WBS.173
FUNDAMENTALS OF DISCIPLESHIP
THE
TRANSFORMATION OF THE SOUL – X
John 14:11 Believe
me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the
very works' sake.
12 Verily, verily, I say unto you,
He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater
works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.
13 And whatsoever ye shall ask in
my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
14 If ye
shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.
In
your study or reading of the Scriptures this week, look for things the
Scripture declares that Messiah is made unto us, things that IAUE says are true
of us, things that He has provided to and for us; and things that are prayed in
the Scriptures for believers.
Personalize them and speak them back to IAUE. By this time next week, you will have
undergone more transformation of the soul.
Last week we began
our study observing how IAUE arranged for the souls of his people to be
saturated with His words. They were to
teach them to their children and talk of them when they arose in the morning,
when they went along their way and when they sat in their house, and when they
went to bed at night. They wore His words
on their hand and hung them upon their doorposts. There was no time or place where they were
not in constant reminder of the words of IAUE.
Also, when Joshua led
the Hebrews into their promised land, they were instructed to eradicate the
land of every man, woman and child of the pagan nations that occupied the land
that IAUE had given to His people.
Why? It was to sterilize the land
of the social orders that violated the will of IAUE. These nations were polytheistic (worshipped
many gods) and practiced all manner of debauchery and wickedness. IAUE did not want His people even to have the
opportunity to learn how to think like them…to experience their waywardness in
mind or experience. He protected His
people so they would BELIEVE in Him and in His words.
Today, the church,
for the most part, is filled with people that do not discuss the scriptures
when they wake up, walk out of their houses, sit in their houses, or lie down
at night. They rarely read the Bible,
and when they do, they call it their “quiet time” which usually takes about
5-10 minutes; and that often is reading a verse or two of Scripture and a
couple of paragraphs of commentary in some devotional booklet. Spending these few minutes in devotional
thought makes them feel like they are pretty spiritual and living the Christian
life better than most. The rest of their day is filled with the cares of this
world, yearning for things this world offers, longing for a better lifestyle,
filling their ears with worldly music, worldly news, television, and virtually
no conversation about the words of IAUE.
In the beginning,
Satan was successful at overthrowing mankind’s mind with witchcraft, sorcery,
idolatry and sexual perversion. They
fell for it hook, line and sinker. They
wanted to know the very depths of experience that was available to them. Today, he accomplishes the same level of
overthrow of the minds of the people of IAUE with comforts, food, conveniences,
and entertainment, entertainment and entertainment…anything to occupy the minds
of the saints to keep them from meditating on the words of IAUE, and making
them feel quite satisfied with their quiet time. It is little wonder that the church has
nothing to offer the world around them.
They ARE the world around them.
When I was a young
boy being raised in the Baptist church, for many years I assimilated the “church”
experience, thinking this is all there was to being a Christian: attending
church and its related meetings, and incorporating its culture into my day to
day living; but then…I was born again. I
began to actually read the Scriptures. I
was hungry for all that I had been missing all those years in church. In my reading, I came upon our opening
text. In particular, verse 12.
John 14:12 Verily,
verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he
do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.
This verse launched a
period of great dissatisfaction within my soul.
Week after week, I sat in church and wondered what happened between
Yahushua speaking these words and the contemporary Christian experience. In my
spirit, these words rang true to me; but did he actually mean what he
said? Even asking myself that question
seemed pretty stupid to me. He began the
verse with “Verily, verily,” or in today’s
speech, “I am telling you the truth. This is the truth.”
For two years, I
sought the answer as to why this verse seemed to be ignored by the church. It was as if it were simply too good to be
true. I asked preachers about this verse
and they tip-toed around a literal interpretation. They said that leading someone to Messiah was
the greater work to which the verse referred; but that did not ring true since
Messiah himself said that if he be lifted up he would draw all men unto
himself; nor did it answer the question about doing the same works Messiah
did. Why overlook that to speak only to
the greater works? Messiah said we would
do both. The church simply did not believe Messiah’s words. It did not matter that Messiah said he only
spoke the words his Father gave him to speak; so these were the words of IAUE.
After two years of this
angst and pursuit of the truth of these words, I was brought to a place where IAUE
filled me with his Holy Spirit, and the power spoken of in Acts 1 became my
personal experience. In the following
months, I experienced all nine gifts of the Spirit in 1 Corinthians 12. I began to experience the supernatural that
was intended to be the normal experience of a disciple. I began to do the works
Messiah did. I didn’t get to that place by sitting quietly in a pew each
Sunday, because if I limited myself to that, I would still be warming a pew on
Sunday mornings. I had to renew my
mind. I had to change what I was
listening to, change what I was reading, and change my associations with
people.
If we are born of the
Spirit of IAUE, the Kingdom of Heaven literally FILLS our spirit. There is a wondrous world of glory, virtue,
truth and power residing within us; however, as long as we allow the world
around us to captivate our minds, teaching us its ways and expectations, we
remain far from the release of the spirit; because our minds will believe the
world more than we believe the words of IAUE, just like we have refused to
believe John 14:12. The Kingdom of
Heaven is bigger than our heads. Its
greatness within us is so far beyond what the world will allow us to believe. We must reject the world as our teacher. We
must regard all of the world’s lessons as lies in any area where it contradicts
what IAUE has said.
We will never become proper
emissaries of the Kingdom of Heaven that is within us until our minds eradicate
the wicked input of every man, woman and child who does not serve the Master
Yahushua; and as long as our souls do not recognize and attribute the
wickedness to it that it merits, we will still cater to it. There is a way that seems right to a man; but
the end thereof are the ways of death.
IAUE has given us His words and His Spirit to fill us and transform our
souls to embrace the righteousness, peace and joy of His Kingdom.
The transformation of
the soul into the likeness of IAUE, for most believers is not even an
objective. For the 2% who will not be
satisfied with less, with just living the Christian culture, there must be a
dedicated pursuit of the words of IAUE, turning a deaf ear to all that the
world would speak to us. This will
require commitment and discipline. We
are but a choice away from the fruits of righteousness filling our souls.
Kingdom
heart: a heart that offers no resistance to the
performance of the will of IAUE.
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