The Law and the Blood
The Lord just gave me a very clear word for us that I am sending here. The Holy Spirit broke in and said "The separation that is going on now is between those who will remain dependent upon the power of the Blood of Christ and between those who will... instead return to the Law". This has become an issue in The Body. We are being sifted and it will show those who will stand for the Blood of the Cross and those who will again implement the law in some form... and it does come many different forms. Those that stand upon the power of the cross and the shed blood of Jesus Christ are well aware of the reality that they are the scruffy, dirty, matted wool sheep that they are while having to contend with being hurt by those sheep who perceive their wool is white and fluffy and clean and they look so good as they pass us by - telling us, of course, that we are scruffy, and matted, and dirty and we should be as they are - and - they are more than happy to - "HELP CLEAN US UP" - wherein they usurp the office of the Holy Spirit and try be the Holy Spirit to other people. I am disturbed again as I see these hurts going on, but as I sat just a few minutes ago I felt my soul and spirit totally dedicate to the precept that the power of the Blood of Christ is SUFFICIENT AND NOT LACKING and that I stand in union with the likes of Spurgeon and T. Austin-Sparks when it comes to grace - I REFUSE TO REPLACE AGAIN THE GRACE OF GOD WITH THE LAW AND THEREBY CRUCIFY AGAIN OUR LORD. Our fellowship shall not hold together in love if we return to the law. The ONLY WAY we will be able to maintain a unity of spirit in love and humbleness is to continue to be conscious of the sufficiency of the cross and our VERY NEED FOR IT EVERYDAY. If we fail in this, then we will be pawns of the enemy to return to the law and be used to bring bondage to the multitudes that are already oppressed rather than bring salvation and freedom as was our commission to do. We were to minister what we have received and we have received salvation by grace yet we are swayed by the enemy to preach bondage upon those we go to rather than forgiveness that we ourselves received from the Lord when we came to Him. How in the world shall we walk in love toward each other if we pick up again the preaching of the law? And like it or not too much, far too much of holiness preaching is but a snare whereby we are again returned to the preaching of the law wherein we take away the freedom from each other that WAS OURS IN CHRIST (AND STILL IS IF WE RETURN TO IT). Holiness is by grace. It is extremely rare that we are so discerning that we are able to know what issues God wishes to deal with us on at any given time. That is the work of the Holy Spirit. As was the wisdom God gave me in answer to a man haranguing on me for my smoking - "When I am secure in the fact that my heart is no longer black, than I shall start working on the condition of my lungs" God had clearly, in that instant, showed me that His concern for me was that I keep a clean heart - as it is from the heart that we are defiled or not and NOT FROM WHAT GOES INTO THE BODY (Lungs or what may proceed from them). And my tirade again here is, in no way, about smoking or defending smoking - it is about defending what is the power of the Cross... it is the shed Blood of Christ for us and the sufficiency of it and the damage we do when we turn from that again to the law to place those burdens upon each other. "If we say - thou shalt not steal" do you then say you do not steal, because you are a liar if the answer is yes. If you say "Thou shalt not smoke" and say that you do not smoke - you are also a liar because you have come to the place of inhaling the smoke of corrupted doctrine to think our salvation rests upon what we do in the flesh. THERE IS NO EFFORT OF THE FLESH THAT CAN, IN OR TO ANY DEGREE - ADVANCE US IN HOLINESS WHAT SO EVER. Progression of Holiness is an act of God and is a miracle and is ALSO, AS SALVATION, NOT OF OURSELVES, BUT OF THE WORK OF GOD BY THE HOLY SPIRIT.
I am adamant again this morning to note that as we are meant to work in the fields it appears to be such a great sifting going on to see who will be worthy of the hire. Those worthy of the hire to work in the harvest can ONLY BE THOSE who will preach the cross and the sufficiency of the Blood of Christ as it, and IT ALONE is the power unto salvation and redemption. I do understand, we all make the mistake of slipping back into legalistic ways in dealing with people. I just pray with all my heart we are given a sharper eye to NOT DO SO, because it does not draw men to Christ - it only drives them further away and toward the whole Pharisaic way of life... which is not life at all, but is death... and in its fullness is a murderous spirit upon those who end up not measuring up.
If we do not live in the humbleness and knowledge of our own short-comings and need, daily, for the sufficiency of the cross then we will cease walking in love, unity and brotherly compassion toward each other. We will go the way of the law and of the Pharisees. Paul asked, "How is it you started off in your freedom, but have now returned to the bondage of the law"? His effort was to try get them turned back around and that is the very same effort I am attempting here.
I had fully intended not to write anymore things and to stay out of ministry as I have become quite full of the vanity of too much of it, but... certain situations and the unction of the Spirit as I received just a little while ago seems to have lit a fire under me that makes me rise up in strength and determination that I will defend the purposes of God in the face of and against this serpent that seeks to rise up and bring us under bondage again. GRACE, GRACE, GRACE ... MERCY, MERCY, MERCY. It is always so and is all we can put our hopes in. If we return again to place our hopes in the efforts of the flesh we walk fully into a trap and then are "TRAINED IN HOW TO TRAP OTHERS".
For any who think there is power in efforts of the flesh toward holiness than go for it. I have already been down that road and found no more than a very large and solid brick wall for which there was no passing. I shall sit where I am... scruffy, dirty with matted wool and see how far anyone else may get down that path.
I shall enter the gates of Heaven by Grace alone... or I shall not enter at all. I shall receive power to minister and a commission to minister to the multitude by the Grace of God or I shall not be worthy of the call whatsoever. May it fully come by the Grace of God for if it is not, I do not want it, because I am all too aware of what will come of the efforts of my own flesh.
To move in this manner, the law is not humble, it is not loving, it is not compassionate. It is none of those things. It is arrogant, loveless, cold, demanding, manipulative, controlling - everything you would expect the devil to be, yet it is done in the name of ministry and in the name of Christ.
I am sending this to those I love, respect and care about. This is a clear and very real sifting that is happening and those I thought would not fall into this have fallen into this - and, surprisingly, some I thought would surely fall into this have not.
It is too much of a danger and an occupational hazard that once we seem to get "on a roll" in a ministry that what takes over so soon after is often this return to the law. Ministry puffs us up and once we are puffed up even a little, then we lose sight of the cross and we start preaching again the law and death. Seriously... can any "good ministry" come from a prideful heart? Can any good ministry come from any of us if we think we stand in a "presumed, more holy place than do our brothers". We all have faults and should bear each other up in such things instead of knocking each other to the ground again. We should have grown past these behaviors by now if we were and have been honest with ourselves and how really short we fall... but no... not some again... they are perceiving that they are progressing in "degrees" that are more than their brothers and sisters have. By the very nature of the thing - it stops treating the brethren with love and one should know it has ceased to be a Christ-like thing. Get rid of the clubs and whips and the religious sharp tongues that have crept back into the camp and has been used to abuse each other again. This is something we have to keep a vigilant watch over... a daily watch over... that we always treat the brethren with the same grace God gave us. Remember the man who owed much and was forgiven of it, but then went to the man who owed him but a little and began to beat him and the master who had forgiven him of much caught him doing so to the man who owed the "forgiven one little" and when the master saw that - he ordered that one thrown into prison until the very last penny had been paid. Was this not the words of Jesus warning us that as we have received such grace from Him and been forgiven such a great debt that it is no longer our right to go to them that may owe us "a little" and beat them for it? How then shall the master find us doing so and how will we escape His anger if He finds us doing so? We will not! He promised we would suffer judgment if we are caught doing that. So - if we return to the law to preach that rather than the sufficiency of the cross, we now have a solid promise from Christ that He will judge us for it and we will NOT escape punishment. It is a somber thing and should be. We have no latitude to treat each other in any abusive manner.
In cases of those who are in consistent and insistent an unrepentant sin we can dis-fellowship ourselves from them without beating the crap out of them first. We can still, with tender hearts, seek to return them to fellowship - but be clear that fellowship should not be based on MEASURING UP TO THE WAY YOU LIVE YOUR LIFE AND TRYING TO GET OTHERS TO BECOME IN YOUR IMAGE. We need to seek to come into the image of Christ! Often our downfall is that we engage in trying to get each other into the image we think of ourselves. One doesn't smoke so one seeks to make all others in his image. One does not drink so one seeks to make others in his image - they are not trying to help others come into the image and maturity of Christ - they are engaged in trying to clone copies of themselves... and this is not God, and not Christ-like, and IS, IN NO WAY THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT!
As always I would assume I could run on for pages and pages and pages making the same point and giving further examples, but... if my point has not been made clear by now then I am already preaching to deaf ears.
I see these things creeping into the camp again. It is not an article to single out or blast any. It is simply the unction and fire the Spirit lit under me this morning.