The Word of Truth Ministries

 
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As long as I can remember, I have worked and been a worker. No one has ever called me lazy: I worked digging holes in the streets, trimming lawns, shinning shoes, washing dishes, selling newspapers; I drove San Francisco's Cable Cars and taxi cabs; I  mopped floors in hospitals; I  delivered US mail; I worked as an analyst in California's state government, a Criminal Justice planner in Sacramento's regional government and planning agency; I worked as a CEO of various corporations; and I have taught students--high school, elementary, special needs, special education students, adults school, and college students. Most of the time, I worked two and three jobs simultaneously. It is what I did. 

Now that I am winding down my work career, I work less. All during that time of work, however, my God has been good to me; I never asked any saint for assistance; I have loaned and given to others when they were in need. 

Starting earlier than I should have, I have raised and educated seven children to become doctors, lawyers, police officers, Federal Reserve bankers, analysts, Marines and engineers--good moral persons who have added and contributed to the well being of mankind. All with an education as a mandatory prerequisite for life and living; for personal development; for understanding the truths of God's word. They were taught not to think  themselves mature, normal, or having realized their full potential without a college education. And having raised the bar that high, my children achieved and exceeded my expectations. It is what we do; it is the expectation level that was raised in my house.  During all of this work and raising children, we modeled the behavior we expected of them so that they saw a life with purpose and focus. God always supplied my needs and more. The blessing of God started early on, even before I became aware of His blessings. 

Of five other children in my family, I was the youngest, and of the six  total, God called me first. From a loving family, my father always said that he wanted his children to be more than him, bigger, better, smarter, and stronger than him. Being an uneducated man, he knew that education was the key--the more the education, the stronger the man. [Prov.24:3-5] The stronger the children the greater the house. My father did not know much, but he had a vision  he hoped for and prayed that God would impart wisdom in some to achieve his vision. He instilled in me a desire to be more and make him proud. And from absolute ignorance, God moved upon me, the one my family thought was a bit retarded or developmentally slow. God saved me first and really opened my understanding to the truth of his word, unlike many who claim to be saved and have their understanding open. And once he awaken me to the truth of his word, he put a rumbling in me for all other truths. [John 8:32]

From those days of small things, God moved in me to see and realize my intellectual and spiritual potential. He allowed me to see, even as Sophocles* said, "God's crowning gift to mankind is his mind." Here Sophocles is speaking on a non-spiritual  level. 

If a people or a person will rise to his/her full potential, education of the mind is the surest path to that rise. Not only is it the surest path, but without education of the mind there can be no rise; man is a crude and savage beast without developing the beautiful gift God has clothed man with. The sweetest aspect about raising children is to have raised them to maturity and to listen to their minds explore the depths of their being and see what they have learned and how they apply it. 

Education is the acquisition of truth; a truth needed to understand the deeper things of God, which are the things of this life; truth that is essential for freedom of the soul, spirit, and person. For education is merely the distillation of years and centuries of human experience and knowledge; to not acquire that is to bypass human history and wisdom. Yet wisdom comes from God. To raise a child without educating him is to cripple him, enslave him, and bind him for life. To raise a child and not demand that he is educated (demand of yourself , the child, and all others responsible for him) is to hate that child and disobey God's word.

For many years I have sorrowed for the church--indeed, for some 40-years now I have had great sorrow for many in the church of God because of what I have perceived as their lingering in the shadows of a culture of ignorance far too long and flaunting that ignorance as if it were godliness. And they know not that it is death upon their houses! There is a deep-seated culture of ignorance that has gripped God's people (black and white) and that is  often willful ignorance. Let me explain.

Jesus said that men love darkness rather than light; they love it for a number of reasons: their deeds are evil; sin/evil has a certain temporary pleasure; and men are carnal, with carnal natures and appetites that have not been retrained, refined, and reoriented to the things and tastes of God. Many of those who call themselves saved have come to God as they were and assumed that the way they came is the way they should remain. Consequently, they have not taken on the attributes, appetites, and clothing of Christ. Such a behavior is the behavior of an untutored and unsaved person. It is as if a man or a woman marries a partner and fails to comport himself with the new position of a married person. He or she still goes out with other men and women as when he or she was unmarried. Since the position of that person has changed from single to married, the new position requires new behavior to comport with it.   Many ignorantly assume that they can be saved but have not lived saved and have gone back into sin as before.

The Bible is plain: He that is born of God does not commit sin, for his seed remains in him and he cannot sin, for he is born of God. Whosoever commits sin is not born of God but the devil. [1John 2]  God does not give birth to sinners; a sinner's father is Satan. [John 8:44] With the new birth must come new tastes, new behaviors, new thoughts, new hopes and ambitions that are founded in Christ. [Phil. 3:12-14] A person who is born of God is willing to suffer in the flesh, even as Christ suffered, for he is born of God. [2Tim. 2:12; Heb.11:25]

The reverse is also true: one unwilling to suffer in the flesh is not born of God and will sin. Only when you suffer in the flesh can you cease from sin. In this flesh, Paul said, dwells no good thing. We must die to the flesh, and that means suffering in the flesh. The flesh is like a child: It wants what it wants, when it wants it. But a child must be disciplined by the parent into correct behavior lest that child bring the entire house, as well as himself, to an open shame and destruction. We must cease from sin if we are ever going to go to the next level in God, which is perfection! [Mat. 5:48; Heb. 6:1-2] These are not idle commands of Christ. We MUST grow into him. [Eph. 4:11-16] 

Herein is the problem to which we must address ourselves if we are ever going to remove the culture of ignorance that Satan has enclosed the church with and darkened the eyes of many. We must first see as real the idea that we are saved and being made into the image of Christ. If that cannot or will not be seen, you can never go on to perfection; you will linger, as one writer said, in the chambers of the sea, wreathed with seaweed red and brown, until human voices wake us and we drown.** Simply said, we will be as Jonah was, in the belly of a fish (a state of ignorance) and when we wake we will drown because we have waited too long to awake. [Jonah 2] And said even more simply, we will linger in ignorance all our lives until near death we see the light and die. That is tragic, when God has given us a mind that we need only tax the flesh to develop and be free. Many are the claims of freedom among God's people, but of those claims there are few of merit! 

Because of the people of God's staunch grip on a culture of ignorance passed down from parents to children, and the consequences of that generational ignorance, I have been burdened for the people of God.  I have preached and taught when and where I could, trying to break this culture, but I have seen little progress over the last 40-years. Brothers and sisters in Christ, this culture of ignorance is entrenched, stubborn, and tenacious in many Christians, telling them that God loves them and that is enough. But that notion is like the son the father has petitioned to excel in school, in his job, in life and he only stays where he is and declares that his father still loves him. And he does, but he breaks the heart of his father. Have you ever seen a father with great hopes for his child but having his heart broken? That is a sorry sight. 

Anyone can be ignorant--that takes no effort--all of us are born into ignorance, but that is not to remain our state of choice. Where we are born naturally or spiritually is not where we are supposed to remain. And that is a sorry condition of many in the church. To do nothing about ignorance is to remain ignorant and how we break the heart of God! To move from ignorance, a conscious and protracted battle must be fought against it--the kingdom of heaven suffers violence and the violent take it by force. A failure to understand what Jesus is saying here is the widespread state of many. [Mat. 11:11-12]  Indeed, Solomon tells us the effects of that battle on our flesh and also indicates why many Christians willfully remain ignorant. He said that much learning is a weariness to the flesh. [Eccl. 12:12] Since learning, which is casting off  ignorance from the mind, is a weariness to human flesh, many carnal saints will not afflict their flesh because they are living in the flesh and pleasuring it. They will pleasure it because they are just carnal Christians who take on the name of Christ to take away the reproach of their unsaved lives. [Isa. 4:1-3] To the unlearned, they do not know that they are listening to the dictates of the flesh, which is a lying vanity that is causing them to forsake their own mercy. [Jonah 2:8]

God's word is clear, he says that his people are destroyed for their lack of knowledge; their ignorance. [Hos.4:6]  God also indicates  that his people could have received knowledge if they had actually  wanted it, but they didn't want it; hence, to not want it is to reject it. Under those circumstances, God said that he would reject them from being a priest unto him.

There are many so-called Christians who actually think they are Christians, but they have been  rejected of God long ago and are too blind to see that truth. One day, many will hear the Lord say, "Depart from me, ye workers of iniquity, for I never knew you,"  but then it will be too late to amend their perspective and ways. [Mat. 7:23] These are those who can now know the truth, but they are now having too much pleasure in their flesh, rather than wearying it with learning the truth by developing the mind that God has given us. And they deceive themselves. [Ecc. 12:12] They do not want the truth; they have not received the love of the truth, but have had pleasure in unrighteousness. They say they have come to Christ, but their lives belie their words. They are as they came; no change in their thoughts, behavior or lives to comport with God's word. They offer words to justify their failure to comply to God's word. [2Thes. 3:11-12] With their mouths they show much love. But that is mouth love, which is no love at all. They want lies; they love lies; and they love the things that fancy their carnal tastes and carnal minds, while they walk among the people of God and pollute them with their pernicious ways. Jesus said that their condemnation is this: that light has come into the world, and in spite of what they  profession, they love darkness and hate light because light shows their evil deeds. [John 3:19-21]

By God, Christ has been made unto us wisdom, yet many Christians rather pursue darkness and the lusts of the flesh and this world. They run after flesh-pleasuring artifacts and other things, yet they wear the clothing and trappings of Christians. They hate knowledge and those of knowledge. In the church, the man of intelligence is not highly esteemed. The higher a saintly man of God's intellect, the more he is despised and the less he is esteemed. This is strange and ungodly behavior, but it is what carnal men wrapped in Christian clothing do. I have experienced indignities by unlearned and truly ignorant men in the church who were filled with jealousy because of my learning, not that I preach anything less than the word of God. I have seen vulgarities and foolishness that should never be in God's house! And levels of ignorance in leaders of God's people that should make them blush, cause them no shame because they are often too unlearned to know their nakedness.

Jesus saw unlearned responses in Nicodemus and was astonished. Yet these are some of the men and women attempting to lead God's people today. [ John 3:10]  Some of these untutored men, in an attempt to appear learned, have made things worse by heaping upon  themselves  unearned degrees that have a pretense of scholarship--pretense: a thing  true saints of God should never have! They tout unearned and valueless degrees that their words belie as soon as they open their mouths.

There used to be a time when we heard from a brother who desired the work of a bishop, we heard wisdom and anointing; likewise, when we heard from one who had a degree, especially a PhD as these pretenders are so apt to append to their names, we heard intelligence and profundity. Today, we hear ministers who anoint themselves bishops, doctors, and even apostles. But when they open their mouths, it is all them and no God, no wisdom, and no real learning. They add shame to the titles, the positions and the degrees they claim to have. This is tragic; they offer neither light nor heat! What they do offer is carnality and pretense, but God counsels us to buy of Him gold tried by fire. This is pure gold. This is the light of God.

Intelligence is of God, and God has given us a mind that he demands we develop by securing knowledge. Notice again that God said that his people are destroyed because of their ignorance. Without intelligence, you cannot have any substantive faith, and without faith it is impossible to please God. [Heb. 11] Without intelligence you cannot have  significant knowledge of God's word; hence, you should NEVER attempt to lead God's people with superficial knowledge of his word, for you will lead them to perdition! 

Look how faith comes and is generated: Faith comes by hearing of God's word. But what does that mean? To hear is to know, just as seeing is knowing. We gather knowledge through the sense gates of seeing, hearing, tasting, touching, smelling. These are the ways God has created in man for us to know and learn. To see a thing is to know it. To hear it is to know it; likewise to touch, taste, etc., is to know a thing.

Solomon, on behalf of God said, seek wisdom; it is the principle thing, and in all your getting, get an understanding. Or know the thing. [Prov. 4:5-7] The more you know the stronger you are [Prov. 24:3-5] An unlearned man is a weak man, regardless of his physical prowess; the wise are strong! This is especially true when it comes to spiritual things. I am aware that many holiness people have somehow prized the idea that ignorance is somehow valued by God, but that is not so. 

Consider this: Jesus taught of the Sower in Matthew 13:4, and said that the Sower's seeds fell by the wayside, and the fowls came and devoured them. When he taught the meaning of that parable to his disciples, he said this in  verse 19: the Sower whose seeds fell by the wayside is the situation where one hears the word of the kingdom and understands it not and that ignorance allows Satan to come and take it away from the hearer. To hear is to get an understanding and hold tightly to that which we hear and understand. To not understand is to not grip the word. That is why we should be careful for what and how we hear. Without getting an understanding on that which we hear, we can never have any hold/grip on God's word. Hence, we can never have faith and we can never please God!

Therefore, when we are so in the flesh we cannot please God because we are unwilling to weary our flesh in study to learn the precious things of God. And we cannot have faith in God's word because we do not understand it. Faith requires an understanding of his word.  The Centurion Soldier asked Jesus to heal his servant, and Jesus said that he would go to the soldier's house and heal him. The Centurion was an intelligent man and understood the nature of universal military authority. In all command structures one gives a command and another executes it. [Mat. 8:5] He understood that and reasoned that Jesus headed a spiritual command structure that must be similar. And from that understanding, he saw the structure of Jesus' authority: He said to Jesus, "It is not necessary for you to go to my house; only speak the word and my servant will be heal." He knew that Jesus could speak it and an angel would execute it. Jesus marveled at his understanding, which was his faith.

Look further with me, if you will. To know the things of God (that is intelligence) is to strengthen your faith. Understand what Paul said and meant in Romans 1:20-21: The invisible things of God are clearly seen by being understood by the things that are made [visible, since all things were made by him, whether visible or invisible].  Understanding that we can see invisible things by a knowledge and understanding of visible things, we understand that God had made all things on a pattern that is spiritually and naturally paralleled. To understand the one is to see the other. Remember that God cautioned Moses to make all the things of the tabernacle according to the pattern he had shown him in the mountain. [Heb. 11]

Further indication of that similar and parallel patterning of God is this: Jesus taught extensively by use of parables, and without a parable spoke he not. A parable is merely an earthly example that is reflective of some heavenly reality. Jesus could use parables because there is first the natural and then the spiritual made of the same pattern. To understand one is to see the other. That is why it is so utterly important for God's people to unclothe themselves of ignorance. Anyone can be ignorant, but God is demanding greater things of us. We are his people and we are suppose to reflect him in all things. To remain ignorant or despise wisdom and intelligence is to break the heart of God!

One of God's greatest gifts to mankind is the human mind, and it is a gift that many, far too many saved people have willingly rejected and failed to develop to the dismay of God. In so failing to develop the mind God has given us, we have rejected knowledge that God has admonished us to get. And a failure to do so, is a failure to do good, and that is sin!

Because the church has lingered in ignorance, we have not progressed in God as we should. Once-saved people have gone after worldly things instead of the things of the kingdom. And instead of allowing God to add those things to them as they sought the things of God, they have sought worldliness and called them the blessings of God. And they have turned the notion of godliness and Christianity upside down into something that has no similarity to godliness and certainly is not the way of God.

Today, we have many ungodly and ignorant men professing themselves to be wise and are too uninformed and deluded to see God's light, to hear God's voice, and to know the truth. They love darkness because their deeds are evil, and they know not that they are forsaking  their own mercy/deliverance. In short, they are committing suicide through their ignorance because it is a willful ignorance. []

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* Oedipus Rex.
** TS Elliot, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock."

 

 

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The Word of Truth Ministries
P.O. Box 6573
Oakland, CA 94603