“Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God!” Ephesians 2:19
The question with this verse is, are you citizens or are you pretending you are?
This is the ongoing message God is giving me. How so many people (no different than the Jews as described over and over in the bible) believe they are OK with God because of their beliefs and man made religions and laws from those religions.
The other point the Lord keeps making is how they teach about grace or confession or some other nonsense as the way God wants it, and it is not the truth. But at the same time as they teach grace, they also teach works according to their works disguised as not being works. Confusing?
Not really, they tell you to tithe, to go to church, to serve your church, to keep holy days of obligation… Whatever it is. They have their own works you must do or they kick you out of the church system. Yet you are not saved by works.
God sent prophets and even his own son to get the Jews to stop this nonsense of religious doctrine contrary to the truth, yet they did not listen and killed most of them because it came against what they taught. There is a man teacher I listen to sometimes, he himself still has some misconceptions, like the bible is the word, and that we must obey the Torah (law in the 5 books of Moses). What is interesting about this man is the history he tells about and how the men have changed so many things and what much of the reasons behind Yeshua and why the Jews hated him.
When you read the bible about Yeshua, many times he did not observe the Sabbath. However he actually did according to this man’s teachings. What Yeshua did not observe was the extra laws the Jews made up about the Sabbath and what the Sabbath is really about.
From listening to him and then confirming it with the Lord, it starts to make sense why the Jews did what they did. But the problem is they should have never changed anything from the beginning. The problem is the men change things and the first generation, some of them believe it, most do not. Then as they die off, the new teaching becomes law in the minds of the people because they never knew the truth. They only hear the lies.
This is so prevalent today, because most of the teaching is from only about 150 years ago. This grace doctrine started by a man named Johnny Sunday in the late 1,800’s. Also about the same time were men who started the Latter day Saints church and Jehovah’s witness. These doctrines have nothing to do with the bible, but then they twist and cherry pick doctrine to make their points and or simply change the words to make it fit. Each of these doctrines are very different from each other, and each has its followers, and the followers believe their version is the right one. Yet none of them can be traced back to anything of the teachings of God either from the Father or the Son Yeshua. And because now it is 150 years latter, there are few around who know the truth so the lie is so prevalent and accepted. The few who know this lie are the ones who learned it because they suffered and came to know Yeshua and he tells us in a personal way and in truth. And unless you also have this relationship with Yeshua, you also will be lead astray, it is not possible to not believe the deception or lie without hearing and then obeying Yeshua who is the truth which sets you free.
Most think I am crazy because I hear him. Some think I do and am OK, but it does not mean we all have to in order to be saved. But the truth is we all must hear him individually and then obey him. There is no other option or way. Yeshua is the one who will teach us and lead us into all righteousness.
One other thing he showed me today. It is about the sin but yet it is not. So back to the doctrines. Because in reality you can break down religious christian based doctrines into one of two doctrines. One is saved by grace, not by works. The other is saved by works. The reason we can get both of these completely opposite doctrines from the same book is simple. First point, the father of these religions which is satan can twist anything in the minds of the people. Second there are verses which support both if taken out of context or re-written a little. And in their minds there is no middle ground. But the truth is a little in each doctrine, yet not in either.
The truth is we must obey the Lord and Holy Spirit, not the law. When we make it about the law and following it, we set a standard no man can achieve in the flesh without Yeshua. But in Yeshua all things are possible. The reason men teach it is not possible even with God is because they do not know God, they think they do, but they don’t. They know their doctrine and twisted bible verses. But they do not know the man who can show them the good works they need to do. Nor do they want to know him because he will make major changes in your life and completely change how you think. It eliminates many relationships including family and good friends. Things they prefer to keep instead of giving up. It is these things which keeps them in the sin.
Sometimes Yeshua will put you in a sinful situation short term to achieve a truth you need to know. I have had it happen a few times, not recently so much but back when I first started my journey. Yeshua did nothing to change my drinking issues and sex issues at first. And even brought a woman into my life to teach me things, a woman I asked for and thought would be perfect for me, but wasn’t. It kept me in the sin which in my mind was OK at the time. But it was that relationship which I choose that taught me a much deeper lesson I needed to know. In many ways including from some of the men teachers I listened to who did not follow sound doctrine and gave worldly advice. It took this relationship to really understand the deception we follow in the religious christian world.
In the end I do not get drunk anymore, nor chase sex in a bad way. Those sins stopped. So as said it is not about the sin, because short term Yeshua may allow or put you in a sinful situation where you fall short. In order to teach you so that at a latter date you will no longer do those sins. Yeshua does not just come in with a whirlwind and change everything in a minute. Nor does he pretend the sin is not happening. Many think one of these things happened, with most liking the second option of God pretending everything is OK because the son’s blood covers your sins, not washes you clean but covers them.
As said before, this is not truth, it is like the old person who never showers and then puts on extreme amounts of perfume or after shave to cover up the smell. It does not hide the bad smells and instead makes things worse. The combination stinks. I learned this lesson the hard way while the Lord left me in sin for a few years teaching me and showing me and letting me embarrassed myself, and at times making me sick to my stomach because of what I did at times. It was all these things and the Lord putting it on me, that changed how I saw doctrine, so I learned it from him. And it was all these things that made me want to obey the Lord instead of following religion, the same things which set me free from my sin.
This is what it is about, hearing and obeying the Lord. He does not care about the short term sin, he cares about the longer term finished product. The sin you are in is what he will use to get you to the finished product of understanding. And the funny thing is much of the sin we believe in is not even sin. For example how do we think we must be married to one woman for life and not have more then one when almost all the old testament men had multiple wives, and concubines? I am not saying we should do as the Latter day saints and have multiple wives. But instead getting you think why is it like this today and there was no mention of it being sinful back in those days? I personally would not want more than one woman in my life, it is hard enough to deal with one than a bunch of them. Plus trying to deal with it financially. But I digress.
The point is once again, it is not about doctrine, it is not about sin. It is about Yeshua and letting him lead you through the valley of death to get to the other side where you will then uphold the law. Then you will not sin. But it is a journey, one which you can stop anytime you want to and stay in a certain place or level. But those levels and places are meant for season and not for eternity. Little by little with each new level you go up to, you see better and better what the Lord is after. You can never see these levels without making the journey. And in the journey there will be many test, scary trials, and even sin to deal with. But also keep in mind the one Yeshua forgives who sinned much, loves much more than the one who did not sin much and is forgiven less. I sinned MUCH and was forgiven MUCH and LOVE way more than most because of it. And live my life in and with Yeshua. Is it about sin?