Ephesians 4:11, “And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers.”

In our uniqueness we express the things of God differently. I am once again reminded about a man in Africa who prayed that the Father would give him all the revelation of Christ that is possible for man. He next had a vision of a room so large that none of the walls could be seen, but gold chests were all around, and on each chest was the name of a different believer. God spoke to him, “It would take every believer to begin to express who I am. Each is given his own revelation. There is a chest with your name on it. You will have what I give, but all of Christ cannot be expressed in one man.” Amen, I believe that man. I have seen Christ, learned of Him, and had revelations of Him from different people ranging from what the world and religion would call the upper and lower castes. I understand that I am simply a thread in this Christian life, that my message is simple, and that what I say is not intended to be the last word for the Christian life. Yet sometimes I am taken aback by the complaints. I remember getting a traditional East Indian treatment that consisted of beautiful feeling and smelling botanical oils. The interesting thing about those doing the massage was that though their hands were constantly in oil and touching soft skin, their palms were covered with huge hard calluses. As in everything in life, we can learn something about Life, and I could see that even in ministry in the Holy Spirit and touching the souls of believers where they hurt, there must be a little protection. If I reacted every time someone criticized me or sent an angry e-mail, I would never get around to ministering. I must glance at the complaint and gaze at the Christ that is in the person. More than once I have heard this testimony from a believer that invited me to his church: “The pastor said that he wants me to remain involved, but I am not to advance the ‘Christ in you, the hope of glory’ teaching that Abiding Life Ministries brought.” This baffles me, for even if I were to look at the very worst in teaching that I have ever brought, there is no doctrine that would deter someone from a focus on Jesus, and all great teaching has the goal of Christ. However, I realize that the teaching of Christ in you does equalize all believers, and those in the Christian religion have worked very hard to be exclusive. I thought I would have my throat cut in Asia when before a large crowd I said, “If the men in robes and collars have not admitted to you any of their weaknesses, you should stop attending their church.” For, in fact, it had become “their” church, the self-serving domain of the higher-ups. We must look at teaching and judge its goal. Is the goal the revelation of Christ in you? If not, then what is the goal? God was so depressed with man, so to speak, that He sent His Son. If the goal is man, then you will get depressed. I am a great supporter of the Christian religion and the legalism to which it gives birth. Why? Because we need it! We must pass through it to discover that the man that is now in Christ is just as weak as he was before Christ. Once this is accomplished, we will look to the Christ that is in us for everything that is needed. Well, no matter what treasure chest is yours to open, you will know that it is the golden one when “your message,” or rather, as Paul called it, “my gospel,” is pointing others to Christ.

John 14:6a, Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life . . .”

Galatians 1:10 “For am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bond-servant of Christ.”

I was wondering if others have been seeing the same thing I have. This year I have had many successful businessmen, ages 50 – 60, tell me that they had lost all motivation. They have low levels of depression and will say things like, “I should have set my sights higher; I should have had greater challenges,” etc. Also, they have the feeling that if they just kept sending the check to the wife and kids, no one would miss them. I explain it this way to them: Life with a small “l” only gives X amount of satisfaction through vocation, marriage, and rearing children. For argument’s sake let us say that sex, marriage, the kids, or the vocation, on a scale of one to ten, can only give a ten. Marriage at its very best can give a ten in satisfaction. Many marriages are chugging along at a three when they could be a ten. However, there is no eleven, fifteen, or twenty on the life scale, there is only a ten. Many sex addicts, especially in the gay community, want out of sex what sex cannot give. Generally speaking, mankind has unreal and ignorant–and therefore unmet–expectations. All of this is just to say that the men I am seeing have hit the ceiling concerning their vocation, marriage, and everything else that life with a small “l” has to offer. The end result is disillusionment. I believe that this place of disillusionment is exactly what God wanted to accomplish in life with a small “l.” Now instead of sinking into feelings of a lack of fulfillment, this awareness is useful in driving man into Life with a capital “L,” for Life with a capital “L” has no ceiling and always has much more in a much more gospel. There is so much to know and experience in this LIFE.

Romans 8:6, 7, “For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so.”

You have probably seen the diagram of the corral with black horses and white horses. The point in the diagram is that if the gate is left open, both colors of horses will escape. If we open the door to the flesh, the unrighteous and the self-righteous flesh will both escape. Self-righteousness will lead to unrighteousness; hence, the rampant growth of immorality among the self-righteous. The converse is also true. It has taken me years to see that when I put my mind on autopilot, before I know it I am thinking of mistakes that I have made and giving myself a sound beating over failures, especially in my relationships with others. I go over what could have been said to help more, and blah, blah, blah. However, here is the thing that I noticed. Within thirty minutes of thinking about what I might have said, I will be thinking about how someone offended me. Within thirty minutes of thinking about a failure, I will be thinking about another’s failure. This understanding has brought me to a place of what I believe is a healthy fear and a deeper understanding of what the Bible says, “Finally, whatever is true and right and pure and lovely, let your mind dwell on those things.” Today, the moment that I start to think about my failures, stupidity, embarrassments, and offenses, or those of others, I immediately have a check in my spirit, heart, and mind that says, “If you go there, you will hang yourself by ending up in self-hatred. If you go there, you will be self- or man-centered, not Christ-centered.” I immediately stop myself and move to Him. The freedom is something I have never experienced before. I am not being positive for the sake of being positive, which is shallow. I am merely setting my mind on the things above as I recognize I have been given the mind of Christ that is where my mind belongs.

Romans 2:4, “Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?”

Many say they are called to exhort people to repent, but their call so often is exhibited as something of a one-off from what we know the Old Testament prophets were; for them repentance centered more in the root than the fruit as they sought to bring people back to God. Today the call to repentance seems to take the form of spreading a rebuke, such as, “’You think you are saved, but you are not! You call yourselves My children but do not act like My own. If you would have loved Me you would have kept My word. I am going to cut you off and give your portion to those that obey Me,’ thus says the Lord.” It is fairly consistent and only ends in condemnation, even though we know that “there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). Men instruct on the topic of discipline with a similar approach and fervor, and that, too, ends in condemnation. The offenders’ sin is pointed out, coupled with a threat to punish. Because of such teaching by the religious who wrongly present God’s judgment, one fellow said, “I wish I would have waited to accept Christ until the last minute, got baptized, and had someone shoot me as I came up out of the water. At least that way I would not have accumulated so much of the judgment of God as a believer.” This man expressed a common feeling that has occurred among Christians throughout the centuries, but this kind of view of judgment is not dealing with the root but rather the behavior, the fruit. There are two types of discipline: one is punishment, which reaps few benefits and is rarely successful, and the other is a self-discipline that takes a person back to Christ. A Christian who finds himself continually in the deeds of the flesh does need discipline, but it is that found within himself that can enable him to begin and end each day recognizing the presence of Christ. It is our job as disciple-makers to pull that person aside and urge him to go to the Lord and abide. The subsequent awareness of the fact of Christ’s indwelling that is living through him will free him from the deeds of the flesh. (“If perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth,” II Timothy 2:25.) It has been proven that continually emphasizing a person’s deeds of the flesh will never set him free from the flesh. (“But the sorrow of the world produces death,” II Corinthians 7:9.) Believers ought to be disciplined in recognizing Christ. It does take time to teach that understanding; Jesus spent three-and-a-half years with his disciples. However, the fruit of taking this approach is verifiable, for Jesus said that the Father prunes. To say it another way, when we abide, the deeds of the flesh fall off of us. Unfortunately, there are those that will refuse this discipline; they willingly continue in the deeds of the flesh, making themselves an unhealthy leaven in the Body, and at this point to disfellowship them is appropriate. As for the call to spread the message of repentance, it generally is meant to be a call to stop a particular behavior, and repentance is seen as different from forgiveness. The hiccup enters in when Christians do repent and subsequently continue in the same behavior. This is again where Jesus is tying the hands of man and forcing us to a life of abiding, for only the living Christ within can make a permanent change in behavior. Therefore, the message of repentance without the message of the indwelling Christ is incomplete and will not be attainable.

Often I used to pray, “Lord, I want all of the revelation of You that is possible for a human being to have in this life.” Over, and over, and over again I prayed it. Then one day He spoke: “The revelation of My Son is like a roomful of treasure chests. There is one chest for every one of My children, but no child will receive them all. There is one for you, and that one you can have.” I more fully understood the body of Christ and His love for each and every one of us. Just as the body needs countless cells to express a human being, it takes countless believers to begin to express all that Jesus is. He is way too big for one person, and any one person that believes he possesses it all is deluded. Paul himself said that we are like members of the body; he refused to see himself as the whole body. I am afraid that many believers have succumbed to the Christian caste system, wherein a particular believer or a certain expression of the body becomes the norm or standard for everyone else. In my early days of being a believer I remember attempting to copy another person’s expression of Christ. It was error then and it is error now. I have often said that if I could change anything in my Christian life as it developed, it would be one thing: I would have taken all of the “great” people of God and kept them on the fringe of my life where they belong, leaving Jesus in the center. No one person has it all, and we each have what He has determined is best for us and has given to us.

Jude, 5-7 “Now I desire to remind you, though you know all things once for all, that the Lord, after saving a people out of the land of Egypt, subsequently destroyed those who did not believe. And angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode, He has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day, just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since they in the same way as these indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh, are exhibited as an example in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire.”

Given the state of our present world, it is important to keep such passages in mind. Incredibly, quoting from Romans or Jude is increasingly considered to be a hate crime in the “aware” Western countries. Along that line, there is a converted Muslim that became a pastor in Australia and spoke one evening on understanding Islam. Two Muslims in the audience reported to authorities that they felt threatened, and the police arrested the pastor. The pastor refused to say that he had done anything wrong, since he was only quoting from the Koran! The world is upside down. However, the passage from Jude reminds me of something else. All flesh is created, and each is called to its own. God has set boundaries beyond which no one is to pass without judgment that is both swift as it destroys today and slow in its effects for eternity. God will bind Himself by His own judgments and will not go after strange flesh, either. This is why God became a man and the God/man will one day have a man/child-of-God bride. Believers compose the bride of Christ, and we are not something strange. Looking ahead, it will be so much fun to discover what we really are and how He has made us like Himself. It takes revelation to glimpse it in this body, but one day we will see it clearly. I John 3:2 & 3, “Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.”

“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires.” 2 Timothy 4:3

As a youth working in the inner city of Chicago, I was always mystified by the drug dealer. He would stand next to an expensive convertible, have on a fur coat and big hat, flash gold teeth, and usually be accompanied by more than one woman dressed to fit the motif. He exuded all the deeds of the flesh. There was always a demeaning air about him as he dealt with those lining up to make their purchases. He had something that they wanted (or had to have, in some cases), and that gave him the upper hand; he could be as rude as he wanted to be. It was vexing to watch the twisted, worn, and toothless come to make their purchases. Even then I knew that a lesser gave way to a greater, and the reason he so despised those pathetic creatures was because he needed them to maintain his lifestyle. Something in him knew that he was lesser and they the greater, and this he disliked. I am seeing something similar that is disturbing today. The “spiritual” dealer is nearly a mirror of the drug dealer. I have heard the sermon on “seed money” so many times from the “spiritual” dealer as he admonishes believers to give and it will come back to them. The “spiritual” dealer may own three twenty-million-dollar homes, a jet, designer clothes, a multitude of luxury cars, and jewelry. This is all justified, because Jesus deserves the best. But Jesus is not living in the houses. Jesus had a robe with no pockets for collecting things; His Kingdom was not of this earth. Yet believers line up to give to such foolishness, even though the “spiritual” dealer talks about his followers with disdain, due to the clear separation between “us and them.” I watched a hidden camera catching the  “spiritual” dealers sweep up the donations, put them in trash bags, laugh, and gad about town on a shopping spree. I have to say that these things are good, because God has permitted them for the revelation of many hearts. In the context of His will, He gives the desire of the heart; and if it is health, wealth, security, and fame, it may be given. However, if the heart’s desire is to know Him in this short life, that also will be given. We are not to peddle or promote ourselves, but Christ. The best way to stay away from a drug dealer is never to let what he has stir something in our flesh. The best way to avoid the “spiritual” dealer is never to let his appearance stir some flesh in us. Finally, we can ask for the grace of God to accomplish, in this life, our never being sidetracked by giving attention to something that surrounds Him, but is not Him.

“One Lord, one faith, one baptism.” (Eph. 4:5)

While traveling in a remote area of India, we were passing by an estimated 500,000 pilgrims walking barefooted (up to 500 miles) toward the temple of Shiva that rested on top of a mountain. Many had bloodied and blistered feet. Once they reached the temple, their heads would be shaved and they would receive a bit of sandalwood paste that had fallen off of an idol. Drinking the paste in a mixture would secure the favor of Shiva, and they would get the desire of their heart. Not long afterward I found myself in Tibet, where the pilgrims were falling forward to reach the great temples of Buddha. Some had come as far as 300 miles in this manner; they would stand, make a praying motion with their hands, and fall forward. While lying prostrate, they stretched out as far as they could and placed a piece of paper at the end of their fingertips; this was the marker for where they were to stand next and fall forward. Men, old women, and children alike, were working their way to Lhasa by the length of their bodies. Some even had callused foreheads. These types of activities are played out around the world.

We often look at the passage in Ephesians where Paul mentions that there is one Lord, one faith, and one baptism and apply it to the Christian Church. However, it must be viewed in a broader sense. Taken as a whole, the world brandishes very many religions, but there is only one faith. Religion, as it is most easily defined, is success resting at the feet of man. All religions have this in common, even the Christian religion, for it becomes a religion when the enemy and the flesh of man move focus away from the work of God to the work of man. I visited an Orthodox Religion “church” building in India after visiting several Hindu temples. I turned to my friend and said, “Do you think a Hindu would feel the least bit uncomfortable in this Orthodox religion?” He replied, “No, the Hindu would have everything he needs here: candles, icons, idols, a secret place for priests, gold altars, and more.” The common thread of religions–that success rests in man’s effort–is often accompanied by the tantalizing hope for success through somehow twisting the arm of the false god to get a favor. In contrast, there is only one faith, so never let it be said that people belong to different faiths; they only belong to different religions. The one faith is faith in the only God, His only Son, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit.

The success of the one faith ends at the feet of God, who loved us and gave us His son. God works in us, Christ moved into us and is our life, and the Holy Spirit makes the things of God and Jesus not only reasonable but also doable in His power. It is all about the accomplished and ongoing work of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Move from the one faith that believes in what God does, period, and move into an obsession with self and what men must do, and find one of the most miserable religions in the world, which is Christianity without Christ.

“Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him.” (Zechariah 3:1)

I remember as a university student taking a cross-country trip with a fellow I barely knew; he was catching a ride with me to a city some distance away. I did not know the fellow had no capacity to shut up, but rather, there appeared to be a random firing in the brain that connected to the tongue. What made it even more frustrating is that he presumed to know everything about nothing in particular. Like the doll that has a string in its chest for a child to pull and hear talking, he prattled, but by pulling his own string. When he did stay on a topic, the longer he talked, the more it sounded like he might know what he was talking about, but I was probably just getting brainwashed. I began to look for a blowhole in the top of his head that enabled him to keep talking without seemingly ever taking a breath. The monologue just went on and on and on. I have only had that experience with one other being, the devil. He never shuts up, never. If he followed Jesus into the wilderness in order to get on a topic and not let up, how much will he do to us? A brother told me one day of the appearance of a demon who spoke to him, and he asked what I thought about that. All I said was: “Do not talk back, because the longer they talk, the more sense they make.” One day a friend sent a letter that really frustrated me. He was judging everything I was doing. I put it aside and refused to answer immediately. For the next two weeks all my thoughts were harsh, critical, driving and condemning toward the brother. Oh, it made me mad. Finally, I got the letter back out and prepared to respond (or, actually, react). I reread his letter only to find that it said nothing of what I had thought it said! It was completely supportive and positive! Satan had twisted the whole meaning of the letter. Satan gets on to our flaws, the things that make us safe for God to work through us, the things that brought us to Christ, and the things of the flesh that do not change apart from abiding; and he harps, and harps, and harps until we are left wondering why God does not just kill us, or we ask God to take our life. He also talks through others; we all have had a share of that. How he loves to play off of our self-life through the offense of another, a failure, a disapproving glance from someone, a criticism, and more. He knows everything about nothing; he is a liar that never shuts up! According to him we are all hypocrites, hopeless, in terrible relationships, and being constantly abused; we are the unhappiest people in the world, surrounded by a world that is conquering us at the whim of wicked men, and more. He never shuts up. He is a liar, the father of lies, and just as a judge grants visitation rights to his children, if we receive a lie, Satan will have the legal right to visit it in us. Once he has gained access to us in that way, he torments us. We must for the sake of our own sanity bring every thought captive to Christ. Christ knew us at our worst and yet chose us. We have been stupid, and yet look at how, because of Jesus, we continue to be blessed. God is nothing like what Satan is attempting to tell us. God has not judged us, wiped us, punished us, or killed people that we love just to see us weep! God is love, and Satan is the liar that never shuts up; he is a noisy being, and those that follow him on the earth are noisy. When all the noise gets to be too much, first of all, do not give the enemy your attention by starting to do battle. Jesus showed us how to handle him by saying, “Lord rebuke you!” That is enough; any more and things will get worse. Second, go to 1 Corinthians 13 and read what Love/God is and let His peace and Truth flood over you. “The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you” (Romans 16:20).

“Therefore it says, When He ascended on High, He led captive a host of captives, and He gave gifts to men” (Ephesians 4:8).

So many of us, at some time in our Christian lives, believe ourselves to be enslaved to something. It is either a returning habit or a new one, but the slavery seems very real. We have said it before but God cannot, as a shepherd, lead someone that is sitting. We must move to be led, and that means that we must move into a truth to discover the reality of the truth. He has taken captive everything that could have held the believer captive. We are free! Growth for Christians does not comprise a series of efforts to make us free but a series of revelations that make known our freedom. We look at our Red Sea and wonder how WE will part it to obey and go forward. In reality, we step into it and discover that HE is the one that parts it, but only so far as needed for us to place one foot at a time in it. That is the life of faith. It is a lie that we are enslaved or captive to anything but Christ. However, the voice of sin, Satan, the world, and flesh are so loud that sometimes we sit in the chair and bemoan a condition that we do not even have. The glory of God is in choice, and there are none freer to make a choice than the believer. I have counseled people in a variety of situations, among which are several prisons, orphanages, alcohol and drug treatment centers, and with couples in troubled marriages. I have given them information and witnessed some miracles, but it was not the information that ever set the people free; it was their choice to act on the information and to walk in the freedom Christ had already given them. The one dispensing information can never take the credit for a changed life; it was simply that the believer chose to walk in a freedom that was given by Him. I am happy that being obsessed with Betty long before she knew it, that upon her discovery of my love, she chose me. I chose her first, but she responded by choosing me. I am happy that she was not forced to marry me but responded to my choice with her choice. God has chosen you, He chose to set you free, and now you will thrill Him by choosing to walk in it. It is a hard pill to swallow, but if you can choose not to go shopping naked, you can certainly as a believer choose not to walk in what you believe to be a behavior to which you are held captive. Admit where you are so you can leave where you are. Admit that you are choosing to stay in your state and let God work with your honesty.