Fellowship July 9, 2011

Fellowship in the Household of Faith

July 9, 2011

  

BELIEVER 6:  (Sharing from “Not I, but Christ” by Watchman Nee)  “As God’s child, you should realize that if you do not apologize and ask forgiveness from a person against whom you have sinned, your spiritual life will be adversely affected.  We know the door of salvation is not open forever…” It is so grievous when we don’t forgive the mistakes of others.

BELIEVER 4:  I need to interrupt.  I am going to start with this.  This is something that human beings don’t understand.  We want the door of salvation to be opened forever.  Man in himself doesn’t exist forever.  We are going to give an example.  We watched a video about a brother who by prayer was raised from the dead.  We need to go to the point of submitting ourselves to go to spiritual crucifixion and die to ourselves; we also need to deal with natural death.  If we are not strong in the spirit, we are not going to deal with this.  If you go to funerals, it is not an easy thing.  Funerals represent the defeat of man.  We have a true answer for this defeat; (the answer is) What Christ did on Calvary.  We need to be open to what God wants to do. This is not easy.  God wants to deal with all of the human (parts).  What is important is the (inner) condition of man.  Many religions speak similar things to Jesus.  What Jesus offers is something that nobody has the ability to handle.  He came to give Life.  This is not just any type The of life; not biological, not psuche (soul-life); He came to give spiritual life.  Here when we speak of salvation, Paul said that is Jesus wasn’t raised from the dead our faith is in van.  The door of faith is only opened in the age of grace, but this age ends during the great tribulation.  It is never going to be easy because we need to come to the point of having the same nature of God.  It cost us to understand this.

BELIEVER 4:  God is a good God.  The Lord is the one is the one who puts repentance in our heats; without His Spirit we cannot come to Him.  You can take this by faith, but the reality of this is something serious.  Only Jesus can help us live in a pure heart in the new creation; otherwise we have hidden things in our hearts.

BELIEVER 6:  (continues sharing from Nee) “The Lord expects you to treat others as He has treated you.  He does not demand of you according to righteousness, so He expects you not to demand righteousness from others…If I still have something to lose, I have not lost enough.”  (BELIEVER 5: this is for you).  This is not only for me.  (BELIEVER 4: BELIEVER 6 needs to give the practical application to all these things).  This is one of the best preachings that one can find (the book).  What God says, “to overcome the sin you don’t need to do anything.”  Christians make mistakes in this.  This book gives a wisdom and understanding of what the Bible says, and he puts it in an easy way to understand.  Some brothers have this education (teaching), but it is very dreadful to them.

BELIEVER 4:  I feel the Lord is dealing many things in this (area).  I am going to explain some things.  There are points that the Lord wants us to eat and swallow (digest, not just taste).  When it says here, “a sinner asks for mercy, not justification”, we cannot understand this unless the Lord brings us to a place of nothingness. You need to deal with what happened tonight with all of us.  The Lord expects us to treat others as He treats us.  This is a problem (for us) because we do not allow His grace to grow (in us).  We put our “selves” in the front to stop what God wants to do.  I am going to speak what I feel in this.  It says, “if one has received mercy, one needs to show mercy.”  Do you know what has happened with us?  We don’t go to the point that we see what God is doing in the measure that He wants. Why?  It says, “only we have lost all, we don’t have anything else to lose.”  How does this happen in reality?  This is a daily process. We don’t want to deal with this process all the time.  It is true that the Lord wants all of us all the time, but we have automatic soul-life (against the Lord).

BELIEVER 3:  To me it seems like or feels like this “abandoning all of your self to God”, all of your being, this seems unreal.  I feel, “Is this possible?”

BELIEVER 4: The problem is this; we have been dealing with this for a long time.  We cannot say to the Lord, “everything belongs to You.”  This is not true in reality; in the (daily) temporal reality that we live in.  Why is it not true?  Is it not true because God doesn’t want it to be true? No.  It is because we don’t let things go (from our hearts).  What does the Lord do so that we can grow?  He asks us for something that is in our heart.  But when He asks we either resist to bring it to Him, or we take it from His hand after we bring it to Him; the Lord shows us how bad our heart is. 

What is the heart?  The three parts of the soul plus the conscience.  But this is not the evil conscience, it is the consciousness of Him.  We are going to speak about our two hearts.  The Lord is revealing what He wants, little by little. Our heart of stone has rocks, has many things, a satanic consciousness.  The Lord doesn’t want anything to do with this heart (the old heart).  This heart is in the old man, and is with us.  The capacity to decide in these things of your own will…It is a progressive process to become Overcomers.  The Spirit of God shows you things you don’t want to deal with when you follow Him.  This is what I have lived with BELIEVER 3.  By my reason, I don’t understand (him).  But the Lord says, “this is not your problem.”  When He speaks, the more grace you receive, the more mercy you need to show; this is terrible for your flesh.  If I don’t go to the cross, I am going to fix things with BELIEVER 3 (his problems) in my own strength.  The relationship that you have with BELIEVER 1, according to your righteousness in your own heart, you say, “I don’t want to deal with her.”  We have go to a point of turning the cheek.  Our flesh says “no.” Why?  Because our flesh does not have the capacity to do what God wants.  God is going to take you through hard things, these things work death (in our flesh), as Fenelon says.  He says that when you are spiritually crucified, it is stronger than physical death.  Why?  Because you are bringing your natural rights to death.  What happened with BELIEVER 5?  BELIEVER 5, for example, according to my brain, or my heart of stone, because they are united; the things BELIEVER 5 lives, I don’t understand naturally.  Yesterday, the Lord touched me a lot with what she shared.  BELIEVER 3 is seeking the Lord (BELIEVER 5: all the time), and you seek part-time.  This is between you and God.  The word we are sharing is applicable, and it is not inapplicable.  You (BELIEVER 5) were hired by the Lord nine years ago.  The Lord says that all have the same salary, same payment, no matter how long ago you were hired (Matt. 20).  What He promises is the same to all.  But, we don’t understand this.  We have our reasons. 

What BELIEVER 5 and BELIEVER 3 are living is like the Parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15).  What did the prodigal son do?  He took the inheritance and spent it all.  In a certain way, BELIEVER 5 is the younger son, and BELIEVER 3 is the older son; for now.  (BELIEVER 5: I spend the inheritance all the time).  She is honest right now.  You have an older brother; BELIEVER 3.  In many things BELIEVER 3 is the older brother.  In your case BELIEVER 5, you have spent the inheritance of the Father, then you return with all your problems and say, “I have a Father.”  If I use my brain, if BELIEVER 3 uses his, there is no human reason for what has happened with you (BELIEVER 5).  I saw yesterday, the mercy of God over your life.  As BELIEVER 3 shared, in the Spirit, you are ready to minister to the nations, but in your soul, you have many problems.  (BELIEVER 5: Many problems).  I saw how much God loves you, even though you spend the inheritance (BELIEVER 5: every week).  Help us Lord.  To me, I am shaken by how God moves. 

We are going to the older brother now.  The older brother wants what God wants, but he has a terrible war (inside) also.  Yesterday in the moment, when you (BELIEVER 5) were ministering Christ, I did not watch you according to the flesh (because God used you). I said, “Lord, I don’t understand.”  In moment that I said this, the Lord broke me.  I looked at BELIEVER 3 and saw he couldn’t receive what you are giving.  In his brain, he couldn’t understand how God is blessing you.  In my being, yesterday I said, “Lord, you have to do something with BELIEVER 3, because he is near to me, and it is not by choice that someone is near to me.  It is only who You who chose.”  To see in the spirit is something that we couldn’t pay for.  There are many things BELIEVER 3 is starting to do for God.  Pray for him.  God is anointing him for some things, but in many things he is living, the enemy attacks him with many thoughts.  Now you BELIEVER 6.  I was explaining yesterday in the fellowship that if things are not (done) with the heart, God doesn’t want it.  God has told me, “You need to do something with BELIEVER 3, be ready to die, because some things are not going through (in his heart).”  The Lord put some things to change in our fellowship, in what the Lord is doing.  But, the most important thing is to understand how God operates in what He wants. Why?  I said to BELIEVER 3, “what is important is what God wants to do, whether you are here, or in another place, but the most important thing is to see in the Spirit and to have the same vision that the Holy Spirit gives.”  Without this vision, it is impossible to have harmony of the Spirit.  The Lord has allowed the connection of the Spirit (among us), something that the Lord has given to you.  One knows what the unity of the Spirit is, with whatever brother; whether this brother is in the spirit or not, even if the languages are different.  But if we don’t go to the same spirit (yield to the Lord), we cannot have the same feeling, we cannot even give a proper translation (in the meetings).  This unity of the soul is something we cannot arrive to without God.  I feel that the most important thing is the unity of the spirit.  Why?  Because the unity of the Spirit, allows one to know what is happening in the spiritual kingdom.  If feel that all your blessings are there by the mercy of the Lord (BELIEVER 5).  This doesn’t have a natural explanation.  I don’t want to see things in a natural way, because I am not better than you.  How merciful the Lord is with you!  Concerning BELIEVER 3, I told something to him yesterday, and I put it on the table (with you all), I don’t want to decide anything concerning him.  I want God to decide.  But what I know, is that he needs to see (concerning himself) what you (BELIEVER 5) and I see.  In the moment that he sees what you and I see, he is going to see what everyone in the spirit sees.  I have never felt this way before; yesterday I felt as a father.  And I see that the son doesn’t see what he needs.  God has put in me this burden.  The most important thing right now, is that God gives you (BELIEVER 3) the same spirit.  The theories and the books don’t matter.  The Lord destroys the wisdom of the wise.  This is the most important thing. 

BELIEVER 5: Thank you Lord because all things are by Your mercy, not because we deserve.   You do what you want to do.  Thank you for Your mercy.  Keep working in the lives of the brothers, in all who have fellowship here; there are many things we don’t understand.  I have two people (natures) inside of me, many times I don’t understand who I am (what I have inside).  In all things we need Your help.  “He has made known to us the mystery of will His according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself…To enlighten all that the may see what the economy of the mystery is, which throughout the ages has been hidden in God.  His name is the verb, “I am” He exists in Himself.  The Lord exists forever.  God is eternal and exists forever, no beginning, no end. There is only one God in the universe.  The word is not to be studied as theology.  We need to know His dispensing into His chosen ones.”

BELIEVER 4:  What happened right now with what you shared?  If God controls our actions, we don’t act freely.  It is His life in us that acts.  God has not allowed BELIEVER 5 to say anything in some things (in this meeting), but only to exalt His name. When we go to the point of recognizing the Lord is in our midst, our first reaction is humility.  Why?  Because we know that we cannot touch Him (His Glory) unless we are surrendered to Him.  It changes completely what we are.  “In our daily waiting, when we confess our deep inability and submit to the ability of God, only when we come to this point are you going to stop you trying in your own strength and give to God the opportunity to have the victory.”  This is for you two right now (BELIEVER 6 and BELIEVER 5).  I am going to begin with you BELIEVER 6.  When you are near to God with the heart, He doesn’t want reasons.  The only thing that He wants is, “Lord, thank you, here I am.”  When the Lord doesn’t allow one to break (in the heart), the questions (in our mind) abound.  Why?  Because our natural being wants many reasons (for everything).  We don’t want to (simply) believe.  It says, “come to the holy place with a pure heart and a perfect conscience of faith…”.  The pure heart and full assurance of faith are only in Jesus.  With us, we do not understand; the Lord needs to conquer you.  He is not going to take all, because we don’t have the capacity to receive Him in fullness.  It says that Moses came near to God and the Lord sought to kill him (Exo. 4). Why?  Moses said, I want to see you, but those who see Him die.  It is very easy for us to leave the position of brokenness. There is such a war (in us). BELIEVER 3 is working with the law of sin and death right now.  Paul recognized that he wants the good, but he also recognized that he cannot do the good he wanted.  Do you know what the Law (of sin and death) is?  It is when you say that you are going to do this, this, and this, but you can’t do any of it.  The second thing to see, is that we cannot in ourselves overcome this law.  It is the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus sets us free from the Law of sin and death (Rom 8).  Without the Living Christ, you are not going to overcome this law.  The Living Christ is in our heart and in prayer.  Why cannot we die to ourselves in ourselves, because there is a law in us that doesn’t allow it.  The Lord shows us we cannot do it.  The entire world according to religion believes you can live what Jesus commands.  The moment you pray and use your heart and say, “Lord, speak to me”, you by faith take your hands off the things.  This brings you to the place to know in reality (that we cannot do these things).  When I was doing the things of BELIEVER 2 (concerning some circumstances naturally impossible), I know what I needed to do because the Spirit was moving in me.  But before this, I had to say, “I cannot handle these things.”  Everything was in a rush, we were supposed to be somewhere in 20 minutes that would take us an hour and a half.  You feel the lack of faith that the whole world has.  That is when God says, “Stand in the faith.”  The living (ones) are going to say, “No, this is impossible.”  What happened tonight with BELIEVER 3, if I see you according to the flesh I cannot receive anything.  For this, we don’t need to see with our own eyes, because our eyes don’t give us the sight of God, and our natural feelings don’t give us the impression of God.  What attracts us to Jesus?  We are told, “You are not going to die, but have eternal life.”  But in reality, after we come to Jesus, we find out we need to die.  (BELIEVER 6: if you tell people this, they will not come to the Lord).  So that you can be a channel that the Lord can flow through, you need to be an empty vessel, and the full of the living word.  This is something you cannot pay money for; the Living Word.   In the Old Testament, the Spirit came upon the prophets.  One thing is that the Spirit comes upon you and you speak for God, but the New Testament says that only Jesus speaks.  How does Jesus speak?  Jesus speaks mingled with you.  This is what Paul said, “I don’t know if it is me speaking or it is God.”  This is the mingling.  What I am trying to explain is that Jesus in the Old testament is a figure, but in the New Testament, the disciples didn’t understand Him for the 3 and a half years that they were with Him until they received both portions of the Spirit.  They received the interior Spirit, and the exterior Spirit.  In the New Testament He is the Life-Giving Spirit.  If you see Galatians 2:20, “It is no longer I that live, but Christ that lives in me, and the life I live in the Flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave His live for me.”  It is not your life that you live in the flesh, but Christ.  This only operates according to what you give to God day by day.  This is very important. 

BELIEVER 3:  (Sharing from Don’t waste your sorrow by Paul Billheimer)  “Although it has been agonizingly painful (the lesson God has taught him on love), I would not have missed it an any conceivable cost.  My gratitude to God for His faithfulness and patience with me knows no bounds.  The greatest regret I have is that I have been so slow a learner.  My greatest joy is that God did not give me up.”  Wow!  I feel that way every day.  Thank you Lord for not giving up on me.  You have stayed with some people for years and years, (I don’t want to make that an excuse).  This is the same thing BELIEVER 5 is living.  We do have to look at it with some kind of time factor.  God might not look at it that way but we do.  If we haven’t grown in the Lord for 20 years, this is crazy.  But, the Lord is different than we are.  This is the only thing that is going to break us to pieces.  When we see how we would handle things if we were the Lord…If we were God, with our wisdom…we would not do anything He did.  We would not have sent our only Son into fallen humanity and die for this fallen humanity.  We would say, “More law.  More law, and eventually I will get a pure race when they become terrified enough of me.”  God gives more grace.  (BELIEVER 6: we need to curse Adam).  Adam is already cursed; our old man is too.  (BELIEVER 6: the heritage Adam gives is terrible).  It is terrible.  But God is greater. For us, human beings, we would have it like this, “where sin abounds, punishment abounds…but for God were sin abounds, grace super-abounds.  God is so different than we are.  This is the good news, that God is so different than us.  The good news is that He is contrary to us.  In our everyday living, we don’t see this.  But little by little He shows us that we are going to be happy in His being contrary to us.  I hope we all have more and more joy that He is contrary to us.