February 16, 2017.

 
The Real Battle.

Spiritual Awakening

What is the perfect image of God? It would seem God does not create perfect creations. For angels rebelled against Him and by their disobedience, so does man. Outside of having a Spiritual seed; Jesus the man is the perfect image of God despite having to take and receive sin. This can be said because for approximately thirty years Jesus did not know sin until its weight was placed on His Spirit on the cross and before the day passed, He died and was put in the grave, only to be relieved of it three days later. Now to be clear, it's not as if Jesus in that instant on the cross committed every sin known to mankind from the fall, but He took the weight of the guilt, punishment, and torment of sin for us. It is why in Hell it is said, “gnashing of teeth” - Lk. 13:28; because the unsaved spirits are under the pain of torment by evil spirits. This ultimately boils down to choice which produces a harvest of either good benefits or evil torments. Obedience brings the Blessing and disobedience; trials and tribulations. The simple matter is compliance to God’s standards puts Him in obligation to fulfill the covenant He gave us and non-compliance has no legal ground to Him. God always forewarns us not to be in a state of non-compliance.

How often when trials and tribulations hit us that we cry, “why me”? and proceed to seek comfort from anything or anyone that has empathy with us. We welcome the consolation of well-meaning people who neither provide real strength or wisdom on our situation. We succumb to our fears and anxieties. What we really have failed to do; is not to address the real battle that we face each day. Often these same trials and tribulations keep manifesting in our lives and we don’t understand why or how to make them go away. We begin to accept this is the life we have been given and somehow it is a part of being a good Christian. This is a lie of not only satan but also religion..

Now, many of the Faith will be upset with what will be stated but if we really call ourselves sons and daughters of God, then we ought to certainly act like it. I believe in God not only as the most powerful Almighty Spirit but also as a loving Father who in His infinite wisdom decided to share His Kingdom. Who having to have patience with man, sent His only begotten Son to be flesh and blood because we did not heed His Spirit in all things that are Righteous before His Throne. God has no need for us! Take a moment to reflect on that. Yet, He created us with free will so that we can need Him. For without free will, then the will is already decided; having no decision to make. We are called not to be slaves.

They exercised free will with devastating consequences. For the creative mind, this what we see. At least for me. The scenarios of possibilities given the components that has to be worked with. This is just like inventing with specific criteria. In the story of the garden, we have been given all the key factors and a reasonable deduction of their purpose. Adam and Eve were given God’s image, Spirit, and free will. Another way, this can be restated, is we have been God’s Son (the Word. For Jesus is God’s perfect image), Holy Spirit, and choice. For with free will, there is always a choice.

Both life and death are ruled by the Spirit and the flesh. Think of it like two opposing teams, one for life, the other for death; that don’t move until a pair of dice is rolled. Each dice has good and bad results on its sides. So when they are rolled, the combinations that are seen will either be two good results, two bad results or one bad and one good. To roll the dices takes an action which is the words we speak. Words are the prime means of communication resulting in thoughts and then actions. So each time we speak, we are rolling the dices and receiving the results of them, which either gives us good, bad or canceled results. Based on the rolled dices the good or bad team moves towards either life or death respectively.

​The other creative notions of the garden story are balance such as the sun and the moon and then the sequence of sowing and reaping. That with choice; comes consequences. We see life as in, “be fruitful and multiply” and death as in, “eat of the tree and die”. The entire history of man from Genesis to Revelation will be of the choices that were made and the results of those choices. Why do we say, “why me”? It's because of the choices we make.

Bad choices have bad consequences and good choices produce good benefits. Not exactly rocket science stuff. God made things very simple and man by satan’s influence has complicated them. Sometimes, man doesn’t even need satan because they overly intellectualize the Word and expect God to hide things from them. Yet, God is in plain sight having created this world and the Heavens above. Too often, religion has made God mysterious and yet when Adam and Eve disobeyed God and hid themselves; God who knows and sees all went looking for them by, “walking in the garden” - Gen. 3:8. That’s not the actions of someone who rather stay mysterious, distant, but rather the actions of a Father who cares and has concerns about His children. Here we see Abba, the Father expressing concern for His children and when He confronts them listening to their whining by blaming each other, He switches hats and did as the Supreme Being does. For He could have destroyed them and started all over. God having heard about their disobedience begins to declare what He ordains for each of the three offenses and offenders in the order that the disobedience occurs. The serpent to crawl on its stomach - Gen. 3:14. The woman to have pain in childbirth - Gen. 3:16. And the man to toil to survive - Gen. 3:17.

God did not panic or become uncontrollably angry. He assesses the situation and took the appropriate action by speaking with judgment. When Jesus was confronted by similar circumstances, He also took action by speaking with judgment. We see this with the stories of Lazarus and Jarius’s daughter saying, “She only sleeps” - Matt. 9:24. Who is Jesus? The perfect image of God with the Spirit in flesh and blood. Jesus as God takes control of the situation and declares life. The judgment that is used by God and Jesus is not the same that Paul admonishes us not to judge one another - Rm. 14:13. For to have Godly wisdom, you must judge or discern a situation. This is what God did and Jesus also. To judge is not to condemn. For we judge the action and condemn the sin, not the person. The actions of a sinner condemn them from the presence of God and being an everlasting spirit has to reside somewhere, which God declares to be Hell. Sin is an automatic separation from God and cannot be overturned even by the ultimate source of unconditional love when there is no request for forgiveness. God’s solution to this dilemma is Grace. Grace allows for reconciling with God and His covenant with us. We would not need Grace if we were as Jesus; the perfect image of God, for as stated, “He knew no sin but became sin for us” - 2 Cor. 5:21.

He did this in the garden and demonstrates this constantly through the bible, often stating, “Have no fear”. He does this to shield us from the effects of fear which is like open season on us from evil spirits. Adam and Eve applied wrong fear in two ways. First, they did not fear (reverence God) and secondly they feared God by hiding. We often do this when we are out of the will of God. We become non-compliant, which gives satan legal ground to have his way with us. Why is this? Because as simple as it sounds, it is because we chose death over life by our tongue and actions. We chose satan over God, who has to honor His gift to us of free will. The wrong kind of fear will result in actual death. Not necessarily immediate, but over time. In the case of Ananias and Sapphira, it was not Peter that killed them, for man cannot will another’s death without condemning himself with the same result. For by our words will we be judged - Matt. 12:36. What words will be judged? All that do not speak life; those of death. For we can’t be judged of words that are in God’s will. What is God’s will as He has stated; “My thoughts for you is peace and prosperity”. There are two main aspects of life and death.

This is something that many Christians miss even though they could be the most devoted and can quote biblical verses forward and backward without blinking an eye. I struggle with this as my brain has always been on the creative side; to formula concepts and to envision unseen things but besides this; I am able to put my imagination into a practical set of proponents that are organized and come together to function for a practical use. Some would call me, an inventor. And yet for all of this, I don’t know how the science of things work but know they must somehow work to achieve the desired goal. Isn’t this why we are man and He is God.

When God placed Adam on the Earth, He didn’t give Him tools or a combine to carry out His decree, “to be fruitful and multiply”- Gen. 1:28. God just told Adam to do it. Now, on a personal note, I think God’s next steps with Adam would have been to mentor him in all things that he was to do, for God wants to reason with us as it is said, “let us reason” - Is. 1:18. Unfortunately, God did not get to do this because of disobedience. For the first five days that the Spirit is over the Earth; God creates all manner of life for the support of His creation on the sixth day; man. Now, be patient with me as I attempt to understand God’s actions and sequence of things; remembering God is the ultimate creative being and I am also creative in my outlook. To try to attempt to see things as God sees them. After man is created, God gives them a warning regarding the tree of knowledge for good and evil - Gen. 2:17. What has happened here is God switches hats from “the creator of life” to “a Father” figure. It is the first recording of an admonition of what a parent would do with their child. To try to teach the child in order to protect the child. The significance of this not only demonstrates that as a powerful Spirit, God is also parental with a gentler side to His nature. He did not scold Adam and Eve regarding eating from the tree; unlike some parents scolding their child into not taking the cookie from the jar before they even attempt to. God just stated the consequence of their disobedience and did not go into a tirade. The placing of this tree is a practical lesson on the beckoning of temptations. The other practical lesson with all temptations is there's a tempter. For God allowed satan to enter into the garden, knowing very well this combination of temptation and tempter could actually hurt His children; Adam and Eve. It was almost as if God orchestrated this, knowing the results that would occur, for “He knows the thoughts of men” - Ps. 94:11. God, as good parents, was waiting to see if His children would use the free will given, for the right decision. To see if they would reflect their parent's traits. These Godly traits included His image and Spirit, which are inseparable and include free will. There are no other characteristics attributed to the creation of Adam and Eve other than they were of flesh.

We were made to be the perfect image of God and it has taken God manifested by the Word, Jesus to show us how we are to act, think and speak for life. This is one of God’s ways of mentoring us because He did not get the opportunity to do it with Adam. Now, by Jesus’ Blood, the lessons are complete and sealed. Jesus returned to the Father; and as it was during creation week; man is given back the original divine commission to “be fruitful, multiply, and subdue the Earth and take dominion”.

Flush it Out - To be Christ-like is to imitate Him.

A combined good roll moves you closer to win. A combined bad roll moves you closer to lose and a roll that produces a good and bad combination causes you to lose your turn, giving the death team an advantage. Ultimately, your goal is to take actions that produce only a combined good roll of the dices. God has set the rules to give the good team all they need to win. Knowing this, it is prudent to roll only good results that bring us closer to God’s full promises of life. Never allow the physical reality of trials and tribulations deter you from standing on the Word and as it is said, “Let the weak say, I am strong” - Joel. 3:10

God is principled in all that He does for life and He cannot break these principles. 2 Tim. 2:13, “If we are Faithful, then He will be Faithful, for He cannot disown Himself”. God will not do for you what you are capable of doing for yourself. Here is the linchpin that if we don’t mature in our walk, we will forever be tossed about by worldly winds. What is the purpose of worldly winds; to make us doubt God and His principles for life; Jm. 1:6, “Let him ask in Faith without doubting” and 1 Tim. 2:8, “pray all places, not in doubt”. There are three prime Godly actions that when faced with trials and tribulations that must be used. Pray, have Faith and do not doubt. Another way to say this is; speak (pray) have confidence (Faith) with no fear (doubt). These actions are the foundation that the perfect image in Jesus used and God decrees to be used. To speak words for life; have the Faith for the unseen and do not allow fear to steal your results. When Peter and others had fear because of the storm they turned to Jesus who was asleep in the boat. Consider how is Jesus able to sleep in such a violent storm that caused the apostles to worry about drowning. Because He has Faith in God’s promise for peace as Ps. 127 says, “For God gives those He loves sleep”. Meaning no stress over worldly concerns. When Jesus awakes, He rebukes the wind and waves by speaking with Faith and not doubting saying, “Quiet! Be still!” - Mk. 4:39. These are not just stories to recite and share but lessons and examples of the perfect image of God. The Bible is filled with these examples for us to imitate as Jesus did stating, “of myself I can’t do nothing” - Jn. 5:30 and “as you see me, you see the Father” - Jn. 14:9. Jesus is saying, He brings nothing to the game of life but with God and His ways, winning is assured.