Holiness Unto The Lord! By Luz Cintrón     22/02/2002   Web Site:http://www.thepearlsofwisdom.net

 
 
 
 

“But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good,  traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. Having the form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!”  2 Timothy 1-5  Paul says these times are dangerous times. If we see evil out to get us, we run from it from afar, then all peril is avoided. But He says these are dangerous times and something opens here for me, that most of what is described under that statement, may not necessarily refer to people outside of the church, but points to people who profess in some way to have “received” and believed in Christ.  Now read the list again under this “light”. These are things we wrestle against almost every day. For most of these things reside in our flesh and wrestles against allowing the Spirit Of Truth and Life to work the image of Christ in us. Who has not been convicted of loving himself/herself more than God? Is our obedience perfect? When the Lord gives you a task how fast have you put yourself to do it? Or when He has given you a word, how faithful have you been to delivered it? Have you watered it down? Have you felt inclined to do so? Have you kept quiet? If there is a yes inside you on any of these things then you have loved yourself more than God or at least the tendency has been there.  When you have been wronged, how difficult it has been for you to forgive? Is every word coming from you about the brethren one of encouragement, or intercession? Have you complain about someone behind the person? Check the list and be not afraid to do it, for there is a way of deliverance to us all, provided from above and effective from the Father in Christ.  What is this we wrestle against?  In Isaiah 14:12-15 we read:  For you have said in your heart: I will ascend in to heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God, I will also sit on the mount of the congregation On the farthest sides of the north; I will ascend above heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High. Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol. To the lowest pit. Isaiah 14:12-15  That was his master plan from the beginning. Now why should it surprise us to find him too close for comfort now? Has not this been written for our benefit, encouragement, reproof, instruction, our edification in all the ways of the Lord, being Christ Himself, our way and life?  In reading this I understand, why man caught the attention of Lucifer in the garden. Man, the “ancient door” as he is called in one of the psalms, was also a “door” he, Lucifer, could use to the advantage of his plans. I believe that in the garden, when Eve believed his lies and she doubted God had the best in mind and heart for her and Adam, this “nature” was introduced to mankind. We lost the nature of innocence with which we were created and acquired this. It is a resident in our flesh and it works through deception. As it worked on the garden, so it still does. To ignore is to remain in bondage. To confess it is to find the Truth spoken about by Jesus who brings our deliverance.  For every “I will” in this passage, there was an “I won’t” in Christ's life. That is why He Is our way, and if followed in His example, our life, and life eternal that is. What Satan is so eager and fast to do to advance his plans, we find Jesus, the only begotten, the one who truly had a claim to sit in glory and all of heaven at His disposal, we see Him choosing instead no to do, but to obey and do only what He was shown to do, and speak only what He was given to speak. He did what? He did the works of the Father.  Jesus reveal the Father again to us, because He proves through His life and death, that God All Knowing, has the best in mind and heart for us. Jesus came to restore the relationship of trust broken at the garden. In doing so He not only atoned for our sin, but He opened before us a way, and granted us life. Contrary to our fears which sprout all of them from deception, not only is God worthy to be trusted, but trusting Him is for our own benefit.  And it is for our benefit, because we were created for a purpose. He had a plan for the creation of man. He wanted man to become a dwelling tabernacle for Him. To contain His glory, His very presence. That is what Lucifer sought to destroy, to void, and he almost did it. But who can oppose and overcome God’s power? That is why it is written that all power belongs to the Lord.  He sent Jesus to open and become a Way and Life unto us, that would restore us to our original purpose in Him. Isn’t it written that He makes all things work together for the good of those who believe, according to His purpose?  For one purpose He came to us: to destroy the works of the devil. What works are those if not the ones entwined in our own nature that separated us and voided our all for the Eternal One?  In Luke 4:18-19 we read how Jesus opened His public life. He announce at His “inauguration”:  The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me Because the Lord has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed; To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.  What really catches my attention is that after reading all that He sits down. It says that “all eyes were on Him”. Still He just proceeded to just sit down in peace. Now tell me, who yielding such power as it was given Him, as God and as Christ would just sit and bear the contempt of the people? Hard isn't it? His silence speaks to us of obedience and trust.  It is said that He was hindered to do much for the lack of faith? Why is it so? Is God hindered by man? Can man hinder God in any way? I think that the lack of faith was hindering something, but it was not God. Their lack of faith hindered the purpose for which these signs were given, the purpose of the gospel is to restore what was, to bring us back unto God’s will for us, a will that has our best in mind, for which we were created. Nonetheless, don’t we fear it, we are afraid of the cost, of the “pain”. That fear, it is all a deception. Pain is in being outside His will, but since it is wrapped in deception we remain blind. Then, whose eyes He came to open if it were not the eyes of our own understanding blinded since the garden by Lucifer's lie in the choice of Adam and Eve?  When He goes to heal the crippled man in Mark 2:5-11, didn’t He said first: “your sins are forgiven”? Why that statement? I believe when Jesus looked into the heart of that man, He saw the real need he was suffering, the crippling disadvantage was first in his soul and He set the man free. He approached the root problem. Since probably sin was the source of more pain in the life of that man than his handicap.  The scribes who witness what happened saw a reason for scandal. In their spiritual blindness they could only see a blasphemer. Jesus answered their heart:  “Why do you reason about these things in your hearts? Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, “Your sins are forgiven you,” or to say, “Arise, take up your bed and walk”? But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins”-He said to the paralytic. I say to you, arise, take up your bed , and go to your house.” Mark 2:8(b)-11  Anyone can utter words that can not be checked, isn't so? For the forgiving of sins is a matter of trust in the One who forgives us. That is the purpose of all the healings, all the miracles, to show in the natural that this Man indeed possessed power to do in the spiritual realm just as He has said. In Christ, the Father cause the spiritual realm to enter into the physical and broke the wall of separation between the two. But to the blind, signs were given. Just as He opened the blind eyes through the gospel, the gospel was given to heal us from our spiritual blindness.  In the garden through deception we were made void for the purposes of God which were spiritual. As living tabernacles we were created to bring the spiritual revelation of God into this natural realm by carrying His very presence in us. That was exactly what Jesus did. To prove it in the natural before the blinded ones, He used natural “signs and wonders”. He proved the preeminence of the spiritual over the physical, and the sovereignty of God above all. Because the Spirit was first and then through Him all things were made that are. Miracles bend the natural law to prove the spiritual.  But who is blind if not us? Then signs and wonders can not pass away until the blindness of man is substituted with the spiritual vision brought in revelation through Christ. We are the prisoners of deceit that He came to rescue, to set free. Our worst prison remains our pride that keeps us from receiving the fullness of Him in us. We were created for that.  Mary understood in the Spirit when she was shown. She could have talked about the glorious angel who visited her with the message of God. She could have talk of what it felt to be chosen and how she has been walking since then, about the things that happened to her since then, and how bravely she has trusted that God had her wellbeing in mind through all this.  She spoke instead of what she was shown. Of course there is always a future and destiny for each one of us in His will. She saw she was going to be called blessed. But lets look at what , I think sharpened her focus beyond her flesh.  “He has shown strength with His arm; He has scattered the proud in the imaginations of their hearts. He has put down the mighty from their thrones, and exalted the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich He has sent away empty.”  God showed Himself able to destroy the works of satan. As Lucifer purposed to go and do, He, by the power of His outstretched arm brought to nothing the plans of Lucifer. He would put him off the throne of man’s flesh, even and more so in the midst of the holy congregation. He would restore the proper order of things, exalting the humble (that was in our original nature of innocence). He would fill the hunger in the heart of man that the separation from God had created, but those filled with the pride of their flesh would be sent away empty as they are, even so they refuse to see their own emptiness.  The way of holiness is away from pride and into trust. The way of holiness is into love that abandon itself in the arms and goodwill of the Beloved. The way of holiness is not exalted but abased in His presence. The way of Holiness is truth in the inward parts, is confession of sins, sincerity before God and before man. The way of holiness takes hold of us, from our weaknesses, and there is no shame, for they are made His footstool. In it the glory of the Holy One is made to dwell in man, as was always His purpose.  The way of holiness pulls our flesh out of the throne to make way for Him to sit in His rightful place. The way of holiness unveils the frailty of our own understanding and grants us the assurance of our provision in Christ. It grabs hold of man to bring them into the image of Him who gave Himself to become our way into the freedom of God. He whose truth was light that shone in our darkness to bring us Life. The way of holiness brings death to the things that have enslaved us to the void and releases life and life more abundant to those who trust Him. For it is true, He has become Our Way, Our Truth and Our Life.The way of holiness releases the kingdom of God. Holiness unto the Lord!  For further study: Revelation3:14-22      Your servant in His love; Luz Cintrón Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to Him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come and His wife hath made herself ready ...Revelation 19:7.