Importance of obedience To Jesus.
In chapter 3 of the Book
of The Revelation The church of Sardis had members whose names were
written in
the book of life. But who were no longer
obeying Jesus. In Rev 3:5 they were told
to repent of their continued disobedience or their name would be
blotted out
(removed) from the book of life and they would lose their salvation.
Jesus said in His book
of Revelation that you can lose your salvation through deliberately not
repenting of disobedience (sin).
You are only required to
be obedient to what God has been revealed to you and not to what you do
not
know. In your correct obedience to Jesus
is your salvation preserved!
Your level of belief in
the things of God will determine the level at which you pursue them or
obey
them.
Attitudes.
You must always look at
things in the way God looks at things. So
that you will apply His values and
requirements and not be influenced by Satan’s way of thinking. Which is expressed in the world system and
values which are around you.
If you do not know how
God’s principles and values apply to a situation, then ask The
Holy
Spirit. He has been sent by God to guide
you in all the things you are to do with God as well as to teach you
what you
need to know to be able to do them (Job 32:8, Jn 16:13, Jn 8:32).
Attitudes to have
It is important to have
God’s quality of love. To love
in the
way He does and you will always do what He requires of you (Jn 13:34-35)
Submit yourself
completely to His Will (Rom 12:1-2)
Trust His Love, as
whatever He allows to happen to you will always be for your best (Rom
8:28).
Seek Jesus and His
things in all you do (Col 3:1-2).
Your objective should be
to seek God’s will in all you do and develop your relationship
you have with
each member of The Trinity (Matt 6:32-34).
You must work at your
side of the relationship you have with God and seek to maintain the
obedience
this requires (Phil 2: 14-15).
Your thoughts must
always be pure and wholesome (Phil 4:8, Matt 12:36).
You must always be
guided by the Holy Spirit (Rom 8:14, Jn 16:13).
You must serve Jesus as
He desires you too, encouraging others to do what He requires of them
(Heb
10:24-25) and doing His work.
You must believe God
rewards His followers. That all you did
for God on earth was worth doing. You must believe it will be all
worthwhile
and that all the rewards you have in heaven will be worth all you
suffered on
earth (Heb 11:6.)
You must endure to the
end and finish the work God has for you on earth (1 Cor 15:58, Matt
24:13).
You must realize that
when you affect another Christians, you really affect Jesus (Matt
25:40).
The attitudes expanded.
The basic altitude is
unswerving, loving, obedience to Jesus.
Jesus must be ruler of all you do.
He does not ask you to obey Him out of fear of going to hell.
But out of
love and thanksgiving for what He has done for you.
In John 14:15 He
specifically stated:
“If
you love me, keep my
commandments.”
Love is the basis of all
Christian obedience and “Love for Jesus” is the basic
attitude for the
expression of all other attitudes of the Christian life.
God’s type of Love is
the expression of The Spirit of God living in you and is expressed as:
joy,
peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance
(Gal
5:22-23). It is through these
expressions of God’s type of Love to others that God shows His
character
through you.
Rom
12:1.I beg you
therefore, my brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your
bodies
living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God by a logical service.
2.And
do not imitate this
world, but be transformed by the renovation of your minds, and you
shall
distinguish what is the good, acceptable and perfect will of God.
Because of what Jesus
has done for us, we should submit our self to Him.
Jesus redeemed us and
paid the price God required to remove from us all the spiritual
punishment for
our sins that would have resulted in our going to hell.
In other words, He delivered us from going to
hell and removed the requirement to sacrifice to God for our sins.
Because of this, we are
always able to be in a proper relationship with God so that The Holy
Spirit can
be in us and we can always approach God and we can be continually in
His
presence and hear Him continually.
Our primary reason for
submission to Jesus is the love and thankfulness we have toward Jesus
for what
Jesus did for us at Calvary as well as what He is doing for us now on
earth and
will do for us in heaven.
We are told also to
focus on the things of Jesus and to reject all that Satan offers us
through the
world system he controls and which is designed to distract you and
guide you
away from the things of Jesus as well as to blind you too them.
We need to change our
attitudes and thoughts so they are changed from the ways we used to
think
(based on what we saw in the world around us) to that with Jesus
desires us to
focus on.
Coll
3:1. If therefore you
are risen with The Messiah, seek that which is above, the place where
The
Messiah sits at the right side of God.
2.
Feed on that which is
above and not that which is in The Earth,
3.
For you have died to
yourselves and your lives are hidden with The Messiah in God.
4.
And whenever The
Messiah, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed
with him
in glory.
We are to focus on the
Will of Jesus for us. It is He who is our ruler, who, through Calvary,
freed us
from the punishment of sin and the bondage Satan had over us. So if we are His follower we will focus on
His requirements of us.
Your mind should be
occupied solely with His teachings and His will for you.
To focus on the things the world (controlled
by Saturn) offers you, is to take your eyes off what Jesus requires of
you. So that you may end up disobeying
Him in an area or no longer be a follower of Him.
You no longer should be
in control of your life as you have offered it to Jesus to be Lord of. So, that now, you future hope and plans are
tied up with the Will of Jesus for you.
As you do His Will and bring Him Glory, He also will bring your
glory,
reflected from the Glory you gave Him.
Matt
6:31.Therefore do not
be concerned or say, ‘’What will we eat?’ , or
‘’What will we drink?’ , or,‘
’What will we wear’?
32.For
the Gentiles are
seeking all these things, but your Father who is in Heaven knows that
all these
things are necessary for you.
33.But
seek first the
Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be
added to
you.
34.Therefore
you shall not
be concerned about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be concerned for itself.
A day’s
own trouble is sufficient for it.
We should always be
seeking the will of God and to improve the relationship we have with
him. We should not be concerned about our
needs as
God promises to provide all we need if we focus on His Will and
developing the
relationship we have with Him. In fact
v34 is almost a command not be concerned about the future, which you
will not
be if you trust completely God’s plan and preparation for your
life.
Satan uses his world
system to try and distract us from God’s Love and provision, so
we will worry
and be anxious. If we believe in God and
His Love for us, Satan cannot get us to do this. We
will trust God for our needs and not worry
about them or be anxious about anything.
Only in this attitude of
complete trust in God’s Love, Control, Purposes and Plans for us
is their true
peace and contentment. This is a result
of having no anxiety or worry because you know God is in control and
whatever
happens is for your best.
If Satan can get you to
not trust God’s Love toward you, he can torment you.
You must trust God completely, or He is not
your Lord!
Phil
4:6. Do not be worried
for anything, but always in prayer and supplication with thanksgiving,
let your
requests be known before God,
7.
And the peace of The
God, Who is greater than every mind, will keep your hearts
1
Peter 5:7. And cast all
your cares on God, for he takes care of you.
We are told to give our
fears, worries and anxieties to Jesus to be Lord of as He will deal
with them
and help you go through them.
If you trust Jesus and
His Love, you will ask him to help you. After all, that is what friends
are for
and Jesus is the best friend you will ever have.
When you wholeheartedly
follow Jesus as your Lord, The Father in Heaven adopts you as His son
and then
you are not just a friend to Jesus, but He is now your brother through
your
adoption by The Father.
This is why you need to
learn to spend time with Jesus and The Father.
After all, who does not want to spend time with their beloved
father and
brother.
Rom
8:28. But we know that
he helps those who love God in everything for good, those whom he
preordained
to be called.
Phil
2:12.Therefore
beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not when I am near to you
only, but
now when I am far from you, all the more, with awe and with trembling,
do the
service of your life.
13.For
God is carefully
working in you both to desire and to do that thing which you desire
If you love Jesus, you
will spend your time developing your side of the relationship. You will
take
whatever steps are needed to do this.
You will learn whatever
you need to learn. You will do whatever you need to do.
You will spend with Him whatever time is
necessary to do this.
You will always trust
that God is always working for your best so that you will never
complain about
what He is allowing to happen to you.
You will trust His Love for you in whatever circumstances He
allows to
happen to you. He is Control of all your
circumstances and Satan can do nothing to hinder Jesus in this.
Job
32:8 But there is a spirit in man: and the
inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding.
Jn
16:13.”But whenever The
Spirit of The Truth comes, he will lead you into the whole truth, for
he will
not speak of his own will, but he shall speak whatever he shall hear
and he
shall reveal the future to you.”
Rom
8: 14. For those who
are led by The Spirit of God, these are the sons of God
The holy spirit if your
guide and is the person God has sent to help you in your Christian life
You. You will need to be able to hear
his guidance and teaching as well as to trust this guidance and
teaching. He also loves you and does all
that is for
your best.
Phil
4: 8. Therefore, my
brethren, those things that are true, those that are honorable, those
that are
righteous, those things that are pure, those things that are precious,
those
things that are praiseworthy, deeds of glory and of praise, meditate on
these
things.
Matt
12: 36.For I say to
you that every idle word that people will speak, they will give an
answer for
it in the day of judgment.
37.For
by your words you
will be justified and by your words you will be condemned.”
Every wrong word you say
you will need to explain to Jesus why you said it.
If you are led by the
Holy Spirit, your focus will only be on good things that come from God
and not
on the things of Satan, which are unholy, and defiled and if which
anyone that
does them cannot enter the Kingdom of God.
You will also express the good in these through your life to
others.
If you love Jesus, you
will only say and do things that promote the King and His Kingdom Accepting only thoughts that do this and
rejecting all of Satan that would hinder this in your life:
Heb
10:24 (LITV) And let us
consider one another, to incitement of love and of good works,
Heb
10:25 not forsaking the assembling
together of
ourselves, as is the custom of some, but exhorting, and by so much more
as you
see the Day drawing near.
You will also think of
how Jesus desires you to serve others.
We serve Jesus our King, and He
tells us whom He wants us to serve as well as how He desires us when
and how to
serve them.
Mat
25: 40 And The King
answers and says to them, ‘Amen, I say to you, as much as you
have done to one
of these my little brothers, you have done that to me.’
This is why Jesus says
that whatever we do to others we do to Him.
It is Him we obey and show His quality of Love as we serve
others. So
how we express His type of Love to others is How we affect the
demonstration of
His quality of Love to them.
Heb
11: 6. But without
faith, no one can please God, for whoever is brought near to God must
believe
that he exists and that he is the rewarder of those who seek him.
As we serve God, out of
Love for Him and those we serve, He has rewards for us. He asks us to
believe
He will reward us through doing all He said He would do for those who
followed
Him.
Faith must trust God and
part of this trust is in Him rewarding us for this service we do to him. Even though He, as a King, does not need to
reward us for the things He commands us to do.
Abraham was told that
the reward was a relationship with God.
This relationship results in salvation as well as the release of
every
good thing God is able to give you (other rewards).
Matt
24: 13 But whoever
will persevere until the end will have life.
1
Cor 15: 58. From now on,
my brethren and beloved, be steadfast; do not be shaken, but be
abounding at
all times in the work of THE LORD JEHOVAH, as you know that your toil
has not
been worthless in THE LORD JEHOVAH.
He requires us to finish
all He asks as too do and to endure all Satan does to us.
By this we will show our love for Jesus and
that He is our Lord.
So what are we to do for Jesus?
We are the
representatives of Him and His Kingdom and are to proclaim, teach and
demonstrate His Kingdom and its Character on earth to all who do not
follow Him
or know Him personally.
Jesus said (summarizing
His last statements before He rose into heaven).
“All
power (authority) is
given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all
nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the
Holy
Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded
you And
that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in My name
among all
nations, beginning at Jerusalem. He that believeth and is baptized
shall be
saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. And these signs shall
follow
them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall
speak with
new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly
thing,
it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they
shall
recover and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the
world.”
As you can see, Jesus
desires us to tell others about His Love for them, what He has done for
them,
as well as what He can and will for them as well as teach them how to
receive
these things and obey Jesus in the doing of His Will.
If you Love Jesus you
will do this for Him.
Do not be concerned if
you do not know how to do these things. The Holy Spirit promises to
teach you
all you need to know to do this and will bring people and information
to you to
help you to learn about doing this in the way Jesus desires you to do
it.
If you are able to do
this but do not bother too when Jesus asks you to do it. Then you risk
going to
hell, unless you repent and do it. If
you do not do it. You have rejected
Jesus by rejecting what He has asked you to do.
If you deny Him or
knowledge of Him in any way, you have also rejected Him. Unless you
repent and
tell others about Him, you will lose your Salvation (Rev 3.5). He will reject you before the Judgment Throne
of The Father so that you cannot go to heaven. The only other place you
can go
to is hell.
There are many people in
hell who rejected what Jesus desired of them to do, yet still called
themselves
Christians (implying they were His followers).
How you deal with these
attitudes is up to you. You have free will and it is your choice what
you do
with it. So you will have no one else to
blame if you disobey God and end up in hell.
The race is not to the
swiftest, or to the smartest or the most intelligent. It is to those
who humbly
obey and endure to the end in all Jesus asks them to endure.
If you love people as
The Father loves them. You will always
have before you their eternal destiny and good.
And you will have one ear on the Holy Spirit to see what God
wants you
to do or say to them (if anything).
You do not Minister to
all. But only those God desires you to
Minister too. And then you only say or
do what he desires you to say or do for them.
This is why you must
always be led by The Holy Spirit.
So that you will always be ready
to do or say what God desires you to do or say.
Stewardship.
The Christian life is a
life of stewardship. What God has given
you to be steward of you must protect from Satan. The
best way to do this is too:
Firstly make sure that Jesus is Lord
of every aspect of your life including that which He has given you to
be
steward of. Which you are to use only
for the purposes of His Kingdom.
Secondly to attack every Demon that
is attacking you, regardless of the area they are attacking.
This means you need to:
Know what God has made you steward
of before you can defend is.
Know what you need to do to
defend the things God has
made you steward of. The five steps are
sufficient for this defence of what God has given you to be steward of.
Not to defend what you
are steward of is disobedience to God.
If you do not defend it Satan can damage it, destroy it or take
it from
you.
Remember! Satan’s
purpose is to destroy what you are steward of so that it cannot be used
by The
Kingdom of God.
Fellowship
The
most
important Christian fellowship you have is with:
The
Father
The
Lord Jesus The Christ
and
The
Holy Spirit
These
fellowship arrangements result in salvation as well as the guidance and
empowerment to live The Christian live.
Develop
these fellowships if you would get to
heaven
Definition
Fellow: from ‘To
tie or
connect’. A fellow is
connected with you in some way.
Ship (Saxon) ‘to
shape or
form’. Hence the
following definition of Fellowship:
Two
people bound together
for a common purpose with he objective of building something, either
physical
or spiritual. For a Christian it the
body of Christ that is built up through building up one another because
of
their common focus and obedience on Jesus and His things.
For the world it is meeting with a purpose to
do something. Most of what the church
calls Christian fellowship is often worldly in nature and is really
socialising.
Fellowship occurs when
two or more members of The Body meet for the purposes of The King of
The
Kingdom of God. Otherwise it is just
socialising.
In this section, the
term fellowship is used to refer only to Christian fellowship.
Redemption and fellowship
What does redemption
have to do with fellowship
Redemption is all about the restoration of fellowship: with God (Salvation), Fellowship with each
other, through the unity of The Holy Spirit in all of the redeemed.
This
undefiled state, which allow The Holy Spirit to live in us, is only
possible
because of the consequences of sin being dealt with at Calvary.
Fellowship in the New Testament
The New Testament says
little about fellowship. So what it says
must be important.
Part of the normal
Christian life is fellowship!
(Act
2:42) And they continued stedfastly in
the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread,
and in
prayers.
In Heb 10:24-25 we are
told to meet
together to strengthen and encourage one another and this is a main
purpose of
fellowship. It is not just socializing
as that can be done anywhere. But it is
meeting for the purpose of encouraging each other in our common
Christian faith
in Jesus.
God has called us to
fellowship
(1Co
1:9) God is faithful, by whom ye were
called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.
God see fellowship as
very important
and calls all His followers to be involved in fellowship with each
member of
The Trinity and each other.
We are not to fellowship
with people who do not follow Jesus as Lord.
(1Co
10:20) But I say, that the things which
the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I
would
not that ye should have fellowship with devils.
As fellowship has a
spiritual
element, involvement in it has spiritual implications and connotations
and if
you fellowship with those not of Jesus you will be affected adversely
in some
way.
You can have no
fellowship with Satan or his citizens.
This does not mean no social interaction. It
means no spiritual interaction.
(2Co
6:14) Be ye not unequally yoked together
with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with
unrighteousness?
and what communion hath light with darkness?
Fellowship cannot be
between Christian and non-Christian.
Fellowship can have
different purposes. One is ministering
to the saints. Another is encouraging
each other in normal social interactions.
(2Co
8:4) Praying us with much intreaty that
we would receive the gift, and take upon us the fellowship of the
ministering
to the saints.
As the spiritual is involved, people
with different spiritual maturity will fellowship at different levels
because
there experience and knowledge is different.
At times they will fellowship as equals and at other times there
will be
a mentoring in their fellowship to the newer Christians.
Fellowship is granted
and not assumed or taken. It must be
agreed too by the other person.
(Gal
2:9) And when James, Cephas, and John,
who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given unto me,
they gave
to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship; that we should go
unto the
heathen, and they unto the circumcision.
Like all relationships it takes two
to tango.
Christian fellowship can
only be with those who are citizens of The Kingdom of God.
(Eph
3:9) And to make all men see what is the
fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath
been hid
in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:
Those you are unable to
have fellowship with you should try and lead them to Jesus.
(Eph
5:11) And have no fellowship with the
unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.
You reprove them by your
lifestyle. By not agreeing to be a
partaker of their evil or by explaining to them what God says about
what they
are doing and also demonstrating the benefits to their life of obeying
God.
The basis of fellowship
is the acceptance of The Gospel of The Kingdom
(Php
1:5) For your fellowship in the gospel
from the first day until now;
It is through the unity in The Holy
Spirit that results from accepting The Gospel of The Kingdom that
fellowship
occurs. Remember that Jesus never spoke
of The Gospel of Salvation but only of The Gospel of The Kingdom of God
(Matt
4:23)
We are in constant
fellowship with The Holy Spirit
(Php
2:1) If there be therefore any
consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the
Spirit,
if any bowels and mercies,
The Holy Spirit is in our
spirit. So that we can have constant
fellowship with Him and because of that we are never alone. You always have someone to talk too and
fellowship with. So you are never alone.
He will talk to you if you want Him
too and let Him, because He will not intrude into your mind. Except to warn you or guide you as is
necessary for the purposes of The Kingdom of God. In
fact Jesus sent Him to lead you and guide
you in your Christian walk. So not to
listen to Him is dangerous for a follower of Jesus.
There is a unity with
others as we embrace suffering resulting from doing the work of Jesus
(Php
3:10) That I may know him, and the power
of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made
conformable unto his death;
The attitudes that drive us to
suffer for Jesus are not shared by all.
So that there is a special fellowship amongst these people who
have
suffered that those who have not suffered do not know.
One of the reasons for
evangelism is so that others can enter into fellowship with Jesus and
us.
(1Jn
1:3) That which we have seen and heard
declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and
truly our
fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.
It is callous not to tell others of
salvation when you have been so freely given it to you by God.
No hypocrite or sinner
can be in fellowship with Jesus or other Christians if they voluntarily
do evil
and do not repent.
(1Jn
1:6) If we say that we have fellowship
with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:
The requirement for
Christian fellowship is to wholeheartedly obey Jesus in all you do and
walk in
His truth in all things.
(1Jn
1:7) But if we walk in the light, as he
is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of
Jesus
Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.
The Holy Spirit is present
unifying a fellowship when it is there for the purposes of Jesus.
Act
15:25 It seemed good unto us, being
assembled with one accord, to send chosen men unto you with our beloved
Barnabas and Paul,