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Trans-Gen-Er: Identifying with Adam instead of Christ.
While some folks are confused about which bathroom they should use, a much greater number are confused about their identity, origin, and to which covenant they belong. 1 Peter 2:9 But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light; Shalom! ~Joe
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A revelation of the New Testament MYSTERY doesn't leave people wandering, waiting and begging for times, seasons, dispensations, visitations, "revivals", "moves" of God, "outpourings", or the next great Christian celebrity. The MYSTERY revealed through New Covenant ministry is CHRIST HIMSELF...Who, in us, is the Hope of Glory.
Avoid all spookiness which exalts a "prophet's" predictions of what's going to happen "_____________" (fill in a random date or future season) above THE EVER-PRESENT, WILLING, & ABLE MYSTERY HIMSELF! Just because someone caught a revelation of a particular facet of Him Who is THE MYSTERY, and magnified it for a particular season, doesn't mean that Christ hasn't been available to minister to and through us in that capacity since Pentecost. People seem to confuse the perpetuity of God's Will and Nature with the times and seasons of man's cooperation and understanding. Some "prophetic" folks love saying "yet four months" when Jesus explicitly told us not to (Note that four months marks new, natural seasons and weather patterns). We are not living in a season where we are waiting to push people into the waters of Siloam when an angel stirs them up. We are already in Christ and Christ is IN US! If you are "waiting" (FYI- That word happens to mean INTERTWINED in the Hebrew) for a "______ (fill in the blank) revival" in the next "move", then you must believe that God's perfect will for mankind is the absence of that particular expression of His Love...until He changes His Mind and decides to "move in mysterious ways". That sort of thinking exalts "spookiness"...not Christ. It will also sell more books than Bibles. The idea that God is somehow out of New Wine for a season, while your local liquor store is fully stocked, is ludicrous! Shalom! ~Joe When was the last time you heard a message or song about the New Earth? Yes, it is in your Bible! It is also one of the most eternally blessed, yet theologically ignored topics ever. The idea of "heaven" being good and earth being bad is as preposterous as believing that your spirit is good, but your mind, will, emotions, and body are evil. Dualism curses that which is visible and tangible. God doesn't! He cherishes the terrestrial and uses it to give expression to the celestial! That's exactly why the Word became flesh and "moved into the neighborhood"!
The Incarnation is far more than a "Christmas Story". There is a visible, tangible, flesh and bone, incarnate representative of all mankind seated at the right hand of the Father! In Him, we are wonderfully intertwined with the Trinity and each other! Heaven is the realm of the Spirit...available to earth and presently dwelling within us. We've been taught to believe for better bodies, but not a better planet. That is erroneous. Rev. 21:1-3 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. (See also Is. 65:17, Is. 66:22 & 2 Pet. 3:13) I believe that the experience of the above verses can be greatly enjoyed today, with greater expressions to come... Shalom! ~Joe
Shalom! ~Joe Any teaching which implies that Faith can be humanly manufactured or earned is not the Gospel. God is our Faith...Who works by God...Who is Love. We can discover, apply, and enjoy Faith...but we can't manufacture Faith...anymore than we can manufacture God.
Faith is only OUR Faith, because we have been made one with the Spirit of Faith. Your Faith is only YOURS because it was given to you by your loving, heavenly Father; just like we give gifts to our children...and they ...become "theirs" to use, enjoy, and develop ("build up") their skills through practical application. While Faith is DISCOVERED through the Word, Faith is never "EARNED" by reading, studying and meditating upon the Word. Those are things that we do...because Faith, working by Love, compels us to discover, apply, and enjoy Who Faith is...FOR, IN, and THROUGH us! Gal 2:20,21 "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain." Again... You can't manufacture Faith anymore than you can manufacture God. Jesus is the Substance of things hoped for and the Evidence of things not seen under the Old Covenant! Shalom! ~Joe If Jesus would have functioned according to the mindsets of many Western theologians, there are a good number of His teachings and miracles that would have never taken place...because the Holy Spirit would have left the setting in "grief". They would have surely been left with nothing but warm water at the wedding feast in Cana of Galilee (John 2)...and you can definitely scratch the story of the "bad" woman with the alabaster box (Luke 7) . In reality, the "Dove" is drawn to much of what the church thinks would make Him "fly away". Out of Love, protection, and Wisdom (and for many different reasons), He may prohibit an individual from entering into certain situations. The reason is never because He's over-sensitive, afraid, and not already in the midst of that situation.
Shalom! ~Joe Have you ever realized that the Word says Jesus: "Lights EVERY man who comes into the world" (John 1:9) and told unbelieving Pharisees that the Kingdom of God was IN them (Luke 17:21); while Paul told pagan Greeks that in the one true God they "lived and moved and had their being" (Acts 17:28)? "Evangelism" is about awakening people to the One Who already Loves, accepts, and dwells in them...allowing them to participate in His abundant Life. He upholds ALL THINGS...to include every cell of every body, by the Word of His Power (Hebrews 1:3). We have spent so much time trying to get God INTO people, instead of awakening them to His Omnipresence...which includes every part of their being. Yes, there is a QUICKENING...but the Power Source is, and always has been, ever-present! The darkness that He calls us out of and translates us from is our ignorance of His ever-present desire for our friendship with Him to be realized and for our sonship to be made manifest. You can't boldly declare that He's omnipresent while claiming that He is absent from the Atheist. Our "witness" comes to bear witness with His ever-present, internal, and eternal tug! While I don't believe that all have come to the knowledge of Him Who is Truth. Truth abides, draws and continues to tug! The Gospel witnesses to the ear He Who is "witnessing" to the heart.
Shalom! ~Joe |
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