“To the angel of the Messianic Community in Sardis, write: ‘Here is the message from the one who has the sevenfold Spirit of God and the seven stars: “I know what you are doing — you have a reputation for being alive, but in fact you are dead! 2 Wake up, and strengthen what remains, before it dies too! For I have found what you are doing incomplete in the sight of my God. 3 So remember what you received and heard, and obey it, and turn from your sin! For if you don’t wake up, I will come like a thief; and you don’t know at what moment I will come upon you. 4 Nevertheless, you do have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes; and they will walk with me, clothed in white, because they are worthy. 5 He who wins the victory will, like them, be dressed in white clothing; and I will not blot his name out of the Book of Life; in fact, I will acknowledge him individually before my Father and before his angels. 6 Those who have ears, let them hear what the Spirit is saying to the Messianic communities.”’ Revelations 3:1-6 CJB
The same message just additional bible verses to support it. This message really attaches this doctrine of we have a “lawyer” in Jesus. As you read what Yeshua (Jesus as they call him) is telling John in not only this passage but all of the messages to the seven churches. It is very clear he is not a “lawyer” as they claim him to be. In many of the translations they call Yeshua a mediator, which is what he truly is. The message above shows us exactly that.
As a mediator he takes what the Father tells him and then tells us what is expected of us to be worthy of him and his Holy Presence. A man who is soiled will NOT stand with him nor receive his Spirit. We must be washed clean in the blood, which means we do the work necessary according to his word he gives us to achieve.
As you read about the church in Sardis, they had received the word from Yeshua, and practiced it initially, and fell away on some of the areas and went back to their sin. Not all areas but some. And that is not acceptable with God. I can just hear the “christians” who may read this now cursing me as if I make the rules they have to follow.
I told of the man in the gathering the other day who kept saying “we have a lawyer” and it’s about “grace.” For the unbelievers (or should I say those who believe in their own doctrine and not in the Lord God). It does not matter what evidence from scripture you give them, they are so blind in the lies and do not want to change so they ignore it and believe it is the lie or deception God sent and not the deception they believe in of grace, OSAS, and this Jesus guy who never existed being a lawyer. Amongst many other doctrines out there.
Yeshua tells the people of Sardis they are incomplete, in other words you do some good work but not all you are required to do. According to the sinful christians, this is a work’s doctrine and invalid, it will take you to hell. They also believe you can never be righteous in the eyes of God, we are sinners and always will be.
The clave or secret is in what these men refuse to do. Which is to seek the voice of the Lord which is deep down inside you. We all hear it but the ones perishing do not recognize it or obey it. They pass it off as a random thought or maybe a thought the devil put in their minds. Many times we blame the devil for things the Holy Spirit is telling us because we do not like what he says, as it goes against our doctrine.
So it is not only men like me who have truly received and know the Spirit telling you, but the Spirit of GOd himself is telling you but you ignore it or pass it off as an evil Spirit. And as said many many times, this is your judgment, nothing else nothing less. It does not matter how many sins you commit in your life or which ones. It only matters that before you die physically, you died unto yourself and were born again into the Spirit.
This gift of the Spirit is available to us all, it is just that very few will find it, which is listen for the voice and obey what it tells you. And seeking others like me to help understand what is that of the Spirit and what is that of the doctrine of demons. The doctrine of demons is any doctrine other than what the Spirit of God will tell you, which leads you to righteousness and Holiness. The doctrines of demons will leave you in your sin, making you feel comfortable in it and thinking you will be in heaven some day. But it is a BIG FAT LIE!
Two things the Spirit reminded me of this morning since waking up, and still half a sleep. The first one was about how grateful I am, and how much I have achieved in my life of 61 plus years. In waking up I looked over at my beautiful and sexy wife who is 10 years younger, and wonder why she stays with an older man like me when she can have almost anything she wants. I was grateful for the good nights sleep, and then walked out onto my deck and looked at the ocean and the amazing views we have, and some dolphins came by and basically have been sitting all morning in front of us playing. Surfing the waves, and jumping. Again I was very grateful and thankful.
As I look at the three areas of life most important, I have achieved them all, and maintain them all. First and foremost is my relationship with the Lord and remaining in righteousness. There are times when the evil one tests me big time, and a few times I have fallen short. He knows when he can pounce on us, normally because of the same reason as the letter to the Church in Sardis, we get complacent and stop doing the things which keep us right in the Lord. We get bucked off our high horse and need to remount, the question is not if it will happen, but what you will do if or when it happens? Keep in mind this is not practicing sin, this is something that may or may not happen to you over the years. You are not doing it weekly or daily or monthly,. It is something that can happen every few years, and you nip it in the bud. If it happens to you, then you will know assuming you even received the Spirit of God in the first place, because most believe they have because of their doctrine, but show no evidence in their daily lives and even tell you they still sin as if they are almost proud of it? Thinking it is humble to do so, when it is a slap in the face of the Almighty God. Because all things are possible with God yet these men are telling you (without saying it in so many words). That the devil is to good, better than the strength in God to overcome and walk without sin. They do not intentionally say this, but it is what they are saying.
The truth however has already been stated, which again is they ignore the light. They think they have the light but do NOT. If they received and lived in the light they would no longer walk in sin. You cannot have the light and still sin. And because they do not believe this and have other beliefs that the truth cannot offset because they rebel against it, and close off their minds to the truth. They remain in sin. No man can defeat sin by works and trying really hard. It can only be defeated by the Spirit in you if or when you receive him. And these men choose to support their lies and remain in the sin.
Which brings me to the second main thing God showed me this morning, as he was showing me many things from my past apart from him. And how I rebelled and did not even realize it. As stated many times I had three main things I did in sin. First my tongue using God’s name in vain all the time, never worrying about it because all I had to do was go to confession to resolve it. The other two were finding women and getting drunk, and the same thing, I just had to go and confess it in my catholic church system.
Because of the lie that you believe that we will always sin and just need confession, it causes you to not worry about your sin, it is OK in your mind so you keep doing it. BUt when I met the Lord for the first time, I knew immediately not to use his name incorrectly and stopped immediately doing so.
The difference? I now knew him and his Sovereignty and who he was. To witness him in my inner Spirit and know who he is, made it impossible to keep using his name in vain. In my doctrine it was OK, normal almost. But in the Spirit it was the opposite and impossible to keep doing it. This is an example of how the truth sets you free. Once you know the truth, which is God and then obey the truth, it sets you free!
But also as God showed me this morning, you can start ignoring some of the truth, not by decision as much as by being lazy and not focusing on God 100% of the time. This is what Paul meant when he wrote pray without ceasing.
This is also why Yeshua said to seek the narrow path and or narrow gate, which is difficult but leads to life. It is not easy to pray without ceasing, to remain in the truth and light 100% of the time. But it is also possible but only in Yeshua. The secret is to not quench the Spirit but always keep it open in your mind so you hear him and his little nudges to keep you on the narrow path. Do not think this one small little thing is OK, and do it while ignoring the Holy Spirit. That one little small half sin, or maybe not even a sin but something that leads to sin. The thing you let into your head you should not have, is what then opens a little crack in the door that satan then puts his foot in so you cannot close it again, and then little by little he wears you down until he pounces on you again. Do not let him do that!
So back to the grace doctrine, because those who believe that trash are like me as a young catholic who thought their sin was OK, I just have to do the right religious doctrine things, weather it is to just believe Jesus did it all on the cross, or confession or whatever doctrine you believe which supports your right to stay in sin. It is your specific doctrine which makes it OK to sin. And it is the coming to know the Lord which takes away the sin. As I explained in my personal growth into the Spirit of God, the first thing I did was immediate, which was to NEVER use the Lord’s name in an inappropriate way again. Meeting him and coming to know him, made it impossible to do so, I saw his Holiness and power, I was in awe of him. Knowing him completely changed my mind about him and who he is and what he expects. When you come to know someone like this and see them in a new light like this, it changes you and you cannot sin anymore.
It is not possible to even explain this to anyone, you have to experience it. To know God is the most amazing thing ever, the things of the world do not even compare, having obtained levels of success in the world beyond most people’s level of living. Which brings me back to the other two areas of life, my physical health, which is well above average even for a 30 year old these days, more or less over 60. And my financial health which puts us in the top .1% of all of Mexico, living on the ocean with the best views around, comparable to anywhere in the world. Not worrying about money or how we will pay the bills. It is really an amazing life. But all the secondary things are rubbish compared to knowing Yeshua.
They are even only given to me because of knowing Yeshua. They are a by-product of doing the Lord’s will. Not a result of obeying the Lord on the sin part and doing my own works in the life and making a living. The two are intertwined, I obey the Lord and his light or wisdom is what has made me healthy and full physically, mentally and financially. These things are not apart from him, they are because of him.
And most of it is because he shows me how to do things which are almost 100% the opposite of what this world tells you to do. I do my business life according to the Lord, which is different from many things I was taught in sales. Not all things but many things. When working for a company here in Rosarito with real estate, they used to ask me what I was doing to be successful, and my main comment back was “well, not what you are telling us to do, I do mostly the opposite.” Of course they did not like that and many rolled their eyes, like I was being cocky or something. But the truth is the truth. It is not cocky nor humble, it is the truth. And if they want to ignore that wisdom because they do not agree, who am I to tell them differently? What tells them if I am right or wrong is the results. If my results (the fruit I bear) were still beating all of theirs, then obviously I was right. And this is what happened. And the funny thing is it was all on my own. They gave the best leads to the boss’s wife, and she had a full time assistant, I had nothing. Yet I constantly did more than twice the production as her, measurable in dollars in commissions.
This example is in every area of life. When I work out and do certain things, like a wall sit. I can do it for 2 minutes. The experts say if you can do it for 90 seconds you are top. I do 3 sets of them. This is said not to brag, it is to tell you that the results you will achieve by obeying him are the best, but he also expects you to obey and do them at the highest level. Push yourself beyond what you believe you can do, and he will support you. What he does not support is when you do things in a lazy half hearted way and think it is good enough. He will push you and the results will speak for themselves, giving glory to God and his way, but it also gives glory to you. Because people will notice and say things to you.
Like yesterday we saw an old client of mine, they called to list a home, and made the comment more than once, it was because they trust me. His exact words were your reputation precedes you. And they also mentioned how good we looked physically. We did not say anything looking for their comments (which give us glory as it is applied in the bible). But they did because we do what God expects and get the results from our works and efforts.
There are other people who get these same kinds of comments, it is not just me and my wife. But those who get these comments also practice the same works. You can do good works in some of the areas of your life without the Spirit, and people will glorify you with comments. But no one will achieve the highest level, and salvation in all areas of life without doing it the Lord’s way.
A few days back the Lord put two words on my mind, one was complacency and the other discipline. He brings them back to mind because once again they apply, as always! We get complacent in our Spiritual life, or business life, or physical life and suffer from it. Comparing ourselves with others instead of using the bar the Lord Yeshua will give you and hold you to. As John writes above, “Wake up, and strengthen what remains, before it dies too!”
The example is strengthen in a physical sense, but it is also and more so a Spiritual sense. Because you will never do anything to the level God expects without knowing and obeying the Spirit. What is in man is not capable of the strength God expects. And he made it all that way so you cannot lean on your own understanding or ways or another man’s. But you must rely on him, he wants you to know him and grow in him. And expect it otherwise you will not be in the Father’s Kingdom.
This brings us back full circle to why we must receive the Spirit and walk in him, otherwise we get lazy and stop doing what we once did, or in most cases what you never accomplished because of your doctrinal lies which are of demons and not God.