... 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.
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.
from the presence of the LORD.
Acts 3:19
