| Flow Of God |
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My dear brethren, it is easy, nothing God gives us to do is difficult, unless we are working upstream, against the wind, into the grain. If we would just sit a minute and think these things all the way through; we would see them a lot clearer than we have in the past. God has given us His ability to do what He requires, and when we look towards that ability on the inside and let it flow to the outside we are transformed by Him, through and through. It is just the difference between the fruit of the spirit and the works of the flesh. The fruit is walking downstream with God; the works is walking upstream with God. Yes, with God, you are a Christian are you not? It is possible to walk upstream, as a Christian. I have done it many a time, especially in this area of "mind renewal". I have tried to memorize the Word, think the Word, and work the Word into my mind. It doesn't work like that. I was beating my head against a literal wall. I was trying to go against the natural grain of the wood; trying to walk upstream in the stream of GodLife. I was trying to conform to the Word instead of being transformed by the Word. I was trying to conform to the Word from the outside in, instead of being transformed by the Word from the inside out. The Word, first, is spoken to the heart, and then it comes out to the soul. That is where we will begin our investigation. The reception of the Word into the heart. If we receive the Word into our heart first, then it is relatively easy to accept the fact that it then flows out into the rest of our person, right? Think about it. JAMES 1:18-25
(KJV)
18 Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.
19 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath:
20 For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.
21 Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.
22 But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.
23 For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass:
24 For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.
25 But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.
NOTE: Sometimes it is not advantageous to pull verses to quote at random. There is a certain flow to the writings of all scripture that the reader needs to consider. Concepts and ideas are being conveyed by God, and if we take them out of context then we miss the real meaning and cut off the true communication of the spirit to our hearts from His spirit to our spirit. The chapters and verse numbers were installed later, so try not to let them fool you into stopping when you really shouldn't. Let us look at one of the best ‘Soul Salvation" passages in the Word. James starts with first telling us that God "begat" or birthed us by His will, with His Word. Now, let us look at the first verse, James 1: 18... JAMES 1:18
(KJV)
Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures
(Phillips)
by His own wish He made us his own sons through the Word of Truth, that we might be, so to speak, the first specimens of his new creation
(Cressman)
He made us his children because he wanted us. He made us his children by giving us his true word. He made us his children so that we would be the first and best of all he made.
(Doddridge)
for of his own sovereign will he impregnated us with the powerful word of his divine and evangelical truth
(Wuest)
In accordance with His deliberate purpose He brought us into being by means of the word of truth, resulting in our being a kind of first fruits of His creatures
(Wade)
Of set purpose He gave us Spiritual Birth by a message imparting Truth, in order that we might be a kind of first - fruits among his creatures
Sounds like: "a sower went forth to sow the seed; some fell on good ground..." Anyway God has given us birth, by, through, and of His Word, into our hearts. That is how the process gets started. Look at the definition of the word "begat": BEGAT: (Greek: apokueo) &emdash;(Thayer's Greek Lexicon)
We are birthed by the Word of God, spoken into our spirit by the Spirit of God, believed in our heart, emanating to and experiencing it with our Soul. So God gives us new birth by planting the seed of the Word in our hearts. Now I would have to ask here: "Hoow much of the seed contains the full produce?" If we have a seed, then we have all we need to grow a tree right? So, now that we have the seed of the Word implanted in our hearts, we have all of the ability of the seed to reproduce itself, if nourished and fed, right? |