Manifesting Presence of the Holy Spirit

Ma 26:39 Going a little farther, (Jesus) fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”

God is not who we think he is. Nor is God who or what we make of him. God is God. He is the Father, the Son Jesus and the Holy Spirit, by revelation.

He is who he has defined himself to be. And it takes faith to understand him in as much as he makes us able to understand him.

Everything about who God is, is revealed not concluded. And this revelation comes by way of the written word of God that is made revelation word through faith alone by way of the Holy Spirit. Without revelation based in faith, I am left to what I think over what God knows. When that happens? Error is certain to follow.

When we define God or his principles by what we think, we can only be but in error. “Well, this is what I think God is.” Such a statement departs from the necessary dependence upon the revelation power of the Holy Spirit of God to bring truth to us above/over what we conclude of him.

Even a dependence upon Scripture alone is insufficient. For, there are many who quote scripture to defend man’s ideas. They do so with earthy cranial arguments, rather than from the heart of the Father, Who through the Word and the Spirit bring illumination to the word. Even there are many who quote scripture, verse after verse, who know Him not. Revelation understanding, therefore, is the only way by which the church can grow up in all spiritual truth with spiritual understanding.

Even the devil knows the word better than most Christians. He uses the word legalistically to accuse us. He knows nothing of the Spirit save for a hatred of Him. In fact satan comes against the Spirit of God wherever and whenever the Spirit manifests into the world.

Satan knows that if he can silence the power that brings revelation, that man will be left with nothing but his own mind to conclude. By so doing, satan knows that he can maintain error in the church by way of the greatly flawed mind of man. If the Holy Spirit is not in residence in the church, the mind of man is in control of the church. If the Spirit is in the church, then the Mind of Christ is in control of the church. There is a night and day difference. One leads to religion and ineffectiveness. The latter results in Mathew chapter 10 coming to life and thousands of souls saved in a day!

How then are we using the word? Are we using the word to back our cranial arguments? Or are we dying to self, going lower in humility and preferring others ahead of ourselves, so as to know and then express revelation truth? Do we need to be heard, or do we need Him to be heard? Are we building our ministry, or are we building His ministry through us? Are we in trust of the Spirit, or are we in fear of what happens when the Spirit manifests? Are we independent of the Spirit or dependent upon the Spirit?

When we become honest with ourselves that we are in need of dependent, faith based revelation, and when we move past the pride of our intellect, we begin to see what was otherwise invisible… namely, truth as God knows and defines truth. This applies to who God is, what his principles are and what God is doing in this hour.

With these thoughts in mind, let us consider the manifestation of God’s judgment.

Judgment

Romans 5:16 …the judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification.

When we understand God for who he really is… love and not judgment, we then can understand what judgment really is. But, if for whatever religious or cranial reason, we see God as primarily a judge, then we see him as an angry vengeful God rather than a Father and lover of his children.

Judgment can only be understood in the context of the love of God that overcomes it. Otherwise judgment can only be misunderstood as vengeance and anger. When we define it in the latter way, we do so with the mind of man and with worldly terms. In most cases these definitions are born from a lifetime of religious error or woundedness from those in religious error.

The Spiritless church is full of the mentality of religious judgment. Many who have walked in those circles or who have been raised up in family life that has been steeped in the same, have a very hard time with this concept of mercy.

Unless judgment is understood within the context of God’s mercy, it cannot be understood at all. Any discussion of sin and its consequences brings nothing but a sense of condemnation unless the greater truth of God’s mercy, forgiveness and deliverance are spoken of in the very same breath! If all men have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, then the way out of it must be emphasized over our errors that got us into it! Namely mercy, love and forgiveness, born from the sacrifice of Christ on His cross.

Thus it becomes a concept in error when sin and its consequence is all that is spoken of in our meetings. Leaders either condescend to parishioners’ sinful errors demanding judgment in religious anger… or they outright reject the concept of a judgment. Both ways are in error. Out of woundedness or by good sounding arguments that birth from woundedness come arguments that miss the truth of judgment as God expresses it.

There is a particular pride that is born from dishonest introspection on the part of a leader, who, by their error, think that they to be flawless and without sin. Oh yes, it may be that one is without most of the sins outlined in the word… sexual sin, hatred, murder, materialism and the like. But what about the “lesser sins”. What about Romans 14:23?

Romans 14:23 …for whatsoever is not by faith is sin.

If sin is anything that we do that is outside of faith, then being honest with ourselves, how many times did we sin yesterday? God defined sin is much broader than how we define it.

And so a false sense of a sinless life, can easily lead one into a sense of haughtiness. This results in a sense of having self perceived right to condescend to parishioners’ about sin. Almost always, the result is a discussion of sin without a discussion of the way out of it.

No one but no one is without sin. Some walk around and declare themselves without flaw. They walk around in a state of delusion.

1 John 1: 7-9 …but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Only by humility and honest introspection can one see the fact of one’s flawed state. We are all in this position. For truly, 1 John 1 speaks to our current state… not past tense. It speaks to who we are all today, an imperfect people, all who are in need of Him daily. From this low, dependent and honest position comes a true understanding of one’s ongoing condition for the need of a Savior every single day.

If by just one sin, we are disqualified from Heaven; if all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God; if no one (who is without Christ) is qualified to go to Heaven because of just one sin (Rom 5:16)… then what is more important? Is it more important to point out that which everyone knows, that we are sinners by our selfish actions, and that we are all disqualified? Is it more important to beat someone into submission with our angry words of judgment? Or is it more important to speak of the amazing grace and love that saved a wretched man like me? Only by the Spirit are these things fully understood.

Tolerance

On the flip side, those who reject judgment outright have established a worldly concept called tolerance. Worldly tolerance is a concept in great error. It is one of those “good sounding arguments” that Jesus was so direct to warn us about. Rather than expressing love as the world would say, this form of tolerance leaves wide open the door to ever increasing unchecked sin and the cost of it that must inevitably follow. It too is a demonic strategy that so many in the church have bought into. Worldly tolerance and moral relativism is a cancerous theology!

God is so very tolerant, and that only from the position of mercy and patience. He waits until we have come full circle. Then, with our willingness, and within God’s timing, He releases the effect of our sin.

Every single sin, of thought word or deed carries with it a price that must be paid. However, whenever a price is charged, it is done so not with anger or hate, but with great sadness and hope lost by the Lord. For Christ has paid the price in full. He drank the cup of wrath down to the very last drop. Those who pay a price have missed this truth.

As for the church, while on earth, there remains a price on earth for sins committed. But Father, in His very great mercy, gives us time.

James 1:13-15 When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.

Take note of the process of time of the progression of willful sin and its’ result. When one sows in sin, there is a time before that person reaps the cost of it. Thus, Father’s mercy and tolerance becomes the time that Father God patiently waits… between when we act wrongly and when we reap the consequence of our choice. And God is patient to wait a very long time, sometimes even a lifetime.

Judgment is the fulfilling of God’s word which He must adhere Himself to. If God speaks a thing, it becomes his bond, lest God be a liar. So when He says that there is a negative result for sin, He must adhere to that word.

Our goal, as leaders in the Body of Christ, is to show all, including ourselves, the very great mercy and tolerance of Father God and to show them the way out! Our job is not to verbally beat the parishioners up for making wrong choices. We love them out of their issues; we teach them about forgiveness and mercy and we give them a hope for their future.

Because forgiveness by repentance is also a concept of the word of God, forgiveness wipes out the spiritual consequence of judgment. That is what we all need to know and to hear; God’s merciful wonderful gift, through Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, of confession and repentance. We love them to that understanding, we do not beat them up until they submit to that understanding. There is a HUGE difference.

When our focus on sin is an angry and condescending Spiritless exposure of it, the result is a lifelong sense of self-rejection and ineffectiveness towards one’s life walk. But when one is lovingly pointed towards repentance through confession without fear of reprisal, the gift of Father’s love and encouragement, one is given a way out that includes a particular hope for their future.

Forgiveness through the gift of repentance is what God’s mercy waits for. And it is our job to lead our people to it in as much as we lead ourselves to it.

One can say that God’s mercy is found in His patient waiting for us to repent. It’s what godly tolerance is all about. Tolerance is not accepting error as being allowed or condoned or “just not talked about.” In fact when we tolerate as the world suggests, sin abounds all the more on the “free ride” of our good sounding arguments.

When we do pay a price for our sin, God’s judgment becomes something we do to ourselves, and then only after a great measure of patient tolerant mercy from Father God. What we reap we have sown of our own doing. But far greater is God’s mercy than is His judgment. Mercy triumphs over judgment! This is why Jesus came into the world. It is also why Jesus is absolutely necessary for salvation.

Forgiveness

John 3:16-18 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. “For God did not send the Son into the world to (condemn) judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. “He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God…

John 12:47-48 “If anyone hears My sayings and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world. “He who rejects Me and does not receive My sayings, has one who judges him; the word I spoke is what will judge him at the last day.

God is not about judgment; he is all about forgiveness that we do not deserve. Therefore Jesus is not about judgment at all, though He will judge the living and the dead by way of those who have accepted Him, not by how well we kept the law! He is about His loving and merciful sacrifice that results in an awesome forgiveness that overcomes judgment. The cross He gave us was not out of judgment but out of mercy.

Therefore the devil, along with the religious church operates in forms of judgment that bring a sense of condemnation. But Father is all about mercy and love that brings a sense of motivation and a hope to live a clean and blameless life.

And so there is no judgment in the world besides what we have chosen to receive of our own doing, and then only after long suffering by the Lord to patiently wait and see if we would turn and be healed.

The Bible talks about God’s vengeance when God says that, “All vengeance is mine.” In the Old Testament, God talks a great deal about vengeance. The cup of wrath is well defined in Jeremiah 25:15-38. All the leaders of many nations were forced to drink of this cup, resulting in the fierce anger of the Lord being poured out all across the lands because of their sin and unwillingness to keep the law.

Christ had yet to come. But when He did come, it was this very cup that He drank for us all, so that no person, nor any nation, would ever again be forced to drink of it!

It is for this reason that whenever we see bad things happen in the world today, terrorism, nations under siege and the like, it is NOT because of an angry vengeant God! These things manifest from a hateful lying devil! God allows these things not out of judgment, but rather, that the nations be drawn towards mercy and shaken unto salvation. And again, Christ did not come to judge the world but to save the world!

Jesus came into the world and took all the wrath of God for all the sins of the world for all time upon himself. As a result, Romans 8:1 “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

He drank the cup of God’s wrath so that we would not have to. He took every punishment that our sin deserves when he drank our cup for us. There is no more wrath for us who repent and accept Christ in the fullness of what He did.

Rom 5:9 Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him!

We have to be completely honest with ourselves, from the highest of church leadership to the last, and accept our fallible state. We have to confess that we need Jesus in every way… daily. This speaks to our absolute need for ongoing dependence and self-death.

Without Jesus and the appropriation He provided for us, we would be susceptible to the full wrath of God. In fact, all who have yet to accept Christ are destined to drink of this cup one day.

John 3:36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him.

To confess our errors and our need for our savior, followed by repentance is the very key to breaking off judgment both in the now and for eternity. The result is healing and a loosing of the result of our sin, along with a very great hope for our future here and now.

God is not about judgment, but forgiveness and mercy through Jesus Christ, and only through Him alone.

We are all but incapable of seeing this in its fullest without the revelation of our need and honest admittance of our errors in life. For whatever I do not accept that I have done in error places me in a state of God’s mercy and, in time, potential danger of reaping the reward for what I have done. How much better to die to myself to truly live?

John 12:24-25 I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.

Phl 1:21 For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

We who lead… this process of honest introspection starts with us. It must. For if it does not, the fullness of the Spirit who leads us all into all truth will remain apart from our message. And we will be left speaking as if to a wall.