Are we really sure of what we are supposed to be doing?
Messiah was very clear in His instructions.
First we are to follow Him… and next to
Go therefore and make DISCIPLES of all the nations [help the people to learn of Me, believe in Me, and OBEY My words], immersing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always [remaining with you perpetually—regardless of circumstance, and on every occasion], even to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:20 Amplified Bible
We are to become MORE THAN just believers in Him,
we are to become disciples/talmidim ourselves; for only disciples can make disciples. We will never be greater than our Master/Messiah but we can become like Him.
yet this way is both narrow and difficult.
Matthew 7:13-14.
If we are going to live as disciples of Messiah we have to be obedient to ALL His words and remember that all efforts that are of worth and excellence are difficult. We were never promised an easy life and the difficulties we face are not supposed to make us faint, they are to stir us up to become overcomers.
We may need to rethink our understanding of being an obedient follower of Jesus Christ/Yeshua HaMashiach.
Jesus/Yeshua gives a parable about life and death. He urges His disciples to
seek life
by entering through the narrow gate the one that runs opposite to the way of the world.
Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.
Only one way leads to life!
Matthew 7:13
His gospel, His Truth, has been so watered down and In western society the focus is too much on blessing, comfort and physical prosperity rather than that of life in the Spirit.
Do we really, seriously appreciate the miraculous free gift of salvation offered to us? We are saved by His grace only through the atoning work of Messiah Jesus/Yeshua, which cost Him everything. Philippians 2:13
It is God who works in us both to will and to do for His good pleasure. NOT ours!
Then it is up to us to work out that salvation in our practical daily life. Philippians 2:12.
We will find out that we can do it, if we will only begin on the basis of His redemption and to do what He commands.
“If you [really] love Me, you will keep and obey My commandments. John 14:15
If we do not put into practice what our Heavenly Father has placed within us, that‘s when we fail; and a crisis will show whether or not we have been doing so. It’s not what we think we know that will save us or make us free.; its only the Truth we know, believe and act on that will. Mental assent does not help us to reach spiritual maturity.
If we will obey the Holy Spirit of our Heavenly Father and practice in our physical life that which He has placed within us by that same spirit; when a crisis comes, we will find that our own nature as well as His Grace/chen will cause us to stand strong in Him and the power of His might. Eph. 6:10.
He told us that in this life we will have tribulation and it will test us for all we are worth.
I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have [perfect] peace. In the world you have tribulation and distress and suffering, but be courageous [be confident, be undaunted, be filled with joy]; I have overcome the world.” [My conquest is accomplished, My victory abiding.] John 16:33 Amplified Bible
Why?
Hebrews 2:10 tells us why ….. it is because He is
bringing
and He will not shield us from the necessary requirements of son-ship, that of being His child. We should rejoice that He gives us difficult things to do because His salvation is a thing of joy and
the joy of the Lord is our strength. Neh. 8:10.
At the same time it also requires of us much bravery, courage and holiness. The work of our Heavenly Father’s grace within our lives is to produce men and women who display a strong family resemblance to Yeshua HaMashiach/Jesus Christ.
We are not to be spoiled, pampered, entitled, complaining, weaklings. We should not be deceived, because it takes a huge amount of personal discipline to live the life of a disciple. One that is worthy and excellent, while facing the realities of a life in this world; however that’s what we are called to do.
We looked at the example of Daniel and an excellent spirit in a previous post.
It is a daily choice, every day.. it is not a one time thing and then we go on our merry way! Its ongoing and lasts as long as we are here on earth, we are to daily take up our cross ….
And He was saying to them all, “If anyone wishes to follow Me [as My disciple], he must deny himself [set aside selfish interests], and take up his cross daily [expressing a willingness to endure whatever may come] and follow Me [believing in Me, conforming to My example in living and, if need be, suffering or perhaps dying because of faith in Me]. Luke 9:23. Amplified.
Are we truly willing to daily take up our cross..even if it means enduring pain loss and physical torture and death???
Are we willing to do so for Him?
Many around this world already are…
It is up to us to choose, because
an individual’s will is embodied in the actions of the whole person.
We must exercise our will, putting it in to action; because we cannot give up our will, we must choose to obey, we must set our will to obey and we must will to receive our Heavenly Father’s spirit and those who are obedient will receive His spirit.
And we are witnesses of these things; and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey Him.”NAS Bible Acts 5:32
When the truth is revealed to us, the only question is what will we do, not what the Father will do. When God places big plans in front of us, a wise thing to do is to remember what we did before He touched our lives. If we can remember when we first received Messiah or had a truth revealed to us, it was easy to yield our will to Him and it will help us when His spirit brings something new before us.
Joshua 24:15 choose for YOUR SELVES this day…
Our Heavenly Father does not choose for us, we are to choose for ourselves. It’s not something which we’ll automatically slide into, it is a deliberate determination to choose our Heavenly Father’s Way over our personal way, or what someone else is telling us to do. Galatians 1:16 do not confer with flesh and blood.
The choice is between our Heavenly Father and ourselves, and everything in our lives will be on hold, paused, until we make a decision. In these situations, tension can develop and He allows other believers opinions to matter to us and yet we sometimes wonder if they really understand the steps we are taking; and this makes those around us seem to become more and more separated from us. Faith demands that we have to stop trying to figure out when and where His Spirit is leading; we just have to declare that we will be faithful.
Joshua reminds us in chapter 24:22 that even in this, as soon as we make that choice, we become witnesses against ourselves.
The choice to serve the Lord is personal, we are to will to be faithful, this choice is not something we need to consult with other believers, nor rely on anything or anyone other than the Fathers’ spirit and that includes ourselves. We cannot live a holy life without His Spirit, but we can decide to submit for Him make us holy. Joshua 24:19 reminds us also that neither can we serve the Lord in our own strength, but we can put ourselves in the correct position so that His power will flow through us; and that is all dependent on relationship and requires setting our will to align with His.
Obedience takes faith
and
faithful people are obedient.
In Joshua 24:21 when the people said to him we will serve the Lord.
It was not an impulsive action but a deliberate commitment. It is high time that we make that choice, no more wavering. We must be quick to obey as David said:
I will be quick to obey your commands Ps 119:60
Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will OBEY my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. John 14:23
James 1:19 And let every man be swift to hear, but slow to speak, and slow to anger
We are to be slow to speak, quick to hear and in hearing be a doer.
Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. James 1:22
To be quick to hear and slow to speak means, having both humility and respect for others as well as for Messiah. It means we take the necessary time to listen to people instead of just speaking our opinion.
The moving of the Father’s Spirit of Holiness is many times inconvenient to our flesh and it’s often completely opposite to reason or what we sometimes call common sense. We are to obey Him regardless of the cost, yet He will never force us to make the choice; and there will always be an easier away out open to us which will seem more sensible and have less risk involved. All the challenges He places in front of us are to test and develop our faith as well as our obedience, which is needed for the choosing process and to reveal just how much we love Him.
Matthew 7:13 Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and MANY enter through it.
This is the gate of true conversion, of self-denial, dying to the self life, and of walking the way of holiness; the gate which few, comparatively speaking, are inclined to choose.
This Way, this gate, cannot be entered into without
teshuvah-repentance.
Acts 3:19 “Now repent of your sins and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped away.
“I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Luke 13:3
In the Hebrew Alefbet/alphabet,
the letter Hei
is the 5th letter and
a symbol of repentance
HEY or HEI ה is the letter H
Rabbis in the time of Messiah Jesus/Yeshua, would often illustrate spiritual truths using Hebrew letters.
The letter hei makes the sound of the H. Jewish literature teaches that Moses could not speak properly because ‘he was thick of tongue.’ Having an unusually ‘thick tongue’ would make it very difficult for someone to pronounce a name of God that necessitated having to use their tongue to say it; so it is said that our Heavenly Father gave Moses a name for Himself which had letters in it that he didn’t need to use his tongue in order to pronounce.
The letters yod making a Y sound
and the letter vav which makes a V (waw) sound
and the letter Hei which makes the H sound.
The name Yod Hei Vav Hei -YHVH or YHWH
is the name which could be spoken out loud with breath only
and without needing to move the tongue.
Traditionally the letter
hei represents:
the breath and the presence of God.
Some Hebrew scholars teach that our Heavenly Father created the world with the letter hei, H,
meaning:
that He created the world with His breath and presence. He breathed His own life into His creation.
The letter Hei was known as the broken letter.
It is almost identical to the letter Cheth
CHETH (or HETH) kāth ח ḥeṭ .
Sometimes written Chet, but more accurately Ḥet.
As the 8th letter of the Hebrew alphabet
it represents the number 8.
This letter looks the same except that there is a narrow space, a brokenness in the upper left hand corner of the letter hei /H.
This space was known as
the narrow or strait gate
that leads to the Heavenly Father’s presence.
The bottom of the letter is open
and is known as:
the wide or broad gate.
As the Hei represents the breath of God,
and through brokenness which leads to teshuvah/repentance;
an individual will find
the breath of God
which will blow through the narrow gate.
Without repentance we cannot find the Hei,the breath of God which will sustain us so and then we will fall to destructionthrough the wide gate at the bottom of the letter.
The rabbis taught that the letter Hei represents:
the presence and breath of God and that it is very hard to climb to the narrow gate; and few there are who can rise to that narrow gate and achieve such a state of righteousness that they are able to pass through that narrow gate to the Shekinah or the presence of God, but many are those who pass through the broad gate that leads to destruction.
It is possible that Messiah was making reference to this when He said “Enter the narrow gate, for the gate, is wide and the road is spacious which leads to destruction, and many are those who are going in it.” Matthew 7:13?
One thing is certain, our walk with Messiah is a daily walk along the Way that leads to life and to be in His presence for eternity. He is our righteousness and so the climb to the narrow gate is made easier.
However it takes faith to obey, to trust.
Sometimes the simplest statements are the most profound!
Trust and obey for there’s no other way …
as little children would say and sing,
simple and uncomplicated to
trust in,to have faith in
and
obey His commands
because
we truly do love Him above all else
and
put Him 1st in everything we do.
If we truly love Him then we will be truly obedient
and we will be sure of what we are supposed to be doing!
We are to be MORE THAN just believers we are to be
His obedient Disciples/talmidim.
שָׁלוֹם עֲלֵיכֶם,
Shalom aleikhem
chaverim and mishpachah!
Peace to friends and family.
Shavua Tov, Have a blessed week.
Make certain Messiah Jesus/Yeshua is your Redeemer, Savior, Lord and soon returning King and that you have a personal relationship with Him.
It’s all about Life and Relationship, NOT Religion.
You are very precious in His sight.
Not sure ..you can be…
SIMPLY SAY THE FOLLOWING MEANING IT FROM YOUR HEART..don’t delay one more minute,
SAY IT RIGHT NOW…
Heavenly Father I come to you in the Name of Jesus/Yeshua asking for forgiveness of my sins for which I am truly sorry. I repent of them all and turn away from my past.
I believe with my heart and confess with my mouth that Jesus/Yeshua is your Son and that He died on the cross at calvary to pay the price for my sin, so that I might be forgiven and have eternal life in the kingdom of Heaven. Father I believe that Jesus/Yeshua rose from the dead and I ask you to come into my life right now and be my personal Savior and Lord and I will worship you all the days of my life. Because your word is truth I say that I am now forgiven and born again and by faith I am washed clean with the blood of Jesus/Yeshua. Thank you that you have accepted me into your family in Jesus’/Yeshua’s name.
Are we really sure of what we are supposed to be doing?
