Is Your View Fixed

[Semachiah]

Shalom,Scripture references are from,the SET (Stone Edition Tanach) or the CJB (Complete Jewish Bible) for the OTand the PNT (Power New Testament ) for the NT unless otherwise specified. Col 1:9. Because of this also we, from the day we heard of it, did not stop praying and asking on your behalf, that you would be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and understanding in spiritual things, 10. to walk worthily of the Lord, desiring to please Him in everything, bearing fruit in every good work and growing in the knowledge of God, 11. being strengthened in all power according to the might of His glory, patient and forbearing in everything. With joy 12. giving thanks to the Father, the One Who equips you with adequate power for you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the Light: 13. Who rescued us from the authority of the darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of the Son by His love,The first thing that we truly need to grasp from this passage is the fact that this passage is going to be dealing with "SPIRITual" things and their impact in the physical realm. Therefore when we look at points made concerning the physical realm we must view them from a SPIRITual perspective and not as we normally might. We must see that the SPIRITual world takes the utmost priority and ultimately is what is crucially important.Col 1:9. Because of this also we, from the day we heard of it, did not stop praying and asking on your behalf, that you would be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and understanding in spiritual things,Paul has a problem which is common to anyone who finds they are attempting to describe SPIRITual things in a physical world. The physical world is what appears to be our natural world; it appears to be our "priority" world. The physical world so immediately impacts every aspect of our life such that it overwhelms our SPIRITual being. Because of this, even though we may be conscience of the differences we still, more often than not slip into seeing things from our physical perspectives. We find ourselves attempting to make sense of SPIRITual things from what already makes sense to us physically. The KJV describes these two realms as the "corruptible and the incorruptible" (1 Cor 9:25) whereas the PNT expresses them as the "perishable and the imperishable"...1 Cor 9:24. Do you not know that all the runners in a stadium are indeed running, but one takes the prize? So you are running in order that you would lay hold of the prize. 25. And everyone who is contending exercises self-control in all things, so then those would take a perishable crown, but we would take the imperishable.As the prince of the air, satan so understands this relationship and that is precisely how he attacks us! It was in this manner that he first started all the problems that mankind has. He took the one physical item that mankind was prohibited from having and accentuated the desire to have it. He took what was immediately before mankind and SPIRITually held it out before Adam, tempting him to possess that which he had been forbidden to touch. It was in the same way the he tried to cause the fall of Y'SHUA from the grace of YHVH. In Matthew 4, satan tries to persuade Y'SHUA to forgo His destiny for those things which are immediately available to Him. He offers to give Him this, that or another thing "right now" if Y'SHUA to relinquish His future. While Y'SHUA is hanging on the cross, all who see Him, view Him from the physical realm and ignore all that He had foretold them of the SPIRITual realm...Mat 27:40. and saying, “The One Who destroys the sanctuary and builds it in three days, You must immediately save Yourself, if You are the Son of God, then You must right now come down from the cross.” 41. Likewise also the high priests, mocking with the scribes and elders, were saying, 42. “He saved others, He is not able to save Himself: if He is King of Israel, He must now come down from the cross and we will believe in Him. 43. He had trusted God, God must now rescue Him if He wants Him: for He said that ‘I am the Son of God.’” (Ps 22:8, Wisdom 2:18-20) 44. And also the robbers crucified with Him were reviling Him.Commonly as we read our text passage, we likewise see the natural viewpoint and fail to see the SPIRITual implications and applications contained therein. It is for this reason that Paul says...Col 1:9. Because of this also we, from the day we heard of it, did not stop praying and asking on your behalf, that you would be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and understanding in spiritual things,"Be filled", to be totally engulfed or consumed by the presence of the SPIRITually things. To be baptized or totally immersed into the things of the SPIRITual world so as to block out the things of the physical or what we generally refer to as the "natural" world, is what Paul is declaring that he has been praying for the congregation of Believers found in Colossae and by the law of extension for you and I as well. Even though he can only describe things from a physical perspective, it is Paul's desire that we view them with our SPIRIT and override our physical understanding.To the congregation at Rome Paul likewise attempts to express this concept when he writes...Rom 8.1. There is therefore now no condemnation for those in Messiah Jesus: 2. for the Torah of the spirit of life in Messiah Jesus set you free from the law of sin and death. 3. For what was impossible for the law by which it was weak because of the resistance of the flesh, God, when He sent His own Son in a likeness of sinful flesh and, concerning sin, God was condemning sin in the flesh, 4. so that the requirement of the Torah could be fulfilled in us, by those who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5. For those who are flesh are thinking the things of the flesh, but those according to the Spirit are thinking the things of the Spirit. 6. For the mind-set, thoughts and purposes, of the flesh is death, but the mind-set of the Spirit is life and peace: 7. because the mind-set of the flesh is enmity to God, for it is not subject to the Torah of God, nor is it really able to submit to God: 8. and those who are in the flesh are not able to please God. 9. But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if someone does not have the Spirit of Messiah, this one is not His. 10. And if Messiah is in you, on the one hand your body is dead because of sin, but on the other hand the spirit is alive because of righteousness. 11. And if the Spirit of the One Who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, the One Who raised Messiah from the dead will also make alive your mortal bodies through His Spirit because He abides within you. 8:12. So then, brothers, we are obligated not to live according to the flesh, 13. for if you would live according to flesh, you are going to die: but if you are dead to the deeds of the body, you will live by the Spirit. 14. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the children of God.Therefore as you read our text passage you may want to ask yourself, "From which world am I seeing this? From which "world" should I be looking at this?" It is crucial for us to keep this in the forefront of our minds. It is crucial because religion has given us one view of The Scriptures that does not always align with what we see as the truth when we view them from the SPIRITual world view! Y"SHUA continually encounter this same problem as He addresses or was addressed by the religious leaders of His day. A classic example of this is when He was addresses by them concerning the Sabbath. They had a legalistic/religious view of how to keep the Sabbath that from a physical world perspective made sense. When questioned concerning it Y'SHUA showed them a view that required them to change their perspective to see it from a SPIRITual perspective. This same problem has crept back into the teachings of Believers today as put forth by "Sabbath Keeper" groups. It also applies to many other areas of faith in YHVH such as with tithing, which version of the Bible to use, who Y'SHUA was while he was on the earth as well as who He will be and certainly many more areas that simply elude me as I write this. The physical world is easy for us to grasp hold of. It is easy for us to see and it takes virtually no faith to access. Plainly and simply, the physical world is the easy way out. This "easy way" is however what caused the demise of mankind as Adam made a choice to access what he could perceive rather than standing on the faith of what he knew from his inner being. It is also this "easy way" that fills our courtrooms and jails all across the world every day. It was equally by this "easy way" that satan attempted to conquer Y'SHUA and still attempts to overcome us today. To see YHVH and HIS Word from a SPIRITual perspective requires a faith that goes beyond our understanding of the physical world surrounding us. It is with all of this directly in mind that Paul wrote...Col 1:9. Because of this also we, from the day we heard of it, did not stop praying and asking on your behalf, that you would be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and understanding in spiritual things, 10. to walk worthily of the Lord, desiring to please Him in everything, bearing fruit in every good work and growing in the knowledge of God, 11. being strengthened in all power according to the might of His glory, patient and forbearing in everything. With joy 12. giving thanks to the Father, the One Who equips you with adequate power for you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the Light: 13. Who rescued us from the authority of the darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of the Son by His love, Paul understands his need to establish this foundational view into the readers of his letters. He understands the fact that the "natural" world imposes itself upon people in a consuming and overwhelming way. With this understanding he is able to walk contently through his life without confusion presented by the things and situations that surround him daily. He is able to be abased and yet sore to a SPIRITual level well above others all around him. He is able to suffer great loss within his physical world and yet see that actually he has gained in great measure. It is with this perspective that he can see and know a person in the "natural", physical world and yet know them and see them in the more important SPIRITual world as well. His problem is that in expressing his knowledge of such a person he is left with words and descriptions drawn from the "natural", physical world. Y'SHUA tried to clue us in on this very same problem many times.It was in a city of Samaria called Shechem where Y'SHUA addressed this very same problem while speaking to a woman at a well that Jacob gave to Joseph his son...Jn 4:7. A Samaritan woman came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “You must give Me something to drink:” 8. for His disciples had gone away into the city so that they could buy food. 9. Then the Samaritan woman said to Him, “How do You Who are Jewish ask to drink from me, being a Samaritan woman?” For Jewish people did not associate with Samaritans. 10. Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God and Who is the One Who says to you, ‘You must give Me something to drink,’ if you asked Him then He would give you living water.” 11. The woman said to Him, “Sir, You do not have a bucket and the well is deep: so from where do You have the living water? 12. Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and he and his sons and his animals were drinking from it?” 13. Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks from this water will thirst again: 14. whoever would drink from the water which I will give him, will never thirst, but the water which I will give him will become in him well water springing up into eternal life.” 15. The woman said to him, “Sir, You must now give me this water, so that I would not suffer thirst and would not have to draw water in this place.” 4:16. He said to her, “You must go, and you must now call your husband, and come to this place.” 17. The woman answered and said to Him, “I do not have a husband.” Jesus said to her, “You said correctly that ‘I do not have a husband:’ 18. for you have had five husbands and whom you have now is not your husband: you have said this truth.” 19. The woman said to Him, “Lord, I see that You are a prophet. 20. Our fathers worshipped on this mountain: and you say that in Jerusalem is the place where it is necessary to worship.” 21. Jesus said to her, “You must believe Me, ma’am, that a time is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. 22. You worship whom you have not known: we are worshipping Whom we do know, because salvation is by the Jewish people. 23. In fact an appointed time is coming and is now, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth: for the Father is seeking such as these who worship Him. 24. God is spirit, and it is necessary for those who worship Him to worship in spirit and in truth.” 25. The woman said to Him, “I know that Meshiach is coming, the One Who is called Messiah: when that One would have come, He tells us all things.” 26. Jesus said to her, “I AM, the One Who is speaking to you.”In three separate ways Y'SHUA attempts to get this woman to see with her SPIRIT rather than with her eyes and/or her religion. This was a problem that Y'SHUA confronted, it was a problem that Paul confronted and it is a problem that still faces us all today! In some aspects it is a greater problem possibly today than ever before. Today we have a countless number of people inundating us with the "religious" view of the world. We have them preaching to us from the pulpits, we may have them presenting us the news, we have them on our TV's and radios in such numbers that for many of us it is or is nearly possible for us to have them preaching and teaching their view 24/7/365. We re-enforce what "they say" by buying their books, tapes and CD's and then go out to reach others with these exact same views. All of this then cycles and recycles until this is all we can accept as truth. In the ways of their own time in history this is precisely confronted Paul and Y'SHUA. It is also for this very reason that it might be possible for Y'SHUA to walk into the midst of the average congregation today and be rejected and asked to leave. If He didn't dress like them, if He didn't praise and/or worship like them, if He spoke out in a language they did not understand or at a time they felt was inappropriate, if He cried when they were laughing or shouting with joy, if He, if He, If...Jn 4:23. In fact an appointed time is coming and is now, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth: for the Father is seeking such as these who worship Him. 24. God is spirit, and it is necessary for those who worship Him to worship in spirit and in truth.”This conflict between two world views is what Paul is attempting to draw us into from the onset of this book to the Congregation at Colossae. It is this conflict that causes us to see Y'SHUA one way and to reject an alternative view that is often considered heresy. It is a view that many times rejects the dogma of what today passes as CHRISTianity and/or religion. It is a world view that Y'SHUA told us to deny or reject and Paul told us to resist...Lk 9:23. And He was saying to everyone, “If someone wants to come after Me, he must now deny himself and he must take his cross at once, and day by day he must consistently follow Me....and...Jam 4:7. Therefore if you would be subject to God, you should resist the devil and he will flee for his life from you, 8. draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded! Y’SHUA saw YHVH in a different way than did the religious leaders of His day. He saw YHVH as His FATHER. They tended to call YHVH FATHER but to see HIM as more of a dictator. They paid HIM lip service but they refused to draw close to HIM with their hearts, with their lives within their SPIRIT. Y’SHUA told people not to worship Him but to worship or give glory to YHVH. It is through the sacrifice of His life and the shedding of His blood that we are able to see YHVH differently. It is as we approach YHVH’s throne and YHVH HIMself covered by the blood of Y’SHUA that we are able to see YHVH as Y’SHUA saw HIM. It is through this blood that we are able to come close to YHVH and to see HIM with our hearts, with our SPIRIT. Col 1:10. to walk worthily of the Lord, desiring to please Him in everything, bearing fruit in every good work and growing in the knowledge of God, 11. being strengthened in all power according to the might of His glory, patient and forbearing in everything. With joy 12. giving thanks to the Father, the One Who equips you with adequate power for you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the Light: 13. Who rescued us from the authority of the darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of the Son by His love,If we lean on our own understanding as we approach YHVH we will be consumed by HIS SPIRIT, by HIS Holiness. However, if we accept the fact that some things simply do not make sense to us from our “natural” world view then we can see that it does make sense that…Jn 3:16 For YHVH so loved the world that HE gave…That YHVH “gave”, that HE “provided”, that HE “equipped” us with adequate power to share in the inheritance of all HIS children. That through faith in the sacrifice of the perfect or sinless Lamb which HE provided for us we can and are transferred from a view that relates to our “natural”, physical world view and allows us to see things from an alternative view, a view that often clashes with the dogma of the religious world.Is YHVH your FATHER or is HE your dictator?Can you approach HIM expecting to receive HIS love and forgiveness or do you approach HIM in fear crying for mercy but expecting to be punished?Do you see YHVH in the “natural” view or do you see HIM through HIS SPIRIT?Is you view obscured by religion or are you led by HIS SPIRIT?Is your view fixed or being changed as HE leads you?

 

[Pro Jesus Anti Paul]

It is hard to have a discussion with someone who takes so long to make a point: I am hoping to help you communicate bletter, if you wish to have a discussion with people; ultimately if no one reads your post, because it's to long to get through, you are just talking to yourself.

Now to answer the question "Is your view fixed or being changed as HE leads you?" everyone's views change, even if the amount is small; we come into the world knowing nothing and we learn things from the time we are born until the time we die. I think the more relevant issue is how can we be sure God is leading us, as opposed to us being lead by some other spirit: now that would be a discussion worth having.