Why Do My Eyes Hurt

NO PLACE FOR THE NATURAL MAN

That means that the natural man cannot come into the light, nor can he come into God's great purpose and be found in that House full of His glory, that vessel through which He is going to manifest that glory to His universe. The natural man cannot come in there: and when we speak about the natural man, we are not just referring to the unsaved man, that is, the man who has never come to the Lord Jesus. We are speaking about the man whom God has reckoned as being put aside altogether.

The Apostle Paul had to speak to Corinthian believers along these lines. They were converted people, saved people, but they were enamoured of this world's wisdom and this world's power; that is, of natural wisdom, knowledge, and the strength that comes by it, and their disposition or inclination was to try to seek to take hold of Divine things and analyze them and investigate them, and probe into them along the lines of natural wisdom and understanding, philosophy, the philosophy and wisdom of this world. So they were bringing the natural man to bear upon Divine things, and the Apostle wrote to them, and in their own language he said, 'Now the man of soul' (not the unregenerate man, not the man who has never had a transaction with the Lord Jesus on the basis of His atoning work for salvation; no, not that man) 'the man of soul receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he know them' (I Cor 2:14). The man of the psuche, that is the natural man. The newest of our sciences is psychology, the science of the soul: and what is psychology? It has to do with the mind of man; it is the science of man's mind; and here is the word now—I am paraphrasing this because this is exactly what it means—Now the science of the mind can never receive the things of the Spirit of God, neither can it know them. This man is very clever, very intellectual, very highly trained, with all his natural senses brought to a high state of development and acuteness, yet this man is outside when it comes to knowing the things of God: he cannot, he is outside. For the first glimmer of the knowledge of God a miracle has to be wrought, by which blind eyes which never have seen are given sight, and by which light comes as by a flash of revelation, so that it can be said, "Blessed art thou . . . for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven."

This is stating a tremendous fact. Every bit of real light which is in the direction of that ultimate effulgence, the revealing of the glory of God in us and through us, every bit of it is in Christ Jesus, and can only be had in Him on the basis of the natural man having been altogether put outside, put away, and a new man having been brought into being with a new set of spiritual faculties: so that Nicodemus, the best product of the religious school of his day and of his world, is told, "Except one be born anew (or from above), he cannot see . . ." He cannot see. Well, it resolves itself into this, that to know even the first letters of the Divine alphabet we must be in Christ, and every bit that follows is a matter of learning Christ, knowing what it means to be in Christ.

Rich

Offended, Who Me?

Jesus said, ‘I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against its forth coming.’
This church which we are is founded upon a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believes shall not make haste. (I wonder about that wording, ‘make haste’, maybe it has something to do with not jumping to hard fast conclusions re: who He is, and His ways of making Himself known to us?

The Father has established His Son as a ‘stone of stumbling and a rock of offense’, wow talk about the foolishness of God confounding the so called wise guys!
This message of Life, Hope and Freedom is hidden, a hidden wisdom and spelled out this way; ‘but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness.’

Thrown into this mix is a curve ball with the following statement from Jesus Himself, ‘Blessed is he that is NOT offended in me.’
The kicker is that I see our Father constantly setting us up according to my perception, to be just that offended!

I am beginning to see that anyone can be a witness to His acts, but becoming acquainted with His ways, well that’s a whole different thing, why you ask. Maybe because he is constantly offending our minds, in order to reveal our hearts?

I am witnessing over the past number of years, a rising phenomenon, something that has captured my attention greatly and that is the vast number of ‘Christians’ for whatever reasons (in my opinion who have been greatly offended) have become casualties of this war we are in, in the form of now professing to be either, an atheist or agnostic.

This choice piece of good news is a big part of what I see unfolding now, today right where you and I live.
I'll send a famine through the whole country. It won't be food or water that's lacking, but my Word. People will drift from one end of the country to the other, roam to the north, and wander to the east.They'll go anywhere, listen to anyone, hoping to hear God's Word—but they won't hear it.

This hidden wisdom which is the mystery of Christ in you the hope of glory is not some boy scout merit badge we Velcro onto all of what we think we know or believe, it becomes a living burning reality as a result of, (buckle your seat belt because I’m about to use some foul language here) a crisis, and it will not stop there believe me.

I remember hearing a friend share once how he saw that especially within the country he lived in which was USA how so many folks had been so raised within the religious establishments, that they thought they were saved. He saw the need by the Father to begin to witness to them and see Father bring them to the place of seeing their need to BE rebirthed.
Didn’t Jesus say, "I came into the world to bring everything into the clear light of day, making all the distinctions clear, so that those who have never seen will see, and those who have made a great pretense of seeing will be exposed as blind."

This upheaval, this unraveling that is unfolding, erupting within the church is glorious, but oh so painful right now for so many, but absolutely needed and necessary.
The proof of the Father’s love is His dealing with us as His sons, and not as bastards. This is a hard pill to swallow when everything you’ve ever believed seems to have become nothing more than a strawman.

There is more to come!!

Rich