Deoglorias requested thread

Deogloria requested a thread to discuss my theology in my devotional thoughts thread. After much thought, here it is.

Ask away.

I never "requested" anything.
A few weeks ago I simply asked you some questions:
"In your opinion what does someone need to do to get this kind of peace ?"
"What do you mean "Christ is all, and in all" ?"

Markus

Oh my mistake. I must have misunderstood.

I have answered both of those, interestingly enough, in subsequent articles I posted in my main thread. But to address them here in a pointed way would be my pleasure.

What must a man do to gain peace?

In the context of the question, an inner peace in knowing, rest of heart and soul, a peace that surpasses all understanding, I will answer simply; there is nothing a man can do to get it, it is given freely by a loving God in the Person of Jesus Christ, the Son of God by God the Holy Spirit. It is the Trinity in true, full salvation.

But what you mean is, I hope, how do we receive it? The difference is not merely semantics, it is the difference between salvation and damnation. Faith is substance, and evidence. What we take, takes us. When someone believes the promise of scripture, that salvation is full and free, that the purpose of Jesus manifesting Himself in the flesh, was to destroy the works of the devil, that person is saved to uttermost.

As I said before, peace and rest of heart and soul is found when we simply take Christ by faith as savior and sanctifier. Justification is a declaration of innocence; sanctification, or being filled with the Spirit, or whatever name you choose for this deeper work of grace (Romans 8), is where victory and rest are found. To many believers are never taught this is possible, or have it explained away by lettered men with no fire in their inner man, and no experience of anything more than Romans 7 defeat and failure. They try in their own power to do the things they desire to do as a new creature, hold up duties and checklists, hold themselves to new standards, leave off things others say are worldly things, try to work up tears for lost souls and revival, and the list goes on and on. I once even heard someone say fearing God is a command we must obey (I could go on and on about this misunderstood topic). But the inevitable end to all of this filthy rag waving is just as Paul says, the believer crying out "what a wretched man I am, I cannot do what I want to do". He has been deceived by Satan and his greatest weapon, law and rules.

Romans 8 is the chapter everyone skips or turns into comforting self help cliches because they can't seem to ever actually live it. They can never actually live it because a lot of our preachers are Pharisees that leave their phylacteries at home when they stand in the pulpit. They offer checklists, guilt trips, condemnation for not praying enough or witnessing enough, they offer rules and law and try and say who goes up and who goes down, but forget that Paul addressed this very thing. It's philosophy and law, just dressed up differently than it was in the first century.

Anyhow, I digress.

What we take, takes us. Our faith is the substance and evidence that the work is done, that Christ dwells within and lives in us, as us, and we only then can know victory and rest. We are free to live our lives by faith, because we know that it is actually no longer I that lives, but Christ that lives in me. The life of the believer is, not ironically at all, a life of belief. The key to everything in true Christianity is this one thing: Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Anything else is below apostolic, new testament believing, and is not found in my Bible except when it is being urged to move past and out of.

What do I mean that Christ is all, and in all?

I mean to quote that verbatim phrase from the apostle, those are not my words.

I'm grieved and concerned about your posts.
"When someone believes the promise of scripture, that salvation is full and free, that the purpose of Jesus manifesting Himself in the flesh, was to destroy the works of the devil, that person is saved to uttermost."
This is only a half truth and therefore a false Gospel !

"After the arrest of John, Jesus went into Galilee and proclaimed the gospel of God. 15 "The time is fulfilled,” He said, "and the kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe in the gospel!” Mark 1:14,15

And He told them, "This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, 47 and in His name repentance and forgiveness of sins will be proclaimed to all nations, beginning in Jerusalem (Luke 24:46,47)

From one of you other posts:
"When a man is born again he desires to do good, to keep law, to live holy, but quickly realizes he can't. The harder he tries the further he falls. The more he tries to pray the more brass like become the heavens. The more he studies his Bible the drier it becomes, until finally he feels all is lost. "
You are describing a man who is not truly born again.
Read the NT, read how Paul was changed after his conversion.
Paul talked about the good fight, the hardship, praying without ceasing, finishing the race...etc

When Christ came into my life, a few decades ago, the first thing I wanted is to get a Bible and read it.
I wanted to pray and talk to my Savior.
I wanted to have fellowship with other believers.
Now I want Scripture even more, pray and fellowship more and I regret that I often neglected it

I'm concerned about your soul, may you discover the true Gospel, may the Lord Himself help you.

Markus

I was afraid this would quickly descend into burning straw men and proof texting.

I'm running up on 25 years in the Lord myself, so I thank God he found you and kept you for so long. He is definitely glorified in the keeping of His saints, as they grow in the truth and knowledge of Jesus.

Paul's road map in Romans is a spitting image of my experience in God. I knew Jesus as the justifier and gloried in the forgiveness of sins, and preached repentance and forgiveness of sins to hundreds of thousands of people for many years in public ministry. After some time, I began to realize I lacked something very essential to living, power for service, prayer, revelation, etc. I was like those in acts when they were asked if they received the Holy Spirit after they believed, only I had heard of Him.

God brought teaching into my life that seemed to call me to depths I had never reached. I faced the reality that I didn't know what it meant to walk in the spirit, follow His leadings in all things, pray without ceasing, and I had never seen the apostolic power so prevalent in Acts and more importantly, Jesus life.

I began to see that all my desire was in fact for Christ. I also began to see that all of my praying, all of my service, all of my study, all of my fellowship, was leading to one place - none of this was enough and no matter how MUCH of it I did, nothing seemed to bring me closer to the savior I know that I knew.

As I sought God I saw a strange thing begin to happen in my life. I tried to abstain further and become less like the world. I had already given up everything, literally, for Christ. I lived what I thought at the time was a life of faith, trusting God for all of my provisional needs, and saw God in His great love even then, add all of those things to me as I sought His kingdom and His righteousness.

I had repented (turned from sin to God, in the accepted definition). I had believed in the free grace of God given to those who believe in the Gospel of grace, that Jesus shed His blood, gave up His life, for the forgiveness of sins. I believed, and knew that He was risen to be my advocate with the Father. I knew my sins were blotted out, I knew in whom I had believed. I was a new creature. God had so drastically plucked me from my life of sin that there was no doubt in mine, or anyone's who knew me before mes mind that I was born of God.

The Holy Spirit was with me, but He was yet to be in me.

It took the Holy Spirit nigh 10 years of driving me deeper into the wilderness to show me, this one thing I lacked. I so held onto my taught idea of holiness and revival theology. I read my Bible voraciously, prayed for hours and hours a day and fancied myself God's impetuous friend, always knocking (what men would say was without ceasing). I did everything right, and believed everything right, but still found the the harder I tried the farther it seemed I ended up from the God I was seeking.

What mercy this was in the end.

Once I realized that Paul spent quite a long time in Arabia before anything else, it was like a flash.

I lived Romans 6, so it only seemed right that Romans 7 was next, and I didn't realize it until it was revealed. I can take no credit for the flash of light that opened up that chapter and then thrust me into Romans 8. I need to mans teaching, because the Holy Spirit taught it to me, and took hold. Everything was turned upside and down and I began to see a whole new Bible. Everything just made sense. Prayer was easy and free, and I now realized I had a permanent and always enduring sense of God's presence, and I than understood the scripture commanding us to pray without ceasing.

I wept. Not for conviction over sin, I had lived in that for 10 years as I condemned myself for every little thing (The Lord has told me since that most of that was temptation that I was condemning myself for, none of it ever conceived and bore the fruit of sin). There was a freedom I never knew. There was peace in believing, there was joy. There was holiness. There was an omnipresent God.

God was no longer somewhere else waiting for me to seek Him. God took up residence within me. The Holy Spirit had brought me to a place where He knew I would never even think to glory in His work, because He had spent almost 10 years teaching me that none of my work could ever avail me anything from God, and even more, would just place me in a patch that led away from the God I sought.

Jesus was with me, but praise Him he was now in me.

It's interesting to me that more changed for me when Christ was finally formed in me than changed when I was born again. I knew what it meant, that no man needs teach me. I knew that all of God's promises were mine, and I knew now, God's great storehouse of mercy was open to those who seek Him in patience and faith. The rest of God was mine, finally, and I did nothing but throw up my hands in literal frustration at God.

He is to be praised. His mercy endures forever. Revelation knowledge is given, not learned.

Thank God he counted me as someone who He would reveal this great thing (it's there for everyone, clear in scripture).

I can do nothing to earn His great mercy, and now I see it as a great joy that if I try, I fail so miserably that all goes dark. But even this darkness, when taken from the hand of the Lord, leads straight back to Him and His mercy because He never left me.

I was like Adam in the garden, so caught up in my self that I Hid from God as He called my name and sought after me. I just knew what I looked like, what I didn't have, even though I was in the garden.

Anyway, I'll leave my testimony with you to tear apart with various and sundry proof texting.

I realized now why the Lord led me to start this thread with the verse in 1st Peter (always have an answer for those that ask), this will be the first time I have testified of His glorious work of filling me with His Spirit.

But with all of that said, in times past I would condemn myself and think I need to do more and search for the face of God because someone questions my salvation. I actually started laughing just now as I typed this, and immediately the Lord said "he that sits in the heavens laughs" when His enemies surround him.

Praise God for His faith within me. Praise God for His Holy Spirit forming Jesus within so He can, through me, know and please the Father.

Thank you for this Deogloria, you have been a great conduit for the Lord's work in me.