As I sit at the center of the multi-directional fork in the road, I reflect upon what the Father has been working on in me since I came to Casper Wyoming. People who are under the law – cannot see that they are under the law. Legalism is a dirty word and no one wants to be labeled a Pharisee. When I was under the law, I pointed my finger at the Seventh Day Adventists because they believed that the Sabbath was on Saturday and therefore they did no work from sun-down Friday night to sun-down Saturday night. They also STRONGLY RECOMMENDED that you don’t eat meat. To me, they were under the law.
When I was under the law, I pointed my fingers at the Catholics because they were the leading examples of idolatry outside of the Hindu religion. O how I loved to point my finger at “others”. That is a favorite pastime of someone under the law. How do I know I was under the law? I didn’t. Not until the Lord began to show me the difference between being under the law and being truly free born in Christ.
I thought that I had been delivered from the law, until I was confronted with the manifestation of speaking in tongues in a different way then I had been taught. Because my mindset on speaking in tongues was so set in stone, it was probably the hardest thing I have yet to overcome in this spiritual journey. To allow someone the opportunity to speak in tongues (with or without interpretation), to worship the Father in spirit and in truth, the way that person was being led to operate was a milestone for me. I had a one-way in which to operate speaking in tongues mindset that had to literally be dismantled in me, in order to see that the Lord is not legalistic in that manner either.
O I know that a case could be made from scriptures to do it this way, or to do it that way – and depending on which way you interpret it from the scriptures, you can be a Pentacostal or a Baptist or a Charismatic. It is all the various ways in which scriptures can be interpreted that cause all the divisions in the body of Christ. It’s not the scriptures fault, of course. I don’t know that there is a remedy for that, in which all the Christians in all the denominations will suddenly come to agreement and unity and put away their differences.
Then of course, there is hell. What happens after you die? You go to heaven or hell right?
Wrong.
After you die, you lie in the grave until you are resurrected.
Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest. Ecc. 9:10
That is why death is called sleep in the New Testament, because it is like sleeping.
These things said he: and after that he saith unto them, Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep.
Then said his disciples, Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well.
Howbeit Jesus spake of his death: but they thought that he had spoken of taking of rest in sleep.
Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead. John 11:11-14
Also read 1 Corinthians 15.
But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.
For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.
For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.
For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
Wherefore comfort one another with these words. 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18.
Why would the dead in Christ rise if they were in heaven floating around? They aren’t in heaven floating around after they are dead, but they are dead, like sleeping people who have no knowledge of things going on around here.
Heaven does not mean what we have been taught, just as hell doesn’t but that is a another blog post for another time.
But there are some that cannot receive this. Intellectually they believe in the resurrection, but they also believe that when you die, you go to heaven, or if you were bad, you go to hell. If you were consciously alive after you died, why would you need a new body anyway? Couldn’t we all just be spirits? Ah, but the Lord is giving us a new body because we will be resurrected, except for those who are alive and will be changed. Yet even this is far too complicated a subject for one blog post.
The key to getting all the legalism and doctrinal “laws” out of your system, is to seek first the Kingdom of God, to love God and unconditionally love those around you – friend and enemy alike. Love is the end of the law and the fulfillment of the law.
Love in Christ
Linda
