March 2000

by Carole Forde

ave you ever wondered why some people believe in Jesus Christ as their Savior while others do not? Perhaps you think non-believers are just too naturally rebellious, stubborn and wicked to believe; and believers are just too naturally sweet, kind and wonderful? Has it never occurred to you that men’s rebellion, stubbornness and wickedness is the sole result of their state of unbelief? It might surprise you to learn that IT IS NOT UP TO MAN whether or not he believes in Christ! God, Alone, assumes full responsibility for every man’s belief or unbelief! "GOD HAS SHUT UP (penned, concluded, bound, imprisoned) ALL MEN IN UNBELIEF!" ( Rom 11:32 ) He goes on to say why He does this to His people? "SO HE COULD SHOW MERCY ON THEM ALL!!" How better could His dear Heart of Mercy be revealed than to overcome our "evil heart of unbelief"? (Heb 3:12)
                Therefore, if God has the power to seal the hearts of all people in stony unbelief; it must follow that He has equal power to release them! It would be unmerciful to impose such a terrible bondage upon all mankind and then condemn them to a horrible, eternal punishment for having that very condition! At this point someone usually insists that man has free will to receive or refuse God’s Love in their hearts! But, once and for all, that fallacy is not Scriptural. Listen well: 1 Cor 2:14 says,"THE NATURAL MAN CANNOT RECEIVE SPIRITUAL THINGS; that indeed, they are foolishness to him! And the reason he cannot know them is they are spiritually discerned." Nothing of the SPIRIT can be received by the NATURAL man. And what exactly does this include? Paul said, (Rom 7:14) "The LAW is spiritual; and I am carnal, sold under the control of sin!" [So much for ‘free will’!] The natural man being unable to receive God’s Law, reveals the Truth that Moses’ Ten Commandments engraved on stone tablets (symbolizing man’s stony heart of unbelief) could never be fulfilled by the natural man. They were not intended for him- except to serve as a revealer of all he could not do. Rather, God spoke those commandments prophetically as the TEN PROMISES which would one day be fulfilled through Christ, His spiritual man!
                The natural man is only permitted to handle the "Letter of the Law that kills"; he is forbidden to partake of the "Spirit of the Law that gives Life." The natural rule of Law is called the "Ministration of Death, written and engraved in stones in glory; but in time is taken away."( 2 Cor 3:6-7 ) But when the spiritual man comes alive in every heart in fulfillment of the Law; this is the "Ministration of Spirit which is eternal and far more glorious!" True believers "...are delivered from the Law and its deadly bondage by their death (to self); and are made able to serve the Law in the newness of spirit; and be free from the oldness of the letter." ( Rom 7:6 ) If natural man cannot receive the Spirit of the Law, he must be deemed a "lawless one"; and so God describes him in Rom 8:7, "The carnal mind is God’s enemy; he is NOT SUBJECT TO THE LAW; neither can he be!" Forbidden to the natural man are also the "Spiritual Fruits of LOVE, JOY, PEACE, LONGSUFFERING, FAITH, MEEKNESS, GENTLENESS, GOODNESS AND TEMPERANCE!" (Gal 5:22) The most he can do is produce their counterfeits and these do not fool God!
                Since "God IS LOVE" (Jn 4:7-8) and "God IS SPIRIT’ (Jn 4:24); the natural man also cannot receive God or Love! This does not mean he is unloved by God for, "Who shall separate us from the Love of God? Shall tribulation, distress; persecution, famine; nakedness, peril, or the sword?... I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present or things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any kind of creature, shall be able to separate us from the Love of God?" (Rom 8:35-39) So while God loves the natural man, the natural man simply cannot "receive" it. The evil heart of unbelief was not made to contain the Fiery Presence of God’s Life or Love! "No one tears material from a new garment and sews it onto an old one; for both the old and the new garments will be ruined, as the patch will not match. Also a man does not pour new wine into old wineskins for they will burst from its heat only to be spilled and wasted; then the old wineskin will be ruined and unfit for further use. Rather, New Wine (Anointed thoughts) must be poured into a new wineskin (the spiritual mind)! Now (the natural man) who is accustomed to drinking the old wine. will have no true desire for this New Wine, and so he will declare, ‘The old is better’!" (Lu 5:36-39)
                 BELIEVING IN CHRIST IS A GIFT FROM GOD; but "Each man in his own order; for as in ADAM, ALL DIE; even so in CHRIST shall ALL BE MADE ALIVE!" (1 Cor 15: 22-23) Hear what Jesus said, (Lk 4:18) "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me and has anointed Me to preach Good News to the poor: healing of broken hearts; release from all captivity; recovery of sight to blind eyes and deliverance for the downtrodden!" These Promises await ALL"spiritual men"; and within the hard shell of every natural man, a spiritual man is waiting for his predestined time to emerge! If you cannot yet believe this, don’t worry; it just isn’t your time yet! But even if you believe, don’t pat yourself on the back; for your "belief" is also a Blessed Gift to you from a bountiful God (lest any man should boast)!! Amen