two reasons. Either, they are trying to see how much they can live by their own rules without God rejecting them, or they have a closer relationship to others than to God and in so doing care more for the thinking of others than the thinking or ways of God.
TWO PATTERNS
If they are trying to live by their own rules, then attached to those rules will be their own principles, values, and moral code. Since we tend to love darkness rather than light, that means our rules may look good, but that good is temporary and a facade that leads to greater darkness and personal deterioration not only in our life, but in those lives we touch. That personal code becomes a spiritual placebo and will always be errant, and ego centristic in nature. Thus, the distance between God and those with their own rules grows all the while they think they are deeply spiritual and in right standing with God – and at some point God alone decides - they are not.
If they have a closer relationship to others and care more for the thinking of others (including their own thinking) than the thinking or ways of God then they will never know God. This line of thinking promotes the creation over the Creator, leads to continued deterioration and eventually reprobate or totally degenerate thinking. Those who hold this line of thought cannot accept the absolutes of God because the natural mind cannot understand the matters of the Creator who is True, Pure, Spirit. These matters are revealed Spirit to spirit. That which is created will never acquire all the answers that the Uncreated has never not known.
Blessings,
John Paul
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One of my favorite absolutes ever is the absolute that “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son”
If there are really absolutes, I think they hinge on a God who has chaos and perfection as equals. It is the way of man who comes up with things like ‘unorderly’ and ‘orderly.’ But I love how David De Koering speaks about nature, and plants dropping seeds and the wind blowing them and planting them in the ground scattered all around, and yet the forest in its ‘chaos’ is actually in perfection and order. Besides the fallen nature of the world which was taken and its power destroyed at the cross, by and large perfection isn’t always getting it ‘right’ as much as it is walking with God through the whole process.
You said, “Since we tend to love darkness rather than light, that means our rules may look good, but that good is temporary and a facade that leads to greater darkness and personal deterioration not only in our life, but in those lives we touch.”
This one statement alone, while it touches certainly on scriptures like “no one is righteous, no not one” and ‘there is a way that seems right to a man” etc etc, My personal antennaes went up when I read that. I don’t think that we can love darkness or even have those tendencies when we are born again. I beleive the spirit birthed in us actually cleases us from those desires. Paul talks about the struggles of the flesh but paul also was first brought up under all the LAW thinking. He wrestled with the goodness of the gospel through out his writings, but that doesnt’ deter how good the gospel really is. In fact, I think it shows us an example of how religious people have a hard time embracing Gods grace. Sure there are things that may take time to iron out, but the spirit attracts the spirit of God, and so the truth of God actually inhabits the people born in him. I don’t think we need to struggle that way or even that we need to tend to goto darkness. Darkness is simply hiding from God. I come before God ‘boldly’ sometimes and just say “ok God.heres the deal, I need you as my father to help me with this, I am thinking this way, about this situation and…. etc etc..” So then I hear what God has to say about it, and I listen to the fathers advice. I don’t try and hide from what some would call ’shortcomings’ or ’sin’ because the whole definition that made sin what it is is when adam and eve hide from God, because they knew good and evil. So in essence, they didn’t need God to tell them right and wrong..so the relationship died and their mind took over. I don’t need to think about sin ever again now that I am a following and a child of God, because my own thoughts simply need to be brought before my judge, Jesus, or the father, or the holy spirit, or all three at once, and then I just hear what they have to say. They bring scriptures and spirit together and bring revelation, and then like a child.. i go on.. ‘ok daddy thanks!!” and I run along enjoying life.
All this that you write about absolutees is largely true, but those that take absolutes and run to many directions with it, are the ones that I beleive have missed the mark of the intentions of all of Gods ‘absolutes’ which is that he loves humankind. All of Gods absolutes amount to that love, in various manifestations through out time.
I think that an absolute is easy to accept, when we keep in mind how fragile we really are…
Without an absolute, and being as fragile as we are, how could one ever keep alive…nevermind all the rest…
I beleive that we actually need absolutes more than we would care to admit…they just have been given out and administered in an unhealthy and detrimental way, in which today, absolutes are looked down as negative things…
How could space travel be possible without the absolutes of physics, and the surety that they would remain absolute while shooting through the universe in a space shuttle. Imagine the tragedy it would be if all of the sudden those absolutes would simply stop being absolutes during flight…all the passengers would die…
Not only do I personally feel the need for absolutes in my life, but the working understanding of them and the dynamic power of their functioning, in my life, for today and for the days ahead…
What I have found out about spiritual supremacy, is that it is all about He who is Supreme, doing a supreme work in the earth and Who is supremely exalted above all the earth…It is a cycle that starts in Him, passes through the earth and goes back up to Him. And guess what, we are participantes in that cycle, and have amongst other things, the privilege to enjoy the benefits of His supremacy, now, in the earth!
Now that is an absolute I want in my life all the time…
Working at it…
God Bless!
I was at work one day and one of my co-workers, who is homosexual, asked me and another person who was standing near by why is it that people consider homosexuality ‘nasty’. The person standing next to me was a chaplain in the army reserves. I stood back to let him handle it because I felt he had more experience in these matters than I did. However, the silence became awkward. I finally said, you know, God created a man and a woman to marry, have sexual relationships and create a family. That is how He planned it. That is really the simple reason it is a sin. The negative feelings that people attach to homosexuality are out of fear because families are so fundamental. While I was saying this, the Chaplin was nudging my foot. The man who asked the question thanked me and was not offended at all. As we walked away the Chaplin said, I was trying to tell you he was gay. I said, I knew it. He sincerely wanted to know the truth and I sincerely wanted to help him. God wants us to disconnect the junk from the real issue. I’m not saying God doesn’t have strong emotions about sin because He does..its in the Bible but I think His over riding emotion about sin is His love for the lost. I think love should be the dominating feeling when it is necessary to speak the truth to anyone. The Holy Spirit will help with the rest.
John Paul You wrote:
When I hear individuals express their concerns with absolutes, it is usually because they do not want to adhere to them. When their objections are boiled down to the core essentials, their objections are usually for one or two reasons. Either, they are trying to see how much they can live by their own rules without God rejecting them, or they have a closer relationship to others than to God and in so doing care more for the thinking of others than the thinking or ways of God.
My Response:
In dealing with individuals on a daily basis regarding the absolutes of God, I have also found especially in dealing with the younger generation that when they do not come from a strong background of good solid christian teaching and/or faith if any at all, it often times is most likely that there is a deficit of contructs in their decision making processes that should enable them to choose a life routed in faith over a life that is not.
When these absolutes are absent in the life of the individual, instead of choosing the high road they tend to choose the low road because that is all they have come to know until they have a soveriegn God encounter through the prayers of someone else who they never knew was praying for them or someone that God would use to mentor them to the point that this same individual would receive empowerment from the individual sent to mentor them in order for that individual to receive the freedom that they would need to make the decision to live for God and embrace everything that He has to offer them. To the one whom God has called unto himself in their own free will makes the choice based on freedom instead of coercion when they have the means to make the right decision.
This is what true freedom is all about. This is also the story of my life and I believe that this is the story of many people that are destined in this day and age to come to the full knowledge of Salvation in Christ Jesus. John Paul, we hope and and pray that you have a Wonderully Blessed Resurrection Day!
Peace,
Shirley C.
Thanks For the Blog!
I am so glad that you clarified this. I was feeling that some were confused. None of us can be perfect, but we can come closer to God by choosing right versus wrong. The more we yield to God’s way, the more the Spirit increases within us. So what is a moral champion? I looked up both of these words from dictionary.com
Moral: Concerned with the principles of right conduct or the distinction between right and wrong
Champion: A person who has defeated all opponents,
A fighter or warrior
In a kingdom all value is established by the king. His value is absolute, it never changes. All other values are subjective or a derivative of this absolute value. The king may permit these derivative values to exist within his kingdom but he will never allow them to take precedence over his plainly stated absolute value. The following is an example of this absolute value.
Matthew 6:33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
In this passage Jesus is reaffirming the absolute value of the Kingdom of God and his righteousness in daily living. The derivative values were those of food, clothing and shelter that the people had placed at a higher value than what the king would permit. Note that the king knew that these derivatives were essential but they aren’t first in his mind. His importance is what every member of the kingdom must address first and then all of the derivatives are added. Our foremost quest should be finding and affirming the absolute values of kingdom not made with hands so that it will be on earth as it is in heaven.
I just found your blog, and am appreciating your thoughts as I go through each post.
I do feel the church, not just the world getting lost in making absolutes grey, and getting lost in the convenient and easier. And in my current personal experience, I think this comes with a big veil of confusion which then leads to very confused ‘theology’.
On Saturday, I was at the event you spoke at in Richmond, B.C. & felt, during worship, and overflow of God reminding me what my identity is, in His absolutes of who He is. After you said that there is going to be an assault of identity by the wind of doctrine, I felt a veil being lifted off of me, confusion lifting, as God was reminding me who I am, and definately who He is.
God is absolute. Absolutely loving, gracious, & just.
Thank you for your thoughts.
Angie
I want you to know this is a response to this post, even though it seems not so at first- just keep reading
It was great seeing you in the Tri-cities. The message seemed very pointed. I have heard you talk on your exp. with The Almighty before. Like I mentioned before, the more I know… the more I realize I don’t know.
God is absolute .In this post and your teachings you have portrayed the best depiction of what is really going on behind the scenes of this life.
Omniscient, omnipresent, absolute…. The Works. Awesome.
Foundational issues are shaken when it comes to getting information about The Almighty on such a raw level. One is the free will thing you talked about. Now people can wrestle with Cal vs. Arm till they’re blue in the face and get no where. They are both absolutes. Both are dealing with an Absolute God. I think I heard you say they are both needed.
The problem with it all is if God is Almighty(and I believe He is), all knowing, Everywhere at once, and Absolute I think free will(not God) is as laughable as beleiving in evolution. Now, totally not trying be a jerk, I want to know how people can say God gave us free will so we weren’t robots in our Love for Him. You put it this way. If candy is sitting before your son and you know he is going to take it and eat it and he does you had nothing to do with forcing his will to take the candy. Thats very true. I don’t think God’s KNOWING is forcing anyones will to do anything. I think He as the all knowing Creator of everything created us knowing full well what would happen. Knowing full well every choice that would be made. The apple(it was our choice for the apple). The fall. Etc. He knew I would be sitting writing this now. He made all my surroundings I’m in now. He knows every response that will come from writing this because He created the effects things would have on me, on you, and on the others reading. HE created the protein connectors in my brain that would lead me to this conclusion. Am I willfully going here? Yes, but did He design me to go here. I think so. So I see I have choices, but who is it that made it all? Him.
If I made a device that had 2 choices. To go to the right or the left. I put a desire in it to go right at 99.9999999999999%. I have created forces that will lead it to the right. I have made it too big for the path that goes left so if it wanted to… it could rip itself apart so it fits, fight the forces of right, and the desire I put in it to go right and go left. Also it’s drive to go left is only there at 0.000000000000001%.Crude right? I know but I think what I’m trying to say makes sense.
We are His creation what we do He will have planned. From the beginning. Freewill isn’t even scriptural I don’t think. I think we made it up to appease the issues that would arise from the idea that no matter what we choose, He chose first.He made us… we sinned. He didn’t sin. I’m not trying to accuse Him of sin. I think free will is real, but so driven by Forces He set into place calling it our choice is like saying I gave that device I made a real choice.
I am positive He Loves me. I Love Him because He ordained it. That makes me happy. However… so many other things are shaken by this point of free will.
Well put JP.
Giving honor to a painting rather than the artist, or to the song rather than the composer.
We are created in His image. When we worship self, we worship the creation rather than the creator.
As a child my definition of cleanliness was different than my mother’s definition. She found places behind the ears that hadn’t been cleaned, etc. I had to pass her inspection and would keep going back to the wash until passed.
We think we are pure in our own eyes and then He examines us with eyes that see what we cannot.
His thoughts and ways are higher than mine.
God bless you all
David
I thoroughly enjoy this blog, but when all is said and done, I find myself with more questions than answers. How does one keep the absolutes of the Kingdom from spilling over into legalism and becoming the letter of the law which kills rather than of the spirit which gives life?
John Paul;
I like what you said about “these matters being revealed spirit to spirit,” I think that this whole thing goes along with the sactification process as in that process the spirit reveals things to you and changes you and I think it would be safe to say that those who dont agree and hold to the Fathers absolutes may not be truly in the sanctification process. I also want to note that when I talk about sanctification I dont just mean in the traditional sense but I believe that even spending time with the Lord in deep worship and in yeilding to his presense is all part of the sanctification process.
I come here sometimes to read your blog to see what you say as I know that you have dealt with some issues with new people and such so I just like to sometimes see what you learn so that I may learn something from it as I deal with all kinds of people like that as well and am still learning but dont know even a fraction of what you know.
If I have said something in the past on here that made you mad dont take offense to it as I was just testing you to see if you were really a caring person or not as I really didnt know what you were like, I have met many really mean and prideful prophetic leaders as well as church people so I was just testing the water a little, sorry if I went to far.
Today I am standing on the absolutes of God. I must confess my anger toward the enemy who uses these very absolutes to bring condemnation, shame and attempted seperation between me and my Father in Heaven. I rest in the finished work of the cross even though I am constantly tempted towards striving for something I already posess. I want to live in victory, surrender and full submission to the Holy One of Israel!!! I want to clearly hear and discern His voice, direction and affirmation of me. I want to yield my members to be used as instruments of righteousness. I pray that this will be the year of victory over all my enemies. He is faithful and He will do it!! I will believe Him and declare it until it is fully made manifest in my life!!
what makes people resist this, and what exactly does it take to cause someone to turn?
Fitly spoken…..I needed to hear that !!! I’m finally starting to connect the dots in my own thinking. Thank-you, John Paul.
Its not enough to just say ’the Spirit makes me clean of these desires’ and that’s it. To love darkness is NOT: “Gee, I think I’ll go rob a bank because it pleases me to have money” or “I want to look at dirty magazines because naked bodies excite me” although both are dark (lust). It’s the decision we make in our minds to actively obey or disobey one of God’s absolutes. The real danger comes when we cannot distinguish a conscious or unconscious decision because too much of the worldly grey colored absolutes has interfered with our ability to see clearly the black and white that is God’s absolute aka final word. Yes’s can’t be yes and our No’s can’t be no we if keep throwing in the ‘but’ to everything: “Well, God may have said this, but I believe…’
People don’t struggle with God’s grace because they don’t want it, it’s the mindsets created through the spirit of religion that infiltrates their thinking and convinces them that they don’t deserve or need His grace. The spirit of religion is one of the darkest of evils that has set out for thousands of years to destroy people in the church and prevent them from achieving their destiny. This spirit has influenced many human absolutes that have plagued religious leaders, denominations and countries throughout the world. Many are easy to recognize when evil manifests itself but here in the US, its cloaked in a pursuit of the American dream of life, liberty and happiness. Is it wrong to desire these things? Not at all, but when we keep coming up with ways to achieve them that are outside the realm of God’s absolutes, we fall dangerously short of our higher calling. What is our higher calling? Its not just obedience in the little things though doing this will cause the Father to trust us and give us more. Its not just the giving to others and show loving kindness like Jesus did to everyone, especially the most undesirable outcasts. It’s the synergy of spirit to spirit communication with our Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
Paul’s struggle with God’s grace and trying to understand it was hindered by his academic studies (spirit of religion) and the mindset/stronghold he battled daily. He had to learn that he couldn’t try to rationalize or address spiritual issues with physical means. Rather, he had to develop a deeper spiritual relationship with the Father so He could show him where he was wrong and why. You cannot physically rebuke or tear down a stronghold yourself, you have to ask the Father to remove it. This is one of the most, if not, THE most difficult thing you can battle: the strongholds you placed in your life that try to justify everything you say, how you feel, why you did something, or who you are. They are the very ‘antichrist’ that feeds your soul and you’ve made a conscious decision to give them authority to take over you decision making abilities. Example: Ever get into a heated debate over something or someone and said some pretty awful things only later to realize what you said and wondered where in the world it came from? Has someone hurt you and you ‘felt justified’ to hold a grudge? Its this lack of control over our mind, will and emotions that get us into trouble.
There is no ‘need’ to struggle this way, we simply DO struggle this way. Most of the time we are not aware that we hide from God under the guise of a religious mindset or clouded thinking that prevents us from hearing from Him when He’s trying to point out that we are wrong. You cannot address issues that you are not aware of so your approach should always be, “Father, show me where I can do better. Father, show me the strongholds I have in place over my life and show me how to get rid of them or teach me how to ask you to remove them. Point out my thoughts when they start and teach me to shut them down before they could even begin.” The Father has established absolutes to help us gain back the ground the enemy took and re-establish a kingdom mindset. That’s right, we had a ‘kingdom mindset’ as children and we need to get back to this approach again so He can use us.
Ever wonder why Paul suffered so much during his ministry on earth? Paul asked for greater clarity and thus suffered a greater price for it. As JP has said before, greater the clarity, the greater the cost. The spirit of religion was so greatly imbedded into his identity that Paul had violently struggled to have it removed. Not only that, he had caused for thousands of Christians to be murdered for their faith, another cost that Paul had to suffer and the enemy was justified in coming against for doing this.
So when do we start to give into ‘loving darkness’? When we submit to the authority that reigns over the darkest part of our soul. Just because we’re saved does not mean our soul defaults us into listening to our spirit man or the Holy Spirit. Nor does it mean we have this force field that protects us against all attacks. (We have a limited protection in the beginning of our faith but we have to literally fight to maintain our ground through fervent prayer, “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much” so that our defenses become stronger. With deeper, longer prayer time and relationship building comes greater understanding, our Father gives us more, we become more responsible for what we know and our need for greater protection goes up. We ‘war’ in the spirit, gain ground, God gives us more angelic help to not only protect us but to help decipher what it all means, etc. We keep doing this over and over and that’s why it gets sooo exciting to see what we find out next! This is faith building-our armor is strengthened & thickened and then we get more layers and different weapons. Our tongue is sharpened when we study the Word and can cut the enemy down like a knife!) Our fight is also not against flesh and blood meaning: we cannot physically fight that which is in the spirit…but against principalities (thrones of our soul-authority we have actively and consciously given to the demonic to set up in our heart, mind and soul to rule our decisions just by giving into sin). Through the repentance of sin, we are cleansed from the action of sin but if you haven’t removed your stronghold/mindset (worldly absolute) that caused you to sin in the first place then you are literally bound to do it again.
Matthew 5:29-30 states: “If your right eye makes you stumble , tear it out and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to be thrown into hell .” If your right hand makes you stumble , cut it off and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to go into hell.
It is imperative that we have the Father remove ungodly mindsets and strongholds that prevent us from seeing clearly or making ‘absolute’ kingdom decisions. We cannot expect to be victorious in all areas in our lives if we keep on believing that we have unique exceptions to God’s laws. This is the epitome of the ‘lukewarm Christian’. How can we try to understand God’s laws and absolutes if we don’t also know how His justice works? JP has taught very well on how God’s justice works (which I hope JP you will do a follow up to your absolutes blog with this) and is key to our understanding of the subject. In fact, for me it was like learning macroeconomics first to get the bigger picture and broader view of how it works, then microeconomics came with much more complex details like studying God’s absolutes.
So bottom line is, we need to understand key principles: how his justice works, how absolutes keep us from taking the broad road of destruction and leads us to greater understanding, how mindsets and strongholds enter and reign and how to work with the Father on how to remove them, understand the dynamic of the 3 part Godhead and how the Father is a father to us, how Jesus connects us to the Father through His heart and how the Holy Spirit communicates his emotions and manifests His Glory and anointing to and through us, and always be willing to pay a price at all times for greater clarity (Jesus paid the price for ALL the sin we’ve committed or ever will commit-we need to pay a price to gain spiritual ground on earth so we can advance his kingdom further and the Father can be justified in moving on our behalf.)
I can go on and on but I’ll just keep at this for now, its already lengthy enough!
John Paul,
Do you think that leaders in the church will ever have an inter-denominational meeting to agree upon the absolutes of how the Kingdom really works?
It seems that most denominations agree that Jesus is our Lord, Savior and King, but obeying him is optional. Perhaps I’m naive and a Pollyana. Yet, I figure that if Myles Munroe can write a series of books on the Kingdom that clearly articulate the principles of it, surely church leadership could come together and agree to think about these principles.
Or, are we at a place where things aren’t bad enough for us to put our egos, agendas, and politics aside to agree that our disunity is a disservice to the King whose absolutes we say we serve?
I’m with Susie. After I read this, I wanted to ask exactly how God’s law differentiates with an absolute? I understand the examples of absolutes that you shared with us…. but I’m still not understanding exactly what an example of this might be.
Absolutes hold us together as a state of well being, while the law…(is a guide to keep us away from sin)?
Galations 3:21 “Is the law, therefore, opposed to the promises of God? Absolutely not! For if a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law.”
Any clarification or other examples that will help me (and possibly others) to see more clearly? Keep bringing it teacher!
I think one of the most important ‘absolutes’ that God put into place was the law of sowing & reaping. This however, is an impersonal law, it doesn’t just apply to people but to all of creation, coming into play in the first chapter of Genesis when God created seed & commanded it to reproduce after it’s own kind. God, in His ultimate Wisdom,
put this law into place to bring balance to ALL of creation. We are ALL reproducing SOMETHING! Even in the emotional realm, what we put out is what comes back to us.
This principle has had a tremendous effect on my conscience as I’ve learned to LOVE GOD’s LAW & embrace it fully for my benefit. I take time to consider how my responses will “come back to me” this in turn has caused the fruit of God’s Spirit to develop things like patience, kindness, peace, longsuffering etc…
because these are the responses I would like to come back to me. It doesn’t matter if my motive is self serving, it’s still reproducing good fruit!
We live in a day that many people think God’s laws are not absolute & don’t apply to them, that is a spirit of lawlessness and it opens the door WIDE for deception.
I believe God is raising up champions of the Faith who are willing to proclaim Psalm 19:7-11 The law of the Lord is perfect….
I just felt to add to what I previously wrote. I realized that some of what I said could be misunderstood. So, I thought that I should clarify what I was trying to say. Sin is what separates us from God. When we receive salvation, then the Holy Spirit begins to speak to us, teach us, and guide us. But, we also have God’s word as a guide to follow God’s way. I believe that when our heart is towards God, we have a desire to follow his ways. He loves us unconditionally, even when we fail. Being obedient to God releases blessing. We learn from disobedience because of what we go through because of it. I know that in my life I have had areas that I did not submit to God and after I went through hard times, I learned. And I said that I don’t think that I want to make that mistake again. We learn from our mistakes and it causes us to grow. God wants the best for us and he wants to bless us. I also have lived by the principle of sowing and reaping. For every circumstance in my life, I always try to respond according to God’s Word. I can’t say that there aren’t times when I respond incorrectly. We all have those times. But, it all comes down to our heart for God. God knows our heart. Is it about our will and desires, or is it about God’s will? I believe that when we link our heart to God’s heart, we have a desire to see God’s will done on Earth as it is in Heaven. There is great joy in salvation. The greatest joy of all is when we can share what we received with others for advancing the Kingdom. Because I don’t believe receiving salvation is something just for us. It is meant to reproduce. Be fruitful and multiply.
This is how amazing God is…. I had a dream last night. I won’t go into all the details, but bascially I discovered something in my pocket. It was a jewelry box and when I opened it, it was this very small, richly and many colored– gem device that had the shape of a cheerio and size of my pupil. I realized that I was supposed to put it in my eye. It was attached to my “right” eye and I could see everything far away but very fine tuned. Then I could see myself from the front, and when I looked into my eye I could see a large stream of light coming out of it.
The next segment of the dream I was “awake” and John Paul came by me and said “You just had a dream. Remember it”.
I know I’m in the right place at the right time. And I’m thankful to be able to have this kind of interaction, not just with John Paul, but all of you. God is stirring something up in my spirit. Just amazing….
Pete: Could you clarify something you wrote? You stated: “because these are the responses I would like to come back to me. It doesn’t matter if my motive is self serving, it’s still reproducing good fruit!”
Perhaps you didn’t intend to write it this way but I couldn’t help but be alarmed at your understanding of sowing seed and reaping fruit in a ‘self-serving’ manner. I have to disagree with this because God talked many times about the intent in our hearts when we commit an action. You have to understand that it is not just the action that ‘plants a seed’ and comes back to us, our deeds are first a thought and then we make a decision to put action to our thoughts. Our lives aren’t simply actions first, consequences later. We commit our thoughts and actions are already done in the spirit realm FIRST before we do it in the flesh. We could very well commit a myriad of sins with just thoughts and still not act them out in the flesh.
Examples:
Matthew 5:28 reads, “But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”
Mark 7:21 reads, “For from within, out of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery,”
Genesis 6:5 reads, “The LORD saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.”
When you wish to bear fruit or plant more seeds from that fruit, the soil has to be good, right? So then why commit an ambitious self-serving intention and emotion to your seed? Have you not now defiled your seed? Can evil begot good? It is imperative that we guard the intentions of our heart because it gives weight to our actions and can either tip the scales of judgment in our favor for good intentions or against us for bad. Is it wrong to desire rewards from your efforts? Be careful, for the answer is simply that if you do good for others your reward is in Heaven. But you don’t have to wait until you get to Heaven reap the benefits! The sheer joy out of helping others will propel you to do more and when you’re energized and focused on others, before you know it, you’ve invested your fruit into so many people that the rewards have not only multiplied but compounded with interest (favor of man and God)!
Let’s get back to the judgment part: So how are actions committed in the spirit and not in the flesh, weighed? Ha, very carefully! We have to be aware of every thought because the demonic and angelic realm see it, they bear witness to it/us. Look at this verse in Ecclesiastes 10:20 “Do not revile the king even in your thoughts, or curse the rich in your bedroom, because a bird of the air may carry your words, and a bird on the wing may report what you say.” Remember the cloud of witnesses? Yep, that’s what they do…they give a testimony about us to the Father. The enemy is also watching us to try to build a case against us because they want to ruin us! Not only that but each of us have an inheritance and they’ll do anything to get it. That’s another heavy novel worthy subject so I’ll stop right there.
We need to be in a constant state of forgiveness and repentance (humble thyself before the Lord) not only to be aware of our sin and ask for mercy but so we don’t give the enemy one inch to commit something against us. The Father needs to be justified in order to act on our behalf.
James 1:25 “But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does.”
We have freedom in the Lord to commit deeds using the fruit of the Spirit SO LONG AS our hearts intention (the emotion we put behind it) lines up with His absolutes/laws. The Father wants to write the laws on our hearts and be mindful of them because that is where Jesus lives in us. Jesus and lawlessness cannot coexist. Jesus attracted so many outcasts because the love that exuded from His very being first came from His Father’s heart.
May we all learn to love that way! So remember that your heart’s intention should not be self-serving, our thoughts are committed into the spirit realm first and there are those both evil and good that bear witness to it so don’t give the enemy an inch!
Thank you, Brother Pete, for your words. I did not intend to make an ‘example’ of you, rather just share my thoughts and what I’ve learned so far with you and others. I hope this helps!
JS…I have to disagree with the statement you made about a person making a “conscious decision” to give authority to a stronghold. I received a deep wound in my childhood that opened the door to a stronghold in my ignorance as a child. It took the Holy Spirit to evict the demon and after the fact, I became aware of how it entered my life. But the rest of your comment was OK but I’m always open to learning more !!!!!!!
Susie said, “I thoroughly enjoy this blog, but when all is said and done, I find myself with more questions than answers. How does one keep the absolutes of the Kingdom from spilling over into legalism and becoming the letter of the law which kills rather than of the spirit which gives life?”
I really think this deserves a response.
I confess I haven’t read a lot, just sort of scanning through here…. but here’s what I have to offer…..
We tend to think about “absolutes” as the same as principles and laws, but really aren’t principles just set up for functioning on this planet or plane of existence? For example, the law of gravity is not absolute. It is not applicable in the heavenly realms, not nearly like it is in the physical. It’s not even necessarily applicable in dreams. And the laws of physics would have dictated that Jesus sink into the Sea of Galilee…….
Absolutes are things that are true FOREVER and EVERYWHERE, right? not just now, on this planet.
God is sovereign.
God is love.
*wondering if the only real absolutes are aspects of God…..*
hmmmm……
Great points were brought up in this blog John.
Time and time again we see people, even some Church people, not wanting to accept the absolutes of God. When they don’t accept God’s absolutes you can begin to witness the moral decline in their life, and some even turn completely away from God.