The gifts of the Spirit and the fruit of the Spirit.

Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant. Ye know that ye were Gentiles, carried away unto these dumb idols, even as ye were led. Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.

 Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal.

 For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues: But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.  

For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.  For the body is not one member, but many.1 Corinthians 12: 1-14

For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another. This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.

 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Galatians 5:13-25

If you ask a person who they are it is common to receive one of two types of answers. There are some who will list degrees, certifications, or jobs while others will give a list of their morals and ideals. The same is common among believers; they will at times, whether solicited or not, find themselves “proving” they are in a good relationship with the Lord. The proof is offered in two ways some offer the works done by the Spirit through them and others offer their acts of kindness toward others.

The problem with these answers is that who a person is cannot be defined in such a way. The failure of such answers should be obvious enough after all was Balaam’s donkey in a closer relationship with YHWH because YHWH spoke through him, was Caiaphas a believer because he prophesied Messiah would die for the nation, is it godliness to give all one has to the poor? Paul concludes that a man can do all these things and still have not love.

• The Spirit witnesses that if we speak as a man or as a messenger of YHWH without love we are equal because all we say amounts to nothing.
• The Spirit witnesses that if we understand all mysteries, holy knowledge, if we prophesy nd move the earth with our faith but without love we are nothing.
• The Spirit witnesses that if we give all we have to the needy, and suffer torture and death before denying our beliefs without love we inherit nothing.

The treatise of love given through Paul in 1 Corinthians 13 is the conclusion of the 1Corinthians 12 charismatic gift teaching and defined in Galatians 5.

This being established should show us the wrong thinking and eternally dangerous results of those who judge their own and others relationship with our covenant keeping Father by the Spiritual works that have occurred in their lives.

It is perhaps even more dangerous to learn to act joyful, peaceful, longsuffering, gentle, good, faithful, meek, and temperate. Learning to act a certain way is an admission that those things are not our nature. It is no different than what is taught by fallen sons of Adam to their children; after all teaching a child to not act selfishly is for the most part a self-preserving act for both the parent and the child.

The new creation in messiah is not about conformation but transformation. It is not how we act but who we are. The Pharisees went to great length to do what was acceptable under the law and were concluded to be nothing more than actors (hypocrites). The law was not a structure of correct actions but instead a description of who Messiah is.

When we try to make ourselves obedient to the law we find that what we received from Adam (our life) is by nature a transgressor and we are not able to make it righteous. The church has not for the most part disagreed with what I have thus far stated. It is how one proceeds from there where we have failed. 

• The desire for righteousness is not righteousness
• Forgiveness is not salvation
• Trying with all that is in you to do right is not living by faith

Adams fatal error was to trust in himself as an equal to Elohim our Father; not to replace YHWH but to sit equal to Him. We do the same thing when we believe that YHWH will bless us if we do our part. We cannot find the righteousness we desire through effort but the just shall LIVE by faith.

If you claim Yeshua is living through you while the works of the flesh reign in your life you are deceiving yourself. If you have no desire to be made righteous you are not redeemed. Failure to do right is not a sign of hypocrisy but of blindness (my people are destroyed for a lack of vision).

• Pick up your eyes from the earth and look to heaven from which your salvation comes.
• Trust in His promise that He and His Father will abide in you and be one with you.
• Depend upon the fact that Adams life in you is dead (repentance from dead works) by means of the cross.
• Expect the Holy Spirit (the breath, life, being) of YHWH to be His shared life within you

The Spirit calls to us come out from among them who put trust in and attempt to prove the self, inherent from Adam. Let Adam’s death remain in the grave and come away with me my beloved into resurrection life.

Resurrection life is not set aside for heaven, but as Messiah the first fruit and first born among many brethren walked in resurrection life upon the earth until He was taken up so should our shared life with Him be upon the earth until we too are taken up.

Do you know the Lord?

As a child growing up in a small rural town the idea of a church denomination never occurred to me. There existed one community Christian church in town and it was the only flavor for miles; so in my mind there were only those who went to church and those who did not. The combination of maturing into adolescence and relocating to a more urban area of course brought with it an awareness that within Christianity there where multiple denominations each believing their own teachings where the most in line with the truth. However the idolatry of my self and desire to obtain those things that the world around me sought after had lead me so far from my Father that I gave such things no consideration.

When my brother Yeshua said He would neither leave us nor forsake us His witness is true regardless of how untrue we may find ourselves to be. I see His providence in the fact that He brought my wife of twenty five years to me even when I deserved only His wrath. My wife like myself had come to the Father as a child in a full gospel church but walked away into darkness in her teenage years.

In the early years of our marriage my wife attempted to return to church a few times, if for no other reason than to deal with the fits of anger and hatefulness that I had become prone to, but it is hard to be steadfast when your spouse is living worldly. However her prayers and tears were not unnoticed by our Lord and one night my faith in myself broke leaving me empty and alone. Messiah was there to bind my wounds and pour in His oil and wine and shelter me by a price He paid himself. I did not tell anyone what had taken place within me but my behavior change was evident and finally my wife asked me directly “what is going on with you?”

My wife had been attending at that time a UPC church with a friend of hers and upon finding out that I had surrendered myself to the Lords will she asked if I would attend church with my family on the following Sunday. I soundly informed her that I had no intention of attending a “tongue talking” church since such a belief was silly and furthermore I was “saved” with no such experience.

My wife was filled with hope and spent the entire ten hours I was at work the next day finding every scripture she could to show me the “baptism in the Spirit”. I found that the evangelical doctrine I was comfortable with did not address these scriptures with any truly solid foundational arguments. I would later find that the UPC fellowship would be offended by those things which the evangelicals did have solid foundation upon.  For those who would be curious I did come to what Pentecostals call the baptism with the evidence of speaking in other tongues; however eventually my UPC brethren asked me to no longer fellowship with them because of things I believed.

This was the beginning of the cup which my Father has given to me. Like James and John when this cup was set before me I saw opportunity for myself to become someone of position and power as a man favored of YHWH. However just as they had learned before me I have come to understand that the only way to partake of our Fathers cup is to first take Messiahs cup and die in order that the only life in us is the quickening of His Spirit.

The desire for the complete truth of YHWH has driven me since that time. In the childish manner of my early spirit life I went from church to church each time to find fault with wrong doctrine and refusal to consider the scripture beyond already held beliefs. The amount of study and research and fasting  and prayer that I poured into knowing what was right blinded me to the fact that despite my learning the truth I was not living right or true.

In the beginning no one would have thought anything was amiss, many Christians would have probably applauded my biting criticism of many “false teachers”. It is not without reason that the scripture tells us to not wander to the right or the left and that our eye must be single. The scripture also tells us that there are those who are ever learning but never coming to knowledge of God. I learned the hard way that learning the truth is not the same as being one with and living the truth. It crept up on me slowly like the proverbial frog in hot water; who does not realize the temperature is rising until they are dead.

I have said all this that it might be obvious that my subject is not just a theory but instead a truth that I fought hard to bend to my will to my own hurt. In the end this unrelenting truth is without price.

In the end Yeshua will either say come or I never knew you. On that day your personal definition of what knowing Him means will not persuade your destination in the least.

Some say that knowing Him is a belief.

Some say knowing Him is a confession.   

Some say knowing Him is a baptism in water.

Some say knowing Him is a spiritual manifestation.

Some say knowing Him is to be used by Him.

However the scripture says to know Him is to be one with Him.

 Moses said if you love YHWH your Elohim with all your heart, mind and might then you will keep His commands.

Jerimiah prophesied His law will be written on our heart and mind (not written by us but YHWH is the author and finisher of our trust, dependence, and expectation.)

Yeshua said I and my Father are one and I shall be in you and you in me that you may all be one and again He says if you have seen me you have seen the Father.

Paul says it is no longer I that lives but Messiah lives in me, that from faith to faith the righteousness of Messiah is revealed in us, that those who knew not the law by their (new) nature do the things in the law, and again that I am dead in Messiah and the Spirit that raised Him from the dead now quickens my mortal body.

The author of Hebrews says not laying again the foundations let us go on to righteousness.

The man we are inherent from Adam can learn what righteousness is and by will worship for a time or season he can imitate the actions he has learned but it is not his nature. His true nature will emanate out eventually.

The new man is inherent of Messiah will emanate the life of Messiah. Amen

Understanding The Lord’s Supper

The Eucharist, though never intended as a mystery, has been mystified, paganized, and exploited almost since the shift in Christianity from Jewish to gentile leadership. If these violations had been done only in antiquity this subject would be no more than an interesting historic sidebar however in the modern church the communion is still shrouded in superstition and lack of understanding. If we desire to understand what was truly given by Yeshua to his disciples it is required that we first suspend our assumptions of traditional understanding. We must strip back the building of the church to the foundation of Messiah and ensure that what is built on that foundation will be of a substance that is purified by fire and not consumed.

The question begs to be asked who am I to challenge almost two thousand years of church tradition and teachings; what qualifications can I present making me able to argue with the theologians who have divested that which the church believes. The answers to these reasonable questions are I am of no significance or importance and my qualifications are less impressive. I am simply a believer in the covenant and finished work of YHWH through Yeshua and as such the same Spirit that lived and resurrected Messiah lives and resurrects me in Him. It is that same Spirit that places on my heart to speak on these things and that same Spirit abiding in the brethren will lead and teach if I fumble forth.

Before we discuss what communion is let us suspend what we assume it is…

•it is neither physical nor spiritual cannibalism connecting us to the divine

•it is not a talisman to cure or bless our living

•it is not a curse of woe upon those who do not understand its purpose

•it is not a means to be delivered or cured

Yeshua is without question a great teacher and as a great teacher his lessons are delivered with an understanding of his audience and their perception of His meaning. It is this reason that should lead us to see that our communion is and always has been a fulfilment of the feast of Passover just as Yeshua  is our Passover lamb.

That which is given in Matthew 26, Mark 14, Luke 22, John 13, and 1 Corinthians 11 if not anchored in Exodus 12 cannot be understood.

Now the first day of the feast of unleavened bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying unto him, Where wilt thou that we prepare for thee to eat the passover? And he said, Go into the city to such a man, and say unto him, The Master saith, My time is at hand; I will keep the passover at thy house with my disciples. And the disciples did as Jesus had appointed them; and they made ready the passover. Now when the even was come, he sat down with the twelve.

 And as they did eat, he said, Verily I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me. And they were exceeding sorrowful, and began every one of them to say unto him, Lord, is it I? And he answered and said, He that dippeth his hand with me in the dish, the same shall betray me. The Son of man goeth as it is written of him: but woe unto that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed! it had been good for that man if he had not been born. Then Judas, which betrayed him, answered and said, Master, is it I? He said unto him, Thou hast said.

 And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body. And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom.  And when they had sung a hymn, they went out into the mount of Olives. Matthew 26: 17-30

To the gentiles of the first century the communion tradition of the church seemed similar to the pagan right by which worshipers of false Gods thought that food, drink, or even animal blood and flesh could be transformed into the flesh and blood of their gods. It was thought that if this mystically transformed body and blood was consumed then the spirit of the individual would be joined to and empowered by the spirit of their god. As the decades passed and the church became more and more gentile than Jewish the familiarity of the pagan had influence over the way the communion was taught and received.

The men Yeshua was speaking to on that day were brought up in the golden age of Judaism. The Maccabean revolt had purged the nemesis of idol worship and desire to be as other nations from the heart of Israel. The corrupt nature of Adam did without question keep the nation from ever realizing a true purity of the teachings given through Moses and yet it was the pinnacle of what man without the Spirit of God abiding within could accomplish. It was this fertile separatist desire for pure truth of YHWH’s ways that prepared Israel for the birth of Yeshua.

All of this I have said is to establish in our mind that the commencement of communion was not in any way taken from paganism but was instead established and designed to teach the fulfillment of the truth of Passover.  In the Hollywood movie Karate Kid the wise teacher has his martial arts student wax his car and paint his fence in a very particular way. The student obeys grudgingly until he just can’t take it anymore and confronts his teacher; at which time it is revealed that what seemed unrelated was a preparation for what was desired all along. This comparison is silly when speaking of YHWH’s revelation but we must have a point of consideration if our true understanding is to overtake our assumed perception.

Yeshua was teaching us and those with Him that destined night that it was his death and applied blood that was our deliverance from death; and moreover that our sustenance must come from a total consuming of who He is making us who we shall be. The ordinance given through Moses means little more than a shiny car or a pretty fence without Yeshua. Yeshua separated from the witness of Moses is little more than a way to solve our own self-indulgent perceived problems.

It was not very long ago that I witnessed several teachings encouraging people to take communion every day; with the promise that such a regimen would bring the blessings of god on your life in various ways. Passover and thereby the ministry of Messiah is not an incantation or ritual that brings favor but instead an understanding of faith filled dependence and trust that changes us at our core being. We are not doing a thing but becoming one with His life and we shall find that His life brings us into all that is within Him.