Being1inChrist

A few weeks ago we went looking for a Jersey calf to buy so we could raise it up to be part of our little farm. We have been in the process over the past few years of clearing land, cutting down trees, grinding stumps, bush hogging, tilling and then planting good seed. It has been hard, back breaking work. The land was basically a wilderness with a mix of forest, overgrown groves and swamp when we bought it a few years ago. It was full of trees, good trees like hickory, white oak, red oak, poplar and wild dog woods. But it also had a lot of wild stuff growing that had to be removed. The property used to be a farm where people raised cattle and somewhere along the line it was forsaken and then another owner took possession and planted row after row of trees on what used to be pasture land, as part of some government program where they paid him a little money to do it. The groves were never tended and the whole property grew up into a wilderness. Because the trees were never thinned out, many died and the ones that didn’t grew very tall and thin. We bought this property knowing it would be a challenge but believing God was moving us to do it. So, that’s what we’ve done and in just three years it has developed into the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen. There are spring fed ponds with fish, creeks running through it and along its boundary and within that boundary is an oasis. What has taken place is a change that we never imagined. We knew it was going to be good but we never knew it was going to be amazing. We look back and wonder how the Lord accomplished all He has through us? Hundreds of trees we’ve cut down, acre after acre of trees, just the two of us with chainsaws. Then we sawed and bucked them into piles and burned them – pile after pile. Then every stump had to be ground down. Where there was once nothing but thorns, briers, weeds, suckers, and closely packed in rows of trees is now acres of beautiful grass. This change happened as a parable of what is taking place in us. What we were when we bought this place is not what we are today. A new man has been born and is growing stronger and overtaking the old man who was filled with a wasteland of overgrown groves.

Deu 12:3  And ye shall overthrow their altars, and break their pillars, and burn their groves with fire; and ye shall hew down the graven images of their gods, and destroy the names of them out of that place. 

All through this process, the Lord had been putting on our hearts to get grazing animals. We would talk it over and feel optimistic but then our “laws” about the work involved, which was really just our unbelief in God, would overtake us and the excitement would ebb away and we’d chock up the conversations to mere nighttime entertainment. Then one day we stopped at a farm to buy some peaches. The woman selling the peaches was sitting on her porch. It was a picture of peace and tranquility. We noticed that in a field next to the house was a horse quietly grazing. The Lord prompted me to ask the woman about her horse and what all it took to care for him. Her answer surprised us in its simplicity. She said all she did was put a bale of hay out for him and he just grazes and feeds on the hay. He really didn’t even require shelter she said. With that short conversation, the Lord obliterated our fears and made us realize our level of bondage. This woman was quite unfettered with laws about the do’s and don’ts of “proper” horse ownership. This small interaction was what the Lord used to get us off our proverbial fence of fear and unbelief resulting from our laws, and the Lord renewed our excitement and enthusiasm, in other words our faith, and thus we started our hunt for an animal who could enjoy the acres of property that He had had us clear.

Our first thoughts were a little unclear about what to get…sheep perhaps, or maybe a small donkey or perhaps a small pony? We started the search on the internet, looking at different possibilities based on what people had for sale in our area. Then we came across a picture of a 2 month old Jersey calf and she was the cutest thing we’d ever seen. All uncertainty was gone. This was definitely what we wanted. The owner of the calf said they couldn’t speak on the phone so we had to text back and forth. They wouldn’t answer the texts right back and it took hours just to get them to answer each time. Finally after a few days, they texted that they wanted a deposit for her before we came to get her. That set off alarm bells of a scam but after talking it out back and forth we remembered the scriptures that said, “…resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also” And “Why do you not rather take wrong? do you not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded?” So, though we suspected a scam, we wanted to trust God and sacrifice our carnal reasoning and belief in our own wisdom that we might be taken advantage of, and went ahead and attempted to send the deposit through the internet. It failed. We tried again, but it wouldn’t go through. So, we concluded The Lord had said no. God had tried us, moving us to sacrifice our own wisdom and carnal reasoning.

The next day we decided to go for a drive and see if the Lord would put us in contact with someone who might have a smaller size animal for sale. We live in a rural community so you can’t throw a rock without hitting a farm. After talking to a few people here and there, we were told about a particular dairy farm in the area who might have calves for sale. We found the dairy and drove around it until we found the owner. We explained to him what we were looking for and he said he had a premature heifer calf for sale that no one wanted. It was only 5 days old and IF IT WAS STILL ALIVE we were welcome to buy it. So we drove to a building on the property and there laying in the straw was a VERY small little black animal. It looked as though it was a newborn it was so small. We went into the pen and it looked small and weak but it was walking around, slowly. We paid the man and loaded up the little heifer in the back seat of our vehicle, where we had laid some blankets. We then drove a short distance to a farm store where they sold replacement milk for calves. The people at the store asked if the calf had had any of its mother’s milk and I said I didn’t know. They said we had to feed it colostrum or it wouldn’t survive, which we bought along with the replacement milk.

Once we got it home and started cleaning it up it began peeing from the wrong end. It was then we realized we had bought a little bull. We didn’t really want a bull but that’s what God had given us. His tail was matted with dried manure and he was horribly skinny. We immediately tried to make him drink this colostrum. But he would have none of it. We concluded that because he didn’t want it he didn’t need it so we moved to the milk but he he didn’t want that either. We couldn’t get him to use the bottle so I got our turkey baster and began putting it in his mouth and he began sucking it down. For a few minutes I was unbelieving that he was going to eat but he did. After getting some milk down him, we gently cleaned him up and then let him rest. That evening we went back outside to check on him and he seemed to be resting well. The next morning I went out and got him up and made him stand on his feet. He was really wobbly but I kept him standing. My carnal belief was that this would make him stronger. Again I tried to feed him but he didn’t seem interested so I went back to the turkey baster and he seemed to drink the milk down pretty good. I kept this up until he had drank about a pint of milk. Then we cleaned him up again and he started pooping and urinated which I thought in my carnal reasoning were good signs. Because I am still learning to just trust God in His love and goodness I need signs to bolster my belief because my old man is faithless and unbelieving. About four hours later we repeated the process and he seemed to eat pretty good and acted a little lively. My hope that he was going to survive perked up. Again, because my old man is faithless in the goodness of God I need signs. This process continued on until the next day when that morning I tried to give him the bottle and to my amazement he began sucking the bottle. I was thrilled and so happy because the sign of him sucking the bottle meant that he was getting stronger. That day he drank almost a half gallon of milk. Then later in the day, in one of our checks on him, he was covered in flies. And at closer inspection we saw that under his tail, on his rear end, he was covered in maggot eggs, which were hatching into maggots. My faith took another blow and I began to doubt his recovery. We took warm rags and cleaned him up again. It was not a pretty sight. We then went and bought a spray for this problem and got rid of the flies. That evening he seemed to be pretty comfortable but still very weak. We would walk him around a little and he would sniff the ground and wag his tail as though he was interested in his surroundings. But he was so weak that each step was a trial. All the time we were doubting his success at living, as though he could be successful at living on his own. We are so riddled with false doctrine and unbelief that we don’t even know it. The Lord puts us through situations and trials to show us we are a people who draw near to him with our lips, but whose heart is far from him. We have been living out one false doctrine after another not even realizing it, all based on signs, experience, and by what we see. We have almost no experience living by faith in a Creator Who loves us and cares for us, though we profess doing so with our mouth. Christ said that “all things are possible to him that believes.” But truthfully we don’t believe. To our core we look for signs and wonders or we rely on our experience not Christ as our Creator.

Back to the calf, this process went on until the next day when I went out to get him up and he was even weaker. I couldn’t understand it because he seemed to do so good the day before. I got him up and he was like a limp spaggetti noodle. Yet I got him to stand and he started eating off the bottle so my faith started getting stronger because of the sign of him eating. I walked him around a little and then laid him back down.

A couple of hours later we went back to check on him and he seemed to be resting good and we cleaned him up again. My wife kept wiping him down and keeping him clean. That afternoon we went back out to check on him and he was so weak he could hardly pick his head up. We were both very faithless. I tried to talk as though I believed he was going to be ok but in my heart I was unbelieving. I did not trust God to be the God of the living but that this little animal was going to die because he didn’t get on his mother at birth, or because he was premature, or because I didn’t get the colostrum into him, or because, or because or because. The sin of my unbelief gave these laws their strength. I doubted the power of God. I could speak great swelling words but my heart was far from truth. ” This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me. But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. ” We cleaned him up again and went to the house praying God would be merciful and let this little calf live. We didn’t really believe God would allow the calf to live because of what we saw with our eyes. We needed proof like Thomas needed proof. “Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.”

We have lived a lifetime trusting in what we see and hear in the world. Trusting solely in God is shunned as being childish, stupid, and naive. To trust God fully with my whole heart and not doubt is almost laughable to the world in which we exist. Like Peter walking on the water, we start out with great faith but as soon as the waves mount up, down we go, sinking into the sea of doubts and fears. Everybody is this way, no one is exempt from their Devil who has the power of death, which is to be unbelieving. Unbelief produces fear and then death. Fear and death are the results of unbelief.

“Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;  And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.”

Unbelief in Christ as The Creator and as The sustainer of all life produces a fruit called fear and when that fruit is eaten it will result in death. “In the day you eat thereof you shall surely die.” There is no hope in unbelief. Unbelief produces a life of fear, which leads to trusting in self, in our experience and it will eventually lead to death. There is no hope for the wicked. To be unbelieving is to be wicked. I was unbelieving about little Bubba, the name I had given the calf. That evening, just before dark I went out to check on him. As I walked to the pen, I had to walk through the shop where we kept his milk. The thought passed through my mind, “if you believe God has given him life then make him a bottle of milk to feed him.” But then the next thought of unbelief came right on its heals “let me FIRST see if he’s alive.” I walked to the pen unbelieving and it brought death. Bubba was dead. As I stood over him I felt such sorrow because I knew that I did not believe in Christ fully the way I said I did. I doubted and I feared according to my own carnal experience. The wisdom of my world was foolishness and it brought forth death. I rubbed his shiny black coat and I wished God had given me the faith to believe but I had not yet grown to believe totally in the power of God. The power of my Satanic thought overcame the witnesses in me of God’s love. I unplugged the fan I had hanging over him, walked to the house and delivered the news to my wife. I then started walking to the back field to get the tractor so I could bury him. The tractor was still hooked up to a roll of fencing wire because I was still in the process of fencing off some acres for Bubba to graze in when he got weaned. As I rounded a corner post of the fence, there on the ground, at the corner post lay a snake about 3 feet long. I knew what he was. He was my unbelief. He represented the serpent in me who loved self more than God. He was the serpent in me who taught me to eat from the tree of my knowledge of good and evil. So I picked up a large limb laying on the ground and smashed his head. I said, “I’ll bury you with Bubba you *** ** *****”. I was so angry that I had listened to the unbelieving serpent who exalted its own knowledge over the truth and killed the witness in me of the love of Christ.

“And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them.”

I picked up the snake and threw him in the tractor bucket and drove to the pen. I picked up Bubba’s limp body and layed him in the bucket also. I then drove to what we call the bottom field and buried Bubba on top of my unbelief. It was a sad evening for us and we both knew the reason why it all took place. This was a tangible lesson of what is still in us. But even though we are faithless the Lord remains faithful and He doesn’t allow trials to bring us down but instead they are for the purpose of making us stronger.

“I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, (but thou art rich) and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan. Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.”

Christ is the power behind all things. He alone has all power. It is not as though my unbelief was stronger than Him but the two do not meld together. What comes from Christ is faith in His Father and what comes from a carnal mind is faith in its own wisdom, carnal wisdom. Christ does not reward us according to carnal wisdom. But when we are faithless He remains faithful because He cannot deny Himself. The next day after Bubba died Christ refreshed me through His word. He showed me that the covenant that He has made with me is according to the covenant He made with Abraham. Abraham believed God and it, his belief, was counted to him as righteousness. Believing in God as the Author and Finisher of everything in me and in the world is righteousness. Believing that what God has promised me will come to pass is righteousness. The sign of circumcision was given as a witness to the righteousness of faith. What was the covenant given to Abraham? That he would be heir of the world.

“For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world”

We have that same promise. We shall be heirs of our world. Whatever has brought us love and joy in God we will possess it, if we are believing. The sign is our being circumcised from the old world that brought us pleasure. Our hearts are circumcised from the love of our old world. When circumcision in the natural takes place it is a painful experience.

“And unto Hamor and unto Shechem his son hearkened all that went out of the gate of his city; and every male was circumcised, all that went out of the gate of his city. And it came to pass on the third day, when they were sore…”

And so likewise when the heart is circumcised it is a painful experience. To give it all up now in the flesh, all I love, so I can obtain it all in eternity is a painful experience. Abraham left it all. Paul left it all. And so everyone called out of their world are being called to leave it all. Christ has called us to separate from the the world in us and that will cause a separation from the world out there. Leave it all behind to gain it all in eternity based on the covenant that our seed will possess the promised land. Family that is left behind in this life will be brought into the next life by our faith.

“Seeing it is one God, which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith. “

God is justifying the Elect by faith now and those who are uncircumcised in us, our family, will be justified through our faith. They will possess the promised land because of us. We are Christ’s inheritance and they will be ours. They will inherit eternal life because of our circumcision as we have inherited eternal life because of Christ’s circumcision from the world. His death has brought us life and our death to this world will bring them life.

“For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband: else were your children unclean; but now are they holy.”

The Seed is Christ in us. The Elect have Christ in them, The Seed to Whom the promise was made. Everyone who believes (not says but BELIEVES) Christ is the sole reason for eternal life have Christ in them. Belief is a gift of God, it cannot be acquired any other way. His life brings life to us. We are the unbelieving wife that is sanctified by The Husband, Christ. The covenant with Abraham was that his seed would possess the promised land and that Abraham would be heir of the world.

“For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.”

Then it says that Abraham never got to see the promise come to pass but he still believed it would come to pass.

“These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.”

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If you are in Christ, if The Seed of Christ is in you, then are you Abraham’s seed, and if Abraham’s seed you possess it all. Everything that has been promised to Abraham belongs to you. This world is not what we should want but the world to come. Leaving this world and embracing what the eyes cannot see is what we should be desiring. We are nomads in this world and what we are striving for is to see the new Jerusalem where we are totally free from the sin of unbelief. Not everyone has The Seed in them, only the Elect of God.

“But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.”

As I focus on the day I get to meet my Savior and Lord face to face and thank Him for all He has given me, the things of this world are fading. I feel the pull for the world to come is overtaking the pull of this world in me. What was so important to me is fading and looking ahead at the promise is much stronger than it used to be. To walk up and hug my Dad again and to see his smile is worth more than this world can offer. To see Bubba running in the field and kicking up his hooves is to see life with a Savior Who gave it all up for me. The story of Joseph is a good parable of what the covenant is all about. Joseph represents the Elect of God who are beloved of The Father.

“Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age: and he made him a coat of many colours.”

Joseph dreamed two dreams that showed his reign over all his kin. These dreams are prophesies of what will happen to us. The whole of our world will be belessed because of Christ separating us from this world to preserve life in the world to come.

“For, behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and, lo, my sheaf arose, and also stood upright; and, behold, your sheaves stood round about, and made obeisance to my sheaf. And his brethren said to him, Shalt thou indeed reign over us? or shalt thou indeed have dominion over us? And they hated him yet the more for his dreams, and for his words. And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it his brethren, and said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream more; and, behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me. “

The whole of our world will be blessed because of Christ separating us from this world to preserve life in the world to come.

“Then Joseph could not refrain himself before all them that stood by him; and he cried, Cause every man to go out from me. And there stood no man with him, while Joseph made himself known unto his brethren. And he wept aloud: and the Egyptians and the house of Pharaoh heard. And Joseph said unto his brethren, I am Joseph; doth my father yet live? And his brethren could not answer him; for they were troubled at his presence. And Joseph said unto his brethren, Come near to me, I pray you. And they came near. And he said, I am Joseph your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt. Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life. For these two years hath the famine been in the land: and yet there are five years, in the which there shall neither be earing nor harvest. And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God: and he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt. Haste ye, and go up to my father, and say unto him, Thus saith thy son Joseph, God hath made me lord of all Egypt: come down unto me, tarry not: And thou shalt dwell in the land of Goshen, and thou shalt be near unto me, thou, and thy children, and thy children’s children, and thy flocks, and thy herds, and all that thou hast:”

The name “Goshen” means “drawing near.” The covenant that God gave Abraham is that his seed would be blessed above all the seed of the earth. If The Seed, Jesus Christ, is in you then you are a son of Abraham. If you are a son of Abraham you partake of the covenant that God gave to Abraham. Your seed will be as the stars of heaven. We know that Christ is The Seed and that it is solely because of Him are we allowed to partake of this covenant. He alone took our sin of unbelief upon Himself to make it possible for us to have life. He has done so to secure the covenant that God made to Abraham. Abraham separated from the world and was a nomad in the world and so was Christ. So it is the same for us. If we are the seed of Abraham then Christ will guide us to forsake this world and love God first above all people, places and things. It is an inward separating at first that will then move us to separate from the outward world. We are in the world but not of the world. Christ is inside you if you are a seed of Abraham and Christ will lead us away from what we were and away from the desires of the flesh. The promise will get stronger and stronger and so will the belief of knowing that one day You will have it all, just like Joseph. He was circumcised away from his world for the purpose of “drawing near” (Goshen) his uncircumcised family. It will require us to forsake what is dearest to us now in this life as Abraham did by his willingness to sacrifice Isaac.

“And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am. And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of. And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and clave the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went unto the place of which God had told him. Then on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off. And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you. And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife; and they went both of them together. And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together. And they came to the place which God had told him of; and Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood. And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son. And the angel of the LORD called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I. And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me. And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son. And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovahjireh: as it is said to this day, In the mount of the LORD it shall be seen. And the angel of the LORD called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time, And said, By myself have I sworn, saith the LORD, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son: That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice. “

It is not an easy road for the Elect but it is worth every denial of your flesh to know The One and Only God and His Son Jesus Christ. To deny my flesh in every detail of self gratification, self worth and self reliance will gain us everything we ever loved. To deny my “only son” my flesh is to love God above all. Holding on to one ounce of flesh for the attention of the world outwardly or my world within is a blemish that will cost us part of our inheritance. In the parable of the talents, the one who gave it all got double, the one who gave nothing got nothing. What is the worth for getting an ounce of attention or satisfaction from my world? Is it worth denying The Lord? These are the questions I ask myself today and hopefully God will grant us to answer and say that the world’s attention is worthless. We will gladly sacrifice it all for Him to gain everything. Unbelief in the covenant of grace is the sin that holds us back from knowing peace and brings forth death. It is the sin that casts constant doubt and is the serpent in the garden of our mind that asks “did God say…?” questioning God’s covenant that life is based on Christ alone, The Seed, not on my works of my carnal mind. It was the sin of unbelief that caused Bubba’s death. The strength of sin (unbelief) is the law of the carnal mind.

“The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.”

It was my belief in laws of the world, rather than belief in God, that fell from grace. Because Bubba was a premature calf, because he did not get his mother’s milk, because of something I did or didn’t do, etc. all were reasons I was believing over the power of the covenant of grace that said God is life and in Him is no death. Abraham was willing to sacrifice Isaac because he believed that God would raise him from the dead.

“By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, Of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called: Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure.”

Denying the carnal mind, which is the world, is what we are being told to do. Love not the world in me but love God. All things are possible to those who believe. Deny the tantilizing pull to side with my world within, my carnal thoughts, laws, that say they know best. Abraham believed that leaving everything for God was better for him than to stay in Ur with his brother. He was called to leave it all behind for a greater world to come.

“These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city. “

For us denying the world is denying what the world teaches us. The carnal mind, which is “enmity against God” believes what it sees with its eyes and knows what it knows from experience. We operate from what we have learned from living in this physical world (which is basically just one big school) and from our life experiences. Scripture calls this worshipping the Queen of heaven. Heaven is our mind and the Queen is Babylon. Babylon in thought because it babbles on about what it knows from its own learning and experience. It is about outward show with no inward beauty. All it thinks about is self.

“Behold, ye trust in lying words, that cannot profit. Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom ye know not; And come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations? Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me: for I will not hear thee…. Seest thou not what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto other gods, that they may provoke me to anger. “

This is unbelief in The God of Abraham, the One and Only God Who is our sole source of life. We would rather trust in vanity and lying words of the world then trust in the living God Who gives us our every breath. I know these things and yet am still having to be chastised because I lean to my own understanding. I still have to fight against the thoughts of my experience. I still have to ward off the thoughts that say just get on the internet and find out what you need to know or do – all a sea of self reliance, self thought without an ounce of truth or faith because it’s all based on the idea that we live and move and have our being by what we KNOW. Not God. We can all say we trust in God but when the iron is put into the fire it always burns off dross. Abraham was called to leave it all behind and trust in God as his sole support. His belief in God as his life was rewarded in animals, land, wives and children now in this life and in the life to come more children than can be numbered. Belief in Christ gives us the hope that we will get it all. All that God promised Abraham will be given to us, the children of Abraham. We are children of Abraham because The Seed, Jesus Christ is in us.

“Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham.”

Unbelief separates us from these promises and brings about death. Unbelief is the sin that doubts God’s goodness and is the sin that brings sorrow. I have asked myself, “What and where was God not faithful to you in your life?” He has always been faithful to me and has never left me without what I needed. He has always given me more than I asked for and when He didn’t it was because it was for my good. I am constantly fighting my fleshly, carnal, satanic thoughts of self preservation. They are always there trying to get me to lean to my own understanding and forsake God as my sole reason for life. In God we live and move and have our being as Paul said to the people on mars hill. We don’t live unto ourselves, we live unto God. Unto the parts of us that are believing, all things are pure because they are from God. But unto the unbelieving parts of me, nothing is pure, because it sees itself as separate from God and questions God…about everything. My faithlessness questions God’s goodness as a trap and as being naive. The serpent in me is always asking “did God say?” It was a fight for Abraham when he feared Pharaoh and Abimelech would kill him and take Sarah. Though he was faithless and gave in to his unbelief and lied about Sarah to save his life, God STILL rewarded him because God is faithful when we are faithless. Unbelief separates us from God and has us relying on our flesh.

“Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.”

The decitfulness of unbelief is exactly that – deceiving. As the serpent in the woman deceived her, so the serpent in us deceives us into trusting in ourselves as God. The sin of unbelief is the besetting sin that always has us doubting the goodness of God. It hardens us from God and has us trusting in our own wisdom. The wisdom of my world is foolishness to God and it always leaves me sorrowful.

“Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

“For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness. And again, The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain.”

To believe that Christ is The Author and Finisher of everything, that by Him were all things created, and that by Him do all things consist is the faith of Abraham. God remains faithful because He cannot deny Himself. And because this is true, the story of little Bubba doesn’t end in his death. The very next day after Bubba died the Lord sent us on another drive in the country. We stopped by a farm and asked them if they had a Jersey calf they would want to sell or knew someone who did and the man said yes, he did have a calf. He said she was a very small 8 month old calf who was born in the winter during the hard cold and the tops of her ears had gotten frost bitten along with the tip of her tail. He said she also had a bad foot because of the cold. We told him we’d like to see her so he told his boy to round her up. The boy jumped on his horse and took off. About 30 minutes later there he came with a calf limping slowly in front of his horse. She was a small red Jersey heifer. As we looked at her we saw that her back right hoof was nearly missing. He said because of her bad foot, he would probably fatten her up and use her for meat instead of a milk cow because she couldn’t be bred. She was perfect! My wife and I both immediately wanted her so that evening we made a pen in the back of the truck and went back the next morning and picked her up. She is sweet, gentle and the most mild mannered cow I’ve ever seen. My wife gives her a bucket of milk every day. She has never bawled or acted in any way homesick. She fit right into the space she shares with our two dogs, chickens and turkeys. We thoroughly enjoy spoiling her with treats. She limps around the property contentedly grazing, and we thank God for His faithfulness in giving her to us the very next day after Bubba died. She has been such a blessing to us because we know that God was faithful to us when we were faithless and gave us “Lily,” the name we gave her. We were unbelieving about God’s power when it came to the first calf and that unbelief produced death. But because we had been given a “mustard seed” of faith God blessed us with Lily. God has lovingly used these trials to grow our faith because we are the children of promise. We have the inheritance, we are the inheritors, but as all children of promise we must go through the trials until we are mature enough to be given the inheritance.

“The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field: Which indeed is the least of all seeds: but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof.”

Faith is the least of all seeds but for the Elect it is The Only Seed that will produce the results that are pleasing to God. To trust Him SOLELY as our provider is what He wants from us. His desire is that we never lean to our own understanding but trust Him and Him only, Who gave His only begotten Son for us and will now freely give us all things.

“Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all; But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father. Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world: But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ. “

“What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?”

Belief is the key that unlocks the doors of heaven and allows us to see the glory of God. We deny the flesh’s thoughts and laws and receive the blessings of God. The flesh hates faith because faith requires patience and hope. The flesh has its own worldly ideas on what is good and evil for it based on laws it has learned through experience. Faith needs no experience but just trusts in the Creator as a benevolent, loving God Who takes pleasure in blessing His children. All was made for us and He will give us all things. Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness. And all those who believe in God do so because they have The Seed in them, Christ. And if Christ is in you, you will deny the world in you with all its fleshly knowledge and experience and trust solely in God as The Author of everything. Everyone says they believe in Jesus but not everyone denies their flesh by denying their fleshly knowledge. Through trials, God separates the sheep from goats within us. The sheep (thoughts based on faith) know and trust their Shepherd implicitly, while the goats run after their own wordly understanding. Through this process, He increases the mustard SEED of faith within us. If you continue in faith you are a Child. If you return to your vomit and eat what comes from your head knowledge you are a slave and not a son. If God had given us up to the flesh, then when Bubba died I would have concluded it was because I didn’t follow the directions given to me by the colostrum gods, or because he was premature, or some other natural law. But God was faithful and showed me that it was none of these things but rather my unbelief in Him that brought about death. We did not fall back into our flesh but attributed everything to The Creator and Author and Finisher of everything. God Who will not deny Himself and Who could swear by no greater than Himself remained faithful to us when we were faithless.

“For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself, Saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee. And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise.”

To not trust God is to dishonor Him. When God says He will bless you and you don’t trust Him it is a dishonor. God has created everything through Christ. Everything is consisting because of Him and Him only. Every life of every human, animal, bug, worm, disease or even death is what it is and consists because of Him. Nothing lives by itself or is sustained by itself. Mankind as a whole are under the delusion by God to believe that there are certain natural laws that we are in subjection to but the truth is that God is not bound by anything. He made Moses live without food or water for forty days, twice. He had Elijah go without food or water for forty days. He made a donkey speak. He put money in a fish’s mouth. He rose Christ from the dead. God is not bound by the laws He has put man under and to the Elect, neither are we when we are blessed to believe in Him. Faith can move mountains because it means we are trusting in The King as king over everything, all things are subject to Him. But before He allows us to rein in life He first puts us through school by laws.

“Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid: for if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law. But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”

I have believed in laws that I thought would give me life – i.e. eating right, exercising, and good hygiene. But these laws cannot bring or sustain life. All are under sin and because of the sin of unbelief no law can give me life or cause me to live forever. The law to me was a schoolmaster that showed me that no matter what I did I could not sustain myself from sickness or injury. I tried to live by these laws and still I got sick and got injured. It should have been obvious to me that no matter what I did or didn’t do I still got what I was trying to avoid. I remember walking into stores wiping my hands and the cart with cleaner and still I got sick. Then when a couple of people I knew got what the world called Covid I went into their house, helped one out of bed and another out of the tub with no protection and did not get sick. My laws said I should have but God is greater than laws. These laws constantly fail us or get broken, which acts to bring us ever closer to Christ who is unchanging and faithful, teaching us to trust in Him, not in laws of “you shall be as God.” Justification comes from believing in Christ not in laws. As we are brought to Christ and as He begins to reign more and more over all authorities, powers and principalities in our mind, we are no longer under the schoolmaster of the law, we live by faith in God, not in laws. Christ has proven His Kingship by conquering death, the greatest and most feared law of all. We are being taught to walk by faith not by sight. We want to unclothe ourselves from this body that operates under laws. We want to be free from having to live by laws and that is what Christ is doing for the Elect. As the author and finisher of our faith, He is creating a belief in us that we are the promised children and we will walk away from this mortal body by entering immortality through faith.

“For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven: If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life. Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit. Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: (For we walk by faith, not by sight:) We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him.”

Our earthly house can be dissolved by faith in The Creator Who created this house. As Paul said we are groaning in this temporal house because we are bound by laws. We desire to be clothed in faith in God and not faith in laws. We are burdened in this house by constant laws of the flesh, which produce fear and death. But once we are given to walk by faith and not by sight we will put off this house of laws and put on the new house of faith. We can become clothed in eternity with no bounds. We have the earnest of the Spirit, the down payment now and as we grow in faith we will ascend above the laws that have kept us bound to mortality. If we are at home in this body, in other words, comfortable in our laws of delusion that we have control, then we are absent from The Lord. But we obtain immortality by trusting in God, Who is above the laws of the flesh. The schoolmaster of law should show us truth by the opposite of what it is. The law of the flesh is unfaithful and inconsistant. People get cancer and die right away, others linger on, while some seem to survive it altogether. People exercise, “eat right”, and obey many other so-called health preserving laws, yet die at an early age. Others disregard the laws of the health god and smoke, drink and eat whatever they want yet live into their 90’s and I’ve known them all. Yet no law can stave off death or even delay it. It is all delusion and comes to the same end. Laws of the flesh are inconsistant but God is and always will be faithful as He changes not. So, we labor not to trust in laws but in the Law Giver. We labor to enter into rest in Christ. We trusted in laws and it brought the death of the calf. Yet God gave us faith to trust in Him and He brought us life in the second calf.