FUNDAMENTALS OF DISCIPLESHIP
RENEWING
THE MIND – XI
THE WORD
OF IAUE - 2
…..
Romans 12:2 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 IAUE.
A carnal mind…does not consider the heart of IAUE.
Romans 8:5 For they that are after the
flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the
things of the Spirit.
6 For to be carnally minded is death; but to be
spiritually minded is life and peace.
7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against IAUE: for
it is not subject to the law of Elohim, neither indeed can be.
8 So then they that are in the flesh cannot please IAUE.
We looked at this
passage of Scripture last week. Let’s
look at it more closely, this week.
Notice that those who are “after the flesh”
do something in particular. The Scripture is very specific about it. They “mind”
the things of the flesh. They are “carnally minded.”
This is why they are living according to the dictates of the flesh. It is because it is what they think about all
the time.
1 John 2: 15 Love not the world, neither
the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the
Father is not in him.
16 For all that is in the world,
the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not
of the Father, but is of the world.
Consider your heart
a garden and your thoughts seed. What
you think is what you plant; and what you plant is the fruit you are going to
produce. This is a simple yet profound truth that is revealed in the “parable
of the sower;” a parable that Messiah regarded as the most fundamental concept
that he taught. (The apostle tells
us that a carnal mind is the enemy of IAUE and is utterly incapable of pleasing
Him, no matter how good one’s intentions might be. The purpose of renewing the mind is to enable
us to know and do the will of IAUE; so a carnal mind is exactly what we are
trying to overcome.) A carnal mind bears bad fruit…fruit that is unacceptable
in the Master’s kingdom. Its fruit, no
matter what form it might take, produces death.
That which does please the King, that produces good and acceptable fruit,
is a “spiritual mind,” a mind that thinks upon the things of the Holy Spirit. Paul makes it clear that a spiritual man “minds the things of the Spirit.” It is what he thinks about. Such thoughts are the seed a spiritual man
plants in his garden; and it produces the fruit of “life
and peace.”
What are the “things
of the Spirit?” To answer that question,
we must look to see what the Holy Spirit does.
Genesis 1:1 In the beginning Elohim created
the heaven and the earth.
2 And the earth was without
form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of Elohim
moved upon the face of the waters.
This is the first mention
of the Holy Spirit in the Scriptures. In
it we see the Spirit moving upon the waters that covered the earth. He is waiting…waiting to act…waiting for the
Word of IAUE.
Genesis 1:3 And
Elohim said, ‘Let there be light:’ and there was light.
The Spirit of IAUE
acts upon the Word of IAUE and makes it come to life. He is the creative power within the Word of
IAUE. Remember what Messiah said about
the miracles he performed? “The Father that dwells in me, He does the works.” (John 14:10) He was
referring to the Holy Spirit.
John 14:26 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.
1 John 2:27 But the anointing which ye have received of
him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but
as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and
is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in
him.
The Holy Spirit is
referred to as “the Comforter” and as “the anointing.”
He will teach us and He will remind us of the words of Yahushua. Of course, Yahushua said that the words he
spoke were not his words. They were the
Father’s words.
The Holy Spirit is
preoccupied with the Word of IAUE. His
purpose in our lives is to teach us the Word of IAUE, remind us of the Word of
IAUE, comfort us regarding the Word of IAUE, anoint the Word of IAUE within us
and to give creative power to the Word of IAUE in us and through us. We are not supposed to be just normal
people. We are to be an extraordinary
people through which the power of IAUE flows as His Word becomes alive within
us. That is the Father’s intention in
giving us His own Spirit.
That brings us to
the all-important question. What is the
word of IAUE? To Adam it was the voice
of IAUE. To Noah, it was the voice of
IAUE. To Abraham it was the voice of
IAUE. To Moses, it was the voice of
IAUE. With Moses came the writing of the
Torah (the first five books of the Bible).
Then there were the historical books, the poetry books, the prophets,
major and minor; but throughout their writing and being compiled into the Tanak
(the Old Testament Scriptures) there was always the clarion call by IAUE to “hear
and obey” his voice.
To Yahushua the Word
of IAUE was more than the Scriptures. It
was the voice of IAUE. In fact, it is
with Yahushua that we begin to see that the Scriptures were a platform to hear
the voice of IAUE and not an end in themselves.
John 5:39 Search the scriptures; for in
them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.
40 And ye will not come to me,
that ye might have life.
Messiah told his
detractors that they studied the Scriptures and missed the entire point of
them. From this we understand that the Scriptures are NOT, of themselves, the
Word of IAUE. They are a springboard to
the Word of IAUE. They function like a code, inspired by IAUE, for the
initiated to be able to move beyond them to the Truth, which IS the Word of
IAUE. This is a radical thought; and one upon which I tread lightly; but one,
however which must be discussed.
2 Peter 1:21 For the prophecy came not in old time by the
will of man: but holy men of Elohim spake as they were moved by
the Holy Spirit.
I absolutely believe
that the giving of the Scriptures was under the direction of the Holy Spirit. In this passage of Peter’s epistle, he began
with explaining that he was physically there on the mount of transfiguration and
literally saw Messiah transformed and glorified. He actually heard with his own ears the voice
of IAUE declare that Yahushua was His beloved Son; and yet, Peter said he had an
even more sure word of prophecy to confirm that Yahushua was the son of IAUE;
more sure than his own personal experience.
His more sure word of prophecy was the Scriptures.
1 Corinthians 15:3 For I
delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Messiah
died for our sins according to the scriptures;
4 And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according
to the scriptures:
Paul also, having
seen the resurrected and glorified master with his own eyes…glory that actually
was so bright it blinded him for three days, said that Messiah died for our
sins and was buried and rose again, just like it said he would “according to
the scriptures.”
Having said that, we
must examine the fact that the Hebrews, both devout and common, both priests
and scribes and the unlearned who heard the Scriptures being read in the
synagogue every Sabbath, never saw it coming.
They never knew Messiah would die for their sins. They never knew he would be buried and would
rise again on the third day. It was
there all along, but it could not be known.
Why is this? It is because though
the Scriptures testify of Yahushua Messiah; it requires the Word of IAUE to
reveal what the Scriptures actually say.
I remember listening
on the odd occasion the radio broadcast of Madeline Murray O’Hair, the founder
of the America Atheist Organization. She could quote more Scripture than
virtually any Bible teacher, preacher or minister I knew; and yet she had no
clue what it said. She did not discover
the Scriptures to be a doorway to the voice of IAUE. Her knowledge of the Scriptures served her no
better than the Jews in the day of Yahushua who could not see that they
testified of him.
There have been many
ministers, in attesting to their belief in the divine inspiration of the
Scriptures whom I have heard to say, “I believe the Bible is the divinely
inspired word of God from cover to cover.
I even believe the leather is genuine.”
Unfortunately, they were all wrong.
Peter says holy men of IAUE were moved by the Holy Spirit and wrote down
the Scriptures under the instruction of the Holy Spirit. The bulk of the Old Testament Scriptures were
written in Hebrew (part of the book of Daniel was written in Chaldean). Most people today believe that the New
Testament Scriptures were written in Greek.
I do not believe that. I believe since unto the Jews was given the
responsibility by IAUE to record the Scriptures, that they, too, were
originally written in Hebrew (or Aramaic, a contemporary variant of Hebrew in
Messiah’s day). Common sense alone would
tell you they did not write the Scriptures in a language most Jews could not
read. (The Peshitta is an Aramaic New Testament that
claims authorship that predates the Greek manuscripts. There is scholarship both to support and to
refute that claim; but the Eastern Church holds exclusively to the Peshitta as
the reliable version of the New Testament Scriptures.)
Early in the writing
of this blog, we discussed the problem of translations. The moment you translate anything from one
language to another, you lose the nuances of the original language, and you run
into the complications of the receiving language having no direct vocabulary to
translate some of the original language.
Consequently, for most of those who read this blog and English is their
native language, you use an English translation of the New Testament. Whether it is the King James Version, the New
American Standard Version, the New International Version, the Amplified Bible…whichever
one it may be, it is not the
inspired word of IAUE. The translators
were not holy men of IAUE receiving His words to write in English. It IS, however, a faithful rendering of
ancient manuscripts that endeavor to capture as much of the original language
and thought as is possible to convey in English. The problem is, it is NOT the version that
was originally transcribed by holy men of IAUE moved by the Holy Spirit.
As a faithful translation,
all contemporary Bibles serve to provide us a platform for “hearing the voice
of IAUE.” If we study the Bible we have
in our own language, today, and do not listen for the voice of IAUE while we
study, we are going to achieve absolutely nothing higher than an academic
knowledge of the words on the page; and we will totally miss the Word of IAUE.
Next week we will
examine more thoroughly why understanding this distinction is critical to
disciples of Yahushua, today.
Kingdom
heart: a heart that offers no resistance to the
performance of the will of IAUE.
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