NO NEED FOR TEACHER?

"The anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you."
1 JOHN 2:27

It was God who gave apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers to His Ekklesia, to encourage, edify, and establish all of us deeper into Christ. Can the Holy Spirit in John contradict the Holy Spirit in Paul? By no means.

What then? John was the sole survivor of the first twelve apostles, and now he is very old. Naturally he is concerned with the welfare of the Ekklesia after his death. So God comforts John, and then John comforts us, with this truth: even if we do not have access to the apostle, or prophet, or evangelist, or pastor and teacher, we are still instructed inwardly. The Ekklesia that Jesus is building is not dependent upon the great men or women of God. We are grateful to the ministry gifts when we have them, but we are not dependent upon them for our Life. The Life is greater than the ministers through which it may be ministered.

WHOM WILL YOU SERVE?

"No one can serve two masters, for either
he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other." MATTHEW 6:24

The context of this passage is talking about mammon (the love of, and the endless pursuit of, wealth). But the principle applies to everything else. There can only be one master in your life. You can only serve one thing at a time. You are not free to do as you please. Even if you say you serve no one, you are still serving Self. So which will it be? Jesus says if you love Him then you will hate everything else. What does that mean?

It means that you will allow nothing and no one to take the place of the One you love - not for a day, not for an hour, not for a minute. If our love for the Lord is strong then we will learn to hate everything which competes against Him. We will despise anything that seeks to hinder our relationship with Christ.

THE GLORY IS YOURS

"Yours is the Kingdom, and the Power,
and the Glory forever. Amen."
MATTHEW 6:13

There is a Remnant of called-out ones who have seen the Glory of the Son and WILL seek the interests of God's Only Begotten One. In a time when men solicit the glory and honor and power from one another, there is a Holy Nation of priests and kings who will give the Son the glory He deserves, declaring, "YOURS IS THE GLORY, we will render to You, and to You alone, the glory due Your Name."

TESTIMONY FOLLOWS REVELATION

"'Who do you say that I am?' Simon Peter answered and said, 'You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.'"
MATTHEW 16:15,16

Jesus did not teach Peter what to say, He merely revealed Himself to Peter. He did not sit down with His disciples and say, "I am the Christ, the Son of the Living God. Now repeat that after Me several times, and I will test you on this in the morning." He did not teach them a catechism or a rosary or a mantra or a confession, He merely revealed Himself to them as He in fact is. They made the confession in due course, having revelation.

The Testimony of Jesus always springs forth from the Revelation of Christ. If we do not have the Revelation then we cannot have the Testimony. That is to say, we cannot bear witness of what we have seen and heard if we have not, in fact, seen or heard anything. We try to get people to confess in order that they may ATTAIN to something, but true confession comes forth naturally after they have OBTAINED it.

NOT YET

"We do not yet see all things put under Him; but we see Jesus."
HEBREWS 2:8,9

Today, Scripture acknowledges, we do not YET see all things submitted to Him. I must say I find that word "YET" terribly exciting! That word "YET" means that something is in store for everything that remains unsubmitted to the Lord Jesus Christ. The presence of the word "YET" means its manifestation is inevitable.

We are not pretending to see something that does not really exist - yes, we agree that we do not YET see all things submitted to Him, things are bad, and will probably get worse; BUT we do see JESUS, and for the Christian who seeks first the Kingdom of God, that revelation is sufficient. You may see every fact to the contrary and argue against Him, but we see Who He is by revelation, and by revelation we know that what we see happening in the unsubmitted earth today will be set in order when Christ and His Kingdom are manifest in all of creation.

A CHRIST CENTERED UNIVERSE

"'You have put all things in subjection under His feet.' For in that He put all in subjection under Him, He left nothing
that is not put under Him."
HEBREWS 2:8

This possession and subjection of all things to Christ is not a passive, disinterested, distant, absentee ownership, like a clock that was once wound and now ticks all by itself long after the watchmaker has left it. Make no mistake: at the core of this spiritual and physical universe is a living, powerful, proactive Personality at work to bring fallen creation back to its original state, back into line with God's Purpose, Heart, Mind, Desire, and Plan, which is CHRIST FILLING ALL THINGS, CHRIST UPHOLDING ALL THINGS, CHRIST AT THE CENTER OF ALL THINGS!

Come quickly Lord Jesus! May Your Kingdom be manifest!

STRENGTH THROUGH WEAKNESS

""In my prosperity I said, 'I shall never be moved.'" PSALM 30:6

It should be obvious that God will not give us grace while we are still proud. Why? Because He will allow no flesh to glory in His presence. When we cease doing what we cannot do then He begins to do what we cannot. The problem is that we still think we can do so many things. We must learn sooner, rather than later, that "apart from Me you can do nothing" (John 15:5). Nothing!

But it is human nature to try and do it ourselves. This human nature is the flesh. It prevents us from entering into Grace. God cannot save someone who is still trying to save themselves. Similarly, God cannot do what we are still trying to do. He will wait - weeks, months, or years - until we have exhausted our strength. When our strength is completely gone and we finally go to Him in weakness, He becomes our Strength and we find Grace is there to do the impossible. Then we know it was not us, but the Lord. All praise goes to Him, and we retain nothing for ourselves.