God is not mocked. We can have no access to His Wisdom without turning away from the world and the flesh, repenting, and seeking Him alone. Carol Dietz has put together an excellent series called “Without Holiness No One Will See the Lord” —–enjoy !! jeff
Part 16 of series – WITHOUT HOLINESS NO ONE WILL SEE THE LORD
Does God deliver us from the evil one before we are sincere about turning away from evil? I tend to believe He won’t because true repentance is just that. (Psalms 31:1-8 and Matthew 6:13) The perverted version of repentance is where you, in admitting to God that you’re a sinner, receive the Lord’s forgiveness but then go back to living and thinking like you were, never really wanting to know God’s ways and laws. This is not salvation! What does the Lord have to say about this?
“When You hear My Voice (and He has made sure that we all have), do not harden your hearts against Me….do not test My patience after you have heard of all I’m capable of….but know My ways so your hearts do not go astray, or I will speak this word against you, on oath in my anger; that you will NEVER EVER enter My Rest.” (Psalm 95:8-11 in part and caps are mine)
If we cry out to the Lord in truth and spirit to deliver us from evil, from the ways of our world, from the evil desires of our flesh and from the deception and control of the devil, He will, but He will require some diligence from us in learning how to think like He thinks and live accordingly as His sons and daughters. There are more to His ways than just being kind and generous. There is also hatred and meanness toward evil. Do you have it in you to truly hate that which is evil and not tolerate it in the least as instructed by our heavenly Father? Could you be cruel enough to do what the Lord suggested?
“If your hand or your foot causes you to sin cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire. And if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell.” Matthew18:8-9
God’s thoughts are much higher than ours and by what the Lord said here – His ways are too.
If we do not make it our number one goal to live by faith (in obedience) to what God says in His Word and by His Spirit, doing all to ‘get it’ and ‘do it;’ even doing the hardest radical unheard things that are in line with God’s holiness, then we can not worship and serve the Lord God. We worship and serve a lesser god; a god void of holiness.
Your enemy is threatened by your faithful confessions to the Lord and your prayers of faith that are prompted by what God says in His Word, by His Spirit. Satan fights hard and with all he’s got to convince God that He should turn His back on you just like God did with Israel (temporarily). Satan has and is doing all he can to keep believers from reading and studying God’s Word. We can say that he’s been quite successful because of all the disorder, confusion and disunity there is among God’s people. Often, when a nation is in trouble it’s because the Lord’s church is out of order and divided.
Do you have someone interceding for you; one that walks with the Lord and is praying for you? The prayers of God’s servants are undermined by our neglect to pick up our own cross and follow after Christ. By our own neglect of doing what God requires of His children we are actually working along with the enemies of the Cross – evil workers of inequity – against our own soul and good future.
As one who still prays for her (adult married) children and friends, I can say that the hardest thing for me to do is to be ‘prayerfully’ silent when I’m burning inside with something to say to the one I love and pray for continually. There are things that need to be said and things that need to wait to be said. When I present my concerns to the Lord first, He takes them and holds them for His appointed time to be released; when those I pray for are ready to receive “the light of truth.” It might be through me or someone else, or through a book or movie, or even by some roadway sign or natural disaster; one way or another God knows how to get through to each of us.
“God does nothing until His people pray.” This statement [from the Holy Spirit of God’s Word] changed my prayer life.
When we trust in Jesus and He deposits His Holy Spirit in us – the veil of uncertainties lifts so we can understand what we never could understand before, BUT so often we want to hold on to that veil. We want the Lord’s forgiveness but we don’t want His wisdom and deliverance. Wisdom and deliverance are given to the righteous, not to the pretenders.
There’s an old saying: “Ignorance is bliss!” Well, is it? I believe it’s the “fool” who thinks this is true. God has gone to great lengths to give us all we need to know now in His written Word. The deeper we go in His Word with His Spirit – the greater our LIGHT becomes. God has given [to the forgiven] His Holy Spirit who teaches the truths our faith needs because faith has a scheduled journey. Faith has a finish line:
“For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins.” 2 Peter 1:5-9
For instance: “knowledge” cannot skip over “self-control” to reach “godliness.” And, “goodness” can reject “knowledge” and claim to have “love.”
God is not letting His people, the Lord’s Church, pussy-foot around anymore with our sneaky way of living in sin as we claim to be the children of the Living God. Our God is not allowing His blood-cleansed forgiven church to say, “I didn’t know!” or, “I don’t understand!” or, “I have my own interpretation.” There is no excuse for ignorance, confusion or defeat when we’ve been graciously given all things necessary for living the victorious life in Christ Jesus. You might think that because you’ve been getting away with something wicked, or in your opinion – not so wicked, that the Lord doesn’t mind, but…..
“How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace?” Hebrews 10:29-30
Just imagine how much simpler life would be, and less costly too, if everyone simply trusted God’s love and obeyed God’s Word. Think of how simple and full human life would be if we just followed those two
commandments that Jesus gave us to love God with all our heart, mind and strength, and to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. (Matthew 22:37-40) It’s how life on earth was intended to be; simple, full, glorious and eternal.
We have given people way too much credit for what they ‘make up’ in their heads that opposes the way God tells us to think and live. We have acknowledged and honored the thoughts and works of man far more than the thoughts and works of God. We have meditated and acted on the wrong words. We have been medicated right out of our sound minds and bodies. We have trusted in the wrong leaders, both nationally and spiritually. We need to return to the Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
“Take heed, you senseless ones among the people; you fools, when will you become wise? Does he who implanted the ear – not hear? Does he who formed the eye – not see? Does he who disciplines nations – not punish? Does he who teaches man – lack knowledge?” Psalms 94:8-10
“Blessed is the man you discipline, O Lord, the man you teach from your law; you grant him relief from days of trouble, till a pit is dug for the wicked. For the Lord will not reject his people; he will never forsake his inheritance.” Psalms 94:12-14
Jesus didn’t “save” you for later; He “saved” you for now; for now and for evermore!
