Watch Out!

I see God's people continuing to do the same thing almost all Christians since the beginning do with what God speaks. First they get a revelation from God, then they get out their scissors.

People don't like to hold a word of assurance and a word of jeopardy both at the same time. Yet that is our covenant with God.

When I was in the move, we cut lots of verses out of the New Testament. Then, God began to speak to many different ones, including myself, through those verses that had been cut out. Because others in that fellowship were continuing to exclude those many New Testament verses we were re-discovering, we moved on in our walk with God in order to continue hearing Him speak.

Then I noticed something terrible. No sooner did many restore those cut-out verses to our walk with God than they pulled out the scissors and cut out many of those things God speaks in His covenant with us that the move had emphasized.

I see the same thing on Facebook. People get a revelation of the grace of God, which is wonderful, but then the next thing they do is get out their scissors and begin whacking out those verses and passages of the New Covenant that they imagine do not "fit" with a "grace" word.

There is no word in the New Covenant that is not found in grace.

But for me, really, it's fine. Jesus knows exactly what He is doing with all who belong to Him and what He does with others is not a concern of mine. My concern is only to receive all who belong to Him with the same love with which He receives me.

However, I choose not to cut out anything God speaks in the New Covenant. To understand it properly, by the Spirit of revelation, yes. To know what has been poorly translated or deceptively mistranslated, yes. To know what is pre-eminent and what is subordinate, yes. To see it all as God speaking a creative word of power - Christ - into me, yes.

Jesus said that we live by every word that proceeds forth from the mouth of God. We live in a deadly and dangerous world, riddled with deceit and destruction. We have never seen anything with the eyes with which we are to see all things. We are blind as a bat. Our knowledge of God and His ways is far more trust than it is true seeing. And that's fine.

But I want all that God speaks.

"Old things are passed away, behold all things are brand new" is a word of grace; it is God speaking, which is Christ, and it is fulfilled in our lives in all of its meaning.

"It was granted to him (the beast) to make war with the saints and to overcome them" and "Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God" are words of grace; they are God speaking, which is Christ, and they effect our lives in this world in all of their meaning.

Both words are Christ; both words are grace; both words are essential to the covenant we signed with God. Both words bear mightily upon our lives in this world.

Obviously we must understand what God means in each word by the Spirit of truth and through the perspective of Christ our life.

I see some claim that in grace we no longer "fight." Yet I have never been more exultant in the battle. Yes, we fight on a whole different level than we once did. But know this, God loves a good fight; and our Savior is the trickiest strategist in the universe. He deceived death and by His great expertise in battle destroyed it. If God is conforming us into the image of His Son, then we are becoming mighty warriors. Listen, most of the enemy's seasoned strongmen are targeted against the mighty sons of God who are coming to know all that grace means in them. They see in us their destruction and they are terrified.

Some claim that God is not angry when people abuse and torture and steal from others, when people manipulate and control others for their own gain. Sorry, God says different - as part of the Covenant of Grace. Yes, I believe in redemption. My view of God grows larger and larger; I see Him in all things. But I see Him in all things through what He speaks, not through what is suitable to me. God hates all forms of abuse and manipulation of others.

When God sees an American fighter pilot turn an Afghani bride and her wedding party, in the midst of their rejoicing, into hamburger, He is as angry with this arrogant and self-righteous nation as the distraught father who pieces together the mangled remnants of her joy.

The most frequent command of the Spirit of God in the New Testament, through Jesus and through all the apostles is WATCH OUT! TAKE HEED! BEWARE!

It is a word of Christ in us, through us, as us. It is a word of grace!

Here are a couple of examples, two of many, many:

"Take heed that the light that is in you be not darkness." Jesus

"Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God." The writer of Hebrews

I am no longer on the outside of Christ with these statements of the Covenant pointing condemnation at me. That darkness is gone forever. On the contrary, Christ is my life, and the burning passion of His heart burns in mine.

I do not know who I am. John says that clearly in 1 John 3: 1-2. I know that Jesus is revealing Himself through my life in this world. But I have only begun to know this Jesus who fills my heart. It is not possible that my present knowledge defines who He is.

When God says, "As Christ is, so are you in this world," that word has a double meaning; and it is intended to have a double meaning.

First it means that whatever I am right now in all of my humanity, that is Christ living His life as me.

And just as surely, it means that all that He is, the victorious ascended Christ, risen above all the heavens, HE IS in me right now.

We have no idea of the passion, the power, the pathos, the wildness, the anger against cruelty, the wrath, the jealousy, the overwhelming tenderness, the deepest compassion, and the conquering love of the Mighty One who fills our hearts with all of His fullness.

I am an expression of that Mighty One, and He reveals Himself through me.

American Christians have no idea how contemptible, how wicked, how cursed this nation is before God. They bury their heads in fear-gripped denial, all the while loving this world and calling it "God." God loves the people who live in this land, but He hates the system that holds them in darkness.

Do not be afraid; He will keep you. But His love for you will not prevent His destruction of that Babylon that forces all nations to drink her iniquity. [Do you understand that if the sale of sex, drugs, and war, and outright theft were to cease, the majority of the American economy would cease as well? The majority of your paycheck, if you are American, comes from these four things - theft and pornography being the two largest engines of American wealth.] The problem comes when God begins to deliver His people from "America." When that happens, we will begin to understand how the beast has already defeated the saints.

But watch out/ take heed/ beware comes to us as we walk in all that Christ is in us on a much different level than it came in the past.

Take for instance that word from Hebrews 3, the strongest jeopardy passage in the New Covenant. Let me give the larger context.

Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; but exhort one another daily, while it is called "Today," lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ IF we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end."

Notice what is sin. Notice what places our abiding in Christ in jeopardy. Sin is not standing firm in the grace of God. Sin is not exulting boastfully in the victory of Christ in us. Our abiding in Christ is placed in jeopardy when we doubt that Christ is our life, when we begin to imagine that we are self's struggling to bring self into alignment with God and when we forget the confidence of our joy.

The word of grace is drawing people out of the evil sin of unbelief, out of not placing themselves utterly in Christ - out of trying to "line up" with an implacable God.

The tables have turned completely and it is He in us who is watching. I love the meaning of the word "ready" that Jesus used. For instance:

"Blessed are those servants whom the master, when He comes, will find watching . . . Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect."

The word "ready" includes these truths - -

"Because I watch, I am ready for my Master's coming. I take heed, I watch, I pray. As He knocks on my door, I open immediately.

"I take heed to myself. The cares of this life do not weigh me down. I watch and pray. I am worthy to stand before the Son of Man.

"I am equipped and supplied with what I need for Jesus' return. I am prepared for immediate movement and action at Jesus' return. I offer myself at once; I am available and handy for His need.

"The King returns. I am His friend. I stand at His side. He counts on me. I am there. I am ready. In whatever way He needs me in that moment, I am His. We triumph - together. We win - together. My sword is His. My life is His.

"For this one moment, I live all other moments. My mind is never distracted; my arm is never weary. For this I live.

"I am ready. Come, Lord Jesus."

He is come.