As I have aspired to please my Father in Heaven and encouraged others to do likewise, I have been reminded by church folk that there is only one Jesus. This reminder hurled towards me suggests that I have forgotten this fact. The Spirit of Christ did not come to indwell us to empower us to be me more like ourselves, but to empower us to be more like Christ. So, if I go around acting like Jesus and inspiring others to do likewise, then that is in accordance with the Spirit of Christ that is within me. What then is behind the push back of laboring to manifest Christ in this world? It is the Spirit of anti-Christ. YESHUA the Christ is a lion and a lamb. People love the gentle and passive nature of the lamb but have contempt for the lion that roars and devours. People are good with Christ catering meals and having healing clinics, but they reject Him when He starts flipping over tables of unrighteousness and exposing darkness. To reject any part of Christ our Lord is to reject Him entirely. The spirit of anti-Christ contends with the spirit of Christ. Due to the Spirit of Christ within me, I have both lion and lamb tendencies. The persecution I experience comes because anti-Christians persecute the spirit of Christ in me. So, when I proclaim the standards of the Ruler of all creation, after the zeal I have for His kingdom, just as many prophets throughout history have been persecuted, people still do the same. The prophets of old brought the Word of GOD to the people for edification and warning, however these messengers were rejected more often than accepted. That Word brought by those prophets was from the Spirit of Christ.
The call of GOD is to be like Him, which is holy. Holy means to be complete, lacking nothing. I have heard so many confessing Christians over the years speak through an anti-Christ spirit seemingly unaware that they were resisting GOD and leaning toward self-reliance in blind conceit of man’s wisdom instead of surrendering to the Word. This same anti-Christ spirit rose up in Peter when he rebuked our Lord for speaking of His self-sacrifice which was soon to come. YESHUA called out the spirit working through Peter saying, “get behind me Satan, you scandal, you don’t mind the things that be of GOD but the things that be of men.”
GOD sowed the seed of an obedient Son that He might reap a harvest of obedient image bearers. I have never proclaimed to be the tree of Life, but I am a sprout growing from the fruit of the Seed and destined to be like the original tree. I cast down every scandalous thought and imagination that would try to persuade me otherwise.
Rebirth in Christ through the death of the cross restores our status as sojourners. It is evident in how alien our values, hopes, beliefs, and practices are to this present world. Do not be conformed but rather be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Your mind is regenerated as you receive the word of GOD by faith.
11 He came unto his own, and his own received him not. 12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: 13 Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. (John 1:11-13 KJV)
14 I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. 15 I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. 16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. (John 17: 14-17 KJV)
3 To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified. (Isaiah 61:3 KJV)
Narrow is the way that leads to eternal life and few there be that find it. To be among the few means you will have to endure criticism and persecution from almost everyone around you, including family and those who call you a friend. Endure hardness as a good soldier and stay single hearted unto GOD.
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