Jesus Christ is my God!
Issued 12.10.2009
Hard-hearted toward goodness or toward evilness?
All of us have sometimes hardened our heart toward goodness and softened it toward evilness. Repent your softness toward evilness and your hardness toward goodness! Allow goodness to rebuke you so that you could be disobedient to evilness!
Hard face and hardened heart
He knew that he did wrong, but he wanted to hide it from others. Someone uncovered it and admonished for it. He thought that I surely will not receive the reprimand and will not submit myself to shame, though I am a wrongdoer. In this way he hardened his heart with his thoughts.
Again he did wrong but cared less and less of being exposed. He had hardened his heart for rebuking. The same was repeated many times and he was even more ready to reject all reprimands. Little by little he became harder and harder when he stifled the voice his conscience. Finally his heart became as hard as stone.
When he met a person, who did right in the same situation where he himself had done wrong, he for a while was ashamed of himself. His countenance fell and the wave of anger swept over him. "Does this person believe himself to be better than I! Actually I have not at all done wrong."
Again he did the same wrong deed, but without concealing it at all. Instead he started to be proud of it saying evil is good. In this way he gained for himself, not only a hard heart, but also a hard face. Woe to him, was it so difficult to receive shame of his deeds!
He didn't harden his heart toward the words of temptations, but for a bad lust he was soft and pliable. Could the hardness and softness of his heart be turned the other way round? If only he would be hard toward temptations of sin and soft toward reprimands of God! "He who covers his sins will not prosper, but he whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy. Happy is the man who is always reverent, but he who hardens his heart will fall into calamity." Pr.28:13-14
God became Man in Jesus Christ for this turning of our hardness and softness. He suffered the shame of our sins on the cross so that our hard heart could break and take the responsibility of our deeds. God's love is able to cause us to repent our wickedness.
He knew that he did wrong, but he wanted to hide it from others. Someone uncovered it and admonished for it. He thought that I surely will not receive the reprimand and will not submit myself to shame, though I am a wrongdoer. In this way he hardened his heart with his thoughts.
Again he did wrong but cared less and less of being exposed. He had hardened his heart for rebuking. The same was repeated many times and he was even more ready to reject all reprimands. Little by little he became harder and harder when he stifled the voice his conscience. Finally his heart became as hard as stone.
When he met a person, who did right in the same situation where he himself had done wrong, he for a while was ashamed of himself. His countenance fell and the wave of anger swept over him. "Does this person believe himself to be better than I! Actually I have not at all done wrong."
Again he did the same wrong deed, but without concealing it at all. Instead he started to be proud of it saying evil is good. In this way he gained for himself, not only a hard heart, but also a hard face. Woe to him, was it so difficult to receive shame of his deeds!
He didn't harden his heart toward the words of temptations, but for a bad lust he was soft and pliable. Could the hardness and softness of his heart be turned the other way round? If only he would be hard toward temptations of sin and soft toward reprimands of God! "He who covers his sins will not prosper, but he whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy. Happy is the man who is always reverent, but he who hardens his heart will fall into calamity." Pr.28:13-14
God became Man in Jesus Christ for this turning of our hardness and softness. He suffered the shame of our sins on the cross so that our hard heart could break and take the responsibility of our deeds. God's love is able to cause us to repent our wickedness.
Save hard-hearted people!
He lied and it didn't feel bad. He stole and was not afraid of a punishment. He committed adultery and was not ashamed of it. He did research work and falsified the results, but didn't consider himself a betrayer. He cut a baby into pieces in the womb of a mother considering himself a defender of women's rights. He killed his neighbor in a war and boasted to be a hero. Additionally he believed to be on the journey to heaven.
The whole world is suffering because hearts are hard toward the speech of God and soft toward the sermons on sin. Bad lusts are preached publicly and secretly and its message is praised to be good and tolerant. Instead speaking of God is defamed to be hard and insulting. God and His believers are considered hard, because they do not accept what many love.
All of us we are changing as the result of our moral choices. Every change draws us either closer to God or farther from Him. At one moment someone can be frightened at the fruit of his hardness. His hardness can be near breaking but then he gets consolation from other hardened ones, which helps him to remain hard. Together they proclaim to each other these ancient words of comfort: "I shall have peace, even though I follow the dictates of my heart." De.29:19
"What have I done! It is awful how evil I am! If only I had not done it!" In this way it is thought when the hardness of heart breaks. God approaches this kind of a person and offers the atonement in the sacrifice of the death of Jesus Christ. The worth of His blood is able to cleanse your conscience and His death can remove your penalty of death. If you are breaking do not take comfort of people but seek God.
Refuse to be comforted before you will be comforted by God. If comfort of people is enough for you, you will be left without mercy of God. Many have been near the salvation of their soul but at the last moment turned back to the way of hardness.
He lied and it didn't feel bad. He stole and was not afraid of a punishment. He committed adultery and was not ashamed of it. He did research work and falsified the results, but didn't consider himself a betrayer. He cut a baby into pieces in the womb of a mother considering himself a defender of women's rights. He killed his neighbor in a war and boasted to be a hero. Additionally he believed to be on the journey to heaven.
The whole world is suffering because hearts are hard toward the speech of God and soft toward the sermons on sin. Bad lusts are preached publicly and secretly and its message is praised to be good and tolerant. Instead speaking of God is defamed to be hard and insulting. God and His believers are considered hard, because they do not accept what many love.
All of us we are changing as the result of our moral choices. Every change draws us either closer to God or farther from Him. At one moment someone can be frightened at the fruit of his hardness. His hardness can be near breaking but then he gets consolation from other hardened ones, which helps him to remain hard. Together they proclaim to each other these ancient words of comfort: "I shall have peace, even though I follow the dictates of my heart." De.29:19
"What have I done! It is awful how evil I am! If only I had not done it!" In this way it is thought when the hardness of heart breaks. God approaches this kind of a person and offers the atonement in the sacrifice of the death of Jesus Christ. The worth of His blood is able to cleanse your conscience and His death can remove your penalty of death. If you are breaking do not take comfort of people but seek God.
Refuse to be comforted before you will be comforted by God. If comfort of people is enough for you, you will be left without mercy of God. Many have been near the salvation of their soul but at the last moment turned back to the way of hardness.
Breaking speech
God's speech in Jesus Christ breaks hard hearts. God's reprimand gives us remorse over our own evilness. In this way He helps us to genuine repentance so that He can forgive us. "For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death." 2Co.7:10
You can regret your deeds, because they broke your proud dreams. That is "sorrow of the world", which has driven many to desperation. It is a totally different thing to regret one's deeds because God sacrificed His only Son for them.
If we have not repented our own evilness, we are not able to face evilness of others in the right way. He who doesn't confess his own wickedness surely is able to rebuke wickedness of others to hide his own guilt. Such abusing doesn't cause any good and it easily marks all rebuking to be a bad thing. However if one has a good conscience he is able to rebuke his neighbor with love.
Love is the motive of God when He admonishes us. He doesn't yell to us or defame us and He doesn't speak about our sins to show us how much better He is than we are. At least sometimes He rebukes everybody, because He loves all people. He also sends His servants to admonish people on His behalf. Once He sent Ezekiel, the prophet to admonish the nation of Israel: "For they are impudent and stubborn children. I am sending you to them, and you shall say to them, 'Thus says the Lord GOD. As for them, whether they hear or whether they refuse - for they are rebellious house.'" Eze.2:4-5
God prepared His servant so that he was soft toward words of God and hard toward words of injustice and lawlessness. "Behold, I have made your face strong against their faces, and your forehead strong against their forehead. Like adamant stone, harder than flint, I have made your forehead; do not be afraid of them, nor be dismayed at their looks, though they are a rebellious house." Eze.3:8-9
God set hard against hard. However, do not forget that these two different hardnesses had their opposite soft sides. A man who loves his bad lusts feels that a reprimand is hard talk no matter what kind of words are used and with what tone they are said. How easily a messenger of God is dismayed at the hard faces of the godless, when they rise up to defend themselves to repel the reprimand.
Woe to us the witnesses of Jesus, for we have been soft and shrunk from admonishing the godless! In this way we have muddled the spring of the gospel and distorted people's idea of God's love. "A righteous man who falters before the wicked is like a murky spring and a polluted well." Pr.25:26
The softness of Christians toward sin has caused them to preach the gospel in the spirit of lawlessness. It is ingratiating speech which doesn't cause repentance, although it has caused many to make a decision of faith. The gospel in the Holy Spirit is breaking speech producing in us sorrow of our sins according to God's mind. Repentance is the effect that the gospel tries to cause in us.
"Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And you are witnesses of these things." Lu.24:46-48 Jesus commands to preach repentance for the forgiveness of sin. He does not make the decision of faith but the repentance the condition for the forgiveness of sins. God wants to break your heart and not your will.
Many have wanted to become a Christian from a wrong motive. A heart, hardened toward reprimanding of God, only wants to misuse God's mercy to gain the freedom of the gospel to cover one's evilness. The mercy of the gospel doesn't belong to those who remain in their hard-heartedness, but to those who turn away from their evilness. Also Peter preached about the turning away from iniquities as the condition to the blessing of God. "God having raised up His Servant Jesus, sent Him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from your iniquities." Ac.3:26
Also a hard-hearted person can ask God for mercy and make the decision of faith, because he wants to be saved from the punishment. Because his heart is hard his love to bad lusts remains and before long this makes him a scoffer of God's grace. "For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ." Jude 1:4
Woe to many who converted to Christians and have become children of hell! They have hardened to Christians. They have a reputation of being alive, but they are dead. They have a form of Christianity but deny its power.
The person who has hardened his heart could make such a decision of faith that he starts to listen to the reprimand of God until his heart is broken and he is able to receive the salvation. God's love makes it possible to want this kind of decision. This is the strongest reprimand that you can hear: "God's only Son, Jesus Christ suffered the punishment of your evilness by dying for you!"
Still God sends someone to admonish those whose impudent faces consider evil good and whose hearts have become hard to listen to a reprimand of God.
God's speech in Jesus Christ breaks hard hearts. God's reprimand gives us remorse over our own evilness. In this way He helps us to genuine repentance so that He can forgive us. "For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death." 2Co.7:10
You can regret your deeds, because they broke your proud dreams. That is "sorrow of the world", which has driven many to desperation. It is a totally different thing to regret one's deeds because God sacrificed His only Son for them.
If we have not repented our own evilness, we are not able to face evilness of others in the right way. He who doesn't confess his own wickedness surely is able to rebuke wickedness of others to hide his own guilt. Such abusing doesn't cause any good and it easily marks all rebuking to be a bad thing. However if one has a good conscience he is able to rebuke his neighbor with love.
Love is the motive of God when He admonishes us. He doesn't yell to us or defame us and He doesn't speak about our sins to show us how much better He is than we are. At least sometimes He rebukes everybody, because He loves all people. He also sends His servants to admonish people on His behalf. Once He sent Ezekiel, the prophet to admonish the nation of Israel: "For they are impudent and stubborn children. I am sending you to them, and you shall say to them, 'Thus says the Lord GOD. As for them, whether they hear or whether they refuse - for they are rebellious house.'" Eze.2:4-5
God prepared His servant so that he was soft toward words of God and hard toward words of injustice and lawlessness. "Behold, I have made your face strong against their faces, and your forehead strong against their forehead. Like adamant stone, harder than flint, I have made your forehead; do not be afraid of them, nor be dismayed at their looks, though they are a rebellious house." Eze.3:8-9
God set hard against hard. However, do not forget that these two different hardnesses had their opposite soft sides. A man who loves his bad lusts feels that a reprimand is hard talk no matter what kind of words are used and with what tone they are said. How easily a messenger of God is dismayed at the hard faces of the godless, when they rise up to defend themselves to repel the reprimand.
Woe to us the witnesses of Jesus, for we have been soft and shrunk from admonishing the godless! In this way we have muddled the spring of the gospel and distorted people's idea of God's love. "A righteous man who falters before the wicked is like a murky spring and a polluted well." Pr.25:26
The softness of Christians toward sin has caused them to preach the gospel in the spirit of lawlessness. It is ingratiating speech which doesn't cause repentance, although it has caused many to make a decision of faith. The gospel in the Holy Spirit is breaking speech producing in us sorrow of our sins according to God's mind. Repentance is the effect that the gospel tries to cause in us.
"Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And you are witnesses of these things." Lu.24:46-48 Jesus commands to preach repentance for the forgiveness of sin. He does not make the decision of faith but the repentance the condition for the forgiveness of sins. God wants to break your heart and not your will.
Many have wanted to become a Christian from a wrong motive. A heart, hardened toward reprimanding of God, only wants to misuse God's mercy to gain the freedom of the gospel to cover one's evilness. The mercy of the gospel doesn't belong to those who remain in their hard-heartedness, but to those who turn away from their evilness. Also Peter preached about the turning away from iniquities as the condition to the blessing of God. "God having raised up His Servant Jesus, sent Him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from your iniquities." Ac.3:26
Also a hard-hearted person can ask God for mercy and make the decision of faith, because he wants to be saved from the punishment. Because his heart is hard his love to bad lusts remains and before long this makes him a scoffer of God's grace. "For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ." Jude 1:4
Woe to many who converted to Christians and have become children of hell! They have hardened to Christians. They have a reputation of being alive, but they are dead. They have a form of Christianity but deny its power.
The person who has hardened his heart could make such a decision of faith that he starts to listen to the reprimand of God until his heart is broken and he is able to receive the salvation. God's love makes it possible to want this kind of decision. This is the strongest reprimand that you can hear: "God's only Son, Jesus Christ suffered the punishment of your evilness by dying for you!"
Still God sends someone to admonish those whose impudent faces consider evil good and whose hearts have become hard to listen to a reprimand of God.
Words in the Holy Spirit of God
No believer can lovingly meet hard faces and hardened hearts of the godless without the power of the Holy Spirit. Therefore Jesus said to His own not to go and preach the gospel "until you have been clothed with power from on high". Jesus appears in the Holy Spirit in His own.
The face of Stephen shone as a heavenly diamond and from his heart strong words flowed produced by the Spirit of God stricking like a sledge the hard hearts of the listeners. His listeners didn't want God's reprimand to break their hearts and therefore they killed him. For the same reason they earlier arranged the killing of Jesus. They were allowed to hear about themselves the truth they didn't want to be aware of. "You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you." Ac.7:51
Paul noticed that in the congregation assembled in Corinth there were people who believed from a wrong motive. He mourned over them and admonished them in love, but in plain terms. "When I come again, my God will humble me among you, and I shall mourn for many who have sinned before and have not repented of the uncleanness, fornication, and lewdness which they have practiced." 2Co.12:21
Their reckless attitude to sin revealed to Paul that they had not got the repentance caused by the Holy Spirit. He therefore seriously admonished them. "Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? - unless indeed you are disqualified." 2Co.13:5 How is Jesus Christ in us? Exactly so that we have His mind. Therefore it is written: "We have the mind of Christ." 1Co.2:16
Our mind cannot be changed into the mind of Jesus without having the sorrow of our own evilness caused by the gospel. The Holy Spirit or Jesus in us appears so that we have the mind of the Spirit. "Those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. ... If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His." Ro.8:5-9
Do not believe a spirit who claims to be the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit of God has the same mind as Jesus of the Bible has. He brings out Jesus and not Himself likewise Jesus brought out His Father and not Himself. In the same way don't consider every person a Christian who claims to be a new born Christian. A genuine Christian brings out Jesus and not himself.
No believer can lovingly meet hard faces and hardened hearts of the godless without the power of the Holy Spirit. Therefore Jesus said to His own not to go and preach the gospel "until you have been clothed with power from on high". Jesus appears in the Holy Spirit in His own.
The face of Stephen shone as a heavenly diamond and from his heart strong words flowed produced by the Spirit of God stricking like a sledge the hard hearts of the listeners. His listeners didn't want God's reprimand to break their hearts and therefore they killed him. For the same reason they earlier arranged the killing of Jesus. They were allowed to hear about themselves the truth they didn't want to be aware of. "You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you." Ac.7:51
Paul noticed that in the congregation assembled in Corinth there were people who believed from a wrong motive. He mourned over them and admonished them in love, but in plain terms. "When I come again, my God will humble me among you, and I shall mourn for many who have sinned before and have not repented of the uncleanness, fornication, and lewdness which they have practiced." 2Co.12:21
Their reckless attitude to sin revealed to Paul that they had not got the repentance caused by the Holy Spirit. He therefore seriously admonished them. "Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? - unless indeed you are disqualified." 2Co.13:5 How is Jesus Christ in us? Exactly so that we have His mind. Therefore it is written: "We have the mind of Christ." 1Co.2:16
Our mind cannot be changed into the mind of Jesus without having the sorrow of our own evilness caused by the gospel. The Holy Spirit or Jesus in us appears so that we have the mind of the Spirit. "Those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. ... If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His." Ro.8:5-9
Do not believe a spirit who claims to be the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit of God has the same mind as Jesus of the Bible has. He brings out Jesus and not Himself likewise Jesus brought out His Father and not Himself. In the same way don't consider every person a Christian who claims to be a new born Christian. A genuine Christian brings out Jesus and not himself.
Jesus is a witness in sackcloth to the hard-hearted
God is sad because of the hardness of people and yet now He is waiting for the repentance of many. His sorrow causes the same sorrow also in those who belong to Him. Jesus baptizes His own with the Holy Spirit and fire and sends them to preach the gospel that gives "repentance to life". Ac.11:18
In olden times mourning and repenting people clothed themselves in sackcloth. Thus they expressed their sorrow for something. "Zeal for Your house has eaten me up, and the reproaches of those who reproach You have fallen on me. When I wept and chastened my soul with fasting, that became my reproach. I also made sackcloth my garment; I became a byword to them." Ps.69:9-12
Before Jesus will come onto the earth on clouds taking power He will appear in two sack clothed witnesses. They represent God's reprimand to the whole mankind. Through them God will harden the people who have hardened themselves. "I will give power to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy one thousand two hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth. These have power to shut heaven, so that no rain falls in the days of their prophecy; and they have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to strike the earth with all plagues, as often as they desire." Re.11:3,6
The beast together with the mankind will make war against them and kill them. This encourages them to think that it would be possible to take a victory over God. So they are filled with so great self-confidence that they finally go to make war against God Almighty. In this war of the hard-hearted it will happen as it happened in the days of Pharaoh. God struck him with ten plagues, but ten times he hardened his heart. Finally God hardened his heart so hard that he went to make war against God and was so destroyed.
God is sad because of the hardness of people and yet now He is waiting for the repentance of many. His sorrow causes the same sorrow also in those who belong to Him. Jesus baptizes His own with the Holy Spirit and fire and sends them to preach the gospel that gives "repentance to life". Ac.11:18
In olden times mourning and repenting people clothed themselves in sackcloth. Thus they expressed their sorrow for something. "Zeal for Your house has eaten me up, and the reproaches of those who reproach You have fallen on me. When I wept and chastened my soul with fasting, that became my reproach. I also made sackcloth my garment; I became a byword to them." Ps.69:9-12
Before Jesus will come onto the earth on clouds taking power He will appear in two sack clothed witnesses. They represent God's reprimand to the whole mankind. Through them God will harden the people who have hardened themselves. "I will give power to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy one thousand two hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth. These have power to shut heaven, so that no rain falls in the days of their prophecy; and they have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to strike the earth with all plagues, as often as they desire." Re.11:3,6
The beast together with the mankind will make war against them and kill them. This encourages them to think that it would be possible to take a victory over God. So they are filled with so great self-confidence that they finally go to make war against God Almighty. In this war of the hard-hearted it will happen as it happened in the days of Pharaoh. God struck him with ten plagues, but ten times he hardened his heart. Finally God hardened his heart so hard that he went to make war against God and was so destroyed.
Jesus scourges your evil thoughts
When Jesus drove out with a scourge those who sold merchandise in the temple of Jerusalem, the disciples connected this event to this word of the psalm 69: "Zeal for Your house has eaten me up." Joh.2:17 Now no building can be a house of God, because "we are His house if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end. Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: 'Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.'" Heb.3:6-8
The bodies of believers are the temple of God and His Church. Now Jesus appears in us through His Spirit and drives out evil thoughts from His house with the scourge of words, "for whom the LORD loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives. But if you are without chastening of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons." Heb.12:6,8
If you have all the time thoughts according to the Spirit of Christ, you don't need chastening. However nobody has remained in the narrow road in his thoughts without reprimand of God's Spirit. Therefore it is written that every child, of whom God acknowledged His paternity, has experienced His chastening. "He who keeps instruction is in the way of life, but he who refuses correction goes astray." Pr.10:17
Many have rejected the reprimand of Jesus as being under the law. That is logical behaviour of those who live in lewd grace. Paul said that keeping the mind of Christ is the same as being under Christ's law. "Not being without law toward God, but under law toward Christ." 1Co.9:21 Also John, the apostle has the consistent statement: "By this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, 'I know Him', and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him." 1Jo.2:3-4
The sack clothed witnesses, about whom I mentioned earlier, will first admonish Christians and after that they will be the judgment for all the world, for "the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God?" 1Pe.4:17
What is the judgment the house of God will get? Peter said it in the previous verse: "Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in this matter." 1Pe.4:16
Are you ashamed of suffering for the sake of Jesus? Are you ashamed of being a mourning Christian? Are you ashamed "to be clothed in sackcloth" to be able to drive out the thoughts of your evilness? Godly sorrow is one part of suffering as a Christian. The two sack clothed witnesses will encourage Christians to cleanse their minds. They have the same message as James, the apostle. "Purify your hearts, you double-minded. Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up." Jas.4:8-9
If you have based your hope on the gospel of God, I am sure that you have heard the Holy Spirit admonishing your thoughts. Stick to that reprimand with your love to your Redeemer. Do not always say when you heard an evil thought in your mind, that it was the devil who spoke to you. Confess the thoughts of your own evilness and mourn for them in the Holy Spirit. Hate yourself as a person who wants evil things. Let your sinful nature get the scourge of God. The Holy Spirit is powerful to put to death your evilness.
It is a great happiness to experience the circumcision of your heart in the Holy Spirit! Receiving the mind of Jesus gives you the acceptance of God the Father, but remaining in it will recreate you. How blessed it is to experience God detaching me from the identity of my godlessness and new identity in Jesus Christ filling my consciousness.
"The word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of our soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." Heb.4:12 The Spirit of God is the heavenly surgeon. You can trust His operation. Be not afraid, Jesus stands behind the door of your heart and asks your permission to cut you off from your evilness.
When Jesus drove out with a scourge those who sold merchandise in the temple of Jerusalem, the disciples connected this event to this word of the psalm 69: "Zeal for Your house has eaten me up." Joh.2:17 Now no building can be a house of God, because "we are His house if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end. Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: 'Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.'" Heb.3:6-8
The bodies of believers are the temple of God and His Church. Now Jesus appears in us through His Spirit and drives out evil thoughts from His house with the scourge of words, "for whom the LORD loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives. But if you are without chastening of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons." Heb.12:6,8
If you have all the time thoughts according to the Spirit of Christ, you don't need chastening. However nobody has remained in the narrow road in his thoughts without reprimand of God's Spirit. Therefore it is written that every child, of whom God acknowledged His paternity, has experienced His chastening. "He who keeps instruction is in the way of life, but he who refuses correction goes astray." Pr.10:17
Many have rejected the reprimand of Jesus as being under the law. That is logical behaviour of those who live in lewd grace. Paul said that keeping the mind of Christ is the same as being under Christ's law. "Not being without law toward God, but under law toward Christ." 1Co.9:21 Also John, the apostle has the consistent statement: "By this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, 'I know Him', and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him." 1Jo.2:3-4
The sack clothed witnesses, about whom I mentioned earlier, will first admonish Christians and after that they will be the judgment for all the world, for "the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God?" 1Pe.4:17
What is the judgment the house of God will get? Peter said it in the previous verse: "Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in this matter." 1Pe.4:16
Are you ashamed of suffering for the sake of Jesus? Are you ashamed of being a mourning Christian? Are you ashamed "to be clothed in sackcloth" to be able to drive out the thoughts of your evilness? Godly sorrow is one part of suffering as a Christian. The two sack clothed witnesses will encourage Christians to cleanse their minds. They have the same message as James, the apostle. "Purify your hearts, you double-minded. Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up." Jas.4:8-9
If you have based your hope on the gospel of God, I am sure that you have heard the Holy Spirit admonishing your thoughts. Stick to that reprimand with your love to your Redeemer. Do not always say when you heard an evil thought in your mind, that it was the devil who spoke to you. Confess the thoughts of your own evilness and mourn for them in the Holy Spirit. Hate yourself as a person who wants evil things. Let your sinful nature get the scourge of God. The Holy Spirit is powerful to put to death your evilness.
It is a great happiness to experience the circumcision of your heart in the Holy Spirit! Receiving the mind of Jesus gives you the acceptance of God the Father, but remaining in it will recreate you. How blessed it is to experience God detaching me from the identity of my godlessness and new identity in Jesus Christ filling my consciousness.
"The word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of our soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." Heb.4:12 The Spirit of God is the heavenly surgeon. You can trust His operation. Be not afraid, Jesus stands behind the door of your heart and asks your permission to cut you off from your evilness.
The Bible version used in references is NKJV