FUNDAMENTALS OF DISCIPLESHIP
Heb
12:1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed
about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and
the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race
that is set before us,
2 Looking
unto Yahushua the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was
set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the
right hand of the throne of IAUE.
3 For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners
against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.
4 Ye have
not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.
Sin, by
definition, is disobedience to the will of IAUE.
Sin is
whatever is not in conformity with what IAUE wants. IAUE’s will is the universal standard and
expectation of all life. It is the
universal constant. Any and all 1) disagreement
with, 2) consideration of alternatives to, and 3) violations of His will is a
wrongful act.
We
stated two weeks ago that there are three reasons why we who are disciples
still sin.
1. Our minds are in agreement with the impulses of our
flesh. We enjoy sin, and want to
continue therein.
2. Our minds are not
renewed to understand what is the good, acceptable and perfect will of IAUE;
and we sin ignorantly, not even knowing we are failing the will of IAUE.
3. Our lives have been
so consistently disobedient to the will of IAUE that we have allowed the
influence of demonic spirits into our life that are now generating almost automatic
behavioral responses to certain “triggers” in our life.
We
covered the first point last week. Today
we move on to the second point:
2. Our minds are not renewed to understand what
is the good, acceptable and perfect will of IAUE; and we sin ignorantly, not
even knowing we are failing the will of IAUE.
Romans 8:1 I beseech you therefore,
brethren, by the mercies of Elohim, that ye present your bodies a living
sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto Elohim, 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 Elohim.
It is imperative
that this instruction from the apostle Paul be discussed in connection with the
words and wisdom of Solomon:
Proverb 14:12, 16:25 There is a way that seems right unto a man; but the end
thereof are the ways of death.
And, to complete
the picture, let’s throw in the imagery Messiah provided in his sermon on the
mount:
Matthew 7:13 Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad
is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:
14 Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth
unto life, and few there be that find it.
The way we think both
defines and limits the way we will act.
When our thinking is wrong, our acting will be wrong. Solomon understood this. Man thinks that he understands what is best
for him; and he acts upon his own wisdom.
In so doing, his choices result in death; just like the choice to enter
through the wide gate unto the broad path.
“The road to Hell is paved with good intentions.” Our good intentions,
in the eyes of IAUE amount to nothing more than disobedience. It is sin, and the end of that path is
destruction.
Everyone remembers
the “Get thee behind me, Satan!” declaration of Messiah; but not everyone
understands what really happened in that event.
Matthew 16:22 Then Peter took him, and
began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Master: this shall not be
unto thee.
23 But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan:
thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of Elohim,
but those that be of men.
Peter had just
demonstrated that he understood by revelation that Yahushua was the Messiah,
the son of the living Elohim (Matthew 16:15-17); but when the Master began to explain that he must go to Jerusalem and be
killed, Peter was prepared to prevent that from happening. It was in response to this act that Yahushua
rebuked Peter; but why? What was his
error? It was because he “savourest not the things that be of Elohim, but those
that be of men.” This word “savourest” means “to think.” Peter’s error was that he thought with the
thoughts of men, and not with the thoughts of Elohim; because there is a way
that seems right to a man, but they are not right at all.
That brings us to
Paul’s command to “be ye transformed by the
renewing of your mind.” Let’s put
this instruction into context. Paul has
stated that our most basic and reasonable service of worship would be to offer
our bodies as a living sacrifice to IAUE.
In other words, our bodies are given to IAUE to use as He pleases. We have no longer any more right to them as would
a dead man. We have died to our right to
continue using our bodies as an instrument for carrying out our own will. That being the case, our bodies then become
instruments through which IAUE may perform His will.
Herein lies the
problem. We are the steward of the
body. IAUE is not going to turn us into
zombies and use our bodies contrary to our cooperation and participation with Him;
so to be able to successfully allow IAUE the use of our bodies to execute His
will in the earth through us, we must learn how to cooperate and participate
with Him. It is impossible to do that
when we are still operating out of our own thoughts…what seems to be right to
us.
Notice that Paul is
clear about this objective of being transformed by the renewing of the mind. Its purpose is so we “may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will
of Elohim.” The point of renewing the mind is to be
able to understand the will of IAUE…to know that it is good, acceptable and
perfect; and that our cooperation and participation with it is the best
possible use of our bodies…of our life.
We are discussing why
disciples still sin. Not knowing, not
understanding the will of IAUE is the reason why we commit sin without even
knowing we are doing it. Paul had just explained
in Romans 7 that man did not know he was committing sin until the law came and
declared a thing to be sin. So, too, we
who are in Messiah Yahushua do not know that we are committing sin if we are
ignorant of IAUE’s will. It is our duty,
our responsibility, to allow Him to renew the way we think, to enable us to
hear, and to know, and to understand His will for our lives.
One of the biggest
hindrances to this transforming process is what I call “programming.” As we grow up in this world, we are
constantly exposed to circumstances, situations and events that shape the way
we think. A lot of what becomes “hardness
of heart” in us are “programs” we write in response to these events in our
life. For example, If a boyfriend or girlfriend rejected us, or worse,
humiliated us, we may tell ourselves, “I am never going to let anyone ever hurt
me again.” Wrapped around that promise
to ourself are a variety of thought processes that define the protection we manufacture to prevent ever being hurt again.
He find out later in life that the program we wrote in good faith when a
teenager has become a prison that controls our relationships as an adult; and
it interferes with our ability to hear and obey IAUE.
We write all manner
of programs in this manner as reactions to various things in our life:
1. When
we are never chosen to be on a team during recess at school.
2. When
we are the subject of someone else’s lies.
3. When
we feel betrayed.
4. When
we feel embarrassed.
5. When
we grow up poor or neglected.
6. When
we are mistreated by a parent or sibling or spouse.
7. When
we witness tragedies.
These are just some
illustrations of times when we begin to shape formulas for how we will handle
life in the future. Notice that most of
these deal with how our emotions were affected; and all of them deal with what
is important to us without regard to what is important to IAUE. It might very well be the turning point in
our life designed by IAUE; but instead of seeing His hand working in our life,
we see only what we do not want to have happened; and we fortify ourselves against
it ever happening again. This forms
serious barriers in the transforming process; and triggers disobedience before
we are even aware we are disobeying.
Transformation begins
with repentance. We must offer all such
programming to the Father as a part of our sacrifice and reasonable service of
worship. How can He use our bodies to
perform His will if we have preset limitations on what we will permit to happen
in our lives?
The traditional ideas
with respect to Paul’s command are also valid.
They include:
1. Study
the Scriptures, and by doing so, become familiar with IAUE’s thinking found in
them.
2. Spend
time in prayer listening to the voice of the Holy Spirit to become better acquainted
with His voice…what He sounds like, and how He speaks to you.
We have the choice
to remain ignorant of the Father’s will and continue sinning with reckless
abandon; or we may choose to subject our thought life to His control and
reshaping so we can learn how to recognize and obey his good and acceptable and
perfect will. It isn’t really much of a
choice. We may continue sinning
regularly, ignorantly; or we can live in such a way as to bring glory to IAUE.
Kingdom heart: a heart that offers no resistance to the performance
of the will of IAUE.
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