And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Romans 12:2
How many times have we heard this verse, and many probably have even quoted it many times. And then we do not live by it, because no one renews their mind and stays it on the things of the Messiah. The things of God are very different than the things and way man thinks. And we cannot comprehend it.
I want to use an example shown to me today, again. And how God teaches and takes you out of your own theology and thoughts and installs his. Many times they seem strange to you, but then you get it after a while.
This is first of all the bible story of Moses and the Pharaoh. And how God had Moses go to the Pharaoh to release the people. And after a few plagues, the Pharaoh said yes, but then God harden his heart and the Pharaoh changed his mind. He did this a few times, and did many extreme things to the Egyptians, including killing the first born of every household. It seems Yahweh could have just let it happen after the first time the Pharaoh said go and would have saved death to many people and even animals. But he did not do it like that.
Many people look on that story and many others where God simply took out entire nations, and at times even the disobedient Hebrews, Israelites and Jews. And they see Yahweh as evil, or they use that as an argument he does not exist. The bible is a fictional book.
Well if you knew God like I do, you would know he exist and you start to understand why he does the things the way he does. Keep in mind he sees the evil deep inside the heart of men, and his law of you reap what you sow holds true. He will punish you for your sins, he did me and that is what caused me to repent and turn from those ways to righteousness. Most men instead of repenting, instead get worse because with every evil deed or work, it allows the devil a deeper hold on them. It is in the dark and the man is not even aware of it, but it happens.
So now to relate it to what is going on in my life, the same hardening of the heart. And the sin and dysfunction which comes from it. And it is a story which continues and is some what of a repeat of other lessons learned. Which involves the guy Tom who is suing us.
Today I had a conversation with one of the neighbors who kind of likes Tom and feels sorry for him it seems. They made some comments about my partner and what he did was so very wrong against tom. This is the third time they brought it up, and it came with no reason to bring it up, and he used profanity when speaking of Bill my partner.
So in response I made the point that tom’s rap sheet is more than 10 times worse than Bill’s, because tom has done more than 10 things wrong, and many much worse than what Bill did.
But here is the point of the story or message. I watched as Yahweh hardened the heart of tom, where tom agreed to somethings with us to settle, and then shortly later changed his mind. This happened a few times. Yahweh also hardened tom’s heart when tom even filed the lawsuit and put everything in motion. He had a sweet deal, the best of everyone, yet he wanted his money back and to keep his condo and why he sued.
Keep in mind that tom should not even have had this money to begin with because he owed something like $400,000 to the IRS for back taxes. But he lied and hid the money and brought it down here. From what he was telling me he really screwed over his ex wife also.
Keep in mind he also did the following to me throughout the build and lawsuit, which is still ongoing. He lied (or defamed me) to my other owners, and other people. Setting them against me. Even telling one of my buyers and other potential buyers to not buy in here because it is trash and I am a con man. That has since straightened itself out. He told us he was going to have us tortured and killed if we did not do things his way. He broke and entry 2 times. Is stealing electricity and water from us, and lies about it. As well as lying about other things. His worker stole things from other tenants and did damage to other units and tom never paid for them. Tom also made unwanted sexual advances to 2 women. And it appears he is gay and had relations with men here. More than once we have caught him smoking weed.
There are a few other things, but some of these issues are jail time, serious things, especially threatening the life of people. Yet the neighbor because they life tom, ignore who he is and hate what Bill did, and hate Bill himself.
Keep in mind what I was shown before also, which is my hands are tied, I cannot do anything about this even if I wanted to. I just sit back and watch the Lord do what he is doing. And I see how he hardened the heart of tom a few times. And probably hardened Bill’s also to do what he did. The Lord does things like this to get the results he is looking for, results which protect who he wants to protect, but also not without some serious test along the way for the ones he is protecting. The test are designed to grow you and give you more insight or wisdom. To open your eyes more to his truth and way. To the ways of man it seems unfair, but is it? Because after all shouldn’t a man who broke 4 laws be punished?
One other thing the Lord showed me, as I took a few minutes to take our cleaning lady to catch a bus. Normally she catches one out front, but it is raining, so I took her to town so she stayed dry, instead of standing in the rain waiting. But this was what Yahweh said to me. “Do onto others as you would have them do unto you.” And then followed it up with what he has shown me many times over, “vengeance is mine says the Lord, I will repay.”
He was simply making the point to me to never allow your heart to hate or seek revenge. Because even with tom, I never seeked to try to screw him over or do any bad things to him. I even think some of the things the Lord did to tom in his vengeance were a little tough. But then we are to not pity anyone the Lord is disciplining, so I don’t. But I also know better than to cheer the Lord on because of hatred. There is that balance between where you just remain neutral, you do not feel sorry and pity anyone, but also do not cheer for the suffering. And you certainly do not seek the vengeance for yourself, you set back and allow God to do his thing.
This is what the whole renewing of the mind is. And not conforming to the world. And then the outcome is you then do the perfect and acceptable will of the Lord. Without knowing the Lord like this and obeying him, you cannot and never will do the acceptable will of God because the things of God are strange to man, we cannot understand them. Renewing