THE LIVING WAY

THE LIVING WAY

                “… you are a letter of Christ, cared for by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of human hearts. 2 Cor. 3:3.

                Living by the Spirit is not an exact science. It is somewhat subjective and experiential and one must know the Word of God if he is going to hear the voice of God, for it is the Word of God that helps us to know if we are hearing the voice of God.

                How did Abraham hear God, or Moses, or Elijah? Did they hear the booming voice of God coming out of the sky or from a cloud, or was it something they heard in their hearts? Many of the prophets would say something like: “The Word of the Lord came to me saying…” And whatever that Word was, it was pretty definite because God often gave them messages they didn’t want to deliver, but they had no choice if they wanted to be a true prophet of God.

                Jonah learned a fairly definite lesson about running away from the message assignment he had been given. He knew without doubt that he was disobeying God and so he asked the shipmates to toss him overboard in order to still the storm.

                When I heard the voice of the Lord in my heart telling me to move to Tennessee, the voice sounded familiar. I have heard it before even if it isn’t audible to the ears. It is a familiar voice in your mind much like you can remember the sound of your loved one’s voice in your mind. You hear it with you mind (or heart or spirit)rather than with your ears.  It came to me as a solid and firm conviction and yet, because even the sound of God’s voice in our hearts can be very subjective… I would probably not have taken action on it if there had not been a second witness. That very night Bonnie had a dream in which she too was told that we were to move to Tennessee. So we went.

                So when it comes to the New Covenant in which the Law is written in our hearts, rather than on tablets of stone, we tend to get that feeling of uncertainty. How will I know what is of God and what is from my own mind? To be sure, like I said, we must know the written word of God if we are to know the voice of God that He places in our hearts and yet, Paul makes a pretty big deal out of this saying: ”Our adequacy is from God who also made us adequate as servants of the New Covenant not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” 2 Cor. 3:5-6.

                 Somehow this moving from the letter to the Spirit is a life and death matter. Here Paul is stating more than an unhappy side effect, He is in fact telling us the job of the Law. The Law’s job is to define sin and to condemn the sinner to death. He says in Galatians 3:22-24 that the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ and once it has done that, its job as our tutor is over. The Law has then accomplished what God sent it to do.

                Now Paul admits that the Law is holy and righteous and good and certainly David extoled the greatness and goodness of the Law and if you look at the Ten Commandments, (the only Law written on stone) we have to agree that the basic laws given there easily form the basis of a good society and are absolutely mandatory if you want a peaceful   and productive civilization.

                If everyone broke the Law at random, stealing, and killing and raping everything and everyone at will, all freedom would soon be lost and civilization would devolve into chaos. And we would all find ourselves in a self-imposed prison… locked away in our homes against the violence outside.

                Jesus gave the right balance of life in John 4:22-24 saying: “You worship that which you do not know; for salvation is from the Jews. But an hour is coming and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the father in spirit and in truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. God is spirit; and those who worship must worship Him in spirit and in truth.”

                There is that balance between Spirit and Truth… and I dare say that a large part of the great falling away that is going on in the church today, has come about as a result of various denominations either rejecting the Spirit or alternately, rejecting the Truth. There are both types involved in this falling away as they increasingly look to the Pope (The false Prophet) to bring them into a global religion and global peace… and the False Prophet will in turn bring them to the feet of the antichrist, whom many will worship in the place of Christ.

                We watch with eager anticipation for this deal of the century to be announced by Kushner and friends sometime in June. Is this the covenant with many mentioned in Daniel 9:27?  Will the launching of this covenant also signal the beginning of the final 7 years of earth history? Will it include a deal to be able to build the Jewish temple on the temple mount? Are we that close to major end time Bible prophecies being fulfilled? And will this covenant of peace, actually bring peace or will it erupt into one of the mothers of all war?

                I know this: If the church had been studying prophecy as they should have been, Christians would be fleeing that global religion and this global government. They would recognize the players for what they do. They would see the pieces coming together and the prophecies unfolding.

                Peter had been talking about seeing the Majestic form Jesus on the Mt. of Transfiguration, but then right after that he said: “And so we have the prophetic word made more sure, to which you do well to pay attention as a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts.” 2 Peter 1:19

                Here Peter compares the subjective experience of seeing Jesus glorified, to the “more sure” word of prophecy to which we must pay attention. Was the Transfiguration necessary? Absolutely it was necessary or it wouldn’t have happened. But likewise the word of prophecy is vitally important and so much so that its being ignored is causing large portions of the church to fall away and to wonder after the Beast, that Revelation warns us about. Likewise, many traditional churches remained stuck in their traditions so much so that they cannot even see what is going on in the world today, nor can they comprehend the rapid fulfillment of Bible prophecy.

                We live in a New Covenant that is rightly called the new and living way, but we need to remember this as well:

               

                “For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any tow-edged sword and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”

                So if we are living in the new and living way of the Spirit, we will find that the Word is alive too. In fact it is made alive in us by the Holy Spirit who inspired it in the first place. And there are many issues in the world today along the lines of political correctness that are causing many unseasoned Christians to drop the Word like a hot potato. But when they do so they also “grieve the Holy Spirit by whom we were sealed for the day of redemption.” Ephesians 4:30

                “Now unto Him who is able to de exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.” Eph. 3:20, 21.

                One thing is certain: We know when we are disobeying the Lord and His Word and we can’t be at peace until we correct our ways. That too is the voice of God in our hearts and if we will listen to that voice, then maybe we will also walk in faith like Abraham and Sarah did. After all… in Christ we are Abraham’s offspring and heirs according to promise. The same God guided Him, guides us.