IS GOD Obligated to Perform...

...   IF  we SAY the Right Words ? 

Repent ye therefore,

and be converted,

that your sins may be blotted out,

when the times of refreshing shall come
 from the presence of the LORD.

Acts 3:19

Is  GOD  Obligated to Perform ... if we simply SAY the "Right Words " ?

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked:

who can know it?

I+ the LORD search the heart,

I+ try the reins,

even to give every man

according to his ways,

and according to the fruit

of his doings.

Jeremiah 17: 9-10

GOD, The ELOHIM:  

·                   The HOLY FATHER,

·                   His Beloved SON+ our LORD JESUS CHRIST,

·                   and the Blessed HOLY SPIRIT 

cannot be tricked.

The ELOHIM Who moved upon the face of the waters and "made man in our image"    knows.

What does HE+ know ?

HE+ knows our down-sitting and our up-rising.  HE+ knows every word on our tongue before we speak it.

HE Who planted the ear, can HE not hear ?  HE Who formed the eye, can HE not see ?

We cannot out-maneuver GOD. 

We cannot deceive The LORD JESUS CHRIST. 

We cannot lie unto the HOLY SPIRIT and succeed any more than Sapphira and Ananias did. 

We canNOT lie unto GOD with our un-holy, self- centered lives to practice a pretense of holiness... without its substance.

If we try, we only deceive ourselves and learn to adroitly practice living a lie. We try hard to convince ourselves that we are “right” before GOD and our fellow-man.  

Thus, we cleverly live a well-practiced lie before the eyes of others. And we become self-righteously  INDIGNANT if confronted about it.

Our allegiance, however, REMAINS TO OUR SELF....  not to CHRIST.

The SPIRIT of GOD reveals to those with a discerning heart --- to those who await the development of holy fruit --- what is truly happening, much to the chagrin and shame of the deceiver.

Now understand, the deception may OR MAY NOT  be willful or purposeful.  It occurs in the inner man under the tutelage of Self ...  that Old Man which has refused to die.  Unfortunately, that wretched Old Self is never dealt with in the Light of His+ Word.   

When Old Man Self refuses to die, he emerges out of the burial waters of baptism, dragging along a fishing string with Old Man LIES hooked upon it.

What went wrong ?  How could this possibly have happened ?  Were the waters of Holy Baptism not efficacious ?

The Necessity of CONVERSION

Conversion is   

as necessary   

as repentance, 

in order to be born again.

Persons may indeed REPENT when they receive the regretful and painful consequences of their sins.  That is good.

But REPENTANCE is only a FIRST step ... a GOOD  and necessary  first step... but one cannot stop there. 

Seekers cannot enter the Holy Waters of Baptism upon the strength of their repentance for one or more of their sins. 

NO.  Repentance is meant to LEAD US unto CONVERSION. Our allegiance NOW should move from Self to JESUS CHRIST.  Repentance of our sins is to lead us unto following CHRIST JESUS now, in all our ways and in our heart.

We cannot ASSUME 

that repentance 

automatically leads 

everyone to conversion.

If we ASSUME so,

chaos will be brought

into the Christian camp.

Scripture teaches that there is more to becoming that "New Creature" in CHRIST, born of water and The SPIRIT ... besides simply repentance.

Repent ye therefore,

and be converted,

that your sins may be blotted out,

when the times of refreshing shall come 

from the presence of the Lord.

Acts 3:19

Hopefully, REPENTANCE will indeed lead seekers to RENOUNCE the world and its lying ways. 

The repentant one, hopefully, will say "NO MORE !" to being led by the nose through the slop-trough of satan's lies to retain  Self  as "god."

Hopefully, the seeker will determinedly FORSAKE the ways of his old, Adamic nature, honestly and sincerely yielding unto JESUS as he sees Old Man SELF  rear its ugly head.

He will be as a newborn babe, humble as a little one, seeking to learn how to walk in The LIGHT of CHRIST. He will seek to hold onto the Hand of his Beloved LORD CHRIST Who+ has washed him from his sins. 

The seeker , while not perfect, should be turning his WHOLE HEART to The LORD JESUS, purposing in the inner man to follow JESUS now as much as he can.

THAT   is   "conversion."

If conversion is MISSING, the seeker will still retain control of his own life. If conversion is missing, then the HOLY SPIRIT will be missing too.

The LORD JESUS will NOT be the LORD of his life, his mind, his heart... nor his home.

The lack of fruit will be evident  in one NOT converted. This lack of fruit produced by the HOLY SPIRIT is NOT simply personal “struggles" encountered during his new walk. 

IF the seeker, even though baptized upon confession of faith, has not YIELDED his life nor his will unto The Living WORD+ of GOD…. nothing will "happen"  in the waters of Holy Baptism to such a one because The HOLY SPIRIT cannot be tricked . 

HE was not tricked by Ananias and Sapphira.

Likewise, HE is not tricked by those who retain CONTROL of their own lives and values and ways.

Are, then, the Holy Waters of Baptism efficacious to bring about the New Birth ? 

YES. The HOLY SPIRIT effectively divides and discerns the thoughts and intentions of the heart. Thus, very accurately and deftly, the Living WORD+  will NOT transmit the New Birth to those kind of seekers in the Waters of HOLY BAPTISM.

And, The HOLY SPIRIT knows all hearts which are with-holding ALL of  themselves from JESUS as LORD. The HOLY SPIRIT  knows where our basic allegiance lies:  with CHRIST JESUS -- or -- with our SELF. 

How LONG will the HOLY SPIRIT wrestle with the heart of such a one? 

Only The LORD knows when the cut-off point is reached.  At some point, the heart that does NOT hold allegiance to The LORD is allowed to go his own, unyielded way... right into the arms of the satan and his tormentors. 

The LORD will not stop this from happening.  Nor should we.

Hopefully, when life becomes intolerable enough, the woebegone seeker will turn BACK to the Truth he once heard.

And THIS time --- if time is still allotted to him --- he will yield the total control of his life unto The LORD.

 

And ye shall seek ME+,

and find ME+,

when ye shall search for ME+

with all your heart.

+  +  +

For I+ know the plans that I+ have woven toward you, 

declares The LORD,

thoughts of peace, 

and not of evil, 

to give you a hope-filled future.

( literal Hebrew )

Then shall ye call upon ME+,

and ye shall go and pray unto ME+,

and I+ will hearken unto you.

And ye shall seek ME+,

and find ME+,

when ye shall search for ME+

with all your heart.

And I+ will be found of you,

saith the LORD:....

Jeremiah 29: 11-14 a...

+  +  +

This, dear friends, is the key to realizing why some nice folks, some well-churched nice folks, operate the way they do.

They simply have not been CONVERTED to follow CHRIST JESUS.

They are still following SELF.  True, they may perform out-ward allegiance to the church "system", but their inward, heart's allegiance is to SELF.  The HOLY SPIRIT recognizes who they align their hearts with. 

Our part is to discern the difference between FRUIT and deadness. In a New-Born's struggle to walk with CHRIST JESUS, there will be fruit even when he tumbles and falls. 

However, even in those tumbles, the New-Born will be bearing witness to CHRIST... to His+ help, His+ mercy, His+ love, and His+ Life.

Life will flow from the New-Born who is trying hard to follow CHRIST JESUS, even as he is so sorry for his errors and wrong-doings.

If this LIFE flowing from the HOLY SPIRIT is  missing , then CONVERSION is missing too. Conversion has not taken place. The HOLY SPIRIT is still on the "outside" of that person's heart, knocking on the door. 

CHRIST JESUS simply does NOT share the throne of the heart with Self. 

Discernment is necessary to separate godly struggles from willful obstinacy and its consequences. 

This is not only true for the people we deal with spiritually, but it is also applicable as we deal with our inner man, in our own lives.

This is why some church Christians are not moving along in TRUE Life with CHRIST JESUS. This is the essence of the problem. 

When CONVERSION happens, then the messy problems will be worked out in CHRIST.  

Without conversion, though, 

nothing will ever be made right, 

dear fellow-laborer in CHRIST. 

The CONVERSION to CHRIST ,  moving our allegiance from Self to The LORD JESUS CHRIST,  is  the essence for LIFE in CHRIST. 

The opposite, alas, is only too evident.

 +  +  +

Repent ye therefore,

and be converted,

that your sins may be blotted out,

when the times of refreshing shall come 
from the presence of the LORD.

Acts 3:19