And I say to you that many will come from east and west, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 8:11
A little different version of the same message Yeshua tells me often, about religion and doctrine and knowing God personally. It has to do with the verse above, because we must remember a few things. First is these three men are in heaven for sure, Yeshua said so. Second none of the three had a bible, religious man teacher, a set of laws to try to obey. They had nothing except knowing God and obeying the big and main things he told them to obey.
I have heard men teach on how Abraham lied to the King about Sarah being his wife, but did he lie? And did God lie to Abraham when he told him to sacrifice his son Issaac and then stopped it? Keep in mind there was no law or commandments, only knowing and obeying the Father God.
In Matthew 15:3 Yeshua said “Why do you also transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition?” Here is the point, men come in and asked for laws instead of hearing and obeying God in a personal relationship. God told them they would regret it, but they wanted it anyway. The biggest problem with this is it gets corrupted. Everything with men eventually gets corrupted. The men leaders become evil and greedy and controlling over time. Neither Moses nor Joshua allowed corruption to come in, but when we read the stories of the prophets and the books of King, we see how the mind changed in the leaders which then changed the followers, and never for the good. King Solomon started out as a great leader, but then allowed the beautiful women into his life as wives who then corrupted his thinking and he worshiped false gods.
The bible points to Abraham a few times as being the father of faith, so we should ask why? And then compare it to how we worship God today and why we do it the way we do it? And what makes the bible and the gathering of the church so special in our eyes?
One of the main reasons they killed Yeshua was he did not keep the traditions of the Jews, mostly because they were a transgression from the commandments of the Father. Like all the prophets, they also killed most of them because of their message. They did not like the message and more than likely in their minds saw this disobedience to their traditions as a sign of a man who is not of the Father. Or they made it that way because they did not want to lose their control. Men of power love power and control and in their evil heart demand more of it. While at the same time they also do not see it because of the deception and push their agenda as good. They do not see the truth and believe they are in the truth with whatever doctrine they follow. They do not get it. And because they do not see and hear the truth, yet believe they are in the truth, they have their calamity come upon them, seriously suffering all at their own fault. Yet even then the evil one makes it normal, a normal part of life.
Emotional problems we normalize and categorize as being depressed or bi-polar or whatever. We then say it is because of some sort of brain imbalance, put them on meds to sedate them, or make them high basically so they do not act on the mental illness.
With physical issues the same, looking at my parents, my mom died from cancer, my dad had a bad stroke which left him in a wheelchair. All because of eating trash, a simple thing to change to make these things not happen. But the world again normalizes these things. People get sick and instead of pointing out the food issues and their diet or lack of knowing God and their mental issues. We just count them off as one of the unlucky ones.
With my parents I warned them years before either had their calamity with their physical health to change their diet or they would pay the price. My moms comment was we like to eat out and eat the way we do. So the decision was to continue to eat as they were and worry about the consequences they suffered later.
This is the problem, and the other problem is your salvation. The Lord expects two things from us to guard. Our mental and physical health. The only way to do this perfectly in his way is to know him and obey him in everything he shows you to do. This is the opposite of reading your bible and going to church which is lying to you. Because here is the simple example of many I could give you. How is it the church system and how we interpret what we read in the bible, they do not convict you of wrong doing on these two points? Making it clear the fruit you are bearing is not good fruit? And then showing what changes to make in your life and diet to bear good fruit? And instead they side with the world and no one tells you to do something different than chemo for your cancer or to change your diet to help offset a stroke or the possibilities.
A quick reminder with my dad and when he came here. He could hardly move and walk, was in and out of the hospital with mini strokes and other issues, this happened for 4 years in the US. But since being here not once in the hospital nor even any medical issues to even consider it. He has lost a lot of weight and now can walk a lot further. We have taken him off many meds, and no more diabetes issues nor blood pressure issues. He is still in a wheelchair and needs help with most activities and always will as he is paying the price for his lack of obedience to the truth with food. But at least going forward his health has improved instead of getting worse.
Now to tie it all back together, the problem is we have lost touch with the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and have an idol in our church system, men teachers and the bible. Some religions even put it in your face with statues to Mary and the saints, even going the extra mile with the dysfunction. And even making Mary the mother of God somehow? Making her like she has more power and control than God himself.
The other day I heard a priest say that if Mary does not like you you are doomed to hell, making her the main judge. Well I got news for you, God was around long before Mary, and there is no scripture that even remotely suggests Mary has any power in heaven over anything. She is not seated on a throne, nor is head of the 12 tribes of Israel. She is nothing in heaven anymore than any other saved soul. But because of the doctrine and traditions of some religions, she is the boss.
So this is the point God was making today. It is not about the religions and traditions. It is about him, knowing him and obeying him. No new message with that. But the message is do NOT let a religion and the beliefs of men get in the way of your relationship with God. And as God teaches you, you will find more and more doctrine based on traditions of men which are not of God which is what you are following which then keep you from God and the truth. We must remain in the truth.
One last point, we must test the Spirits all the time. Every message you get from a man or a book, we must seek the truth in it from God. As said the other night I had a big disagreement or argument with a man pushing his doctrine which really was based on men teachers, like the grace doctrine and you can not do works or it is legalistic. And he tried to trap me in my beliefs, and in his mind he was right even though many times he could not explain or contradict what I was saying. In his mind, like most people. There are only two doctrines, the one of works and the one of grace, with no middle ground. But the reason why there are two basic doctrines is because of the middle ground, or a combination of both.
Because when you come to know the Lord, you then know what real grace is and you know it is not what the men teachers tell you it is. Yes there is mercy and grace, really no different than in the old testament times. Many times God told the Israelites what he was going to do to them unless they repented. And when they repented so did God and he did not destroy them. But when they refused to repent he did destroy them. The true grace of God is not that he pretends you no longer sin even though you do. It is a grace that changes you because you now hear him and obey him and you now do the good works you were created to do, so God forgets and forgives who you used to be. You follow the Holy Spirit (while testing the Spirits).
The works doctrine tells us we must read our bible and try to uphold the law the best we can. Basically be good people. While there is some merit in this, it still does not include the hearing and obeying of the Holy Spirit, the one who will lead you into all righteousness.
Hearing and obeying God will bring about the true grace you need as well as the power to uphold the law. As long as you walk in the light as he is in the light, you will be good. But if you do not obey on some point then the power of evil starts to set in and corrupt. I wish I could say I never ignore the Spirit on any point, because I have and paid the price because of it. But I do get back up and do it right going forward, vowing to never do that again. My focus is to walk with Yeshua every second of every day, starting each day with him. This is what he expects, and then let the rest of your life take care of itself. Let the cookie crumb the way it will.