For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.

Matthew 5:20

The flesh profits nothing, it is the Spirit that gives life.  For there is no work, no deed, nor anything else that God would regard as righteous, but only such as those that come from Himself.  For, there is none that is righteous, that is, in their flesh in themselves, that could ever perform any good thing, for all have turned aside and gone after their own way.

What righteousness could we do?  We can hear, we can obey, and we can follow.  Those good works that God has prepared in advance for us to do, we do, and because it is by faith, God counts it as righteousness.

They are pure works, so long as they are in, by, and only of Him.  Though they are performed by our hands, they are His deeds, and therefore, so long as they are fully surrendered to Him, those parts of the deeds are flawless.
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Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.

Matthew 7:24-25

The words of Jesus still speak to us today, directly where we need it the most.  In a day when things a shaking around us, and power ministries are reaching levels where the pressures cause great collapses in ministry, the “words in red” speak directly to the heart of the problem, as they have for nearly 2000 years.

Jesus said, if you have heard His words and do them, your house will be built upon the solid rock, and even when the storms come (and they will come), your house remains standing, no matter what pressures come.

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John answered and said, A man can receive nothing unless it has been given him from heaven.

John 3:27

The Spirit of Revelation was Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 1:8, that God might grant it unto His people.  Jesus operated by a Spirit of Revelation, through the ministering of angelic messengers (John 1:51, Luke 22:43, Luke 2:9, Mark 1:13).  By way of revelation, because it is the revelation that makes it known to be followed, Jesus did only what He saw His father doing (Luke 5:19), and He spoke only what the Father gave Him to say (Luke 14:24).  Jesus was not a “free” man unto Himself, He waited for His proper timing in everything, whereas for other people, any time was acceptable (John 7:6).  In short, Jesus was a solder.  He was a man under authority with others under Him (Matthew 8:9 — think angels, which is the only possible explanation of this passage in context with the Centurion to whose house Jesus never went).  He didn’t operate as His own agent, but only out of the place of revelation to be about the business of His Father.

Not only did Jesus Himself operate in revelation, it was so important, that John the Apostle said that testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophesy (Revelation 19:10).  It was by revelation, by means of a vision, that John received the last book of the New Testament, and revelation is a key factor in all of the books in between there and the Gospels.  For, it was by revelation that Paul received all His great insights (Galatians 1:12).

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They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.

Acts 2:42

After the day of Pentecost, after the outpouring of the Spirit, and after the 3000 who were saved in an afternoon through Peter’s stand and preaching, this short verse describes what they considered important.

This verse has several similar to it in the New Testament, as a word study on such words as “devoted” demonstrates, but it is the first, listing four parts that were what they “devoted themselves to”.  Whether it was an exhaustive list is not the point, but simply that these four were important enough to be mentioned.

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I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.

John 10:10 (portion)

The only pure life is the life yielded to the Spirit.

If we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.

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An entire oak tree is contained well within a tight, easy to carry package.  It has it’s own leathery cover, and even a handy carrying cup attached to the top.  You could, in fact, carry a hundred complete oak trees just in your pants pockets alone (assuming you’ve got big pockets).  The only thing you need to add, in order to convert your easy to transport oak tree into an immovable pillar is some sunshine, a plot of dirt, some water, and a hundred years or so!

The Kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed, that when planted, it is the smallest of seeds, but when it grows, it becomes the largest of all garden plants, and the birds of the air make their nest in it.

Matthew 13:31-32

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