United With Christ and Separate From the World

Fully united with Christ we are not separated from other followers of Christ spiritually but to be fully united with Him does involve separation from the world and the world may include close friends and maybe even family and some we thought were Christians. That is the pain of separation that comes with knowing Christ but knowing Christ more than makes up for it and God comforts us.

In Short

In short: Our lives are messed up; and Lord Jesus is the High Priest; and we have to be His disciples to be set free.

Religion and the Cross of Christ

Religion is primarily about putting up with something that runs counter to pleasure and self-interest such as by fasting or endurance of the restrictions of a feast by not working and by setting aside personal common day practices and activities. When a person identifies with Christ Jesus they endure a share in the suffering He endured when He was crucified. This supercedes all other religious feasts and fasts because it is the day after day suffering that satisfies the demands religious duty imposes to set aside self-interest for the sake of higher duty. We can allow the suffering endured by the Righteous Christ to affect us too as we have become bound spiritually to Christ so what affected Him affects us too. This takes the place of any feasts and fasts in the religious requirement of self denial.

Butterfly Set Free

BC = caterpillar and cocoon  AD = butterfly set free

A Real Child of God

There are over-simplifications given to describe a child of God. Three aspects are to be called and chosen and faithful in following Jesus Christ. Called to stop sinning and learn to do right is first and that means belief in what Chist says: "Stop sinning". Those believing it find they are given the Holy Spirit and miracles by God Himself. The calling is to many but the grace of receiving the calling is given to far fewer people. Having received the calling to be a saint with Holy Spirit leadership it is vital to continue to the end of life, holding fast to the calling and teachings of Christ and truth of the Spirit and if we do we know we are really what God describes as children of His. Of course other aspects of real faith are rewarded or recognised by God by His giving miracles and the Holy Spirit: Simply believing that He is the Creator is a starting point of faith. Believing that Christ died for you is another instance of faith that God rewards. Still the faithfulness is required to continue such a progress into faith through all of life. That is being called and chosen and faithful. And letting it lead how you live. The example we are given is Abraham and in Galatians Paul taught that such as these who live by faith are children of Abraham. I also find a good description of living by faith is John Bunyan's "A Pilgrim's Progress" allegory and the hymn of his "Who would true valour see" or "To be a pilgrim". This is an individual Christian but the body of local believers which is a church or assembly (or some other term depending on culture) is something again when the individuals believe themselves to be joined spiritually in Christ. Yet it does not substitute the need for the individuals to walk the eternal life of faith as children of Abraham and become transformed and sanctified as children of God. When travelling with a coach party in foreign countries each individual still needs their own passport. Finding you were mistakenly relying on the group for your passport is a nightmare scenario, like the man in the parable who finds himself at a banquet in the wrong clothes.

The Faith of the Apostle Paul

The Apostle Paul left us a legacy of Christian Churches and scriptural letters and from the letter to the Galatian Church we find evidence of his belief that the God who is Father of Jesus Christ gives the presence of the Holy Spirit that comes from Him to people when they believe the testimony of the message from Jesus Christ and the Apostles of Jesus Christ. Today the same seems true, that God still rewards faith by giving the presence of the Holy Spirit. Manifestations of this Holy Spirit are recognisable by their inherent holiness and purity and by acknowledgment of the truth that Jesus is the Christ and that God the Father calls Jesus His own beloved Son. The Spirit who is aligned with such truth is clearly sent by God. This Spirit comes to lead the believer in the way of knowing the truth that comes from God the Father. What faith is rewarded this way? The certainty within that Jesus wants each one to turn from lies and other such unethical behaviour and only behave ethically in a way that will not be judged by the future Lake of Fire which will burn up forever those who refuse to stop such unethical practices that God the Father hates and refuse to learn to please God by learning to do what God regards as right. And the death Jesus died was to free people from they unethical ways to be free to please God. They resurrected Jesus lives forever to keep people living in this way of pleasing God. So the giving of the Holy Spirit is the way God confirms people in this faith. Here is an extract from a modern translation of Paul's letter to Galatians (chapter 5) showing this faith "Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh? Have you experienced so much in vain—if it really was in vain? So again I ask, does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you by the works of the law, or by your believing what you heard? So also Abraham “believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” Understand, then, that those who have faith are children of Abraham."
So who is this man, Abraham? A mysterious figure from the very distant past, in very ancient times he was famous but known mainly for being the biological ancestor to the modern Jews. He might be the person who invented a seed drill found by archaeology in ancient Babylon and now known for his departure from ancient long popular religious concepts such as sun worship who believed there must be a creator spirit we nowadays call God. Back in ancient times there was so much false religion based around idol worship and much wickedness associated with such lack of faith in a single true creator God yet Abraham sought out a true creator God and was chosen to find this God and learn to love Him and worship Him in truth.

Real Grace and Faith

The Apostle Paul wrote to a church: "Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith". This seems to imply a corporate collaborative element as we jointly test ourselves, you testing me and I testing you, 'to see if [we] are in the faith'. "For none of us lives to himself alone" - or to quote the secular saying "no man is an island". We each have individual conscience such that one might eat meat and another believe only in eating a vegetarian or vegan diet. So we must "to yourself be true". But we should each seek to be "able to discern a brother". It is not easy. This kind of discussion helps. Yes we must discern a brother so then we can pray for the brother who sins but if we seldom meet folk we are sure are true brothers we might get little practice. I only think a handful of people I have met are such that I have anything near certainty that they are in the faith and usually it is by signs I believe to be from God. In his first letter to believers in Thessalonika Paul indicated how he discerned them as believers "For we know, brothers and sisters loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not simply with words but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and deep conviction." If we find God works miracles when we are someone's company it hints that they are loved by God and maybe Christ is speaking to us through eachother. A wonderful Jeremiah passage in chapter 31 verses 31 to 34 to me describes how grace of Christ works among real believers loved by God. It is a work in the heart. The grace of workings of Christ through us in miracles and spirit does more than words alone. It teaches not just the intellect but the heart through actions and feelings God gives. The end result is that eventually each gets to hear the message beyond merely words as God impresses on each the knowledge of Himself and of His Christ.
Jeremiah 31:31-34  "“The days are coming,” declares the Lord,
    “when I will make a new covenant
with the people of Israel
    and with the people of Judah.
It will not be like the covenant
    I made with their ancestors
when I took them by the hand
    to lead them out of Egypt,
because they broke my covenant,
    though I was a husband to them,”
declares the Lord.
 “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel
    after that time,” declares the Lord.
“I will put my law in their minds
    and write it on their hearts.
I will be their God,
    and they will be my people.
No longer will they teach their neighbor,
    or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’
because they will all know me,
    from the least of them to the greatest,”
declares the Lord.
“For I will forgive their wickedness
    and will remember their sins no more.”"
The scriptures do guide us on this and it is obvious really what blessing is just intervention by God by the Spirit and what is actually to bless and build up but all the same we need to be not so dead as those who merely read about it scripture but never get given this wonderful Spirit who is from God. This is similar to what happened when Jesus walked the Earth physically before God sent the Spirit to each believer. People read about the Christ in scriptures like Isaiah but sadly did not go to Jesus Himself for life so all they had was Bible knowledge but not life the Bible speaks of. John 5:39 "You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life." So many today are content to study scripture but never seek out what scripture speaks of. Life is from seeking the Spirit today.
Many churches witness wonderfully unusual phenomena like what is called Toronto Blessing and 'Slaying in the Spirit'. The Spirit acted on King Saul in a similar way to 'slaying in the spirit' to keep him from killing David. Maybe that is what this action of spirit or Spirit is about: keeping those forsaken by God from interfering with those chosen by God. Maybe. It certainly seems to distract. What I consider 'live' churches full of evidence of grace is the building up work of the Spirit seen in gifts like real prophecy and real xenoglossia with interpretation. One place I attended had so many young men all gifted with prophecy whose combined words could all coincide with what I asked God to say privately before the meeting. My most emphatic clear experience of the 'word of The Lord' coming to me was as I prepared for one of their services. All these workings are like those in the narrative of the life of David and life of Saul and here too we find one losing grace having gained it and one ever growing in it from glory to glory. King Saul and his army all had the Spirit of God come upon them and cause them to prophesy and cause Saul to remain on his face all night but by it they were being prevented from doing serious wrong to David out of the jealousy of Saul who knew David  was being chosen by God and not himself. The greater blessing is to have controlled utterance from the same Spirit to speak inspired words to build up the corporate body of believers who are the body of Christ with Christ as head and to do so as manifesting not just Spirit from God but love for Christ rather than jealousy.
1 Samuel 19:18-24 "When David had fled and made his escape, he went to Samuel at Ramah and told him all that Saul had done to him. Then he and Samuel went to Naioth and stayed there. Word came to Saul: “David is in Naioth at Ramah”; so he sent men to capture him. But when they saw a group of prophets prophesying, with Samuel standing there as their leader, the Spirit of God came on Saul’s men, and they also prophesied. Saul was told about it, and he sent more men, and they prophesied too. Saul sent men a third time, and they also prophesied. Finally, he himself left for Ramah and went to the great cistern at Seku. And he asked, “Where are Samuel and David?”
“Over in Naioth at Ramah,” they said. So Saul went to Naioth at Ramah. But the Spirit of God came even on him, and he walked along prophesying until he came to Naioth. He stripped off his garments, and he too prophesied in Samuel’s presence. He lay naked all that day and all that night. This is why people say, “Is Saul also among the prophets?”"

Time to Come Clean

The times are changing again. Things are hotting up with propaganda 'wars'. The old art of Satan's is starting to dominate like in the Garden of Eden through the mouth of a serpent. Isn't it time for believers to concentrate all the more on being truthful before God? Isn't it time to look at how the truth itself is presented by believers and root out any deceptive methods. Lax methods in terms of honesty have sometimes been tolerated in favour of winning battles on worse lies but God does not support deceptive methods the way He favours honesty and we need God's support as truth is neglecting in favour of short term victories. This is no times for lies.

BC or AD?

There is an inheritance shared by most that we have enough difference between years Before Christ and years Anno Dominus (Years of Our Lord) that years of history can be numbered by this demarcation. Yet for so many the lifestyle lived is more appropriate for years Before Christ. The difference between BC and AD should be that humans acknowledge there is now reason to accept we should acknowledge we belong to a person The Christ ('al-Massih', if you are Muslim) who has come as Christ and now is Lord over us. Some Muslims might be led to object to the reason given by Christians for this Lordship which is that Jesus died by crucifixion and rose again having bought believers with the blood He shed and body broken, but it is still so widely known that it demarcates years BC and years AD. So why do so many all around the world live like it never happened. Why not live as those now completely owned by this Lord and Christ? Why, for one thing, live like that ownership only warrants occassional religious festivals, as if He, the Christ had never come and we were still living in years BC? 

Inappropriateness of Feasts

The feasts believers keep seem so inappropriate in view of the death on a cross of Christ which buys our entirety and not just one day or week here and there each year. His death on a cross buys me entirely and because God raised Him to eternally live He owns me entirely and this is every day. God made it so to save me. As it was without The Cross the right to command me in all aspects and at all levels of life were not so clear as they are now Christ Jesus has bought me with His own body and blood which God gave Jesus when He brought Jesus into the world. Now the authority right of Jesus over me as my Lord is clear and indeed He is Lord even over my deepest being and all parts of life mind soul spirit and body, because it is all bought by His body broken and blood shed on that cross.

From A Conversation Today About God

[December 3rd and 4th 2016 in conversation in a group on LinkedIn: Asked about a time meeting God in a dream twenty years ago and why I had not met Him since and then being invited to think about the wonder of a butterfly and what it says about God] ...The butterfly body amplifies life in that the movement of a tiny body acting on those large wings is amplified so it is visible to us and we see a gentleness and resilience there which speaks of 'life'. The life in the butterfly is the same life as in all living things and in us but is amplified in the butterfly. We connect mentally with it and it speaks to us of God. There is a Holy Spirit who would point out that the power or rules manifested in this life we see in a butterfly is a person - the person ancient Sumerian teacher-prophet-king Enoch (Enmendurana) called The Son of Man. Jesus said effetively 'yes I am the Son of Man' and is our hint from God to help us know God better now that this life has appeared as Jesus the Christ. Of course we need to let it sink in what Jesus was and is and will be now He has been born to die as a sacrificial lamb and risen to be Lord and Carer over all. It's more thrlling than a rollercoaster ride and healthy too and it's all true; Gott sei dank. 

Jesus' words are the very source of life. 

I remember the only time I ever saw the Milky Way lying on my back at night in the North African desert with no polluting lights to obscure it. Until that time I had never seen anything so wondrous. That was about thirty years ago. Seeing the glory of the power of Jesus (twenty two years ago) first hand was much more wondrous.

I really don't mind if I never see the Milky Way again because the wonder of it is still there in me and it never fades and seeing it again might harden me to it with over familiarity. With the wonder of God's visits back when they happened I have them still with me and they never fade completely but I want to rest in the arms of His love over and over and always see His wondrous glory and Son of Man for all eternity so much more than to see the Milky Way of this galaxy. I just want it to be in His right time. Like romance really but romance is just a pale reflection of this spirit life. 

Meanwhile there is the groaning inwardly of suffering patiently the darkness of this world and the long wait of God's perfect timing.

But that endurance is to the glory of God. 'Amen' True. So be it.

It sounds bizarre but "Put down your umbrella!" I could live forever on those words. Words from Jesus Christ, living, into my mind in a torrential rain storm twenty two years ago just weeks after that dream when God the Father appeared and spoke to me. The things that followed the words were a precious gift from God to me showing me so much. 

"Look at the trees how they bud and put forth leaves. They do so by the authority of the Name of Lord Jesus Christ. The planets ..." and it went on to make similar statements of mystery. These were the manifestaion of the Holy Spirit just weeks again after the visit from Jesus Christ and the visit before that from God the Father. All because I asked (after decades of asking and longing) to see God: The Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. 

It was all combined recently with a visit in which a spirit told me to look up a certain chapter (Daniel 3) and in a margin reference in that chapter was a reference to a verse I had been pondering curiously and the chapter answered my curiosity perfectly and this visit confirmed the faith In had just that hour come to.

But perhaps greatest was an unexpected visit when I was having a bath a time after my initial visits and preparing for church where I might be required to speak. Out of the blue came words like words in the Bible and a vision which came true and has been coming true ever since. God said (His words coming to me said) "Israel has sinned" and the vision showed me the eagle of surveiilance overhead. It was before the survelliance events leading ultimately to Operation Desert Fox bombings in 1998, and immediately before the start of police surveillance using helicopters in the UK county of Avon called Operation Vulture in, I think, 1995. So it was fulfilled these following years but starting just days after this prophecy came to me. God is dealing with sins of His people and like the word came to me in the bath so He is dealing with it by washing clean. This is by Jesus Christ the Great High Priest over the House of God. This is God's very own message. I must shout it from the mountain top. 

Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
When you see those operations by military and civilian forces they manifest all sorts of discussions by officials and generals but when in contrast you see manifestations of the Spirit like the message about looking at trees putting out buds and leaves by Lord Jesus' name and authority then it is a pure manifestation of but one source that is the God over all in conversation only with His Son Jesus. [See, even today I receive the dew of my youth as spirit words given me in my youth I could barely discern materialise today decades later in real words of spirit conveying what back then was hidden.]

How To Follow Jesus Christ

To a believer reading John's gospel chapter 8 and the account of Lord Jesus Christ final public preaching in days before His crucifixion it makes sense to grasp what His message was and follow Him by holding fast to it and putting away lies from day to day conversation because He taught that lying is of Satan. This preaching says that doing so is to be combined with believing that the fact that He truly is puts hope in sight. The promise is there in that preaching that truth from Him will set such followers free from the main binding sins that keep us in slavery while slaves are not children of God. So sin by sin the follower finds truth is freeing them and making them more and more children of God under the safeguards and protection of Jesus like a baby back in the womb again.

The Protector

Jesus so protects a believer disciple from the wrathful judgment He also presides over that He is like an umbrella so effective it puts the disciple in what is like a protective womb before birth. He stands effectively between a believer disciple and the wrath of God and intercedes so the believer need not fear when so protected. My recollection of scripture suggest to me that only He mediates this way. 'One Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus.' It is what is called His 'Angel' (Angel of the Lord) which does this as was done for Shadrach and Meshach and Abednego who Babylonian King of kings Nebuchadnezza (as recorded in Daniel 3) had them put into a furnace of fire and there was with them in the fire seen one like a son of man protecting them by standing there with them. So fearing God and following and trusting God leads to such protection from the jusgments by men and kings too. And Lord Jesus Christ is king of all such kings.

What is Real Faith?

What is real faith? Many are misled by doctrines of religious history leading away from the work God is doing in their lives. They hear these doctrines and are afraid to simply let God teach them through grace from Jesus and the Holy Spirit. I find God teaches me and others to stop sinning (stop lying, murderously hating, lusting and stop following the pleasure-loving ways of the world which is controlled by Satan) and learn from the truth He teaches and especially His truth about Jesus His Son, looking to Him. Anything else contrary to this or providing an alternative way of looking at things should be ignored and avoided: Our souls are at stake.