"All things were made by him."
[John 1:2-4]

Natural Things made after the Invisible Things of God

I was reminded, again, this week of the seeming fusion of ignorance and devilish spirituality. The scripture asks the question, "How long will the simple love simplicity ...and fools hate knowledge?" [Prov.1:22] This question, as any profound question does, gives insight as it poses a serious inquiry. Men of simplicity always want things to be simple and easy, as if simplicity and ease are the way of the world or the way of God. But anything worth having is more complex than it usually seems.

It is the simple mind that attempts to place God into a one-dimensional frame of reference because it cannot go beyond that. Sadly, too many of these simplistic thinkers wish to limit God and others by their limitations, and somehow they become teachers of God's people, which is the worst possible scenero. Because they are simple minded, they think that there is contradiction when they read two scriptures that ostensibly say different things: "Whosoever will let him come." and "No man comes to me except he be drawn." He cannot see the multi-dimensional nature of God and God's Word because he loves simplicity and will not struggle to his limits and beyond to see the ways or Word of God. And since he will not take truth by force, one of the elements of the Kingdom of God, he will never understand the seeming contradictory words found in scripture or God.

These may be those steeped in the Trinity paradigm and come to God's Word placing that paradigm on it. For it is the only way they can make sense of God's complexities, with some pre-wraped and tortured knowledge that God never intended His Word to be mean. These may be those who cannot understand the Sovereignty of God, which I will admit is one of the most complex aspects of the knowledge of God, and, therefore, cannot continence the notion that there cannot be evil in a city and God has not done it; [Amos 3:6] these may be those who can only understand God in terms of God is love,[1John 4:8] hence, they put aside the truth that human beings are creatures God made for His pleasure and to be at his ready to do with as it pleases him. [Rev. 4:11] Therefore, they cannot distinguish when God's Word speaks in Sovereignty and when it speaks outside that Sovereignty.

That is a problem many saints will not be able to resolve, but the problem is not so much that saints may not be able to grasp those complexities, the problem is that those who cannot understand them are usually the leaders of God's people. And since they cannot understand, they too often pretend and distort God's Word. Jesus chided Nicodemus for his insufficient knowledge of heavenly matters and yet claimed to be a leader of the Jews: "Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?" [John 3:10] Is he not saying the same to us leaders of His people when we are so deficient in His Word that we cannot feed His sheep and His lambs, especially since Paul has admonished us to study to show ourselves approved of God...? [2 Tim. 2:15]

Just as there is age-appropriate knowledge for children and adults, there is position-appropriate knowledge for those in positions. Just as you would never allow an Podiatrist to build a bridge over which you must walk or drive, you should never allow an uninformed and incompetent minister to guide you in matters of the soul and eternal salvation--the most important matters in your life and your death! Yet that is the overwhelming situation in too many Jesus Name and Holiness Churches.

We have allowed any near-do-well, loud talker, and vain deceiver to come into us and to arise from among us, [Acts 20:29-30] claiming the leading of God and taking the reigns of the church organization and even many lives. And these men and women have brought all types of damnable behavior, teachings, and putrefying sores into God's House, even as the Roman Emperor Constantine did. [Isa. 1:6-7; 1Tim. 4:1-2] They have brought in heretical doctrines, damnable heresies, and behaviors that have poisoned and killed many souls seeking the truth, and those destroyed souls will be charged to them. [Ezek. 3:18-19]

A sister asked me why some people seem to hate it when another is trying desperately to free herself from ignorance's grip through an education. Why is it they ostracize and make it as hard as possible for her, instead of helping? This is a road I have painfully traveled.

Jesus said that a prophet is not without honor, except in his own country and among his own people. [Mark 6:4] There is honor this poor sister has (God said seek wisdom, it is the principle thing, and in all your getting, get an understanding [Prov. 4:7]--that honor is from God) but not among those nearest to her. Loved ones are the ones you want to help and to be with you, to encourage and celebrate you: to love you. And those are the ones who become your enemies. It was Jesus who said, "A man's foe will be those of his own house." [Mat.10:34-36] It was this scripture I encountered when I turned to God away from the world. I could not then understand the nexus between the visible and the invisible things of God; between the void that lay between struggle and accomplishment; between the spiritual and the natural patterns fixed in all things. I was just trying to understand the way of salvation.

But thank God I learned through pain and prayer that the invisible things of God can be SEEN! Hallelujah! They can be seen! They can be seen by understanding the things that God has made visible. [Rom. 1:20] I understand why God told Moses to do all things according to the pattern He had shown him. [Heb. 5:8] I understand what David meant when he wrote that the heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament shows His handy work, day unto day utters speech and night unto night shows knowledge; there is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard and there is no speech nor language where God's voice is not heard; [Psa. 19:1-4] I understand what Paul saw and knew when on Mars Hill and why he placed Greek writing into holy writ. [Acts 17:28-29] I understand because I, in spite of the forces of spiritual gravity and paralysis in and among saints that attempted to retard my growth many years ago and everyone like me (as these same forces are attempting to retard this young sister's intellectual growth) I pressed into the Kingdom of God as a violent, desperate man who was simply out of the control of the handlers and purveyors of ignorance. I, by the grace of the Living God, obtained the things of God, and an understanding of the Word of God, and thereby removed the shackles of ignorance from my eyes by understanding the visible things God has made!

Had I listened to the purveyors of ignorance as they attempted to retard me, even as they were retarded, I could not now feed God's hungry people with the truth many of you are not getting from any other source; I could and would not have been called of our great God unto this glorious ministry. Think about the souls that may have gone hungry for the truth and that would have been captured to foolishness, Satan's deceit, and cunning craftiness of deceitful men! To whom would those lost souls have been attributed to?

I have seen (Thank God!) this great fog of ignorance that hovers over many so-called ministers and leaders of God's people as they attempt to and do hold God's people back and captured from the higher things of God and from intellectual development because of their own insecurities and for their own greed and because of their own ignorance. I see the great linkage between spiritual ignorance and intellectual ignorance. They are the same. The Bible is plain: Seek wisdom and in all your getting, get an understanding. That understanding is the only way to break the Cultural of Ignorance that bedevils too many of God's people.

The words of Jesus, when he said that the Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence and the violent take it by force, mean that if one is going to acquire the things of God, that person must take those things of God by a spiritual force that tears him away from the world, the flesh, and the devil and brings him into a realm of godly spirituality. That person must go beyond himself to a place few go, and when he does he will then come boldly to the throne of grace. [Heb. 4:16]

Jesus' statement in Matthew 11:12 cannot mean that heaven is under assault. It is not! The Kingdom of Heaven is used interchangeably by Jesus with the Kingdom of God, [Mat. 3: 2; 5:3; 6:33;12;28; Mark 1:15; Rom. 14:17] which Paul defines in Romans 14:17 as righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit of God. Jesus did not, therefore, speak of a spiritual kingdom under spiritual attack, for he said, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven. [Lk. 10:18] Instead, he spoke of acquiring God's spiritual realities [Mat. 6:33] through a radical change that takes you out of the realm of the normal into the realm of the super-normal of God. [Rom. 12:2]

When Jesus spoke these words, Satan had already fallen from heaven. Jesus' language was language of the New Testament, (Covenant) even as were His words to Nicodemus: you must be born again. Born again was a relatively well-known Jewish term that was ascribed to a person when any significant change in his/her life occurred, but when Jesus used it, He meant something different and defined his term, being born again. He defined being born again as a significant change in a person's life away from the world (that and only that is repentance) and being born again of water and spirit. [Notice in Luke 18:22 the radical nature of what Jesus said to the young man--sell ALL you have and distribute to the poor and you will have treasures in heaven.]

On the Day of Pentecost, the apostles supported this definition, when Peter said that those seeking forgiveness of sins must be baptized in Jesus name--that is baptized in water; and God would fill with the Holy Spirit. This command of Peter and all the apostles thereafter fulfilled Jesus' definition given to Nicodemus that a person must be born again of water and spirit. [John 3 and Acts 2:38-48]

Sometimes Jesus' words are more complex than one thinks by the simple reading of them. As an example, see our sermon, Sir, We Would See Jesus. The Greeks requested to see Jesus, but they were never responded to in scripture for a number of reasons. Jesus, however, understood their request was really God speaking to him, saying that Calvary was close upon him. But the simple, as they are called in scripture, would never see this in scripture because they love simplicity and hate knowledge. They only see what is before them. To see the things of God requires diligent search and prayer as one studies; Solomon said that much study is a weariness to the flesh, and one living in the flesh will never weary his flesh for any prolonged time. Understanding God's Word also requires living God's Word. Daniel wanted to know God's Word, and he went on a 21-day prayer sacrifice until he got an answer and understanding from God. He had already studied and could not understand; therefore, he sought God for answers. To most ministers today, this is weariness to the flesh they will not do.

There is another godly way of getting an understanding, other than directly from God in the way Daniel got it. That way is through a true man of God who has his understanding open and the spirit of the Living God upon him. That one can teach the Word of God and open a person's understanding. [Acts 8:31] But because the pride of heart of many ministers who desperately need teaching, they will not take that teaching. To them it shows their insufficiency, and how tragic this is that they continue to lead God's people into a ditch. [Jer. 49:16; Obad. 1:3;Mat.15:14]

Most ministers, and many college students, do not understand nor appreciate the work of study, the desperate extreme of true intellectual endeavor. Paul indicates that study is work in 2 Timothy 2:15, if you read that scripture carefully. Solomon also says that much learning is a weariness to the flesh. [Eccl. 12:12]

One who would be an intellectual--one capable of understanding complexities, adding to an academic field of knowledge, and enhancing the light and understanding of others--must move his mind to altered states to comprehend with men/women of higher thought. That is not an easy process; it requires breaking through a certain ignorance barrier that grips all of us until we have refused to be intellectually blind. The higher degrees in academia are so relatively rare because to attain them takes persons of that rare stuff who become desperate enough to refuse ignorance's dominion over them. Every true intellectual with a God consciousness understands Jesus' words that the Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence and the violent take it by force. There is a spiritual correlation of this notion with becoming an intellectual.

The language of academics is comparable to Jesus' words of being violent. When inquiring of a person's academic pedigree, the language is, From where did you take your Masters, Doctorate? Notice the word take instead of receive is used. That is because anyone who honestly contends for a higher degree at a significant university will recognize that academia does not give those degrees away, (not withstanding the fake, non-accredited and valueless degrees many are fond of purchasing and appending to their names in mockery of intellectual truth) they must be earned, and to earn them is more than a notion. It takes serious and prolonged years of study to acquire them. Furthermore, the club of those possessing them and also holding the keys to the door of entry is hesitant to allow new entry. The doors must be beat down or scaled over with all the intellectual might that you can muster. Those keepers do not, seemingly, want anyone else in--you must prove yourself; you must force entry. And that force entry requires utter desperation and a force that can only be found in you when you are at your limits. That is why so many who start on the higher degree programs fall by the wayside and never complete the journey--see how comparable that is to this Way of Holiness. Let no one bewitch you, it takes great endeavor to attain the highest degrees academia offers! And for one who does, he/she should be given respect for his achievement.

When you realize the language and desperate struggle to achieve in academia, you can see the nexus between it and getting the spiritual things of God? They are the same struggle pattern. This is so because God has made things that are visible and things that are invisible by the same pattern. And the invisible (things that cannot be seen) things of God are clearly seen by understanding the things that are made [visible]. God has made the one and the other by the same pattern, therefore, the more one learns of the visible the more one can see the things of God that are invisible. This knowledge is hidden to the simple.

Is this pattern not seen in the Centurion Soldier and the woman of Canaan? The Centurion came to Jesus asking that his servant be healed, and Jesus told him that he would go and heal him, but the soldier said to Jesus, I am a man under [having] authority; I say to one go and to another come, and it is done. All you need do is speak the word and my servant will be healed. Jesus marveled at his clear-headedness and perception of spiritual realities and said he had not seen so great a faith in Israel. But what was this faith, and how was it acquired?

The Centurion simply looked at his position in life and recognized that as a captain of a 100 men whom he commanded, he needed only speak and his command was executed; he had such authority and power to get his will carried out with only a word and that without question. He recognized that Jesus was a captain of higher powers, and as the Centurion gave orders and had them carried out without fail, Jesus need only do the same with the forces he possessed. This Centurion recognized the pattern of spiritual things is the same pattern of physical things. One pattern; learn and understand the natural things of God and see the invisible things of God, for all things were made by Him, and His fingerprints are all over His creation. [Psa. 19:1-3; Mat. 8:10; Rom. 1:20]

Likewise, the Canaan woman came to Jesus and asked for healing for her daughter. Jesus demeaned her, calling her a dog of sorts, as he said, It is not mete to give the children's bread to dogs. But this woman saw that natural, visible analogy Jesus used and realized that dogs in the natural sit under the tables and eat the crumbs of the children. She responded to Jesus with that observation on the natural, and in so doing she was asking Jesus for the crumbs that fell from the Jewish table as he went. Jesus saw this woman's faith and healed her daughter.

Where did this woman get this faith? She saw the visible things of God had an exception in them, and since God has made all things according to a pattern she saw the exception and applied for it. [Mat. 15:27] Jesus said in another gospel of this event, because of that saying, your daughter is healed, and in another he said, great is thy faith.

The principle of both cases is this: the visible realities of God helps us understand the spiritual realities of God; hence, the more you know of the visible things of God, the more you can know of the invisible things of God--He has made all things and He has made them according to a pattern that is found in the visible.

But there is a pattern in nature that speaks to the attempts of others to hold back anyone going ahead. It is one of those patterns of nature that is visible in its effect and not visible in its force. Downward gravity and inertia are forms of gravity that speak to the spiritual resistance we face. Downward gravity is a natural force of gravity that holds a person down on the earth, lest we fly off into space. It is the reason we stand on the ground; without gravity pulling us down, we would float upward because there is s force of gravity that pulls upward as well. The only way we can overcome gravity is to exert more force than gravity is exerting on us, and as we do, gravity must loose its hold on us. Likewise, inertia is a force of gravity that keeps an object still. As an object attempts to go forward, inertia holds it still until or unless we exert a greater force than inertia exerts on that object.

These are natural laws of physics, but they are paralleled in human and spiritual behavior. The forces of nature, social intercourse, and spiritual warfare fight against progress and enlightenment. These are demonic forces of ignorance that attempt to stop your progress in getting into and plundering the things of the Kingdom of God--peace, righteous, joy, etc. We must behave as Jesus said, take them by force.

The parallel between the physical and the natural patterns of things is the nexus that you must see. All things--ALL THINGS--were made by God, and without Him was not anything made that was made; all things were made, except God; He always did and always will exist. [John 1]

There is always an attempt to keep you down and still, to stop your progress, but will you allow it? The only way to stop those efforts is by becoming a desperate and violently man who tears himself away from the grip of all forces of ignorance and demonic spirituality. A violent man is one who has cast off all bounds of reasonable civility and has gone beyond the limits acceptable social accord. And that behavior is an altered state of consciousness, an altered world view, and an altered state of behavior/being. This is what Jesus is demanding spiritually of those who would follow him and get the things of God; that is what he meant by the violent take it by force.

Saints must go beyond their limits, for when they do, they get to where God intends them to be. And when they don't, they are not continuing in his Word to be disciples indeed who will know the truth that makes them free. [John 8:31] Think about it! []

Home

The Word of Truth Ministries
Copyright © 2003