II Timothy 3:16-17 “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
Revelation 22:18-19 “For I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the Book of Life, from the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.” —
Here we have three humbling scriptures and faithful teachings from God to take heed of and to guide us well. We can rely on God’s word,100%! It is written with His power! God is Holy and all-powerful to give us a perfect word to know Him and all righteousness.
We as His children can and should rely on God’s revealed word, and hear it like our Father Himself enlightening us. We as people can fall into confusion, misunderstandings, and misguided perceptions, then presume things about life and God that are untrue. We should not hold our emotions or thoughts (of a limited source of knowledge) as our standard. God is faithful and steady for trust. To go anywhere but to Him for instructions and each “final say” is to choose another source for wisdom.
Believers should know God is Lord over all, including wisdom, and honor Him as such. To say we wish to honor God and seek other sources of truth is to lie, or even perhaps to begin participating in blasphemy if we live in God’s name but then distort the things He has said.
• If we understand this, then afterward we should want to retain and practice it! We want to participate in building reliance on God’s word. We want to assure we study it, comprehend it, trust it, and let His voice and Spirit in it lead us in life.
Our God knows once He’s set His light in you. His word tells of Him sealing His people with the Holy Spirit when we believed in Christ for our salvation after recognizing we have lived in sin (born in it and once participators of it) resulting in us being under God’s just wrath, and with the need of undeserved mercy. Christ has given that to us through His sacrifice. He bore our punishment though He was innocent. He paid our toll.
God is THE restorator and source of good in our world, and He promises to redeem whoever confesses their sin and embrace the light of Jesus. Through His grace, we will always be His children of promise! — Children who don’t actually know everything and make mistakes as we learn… As His children, we’re able to repent and continue being edified and shaped in the image of Christ, and prepared for our Father’s coming kingdom as God’s word tells us is His plan for us.
Ephesians 2: 4-10 • 4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. —
There is an active sanctifying work that God does in His people, so there is a reality of the need for constant course-correcting on our part.
To receive Christ, but then march on without His discipline, becoming calloused rather than softened, and to march on believing everything we do under Him is right is not right. None of us are yet perfected, so none of us are yet beyond the need of repenting, listening, and developing (including guarding our heart and opening it with discernment for God). Thankfully, we’re also never beyond God’s understanding and ability to forgive sincere repentance, and never beyond His desire to help us.
• God led me to write this blog to address some of the spiritual dangers in the failure to course-correct and also the dangers of believing we’re saved but failing to remain in humble obedience and learning.
Hebrews 12: 5- 8
5 And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons:
“My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord,
Nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him;
6 For whom the Lord loves He chastens,
And scourges every son whom He receives.”
7 If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? 8 But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons.
FALSE “GOD”
Only in the one true God, who created the world and us, is there power to save. Whomever God says He is and whatever He says is right we should want to know. There are illegitimate children of God. God’s word describes the matter of all of us being created in God’s loving image, but then all of us being corrupted by sin, and only a few us repenting and following Christ who scripture says (and God supernaturally and prophetically confirms) is the narrow gate, gate-holder, and way to life. (John 14:6)
Hebrews 13:8 “ Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.”
Jesus is God in the flesh (John 1: 1; 14), and God tells us [through Paul] in Romans 6:1-2 “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 God forbid! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? “ and in Hebrews 12: 1-2 He encourages us “… let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, …”
It is God who brings us to the light and keeps us in the light, it is Him who teaches us to flee from sin, and gives us a new heart that can fellowship with Him and gain a passion for Him and righteousness! It is God who is faithful to hold and mold us.
As mentioned before in this blog, we can enter the danger of blasphemy and create a false God who cannot justify us on judgment day. God cannot allow sin to reign in us and remain our God. He also cannot redeem us apart from Christ’s sacrifice which reigns over the power of sin, and evil, and reclaimed victory. — God’s people do not live in darkness and sin, but in the truth and light, and life of Jesus! So course-correct if you are a believer. This is a foundational promise and revelation of God! Decide to walk in it with Him! This is how we get closer to living God and the kingdom to come!
FALSE FEELINGS
In the flesh, naturally, we don’t always agree with God’s ways, but nonetheless, they are always good and in time He will even prove them so! Therefore, we want to follow now (course-correcting) to assure we allow trust and faith to go before our feelings. This way, we continue towards God! — Our feelings can waver, but God is clearly planted in right-standing. Imagine the dangers of allowing ungrounded emotions to rule you. Imagine what the world looks like with billions of people differing in reason. Unfortunately, we don’t have to imagine. It amounts to confusion and division. It leaves us with frustration, fear, and sadness.
When feelings are allowed to rule as our lord, rather than the Lord, it’s destructive, especially when rulers of religion or any policies lead by this. It can become the birth of wars in the world or cult-like behavior in believers and churches/ religious groups.
Lack of submission to God’s word (or manipulation of it/ partial use and distortion of it/adding and taking away), leaves us in submission to the strongest men whether they walk the straight and narrow way to Christ righteously or not. It can leave us under peer pressures, oppression, and hopeless corrupt judgments. It will leave us under a dominion which is not the nature of God at all!
→ There is a nature of false feelings in the world, and then there is God who has His pure loving, perfectly holy nature. In your walk with God, always remember God is holy, loving, and good. His love is patient and kind. He is righteous and just. He is merciful and gracious. Are we continuing to grow in His nature, or has something else began to rule over us? Course-correct.
1st Corinthians 13:1-3 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.
Romans 12: 9 “Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good.”
So, focus on godly thinking, motive, love, and aim. Cling to Christ. Follow God’s heart, and not your own (Jeremiah 17:9-10.) Without this pursuit, we’ll fall off course (God forbid) and risk walking blindly into the last danger of discussion.
FALSE SECURITY
(god is not mocked)
Galatians 6:7 “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.”
Know it is by grace that we are saved (not of work lest anyone should boast) (Ephesians 2:8) and that the God who saved us will allow nothing, no opposing power or principality to snatch us out of His hand (John 10:28-30). — There is a belief that can be derived from scripture that once we are saved we are always saved and cannot forfeit our salvation even in the case of falling into sin again… It is true that we will accidentally sin until we’ve received our new bodies in heaven (1 John 1:8), but some have gained false security about that transition into salvation.
Some have never truly known God and come to that first revelation and repentance where God changes our hearts, awakens us, and makes His will the passion and sole reason and passion of our life. The confidence of salvation is apart of our armor (Ephesians 6:17, Hebrews 4:14-16) and CAN and SHOULD be put on (praise God!) BUT after we have studied ourselves approved (2 Timothy 2:15) and been sincerely clarified by our living God!
Even after these things, we should never use our confidence to justify sin, abuse grace, or premeditate on wrongdoing, rather it is to used to implore God’s promise to free us from anything we should not be in! — God is impartial. You will not be justified in any sin. Rather, He will wash you! His power is still alive! God’s will for us lives, and our full edification in heaven is to come! Let us long for Him and a right heart that honors the freedom and promises He’s given us with our actions and all our might! Let us worship in spirit and truth for God has given us salvation!
Remember these things as you go! ♥