I'm Coming Home: The Prodigal Son

There is a recurring theme of a banquet with rejoicing in the parables of the Kingdom of God. These parables specifically reveal to us the love of the Father and His desire for His creation to receive the offer of His invitation. In one instance, the banquet focuses on the marriage of the King’s Son to His bride and that multitudes are being invited to join the cerebration, and in the other case, the focus is the Father’s joy, because a son that was lost has finally come home and now the celebration can commence.

The parable of the prodigal son focuses on that very thought, the joy of the Father in response to the return of His lost son. The whole chapter of Luke 15 centers on this and contains 3 parables emphasizing the rejoicing that occurs in the spirit realm when what was lost is found:

1. The parable of the 99 sheep. When the one is found, the shepherd puts that sheep on His shoulders and all heaven rejoices when those that are lost are found.

2. The parable of the woman that had 10 coins and one was lost, but she swept and diligently searched, and when she found the one, she invited friends to rejoice with her. And so it is in heaven— the angels of God rejoice over 1 sinner that repents.

Finally, we come to the parable of the prodigal— meaning- extravagant, wasteful.

                                                                Spiritual

The KJV states v 13 that he wasted his inheritance—wasted- to winnow

And this created the context for the story— 2 sons, the older who undoubtedly represents the Pharisees, who said in the beginning of the chapter, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”

Yes, He does. He’s Jesus, and to receive means to take one by the hand and receive them into the family, but you have a comparison and contrast between the Pharisees and the sinners. The Pharisees represent the older brother, whose motives of envy and jealousy are revealed at the very end and the prodigal, who represents the sinners that Jesus came to seek and save.

Revealing the importance of the one lost sheep and the value of the one lost coin. Jesus is committed to His mission, and if you by some chance find your heart with envy or jealousy when someone is restored to the Lord, or if you have ought in your heart when the Lord promotes one of His servants, you need to lower yourself under the hand of God and check your heart, because you may be operating in the older brother syndrome.

So if the older brother represents old covenant Law, then the younger brother represents new covenant grace. The grace released by the Holy Spirit is offered to people like the prodigal. The older brother, in his mind, cannot rejoice with his brother. He cannot rejoice in grace and restoration, because he has never been a recipient of grace and restoration, because, in his mind, he has no need; for he has always done what was right.

V 12 the younger asked for his inheritance, so that he could go his own way. This is free will in action. God never demands that His children stay under His blessings and protection. But we need to understand that once we step outside of God’s will that we are embracing a spirit of rebellion. This excites the sinful nature, and the further we go, the stronger it grows. In the rebellious decisions that we make, we partner with evil and are squandering the eternal inheritance prepared for us by God.

13… journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living.

Luke 15:14

And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want.

Hustereo- to come behind, be destitute and be left behind.

On the surface, it looks so bad. The power of sin has stolen all of his blessings. Now, to make matters worse, uncontrollable circumstances have resulted in a famine only worsening the hopelessness and despair. With every choice that he makes, he takes one step deeper into despair.

Yet, I can’t help but think about that Father back home. In the physical, he is a praying father, and in the spiritual, He is a Father that is orchestrating circumstances to turn the heart of a son back to where he belongs.

There are times when we face challenges with our loved ones. Spouses, children, family and friends. Sometimes we see things in their lives spiraling down so fast, it seems hopeless. But these are the times when our faith in God should be emboldened. We should believe that He is orchestrating circumstances to get His son back home where he belongs.

The turning point

In his sinful state of mind and desperate circumstance, he made a decision that he would not have normally made. He joined himself to a citizen of a foreign country who raised hogs for a living.

This is why the Lord repeatedly instructs His children not to connect themselves to people of the world, because the people of the world live outside of a Kingdom of God perspective. Their lives are surrounded by unclean things, their business dealings are unclean. It’s all they know, because they don’t know God.

Luke 15:16

And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him.

In his mind, he has lost his “sonship”, his inheritance is gone; furthermore, he has lost all self esteem. Satan’s plan for his life appears to be in full throttle.

Satan

“If I can just get him to lower his face into the slop and eat with the hogs, it will be the final nail in the coffin. He won’t make it back from that, the remorse and guilt will destroy his self esteem, and he will never recover out of my web of slavery.

Instead, a spiritual shift takes place. The Holy Spirit speaks to his spirit. Come on church…this is a son in the story, right? The whole story is about “sonship” and new covenant grace, and in the new covenant, the Holy Spirit is one with your spirit, and I don’t know how far you have to go to make Him leave, but he hadn’t left yet in this story, because, the Spirit wants to speak to our spirit, to get our spirit to tell the truth to our soul, but so many times we convince ourselves of something that isn’t true based on the way we feel rather than the truth of God’s word. The heart— the thoughts of the mind along with the feelings of the heart. In his case his feelings must be apathy and despair.

Anyway, God is moving on his heart and convincing him to move towards home. He says to himself, “what are you doing? You could go to your Father. I mean you can’t be a son anymore— lie, but we will get to that, you can’t be a son, but He will at least take you back as a servant…”

3 thoughts related to the prodigal’s turning point:

I. The Joseph factor

Genesis 50:20

But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.

1. What evil plans for bad in your life, God will turn it around for good

2. Once, he turns it around for you, He will use your testimony to save others.

II. Trails of tragedy pave the way to wisdom

Once he makes it home, he will not be the same man he was when he left. This is what you call experiential wisdom. The pain of the past can serve God’s children as a reminder that the open door of sin promises fun and excitement in the beginning but ends in heartache and despair.

Proverbs 2:6-16

Proverbs 2:10-11

10 When wisdom entereth into thine heart, and knowledge is pleasant unto thy soul; 11 Discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee:

Having acute, mental discernment. I have said this before, but let me say it again,”The Lord does work through the soulish part of the man. However, the soul (specifically the mind/ will parts) are to be subservient to the spirit of the man.

• The spirit of the disciple has learned that as a son, he is a new creation in Christ. The old creation died with Jesus on the cross, was buried with Jesus in the tomb and has been resurrected with Jesus through the resurrection power of the Holy Spirit. Death has no hold on him, sin is not his master because he is no longer under the dominion of law but he is under the covenant of grace. The object of His faith is Christ. He trusts in Jesus. He clings to the healing garment of his robe and holds on with unwavering faith that Jesus and His sacrifice keeps him dead to sin and alive to righteousness through Jesus’ victory over sin.” This is his power source, and now faced with this new trial that crosses his path, the Spirit of God communes with his spirit and the experiential knowledge along with the word of God floods in, and his spirit speaks to his soul and says,

‘remember the slop, remember the pain, remember the cross, don’t go there again!’”

Bam! That easy. The way of victory… submit yourself to God…trust in the finished work of Jesus, not your will power, not your religious works, not your counselor, not your meds— JESUS!

III. What Satan is saying and what the Father are thinking are not the same thing.

One of the biggest lies of Satan is guilt and condemnation. He is persistent in piling on the painful memories and the failures of the past, but what the prodigal is thinking while he is in the pig pen, is not what the father is thinking back home.

Luke 15:20

And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.

I can’t prove it, but it’s almost like the father was looking in that direction and just waiting to see the first hint of movement towards home, and once He sees it, the goodness of God moves and like the scripture says, “the goodness of God brings him to repentance”

Luke 15:21

And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son.

And the Lord will say, “I accept the repentance, but all this lose your sonship stuff and now only a slave, I won’t have any of that. Get the robe and the ring, put some shoes on his feet and kill the fatted calf. My son has come home and it’s time for heaven to rejoice.”

I would like to linger on his words in that verse for just a moment though. I’m no longer worthy to be called your son. I don’t care what anyone tells you, but that is the right posture of a repentant heart. It’s about man’s posture and God’s promise. Man’s posture must be repentance and God’s promise is restoration!

He left full of pride but when he returns home his heart is humble

Isaiah 66:2 …to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.

Zechariah and Satan’s accusations

1. Robe— Gal 3:27 the text doesn’t tell us what his garment looked like when he showed up at His Father’s house en route from the pig pen, but we are told that his Father commanded that he be clothed with a robe. Two robes immediately come to mind: a). Zechariah 3:1-3 tells us that Joshua the high priest was standing before the Lord and was spiritually clothed in a filthy garment and Satan was standing at his R hand ready to accuse him, and the Lord did unto Satan, “The Lord rebuke the Satan.” Then the Lord took away the filthy garments and clothed him with a change of raiment. b). The Matthew account of the parable of the wedding banquet, there was a man that had tried to enter but he didn’t have the wedding garment, so he was expelled.

• Both of these refer to identity. The robe says that you’re not who you used to be. If you have placed faith in the Lord and His sacrifice, then you are cleansed, clothed in His righteousness and accepted as a son. The Father accepts you and you need to know that. Anything else is a lie.

• The ring signifies the authority you have as a son by using the name. Rings were used as signets and seals. The son was given the authority to conduct business in the name of His Father. We have been given authority to conduct the Father’s business on earth by using the name of Jesus.

Recognizing the Trial of Temptation

2 Peter 1:3

According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:

What a blessing it is to know Him. Knowing Him is knowing God’s will, God’s plan for the human race and more specifically, God’s plan for your life.

Hosea 4:6

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee...

2 Peter 1:4

Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

The more we know Jesus, the more we are called towards glory and virtue:

Glory- focused on the things that belong to God

Virtue- moral excellence

Phillipians 2:13 For it is God that works in you…

The more we know Him, trust Him, grow in Him and die to self, the more we move towards Him and the result of that is escape from the corruption that is in the world through lust.

Galatians 1:4

Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father:

We understand how the present world become evil and corrupt, and we understand that this world is still evil and corrupt, and there is evil influence all around us.

And there is a struggle that rages in the heart and lives of humans. The lost are hopeless without Christ in the battle of sin, but many believers find themselves in an ongoing spiritual struggle.

Galatians 5:17 the flesh lusts against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh.

The sin’s power is the Law—it’s not about us trying, it’s about our old man dying and believing that what He did was what we need.

The flesh’s power is the evil nature inherited from the fall of Adam. This evil or sinful nature is not eradicated or completely destroyed when we get saved. However, Romans 6 teaches us that our relationship with this evil nature is supposed to be dead.

Shall we continue in sin so grace may abound? 2. God forbid, how can we that are dead to sin live any longer therein?

I used to use an analogy of an old girlfriend. She’s not dead. I’m not dead, but that thing we used to have between us is dead. Im not physically dead. The sinful nature is not completely dead, but that thing that we used to have between us is dead. The relationship is dead in Christ. My “old man” had an intimate relationship with sin and my “new man” has an intimate relationship with Jesus.

Nevertheless, it must be understood that original sin resulted in this current condition of an unclean earth that we share with evil spirits who want to entice us away from God. They want to destroy other people’s souls, and they want to get us so consumed with the cares of the world that we aren’t concerned with God’s kingdom business.

They want us either drowning in sin or sitting on the bench.

The scripture says that we are partakers of the Divine nature

The word for partaker is koinonos. I have talked to you several times about the word Koinonia and how this word describes communion and fellowship. Through our new birth in Christ, the Holy Spirit now lives in us. His Spirit has been made one with our Spirit, and we have become partakers of the nature of God.

We have access to an endless flow of grace that supplies us with supernatural power from God. We can have faith that we can live in victory. Victory in our minds, victory in our bodies. We can have faith in the miracle working power of God. The Holy Spirit is one with us in our spirit and through faith we share in the divine nature of God.

I want to talk to you about temptation because Satan and his unclean spirits want to keep believers in a state of defeat. They don’t want us to gain that knowledge of Christ that leads to God’s divine power that destroys the power of evil over our lives. It’s that simple— faith that Jesus won, results in His victory over sin in my life.

But there is this temptation thing.

James 1:12-15

12 Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. 13 Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: 14 But every man is tempted, when he is [[drawn away]] of his own lust, and [[enticed]]. 15 Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.

Drawn away and enticed both words are described as one being lured or baited by evil. Specifically using as the analogy of a hunter or fisher in regards to his game or catch.

Rat’s nature cheese/trap

Fish/bait/hook

The bird’s snare

Animals, for the most part are ruled by their nature, their instinct draws them towards the bait and the trap is set. Humans outside of Christ are similar prey for sin. However, in Christ, our spirit’s are made alive to God, and the Spirit of God speaks to us and leads us towards truth.

Matthew 12:43-45

43 -- When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none. 44 Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished. 45 Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation.

But we don’t have to yield to the enticements of evil spirits as they attempt to draw sinful tendencies out of us. Instead of yielding to the lies of Satan, we yield to the truth of God’s word, which is that I am a partaker of the divine nature, also that I am no longer the old man enslaved by sin; instead, I am a new man, and like Paul said, “a slave of Christ!”

We have talked a lot about devils jumping on people, whether they can get in this one or that one and what they can do to Christians and what they can’t.  What we need to understand is that they’re real, they’re not our friends and we should not be engaging with them.

They’re trying to stimulate our flesh in order to get us to yield, yielding to sin, opens a door. I’m not saying that if you yield you’re automatically in bondage, what I am definitively saying is that yielding to sin either by trying to live for God through your good works instead of living for God through Jesus’s work, or yielding to a lust in your flesh that was stimulated from an outside unclean spirit, either way, it opens a door, and an open door to evil is no good thing.

Galatians 5:24

And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.

In this manner, the evil spirit never gets a chance to attach or enter…whatever you choose to believe, because the flesh is crucified by faith, the enticement is not yielded to, and the unclean spirit has no legal right because a spiritual door was not opened.

When we belong to Him, and have the knowledge that we share natures with Him, which means that the same cross that crucified Him crucifies our flesh and the same Spirit that raised Him from the dead gives us life, we walk in victory and sin shall not have dominion over you for you are not under law but under grace (Romans 6:14)

In Pursuit of His Love

God’s love pursues His people. Throughout the pages of both the Old and New Testaments, we could hear or see the repeated theme: God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. When I want to understand God’s love, I look to Jesus. He is my example. I consider the visible representation of the God, and I consider how God’s love played out through Jesus’ life and actions, and the final act on the cross.

Offended/fall away

I consider how He came to His own but His own received Him not (JN 1;11). On the way, Jesus told them, “Tonight all of you will desert me. For the Scriptures say, ‘God will strike the Shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’ (Matt 26:31).

1. The first thing that sticks out to me about God’s love revealed through Jesus is that: He just kept loving

if anyone ever had a right to be offended, hurt, harbor bitterness or be unforgiving, it was Jesus.

His own nation rejected Him. His own disciples forsook Him. According to earthly, human standards, He had a right. But He didn’t come to reveal earthly wisdom, which is sensual and devilish. He came to deliver the wisdom and knowledge of God’s love towards us, and how His love is to manifest in and through us:

John 13:34-35

34 A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. 35 By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.

As the Lord was leading my prayer session yesterday, I found myself saying, “Lord, the reality of your existence and the power of your word becomes so clearly evident on earth, when I allow your word and will to work in me.”

Let’s talk about pain, heartache, rejection or offenses for a second: someone raped you, lied about you, cheated you. You have been mistreated and you been carrying a spirit of rejection around on you, but when you come into contact with the truth of the New Covenant and yield to the truth of God’s word that says that Christ is being formed in you through the power of the Holy Spirit. And you get out of your feelz, and you let your flesh be crucified, so that the resurrection power of the Holy Spirit can have its way in you. Now, you begin to receive your healing…

1 Corinthians 6:19-20

19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? 20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.

When people wrong you, an offense wants to climb up in your heart and wants to sit in there and play around with you. It wants to fester like a boil. It wants to irritate you and it will, let me say it again, it will have an affect on your life. Let me say something as a Pastor, but with the mouth of a prophet… stop that!! Stop letting an offense embolden a spirit of rejection in you. Stop allowing bitterness in your heart come out of you to the point where you always feel like you have to defend yourself. Let the Holy Spirit heal you. Let the cross kill you! Let Christ be formed in you.

Because I can see Him hanging there with His body torn. He’s naked, He’s alone, His people helped put Him there. They scoff at Him, His disciples forsake Him, my sin causes the Father’s face to turn from Him, and there He bleeds and dies, and oh yeah-He saves one more, “today you will be with me in Paradise,” and He does what He wants me to do:

Luke 6:27-28.                1/2 of us can’t even love our own brothers and sisters

27 But I say unto you which hear, Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you, 28 Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you.

That’s my Jesus, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do!”

Let me let you in on a little secret Christian. If you don’t understand how the Holy Spirit works in crucifying your flesh so that the fruit of the Spirit can be produced in your life, you won’t even know to place your faith in the finished work of the Lord. Once you know that, if you refuse to yield to the process, you will just persist in the flesh, you won’t really help the kingdom of God, rather you will just walk around on this rock called earth helping the devil more than you are helping the Lord, and one day you will stand before God and give an account for how you refused to let Christ be formed in you:

That’s a good preacher, because I’m going to tell you right now, “I’m more concerned about the Holy Spirit’s feelings than I am yours.”

John 13:34-35

34 A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. 35 By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.

2. The second thing about God’s love—how does His heart feel?

Like a lovesick husband (lovesick because He’s relentless, never mind whether she wants to be pursued- she’s His, and He doesn’t plan on letting her go), there He is every page you turn pursuing the love of His life.

And so many times when you turn the pages of this love story saga, you find His arms empty. His bride is elusive. He calls but she does not respond. He loves but she does not reciprocate. But He tries harder and harder and refuses to give up. So much so that sometimes she seems to pretend it’s a game. She imagines in her mind, I wonder how far I can go, and He will still have me? And maybe if I feel His presence less, I will come a little closer and make sure that He is still there, and then I feel Him again… Oh, there He is, and like a runaway bride, she starts again, chase me my love. This is so much fun…

He is so different than we are. He loves us even when we cheat, even when we reduce Him to last on our list. He pursues us until the day that we read and it enters our hearts:

Romans 2:4

…despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?

I can’t shake it out of my ears—the time, so long ago when I was praying, and He said to me, “What about me son? What about me and what I want?” Those words ring in my ears and even after hearing them, I have done the same, “Here I am Lord, come and get me…”

When I slow down long enough to think about my own life and His goodness towards me, I can’t help but say to Him, “Why Lord? Why do I do that to you? You’re so good to me! Help me Lord!”

I believe that God wants His people to know how His heart feels. I definitely believe that He wants His ministers to know how He feels. I believe thats one of the reasons that He gave us the book of Hosea.

Hosea 1:2-3

2 The beginning of the word of the LORD by Hosea. And the LORD said to Hosea, Go, take unto thee a wife of whoredoms and children of whoredoms: for the land hath committed great whoredom, departing from the LORD. 3 So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim; which conceived, and bare him a son.

She ends up having 3 children for him:

A son named Jezreel- God sows

And 2 daughters:

Loruhamah- no mercy— for I will have no more mercy upon the house of Israel; but I will utterly take them away v6

Loammi—not my people—for ye are not my people, and I will not be your God v9

That’s one of the things that breaks my heart. In that He loves so much; yet, He is so misunderstood. He gave us His Son. Jesus poured out His life for the world on the cross. He gave us the Spirit of Grace, but one day, He will say, No more mercy, no more time for me to pursue you with my love. The door is closed, entry denied. For you are not my people because you did not make me your God.

Go and take yourself a wife that will cheat on you Hosea because I need a prophet to feel what I feel, because I need a mouth to speak my heart to a people that keep breaking it.

He proves His love again…

Hosea 3:1-2

1 Then said the LORD unto me, Go yet, love a woman beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress, according to the love of the LORD toward the children of Israel, who look to other gods, and love flagons of wine. 2 So I bought her to me for fifteen pieces of silver, and for an homer of barley, and an half homer of barley:

He purchased her back for the price of a slave. She had done to Hosea what God knew she would. She bore him children and then ran away like Israel did to God, and now, Hosea’s wife finds herself sold as a slave; for the price that was paid equals the 30 shekels required to purchase a slave. Her sin had caused her slavery, and God required that Hosea put God’s heart in his chest and go and purchase her back off the slave market of sin.

Most scholars agree that that a homer and a half of barley equals 15 shekels, so 15 shekels of barley plus 15 pieces of silver equaled 30 pieces of silver, which was the price of a slave.

Exodus 21:32

If the ox gores a male or female slave, the owner shall give his or her master thirty shekels of silver, and the ox shall be stoned.

Isn’t that something Hosea paid the price of 30 pieces of silver to purchase back his wife and Jesus purchased His bride with His life, which was valued by the religious Pharisees at 30 pieces of silver— the price of a slave

What I’m saying is that this is what Jesus did for us. He purchased us out of the slavery of sin:

Matthew 20:28

Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.

Ransom— Lutron— the price for redeeming slaves and captives

Conclusion

Galatians 5:22

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,

His love doesn’t look like ours

1 John 3:1-3

1 Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.

Manner- potopos— pote when pou- where

An extremely literal translation of this word would be: when and where did this come from?

When God Let's Man Have His Way

Romans 1:16-18 ESV

The Righteous Shall Live by Faith

16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.” 18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

Before we talk about people suppressing the truth and its results, let take a look at the importance of embracing truth:

1. The Psalmist reveals that truth leads to the presence of God…

Psalms 43:3

O send out thy light and thy truth: let them lead me; let them bring me unto thy holy hill, and to thy tabernacles.

Psalms 24:3-4

3 Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD? or who shall stand in his holy place? 4 He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.

2. Truth in a human heart brings God pleasure… thou desirest truth ESV delight…Strong’s pleasure

Psalms 51:6-7

6 Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom. 7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

The Lord’s eyes aren’t blind. He doesn’t need glasses to see into a human heart. He has a spiritual microscope that He uses to examine the intricacies of the human heart. You need help with your heart. I need help with my heart.

After his sin with Bathsheba, King David writes a song and sings…You search my heart. You have a way of dealing with me. if it’s truth you want in my heart to lead me up your holy hill, I’m in need of your help. Take that sop of blood and smear it all over my heart, wash me and I will be whiter than snow.

Jesus is ultimately the fulfillment of truth. Conversion brings truth into our hearts through the Holy Spirit. If we will allow the Holy Spirit to guide us in all truth, we will find ourselves on the holy hill. In the presence of God being led by His Spirit.

3. Truth in  heart of a believer is an expensive …

John 14:6

Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

Romans 1:16-18

16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. 17 For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.

18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;

Romans 1:22-32

22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, 23 And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.

Through the ages unrighteous men have influenced society, have made man god and have now said to us, “You are god, you are who you want to be, you do what you want to do. We reject God, we reject His word, we reject His truth.

Listen very closely… it’s important that you understand what I am about to say. We are watching the degradation of society unveil before our eyes. What we see so far out in the open is nothing compared to what they do in their secret chambers. But you must understand that if you— suppress the truth of God in your life, the wrath of God will be revealed from heaven in your life also. This is a spiritual truth. It cannot be avoided. This wrath is different than the wrath that will occur as described in the book of revelation.

This is wrath is what happens to humans when God allows them to have their way in their own hearts. Darkness overtakes them, sin overwhelms them, they find themselves doing things they never imagined they could or would do. The guilt begins to pile up on them.

But good news, good news, good news—truth is only a whisper away!

24 Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:

25 Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.

26 For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:

27 And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.

28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; 29 Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, 30 Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud,

A reprobate mind is one that has been rejected by God.

boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, 31 Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: 32 Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.

Proverbs 29:27

An unjust man is detestable to the righteous, and one whose way is upright is detestable to the wicked.

Proverbs 29:27

An unjust man is an abomination to the just: and he that is upright in the way is abomination to the wicked.

2 Corinthians 6:14

Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?

1 John 2:20 CSB

But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you have knowledge.

1 John 2:21

I have not written to you because you don’t know the truth, but because you do know it, and because no lie comes from the truth.

You're Pregnant but are You Showing?

Numbers 33:16

And they removed from the desert of Sinai, and pitched at Kibrothhattaavah.

Kibroth-hattaavah— the children of Israel weren’t happy with the manna provided from heaven by God. They wanted flesh. God sent quail and they ate flesh until they vomited it out of their nose and then they were struck with a plague and were buried in a place and the name of that place was called Kibroth-hattaavah- the graves of flesh.

Before we transition from this spot, I just want to say that the believer must be spiritually sober to the fact that the flesh remains an ongoing potential problem for Christian growth throughout the entirety of life’s journey.

Galatians 5:17 ESV flesh connected to your soul—your mind animates your flesh

For the desires of the flesh [KJV LUSTS] are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.

James 4:5 KJV.   Lusts & flesh

-- Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy?

James 4:5 AMP

Or do you suppose that the Scripture is speaking to no purpose that says, The Spirit Whom He has caused to dwell in us yearns over us and He yearns for the Spirit [to be welcome] with a jealous love?

Now, it should be clarified here that the words…to keep you from doing what you want to do

The carnal or fleshly appetites of the lingering old man are trying to affect your spiritual man. It’s your spiritual or new man that wants to do right. You can be born again but your flesh still wants something that God doesn’t want. The Lord is not in that business. Satan will gladly help your flesh to produce those endeavors, but God will not bless the flesh.

Let me say it one more way: if your flesh is blessed it’s a spirit, it’s just not the Holy Spirit.

Now, I just want you to hold that flesh thought until later

You’re pregnant but are you showing

1 Peter 1:23

Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.

Begotten v3

There are multiple references to the word seed in the New Testament. Many of these references are directly related to the gospel. When it is the gospel, it speaks of the seed of the Christ that is planted into the soil of the heart and will result in the harvest of God. We could also say that once Christ is in us, the Kingdom of God is in us:

Luke 17:21

Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.

When Christ is born in us, the Kingdom of God is implanted in us. It is God’s will that the Kingdom grow in us. It is God’s will that Jesus grow in us. So let’s ask ourselves this: we’re born again right? So that means Jesus is in us. Like a woman pregnant with child, we have had the seed of Christ implanted in us, but are we showing yet? Around the 4th month of gestation a woman starts to show that she’s pregnant. At some point in our Christian walk, we should start to show that we’re pregnant with Jesus. That means that we don’t look like, talk like, act like the world and we start desiring the things of the world less and less.

In order for a fetus to grow in the uterus, they depend on their mother for nutrition. Her nutrition is broken down into macro and micro nutrients, the nutrients absorb into the blood stream and through the umbilical cord, the fetus is nourished:

1 Peter 2:2

As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:

“Huh, I’m not a milk drinker. I’m a meat eater!”

When Paul said that to the Corinthians about milk and meat, it’s not the same negative context here about milk that it is there. It is true that a baby starts on milk, progresses to solids: vegetables, fruits, meats, then table food… and so, at some point an adult believer should be consuming the meat of the word. You can’t be college age and still be eating a 3rd grade lunchables and expect to be growing in Christ. Also if something is wrong with the nutrition of the mom. Or there is a twisting of the umbilical cord, then there will be a lack of nutritional flow to the fetus; therefore, the fetus will not grow and spiritually the Christian will not show, so you can be pregnant with Jesus— born again, but not be showing Jesus. What could cause this?

1. You’re still eating spiritual lunchables

2. You’re eating something that looks like the word but isn’t (I’m not even talking about the Bible right now. I’m talking about the Jesus/Christ of the Bible)

Peter is saying that just as a baby craves milk for growth, the child of God must crave the sincere [unmixed, unadulterated, pure] milk of the word…that ye may grow thereby

2 Corinthians 11:2-4 KJV

2 For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. 3 But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. 4 For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.

Galatians 4:17, 19.     False teaching affects the growth of Christ in believers

17 They zealously affect you, but not well; yea, they would exclude you, that ye might affect them. 19 My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you,

The context is that there is false teaching/ teachers whose message is contradicting the message of the Apostle. Most of the time people teach something false on accident [Wyckoff quote]. It’s something that was passed on through the groups of people they were connected with. Church or denominational ideas that filter through the traditions of men and do not come from the word of God.

Here it’s the (Judaizers). Most people that go into ministry love the Lord and want to serve God with their lives. However, a person can be sincere and be wrong. I’ve been sincere and wrong at the same time. Everyone in this room has been sincere and wrong at the same time. The question is this: will you admit that you’re wrong and ask God to help you stop being wrong even if it will make you vulnerable to worldly loss. In other words, if you’re going to upset some people are you willing to do that instead of upsetting the Holy Spirit?

Galatians 3:1-3

1 O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you? 2 This only would I learn  of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? 3 Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?

The real gospel forms the real Christ in us. The real Jesus is the Jesus of the cross. Real Christians carry their cross, because they learned from their Lord that there is a progressive dying to self that must continue. It is an ongoing process that results in resurrection life.

A cross less message is just as bad as a Christ less message, because you can’t have the real Christ without the cross. The work of the cross is not me knowing it. The work of the cross is me dying on it.

Galatians 6:12-14 ESV

12 It is those who want to make a good showing in the flesh who would force you to be circumcised, (follow their doctrines and teachings) and only in order that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. 13 For even those who are circumcised do not themselves keep the law, but they desire to have you circumcised that they may boast in your flesh. 14 But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to  me, and I to the world.

This doesn’t mean that they don’t say the name Jesus. They contradict the interests of the Lord. One of the main interests of the Lord is that we be transformed into the image of the Lord. He is love.

2 Peter 2:1-3

1 But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying (to contradict or disregard the interests of) the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. 2 And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. 3 And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise (plastos) of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.

Kibroth-hattaavah

Numbers 11:18-20

18 And say thou unto the people, Sanctify yourselves against to morrow, and ye shall eat flesh: for ye have wept in the ears of the LORD, saying, Who shall give us flesh to eat? for it was well with us in Egypt: therefore the LORD will give you flesh, and ye shall eat. 19 Ye shall not eat one day, nor two days, nor five days, neither ten days, nor twenty days; 20 But even a whole month, until it come out at your nostrils, and it be loathsome unto you: because that ye have despised the LORD which is among you, and have wept before him, saying, Why came we forth out of Egypt?

Spiritually we understand from John that this manna that they’re rejecting is the pure nourishment/ sincere truth about the Christ and the quail or flesh represents the desires of the human heart that is not pleased or totally satisfied with what God is offering. The thought of the free will is involved with this. While they consumed this flesh and it was coming out of their nose, before they died, they likely imagined in their hearts that the problem was something else. Instead of looking at their own lustful, covetous heart that refused to do it God’s way and demanded their own way, they probably started coming up with other reasons why everything was falling apart around them.

It could be anything:

• I don’t want to live my life this way. I want to live my life that way

• I don’t want to go to this church I want to go to that church or I don’t want to go to church

• I want to marry this kind of man not that kind of man vice versa woman

• I want this kind of job not that kind of job

• I want a new house, a new car, a new boat, a new toy

• I want to live the American dream

Numbers 11:33-34 KJV

33 And while the flesh was yet between their teeth, ere it was chewed, the wrath of the LORD was kindled against the people, and the LORD smote the people with a very great plague. 34 And he called the name of that place Kibrothhattaavah: because there they buried the people that lusted.

They lusted. God was providing manna, but they wanted flesh. An ongoing diet of flesh is spiritual diet of poor nutrition choices. This will result in a slowing of Christ being formed in you. We may be pregnant but are we showing?

God's Image

Genesis 1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

When God says that He made man in His image and after His likeness what do you imagine that means? Do you imagine it means that God looks like a man? Do you imagine that it means that because God is triunity and man is tripartite = divided into or composed of three parts that the connection of the 3 persons of God to the dividing of man into 3 parts is somehow what God meant when He said that He created man in His image?

Or do we believe that in some way before the fall, man was a reflection of God’s glory, sinlessness, His splendor and brightness?

Image— Greek eikon = used of the moral likeness of renewed men to God__ Strong’s

I do know that something changed it all with the fall of man. It’s clear that God is communicating something to us through the fact that He clearly states that

The image of Adam describes the fallen nature of man born of Adam. Does fallen man reflect the glory of God? Can fallen man reflect the glory of God?

Genesis 5:3 And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth:

59 times the word image is used in the OT. Approximately 5 times the word is used to describe God’s work and all the other times it’s used to describe man’s work creating graven images that were used as objects of worship and essentially stole God’s glory, because worship belongs to God and God alone.

Deuteronomy 27:15

Cursed be the man that maketh any graven or molten image, an abomination unto the LORD, the work of the hands of the craftsman, and putteth it in a secret place. And all the people shall answer and say, Amen.

Ezekiel 8:3

And he put forth the form of an hand, and took me by a lock of mine head; and the spirit lifted me up between the earth and the heaven, and brought me in the visions of God to Jerusalem, to the door of the inner gate that looketh toward the north; where was the seat of the image of jealousy, which provoketh to jealousy.

Romans 1:23

And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.

Colossians 1:12-15

12 Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet [qualified] to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: 13 Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: 14 In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins:

15 Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:

I. Made us qualified through the redemption of His blood which translated us from darkness to light. He has removed us from darkness and into His light. He is the image of God and now in the light, we can reflect His glory.

Colossians 3:5-10

5 Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry: 6 For which things' sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience: 7 In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them.

8 But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. 9 Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; 10 And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:

II. Renewed in knowledge after the image of Him— renewed mind

Illustration: If you are a believer, and the pulpit is the Lord and I am fornication, adultery, malice, filthy communication, lying…then I am an image, an idol that is in your life and I stand in between you and God and I am in the way of the light of God shining on you and therefore, I am stealing God’s reflection off of your life. When that happens there is less light of God reflecting on to the world from God. Therefore, the night is darker than it should be. As a child of God, you are light. You are not of the night:

Once the water breaks, it’s too late. They were deceived. They thought peace and safety but then it came suddenly.

1 Thessalonians 5:1-10

1 But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. 2 For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. 3 For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. 4 But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. 5 Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. 6 Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober. 7 For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. 8 But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation. 9 For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, 10 Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.

2 Corinthians 3:18

But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

III. Changed into His image from glory to glory by the Spirit of God

So who is the image of God? Jesus! That is interesting.

2 Corinthians 4:4

In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.

Hebrews 1:3

Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;

IV. The enemy has a plan to blind the eyes of people from the gospel of Christ, for it is through the gospel of Christ that the image of God is revealed to man’s heart, and it is the Spirit’s work, through the gospel that changes us from glory to glory and moment by moment into the image of God, where we can begin to outwardly reflect what He has placed in us inwardly.

2 Corinthians 4:7

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.

Revelation 13:15

And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.

The Holy Spirit: He Means So Much to Me

I. He is my Teacher

John 14:26 KJV

But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.    Experiential knowledge 2 Peter 1:3

He teaches Jesus

John 16:14. Ego- of who I am, My nature

He shall [1] glorify me: for [2] he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you.

1. The way

John 14:4-6.     The Holy Spirit is in partnership w Jesus— there is no other way and He will never say there is

4 And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know. 5 Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way? 6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

2. His nature

Matthew 20:28

Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.

Matthew 20:26 But it shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister;

Matthew 20:27 And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant:

3. His fruit

Galatians 5:22-24 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. 24 And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.

II. He is Comforter/Helper

He provides comfort and help on the journey

John 14:15-17 KJV. Can it get any clearer, “Obey w help!”

15 If ye love me, keep my commandments. 16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; 17 Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.

The KJV uses comforter and the ESV uses the word Helper.

John 14:16 Amplified

And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter (Counselor, Helper, Intercessor, Advocate, Strengthener, and Standby), that He may remain with you forever—

Counselor is translated from the Greek paraklētos. This word was used of legal assistants who pleaded a cause or presented a case. A big meaning of the word is a person who publicly supports someone.

There are two books that the word Paraclete is used in the NT, the gospel of John and John’s first letter:

1 John 2:1

My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:

Here, the Paraclete is Jesus. He pleads our case to the Father. The plea is His blood.

The Holy Spirit is called a Paraclete because He undertakes Christ's work in the world now that Jesus isn’t in the world as the God-Man in bodily form—the Holy Spirit is Spirit [without body] working on the earth—that is where we come into the picture.

When it comes to the Holy Spirit as the Paraclete,  the word must be understood differently than in 1John 2:1/::/ referring to our substitutionary Advocate who pleads our cause with the Father. Instead, the Holy Spirit pleads God's cause with us—through us

He works with us by working through us.

The lord can use any form of creation he chooses to accomplish His work. He can allow the the wind to whistle the name of Jesus over water lilies in the Amazon. He can cause birds to sing His fame, donkeys to declare the character of His name and cause the rocks to cry out and sing His glory, but that’s not His intention. His intention is that man will be the vessel that He uses.

If someone is to receive healing, deliverance, salvation or help of any kind, it will be the Holy Spirit with the use of human vessels that will get it done!

These are some of the ways that the Holy Spirit ministers on the earth, but Jesus said that the Holy Spirit has a specific job to do:

III. He is Convictor  the Holy Spirit is with the victor [Jesus]

He convicts of sin, righteousness and judgment

John 16:6-8 ESV

6 But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. 7 Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. 8 And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment:

                             The devils believe yet tremble Jas 2:19

John 16:9.      If you don’t believe ❤️ in Jesus, you’re still dead in sin

concerning sin, because they do not believe in me;

John 16:10.   The resurrection proves He was righteous and those that believe in Him share in His righteousness

concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer;

John 16:11.     Man’s sins were judged by God on Jesus- the world w/ out Jesus will be judged with the world’s ruler. They chose him and the world over Jesus

concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.

The words “convict ... of guilt” means to present or expose facts, to convince of the truth.” The Spirit works on the minds of the unsaved to show them the truth of God for what it is. Normally this process includes human aid (cf. 15:26-27).

KJV- reprove

ESV- convict

Reprove: refute/ confute

Refute- disprove a theory

Confute- disprove a person and their theory

Jesus tells the truth and the truth brings conviction against sin. If you are a believer this morning that means that you have acknowledged Jesus as your Savior. You accepted by faith Jesus’ sacrifice for your sin. Faith in Jesus’ sacrifice resulted in the Holy Spirit moving into your heart. Now, the Spirit of truth lives in you. He will use you to refute the lies of the world

In conclusion

Two quick things to mention about your relationship with the Holy Spirit:

1. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit- Ephesians 4:30

And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.

Grieve- to make sorrowful or throw into sadness

The Holy Spirit is holy and sin makes Him sad. It’s not my job to convict you of sin, and I sure can’t set you free from it, but if you want a relationship with the Holy Spirit and don’t want to grieve Him, then you will need to get saved and then learn God’s heart. That’s the best chance you have not to grieve the Holy Spirit

2. Fellowship with the Holy Spirit- 2 Corinthians 13:14

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

Fellowship- communion, intimacy, joint participation

Jesus Hates Religion

Philippians 3:9-10.   Difference between acts of righteousness and the gift of righteousness

9 And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is

 Performance

of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith/:::/

10 That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;

This verse says being made conformable to His death. The word means that something takes the same morphology or form as something else—to be made like something or someone else. In this case, Paul is saying, “I want to take on the form of His death.” We know that the Apostle died the martyr’s death, but he is speaking of something spiritual here.

He is speaking New covenant truth—faith in Jesus makes me one with Him. I die with Him. I resurrect with Him. I become a new creation in Him with a new source of life. My new life is the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is the one conforming, fashioning and molding me into the image of Jesus. In this way, I must be conformed to His death. As He died, I die in Him, not physically yet. Once born again, the Matt born in Adam slowly dies as he yields to the work of the cross through the Holy Spirit, as the new creation trusts in the work of the cross, it results in resurrection power. This power brings new life. This power is the miracle working power. It is the wonderful power of the Holy Spirit!

How different Jesus and His cousin look compared to religious tradition and complacency.

John the Baptist

Matthew 3:7-12

7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance: 9 And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. 10 And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. 11 I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire: 12 Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.

Talking about the root

Jesus is the vine and there are natural branches [Jews] and unnatural branches [Gentiles] that are grafted in, and the purpose of the branches are to bare fruit. The root is the foundation of the plan. The root is eternal life, eternal salvation for the lost creation. That root ultimately produces Jesus, which is the vine/ tree that the branches grow out of. . There are times where God’s work looks dead in a life or on the earth. In Isaiah, the word said:

Isaiah 11:1-2 And there shall come forth a rod (green growth) out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots: And the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him…

That’s what religion does, it sits dry, dead and idle. It cannot produce life. This prophesy perfectly describes what things looked like when Jesus came to earth. The religious system was a dried stump. Many churches are a dried stump, if we’re not careful, a spirit of religion will try to make us a dry stump.

Jesse is King David’s father. The promise was that a King would be born of David. God stayed true to His promise. And a green sprout shot forth out of what looked like a dead, religious stump.

A green shoot would come forth and the Spirit of the Lord would be upon Him. That is how God works, the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:2).

But religion is the works of man’s hands and man’s plan. The Lord showed me an axe head and it was chopping in a downward motion.

Then this scripture came…the axe is laid to the root. As the days grow darker and God’s light shines brighter, we do not want to be caught under the influence of a religious spirit that prevents the Holy Spirit from having His way. Whether it’s corporately or individually, we want to allow God to have His way in our lives.

The spirit of religion manifests itself in many different ways/

1. It wants to be seen and get its recognition —Matt 23:5 They do all their deeds to be seen by others/::/— John 12:42-43 42 Nevertheless, many even of the authorities believed in him, but for fear of the Pharisees they did not confess it, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue; 43 for they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God.

2. It wants its dignity and respect more than God’s will— Matt 23:6 they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues 7 and greetings in the marketplaces and being called rabbi by others— /::/Matt 20:20-21 sons of Zebedee

3. It can’t see the value in someone else’s ministry—Matthew 26:8-9 8 But when his disciples saw it, they had indignation, saying, To what purpose is this waste? 9 For this ointment might have been sold for much, and given to the poor.

4. It has malice in its heart towards others— 1 cor 13:4-5 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful

5. It is controlling and thinks that it’s the only one that can help you— Luke 9:49-50 49 And John answered and said, Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name; and we forbad him, because he followeth not with us. 50 And Jesus said unto him, Forbid him not: for he that is not against us is for us—Numbers 11:27-29  27 And there ran a young man, and told Moses, and said, Eldad and Medad do prophesy in the camp. 28 And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of Moses, one of his young men, answered and said, My lord Moses, forbid them. 29 And Moses said unto him, Enviest thou for my sake? would God that all the LORD's people were prophets, and that the LORD would put his spirit upon them!—Philippians 1:15-18

6. If it feels threatened by you, it will try to make you ineffective, trying to kill you or your ministry—Luke 4:27-29 And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.” When they heard these things, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath. And they rose up and drove him out of the town and brought him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they could throw him down the cliff

Matthew 23:1-12

Seven Woes to the Scribes and Pharisees

3 so do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do. For they preach, but do not practice. 4 They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger. 5 They do all their deeds to be seen by others. For they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long, 6 and they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues 7 and greetings in the marketplaces and being called rabbi by others. 8 But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brothers. 9 And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven. 10 Neither be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Christ. 11 The greatest among you shall be your servant. 12 Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

So when we are being made conformable to His death and knowing Him and the power of His resurrection, we are not only being set free from the bondages of sin like drugs, alcohol, fornication…, we are also being set free from the bondage of religion and becoming a vessel where His Spirit of truth can flow out of us in love. Rivers of living water bring life.

Jesus exhibited selfless actions long before the cross

Jesus had things heavy on His heart. His cousin just died:

Mark 6:27-29

27 And immediately the king sent an executioner, and commanded his head to be brought: and he went and beheaded him in the prison, 28 And brought his head in a charger, and gave it to the damsel: and the damsel gave it to her mother. 29 And when his disciples heard of it, they came and took up his corpse, and laid it in a tomb.

Mark 6:30-31

30 And the apostles gathered themselves together unto Jesus, and told him all things, both what they had done, and what they had taught. 31 And he said unto them, Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while: for there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat.

Mark 6:33-34

33 And the people saw them departing, and many knew him, and ran afoot thither out of all cities, and outwent them, and came together unto him. 34 And Jesus, when he came out, saw much people, and was moved with compassion toward them, because they were as sheep not having a shepherd: and he began to teach them many things.

Mark 6:35-36

35 And when the day was now far spent, his disciples came unto him, and said, This is a desert place, and now the time is far passed: 36 Send them away, that they may go into the country round about, and into the villages, and buy themselves bread: for they have nothing to eat. Do you ever feel that way, just tired and feel like go get your own bread?

Mark 6:37-38

37 He answered and said unto them, Give ye them to eat. And they say unto him, Shall we go and buy two hundred pennyworth of bread, and give them to eat? 38 -- He saith unto them, How many loaves have ye? go and see. And when they knew, they say, Five, and two fishes.

The disciples had to be willing to work even though they were tired

If either one those things breaks down, the miracle does not take place.

In order for this miracle to take place, the disciples had to be willing—they were tired, they were hungry.  The people had to be willing to believe that God could meet their needs and to sit still and wait.

Jesus understood that the disciples were tired and hungry, it was His recommendation that they rest and eat; yet, when he saw the people’s needs, He was moved with compassion.

What happens here if the disciples are just too tired think that Jesus is insensitive and they decide to go home for a week or two?

After all, they were just on an amazing evangelistic crusade, they healed the sick, they casted out devils in the name of Jesus, can’t someone else organize this buffet and pick up the scraps? I’m tired.

He takes what we have

He uses it and

He multiplies it

Commitment vs compromise

Commitment- the state or quality of being dedicated to a cause

Compromise- the acceptance of standards that are lower than desirable

Refiner's Fire and the Fullers' Soap

Malachi 3:1-3 ESV

1 “Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts. 2 But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner's fire and like fullers' soap. 3 He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and they will bring offerings in righteousness to the LORD.

Refining: repeated heating and removing dross, hearing and removing

Fuller’s field: washing with water and soap, treading, washing, treading, rinsing

You give me a sacrifice. Every time you give me a sacrifice I will refine that sacrifice. I am refining my bride and refining my church and preparing her for myself.

The process of spiritual refinement includes a mixture of multiple spiritual processes. The dross or dirt is the sin or disobediences contained in our vessel that God wants gone. They include mindsets and opinions that get in the way of what He wants to do in us as individuals but also corporately so that He can use us collectively as a body to have an impact on the world around us. Like the treading and washing and heating and skimming, so is the process of chastisement through trials, mixed with God’s word and His Spirit dealing with our hearts as He brings us through a process of refinement.

We will address it more at some point but without a proper understanding of the work of Jesus and how continued faith in His sacrifice keeps us positioned where the grace of God can perform the spiritual work, the work of refinement is at risk of being reduced to either legalism or a self help program that is empty of a true move of grace.

What happened when Isaiah came into contact with the presence of God in chapter 6?

Is it safe to say that when an individual faces God’s presence, that it often results in internal conviction and an awareness of unworthiness in the presence of a holy God?

“Well, brother I am worthy because I’ve been clothed w Jesus’ righteousness.” I know that—I’m trying to talk to someone who has truly been in a state of repentance, has entered into the presence of a holy God and thinks they may have had an experience like Isaiah and said, “Woe is me! I’m unclean. I have unclean lips. We are all unclean!”

If this can happen to an individual that experiences the true presence of God, what would happen to a group of people that would experience the presence of God?

In that spiritual state, Isaiah, saw himself and said, “I’m unclean, but somehow, people can come out of the corporate presence of God and look at their neighbor and say, “unclean.” In a scenario like that, I would imagine that flesh would begin to manifest instead of spirit, that dross would be revealed but not necessarily removed.

Mark 9:2-3 KJV

2 And after six days Jesus taketh with him Peter, and James, and John, and leadeth them up into an high mountain apart by themselves: and he was transfigured before them. 3 And his raiment became shining, exceeding white as snow; so as no fuller on earth can white them.

The disciples focused on those words, “rise from the dead” and they asked, “why does it say that Elijah must come first?” Jesus responded, “He did come and they treated him how they wanted.”

Jesus is letting us know that Religion hates true repentance— after all, that was the ministry of John the Baptist!

Romans 12:1-2 KJV

1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

Jesus Transfigured/ we transformed— both where we get the word metamorphosis. Where an internal nature becomes manifested outwardly. One that used to be an earth dweller receives new life and begins to operate from a new position of heavenly vision. Is there a better example of the metamorphosis truth in God’s creation than the butterfly? Is there a better statement than the words of our Lord:

Luke 6:45 KJV

A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh.

So what really is in the heart? The Lord knows what is in the heart of those that belong to Him. And He is coming to refine that place that belongs to Him…. “🎼You won’t relent until you have it all…”

And so that is the cry of those that belong to Him

Psalms 26:2

Examine me, O LORD, and prove me; try my reins (mind NASB) and my heart.

Psalms 66:10

For thou, O God, hast proved us: thou hast tried us, as silver is tried.

Because the Lord says that the mixture of righteousness and sin isn’t going to work anymore

Isaiah 1:25 NASB

“I will also turn My hand against you, And will smelt away your dross as with lye And will remove all your alloy.

People that walk in covenant with God both in the old and in the new covenants, desire righteousness because they want to please God. Biblical Christianity results in the conviction of the Holy Spirit. Revelation of the New Covenant allows the Holy Spirit access to the places that are deeper in the heart. The Spirit of God brings conviction and works in the life to bring change:

Philippians 2:13 KJV

For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

1 Peter 3:15 NASB

but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts/always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence;

2 Timothy 2:19-22

19 Nevertheless, the firm foundation of God stands, having this seal, “The Lord knows those who are His,” and, “Everyone who names the name of the Lord is to abstain from wickedness.” 20 Now in a large house there are not only gold and silver vessels, but also vessels of wood and of earthenware, and some to honor and some to dishonor. 21 Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from these things, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified, useful to the Master, prepared for every good work. 22 Now flee from youthful lusts and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.

It is interesting that 7 times in the New Testament, the word that we’re looking at here for honor is translated as sum or price and one time it’s translated as precious. Several times the word is attributed to Jesus and we know what the Father thinks about Jesus because the voice spoke from glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. The word has an idea of value connected to it. We know the value that the human race has in the eyes of God, because He purchased righteousness for humanity with the blood of Jesus. Yet, there is this problem where some of the vessels in the house are not honorable.

He says that everyone that names the Lord is to abstain from wickedness— the KJV and ESV translate it as iniquity and really the word in the Greek is adikos and means unrighteousness. So the idea is that those that call on the name of the Lord are to abstain from unrighteous acts.

Let’s examine some truth here

Romans 3:23 NASB

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

Romans 3:24 NASB

being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus;

Romans 3:25 NASB

whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed;

Ephesians 5:25-27

25 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; 26 That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, 27 That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.

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Acts 17:30-31 NASB

30 Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, 31 because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.”

1 Peter 4:17-18 NASB

17 For it is time for judgment to begin with the household of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? 18 AND IF IT IS WITH DIFFICULTY THAT THE RIGHTEOUS IS SAVED, WHAT WILL BECOME OF THE GODLESS MAN AND THE SINNER?

Don't Let Anything Stunt Your Growth

Ephesians 1:13

In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,

Ephesians 1:14

Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.

Ephesians 1:18

The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,

Ephesians 4:3

Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

Ephesians 4:4

There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling;

Ephesians 4:5

One Lord, one faith, one baptism,

Ephesians 4:6

One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.

Ephesians 4:7

But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ.

Ephesians 4:11

And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;

Ephesians 4:12

For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:

Ephesians 4:13

Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:

Ephesians 4:13 ESV

until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,

Galatians 4:1

Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all;

Galatians 4:19

My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you,

Ephesians 4:14

That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;

1 John 3:6

Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him.

1 John 3:7

Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous.

1 John 3:8

He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.

1 John 3:9

Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.

1 John 3:10

In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother.

1 John 3:11

For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.

1 John 3:12

Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous.

Luke 10:38

Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain village: and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house.

Luke 10:39

And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus' feet, and heard his word.

Luke 10:40

But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me.

Luke 10:41

And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things:

Luke 10:42

But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.

Matthew 9:20

And, behold, a woman, which was diseased with an issue of blood twelve years, came behind him, and touched the hem of his garment:

Matthew 9:21

For she said within herself, If I may but touch his garment, I shall be whole.

Matthew 9:22

But Jesus turned him about, and when he saw her, he said, Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole. And the woman was made whole from that hour.