Elijah was a man with a nature like ours… (James 5:17a).

Enoch and Elijah were two prophets, people with natures like ours, that never tasted death but by faith they were taken away so that they did not see death. They were not found among the sons of men, because God had taken them. Before Enoch was taken, and I believe also Elijah, he had this testimony, that he pleased God. This was a testimony of sonship. This was the same testimony that Jesus had received when John baptized Him and the Father declared Him Son with a testimony that the Father was well pleased with Him. Only after they have received these testimonies, that they were pleasing to God, they were taken to heaven. First came God’s testimony concerning them that they were pleasing Him then came the glorification of their bodies with the glory which Jesus had before the world was created. The only other person, besides Enoch and Elijah whose bodies never saw corruption and was taken to heaven in bodily form was Jesus after His resurrection from the dead (Acts 1:9).

 Christ was foreordained since the foundation of the earth to be sacrificed as a ransom for many and He was also made the firstborn Son of many brothers to follow. Enoch and Elijah conformed to the sonship of Christ before His manifestation in the flesh as His provision was established in the Spirit since the foundation of the earth (Revelation 13:8; Peter 1:20). Christ’s sacrifice was no afterthought, not something God decided as a result of Adam’s transgression.

 In the beginning God created all things, in Him, one with Him and in total harmony with Him and with all that is His. In Him, Adam lived and moved and had his being because he was in Him, one with Him. God made Adam head of Eve and all the earth from which he was taken. He gave him authority to rule over his domain or anointed area, which was the Garden of Eden. He needed no testimony that he was pleasing to God because he was created to bring God joy and fulfillment. Adam was God’s joy and fulfillment, His beloved son in whom He was well pleased.

 The transgression of Adam placed man outside of God’s inside, which caused separation from Him resulting in man’s death, as he was a branch severed from the Vine. Sin separated man from the joyful and peaceful atmosphere of God’s presence inside of Him and threw him into a broken universe covered with a cloud of doubt and fear. Since that time man had to present God with blood sacrifices for the atonement of sin. Men also began to call on the name of the Lord in prayer to seek His favor. For the first time men, through faith, had to breakthrough the cloud of doubt and fear to please God. Without faith it is impossible to please Him. For the first time, apart from love, faith and hope came into play to have a relationship with God. Fallen man had to present him to the Lord in faith as if he was perfect, in Him and one with Him, in hope for the redemption of the whole man. Faith changes things in the books of God. Though you may not have attained to the resurrection from the dead and is not made perfect, faith is the substance of hope to attain to resurrection life and perfection. When God looks at man He sees man as he thinks in his heart he is, for so He sees him (Proverbs 23:7). Moreover, what you think in your heart, good or evil, you have already committed (Matthew 5:28). This is the righteousness of God through faith. Enoch (without the law) and Elijah (under the law) are living proof that since the transgression man could attain to resurrection life and perfection if he or she believed God for it.

 Adam was 687 years when Enoch was born. Enoch was 243 years old when Adam died at the age of 930 years (Genesis 5). Enoch must have learned first hand from Adam what he had in the garden and then lost it through his foolish arrogance. Enoch yearned for the Father-son relationship Adam had with God and also to walk with Him in the garden as Adam did. Through faith he discovered the fountain of Life, the source of Light, the epitome of Truth, which is the Creator of heaven and earth. He walked with God and He began to teach him like He did Adam. Enoch was a preacher of righteousness emphasizing that men should watch over their souls; hold on to the fear of the Lord and service to Him, and to serve Him in righteousness, innocence and justice in humility and purity. He also prophesied of the mighty ones who are soon to be released on the earth (Jude 14). He believed God so much he began to experience the joy and strength that man knew before the fall. He started to live in the penetrating light of God that filled all the earth but cannot be confined in anyplace or anything or by anyone. Life became so great in him that he would have still remain on earth if God had not taken him to dwell with Him in heaven. He was too full of life to die, so God took him bodily into heaven so that he did not see death and could not be found among the sons of men. Before God took him he had this testimony, that he pleased God. Without faith it is impossible to please Him (Hebrews 11:5-6).

 Many years after Enoch, God established a covenant of works with His people, the nation of Israel. The terms of the covenant of the Law were that if the Israelites kept the covenant they would be a special treasure to God above all people and they shall be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation to Him. If they diligently obey the voice of the Lord to observe all His commandments the Lord will set them high above all the nations of the earth and all His blessings shall come upon them and overtake them. If they violated the covenant, they would be cursed (Deuteronomy 28). The obligation was with man to keep the covenant. Because the law is spiritual and perfect the righteous requirement of the law could only be fulfilled in those who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit (Romans 8:4). Through the flesh (power and might) the righteous requirements of the Law could never have been fulfilled but only through faith. Faith is the doorway to the Spirit where God dwells. The covenant of works utterly failed because it could never be fulfilled in the flesh. To be outside of God’s inside (His body) is death for you can do nothing without Christ in you the hope of glory. The excellence of the power is from God and not man.

  Elijah, the Tishbite, a mighty prophet of God, which lived in times when wicked kings ruled Judah and Israel, had a different spirit in him and he followed God fully. Through faith he fulfilled the righteous requirements of the law. He had the testimony that he constantly stood before the Lord, which is to live in His presence (1 Kings 17:1). He lived his life above the cloud of doubt and fear by positioning himself in the presence of God, which is in the realm of the Spirit. The presence of God is where the Spirit of God prevails, where the burden of suffering and shame of imperfect flesh is broken. It is where the glory of the character and power of Christ was revealed in him (1 Peter 1:11). He was uncompromising in his spirit yet saturated with joy and love of the Spirit of God in him. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours. When he succumbed to the flesh, where doubt and fear rule, he fled for his life before Jezebel and prayed the Lord to take his life. The Lord asked Elijah what he was doing in the cave (past) spending the night (bad times) in that place (thinking about the bad of the past). He was meditating on how Jezebel was killing the prophets of God in the past and that she was busy to hunt him down. He was supposed to be positioned in the place of his anointing (his garden), the presence of God. After that episode he walked with God and he obtained the testimony that in his walk with God his fire never dimmed. Then God took him. Elijah was a prophet of fire.

 Enoch, which is a picture of the Lamb of God, and Elijah that came in the spirit of the Lion of Judah are the witnesses that God was blameless in His dealings with man before and during Old Testament times to conform to the glorious image of His Son. His Son was revealed from the foundation of the earth (Revelation 13:8).

 God eventually took away the first covenant, the ministry of condemnation that He might establish the second, the ministry of righteousness. It was brought in much greater glory, even in the glory of His Son. We are completed in Christ, yet God predestined the heirs of salvation to be conformed to the image of His Son, indicating a growing process. Through suffering on the cross the Lord Jesus Christ completed the work necessary for our salvation and sonship. There is nothing more to be done from the Lord’s side to complete our perfection. We only need to grow, like newborn babes, in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ in maturity into the full measure of the stature of the Son of God. Spiritual growth is the same as natural growth; you are born a baby then started to mature toward adulthood.

 When you are reading the word of God, praying or waiting on the Lord you should only drink living water, enjoying God. You should not be concerned about not bearing fruit out of season because your relationship with Him is a natural process of growth. If you abide in the Vine you will bear fruit in the time of your season.

 Though Enoch and Elijah seem to be the ultimate examples to attain to resurrection life and to be made perfect it is Jesus who is the plumb line. He is our vision and the pattern that points the way toward sonship. To study the life of the pattern Son is to interpret the prophecy concerning our lives. Why? He is the first among many brethren and the sons to follow will have to follow along the same way that He has paved. There are three major phases in Jesus’ live that needs to be studied to follow the course of events that will follow our lives. These are His birth and maturing process, His baptism and Sonship and His glorification on the cross. In this chapter we will only consider the first phase.

 Jesus’ natural birth placed Him in the kingdom of God for His own Spirit is the Spirit of Christ (Romans 8:9). Though Jesus is God He came into this world, as one of us, a mortal being yet without sin. Coming as a perfect man into the world He said He could do nothing of Himself but confessed His utter dependence on His Father. The Father who sent Him was in Him and He in the Father so that the excellence of the glory and power was from God in Him. Though Herod sought to destroy Him, He survived the onslaught on His life and kept Himself busy with the things of God, His Father’s business. In this He grew up and become strong in spirit, filled with wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him. He increased in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man.

 The parallel to the birth of Jesus is to be born again. If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His (Romans 8:9). You cannot see the kingdom of God unless you are born again. If you believe in God and in His Son, Jesus Christ, God will place you in His Son and you will be delivered from your sin and guilt and you will be justified in His sight. You will be joined to the Lord Jesus Christ and become one Spirit with Him. It is not a mixture of your spirit with His but you become one spirit with the Spirit of Christ. A mixture of spirits means a mixture of your fleshly glory with the divine glory of Jesus Christ. God shares His glory with no man. One spirit with Him means there is only one glory, the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Father has given us only one glory, Christ in us the hope of glory. This glory is the image of His Son, the only image He gave us to grow into by faith.

  If you are born again you are in Him (in His body) and He is in you (one Spirit with you) so that the excellence of the power and glory is from Him who lives in you. You relate to God with your spirit because it is that part of your being which is alive to Him and one Spirit with Christ. The kingdom of God is all about relationships. It implies that you should have an intimate relationship with God, to manifest His mercy and grace to your neighbor and to love and respect the earth. Relationships that are not in Christ are dead because it is severed from the Vine. Many will say to Me in that day, “Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?” And then I will declare to them, “I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!” (Matthew 7:22-23). Works outside of God is from the flesh, which counts for nothing. It is Christ’s relationship that you share with Him that minister love, trust and fulfillment to God. Love and trust do not develop outside of a relationship. The bottom line is whether He knows you and whether you know Him. It is all about the substance of love you have become in Christ, to God.

 It is what you have become in oneness with Him, to Him and what He is to you that matter. Not everyone who says to Me, “Lord, Lord,” shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven (Matthew 7:21). The will of God does not consist of do and don’ts but it is a state of your spirit (faith) that causes the anointing to flow. Faith is a state of your spirit. God has called you into sonship, which means to live and relate to God with that part of you which is alive to Him and one with Christ, so that Christ may be revealed in your whole being. If you are a son of God you are to be led by the Spirit of God. Naturally this is a gradual growing process. This is to allow God to be your Father and you to be a son to Him. Sonship is a full or mature revelation of the Son in you. The question is what you have become to God or will He not recognize you. The Father wants you to be a son and a worshipper to Him. The Son wants you to be brother and friend to Him, as He is one with you, in you, and desires to be made manifested in you. The Holy Spirit wants to be your friend, comforter and leader and to guide you into all truth, which is Christ.

 Your faith-love relationship in oneness with Christ is the substance that ministers love, trust and fulfillment toward God and all that is His. Acts without a relationship toward God is hypocrisy, acting or stage-play even if your intentions are good because it is without Spirit and life and thus without fulfillment, which is joy, peace and delight in the Holy Spirit. That was why Jesus called the Pharisees hypocrites. The word hypocrite in the Greek means actor or stage-player. They were performers without having a relationship with God. Acting is works or performance without a relationship. Remind you of a harlot, doesn’t it?

 Man can only relate to God through faith, hope and love in His word. As we live no longer but Christ lives in us, it is His faith, hope and love in operation. Our ability, which flows forth from that part in us that is dead to God, which is our flesh, cannot please Him. That which is dead to God indicates a separation and independence from Him, which is of necessity death. The flesh is the tree of the knowledge of good (law or legalism) and evil (lawlessness). Good is better than evil but it is still death. It is one thing to have knowledge about the goodness of God but another thing to know God as Good through a deep relationship with Him. I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eyes see you. Therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes (Job 42:5-6). Knowledge of good and evil puffs up produces the fruit of arrogance and renders you vulnerable to the ignorance of futility and bareness. Faith, hope and love edify and yield the fruit of righteousness, humility and wisdom, and harvest joy and fulfillment in God.

 The first divine grace in a relationship with God is faith. Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1). Faith is the substance of your world or reality that you live in, which is based on the word of God. So faith is based on hope, which is filled with divine vision or revelation. The difference between hope and fantasy is that hope is based on the word of God and fantasy on the futile imagination of man’s heart. Hope is a constant focus on God that believes with great expectation He will bring to pass the vision of His Word which He has burned into your heart about His will for your life. Faith is to convert the promise, vision or revelation into substance by living your expectation right now as if it is fulfilled though you cannot see its fulfillment. Expressing faith is the evidence or proof of the unseen hope, revelation or vision. Without divine vision, revelation or hope people perishes. Hopelessness is void of faith, which is sin. Without faith you cannot please God.

 We cannot live by feelings but by faith. Faith is life in the Spirit but feelings belong to the realm of soul, which is sin and death. Man experiences feelings all the time. Impulses flow from his internal and external environments making impressions in his body, emotions, thoughts, memories and spirit. Most of it comes from the twisted heart of carnal flesh pumping his doubts, fears and lusts into an already broken and polluted atmosphere. Occasionally some feelings are from heaven. Some feelings are important, serving as barometers to life systems in your body, give you guidance or alert you of pending danger, etc. However, most feelings can be dangerous in your walk with God because it relates to doubts, fears and lusts. It is important to train your spirit to ignore or resist some feelings. For example, if you only want to pray when you feel like it, you will pray very seldom. When you do not feel like praying recognize that feeling as a barrier that needs to be resisted and rejected. What is revealed by the light is judged by the light. The more you practice it, the easier it becomes. This way you will live above the cloud of doubts and fears. If you feel like praying, thank God for His grace because mostly you do not feel like praying. Normally you do not feel like praying because your body is dead to God because of sin and therefore enmity with Him. That is why you present your body of death to God through faith a living sacrifice (as if it is alive to Him) to serve and worship Him alone. However, it is something different when your body is exhausted. Then you must rest. This principle applies to all areas in your life. It is fun to walk by faith. Some say it is hard. I do not deny it but I believe it depends on how much you hunger after the reward of the higher calling of God in Christ Jesus. To walk by faith is a onetime opportunity and privilege in all eternity that God granted to all men during their stay on earth. So do not waste your opportunity for it is your one and only chance to obtain a witness that you please God.

The witness of pleasing God has nothing to do with your righteousness before God – the sacrifice of Jesus was sufficient. It is a freewill offering you bring Him because you love Him. It is to bring Him joy and fulfillment.

 The flesh is by nature an unbeliever and is enmity against God. How do you start out? By faith you present your mind that is enmity against God a living sacrifice as if it is alive to God by bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, in hope that all disobedience will be punished when your obedience is fulfilled. You do it by meditating only on things that are true, noble, just, pure, lovely, of good report, virtues and praiseworthy that you may be renewed in the spirit of your mind. The focus of your heart is not on you growing up into sonship but on Him being glorified in you. Growing up in Him will automatically be taken care of as you pursue Christ. Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? (Matthew 6:27). Revelation is never complete unless you see God exalted in His works and ways or where He is revealed as wisdom in any issue of concern. For you to live is Christ.

 Through faith you present your dead body as being alive from the dead and the members of your body though dead, as instruments of righteousness to God. Therefore, by faith you should live your life on earth as if you are in heaven.

 Paul reached into Christ through faith that he may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means He may attain to the resurrection from the dead (Philippians 3:9-11). Life is not seated in formulae or some steps of conformation but in knowing Christ, which emphasizes the relationship. Eternal life in spirit, soul and body is in knowing God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent. In knowing Him, the fountain of life, Paul pressed on to conform to His death and resurrection in hope that he may attain to the resurrection from the dead. He presented that which was dead to God as if his whole man was alive to Him. Not that he has attained or was already made perfect, but in faith he pressed on as if he has attained and was made perfect. He laid hold of Christ in the same manner as Christ has laid hold of him.

 With this quality of faith Enoch and Elijah have not seen death but received a witness that they were pleasing to God before they were taken. Their faith demanded that in their world of reality they were alive to God, spirit, soul and body and in their world the spirit and natural realms have become one. Their faith brought substance to a world where heaven and earth is united in the one world of Christ. In their world the will of God has being done on earth as it is in heaven. As far as they were concerned the New Jerusalem has come down and heaven and earth has become one. They had so much life in them that God had to take them.

 The second grace of the Spirit is hope. True hope is a steadfast focus on the Lord with an expectation that He will fulfill the vision or revelation of His promises according to the will of God for your life. Hope is an expression of trust in God’s goodness and faithfulness. It is waiting with confidence and patience for the fulfillment of God’s promise in the future. In the Spirit there are no time barriers. When Enoch and Elijah, by revelation, saw the end from the beginning they immediately start walking in that hope by faith as if they have attained to resurrection life and perfection. In God’s books faith is the substance of His promises even if you have not received it. It will be accounted to you as if you have received it, which is the evidence of unseen realities. This is the type of faith that the Enoch-generation, the mighty ones to come, will manifest. The Enoch-generation will always regard the end from the beginning as the present.

 The greatest of all graces is love. If you love God, He knows you. Love is the anointed substance of joy and fulfillment you have become to Him through faith and what He is to you in your relationship with Him. It is the relationship that brings fulfillment. The relationship of the Holy Trinity with each other is one of fulfillment. The evidence of a deep relationship with God is fulfillment, which are joy, peace and delight. You find fulfillment in God and God finds fulfillment in you. When I am missing fulfillment in God, my prayer is always, “God fill the empty spaces; water the dry places.” Afterward it leaves you with a greater hunger and thirst after God.

 In following Christ you have become all things to all men, loving them with the love of Christ. To the widow you have become a husband, to the orphan a father and to the simple, wisdom. In your relationship to the earth you have become a steward of excellence to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. In all these things you find fulfillment in God.

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 Lead me in Your truth and teach me, for You are the God of my salvation; on You I wait all the day (Psalm 25:5).

 In the beginning Adam was filled with the life, energy and peace of the Spirit of God as he walked with his Creator in the Garden of Eden. When Adam walked with God he was in total harmony with Him and His creation. As he tended the garden he flowed in the strength of the Spirit of God that was in him and one with him. As questions awakened in Adam’s heart the Lord’s thoughts entered his soul like rushes of joy that worked peaceful fulfillment in his heart. In tending the garden Adam and God found complete fulfillment in their great fellowship. Adam was so full of life that he lived 930 years after sin entered him and the discord of sin entered his soul.

When sin entered Adam, he fell from perfection in God to sinful flesh outside of God. When he was ordered out of the garden he could no longer sense God spontaneously with his senses because they were dead to Him. He was dead to God because he was outside of Him, a branch severed from the Vine. Then men started to call on the name of the Lord in prayer to establish some lines of communication and fellowship with Him. Faith is the doorway into the realm of Spirit where God dwells. From the day of the transgression onward all men had to approach God in faith if they were to please Him. Through faith in God and in His Son, Jesus Christ, you enter into the Spirit where God dwells in heaven.

When you come to Christ you are joint to the Lord and you become one Spirit with Him, one with the Spirit of Christ. Your spirit is quickened to God because of righteousness. Since your body is still mortal it is void of perfection of eternal life (immortality), meaning that it is dead to God because of sin (Romans 8:10). Your soul is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be (Romans 8:7).  However, there is hope that we will be alive to God, in spirit (already alive if you are born again), soul and body when the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead will quicken your mortal bodies (Romans 8:11). Then you will be alive to God as a total man, as it was in the beginning (Romans 8:9).

For the moment you relate to God with that part of your person that is alive to Him, which is your spirit. Through faith you present your soul to God, which is enmity to Him, as if it is a friend of Him by meditating on things that are true, noble, just, pure, lovely, of good report, virtues and praiseworthy that you may be renewed in the spirit of your mind. Through faith you present your body, which is dead toward God because of sin, as being alive from the dead and the members of your body though dead, as instruments of righteousness to God. Therefore, by faith you should live your life on earth as if you are in heaven.

It is the will of God for men while being on earth to live with their spirits in heaven. No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven (John 3:13, emphasis added). Jesus told Nicodemus he is on earth and heaven at the same time. Through faith you can have a life in the Spirit (heaven) while being on earth. You can train your spirit to be aware of the Lord all the time. Waiting on the Lord is one of those methods to train your spirit to be aware of His presence all of the time.

Waiting on the Lord has as many facets or faces, as there are dimensions in love. So waiting on the Lord is an expectation to experience Him. Since your body is dead because of sin you cannot experience the Lord with your physical senses and you cannot physically be aware of His presence, but that does not mean He is not there. Because your spirit is alive to God, due to righteousness, it is the part of your being that can experience God who dwells in the Spirit where the kingdom of heaven is. For this reason our walk with the Lord is not through our physical senses but by faith, which is in the Spirit. Because God is Spirit and one with you, He reveals Himself to you in your spirit through the Holy Spirit.

You were previously dead in your sins and thus your spirit was dead to God and to the things of the Spirit, which belong to the kingdom of God. Unless you are born again you cannot see the kingdom of God or experience God. Unredeemed man has no access to the third heavens where God dwells, the true realm of Spirit. When you come to Christ you can by faith enter the realm of Spirit where God dwells and He will reveal His glory to you. You can experience God because the Holy Spirit has quickened your spirit unto Him. In Christ the veil of separation is removed and you have access to God.

Christ is one spirit with you and He lives within you. You also have the assurance that He will never leave you nor forsake you. Christ within you is the guarantee that the presence of God will always be within you. So waiting on the Lord is one of a few ways to grow into an aware of His presence in you. It is also to grow into an awareness of your own spirit, in other words, that part of you, which is alive to God.

He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him, for your Maker is your husband. Waiting on the Lord is to grow into awareness that you are one spirit with the Lord, which refers to a very intimate relationship, so pure, so perfect. The body of Christ is involved in a wedlock relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. That means they are bearing His name.

Eventually you will be saved to the uttermost. Your whole spirit, soul and body will be preserved blameless at the coming of the Lord. Your spirit is now alive to God because of righteousness, but your soul and body will also come alive to God when you will be adopted as a son, which is the redemption of your body (Romans 8:23). This is the hope of the bride of Christ that they will be one with the Lord, spirit, soul and body (Romans 8:24-25). Then you will be with your physical body a member of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. Now you do not see it yet for you have only received the firstfruits of the Spirit, therefore you know in part and you prophesy in part and you live only with the spirit part of your person in the Spirit. Your soul, which is enmity to God, is in the soulish realm and your body, which is dead to God because of sin, is in the natural realm. Your soul and body, which is dead to God, you present alive to God in faith as if they are alive, as if you have attained to resurrection life and have been made perfect. Faith procures substance in the books of God even if you have not yet received the promise (Hebrews 11:1). When the perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away. I say these things that you may know what is the exceeding riches of His grace and what is your hope in Christ. Revelation is given that you may relate to the Lord more accurately. I tell you this that while waiting on the Lord you may relate to Him in hope of a complete redemption of the whole man. So your hope is to be one with Him, spirit soul and body.

You cannot experience the presence of the Lord while your mind and heart is set on the things of the flesh where turmoil and division dwells. Neither can you come into an awareness of the indwelling Christ if your focus is to be perfected by the flesh. Then it has become a focus on self and not on Christ. Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of live (Proverbs 4:23). So your heart can be your enemy or your friend.

Waiting on God is a deliberate focus on the Lord where you only seek to be with God, like a wife reaching out to her husband in love. In the day that you seek the Lord with all of your heart you will find Him. It is a search to find Him because you desire to love Him and to experience His love. By night on my bed I sought the one I love; I sought him, but I did not find him. “I will rise now,” I said, “And go about the city; in the streets and in the squares I will seek the one I love. I sought him, but I did not find him. The watchmen who go about the city found me; I said, “Have you seen the one I love?” Scarcely had had I passed by them, when I found the one I love (Song of Solomon 3:1-4a). Sometimes it is a painful longing and desire for Him yet it is with an attitude of rest in your spirit. Waiting on the Lord necessitates perseverance and endurance expressed through faith. This is not a quick fix but a training of your spirit. This is a life long pursuit. It is like training a muscle that was never used in the past.

Waiting on the Lord is to abstain from oneself and to be aware of Him. This awareness of the Lord is to take note of Him or to pay attention to Him. This implies that you take care of the Lord while He will keep or preserve you.

Waiting also means to seek or to attentively watch the ways of the Lord. He made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the children of Israel (Psalm 103:7). This is a different facet of waiting on the Lord. This refers to diligently seeking the Lord for divine wisdom and knowledge. In your search after Him, He remains your highest joy and fulfillment.

I have some steps to show you how I am practicing my prayer of silence or waiting on the Lord. Firstly, I need to be comfortable. I deem this the same as visiting a very close friend. Normally I will take a shower to get rid of sweat on my body. I normally use cold water at the end of my shower to sharpen my spirit. Warm water tends to make me drowsy, especially during summer months.

Sometimes I drink a glass of cold water also. I do not like any bodily distractions when waiting on the Lord. I will switch of my cell phone and go to my big chair.

I need to be comfortable and alert in my heart and spirit. I normally wait on the Lord round about 4h00 in the morning. This time suits me best because it is the time when I am physically rested and mentally and spiritually the most alert. And it is also a time with the least distractions. I have friends that normally wait on the Lord in the evening. However, I prefer not to do it after a day’s work and dinner. Then I am not spiritually alert and food also makes me heavy.

Besides being tired coming from work, the working day stays to long in my mind. Evenings are also full of distractions, due to dinner, attention to my wife and possible phone calls. There are certain responsibilities in your live that you cannot neglect without leaving the will of the Lord. So I prefer early morning hours. Other times may suit you.

After relaxing myself I need to calm my spirit and soul before the Lord. Up to now I was involved in physical activities to prepare myself to be physically comfortable. I need now to open my spirit to the Lord and enter into a rest or peacefulness of heart and spirit.

It is difficult just to start relaxing your heart and to focus on the Lord. So I need to prepare myself spiritually also. I will normally start to pray for about 20 minutes both with understanding and also in the Spirit. I also pray much in the Spirit during daytime. So much so that I occasionally woke up during nights finding that I have prayed in my sleep. I do not say others must do the same. I am just relating to you my life experience.

Then I take my Bible and read a passage for 5 minutes and meditate on it for another 5 to 10 minutes. To make everything count I will choose a passage in line with what the Lord is speaking to me. Afterward I will thank the Lord for His goodness and mercy. By now my spirit is open to the Lord.

A walk with the Lord is fun and exciting and that is why we must concentrate on those things, where the anointing is. We are different in character from each other and we differ on account of the anointing that is in every individual. Thus the Lord deals differently with every individual as a parent deals differently with each individual child. If we stay in the flow of what God is doing in our lives we will find the joy of the Lord. You must remember God is never boring but in His presence is fullness of joy. If we do not experience the joy of the Lord, we must know we are not in the Spirit. I refer to a deep underlying joy that sustains us regardless of circumstances and not something superficial and shallow.

The next step is to empty or clear your mind of all preconceived ideas or doctrines that may stifle the voice of the Lord. I normally imagine myself as knowing nothing from God, except His love, mercy and grace. It is not a blanking out of the mind. Do not attempt doing this because it is dangerous. You must always maintain your focus on the Lord.

To empty your heart is to be void of your own ability. It is an attitude where you totally rely on God. Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of God (Matthew 5:3). Because you consider your own abilities as null and void you place all your hope and trust in the mercy and grace of God. I know nothing else but Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I am not seeking any revelation but my heart is set to seek only Him whom my soul loves. O that I may know Him in the power of His resurrection!

I can describe this attitude by an experience I had when I was still in my father’s house. I grew up on a farm. The female dog had four pups. My dad told me I could choose one pup for myself but the others he will give away. I had compassion on the weakest of the four pups. I gave this little pup all my love and my attention. However, the strongest of the four was persistently looking for my attention and love. Due to this attitude I eventually choose this little pup to be my companion. This is the attitude that one must have before the Lord. You must be relentless and persistent in seeking His attention while you at the same time trust Him with your life.

To empty your heart also means to cease from your labors or to enter into the rest of God.  This means to keep silent or quiet and to listen. This is in context of one who is lost in wonder and admiration.

Then, be still or quiet and know that the Lord is God. This is not a place to seek for knowledge of some truths but to know Him. If the Lord shows you something in His infinite wisdom, so be it. This often happens. However, the cry of your heart in this situation is, “Lord show me Your glory” or “O, that you may reveal Yourself to me.”

My sister on the other hand occasionally visualizes herself dancing with the Lord or the Holy Spirit. Use that which works for you. I often choose to be in forests so beautiful that it ministers peace and the presence of the Lord to me. Then I am only aware of Him. Please forget about feelings and let your yearning after God demands that His faith flows through you. His faith refers to you live no longer but Christ lives in you and all of His faith and hope and love flows through you. Sometimes God will bless you with feelings but mostly not. So be faithful and walk by faith and not feelings. Feelings can be deceptive. Later on you will develop a sense of Christ in you spirit but it is rather a deep-rooted awareness and knowledge of Him and not so much feelings. You must remember your spirit dwells in the realm of Spirit but feelings belong to the realm of soul. The spirit and soul belongs to two different worlds, so does faith and feelings.

You may ask for what period you must wait on the Lord. It can be anything between 20 minutes and two hours or longer. It depends on your hunger for the Lord. Why do I say 20 minutes? While I was doing athletics I believed that training for less then 20 minutes did not yield any physically benefits. It may be wrong as far as waiting on the Lord is concerned. In the beginning it will be beneficial if you wait on the Lord for short periods a few times a day. This is to condition your system for this new experience. The secret is enjoyment otherwise you will grow weary of it and quit this way of coming to know the Lord.

Be flexible. If one way is not working for you, experiment with some other way until you find what is working for you. Waiting on the Lord is exercising your spirit to be aware of Christ within you and to know His voice better. This is also a way to rid you of carnal selfishness. You give to the Lord your heart without expecting anything in return. He is faithful and He will bless you. If you seek Him with all of your heart you will find Him. When your spirit is exercised in this manner you will unconsciously starting to wait on the Lord. This precedes much time and experience of exercising your spirit in this manner. The more you do it the easier it become. Do not give up, no matter what. You will never regret it.

 The objective of the exercise is to keep your focus as long as possible, in a relaxed manner, on the Lord. To be single-minded is to be mentally honest, which is a virtue belonging to those who is free from pretence and dissimulation, in other words having a sincerity of mind towards Christ. This quality of focus also refers to a single-hearted faith toward Christ. It is like my dog sitting patiently next to me awaiting my attention or command.

The difference between my dog and us is that he can observe me with his physical eyes while we cannot observe the Lord with our physical eyes. Nevertheless, to focus on the Lord is to watch Him narrowly or to seek Him with the eyes of your heart. It is also to observe the ways of the Lord. The Lord of glory is the Word of God. The Lord often reveals Himself in the Word. The motive of our hearts is not to seek a fresh revelation but to seek a revelation of the Lord. O Lord, show me Your glory!

The Lord reveals Himself in an atmosphere of rest. Then the Lord appeared again in Shiloh [tranquility, rest]. For the Lord revealed Himself to Samuel in Shiloh by the word of the Lord. And the word of the Lord came to all Israel (1 Samuel 3:21). When Elijah stood on the mountain, a high place, before the Lord, the Lord passed by. Then a strong wind tore into the mountain but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there occurred an earthquake but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake a fire burned but the Lord was not in the fire. After the fire there was a still small voice, the voice of the Lord (1 Kings 19:11-18). Jacob’s prophecy in Genesis 49 points out that Shiloh will come again. There remains a rest for the people of God to enter in. A prophetic community lives tomorrow, today. The mighty ones to come that Enoch prophesied about (Jude 14) see the end from the beginning and always regard it as the present. That is their level of faith. It is for this generation that I am waiting for but always endeavor to walk in its fulfillment today. I saw them in a prophetic dream in the winter of 1973.

I saw them revealed in dark times to come and they shone like golden lights. I saw it was those who sat at the Lord’s feet (like Mary) that were counted worthy of this calling while the pots and pans ministries (those busy in the kitchen like Martha) were denied (Luke 10:38-42). It is in waiting on the Lord, sitting at His feet, that you learn from Him to be gentle and lowly in heart and to enter into His rest. It is the humble and wise that He will entrust with all authority in heaven and on earth but the arrogant and carnal will be denied. I saw how they were caught up in the Spirit and was clothed with sonship. In my dream I saw myself in the kitchen (to busy to sit at His feet and learn from Him) and saw how the sons of God were born in the darkness of the night just before dawn. I was unpleasantly surprised to see that they were far less than I have expected. It reminded me of Gideon’s army. Since that time I am reaching in for this calling of God in Christ Jesus. My destiny is to press in, like Enoch, to receive a testimony that I am pleasing to God and than to be caught up in glory that I may never taste death. I am preaching this word to those who will despise the shame of being called all sorts of names in pursuing Christ as there only goal in life for the joy of this calling of sonship that is set before them.

Waiting on the Lord is to direct your attention to God. It is a waiting with a deliberate expectation, in other words it is saturated with hope. It is a constant and persistent expectation like expecting a very valuable item in the post.

Waiting on the Lord is also an awareness of His presence. His presence refers to His face or before His throne in the most Holy place. One enters into the presence of God through faith. Your expectation should not be a cloud in the air but a change from within your heart. The kingdom of God does not come with observation but it comes within you. I do not deny that His presence can be so heavy at times that you can be carried away in visions being in a trance. On a few occasions during my lifetime I saw trance related visions. This was during a time when the Lord gave me prophetic visions.  However, this is not the norm. I wish it were!

Waiting on the Lord is the Lord’s expectation and His deliberate waiting to be worshiped and to be adored. You can worship the Lord without singing and without words. Worship is a condition of your heart where you say, “He is God let me worship Him.” Let me relate to you a dream that I had many years ago. I dreamed that I thought to myself, “He is God let me worship Him.” The next moment I smelled the incense of that attitude that went up before God. It was a very pleasant aroma. Different from anything I have ever smelled. The moral of the story is that worship is more than just singing and praises. Worship is an attitude of acknowledging God as supreme in all areas of your life. So, in waiting on God, worship is also an attitude of love and adoration.

I just want to stress again that one should never blank out his or her mind because it is dangerous. Use your imagination without words, like television that is on mute mode. Be silent and at rest before the Lord.

Mainly, waiting on the Lord is a love affair that is saturated with a thankful heart. Mostly, I do not expect anything from the Lord but only to sense His love for me and me reflecting my love for Him. Just to open your heart and love God for who He is, and not for what He can do for you or give to you. It reminds me of a very rich young man that loves a certain lady very dearly. He would normally buy her expensive presents. He was a lover of flowers specially daisies and this lady was aware of his love for daisies. One day he found a very peculiar daisy in his garden. He was so pleased with his discovery of the flower that he cut it and presented it to his lady friend so that she could share in his joy. She was so upset because it was not an expensive present that she destroyed this beautiful flower in the palm of her hand as well as the excitement in the heart of this young man over this peculiar daisy.

I approached the Lord in the beginning with the same rotten attitude as this woman toward this rich young man. As long as I could receive from the Lord wonderful blessings I did not care to wait on Him. I did not know how to be thankful for little things because I was blind toward the small mercies of the Lord and I had not learned yet to share little excitements with Him. I had a road to travel to discover true love – thanks to my wife who has discerned this lack in my heart.

Sometimes you may see visions while waiting on the Lord or getting impressions from the Holy Spirit. I also see visions when I am praying. When I see visions while praying I will interrupt my prayer to record my vision in my dreams and vision journal. Not so while waiting on the Lord. This is my quality time with the Lord and I will do so afterward. Sometimes I forget my vision entirely or in part. This does not matter to me because waiting on the Lord is the Lord’s time where I just want to be aware of His love. Knights of the Cross of Christ waiting on God is for you. I salute you in the name of Jesus.

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In the previous pages it has been mentioned that Gayatri is not some Goddess, ghost etc. but is Adi Shakti that has manifested from Brahman or God. Gayatri is the root cause or substratum of all material objects and because of its existence there is movement, energy, advancement, inspiration and conversion in the inert-conscious world. Just as the machine called radio in one’s house contacts the all-pervasive ether vibrations in the cosmos, which helps one to hear radio broadcasts not only of one’s own country but of other countries too. Similarly when the soul force of an individual comes in contact with the all-pervasive Gayatri of the cosmos, it understands clearly the movements of subtle nature. And when one learns how to aptly utilize this subtle Divine Energy as per one’s will, one can attain all wealth pertaining to the material world, psyche and the soul. The path that leads to this wealth is called Gayatri worship.

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Many people opine that since our goal is attaining God, vision of the soul and liberation while yet living, why should we delve into the subtle nature of Gayatri? We should only worship God. Deep thinkers should understand that Brahman (God in his all-pervasive soul form) is taintless, untouched, pure, formless and beyond the 3 Gunas. Such a God neither loves anyone nor hates anyone. He is merely a witness and cause of his creation. One can never directly attain such a formless God because between God and the living being (Jeeva) there is the intense veil of subtle nature (energy). In order to go beyond this intense veil we will have to make apt use of materials of nature. The mind, intellect, psyche, ego, imagination, meditation, subtle body, 6 Chakras (plexuses), image of our beloved God, devotion, sacred sentiments, worship, vows, rituals, spiritual practices are all creations of Maya (God’s power of illusion). How can one attain the formless God without taking apt help of all these? Just as in order to fly in air we need an air plane, in the same way, in order to attain the formless God (Brahman) we will have to take help of basic spiritual practices. One can attain formless God only after going beyond this veil via Gayatri worship. The truth is this that the experience of realization takes place only in the womb of Gayatri. After raising oneself spiritually, one’s subtle sense organs and its experiential power, too disappear. Hence those who wish to attain God and salvation are known to worship the admixture of Gayatri and formless God in the forms of Radhey-Shyam, Seeta-Ram, Lakshmi-Narayan etc. A spiritual aspirant can fully merge with the formless God when the formless God desires to become “one from many” and thus he encompasses all individual souls into its single formless nature. Before this, all individual souls can only attain proximity, similar form and unity with a God who has a name and form i.e. Saguna Brahman. In this manner we are forced to worship the admixture of Gayatri with Brahman having a name and form. All those spiritual practices that help in attaining such a God will be via the subtle natured Gayatri. Hence it is not apt to think that in order to attain the formless Brahman, there is no need of Gayatri worship. In fact Gayatri worship is a must. If someone insists on ignoring or opposing a God with name and form know for sure that that is his own opinion. But it is impossible to ignore the Gayatri principle when one sets off to attain the formless God.

Many individuals say that we carry out spiritual practices ceaselessly. We do not desire any fruits of our actions and hence why should we take help of subtle nature? Such people should realize that although they have no desire for material benefits, yet they do have the desire to attain God. One can never perform any action without thinking of its results. Even if one gets something, the result will be nothing but a waste of time and energy. The meaning of true desire less action is with reference to divine Sattva Guna and spiritual desires. Such pure desires come in the first leg “Hreem” of Gayatri i.e. in the Saraswati category. Hence the worship of desire less sentiments is not outside the limit of Gayatri worship.

Scientists who have substantial knowledge of the Science of Mantra-chanting know that it is chanted via the various organs of throat, palate, lips, teeth, base of the tongue etc. When one chants a Mantra, the nerve fibers of all those organs that manifest its sound, spread out in all corners of the body. In this widespread area are present many glands which get influenced by the pure sound vibrations of Mantra chanting. When these subtle glands of an individual are diseased or have been destroyed, the Mantra chanting of such individuals is not smooth and this is called stammering. The body has many small/big, visible/invisible glands. Great Yogis fully understand that in those sheaths there are many special hidden storehouses of energy. The 6 Chakras (plexuses) pertaining to the Sushumna (subtle spinal region) are well-known and there are many glands too in the body. The chanting of various words (Mantras) influences these varied glands and thus the hidden storehouse of energy in these glands get activated. It is on this basis that Mantras have been designed. There are 24 letters in the Gayatri Mantra. It is related to those 24 glands in the body which when activated, radiate energies pertaining to light of pure thinking. By one-pointedly chanting the Gayatri Mantra, the guitar of the body starts giving off sound vibrations in 24 areas and such tunes emanate, which influence the important elements of the subtle world. This very influence is the casual influence of the fruits of Gayatri worship.

When you sing the Deepak Raag (an Indian classical music tune), a doused flamed lamp is re-lit; by singing the tune Megh-Malhaar we can get rain. With the sound of flute, snakes starting dancing, deer lose their consciousness due to ecstasy and cows give more milk. When one hears a cuckoo singing, our sexual passion is awakened. America’s Dr. Hutchinson gained fame when he succeeded in curing many incurable and painful diseases using music therapy. Indian Tantriks play on a Thaali (big steel plate) placed on a big pot with a special speed and this helps in curing patients who have been afflicted by ghosts or bitten by venomous creatures etc. The reason being that the vibrations of musical words take with it subtle nature along with atoms of its own kind so as to circumambulate ether and reach its substratum center. Over there one finds a special electrical force which tends to influence diseased parts under special circumstances. Similarly this is the very reason why Mantra chanting too gives amazing results. When one chants the Gayatri Mantra, a similar special energy manifests. While chanting the Gayatri Mantra 2 parts of the mouth are at work and it is over here that subtle nerve fibers activate some special glands. When vibrations are sent out from these areas, a cyclic Yogic music of Vedic meter flows in the ether principle and in a few moments bring back the army of its similar nature which in turn has returned after having circumambulated the cosmos. This helps us attain desired goals. The 5 elemental (material) flows of the powerful vibrations of word-music and the sentiment, spiritual endeavor, relationship based on worship of the subtle nature of soul force makes Gayatri Energy so powerful that it is a great blessing for its devotees.

Man’s body has untold extraordinary powers. This fact has now been accepted by modern day scientists too. These energies are under the control of certain glands/centers of the human body. Every letter of the Gayatri Mantra helps in influencing one or the other important centers of energy. Just as when you place your finger on a key of a typewriter and a specific letter gets typed, in the same way certain words influence the energy centers of our body. Following is a table that enumerates the relationship of every letter of the Gayatri Mantra corresponding to a bodily gland and its energy.

No. Letter Name of Gland Energy present in the Gland

1. Tat Tapini Success

2. Sa Safalta Enterprise

3. Vi Vishwa Nourishment

4. Tur Tushti Well-being

5. Va Varda Yoga

6. Ray Revati Love

7. N Sukshma Wealth

8. Yam Jnana Radiance

9. Bhar Bharga Raksha

10. Go Gomat Intellect

11. Day Devika Sense control

12. Va Varahi Steadfastness

13. Say Sinhani Concentration

14. Dhee Dhyan Vital Force

15. Ma Maryada Self-Control

16. Hee Sfuta Penance

17. Dhi Medha Far-sightedness

18. Yo Yogmaya Awakening

19. Yo Yogini Creation

20. Naha Dharini Smoothness

21. Pra Prabhava Ideal

22. Cho Ushma Daring

23. Da Drishya Discrimination

24. Yat Niranjan Service

Gayatri activates the above mentioned 24 energies in a spiritual aspirant. These qualities are so important that along with their activation, infinite number of prosperities, divine glories (Siddhis) and wealth is attained. Gayatri worship is not blind faith but is in fact a scientific mode of worship and one definitely benefits from it. Hence in Indian scriptures it is called the Kamadhenu (wish-fulfilling cow) of planet Earth.

In the Puranas (Indian Mythology) it is said that in heaven, the demigods possess the Kamadhenu cow. It gives nectarine milk and because the demigods drink it daily, they remain contented, happy and prosperous. This cow has a very special characteristic wherein if a person comes in its vicinity with some desire in his mind, those desires are immediately fulfilled like the proverbial Kalpvriksha (wish-fulfilling tree). Thus the Kamdhenu cow fulfills the desires of all who approach it.

This Kamadhenu cow is Gayatri. That man who worships the demigod of this Gayatri Mahashakti of divine nature will definitely get the chance to drink the spiritual milk of Gayatri Mata’s (mother’s) breast. Such a person will not face any hardships. The Soul is bliss manifest. Such a person’s character is full of bliss. As soon as sorrow is overcome, a person experiences his true soul nature. He realizes that he is the cosmic soul and not the physical body that has a limiting name and form. The demigods of heaven incessantly experience ecstasy. In the same way human beings too can experience soul bliss while dwelling on planet Earth if only all the causes of sorrow are destroyed. The Kamadhenu cow in the form of Gayatri worship helps mankind to overcome all hardships.

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In my first two articles on breadth of mind and the Bible, I deliberately glossed over the spiritual breadth of mind the Christian is called upon to gain. Well, here we are. While I do hope you will take the time to read all four Articles on this topic, this is not required as each Article is intended to stand on its own. So, what is this “spiritual breadth of mind” and how is it gained?

The Starting Line

Every accountable person is … outside of Christ. The Creator alone determines the exact instant one is accountable for knowing the difference between right and wrong. Unfortunately, that is the moment of demise. Everyone is “under sin; as it is written, ‘There is none righteous, not even one. There is none who understands; there is none who seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become useless. There is none who does good … not even one’” (Ro 3:9-12). Being outside of Christ has many negative realities. Here is one. Since Jesus Christ is declared as God’s mystery “in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Col 2:3), then all outside territories contain no accurate spiritual knowledge.

Biblically, the one outside is called the “natural man.” That man “does not accept the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them …” (1Cor 2:14). Indeed, the natural man is both “alienated and hostile in mind” (Col 1:21). Being separated from God’s knowledge, wisdom and understandings automatically results in a narrowed mind. This is either true – or a foul, delusional claim. Absent His resurrection, I would pay this claim no mind.

“Your Sin Remains”

The Author of the Bible often uses a physical incident to illustrate a spiritual truth. In the Gospel of John, there is an account of Jesus healing a man who had been born blind. After a tremendous altercation with the Jewish religious leaders (Jn 9:1-38), this formally blind man found Jesus and fell in worship before Him. Jesus accepted his worship and announced, “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see; and those who see may become blind.” Some Pharisees heard this and sarcastically said, “We are not blind too are we?” He responded, “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you say, ‘We see’; your sin remains” (Jn 9:39-41). The natural man is spiritually blind. To come to Jesus, saying “I see!” is the sure way to walk away still being blind … “your sin remains.”

This means … the most learned Christian scholar, who has amassed a mountain of genuine, accurate spiritual material from the living Creator, will be the first to tell the new convert, “I started out just like you … blind – knowing nothing.” The second most learned saint will say the same thing. The third most learned will offer the same refrain. And so will the fourth, fifth, sixth … in fact, you will hear this from every single, genuinely-in-God, spiritual person who has ever been, is, or will be. Different faces, different places, different ages, but the same refrain. Speaking of refrains, these lyrics from my song, “Listen To Him” summarize this point.

“Every single Christian starts out just the same – A total fool – blinded – and dead, in his own name. He has nothing to offer anyone except stupidity and shame. That’s his only claim to fame.”

This is fantastic news for one who now seeks God. “He who spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?” (Ro 8:32). The scholar knows that a rhetorical question in Koine Greek is a literary device for the strongest form of statement. This is an assertion that God holds nothing back from those who are willing to learn from Him. “Ho! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat. Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost … Listen carefully to Me and eat what is good, and delight yourself in abundance.” (Isa 55:1-2). A genuine spiritual Christian “giant” will never place a money barrier between a person – and the knowledge, wisdom or understandings of God because … God doesn’t.

We Are Not to Remain at the Starting Line

When we reach this starting line, having called upon the Lord with something akin to the plea of the grief-stricken Publican, “God, be merciful to me, the sinner” (Lk 18:13,14) … the Starter’s pistol fires. The race is on. The windows of heaven are thrown wide open! One can go – and grow – into a spiritual breadth of mind as far as one is willing to go. The only cost is … the flesh. That explains …

Why Christians Stumble Around the Starting Line and Some Barely Grow

When God says, “My thoughts are not your thoughts. Neither are your ways My ways” (Isa 55:8), what He means is, “My thoughts are not your thoughts. Neither are your ways My ways.” He then illustrates this by saying, “Just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts” (Isa 55:9). As we start the race, we know little of His will, ways, thoughts, priorities, agenda, goals and emotions. The starting line is just that … the starting line.

The length of the race equals how long one is in this age post-conversion. Whether long or short, since, “I, the Lord, do not change” and He is “the same yesterday, today and forever” (Mal 3:6 and Heb 13:8) … guess who is slated for change? One would do well to imitate Habakkuk’s posture early in the race. “I will stand on my guard post and station myself on the rampart; and I will keep watch to see what He will speak to me and how I may reply when I am reproved” (Hab 2:1). Christian’s who choose otherwise – quit growing. Many don’t even realize it … yet.

So, the degree one abandons his/her way – in action and thought – will determine how far that person actually progresses in a spiritual breadth of mind. God lets His own know, as they go along, what dead meat He wants released. “(If) by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live – for all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God” (Ro 8:13,14). And in a consistency all His own, God is extremely gracious in these transactions. One exchanges a pound of flesh … for a ton of truth. But, the catch is … that pound of flesh must be released. In this, I am an adamant free-will advocate. And many … will … not.

Good or bad, right or wrong, God has determined that Christians grow – mature – into His thinking. Therefore, even the most fervent and honest Christian will make blunders along the way. It would be great if this was not so … but it is so. I do not know why God has decided on such a messy growth process. Maybe it is to humble us as we are still infested with a corrupt old nature that regularly rears its head. “If anyone thinks he is something – being nothing – he deceives himself” (Gal 6:3). What flattery. “But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ … in your thinking be mature … solid food is for the mature who, because of practice, have their senses trained to discern good and evil” (2Pet 3:18, 1Cor 14:20, and He 5:14). One must be willing to lay all arguments and opinions before Him – for scrutiny, confrontation and often demolition. “There is no wisdom and no understanding and no counsel against the Lord” (Pr 21:30). None that prevails anyway.

The Challenges In Gaining Spiritual Breadth of Mind

There are several powers working to retard a Christian’s growth from a spiritual breadth of mind. Here is a quick list. You may come up with more. Some overlap.

Retardant 1: One’s Own Flesh

There is almost no end to this category. It includes “jealousy and strife” (1Cor 3:3), “selfish ambition” and “arrogance” (Ja 3:14), “partiality” (1Ti 5:21 and Ja 2:9), an endless parade of “fleshly lusts” (1Pe 2:11), and even simply being “forgetful hearers” (Ja 1:25). James may have summed it up best when he explained why prayers are unanswered. “You ask and do not receive because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures” (Ja 4:3). Even as a Christian, one can still deceive his/her own heart (Ja 1:26). Fortunately, God knows our heart and has ways of exposing it to us (Lk 16:15, Ro 8:27 and 1Jn 3:20). This forms the base of our primary ministry in this age – one God is exceedingly interested in … the ministry of “putting to death the deeds of the body” with the promise, “you will live” (Ro 8:13) … and, by extension, gain breadth in mind.

Retardant 2: Hero Worship

When working with the fleshly Corinthians, Paul said, “each one of you is saying, ‘I am of Paul,’ and ‘I am of Apollos,’ and ‘I am of Cephas,’ and ‘I am of Christ.’ Has Christ been divided? Paul was not crucified for you, was he? … I, brethren could not speak to you as spiritual men, but as to men of flesh, as to babes in Christ.” Because of hero worship, they were still stumbling around the starting line. “I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able to receive it. Indeed, even now you are not yet able” (1Cor 1:12,13 and 3:1,2).

For decades, I have done a lot of work, and soul searching, on church organization (polity) and denominationalism. My formal Christian academic experience spanned three conservative factions (Presbyterian Church of America, Southern Baptist, and the Independent Christian Church). I graduated from two (the other closed … I needed one more year there). All three had an emphasis on Church History and their own development into the current sectarian menagerie. While there are a few legitimately thorny issues (baptism’s meaning and mode being the toughest for consensus through the millennia), most other divisions are the product of man. Without a full rehash here, I am of the persuasion that the bulk (maybe almost all) of the present denominational separations are the matured adults of babies spawned in the Corinthian Church. Paul still worked with the Corinthians as Christians, but their choices for unauthorized-by-God divisions retarded their growth – restricting their spiritual breadth of mind – and kept them … babies.

Let me give you one tiny example of how hero worship (now with a denominational structure encasing the hero) has weakened the Church. The particulars of this are not what is important. The dynamic at play is the point. It is repeated in differing ways and issues in all the sects, but the final outcome has the same net result and effect on the Church as a whole.

As a young Christian, I was a counselor at a Drug and Alcohol Rehabilitation Center. One recovering client came to me – challenging our imposed, ministry-wide, Sabbath keeping policy. He forwarded this passage: “Let no one act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day – things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; the body of Christ” (Col 2:16,17). The preacher who was doctrinally behind this rehabilitation ministry … was a “giant” in the faith. Dr. D. James Kennedy had thousands flocking to his church every week, founded the worldwide Evangelism Explosion program, built a church that was the sign of the fish (the “icthus” for those flying over) with a cross-topped steeple that was the highest point in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. He had a radio and television ministry … and often spoke memorized Koine Greek from the pulpit. And a recovering drunk, who soon returned to his debauchery, was challenging this giant and scholar – as well as the leadership and board of our rehabilitation ministry? Was I to believe – this drunk – or all the heralded, acclaimed, seminary-trained scholars above me? The answer is … neither. The challenge set before me was the same it has always been and will always will be … search the scriptures and “examine everything carefully holding fast to the good” (1Thess 5:21). In this instance, the soon-to-relapse drunk, was handling the Scriptures accurately. In fact, that entire denomination is in grave error on the Mosaic Law and its place and purpose post-cross. Thanks, Kenny. I hope you have been able to avail victorious power from the One who walked out of His tomb.

One problem with being a denominational loyalist (or worshiping a hero within it), is that the sect is maiming itself to some degree as it cuts off members of the Body of Christ who can not adhere to, or propagate, some errant sectarian feature of the group. In the example above, the PCA is accurate on many subjects, but concerning the Law as given to Moses – they really botch things up. But, as this error has been institutionalized, scriptural debate has ended. And it is rare that a theological error remains childless. It almost always spawns offspring – sometimes prolifically. A cross-topped steeple can quickly become a leaning “Tower of Pisa.” All denominations fall into this to some degree. The degree of culpability by the individual sectarian (as determined by the Head of the Church) probably determines the spiritual breadth of mind the sectarian will be able to achieve in this age. There is a lot of difference between a simple attendee who is seeking God for accurate scriptural understandings – versus one who, for reasons known to God, has rationalized why he/she is a denominational loyalist above all things. Many claim to be Christians first, but their deeds, especially when pressed – find them committed to the denomination first. If a student is deemed culpable and refuses the Teacher’s instruction, is the Teacher going to overlook that obstinacy and then impart deeper, precious treasure?

Retardant 3: Hiring Out The Work

When Paul brought his message to Berea, we are told they “were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily” to see if Paul’s assertions were accurate (Ac17:11). This required work … work in the Bible. Far too many professing Christians … will … not. They fall back on those they have hired to tell them what to believe. After all, that is a big reason they have been hired. Besides, “there are just so many interpretations on everything.” This is an excuse for laziness – so one can cling to comfortable personal opinions – and make God be the way the sluggard wants Him to be. None of this can possibly lead a Christian into a spiritual breadth of mind.

Retardant 4: False Prophets / False Teachers

“The prophets are prophesying falsehood in My Name. I have neither sent them, nor commanded them, nor spoken to them; they are prophesying to you a false vision, divination, futility, and the deception of their own minds” (Jer 14:14). In this passage, four springs are listed from which these false messages arise. But, for our purpose here, the sources are irrelevant – the reality is all that matters. Their message is error. In the New Testament, we are warned, “But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you …” (2Pet 2:1). This is a promise. Again, names, titles, “letters of commendation” (2Cor 3:1), style – all of these things are barnacles that must be scraped off – and the content of the message weighed. The content is all that matters. The Bereans could have cared less who Paul said he was, or who others said he was, or the style (or lack thereof) by which the information was delivered. And Paul, if in the Spirit, was pleased by this mind set of the Bereans. And I do not think we have any teachers/preachers today … superior to Paul. Do you?

Retardant 5: Satan and Teachings of Demons

There are very systematic presentations about God – from fallen angels – to man. The goal is singular: to keep one away from an accurate understanding of who the real Jesus is – what He did – and what the proper response to Him should be. “But the Spirit explicitly says that in latter times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits, even teachings of demons … for even Satan disguises himself as angel of light. Therefore it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness” (1Ti 4:1 and 2Cor 11:14,15). The phrase translated, “fall away from” is from a compound Koine Greek word, “aphistemi.” The components are, “apo,” (motion away from, having never been in), and “histemi,” (to stand). So, the Timothy passage is describing people who are standing and moving away from the Christian faith – having never been in it. But, to maintain a Christian cannot be theologically deceived by demons (for a season) is, in my estimation, an underestimation of these demons. Satan even came after Jesus with Scripture (Mt 4:6) … so, who do we think we are? I am of the conviction that many demons are silver-tongued, seasoned pros with cumulative knowledge and able to launch very tight and targeted attacks. Many times they will work through vessels that outwardly appear righteous. This is the whole, “wolves in sheep’s clothing” dynamic (Mt 7:15 and Ac 20:29).

Of course, the way to avoid falling prey to some false message in this rainbow of deception is simple. “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God … handling accurately the word of truth … examine all things carefully, holding fast to the good” (2Tim 2:15 and 1Thes 5:21). But most of all, earnest petition to God for accuracy in understanding His word … is an unsurpassed prudence. “But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all men generously without reproach, and it will be given to him” (Ja 1:5). When thinking sanely, such prostration is step one.

God wants the saint to be able to destroy “speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God” (2Cor 10:5). That includes all false religion and all “philosophy and empty deception” of man’s traditions (Col 2:8). All error, whether from man or demon, the Christian is to be able to field and refute. Opposing materials are to be accurately heard, dismantled, and dispatched. The word, “Christian” and the phrase, “breadth of mind” are to be synonyms.

Conclusion

In Him, a “Conclusion” often does not mean, “The End.” Each point above could be expanded exponentially. And this Article’s conclusion never will have an end. Here it is. Jesus once told the disciples the Spirit would take of His things “and disclose it to you” (Jn 16:14). Then, after rising from the dead, He “opened their minds to understand the Scriptures” (Lk 24:45). The Author of the Bible is the One who enables one to accurately understand, and integrate, His knowledge into one’s own thinking. This is activity initiated by God – owed to no one. But once initiated, there is no end to the breadth of mind a Christian can attain. Go get it.

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