Set Your Goal

Posted on October 3, 2015October 3, 2015 by Petros

IfYouDontKnowWhereYoureGoing

We would like an easy way. I could set my goal to be something that’s easy to reach. That way, I can be sure that I don’t fail. Is that the way to set a goal?

Know your goal. Some people fail to set a goal. Yogi Berra said, “If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up someplace else.” Some people fail to set the right goal. They set a random goal. So how do you set a goal?

Get your goal from God. He’s alive, you know. He’s available. He’s ready to lead if you’re willing to follow. You must learn to know His Voice. You must be ready to take the attitude of no compromise. If you read the second and third chapters of Revelation, you’ll find that there are wonderful promises to the overcomers. For those who fail, God doesn’t offer those same promises.

“To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.” (Revelation 2:7) “He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.” (verse 11) “To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.” (verse 17) “And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations: And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father. And I will give him the morning star. (verses 26, 27, and 28) “He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.” Revelation 3:5) “Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name.” (verse 12) “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.” (verse 21)

All of these promises are linked closely to having ears to hear. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word (utterance) of God. Faith gives access to grace. Grace does the righteousness through us. Righteousness leads to holiness.

Romans 10:17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

“Seek ye first the Kingdom of God.” Seek God’s will. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” When we seek God and His will, He often says things we don’t like. He tells us to speak when we don’t want to. He tells us not to speak when we want to. He tells us to speak in love when we want to get even. Human flesh and the Holy Spirit are always at odds. They’re mutually exclusive. It’s a battle to the death.

The enemies are the devil, the world, and our sinful flesh. Flesh is the body—and the mind that is under control of the body. The flesh wants to fit it. It wants to get along with all the influences of the world. Flesh runs on emotions and irrational thinking.

The world is the culture.

Romans 12:1-2 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

The world consists of the influence of friends who aren’t speaking God’s words or doing God’s will. It consists of people you love. It consists of the media, news, textbooks with half-truths and untruths, opinions on the Internet, movies, movie stars, performers of all sorts, comedians, and many other influences of culture.

The world is also internal. Every experience that each of us has is filtered through our preconceived ideas, our worldviews. Each worldview seems more real than reality to the person who owns that worldview. Everyone has a worldview, a concept of reality. Pardon me for saying something so obvious, but this concept is a concept. It’s not reality.

This is a serious problem with which we all struggle. I struggle with it. Many people don’t even know that they are struggling with it. They fully believe that their own worldviews are reality as it is. They don’t realize that their worldviews are powerful filters.

These filters keep out any parts of reality that conflict with the worldview. They then add the new filtered interpretations of reality to the worldview in the form of confirmation bias. If anyone persists in exposing the errors of the worldview, they perceive such a person as a irrational.

“The devil” refers to principalities and powers.

2 Corinthians 10:4 (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)

Ephesians 6:12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

Set a goal to overcome the devil, the world, and your own sinful flesh. There’s only one way to do this through Jesus Christ—that’s by grace, which is through faith. Faith comes by hearing the utterance of God. God leads. Faith comes and gives access to grace. Grace does God’s works. This process changes you.

When God leads you, you see who you are and how you fit into the Body of Christ—not all at once, but by incremental steps. As the fleshly veil is pulled away from your face, you see the glory of Christ in yourself and in your brother and sister. You see this as if looking into a mirror image. As you see this, you’re changed into the same image from glory to ever-exceeding glory. This change is executed by the Spirit of God.

2 Corinthians 3:18 But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

James 1:25 But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.

You must hear His Voice. That’s where it all starts. How do you hear His Voice?

James 4:8 Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.

Draw nigh to God. Seek the Lord, your God, with everything you have. Praise Him. He inhabits the praises of His people. Discern His Body, the Body of Christ. No longer look at people after the flesh but after the spirit. Are they born again. Recognize the Christ in them. When God leads you, submit to Him. Spend time in prayer. Read the Bible daily. Have a family time of worship every day. Attend church weekly. As you read Scripture, the Holy Spirit will counsel you about many other things where you are to cooperate with Him as He moves through you in righteousness.

The Fruit of the Spirit

Posted on September 13, 2015September 13, 2015 by Petros

Why do humans want to try to self-generate those things that are freely given by God through Christ? God says that it’s because they love darkness rather than light. He says that they refuse to thank Him, glorify Him, or even acknowledge Him. Eventually, they become so calloused against Him that they are past any ability to hear His Voice, see His Face, feel His Touch, taste His Sweetness, or smell His Aroma. They have become separated from Him.

The book, “Reason,” while it uses a debate between Ken Ham (Christian) and Bill Nye (Non-Christian) as a backdrop, is really about choosing to accept God’s good gifts. It’s about submission to the Holy Spirit. It’s about allowing God to lead and guide. It’s about receiving His Knowledge, Wisdom, and Understanding. It’s about listening to His Voice so that Faith comes, giving certainty of knowledge rather than guesses and made-up stuff.

It has always been popular to believe that humans could self-generate love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, meekness, faith, and self-control. In reality, humans can only generate counterfeits of these. The human mind, and demonic entities, are able to counterfeit any of the good things that only come from God. Consider righteousness. Only God is good. He imparts His gift of righteousness to anyone willing to receive it. Yet, so many people try to generate their own righteousness. They end up being self-righteous and proud. Think about knowledge, wisdom, and understanding. All of these come from God. None of them can be received from God without deep, sincere respect from God. Those who are rebellious toward God persist in trying to self-generate knowledge, wisdom, and understanding. They are able to generate some pretty convincing counterfeits and to deceive many people. However, there isn’t any way for human beings to self-generate knowledge. Even Secularists know that they can never have certainty about anything without Divine revelation. However, they then make the insane, dogmatic assertion, based on made-up stuff, that God doesn’t reveal anything to anyone. Since they don’t have any hope of ever having certainty about anything, why are Secularists so dogmatic about this assertion? Because they have decided not to receive God’s goodness. They have submitted themselves to the spirit of Antichrist.

Some Christians also block the mercy and grace of God by trying to self-generate love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, meekness, faith, and self-control. They try to self-generate wisdom, knowledge, and understanding. These wonderful things that come to us as we stand in the Presence of the Holy One are not available to those who try to be double-minded. The self-generated counterfeits can never fulfill or bring satisfaction. Yet, every person who seeks Christ finds Christ. Every person who is willing to abide in Christ, seek Him, spend time in His Presence in submission to Him, is given all these wonderful things. They are imparted by God. These are the things that change the person into the Image of Jesus Christ. It’s not enough to want to be like Jesus. We need to lay down our own efforts and allow Him to think His Thoughts, speak His Words, and do His Acts through us with Power for His Righteousness, which leads to Holiness.

In every situation, you and I are faced with the choice of yielding to self-will or God’s will. Why not let yourself go into the wonderful gifts of God and just allow His love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, meekness, faith, self-control, wisdom, knowledge, and understanding to flow through you?

Couldn’t You be Deceived?

Posted on July 25, 2015July 25, 2015 by Petros

The human mind wants control. It brings arguments against Divine revelation. The argument is that you could be deceived if you look to God for Divine revelation. The reality is that there are only two alternatives to Divine revelation. One alternative is the fallen human mind, one’s own or other’s, that is deceitful and desperately wicked. The other alternative is demonic deception. The two alternatives to Divine revelation assure deception. Yet, the problem of Divine revelation is indeed discerning the difference between Divine revelation and these other sources. Both of these sources try to mimic Divine revelation or else to denigrate it.

Regarding Divine revelation, here are some of the arguments that are used by Secularists:

Your own mind could be deceiving you.
A demon could be deceiving you.
You must process that Divine revelation using your own mind. You don’t get it directly.

As far as demons, they are real and they are deceptive—as is the human mind. For that reason, demons and the failings of human intellect are really the same problem. In fact, if Divine revelation depended on human intellect, we would indeed be lost. There would be no scientific progress, because there could be no knowledge at all. However, discernment is not a matter of intellect. It’s the matter of the sovereign impartation of something that is called “faith” to those who acknowledge God when He’s speaking.

To clarify, God defines “faith” for us. It is not conceptual. It’s part of reality. It’s absolute proof. It’s certainty. It is progressive. It gives access into God’s grace, which is the power of God for righteousness. Grace is the free gift of righteousness.

For these reasons, Neither Münchausen’s trilemma nor Descartes’ demon present a problem for Divine revelation. They do present a problem for theological positions that add anything to what God is saying. It’s very easy to make assumptions. Assumptions are often hidden with various smokescreens. Münchausen’s trilemma and Descartes’ demon do present a problem for all Secularists. In fact, as skeptics argue for disbelieving everything or disbelieving God, the skeptic falls prey to both the trilemma and the demon.

A chain of thought is only as strong as its weakest link. An assumption is an unknown that’s treated as a known. Assumptions have no place in a premise. To put them there is irrational.

Divine revelation is ongoing and progressive. God has revealed that if any person thinks he or she knows anything, that person doesn’t know it as it ought to be known. In other words, there is room for correction by the Holy Spirit. The entire issue of Divine revelation isn’t to prove one person right and another person wrong. Divine revelation has much more to do with having a relationship with God than being the one who is correct. In that relationship and in the humility and openness to correction of the human, the Holy Spirit with teach, correct, and lead.

As far as deception is concerned, we can all be deceived. God has promised that if we ask for bread (a type of Christ), God won’t give us a stone (a type of the human intellect). If we ask for a fish (a type of Christ), He won’t give us a serpent (a type of Satan). Yet, we do get confused. If we continue to seek God, He will lead and correct us. When we think that we’ve arrived or we think that we know certain things, we stop seeking Him. We become stiff necked and dogmatic. The Holy Spirit won’t force Himself on anyone, so we get spiritually stuck. We know many things, but we don’t know any of them as we ought. We need to be open to correction.

Righteousness to Holiness

Posted on July 8, 2015July 8, 2015 by Petros

“Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness.” Romans 6:19b This is how it works. “whatsoever is not of faith is sin” Romans 14:23b “Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. The one who does what is right is righteous” 1 John 3:7a “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them–yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.” 1 Corinthians 15;10 “gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.” (Romans 5:2 in part) “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word (literally, utterance) of God.” Romans 10:17 “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.” John 10:27

Accept No Substitutes

Posted on June 28, 2015June 28, 2015 by Petros

The problem is not reason versus Scripture or reason versus Divine revelation. The problem is the foundation of reason, including the interpretation of Scripture. Only one Foundation will work: Jesus Christ. He gives a basis for reason through the teaching and leading of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit speaks to us through Scripture if we are willing to acknowledge Him. If we are walking in the Spirit, then we are learning to discern His Voice from all the other voices and to respond to Him in submission. We are allowing Him to think His thoughts, speak His words, and do His works through us.

How Do You Know?

Posted on June 25, 2015June 25, 2015 by Petros

When you draw a line in the sand, you know that it is you who has drawn the line. That means you can move the line just as easily as you drew it in the first place. If you think you know something, ask a few simple questions. If someone tells you something, ask them these questions.

“Why draw the line there and not somewhere else?”

“How do you know?”

“Is this Divine revelation or is it human speculation?”

“Have you made any assumptions, adding to God’s Words?” “Dear Lord, what do You say about this?” In fact, I was out in my shed thinking about something, and the Holy Spirit spoke to me, “Ask Me what I say about that.” I find that it’s very easy to lean on my own understanding and very difficult to acknowledge Him in all my ways.

I find that it’s very easy to lean on my own understanding and very difficult to acknowledge Him in all my ways.

Ask the Holy Spirit, “What do You say about this?”

I find that it’s very easy to lean on my own understanding and very difficult to acknowledge Him in all my ways. How about you?

Ever Learning

Posted on June 22, 2015June 22, 2015 by Petros

Realize that if what you think you know requires even a single assumption, you don’t know it. It’s a bare assertion.

2 Timothy 3:2-9 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith. But they shall proceed no further: for their folly shall be manifest unto all men, as theirs also was.

The Holy Spirit is sent from the Father and the Son to teach us all Truth. Jesus is Truth.

Real Reality

Tag Archives: The Holy Spirit