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Page 4 of 8
This is the one thing.
Over the years I have developed some crutches and coping systems. These are the places where I have no Faith, where I do not trust God, or intent to. I had my reasons, they were good ones, some of them were the places I held on to selected "offences" that I have certainly "forgiven" yet still left the folders open on some of those cases. These could then be revisited at anytime and reviewed - reserving the right for my own judgments to actually close the offense once and for all. They were the places where I stood with the Father of Lies and said, "Yea has God said...", "but I say..." They were the places where the Abomination of Desolations stood on the throne and challenged YAHWEH, in my heart, in His temple.
There was poison, death, mixture, compromise, pride, weariness and every evil work in my Temple during the past seasons while the LORD faithfully delivered our house from the bondage of debt. Jesus taught and ministered healings in the outer courts of the Temple in Jerusalem where the High priest position was determined by corrupted politics, there was no real presence of the LORD in the Holy of holies, and the ministry of the Temple was corrupted by many empty traditions and the priests were divided and in constant argument about their personal ambitions and authority. Much as it is today.
This is a common disorder. Nevertheless The LORD taught the Truth and many were healed. Again, much as it is today.
Jesus even said to his disciples "Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me..,? John 14:9 -  NKJV
The Disciples had already witnessed many miracles and they were thoroughly convinced that Jesus was the promised Messiah from God, the Father, yet they still did not perceive that Jesus and the Father were one. They did not get the fullness of the LORD in their life. They were still thinking out of their own understanding and not out of the revelation of Christ. A carnally minded believer is no believer at all. If you are carnally minded you do not know Him either.
It was much like Israel, his covenant people who after suffering over three hundred years in the bondage of slavery to Egypt were delivered in one night by the blood of the Lamb.
A short time after that great deliverance YAHWEH met with Israel at Sinai and asked them - Will you come into covenant with me now?
Now that you are free, and you have the choice, Who will You serve now?
The deal that God proposed required the people to agree to the terms of His covenant BEFORE they even heard the specific terms.
Without Faith, it is impossible to please God.
All of the "LAW", the Torah, and the "Ten Commandments" came AFTER they agreed to come into Covenant with YAHWEH, the God who had ALREADY delivered them and defeated the whole army of Pharaoh, their former master. They came out of Egypt, they were delivered (actually "baptized") through the Red Sea, they experienced bitterness at Marah, and they even experienced a degree of victory before their enemies with the Amalekites.
It was only after all these things that the LORD brought them to Sinai to essentially ask the question He recently asked me.
Now that you are free, and you have the choice, who will you serve?
This is not the first thing God asks us. First you will see some deliverance, some miracles, and some hard times and even some great victories, But don't think this is strange. He says, "Taste and see, that the Lord is good." He invades our life with some proof and some substance of Himself, and then He asks, according to the Faith given us, "Will you take Me now, or do you insist on your own way?"
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