I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.

Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent. Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.

Revelation 3:18-20

The message to the church of Laodicea was clear.  Get tested and tried faith, get righteous acts, and get healing for your sight, so you can see. Read more…

The fullness of the Spiritual life is a heart inspired by love that walks in responsibility.

Jesus, our Pattern and Teacher, was a man under authority.  Much was given to Him, and much was required of Him from the Father.

When the Life of the Spirit and the love of our Savior grows to such a point, it encompasses and takes the place of every other thing.  It is our all in all.  While for some, this may come quickly, for others, it has grown over time.

But, the place of the Spiritual man is life in Christ.

There is no life in another.  He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

For Paul said that when our obedience is made perfect, our every disobedience would be punished.

Is this at odds with the Cross and the Grace of God?  No more than continuing to sin that Grace would abound.

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Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me.

John 12:26

There is no other Truth than Jesus.  Paul didn’t surpass Jesus’ truth.  Peter didn’t understand more.  John, in his great revelation as the last book of the Bible wasn’t in possession of a greater revelation than that which Jesus is.

What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life— and the life was manifested, and we have seen and testify and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us— what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. These things we write, so that our joy may be made complete.

1 John 1:1-4

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I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.

Matthew 16:18

It was upon a man with a revelation that Jesus chose to build His church.  It wasn’t loosely put together, or framed on the first day, as He didn’t even talk about his “ekklesia” before this point.  But, something shifted once Peter heard this direct word from God, and Jesus discerned the change in the Spirit, and confirmed Peter in his understanding.

The Kingdom of God can be likened to a treasure hidden in a field, worth selling all for.  The Kingdom can be compared with a pearl of great price.

And in the midst of Christ’s Kingdom, He has chosen his called out, ruling body, His church.  We are His body on the Earth.  As He was in the Earth, so should be the church.

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Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it.

Luke 17:33 KJV

He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.

Matthew 10:39 KJV

Perhaps one of the most enigmatic phrases to the carnal observer would be this one, largely because it is so simple.  He has hidden things from the wise and prudent, and revealed them to babes.  Instinctive to nearly every human being who has not been otherwise affected is the basic drive for self-survival, self-preservation.  It is at a core part of their being.  In a human realm, such as in gangs and the mafia, only a greater fear than death itself is capable of overcoming such an innate, core part of our human nature.  We fear death, and losing our self, and yet, this is at the core of not only the Gospel, yet of love itself.  To love is to lose yourself, and yet retain it.

This verse is perplexing only in a natural sense, however, to mind of man, and not to God.  Many have of course tried to fulfill this in their flesh, only to fail again and again, and some have set up whole camps for doctrines of thought around the whole idea that we should simply not try and just “let God”.  While this may sound wonderfully and spiritual, the plain fact remains that we were given instruction for a reason, if we could just know how to apply it!

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I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.

Matthew 16:18

According to scholars, the first reference Jesus makes to building a “church” or even mentioning the word is this word that He gave to Peter.  As far as I can tell, this is one of the only “nuts” and “bolts” that Jesus ever gives concerning building a church.

Many make a case for either large church or small church based on various scriptures and reasonings.  It is good to point out, however, that the Word actually says they did both.

 Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.

Acts 2:46-47

This scripture makes it clear they met BOTH in the temple as a large congregation, and house to house, which seems to indicate smaller groups as well.  But, what is interesting, is that no where is the character of these gatherings described by what we understand as a ‘meeting’ today.  They met, sure, and they shared.  There certainly would have been some format, but they weren’t doing “Sunday Morning” back then.  They were glad, genuine, and thankful, because they had the Truth.

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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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But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.

Matthew 5:22

In Luke 11:20, Jesus said that if He was driving out demons by the finger of God, then the Kingdom had come upon those listening.  While all the other miracles of the Old Testament had been done previously by other prophets, deliverance was unique to the New Covenant, and, by this verse, a distinguishing feature of the Kingdom being present.  Despite a small faction in so call “liberal” theologians that attempt to say different, demons, or evil spirits, are presented as the primary cause for many ailments and behaviors.  The basic difference between a Pharisee and Sadducee was that the Pharisee believed in the resurrection from the dead and evil spirits, while the others did not.  Obviously Jesus believed in evil spirits, because He cast them out of people!

So, the understanding of the role of deliverance in the New Covenant is quite understood.  So much as healing is the children’s bread, and Jesus said this in reference to casting out a demon (Matthew 15:26), this is just as necessary in the Kingdom as healing and salvation is (the Greek word for “salvation” generally indicates all three).  But, where does this leave the place of inner healing in the New Testament?  This was a stumbling block for a while for myself, until it suddenly occurred to me, as deliverance and the miraculous is the apparent half of the gospel, the inner work of the heart is its covered, veiled, or hidden work.  The other “half”.

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You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and of the dish, so that the outside of it may become clean also.

Matthew 23:26

But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith (1 Timothy 1:5).  Once we have purified our souls by obeying the truth unto the point where we can love for real, we should love each other fervently, as we ought to (1 Peter 1:22).

This is the point of the Gospel.  This is the work of the cross and the path of life.  If your gospel is not aimed at producing this life here and now, a life that is demonstrated by a visible, recognizable love (John 13:35), that does not tolerate sin so much to eat with an immoral brother (1 Corinthians 5:11), what are you living?

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[B]ut he who is doing the truth doth come to the light, that his works may be manifested, that in God they are having been wrought.

John 3:21 YLT

The Kingdom and the earth cannot be compared.  They are so drastically different from each other, that Jesus says the only way to really live “there” is to not live “here”.  This obviously does not have to be fully understood to be lived, but for those who look to understand and see what Jesus was saying, in order to live by it, it becomes evident.

He who begins to build a tower must first calculate the cost, lest he run out half way through (Luke 14:28).  Jesus said that unless you hate your former life (Luke 14:26), every part, including family ties and who you used to be, you cannot be His disciple.  Luke 14:33 goes a long ways and says that unless you give up everything you have, you cannot be His disciple.

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