May 2001

[Part 152]

“Issues of the heart”

[Part Seventy]

Hope For the Fearful Heart! [BBB]

“WHO CAN I TURN TO?”

“Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the SIN of the world.” (Jn 1:29)

               What was this “single sin” that required God’s Supreme Sacrifice as a Lamb-Atonement? It was THE TURNING AROUND OF GOD’S “FIRST AND SECOND COMMANDMENTS”! You say, but God gave Moses 10 Commandments! That is true, yet when a certain Pharisee lawyer tried to ensnare Jesus speaking “The letter of the Law that kills, rather than its Life-giving Spirit!” (2 Co 3:6) and asking, “Master, which is the greatest Commandment in the Law?’ Jesus replied, ‘The first and greatest Commandment is this: YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, ALL YOUR SOUL, AND ALL YOUR MIND! The second (and last) is like unto the first, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOU LOVE YOURSELF!” (Mt 22:38) But the trouble started when the order of these two Commandments was reversed in the Garden of Eden as the FIRST ADAM heeded the lust of his flesh (See: Jas 1:14) that tempted and drew his heart away from His FIRST LOVE OF GOD, to love first his neighbor (the woman) in the same fleshly manner he now desired to love himself! [Selah! Pause and calmly think of this!!]
              The first Adam is “An earthy, natural man who was made a living soul” (1 Co 15:45-47) and “Natural man cannot receive the things of the spirit, for they are *foolishness to him; neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned!” (1 Co 2:14)

*Here is a glorious revelation for all with eyes to see. In Pr 24:9, God defines “S-I-N”
as the “THOUGHT OF FOOLISHNESS!” And what would be this“foolish thought”?
We just read, they are “THINGS OF THE SPIRIT” the natural man cannot discern!

Now hear well what the Anointing is saying here!

THE ONLY THOUGHTS THAT FILL ANYONE’S MIND ARE THE
THINGS OF THE SPIRIT, BUT THEY CANNOT BE DISCERNED
BY OUR FIRST FLESH NATURE; THEY MUST WAIT FOR THE
EMERGENCE OF OUR SECOND AND LAST SPIRIT NATURE
WHICH CAN AND WILL DISCERN, INTERPRET, OBEY, FULFILL
AND, ABOVE ALL ELSE, L-O-V-E THEM WITH A HOLY LOVE!

              If you are a “man of spirit”, “Let this Word of Christ dwell in you richly!” (Co 3:16) He is revealing here that A-L-L M-E-N (saved and unsaved, just and unjust, believer and unbeliever, natural and spiritual), “HAVE THIS TREASURE (OF HIS WORD) IN EARTHEN VESSELS!” (2 Co 4:7) The only difference between sinner and saint is the sinner has lost his heavenly vision so his blind heart cannot discern the Life-giving Power and Truth that keeps him alive! Nevertheless, “God made the world and everything in it; and as He is Lord of Heaven (the second and last Spiritual Adam in 1 Co 15:47) and earth, He does not live in temples made with men’s hands; nor is He worshipped with men’s hands as if He needed anything from him; when it is He that gives Life and breath and all things to A-L-L! Of (His) ONE BLOOD He has made A-L-L nations of men that dwell on the face of the earth. He has sovereignly *pre-determined the duration of their time on earth [*the days of our earthly lives truly are “numbered” and none “By his worrying, can add one unit of measure (cubit) to his stature- or to the span of his life!” (Mt 6:27 AV) This is also translated: “Which of you, by being anxious, can add a single cubit to his life span?” (NAS); and “Who of you, by worrying, can add a single hour to his life?” (NIV); and “Which of you with all his worry can add a single hour to his life?” (Gspd); and finally, “Who can prolong his life a single moment?” (TCNT) Our natural existence has a foreordained duration which no amount of money, health care, exercise, good food or vitamins can extend by one hair’s breadth; but not so our spiritual lives which shall endure through infinity- so, let us focus entirely on that everlasting Life!! Read also Ps 39:4-5]. God has preset the boundaries of our lives (to conform to His Will) so that we will seek the Lord (“every man in his own order” 1 Co 15:23); even if we have to grope about in our darkness to find Him- although He is not far from each of us- for WE LIVE AND MOVE AND HAVE OUR BEING IN HIM! And as certain poets have said, ‘We are His Offspring!” (Ac 17:24-28)
          A saint is just a man whose darkened vision has been restored by Divine Enlightenment as Christ, the ”Daystar has arisen in his heart!” (2 Pet 1:19) He sees why God says that, to Him, “Darkness and Light are both alike!”(Ps 139:12) For as God looks into the hearts of His people, HE SEES HIS WORD- either in its negative state of undeveloped darkness, or its positive state of revealed Light! For GOD’S WORD- perceived or misperceived; fulfilled or unfulfilled; revered or rejected by men- IS STILL GOD’S WORD! He tells believers so we are not puffed up with self-righteousness, “You were once My enemies- separated from Me in your (flesh) mind- by all your wicked works [hatched by your darkened understanding of My Word]! However now you are reconciled in the Body of His Own flesh through His death, to make you holy and unblamable in His Sight!” (Col 1:21)
          Every natural man must wait for the Last Christ-Adam to arise in his heart Who will fulfill the desire of His Heart and reverse the curse on the first Adam who “Left his First Love” (Re 2:4) and all his fallen sons! So we can *REMEMBER FROM WHENCE WE ARE FALLEN; and **REPENT and DO THE FIRST WORK” (Re 2:5) which is to F-I-R-S-T LOVE THE LORD OUR GOD WITH A-L-L OUR HEART, SOUL AND MIND! Then afterward love our neighbor as ourselves- with His Perfect Love (“that casts out all fear!” 1 Jn 4:18) Praise His Holy Name!

*The Hebrew reference 2145 used for “REMEMBER” throughout the entire OT is the same root translated as “MANCHILD” in Isa 66:7 which clearly bespeaks of Christ- as Head and Body!

**Interesting to note: Heb 5162 for “repent” reflects the soulish estate of the first natural Adam in its translation, “To sigh, breathe strongly, be sorry, console or feel pity (in a favorable sense); (or unfavorably) to avenge oneself; to comfort or ease oneself!” This sad picture reflects the vain efforts of religious ones striving to alleviate their own carnality through pious-seeming legalism!! But, as the OT painfully records, the poor Hebrews were continually falling down to rise again, but only to fall down again and again through futile self-works!
       But see how Gk 3341 for “repent” expresses a far different picture of the spiritual estate of the Last Christ-Adam in its translation, “A COMPUNCTION FOR GUILT, REFORMATION, REVERSAL OF ANOTHER’S DECISION; TO THINK DIFFERENTLY, (HAVE A CHANGE OF MIND, RECEIVE A NEW MIND) TO RECONSIDER OR THINK AFTERWARD; EXERCISE THE MIND, OBSERVE, COMPREHEND, HEED, CONSIDER, PERCEIVE, THINK, AND UNDERSTAND!! ” Therefore, to receive our second and last nature means to exchange the mind of flesh and death for the Mind of Spirit and the LIFE AND PEACE OF CHRIST! Hallelujah!

               Natural Adam was created to “turn” the Commandments and make the First, last and the last, first; then afterward, Spiritual Adam was sent to “re-turn” these Commandments to their divine order so that Christ, “By and for Whom All things were created- Who is before all things (yet humbled Himself to be revealed in His holy Spirit after manifesting Himself in vile flesh); by Whom all things consist, and Who is the Head of the Church Body; Who is The Beginning and Firstborn from the dead- so He has Preeminence in all things!” (Col 1:16-18) For this reason, the Holy Spirit tells us,

“YOU WILL KNOW THAT YOU HAVE PASSED FROM DEATH (carnal-minded nature) TO LIFE (Spirit-minded Nature) when you LOVE THE BRETHREN!”(1 Jn 3:14) But this love must originate and be manifested in Christ, the Lover of the whole world, Who says “My Father loves Me because I LAY DOWN MY LIFE! That is so I can take it up again! In Truth, no man takes it from Me [it must be a voluntary act of a crucified will] but I lay it down of Myself! I have (Christ) Power to lay it down; and (Resurrection) Power to raise it up again!! I have received this Commandment from My Father (as we now receive it from Him)!!” (Jn 10:17-18)

God’s sons shall soon undergo a miraculous metamorphose from their lowly worm-natures into their new, beautiful, Butterfly Natures, so now we cry with the Psalmist to the Heavenly Transformer of our darkness, Which is the glorious “SUN (and Son) of Righteousness” (Mal 4:2)

“TURN US AGAIN, O GOD ,
AND CAUSE YOUR FACE TO SHINE
AND WE SHALL BE SAVED!!”
(Ps 80:3)


[TO BE CONTINUED]