WBS.179
FUNDAMENTALS OF DISCIPLESHIP
THE
TRANSFORMATION OF THE SOUL – XVI
John 12:24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a
corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it
bringeth forth much fruit.
James tells us that
faith without works is dead; because where true faith exists; corresponding
actions will manifest the existence of that faith. Mere belief without faith cannot be seen by
others. No one can tell that you have
faith unless it can be seen. True faith
can only be demonstrated by action. In
the same way, discipleship can only be proven, can only be demonstrated by fruit;
and fruit can be borne only by abiding in Yahushua whose spirit resides within
us.
In
Christian churches around the world, there are many who would love to be used
of IAUE. They want the gifts of the
Spirit to operate freely in their lives. There are many who would love to have
their lives transformed such that love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,
gentleness, meekness and self-control were their constant experience. There are many, especially, who would love
for their lives to cease being marred by repetitive sinful activity. They pray that IAUE would bring these things
to pass in their lives…and yet…absolutely nothing ever happens. They stay the same. They are still quick to back-bite, gossip,
get angry, argue, be rude, judgmental and intolerant. They are still sitting in their pews hearing
the Word of IAUE week after week and doing none of it; and they are still in
bondage to their sinful practices. Why
is this? Are their prayers not sincere? Of course they are. Do they not truly desire
these things to be manifest in their lives?
Of course they do; otherwise they would never even think to pray for
them. So what is the problem?
The
problem is that these prayers cannot be answered. They are prayers upon which the Father cannot
act. Why is this? It is because the answer to all of these
prayers was already provided to us in Messiah Yahushua before we ever even
thought to ask for them. There is
nothing more that IAUE can do than what He has already done.
2 Peter 1:3 According
as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness,
through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: 4 Whereby
are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye
might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that
is in the world through lust.
Ephesians 3:20 Now
unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or
think, according to the power that worketh in us,
Ephesians 1:18 The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may
know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his
inheritance in the saints,
19 And
what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe,
according to the working of his mighty power,
20 Which
he wrought in Messiah, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own
right hand in the heavenly places,
ALL
THINGS pertaining to life and godliness have already been given to us BY HIS
DIVINE POWER? Is IAUE’s power somehow
diminished when it comes to us? Did He
use too little power when He gave US those precious promises? Certainly not. He is, at this very moment, able to do more
than we can ask, more than we can even imagine, according to (by activating)
the power that works IN US…the power that is already inside of us. What kind of power has He placed within
us? It is the same power He used when He
raised Messiah from the dead.
We
are not short on power. We are not short
on the supply to anything that pertains to our life in the body. Why, then, do believers keep on praying for
what they already have? They expect,
somehow, that IAUE is going to see in their hearts they are desperate for the
answers to their prayers, and He is going to just “fix” them spontaneously,
sovereignly. Let me tell you; for Him to
do so would be like breaking the shell of an egg to release a new chick. Depriving the chick of the necessary struggle
to break through the shell on its own will result in a weak, sickly life that
will most probably end prematurely.
Christians, for the most part, are cowards. They do not want to do anything that requires
commitment, discipline, or inconvenience, or even a cessation of their right to
personal pleasures. They would not mind,
however, if all of that were bypassed sovereignly by IAUE; and they just instantly
became what would have resulted from it had they had any of it.
The
truth is, contemporary Christianity breeds a type of believer that does not
want to die. We have already discussed
this repeatedly throughout the life of this blog. The current “gospel” message is not THE
gospel message of the New Testament. It
produces “believers” not “disciples.” It
produces one who anticipates everything to be provided to them in Heaven when
they die; and they do not have to do or be anything in this present life to
obtain their eternal reward; consequently, they never know genuine repentance
(which is the FIRST requirement of the TRUE gospel message).
We
have seen the necessity of “always bearing about in the body the dying of the
Master Yahushua, that the life of Yahushua might be manifest in the body.” If we are new creatures in Messiah, then the
spirit of Yahushua is the life that animates our body, now. Our problem is, as long as our soul functions
on the basis that IT is still in charge of the body, we will not effectively
access the life of Yahushua within us.
Matthew 10:39 He
that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for
my sake shall find it.
Matthew 16:25 For
whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for
my sake shall find it.
Mark 8:35 For
whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for
my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it.
Luke 9:24 For
whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for
my sake, the same shall save it.
Luke 17:33 Whosoever
shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life shall
preserve it.
John 12:25 He
that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.
How
many times does the Master have to say it?
The word “life” in these verses is “psuche” which is the “soul”
life. If we hold on to our soul after
becoming a new creature in Messiah, instead of allowing Messiah to transform
our soul; we will lose everything.
Brothers
and sisters, this is where the proverbial rubber meets the road. This is the bottom line. This is the ultimate test of the gospel to
which we have responded. Messiah died
for all that we which live will no longer live for ourselves but for the one who
loved us and gave himself for us.
There
is no lack of the power of IAUE within us to makes us loving, peaceful, joyous,
patient, kind, good, gentle, meek and temperate. There is no lack of the power
of IAUE within us to heal the sick, heal the lame, raise the dead, cast out
demons and set the captives free. There
is no lack of the power of IAUE within us to manifest the gloriously divine
nature of our Creator and Savior. The
problem is our insistence upon allowing our own soulish life to maintain
control of our lives; operating like some sort of valve that we open at times
when we permit the spirit of Yahushua to flow; and close it (most of the time)
to allow ourselves to continue living our own life.
I
believe that there are those that have been reading this blog who have been
trying to do the things we have discussed as an act of their own wills. They have been seeing in the Scripture
various things that are the will of IAUE (giving thanks for/in all things,
rejoicing evermore, praying without ceasing, etc.), and have been choosing to
do them as an act of their own will; rather than recognizing that this is what
the Master Yahushua, whose spirit resides within us, wants to do within us.
John 12:24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a
corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it
bringeth forth much fruit.
We
must do as Paul told the Roman disciples.
We must consider what has been accomplished for us by the Master and
conclude/reckon that we died in him. We,
therefore, are dead, and our life is now hidden with Messiah in Elohim. It is Messiah who now lives within us. Are we going to live out our lives resisting
the life of Messiah within us? Are we
going to go to our graves having insisted upon our right to living as our soul
desires? Or are we going to lay down
like a corn of wheat falling to the ground, and yield to the life of Yahushua?
Remember
our story of Ben and Jack? Jack died for
Ben. Ben now has the option of
continuing to live for himself, or relegate his own life as having died in
Jack, and living the rest of his life in the flesh as Jack would do. That is where we are, today. We are face with this choice. Messiah Yahushua died for us. If we enter into his death, his life will
flow through us in power and majesty. If
we retain our hold on our bodies and fail to offer them as living sacrifices to
our Master, then our Master will not have the freedom to use our bodies as he
pleases. He will forever be waiting for
the opportunity to demonstrate what it could be like for the Kingdom of IAUE to
be manifested in our bodies.
When
Paul told the Romans in Chapter 12, that it was their reasonable service of
worship to offer their bodies as living sacrifices; and to be transformed by
the renewing of their minds; he was continuing the discussion that he began in
Chapters 6-8.
Messiah
died for us.
We
died in Messiah.
Messiah
now lives in us.
We
cannot do the will of our Master if our soul is mindful of the flesh.
We
CAN do his will if we are mindful of the spirit.
Our
soul life is the battleground; but the war has already been won by Messiah.
Our
souls are transformed by the renewing of the mind.
Our
minds are renewed by allowing the spirit of Yahushua full reign in our bodies.
As
we experience the life of Messiah working in us/through us, our minds are renewed.
We
demonstrate in our lives the good, perfect and acceptable will of IAUE.
What
results from this process? Love, joy,
peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, meekness, self-control,
healing, deliverance, the power of IAUE and the Kingdom of IAUE freely
manifested in our lives.
There
is a favorite topic among some Christian circles. Books have been written about it. It is called “death to self.” This is nothing more than a ploy of the enemy
to keep the will of man strong and unyielded to the spirit of Yahushua. Self cannot kill self. Self can only discipline itself to appear
demure and not in control; when all the while the very objective of “death to
self” is to maintain the life of self while simultaneously appearing to be
yielded to the Master. All it really
does is empower the will of man.
So,
what is the answer? The truth. We died in Messiah. The life now living within us is the spirit
of Yahushua.
Our
current soul (mind, will, emotions) was formed and developed by the union of a
spirit (one that was separated from the life and light of IAUE) entering into us
in our mother’s womb; This spirit allowed us to learn to think and act like the
world around us, conforming our soul to its own nature…the nature of the kind
of life that is alienated from the life and light of IAUE.
When
we became new creatures in Messiah, that original alienated-from-IAUE spirit
was removed from our body. It is now
hidden within Messiah and is seated at the right hand of IAUE. The spirit which
originally gave life to our flesh ceased being the animating life of our
bodies. We died. The spirit of Yahushua simultaneously entered
our bodies and maintained the life of our body.
Now, the spirit of Yahushua wants to exercise that same right to rewrite
our souls unto HIS likeness in our body.
The process for that happening is quite simple. We reckon ourselves to be dead, which is a
fact; and we reckon ourselves to be alive in the spirit of Yahushua. As long as our souls abide in the spirit of
Yahushua, the life of Yahushua will manifest in our body and our soul will be
transformed into his likeness…the likeness of the righteousness of IAUE.
[Through
the years this blog has been online, there have been readers from all across
the globe: USA, England, France, Russia,
Malaysia, India, Germany, Poland, Ukraine, Netherlands, China, etc. I would love to hear from you and learn if
you have found this blog to be helpful to your walk with the Master
Yahushua. Email me at: kaprion@gmail.com. I should be able to translate your emails if
you cannot write them in English. Thank
you.]
Kingdom
heart: a heart that offers no resistance to the
performance of the will of IAUE.
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