Wisdom: Holiness, Reality, and the Battle for the Mind

How can we know anything about anything

To try to explain truth to him who loves it not is but to give him more plentiful material for misinterpretation. George Macdonald

Do we have to make a choice between science and the Bible?

NO!

That is NOT where the problem is, but that is what everyone seems to want to talk about.

Take science as an example. How can we know anything about the created material world around us?

How can we know anything from what we can see using natural sciences?

We all see the same things in the material world, but we don't come to the same answers.

Why is that?

How can we know anything about the Bible and what it teaches? Every person believes different things about the Bible and how it should be read.

Why is that?

Same scientific facts. Different answers.

Same Bible. Different answers.

Why is that?

The true question is this: How do we come to our answers that we get from what we can see through science or what we can read in the Bible?

How do we think about what we see using science or what we read in the Bible?

How do we analyze what we have seen and read?

How do we interpret what we have seen and read?

We use logic, but logic always has a foundation. Jesus talked about building on the Rock. That Rock is Jesus Christ. He is the true foundation. There are also the false foundations of the ungodly.

An example might help.

Question: Why do you believe in evolution?

Answer: Because my science teacher told me that evolution is scientific fact.

Question: Why do you believe your science teacher?

Answer: because he agrees with the textbook he assigned us to read.

Now, we have asked, "Why?" twice.

If we continued to ask, "Why?" we would come down to the foundation of this person's thoughts.

When we get down to the foundations, there are no more questions that can be answered. So where to the foundations come from?

There are three possibilities.

things that we make up, pulled from the air
demonic lies
divine revelation

Question: Why do you believe in creation?

Answer: Because God revealed this to me. He spoke to me through the Bible and gave me His faith so that I could believe Him.

See how quickly we got to the foundation. This is a belief that has a foundation that is solid and that cannot be moved.

In reality, the things that we make up, that are pulled from the air, are actually from demons and all the lies of demons spring from the prince of demons, Satan. So these are one and the same.

Divine revelation comes from the Almighty, Creator, God, Jesus Christ. So there are only two choices, but how do we know there are only two choices? Because God has revealed this truth to us.

The question then is how do we tell the difference between the revelation that comes from God and the lies of Satan?

The answer is that everyone who sincerely wants to do the will of God will know.

Jesus said, "If you really want to obey God, you will know if what I teach comes from God or from me"

The rejection of the revelation that comes from God is not an intellectual problem. It is a moral problem.

Jesus said, "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you: For everyone who asks receives; and he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks it shall be opened." *

Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to those who ask him? Matthew 7:7-11 *

You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink. You can set the truth before someone, but you can't make anyone believe those things that they don't want to submit to. They have to want to obey God.

How frequently it is brought to our attention that nothing good can be done if the will is wrong! Reason alone fails to justify itself. Richard M. Weaver

Jesus said, "You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free" (John 8:32)

"If we are not prepared to buy the truth at the cost of our own humbling we shall not receive it"

Lies appear to have no price upon them. They seem cheap and they abound everywhere. But for the truth there is always an obvious price to pay.

"[God] has set a day when He will judge all the world's people with fairness. And He has chosen the man Jesus to do the judging for Him. God has given proof of this to all of us by raising Jesus from death" (Acts 17:31).

"There is a judge for the one who rejects Me [Jesus] and does not accept My words; that very word which I spoke will condemn him at the last day" (John 12:48)

That also stands for every person who speaks the utterances of Jesus. When we hear them, we hear Jesus Christ, and we either accept or reject. Every person who follows Jesus Christ is commanded to only speak His utterances and not their own.

"When we love others, we know that we belong to the truth, and we feel at ease in the presence of God" (1 John 3:19)

Ravi Zacharias did two open forums in a university. On the second night, one man told him that he had brought two Atheists in the night before who said that the arguments presented were so strong that they could not contend with them, but they were going to remain Atheists because that is what they prefer to be true.

In another case of just listening to an unbeliever and drawing out his reasoning, the unbeliever finally came to his foundations.

They turned out to be assumptions that were pulled from the air. When asked why he believed his basic assumption, the unbeliever looked startled and blurted out, "I guess I'm making the whole thing up." It was quite a revelation to him since he hadn't even known that he had any assumptions. However, he decided to remain an Atheist because he didn't want God to rule over him.

"It is because of him [the Father] that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God--that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption." 1 Corinthians 1:30 NIV

Holiness is progressive. It is a change in what we are. It is a basic change in our very nature. You were designed for righteousness, holiness, and total redemption. There is an upward spiral of righteousness, holiness, and redemption that is continuously moving you from glory to ever greater glory in Christ, if you will receive it. As God's grace does God's righteousness through you, that righteousness softens the ground and plants good seeds in your heart that grow. And, little by little, you are changed, transformed, transfigured. This cycle continues. With each cycle, it is easier to yield to the Holy Spirit, and the fruit of the Spirit is more abundant. On your own, this could never happen. As a member of the Body, with every part of the Body working in unity to bring you to maturity, this is your destiny.

When we stop contending with Him, then the Almighty Creator God moves in righteousness in us. The Almighty Creator of all things thinks His thoughts, says His words, and does His works through us as we yield the members of our bodies to Him. We begin to see reality as He draws back the veil of our sinful flesh so we can see. He gives us eyes to see. We see Him in ourselves and also in our brothers and sisters in Christ. Then, His Spirit changes what we are. We become like Him. (1 John 3:2, 2 Corinthians 3:18)

The Anointing, the Holy Spirit, cleanses us as it flows though us as long as we submit to the Anointing. This changes what we are. This change is the anointing of being or becoming, and it is sanctification and holiness. We are changed and we have stability, which is faithfulness.Christ is being fully formed in you.

The extent to which Christ is formed in you is the extent of holiness or sanctification. Holiness is closely tied to being assembled into the place in the Body of Christ to which God has called you.

Seeds planted and preparation of the ground to receive the good seed have their effect. You reap what you sow. Some have said that this refers to retribution. Well, there are consequences to sowing bad seed, but this Scriptural Truth is actually referring to a law of of sowing and reaping that is God's way to bring you into the Kingdom. Those who do not use this way cannot possibly enter the Kingdom of the Heavens.

When you are born again, you become a ministry, the Christ in you. You still have the flesh, but that is not the real you. You identify with the Spiritual Man, Christ in You. You do not identify with the sin and the sin nature--it is no longer the real you.

Both holiness and unholiness are progressive and habit-forming. Whatever you take takes you. In the past, partaking of the world has molded our tastes and desires. As we begin to be sanctified, we love the Bible and begin to hate the worldly publications that worship ungodly personalities and lift up sensuality, fashion, possessions, and worldly pressures to conform to the mold of the world. We begin to love reality and real Spirit-led ministry in favor of fiction, entertainments, violence, and lasciviousness.We love modest clothes, and hate fashions that are not modest. Foul language becomes foul to us—we hate to even hear it let alone utter it. We repent of everything that has ever smacked of a double-life or hypocrisy.

There is order in holiness. There is stability. There is faithfulness. Holiness, Sanctification, Faithfulness, Maturity, and Stability are all words that are used for the same spiritual concept.

Holiness involves the development of your spiritual senses. You have eyes to see--to an extent--the moment you are born again. You have ears to hear, but only to an extent. As you exercise through obedience by grace through faith, your spiritual senses become increasingly strong. You go from light to greater light. You begin to see the reality more clearly that you have no real identity outside of the Body of Christ.

You are in Christ, that is, in the Body of Christ. That which is out of order is not holiness. You begin to be able to discern that the Body of Christ has an order. You can see that a real called and ordained ministry that is ministering out of order or taking authority that was never given is not walking according to holiness, yet you discern Christ in the person and you encourage, comfort, and build them up. You can see the ministries, gifts, offices, and orders of the Body of Christ are clearly given in Scripture. And you can plainly see that they are part of holiness.

Wisdom: Holiness, Reality, and the Battle for the Mind

How can we know anything about anything

God's Way

Holiness, Sanctification, and Stability

Repentance and Repenting

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