How can one know when he’s passing through hard times that’s its God who wants to glorify himself??
Answer:
When adversity comes it tends to provoke the carnal nature in us and we react with a carnal attitude. This is when we need to resist being carnal and instead react with a spiritual attitude this is the way we will overcome with God’s help and we be changed bit by bit.
John 16:33 (NIV) “I have said these things to you that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”
James 1:1-4 (NIV) “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
Sometimes it is hard to consider suffering with pure joy as the Apostle James expresses. But we have our Lord and saviour Jesus the Christ who has gone on before us and suffered many sorrows. Jesus indeed was that “suffering servant”.
Isaiah 53:3-5 (NIV) “He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and FAMILIAR with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.”
James 1:12 (NIV) “Blessed is the man (or woman) who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those that love him.”
1 Peter 4:17-19 (NIV) 17 For it is time for judgment to begin with God’s household; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God? 18 And, “If it is hard for the righteous to be saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?”
19 So then, those who suffer according to God’s will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.
When we do our best to follow God’s commandments and keep our hearts clean we belong to Him. Satan can do nothing to us unless our Father allows it. We see an example of this in Job
Job 1:6-12 (NIV) 6 One day the angels came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came with them. 7 The Lord said to Satan, “Where have you come from?” Satan answered the Lord, “From roaming throughout the earth, going back and forth on it.” 8 Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.” 9 “Does Job fear God for nothing?” Satan replied. 10 “Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land. 11 But now stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face.” 12 The Lord said to Satan, “Very well, then, everything he has is in your power, but on the man himself do not lay a finger.”
As we can see Satan had to ask permission to do anything to Job. Read Job and you will see how he handles to the trail he goes through.
How can we activate our faith so that it can please God the way Abraham did??
Answer
The way to activate our faith is to ask God daily to search our hearts for any thing that is displeasing to Him. Ask for His help to destroy anything in there that is not good. Ask for His help to show us when we are being carnal. We need examine how we are handling difficult situations and ask ourselves “is this carnal or spiritual” then correct our behavior if need be. We also need to guard our hearts by being careful of what we allow in. When we get bad thoughts we need to cast them out immediately not even dwelling on them for a second. If we allow these evil thoughts to mingle they will feed our carnal nature which is the opposite to want we want the carnal needs to be eliminated. We need to feed the spirit that has been given to us by our Father.
Proverbs 4:23 (NIV) 23 Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.
2 Corinthians 10:5 (NIV) 5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
We must be very aware that He is watching in that way we will strive to please Him. We need to be very obedient to His every word and be thankful in all things.
When the spirit that is sent by God to create a change in us, cannot accomplish this change because of the resistant stubborn and unyielding heart and we continue to resist we will frustrate and grieve the Spirit of the living God and we will be dealt with accordingly. This is when we have decided to which master we will serve and consequently which spirit will come from our hearts.
In The Narrow Gate article there is a lot of instruction concerning this. Everyone needs to ask God to open their minds and hearts to understand this mystery because not many do. We have not heard this taught anywhere. Seek God daily and be on fire for Him.
Mark 7:20-23 (NIV) 20 He went on: “What comes out of a person is what defiles them. 21 For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, 22 adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. 23 All these evils come from inside and defile a person.”
Romans 8:7-17 (NIV) 7 The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. 8 Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God. 9 You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. 10 But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. 11 And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you. 12 Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. 13 For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live. 14 For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. 15 The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to son ship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” 16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. 17 Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.
(2 Peter 1:3-8 NIV) 3 His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. 5 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6 and to knowledge, self- control; and to self- control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7 and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. 8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
What are the consequences of not obeying God??
Answer
Not only is there a price to pay for not obeying now but there is the lose of the great potential of receiving the gift of eternal life that He will give to those who overcome this world. To be called His Sons and daughters in the coming kingdom to rule with our brother Jesus for eternity.
John 17:1-2 (NIV) “Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. 2 For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him.
In the following scriptures there are all the consequences for not obeying God.
Curses for Disobedience
Read Deuteronomy 28:15-68 this describes the cost of disobedience.
What’s the difference between wisdom and knowledge??
Answer:
You need to start with something basic like looking at the dictionary definitions of these words and how they are used and what they describe and portray with applicable terms that fashion into our understanding and climb to the highest order.
All definitions from the Merriam/Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary Tenth edition.
1.Knowledge: The fact or condition of knowing something with familiarity gained through experience or association.
2.Wisdom: Accumulated philosophic or scientific learning, ability to discern inner qualities and relationships.
As you can see that this is mankind’s way of explaining these effects evidenced by generations down through the ages. But they still miss the mark, here is an example of what we cannot define; how could you endeavour to describe a face you have never seen before? You could come up with the features that are standard to a face- like eyes, ears, nose, mouth etc. but the individual qualities of that specific face required to convey recognition to others is not possible. In the same way wisdom and knowledge are experiential, but there are different types and qualities of wisdom and knowledge.
1 Corinthians 2:5 (NIV) “So that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power”.
1 Corinthians 1:25 (NIV) “For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.”
1 Corinthians 3:19 (NIV) “For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. As it is written: “He catches the wise in their craftiness”; and again, “The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.”
We begin to see a picture unfolding before us, what we had thought was at the pinnacle and height of achievement is now foolishness and futile. Why?
Proverbs 14:12 (NIV) “There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.”
We see these very same words reemphasized further in Proverbs chapter 16.
Proverbs 16:25 (NIV) “There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.”
What is the way, that SEEMS right to us but actually leads to death instead?
Answer
Romans 8:5-8 (NIV) “Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires. But those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind of sinful man IS DEATH, but the mind controlled by the spirit is life and peace; the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those CONTROLLED by the sinful nature cannot please God.”
1 Corinthians 2:6 (NIV) “We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the WISDOM OF THIS AGE or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing.”
1 Corinthians 2:13 (NIV) “This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words TAUGHT BY THE SPIRIT, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. The man without the spirit does not accept the things that come from the spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and HE CANNOT UNDERSTAND them, because they are spiritually discerned.
The more we try to determine the difference between wisdom and knowledge the more we find that there are other factors clearly at work in defining their application to us and in the possibility that they elude us for a higher predestination and emphasis. The scriptures are very clear about what is given to those that God has “called” His own and because of because of personal enactment on our part he has confirmed that we are indeed “chosen”.
Matthew 13:10-17 (NIV) “The disciples came to him and asked, “why do you speak to the people in parables?” He replied, “The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven HAS BEEN GIVEN to you, but NOT TO THEM. Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. This is why I speak to them in parables: “Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not understand. In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: “You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you be ever seeing but never perceiving. For this people’s HEART has become CALLOUSED; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.” But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. For I tell you the truth, many prophets and righteous men longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.”
We can clearly see that this “understanding” has to be “given”, it cannot be taken or gathered to oneself because there is a prevailing condition in most of mankind that lacks the perception and comprehension in matters of Godly Knowledge and Godly Wisdom. It has to be supplied by the hand of God, it remains in the realm of God’s discretion who should or should not be equipped with “the knowledge of the SECRETS of the kingdom of heaven.”
.John 6:37-40 (NIV) “All that the father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up on the last day. For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
Romans 8:29-30 (NIV) “For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn of many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also
Ecclesiastes 7:12,19 (NIV) “Wisdom is a shelter as money is a shelter, but the advantage of knowledge is this: that wisdom preserves the life of its possessor. Wisdom makes one wise man more powerful than ten rulers in a city.”
We now know that these great and liberating virtues come only from God as he chooses.
Exodus 33:19 (NIV) “And the Lord said, “I will cause my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
James 1:16-18 (NIV) “Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. He chose to give us BIRTH THROUGH THE WORD OF TRUTH, that we might be a kind of first fruits of all he created.
When we pray and ask our heavenly Father for Knowledge and Wisdom from his hand we aspire for gifts that edify not just for ourselves but for others who would gain from such a request. But we need the knowledge to understand that all things flow from the Father and the Son and are aligned with their WILL and not as we would selfishly have them be. We also need the wisdom to see that without Godly Love and love for our brother knowledge and wisdom both are disarmed and as nothing.
1 Corinthians 13:2 (NIV) “If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom ALL MYSTERIES and ALL KNOWLEDGE, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
God is pleased when we aspire to attain knowledge and wisdom but we must first start this journey by allowing God to shape and circumcise our hearts. Once we have learned to worship him with our hearts in truth and in spirit, then we can learn to walk in love with our brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus and only then will these things be added to us as a natural condition of walking the narrow path and choosing to enter in by the narrow gate when it is shown to us.
Q. What kind of door is the bible referring to here? Genesis 4:7.
Answer
We could reason that this reference to sin crouching at the door is a metaphor for the clandestine way in which sin is ready to ambush ourselves and filter into our thought process if we allow it. The “door” would be the gateway to your mind and the exchange between external influencers and the independent thoughts that come from our free moral self determination and our “right” to chose between good and evil.
Ephesians 2:2 “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed THE WAYS of this world and of the ruler of the KINGDOM OF THE AIR, THE SPIRIT who is now at work in those who are disobedient.”
It is very clear that Satan broadcasts his nature and that the carnal side of man tunes into this frequency like a radio station. If we study the narrative at the beginning of verse 7 in chapter 4 of Genesis we discover that if we take a stand in doing what is wrong and we allow our hearts to be hardened by an unyielding, stubborn and selfish mindset then it lays out a path before us and we become slaves to iniquity. When we feel, our impulses beginning to align with our carnal side, we need to remember that the almighty has called on all men to master this self satisfying, impulsive, destructive nature and to bring ourselves into submission to God’s will. This road to mastery begins with an understanding or overview of the factors that contribute to our success or failure. We cannot do this without the Holy Spirit or without the support of our brothers in Christ who have been called by the Almighty to the same order of conduct.
Q. We know that sin is the transgression of the law, do we have a neutral ground in either sin dominating us or us resisting sin.
Answer
Romans 13:11-14 “Rather clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature. “Matthew 6:24 “No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other.”
James 4:4-5 “You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is HATRED TOWARD GOD? ANYONE who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes AN ENEMY OF GOD. Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the spirit he caused to live in us envies intensely?
The scriptures when opened by the Almighty interpret themselves. Learned people of Jesus’s time found the teachings of “uneducated” common men were remarkable and they also were astonished and asked each other “where did these men get such learning?” The truth is, that the Holy Spirit creates in us something that we could never become on our own, this “new creature in Christ” must emulate their master and clearly, we can see that whatever our Lord has received from the Father he has also made known to his servants. The scripture that best describes this state of common or neutral ground between obedience and sin can be found in Revelation 3:15-16 “I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm-neither hot nor cold -I am about to spit you out of my mouth.”
Jesus Christ is making his judgement known on anyone that would call themselves his follower and yet in their practice are lukewarm in performing what is right, even after they have been shown what is required of them. There can be no doubt that revealing oneself as “Christian” to the world only to exhibit lukewarm commitment as well as idle behavior are both disturbing and sickening to our Lord and God.
Just how serious is this offence if our Lord and Master is moved to describe this condition in such a manner to create an unmistakable visual effect that strongly conveys his view of this condition.
The scriptures are clear regarding our calling and the graduation that must be obtained by overcoming. Only after counting the cost and allowing our spiritual Father to mold and shape our hearts can we obtain a personal victory. As we follow Jesus Christ’s example, we must overcome the world with the help of the Holy Spirit which works in us to subdue our carnal nature and its evil desires only then can we obtain a circumcised heart and be true servants and living sacrifices.
Luke 9:23-24 “ If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life WILL lose it but whoever loses his life for me will save it.”
This same narrative is also found in Matthew 10:38/ Matthew 16:24/ Mark 8:34
Deuteronomy 30:6 “The Lord your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, so that you may love him with all your heart and with all your soul and live. “
Revelation 3:19 “Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent. Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne just as I overcame and sat down WITH MY FATHER ON HIS THRONE. HE WHO HAS an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”
It is surprising just how long we can deny that there are things that we need to deal with and we have become “comfortable” and complacent in our practise as Christians. Our Lord is saying that HE is knocking on OUR DOOR and if anyone listens to his instruction and takes it to their hearts to strive to overcome EVERYTHING and leave nothing uncovered then he will make his home in us and we will share in his authority and splendor. But we must be EARNEST and repent we also need to examine ourselves daily and request our Lords help to overcome continually.
Q. Which kind of attitude should we have when making an offering to God?
Answer
Deuteronomy 10: 12 “And now, o Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to observe the Lord’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good.“ Continue reading all the way to the end of chapter 10.
Philippians 4:4-6 “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”
2 Corinthians 9:6-7 “Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for GOD LOVES A CHEERFUL GIVER. “
Romans 12:1-3 “Therefore I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God-THIS IS YOUR SPIRITUAL ACT OF WORSHIP. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
Our attitudes will be correct before the Almighty only if we obey his commands and strive to overcome the world just as our Lord did. It always comes back to the condition of our hearts and how we are responding when we are shown our faults by the Holy Spirit.