The Vital Issue
Dearly beloved of God, many today are concerned about the wrong issues. They are concerned about groups, organizations, personalities and feelings, licenses, classes, Rev. so and so, or Dr. so and so, and on the list goes.
If these are wrong issues, what is the right issue? How do we discern between them so that we can know and do the will of God?
God begins with the heart. He wants people to believe Him at His Word, and love Him with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love one another as themselves.
God is concerned about His Word because it reveals His Will. He expects people to believe Him.
All scripture is God-breathed and all of it profitable.
God would have all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. Why? Because the truth sets people free. God is all about deliverance.
Study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman that does not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of truth. Workmen show up on the job faithfully, not occasionally.
Jesus Christ said that those who continue in the Word are disciples, and they shall know the truth and the truth will make them free.
Only by knowing the truth of the Word of God, and by believing it, can a person’s heart be transformed from carnal to spiritual and godly.
First, we confess the Lord Jesus and believe that God raised him from the dead, and we will be saved. We receive the divine nature as a child of God, and God becomes God our Father.
The process that brings about the change from carnal to godly once we are born again is called the renewing of the mind. We believe the measure that God has given us to believe in His Word.
We renew our minds to the Word of God. To renew our minds, we accept the information about what God did in us in the new birth.
We renew our minds to who we now are as sons of God, which includes our sonship includes sonship rights, privileges, and ability.
The information about who we are in Christ transforms our lives when it is believed. We change our thinking from being carnally minded to being spiritually minded.
I will give you some examples of religion versus how God works.
Religion is always concerned about the flesh, either yours, or someone else’s. It gets you to compare yourself to someone else. It is concerned about improving your flesh. To think in this way is carnal thinking.
Religion deals with people from the outside in.
God works just the opposite of religion; He works in people’s hearts. First, a person gets born again of the spirit. Then they are transformed by the renewing of the mind.
Religion wants you to do good works in order be saved.
The One True God saves a person by His grace because of Jesus Christ’s accomplishments in his death and resurrection. Once the person is saved, then they can do good works.
Religion canvases to gain membership. They set up drives, projects, campaigns, etc. to gain new members.
God calls people. His children simply speak His Word and then God draws people to Him when they hear it.
For an example, let’s read Acts 8.
Acts 8:1,4 ESV
1 And Saul approved of his [Stephen’s] execution. And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles.
4 Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word.
During this great persecution of the early church, they went everywhere preaching the Word of God.
People make the decision to preach the Word of God, and then God draws those that believe unto Him.
Religious organizations contract with their members to pledge to financially support their church.
As far as giving goes, God’s children give from their hearts for their love for God and in thankfulness for what He did for them in the new birth, and for His abundant supply day by day. God doesn’t need a “pledge.”
God draws people to Him.
He works in us to will and to do of His good pleasure as we renew our minds to His Word, and we utilize the nine manifestations of the holy spirit in order to provide the profit that God desires.
I Corinthians informs us of the manifestations of the spirit.
I Corinthians 12:7-11 WTJ
7 However, the manifestation of the spirit is given to each person for profit.
8 (For example, for one profit a word of wisdom is given by the spirit; for another, a word of knowledge by the same spirit;
9 for another, believing by the same spirit; for another, gifts of healings by the /same {Or/ one} spirit;
10 for another, operations of miracles; for another, prophecy; for another, discernings of spirits; for another, kinds of tongues; for another, interpretation of tongues.)
11 The one and the same spirit energizes all these [manifestations], distributing to each person individually even as he wills.
God works in each of His children as they will, and then He energizes the spirit that they received in the new birth.
God never “uses” people, or “possesses” them against their will. He only works in us by our free will as we believe Him.
God works with us similar to how we work with our children. We edify, comfort, and exhort our kids; we give them information for their profit; we work with them to help them get a job done.
Listen to what the Lord Jesus Christ said.
John 14:12
12 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.
We can do the works Jesus Christ did. He spoke God’s Word. He went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed by the devil for God was with him.
Jesus Christ spoke God's Word, he healed the sick, cast out devil spirits, and raised the dead. He operated seven manifestations of the spirit.
The new birth became available on Pentecost after Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection, and then on Pentecost he sent the promised holy spirit. The gift of holy spirit is power from on high.
There is one gift of holy spirit, which is spiritual ability, and that one gift enables us to utilize the nine manifestations of that spirit for godly profit.
Now we can do the works that Jesus did, and we can witness to people and minister the new birth to them.
This wasn’t available while Jesus ministered on earth; he first had to go to the Father.
The new birth is a greater work.
We can also operate two more manifestations than were available to them under the old covenant of the law. We can speak in tongues and magnify God, and speak in tongues and interpret when the church meets.
When we operate these two manifestations we are doing greater works, also.
Dearly beloved of God, do not get wrapped up with carnal issues.
Be engaged with God and walk in fellowship with Him so that He can lead us, and so He can call on us to do the works His Son Jesus Christ did, and greater.
We want to grow and mature as children of God so that we are capable sons and daughters who are equipped to every good work and have the confidence to do them.
Colossians 3:10, 11
10 And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:
11 Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all.
Once we get our minds to think and believe in accordance with the spirit that was created in us in the new birth we can walk with the Living God. This is the vital issue.
We can walk in fellowship with Him as His child, and He can lead us and guide us through life. This is all that truly matters.