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Spirit

The Unity of the Kingdom

September 10, 2020 by David Noland Leave a Comment

Therefore if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose.

Philippians 2:1-2

Unity does not equal uniformity. God has uniquely created and gifted you for a specific purpose within His Kingdom. We all have a role to play, but we all must learn what it means to synergize for the sake of the Kingdom. As a new creation in Christ, it takes time to renew our mind and restore our vision for the world around us. In the end, it is our love for Christ and our love for one another that must bind us together with a singleness of mind, heart, spirit, and purpose.

Unity of mind begins not with everyone believing exactly the same trivialities, but it does mean we are focused on the absolute truths of the essentials of our faith. Most specifically it means that we have an understanding of who Jesus is and that His authority overrules everything, even our own selfish desires. And that requires a new way of thinking about the world around us. It requires a new way of thinking about the people around us and how we ought to treat one another for the sake of the Kingdom.

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

Romans 12:2

Unity of heart will only happen after we have experienced a renewal of the mind, but it is an ongoing process that will last as long as we are on this earth. When we “maintain the same love” for one another within the Kingdom, by extension we supernaturally extend that same love beyond the borders of the Kingdom. It’s more than just a passing affection for one another, but it is love that must be maintained through pain and disappointment and discouragement and disagreement. When our need to be right becomes more important than our need to be in a right relationship with one another, we are no longer maintaining the same love for one another.

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

1 John 4:7-8

Unity of spirit means getting deeper than the heart of the matter and recognizing that it is the Holy Spirit of God that must drive our decision making and our vision for the Kingdom. Not our own pet projects and causes. For too long we have begged and pleaded with God to bless the work of our hands. It is time that we start seeking the heart of the Father and earnestly seek out what God is doing in our world and join Him, because His work is already blessed.

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets it desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please.

Galatians 5:16-17

Unity of purpose will come only after we have experienced unity of mind, heart, and spirit. It takes renewed thinking, restored love, and reconciled Spirit in order to full comprehend and contextualize the purpose that we have in unity for the Kingdom. Our purpose in this world is a very simple calling, but it is one that requires a proper mindset, a submissive heart, and Spirit-led discernment acting in unison with one another to fulfill. The advancement of the Kingdom of God is the fulfillment of the Great Commission – to make disciples. This is not a responsibility of the clergy, but rather it is the responsibility of the entire Body of Christ.

And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commended you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

Matthew 28:18-20

The advancement of the Kingdom of God is made effective through a collective unity of mind, heart, spirit, and purpose. Paul’s ministry of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:11-20) was all about building up the body of Christ so that each of us together can further the cause of the Kingdom. However, that requires that we understand what it means to be reconciled to God and to one another within the Kingdom before we do the work of expanding the Kingdom. The gifts and empowering of God in us are for the purpose of “equipping the saints for the work of service to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity fo the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs in the fullness of Christ.” (Ephesians 4:12-13)

Filed Under: New Testament, Philippians, Wilderness Wonderings Blog Tagged With: heart, Jesus, mind, purpose, Spirit, unity

The Fruit of the Kingdom

September 3, 2020 by David Noland Leave a Comment

Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they? So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then, you will know them by their fruits.

Matthew 7:15-20

We’ve all heard the phrase “A wolf in sheep’s clothing.” If you’ve ever wondered the origin of that phrase, then here you have it. Contextually speaking, Jesus is referring to false prophets and teachers. These individuals who prey on the ignorant with what sounds like wisdom, but is in fact intentional deceit designed to satisfy their own appetites and lust for power. If you ever hear a preacher or teacher or anyone claiming to be a prophet or apostle, but their teaching is focused more on themselves, on individuals, and anything other than the Kingdom of God, then you can rest assured they are sowing bad seed that produces poisonous fruit. It will make you sick of yourself, distract you from His mission, and ultimately kill your joy.

When members of the Secret Service are taught how to recognize counterfeit money, they are not shown fake bills. They are made to study the real bills so that they can more readily recognize anything that doesn’t measure up to the standard of truth. In data science, there is a principle that we adhere to in order to ascertain if the data that we are analyzing is accurate – the principle of the source of truth. Anything that violates or doesn’t measure up to the source of truth is considered invalid analysis and thus requires re-examination. The same applies when recognizing false teaching.

What is the fruit of a true prophet/teacher that is humbly tuned to the word of God? There are certain hallmarks of Biblical teaching and Biblical interpretation that will ring true every time. There are in fact several factors that we must consider in terms of how to identify a false teacher, but I will sum them up by identifying what identifies the teaching of the true gospel.

First, and foremost, the true gospel acknowledges the Jesus is the ONLY way to the Father. He is THE way, THE truth, and THE life, and no one comes to the Father except through Him. (John 14:6) Anyone who adds themselves or another teacher to this truth is a liar and the truth is not in them. Any religious creed or principle that states you must follow a specific prophet or teacher or leader in addition to Jesus in order to be in the Kingdom is false and I urge you to run the opposite direction.

Secondly, any teaching that is contrary to God’s established canon of Scripture is not to be trusted. The canon of Scripture was closed no later than 100 AD, and there are more than 7000 original manuscripts that can attest to the authenticity of this claim. The Old Testament canon was widely accepted and established well before the 1st century AD. This is testified to by the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus (William Whiston, trans., Flavius Josephus against Apion, Vol. 1, in Josephus, Complete Works, Grand Rapids, Kregel, 1960, p. 8). The New Testament canon was well established and first officially recognized by the Council of Rome in AD 140, but this list of apostolic writings was considered closed by AD 332 and books that were originally considered canon but found to be written too late to be authoritative or were theologically out of line with apostolic teaching were discarded.

As Paul wrote to Timothy, “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:16-17) While Paul was primarily referring to the Old Testament canon of his day, the apostle Peter considered Paul’s epistles and other apostolic writings to be equal to the Old Testament canon:

“Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless, and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation; just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction. You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men and fall from your own steadfastness, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.”

2 Peter 3:14-18

Finally, the teachings of the Kingdom produce Godly fruit that is easily recognizable in the heart of the believer. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.” (Galatians 5:22-23) Any teaching that produces fruit contrary to this is false.

In fact, just prior to this list of the Fruit of the Spirit, Paul describes those characteristics that stand out as the fruit of counterfeit teaching and a counterfeit life: “Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.” (Galatians 5:19-21) If any teaching from the pulpit or from a Bible Study class or from any form of mentorship or “disciplining” produces this kind of fruit in your own heart or the heart of others, then it is incumbent upon us as believers to admonish and correct such teaching in the interest of the truth for the sake of the Kingdom.

The danger therein lies when we mix the fruit of the unrighteousness with the fruit of the Spirit, and produce a sort of “wolf in sheep’s clothing” theology that creates confusion and deception. For example, when we treat the name of Jesus like it is some sort of magical incantation by misinterpreting the scriptures that say “whatever you ask in my name, I will do it” (John 14:13-14), we are mixing sorcery into our prayers when Jesus’ words there was intended to beckon submission to the will of the Father, not bend the Father to our will. Another example would be the practice of venerating religious relics or props as having some sort of mystical power to heal or grant wishes. This is nothing more than a form of idolatry masquerading as devotion.

Personally, I invite challenges to anything that I teach. If I am wrong, then please, I humbly accept such correction. But be forewarned, that if you do choose to challenge what I do teach, come prepared with a Biblical substantiation for your point of view. This is the standard by which I seek to measure anything that I teach and it is the standard that I will hold you to if you choose to bring correction.

Hold fast to the principles of truth. Know the fruit of the teaching that you adhere to. Measure everything against the totality of Scripture within the established context of Scripture itself. Be on the alert of the wolf that prowls within the flock, seeking to divide and conquer. Examine yourself to ensure that you are not that wolf yourself.

Filed Under: Matthew, New Testament, Wilderness Wonderings Blog Tagged With: false teaching, fruit, Spirit

The Fruit You Get

July 7, 2020 by David Noland Leave a Comment

“For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.” (Romans 6:22)

Recently my wife and I were traveling from Wichita Falls, TX back home to Austin after a long holiday weekend. As was our normal practice, we plugged our destination into our map app on my phone as began our journey. Within less than 30 minutes, we reached a point on the map that was easily confused and we found ourselves missing our turn and going down the wrong path. Fortunately, it wasn’t long before we were able to turn around and get back on the right path to our intended destination. Later on that same trip, we encountered a similar situation in Ft. Worth. Again, we missed our turn, but we our map app was able to adjust and get us back on track.

In the first instance, had we remained on the course we were heading and not turned around, we would have ultimately ended up 8 hours away from our intended destination. In the second instance, we were planning to make a special side stop to drive through and see the seminary located there. Had we continued on after missing the correct branch of the fork in the expressway, we would have missed this side trip. In both cases, we were able to quickly course-correct, thanks to our map that alerted us that we had missed our turn.

Scripture serves as a spiritual map, providing an opportunity to “course-correct” when we get off track in our lives. When we surrender our lives to Christ, we are in effect changing our destination from a path of destruction to a path that leads to eternal glory. This eternal change in our lives doesn’t mean that we don’t occasionally get off track, but when we saturate our lives with God’s Word, we are more quickly able to get back on track to our destination. If we choose to ignore the instructions of our “map”, the ultimate end of the road is a destination that is not what we intended.

Sin produces fruit in our lives, fruit that is rotten and spoils quickly. “Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do[e] such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.” (Galatians 5:20-21) But the fruit of the Spirit, fruit that is planted by the seed of the Holy Spirit in our lives, and watered by the Word of God saturating our lives, and giving glory to the Son who is the Master of our lives, makes all the difference: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” (Galatians 5:22-24)

I ask you, what “fruit are you getting” from the life you are leading? If your life is characterized by the “works of the flesh”, then I would implore you to spend some time doing some deep soul searching and really dive into the Word of God with an open heart. This will help you course-correct and get your life on a path that will lead to a more joyful life. But be forewarned: “For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.” (Matthew 7:13-14)

If the “fruit you are getting” in your life is characterized by the fruit of the Spirit, then I encourage you: “Be fruitful and multiply.” Nine times in the book of Genesis God reiterated this command. In the New Testament, Jesus put it another way: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:19-20)

We are not called to make converts. We are called to make disciples. We are called to baptize. We are called to teach disciples to observe and obey all that He has commanded us in this life. But we are not alone in this journey, because He has promised to be with us to the end. And this is a promise that you can take to the bank.

Filed Under: New Testament, Romans, Wilderness Wonderings Blog Tagged With: fruit, Jesus, lost, map, Spirit

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