Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Study Time w/ Lena's Journalin' to 1 Cor 4 Today. Who is your father? (little"f")

Each man of earth is born by God and is accountable to God for the work of His hands, thoughts of his heart, words of his mouth, and actions of his lifetime.
Each man will give an account to God himself, alone.
Each man can begin at any time, giving an account to God, and if he is wise, he will begin as soon as possible. The more a man accounts to God now and lives a life of acknowledgement of His ways in this life, the greater likelihood of his being saved from paying the accounts due Him in life eternal.
Each time a humble man (person) repents, stands corrected, wisely listens to and follows the council of another, that man gets a cleaned slate! I cannot imagine a man standing before God with an unclean slate! I would think if each of us knew we could be cleaned and made new everyday, we’d make special appointments with the spirit of humility on a regular basis.
Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall. I saw satan fall like lightening from the presence of God…. He was in the very presence of God and pride took him outside of it straightaway.
If pride is such an enemy of our father and can separate a man from God as swiftly as lightening falls from the heavens, why would any man ever give into it now, when it is clearly his enemy #1? He must not know it is his enemy or he will be blinded to its offers in his own daily life.
When we receive Christ, we enter a covenant relationship with God, we make a covenant exchange. His enemies become ours as well as ours becoming conquered in Him. If He despises pride and its evil work against my life and against our fatherly relationship, then I must disdain it also.
This is a reason that being under authority and submitting one’s self willingly to any man given a title, any title, is imperative.
Pride exalts self. Self opinion, self confidence, self government, self help, etc. If pride is the enemy of God, and a way to see it, is that the very nature of pride is to watch out for an uprising above authorities, even in one’s mind, (ya know, like, “Ah, I know better than that, they must be mistaken, or I can’t believe that is what they just said or would be asking me to do, there’s surely a better way, they must not know what they are talking about, who are they anyway, who do they think they are, who gave them their credentials”, etc., etc.…) It would be beneficial to identify its offers to us and decline them straightaway.
Rising up against authority, from a spouse, to a parent, to a policemen, to a boss, to a teacher, or a child’s teacher, to anyone in charge, in any place, to a preacher of the gospel, to a Bible study leader, or nursery coordinator, etc., is a direct violation against the heart and character of God whether we see them as qualified or not. The biggest tactic of the enemy is to disqualify them in our minds and hearts, so we “don’t have to” give them any due honor. The principle of God’s kingdom of authority and rule is that any man (person) in authority is set up there by God, and to think they may not be qualified, is only my opportunity to dishonor God!
Why would a child of God behave this way? They have listened to a liar, and a thief, and a destroyer all 3 are out for the destruction of their relationship with God. Children of God, must not listen to these things, nor should they incline their ears, giving that strange voice even the time of day!
There are many teachers, many a voice telling one which way to go and directing us here and there, but one Father. One who is under the lead of the Father God. One in our lives sent to us by God to raise us up as a parent would.
Who led you to the Lord? Where are they in vicinity to you now? Do they follow Christ? Do you ever think to follow them? Maybe you are not living near them, but you go to church. Is there anyone at your church that you submit yourself to willingly? Is there anyone who personally instructs and corrects you? Is there anyone you listen to and regard their words as you would a parent if you had a 2nd chance to honor a parent, a father? Is there there a disciple at your fellowship who is stronger than you in Christ, and is themselves a submitted dependant person that you can become a disciple of? If you do not submit yourself willingly to no one (bad English and bad grammar, bad attitude also ), you are NOT under authority, you are not Covenentally covered by the Divine nature and character of God. You may call Him Father in words, but he only accepts that if it is lived out in demonstration. Only a man who bows to authority is in authority and is called a son of God. All others are children, not grown enough to yet understand enough to make the change.
Jesus Himself was not called a Son of God until he submitted to a human imperfect man in the waters of baptism. God authored and blessed it.
Another tactic of the enemy is independence. An independent spirit is NOT from God. It is from the enemy. Independent spirits do not need parental guides. They don’t not want to be fathered, for in fathering that means they are quite possibly told what to do. Independent spirits do not like being told what to do. Exactly. One cannot even be fathered by God if they refuse to be told what to do and a man (child in maturity) willingly left to himself, brings his mother (the church, the Bride of Christ) to shame. God Himself said, “It is not good for a man to be alone, I’ll send him a Helper” - who will (use people and the inward witness of one’s submissive instructable spirit) to help him through his faith walk.
A wise son, listens and does. Lays down an arrogant heart purposefully. He is as a son who disallows pride to lead him at all; He Is completely dependant upon the words of God; Is humble, and submits himself; He honors authority unconditionally, in undeserving and disqualified forms, as though they are appointed by God, without reasoning out the qualification of their appointments.
They honor God willingly by giving honor to undeserving and seemingly unworthy men and women on earth.
They store up eternal rewards in refusing to make a name for themselves.
They live to exalt His name, by obeying His rules, which boggle the human reason.
Why would anyone willingly behave this way?
There’s really only one reason.
It’s Because of love.