Jeff Andras's Blog, page 7

A call to the leaders

RECAP This is the fourth blog in a series that addresses how God communicates with us and what it is that He is saying through the dysfunction and pain that we see around us.  The series includes the following blogs: Is this really how God works? (Scriptural introduction)Some Kingdom Principles (Apologetic discussion)Time to Dig in (Pat Schatzline's message--God Shouts & first assessments)
MOVING FORWARD Several years ago God showed me that He has chosen me for such a time as this.  He has spent the past 7 years preparing me to share this message with a sense of urgency, in truth, and in love.  Pat's description of the people who God is calling is a perfect fit to what God has been molding me into, bringing me through, and welling up within me.  This is why I do what I do and what I truly live for.  This is not about being right or about theology.  This is about listening to God, hearing what He is saying, and helping others hear the sound of His voice.  This is about doing everything we can to change the course of the direction we are on.  We must open our eyes and accept that God is bringing a sword across the land in the same manner as He did with Babylon against Israel almost 2,400 years ago.  As His people we must listen to what He is saying and return to Him.  If we do, He will take care of the rest.  Ancient Israel did not listen to the words of Isaiah.  The question is, will we?
Moving on from where we left off in Pat's message, we find him addressing incredible transformation within the church body itself.  Picking out a few key words we find the understanding including a declaration of God's holiness, the pure Gospel, repentance, the whole council of God, prayer, and intercession.  From there the rest of the message includes the promises of what God will bring about contingent upon the awakening He is expecting.  The future would include youth services coming alive with a heart of God instead of a heart for a great social event.  We will see a time of restoration and growth within the churches instead of the exodus that we have been experiencing.  This infiltration of people would add services and come with a heart hungry for the Word of God and less interested in the pot lucks that follow.  The message includes retired pastors returning to the ministry and the healing of the hearts, minds, and families of existing pastors who have become burnt-out through the struggles of the modern church scene.
The "shouting" is the pain and suffering of our broken families, the depression, sickness, perversion, lust, hate, materialism, envy, and idolatry that runs through the veins of the church.  These are the things that are on our minds and why we approach church with a lack luster desire, why only limited transformation is taking place, and why our churches are becoming more and more empty.  These are the things that God is showing us that He can change if we listen to what He is saying.  We must let Him show us how not embracing His holiness while rejecting His precepts and putting forth teachings that are not heavenly minded are all directly connected to the dysfunction and sickness within the church.  Once we allow Him to show us the truth, we must repent for not following those precepts and become who He has called us to be.  This is what God is asking of us, it is what we must do, and it is the keys to releasing the blessings Pat saw in the message God gave him.
So, specifically what is it going to take?  How can we use what God has given Pat to unlock the future of this great transformation?  The answer can be found in taking a close look at the list of key words that were shared in the message God provided for the first group alongside what he has seen in this part of the message:Those called to lead the way will be humble, bold, holy, righteous people who will dig deep into God's Word and who will set themselves on living out His precepts.The righteous churches will declare God's holiness, the pure Gospel message, and the whole council of God.  They will lead the way in repentance, prayer, and intercession.The reason it is so important to overlap the two is that the first group will be the spiritual leaders that bring the current leaders of the churches into an understanding of where they have gone astray.  It is the sickness, depression, and brokenness within the churches that will break the pride of the religious leaders to the point necessary to let go of their religion and listen to the heavenly knowledge, wisdom, and understanding the Holy Spirit delivers from His simple, uneducated, and non-religious servants.
I totally understand why pastors are in the condition they are in.  The truth is, they have bought into a set of theological principles called religion.  They have embraced these religious views, and have dedicated their lives to the belief that their religion will change the world.  Every day they wake up and have to face the reality that it is not working.  Because they believe so deeply in their religion they have nothing else to turn to as the source of the failure but how they see themselves.
In no way do I want to minimize the amazing healing, transformation, and delivery being brought about in the name of Jesus Christ.  I agree that there are amazing things happening around the world and these things are being brought about as God uses amazing people for His purposes. In addition to key theological issues, a problem comes in when we continue to treat people within the church as if they were still outside the church.  The other side of this coin is when we treat people outside the church as if they were inside.  The understanding of the balance between truth and grace must follow the patterns of God as witnessed by the New Testament church.  In our imbalance we end up working against God instead of for Him.
The journey of the pastors and leaders who allow themselves to see and understand these things is going to be one of great difficulty that leads to ultimate freedom.  As they come to see that the theologies of the modern church are greatly flawed they will have the choice to grieve over their pride, the lost years, and the ease at which they allowed themselves to be led astray or hold onto their pride and ignore the wisdom of the reality of what God is showing them.
This is the same choice that Jesus put before the Pharisees in John 8.  The truth is, our religious institutions have done the same thing as the Pharisees and the Sadducees.  We have become polarized.  At one end we have a works based mentality that instills the fear of God to such an extent that we have become more focused on behavior modification than relationship.  At the other end we have used the Gospel message to create Christian relativism where there is no truth except Jesus and love.  Once the teachings move beyond these two foundational precepts everything else is up for grabs and based on our own personal relationship with Christ and our unique revelation of the Holy Spirit.  I hate to say it but, the definition of this is spiritual anarchy.  We now have over 40,000 denominations, no unity, little to no holiness, and are attempting to fight the same chronic dysfunction and disease within our own congregations as we are seeing with the rest of the world. 
Assuming the pastors are capable of embracing their humility, repenting, and being restored into a right standing with God, they will return with new freedom, understanding, and love.  Instead of seeing themselves as failures, they will see themselves as wonderful people of God, capable of being used by Him to preach the "pure Gospel message" and the "whole council of God".  He will use this understanding that He puts into them to kindle in them a fire that they bring back into the churches and use to ignite their congregations.  With new revelation, new wisdom, the true Gospel message, preached in love and in grace they will lead their congregations into their destiny of becoming the royal priesthood that God has called us to be.  As the congregations step into their priestly attire they will begin moving in the Spirit, feel the love of God as they intercede for others, and gain an entirely new understanding of what true love really is.  This will change how we approach the gay rights agenda, abortion, and the general decay of our society.  Instead of fighting for our rights we will turn off our TVs, take our kids out of public schools, and shut down the financial systems that do not stand for righteousness, purity, and truth.  Instead of voicing our opinions we will simply change the world by separating ourselves from it.
For the first time in the history of God's people, we will approach His precepts and His ways from a true heart perspective.  We will drop our legalism of what we need to do to be saved, make Him happy, or receive our rewards in heaven and we will drop our legalism of what we don't need to do because it isn't "required".  Instead we will be filled with the Spirit, search the scriptures for new and exciting ways to facilitate deeper intimacy, greater understanding, and greater wisdom.  For the first time since the Acts church, the people of God will have leaders who are capable of leading their congregations to these passages because they have embraced them, allowed themselves to apply them to their own lives, and as such have discovered the truth of the promises offered in God's Word.  Through this process God will create Romans 12 disciples who will lead the world to Him and His ways.
The thing is, I know this process to be true because what God led our family thorough is a micro scaled version of this exact same process.  As God dropped me to my knees and showed me that I was following Satan's ways more than God's I became free, He transformed me into the Priest I was called to be, and my marriage began to blossom.  As my marriage blossomed my wife and I went through the spiritual transformation referenced above.  The more I have embraced His precepts the more healing and love He has brought into our family.  Through this journey God started working on the hearts of our children and their lives have changed in the same ways as we have outlined regarding the congregations mentioned above.  If you can't trust me on this, trust Jesus...."the truth will make you free".
I pray that this blog has been a blessing to you, that you have found comfort in the words that have been shared, and that you have an amazing week.

Time to dig in

We serve such an amazing God.  After last week's blog I was really hoping that I would get at least a few challenging comments back asking how God might be talking to us through specific circumstances in the world around us.  As the days clicked by I started losing hope.  But then, Sunday morning at Grace World Outreach Church we had a guest speaker.  And as I left the parking lot I knew the challenge had been set before me and I felt the presence of God pushing me to follow up with what will be a series of four or five blogs in response to the message we heard.

Evangelist Pat Schatzline of "Remnant Ministries International" brought a message that just rocked the spirit within me.  Pat preached on a word that he received from God back in December.  You can read about this on Pat's blog at http://www.patschatzblog.com/2015/12/the-lord-will-shout-in-2016-prophetic.html

If you go to the page, you will find that God gave Pat an understanding of 16 "Shouts" that God will be calling out.  Pat notes that CS Lewis says that "God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pains, it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world."

Is that so on target with where God has been leading us with these blogs or what?  It is the point of the book I will be releasing, and the message God has put upon my heart for the past several years.  Don't we want to know what God is shouting about?  I know I do!!  And, I believe that He has made it my responsibility to blow the trumpet and help others understand how to hear exactly what He is trying to say.

Pat's message begins with a call to the righteous who will be awakened by God's voice.  These people will listen to what God is saying and respond by digging deep into His Word and allowing His Spirit to rule over them.  Pat sees these people as righteous, bold, holy, and willing to walk out His precepts in the midst of a compromising world.  Pat goes on to see that these people will be given dreams and visions, and that "God is handing  out parchment and scrolls in prayer closets to those who know His heart.  The parchments are announcements of what the Lord is about to do in the land, and these scrolls have hidden in them the keys to the kingdom of God."

Sunday evening I shared with Pat that I believe the following 15 "Shouts" that he heard from the Lord all hinge on this group of people doing what they have been called to do.  I believe that this group will be the ones who are going to help the church learn how to hear His voice to the point we can respond in the way that the blessings we are praying for can be answered. 

Pat believes that God has shown him that there will be "much civil unrest across America".  His messages indicates that this unrest will lead to a "mom's movement" that, if they listen to God, they will move across America with His power and that this will bring about change.  In this "shout" we see the pain as the civil unrest continues to grow.  I believe this civil unrest that Pat is speaking of in this first "shout" deals with issues such as abortion, gender identity, and the materialism of our society.  We must remember that God is speaking to the church, so what could God possibly be telling us as He leads our society into the bondage we are seeing around us.  For starters, we must see that all three of these things are connected together with the common thread of pride and lust. The truth is, the Church has been chasing materialism for years, our homes are filled with gender confusion, and we have been spiritually aborting our children as we have chased after the material promises of this world.

As you read this, I know you know that what I am saying is true.  We have chased after larger homes, cars, and luxury vacations.  In our "need" for the things of this world we have justified two income families even when it has not been absolutely necessary.  In our pursuit of luxury and comfort we have established the television, video games, and the internet as the spiritual mentors of our children.  We have lost our gender identity as husband and wife from a biblical vantage point and brought total perversion, materialism, and an onslaught of demonic attack into our homes in the name of entertainment.  For God to provide the power to support this "mom movement" men and women must first repent, turn back to living a gender correct image of marriage, support one another as husband and wife, repent for allowing the material things of this world to become more important than the spiritual well-being of our children, and become the moms and dads our children deserve.  As the moms and dads of this country repent, God will bring about the transformation discussed in this second of sixteen "shouts".

I pray that the words of this blog have deeply impacted you.  We serve a kind and loving God who is quick to forgive and slow to anger.  But now is not the time to preach soft and easy to listen to messages.  The time is short.  We must let ourselves hear what He is saying, repent, and feel the power as He changes the atmosphere around us.

God bless.

Some Kingdom Principles

In the last post we started our journey toward becoming more observant to what God is attempting to communicate to us through the circumstances of life. Before we go too deep into specifics we should take a minute and consider a few foundational principles of how God goes about bringing understanding and growth into our lives.

You might ask; why is this so important?  The point is, so many of us have become totally dependent upon the teachings and "words" of pastors, teachers, and prophets.  I am absolutely convinced that this is one of the biggest problems in our modern churches.  As teachers we should be helping others learn how to communicate  with God on their own.  Isn't this the principle that parents apply to their own children?  How many parents would be happy feeding and taking care of their children for life?  Why is it then that we have created a system where spiritual parents are content feeding and "parenting" their spiritual children for life?

As we move toward becoming spiritually mature adults, we must remember that Kingdom Principles are usually 180 degrees opposite our typical human perspective. I am sure we could all list some examples but lets name a few.
The world tells us that if we are selfish and "take care of number one" we will have the greatest satisfaction in life. On the other hand, God tells us that when we lay down our lives for others we experience the greatest sense of love. Since nothing could give us greater pleasure than being filled with love, we come to understand selfless is fulfilling while selfish is empty. Some of us have been told that it is the man's responsibility to provide for and protect his wife and family. This puts a huge burden on men and actually puts them into the position of being "God" to their wife and children. Isn't it true that in the big picture of things, the man can never be held fully responsible for providing for or protecting his loved ones. Instead, our greatest role in the lives of our family is to lead them to trusting God for their provision and protection. As men move toward this understanding we become free to work hard, do the best we can, and trust God to be God. If our wives and children come into this same understanding, we work together through the circumstances of life understanding that ultimately God is in control and has us right where He wants us in our journey toward unity with Him and others.  With a few examples behind us let's look at the form of teaching and learning that we have all come to know and understand. According to the worlds systems teaching is brought about as the one with the greater knowledge shares the knowledge, understanding, and skills with the student. In this process the student learns and grows. Since we know that Kingdom Principles are almost always 180 degrees opposite worldly principles, we have to ask; how would we expect God to grow people toward greater knowledge? Would it make sense that God would design a system where the student would teach the teacher? Just the thought of that makes no sense at all. Since it makes no sense to our logical minds we must be onto something. I know that sounds crazy, but it really is true.  If we want to discover the mystery of these things we must step out of the box created by the world's systems and our flesh based logic.

Here are the biblical principles that help us come into an understanding of exactly how God's system of learning works. First of all, the entire foundation of the New Testament is that revelation is given by God, in His timing, and to whom He chooses. As such, we are incapable of "teaching" anyone anything.  All we can do is present information.  If their eyes are to be opened and understanding granted, it comes through the work of the Holy Spirit.  Secondly, in the scriptures shared in the last blog, we see that God brings hardship upon the student as the result of the transgressions of the teacher. Because we know that God loves us, we must ask Him why He would do such a thing. The truth is, true teachers care deeply for their students. When a student goes astray a true teacher will search their heart and soul in a desire to see what they did wrong, what they would do different, and how they could go about helping the student get back on track. In the teacher's time of prayer over these things the Holy Spirit will grow the teacher, the teacher will be refined, and the teacher will become more Christ like. As the teacher grows God releases revelation to the student and both teacher and student grow. As Christ's ambassadors to the world we must accept that we were chosen by God to be the "teachers" for the world, and all those hurt and lost people, well, they are our "students".

With this understanding we start looking at all their dysfunction a little different.  How many of us are willing to look at what they are doing, how are they acting, and where is God attempting to grow us closer toward Him as we look at the pain of their lives? I encourage you to take a minute and share some of what you see going on in the world around us and ask what God might be trying to tell us through it.

Let's challenge each other to come together in unity and explore your questions together.  As the Body of Christ this is what we should be doing; this is what we need to be doing.  Are you willing to post a simple statement back?  To challenge other Christians to throw in on what God might be trying to tell us?  Here are some examples we could start with:  Abortion, Gay rights, war, persecution, removing prayer from the schools,......  Let's challenge each other and see what we can find.  Remember, we are looking inward, not outward.  This isn't about them.  This is about us.

Didn't God tell us that when "His people repent and return to His ways, He will heal their land".  If we want God to heal our land we need to start thinking like He thinks.  It starts with asking, "Dear God, what are you asking us to repent of?"

God bless and I look forward to some great discussions.

Is this really how God works?

Have you ever stopped to ask yourself, How does God communicate with mankind?  Sure, sometimes He uses words as He talks to us in our prayers or through others.  But does He talk to us in other ways?  The answer is yes.  God is always speaking to us through the circumstances of life.  The Old and New Testaments are filled with stories of how God has communicated to people through circumstance.  Jesus taught in parables to help us grow in understanding this form of communication so that we can learn how to better understand Him as He interacts in life around us.  Have you ever thought about that before?  Have you ever thought about how He might be talking to you through the circumstances of your life?

When we come to understand how God is talking to us through the circumstances of life we are free to start seeing Him in everything.  When we start seeing Him in everything we can truly be delivered into the fullness of the Fruit of the Spirit as promised in Galatians 5.  At the end of the day, isn't this what God really wants for us; to be so one with the Spirit that we understand what God is doing in, through, and around us all the time?

Let's take a look at two scriptures and see if they will help us understand this fundamental mode of communication.  The challenge to these scriptures is to find "God's Love" contained within what He is telling us.  Once we find His love, we are free to understand who  He is attempting to communicate with, and what He is attempting to say.


 [Deuteronomy 5:9 NASB] 9 'You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, and on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me,

[Isaiah 3:1-5, 13-14 NASB]  For behold, the Lord GOD of hosts is going to remove from Jerusalem and Judah both supply and support, the whole supply of bread and the whole supply of water;  The mighty man and the warrior,the judge and the prophet,the diviner and the elder, the captain of fifty and the honorable man,the counselor and the expert artisan, and the skillful enchanter. And I will make mere lads their princes, and capricious children will rule over them, and the people will be oppressed, each one by another, and each one by his neighbor; The youth will storm against the elder and the inferior against the honorable............ The LORD arises to contend, and stands to judge the people. The LORD enters into judgment with the elders and princes of His people,"It is you who have devoured the vineyard; the plunder of the poor is in your houses.

In the first scripture it is hard for us to reconcile that God would visit the iniquity of the fathers onto the children to the third or fourth generations?  In the second scripture, is it hard to reconcile that God would "remove" all the mighty men, warriors, judges, prophets, diviners, elders,  honorable men, counselors, artisans, and skillful enchanters? If this were not enough, He even says He will make mere lads their princes, and put children ruling over them.

From a human flesh perspective this tends to make no sense.  If God loves us, and wants us to love Him wouldn't you think that He would do just the opposite?  If a father or mother were going astray wouldn't it make sense to lead their children back to Him so that He could use the children to lead the parents back?  If a country were going astray wouldn't it make sense to raise up a generation of prophets, judges, and youths of great wisdom to lead the country back into a positive direction?

The thing is, God wants us to choose Him on our own free will.  He wants us to love Him, but just as importantly, He wants us to embrace His ways.

2 Chronicles 7:14 gives us the key; If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

You see, what God gives, God can take away.  We tend to see this only in the sense of what good things He gives He can take away.  Have you ever stopped to consider that maybe He brings challenges into our lives for the point of leading us into humility?  And that just as quickly as He brought them, He can take them away?  When we focus on what God is using we tend to miss what He is saying.  When we see what He is doing and ask Him to show us what He is trying to tell us everything changes.  It is form this position that we can hear His voice, grow into what He is asking us to be, and do the very thing that He is asking us to do.  I wonder how many of our prayers are being held up because we are not willing to hear what He is telling us as we try to get Him to remove the very thing He brought into our lives.

Over the next few posts we will go a bit deeper into some of the things that are going on around us, what is happening in the world, and look to God for the answers as to what He might be trying to tell us.  I pray that this blog has been thought provoking and drawn you into a deeper relationship with God.  If you find this to be a positive influence in your life please comment, share, and re-post.  Thank you and God bless.

What is God doing?

The journey of the past several years has been totally amazing.  We are blessed to have such an amazing God.  There is no doubt that God is bringing about some changes in our world, our churches, and in people.  Being a Jewish believer in Jesus is such a gift.  To see God moving the hearts of others with my same heritage brings such warmth to my heart.  At the same time, something is happening in the church.  God is on another one of His "every 500 year" campaigns.  Even more interesting is to note that He is on another one of His "every 2,000 year" campaigns.  The church has some really big challenges ahead of her and my heart has compassion toward the struggles that she will face.

What is this going to look like for the Church?  Where is God leading us?  What kind of changes are going to take place?  And, what new understandings is He going to show us?


Protestants understand and embrace that 2,000 years ago, under the influence of a hedonistic society, the Catholic Church went astray in several key areas.  Five hundred years ago Martin Luther and several others led a revolt against the church and brought the reformation movement into being.  This was a wonderful move of God that has presented us with a way of life, and an ability to have freedom of religion that was not possible at that time.  At the same time, is it possible that this movement was tainted by the theologies of man?  Is it possible that the religious preferences, desires, and attitudes of those that led the campaign tainted the full degree of the revelation that was necessary?  Is it possible that we are moving into a time period where God is about to finish what He started 500 years ago?  I believe the answers to these questions is YES.

We need only to look as far as this quote from Rev. Mark J. Gantley, JCL as found on WETN.com on 5/1/2005.  "In the 16th century, Martin Luther adopted the  modern Jewish list, putting the Deuterocanonical books in an appendix. He also put the letter of James, the letter to the Hebrews, the letters of John, and the book of Revelation from the New Testament in an appendix. He did this for doctrinal reasons" Italic added


Today, if anyone would attempt to remove any books from the bible because of "doctrinal reasons", or any other reasons for that matter, wouldn't it cause us to really question where this person is getting their "doctrine" from?  Fortunately most of what Martin Luther wanted removed was protected and the integrity of our bibles were mostly maintained.  But this is not the point.  The fact is that this was a major turning point in church history, a turning point that ushered in new understandings, and new theology.  In light of the evidence, how can we deny that Martin Luther's theologies were not tainted by his own personal beliefs, beliefs that did not stem from God, and as such were intended to battle against the Kingdom of God?

Shouldn't we be searching out Martin Luther's personal attitudes and opinions?  Wouldn't a greater understanding of the man help us to understand where a door may have been left open for the enemy to attack?  Wouldn't this help us understand where God might be leading us as He prepares for His next big move?

I pray that this blog has inspired thought for you this morning.  I pray that it has been a blessing.  In Jesus name, Amen.

What really makes sense?

Think about this for a minute.  How many of us have been taught that the way the Pharisees understood things is the way God intended the old covenant to be?  The truth is, Christ’s discussions with the Pharisees were to show them that their understanding was flawed, not the covenant.  If we allow ourselves to listen to what Christ is telling the Pharisees we come to understand what He was telling them is simply “you aren’t getting this”.  If we want to understand God, Christ, and the New Covenant we must listen to what Christ told the Pharisees and apply what He told them to OUR UNDERSTANDING OF THE OLD COVENANT and bring that understanding into our foundation of the New Covenant.

Forgiveness, repentance, and acknowledgement of sin were always a perpetual and ongoing aspect of a defined relationship with God.  The Day of Atonement only carried special considerations as far as worship...not physical function.  The animal sacrifice only carried special considerations as far as worship…not physical function.  The roll of the high priest only carried special considerations as far as worship….not physical function.  If the law included a day of forgiveness and a sacrifice for forgiveness, and the law required that these events be honored than the truth is, in honoring these aspects of the law, the entire law has been honored.  In other words, the law included the requirement to let God forgive us of any transgressions committed in the prior year (time period).  In other words, the foundation of the law and the Old Covenant was grace, accepting God's forgiveness, repentance, and acknowledgement of sin.  Does this sound familiar?

The function of salvation relative to forgiveness was, and still is, addressed in the ongoing moment by moment relationship between God and His people.  The law provided everything offered through Christ except the strength of the Holy Spirit, the person of the High priest (the one that goes before God as a cover for our sins), and a much more substantial sacrifice opposed to animal sacrifices that did not impose the conviction required to bring true repentance into the heart of the sinner.  Contrary to teachings...salvation was never through works (except that the Pharisees did teach this during the time just prior to and during Christ’s time and as such Christ addressed this view in His discussion with them).  The reality is that what they understood was not representative of what God provided or how He wanted it understood.  This is the very point Christ was attempting to make.

This understanding helps us understand Why Paul and every other author of our scriptures including Christ himself continued to honor every aspect of the law to the best of their ability and why they continued to honor the traditional holidays.  It also helps us understand how important it would be for Satan to confuse us over these things and to get us to reject what God provided.

The law...better referred to as the tutor....reveals to us the nature of our flesh filter, and provides a foundation that God uses to reveal the nature of a life that will grow toward being more and more in harmony with our God nature.  It is for this reason we prosper in the fruit of the spirit as we are led by the spirit....toward AND BEYOND the letter of the law.

The holidays are used to connect us to our heritage, history, and God’s plan in general.  God uses the nature of the holidays to speak to us in many ways.  It is through the observation of the holidays that we remember our past, remain focused on the future, and become aware of deeper levels of revelation as His plan unfolds in harmony with the sequencing of things established in the beginning.

Yes, Christ replaced the high priest and the sacrifice; one time for all time.  But.... how does this change:
The foundation of what He GAVE US to use to help us understand the essence of who He is,What He GAVE US to make it easier for Him to communicate with us, andHow we should be thankful to Him for being so kind as to give us these things to make the journey easier? 
Yes, we can grow in our relationship with God without the law and without the holidays.  A simple example would be someone totally sold by the world systems.  Let’s use the example of someone who doesn’t honor any laws (even laws of the state) and who celebrates only pagan holidays.  Is it still possible for God to reveal Himself to these people?  Is it possible for God to show these people that life “Satan’s way” doesn’t work, and that life “His way” does?  Of course it is.  We see it every day.  These are the most hurt, lost, and destructive in society.  The pain they feel and the pain they impose are beyond what most of can understand or relate to.  God speaks to them in and through this pain.  Some are fortunate enough to come to understand that the pain is associated with the lies they are living and as such they come to seek truth.  They turn to God and He leads them into the light.  In this example we come to see that we learn one of three ways:
We learn by reading, hearing, or being taught,We learn by watching others fail and/or succeed, andWe learn through our own failures and successes.The simple truth is that the law and the holidays simply provide US with an opportunity for God to speak into our hearts, minds, and souls in a way that is easier than the latter two options.  It is our free will choice to reject the reading, the hearing, and the being taught and seek our lessons the hard way.  The reality is, the only difference between us and the criminal referenced above is the size of the foundation we accept as good, embrace as being for us, and trust to be righteous.  So what does this all mean?

What I see is that by eliminating the law and replacing the holidays we have left ourselves without the tutor.  We have found ourselves attempting to establish a relationship with God based on only trivial differences between our view of ultimate truth and the world’s view of ultimate truth.  In other words, our foundation is only marginally different than the worlds.  As such, the pain and suffering God uses to open our eyes looks basically the same as the pain and suffering He uses to open “their” eyes.  At the end of the day we find ourselves asking God to show us why we are suffering like we are while at the same time arguing that we “don’t need…..” for our salvation.  The truth is, the mindset that utters these words misses the reality of the gospel and is found on a works based salvation.  If the mind thinks “I don’t have to do that”, it must have a counter part that thinks “this is what I must do/can’t do”.  Until we approach the law and the holidays as a GIFT, embrace them as what God gave us to HELP us we will never understand the gospel, the love of God, or what it is to be in relationship with Him.

The truth is, without the law and holidays as a foundation we are left looking no different than the world...we are left with relative truth within the church with the illusion that each of our views of that truth is the same as Gods.  That opens the door for exactly where we are today.  The reality of the current state of the church is that it has thousands of views, no harmony, marginal leadership, little to no love, and expresses very little of the holiness of God.  In short..very little pure fruit...mostly cheap imitations.  My proof of this view is summarized in the prophecy of our pending failure, the current condition of the church, and our inability to even allow ourselves to be comfortable standing in the presence of Gods light.  If we won’t embrace it...how can we lead anyone into it?  The truth is we try to push them into the light as we hide in their shadows claiming we want to save them from the wrath God will bring on them for what they have done.  When will we come to realize that God gave us the responsibility to lead them to Him, their failure is the evidence of our failure, and our failure is the evidence of our pride.

I pray that you have a God filled week and that this blog will in some way drive you deeper into the arms of the one who created you, help free you from whatever bondage you are in, and be a part of the foundation of a deep and meaningful life.

An Eternal Agenda

Moving forward with this discussion we are transitioning from gaining an understanding of the “human condition” into “God’s plan”.  In order to understand this transition we must come to realize that:There is something beyond this existence, What is beyond may very well be more important, and Everything gained through this existence is an integral part of the journey beyond.The common theme between the messages over the past two weeks is coming to realize that the key to spiritual growth comes through humility.  Humility is the opposite of pride, and the ultimate in pride believes we “can be just like God”.  Way back in the garden Eve was tempted to believe that if she and Adam ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil they would become just like God.  The temptation has not changed.  This is what Satan wants for himself and what he uses to draw us closer to him and further from God.  We must remember that this is a spiritual battle and that he is the greatest hunter ever created.
I’m not a hunter but I do know some things about hunting.  A good hunter understands his prey and what his prey finds most tempting.  For most animals it would be some kind of food or the sound of its mate.
Let’s take a minute and think about how God created us.  Didn’t He create us in His image?  Wouldn’t it make sense then that our greatest desire would be the same as His?  What is God’s greatest desire for this world?  Isn’t it drawing all of us back to Him?  Another way of saying that would be, God’s greatest desire is to deliver us into spiritual freedom.
If this is His greatest desire and He created us in His image, than I would argue that this is our greatest desire.  If this is our greatest desire, then this desire is the path for our greatest temptation.
Knowing that Satan is a great hunter we come to understand that he has set up a really incredible plan to use our pride along with our desire to bring about global spiritual freedom to lead the world into global captivity.
But, the truth is, God is the ultimate hunter.  Satan is the greatest hunter He created, but we know that the created can never be greater than the creator.  So, what is God’s angle?
Does it make sense that God would create us with a desire to be free, help others, and bring about peace and then create a hunter to take advantage of these attributes simply to lead the world into bondage, pain, and suffering?
At first glance we would say of course not.  Even the thought of that is beyond reason.  But what if the most important part of this journey is coming to realize that God is God and we are not.  Maybe the most important thing isn’t the freedom or the peace.  Maybe the most important thing is that we allow Him to use the experiences of this journey to show us that we will never fully understand all that is to be understood, that as such we will never totally comprehend the difference between good and evil, and as such there is no way we will ever be just like Him.  Maybe what He has prepared for us once we move beyond this realm requires that we come to this point in our spiritual development.  If we don’t leave this realm and immediately come into the full knowledge, understanding, and likeness of Him then it would only stand to reason that there is more to our spiritual development than what occurs at that moment we leave here and go there.  Assuming we never reach the full knowledge, understanding, or likeness of Him we come to understand that this is an eternal journey that has no room for pride.
Coming to understand this leads us to understanding the critical nature of our being purged of any tendency to succumb to temptations toward pride.  If we embrace this as the sole purpose of this aspect of His creation (the story of planet earth and the human race) we come to see things from a different perspective.  We come to realize the magnitude of the humbling we must endure.  Simply stated, we begin to understand why we must:Be allowed to believe we are free, Be tempted into believing that we know the difference between good and evil, Be used by Satan to lead the world into his bondage, Be shown how our own pride in these specific areas is what created the opportunity for Satan to take advantage, Feel the pain of seeing the results of what transpires, and Make a free will choice to kill our desire for freedom and our belief that we will ever fully comprehend the difference between good and evil.This awareness is exactly what God’s plan ultimately leads us to.  Our full maturity into Christ ultimately comes through:The realization of the damage we have done in our desire to do what is right, While not allowing God to transform us into what He desires, While holding onto what we believe to be true, Thinking we are capable of doing what only He can, and Blaming others when we fail (because they disagree with our version of good and evil).This takes me full circle to the question that stimulated this entire 5 blog series.  Do I agree with replacement theology?  For those of you who don’t know what this is, it is a theology that believes that the church has replaced Israel as God’s “chosen people”.  The following summarizes how I see God using “His people to carry out His plan”:
The Jewish people were chosen by God to be His partner in bringing His plan of purging all mankind of our tendency to succumb to temptations toward pride, As such they would have to be the first people to be purged of this tendency, God gave them the foundation to what is right and wrong, Their pride allowed Satan to blind them to the foundational aspects and led them to believing these things to be the totality of ultimate truth, Believing these things to be the totality of ultimate truth they saw themselves as free and containing the ability to bring forth freedom to others, This provided the opportunity for Satan to make them his slave, God stepped in at the appointed time and did something new, Because Christ pointed these things out instead of lifting them up they rejected Him (pride), This rejection has led to the church carrying on the commission to work with God in purging all mankind of our tendency to succumb to temptations toward pride,Over the past 2,000 years the Jewish people have been the most persecuted people on the face of the earth, During this 2,000 year period the Church has followed in the footsteps of the Jewish people, Satan has used our pride to blind us to the foundational aspects of the teachings while relying too heavily on scripture such as John 3:16, This has provided the opportunity for Satan to make us his slave by reducing what it is to be a disciple into little more than wearing a cross, doing good works, and telling people about Christ, God is going to step in at the appointed time and do something new, What He does will bring about so much pain and suffering it will be the catalyst necessary to bring the Jewish people to the humility necessary to once and for all be purged of their tendency to be drawn from Him, The church’s humility will come when we find ourselves feeling as separated from God as the Jewish people have over the past 2,000 years.  This will be the result of our being subjected to the same persecution as they have endured, and the same tribulation as the rest of the world. Our pride has led us to believe that we will “be lifted up” and that God’s wrath “will fall upon those that deserve it”.  God will use these events to open up our hearts to a deeper truth than we have previously been willing to see, Together, Jew and Gentile who have allowed these things to bring them to their knees in ultimate humility will finally be prepared to be His ultimate bride, The millennial period will be ushered in as Christ sits on His thrown with Jew and Gentiles working together, under His lordship, free from the fleshly temptations of the world, to do His work His way, knowing it is He who is bringing all things about.The bullet point on the church “needing” the humbling of our failures is probably the most difficult for us to comprehend.  The truth is there are many parallels that we could use to understand this point.  Let’s look at the attitude of the Pharisees prior to Christ’s first coming.They were anxiously awaiting the coming of the Messiah, They were celebrating the feasts and honoring “His appointed method of atonement”, They felt as though they were living in accordance with God’s desires and that they had been properly forgiven of their infractions against the law, They believed the Messiah would come to lift them up and crush their enemies, The prophecies clearly told them that the Messiah was going to come BECAUSE of their misunderstandings of what God had given them, BECAUSE they were not going to be living in accordance with His desire, and that He was not going to send the Messiah to come and lift them up or crush their enemies, yet They were not able to see the truth of the prophesies because their pride did not let them.Answering the question in typical fashion, I say yes and no.  Yes, the Church did replace the Jewish people in taking the commission for a time (the time of the gentiles).  However, this will be just long enough to humble the Jewish people and to set the stage for the Church to experience the humbling necessary to come to know what must be understood.  In the end both Jew and Gentile will come together and work with Christ in the establishment of His millennial government.
Here is the cool thing.  I fully believe that individually we are free to come to these realizations prior to these events taking place.  We can read in the prophets how people in the future will come to understand these things and how God will communicate with them as they come to these realizations.  I fully believe that we are capable of having these conversations with God today, prior to the experiences taking place.  We can accomplish this by simply realizing that we are as responsible as those who will have to endure it.  As we come to understand our roll in what will take place in the future we can feel the pain of our humility just like those who will feel it in the future.  As we read the conversations between God and those who will come after us we can claim their words as our own.  Together we can go on our knees before God, embrace His plan as good, and have peace in all He is bringing about.
The people who are willing to walk this road are the people He has called me to share these words with.  God is calling me to share these things because He has told me that there are those who are willing to accept our roll in what will take place in the future and who are willing to repent before a kind and loving God.  He has asked me to share this to prepare that people to hold the hands of those that are not willing to see it, to go before Him and repent in their behalf of the sins they do not even know they are committing, and to be prepared to comfort them through what is to come.  He has told me that there are those who will see this as a blessing and that these words will bring them peace.  I pray that you are one of those people.
If you have been moved by the experiences of these blogs, challenged by what you have read, feel led to point out where I have overlooked an aspect of scripture, or would simply like my thoughts on something I encourage you to email me at JeffAndras@gmail.com.  It would be an honor to continue moving forward with posts addressing particular thoughts, comments, concerns, or life application discussions.
If you have been totally moved by where we have come I would encourage you to go back and start with “Choices” and take another read through the blogs.  Understanding the perspective from which all of this has been written will probably change everything about what you hear.  I am going to spend the next several weeks going back and re-writing some of the early blogs to fit the more current format.  I have learned so much over these past several months and thank you for supporting me in this effort.
God bless.

The Big Picture--A Global Experience

We are now into our 4th week of breaking down the blog posted on January 7th.  Over the past 3 weeks we have looked at:
How God’s thoughts and ways differ from our thoughts and ways, What do we think about when trials and tribulations come,How is God using trials and tribulations to speak to us, andAsking God to show us how to silence our own thoughts and to hear the Spirit when we are challenged with difficult people, challenging situations, trials, and tribulations.A deeper understanding of what “truth” sets us free,How our emotional responses reveal the sin in our hearts,How this “heart sin” is heavy, burdensome, and contrary to our design,How this “heart sin” reveals the very nature of the bondage we are in, andWe cannot be Christ’s while in bondage to sin (Satan’s slave).The purpose of life and God’s plan for our personal salvation,Why God created Satan knowing what would happen,Coming to understand that in our pride to “have no master” we fall prey to Satan’s temptations as he uses this desire “to be like God” to make us his slave,Understand that life as Satan’s slave is unfulfilling, empty, and painful where as it leads to a hunger and thirst that will never be satisfied,Satisfaction comes as we embrace God and His ways, give Him the authority to be our master, and serve Him doing life His way, andThis brings us spiritual freedom as we come into harmony with the nature of how He created us to be. Today we are going to take the following two aspects of our personal journey and apply the same principals to humanity and religion:
The relationship between our pride and our desire to “be just like God”, and How God’s plan uses Satan to reveal this to us, humble us, and lead us to accepting God as our master for our ultimate freedom from Satan’s bondage.Dear God, help us to understand what you are attempting to communicate to us through the processes of this world and how the following questions help us come to understand You and Your ways as we never have before:
As we contemplate the “mission” of the various religions of the world, what do we see that they believe they can bring about?What do they believe must take place for their “mission” to be accomplished?Have we ever heard anyone say that “if everyone believed like I do we would have peace on earth?”Don’t we believe that if everyone saw good and evil the same way we do we could have utopia?What does the bible tell us about “who will bring salvation?”Isn’t “religion” another form of buying Satan’s lie “if you know the difference between good and evil you can be just like God”?This reveals one of the greatest aspects of the global experience.  Deep within us we all have a desire to be a part of what is good, we want to play our part in bringing God’s plan of salvation into being, we want to be a part of the progression toward that utopic society; but we want to do it our way.  Satan uses our attachment to comfort, luxury, power, sexuality, self-righteousness,……. to blind us to our inability to be just like God, look just like God, or do what only God can do.  Making it really simple; if we are not capable of looking like Christ individually, how could we ever think we are capable of looking like Him cumulatively?  Let’s take a moment and look at some various religious groups and consider the pride aspect of how they believe God will use them, just like they are, to bring about what only He can accomplish.  What do we see as the “pride” aspect within each group?
The anti-religion “religion” (belief that if it were not for religion we could have peace), Atheism (no ultimate truth, no God),Religions of the mind (self-awareness),Religions of definition (defined standards of righteousness),Religions of faith (believing),Pagan beliefs (worship of creation, heavenly hosts, other gods), andOthers as they don’t fit into the above.Here is a quick overview of what I see as some basic concepts regarding the revelation of pride in each:
Claims that doing away with “organized religions” will not bring about utopia for many reasons including the fact that evil, selfishness, and self-righteousness are not the result of organized religion.  The foundation of this religion is a self-righteous view of blaming others for its inability to accomplish its mission (utopia),Same as above plus a total denial of God.  This is a statement of “we define our own truth, we are our own masters”.  It neglects to realize the conflict found in oppossing views of truth found within the embracing of each person being given the latitude to define what truth is,Claims that humans are capable of personal transformation and purification necessary to bridge gap between man and God.  Interestingly enough this is based on coming to a point of ultimate humility.  I would define ultimate humility as accepting we can never bridge the gap between man and God.  The concept itself proves itself to be futile and pride based.The legalistic approach to “ultimate truth” fails because:Those imposing it are not capable of living to the standards,Ultimate truth required for utopia is beyond human understanding and as such cannot be written, spoken, or taught.  It must be experienced, understood, and embraced.It is pride that leads us to believe that we understand truth well enough to teach it to the point it will be embraced and lived by others.  It is pride that leads us to believe that we can teach others well enough to protect them from their own need to experience pain, suffering, and failure.  It is pride that leads us to believe that our teachings can replace God’s plan of bringing humanity into an understanding of what simply cannot be taught by man’s words, books, or love.  In other words, we believe we are capable of teaching others what only God can reveal to them.It is our pride that judges others in their inability to learn from us as we hold them responsible for the pain and suffering God is bringing about in His plan of salvation.In its purest form this is truth.  It embraces God as savior, it embraces His truths, it embraces His Spirit, it embraces His plan, and it embraces His ways.  However, as it is demonstrated, lived out, and conducted it falls short as we argue over what we believe to be “required” ignoring what is a gift, and embracing flesh based lies.  We do this because we like our lives like they are and we grasp hold of any teachings that support our view of “good and evil” so that we don’t have to change or “sacrifice”.  This leads us back to a “works based mentality” which lands us in a life demonstrating a religious belief that is represented more by one of the other “religious” categories than what we claim.  Those living this religious understanding day by day, moment by moment are non-existent (including me).  It is pride that blinds us to this reality.A turning from the God of creation to the things He created.  In the light of understanding of a higher power there is a refusal to accept one God, one path, one way.  It is pride that says “I can’t accept that the God that created me would only have one way to Him”.  Going further down the rabbit hole would lead us to a total worship of the things of this earth and fully embracing Satan as a master believing His promises over God’s.The truth is that if we apply the same concepts of our personal journey to that of the global experience we find the same required results.  Cumulative people groups called religions having common beliefs must come to understand that even in their common goal, common desire, and common vision they are no more capable of bringing salvation to the earth than each of us individually.  This is our cumulative humility.  We must come to understand, that even as a groups, we are still prone to Satan’s lies and his deception.  Our humility comes when we come to understand that cumulatively we have allowed Satan to manipulate Christianity into the mold of the other religions that trust in the power of man more than the power of God, that deny Satan and his influence over us, that embrace the ways of this world under false teachings, and that has set a mission to accomplish what only God is capable.

Let’s take a minute and go back to looking at the various religious groupings one more time:
The anti-religion “religion” (belief that if it were not for religion we could have peace),Atheism (no ultimate truth, no God),Religions of the mind (self-awareness),Religions of definition (defined standards of righteousness),Religions of faith (believing),Pagan beliefs (worship of creation, heavenly hosts, other gods), andOthers as they don’t fit into the above.As we scan back over the list while being totally honest with ourselves: 
Which of the above people groups would we say show the greatest visible representation of “freedom” in their personal lives and within the lives of their communities?  (Consider freedom to be free from gossip, harsh words, divorce, rebellion among their youth, factions, disputes within the body, addictions, immorality, materialism, self-justification, anger, ….).Is there a difference between looking “free” and “looking Christ like”?Where would you fit into the list?Where would your family fit into the list?Where would your church fit into the list?Where do you see Christianity fitting into the list?Can we let what we are feeling right now be our humility?  Do we have to wait for God’s plan to come to full fruition before we allow ourselves to look at this for the truth that it is?  Do we have to wait for God to do what He has to do before we are willing to see what it is that we must see? 

 “As for Me, this is My covenantwith them,” says the LORD: “My Spirit which is upon you, and My words which I have put in your mouth shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your offspring, nor from the mouth of your offspring's offspring,” says the LORD, “from now and forever.” Isaiah 59:21.


Can we accept that God is telling US about a covenant He will make with the hurt and lost of the world?  How does it make us feel to understand that this is a covenant that will be established in the future?  Why would God have to issue such a covenant? Why will He have to tell us how He is going to change US as a part of this covenant with THEM?
Dear God, please open up our hearts, minds, and souls to come to understand where the religions we have come to trust are in bondage.  Dear God show us where we have picked our “religion” based on our own fleshly desires and what we are comfortable as defining as “righteous and holy”.  Dear God please help us to see the destiny of what we represent and help us break free so that we may properly represent you and enjoy being one with you.  Dear God, help us to experience life as You so desire for us to experience it…..in harmony with how You created us, in harmony with You.