The problem behind all problems in Christianity
So many sincere Christians are in religious spiritual bondage while they suppose they more ardently champion the name of Christ. They are spiritually sick while they wonder why more people do not want the remedy they suppose they offer – that remedy being their rendition of the Christian faith.
Although out of one side of their mouth, they may claim to more accurately follow Christ, and possess the solution the world desperately needs, in moments of honesty, some Christians of conscience and insight will note discrepancies between what the Bible calls for and what is. Signs of things not right include disunity, lack of love equal to the Lord’s love, and worldliness.
A laundry list of other sinful signs sadly indicate people not spiritually free.
Some among them see the spiritual health of the people is not right and may cast about offering antidotes to the poison that stunts fruit from growing on any level close to the expectation of the New Testament standard. But most merely hack away at effects when they do not know the cause of the problem. Some would-be leaders even secretly desire a platform for others to listen to them. If they got this, some may think in the back of their mind, perhaps God’s will could be more accurately and fully done. What they do not realize is so often they are merely blind guides to the blind.
Put another way, everyone naming the name of Christ is either part of the solution or part of the problem. Most are part of the problem but have no clear picture of what the true problem is. Most living their Christian lives are just caught up in something much bigger than themselves which they cannot get a handle upon. Many are resigned to the deadlock and inertia. Some even compromise and waive a quasi-ecumenical truce flag by inviting the theologically divided to gather together. Somer realize they are living in the spiritual equivalent of a landscape dotted by theological petty fiefdoms, each guarded within its stronghold walls and holding down the fort of their positions of the faith. So many have learned unless they want an argument or disapproval, to avoid taking strong contentious stands just like diplomats of hostile countries do at the UN. They practice diplomacy and rename it love and wisdom, citing misunderstood Bible verses as their rationale. Inwardly, they may even feel gratified or get some subjective sense of “peace,” telling themselves this is the way of Christ, and a true proof of “love” as they define it.
This article will lay out conditions of a vast and ancient problem with the faith, and proof will be the very Bible they say they follow, and words from the Holy Spirit they claim to know.
The Root Issue
The root issue of all Christian problems and God’s will not being more fully done is religious flesh.
Religious flesh produces the antithesis of a spiritual Christian – like a photo negative of a black-and-white picture in the spirit that resembles the normal picture, except white is black, and the whole picture is inverted.
Religious flesh is the kissing cousin to spirits of false religion; seducing spirits who cultivate doctrines of demons through the ignorance of men. Religious flesh thus produces “carnal Christians” whose errors mixed with true words are woven with the masterfulness of Satan into the supposed followers of the Holy Spirit.
Religious flesh is the perfect counterfeit to true spirituality the apostle Paul called for in 1 Corinthians 3. It will permit a person to go their entire Christian lives without ever being set free from the captivity of their sin which Jesus promised in John 8:31-35 or turning them away from their iniquities as the apostles said was their birthright in Acts 3:26.
Although carnal Christians may be very familiar with the Bible and have sat under many supposedly Bible-backed teachings, these are they who practice “a form of godliness and deny the power thereof.” Some also are “ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.”
Religious flesh is as insidious as a poison gas that actually smells good, and no one knows it is deadly and in time will kill you. Religious flesh also produces spiritual blindness, being cursed with the curse of spiritual blindness told of in Jeremiah 17:5,6 upon all who make “flesh their strength.”
Religious flesh is self-validating, self-reinforcing and puts one in a textbook-case of a “stronghold” of the mind – thoughts and ideas and imaginations about the Way of Christ – as warned of in 2 Corinthians 10:4,5. Religious flesh thus builds on itself, because the religiously fleshly say they see when they see nothing rightly as they should.
“If the light in you is darkness, how great is that darkness,” said the Lord.
QUALIFIER: Of course, the Lord has those who are His. This article does not take away from that or the Lord’s faithfulness and work in the fields of harvest – and glory to God. But even the most ardent do not go unaffected by the adverse conditions this article will speak of. Jesus said the test of what one who takes His name says they stand for is fruit, and its standard is what the apostles and the Lord Himself said, nothing less, and nothing more.
So, this article will offer strong medicine for anyone who wants all of God. Sadly, many are content to live on a lower plain of existence. Some have been defeated internally, and do not dare to rise their heads above the ground before them as they hang on until the Lord returns. Other are just indoctrinated to expect nothing more. Others are even so blind as to say they are experiencing glory but show great glaring deficits in what they bear witness to, versus the expectations of the apostles, and the witness of the true Holy Spirit in the New Testament.
These and other undesirable states of affairs are consequences of religious flesh.
Definition: Religious flesh and spiritual Christian
Religious flesh is when a person’s natural mind, will, and emotions seek to delve into the holy writ, or teach, or preach, or serve, or pray, or worship – anything expected of a Christian – while leaning on the strength and ability of the natural man apart from the indwelling Holy Spirit.
The New Testament speaks of the flesh and spirit. Other synonyms for flesh are old man, carnal man, natural man. The New Testament was written to the spirit, but the fleshly side of a person also may read, comprehend, and respond – refusing to die as it is commanded to.
Romans 8 – 5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. 6 For to be [b]carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. 7 Because the [c]carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. 8 So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
The insidious thing is how the flesh may think it is the spirit. This is possible among the truly born again. If you “train up a child in the way it shall go, when he is old he will depart from it.” Flawed indoctrination – and/or the absence of clear spiritual authority – have had disastrous consequences, and the problem is wider, broader, deeper, and older than many imagine.
A religiously fleshly person quenches the spirit, but that does not stop them from obtusely studying and talking about the things of the Holy One who they know much about, but barely know.
Colossians 2 – 18 Let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into those things which he has ]not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, 19 and not holding fast to the Head, from whom all the body, nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, grows with the increase that is from God.
Paul says those who “intrude into those things which he has not seen” are “vainly puffed up” by a “fleshly mind.” Being “puffed up” speaks of pride – religious or spiritual pride – which is one root iniquity intertwined with other iniquities and ultimate service of self, not Christ, while deceiving one’s self they only serve Christ.
Jesus Christ said in John 17:3 eternal life is to “know” God – not merely about Him, groping with their fleshly mind to discover a God who must “manifest” Himself (John 14:21) and whose sheep follow His “voice,” not a “stranger” (John 10).
WARNING: If you are reading this and dominated by the religious flesh, you may understand every word but that does not mean you are spiritual. You may either agree or disagree with things said, but you may still be doing it all in the mind of your intellect out of long-held habit, not united with the Spirit of Christ.
“It is the spirit who gives life,” said Jesus, “the flesh profits nothing.” (John 6:63)
The fleshly mind may read this and suppose because it comprehends it, agrees with things said, that it has now incorporated this teaching, and all is well, or they are not so bad off. Or religious flesh may wish to correct what is written in this article, but still be marked by so many flesh-derived traits and errors this article rightly speaks against.
The proof is not what you say of the Lord, it is what you are in the Lord. A tree is known by its fruit.
A spiritual person by contrast is one who has developed that God-given faculty known as the made-alive spirit (Ephesians 2:1). This spirit is united as one with Christ’s Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:17). Many living in the false paradigm of the carnal Christian know about this too, and may have a variety of things to say from their blindness about this light.
But the expectations set down by the Lord and apostles are at a whole other level than what many actually practice, even if they assent mentally to the truth as written. That is fruit, bad fruit, and proof they know nothing yet as they ought to.
1 Corinthians 8 – 2 And if anyone thinks that he knows anything, he knows nothing yet as he ought to know. 3 But if anyone loves God, this one is known by Him.
In sum – a carnal Christian is one whose expression of the faith and service to God emanates out from the old man, the natural self, the flesh. A spiritual person is one whose entire soul and body and self are brought under control by the made-alive spirit united with the Lord (1 Cor. 6:17). A spiritual person is dominated by his spirit and flows out from the spirit. The carnal Christian is one who possesses information and seeks to obey it by its own subjective and biased and faulty judgment. A carnal Christian is its own lord but is deceived into believing Jesus Christ is Lord.
But how can Jesus be Lord in a fleshly mind-dominated person except in the most infantile sense? A son or daughter knows their parent’s voice, they know Him.
“As many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God,” (Romans 8:14).
To plod through life merely hoping with all you know that you are on the right path is not certainty or a hallmark of one right with God. Even worse, to plow stubbornly ahead in your Christian existence confident you are right when you are dominated by your own ideology, theology, or personal stance is asking to be one of the ones rejected by Jesus in the end.
Matthew 7 – 21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’
Jesus said people must do His will – as He defines it, not as they define it – telling themselves they meet their own internal standard of the faith while not holding fast to the Head; cut off from the Vine, but assuring themselves with doctrines and the wisdom of men. Jesus’ Matthew 7 example was of people most would consider high-level Christians – those who can prophesy, cast out demons, and do many wonders in His name. He does not deny they do this, but they are acting independently, and are lawless.
The mind man inherited from the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil is first independent of God. That is a root of its sin. The religious fleshly rest in their mind independent of God while comforting themselves with their doctrines. They are thus self-willed while convinced they wish God’s will done. They are thus lawless while they champion teaching about submission to the Lord and service in His name.
The apostle John gives a good working definition of lawlessness – sin.
1 John 3 – 4 Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness.
The Greek word for “lawlessness” John uses is the same as the Greek word Jesus used for lawlessness. It is sin to not hold fast to the Head. It is sin to not walk according to the Spirit. One who walks according to the flesh will fulfill the desires of the flesh.
Ephesians 4 – 17 This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, 18 having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; …
20 But you have not so learned Christ, 21 if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: 22 that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, 23 and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24 and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.
The Protestant Fallacy
The poor souls today stuck in a form of Christianity unequal a New Testament standard are really just victims of those who went before them, as is true of all others the world over. The air they breathe, and the soil they are planted in is the result of those who established truisms about the faith that are short of the apostles’ doctrine.
The Protestants established tenets for those who would be Christian – including Sola Scriptura, only the scriptures – and in doing so, unwittingly produced classes of Christians who could worship the Bible and suppose they worshipped God.
Their fallacy was that if one just perform good Bible research, employ proper scholarship, they will derive “correct” teachings and somehow the Lord will make them “grow.” The Protestants established the sermon as the center of a “service.” This was making the “church” into a kind of classroom where a “man of God” would be as a professor to the students.
What the Reformers and those who’ve followed in their footsteps have failed to grasp was they were really just emboldening the mind of flesh which is supposed to be crucified (Rom 6:6). Knowledge puffs up, and emotions can create misbegotten false zeal. Their fruits are evident.
The Protestants and those who followed in their footsteps failed to truly reestablish the mission Jesus Christ gave His apostles – of establishing a church He would build, not man. They failed because they focused on the Book and led their followers not to the book’s Author so very well.
God’s whole counsel should have been taught loud and clear, but a mish-mash of teachings sent the attention of those who said they were following Jesus in all directions like distracted and undisciplined children who have cast off all restraint.
It was naïve at best to assume people would or could apply “Bible-based” teachings disgorged from the minds of those who gave appearance of being closer to God into the minds of those who trusted them. Instead this way of Christianity has produced people who emphasize words, and understandings and information. It was disastrous to nearly democratize the faith, arm everyone with a Bible, and tell them to get busy praying and reading. It was not unlike “chaos theory” where one hopes order will come out of randomness and disorder.
The Protestants thus created a set of conditions that were false and conspired to never bear much fruit as expected by the writers of the New Testament.
The Protestant Reformation happened 500 years ago and was a branch off of the Roman Catholic erroneous tree. As evolutionary revolutionaries of their Catholic sires before them, they 1) empowered fleshly minds in their blindness, and also 2) kept a close unholy alliance with the world, and also 3) kept the false construct of the “clergy laity model” which makes two classes of Christian – those who are serious and those held to a lower standard.
If you read Matthew 23, Jesus rebuked the Jews for many sins of the heart, and so many who took the name of Christ have repeated their sins in kind.
To take the name of Christ for naught is to “take the name of the Lord in vain.”
Proofs
God asked for one thing, but those who took His name gave Him another. Non-negotiable commands Christ gave have been utterly broken for 2000 years and today’s multitude of conflicting sects are the result.
But just because people sinned even back to New Testament times does not prove this is all we may expect of the “better covenant with better promises.” That is bad thinking, faulty reasoning, and backwards. Assuming so is the same as an apostate Jew in Jeremiah’s day saying all is as it should be because their false prophets assured them or gave them unholy boldness. The real standard is what God says. He never changes His mind on these eternally true subjects.
Every New Testament rebuke of Christians stumbling in the apostles’ time was followed up with “these things need not be so.” Their correction meant God expected them to employ the power He gave them to correct. To say otherwise is to accuse Him of being unjust by asking them to do the impossible. To say otherwise is to deny all else the New Covenant writers said of the power to keep God’s non-negotiable injunctions.
It was not optional to “walk according to the Spirit.” It was not optional to obey Jesus either when He said “abide in Me” (John 15) if you wish to bear real fruit that will stand the test of fire (1 Cor 3:15). He said His sheep follow His voice.
If people knew Jesus’ voice, think of all the false teachings through the centuries up to today that would have been prevented. The Holy Spirit would have taken peace away from the likes of Augustine who made up the Just War theory, or Calvin who focused on his false ways. Every false teaching is of the flesh.
Galatians 5 – 19 Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: … hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy …
Those who took the name of Christ have been so marked and plagued by heresies, along with the other works of the flesh listed. Every instance of these sins is the fingerprint of the religious flesh at the scene of the crime.
Jesus promised His true followers Himself as their teacher.
John 5 – 39 You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. 40 But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.
John 6 – 5 It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught by God.’ Therefore everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me.
Jesus is more than a teacher who brings us to call on Him, and then He turns us over to men to undertake the rest of our education.
Ephesians 4 – 20 But you have not so learned Christ, 21 if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus:
1 Corinthians 2 – 10 But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God …
12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.
13 These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
1 John 2 – 20 But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things. …
27 But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him.
But what has been the history of Christianity? Arguments over words over subjects that God was eager to teach them if only they could hear His voice. To quench the Spirit is to tell the voice of God to “shut up” and elevate men of words about God as surrogates for God.
And none of this is what God asked for.
Instead the religiously fleshly co-opted the name of Christ. They hijacked the church, made it the religion of the world, and since they quenched the spirit, the majority of those called sheep had no spiritual discernment to realize how much was wrong.
But everything was wrong.
The entire triumphant thrust of the New Covenant is God was now giving power to those who will follow Him to be as sons and daughters, not “kept under tutors and governors” as “children” as the Old Covenant Jews were described.
Do not turn a blind eye to what the Spirit was saying in the first century.
2 Corinthians 3 – 7 But if the ministry of death, written and engraved on stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance, which glory was passing away, 8 how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious? 9 For if the ministry of condemnation had glory, the ministry of righteousness exceeds much more in glory. 10 For even what was made glorious had no glory in this respect, because of the glory that excels. 11 For if what is passing away was glorious, what remains is much more glorious.
The resounding triumph and utter exuberance Paul writes are the heart of God. And if you are honest, you can see it sounds like hype in contrast to what has been, and what often passes for the faith by those who slog along as bearers of the name of the King of kings, and Lord of lords.
Peter said we have “all things that pertain to life and godliness,” and “are complete in Him,” and “kept by the power of God.” He said in 1 Peter 2 forward “living stones” would do what Israel could not by being a “special” people, a “holy nation,” and a “royal priesthood,” and offering “spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God.”
The Hebrew writer said those who have the real Holy Spirit will possess an innate knowledge of God.
Hebrews 8 – 10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 11 None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them.
John in his epistle said “you have no need anyone teach you,” but “the anointing teaches you.” Jesus Christ is Immanuel, God within us. He is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
Jesus said the church He would build would have spiritual authority, and the gates of hades would not prevail.
The Lord said those truly walking with Him could expect their prayers answered, because they knew His will. He said, “You shall ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you” (John 15:7).
Jesus also promised His power – with no expiration date – to be effective servants of His.
Mark 16 – 15 And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. 16 He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.17 And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; 18 they[ will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”
Plan A vs. Plan B
God asked for one thing, and those who took and controlled His name gave him a false substitute. In the name of Christ, they were antichrist.
Jesus had asked for a people whose witness and testimony would prove He is the true God. Instead the Catholics took over the name of Christ from the 300s AD onward, and the Protestants created Catholicism-Light. The Reformation was really just an in-house mutiny. It pretended to be a breath of fresh air but has established the seeds of bondage and fallow ground just of a different kind.
The spirit of bloodshed and murder of “heretics” that marked the Protestants show they were anything but a pure move of the Spirit. The divisions and infighting have made the world see a house divided, which Jesus said cannot stand.
Matthew 25 – 25 But Jesus knew their thoughts, and said to them: “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand.
God never divided the Christians. The divided Christian world we live in is the work of the disobedient, the unfaithful, the servants of self in the guise of servants of God; the blind who say they see. Of course Satan was right in the midst, invisibly working where he could.
What Jesus asked for, He never was given by those who took His name.
John 13 – 34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. 35 By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
If you polled people today, would they say Christianity marked by people who had such an amazing love for one another? – people who put others first, and would give a stranger the shirt off their back, shed tears when another was hurting, give their lives in service for others, yes, even die for one another? You know the answer, but that was what Jesus did ask for.
By disobedience, and ultimately because they did not love Jesus enough, the witness and testimony of those who took the name of Christ was fatally marred, and those they stood to influence for the gospel suffered as well.
Jesus said “all” would know those who took the name of Christ were His disciples assuming they had Holy Spirit-wrought love equal to that of the Lord. That is the witness and testimony God asked for. It was a command; non-negotiable, and to not keep it is to disobey the Lord and a host of other sins.
But it is never expedient for the religious flesh to keep to the narrow way that leads to life. Instead, it will lay up for itself teachers who will tell it what it wants to hear.
To produce the fruit of God-wrought love requires meeting all the conditions of discipleship – new birth, baptism in the Spirit, becoming as a little child and understanding the mission to be re-made into a citizen of Christ’s kingdom. One must love not the world or the things of the world, or they are committing spiritual adultery, said James, and “the love of the Father” is not in them, said John.
Luke 14:26-33 – 26 “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. 27 And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. 28 For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it— 29 lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, 30 saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish’? 31 Or what king, going to make war against another king, does not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32 Or else, while the other is still a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks conditions of peace. 33 So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple.
Those who take the name of Christ may redefine terms and convince themselves they meet the above conditions, but they are deceived. The fruit of what they say they represent proves it.
If one does not die to self, and let the Holy Spirit truly make them new, they will still be moved by the root motive of self – preservation of self, even if they join a God club (false or dead or lukewarm church). The religious fleshly self-servers who name Christ do fear hell, want heaven, and greedily seek another way than the narrow way which leads to life.
This has been the path trodden by the majority of those who took the name of the Lord. The result is they use their religious flesh and cannot ever agree. They break the commands of the Lord and apostles that they never divide, and become false witnesses separated by irreconcilable differences of interpretation who say they are true witnesses.
John 17 – 11 Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are. …
20 “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word;21 that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. 22 And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: 23 I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.
Jesus tied promises to keeping His will. He said if those who met in His name stayed as one with the Father and the Son – united in the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace (Eph 4:2), not a false ecumenical compromise – then the witness would be so powerful. …
“… that the world may believe that You sent Me,” said Jesus, and “that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.”
The will of Jesus’ should be interpreted as a command of God. It is not optional. It is not negotiable. It is not able to be re-defined by the wisdom of compromising fleshly people. This will of God has been thoroughly and completely obliterated and this has forced God to do what He can, where he can, with whom He can. He does damage control in a field of disobedient ones who take His name.
The fields white to harvest include a vast number of those who name the name of Christ.
Certainly, history has seen the faithful – thanks to God’s faithfulness – but they were handicapped by systems of substitute ways of Christ. Indeed, much of church history made it illegal to practice the true way of knowing Jesus and following the apostles’ doctrine to the full.
The promise of persecution was thus met by those who named the name of Christ.
The testimony and witness that the Lord said was as vital as life and death was attacked. The mission to build the church was railroaded, subverted, and lost by those who took for themselves the trust of being purveyors of the words of the Bible.
And they failed to create conditions in which the true will of God could be.
Matt 5 – 13 “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.
14 “You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. 16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.
For the third time: the above words of Jesus show how concerned He is with the witness and testimony of those who would take His name. He said “Let your light so shine before men.” He, being Love, knew the consequences of not following His will. He wanted people who possessed Himself, and He possessed them by living His life in them. In doing so, they would bring great glory to God.
Galatians 2:20 – I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.
The glory God wanted was the establishing of localized bulwarks of assemblies of Spirit-filled Christians who all knew Him and dwelled in Him, and he in them. Their good works would prove what manner of spirit they were of, not their talking points, teachings, and finely hones sermons feeding people more information about a God they barely know.
Religious fleshly Christians who love Bible knowledge are like spiritual gluttons who eat and eat and eat food that has “not profited the hearer.” Or they are like spiritual gluttons who keep feeding the bellies of their mind with food they cannot digest, and which does not permit them to really grow, instead they just get spiritually fat and useless.
God however wanted glory – real glory which meant establishing witnesses in the face of Satan and ungodly humans who love darkness rather than light.
Great Commission not first mission
Carnal religious Christians stuck on a lower level of spiritual existence can wring their hands at the lost and dying world. They see the Great Commission as the first if not only purpose for a valid Christian life. Of course, the Great Commission is an integral and vital element, but the end-goal is a glory of God that incorporates the many saved souls and goes beyond.
Christianity is not first about the sinner, but the Savior and Father. God’s end goals are a people of testimony and an axe to the root-level effects of sin in His creation.
Ephesians 4 – 13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; 14 that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, 15 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— 16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.
The carnal Christian however is first concerned about him or herself. They may care for others, no doubt, but at the bottom of their motives is their own eternal security. They were first hooked by a message appealing to self and preached to all their lives based on what is their self-interest – how to be more fruitful, how to be more spiritually powerful, how to be happy, or be blessed, and get benefits from God.
As such most Christians never graduate from being self-focused to Christ focused. In as much as they are spiritually blind, they may be convinced to their own satisfaction this is not true of them, but the fruit is the test.
Their biggest problem is they fail to have the vision God calls everyone to clearly see – the glory of God. This end-goal is that God put a stop to all sin in the creation.
1 Corinthians 15 – 22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. 23 But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ’s at His coming. 24 Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power. 25 For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet. 26 The last enemy that will be destroyed is death. 27 For “He has put all things under His feet.” But when He says “all things are put under Him,” it is evident that He who put all things under Him is excepted. 28 Now when all things are made subject to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subject to Him who put all things under Him, that God may be all in all.
The gospel is more than “God so loved the world.” It is also a police action by the only One who deserves all glory, honor and service.
Part of “death to self” means embracing the full vision. A people who do not know where they are going are without vision, and “without a vision, the people perish.” They also “perish for lack of knowledge.”
The Solution
One must develop their made-alive spirit. They must not fear it. They must let go of their control and throw themselves into God.
This is what Jesus meant when He said “Come to Me.” If we meet the conditions, He promises Himself as our Tree of Life.
If we know His voice, we may know where to go next. If we have Christ, we can give Christ to others.
What carnal Christians do instead is rightly recount the testimony of Christ to those they hope to win, but they themselves fail to obey Christ and allow Him to produce His testimony in them.
The theft of the name of Christ by worldly carnal “Christians” has been a crime greater than the atrocities of Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Mao, and all other despots through the ages.
It has been why untold billions are in hell who lived in a culture dominated by the name of Christ for 2000 years. It is why the world is rushing headlong into all darkness, feeling Christianly has had its day, and may now be safely ignored. It is likely why the Lord delayed His coming, and why the antichrist will come on a red carpet paid for in no small part by the negligence of those who once made the name of Christ feared – but who had merely kidnapped the Bride and put her in a dungeon.
For centuries the world clamored after Christ because they at least believed the message that eternity was real, and so were heaven and hell. The religious fleshly mind seeks self-preservation and good for itself, and so they believed strongly for centuries.
There was a pope about 1000 years ago who said he as pope was as the center of the universe, and the crowned heads of Europe revolved around him as planets do the sun. That is power – he had power over what today would be hundreds of billions of dollars, political authority, and preeminence over the souls of human beings.
Those who took the name of Christ – Catholic and post-Protectant era – have long had tremendous influence, but what have they done with it? How have they steered the ship?
This is all of the carnal religious fleshly mind. By their fruits you shall know them.
And to whom it may concern, this is your invitation to escape their hold yet on you.
Seek the Lord while He may be found. Learn what it means to be really spiritual.
God is waiting there to show you.
Repent of your unbelief disguised as faith, your self-control disguised as trust and surrender, and your own dogma disguised as the Word of God.
Be introduced instead to the Living Word. Accept no substitutes.
Isaiah 55
“Ho! Everyone who thirsts,
Come to the waters;
And you who have no money,
Come, buy and eat.
Yes, come, buy wine and milk
Without money and without price.
2 Why do you [a]spend money for what is not bread,
And your wages for what does not satisfy?
Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good,
And let your soul delight itself in abundance.
3 Incline your ear, and come to Me.
Hear, and your soul shall live;
And I will make an everlasting covenant with you—
The sure mercies of David.
4 Indeed I have given him as a witness to the people,
A leader and commander for the people.
5 Surely you shall call a nation you do not know,
And nations who do not know you shall run to you,
Because of the Lord your God,
And the Holy One of Israel;
For He has glorified you.”
6 Seek the Lord while He may be found,
Call upon Him while He is near.
7 Let the [b]wicked forsake his way,
And the unrighteous man his thoughts;
Let him return to the Lord,
And He will have mercy on him;
And to our God,
For He will abundantly pardon.
8 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord.
9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are My ways higher than your ways,
And My thoughts than your thoughts.
Lord bless you.
