Moses 2.0

I received several great responses to my previous post about Moses, leprosy and the condition of our hearts. First are theirs, and then mine.

“I'm still reading about, hearing about (from Christians); so many comments, confessions, teachings, sermons and such how evil their wicked 'heart' is. I'd like to know from where or from whom this evil heart originates. My Bible teaches me that when I was saved, truly received Christ as Lord and Savior, I received a new heart from His work in my behalf. The old 'heart' ceases to exist and I am 'Born Again'! I have become a new creature and the 'Old Man' is dead! The wicked heart that once controlled my Soul and Body has been instantly replaced by "A new Creation"....Inhabited by The Holy Spirit Who is now free to complete all the will of God in me provided I co-operate with Him. Yes, I know the Old Testament verse; "The heart of 'man' is.....desperately wicked......" We are no longer that 'man'! We are a new creation in Christ with a new heart! My confession must change to agree with God's Word. He tells me who I am now. I am His Son cleansed completely by the Precious Blood of Christ! I must continue in Him by my obedience of course. We cannot be desperately wicked and saved at the same time!”

And

“Isn't it true that formerly my heart was sick and twisted .....but now I've been given a new heart; I was a sinner but now am a saint?”

Thank you ____, for your gracious response. I love the absolute nature of your thoughts, and agree wholeheartedly. I AM a New Creation in Christ; the old has passed away, and the New has come! Amen!

There is one sentence, however, that I must disagree with, and it is the last one: “We cannot be desperately wicked and saved at the same time!” I would like to comment on that.

For anyone who experiences salvation, at some point it becomes painfully obvious that being Born Again does not mean that I am instantly free from the memories, effects and failures of my past life. Free, yes, in terms of eternal guilt and judgment, but not free in terms of present consciousness. Father God does not wipe my mother board clean and off I go, now living only in the Absolute Truths that are mine because I am now “in Christ”. My heart is New, and Clean, and Pure, but over time I realize that there is still darkness, and the ability to choose it, operating in me as well. What is THAT all about?!

Paul the Apostle, who lived and wrote Pure Theology said, “Brothers, since we have all these wonderful Promises, let’s purify ourselves from every pollution of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord.” (2 Cor 7:1) There is still pollution present and available in us.

Hebrews exhorts us: “Be careful, brothers. Don’t let a wicked, unbelieving heart take hold of you. It will try to turn you away from the living God. Instead, encourage each other every day, as long as the days keep coming, so that not one of you will become hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become companions of Christ, IF by all means we hold everything we believed in the beginning firm until the end.” (Heb 3;12ff) It is possible for my New heart to once again become wicked and unbelieving. How is this possible?

I am speaking of process.

Someone has aptly said, “When we are saved, we no longer have a sin nature, but we do have a sin habit.” Being set free from Egypt totally freed the Israelites from slavery. However, it did not free them from thinking like slaves. They were Children of God, incredibly rich and powerful in Him. However, they still saw themselves as poor and weak. The habits of the dominated were still ruling over their hearts. And so, in the same way, we are not transformed only when our spirit is Born Again, but when our mind is renewed. This is a process.

What my post is about is this: it is helpful for us, as we are going through this process, to have reminders of who we still are, apart from Christ. The memory of the hideous leprosy that was somehow still in him helped Moses to stay humble while he was bringing water out of rocks and stopping the sun in the sky. Paul, speaking in the present tense said, “I am the chief of sinners!” (1 Tim 1:15) while he was sending his handkerchiefs off to heal people, and writing Scripture. We are all still capable of great good and horrible evil, and this should be a source of great humility and warning to us. Even after being an apostle for so many years, Paul had to go through an experience of “having the sentence of death within ourselves, so that we might not continue to trust in ourselves, but in God, who raises the dead.” (2 Cor 1:9) The danger is that if we do not “work out our own salvation” with Revelational thinking, we, like the Israelites, can be totally freed from the world and our slavery to it, and yet die like slaves in the desert, just a river’s breadth faith walk away from the Richness of our Inheritance in Christ.

I love the Absolute Nature of God! And I am awed that I who have been “sold unto sin” could get free from all of that, and come into a Perfect and Eternal Union with Him. Purity and Strength are ours in Him. Outside of Him? Well, nothing has changed. Are we forever free from it? Yes! But we must work out that freedom until all pollution is eradicated, all false thinking and deceitful lies, so that we may live and manifest perfect holiness to a dark and fallen world.

So, let us “Abide in Him!” And as we do, the pollution that remains in us, and the ability to choose, or even desire it, will grow weaker and weaker, and our calling and election in Christ will be made eternal and secure. (2 Pet 1:10)

“For we have become partakers – companions, partners – of Christ, IF we hold fast the beginning of our assurance, firm until the end.” (Heb 3:14)

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” (Matt 5:8)

A pure Heart. How could I ever hope to possess such a treasure? My heart is the most twisted, sick and malformed part of me. It is so deeply hidden and protected that it is impossible for me to know its true condition. Moses got a terrifying shock when God directed him to “Put your hand inside your cloak.” When he pulled it out, it was in the advanced stages of leprosy! This was a sign to the Israelites, but mostly to Moses, that inside his heart, something was very, very wrong. It is most humbling, and hopeful to realize that what was revelation to Moses was not revelation to God. He knew Moses through and through, from the height of his humility – he was pointed out as being the meekest man on the whole earth – to the depths of his depravity. Yet God was STILL calling him to be the leader of His chosen people. God sure loves to take chances, doesn’t He.

Scripture abounds with the testimonies of men and women of God who came, by grace, to the crucial realization that they were not all that they had thought themselves to be. Their “I have a heart wholly given to God!” declaration was silenced by the acknowledgment that their self-assessment was fatally flawed.

Job – “I abhor (m. utter disgust and extreme repugnance) myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” (Job 42:6)

David – “Who can understand his errors? Cleanse me from faults that I know nothing about.” (Ps 19:12)

Jeremiah – “The heart is the most deceitful thing there is, and desperately sick. Who can comprehend it?” (Jer 17:9)

Thankfully, Father God is not in any way put off by the ruined condition of our hearts. He knows what we are capable of, He observes it every day. But all of His rejection and revulsion toward our sin has all been poured out on His Son on the Cross. It is gone! So today we can receive nothing but His Joyful, Hopeful positive assessment and affirmation. Again, Scriptures abound:

“If anyone is in Christ, they become a New Creation. All the old things are gone forever, everything has become New!” (2 Cor 5:17)

“Jesus, Who never sinned at all, became The Sinner for our sake – He took our sin away from us and put it on Himself -  so that we can become His Righteousness, in Him!” (2 Cor 5:21)

In Christ, we go from very, very bad, to very, very Good. And what is the key to walking this out in life? The two little words: “In Him.”

If the snake-bitten Israelites in the desert went from dying to living simply by looking at their Savior on a pole, so we also can know a Resurrection of Life as we keep the eyes of our hearts “fixed” on Jesus. How does the change happen? I don’t know, it’s a Mystery. I just know that it is True. I can feel myself changing! The Spirit works out the process as I keep Jesus firmly in my view. “As we fix our gaze intently on the Glory of Jesus, the most amazing thing happens - we become like Him, more glory and more glory every day! That is how the Spirit transforms us.” (2 Cor 3:18)

Whew! I am so thankful that God has worked out the details. He has “undone the works of the devil.” (1 Jn 3:8) He has reversed the effects of the Fall! So today you and I can walk, not in death, but in Life; not in the dark, but in the Light. And our view of our Beautiful God is becoming clearer and clearer.

“Come into His Presence today with a true and uncondemned heart, in Total Peace, and Absolute Confidence of Faith. How is this possible?! Because our hearts have been sprinkled with His Blood from a wicked conscience, and our bodies have been washed with pure Water.” (Heb 10:22)

There is only One Reason why I can walk confidently and joyfully in the Presence of God today. It is because of what the Father and the Son have done to make it possible. The Cross, the empty Tomb, the Throne, the Blood, and the waters of Baptism, all have secured for me a place of unbroken acceptance in Relationship, and an assurance of that acceptance that is so good that, well… it simply HAS to be True! You can’t make this stuff up!

God can only be described adequately in superlatives, and “He only does amazingly Wonderful things!” (Ps 72:18)

Without the Blood and the Water, I am totally lost. Because of the Blood and the Water, I am totally saved!

Learning that the Old Me has been truly buried, and that all the sins of the Old Me have been totally Forgiven and Forgotten, is a Truth that is slowly marinating its way into my conscious mind and heart. The more fully I realize the size of this Lottery that I have incredibly won, (lucky me!!) the more deeply I am able to step into, and OWN, this place of ridiculously wonderful Acceptance and Affection. And because this Love that is coming on me is like the flow of a dam burst open, I can allow myself to be carried away to a place where everything has been thought of, and everything has been provided for, in this eternal Relationship.

I understand that to many, I sound like a person babbling excitedly in Japanese. :) You can see that something has me excited, but what it is, is totally unintelligible! I encourage you, open your heart Today to the One Who speaks the secret and hidden Language of your heart, and He will give you YOUR winning Lottery ticket, and usher you into a Divine Romance that is the End, and the Beginning, of a Life that can only be experienced to be understood.

“Taste, and see, that the Lord is Good!” (Ps 34:8)

The default emotion of the spiritually mature, is Joy.

Worry - when I am unable to see Jesus in the midst of my circumstances.

"while we look, not at the things that we 'see', but at the things that we do NOT see; for the

 things that we 'see', are only temporary, but the Things that we do NOT see, are Eternal."

(2 Cor 4:18)

"I have spoken these things to you so that IN ME you might have Peace. In the world you 

have tribulation. That is no cause for fear though, because I have overcome the world!"

(Jn 16:33)

"Fixing our eyes on Jesus..."

(Heb 12:2)

This is what I heard the Father speaking this morning:

“The Just shall live by their feelings.” Oh, how My children want that to be True! But it is not. Faith and feelings are not the same thing. In fact, very often they are opposites. When you have feelings, you don’t need faith. You are totally convinced of something – you “know” it, because you FEEL it. The problem with that is that when those feelings go away, so does your faith. You no longer “know” what a moment before you had been ready to bet your life and fortune on. This is the definition of the “double-minded one, unstable in all his ways. Don’t let that one think that he shall receive anything from the Lord.” (James 1:7-8) Not because I am angry with you; it is that you cannot be trusted in the challenging struggle of life on earth; a planet, at present, still in rebellion.

The enemy knows this, and does everything he can to slip in a feeling. If you receive it, then your Faith disappears, and the evidence of Heaven disappears with it. This is what happened to Peter on the water. “Oh Peter! Why did you doubt?! You were doing it!” (Matt 14:31) As long as Peter walked in his faith – not Mine, his – he experienced the “impossible”. Earth-bound human beings don’t walk on water! But Peter was no longer earth-bound. He was joined with Me in a Heavenly experience. He saw Me, and believed that he could be with Me wherever I was. And at that moment, I was in a Realm that simply is not bound by earth’s rules. As long as HE believed, he walked ON the water. When he doubted, that bubble burst and natural laws resumed, which of course is where the other eleven disciples were the whole time.

“Without Faith, it is impossible to please Me.” Not because I’m hard to please, but because if you are going to walk with Me during your time on earth, Faith is required. I will show you Myself, and what I am doing. But then you must believe it. When you do, you will break free from every sin, darkness, doubt and fear, and you will, in and with Me, experience the “power of the age to come.” And you will see Me smile.

In 1797, the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, John Jay wrote: “Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers and it is the duty as well as the privilege and interest of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers.” He also declared that, "No human society has ever been able to maintain both order and freedom, both cohesiveness and liberty apart from the moral precepts of the Christian Religion. Should our Republic ever forget this fundamental precept of governance, we will then, be surely doomed.” 

Let us pray that the righteous men and women of this nation will accept their right and responsibility to choose their leaders, and seek wisdom and discernment to vote for men and women who recognize the Lordship of Christ, and His oversight over our nation.