Obeying my Lord and Savior Flashcards
Wait on the Lord in quietness, rest from all your worldly non-essential activities, and have confidence that the Lord will remove the sin that he shows you, as you repent; thus you are saved. There is no other way.
Now he commands all men everywhere to repent.
Repent (think differently; change your mind, regretting your sins and changing your conduct.
[John is saying that before you can successfully seek the Kingdom of God, you must show a changed lifestyle, as evidenced by your deeds; then, if you persistently and patiently wait on God, he will teach you what else to deny and how to live a godly life until you become pure and redeemed from all sin.]
[Share from your excess with anyone who lacks the necessities of life.]
For the axe is already laid at the root of the trees, so that every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”3
[The tree is a metaphor for a man; fruit is the metaphor for the fruit of God's Spirit: love, peace, gentleness, patience, self-control, patience, faith, and kindness. Until a man has been cleansed, purified, and restored to God's image, he is a tree that produces bad fruit: lust, anger, envy, sexual immorality, drunkenness, revelry, foolishness, lying, theft, dishonesty, etc. Trees that do not produce good fruit are cut down and thrown into the fire.]
[Do not defraud anyone; be honest in your dealings; do not take advantage of anyone.]
[Do not oppress anyone; don’t lie; don’t want more; don’t complain]
[You must believe to have your heart changed by the power of God’s grace from harboring the evil fruit of the flesh, being replaced by the fruit of the Spirit, which is: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness [or meekness, or humility], and self-control. Gal 5:22-23. If you do not produce the fruit of the Spirit, you are banned from heaven and sent to take your part in the lake of fire. Either make the tree good, and its fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and its fruit corrupt; for the tree is known by its fruit. Mat 12:33. From the Word of the Lord within: “A tree that is holy is a good one.”]
[This baptism of fire is the baptism of death, to then be resurrected with Christ as a new creature with a new heart, mind, and spirit. From the Word of the Lord within: “You are raised to a new life, not just an imitation; He is one with us and ever-present.”]
[The Lord separates the wheat from the chaff, the precious from the vile. The wheat is the words of life that he has spoken to you, which words are grafted into your heart to form Christ within; the chaff is your selfish, sinful nature of its lusts, affections, and pride, which after separation is then burnt to oblivion by the devouring fire and everlasting burnings of Jesus, the pure word of life, which is fire. From the Word of the Lord within: “God treads down and throws away all that is unholy; there is a dying.” This baptism of death is the final step before translation into the kingdom of God, to be there while on earth and then forever.]
However, in addition to works of the law, (the dead works done by the will of man), there is another class of works: works of faith, which are works that you hear from Christ within your heart command you to do, as you expose yourself to hear His commands by waiting on God; which is to sit in humble silence, listening for His voice and watching for His revelations. The first commands you will hear from the Lord are commands to change your behavior, speech, and thinking — Him commanding your repentance. To obey the commands of God that you hear him speak to you are operational works of faith, which Paul declared a must and James declared faith without works is dead. These are not works that you decide to do; these are works that God wills you to do, and when you do them, you are doing His will on earth as it is done is heaven. These are works of faith done in loving obedience to the commands you hear God speak to you from within your heart. These are works of life too, commanded from the life of God, Christ; and the words he speaks to you impart the life of God. John 6:63. Repetitively seek, wait, watch, listen, hear, believe what you hear or are shown, and obey — and eventually you will have received so much of the life of God that you become cleansed and purified.
prerequisite to seeking the kingdom of heaven:
Repent: think differently; change your mind, regretting your sins and changing your conduct. Mat 3:2 Share from your excess with those who are without the necessities of life. [This is very key to your success in receiving God's favor.] Be honest in all your dealings, never exaggerating or overreaching anyone. Don't oppress people or frighten anyone, don't lie, don't want more, don't complain. Luke 3:10-14
When you can hear the Spirit of God from within your heart, as you wait on the Lord and listen to the Lord, he will command further repentance in your life. The commands you hear Him speak to you are to be kept, remembered, and obeyed; if he orders you to deny something in your life, you are to keep denying it. As you continue to obey His commands to you, you are eventually purified by his grace that teaches you how to live righteously, soberly and godly in this present world, until you are redeemed from all sins and purified for Himself a people of His very own with a zeal for good works. Tit 2:11-14. Then you are directed by God to do works of love to your joy and God’s honor, glory, and pleasure.
God’s grace and salvation are provided to create a people dedicated to good works, doing His will on earth as it is done in heaven]
Jesus came so he could destroy the devil and his works [sin] in us.
For this purpose the Son of God is revealed [in us], that he might destroy the works of the devil [in us]. 1 John 3:8
Let every man remain in the same calling in which he was called. 1 Cor 17:20
As long as we are in an honest occupation, then we are to remain wherever we were awakened by God’s call to seek him.
Let the former thief, steal no more; but rather let him labor, working with his hands in an honest occupation so that he may have excess to give to him who lacks necessities. Eph 4:28 And that you aspire to lead a quiet and peaceful life, and to attend to your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you. So that we may lead a quiet and peaceful life in all godliness and gravity. 1 Tim 2:2
The challenge is to not leave the world, but to still be in the world, and yet to stand apart from the world.
We do this by 1) not joining in the evil activities of the world, but 2) while not insisting others do things our way.
We are polite to the people of the world with whom we come into contact, but we do not socialize with them.
We refuse to take part in dishonest actions, cheating others, oppressing others, and criticizing others. We do not return evil for evil.
We do for others what we would have them do for us. This is the golden rule of love, on which all the laws of God are based.
you should withdraw from social contact with the world as much as possible. Friendship with the world is enmity with God; be polite, but don’t join in conversations and activities of the world. This doesn’t mean that you won’t be kind and courteous to those of the world with which your occupation brings you into association; just that you will not socialize with them, because it would be painful and harmful to you. Do not be deceived. Evil companions corrupt good manners, morals, and integrity.
Take heed of pleasures, and prize your time now while you have it; do not spend it in pleasures or earthliness. The time may come that you will say; you had time, when it is past. Therefore look at the love of God now while you have time; for it brings you to loathe all vanities and worldly pleasures. Oh consider, time is precious; fear God and rejoice in him who has made heaven and earth.
Therefore, now that you have time, prize it; for this is the day of your visitation, and salvation offered to you. Every one of you has a light from Christ; which lets you see you should not lie, nor do wrong to any, nor swear, nor curse, nor take God’s name in vain, nor steal. It is the light that shows you these evil deeds: which if you love, and come unto it, and follow it, it will lead you to Christ, who is the way to the Father, from whom it comes; where no unrighteousness enters, nor ungodliness. If you hate this light, it will be your condemnation; but if you love it, and come to it, you will come to Christ; and it will bring you off from all the world’s teachers and ways, to learn of Christ, and will preserve you from all the evils of the world, and all the deceivers in it.
I am moved to warn you to take heed of giving way to your own wills. Love the cross; do not satisfy your own minds in the flesh; but prize your time while you have it, and conduct your life in obedience to what you already know, in obedience to God; you will not be condemned for what you don’t know, but only condemned for that you know and choose not to obey. Consider before it is too late, evaluate yourselves, see where you are, and whom you serve. For if you blaspheme God, and take his name in vain, if you swear and lie, if you give way to envy, hatred, covetousness, and greediness, pleasures and indulgence, or any other vices, be assured that you serve the devil; but if you fear the Lord and serve him, you will loathe all these things. He who loves God, will not blaspheme his name; but where there is opposing of God, and serving the devil, that profession is sad and miserable. Oh! Prize your time, and do not love that which God forbids; lying, wrath, malice, envy, hatred, greediness, covetousness, oppression, gluttony, drunkenness, whoredom, and all unrighteousness, God forbids. So consider, evil companions corrupts good manners. Be not deceived, God will not be mocked with vain words; the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness. Therefore obey that which convinces you of all evil, and tells you that you should do no evil: it will lead to repentance, and keep you in the fear of the Lord. Oh! Look at the mercies of God, prize them, and do not turn them into unrestrained behaviors. Oh! Eye the Lord and not earthly things!
Compared to seeking God, preparing for your next life after earth that affects you forever, and learning how to conduct yourself in this life with integrity and honor, pursuits of pleasure pale in significance. And yet, that is what seeking God will do for you; he will teach you how to live righteously, soberly, godly in this life as well as prepare you for maximum happiness in the next life that never ends. Choose well how you spend your time, for our time on earth is finite, and our life’s sole purpose is to have the opportunity to find God, thereby prepare us for maximum happiness in the next. (And to find God, is to have him control your words and deeds; to make God your ruling King and Lord, whom you serve and obey, instead of serving and obeying your pride, interests, passions, and lusts.)
It is hard for you to believe, but the only reason you are here is to find God by learning the lessons of life: in particular, what is the depths of difference between love vs. lust, sin vs. righteousness, turmoil vs. peace, humility vs. pride, good vs. evil, light vs. darkness, bitter vs. sweet. We must pass from this earth wise, else we must learn the hard way, in the next life. Anything you do, which distracts you from this goal, is to be eternally regretted, (I’m not talking of eternal torture, but of a great regret that you didn’t use your time to eternal profit). It is not that all pleasures are evil within themselves, it is the distraction they represent; i.e. any reasonably intelligent person knows playing cards is not inherently evil, but the time spent could be more profitable to us. We somehow escape the certainty of our death to come, and let our time slip through our spread fingers like sand that we have scooped up. We have only so much time to spend; spend it like your most precious possession, wisely for the greatest return possible. Pass-times are the enemy of our souls. We never know when our life here will close, but we know it will close. So as George Fox says: “prize your time and the love of God above all;” sound advice. Seek your creator, seek what he wants of you, seek what he wants you to avoid, seek why he made you, seek to please he who made you, seek his righteousness — it is not easy, but it is everything — there is nothing else — all else is an illusion. Remember, he is not asking you to give up all your pleasures and pursuits; only enough to give him one hour of seeking per day to start — he will then draw you further.
These six things the Lord hates; yes, seven are an abomination to Him: 1 ) A proud look, 2) a lying tongue, 3) hands that shed innocent blood, 4) a heart that imagines immoral plans, 5) feet that are swift to run to evil, 6) a false witness who speaks lies, and 7) he who sows discord among his brothers. Pro 6:16-19
The three enemies to God are: lust of the flesh, lust of the eye, and the pride of life. We have to crucify these with the supernatural help of the Light’s changing grace. The lust of the flesh includes lust for bodies, food, drink, drugs, money, etc. Lust of the eye is to want to own something because it is beautiful. Pride of life is to be proud of your beauty, strength, intelligence, wealth, possessions, lack of possessions, (you can be prideful for being poor), your social causes served, being a healthy eater, driving a small car or large car, etc; pride roots in lust’s accumulations. When we desire anything because of its scarcity, we lust to boost our pride. Lust is love of the world, and the love of the world is enmity with God. Lusts and the sinful nature have to be crucified. Once we have crucified the lusts, we will of course continue to eat, drink, own things, etc; but we will use the things of the world as if we did not possess them, that is, with little interest in them except as a necessity of life, which is then to be lived in everlasting joy to the glory of God with thanksgiving, instead of our selfish interests.
Strip yourselves of your former nature that controlled your conduct, which corrupts itself through lusts and desires that spring from delusion. Eph 4:24. Lust is a delusion, originally fostered by the devil. You lust for something because you think it is good, (like Eve was fooled by the devil that the fruit from the tree of knowledge would make her wise, and was good to the eye), and will make you happy. We are sold by word of mouth and advertising that if we had a new house, a new car, a new dress, a new cell phone, a vacation in Hawaii, a drink, a drug, a body, a special food, a special drink — if only we had this or that we would be happy; but then we get it, and immediately focus our attention on getting something else for satisfaction. The continual barrage of deluding temptations are fostered by the Spirit of Satan; by their lying promise, they create lust for something, which is delusion. There is no satisfaction in this life, until you join with the life of God; he is lasting satisfaction, eternal peace and joy. The joys of the earth are transitory, but the joy in the kingdom is eternal. The pleasures of the earth are not filling, and only create the hunger for more. Some people never stop to realize that however much they get, they are happy to be still looking for something more, expecting the world to provide it; to those the Lord said: woe to you who are full! For you shall hunger. Luke 6:25; if you are content with ever seeking the things and pleasures of the world, you will be very discontent in the next life
love your enemies;
when someone hits you on one side of your face,
turn your other cheek and offer it to them;
love your neighbor as yourself;
love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength;
be perfect as your Father in Heaven is perfect.
Repent: think differently; change your mind, regretting your sins and changing your conduct. Mat 3:2
Give to the poor; share from your excess with those who are without the necessities of life.
Be honest in all your dealings, never exaggerating or overreaching anyone.
Don’t oppress people or frighten anyone, don’t lie, don’t want more, don’t complain, be content with your wages. Luke 3:10-14
lust, rage, pride, envy, lying, jealousy, addictions, etc.
Each of us has a different set of vices and habits. We’re like different onions. He has to take off one layer at a time. My first layer is different than your first layer. In the end, we will be very similar, but our order and process to get there will be different. Something for me that is the hardest to give up, may be the easiest for you to give up. We’re all different. He has to lead us differently out of the wilderness. We get different commands that are tailored to our condition; he meets us in sinful Egypt, and leads us out individually through the wilderness to the promised land. In the meantime, do your best to “do to others what you would have them do to you,” (not what they have done to you, or what you think they deserve that you do to them). He will melt away your desires for the pleasures of the world, and then they are easy to give up. This is done by abiding, remaining with Him in silence while you listen for his teachings by his Light and Words to you, and by obeying his commands.
Any pornography in your life must be given up; any and all, whatever the source: movies, TV, surfing the web, magazines, etc. All avenues and acts of sexual immorality have to be stopped to progress spiritually. He said to me, “he who practices adultery, (being unfaithful to a committed partner), cannot be my disciple; but I do not judge someone coming out of such a relationship, unless they fail to repent “ Obviously you can’t stop thought, but you must do all you can to stop all actions of sexual immorality. Thoughts and lust are something that Christ will eventually remove; (I write this, having had lust removed, after a long and painful struggle, finishing with the Lord’s power removing my desires). Paul said: “Flee sexual immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside his body, but he who commits sexual immorality, sins against his own body.”
“abstain from sexual immorality.” So, you could say that this is the one rule that is necessary to start and succeed.
He will then add other commands that are tailored to you. However, whatever you know to be wrong, if you can avoid it, avoid it. The vast majority of people who have arrived at this site are not just starting on their spiritual journey; they are hungry for more and looking for the way to satisfy that hunger. Whatever you have already given up, maintain your abstinence; don’t return to them, thinking you should only give up what Christ commands.
As with most rules from God, they are given to us in love to follow for our own benefit. And should we follow them, we are much happier and more successful in life. Many of us have to learn the truth of this statement the hard way, by suffering the consequences in our natural life of breaking the rules, without even considering the spiritual consequences.
