Kill Sin or God

See My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers for this date. “Either God or sin must die in my life.” This lies very near the center of the Great Controversy. If I am not crucified with Christ then I will crucify Him afresh in myself. The Great Controversy is a fatal struggle to the finish and total annihilation of one side or the other. No prisoners are taken by God and no freedom is permitted by Satan. It is kill or be killed according to Satan's rules of engagement. We have been taught that it is better to kill than to be killed. But Jesus says we must lose our life to save it. If we do not surrender to be killed with Christ then sin in us will rise up within us and kill Christ who lives in us. There is no compromise – only a time of probation wherein we choose which will die.

More Faith

The apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith!" And the Lord said, "If you had faith like a mustard seed, you would say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and be planted in the sea'; and it would obey you. "Which of you, having a slave plowing or tending sheep, will say to him when he has come in from the field, 'Come immediately and sit down to eat'? "But will he not say to him, 'Prepare something for me to eat, and properly clothe yourself and serve me while I eat and drink; and afterward you may eat and drink'? "He does not thank the slave because he did the things which were commanded, does he? "So you too, when you do all the things which are commanded you, say, 'We are unworthy slaves; we have done only that which we ought to have done.'" (Luke 17:5-10 NAS95)

OBEY means to listen and submit to authority.

FAITH may be the vital combination of surrender to love and obedience.

When we are fully surrendered to God, full of His love and living in total surrender to His authority, then we may find that all creation will begin to submit to the authority of God in us.

Ordination

We have so adopted the Babylonian model into religion that we have turned ordination on its head. God originally designed ordination – laying on of hands – to be an event of recognition of God's empowering and an embracing by God's family of a person and their choice by God. The family of God was committing to support and defend this person as an elder maturity function for their community or in support of some other work God had singled them out to do.

Now, although we create the external words and pretension that we are supposedly doing this, in actuality we use ordination as an exclusion tool to block people from fulfilling their calling of God. Unless a person pays their “dues” through prescribed educational achievements and meet certain arbitrary criteria of tradition they are not deemed worth of authority from man-made institutions based on the kingship/legal/economic model of government.

Jesus, when speaking of binding and loosing, said that His family would bind or loose what was already bound or loosed in heaven, not the other way around, contrary to some mistranslations of that passage. In the family model the family follows the lead of the head and the head looks out for the needs and best interests of all the family.

(reference Ye Shall Receive Power for June 11)

Disciples' Left-brain Block

The disciples minds were deeply entrenched from childhood in the left-brain teachings and doctrines from the scribes and pharisees. Living with Jesus was an intense right-brain experience that progressively raised conflicts and questions about their left-brain explanations of reality. The big problem from the time they first met Jesus all the way through the crucifixion was that they were still using their left-brain doctrines embedded in the minds as their source of authority instead of ravishing themselves in an abandoned relationship with the passionate God right in from of them.

I have a stiff shell, an exterior facade that seems to have a life of its own, maybe like a vine that covers a tree and appears to be its foliage. It has almost complete control of my voice tone and face and gestures. It is rooted in years of use and evolvement in acting as a defense against pain and rejection by others. It effectively blocks over 90% of the new life awakening inside my soul from being seen on the outside. In doing so it causes confusion on the inside as to who I really am.

It powerfully inhibits truthful expressions of praise and heartfelt gratitude. It uses fear and intimidation to stop me from singing, dancing and rejoicing in God my Savior with full abandon like my heart inside wants to do. It suffocates the new life and growth that the Spirit is doing inside of me. I am like a hothouse box with plants pressed against the glass desperately struggling to push into the open freedom of fresh cool air and refreshing showers while withering from the intensifying heat in the restricted interior.

Even simple stories of answers to prayer wither in significance when attempting to come into the open. The facade ridicules them and discounts their significance and hides the fact that it only wants to protect its own reputation of consistency. It is full of hidden pride, aloofness, viewing myself as better than collectively those around me. It is carefully defensive and hides the anger that often flares up inside, careful to maintain a pious exterior and allowing enough of the new growth inside to be seen by others as to impress them with my growing spirituality. I definitely feel like a perfect specimen of Romans 7 – who will deliver me from this external body of death? Only Jesus can. But how do I get there from here? God – you know.