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ALL ACTIVITIES NOT OF GOD AND VOID OF GOD BEING RELIGIOUS ACTIVITIES

The difference between believing into Christ and believing in religion is that in believing into Christ it is God who seeks man, whereas religion requires man to seek God. What is religion? Religion is man’s belief in and reverence for God; it is man’s consciousness that there is a God and his consequent desire to worship Him. Man believes in a religion because in his consideration there is a God, and he is thus determined to serve Him, worship Him, probe into Him, study Him, survey Him, and be zealous for Him. However, believing into Christ is not like this. Believing into Christ is God’s coming to seek man, desiring to enter into man and desiring man to serve Him.

According to the common concept, people often ask, “What is the difference between Christianity and religion?” Or they may ask, “Is Christianity a religion?” To answer this question cautiously, we must say that Christianity is not a religion. The Lord Jesus never used the word religion during His ministry on the earth. Likewise, the apostles never used the word religion in their preaching of the gospel. Although Christianity is considered to be one of the five major religions in the world, the fact is that believing into Christ is not believing in a religion. We also can explain this by saying that those who truly believe into Christ are Christians, not followers of the Christian religion.

What does it mean to believe in a religion? People believe in a religion because they feel that there is a God and that they need to revere and serve God. However, those who believe into Christ are not like this; they are not like those who worship God out of their own initiation because they sense that there is a God and feel that they should worship Him. Every instance of man’s believing into Christ is initiated by God. It was God who came to seek Moses while he was shepherding the flock (Exo. 3:1-6); it was God who came to seek Saul while he was kicking against the goads (Acts 26:13-15); and it was God who said to Peter and Andrew while they were fishing, “Come after Me” (Matt. 4:18-20). It is wonderful that in the entire Bible, whenever a person has contact with God, it is always because God has contacted him first. God first came to find Job, and then Job served Him (Job 38:1—42:6); God first came to find Moses, and then Moses served Him (Exo. 3). There is no case in the Bible where a person served God because he first had the thought of serving God.

The entire Bible speaks only of God coming to find man. One day Isaiah saw a vision and heard the voice of the Lord, saying, “Whom shall I send? Who will go for Us?” Therefore, he answered, “Here am I; send me” (Isa. 6:1-8). After seeing a vision, Jeremiah rose up to prophesy to the Israelites the words that Jehovah had commanded him (Jer. 1:4-19). Daniel also saw a vision before he rose up to fast and pray, beseeching Jehovah to restore Jerusalem (Dan. 7—9). The entire Bible shows that God first comes to find man before man serves God. Those who believe in a religion take the initiative to serve God; those who believe into Christ serve God after they have been prompted and touched by God.

For this reason we say that one should not rush forward to serve God. We should serve God only when He touches us to do so. If we serve God without God first touching us, we are in a religion. Figuratively speaking, many people today hang the sign “Christian” outside, but they are engaging in a religious enterprise inside. They are Christians in name but religious people in reality. What is it to be a Christian? A Christian is one who has Christ stirring within him through the Spirit and who thus becomes restless and has no choice but to serve God. A religious person, on the other hand, is one who initiates his service to God, desiring to do many things for God. This is the situation of many Christians today. They do not wait for the Lord to move in them and then follow Him accordingly. Instead, they themselves are the initiators, and the Lord is merely a spectator. However, in the experience of genuine Christians, the Lord is the One who initiates, and they simply say Amen. The Lord is the Initiator, and they are the followers. This is completely different from the way of religious people.

The principle here is to not move until the Lord moves in us. However, most Christians are not this way. In the past, when pursuing fame and position in the world, they were accustomed to rushing ahead. Now that they have been saved, the moment the Lord touches them a little, their old habit is manifested again. They rush ahead to organize a Christian fellowship to carry out a work on a campus, and they plan to invite a few great pastors and host a great evangelical meeting. All these matters are initiated by themselves. Hence, they become religious people who do not allow Christ to move in them and live out through them.

What does it mean for you to be a Christian? It means that when Christ moves in you, you follow His moving. If one day He says, “My child, come to Me,” you then should ask, “Lord, what do You want me to do?” After Paul met the Lord, the first words he spoke were, “Who are You, Lord?” The Lord then told him, “I am Jesus, whom you persecute. But rise up and enter into the city, and it will be told to you what you must do” (Acts 9:5-6). From the first day Paul met the Lord, he learned a lesson, realizing that all the things he did formerly were merely religious activities. He was zealous for the Lord, going to the high priest for letters to Damascus for the synagogues so that if he found any who were of the Way, he could bring them bound to Jerusalem (vv. 1-2). Going to Damascus was something determined by Paul. However, when the Lord met him, he fell down, saying, “What shall I do, Lord?” (22:10). All his actions from then on were of the Lord. When the Lord moved in him, he moved; when the Lord did not move, he did not move. All his moving outwardly was the Lord’s moving inwardly.

As Christians, we have One who is moving in us. When He moves, we move. Nevertheless, we are not puppets, having no feelings, thoughts, affections, or opinions. We are living beings; we have a mind, emotion, and will as well as inclinations and preferences. Thus, we are not passive; instead, we are cooperative and submissive. To be submissive is to go along with the One who is moving in us. This is our oneness with the Lord. It is only when the Lord moves in us that we move. This is the way a Christian should be. In this way, we are led by the Lord. In other words, we understand the Lord’s will and know the Lord’s way in us.

ALL SPIRITUAL REALITY IS IN THE HOLY SPIRIT

In John 14 the Lord said that when He went away, He would send the Holy Spirit. What does the Holy Spirit do when He comes? When He comes, the Holy Spirit guides us into all the reality. When we tell people that there is God, they may ask, "Where is God?" To man, God is not real. But we have to remember that in the Holy Spirit God is real. When a person touches the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit brings him into the reality where he is able to touch God. When we tell people that Jesus was crucified, this is merely a doctrine to them. To them, the cross is not real. But in the Holy Spirit the cross becomes real, and in the Holy Spirit man can touch and experience the cross. In the same principle, when we tell the children of God that they are of Christ and that they have been resurrected with Christ, this may be vague to them. When they touch the Holy Spirit, however, this spiritual reality will be in them, and resurrection will become real to them.

For example, when we preach the gospel to people, we may tell them that Jesus died for them on the cross and shed His precious blood for them. However, if they ask, "Where is the cross? Where is this precious blood?" we are not able to show them these things. Although we are not able to show them, as we are speaking to them, the Holy Spirit creates an image in their spirit, showing them the scene of the Lord on the cross so that they not only hear the truth of the gospel but also see a spiritual vision of what they are hearing. This spiritual vision is spiritual reality. The cross, resurrection, ascension, and all that God is and has done are in the Holy Spirit. All spiritual reality is in the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit brings God Himself, incarnation, redemption, the shedding of blood, the substitutionary death, resurrection, ascension, glory, authority, and the throne to man. After passing through all these processes, God became the Spirit of reality. All spiritual reality is in the Holy Spirit. In ourselves, our ability to experience spiritual reality is limited by time and space, but time and space do not exist in the Holy Spirit, and He has brought all these realities directly into us. In the past all these realities were not available to us. But today the shedding of the precious blood, resurrection, ascension, and all these realities are in the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit has brought all these realities into us.


THE HOLY SPIRIT IS THE SPIRIT OF REALITY

All spiritual reality is in the Holy Spirit, so the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of reality. In the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of reality, God is real. In addition, incarnation, the cross, resurrection, ascension, the throne, authority, blessing, and the glory in the heavens are all real. If all these things were not in the Holy Spirit, there would be no spiritual reality. This is why many unbelievers ask: "Is there God in this universe?" "Is there the cross?" "Is there resurrection?" "Is there ascension?" Although there is truly a spiritual reality of all these matters, for finite man all of these matters are too far away. To those who believe in God, however, these things are very close, even intimately close, because all these things are in the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is in those who believe. Whenever we touch the Holy Spirit, all these matters become real to us, because all these matters are real in the Holy Spirit. Whenever we touch the Holy Spirit, we touch death, resurrection, ascension, and the throne. To those who have never touched the Holy Spirit, all these things seem not to exist.

SPIRITUAL REALITY NOT BEING
PRODUCED BY IMITATION

The reality of everything that we believe is in the Holy Spirit. What we believe does not come to us through teaching, rebuking, exhortation, copying, or imitation. Any living that is the result of imitation is not a genuine Christian living. The genuine Christian living does not come from imitation or teaching but from the Spirit. In the past, there was a brother from Germany named George Müller. This brother knew how to come near to God and receive the leading of the Spirit in his spirit. He was one who had many experiences of faith. As a result, many Christians from the past imitated him, and even today many continue to do so. However, none of those who have tried merely to imitate him have learned to do so successfully, because spirituality does not come from learning or imitation. Spiritual reality depends on the human spirit touching the Spirit of God. Because spiritual reality is in the Holy Spirit, in order for a person to have it, his human spirit has to touch the Holy Spirit.

This post has been edited by pehkay: Feb 24 2016, 11:00 AM

THE CHRISTIAN LIVING BEING A LIFE OF MAN BEING MINGLED WITH GOD

A Christian is one who has God mingled with him. Hence, the normal Christian living is not a living that is independent or outside of God. It is a living that submits to the ruling of God, is under the direction of God, and is mingled with God.

How can man live a life that is mingled with God? God is Spirit, and when we are saved, God as the Spirit enters into our spirit, interacts with our spirit, and is joined to our spirit as one spirit. Hence, whenever we turn to our spirit and are in our spirit, we meet Him because He has been mingled with our spirit to become one spirit. When we turn to our spirit, we actually turn to Him as the Spirit. Our entire Christian living should be one that is lived out from the spirit. In our Christian living, the question is not whether we should or should not do certain things. Rather, the question is whether we do them from our soul or from our spirit.


NOT BEING A QUESTION OF WHAT WE DO
BUT OF HOW WE DO IT

The center of the Christian living is not a matter of doing the right thing but a matter of who is doing it. It is not a matter of what we do but a matter of who is doing it. In other words, is it our soul that does things or our spirit? Do we do things in our soul, or does God do them in our spirit? Our Christian living is not a matter of what to do but of how to do things. Is it our soul that does things, or is it our spirit? Almost every Christian who desires to learn to live before the Lord prays, “Lord, what is the right thing for me to do? What is pleasing to You for me to do?” The fact is that this kind of prayer does not match the spiritual reality because the key is not what we do but whether or not we have God in what we do. Is God doing a certain thing with us, or are we doing it by ourselves? Are we doing it by being mingled with God, or are we doing it on our own? Are we doing it from our soul, or are we doing it from our spirit? If we do something from our soul, we are doing it on our own, but if we do something from our spirit, we are doing it by being mingled with God.

For example, if a certain locality invites you to go to their meeting, you should go before the Lord and say, “O Lord, are You going?” Please note that you should not ask, “O Lord, do You want me to go? Should I go?” Rather, you should say, “O Lord, if You go, I will follow You. If You go, You have to go by putting me on.” Suppose you had a suit that could speak. If you were about to go to the meeting, it would bother you, saying, “Are you going to the meeting?” You would say, “Yes, I am going.” Then the suit would say, “Please put me on.” Then you would put the suit on. Thus, when you move, the suit moves. When you stand, the suit stands, and when you bend, the suit bends. The suit is “mingled” with you, and you are moving with the suit. Hence, wherever we go and whatever we do, if we do not have the inward assurance that it is the Lord who is going to a certain place or doing a certain thing by putting us on, then we know that we should not go there or do that thing. We should not ask the Lord whether or not we should do a particular thing but whether or not He is doing it (Gal. 2:20)

The really really short version: They should exercise their human spirit to pray-read/pray over the Word of God (Eph 6:18) daily until it pierces into their spirit that they may be able to discern their spirit from their soul (Eph 4:12). This causes God to grow a little bit more in you (Eph 3:17; Col 3:16), which causes His shinning to be brighter, allowing you to let Him to deal with you, and more discerning and dividing in His shinning Word [and the process goes on].

The a little bit short version: uhm, are you interested?

Lol. Subject like this takes a few messages or a conference themselves depending on the scope.

If you are interested, I can share the a little bit short version and you can ask for detail later:

The more one tries to distinguish the sense of the spirit and the feelings of the soul, the more confused he becomes. It is God's business to divide our spirit from our soul.

1) At least, one could start with the parts of the soul and spirit. The soul is consists of three parts: mind(Proverbs 2:10;Psalm 139:14), emotion (1 Samuel 18:1; 2 Samuel 5:8) and will (Job 7:15; Job 6:7).
The spirit is consists too of three parts: conscience (Romans 9:1; Romans 8:16), intuition (First Corinthians 2:11; Mark 2:8) and fellowship (John 4:24).

Man's spirit is the noblest part of man; it dwells in man's innermost part. The body is the lowest and remains outside. The soul dwells between the spirit and the body and is the medium of the two. The body is the outer shell of the soul, while the soul is the outer shell of the spirit. When the spirit tries to control the body, it has to do so with the help of the intermediary soul. Before man fell, it was the spirit (through the soul) that controlled the whole being. When the spirit wanted to do something, it communicated to the soul, and the soul activated the body to follow the order of the spirit. This is what it means for the soul to be the medium.

In conclusion, the soul is the seat of personality; man's will, intellect, and emotion all lie in the soul. The spirit is the part with which man communicates with the spiritual realm. The body is the part with which man communicates with the physical realm. From here on, when we talk of the soul, we refers to the FALLEN soul who is already corrupted.


2) How can we divide the soul and spirit and discern the difference between the soulish and the spiritual? The Bible shows us that God's word alone is living and operative and able to divide our soul and spirit. Hebrews 4 speaks of the operation of God's word. His word operates not only in man's bone, but in the marrow as well. God's word is operative. If a man has God's word, this word will bring him light. The light in His word will enlighten everything within us. It will make us inwardly clear and divide our soul and our spirit, the soulish and the spiritual. We do not need Bible doctrines or teachings in the letter. We do not need spiritual methods. What we need is the Lord's enlightening. Once God's word comes, His light shines in the innermost part of our being, and the spirit is spontaneously divided from the soul. When a man is clear within, he no longer needs to ask what is soulish and what is spiritual. The dividing of the soul and spirit does not come by asking or research. When the word of God operates in man, the spirit and the soul are divided.

At the time of regeneration a believer receives God's life into him, and the law of life begins to operate. Yet many believers have not allowed this law of life to manifest itself. The manifestation of the law of life is hindered when a man lives in the soul. Those who live in their soul do not know the things of the spirit, because the Holy Spirit cannot break through from their spirit. First Corinthians 2:14 says, "But a soulish man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him and he is not able to know them because they are discerned spiritually." Many people are governed by their thoughts, conscience, emotions, sentiments, and ideas in their daily life. No soulish person can know the things of the Spirit. Those who are soulish and those who are spiritual are in two different worlds, two different realms, and two different kingdoms. When a man lives in the soulish realm, he knows nothing of the things of the Spirit, and he considers them to be foolishness.

3) The dividing of soul and spirit simply shows that that, first, God by His Word and through His indwelling Spirit can differentiate experientially the function and expression of the soul from that of the spirit, teaching the believer to know what is the move of the spirit and what is the move of the soul. Second, the willingness of a believer to cooperate causes him experientially to have a pure spiritual life without being affected by the soul.

The dividing of soul and spirit is not only the separating of soul and spirit, but the dividing of the soul itself. The dividing of the soul is very meaningful. If the word of life is to reach to our spirit, it has to divide the soul first, for the spirit is surrounded by the soul. The word of the cross pierces and divides the soul and opens the way for the life of God to get into the life of the spirit and free the spirit from the bondage of the soul. The soul-life, having the imprint of the cross, will then keep its submissive position to the spirit. If the soul is not the "channel" for the spirit, it becomes "chains" to the spirit. The soul and the spirit never agree on anything. If the spirit has not attained the supreme position, they will often war against each other. The spirit strives to gain freedom and authority, but the strong soul-life tries its best to suppress it. However, when the soul-life has been worked upon by the cross, the spirit is set free. If the believer does not see the harm done by the soul in not being one with the spirit or in not being willing to be rid of the pleasure of living by feeling, he cannot progress easily.

Then, you have your answer. XD That is an awesome book.

All the problems in the church today is because believers are soulish.



Cheers!

Then, you have your answer. XD That is an awesome book.

All the problems in the church today is because believers are soulish.



Cheers!

Eiks

A prophet is not human?

When they came to ask John the Baptist, he told them clearly, "I am not the Christ" (v. 20). They then asked, "What then? Are you Elijah?" He said, "I am not." They asked again, "Are you the Prophet?" John answered, "No" (v. 21). Then they became confused and asked, "Who are you?" (v. 22). He said, "I am a voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord!’ as Isaiah the prophet said" (v. 23). John the Baptist acknowledged that he was only the voice that Isaiah had prophesied would come and cry out in the wilderness (Isa. 40:3). He said that he was only a voice crying in the wilderness, "Make straight the way of the Lord." Then they asked, "Why then are you baptizing if you are not the Christ nor Elijah nor the Prophet?" (John 1:25). John answered them, "I baptize in water; but among you stands One whom you do not know" (v. 26). John’s word was a recommendation of Christ, but they did not recognize Christ or even understand John’s word.

His ministry is to preach the baptism of repentance to prepare men's heart to receive Christ and usher then to Christ. He is like a Forerunner or Recommender.

The ministry of John the Baptist was outside both religion and culture. When John was born, in Jerusalem there were two main things—Hebrew religion and Greco-Roman culture. John, however, did not stay in Jerusalem where his parents undoubtedly lived. He left Jerusalem and went out to the wilderness where there was neither religion nor culture, but where everything was natural. John ministered there in the wilderness bringing others to God and introducing the King, the One who represents God, to them. This was a strong indication that, during John’s time, the age was changed from the old dispensation to the new dispensation, from the dispensation of shadows and figures to the dispensation of reality. Those priests who wore the priestly robes, ate the priestly food, and stayed in the priestly building burning the incense and carrying out the priestly functions never brought anyone to God. But this “wild,” unreligious, uncultured John brought hundreds to Him. And he also introduced the King to them. This King was the One who brought God to repentant people.

.... now brothers

Always remember the twofoldness of the truth....

1) The eternal fact beyond space and time in God's view.

2) Experience is which on-going of the eternal fact which involves daily dealing with our unrighteousness in space and time under the shinning of His light...




/away

I hope you are not talking about Einstein's Spacetime - relativity of space time

It just mean in certain time in your life, perhaps 2nd January 2016 (time) and Port Dickson (space), the Lord touches you on your unrighteousness with how you treated your wife / gf yesterday in your time with Him.
Then you deal with it.

Is that ok?


For example, 1 Pet 1:3 says we are all regenerated in that single instance of His death and resurrection (past, present and future - even those now yet born). This is an eternal fact transcending space time.

But you are saved (regenerated) maybe 1985 11am at a football field in Melaka. This is the experience of the reality of the eternal fact for you.

The Lord Jesus is our righteousness. This righteousness is not the righteousness that the Lord Jesus had. It is the Lord Jesus Himself. We can have this righteousness all the time before God because the Lord Jesus lives forever. We can be bold before God all the time, because we have the Lord Jesus as our righteousness.

So, in God's eyes, you are righteous because you have Christ as your righteousness.

It is because of this fact, that now in space and time, you have this sense within whenever you are unrighteousness that you never had before [before you were saved].

Whenever the Lord prompted you on your unrighteousness, we have to remember that Christ is our righteousness. Hallelujah, Christ is our righteousness! If we see that Christ is our righteousness, we can stand boldly before God to deal with it, experiencing Christ's blood for the washing. This is daily experience of the fact.

Eph 1:6 shows when we are accepted in the Beloved, we are accepted as the Beloved is accepted. When we are accepted in the Beloved, God accepts us as much as He has accepted His own Son. He accepts those who are in the Beloved in the same way that He has accepted His Beloved. Whatever position the Beloved has, those who are in Him share the same. This is most glorious.

This post has been edited by pehkay: Mar 9 2016, 07:56 AM

THE TURNING POINT OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE

In the church life we find that there are some people who attend every meeting, who pray in every meeting, and who pray long prayers every time they pray. But the strange thing is that year after year they do not appear to make any spiritual turns or spiritual progress. This is because they still take themselves as the center in their living and do not pay attention to the sense in their spirit. They work by themselves and do not allow the Spirit to work. This should be a warning to us. Every time before we go to a meeting, we first must ask the Lord, "O Lord, are You going to the meeting? Are You going to the meeting with me? Lord, are You wearing me to the meeting? If so, I will go with You." Then when we get to the meeting, we do not need to consider whether or not we should pray or how we should pray. Rather, we should ask the Lord silently, "O Lord, do You want to pray? Are You putting me on to pray? If so, I will pray with You." Outwardly it may seem that we are the ones who are praying, but actually we are cooperating with the Lord in prayer.

Our entire living, not just our prayer, should be like this. Consider loving the brothers for example. We should not ask the Lord whether or not we should love a certain brother. Rather, we should ask, "O Lord, do You love this brother? Will You put me on to love him? Will You love Him with me?" We must hold tightly to this principle—the principle of not asking what to do but how to do it. Do we do things independently, or does the Lord wear us to do them? Do we do things from our soul, or do we do them from our spirit? It is wrong to teach people to pay attention to what they should or should not do. What we need to ask constantly is, "O Lord, this matter may be right, but are You doing it? Are You wearing me to do this? Are You doing this with me? O Lord, are You in me while I am doing this? Are You doing this with me?" If this were the situation, our Christian life would have a great turn.


NOT A MATTER OF DOING GOOD OR EVIL
BUT A MATTER OF DOING EVERYTHING IN SPIRIT

Romans 7 and 8 are two chapters in the Bible that are completely different from each other. The focus of chapter seven is altogether different from that of chapter eight; thus, the central points of these two chapters are also different. The central point of chapter seven is that the "I" wants to do good and does not want to do evil. What it speaks of is related to the matter of good and evil, and what it focuses on is whether the "I" does good or evil. This is Romans 7. When we come to chapter eight, it is altogether not a matter of good and evil. In chapter eight there is only spirit and life. Chapter eight does not speak of the "I" doing good. Rather, it says that we should no longer live in the flesh but in the spirit. Chapter eight does not speak of doing good or doing evil. Rather, it is concerned with whether we do things in the flesh or in the spirit.

This shows us that Romans 7 and 8 are absolutely different. In chapter seven it is a matter of good or evil, that is, a matter of what we do. But in chapter eight it is a matter of the flesh or the spirit, that is, a matter of who does it. Chapter seven focuses on what we do—good or evil, whereas chapter eight focuses on who does it—the flesh or the spirit. Do not say that only what is evil is wrong. In God’s eyes even what is good may be wrong. Only what is done by the spirit is right.

For example, suppose there is a sister who, after waking up in the morning, becomes irritated by her child because he does not listen to her. At that time what is the right thing for her to do—to pray or to get angry? Of course, we all would say that she should pray, because it is right to pray and wrong to get angry. However, does the problem end there? Would it be enough for our sister to no longer be angry and to kneel down to pray? Suppose that when she kneels down to pray, she truly thanks and praises the Lord that although she should have been angry, she is not and instead is praying. Most people would say that this sister is very good. I am afraid that even we would testify for her, saying how good she is because she has such a good testimony. She should have been angry, but instead she asked the Lord, "Should I be angry, or should I pray?" In the end she prayed, so we would praise her. However, please remember that this matter does not end there. We have to ask a further question: When she knelt down to pray, was she the one praying, or was it the Lord who was praying? Did she put up with her child by herself and force herself to pray, or was the Lord praying with her? These two situations are completely different and are very serious.

From this article of FMT ? http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/...prayer-concept/?

You are always welcome here as we are all believers in Christ!

Just in case, if complains come that we were silent () , there is a separate thread for Catholic: https://forum.lowyat.net/index.php?showtopi...530&hl=catholic

But as always, you are welcome here. XD

Do share your experience of Christ for building up.

This post has been edited by pehkay: Mar 21 2016, 08:09 AM

Hmmm ... sorry ... that is kinda "strange" in my understanding, how does one believe (and saved) if he or she is not aware that Jesus is God?

What is he or she believing in? Care to elaborate more?

Ah ok ... if that is the case,

seikoho1
You can always start with the scripture then:

The first major point about Christ is that He is God, the God of eternity. We can help him or her not to think that Christ did not exist before His birth at Bethlehem two thousand years ago. For us human beings, birth was the beginning; but the Bible tells us that Christ existed before all things (Col. 1:17). Isaiah 9:6 tells us that the One born in the manger was the mighty God and the eternal Father. John 1:1 and 14 tell us that Christ was the Word in the beginning (in eternity past) and that this Word was God. Romans 9:5 says He is "the Christ, Who is over all, God blessed forever."

Even in the Old Testament, Christ came to His people several times in the form of a man. On one occasion He ate a meal with Abraham (Gen. 18:1-33); on another occasion He wrestled with Jacob (Gen. 32:24-30); and on still another He appeared walking in the midst of a blazing furnace with three of His chosen people (Dan. 3:23-25). Although Christ is not specifically mentioned, we know it was He since He is the expression of God (John 1:18). God dwells in unapproachable light and no one has ever seen Him (1 Tim. 6:16), but in Christ He can be seen. Jacob even wrestled with Him! All of these instances are mysterious. We cannot explain how they were possible. This is why in one of His appearings He said His name is "wonderful" (Judg. 13:18, in Hebrew), which means that it is beyond our ability to understand. Some confused people believe that Christ was a man who later became God. This is heretical; the Bible does not say this. The Bible tells us that Christ is God from eternity past to eternity future.

This post has been edited by pehkay: Mar 23 2016, 02:00 PM

The same word used is "abide".

Abiding in the Lord is based on the fact of being in the Lord. Romans 6:3 says that we were baptized into Christ Jesus. So this is why in 2 Corinthians 5:17 says that if any man is in Christ, he is a new creation. If you are not in the Lord, there is no way for you to abide in the Lord. This is a spiritual fact!

The Lord's accomplishment may be divided into two stages. When the Lord finished redemption on the cross, He joined us to Himself, putting us into Him. This is the first stage. Then when we were regenerated, the Holy Spirit came into us and practically joined us to Christ, putting us into Him. This is the second stage in experience of the fact.

For example, when you were baptized, you have a sense that you have been joined to the Lord and that you are in Him. Then, let say, a good friend came and insisted on taking you to a movie. While you were about to go with him, you sensed there was something wrong between you and the Lord. As you were considering what might be wrong, your friend continued to persuade you, and you decided to go with him. At that moment you felt that your fellowship with the Lord had been cut off.

This feeling came because you did not remain in the Lord. You are saved and in the Lord (a fact!), but experientially you may not always remain in Him. In your experience it seems at times that you have walked out of the Lord, and your fellowship with the Lord has been broken.

Again, for example, today something greatly provoked you to anger. While you were about to lose your temper, you felt something was wrong inside. Nevertheless, you went ahead and lost your temper. And because you lost your temper, you knew within yourself that the fellowship with the Lord had been interrupted. It seemed as if you had walked out of the Lord. This means you did not remain in Him [and thus, needed the cleansing of the blood].

To remain in the Lord is to abide in the Lord. When you abide, you have continuous fellowship with Him. It is a matter of fellowship. Fellowship is made possible by our being put into an organic union with the Lord. To have unceasing fellowship is to abide, and to abide is to maintain this unceasing fellowship.

Hope that helps a bit with "remain in me". XD

How to remain? (later lar) but 1 John addresses it: blood and anointing

This post has been edited by pehkay: Apr 18 2016, 11:36 AM

If the Spirit as the anointing poke you [usually not to a certain action but teaches how to abide and maintain the union....], you are usually at the precipice. A choice will have to be made between obeying the Lord or your choice.

If you choose not to stay in the anointing, you will sense the fellowship is broken between you and the Lord i.e. His presence is gone. So, it is yes to your question, "you deny it, then you are not [remain in Him]". Then your conscience will be activated to condemn you. There were offenses in your conscience, and you felt that you had come out of the presence of the Lord.

Then, you will need the blood. The blood of Jesus His Son will then cleanse us and remove the offenses from our conscience (1 John 1:9). Then we sense that we are again in fellowship with the Lord. The blood is able to restore and recover our fellowship. This recovery is the maintenance of the "abiding in".

P.S. I realize this is a negative case; There is a positive experience, in that, while you are abiding in the Lord, He can shine [as in 1 John] on certain things within us ....

This post has been edited by pehkay: Apr 18 2016, 12:36 PM

OOps

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This post has been edited by pehkay: Apr 18 2016, 12:52 PM