What do we live for?

What do we live for? The presence of Jesus is like sweet honey from one's spirit. The kingdom of God is within. There is an ecstasy of spirit, not ugly, not fleshly, but sweet spirit in peace, a fragrance of beauty, which tugs the heart and if yielded to, can flow in tears or can exalt with joy and shouting. A vision of Christ, sweetness, and Joy, and love, and purity and sorrow mixed with gratitude and surrender.

Joined with others, more blissful, and powerful, overwhelming. This is Gods salvation for the world. In an everyday kind of way there is an abiding presence, sweet at the source and pervading all of our behaviour. The fruits are evident for all to see and to taste. This is the Kingdom of God, which is amongst us, and it is delightful. It is our life; it is what we live for, the love of God amongst the brethren. Pain is not excluded, there can be pain of many sorts; pain is part of this world. A brother hurts another brother with his words. The one who does the hurting cannot know the sweetness of Jesus because he sins, and Jesus' presence is lost to him. He suffers in Exile. He is like Cain, wandering with no satisfaction. The one who is hurt, pains, and could take revenge with bitter malice, but if he does this, he too will be exiled. So he feels the pain but focuses on that sweet source of Christ's presence within and has sorrow and prays for the exiled brother because he understands that mulish obstinacy which will not return and be healed. He also has been that way before.

We hunger for a corporate sweetness, that unity of heart in Christ that we have had occasion to experience. What earthly Treasure can compare with such perfection of Beauty? It is a return to Eden, to innocence, nakedness before God with no shame because purity covers our hearts. Like the sweetness of the newly wed, alive for Christ and surrendered to him in intimacy. Like the newlywed, we long to keep that love, and we could, but sin and desire for ones self, to have and enjoy, deprives the other and forces apart. That nature of covetousness poisons and kills, but thank God we can return. We don't want the poisonous fumes; we want the presence of Christ. We want the Kingdom of God to abide amongst us, to grow and not be nipped in the bud; we want it to become a Glory in the whole earth. A constant dying to self is needed, an acceptance of pain so that the source may remain unstopped, and rather grow.

Do not pay back evil with evil but rather pay back evil with good. The source from which we can pay is unlimited; nothing can stop up the flow of Christ's presence, nor sickness nor famine nor the sword, nor persecution, nor a curse. We are blessed indeed. Our wrong responses to any of these afflictions, will, nevertheless, certainly dry up our well.

Our enemy will throw all of these things at us to stop the flow. If he can get us rattled, we fall onto his territory. “Be perfect as my father is perfect” It's a tall order, but nothing less will suffice, for our enemy knows what to touch. You may protest “You can touch all else, but not that! I've only kept that, have some pity on me!” Our enemy will be only too glad to have just one place to touch which will keep him in control.Jesus said.. ‘No one can be my disciple unless he gives up all.'

It is in the nature of man to want, to have, to possess. Money, clothes, and food are childish things although some lust after these. But to have power! To be recognized, to have status. These lusts are subtler.

Let the enemy touch these things and see the response. Is there a place in you that he can touch which will stop the flow of the Kingdom of God? The Kingdom of God is Righteousness, Peace and Joy in the Holy Spirit.

“Touch his bone and flesh,” said Satan to God about Job. God will allow our self life to be invaded, our buttons to be touched.Why should God keep us in a bubble, protecting us from being touched? Those places will always be there; a potential disaster waiting to happen. We must be made aware of the places in us which can still throw us into disarray. Then let us just make sure that they are removed.

“If any one would be my disciple” they will have to disconnect all those buttons. We could try to avoid that foundation and make things work, but in a breakdown our enemy will know where to touch us.We must make sure that he has no ground within us. We all really do want the Kingdom of God, but we can only have it amongst those who have been separated. Jesus has made it possible for all to have the Kingdom, but there is a price that must be paid. Is it worth it? The Kingdom of God is like a pearl. A merchant gave all that he had to purchase it. The value of the pearl was what was paid for it; the value of the Kingdom is what we are prepared to pay for it. If the price of the pearl is your all, if you have paid your all for it, then that is what its value will be to you. No wonder that many trample the Pearl underfoot, treat the Kingdom as a mess of pottage, despise its value, because it never has been given any value.

Do not cast your pearls before swine. They don't understand the value of pearls. They are too intent with appetite.

We must be hungry for Christ. We must abide in him, drinking always from the well springing up to eternal life. We must pursue his presence as hidden treasure, individually and corporately. Then we can share his fragrance with the world. Our fellowship with each other will be as deep as we allow it to be. The love and intimacy of a couple that have been married for many years is deep and meaningful because of the trust and openness which has developed. This is precious and worthy of aspiring to. Fellowship in the Body of Christ, and fellowship with Christ is like marriage. We can't be married and remain separate, living our own lives. There is no beauty in a marriage like that. It's heading for divorce.

Likewise in the body. To the degree that we are joined in the body, to that degree we will have fellowship. The springs of Christ's presence will flow and that is the Kingdom of God, that is our focus, and no price is too high to attain to it. Our commitment to each other must be complete, as in a marriage. If we don't have that kind of fellowship we've got nothing. The Buildings, the Organization, the Titles, the Finance etc; it is all nothing, and can be dropped immediately, dispensed with, if it stops up the presence of Christ. Too often though these other things are pursued at the expense of the Kingdom, at the expense of Righteousness, Peace and Joy. There will always be detractors, those who are eager for their own gain. This will always be so. But at least there could be a core of those who are prepared to pay the price of the Pearl. Without this core there can be no Kingdom at all, it won't last.But a little salt savours the whole pot. The unity of a family begins with the parents, and then that family can become big. We want the Kingdom of God to spread in all directions. It is Salvation to the world.

The message of the Kingdom is superseded by the life of the Kingdom; the message by itself is useless if there is no life. The way to this life is through the laying down of our lives. Only through death comes resurrection life. The Kingdom of God is not words, but power. The power of Crucified life. The life whose buttons have been disconnected, the life in which our enemy has no ground to work from.

Hurting words are said;…. “and he answered nothing”;
Sickness:…..“though he slay me yet will I trust him”.
Persecution:….. “in returning good for evil, you lay up burning coals on his head. Blessed are you, leap and jump with joy!”
Finances dry up: …..Continuing faith in God's faithfulness.
Fight against depression as if it were sin. Self-pity, when present, will stop the flow of Christ's presence, because it is sin.

Nothing can stop the Kingdom of God from flowing if the price has been paid. Self must be on the altar. We have been crucified with Christ! Dead to the world! The Sting of Death has passed! Death holds no power, we are no longer held captive by the fear of Death.The world has no ground in me,and I am joined to the Lord!

I've been through the wilderness; and been touched in every place,all the buttons were pressed. I've been in exile, but now I'm entering the Promised Land! I've accused God, tested the Lord with grumbling, and wandered in circles. But finally each button has been yielded to Him and disconnected.

Now the Evil one has nothing in me, no ground to stand on. Or has he? As a matter of fact, the wilderness is a lifetime experience and entering the promise land is also a lifetime experience. We enter by degrees. There will be yet more valleys to go through, more buttons that may be uncovered, more ground that needs to be conquered by Jesus. We are being transformed from Glory to more Glory! These light afflictions are exposing more self life, which is being skimmed like scum off a pool. More purity, more fellowship! Through tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God. The Saints of God are perfected in the crucible of his love. The fires are hot, but the fellowship is intense. “To you it has been granted the privilege of suffering with Christ.”

The fellowship of his sufferings.

The poor suffer and become strong in faith. The Christian poor that is. Other poor people may become envious, or even robbers. But the Christian poor learn to drink of the unfathomable riches of Christ. “Has not God chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and inheritors of the Kingdom? The Kingdom is Righteousness, Peace and Joy in the Holy Spirit. When you are poor your ground is all unprotected. That's why Jesus told his disciples to give away all their possessions.Then they would be entirely in God's hands so he could deal with them as he pleased.It is not the possessions themselves that stops the life of Christ, but our attachment to them. We need to be delivered from all the inner attachments that stop up the life of God in the body of Christ.

Why are there so many divisions amongst you? Is it because you are still carnal, babes in Christ? You avoid the commandments that will expose the ground of self. God will not break your protective bubble. You can break it by voluntarily moving out of it through obeying his commands without fear of the consequences.We can make ourselves vulnerable by obeying his commands, and in this vulnerability he disciples us. It is not for any person to dictate to you what his commands are. “My sheep hear my voice and follow me.” Those who have ears will hear. Each must bear his own load.

“Follow Me,” says the Lord.

Law and Spirit

The Islamic religion consist of a set of rules , a standard of behaviour, given supposedly by God, (and much of it is from God ) to which man ought to subject himself. If he does so, he is a Muslim, that is one who is submitted to God. Muslims do not consider men to be sinful in nature, rather they believe that men are free to be good or bad. As Christians we know that law would not be necessary if we were not sinful. Indeed the “Law is made for sinners”. But the law does not produce righteousness; it can only reveal to us our sinful condition.

The law is, however, a restraining power upon our behaviour, because it carries a threat of punishment to those who disobey. Therefore, the fear of punishment becomes the motivating factor for obedience, but this motive cannot produce righteousness because it is self-centered. Only love can produce righteousness. Love for God, and love for our fellow men, and love for ourselves. If we have love we need no law because the whole law is summed up in the first two commandments, to love God and to love your neighbour as yourself. Love is a force which changes you from within. Law is a force which restrains you from without.

Law is earthly, love is spiritual. The spiritual can enter into your spirit, it is a living force.The law is a dead force, it cannot change your attitude. In fact, the law can cause you to become more sinful in your understanding simply because there are sometimes things that you are doing ;which are wrong ,and you are ignorant of the fact that they are wrong until a law reveals it to you. And moreover, it is a fact that something which is forbidden is sometimes more attractive just because it is not allowed. Even though we know we are doing wrong, we cannot stop ourselves doing it because we delight in it!

Sometimes when losing ones temper one may have many opportunities to restrain one self, but instead one feeds the monster instead and works oneself up into a rage! Knowing that it is wrong, that is, having knowledge of the law, does not in anyway change one's behaviour. Fear of punishment does. Thus, rage can be cut short quite quickly if there is any prospect of inflicting damage on one’s self or ones own goods. A man in a rage is still able to make quality decisions about what exactly he will destroy and what he won’t. So the law does have value in that it promises punishment to those who disobey, and the fear of this punishment restrains evil behaviour .

But only God’s spirit can change the heart and this change is rooted in the work that Jesus did on the cross. Without the cross no change would be possible. If it were possible to change men some other way it would not have been necessary for Jesus to have suffered on the cross the way he did. If the law was enough, then Jesus died needlessly. If the law was good enough, then all the religions of the world with all their laws would have done the job already, human society would be perfect!

All men are guilty of having disobeyed. If they are guilty then they are awaiting punishment from God. Of course many of our wrong doings are not seen by men, they are done in secret. In fact most criminals are outside of jail, never having been caught by the civil authorities for the crimes they have committed, or otherwise their crimes are not considered to be crimes by civil law. In both of these cases the offender is still awaiting trial and can expect due punishment, for God is just and “he will in no wise allow the guilty to go unpunished” The wrong might even have been forgotten by the offender but God has not, and a thousand years for us is as one day for him. Our sins are laid bare before him, and what is done in secret will be revealed on the day of judgment. For a man to be changed in his heart his first need is that of being forgiven for the wrong that he has committed. For this he needs to be aware of his guilt, for why should he receive forgiveness if he still considers himself to be innocent?

The Christian Kingdom of Prester John

The Negro slaves of old times used to sing a song about crossing the Jordan River and entering into the Promised Land. By the Jordan they were referring to Death and the Promised Land meant heaven. On the Sabbath they would gather in their congregations, lift their eyes up to heaven, and drink in hope of one day escaping from their daily torment. Most of these in the classical age of slavery had never a hope of entering into a rest of earthly enjoyment this side of eternity. This did not diminish their heavenly hope, and it was these pioneers of the Faith that laid the foundation for a new expression of the church in the western world. From these pilgrims sprang the Pentecostal and fundamentalist movements of the nineteenth and early twentieth century. Their flesh never entered into rest but spiritually they did learn what it was to enter into their rest, knowing that their bodies would follow after death.

Later it became unfashionable to entertain these “Spiritual” hopes of heavenly deliverance from earthly trials. This “pie in the sky” hope was replaced with real flesh and blood choirs with angelic garments swaying to soul music at the front of the church. Political activism replaced these Uncle Tom’s humility with firebrand arrogance, and a liberation theology that promised more than a better resurrection. A more prosperous life style drew up a new kind of theology which conformed God’s word to their new lives and new aspirations.

The Jordan River was brought near and a new covenant of peace and prosperity seemed to beckon from close by. The old believers were denigrated and looked upon with contempt by this new generation of believers. The Pilgrim Fathers, who had escaped from persecution to the New World in the Mayflower, similarly exchanged their robust heavenly faith for the American dream and their descendants continue fighting for this illusion on foreign soil to this day. The moment their vision shifted from a heavenly vision to what they thought was an earthly expression of it, it eluded their grasp and the earthly expression began to rot. The Boers in South Africa who fled Europe for the same reasons as the Pilgrim Fathers have been more fortunate at seeing the rapid disintegration of their false hopes. The collapse of their attempt at a Solomonic Kingdom on earth has caused a revival again amongst them with a heavenly hope that does not get tangled up in the affairs of this world.

“No soldier gets tangled up in the affairs of this world”.

American Christianity is still far from realizing the bankruptcy of their illusion. Their theology has been twisted to conform to this failing dream and will result in the shipwreck of much unfounded faith when it falls with the dream to which it is attached. Babylon must fall again as she always does. This dream and the Christian counterfeit that is built upon it has now been exported to the nations of the world and will shake when she falls.

The false dream has found much fertile soil in which to grow its weeds in the nations of the world, and will continue to grow even after the mother plant has been burned up. Even in China today where the church has just recently emerged from its foundations these weeds are beginning to grow. From the aspirations of Constantine to the mythical Christian Kingdom of Prester John the flesh of man never ceases to believe in his own ability to build a City that will reach into the sky and satisfy his cravings without being challenged from Heaven. Men have tried to put flesh on their dream ever since Christ’s disciples sought to make him a King. The Holy Roman Empire fades and is restored again and again in its diabolical likeness. Another head of Gold always arises to take the place of Nebuchadnezzar the Babylonian who was humbled under Gods mighty hand.

That which begins in the Spirit ends in the flesh, the heavenly vision that is conceived by the Holy seed and begins in purity falls into political machinations the moment it turns aside from the path of the cross. The moment the Heavenly Jerusalem is exchanged for an earthly Jerusalem the corruption begins, and this earthly Jerusalem then becomes to us our Babylon. Thus Babylon is now the American dream being pursued in the world today by yet more violence. It is only violence that can maintain this fallen system of privilege over our neighbours. To use the name of God in defence of perpetuating this system is what makes it Babylon. As the Afrikaner dream of Christian privilege against the black threat entrenched itself through violence, and maintained its superiority by violence, so must this American dream exhaust itself and bring about its own fall. It was violence that found the City of Cain and violence that brought about its downfall. The “soldiers of Christianity” have already become morally exhausted because the source of their power lies not in the sublime spiritual aspirations of a heavenly vision but in the carnal defence of earthly privilege. The Afrikaner lost his moral courage when he found that his warriors had become brute beasts, maiming and torturing, as we are beginning to see amongst the warriors of the Christian West.

If we lose our heavenly vision and exchange it for earthly desire here and now we will find ourselves before long fighting with violence to preserve what we have gained, but we wont preserve it. Jesus never promised his followers an earthly kingdom but that they would reign with him in eternity if they would drink from the same cup that he drank from on earth. He became a victim and conquered through his loss.

Through many trials we must enter the Kingdom of God. As long as we are focused on the Heavenly Kingdom and count it joy to live for it at the expense of our earthly lives, a measure of this immanent Kingdom will fragrance our surroundings and give a taste of the coming Kingdom. Let those of you who are perfect conform yourselves to the death of Christ in laying down your lives for your brethren so that the Love of God may be seen and enjoyed by those for whom it has been promised. There are many who are appointed unto salvation that have yet to hear the gospel. Our task is not to try and rule and reign on this Earth, trying to create a Kingdom now for our own enjoyment, but to “snatch some out of the fire”. If we are to save their lives let us do so by losing our own first, and by doing that we will save ourselves as well. In this way we will become an example of what it is to be followers of Christ. Let all of us dispense with being attracted by some earthly counterfeit of that heavenly promise. Let us “fix our eyes upon Jesus”, “set our mind on things above, not on the things that are on earth”

Like those Negro slaves who sang of crossing the Jordan to escape their earthly tribulations let us dream of a sure promise behind the veil that will not disappoint us.

Let us live for it. Let us not seek to escape tribulation but to embrace it when it comes as a result of obedience to the heavenly vision.

Let us go to him outside the camp, bearing his reproach. Let us leave these earthly cities, which blind our eyes to the heavenly city.

For here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city which is to come.