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11 Minutes Spiritual discernment offers clarity of vision to ready us to receive new light that will enhance truth. God’s people can accept “no”. We can accept rejection. It aids our readiness for the suffering and the trials to come. We step outside that self-outlook programming in order to see things differently and be ready to let go of all those "right" opinions we thought were true. With this readiness comes a peace, an inner calmness. We do not have to agitate to make sure that anyone accedes to our words. We do not have to be stressed out or have sleepless nights because our emphasis is not on manipulation. No longer do we have to convince anyone of the absolute correctness of our reasoning with God, but rather, we are free to let go and allow God to speak and act through people and events according to His will based upon their decisions. We discern that God’s plan is always better than ours. Discernment is a process that begins at the heart but must progress outwardly to include others if we are to serve God’s purposes. It is time to act. God’s will is making itself known to us through events. Be firm in your stand for truth. Do not vacillate or look back or waste momentum on those who are self-sure in their own works. Put your face to the light and trust in our loving and powerful God to work through the smallest and weakest of us to accomplish His plan. The work is God's, not ours. The responsibility of God’s teachers in the last day is awesome. Probably at no other time in history have God’s teachers been faced with decisions whose outcomes are as weighty as those with which we are faced. There will be struggles and strife from within. But we are to be a people of courage and wisdom and deep spirituality. We abandon ourselves to the providence of God and are very careful not to run ahead of it. God strengthens our discernment with careful reflection as a matter of faith. Following the way of discernment means becoming increasingly able to notice where God is at work in the world and in one's own life and becoming increasingly generous with one's own life in response. The power of God working through events is evident as He moved His people into a discerning mindset to worship, connect, and teach in an online environment. New truths abounded from the concept of reasoning with God. Spiritual discernment teaches how to engage to meet the spiritual needs of those who feel comfortable with online worship. In this format God’s people engage the Holy Spirit as a decision partner while removing the pastoral leadership role. It makes for greater exchanges of thought to arrive at higher realms of truth in the word of God. Our focus is broadened. Debate is outed in the face of reason. Extra care is taken to ensure dialogue is productive and relevant to each participant. God’s word is the guiding principle to the discerning body and specific to every issue under consideration. Spiritual discernment creates meaningful boundaries for all conversation being guided in principle from scripture, allowing meaningful engagement of both the person in house and online community. Reasoning with the word of God involves the laying aside anything that might prevent the group from focusing on God’s will as the ultimate outcome to arrive at a decisioned truth. It’s as though we ask ourselves, “what needs to die in me for God’s gifts and direction to find room in our worship”. Because there is reason rather than debate, there is such a preference for the intimacy of worship that minds yield to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. In this, God stays our spiritual groundedness and opens our heart and mind to divine wisdom as He shapes our lives. The approaches unto discernment must be the beauty of sacrificing or emptying ourselves. We abandon social-discernment, self-discernment, for the sake of God-discernment. In this discernment we will find repose and peace in listening to God’s heart. Personally, I choose to discern based upon God’s determination to bring Christ to my life. Hear the expressions of the impressions of God’s gifting His Son... How is it that spiritual discernment is to bring us to godly conclusions? We must first conclude that Jesus is better in every way. And we see that God and His Word, at the end of it, is all we have to stand on as we keep our eyes on eternity while keeping eternity in our hearts. Spiritual conclusions must be bound on scriptural reasoning that necessarily follows from God's word, binding authority presenting inferences as evidence. If example is a valid way to determine God’s will, then what greater example is there than Jesus Christ. Can there be a truth concluded expressed in spiritual reasoning with the word of God? If asked your age and you provide the year of your birth, can the answer be reasoned? The Lord said, "come now and let us reason together." The bible says, “be ready to give an answer to every man who asks a reason for the hope within you.” Our reason is Christ. We must reason from what the bible says to discern the proper conclusion about what is right. Let us not think to defend the use of "human wisdom" in which conclusions are based on human authority or evidence, instead of on bible evidence. We are not defending binding invalid or even possible conclusions that do not necessarily follow from bible statements. Such instances do not prove a conclusion but simply jump to the conclusion. What we defend is the practice of using God's word as our evidence and from it reaching conclusions that truly, validly must follow from what is stated in the word of God. Old Testament prophecy definitely shows that Jesus is the Christ, but this requires taking passages and "adding them up" to reason to the necessary conclusion that is arrived at in the New Testament. Life is in the blood. Jesus had no sin in him. Can we infer that Jesus’ blood was perfect? Discernment means doing a better job of understanding the word of God. When you cut the ropes of truth that anchor the ship how far will it drift until a wreck is imminent. Very real and serious are the consequences when we fail to spiritually discern through scriptural reasoning. Discernment, if true, must be revealed in the likeness of why God caused His son to be as we are...divinely imaged in human flesh. Christ came to make us truly human, our divinely intended nature, made in the image of God. This done in the most powerful way possible...changed from the spiritual essence of God to the bodily presence of man that we may attain the spiritual body of Christ. Our every discernment is to be transformative. We are to become more and more like Jesus Christ, the “man of heaven,” and less and less like Adam, the “man of dust”. And from this we are to discern that as Jesus has gathered to himself and in himself a community, we are to share in the capacity to do the same through his Spirit’s power at work in us. There is no room to doubt but that if we accept of Christ, God will give eternal life. For He has given it already into the hands of our Savior for us. He has entrusted him with the whole affair. He has given all things into his hands, that he might give eternal life to as many as should come to him. The Father has appointed him who died for believers, to be their judge, to have the whole determination of the matter, and the disposal of the reward, in his own hand. And you cannot doubt but that Christ will be willing to bestow eternal life on them for whom he purchased it. For if he is not willing to bestow it, surely he never would have died to purchase it. Who can think that Christ would be so desirous of sinners being saved, as to undergo so much for it, and not be willing to let them have it, when he had obtained it for them. Consider, the wisdom of God, contrived that there should be in the person of the Savior all manner of attractives to draw us to him. He has in him all possible excellency. He is possessed of all the beauty and glory of the Godhead. So that there can be no manner of excellency, nor degree of excellency that we can devise, but what is in the person of the Savior. But yet so redundant has the wisdom of God been, in providing attractives in order that we should come to Christ, it has so ordered that there should also be all human excellencies in him. If there be anything attractive in this consideration, that Christ is one in our own nature, one of us, this is true of Christ. He is not only in the divine, but in the human nature. He is truly a man, and has all possible human excellencies. He was of a most excellent spirit, wise and holy, condescending and meek, and of a lowly, benign, and benevolent disposition. Again, the wisdom of God has chosen a person of great love to sinners, and who should show that love in the most endearing manner possible. What more condescending love can there be, than the love of a divine person to such worms in the dust? What greater love can there be, than dying love? And what more endearing expression of love, than dying for the beloved? And the wisdom of God has so contrived, that Christ shall sustain that office which should most tend to endear him to us, and draw us to him: the office of a redeemer, a redeemer from eternal end, and the purchaser of all happiness. And if all this be not enough to draw us, the wisdom of God has ordered more. It has provided us a Savior that should offer himself to us in the most endearing relation. He offers to receive us as friends. To receive us to a union to himself, to become our spiritual husband and portion forever. And the wisdom of God has provided us a Savior that woos in a manner that has the greatest tendency to win our hearts. His word is most attractive. He does not merely command us to receive him, but he condescends to apply himself to us in a more endearing manner. He entreats and beseeches us in his word and by his messengers. The wisdom of God has contrived that there should be all manner of attractives in the benefits that Christ offers us. Spiritual wisdom garnered through spiritual discernment by the Holy Spirit guides the wise into understanding the magnitude of God’s power as sourced in Jesus Christ of which there is not a hint of limitness. This power reasons us to discern the truth beyond the words as we hear the truth as in the spirit. Lord, please give us discernment to wait on you. Now, discern and decide your course...

15 Minutes In this last day God’s people must become more sensitive to movements of the Spirit in everyday reality. We must make our discernment more than a choice between bad and good; it must bear the weight of consolation and desolation as well as the movements away and to God, in order to make good decisions, right choices. If there is ever any distaste or hollowness in the heart toward others, desolation is the certain path. Consolation will be the peace and happiness in resisting self-serving superficial thoughts. When we allow the workings of God in the heart it is the special discerning the genuine sign of God’s presence. Wondrous insights into His word will be crucially exercised. In this we may clearly understand the movement of God. Knowing when to resist or go along is the essence of good decision-making through discernment for what brings us closer to God. We must be aware of our thoughts. Beyond ourselves are inspired truths that God releases to us that are to bond us more closely. We must know wisdom from the inside of Christ. Discernment is not a natural method of thinking, but requires maturity, discipline, and faith. It is not the physical separation that defies unity, it is the circumstance of a differing approach to following Christ into the mystery of godliness. Consider every action of God in terms of our cooperation or resistance. Our conscience should be alert enough to prompt us not to make a choice towards something which may lead us away from God. Discernment is that of waking our conscience... being aware of the ways of God. Our challenge is to look into the consequences of the sanctuary. By what events can we become better informed before making judgment on scripture. How about considering precept upon precept. Discernment should not be desired to support personal leadings. It is to seek unity in meeting matters. For God’s people, discernment is the act of searching for truth, remaining open to the light beyond the self. God’s people have faith that, for those who question and seek, there is always a way forward in seeking divine guidance. We do this by testing and affirming among ourselves what is the wholeness of truth in accordance with our understanding that there is that of God in each of us and that truth is continually revealed. What might be the result of listening deeply to one seeking clearness, and assisting that one in exploring the word of God and discovering a way forward in the perfecting of character? Can there be trusted “friends” upon whom to call? Where spiritual oneness and harmony are sought, the same is to be expectant, waiting for the guidance of the Spirit. Do not let subtle differences in the language and approach used, deter the unfolding of truth. The search is for unity in the truth, not unanimity. We consider ourselves to be in unity when we share in the search for truth, when we listen faithfully for God, when we submit our wills to the guidance of Spirit, and when our love for one another is constant. Spiritual insight and divine leading are to be the measure of reasoned argument and lively debate. It is expected that personal convictions are outweighed by the reason of God and that His people remain always teachable to come to decisions in harmony with the Spirit. True discernment is the settling into the worship of God. This contributes to the power of discerning truth. Spiritual discernment tests our conviction of a loving spirit. The search for truth lies in our love for God and our suffering for unity among His people who say their love for God is shown in their love, one for another. Is God’s will for the individual to be saved different from God’s will for the people to be saved? Discernment threshes out all tares with questioning and answering. And holding one’s peace, as trusting to divine guidance, is acceptable to disagreement, uncertainty or discomfort. We need every spiritual resource made available by God to faithfully discern how to find out God’s working with each of us in our hearts, minds, and souls through various interior movements – our emotions, thoughts, and desires. Especially those thoughts, emotions, and desires that are not caused by the Holy Spirit. Negative spirits can and do exist in people...sometimes even in those professing godliness. Let’s make this clear - discernment always involves choosing between “goods” and not between good and evil. If our decision is between something good and something evil, that’s not a matter for discernment. We just need to do what we know is right. Discernment is sound only in the context of a personal love relationship with God. That love expresses itself more in deeds than in words. If we love someone, we want to please them. If we love God and want to have a good relationship with God and grow closer to God, we will want to please God, serve God, and do God’s will. It’s only in this context of a love relationship with God that the question of how we know God’s will is meaningful. Discernment comes out of the spiritual warfare and struggle described by the bible itself. If there were no inner struggle, if God’s will for us was perfectly clear, there would be no need for the discernment of spirits. However, we all have to struggle with our false self, inner compulsions, selfishness, egotistical side, pride, anger, greed, fears, self-doubt, lack of trust, and being co-opted by the morally wrong values of our surrounding cultures. In biblical terms the cosmic struggle between good and evil is being played out on the stage of our hearts and our minds. We must take a side. Who are we for and who are we against? Discerning attitudes are to be in accord with prayerful patience. It is with open minds and open hearts that we are to enter into the realm of reason with the word of God and the mind of Christ. Our spirits must be generous letting the Holy Spirit guide us with truth. We must have courage, for God might be asking something difficult, challenging, and risky of us. It takes courage to give up control and trustingly put the decision in God’s hands while seeking God’s will over our own . There’s no telling what height of truth God will lift us to. We must have the freedom to know the central issue and have total commitment to move in God’s truth concerning that issue rather than to move God’s truth. God’s word in every respect must hold the prominence of logic. Everything else in our lives must be kept in the subordinate position. Experiences, and relationships are to be valued and chosen as they contribute to our ultimate goal in discernment of the truth. Our always love for one another must be held in proper perspective by the light and strength of God’s grace. Discernment is never to accommodate disorder or self-centered opinions. With much prayer we ask God to enlighten and move us to seek only what is conducive to His will and purpose. Whether discernment is individually or communally situated we are to follow God’s leading by His word of truth only. If we truly believe we love God that doesn’t mean that where God leads us will be easy or won’t involve sacrifice and even some suffering. But it will lead to a truth that matters, that makes a difference, that has great meaning, and that involves more joy than we began with. Let our discernment go past the mere perception of something. Let it bring us to virtue in possessing wisdom and good judgment, especially so with regard to subject matters often not understood by others. God’s desire is that discernment permits us to transcend the limiting notion of human concepts. Individual discernment using the head and the heart, weigh decisions that decide what is most important to God. Communal discernment uses the same head and heart aligning with the principles of God’s word, keeping in mind what is best for the group as a whole, as well as the individual when making a decision that will bring unity of mind with emphasis of Jesus. Let all arrive in accord with God’s will. The focus on God and Jesus when making decisions is what separates spiritual discernment from secular discernment. The people of God are gifted with the spirit of discernment that they might make life choices based on God’s determination to bring salvation to all who love the Lord. Unity, arrived at through spiritual discernment is more powerful and less divisive than a majority-rule process. Once unity in truth is reached, we move forward together as one, equally praising God for His responsibility in giving us the sufficiencies to meet all our needs. Spiritual discernment gives us confidence to persevere in faithfulness to the commitments we choose while greatly increasing our moving in the wisdom of God rather than the wisdom of man. Discerning the will of God is more important than making decisions for the sake of expediency as it allows for an examination of conscience in preparation for reasoning with God. It opens one’s sensitivity to the Spirit and ability to hear from the Lord. Spiritual discernment of the faithful eliminates biases that are usually hidden but may substantially affect one’s perspective and ability to listen to God and others. Any personal bias does not allow room for God to lead in unexpected ways that are for our good. However, let none risk their salvation for the sake of unity. Decision making and discernment of God’s will, may vary from person to person and even from decision to decision based on the context and the circumstances. Discernment should be centered upon biblical themes and scripture as it considers the life and teachings of Jesus. Ask for the promptings of the Holy Spirit in times of silence and solitude. Use biblical witness as preferences and understanding of how God works. This moment in time urgently demands a discerning approach to our present challenges. If we cannot discern truth in the word of God, what must the position be for the sweeping consequences for justice be as we are faced with trial and tribulation. We must discern how best to present the word of God that others may gain insight as to weigh the evidence and information gathered in situations where God’s people will be placed to be heard. Let there be no doubt about it...the end is here. The wise will hear and add to their learning as God’s people are guided by discernment. God’s word must be final. Remember, Israel was split because the discernment of counsel was discouraged. Not all will be spiritually empowered with wisdom and discernment. If there is no pursuit in the word of God for truth the wrong path is before you. We must apply biblical principles to the situation where discernment is warranted. Biblical solutions are certain for the one who reasons rightly with the word of God arriving at decisions that are “pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. What discernment did Jesus use in choosing his disciples? What discernment did he use in condemning the Pharisees who tempted him? What discernment did Jesus use when wrath overcame those in the synagogue? What discernment did Jesus use while in the garden? These conscious, uncomfortable, loving, difficult decisions were always made in order to fulfill the will of the Father. The impression of Christ and adherence to God's will, are integral to the process of discernment. We must adhere to the word of God rather than human prudence. God’s people are watching from afar as the living abandon life and we bemoan the social conditions of the day. Remember that it is the most holy will of God which put us where we are and that it is for the accomplishment of His will that we must work here as His ambassador. The effects of our faith and prayer are to be evident in our actions, which are the results of our decisions. How do we discern those decisions so as to know God's will? Reasoning with God has taught us that discernment is a prayer-filled process through which each of us can discover the difference between what is my will and what is God's will. Every event that God allows in the life is because of the cross. When we discern matters in that light we grow. If the events of rejection, denial or other sorts did not occur how different might have been our path to wisdom through reasoning with God in His word alone. Did God will for some to deny the search for truth or did He know by their own free-will they would choose to misuse this freedom. God does not renege on His gift of freedom of choice. God permits you to misuse your gift of freedom of choice. God offers the gift of discernment which enable us to be wiser, more insightful, and more sensitive and compassionate than we were. God turns the crosses and the injustices to our benefit.

12 Minutes The utmost distinction of discernment is its pursuit in truth. And it is manifested by that dimension of faith where God is set before us. In our discernment the Lord is present with us. The truth is not given to equip us with concepts and ideas to debate and to discuss. The truth is given as invitations for divine encounter so we could know by experience that God is upon us and He is with us. We are each unique incarnations of God, bringing to visible and tangible expression, God’s presence in the world. When love transforms our behavior, Christ is represented. Christ is the life of the believer. In Christ we discover what is ours to do. We must go through a process of discernment as we give flesh to the word. We must connect with our sacred vocation in service to the purposes assigned us to bring the world to Christ. Not every decision can be straightforward: we must consider our goals and options; maybe we list the pros and cons of each possible choice; and then we choose the action that meets our goal most effectively. Discernment, on the other hand, is about listening and responding to that place within us where our deepest desires align with God’s desire. As discerning people, we sift through our impulses, motives, and options to discover which ones lead us closer to divine love and compassion for ourselves and other people and which ones lead us further away. Discernment reveals new priorities, directions, and gifts from God. We gain the experience of a strange inner freedom to follow a new call as previous concerns move into the background of our consciousness. We begin to see the beauty of the hidden life of Jesus. God’s concrete ways of loving us and the world gradually is made known to us. Discernment is our ability to perceive things as they are. Discernment is about perception and judgment. We can perceive and judge things without making any decision. We need to be a discerning people. We must discern the voice of God, speaking in His word, from competing voices, that our decisiveness to act is concluded by scripture. Discernment is that intent where we read our own spirit, where we are the one who makes the decision confirmed by the word of God. Discernment brings clarity. It keeps us from jumping from thought to thought, as we probe the probable and/or possible consequences of choice. Discernment has us ask why, to eliminate any bias we have by being indifferent about our search for truth. We learn that acknowledging that there may be something we don't already know is essential for growth. Discernment and decisioning help us define a challenge, reason for solution, and judge what is truth. All the alternatives should be exposed. Our position should be like a balance or equilibrium, without leaning to either side, when reasoning with the word that we might be ready to follow whatever truth is perceived the more for the glory and praise of God our Lord and for the salvation of our soul. This is how we are serving God in attaining the end for which He chooses us. And anything that proves a hindrance, we must remove of ourselves. Therefore, we must make ourselves indifferent to all created things, as far as we are allowed free choice and are not under any prohibition. Consequently, as far as we are concerned, we should not prefer health to sickness, riches to poverty, honor to dishonor, long life to a short life. We trust God. Our one desire and choice should be what is more conducive to the end for which we are to serve the purposes of God. Before we discern, ask, beg the Lord for guidance, that we can really do this thing right, that we can place the Lord's values properly, that we can understand and assess the matter properly. We should beg God to consent to move our will, and to bring to our mind what we ought to do in every matter that would be more for His praise and glory. Then we should use the understanding and the discernment to weigh the matter with care and fidelity, and make our decision in conformity with what would be more pleasing to His most holy will. We may hear prayerfully to the thoughts that come to us and through others. We study preceptually every word and make certain there is no disturbance underlining it. We weigh the subject to reckon its advantages and benefits to our salvation. Let none decide for you. Think on what decision and action you would follow if you were at the moment of your death; what decision and action you would follow if you were in the presence of our Judge on the last day. We must often “wrestle” with God to encounter the truth and to understand it. Reason must not yield to any sensual inclination. If you are troubled with an issue, look inside yourself, because nothing from the outside should make us feel troubled, only some motive in our self. Discovering that motive might resolve the trouble. The gift of discernment is like this. Some shadows are erased, so that the beauty of a good decision begins to shine through the haze of conflict and fear. We are to welcome probing questions to challenge us in our understanding. Sometimes we may have to make the familiar strange, or the strange familiar. Setting our concern in another set of clothes so we observe it without our personal bias. Spend earnest time in contemplation with scripture. Reflect on the word of God. God often talks to us "between the lines". The manner in which to confirm our decision is good in conformance to God that there be a sense of peace and an absence of disagreement or disturbance. This peace is the affirmation of God's presence. Pray that our choices, our decisions avoid being strongly biased before having been subjected to objectivity and the gathering of all the truth. The spiritual height of our discernment to understand or know something through the power of the Spirit includes perceiving the true character of people and the source and meaning of spiritual manifestations. This spiritual discernment is based upon faith in engaging every word of God, hearing every word of God, and trusting every word of God. Our discernment is to always be in reflection of our love for God, our love for people, our service to God and others, the wisdom found in reasoning with God, our call to ministering, the fruitfulness of revelation for the understanding of all potential truths. Thus, spiritual discernment is the ability to examine, test, try, judge, or prove something with the result of separating, or distinguishing the good from the bad or the truth from the false. And quiet prayer in the midst of a noisy world is the one absolute essential for faithful discernment. Discernment is required to really know God. We are in a relationship with God, an ever-changing process of learning from Him, understanding His ways, and discovering more and more about Him that we might participate in His purposes. Made able to see a situation clearly to see the truth or falseness behind the words for the purpose of seeking wisdom. Discernment is a process where human understanding and observation come to God for divine reasoning, in which words or behaviors may be measured against the standard of scripture. There must be an awareness of truth as it is in the word of God. There must be an intuitive awareness of spiritual realities. This awareness springs from the shattered remnants of the image of God that remains within us that confirms our capacity to discern in the human conscience. The one thing that we must remember is the experience in the Garden. That one corruption between good and evil that is engraved on our consciences. The other thing is that God’s law is to be written upon our hearts. It must be God’s agenda that intercedes in our articulation of observances. We must evaluate the validity of what is said in the word of prophecy and the word of knowledge. How do we do this? The understanding of what we seek is to be consistent with the Word of God as well as with His character as revealed in scripture; does it give glory to God or does it give glory to someone or something else; does the Holy Spirit give confirmation of the word to others involved in the reasoning; are there verifiable truths that confirm our understanding, and what manner of fruit is borne from the experience. Discernment is to be a sense of “rightness” in our gut, as opposed to a sense of uneasiness. When a word is given that is truth, scripture affirms it. Not the person, but of the rightness of the word given. The mature exercise of discernment is being willing to listen, allowing words to be spoken, adhering to the proper direction of discovery, and believing what God is saying not by letter but by spirit. Ask the Holy Spirit for interpretation. Listen to hear if the Lord will give the information to one person and the interpretation to another person. Then discern whether these things are from the Holy Spirit and what decision is to be made with them. When the movement is forward and upward, unity will be the result and the rise of spiritual discernment. God wants us to mature into the fulness of faith: to become the most fully actualized, reflection of Christ. This is our divine calling, and this is what He made us for. This is the being perfect version of ourselves where deep brokenness, fears, selfishness, insecurities, and wounds are identified as “sin”. And for this cause, God’s gift of discernment speaks loudly in our deepest thoughts to shoulder the burden of loving one another to base our choices off of the good desires in our hearts, that what we decide is based on the goodness within us, our strength, hope, generosity, and compassion. We ignore any semblance of pride. In doing so, we grow in self-knowledge, and we can be sure we are hearing God’s call in our lives: that we are becoming our true selves in Christ. Discernment advantages us to make the right decision for the right reasons. More than that, it gives us confidence to persevere in faithfulness to the commitments we choose for God. As a people of God, we are to work hard to build healthy patterns of living, communicating, and growing together. There should be no lack in the confidence that God has called us together to be a source of strength to witness for His determination...but if the sword of truth cuts, let the division be caused by Christ. Luke 12:51 Spiritual discernment helps us capture the best of every truth, the best of each of us. It’s a holistic approach to bring us in touch with the true, good, and beautiful desires God has placed deep within us. Listening to our heart, evaluating with our mind, and bringing God into the conversation through prayer helps us to clarify our motivations and desires, gives us confidence in the decisions we choose, and teaches us to be dependably born of the spirit. Repeating its essence - discernment is a decision-making process that honors the place of God's will in our lives. It is an interior search that seeks to align our own will with the will of God in order to learn what God is calling us to. Every choice we make, no matter how small, is an opportunity to align ourselves with God's will.

12 Minutes More often than not, God uses His people He has placed in our lives to speak to us. Those who hear His voice records what He has to say and not only in biblical writings. God still today continues to speak through the words that His people are given to write. God wants a people who can objectively evaluate and discern situations and respond from a biblical perspective in a form that give others access to His reasoning. So, we write. From the time when broken clay tablets were found with inferences of truth till now, we have the obligation to share that which God provides. Proverbs 5:11-14 All words, spoken, signed, or written, are to be marked by agape love and compassion for God’s people. Ignore the earthly fluff of a person. Listen for the heart of God in the awareness of what is expressed in truth. Listen for the demeanor to discern when words or positions are endowed with spiritual encouragements rather than personal opinions. Listen for the confidence that the writer, the speaker puts in their trust in Christ’s sovereignty. If the words are sincere, we will have battle scars as God moves us through trials to align our characters with His purposes. Words of correction, reproof are for the perfecting of character through Jesus Christ in our battles against the world and the flesh. When we come to say what God would have us say, we have to be ready to hear from the Holy Spirit and share God’s word liberally with others. It’s a position of honor that deserves respect because of the greater accountability. When we hear, when we read, as we study, we must discern the knowledge, the wisdom, the truthfulness, the integrity of the counsel offered. We must know that the motive is founded in God’s love. And there is this highest form of love. The love of God for man, for His creation. It embraces the deepest and ultimately profound sacrificial commitment that both transcends and persists regardless of any circumstance. In its most holiest of obligation, of binding, of assurance, of responsibility, of faithfulness, of indifference, and of steadfastness it is reciprocal. God to man, man to God. Agape love is the engagement of empathy extending to the desire for good while wanting the best, having right intentions to have no self-seeking motive. It is truly selfless. It is not of attraction. It is actually offered to another in the way of atonement. It is as though it is a reparation. It is a healing and a compensation for what is endured. God so loves His because these will endure in innocency to the end, every suffering brought upon them with the confidence and the faith that it is God Himself performing that which readies us for heaven. This agape love is the core of service for God, integrity in life, excellence in obedience, and shared purpose in the saving for Christ’s sake all that come to him. Agape love unites. It is intentional. It is a distinction relative to a vow. This is the love that is offered to save, to restore. It is a choice. Agape love is very powerful. It is effectual because regardless if one is drawn to another, it is sourced in the will of a person. Agape love is not a natural kind of affection. It is integral only in one’s relationship with and to God. It is an experience that perseveres in Christlikeness. Think of its essence as being a testament. It is not simply the deed of love, it is the actual being love. It is an existence. It is expressed in the spiritual confines of life as it is a thing possessed. You want to see it? Watch what it does. It is life poured out in the crimsonness of humility. Sacred in its purpose. It is a demonstration that resolves God’s determined design to bring His people to perfection. If you are not rooted in the very truth of God then you have not the heart that immeasurably, unfathomably is passionate for God’s salvation. We are to believe God’s word more than we are to believe in ourselves. Agape love is not something you can measure by your feelings. If you come not to reason with God, you hinder the manifestation of the light that shines upon unfailing love. Agape love is a rare jewel. And any who offers to speak, to write for God, offers themselves as a sacrifice. Jesus taught the most necessary things in life are to love God supremely, to love other people as He loved us, and to make converts of the people. We cannot separate the knowledge of God from the love of God. Agape love is a discerned choice. And when this love is the motive of belief, a trust, a cherishing of words written or spoken should frame a right understanding of truth claims that give narrative to our lives. With God’s spirit we can know and believe what is spoken or written is true. There is to be a conviction in every line of understanding. We are to embrace words that expose the inner person. Every word is to have the intent and the purpose to refer not only to growth in the knowledge of God but to the pursuit of godliness and a transformed life teaching us to follow Jesus. God’s people are to use their words to move toward the goal of Christlikeness so that they will not only know what is true but that their lives would reflect this doing truth as well. The things that we hear from God, we are to witness to faithful others that they may teach others of the agape love that is God. God’s word that is written on our hearts must also be written from our hearts. Agape love that motivates both speaking for and writing for God is an intentional, a conscious choice. It serves the recipient as a true mark showing hope for their salvation. One who writes for God must reason God’s decisive love, which is decisive because He is in control and has a purpose in mind. There are many reasons a proper understanding of the truth of God's word is critical and one of the foremost is Jesus' declaration that "by this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have agape for one another.” Inherent in every presentation must be the proclamation of the preciousness of the love that was shown at Calvary. It is to encourage one to surrender to the enticement of the Holy Spirit who is at work in us to will and to work to God’s good pleasure. There is to be the certainty of love which means death to self and defeat for sin since the essence of sin is self-will and self- gratification, a love activated by personal choice of our will, not just to fellow believers but to all men everywhere. Agape love is to be our lifestyle, our habitual practice. In our strength it is literally impossible to carry out this description of supernatural love, but it is "Him" where it is made possible as we yield to the enabling power of the indwelling Holy Spirit recalling that agape is the first component of the fruit of the Spirit. Agape may involve emotion, but it must always involve action. Agape is unrestricted, unrestrained, and unconditional. Agape love is the virtue that surpasses all others and in fact is the prerequisite for all other loves. The traits agape portray; unselfishness, self-giving, willful devotion, concern for the welfare of others is the imitation of God's love in Christ. Agape love counts no cost too great. Not to those who love us, but who hate; not to those who are pleasant and agreeable, but who repel; not because our natural feelings are excited, but because our will is to minister, even to the point of the cross, must our love go out. And every time we, in this way, sacrifice ourselves to another for the sake of the love of God, we enter into some of the meaning of the sacrifice of Calvary, and there is wafted up to God the odor of a sweet smell. Beloved, when God presents spoken or written truths for you contemplate His covenant agreement. Then take a moment and meditate on the profundity of the truths inherent in agape love and please consider, for the sake of your testimony and for the sake of the glory of the Lord and His kingdom how this is determined to awaken a sense of reasoning in the apprehension of all truths. Think of the constituent element of the truth in evaluating what love the mystery of godliness works. Agape is Christ’s loving nature truly becoming our own. If we reason rightly with God’s word, Christ has his proper place in our hearts, we do not have to be told to love, just as we do not have to be told to breathe. Why God inspired the writers of the bible and why He inspires His people to write today under the motivation of agape love is because it is controlled by His will. Jesus didn't speak of ordinary human affection. He is the Word agape just as God is love. This divineness is not based on a favorable or unfavorable account of another. Agape love is an act of obedience, it is deliberate. The absence of such is the presence of sin. The absence of love has nothing at all to do with what is happening to us, but everything to do with what is happening in us. Sin and love are enemies, because sin and God are enemies. They cannot coexist. Where one is, the other is not. The loveless life is the ungodly life; and the godly life is the serving, caring, tenderhearted, affectionate, self–giving, self– sacrificing life of Christ’s love working through the believer. Agape love is what Jesus asked Peter about. Agape love is what moved God to send His only son. God’s opening up His counsel that we might come to understand the reasoning of His doing truth and giving of Himself completely to others is the epitome of agape love. It has always been God’s people revealing what God places in them to speak, to write, as the merit of every word is for the sake of giving. God’s change was predicated upon His agape love’s perfect expression on earth in the Lord Jesus Christ as he defines this sacrificial love. For He left heaven, came to earth, took on a human form, was spit on and mocked, was crowned with a crown of thorns, nailed to a cross, abused, and had a spear thrust into His side. He loved the people so, to die for them. That's sacrificial love. How did the process of divine inspiration occur? How did the eternal God speak through human beings? What happened to the writers to cause them to compose the scripture? God decided to reveal certain truths about Himself through His servants. These are chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father. Notice how when God allows us to write concerning His truths it helps to reinforce the truth that Christ is to be the focal point of our faith. It gives us a greater intensity to hone in on the total essence of the truth as truth presented outside the scripture enlarges our capacity to reason. We not only preserve the word of God deeper in our hearts, but we lean in closer to inspect the jewels of truth. We see words we’ve never seen before; we realize truth we’d never gleaned previously; and we finally understand the power of writing out God’s Word. When we sacrifice our opinions, God’s word is turned over and over in the mind before their full force and beauty takes possession of us. Writings constrain us to see the words. Rich and sweet truths are reasoned. Powerful truths found in many familiar passages become embedded further in our hearts because we took the time to hear what God had someone write offering deeper application. What does agape love have to do with studying the word? We move beyond differences of understanding to see the most profound and special ways truth is shown when compassion and care, through His words and deeds are given compliment by the love we show one for another. We are His disciples.

10 Minutes Jesus made a statement that seemingly went against the truth of his coming to us. Peter failed to reason with all that Jesus said. And it was after this that Jesus so compassionately warned Peter of the desire of Satan to sift him. Study it in Luke. This was to remind Peter of his own weakness. Did Peter stand for Christ? Peter swayed. Do we realize that when a trial for standing for truth is presented to us it was first contested in heaven. Satan acquired permission from God. For us, that should be one of the most comforting things that ever was written in scripture. God is saying “try my servant”, see that they will stand”. What a minor test. There was no threat of a vat of boiling oil. There was no furnace heated seven times more. There was no log to be placed in and sawn asunder. Just a time to stand. That is a sifting time. God had made you ready. God thought enough of you to give you the spiritual capacity to stand. Wow! How many of us know that makes the difference! If ever again the opportunity to stand is brought to you, stop, breathe deep, reason and say, “God knows I can handle this. I choose to agree with His belief of me. I can handle this. He will not test me beyond what I can bear! Lord, cause me to stand.” No matter how the test comes...relationally, socially, economically, sexually, politically, or religiously...it’s just a test. Satan wants to shake someone apart, to break a person down. To crush them and to wreck their faith. Count it all joy. God is growing us in maturity, refining our characters. Think about how many stood for Christ while laying down their lives. There is one thing that really helps someone during the sifting process and that is prayer. We are to pray one for another just as Jesus prayed for us. It helps an individual more to pray for them than to go and talk about them. Think about the lesson learned concerning reasoning with God. If the failure of one to stand for truth was not seen would the wisdom to avoid the same mistake work for your good? One of the greatest mysteries that will be revealed is the powerful love that God’s people possess for others. God uses the sifting as a jumping-off point for a rigorously honest, deeply challenging, yet powerfully comforting exploration of the trials that beat us down, the good God who allows our troubles, and the incredible beauty the process of sifting can reveal in us will settle us for the sealing. We are being made stronger witnesses for God. The sifting is the mercy of God. He is removing the ungodly areas from the life that the righteousness can be vested in Christ. The sifting and settling is that part of the process which determines where you and I will end. This process is very closely tied to the shaking, and its progression is brought about by events. Our choices relating to those events determine our status in the sifting and settling process. How sad it will be for some having come so far up the path to glory to find they have traded in the everlasting kingdom for some sentimental offering to a man. The process of the sifting is one that winnows out the chaff from the pure wheat. We should be very sensitive to and ready for it. It is a continued testing time, which will come to every professor of truth. It will be telling on those who have received the love of the truth, and on those who have not taken the time to study these testing truths for themselves. In this time, which I believe we have already entered, those who have spent precious hours studying to know God’s will, will receive protection and discernment which are vital. Those who receive not of this gift and know not the truth through personal experience will not be protected but will end up on the wrong side, even though they think they are right. Amos 9:9 God’s people will be shaken, and sifted, yet still in the hands of God, in both His hands, as the sieve in the hands of Him that sifts. Today we find ourselves in unusual circumstances. What we thought we knew yesterday is no longer a given or a definite today. Each day brings new information and changing circumstances, if not for ourselves, for loved ones or people we know. The refinement process of precious metals used in scriptures helps us to grasp what the Spirit of the Lord is doing in this season. The intensity of trial by fire to bring purity to the metals is exacting and uncompromising. There is no way around the process of bringing forth pure gold or silver. Wherever we are shaken and sifted, God will have His eye upon us, and will take care to separate between the rock and the sand, which was the thing He designed in sifting us. Nothing will take us off course in our faith journey. God’s righteous ones, that are as the solid rock, shall none of them perish; we shall be delivered either from or through the common calamities of the world; not one rock shall fall on the earth, so as to be lost and forgotten. Not one of the least stone, so the word is, for the right hand of Christ holds the weight as a stone in comparison with that which is shaken sand . Whatever shakings, siftings there may be in the world, God does and will effectually provide that none who are truly His shall be truly miserable. There is a theological end to what God is doing. It is to bring instruction in godliness, correction of behavior, encouragement of faith and exaltation of our worship for God. Jesus departed that the Holy Spirit may give us some very heavy doctrine and he’ll give us some more before we get done. In this way God’s people learn that His truth is exclusive...it excludes all opinions. It does not contradict itself. Everybody is not right. Truth will always lead you to the person of Jesus Christ because truth is a person. And truth is the way God made him. To reject truth is to reject Jesus Christ and many do so at their own peril, and they will reap the consequences. Does God find joy when His professed people separate over truth? Yes, for there is this great joy...His people prove perseverance. It’s the last hour. This last hour is an hour of testing and this is the hour you and I live in. We are not just in a test of temptations and trials, but in a doctrinal test as well. God has no hybrid truth blended with what you think. All of God’s truth is the Word. And it sifts. I John 2:19 God is doing the sifting with His hands. No mistake is made in the separation. This is not about someone leaving a church. It is those professing faith in Christ but who are not genuine. Jesus sifts the disingenuous from the genuine and he does this by fire. By trials and by demonic spirits. Yes, God uses demonic spirits to deceive those who would not stand for truth believing a lie. God is serious about His people. Every doctrine of God is essential. The 144000 may be all found in Philadelphia or they may be drawn as overcomers from each of the churches. Have that disagreement if you like. But when we’re dealing with the very person of Christ, what salvation really is, that’s something to divide over. We are to have no hesitation about truth. When it comes to Christ, when it comes to the authority of the Book, when it comes to how one is born again by the Spirit of God, we cannot tolerate compromise. There can be none. Perseverance in the sifting is a test that you are a genuine believer. You have given evidence that you are truly a child of God. For if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. There it is. Perseverance, staying with it. However, perseverance is not only confessing for doctrine that is truth, it is also practicing that truth. We all are sifted and we must remain faithful in doctrine and in practice if we are one of God’s elect, one of His redeemed, one of His children. It’s part and parcel of salvation if we endure to the end. And so, God sifts His own people. He puts us through fire and floods; He takes us through deserts, dark valleys, and through illnesses. He takes us through relationships gone shipwreck, He takes us through rebellious children. He takes us through financial upheaval and stormy seas of dreams unfulfilled, of hopes and aspirations dashed on the rocks of reality. God takes His people through almost every conceivable hardship. He throws us in lion’s dens and fiery furnaces, but if we are God’s people we always endure. Why? Because endurance is a gift of grace from God. God appoints suffering for the messengers of His grace. Remember, the enemy pulled down Judas, then he went after Peter. He knew God had better things for Peter based upon Jesus renaming him from Simon. Perhaps we are in the sieve right now because God has some better thing for us. The enemy never asks God’s permission to sift us unless we are staunch in the line of obedience. God is doing a new thing once again in this last generation, and we have been set apart by Him to be a powerful witness to many. He has set us free, and is preparing us for His eternal purposes. And the greater our gifts, the greater our potential, the greater our surrender to the will of God and the more severe our sifting will be. For those who are sifted we do as did Jesus...we pray. For the sifting also teaches us how to love those who fall. When we see brothers and sisters compromising let us love them enough to warn them as firmly as did Jesus. Our sifting is a source of joy and assurance as we face trials and temptations as we run with endurance the race set before us. It teaches that true believers, whom God has effectually called and chosen and brought into union with Christ, will certainly persevere unto final salvation, obtaining our heavenly inheritance, and will not fall away. We learn that perseverance does not depend decisively upon our own free will, but upon the purpose, grace, and preserving power of God. It is the continuous operation of the Spirit in our lives that brings the divine work of sovereign grace, that began in the heart, to completion. We have been effectually called and continue to hold fast because God has purposed to never abandon the work He began. From beginning to end, our preservation is grounded in the grace of God and His immutable, eternal, steadfast, covenant love. All faithful believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, who have been effectually called have been “sealed for the day of redemption” and are being guarded through faith by God’s power. The assurance that we have is not that we won’t undergo much temptation, many trials, but that God will protect our faith that it fails not. With His divine seal we will remain faithful to Christ. We are chosen before the foundation of the world. God secures our perseverance through the influence of the Spirit and by various means, including warnings and exhortations. Take heed. The warnings aren’t negligible because true believers will not fall away. Rather, they are the God-appointed means by which we persevere in the sifting. Let us admonish one another, exhort one another that we be kept for the sake of being the elect of God. Some have swerved from the faith and upset the faith of others. It is in this that those who have been truly sincere will by no means remain in a shaken state and will be brought back to perseverance until the end. Let none dissuade you from the precept of God’s word. His truths never change. Our God is full of power, wisdom and knowledge. He knows when a person turns to Him with love, and when a person has put their trust in Him. To such people, God is a fortress. And here is the strong warning...the Lord knows those that are His.

12 Minutes God has a prepared people for the coming of the Lord. He describes them as His peculiar people, chosen as His elect and His very elect. Their faith is decisive and determinative and expressed devotionally to God through obedience, suffering, and sacrifice. In this pattern, they are the gathering unto God. They were meant to treat one another with mercy, justice and love in every sphere of life. They are strong in their condemnations of sin. These are the proclamations of the fulfilment of those promises in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Our gatherings each Sabbath is an anticipation of the ultimate coming together of God's people around His throne in the new creation. Since we await that final experience of fellowship with God, each believers’ assembly has an 'already and a not yet' dimension. We are already ‘in Christ’ and yet we are not yet 'with Christ'. These assemblies do not involve any essential time schedule. They can and should occur at any time there is interest in studying the truths of God. Isaiah 43:5-11, 21 The scattering was purposed for the carrying forth the messages of God to the world. The gathering is purposed for all who profess Christ. Jesus Christ, at the time of his second presence, will gather the chosen remnant of the people from all parts of the earth. Matthew 24:31 But there is a different time of dividing ahead. It’s called the shaking and the sifting. The experience will be a traumatic one, for we will see some shaken out of this message of truth in whom there was great confidence. There will be others who were thought to be weak in faith who will stand like rocks. There is a sieve of affliction and persecution approaching. Through this experience will be demonstrated which of those who claim to be followers of God would remain. The purpose is to purify a people. God will have a clean and holy people. This world cannot stand much longer. Jesus’ coming is the only hope. Consider the desperate tactics that the enemy is using to cause some to refuse the truth. Fearful days of shaking and sifting are determined for those who claim to be children of God. Remember, God is in control. He may allow the enemy’s participation, but God is now sifting His people. He alone tests their motives, their purposes, their endurance. We may want to restudy God’s word for our time. Could there be an attempt of God to bring us into deeper truth that we refuse to reason with for perfect understanding? The sifting will be much more severe than the shaking. Both are a separating process. Put the rocks and the sand in the bowl. The shaking causes the separation in the bowl of life. But drill minute holes of trouble in the bowl, in the life. As the shaking continues, the sand begins to fall out. Only the rocks remain. Many superficial believers who are lukewarm, feeling much at ease are being shaken out. Watch what causes any kind of separation among the people who once were as one. Most diseases begin within the body. And the nature of the feelings of bitterness is contaminating. The sifting process is the crisis brought on by refusing or neglecting to come to God...to God to reason...if you be willing and obedient. Surface readers are like sifting sand. They will fall out as they refuse to struggle with self. God’s true people resist unto blood. This goes much deeper in experience than just trying. These stand firm for revealed truth. The shaking, sifting, settling, and sealing are all about standing firmly against the opposition to God so that we cannot be moved. These pass through the shaking having resisted unto blood, past the striving in the shaking. These have reasoned with the Lord in the wrestling away of their thinking what is truth, clinging to His every word until the promised blessing has become the realized revelation. In the simplest language, what we must learn to do is to stay in communion with the Lord until the sin of self has been overcome. As God’s people are settled in His truth there is no diversion that the enemy can bring. The enemy’s greatest tactic is to cause your feet to begin to slide from the precept of the word because they were not firmly planted on the truth of God revealed in scripture. And if the enemy can just hold you where you are...!!! If you are claiming to be in Christ, then you are to recognize the privilege and the extreme importance of you revealing every word of truth learned. It will not go well in the judgment for those who are complacent and content, allowing others to stand alone for truth. Many, most, who refuse to call for the truth, will call for the rocks to fall... Please do not think that just because we come together sabbath after sabbath that we are better off than those sitting in the conference churches hearing error. The end-time work means there can be no abandonment of any of the truth of the word of God. That means as watchmen, as servants, as teachers, as hearers, we are to go therefore and teach whomsoever whatsoever is of Jesus Christ. There is almost no subtlety to willingness of too many to follow another other than Christ. Because of the weakness of the people’s sentiments or their lack of personal study and knowledge, they just keep following agents of error. It is our duty to seek out truth and stand for that truth no matter what happens or who diverts from it. It is incredible for anyone to take the attitude that individuals who stay in conference churches will be lost for putting up with error and not standing for truth, while at the same time they are doing the exact same thing in their independent studies. We desperately need to understand that the gathering, shaking, sifting, settling, and sealing process will continue until all of us are in one group or the other. As individuals we must go step by step in the path of truth that leads to the sanctuary watching every way of God in doing His work with our eyes firmly on Jesus. In this last moment of time, many wonderful and terrible things will be happening, and we will need to keep our eyes wide open and be empowered with the eyesalve to discern the events, thereby having wisdom from on high through the unction of the Holy Spirit. How vitally important it is that people individually study to understand the process through which we are going and to see it as a matter of life and death, as it certainly is. Many will come up to one point of faith, draw the line, and go no further. If there is any doubt about the validity of this point, study again how and why Adam made the choice to eat of the forbidden tree, which threw the whole world into chaos. If only he had continued in faith to the doing of every word of God. The sifting process is the powerful spiritual reality that believers will go through. It’s a God ordained thing. It is a good thing. It is initiated by God to allow us to come to maturity. It is the trying of our faith. Notice the end result...a faith more precious than gold. I Peter 1:7 The sifting is biblical. When a believer is in the Word, God begins to do a work in their life. He is preparing them for something. God starts showing up in wonderful ways in your life. You might be brought through a stroke, or a personal tragedy, a firing, the lost of a spouse, or a parent, you might have experienced sexual abuse, or suffered from a brain affliction...doesn’t matter. God showed up! And if you accept His doings you were brought to a higher plain of understanding and relationally with God. And His healing far exceeds any trial endured. He is preparing you to overcome. God may accept us as we are, but He will not leave us as we are. There may be seasons of change that we go through for Christ. Some have already experienced a purifying fire in past seasons. The residue of burnt smoke lingers in their nostrils. Remembered is the trial for the that God brought. Some still sting from the burning process. Why does the enemy so want to sift us? He misthinks that we will fault God. How nearer the mind of Christ, as we have the realization that God is growing us. If we’re to be the last people and to teach the final generation then we must be prepared to be sifted. We will not be exempt from the trials of life. But there is a difference in how we use them to refine us, to change us, to mold us, to chisel us, to transform us, to correct us, to chasten us, to challenge us, to grow us. God is making us more like His Son. God is not so much concerned with our comfort as He is with our being saved. Please understand the purpose of this statement; if you cannot stand for the working of the straight testimony involving the reasoning for truth beyond your little opinions then you will not stand for Christ. Jesus knew that he would soon be gone. He was about to go to the cross. And his goal in the development of his disciples was that they would stand. Hear me please, the disciples would have never been able to withstand all the persecution, the opposition, the trials that they faced including martyrdom had they not learned how to stand. Jesus was about ready to go to the cross. The disciples did not understand why. They would have chosen for Jesus to remain with them and tosetupanearthlykingdom.ButGod’schargesaredifferent. Jesus’mission on earth at that time was to die. And there was no one who felt stronger about that than Peter. Jesus explained this to them...and had to use strong words against Peter. This was a difficult thing for Peter. It was a huge test of his faith! Matthew 16:21-28

7 Minutes Biblical passages all have a similar context...they are truth. And God, by His word and through His people is trying to arouse a deaf world. God has a people who are coming to the end of themselves and back to Christ. And to cause them to sense God’s presence, and also His purposes God reminds us that the earth is His and He will not relinquish control over the events that lead to godliness. God chose a genesis method of separation and association. Time from eternity. Light from darkness. The dry land from the waters. Man from God. Abraham from Lot. Hebrews from Egyptians. Six days for labor from one day of rest. Israel from Judah. His people from the world. Scattering is initiated when man fails to give first thought to God. This is the beginning of depravity. Shame for sin disappears. The sorts of this scattering are rebellion, obstinacy, betrayal, distrust, shamelessness, and greed, comprising an audacious self-centeredness against God and fellow man. These are not the characteristics of a nation that would bring honor to God. Sin is rapidly revealing less of a stigma, and the sense of shame has been slowly replaced by a growing boldness of attitude, a flaunting of sin. Much of that sense of shame has disappeared from the world and in American psyche in particular. This is the kind of conduct the "whore's forehead" pictures. It represents the blatant, audacious sin of the average person who is out in public, openly displaying what she is, promoting herself, and tempting others to engage in sin with her...the Jezebel of today. The whore's forehead represents obdurate practice of sin done overtly with no attempt to camouflage. This relaxed and careless public acceptability of sin did not happen overnight. It gradually became tolerated over decades. Its growth was significantly aided by a so-called Christian church that abandoned its responsibility to "cry aloud and spare not" and show God's people their sins. We must be very prayerful to guard ourselves from succumbing to the temptation of being drawn into the same casual approach. It is our responsibility to overcome sin. This is the condition that leads to God’s rebuke of His people. As part of God's warning to the last day people, He promises to unsteady their ability to understand, reason, and think things through. Confusion of heart for disobeying His voice and failing to observe His commandments and statutes with judgment creates for these a dreadful situation. Deuteronomy 28:29 We must always consider the word of God to enhance our ability to discern rationally and reasonably to come to the real solution of returning to God. For those who ignore the cause and effect relationship God will take away understanding and wisdom. They consider not their disregard relative to their scattering. The great fault that these promote is that it is the enemy of God that causes such scattering. But in reality it shows their discomfort with God’s word. They fail to see that assigning blame to the enemy to provide a measure of comfort for themselves does not leave them victimless. The unstated implication of this notion is that the enemy somehow outsmarted or outmaneuvered God. God promises the scattering because of unbelief. Because of His sovereignty, He is the only One who can bring about what happens to the Babylonish conclave found among the people. On the other hand, the enemy can only do what God allows him to do. God will respond to spiritual neglect among His people. God’s scattering today has been organizational rather than geographical and catastrophic. And we are even more accountable because of our privileged position and also the principle of truth not just made available to us, but given to us. Amos 3:2 Scattering results when God’s people walk contrary to His way. Seldom does God instruct me to write out the scripture that the wise may search them. But review the following verses that are written out here from Deuteronomy 29:22-28... So that the generation to come of your children that shall rise up after you, and the stranger that shall come from a far land, shall say, when they see the plagues of that land, and the sicknesses which the LORD hath laid upon it; And that the whole land thereof is brimstone, and salt, and burning, that it is not sown, nor beareth, nor any grass groweth therein, like the overthrow of Sodom, and Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboim, which the LORD overthrew in his anger, and in his wrath: Even all nations shall say, Wherefore hath the LORD done thus unto this land? what meaneth the heat of this great anger? Then men shall say, Because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD God of their fathers, which he made with them when he brought them forth out of the land of Egypt: For they went and served other gods, and worshipped them, gods whom they knew not, and whom he had not given unto them: And the anger of the LORD was kindled against this land, to bring upon it all the curses that are written in this book: And the LORD rooted them out of their land in anger, and in wrath, and in great indignation, and cast them into another land, as it is this day. The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law. Consider the people being spoken to. Could this be God’s people whose blood memory is there, and they are now here? Are these words spoken for “generation to come”? Has the restoration of God’s people been completed? The bible understands that it is addressing not only those standing before our day on the east side of the Jordan River, but all the descendants of the children of Israel as well. This prophecy pertains to today's descendants of Israel as noted in Revelation 7:4-9. We must consider and reflect on all things. Contemplate the trials, consider the blessings. And compare the experience. There will be much decadence among the people, but there will be an unprecedented prevalence of faith to appear in God’s stand out people. Jeremiah 31:10 To God, gathering is a purposeful and overt reversal of the current situation. Upon seeing our changing attitude, our repentance, God intervenes by altering His own course, backing out the scattering He imposed earlier. God will go where He needs to gather His people. Deuteronomy 30 Jesus Christ, will not delegate the work of regathering, nor will he gather from a distance. He will be with us always. He will have us go to the nations and gather the elect and the remnant. Christ’s participation is assertive in the gathering process. He sends to us the Holy Spirit to guide us. The scattering actually is the sowing of God. The reaping is His gathering. The evident underlines God’s personal engagement in the gathering underscores the purpose of Christ’s work: for the Son of Man came to seek... The word of God prepares His responsible servants to seek actively for stray sheep, to the point of searching them out. Was the scattering of Israel and Judah beautiful in its time? If we study Lamentations without reasoning with principled consideration of truth concerning God's entire purpose, the situation appears very dreadful. However, reasoning the events, the answer is undoubtedly, yes, it was beautiful and good. Because of the messaging of the blessings and curses, it was suitable for that occasion. What about the scattering of the church? Was it beautiful? The same is true. Because of the messaging to the seven churches our going through it may have been stressful, requiring painful adjustments while enduring to the end, but in God’s expressed time, it will most certainly be beautifully good. Is correction good? Do we really want to continue doing things wrong? If God had not done what He did when and how He did it, how many serious spiritual character and attitude flaws would have gone uncorrected? How disastrous would they have been to the salvation of many? How many people have we fellowshipped with in the past who have seemingly been confounded by revealed truth? The reality may be that they were “tares.” Perhaps they no longer fellowship with God’s people because God delayed their true calling. If not for God’s intervention all would have been lost. It is critical for us to keep in mind always that God knows the end from the beginning. His foreknowledge captures the entire span of events. If we think the scattering has been difficult to accept, we need to be patient because prophecy reveals that things will become much worse as time concludes. Will the descendants of Israel, scattered within the western world, learn that it is not the president, monarch, congress, or parliament of any earthly nation that rules, but that God in heaven reigns over all? We are witness to a continuing erosion of that calling of God that offered salvation to those who would desire to live in the fear of God. A painful reckoning must come. To complicate matters, God has scattered His people all over the western world according to His purposes. One of the results of this is that the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob no longer even know who they really are, and their conduct and attitudes reveal that most do not care. God is seeing His return with weeping and supplication. These are the ones who have survived the sword. Conditions will continue to deteriorate as we approach Christ's return because they must. If God allowed the people to turn away from Him without consequence, their hearts would be fully set in them to do evil. God knows those whose hope is in Jesus and He will cause many to sleep to save them. He loves them too much to allow them to become incorrigible.

10 Minutes Godly sorrow is our conviction that such sorrow of soul is a sign of spiritual health. It is one element in the experience as true believers which we must expect to have. Here is the sadness for today... this felt sense of sin is comparatively rare today. Too many of us no longer grieve over what we are . We no longer weep to think that we are corrupt in heart and blemished in character. Believers speak of human depravity as if it were not a felt infirmity. Sin, if it is confessed at all, is confessed with careless formalism. Sin is more than just a religious term for an evil which believers talk about. Too many think sin not to be a personal experience . Godly sorrow is preparative to repentance and in some sense the cause that will produce repentance. Sorrow according to the will of God is wrought by the Spirit of God. Past sins are not to find pleasure in but are of use to teach us new lessons. Old sins are often a photo-fit picture of our present spiritual deficiencies. Old sins are an index to unobserved infirmities. If we would be familiar with tomorrow's temptations, let us consider well our yesterday’s shortcomings. Sin causes us to lose the joy of our salvation and robs us of peace. We do not feel too saved right then. Anguish of heart, separation from God, loss of confidence. What are we seeking to gratify in remembering past sins? Sensual appetite is that concern of something you thought might be a sin or other violation of the moral doctrine. Suggestion to sin is not an actual sin. Be aware of the devices of the enemy. Actual sin is any willful thought, word, deed, or omission contrary to the law of God. This is where godly sorrow works revenge...the crucial difference is in an action of the will. Suggestions to sin are not actions of the will, but happens without involvement of the will. They are thoughts, emotions, and inclinations that are internal. They come from the world, the flesh, and the enemy, but in particular, our flesh. Entertaining or pursuing such thoughts is against purity...that is sin. In this, God is still faithful and just. He will forgive, He will cleanse...if we confess and repent with godly sorrow. This is why we are admonished to pray without ceasing. Focus on the things of God helps to heal our faculty. Remember, the vice of folly is the thought of foolishness, which is opposed to wisdom, is a sin. Growing in virtue is our learning to govern our emotional life with our spirit and our will as we examine the value of spiritual heartbreak. Being godly sorrow unto repentance requires a deep conscience dive. We should desire that as we repent, the atonement of Jesus Christ becomes fully effective in our lives. Embracing Jesus’ sacrifice is to make a concerted effort to uncover every sin that our prayer for repentance resonants to the core of the soul. This is that way of salvation that brings us inside the life of Christ that we be not separated from God. Godly sorrow is an illustration for the present time, indicating that the gift of God’s forgiveness and the sacrifice of Jesus being offered are able to clear the conscience of the faithful. Godly sorrow for sin and sincere repentance requires a clear conscience that is built upon an honest confession of those things that are plaguing our conscience and a complete surrender to the finished work of Christ on the cross to make us right with Christ and by faith enter into the righteousness of Christ offered to us by God! Living in this dignity of perfection in God’s sight enters us into the abundant life of Christ. It is our time to dive deeper into the most precious and rewarding life of all...the life of Christ...the life wrought in us by godly sorrowness for sin committed and sin justly forgiven by God, thus clearing our conscience. The conflict brought forth by the war for souls centers on godly sorrow as opposed by worldly sorrow. Godly sorrow inspires change and hope through the atonement of Jesus Christ. Worldly sorrow pulls us down, extinguishes hope, and persuades us to give in to further temptation. Godly sorrow leads to conversion and a change of heart. There are many people who long to have a deeper sense of their sinfulness, and then with a certain show of conscientious hesitation, they make an excuse for the exercise of simple faith. That spiritual disease, which keeps sinners from Christ, assumes a different shape at different times. They believed in being self-righteous. In this last day the evil has taken another, and that a most extraordinary shape. Men have aimed at being self-righteous after quite a singular fashion; they think they must feel worse and have a deeper conviction of sin before they may trust in Christ. These do not feel their need of Christ enough; they have no sufficient contrition for their sins and their repentance is not for their rebelliousness toward God. They have lost subordination to God and His Word. In this is found the depth of godly sorrow for the sacrifice of Jesus. There are those who choose to infer truth forming a barrier that keeps a soul from Christ. Doctrinal truth must come against every wall that hinders a soul. When God's word comes home as the sharp sword to many, they attempt to blunt its edge. They don’t want to feel it. If they are sorry because they cannot be sorry enough on account of sin, why they are already sorry. If they grieve because they cannot grieve enough, why they do grieve already. If it is a cause of repentance to them that their heart is very hard and that they cannot repent, why they do repent. All this is saying is that God has given them the way of repentance, but it must be accepted. These will never feel as they ought, until they do not feel what they ought; they will never come to Christ until they do not feel that they can come. They know not that they are to come as they are; come in all their poverty, and stubbornness, and hardness, just as they are now, take Christ to be their all in all. Godly sorrow will remove the weight of original corruption upon their consciences in this last hour. By faith they might find their consciences so purely and sincerely drawn out to God in the repentance they perform. II Corinthians 7:10, 11 These words contain a reason, proving that they had received no damage, but profit by the sorrow that had possessed them, from the nature of it, a "godly" sorrow; a sorrow which had God for its author. Godly sorrow did not arise from the power of free will, nor from the dictates of a natural conscience, nor from a work of the law on our hearts, or from a fear of hell and damnation, but it sprung from the free grace of God. It is a gift of His grace, the work of His Spirit, and the produce of His almighty power. Being such, which by no means, as judgments, or mercies, or the most powerful ministry of the words themselves could effect; it was owing to divine instructions; it was heightened and increased with a discovery of the love of God, and views of pardoning grace and mercy being attended with faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. This godly sorrow has God for its object, as well as its author; it is a sorrow "which is for God", on the account of God, His honor, interest, and glory. It is a sorrow for sin, because it was committed against a God of infinite holiness, justice, and truth, goodness, grace, and mercy; and it is a sorrow "according to God". According to the mind and will of God; it is, as it is rendered "grateful to God". What He took notice of, observed, and approved of; and was also such a sorrow as bore some resemblance to what in God goes by the name of grieving and repenting, in that He had made man without sin, yet because of sin; there being in godly sorrow a displicency with sin, an hatred of it, and a repentance that ever it was committed. Moreover, this sorrow is further described, from its beneficial operation, it "worketh repentance"; it is the beginning of it, a part of it, an essential part of it, without which there is no true repentance. This produces it, issues in it, even in an ingenuous confession of sin, a forsaking of it, and in bringing forth fruits meet for repentance, in the life, and conversation. And this repentance is unto salvation; not the cause or author of it, for that is Christ alone; nor the condition of it, but is itself a blessing of salvation, a part of it, the initial part of it, by which, and faith we enter upon the possession of salvation. This is an evidence of interest in it, and issues in the full enjoyment of it. This godly sorrow and repentance, is such as is not to be repented of; or that is stable and immovable, which "never returns", but remains the same not repented of; for to either of them may it be applied. Salvation is not to be repented of; it is not repented of by God, neither of the thing itself, nor of the way and manner in which it is effected, nor of the persons saved by it, and God’s choice of whom He chooses to it. Neither is it repented of by us, who believe in Christ to the saving of our souls. Nor is true repentance, which is connected with it, to be repented of; God does not repent of giving it, for "His gifts and calling are without repentance". Neither does the repenting sinner repent of it; nor have we any occasion to, since it is unto life, even "unto eternal life", as it is called "repentance unto life". This sorrow is likewise illustrated by its contrary, the sorrow of the world which worketh death; a worldly sorrow is such, as is common to men of the world. It springs from worldly selfish principles, and proceeds on worldly views; it is often nothing more than a concern for the loss of worldly things, as riches, honors or for a disappointment in the gratification of worldly lusts and pleasures: and this worketh death; temporal and eternal death. It may bring diseases and disorders on the body, which issue in death; and sometimes puts men upon destroying themselves. It works in the minds of men a fearful apprehension of eternal death, and, if grace prevent not, issues in it. Godly sorrow is the body and blood of Christ. Sorrow readies the ground. Godly sorrow is a great privilege being with God’s people at the end. This is how God is deserving of all our love. His grace to sin no more and godly sorrow working repentance to avoid the every near occasion of sin that we might be saved. God’s godly sorrow is the kind of good grief that will lead us to repent more quickly and yet not get weighed down with vain regrets. It is a time when God allows us to focus on our souls. We groan for restoration that is at the core of our struggle. Because of God’s promises we find godly sorrow to be God’s caring, His convincing what can never be lost if we stay in Christ Jesus...the deepest expression of His unshakable love. As we dive deep into the valley of our conscience, we find God’s presence and protection as we negotiate the treacherous grief that sin causes. There is no explanation to be given for our sin. Our dependence is upon the forgiveness and cleansing of God. Our hope in this godly sorrow is that it has a good effect and that it brings us to the feet of the Savior.

10 Minutes There is a fierce war happening for our souls. God wins the war, but the battles are ours. Without the whole of the holiness of truth and the vitalness of faith in God, many will be vanquished by deceit. It is when we allow the enemy any advantage through spiritual immaturity or ignorance. There are many who know not how to, or prefer not to reason to check their beliefs prayerfully against the Word of God for fear of being found wrong. It’s a natural heart condition. What the enemy wants more is for you to deny truth, for that is lacking faith and whatsoever is not of faith is sin. Sin is so frightful, so destructive to the soul, that no human thought or act can in any degree diminish its lethal effects. Some regret the consequences of not reasoning to discover truth but regret is futile to pleasing God. Godly sorrow is of so much more sufficient strength to cancel out the offense and to commit to God. Godly sorrow gives us an adequate view of sin that our unceasing gratitude for the grace of God is discovered in the clearing of ourselves. This grace by faith alone enhances the value of godly sorrow by positioning it as a sign of election to heaven. And so, God gives His people repentance to the acknowledging of the truth. It is both a command and a gift. Both lead to life. In one sense, being granted repentance is God’s offer. While in another sense being granted repentance is our decision. But to be clear, God grants this opportunity to everyone. God is in this last day breaking into new groups of people. This being done gives us the opportunity to suffer for the cause of Christ. Godly sorrow for sin, any sin, is a hatred of sin, all sin, and a true grief of the soul for having offended God, with a firm...purpose of sinning no more. Repentance, without excuse, without evasion...the kind of sorrow God wants us to experience leads us away from sin and results in salvation. There's no regret for that kind of sorrow. Sorrow is to express an unbearable sadness for having grieved God who is very close to us in our brokenheartedness. As God searches the heart of the truly repentant, He sees one with a contrite spirit. He chooses him or her as His friend. He desires to remain with that person because the Lord takes pleasure in His people. God’s purpose in His people makes us more than ordinary. In challenging moments, we are to consider circumstances. Yet, what is the point of repenting of a sin while remembering the pleasure that was derived rather than the pain caused, the cost that God paid. Is true repentance never doing those things again? Is this some form of nostalgia of a thing enjoyed? Why can’t we forget our sins? God did not promise that we would not remember our sins. Remembering will help us avoid making the same mistakes again. But if we stay true and faithful, the memory of our sins will be softened over time. This will be part of the needed healing and sanctification process. We are to have a different inner attitude toward sins we’ve committed. This is called repentance. To repent means to view something done against the word of God as sinful. We cannot always make amends with those we’ve brought into sin, however we can determine to live according to God’s will. Faith in the word of God to forgive and to cleanse must be exercised. Freedom from sin does not always mean freedom from guilty feelings. Even when our sins are forgiven, we still remember them. Have the courage to be completely open and honest before the Lord. We are to plead with God to search us. He knows our hearts, our thoughts. He can lead us, if we be willing, in the way everlasting. We are to treat these unwanted memories as accusations. And we are to know that there is One who is pleading for us with his Father. The godly sorrow for the sin done and forgiven is part of that suffering that causes us to cease to sin altogether. Bringing us to a heartfelt conviction of sin, a contrition over the offense to God, a turning away from the sin. Repentance must be rooted in a high importance on God, not a high assessment on oneself. Only then can turning away from sin towards holiness truly be called repentance. When the former pleasures of sin enters the thought we must pray hardily to elevate our souls through divine discipline to God’s glory. Fight mightily for the restoration of one’s experiential communion with God. Having godly sorrow warrants close examination. It is the complete abandonment of evil and the turning to God. It is the heart-rending recognition of embracing God and all that He desires. Godly sorrow recognizes rationalization, the selfish attempt to justify one’s moral laxity. Knowing that even the thought of irrationality is sin and ultimately against God. Godly sorrow is our being so broken as to how we treated God with such disregard that we become blinded to all other aspects or objects of our behavior. If we are not genuinely offended at ourselves then there is no repentance. When God counsels us to have the mind of Christ we are not to enter into a spirit of self-righteousness. That does not give us any moral or spiritual superiority above others. It is that we might daily strive after complete and sinless obedience to God out of His good-pleasure, covenant mercy, and inexplicable grace. We are to rise to a higher measure of faith and perfection and that, only by the fruits of God's common goodness towards us. We are not yet as God would have us be. Old sins remembered but not cherished, are wholesome to the soul to help believers to remember dark facts about themselves as the path to mortifying self is kept fresh before us. Our love to God would be purer because our gratitude would be warmer. Our adoring praise for His electing love would be more full and ardent than it is. We should cause injury to others and to Christ less often than we do. Our heads would hang lower with zealous repentance and our talk would be more exclusively of a cross and of a loving caring Savior. The hate associated with the thoughts of former sin should be for the sin, not for the remembering. We are but brands plucked from the burning. Remember, the God who promises to pardon, promises also to chasten His children. And revisiting with pleasurable thoughts our sins of the past is as being beat with the rod. Not crying out as though in physical pain only, but also the afflicting of our soul as we distress our relationship with God. O, what the meeting of our trials are to accomplish in our welcoming God’s chastening. It is a part of the respect which we owe to God's holiness and love. God's chastisement, after all, is an expression of His anger. It is the anger of a Father, certainly, and not of a Judge. But it is anger nonetheless. Indulgent thoughts of past sins repented of, must be prayed away with profound regret, with the awareness that our present self is to be suspiciously watchful over our own heart, always hungry for more holiness. It is a sign of great ignorance when a believer is at ease with his present state or at too great peace with himself. These thoughts permit us to buffet the heart and the mind and bring it into subjection. Though forgiven, there is still this indwelling sin not yet cleansed from the sanctuary whereby we groan within ourselves. Until our change there is to be a sad recollection of the sins we had committed against Christ before his return. We will not only have this godly sorrow, we will have a gospel sorrow for the sins we have committed in the course of life. Not only for sins done after conversion, but also for the old sins purged of our unregenerate days. Being in godly sorrow, we have not that haunting fear of divine vengeance.

6 Minutes God is not playing with us today. The Potter is not experimenting with His clay. We are His real commendation, and we are a good tribute for His Son, Jesus Christ, in that God is for us as we are His truth declaring that he was sent of God. This is evidenced in our hearts that all may read. There is special revelation, revelation God gives to selected messengers, charging them to bring the message to others. The message may be presented orally or may be consigned to writing, as when John wrote authoritative letters to the messengers of the churches. God reveals Himself in the events of nature and history. We learn of Him from the changing seasons, from the power of nature, from the sun, moon, and stars. In one sense, all of God’s revelation is word-revelation, because it proceeds from God’s own speech, the bible. He enters our experience and speaks to us in human words. But it is in the Person of Jesus Christ where deepest divine revelation is made. He is God’s presence to us. And it is in him that we sculpt the word that others may see him and that their faith response is filled to the capacity to love the truth. II Corinthians 3:2-4 Our hearts are like the ark of the covenant, containing the tables of the law and the gospel, written with the finger, that is, by the Spirit, of the living God. He has purpose in how He is sculpting us, and that should comfort us. He has a plan, and He knows what He is doing. When God puts us on the wheel of circumstance, He means to accomplish something. He has a purpose. Our sculpting the word brings scripture to life. We are to create a visual message not as a graven image, but as a living faith to shape a godly character in the people of God. Because we strive to endure, because we hold fast, because we live out that godly faith, God makes us the ultimate fulfillment of His promises. Those before us had the fulness of faith in that which we will do and be in the power that God bestows. But their faith was the shadow of what is to be. The final remnant of God will have the faith of Jesus and we will come to the fulness of the revelation that results from the atonement. This is the atonement that ends the sacrificial pattern. This is our true joining in this life, with the life of Christ. The worth of Jesus’ work will accompany our conscious at-one-ment with God, our inseparability from God. This is our overcoming that Jesus spoke of. It is our overcoming the belief of separation from God, yet being distinct and individual. We must overcome our “dusty”beginning. Remember the man who washed the clay and spittle off his eyes...remember the man whom God formed of the dust...remember the one born of water and the spirit. This is our overcoming all heredity which separated us from God. Baptism, or washing off the mud, and being born again is the revelation of our atonement. Through spiritual baptism, and regeneration, we put off material beliefs and false individuality. We can be at-one-mind with God without being the same thing as God. Here we find perfect peace. Here is what our life explains; that suffering is an error of sinful sense and truth destroys sin, and that eventually both sin and suffering will fall at the feet of everlasting love. And no power can withstand divine love. Nothing can separate us. Romans 8:38, 39 Here, we denote a full, and strong, and affectionate persuasion, arising from the experience of the strength and sweetness of the divine love. And here we enumerate all those things which might be supposed likely to separate between God, Christ and us, and truth concludes that it could not be done. Not the terror of death or the hope of life. The good angels will not, and the bad angels cannot. The principalities are engaged friends, the powers are restrained enemies. The troubles that are now, nor the fear of troubles that we know are coming. Time shall not separate us, eternity shall not. Things present separate us from things to come, and things to come separate and cut us off from things present; but neither of these will cause us to withdraw from the love of Christ, whose preference for us is interwoven with both present things and things to come. No amount of prosperity, no depth of adversity and disgrace; nothing from heaven above; nothing on earth below. Not anything that can be named or thought of. Nothing but sin. We must overcome every heretical trait. God creating us in His image, His likeness did not make us “like” God. It gave us the connection to love that we be God- ing, the expression of love. We were/are to be practicing being more and more love-ing, and love-ing more and more purely. Being love-ing is doing God’s will, and we cannot help but to do love’s will because it is the only will. It is by the atonement, entered in by the covenant, that we are recipients of the fruit of the blood of Christ that deepens and increases our union. It is Christ, who is our awareness of our atonement with God, that will sustain us in times of trial, temptation, and persecution; to show us what faith has done in days that are past, and what it will do still in similar circumstances...and the sculpted Word made flesh, dwelling in us, full of grace and truth...this is that some better thing provided for us.

7 Minutes When we study the word of God it should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler than what is the truth. We should break things down in order to explain them, and gain insight and knowledge; yet never to the extent that truth is lost for the sake of simplicity. The validity of the thing is never to be compromised. If we are to sculpt the truth of the word, so as to build the house of God upon sound pillars, we must not attempt to break down the complexity of any subject where we lose clarity and meaning, and eventually lose the ability to maintain atrue perspectiveconcerning the subject. Spiritually, we must never sabotage intelligence where it becomes easier to follow the simplicity of not thinking through intricate issues, or to appeal merely to emotionalism; as compared to the willingness to diligently do the hard work of digging deep into God’s word; and therefore grow in faith, as His word instructs. We must be firmly decisioned to study where we actually learn something new, something that gives us greater insight into God, God’s word, and God’s purpose and intent; and in the process becomes a tool for building faith in accordance with hearing the word. “New” does not mean something tantalizing. I’m talking about “new” because the teacher that is willing to dig deep and uncover those faith building insights which are mandated by hard work, and are yet new because we are so superficial in our current culture, will seek to involve the minds that are acquainted with instruction, bringing all into touch with the environment of reasoning unto reality. This is why sculpting the word allows us to feel the power of that reality. It is the superficiality wherein the same old things are said time after time, or people simply regurgitate what the bible says without actually digging deep and exposing the nuggets the Holy Spirit would bid us to uncover and therefore grow in faith. When I say grow in faith, please understand that I am saying that we are to observe prophecies fulfilled which create credibility for the truths spoken, finding knowledge which is beyond comprehension, and gaining wisdom which exceeds human capabilities . Something that builds faith based upon what is written in God’s word. Unquestionable faith is found in God’s word because of the consistency of witnessing phenomenon after phenomenon exhibited in the bible, with the end result being that truly this book could not have been authored by man, but must have been offered by He who can see the ending from the beginning – God Himself, wherein this book deserves our greatest attention as God’s revelation to man. Biblical faith is to be primarily based upon an interaction with God’s word. Faith was created and given wherein as a person study’s the bible, the Holy Spirit opens their spiritual eyes to perceive that which is laid out to reveal there is deep wisdom that is written between its pages. There are internal evidences found in the bible that when crossed- referenced within themselves open up such high paths to greater understanding as to portray God’s orchestration of His creation. Under the guidance of the Holy Spirit we cannot merely isolate one passage in presenting God’s revelation to man, it is a teacher’s responsibility to teach and present all of God’s revelation as found in the bible. For in depth study, we must interweave supporting truths wherein the logical flow and dissemination of God’s writings are seen. Hearers suffer great loss when their confidence is shackled by unfortunate and negative interference when ignorance or defiance is introduced to end discussion. It is unfortunate that many people build their faith mainly upon their own experience, rather than preeminently upon God’s word. And yes, there is a place wherein we find ourselves in a situation which aligns itself with God’s word specifically, and we exercise faith in God and our faith grows in the process. This is not what the scripture says nor is it meant to be the main place of gaining faith. Faith is to be gained from the hearing of God’s word. For the chosen of God, studying the word is mandatory. These are participants; hearers and doers that delve into doctrine and those deeper things of God’s word which lead to maturity, understanding, and wisdom. God does not test our love to see if we “feel good”. It did not feel good for God to give up His Son to die for us, nor did it feel good for Christ to give his life on the cross. Furthermore, it will not feel good for us to see others reject the “so love” of God. Have you ever sided with error because you “like a lot”? Please allow me to share this insight; the definition of “like” is “to find pleasant or attractive, to enjoy.” Love means “other centered”, focused on the other person. “Like” is “me centered”, focused on the “me” in self. Love is a decision to always do the right thing...obeying the commands of God, forgiving those who wrong you, sharing with the unfortunate, loving your enemy, converting a sinner. With His finger God wrote the commandments. God writes those same words upon our heart, our mind. He sculpts them as on both sides; our inside that we may know them, and our outside that we may show them. God tests us with suffering to see if we will stay faithful to Him. And God’s motive behind His testing is most assuredly to save us. And that is the power of the word. Whenever God tells us to do anything, we immediately know one thing: we can!!! Therefore, we do, especially since we know it is in our own best interest to be obedient to our heavenly Father. The invitation to come to God our Father to reason in His love is a trial and a test in demonstration. Jacob saw a ladder reaching to heaven with angels ascending and descending on it. You and I are in the Rock-climbing school. And the Rock is Christ. Sometimes we find ourselves hanging on the face of a cliff as sheer as any logic we had ever heard of. We must look to the Word to resolve some apparent biblical contradiction. We must sculpt the word to attain adequate instruction to meet our granite fate. We are to climb the path of truth. By faith we eventually stand on top of the cliff, and guess what? Instead of lamenting how hard it had been to get there, we rejoiced in our accomplishment, looking over at the even higher Rock and saying, “we can climb to that one.” What is the principle? Our trials are tests, and our tests are trials. More precious than gold. The word tests us to see if we are looking to Christ, that beyond all doubt we are his chosen faithful and he is the genuineness of our faith. Sculpting the word of God is literally and spiritually cutting into the power of scripture to discern unexpected illuminations communicated by God to those who are charged to herald the content of His message to an entire people. Sculpting the word reveals something of the content that ordinary discourse cannot claim. If we truly cut into the power of scripture, we understand what Daniel meant by “the wise shall understand”. There are those who actually acquire knowledge through the revelation of how God acts in history to save humanity, how He reveals Himself and what He is doing. Sculpting the word uncovers the unique divine revelation in Christ. It is God making Himself known to specific people through events and inspired words spoken. Sculpting the word underscores the fact that the biblical God is not only personal, but a society of Persons, existing eternally in mutual love and deference to our being brought to perfection. Study the entire 17th chapter of John. See if what is revealed to you is not a sculpting of intercession, of defining eternal life, of restoration of the Son of God, of special prayer for a special people and for their keeping, of divine restraint to keep these from evil, and for the Oneness we are in Christ declaring his Father’s name in the power of love. We are talking about the Word. The Word is the power of God to speak to us. That power to speak is who He is: His Word is eternally with Him, and His Word is His very nature. It is Christ. When we sculpt the Word we see God. Moreover, God reveals Himself to Himself, and His revelation extends into His own being. We marvel at the distinctiveness of how God loves in His all powerful way. The Son of Man, who is God Himself, learned the one thing that his Father, the omniscient God could not know...Son, though he is God, learned obedience from what he suffered. It comes also to the world he has created, and especially to the intelligent creatures of that world: angels, the unfallen, and human beings. Because self-revelation is his nature, he wants all his creatures to know him. The creatures of the world cannot know God exhaustively. One cannot know God exhaustively unless one is God. But creatures receive great benefits from knowing God; indeed, we cannot live without knowing him, for he is the author of life. This is true both of our natural lives and our spiritual lives. It is this wonder of the Persons of God that we sufferingly sorrow for those who reject His revelation, by their unrighteous suppression of the truth. Their ignorance of God is something they have done to themselves. Even God sculpts... Jeremiah 23:29 Hebrews 4:12

7 Minutes The divine sculpting of the sapphire stone tables, in form and content, serve as the example for the firmness of the truth that we receive in the word of God. In form, the word is written and spoken. In content, the word is revelation, inspiration, and providence and it addresses us personally. Like the appearance to the elders seeing God, we too see God in the Word in the Person of the Son. The sapphire foundation and the sapphire throne are one in the same. And this stone was cut out of the throne by God as will be the stone that becomes the great mountain. The stones themselves are the work of God. Both represent the narrative and the foundational importance of God’s law. Exodus 24:10, 11, 12 Ezekiel 1:26 Exodus 32:15, 16 Daniel 2:34, 35, 44, 45 What is meant by sculpting the word of God? We understand that to sculpt is to produce a three-dimensional representation. The first dimension is the gospel in “word” which embraces all truth. The second, the gospel in “deed” validates how one lives, how one loves, and how one behaves. It is the call to join Christ in purpose. Lastly, the gospel in “power” is the presence of the Holy Spirit. This is how the word sculpted designs our character. When we are truly converted, the truths in the word of God will convict us deeply. We will want to understand what it means to be truthful in Christ. We read, study, and discuss the bible and we are often moved by the message. But, by it, do we do the business of God? The most freeing thing we could possibly experience is being willing to put it all on the line for the cause of Christ, whether he asks us to or not. We must be freed from the divided heart. Every word of God is a test and we know the sorrow of the times we are in. When we are moved by the word of God, yet forsake to carry out its principle, we fail the test. Oh, how my heart hurts so much to have to continually write about our difficulties. God gives us the truth of the word in black and white, and then He asks us to come unto Him to reason in His word that we may see the colors in the mirror of truth. God routinely tests His people. Not so that He will learn what we will actually do, because God already knows all things that we have done, are doing, and will do. Instead, it is for the strengthening and purification of the faith of God’s people so we might learn to depend on Him more. We can grow through tests. Furthermore, when God reasons with us, He speaks to us in discovery terms so that we might hear and know that He chooses “now to use us” according to His purpose. The word of God is well supplied with testing verses related to God’s expressions where He speaks in human terms, in human ways, as He reveals Himself to and through His people. The problem we have is that we have “little understanding”. God tests us to find out if we love Him with all our heart. But if God knows all things in the present, then doesn’t He know if we love Him or not? Of course He does. So, this is a problem of our understanding. God is testing us so that the eyes of our heart may be enlightened. This, that our inner moral and spiritual life develop a spiritual character. The heart is the real us. This inner person, who is the real us, sees and knows things that are not identical with what the eyes of the body can see. The heart has its reasons, which reason does not know. We feel it in a thousand things. There is a spiritual seeing, through and beyond natural seeing. There is a spiritual hearing, through and beyond natural hearing. There is spiritual discerning, through and beyond natural reasoning. This is how sculpting the word, shaping and forming it, helps to conceive of the innate knowledge of God and His will as a kind of mold in the human heart. This mold, or sculpted purpose is designed by God in every human heart with a shape, or a form, that corresponds to the glory of God. In other words, if the glory of God were seen with the eyes of the heart, it would fit the mold so perfectly that we would know the glory is real. We would know we were made for this. God, testing us to prove the genuineness of our faith means that the hollowed-out shapes of the mold, which are perfectly shaped for the all-satisfying glory of God, may be packed hard with the love of the truth of His word. If we are to grow in faith, in truth, in wisdom, then we must learn to step up and seek God’s perspective. The word of God does not tell us to look at others. We are to test God’s word while remembering that we belong to God, and we are in God’s hands. The test is not to see if God is right or wrong...God is always right. The test is to see if our love for Him is so accomplished that we can be entrusted to speak His truth. The concept of truth has clearly fallen on hard times, and the consequences of rejecting it are ravaging human society but especially those who are professing to be a people who claim to want to know truth. There are some who receive the word of God as the truth constructed by the Holy Spirit for the purpose of convicting and convincing the faithful in the ways of God. These use collective judgment, reasoning with every line of precept. Then there are some who cynically consider truth to be preference and opinion. Whenever someone tries to dissociate truth from the knowledge of God, they are attempting to escape righteousness. They deny and suppress the essential connection between God and truth. If they had any degree of sobriety, they would realize that truth and knowledge find their coherent significance in the same fixed source, namely, God. When God is the starting point of reasoning and we respond to what is revealed, we will find certainty in the embodied narrative of the word. Authentic godliness invokes God as a witness that He might corroborate the great message of salvation. What if a truth is presented to you that destroys what you thought was true? Would you shield yourself from correction by hardening your heart or condemning another? The reality of truth is that no assumptions can validate it. We need to examine the whole truth. Consider the multifaceted perspectives offered. Regard that there may be a wider picture of the whole truth that you did not see, some of what you’ve come to accept as truth may need to be repositioned. You must determine to accept nothing but the truth. You may have layered your truth with opinions, perceptions, reactions, and conclusions that are not, in fact, consistent with the whole truth. Truth may be packaged in more than one revelation. The master learner begins at a single point and proceeds to produce an acceptance of the truth, revelation by revelation, understanding by understanding. Some truths are deeper and more impacting than others. Trust the truth and knowledge will come to you. Proverbs 18:13 We come together to reason to prepare for what God will reveal to us. There must be a longing in our wanting to be in the presence of God. When we long for God, we go out of our way to worship, to study. When we long for God, we go out of our way to pray, to think about God, to be in conversation with God. And none of these things feel like tasks on a list because they spring out of our love for God, our desire to be in the presence of God. When was the last time you went out of your way to study with God? It is not the schedule that is being tested, it is the heart. Do you ever wonder, if in fact, you do long to be in the presence of God? I do hope that we know that love needs to be cultivated. In knowing that, we might want to also cultivate a longing to be in the presence of God. God wants to draw us closer, deeper into His love and grace.