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by haRold Smith
from Jerusalem, Israel
"Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him." Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, "Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?" Jesus answered him, "If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And THE WORD THAT YOU HEAR IS NOT MINE BUT THE FATHERS who sent me." John 14:21-24
When was the last time you laid hands on someone and they were healed really healed? Not from some headache or non-descript pain but sight given to the blind, the deaf hear, the lame walk, limbs are restored, the dead brought to life? Not somebody behind a microphone charging you admission to see their performance but YOU? Yeshua said this is to be the normal walk of a believer (John 14:12, Mark 16:17-18, Acts 5:16, Acts 8:7 click on highlighted verse to see scripture). Is that happening in your life? Are these things following along behind you as He said they would?
Are you "saved"? Then how many times have you submitted yourself to that "other cross" (the medical one with the snakes wrapped around it) to treat your diseases when the word "saved" comes from the Greek word sozo and means 1) to save one suffering from disease, to make well, heal, restore to health? Yeshua used this word in John 3:16-17 as "saved" and again in John 5:33-34. The apostle Sha'ul (Paul) also said that the same Spirit that raised Yeshua from the grave dwells in you to "quicken (give life to) your mortal bodies" (Romans 8:11 - see also Salvation and Eternal Life for an expanded look).
Is the Power contained in the Present Presence apparent in your life and extended to those around you? If it is not, don't you think we should we be asking ourselves - why not? If Yeshua pointed to the evidence of that Power as validation that He was of the Father (John 14:9-11) what does that say about the validation over our life? Could it be we have lost our bearing as to what constitutes LIFE? How many times did you sit in front of a television this past week to watch some program based in murder and fornication - not comprehending that just as what you eat becomes a part of you, so also what you see and hear becomes just as much a part of you? If His LIFE = LIGHT (John 1:4, 1John 1:5), then how can we expect Light to become brilliant in us if we are consistently diminishing it by our choices to embrace the world of darkness around us (see what it means to walk in Authority)? How are we to be distinct from the world if we look and act just like them (1Peter 2:9-10)? And just how are we to know the difference? There is only one element contained in scripture that Yeshua said could neutralize the Word of God the religious tradition of men that has been handed down to us that says we can partake of anything without consequence (Mark 7:13). Could it be that by simply accepting, (and, thereby, embracing) the religious traditions handed down to us by other men (who have unquestioningly embraced the same traditions handed to them) we have reasoned our way into a place that voids, nullifies and brings to none effect the Power of the Living Word in our lives?
"For I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has Himself given me a commandment - what to say and what to speak. And I know that His commandment is eternal life. What I say, therefore, I say as the Father has told me." John 12:49-50
How many books do you read where you start at the back, at the ending, and read backwards to the front? Probably not too many - but, yet, that is exactly the way most are taught to begin with the bible. Most start with the apostle Sha'ul (Paul - or worse, the Book of Revelation), using his words to look back into scripture for an explanation of Yeshua and, subsequently, the Father instead of starting at the beginning of the Book with the Initiator, the Father, to see how His Words culminated in Yeshua, the Son, who ONLY SPOKE THE FATHER'S WORDS and, who only after His Resurrection, revealed Himself to Sha'ul, the disciple, who, because of his training in the words of the Father, was able to recognize Yeshua as the Son of the Father. There is much to be learned from Sha'ul's writings - but his words did not replace the words of Yeshua any more than Yeshua's words replaced the words of the Father. If we clear away the centuries of men's traditions piled upon Sha'ul's words and look at them simply for what those words say and mean, we will find that he is presenting an argument upholding the words of the Father not repudiating them (Romans 2:13). If we look at scripture from the beginning of the Book to the end, instead of starting at the end and going backwards to the front, everything Sha'ul says is in complete harmony with everything anyone has written in the Book before him says and, from which, he frequently draws upon to substantiate what he is presenting. To start at the beginning of the Book - what a novel concept! (read about Perspective).
Should we balance all scripture? Absolutely, but the fulcrum of balance should be the apex of Truth. Yeshua is the fulfillment of the Truth of the Father in the flesh (John 14:6). Since He is Truth, the Life of Yeshua should be the benchmark by which everything is measured including other scripture (Revelation 19:10b - see also Arrows of Famine). Enthroning the words of Paul above and to the exclusion of the very words recorded of what Yeshua said and the Father spoke is how we have come to worship this "New Pauline Religion" called "Christianity" authored by the "greatest of all the apostles" (of which scripture does not refer to him).. Instead of simply heeding the words given to us by the Creator to reveal the difference between "us" and Him, we have embraced a tradition that essentially neuters Who He says He is by portraying Him as something apart from His Character and then we wonder why we can find no Power in those words or the actions of those who adhere to those words why so many professing believers "suddenly" just fall into an abyss (2Timothy 3:5). They fall away because they have no bearing, no compass, no standard by which to navigate this thing called "life". Religiosity, in any of its various forms, does not produce LIFE.
So, then what is LIFE?
John 17:3
says that eternal life is in knowing the Father and the One Whom He sent. There are those who say that you cannot separate the two the Father from the Son. I disagree because Yeshua did. Are they One? The first chapter of John says they are. Yeshua said they were - but, yet, He was speaking to Someone Else further down in
John 17:6-12
when He prayed that they (the twelve) be One in Whoever He was speaking to just as He (Yeshua) was One in Him that means in like manner. Well, there goes the "Catholic Trinity Godhead" theology (this is true - a little historical research will reveal its origin) because now we have not One in Three - but One in Fifteen. And He didn't stop there. He went on to pray to "Whomever" that not only they (the twelve) be One in the Father just as, in like manner, He is One in the Father; but, also, that all those who would believe on their words also be One in the Father just as, in like manner, He is One in the Father. Now we have One in "Innumerable"
(John 17:20-23).
Yeshua said He prayed this way that His "joy might be fulfilled." In Hebrew, the word "one" is echad and literally means "fulfillment of joy". Every epistle in the New Testament begins with a phrase extending some sort of a greeting "from God our Father AND the Lord Jesus Christ". These guys knew there was a distinguishable difference between the two. Maybe our concept of what "One" means needs a little "tweaking."
My question then becomes, OK, if knowing Them IS eternal LIFE - HOW do I come to know Them? What is it, practically, I must DO to KNOW Them? There is a difference between meeting someone, becoming introduced to someone, and relationally coming to know them. There are those Yeshua did not recognize because He said He did not KNOW them (see the difference in Children of the Bridechamber). When Yeshua was specifically asked HOW to obtain eternal life, He responded one way - to keep the commandments of the Father. He even repeated those commandments so there would not be any misunderstanding as to which ones He was speaking of (Matthew 19:16-22, Luke 10:25-28, also Mark 10:17-21, Luke 18:18-22). This is the kind of knowing He referred us to having to do with our behavior. Even when He healed someone, His instruction was to follow the commandments set forth by Moses (Matthew 8:4). How can this be if His purpose was to "do away" with the commandments of the law - as has been traditionally drummed into us for so long (see what is the Law of 100%)? Apparently, Yeshua thought there is something we must actually DO to conform ourselves to, in order to obtain, to lay hold of this LIFE He spoke about. Could it be, could the correlation be made, that these things spoken of in the Ten Commandments are the things of Spirit - of LIFE? (see what is the Law of Grace).
Listen to what He says in John 14:21-24 (in particular v24) above. He says here and again in (John 12:49-50) that He ONLY SPOKE THE FATHER'S WORDS. What words was He speaking of? Not His. There is only one verse in all of scripture where He gave us a NEW commandment (John 13:34-35) - and that was just an expansion of Leviticus 19:18. I challenge you to find where scripture specifically states He gave a NEW set of commandments. As much as we have been asked to believe otherwise - they are just not there. Everything He spoke of can be referenced back to the Original Book, from the Father's Words - because He ONLY spoke of the Father. The commandments He spoke of were the Father's commandments. And, if that were not enough, "the apostle of grace" said the same thing in Acts 24:14, Romans 2:13, and Romans 3:31 to name but just a few. The same is being said in 1John 3:24 (reference the Law of Righteousness for a more detailed explanation). If there is no contradiction in the scriptures - what do we do with all of these verses - all taken from the New Testament? Ignore them? Pretend they don't exist? Rationalize them away because we don't want to do them? Or do we try to find the commonality between them and what the rest of scripture teaches? Why is this so important? Because if we settle for anything that is less than Truth, it is not Truth anymore - it becomes less Truth. If we haven't the courage to call tradition what it is and to crucify it we begin to suffer the side effects associated with tradition. Yeshua said a result of the embrace of traditionalism is deafness. John 8:45-47 was spoken to some of those who started out as believers (John 8:31-32).
So, what does it mean to know someone? If asked to describe how you know your best friend and you respond with phrases such as he/she is "honest" or "kind" or "generous" or "patient" or "they love me no matter what" among others, you are describing the result of watching their behavior. You are describing the "character" of that person. The dictionary describes character as "an attribute or a quality of behavior that defines a person". Other people's perception of your displayed character, your manner of behavior, is what goes into giving you a reputation either positively or negatively. Abraham Lincoln said, "Reputation is the shadow. Character is the tree." Our character is not just what we try to display for others to see - it is also who we are even when no one is watching. Our character is who we are. Good character is doing the right thing because it is right to do what is right. How are we supposed to know what is right? Does right-thinking just float down upon us or swell up from within us? If that were the case, then why is there so much evil perpetrated "in the name of Jesus" as the "right" thing to do? Even Hitler presented his behavior as "Christian". And who is the final authority on what is right? Most of what we have come to embrace as "right" has been taught to us by others. To look to the religious tradition of men for that answer only seems to uphold the verse in Proverbs 21:2 that says that without some standard to measure behavior by, "every way of a man is right in his own eyes".
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| Israel again is at the forefront of global obsession. We are privileged to not only be a witness to the events of Matthew 24:6-8 as they unfold before our eyes but also to have the opportunity to be participants with Him in this awakening. Click on the picture above for a short video presentation of these times for Israel and then read the article "All Nations" for an in depth understanding of what these events mean for us today. |
Words mean things. If we are to worship the Father in Truth, if we are to walk in the Power of the Present Presence as Yeshua said we would - perhaps we should give more attention to Whose Words we are heeding. Are we listening to the religious words of man's tradition cloaked in subtleties? Or, are we giving more weight to the Words coming from Yeshua's lips that point us to that Truth? What they actually say and what they actually mean - instead of dismissing them because they don't line up with someone's theology.
| "And they went forth, and preached every where, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following. Amen." Mark 16:20 |