Their teachings are full of mixture. The eyes of their understanding have received some truth, but rather than wait for the Lord to give them understanding on the rest, they have turned to their own understanding. And this, they present as being revealed by the Holy Spirit, when it is nothing more than the vain imaginings of their own hearts, and the rehashed traditions and doctrines of men.

"Do not be deceived and deluded and misled; God will not allow Himself to be sneered at (scorned, disdained, or mocked by mere pretensions or professions, or by His precepts being set aside.) [He inevitably deludes himself who attempts to delude God.] For whatever a man sows, that and that only is what he will reap" Galatians 6:7.

The weight of responsibility on teachers is enormous, because they will be held accountable for the guidance they give to others. But individually we all carry the same responsibility, in how we handle the Word of God as He reveals it within our own hearts by His Holy Spirit.

Being eloquent, convincing, and articulate are not the qualities that God is looking for in His mouthpieces. These attributes may be valuable assets in making our way through this world, they may help us to impress other people with our knowledge, but they are not the qualities that God requires. The attributes that God is searching for in us are these: obedience, humility and holiness.

"If ye love me, keep my commandments" John 14:15.

"But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price" 1 Peter 3:4.

"Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy" 1 Peter 1:16.

Jesus said in John 15:10-20 "If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you. Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you. These things I command you, that ye love one another. If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also."

Jesus' words here fly in the face of conventional wisdom and thinking. We approach the scriptures for what we can get out of them, what's in it for us, rather than to learn what our God requires of us. When we change our point of view, from 'what's in it for me' (self-centered)... to 'how can I most please God' (God-centered), it is amazing how differently we see the same words.

First, all of Jesus' promises are 'conditional.' From the Garden of Eden on down through mankind's history, God has set rules for man to live by. He also gave man the right, "free-will,' to obey or disobey. "IF you" is the preface of receiving all of God's promises... there are clearly stated requirements... an important point that we are very good at skimming right over. Twice, in just this short passage, the Lord stresses that one of the commandments we are required to keep... is that of loving one another.

"A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another" John 13:34.

"By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another" John 13:35.

"This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you" John 15:12.

Secondly, we are programmed to think that we are just about the most important thing... in not only our own salvation, but the salvation of others as well. We have had select verses drummed into our heads...

"And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature" Mark 16:15. "How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?" Romans 10:14.

These things are needful, but they are not our first duty. Our first duty, responsibility if you will, is always first and foremost this... "And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment" Mark 12:30.

We 'think,' and have been taught that we must 'make a decision.' We teach the importance of making a decision for Christ, leading others to Christ, and in the process we create methods, strategies and formulas, to accomplish our goal, which is to win souls. This is the accepted, approved practice of every religious institution in the country. One of the frequently quoted scriptures is John 3:16...."For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Notice that it says, 'should not perish'... It does not say 'would not.' What did Jesus say, that holds enormous bearing on what we are doing?

He said, "but I have chosen you out of the world."

"And except that the Lord had shortened those days, no flesh should be saved: but for the elect's sake, whom he hath chosen, he hath shortened the days" Mark 13:20.

"But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light" 1 Peter 2:9.

We need to come to understand that it is all God. Man's will is always secondary. "No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day" John 6:44. "It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life" John 6:63.

In order for us to fulfill what He said earlier... "Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain:" we have to be going forth in exactly the same way that He went forth, in the power of the Spirit... and not the flesh.

The same requirements that God placed upon the Israelites in the Old Testament, are just as applicable to the Church in the New Testament; they have never changed... "Now therefore hearken, O Israel, unto the statutes and unto the judgments, which I teach you, for to do them, that ye may live, and go in and possess the land which the LORD God of your fathers giveth you" Deuteronomy 4:1. The Lord's requirements have not changed. We too, must walk in obedience - in all things - in order to reap of the promises.

In this, the end of the ages, we must face our own 'giants.' Men have built their own 'mountains,' calling them the 'mountain of the Lord.' Religions all claim to be speaking in the name of God, but they are filled with in-fighting, slanders, blasphemies, and every evil thing. We were never called out that we might become religious! We were called out that we might walk in newness of LIFE!

"Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life" Romans 6:4.

"Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life" 2 Corinthians 3:6.

How we treat others... reveals far more about our spiritual maturity... than all of our flowery speeches, or prophetic utterances. We need a new heart people!

"And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh" Ezekiel 11:19. Only God can bring this transformation about within us. No amount of schooling or study or laying on of hands can work this change within our inner man. We have had a steady diet of 'the words which man's wisdom teacheth'... isn't it high time we lay all that aside, and diligently seek to hear what 'the Holy Ghost teacheth'?

"But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man" 1 Corinthians 2:10-15.

All we can boast of in our flesh, is being 'living soul.' "And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit" 1 Corinthians 15:45. Jesus said, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit" John 3:6. "It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life" John 6:63. That should give us a pretty strong clue that without HIM, we are nothing!

Throughout the church world, regardless of whether or not the people are in or out of the systems of men, there is great confusion, with very little spiritual understanding. "For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work" James 3:16. When we jostle and strive after recognition, we are operating from our flesh and not by God's Spirit, no matter how spiritual we may sound. My husband recently shared this with me ... 'our flesh is the serpent side.' This is why we must 'take up our cross and follow Christ.'

The cross is an instrument of painful death. Jesus took upon Himself this fleshly body, subject to all of the same weaknesses and temptations known to man, and slew it, defeating the enemy's power over this flesh, by the power of the Spirit of God. We are called out to follow Christ, in living and if need be in dying. Hebrews 4:15 "For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin." He made the way for us to follow His example, that we too can die to our flesh and live by the power of the Holy Spirit within, giving Him the pre-eminence in our hearts and minds.

"In Him also you were circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, but in a [spiritual] circumcision [performed by] Christ by stripping off the body of the flesh (the whole corrupt, carnal nature with its passions and lusts). [Thus you were circumcised when] you were buried with Him in [your] baptism, in which you were also raised with Him [to a new life] through [your] faith in the working of God [as displayed] when He raised Him up from the dead. And you who were dead in trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your flesh (your sensuality, your sinful carnal nature), [God] brought to life together with [Christ], having [freely] forgiven us all our transgressions, Having cancelled and blotted out and wiped away the handwriting of the note (bond) with its legal decrees and demands which was in force and stood against us (hostile to us). This [note with its regulations, decrees, and demands] He set aside and cleared completely out of our way by nailing it to [His] cross. [God] disarmed the principalities and powers that were ranged against us and made a bold display and public example of them, in triumphing over them in Him and in it [the cross]" Colossians 2:11-15.

Moses typified this in the wilderness when he held up the serpent on the pole and those who looked upon it were healed. [Numbers 21:8-9 "And the LORD said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live. And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived."] Jesus referred to this in John 3:14 "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up."

"For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God" Romans 8:3-14.

"But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof" Romans 13:14.

"There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit" Romans 8:1.

"For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death" Romans 8:2.

We are in danger when we start 'thinking' that we know so much, and have the mysteries of God all figured out. As Paul said, "And if any man think that he knoweth any thing, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know" 1 Corinthians 8:2.

How we walk in this world matters...

How we treat others in this world matters...

How we talk, the words that we speak in this world matters...

What we believe, teach, and practice in this world matters...

We need to be very careful, lest we be guilty of wrongly judging others, while thinking too highly of ourselves... "For from within, [that is] out of the hearts of men, come base and wicked thoughts, sexual immorality, stealing, murder, adultery, Coveting (a greedy desire to have more wealth), dangerous and destructive wickedness, deceit; unrestrained (indecent) conduct; an evil eye (envy), slander (evil speaking, malicious misrepresentation, abusiveness), pride (the sin of an uplifted heart against God and man), foolishness (folly, lack of sense, recklessness, thoughtlessness). All these evil [purposes and desires] come from within, and they make the man unclean and render him unhallowed." Mark 7:21-23.

"Therefore let anyone who thinks he stands [who feels sure that he has a steadfast mind and is standing firm], take heed lest he fall [into sin]" 1 Corinthians 10:12.

We all need to diligently search our own hearts, as we have no power to change anyone else's. We all need to 'work out our own salvation, with fear and trembling' ...that we might be found pleasing in His sight when we stand before Him, and give an accounting for what we have done with what we have been given.