The Word of God
is living and active, it penetrates even to the dividing of soul and
spirit..,
it judges the thoughts and intents of the heart.
My sheep hear My voice,
and I know them,
and they follow
Me.
or bold
There is a huge pitfall in Christianity:
thinking the Bible is the Word
of God, and thinking all the commands in the Bible
referencing the Word of God, refer to the Bible; when the references
really mean going to God directly and listening to the Word of
God speaking to you. If you don't listen to
the Voice of God, you will never grow; you will never
know from what to repent; you will never receive his
changing, purifying grace; you will not find God; and you will not have
any reward in the Kingdom of God or Christ.
You can memorize the entire Bible, quoting
chapter and verse, and it will gain you nothing with God. It is easy to
read the Bible. It often feels good to read the Bible, as long as you
discount all the requirements such as holiness,
perfection, and purity while ignoring the
disqualifications of anger, lust, immorality, impurity, greed, etc.
The Bible wasn't even printed until 1516, but the early church thrived
for 300 plus years without it. Like many in the early church, even if
you can't read, you can be changed and
purified to enter the Kingdom
of Heaven as a son of God forever - by
listening to God's voice and obeying it. For
he calls us all to repentance, Christhood, and the Kingdom of Heaven.
Hear this! Understand, the
Bible is not the Word of God, for the many scriptures that
refer to the Word of God are not referring to the
Bible, but rather to the voice of God or the Lord - his words from him,
the living spirit Word - otherwise you are looking to the wrong source
of growth - a book, instead of God's spirit, who desires to speak and
teach you outside of the Bible. The
Holy Spirit will teach you all things.
. He desires to teach you individual, personal things
about yourself, and how he wants you to live, how he wants you to
improve, what he wants you to deny - as well as encourage you, tell you
of his love for you, and open up the scriptures to you, including the
mysteries. If you limit yourself to reading the Bible, you
will only get crumbs beneath the table.
The Bible
is the recorded words of the saints as they were moved by the Holy
Spirit of God to write. Christ
is the Word of
God, not the Bible. The Bible has His
recorded words in them, but they are words without spirit. There
is no conflict with what the Spirit of God has written and what the
Spirit of God will speak to you; but recorded words are the
letter; not the spirit, which
gives life. When Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Peter and Paul spoke of
the scriptures, they used the word
'scriptures,'
not the Word of God. The Bible refers to the
Word of God as spoken or spirit, which
is living and active, .
Hebrews
4:12
For
the word of God is living and
active.
The
Bible is not living and active, but words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are
life.
John
6:63
So
the Word of God is the Living Word, Christ, the Holy Spirit, the Voice
of the Lord.
Sharper
than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to
dividing soul and spirit, joints and
marrow;
A book, or words read from a book cannot divide soul and spirit, but
Christ, the Living Word of God does.
it
judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
The
Bible cannot judge your heart; but Christ, the
Word of God, can and does!
The Bible is not the Word of
God. It is not living or active. It cannot judge your heart, penetrate
you, or change you.
And
out of his mouth goes a sharp sword,
that with it he should smite the nations:
This
is Jesus. He
is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word
of God
Take
the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit,
which is the word of God.
So, the sword of the spirit is
not the Bible, it is the spoken words from the mouth by
the Spirit of Christ, the Word of God.
In
the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was
God.
(To believe the Bible is the Word, is
to mistake references in the Bible to the Word as the Bible
instead of His voice -
a critical difference in
understanding of what God expects from you or how to please
God.)
The
Word
became flesh
and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the
One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
(This is clearly not the Bible, it
is Christ, the Word of God.)
The Holy Spirit can reveal understandings in
any language; but Bible Colleges teach from Hebrew, Greek, and Latin
Biblical texts, desperately trying to discover the true meaning of the
scriptures. If the Holy Spirit were helping in Bible study, Greek,
Hebrew, and Latin would not be needed, proving Jesus
and the Holy Spirit do not teach you while reading the
Bible.
In 1515, before the Bible was published,
there were far less than 100 sects in Christendom. Five hundred years of
Bible study later, there are 30,000 sects. It is man's
fleshly mind, rather than the Holy Spirit, that controls learning
from Bible study; for the
Holy Spirit's purpose is to have oneness of faith; yet
there are 30,000 sects in Christendom, each with a different set of
beliefs in how to please God, how to worship God, how to seek God - 30,000
different gospels, 30,000 different Jesus. This is massive evidence
that studying the Bible creates the opposite of what the Holy
Spirit desires, (one faith) and does not result in truth.
Instead of Bible study, we need
to be taught directly by the Holy Spirit [by listening]
who desires to teach us all things.
Man
does not
live on bread alone,
but on every
word that comes from the mouth of God.
(There is no life without hearing words
from the mouth of God.)
But we have to listen for the voice of the Holy Spirit, the Word
of God, to hear.
The Bible, my favorite book, is good and has
many truths within, and it is wonderful for understanding right
vs. wrong, good for understanding what God requires from us, good
for identifying His promises that result from seeking Him, and good for
building our hope to attain His promises; but it does
not teach
us, convict
us, tell
us what to repent from, encourage us, convince
us of righteousness, purify
us, tell
us how to live, speak to us in exact language we understand, speak
to our specific
conditions, show
us the secrets of our hearts, give us personalized commands, judge
us, tell us it loves us, or take
us to paradise - which the Spirit of God, Jesus,
who is the Word of God, does.
The Bible is the letter. The
letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
From George
Fox's Journal, Concerning the 'Word'
In
the beginning was the word, and none know this
word, but those who have come to the beginning. Now all you
people and all you ministers, who of you can witness this? Who of you
has come to this position? Who of you has come to the beginning? We
declare unto you what
our hands have handled and what our eyes have seen, what was from the
beginning, the word of life. We who know this word
are pure, are made clean by the word, are sanctified by
the word,
are cut to pieces by the word, and are
divided asunder by the word. This word
is a hammer, beating down everything that the seed of God may raise up
[discover], and we have come to the beginning. All who know this
word have come into the beginning. It
is as a fire, burning up all corruptions; and this
is the word that is near you, in your heart.
This
is the word by which all the prophets spoke, and this
is the word that became flesh and dwelt among us, (said
the saints). This is the word
of life, which the apostles preached, the substance of all
figures, types and shadows. This
is the word, which makes all the saints one, that reconciles
all their hearts together to the Lord. This is the
word by which all things stand and remain and are upheld by
his word and power. This is the word which
endures forever. All,
who are born again of the immortal seed, witness this word
along with me. Now the word is made manifest [shown] the
same as it ever was, which gathers together the hearts of people, which
divides asunder the precious and the vile, and of the two, [the
saint and Christ] has made
one. This is the
word that lets you see that all flesh is grass.
This is the word that was before any Letter
[scripture] was written. All who do not have this word, put
the Letter [Bible] for the word, and are in Cain's
nature, envying and murdering, running
on swiftly to evil. God does not accept Cain's sacrifice. All your
preaching, all your praying, all your reading, all your singing and
expounding, all your churches, all your worships, all your teachers,
and all you baptisms - these are inventions from the Letter [Bible] as
invented and imagined by your carnal minds - these are all for
the fire. Your
profession must be gathered together in bundles and cast into the fire
for they are all works of the flesh, proceeding from the first
nature.
Those of you who live in the first nature, not knowing
the word of God, but only the Letter [only have knowledge
from the Bible]; you crucify the just, and you get up into the just's
place, quenching the light within you, with the deceit transforming
into the just's place, as Cain did when he slew his brother Abel. He
got up into his brother's place and said,
'Am I my brother's keeper?' So all of you, who crucify the just,
you are like Cain, for it is the righteous that God accepts, the
second birth. As you read, Cain's
sacrifice was not accepted by God, but Able (the second birth) God
did accept, for he was righteous. Cain murdered Able because Abel's
works were righteous, and Cain's were evil. Now all of you, who are in
the first birth, are Cain, in envy; manslayers, and God does not
accept your sacrifice. Now all that come to the word, come to
before Cain was.
All the prophets of the Lord spoke from this
word, and then the
false prophets got the true prophets' form of word, but
did not have the word. Then the Lord sent his prophets, who
had his word, to cry against the prophets that "speak
a divination from their own brain and
steal my word from their neighbor." They use their tongues
and said, "the Lord said," when the Lord had not spoken to them.
As it was then, so it is now. All the [religious] teachers of the
world speak a divination of their own brain, and not from the mouth of
the Lord. The Lord is against them. Now I witness this by the same
word as it ever was. So they draw people to the Letter
[Bible], and tell people the Letter [Bible] is the word, and
to listen to them, who speak
from their vain imaginations what it means. So they
bear rule by their means over the poor people, which the Lord was
always against.
For God is free and will have his people to be
free, and his gospel is free, and his mercies are free, and his grace
is free. His gospel is free to every creature, and his grace is free
to every creature. His grace is not the Letter [Bible]; the gospel is
not the Letter [Bible]; his glad tidings are not the Letter. For many
poor troubled souls may be under death and condemnation, while they
have the Letter; and there lie wounded with no peace, until Jesus
brings the glad tidings of the free gospel. Then you will witness with
me that the
gospel is a free gospel, and not to be bought and sold for money,
and that the grace of God is free. Listen, everyone that thirsts, come
to the water of life; he that has no money, come
buy wine and milk without money and without price; and listen
diligently so that your souls may live, and I will make an everlasting
covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David. So all people
consider, and see if
you can witness your souls raised out of death, and your
being brought into this everlasting covenant.
So who can
witness their souls brought out of death? Have you come into the
beginning? But you have nothing but the Letter, [Bible] and you
are spending your money and labor without being satisfied;
spending your money for that which is not bread. You are
following greedy, dumb dogs, who can never get enough. They are Baal's
priests, who have forsaken the right way, going
after the error of Baalam, running after the way of Cain, who loved
the wages of unrighteousness, who always murder the just,
despising the birthright in the particular. Like Cain, slaying the
righteous, who slays it in the particular; the same nature slays in
the general, where the righteous seed guides, rules, and is the head.
So the generation of Cain is but one, which is the first birth. Now
loving the Light, it will guide you from all men, so that you will
never have to look to man again for guidance or teaching.
George Fox
Written in
1652
(to read more of Fox's basic message click
here.)
So Jesus, and his
Spirit, is the Word of God, not the Bible! Thinking the Bible to be
the Word of God is a dangerous invention of man. The danger of
misinterpretation is clarified below on this page.
Jesus
himself distinguished between the scriptures (the
Bible) and the Word, when addressing the Bible scholars and
Bible students of his day, the Pharisees, in John as below:
come
to me Come to Him.
But
you are not willing to come
to me
that you may have life.
Listen and
live.
whoever
continues to feed on Me shall live through and because of
Me.
Give
us this day our daily bread - the words that Jesus speaks to us.
Stop
toiling and doing and producing for the food that perishes and
decomposes,
but strive and work and produce rather for the
food which endures unto life
eternal.
John
6:27
You
need no teacher other than the anointing within
you.
That
which may be known of God
is manifest [revealed] within them
(Paul is saying, whatever is to be learned about God is
to be revealed within a man.)
Do
you not yourselves know that Jesus Christ is in
you, unless you are disqualified?
The voice of the Lord
told me, "The world hides in the
Bible." The world hides from God in the
Bible.
Reading the Bible is a substitute for having
God teach you, examine
your heart, convict
you, and
cleanse you.
The world hides from Christ, the Living Word who
judges
the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
It hides from Christ the Light, who brings
to light what is hidden in darkness and exposes the motives of men's
hearts. 1
Cor 4:5
How sad that we think we are
seeking God by reading the Bible, but He sees us as hiding from Him.
We are covering
our nakedness with the Bible and hiding
in the tree of knowledge. Gen
3:8-10
"I say this to your shame. Though you have great knowledge of the
scriptures
and profess them, you don't possess of whom they speak."
You
search the scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal
life, and these are they which testify of Me. John
5:39
But
you are not willing to come to me that you may have
life.
The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are
life.
John
6:63
The
words we hear
are words of eternal life.
But
you do not have His word abiding in you, because whom
He sent, Him you do not believe.
John 5:38
When we hear his voice and keep
his words, then his word abides in us. It
lives in us, and controls us.
As his words live
in us and control us, we are set free from sin, and we obtain eternal
life. We possess
Jesus.
He
who feeds on My flesh and drinks My blood dwells continually in Me,
and I in him.
God is Word and Spirit.
He
is word made flesh. We must feed on his words: to listen,
and
obey.
We must drink
his Spirit of gentleness, kindness, peace, and love by which the
words are spoken.
Just
as the living Father sent Me and I live by (through, because of) the
Father,
even so whoever continues to feed on Me shall live through
and because of Me.
He who takes this Bread for his food shall live forever.
This is how to possess of whom the scriptures speak, to
possess
Jesus.
If
you abide in My word, you are truly My disciples. You
will know the truth, and the truth will set
you free.
So
if the Son liberates you, then you are really and
unquestionably free.
To be
set free, is to be released from captivity. To be
released from slavery. To be freed from
sin.
And sin includes rage, lust, sexual immorality, greed,
envy, lying, passions, pleasures, etc., ,
Jesus came so he could destroy
the devil and his works [sin] in us - if we go to him.
For
this purpose the Son of God was manifested, [in us] that
he might destroy
the works of the devil.
As Paul
confirms: But
now since you have been set free from sin and
have become the slaves of God,
you have your
present reward in holiness and its end is eternal
life.
As John
confirms:
Whoever abides in Him does not sin.
Whoever sins has
neither seen Him nor known Him.
Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for
His seed remains in him;
and he cannot sin,
because he has been born of God.
And
His
seed are the words he has planted in your heart, words that you have
heard, the Word of God.
Everyone
who is of the truth hears My voice.
Those reluctant to look at their
slavery say, 'church me.'
Abide
in Me, and I in you. As the
branch cannot bear fruit of itself,
unless it abides in the vine,
neither
can you, unless you abide in Me.
John 15:4 love
But
all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light:
for
whatsoever doth make manifest is light.
To abide in Him
and be taught by Him, you must listen.
To listen you must be quiet,
not forming thoughts, not talking, not reading the Bible.
Pray the
Lord's prayer, and then be quiet to listen and abide and learn.
Do
not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard
because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows
what you need before you ask him. . Think on the name of Jesus Christ, but not as
a repeated mantra, and then stop thought as best you can. When you find
you mind wandering, return to thinking on the name of Jesus
Christ.
Listen and
Watch and
Wait.
No
ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts
on behalf of those who wait for him.
Let your mercy and loving-kindness, O Lord, be upon us, in
proportion to our waiting and hoping for you.
Some of you may think
silence is in conflict with: pray
in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.
But Paul was
speaking to Christians
who had crucified their flesh and their carnal minds had been
replaced with the mind of Christ.
Because
the
carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not
subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be.
How could prayers from a mind that is enmity with God
be pleasing to God? He
wants to be worshiped in Spirit and Truth.
So Paul was speaking
to mature Christians, who had sufficient Spirit to control their words,
deeds, and prayers.
Until your heart has been
purified, pray the Lord's prayer and be quiet to:
wait for, hope
for, and listen for God's teachings and words to you.
Yes,
wait for and hope for and
expect the Lord.
But
they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they
shall mount up with wings as eagles;
For
more understanding on the necessity of learning in silence,
see the
George Fox's outstanding
writing on Why
Silence?, also on the side bar.
and for guidance in the process of silence, see Miguel de Milinos'
The
Spiritual Guide, also on the side bar.
Paul further
reminds us that
he was not taught by man, but through direct revelation by Jesus
Christ. Do not seek Jesus and truth through the Bible; rather listen
to the
Teacher within you, the only teacher you need, who will guide you into
all truth by abiding in Him, to
become free of sin. Do not make it your ambition to be a Bible
expert; rather make it your ambition to be taught by
the living Word of God who opens the scriptures with
understandings to all truth,
makes manifest all of the secrets of your heart, and destroys
the sin that lurks in your members, thereby truly enthroning Christ
as Lord and King in your heart to rule you in word and deed.
Jesus didn't criticize the Pharisees for the way they were
searching the scriptures; he criticized them for spending time
searching the scriptures instead of coming to him. You have to
go to your closet, get quiet, and listen.
Be still, and know that I am God.
Be
silent, oh all flesh before the Lord.
There are many men and
women, having heard and believed the true gospel of Christ on the web
site, who are hearing Christ speak to and teach them
personally, while benefiting from his changing grace.
But to
hear his voice, you must go to him without pride of
being righteous or just.
You must go to him as a
humble sinner, even if you are 'saved.'
But
the tax collector, standing at a distance, would not even lift up his
eyes to heaven, but kept striking his breast,
saying, O God, be
favorable (be gracious, be merciful) to me, the especially wicked sinner
that I am!
I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home
justified before God.
For everyone who exalts himself, will be
humbled, and everyone who humbles himself will be exalted.
Blessed
are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be
filled.
What else does Jesus say about
hearing his voice? Below:
Jesus said,
For everyone who comes to Me
and listens to My words
and does them,
I will show you what he is like: He is like a man building a house,
who dug and went down deep and laid a foundation upon the
rock; and when a flood arose, the torrent broke
against that house and could not shake or move it, because it had been
securely built or founded on a rock.
There is that Comes to Me again: not Bible study, not your
sect's services, not prayer meetings, Come to Him.
Listens to my words does not mean listen to someone
reading the Bible; it is listening to his live, spirit words.
It is
very simple. Go someplace private
and quiet. Stop reading, talking, and praying.
Try to quiet
your mind. Be still, and know that I am God.
Think on the name of Jesus Christ, but not over
and over like a mantra. His name
is the power to become a son of God.
Listen and
watch. When you find you mind wandering, come back to think on the
name of Jesus Christ.
When he commands you, obey.
As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous
therefore, and repent.
Christ
the Light, shows
you the conditions of your heart; loving
the Light, you repent and
it purifies you.
Do this for twice a day, 30 minutes each. As
he draws you closer, increase your time.
From this sure foundation he builds true faith
and hope which purifies you.
Keep doing this and you will eventually be
purified, for him
to appear, and you to be in his arms, in the
Kingdom.
See How to Benefit
from the Changing Power of God for more listening for God's
Teaching and Changing Grace.
Jesus said,
He that has my commandments, and keeps them, he it is that loves me:
and he that loves me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love
him and show myself to him.
He is not talking about the Ten Commandments; he is talking about
what you hear him command you to repent from.
If
you keep repenting and obeying them, he will appear to you, you will
see God.
Blessed
are the pure in heart for they shall see God.
He told us this
because it
is possible
to become pure. See Purity and
Sinless State for more.
When
he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.
Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is
pure.
Unto
them that look for him, shall he appear the second time
without sin unto salvation.
He didn't say, them of a special
generation sometime; he said them. See the Return of Jesus
for more.
Judas
said to him, (not Iscariot), Lord, why do you intend to
show yourself to us, and not unto the
world?
Jesus
answered Jesus replied, "If anyone loves me, he will
obey my teaching.
My Father will love him,
and we will come to him and make our home with him.
If you obey his teachings, what you hear, not words from the Bible; it
wasn't even printed until 1516.
If you repent
and obey his teachings to you that you hear, Christ and the Father
return to you to establish their home.
And
their home is a Kingdom, the Kingdom of Heaven, the Kingdom of God and
Christ, established in your heart.
The kingdom of God does not come with signs to be observed or with
visible display, Nor will people say,
Look! Here! or, See, there! For behold, the kingdom of God is within
you and among you.
God is nearby and
in him we
live and move and have our being.
The Kingdom is a spiritual dimension, where we walk by the Light of God. We see the world no more.
See the Return of Jesus for more.
Jesus
said, As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be
zealous therefore, and repent.
How
could he possibly rebuke you, unless you hear him speak to you. He
can't rebuke you from the Bible.
Studying the Bible increases your knowledge and
therefore increases your pride,
Getting
quiet, to listen and obey, will eventually result in the Holy Spirit
destroying your pride and your carnal mind.
So studying the Bible is a work of the flesh.
Jesus
said, It is the Spirit
who gives life; the flesh profits nothing.
The words that I
speak to you are
spirit, and they are life. John 6:63
Paul
said: This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord,
that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk,
in the futility of their mind, having their
understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God,
because of the ignorance that is in them, because
of the blindness of their heart; who, being past feeling, have
given
themselves over to lewdness, to work all
uncleanness with greediness. But you have not so learned Christ,
if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in
Jesus:
that you put off,
concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt
according to the deceitful lusts,
and be
renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man,
which was created according to
God, in true righteousness and
holiness.
Are you beginning to
see that it is
critical to hear, and be taught the truth, by Jesus
himself?
Jesus said,
When he has brought out all his own, he goes on
ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice.
But they will never follow a stranger;
in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a
stranger's voice.
Jesus said, And other sheep I have which are not of this
fold; them also I must bring,
and they
will hear My voice; and there
will be one flock and one shepherd.
While on earth, he only preached to the Jews.
But the Gentiles after his death heard him, and hear him today, his
voice.
We can hear him because Christ is the
Light that enlightens all men and women in the
world.
Do you not yourselves realize and know that Jesus Christ is
in
you.
But the anointing
which you have received of him abides in you,
and you do not need not any man to teach
you:
but as the same anointing
teaches you of all things, and is truth, and is no
lie,
and even as it has taught you, you shall abide in
him.
Believe in the
light, that you may be the children of light.
Jesus said, Behold,
I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and
open the door,
I
will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.
Jesus
said, Most assuredly, I say to you, the hour is
coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God;
and those who hear will
live. We are the dead of whom he is speaking. But when we
hear, we will live.
At judgment, Jesus
said he would reject many who called him Lord and had even performed
miracles in his name
by telling them plainly:
'I never knew you. Away from me, you
evildoers [they still
sin]!
Until we hear his
voice, obey his voice, abide in his Him, and are purified by him; we still sin and he doesn't know us.
The foolish virgins without oil in their lamps,
said: Lord, Lord, open to us. (without abiding in Him, his Light
and Word)
Replying, Jesus said: Verily I say unto you, I know you not. Without abiding in Him, he doesn't
know us.
Jesus knows
listeners: My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow
Me.
If you
abide in My word, you are truly
My disciples. You will know the truth, and the truth will set you
free.
I tell you the truth, everyone who
sins is a slave to sin.
You cannot continue to be a slave to sin and
serve God, or even expect his approval.
See the Missing Cross for more. If you think Grace is
your license to sin until death, see True Grace vs. False Grace.
Pilate therefore said to Him, “Are You a king
then?”
Jesus
answered, “You say rightly that
I am a king. For this cause I was born,
and
for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness
to the truth.
Everyone who is of the truth hears My
voice.”
And people of the truth,
who were born after he died, can still hear his voice. He still speaks
to us, if we will listen.
Jesus said, Consider carefully
what you hear. With the
measure you use, it will be measured to you—and even
more.
Jesus
replied, "My mother and brothers are those who hear God's word and put it into
practice."
Jesus said,
Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and
obey it.
Jesus
said, Therefore consider carefully how you listen. Whoever
has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what he thinks he
has will be taken from him. So call to mind theheard; continually lay them to heart and obey them, and
repent.
Paul said, So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the
word of God.
Jesus said, Then will the righteous (those who are upright
and in right standing with God) shine forth like the sun in the
kingdom of their Father. Let him who has ears
[to hear] be listening,
and let him consider and perceive and understand by hearing.
Notice how the above
scriptures have entirely different meanings, depending on what you
believe the Word to be.
Can you see how it is possible to completely
misinterpret the critical instructions he has given us, all based on
what is the Word of God?
More scriptures supporting
listening to the voice of Christ or God:
Choose life, that both you and your descendants
may live; that you may love the LORD your God,
that you may obey His
voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your
life and the length of your days.
Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth,
the words of my mouth.
But if your heart turns away so that you do not
hear, and are drawn away, and worship other gods and
serve them,
I announce to you today that
you shall surely perish.
This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well
pleased. Hear Him!
Samuel said, Has the Lord as great a delight in
burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the
Lord?
Behold,
to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.
So blessed is the man who listens to me, watching daily at my gate, watching at the posts of my
door.
For whoever finds me finds life and
obtains favor from the LORD.
So then faith comes by
hearing, and hearing by the word
of God.
If the Word of God is the Bible, then all the
early Christians had no faith, because the Bible wasn't printed until
1516.
Just by Peter speaking, the Holy Spirit fell on his
listeners,
because the Apostles spoke the word of God from spirit.
And when you really
hear Christ speaking to you, your faith will grow by leaps
and bounds.
The Lords' voice is kind, gentle, pure,
easily understood, easily accepted, peaceable, complete, always morally correct, encouraging -
never with even a hint of sarcasm, bitterness, or condemnation - never
incomplete leaving you guessing what he wants; instead His words are
full of love itself - his spirit of Love - for he is Love. His voice
will always be the same voice too. There are many other voices to
hear; but they are bitter, sarcastic, incomplete, confusing,
condemning, taunting, questioning - the Lord's voice is not so. To
distinguish the voice of the Lord vs.
those of deceit is to rightly divide the
word of Truth. Everything from Him will also be moral as
tested with scripture from the Bible. He said to me, "To know what the Bible says is wrong is worthy;
all my great men knew the scriptures."
That we should be to the praise of his glory, who
first trusted in Christ. In whom you also trusted, after that you
heard the word of
truth, [the word of truth is not a book], the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after
that you believed, you were sealed with the holy Spirit of promise.
This is to hear God [the word of truth] tell you, in whom you believed, the good news of your
coming salvation. If you think
the word of truth is the Bible, then you think you have found eternal life searching the
scriptures; but your faith is incorrectly in the Bible as the word of truth. This scripture speaks of
the interim reward of seeking; like when you
hear the Lord say to
you, "I have placed before you an open door which no
one can shut," and when you receive a measure of his
Spirit.
George Fox
again:
But we resolve to hear the Son, as both the
Father and he command; and in hearing the Son, we hear the Father
also, as the scripture testifies. For the letter to the Hebrews says,
"God, who at sundry times and in various ways
spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last
days spoken to us by his Son:" mark that, God has spoken to us
(his apostles, disciples, and church), by his Son.
And where, some have
objected, "That although Christ did speak both to his disciples and to
the Jews in the days of his flesh, yet since his resurrection and
ascension he does not speak now;"
The answer is: the Jews could not hear his
heavenly voice then, neither can those who say they are Christians,
but today are in the same nature as the Jews were then. But the
disciples of Christ, who learned from him, they heard his voice then
and hear it now.
After Christ had risen, Christ spoke to the
Apostle Paul and to the rest of the disciples, including John, when he
wrote his revelations. And the Apostle said to the Hebrews, "See that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For
if they did not escape who refused Him who spoke on earth, much more
shall we not escape if we turn away from
Him who speaks from heaven, who
neglected and resisted Moses, and who died under the hand of two or
three witnesses. Whoever resisted Moses' law (who spoke on earth),
died for it without mercy.
That was a natural death. But they who now neglect him who
speaks from heaven, they neglect their salvation. Therefore while it is still called day, do not neglect to hear his voice. Those
who do neglect to hear his voice while it is called day, harden their
hearts.
The Apostle said that God at sundry times, and after diverse manners,
spoke to our fathers by the prophets; but in these last days God has
spoken to us by his Son, mark, has spoken
to us by his Son. For which reason, John said in the
Revelations, "He that has an ear, let him hear what the spirit says to
the churches." "And Christ is said to speak from heaven.".
For the grace of
God that brings salvation has appeared to all men,
teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts,
we should live
soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world,
This is the basis of repentance and change, to be personally taught by grace what to deny and how to live.
The grace that brings salvation by showing you
your sins, is the same that removes sin from your heart.
But what does it (scripture) say? "The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in
your heart," that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming.
The Spirit
is in your mouth and your heart, not scriptures. When Paul said this,
the New Testament didn't even exist.
For if you live according to the flesh (the sinful
nature), you will surely die. But if through the power of the Spirit you
are putting to death (making extinct, deadening) the deeds prompted by
the body, you shall live forever.
Because those
who are led by the Spirit of God are sons
of God.
To be led
is to hear the voice of Christ with direct orders as to
what to do and when to do it.
He doesn't leave
you to guess about a feeling, a call, an opinion, a burden, a desire, or
a "door opening" to walk through.
The Word is Christ within you, the
Light that enlightens all men, patiently waiting to teach
and reveal himself to you,
which is
Christ in you, the hope of
glory; Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every
man in all wisdom;
that we may present every man perfect in Christ
Jesus. .
What may be known of God is manifest
[revealed] in them, for God has shown it to them.
So to learn of God, you must learn from the word and light within you, who reveals the
things of God within.
This a radical
difference from trying to learn about God from the Bible. The spirit
gives life. The Bible is the letter.
(Click here for more on the sinless state; click here for more on Christ in you; Click here for add'l scriptures on the voice of the Lord.)
The seed is the Word
of God. And that [seed] which fell among thorns are they,
which, when they have heard, go forth, and are choked with cares and
riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to PERFECTION. But that on
the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having
heard the word, keep
it, and bring forth fruit with patience.
(See
Coming Out of the World for more on this.)
If the Bible is the Word
of God, then where are all the people with fruit? There
are millions studying the Bible every day. But, unfortunately for all,
the Bible is not the Word of God; and that is why no one brings
forth fruit to perfection. But if you listen for the Living Word of God,
you can produce fruit to perfection. If the same millions were listening
for the voice of the Lord, the true Word of God, we would be living in a
different world, full of purified, peculiar people zealous for
producing good works, who would show the power and love of God to the world. Like the early
church did in Jerusalem, having favour with all
the people.
Instead, we have unspeakable scandals from priests
and with the Bible-expert leaders
(Haggard, Baker, Swaggert, etc.) of our faith; and the world ridicules
the hypocrisy of a powerless, fruitless Christianity. Even many Buddhists and
Hindus exhibit more fruit than today's Christians. There is
obviously something missing in Christianity today - the Light, the real Word of God, repentance, the cross of Christ, fruit, true grace, the promise of freedom from captivity. This
happened because we substituted studying the Bible for listening to the words that I speak
to you are spirit, and they are life, John
6:63; we didn't listen to God.
Since sin is acceptable by
the sects, there is no standard of Christian conduct; if one sin is
acceptable, then so is two, then three.. then 1,000 sins is OK; until
finally someone crosses the line that outrages everyone's sense of what
is not OK sin, and they're held up by
society as examples of Christian hypocrisy, to all of our shame. We're
not listening to God; we have no standards, even though God gave us
Jesus as our standard and our Teacher; we are not receiving his changing
grace to purity through repentance while we abide in Him, to become free
- not free to sin, but free from sin. If you
abide in My word, you are truly My
disciples. You will know the
truth, and the truth will set you
free. The freedom from sin is not make-believe freedom,
not freedom from sin's guilt, not freedom to sin; NO: it is freedom from
sin, freedom from the distress of sin, freedom from the bondage of sin,
freedom from the attraction of sin, yielding purity, peace,
righteousness, union with Christ and God, being translated into the
Kingdom, the pearl of great price, having your heart filled with love
instead of lusts, to enter the promised rest from labors of the world,
to hear and see God, true salvation- true FREEDOM. So if the Son liberates you, then you are really and unquestionably free. . Here is the reason Jesus said he was sent to the
world:
The Spirit of the
Lord is upon me,
for he has anointed me to
preach the Good News to the poor.
He has sent Me to announce release
to the captives, that the blind will
see,
to send forth as delivered those who are oppressed.
To proclaim the accepted and acceptable year of the
Lord.
Release of
the captives - those captive to sin.
So those in darkness and blind can come into the
light and see.
He came to
deliver those who are oppressed - oppressed with
the burdens and distresses of sin. The Jews thought the Messiah was
going to deliver them from the Roman occupation. They missed it. And
we missed it too because we
substituted studying the Bible instead of listening to the words that I speak
to you are spirit, and they are life, John
6:63; we didn't listen to God. We picked out a few
scriptures that we think guarantee us
heaven after death and started celebrating. And there are 30,000 sects
of Christians out there, each one with a different set of scriptures or
interpretations of scripture because none of them are listening to God.
30,000 different concepts of what God expects and requires of us; 30,000
different Jesus; 30,000 different gospels. Paul said, people preached a different gospel and a
different Jesus than him. If they all listened to God, we would have
only one sect; for the Spirit's purpose
is to have oneness of faith. We are dreadfully thwarting
the purpose of the Spirit of God; 30,000 sects of Christians proves we
are all lost from the guidance of the Spirit of God to unity, and lost
to truth, and lost to the gospel, and lost to what the real Jesus wants,
expects, and demands from us.
You say how could that be possible? Because all the
sects are simply evolutional varieties of the Roman Empire's church,
both east and west, whose doctrines were dictated by the evil-minded,
but sainted, Emperors Constantine and Justinian the despot, thus eliminating the true
gospel by 390 AD. The protestants are just variations of the same basic
beliefs: instant salvation by speaking words, water baptism, eating
bread/drinking grape juice, listening to sermons, etc.; the same basic
ritual form of salvation and worship. But the Father desires to
be worshiped in Spirit and Truth - and those who know the
truth, have been set
free; he wants to be worshiped by those with a pure heart,
whose sinful nature has been crucified on the missing cross of Christ.
The true Church of Christ rose again in 1650 with George Fox and the early Quakers, who were massively persecuted, only to die out again
around 1880 due to presumption and no commitment to purity from
repentance; many of Fox's writings are on this site, free; including his account of entering the Kingdom or paradise,
followed by thousands of early Quakers. ()
Please don't accuse me of
denigrating scripture. Notice I quote scripture throughout these
writings, for 'All scripture is given by inspiration of God,
and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for
instruction in righteousness. That the man of God may be perfect,
thoroughly furnished unto all good works.' .
But also notice the above
lauding of scripture says,
scripture is to furnish the perfect man of God:
That the man of God may be
perfect, thoroughly furnished.
Before you need expertise in
scripture, you need to get perfect.
And part of
Jesus' purifying, perfecting process of you is to show (revelation) you
the scriptures - not the words, the events.
Be perfect,
therefore, as your heavenly
Father is perfect.
Not be kind of perfect. Not
perfect as you can. Not as perfect as
humanly possible while trying.
Perfect - as your heavenly
Father is perfect - a definitive qualification of
perfect.
Perfect that is impossible
without divine grace: to change us, to purify us, to make us like Him,
perfect.
The only way you are ever going to be
perfect is to abide in Jesus; whoever continues to feed on Me shall live through
and because of Me.
Let his Word
and Light search your heart and show its defects to you;
you repent, and He change you by grace - one defect at a time.
You can't make yourself
perfect. But what about He, who created the heavens and the earth? Can
He do it? Does he have the power?
Of course,
but to receive the power of His grace, you
have to believe in the true gospel, the cross, and his name - all the power of God.
You might be thinking,
what is this guy talking about: I am a believer! But, where is the
evidence of your belief?
Where is your fruit that Jesus said proves you are a true
follower of his? (which fruit only results from the cross.)
When you bear (produce) much fruit, My Father is
honored and glorified,
and you show and prove
yourselves to be true followers of
Mine.
The fruit of the Spirit is love, peace, joy,
self-control, kindness, faith, goodness, and gentleness ;
this involves ridding yourself of sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; greed,
hatred, discord, jealousy,
fits of rage,
selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies,
and the like. .
You can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy
person..has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.
If we
are not seeking to produce fruit, our belief and faith is dead. As James said, faith
without works is dead.
This kind of change is
only available by grace from the Holy Spirit to put to death the misdeeds
of the body,
while abiding in Christ the
Word and Light.
Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge
of God: I speak this to your
shame.
So kill (deaden,
deprive of power) the evil desire lurking in your members:
sexual vice, impurity, sensual appetites, unholy desires, and all greed
and covetousness, for that is idolatry (the deifying of self and other
created things instead of God).
If you are thinking: the scriptures didn't really
mean prefect perfect, I will become a Bible expert and then teach or
preach anyway,
here is what Jesus said about
that: (click for more on perfection)
And he spoke a parable unto them, Can the blind
lead the blind? shall they not both fall into the ditch?
The disciple is not above his master: but every one that is perfect shall be as his
master.
The Amplified Bible gives
us a further understanding of this scripture about being perfect - and
being authorized.
A pupil is not superior to his teacher,
but
everyone completely trained (readjusted, restored, set to rights,
perfected) will be like his teacher.
You
need to be restored, to the state of
Adam before the fall; restored to the
divine spiritual image of God.
You need to be
completely trained, trained by the
Teacher. The Bible is not the
Teacher.
Then you need to be set to rights by the Teacher, Christ. This
is to be authorized to teach.
Teaching without being perfected, readjusted, restored, and set
to rights is estimating oneself to
be superior to Jesus.
According to
Jesus, unperfected, unauthorized teachers are estimating
themselves to be above Jesus.
Such
unauthorized persons think that since they know so much, that they
don't need Him to teach and authorize them first.
This is a common, but disastrous error, one of
which you do not want to hear
him remind you at judgment.
You may say: my preacher or
professor will completely train me; he is a teacher. But Paul in Ephesians says:
And His gifts were some to be apostles (special
messengers), some prophets (inspired preachers and expounders), some
evangelists (preachers of the
Gospel, traveling missionaries), some pastors (shepherds of His flock) and
teachers.
His intention was the perfecting and the
full equipping of the saints (His consecrated people),
the work of ministering toward building up Christ's body (the church),
until we all attain oneness in the faith
and in the comprehension of the knowledge of the Son of God,
that at really mature manhood (the completeness of personality which
is nothing less than the standard height
of Christ's own perfection), the
measure of the stature of the fullness of the
Christ and the completeness found in Him.
Was your preacher or teacher
appointed by gift from the Holy Spirit? Is your college teacher or
minister perfected in the standard height of Christ's own perfection?
Does he have the fullness and completeness of Christ? Of course he
doesn't. But the purpose of a teacher or preacher or pastor is to
perfect the saints. How can someone unperfected perfect anyone? So he is
an unauthorized teacher too. So
you can't be authorized or perfected by your professor or preacher. And
if you teach or preach to anyone before being completely trained by Him,
perfected by Him, and authorized by Him, you are estimating yourself to be superior to Christ
and will incur condemnation. Such authorization comes from him directly
and specifically; you hear him say: you are now
a teacher, or: preach repentance with
remission of sins. (And, yes: after being taught and changed
for years while silent, we heard those exact words.) It is not a door
opening, a feeling, an inspiration, a "call," a burden, etc.
If you are preaching or
teaching religion before being perfected and specifically authorized by
Christ, to be able to hear, you must stop. Every word you preach or
teach that is not totally correct puts condemnation on you,
and until perfected and authorized your teachings will not be true. See
To Religious Teachers and Preachers for more.
You will not be able to hear until you stop teaching and preaching in
error.
If you get quiet and listen in
humility, He will tell you things about Himself. He will encourage you.
He is kindness. He, the Word and Light, will tell or show you things
about yourself; some will be things that are ugly. But since he is your
friend, you know that he is showing them to you for your own good. So
you listen and watch. And you don't run; stand before the Son of Man. And you repent of
what he shows you. And sometimes he gives you commands. You are hearing
the Word of God, the living Word. And hopefully you will obey his commands and show him you love him by
being obedient. To hear and obey is to
receive Christ. Keep pen and paper nearby when listening and
watching. Stop and write down you hear or see. Then go right back to
listening and watching. Review them periodically, and keep repenting.
You will start changing; not as fast as you want to, but you will
change. You will become more patient, less easily angered, kinder, more
settled, more focused in life. Your desires for the things of the world
will begin to melt away. As you follow his commands, your progress will
accelerate. When you see your changes, still conscious of your
decreasing failures, you will know, with gratitude, that he is changing
you by grace - it is working! Your faith is increasing because you hear the Word of
God and because you are becoming more sure of what you hope for and more certain of
Christ making changes in you, even though you don't yet see Him. (Click for more information on How to Benefit
from the Changing Power of God.)
As long as
we live in our selfish nature, we are unruly
and incapable of being ruled, controlled, or led by a Lord or King.
So, if we want Jesus to be our Lord and King, we must first put to death the selfish, sinful
nature by repentance to purity.
By
listening, Jesus leads us out of the world, one step at a time, showing
us from what to repent,
and teaching us how to live soberly, righteously, and
godly in this present world.
This is the Missing Cross of Christ, the power of God
missing in the sects today; the power that leads to purity and holiness.
For without holiness, no one will see God.
Those who belong to
Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its
passions and desires.
The end result is purity
and then the return of Christ in his glory with his Kingdom
of everlasting peace and joy.
For the grace of God that brings
salvation has appeared to all
men,
teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts,
we should live
soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present
world,
looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great
God and our Savior
Jesus Christ;
who gave himself for us, that he might
redeem
us from all iniquity,
and purify unto himself a
peculiar people, zealous of good
works.
One who still sins might
mistakenly argue they are redeemed from all
iniquity, but not that grace has purified them!
When he appears, we
shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.
Everyone who has this hope in him purifies
himself, just as he is pure.
And after being purified, along with the
glorious appearing of Christ, to enter paradise; the Kingdom of Heaven within and among us; our consciousness and sight being translated to the
spiritual dimension, to live in union with Christ and God in their presence,
while walking on earth by the light of God,
as children of
the light. For God is not
far from each one of us and hopes that men would seek him and perhaps
reach out for him and find him; for in him
we live and move and have our being, The pages on this web
site show the way out of darkness to light. And
they show how thousands in the past have already secured the Kingdom of Heaven to become
children of the light.
One
hundred generations of Christendom have sat, waiting on a physical return of Christ to
the whole world, thereby missing the possibility of preparing for his
personal return to them. This is a major deception with disastrous
consequences to those so deceived. Prize your time; use it
wisely, for it is finite.
Belief in the true gospel and the cross, to realize the
promise, releases the power of God to purify you and make you one with
Him. The cross of Christ, which is the power of
God, crucifies your sinful nature and selfish will through
repentance as follows:
- seeking the Kingdom of God and His righteousness,
as 1st priority, is an act of repentance and a cross to your selfish will
- turning away from evil, as you
understand it, is an act of repentance and a cross to your selfish will
- you don't want to sit quietly every day to listen and watch, but if you do - it is a
cross to your selfish will
if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and
will sup with him, and he with me.
- you don't want to obey his commands that you hear, but if you repent- it is a cross to your selfish will
- you don't want to forgive
injustices done to you, but you repent
and forgive - a cross to your
angry self
- you don't want to admit and
regret what the Light shows your condition to be, but if you repent
- it is a cross to your will
(In the Light, is where you get changed, where
your peace increases, as you repent. This is where you abide in Him.)
- you don't want to give to
others from your excess, but if you repent
from your selfishness and give- it is a cross to your will
- you don't want to defer (deny self) to others, rather than insist on your way,
but if you repent
and defer - it is a cross
to your will
This is the Inward Cross of
Self-Denial
If any will come after me, let him deny himself,
and take up his cross daily, and follow me.
This is
the beginning of the cross. There is also suffering with the cross, for
when you have been prepared sufficiently by his grace and teachings, you
will enter tribulation, to further the death of your sinful nature.
Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body,
arm yourselves also with the same attitude,
because he who has suffered in his body is done with
sin. As a result, he does not live the rest of
his earthly life for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God.
.
Tribulation is not a
hard day at the office, a car wreck, or some natural difficulty; it is
unmistakably, supernaturally imposed. See How to Benefit from the Changing Power of God
for more. (also on the side bar).
For more understanding on the
necessity of learning in silence, see George Fox's writing on Why
Silence? (also on the side bar).
The message of the cross is foolishness to those
who are perishing, but to us who are being
saved it is the power of God.
. For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and
now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of
Christ: Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, [lusts,
passions, pleasures] and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things. . And the true gospel, the name of Jesus, and
the cross are all the power of God
to purify you through repentance with God's changing grace.
And anyone who
does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.
For we know that our old self was crucified
with him so that the body of sin might be done away
with,
that we
should no longer be slaves to sin—
Jesus
said, If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is
better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell,
where the fire never goes out. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut
it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than to have two
feet and be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It
is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have
two eyes and be thrown into hell. . He doesn't want us to maim ourselves. He is
illustrating how serious sin is. Jesus is desperately trying to tell us
that to enter the Kingdom and escape hell, sin is
not allowed, period.He knew false ministers
with false gospels
promising freedom to continue to sin would arise after he
left.
Changes in our heart through the missing
cross to purity can take away the desire of the hand, foot, and eye to
cause us to sin.
Everyone is going to
be purified; in this life
by the cross, or in the next life with great pain and difficulty.
See Is there Hope for All for details.
Let no
one think themselves unworthy to enter the Kingdom by repentance, for even the
prostitutes and tax collectors were entering in Jesus'
time. . The Holy Way...the
simple ones and fools, shall not err in it and lose their
way.. For
his return is to purified believers, in all
generations, who have prepared the way of
the Lord, making his beaten paths straight, by repentance through grace, to crucify the sinful nature. His grace is
sufficient for all men and women to enter, but first, we must all
repent.
Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's
good pleasure to give you the kingdom.
That he would grant unto us, that we being
delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without
fear,
In holiness and righteousness before him, all
the days of our life. (Perfect love expels
all fear. )
The ministers of today are not in the same spirit of the Apostles,
who spoke the word of God. The early church spoke what they heard God
speak to them and spoke the words as given to them by the Spirit of God.
But the ministers and preachers today, not having been purified by
crucifying their sinful nature on the cross of Christ, speak from their
carnal mind, and the
carnal mind is enmity against God.
.
Until their mind has been changed, their words are
without life, and they speak from the nature of death.
Your minister can be a great public
speaker receiving the praise of men, but so did the false
prophets of old. ( . Just as George Fox said of the ministers of his era,
the ministers of today have not come as far spiritually as Baalam's ass, who not only heard the Word of God,
but spoke it. . They are the Pharisaical false prophets of which Jesus
warned us. But the Apostles, and the early church, spoke the word of God
from the Spirit of God; here are some scriptural references to the
Apostles speaking the Word of God: (definitely not reading the Bible, for it didn't exist
until 1500 years later.)
- 1 Cor 2:13
This is what we
speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom,
but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing
spiritual truths in spiritual words.
This should end any controversy. The Apostles
spoke the Word of God. When someone speaks the Word, it is with
Spirit.
They spoke truths in spiritual words
taught to them by the Spirit of Christ. We must be taught by the same
Spirit today. When they spoke, they spoke with the Spirit of God, for
they had sufficient Spirit to not only hear, but to speak - often in
real-time.
The Spirit of Christ speaks to us
precisely in language we understand and particularly to the specific
conditions in our hearts.
When we are
purified and authorized, we will be able to speak from the Spirit the
Word of God too. But not until then.
Our
carnal mind has to be destroyed and replaced by the mind of Christ.
This is not done by studying the Bible.
There
are some of you who still believe that words read from a book are
equal to hearing God speak to you; but even if you believe that, you
can't possibly believe that the book can function as Christ the Light,
which exposes the conditions and motives in your heart, revealing to
them to you visually; for all things that are reproved are made
manifest by the light: for whatsoever doth make manifest is light.
- Acts 4:31
After they prayed, the
place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled
with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.
(These people spoke the Word of God from the Holy Spirit within them.)
- Acts
5:19-20
But the angel of the Lord by
night opened the prison doors, and brought them forth, and said, Go,
stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life.
- Acts 6:2
So the Twelve gathered
all the disciples together and said, "It would not be right for us to
neglect the ministry of
the word of God in order to wait on
tables.
- Acts 6:7
So the word of God spread. The number of disciples in
Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became
obedient to the faith.
- Acts 8:14
When the apostles in
Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to
them.
- Acts 8:28
When they had testified
and proclaimed the word of the
Lord, Peter and John returned to
Jerusalem, preaching the gospel in many Samaritan villages
- Acts 11:1
The apostles and the
brothers throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received
the word of God.
- Acts 12:24
But the word of God continued to increase and
spread.
- Acts 13:5
When they arrived at
Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the Jewish synagogues. John was
with them as their helper.
- Acts 13:7
who was an attendant of
the proconsul, Sergius Paulus. The proconsul, an intelligent man, sent
for Barnabas and Saul because he wanted to hear the word of God.
- Acts 13:46
Then Paul and Barnabas
answered them boldly: "We had to speak the word of God to you first. Since you reject it
and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we now turn to
the Gentiles.
- Acts
13:44
On the next Sabbath almost the
whole city gathered to hear the word
of the Lord.
- Acts
13:48
When the Gentiles heard this,
they were glad and honored the word of the
Lord; and all who were appointed for eternal life believed.
- Acts
15:35-36
But Paul and Barnabas
remained in Antioch, where they and many others taught and preached
the word of the Lord. Some time later Paul said to
Barnabas, "Let us go back and visit the brothers in all the towns
where we preached the word of
the Lord and see how they are
doing."
- Acts 17:13
When the Jews in
Thessalonica learned that Paul was preaching the word of God at Berea, they went there too,
agitating the crowds and stirring them up.
- Acts 18:11
So Paul stayed for a
year and a half, teaching them the word of God.
- Acts
19:10
This went on for two years, so
that all the Jews and Greeks who lived in the province of Asia heard
the word of the Lord.
- Acts
19:20
In this way the word of the Lord spread widely and grew in power.
- Acts 20:32
"Now I commit you to
God and to the word of his grace, which can build you
up and give you an inheritance among all those who are
sanctified.
- Acts 22:14
And he said, The God of our forefathers has
destined and appointed you to come progressively to know His will [to
perceive, to recognize more strongly and clearly, and to become better
and more intimately acquainted with His will], and to see the
Righteous One (Jesus Christ, the Messiah), and to hear a voice from His own mouth and a message
from His own lips.
- Romans
10:8
But what does it say? "The
word is near you; it is in your
mouth and in your heart," that is, the word of faith we
are proclaiming
- 1 Corinthians 14:36
Did the word of God originate with you? Or are you the
only people it has reached?
George Fox, the original
founder of the Quakers, (), also spoke the
Word of the Lord while living in paradise, the Kingdom of God. Click here to see his many wonderful, powerful statements from
the presence of the Lord.
For more information on blind guides, who Christ said to leave them, click here.
Many from "good Bible-believing, Bible-loving churches,"
today say you can't hear God's voice any more. They say we have the
Bible because God's voice cannot be heard any more. I say they can't
hear God's voice, because, like the Pharisees above, they are so busy reading
scriptures they think guarantee them eternal life, that they are not
listening. The Bible seekers say that since you can't hear his voice
anymore, then the Bible is his sole record left for us. They say since
it is impossible to hear his voice any more, you must study the Bible;
don't waste you time trying to hear the Lord. They say studying the
Bible, (their Word of God), is how to grow as a
Christian. They say you must meditate on their Word to be taught by the Spirit; but that is
like walking into a classroom and demanding the teacher answer all your
questions, which rather limits the teacher's ability to teach you
what he knows you need to know. So, rather
than arrogantly demanding the teacher to follow your lead, just humbly
listen for his teaching, allowing God to lead you and set the agenda.
They say the Bible is
a closed book; that there are no more revelations to come, and then absurdly state if
you were to write down what you hear Christ say to you, you are guilty
and cursed for adding words to the Bible, for it says so in
Revelations:
For I testify unto every man that hears the words
of the prophecy of this book, If
any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the
plagues that are written in this book: And if any man shall take away
from the words of the book of
this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life,
and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in
this book.
The book referred to above is the Book of Revelations, not the
Bible. The warning is to not add to or delete from the prophecy of the Book of Revelations. When John
wrote the Book of Revelations, 2000 years
ago, the various letters and books of the Bibles had not even been
selected for inclusion, much less assembled together, and the Bible was
not even printed until 1516. These people
have condemned Peter, Paul, Mark, Matthew, Luke, John, Jude,
and James for adding words to the
Torah, much of the Old Testament, which was
the Bible then in use at the time that
John wrote the Book of Revelations. These modern Pharisees are classic
blind guides who strain gnats while swallowing
camels. They worship the Bible
as the Word of God, instead of worshiping the Living Word of
God, Christ. Even the Bible speaks of scriptures and Word
of God differently. They are denying God still speaks.
They say Bible is the final word of God,
and a closed book; they say he no longer speaks. They perish for lack of knowledge. They are stone deaf and totally blind.
The Bible is the letter. The
letter kills, the Spirit gives life. Those who believe the Bible is
the source of truth, making it their source of Jesus, making it their
God, have made the Bible an idol.
"Woe be to them, for they have coupled an
external form between the love of God to man,"
(). For more on how the Bible is worshiped, instead of
Christ, read the astute testimony of the 18 year old
Christian martyr, James Parnell.
Yes, God speaks through
the Living Word, Christ. The Bible is not the Living Word, Christ. The
Bible is the words of the saints who wrote down their words. Those who
believe the Bible is the source of truth, (making it their source of
Jesus, making it their God), have made the Bible an idol. God still
speaks to us. He is the Light that lights all men. How can grace teach us unless we listen? You
must be quiet to hear him. He told us: do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they
think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like
them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask
him, ; he knows what
you want; he will answer your needs, but maybe not all your wants. You
don't even need to form words for him to know everything you want. Of
course, we often can't help ourselves and must pour out our words to
Him; but remember, silence will communicate too; plus you can then hear
what he has to say to you.
Much
more information is available on this site. Look at the side bar at the
top of the page, click to go back to the top.
For more information on
whether you should continue to patronize sects without the true gospel,
click here.
See How to Benefit from the Changing Power of God
for more on listening for God's teaching and receiving his changing,
purifying grace.
My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow
Me.
He is the Rewarder of those Who Diligently Seek
Him!
Diligence -
continually attending to and striving to achieve a goal; laborious;
persevering.
He
Awaits You!
This web site's
purpose is to show how to become
free from sin
by
benefiting from the changing power of God through
the cross,
which leads to union with God in
his Kingdom.
-
From the Voice of the
Lord -
Are
you ready to see your sins?
The cross is offered to all.
Are you ready to suffer the
shame,
the pain, and the blood of the
cross -
or do you cry out with
indifference?
Yes, it is your birthday -
as many as are at their savior's feet.
There are six
things I will put in order
in front of
your eyes:
1-how evil proceeds out of the
heart,
2-and goes forth out of the
mouth.
3-how your heart longs for evil.
4-how your feet are swift to run to evil.
5-how your heart builds a strong tower
as a bulwark of defense.
6-how your heart is a mirror of the
world.
As many as I love, I chastise.
This is the Word of the Lord to you all:
'He who is not on the cross
is repulsive to me.'
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