Today Yahuweh is speaking to His people regarding their 'preparation' to come into
the presence of the King. Even as Esther underwent many
months of preparation before she was brought into the presence of the
king, so we today are being prepared for our King.
An important aspect of our preparation is that we must be
established in Yahuweh’s Grace. To understand
grace, we must first unlearn some of what the theologians are
saying. There is no "age of grace," or at
least Noah was not aware of this notion. The Bible says Noah
found grace in the eyes of Yahuweh! (See Genesis 6:8.) But
let us begin with what most of us understand as 'Grace.'
Yahuweh’s Word
reveals that there are not one, but two aspects of His Grace — one of which
has gone largely unnoticed, but which is a vital part of our
preparation. Let us Notice the following verse:
Who
art thou, O great mountain? before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a
plain: and he shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings,
crying, Grace, grace unto it. (Zechariah
4:7) As we see in the above passage
in Zechariah, Yahuweh requires two aspects of His grace to be brought to
bear in order to bring forth the headstone
thereof. Without both aspects of
Yahuweh’s Grace, the His habitation can not be
built! Thus Yahuweh is bringing His people to see and
understand the two-fold nature of His grace, revealed much in the New
Testament, and clearly seen in the above passage in Zechariah as 'Grace-Grace.'
We
might say that just as there are two sides to the same coin, so there
are two aspects to Yahuweh’s Grace toward His
people. This two-fold aspect of Grace can be seen in the encounter with the religious leaders of
Yahushua's day, when the man with a palsy was brought to Him
to be healed. Notice Yahushua’s reply:
Whether is
easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Rise up and walk?
But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power upon earth to
forgive sins, (he said unto the sick of the palsy,) I say unto thee,
Arise, and take up thy couch, and go into thine
house. (Luke 5:23-24) Notice
that in this passage Yahushua speaks of both aspects of
Yahuweh’s Grace. These are:
1) "Thy sins be forgiven
thee" (The grace of Forgiveness); and
2) "Rise up and walk" (The grace of
Rising up, and walking with the Lord).
Notice that the words 'rise up' and 'arise' are both translated from the Greek word 'egeiro,' which
is the same Greek word used to describe Yahushua’s
Resurrection! Here Yahushua is speaking prophetically of our
resurrection life — of our "rising up and walking" in resurrection with Him. Thus we see in the
above passage both aspects of Yahuweh’s Grace — the grace of
forgiveness, and the grace He gives us to walk with Him.
Let us now look at these two aspects of grace, and see how they fit
into Yahuweh’s plan for the preparation of His People.
By
Grace AloneMany of us have learned that it is by grace that we
are saved through faith...(Ephesians 2:8), and not by works of
righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy He saved
us...(Titus 3:5). Indeed, works of righteousness are
important, but they are the result, and not the cause, of
Yahuweh’s Grace.
Martin Luther,
spearhead of the great Reformation, went through a series of wrong
conclusions, seeking the Lord with great anguish of soul, before the
Lord illumined his understanding concerning true Righteousness and the
Grace of Yahuweh. It was only after he fervently and
diligently sought the Lord over the matter, that the Lord revealed the
true nature of justification by faith, the cornerstone of the
Reformation. Until the Believers today do likewise, fervently
seeking the Lord, she will, as did Luther in his earlier years,
continue to hold fast to a wrong conclusion (only half the truth) of
Yahuweh’s Grace.
Thus we must first
understand that there is no justification apart from the shed Blood of
the Lamb of Yahuweh, which takes away the sin of the world.
Anything good that we would do can not add one whit to our
justification. In fact, the Word of Yahuweh tells us that all
our righteousnesses are as filthy rags (Isa 64:6); that is, all our own
good works of righteousness, that spring up from our own initiative, as
a means of justification, are as filthy rags in the sight of
Yahuweh!
We must thoroughly learn that our means of
justification is not from ourselves — and that Yahushua alone is our
righteousness. Without this basic understanding of Messiah as
our righteousness, we can not go on to fully grasp the meaning of the
mysteries of which the Apostle Paul speaks.
There
is one passage of Scripture in which Paul speaks of a mystery hidden
from ages and from generations-including the Evangelical Believers of this
present generation. Paul tells us that this hidden mystery is "Messiah in you, the hope of glory" (Colossians
1:26-27). It is this understanding of the mystery of "Messiah in you" that we must fully grasp, so that
we might be presented to the Lord fully prepared. It is the
understanding of "Messiah in you" that will enable
us to have an understanding of both aspects of Yahuweh’s true
Grace.
It was this mystery of "Messiah in
you" that the Apostle Paul preached, warning every man, and
teaching every man, in all wisdom (Colossians 1:27-29).
Indeed it is Paul who tells us (Rom 5:9-10) that, after first having been
justified by Yahushua’s Blood – having been reconciled by His
death, and Born Again – much more to be considered is that we be saved by
His life — the life of Messiah in you.
It is the revelation of the mystery of Messiah in
you that unlocks a vault full of treasure more precious than
rubies. However, it is in understanding the two-fold nature
of Yahuweh’s Grace that we will find a Scriptural
understanding of Messiah in You. So we
see that the two ideas of Grace-Grace and Messiah in
You are intertwined.
There are many
Scriptures that picture the two-fold nature of Yahuweh’s
Grace, but perhaps the one idea that is revealed more than any other is
the close connection between grace and righteousness. We see
this close connection in the description of Yahuweh’s
character, as well as in describing how Messiah is to reign within us:
Gracious
is the LORD, and righteous; yea, our God is
merciful. (Psalms 116:5)
That
as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through
righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our
Lord.
(Romans 5:21) We
see from Scripture that that grace and righteousness are closely
connected. Thus we will begin by observing Yahuweh’s
Grace revealed and demonstrated in a two-fold nature of righteousness.
The
Seed of RighteousnessThe Lord has illustrated many Truths of
the Kingdom of Yahuweh by use of word pictures, or parables, by which
many complicated Truths may be seen and understood. Many of
the parables Yahushua spoke reveal the two-fold nature of Grace, and of
Righteousness. We recall that many of Yahushua’s
parables describe seeds, which sprout into plants. Some of
these plants do not survive the various levels of growth, and others
do; some then go on to mature, and some finally produce
fruit. This is a profound Truth Yahushua reveals to us.
Let
us recognize that Yahushua — His Word, and His Righteousness — are
pictured as seeds, which He plants in the soil of our
heart. We are told that Yahuweh is the Gardener, and we are the garden
(See 1Cor 3:9; John 15:1). Yahushua plants the
seed — the soil does nothing but to receive the seed. In this
action of the Lord’s planting we may clearly see the first
aspect of Grace with which we are familiar — the Grace of
Forgiveness.
Having forgiven us, Yahushua, by His Grace, plants the seed of His Word, even the Seed
of Himself — and thus His righteousness — in our heart. There is
nothing the soil must do, except to receive the seed. Notice
how the Lord pictures this planting and sprouting of the Seed of His
Righteousness:
Drop down, ye
heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness: let the
earth open, and let them bring forth salvation, and let righteousness
spring up together; I the LORD have created
it. (Isaiah 45:8) In
the above passage we see Righteousness revealed in two separate
aspects. First, we see Righteousness 'poured down
from the skies' (figurative of the heavens), and sown in the earth (in the heart of man); which corresponds to
the truth of imputed righteousness, whose heavenly source is Yahushua
Himself.
This pouring down
from the skies pictures the Yahuweh planting the seed of His
Righteousness — Messiah-in-us — by His Grace. He
has imputed His Righteousness to us, by Grace through Faith; and He has
placed the Seed of Himself within our heart, that He might dwell
within, and mature into a Tree of Righteousness within us.
The
second thing we see in the above passage is Righteousness
that springs up from the earth,
even as a plant springs forth from the seed that has been planted in
the earth, and eventually bears fruit. This springing up speaks of
the life of Messiah, as the Tree of Life within us, living by His
Grace. Notice in the above passage that both the acts of pouring down,
and of
springing up, are claimed by the Lord to be His own work; and are thus
both by His grace — "I the LORD have created
it."
This same principle of
sowing and reaping can be seen in a passage in Exodus, where Moses asks
for more grace:
Now
therefore, I pray thee, if I have found grace in thy sight, shew me now
thy way, that I may know thee, that I may find grace in thy sight...
(Exodus 33:13) Notice in the above
passage that the first mention speaks of grace sown (imputed) by the
Lord; but the second mention is a reaping of grace-it is
dependent upon the Lord’s way, and upon knowing the
Lord. Moses is saying, "if I have found grace in
your sight, do this, that I may find grace in your
sight." Moses knew that Yahuweh’s grace,
like His righteousness, and like all other aspects of His character,
must be both sown and harvested.
To gain
further understanding that Scripture portrays grace, and righteousness,
as seeds and plants, we will take note of the following passages, with
regard to sowing and reaping. A key to understanding the
following verses is that the word Light in Scripture speaks of
Righteousness:
And he shall
bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the
noonday. (Psalms 37:6)
Light
(“Righteousness”) is sown for the righteous, and
gladness for the upright in
heart. (Psalms 97:11)
For
as the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden causeth the
things that are sown in it to spring forth; so the Lord GOD will cause
righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the
nations. (Isaiah 61:11) The
above passages reveal that the seed is sown for the fruit, and that it
is the Yahuweh who causes righteousness to spring forth
and produce the harvest. Thus we see again, that both the
sowing of the seed, and the springing forth of the plant, are by
Yahuweh’s Grace alone! For a new Testament picture
notice the following verse:
And
of his fulness have all we received, and grace for
grace. (John 1:16) In
the above passage we can clearly see the same principle of seed (grace)
sown for, and because of the harvest (grace).
At
this point we might ask, "What is Yahuweh’s purpose,
that He would plant the Seed of Righteousness within
us?" As we will see, Yahuweh has a goal, or purpose
in mind. We all understand in the natural sense, that if we
plant seeds, it is because we have a purpose in mind. One
purpose is that the plant, or tree, might grow and mature. A
further goal is that there be a harvest of fruit from the
tree. Thus we will examine the tree, and its fruit.
Trees
of RighteousnessWe must turn our attention to the mature
plant-the tree. Now if the seed is called Righteousness, what
is the fruit called? What is the tree called? We
know from practical experience that if we want to harvest corn, we must
plant corn. Likewise, if we want a harvest of peaches, we
must plant peach seeds. The Lord has illustrated this
principle to us, and tells us what fruit we can expect from His
planting of the Seed of Righteousness:
Being
filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ,
unto the glory and praise of
God. (Php 1:11)
And
the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make
peace. (James 3:18)
Now
he that ministereth seed to the sower both minister bread for your
food, and multiply your seed sown, and increase the fruits of your
righteousness... (2Co 9:10) We
see that from both natural and Scriptural principles, that the fruit is
according to the seed. Thus we see that the Seed of
Righteousness that is sown in our heart is to eventually produce the
fruit of Righteousness. We will deal with the fruit in detail
in the next section. Our focus now is the tree.
Since we know that the Fruit of Righteousness comes from the Seed of
Righteousness, what is the tree called? Yahushua tells us:
For
every tree is known by his own fruit. (Luke 6:44a) The
fruit the tree will bear is the Fruit of Righteousness-for the tree is
known (named) by its fruit. In our simple way of thinking, we
have concluded that the Seed of Righteousness is planted by the Lord in
order to produce a Tree of Righteousness. Let’s
look at the following passage:
To
appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for
ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the
spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness,
the planting of the LORD, that he might be
glorified. (Isa 61:3) Beloved,
Yahuweh is talking about people that are called trees of
Righteousness. He also tells us that these trees are those
that He has planted, and established, unlike the tares that
have been planted by an enemy (See Mat 13:24-30). This tree
can bee seen in another sense, in the following passage:
The
fruit of the righteous is a tree of life... (Prov 11:30a) Our
understanding of Scripture up to now has been that Yahushua is
the Tree of Life. However, in the above passage we see the
clear revelation that Messiah-in-us is the Tree of Life within us, and
He is also the fruit — the result — of the seed that has been planted
and cultivated
within a man. We will see this Tree of Life in greater
detail, as we further examine the fruit.
The
Fruit of RighteousnessAs in any planting operation, our
Heavenly Planter has a purpose in mind for planting the seed of
Righteousness within His people. Just as we would plant peach
seeds in order to obtain the fruit of the peaches; so the Lord has a
purpose in mind for the seed He plants in our heart. Yahuweh
plants the seed of righteousness — Yahushua — in our heart, in
order to obtain the fruit of righteousness that He, living
within us, wants to produce within us.
Now
if we understand that Messiah within us is the Seed; and Messiah within
us is the Tree-then what is the nature of the fruit that Messiah would
produce in us? Let’s notice the following verses:
He
watereth the hills from his chambers: the earth is satisfied with the
fruit of thy works. (Psalms
104:13)
Give her of the fruit
of her hands; and let her own works praise her in the
gates. (Proverbs
31:31)
That ye might walk
worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good
work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; (Colossians
1:10) The more we study the
Yahuweh’s Word, the more it becomes clear that the fruit the
Lord desires to produce within us are works of righteousness.
This fruit, however, is not produced by man-it is produced by Messiah:
Being
filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ,
unto the glory and praise of God. (Php 1:11) The
fruit of righteousness does not consist of dead works initiated by
man; these works of righteousness are initiated by Yahushua, in response to the Seed. Since the Seed is the Word
of Yahuweh (See Luke 8:11), the fruit of that Word of Yahuweh must be
works of obedience to His Word.
Again,
we must state that the true fruit of righteousness is not
man’s own effort to obey Yahuweh’s Word — it is simply
Messiah, living within, providing His grace and ability to obey
His own Word. From what we have seen, we may safely conclude
that the fruit of righteousness is that which Messiah Yahushua produces
within us, by His grace, and with our cooperation, as He lives
within us.
Yahuweh's Goal: The HarvestBefore we home in
on our main theme of our being prepared for the Lord, let us first
summarize what we have seen. Most today have been long
familiar with the first aspect of grace-our forgiveness while we were
yet sinners. Likewise, most are familiar with the
corresponding first aspect of righteousness-the Lord’s own
righteousness He has imputed to us, by our faith in His shed
Blood. We have seen the that there is a second aspect of
Yahuweh’s grace, and of His righteousness-that of springing up
in order to produce fruit.
We have seen that the
Lord’s goal is that the Seed He plants in our heart should be
allowed to sprout, or spring forth, and mature, so that it becomes as a 'Tree of Righteousness, the planting of the
Yahuweh.' We have seen that Yahuweh’s purpose
for this Tree of Righteousness ("Messiah in you,"
as the Apostle Paul puts it) is to bear the Fruit of Righteousness-for
the tree is known (named) by its fruit.
We
might say that Yahuweh’s purpose and goal is that the Seed of Light is
to be sown in our heart, in order to harvest the fruit of
Righteousness, which consists of works of righteousness done by the
life of Messiah-in-us, living within.
We have seen
that both righteousness poured out, and righteousness that springs up
from the earth, are both claimed by the Lord to be His creation, hence
they are both by His grace. We have seen also in the same
passage in Isaiah 45:8 that salvation and righteousness spring up
together. This would tell us that our salvation is not in the
planting of the seed, but in the springing up, or sprouting of the
seed.
We might say also that this Fruit
of Righteousness is the 'precious fruit of the
earth' for which the husbandman waiteth! (James
5:7.) Likewise, we might say that God’s grace is
the seed that yields obedience as the fruit, as seen in (Romans
1:5).
We will now go on to see how the
fruit of Righteousness reveals the two-fold nature of
Yahuweh’s Grace.
Works
Produced By GraceWe are told in the letter to the
Philippians the following:
...work
out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God
which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good
pleasure. (Php
2:12b-13) In the above passages, we
see that what we must 'work out' is that which Yahuweh has already 'worked
in.' We might say that the Righteousness Yahuweh has worked in,
we must work out. The Fruit of righteousness, springing forth
from the seed planted in our heart, is what some have called the out-worked righteousness — the works Yahushua produces within us.
Again, we must be
reminded that it is not our own works that qualify as Fruit of
Righteousness; these are mere dead
works. The true Fruit of Righteousness is simply
the works that Yahushua living in us produces, from His own
initiative, with our cooperation, in obedience to His Word!
(Philippians 1:11)
We found that these works of
righteousness are the fruit produced by the Tree of Righteousness,
by Messiah-in-us; which tree had been sprouted and grown from
the Original Seed, the Living Word of the Gospel, planted in the garden of our heart. It was by His grace that
we were forgiven, and by His grace the seed (Messiah) was planted in
the earth (our hearts) by the Gospel. It is also by His
continuing grace that He enables us to walk with Him. Thus it
is Yahushua living out His own obedience in us ("Messiah in
us") that produces the Fruit of Righteousness-the "Works of Righteousness" which He has done, living
in us.
The writer to the Hebrews, in encouraging
and admonishing us, speaks of this second aspect of grace, as bringing
forth fruit:
“...looking
diligently, lest any man fail of the grace of God...”
(Hebrews 12:15a). Notice the
context of the above passage (from verse 11 onward) is that of a
garden, and of 'Grace' as a crop that could fail. We see from
the above passage, along with its context, that we should be diligent
to receive Yahuweh’s grace that He gives us to produce the
crop of obedience to His Word-the works of "Messiah in
you"-the second aspect of Yahuweh’s Grace!
Saints
of Yahuweh, we must come to the realization that Messiah in
you is not only your hope of glory, but is your only hope of
glory-and your only hope of obeying, of pleasing and of delighting the
Father. It is only Messiah-in-us that can do any of these
things, so we must allow Him to produce the fruit of obedience in
us!
One might ask, "Just how
do we allow Yahushua to produce fruit in us?" We
might answer that question by considering how we may have been actually
preventing the Lord Yahushua from producing this Fruit of Righteousness
within us. We must come to the realisation that the great
majority of Believers within the Body of Messiah on earth today,
including ourselves, have been preventing Yahushua from producing this
Fruit of Righteousness within them. This is 'crop
failure' of massive proportions, even a virtual plague
against us. Let’s see how this has happened, so
that, as King David, we might stop the plague.
What
Would Yahushua Do?Beloved, what do you think? If
Messiah is living in you, would He obey the Commandments of the Father
any less (while living in you today) than He did when He walked on the
earth almost 2,000 years ago? Let us remember - Yahushua is
the same yesterday, and today, and for ever (Hebrews 13:8).
Therefore He desires to walk 'in us' today-in the
same degree of obedience as when He walked on the earth! He
kept the Commandments of the Father as He walked in those
days! All of them! We must ask ourselves, "Are we allowing Yahushua to do the same today, as He lives in
us?"
Beloved, what would we do if we knew
there was something in our life that was preventing us from walking
with the Lord-from really knowing Him? Wouldn’t we
have a desire to find out, so that we could eliminate that
thing? Surely all that have come to Yahushua He will not cast
out. Yet today, in this present generation, there is a
grievous cancer within the Body of Messiah.
The
condition of the Body of Messiah in general can be described in the
following way. Our New Master has set us free, but we have
allowed the old master (satan) to re-shackle us back into bondage,
simply because we have not been fully yoked to the New
Master. Notice what Yahushua is saying to us today, in our
generation:
“...Thus
have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your
tradition.” (Matthew
15:6)
“...laying
aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men...ye reject
the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition...making
the word of God of none effect through your tradition...”
(Mark 7:8,9,13) According to the
above Scripture verses, it is Traditions and Doctrines of Men that
prevent the Lord from fully living out His life of obedience in His
people. Just as it was true for the Pharisees in
Yahushua’s day, so it is true for us today.
Saints,
we must remember that under the Grace of the New Covenant, we are under
no obligation to keep any of the things that please or delight the
Father. The only motive for any New Testament action is our
love for our Father-and our desire to avoid what Father hates, and to
do what pleases Father-and to choose that in which Father delights
(Isaiah 66:4).
So it was with
Yahushua. You would not have seen Yahushua keeping the
Father’s Commandments out of a sense of duty or obligation,
also called legalism. You would have seen Him, however, doing
the mystery of the will of the Father-because he had been instructed by
the Law, and because of His love for His Father! (Romans
2:18).
Again, we must be reminded that under the New
Covenant we are under no obligation of any kind, even to
obedience. This is the 'Grace' nature of
the New Covenant-we all have a choice of what we do, and the Lord
simply urges us to repent, and choose
life. There is a thin line between the yoke of
bondage to a letter of death (legalism) and the yoke of bondage to the
Master — the bond(age) of love. In many ways the two
appear the same. In this regard Yahushua has reminded
us, "If ye love me, keep My
Commandments..." (John 14:15).
Yahushua
spoke those words long before there was any written New
Testament. Therefore, the idea of New Testament Saints
keeping Yahushua’s Commandments was easily understood by His
disciples in that day to mean keeping the Commandments of Yahuweh — as
written in the Law and the Prophets — what we call today the 'Old' Testament.
In any
doctrinal matters or questions, we must ask ourselves, "What
would Yahushua do?" In what ways would Yahushua have
kept the Commandments today? Let us be assured of this one
thing: In every way we see Yahushua in Scripture keeping the
Commandments of the Father, He desires to do likewise living in us
Today. Many pastors and Bible teachers tell us today, that
because of various and sundry theological reasons, we as Believers today
are not supposed to do a particular thing. Most Bible scholars are teaching that various
doctrines or practices are only for a certain group, or a certain era,
and not for Today’s New Testament Saints in a 'Time'
of Grace. To that we should respond in our hearts,
"What would Yahushua do?"
Messiah
In YouBeloved, there are many Doctrines of Men that we have
accepted as Truth that are actually hindering and preventing "Messiah (living) in us" from His own obedience to
the Father. The Grace of Yahuweh is present, waiting to enable
us, as soon as our doctrines will allow us to
obey. Yet many of us are still living our spiritual life as
the disobedient son in the parable of Matthew 21, by not keeping the
commandments of the Father — simply because the Believers as a whole have
been taught serious error concerning matters of grace and of the New
Covenant.
However, a real adventure
begins after we discover, for ourselves — that it was Yahushua that gave
the Ten Commandments on Mt. Sinai (He calls these 'MY'
Commandments!) — and after we repent of disobedience, as did
the first son in the Matthew 21 parable!
Beloved
Saints, we should be undergoing full preparation for coming into the
presence of THE KING. We should be allowing ourselves to
become equally yoked (the yoke of bondage to Yahushua) through our daily
repentance and full obedience to His Commandments. We must
ask ourselves — why did Paul on many occasions call himself a 'bond' slave or servant of Yahushua? What
is significant about the bond(age) of love? Paul reminds us
also that we were reconciled by Yahushua’s death, but much
more we are saved by his life (Romans 5:9-10). It is the
abiding life of "Messiah in you" that, according to
Paul, is much more to be considered than simply your reconciliation —
your forgiveness!
Like the Israelites,
we have been brought out of Egypt by the Blood of the Lamb of
Yahuweh. The Israelites had been brought out, but failed to
enter in because of disobedience. Yet we must still enter in
to the Promised Land by obedience — by "Messiah in
us" living out His own obedience within us! Let us recall this passage:
"...To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory: Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus:" (Colossians 1:27-28) Thus
we see in the above passage "Messiah in us" is our only hope of
being presented perfect, and our only hope of (entering into)
Glory! For two thousand years the 'Come-out' ministries have ministered the grace of
salvation to the Saints. Today there is very small number
of 'Enter-in' ministries, who are to locate the very small
remnant of Overcomers, and prepare them to
overcome, even as did Joshua and Caleb, who alone were able to enter in!
Beloved,
we who hope to enter in, must focus all our energies into seeking the Lord, and learning the
Fear of the Lord, that we might say, with Paul, "...Nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Messiah liveth in
me...." Paul came to the place in His walk with the
Lord that he exhibited "Messiah in him."
Let us also be followers together of Paul, as we have Paul for an
example. Let us seek to take Yahushua’s yoke upon
us, and learn of Him. We shall then be prepared to be 'Awakened' to Righteousness, even as a tree is
awakened in Spring, ready to bring forth fruit.
For those who hope to enter in, we
must choose to focus our full attention on those things in our lives that the
Lord reveals to us, first in matters of obedience, then in matters of
pleasing and delighting Him. If you and I are not walking as
Yahushua did while He walked on the earth, from the same motives He had
("walk as He walked," as John puts it), then
according to John we are not yet abiding in Him, even though we think
or say we are. Thus we are under the same warning that Queen
Vashti was under (See Esther 1:12).
Beloved, the
Lord is building His Habitation, the Mountain of the Lord.
The building process requires not only his grace of forgiveness from
above, but also His enabling grace from within — from the Lord Yahushua
Messiah living within us.
Truly it
is grace-grace, in both its aspects, that will very soon bring us into His
presence!
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