Thursday, December 2, 2010

"Still Standing ?"

I have to wonder if the reason I fall is because of my lack of understanding, more than my lack of obedience. Because, when I fall, it is not because I have chosen to fall, but because I have taken for granted the reason, and ability for which I stand. (I wonder what that means also!) No, really; if you really think it through, and take into consideration all that Jesus has done for us in order for us to be holy, you would have to be brain-dead not to stay standing. I can try and show you the vision I saw this morning, but I know I would just mess it up; but here it goes anyways: I saw me, as dead, yet alive, and from within me, but not of me, arose a man of God, who was alive unto God with power, great power that could not be contained and had power over sin; yet, just as though you would put a genie back in a bottle, this man of God was contained by flesh, and the desires of the flesh. It was this vision which made me realize what was meant by, "Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing;" because the touching of the unclean thing is like hitting that 'clear' button on that phone in my dream; it causes a disconnect between us and God! Let me go back to something from yesterday, which I should have spent a little more time on; it is the word 'perfecting', which I had given a brief description of but did not really elaborate. The word 'perfecting' comes from the Greek word 'epiteleo' which means contracted; to finish, complete, perfect; to practice, perfecting. In a nutshell, the best way to describe this meaning is found in Galatians 3:3: "Are ye so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?" Again, I go back to the vision I had this morning; it is not I who had the power over sin, but the man of God within me; yet, it was I who had the power to sin. In other words; when I sin, it is of the flesh, but when I am strong, it is because of the Spirit of God within me; so, in order to prevent the man of God within me from falling, I must not touch the unclean thing. (I think it goes something like that?) Let me close today with a couple verses from where that word 'holiness' appears, and you might be able to see what "perfecting holiness" means: "To the end He may stablish your hearts unblamable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all the saints. Furthermore then we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, so ye would abound more and more. For ye know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication: That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour; not in lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not God:" (1 Thessalonians 3:13-4:5)

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